Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.
My first ever reading from my novel! Thank you sooo much writers room for awesome opportunity! And thanks to great great friend evangelina for support!
I’m Pretty Sure That…
Angel lives in my neighborhood since this morning was my second sighting of him there during “off-hours.” This morning he did not look at me and smile as I passed by though 🙁 — which he usually does not because I’m special but because he does that to everyone 🙂 He appeared very serious and focused and had a somewhat concerned look in his eyes. I hope he’s not coming down with cruise-ship ABT flu … He was probably just perturbed at this pathetic excuse of a summer we’re having — it’s FREEZING outside!!
Stoppit!!!
First Time Out New York touts this as a way to … get your jollies watching sexy people or something or rather in its annual “Horny” issue, or whatever it was called, and now Anthony Ramirez from the New York Times is on the bandwagon. Can everyone please stop broadcasting!!!! If I ever go back to Quenia Ribeiro’s Samba class, I am going to have to ensure beforehand that it is held in the UPSTAIRS studio! Seriously though, what is it that draws passersby to Ailey’s windows like this? I think it’s those rhythmic, pulsating Afro-Cuban or Samba drums and the beautifully snaky, undulating, hip-py, exotic-looking (to us) movement. Methinks people are drawn to the exotic and rhythmic in dance right now…
Dance of The Best Kind — Provocative, Evocative and Meaning-Laden: Ohad Naharin’s DecaDance
Wednesday night I went to contemporary ballet company Cedar Lake‘s performance space in west Chelsea to see “DecaDance,” a new work comprised of pieces from the past 20 years choreographed by Israeli dancemaker Ohad Naharin for his Tel Aviv-based company, Batsheva.
Still a bit disoriented from jet lag, a long drawn-out meds-laden TAC headache, and coming down from my ballroom high, I was worried I just wouldn’t be into a small, modern dance performance enough to appreciate it (I’d ordered the ticket a while ago). But, happily, I was very wrong! “DecaDance” was just what the doctor ordered to get me out of my Blackpool-withdrawal depression and back into the ever-alive NYC dance scene.
To me, this is the best kind of dance: movement creating images that, combined with provocative words and/or exhilarating, exotic, or evocative music, unsettle, evoke, just compel you stop, look, and think. I remember Joan Acocella reviewing in the New Yorker Telophaza, the work Batsheva performed nearly a year ago at last year’s Lincoln Center Festival. I remember her saying she wished with all the goings-on in the world at the time, Israel’s premier dance company would have put on a program infused with some kind of political meaning. I understood her sentiment, mainly because I like that kind of work as well and am always immensely interested in knowing what it’s like to be a citizen of another country, to exist in a world completely different from my own, but I thought it unfair to demand dance containing some kind of meaning about world politics from a troupe simply because of the geopolitical situation of its country. But the funny thing is that, watching Wednesday night, though none of the pieces made any kind of simplistic statement, I think my brain just naturally infused everything I saw with a socio-political undertone, perhaps because of that geopolitical situation.
The program began with a line of dancers, dressed in white leotards and black tights. The dancers shouted chants whose meaning I couldn’t understand, then one by one, each dancer took a couple of steps forward and danced, then stepped back into line while another dancer took a turn. Then, after each dancer had his or her piece, the line stepped backward together, fading into the background shadows. The way the light reflected only the bright white leotards had the effect of making their legs fade into the dark, so that they looked like limbless torsos. The chanting made me think of a military regime, and the legless bodies of the effect of war. I have no idea if that was what Naharin had in mind, but that’s what I got.
That scene led to a very brief pas de deux between two women (or was it a woman and a man … can’t remember) dressed in black corsets lifting, scratching at, bouncing off of each other, and that blended into a scene with several men engaging either in a monk-like ritual cleansing involving a bucket of dark, muddied water, or else splashing themselves with war paint. About three-quarters of the way through that scene a scantily-clad yet virile-looking woman wearing a feathery headdress and a face-full of garish make-up (perhaps another kind of war paint) walked sexily across stage on low stilts. After the men left, she returned with a free-standing microphone atop a giant pitchfork and, in the manner of a cabaret performer, lip-synced the words to an industrial techno-aria. Because of her raunchy garb, gawdy makeup and the manly yet sexy way she walked on the body-distorting stilts, she evoked for me a frightening vision from the late Weimar Republic or perhaps a contemporary Russian sex slave (thanks to Blackpool, I have Russia on the mind lately: anytime there’s a ballroom dance competition, the environs are tranformed into a “little Russia”) — either way, a grotesque reminder of the way a time of uninhibited freedom can turn into a reign of terror or how one person’s idea of fun is another’s hell.
My favorite piece involved several women who danced to a spoken word accompaniment. In all of the reviews I’ve read where this program or different versions of it have been performed elsewhere, none mention this piece, so I have no idea what it’s called and unfortunately can’t remember the words of the voice-over perfectly. One of the annoying things about this program is that the playbill doesn’t specify which piece is from which longer work, and which musical number accompanies which work, so I couldn’t figure out what each piece was called or research it very well. Naharin says, the playbill notes, that he enjoys “breaking down and reconstructing” his work, “enabl[ing him] to look at many elements in the works from a new angle,” so he obviously doesn’t want us to get bogged down in trying to figure out which piece is from which larger work, but wants us to see it as a new whole. The ‘problem’ or maybe I should say ‘challenge’ with this for me is, I’m unfamiliar with his work and so have no idea if I’m totally reading anything completely wrong. I may have a wholly different interpretation if I saw, for example, the Weimar / Russian slave woman in the context of the whole “Sabotage Baby.” It made me want to see his other works so I could compare, see if I “got it right” or see how my interpretation shifted depending on context.
Anyway, back to my favorite piece, about which I couldn’t research since I couldn’t figure out it’s title, longer whole, or sound accompaniment …: the male (if memory serves correctly) voice-over, issues forth various orders to the women dancers, and perhaps to the audience, providing, as I saw it, an ironic commentary on living female. The voice orders you / them to play the game enough to be able to own a house and car, resist working or thinking too hard so as to over-stress their fragile compositions, reject big ideas or philosophies, reject too much beauty so as not get carried away with art, and my favorite line — always wipe your ass really well because it’s uncouth to let others know you just shit. The piece – both the lyrics of the voice-over and the dance movements, was repetitive: the speaker repeated each line before adding a new one. And each woman had a certain movement corresponding with each word. Everytime the phrase repeated, so did each woman’s dance phrase. It was really interesting seeing the way the dance phrase corresponded to the written, and the way the movement added to the meaning of the words. For example, when the voice-over dictated, “reject Beethoven, the spider, the damnation of Faust,” a phrase near the beginning of the piece and thus repeated many many times, it was interesting to see each dancer’s interpretation of “spider,” “Beethoven,” and “damnation of Faust.” Some movements were unique to each dancer; others universal. It definitely didn’t speak to the state of Israel or have any huge overarching meaning for world affairs in the way the Acocella article wished for, but sometimes I find those quietly ‘personal-is-political’ pieces to have the most profundity.
Then there are a couple of pieces that “break the fourth wall”– ie: involve audience participation. One female dancer tried to pull me onstage with her to participate in this group jumpy hip hop – turned tango-y number, but I had to refuse because I was still woozy from the meds and, perhaps, ridiculously, still jet lag. Anyway, I never feel comfortable doing such things. She was nice and let me go, found someone else to get up there with her!
There are some other compelling pieces that I left out. I’m really interested to hear what others think about this. I found it very evocative, thought-provoking, very open to interpretation, and just a lot of fun. It’s showing through July 1st at Cedar Lake. Go!
Is The Ability To Express Oneself Through Dance An Issue of Free Speech?: The First Annual New York Dance Parade!
Yesterday marked the first annual New York Dance Parade, held as both a celebration of social dance and a protest against the city’s increasingly infamous Cabaret Laws, which sharply restrict the number of clubs and restaurants that allow dancing. In order to allow more than two people to dance simultaneously, an establishment must apply for a cabaret license, which is apparently incredibly difficult to obtain. According to Time Out New York (read their article here), this obscure law was enacted in 1926 in order to restrict public lewdness and racial intermingling, then was given new vigor during Guiliani’s reign, though I’m not sure of his ostensible reasons for that. The issue of whether such laws are unconstitutional and should be struck revolves around whether dance is viewed as a form of expression important enough to deserve First Amendment protection, an issue recently addressed by the State Supreme Court, which held that it was not. I haven’t followed this litigation, but apparently the test case has made its way to through the Appellate Division (where it likewise failed), and is hoping for consideration by the high court. I think it’s an interesting issue. According to the TONY article, the law has affected more than just people who want to dance: some bands, such as a Zydecko one, have trouble finding locales who will even allow them to play since that music, with it’s fast fun rhythmic beat leads naturally to the forbidden activity.
The parade, which began at 31st Street and snaked downtown to Washington Square Park in the Village, where it culminated in a little party, was a lot of fun. Above are some hula dancers.
Some break-dancing guys doing some crazy overhead lifts!
This girl was amazing; she could really move on those stilts!
This guy was fun too — rocking out to some techno music!
Now in the park, where Samba New York, a super fun Brazilian percussion band entertained the crowd, compelling people to really get down…
… before taking to a small stage, set up below the arches, where they added this gorgeous Samba dancer donning a brilliant costume and very elaborate feathery headgear.
There was a pretty good crowd, though I think the turn-out would have been better had the weather not been so miserable (cold, rainy and windy — worst combination possible — and for mid-late-May — totally unjustified!!)
I think the issue is really interestesing and something I’ll definitely think more about and will keep my eyes open for the litigation. But I feel that there’s always two sides to every story. I’d moved into a lovely apatment in Astoria a few years ago only to undergo a stupidly difficult ordeal of breaking my lease after realizing my apartment, in the back of the building, abutted the back room of this rather tucked away Greek nightclub (not visible from the street) that stayed open until 5:00 a.m. every night but Monday and had singers and music. I’m a lawyer, though, and have to sleep at night; perhaps someone who either worked nights or was just a very heavy sleeper would have been fine with the apartment, but there was simply no way I could stay. Maybe the answer is either some kind of zoning or just apartment buildings being forced to be up front about something like that, but I can see the issue. Also, even if the law changes restaurants may have to increase their security, which is a very unfortunate stupid pain in the butt but may be necessary. At the park, I noticed one older guy was a little out of control really kind of grabbing this female dancer, and thrusting his pelvis into hers a bit too much. It seemed to make her uncomfortable but she was young and didn’t really know how to handle it and didn’t want to be rude. Unfortunately, there are guys who still don’t seem to get that a woman’s dancing is not an invitation to sex and doesn’t entitle them to grab and grope and do whatever else they want. Of course professional female dancers sometimes get harassed as well so that’s not at all an issue specific to social dancing… Dance is most definitely an invaluable form of expression, but very unfortunately, it’s not always the law that vitiates it.
Baryshnikov @ doug varone
Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.
Baryshnikov @ Doug Varone‘s Dense Terrain at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ha ha, I know it’s only the back of his head, but I swear it’s him! Was sitting two rows down from me!! Interesting performance, not sure what to make of it… but it was very thought-provoking and full of meaning, interesting movement, dealt with difficulties of communication through language, was very dramatic, violent in parts, provocative music, somewhat political but not obviously so and message was not simplistic, used multimedia, reminded me a bit of Forsythe…
Playwright Stan Richardson Introducing Writers Room Readings at Cornelia Street Cafe
Where Does the "Queen" End and the "Woman" Begin?: Alexis Arquette. And, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet
Last night, I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival a documentary about the journey of Alexis Arquette, of the famous acting family, from man to woman.
I’m glad I pre-ordered tickets; door sales lines were long:
Entitled “Alexis Arquette: She’s My Brother,” this was one of the most fascinating documentaries I’ve seen, but not for the reasons touted by the filmmakers, who, unfortunately, had to return to L.A. and England and were unable to stay for an after-show Q&A. Will teach me not to wait until the end of the festival to see a movie — that’s one of the reasons I go to festival films, argh. And how much I would have LOVED to meet Alexis — a true character! Anyway, the press release stated that, though filled with celebrities, drag queens and Hollywood glitterati, the film was a serious look at transgendered life. I felt like it was actually more about the former, and regarding the latter, it left me with more questions than it answered — neither of which made it at all a disappointment. To the contrary, it was absolutely mesmerizing.
My only other experiences with the subject of transgender life come from Jeffrey Eugenides’s profound, brilliant novel Middlesex, one of the greatest American novels, ever, I think. And that story differered from this because the main character was hermaphrodic and, without an operation, decided to re-define himself as a man after being raised female. I missed the Felicity Huffman movie, which Oberon blogged about in detail. Other than that, I remember a person in college, who called herself Tatiana. My school was huge, though, and I never knew her; I only knew she tried out for both male and female parts on the cheer squad, freaking out many a male cheerleader, including my lovely then boyfriend. I felt sorry for her.
But this, I found to be more a very sympathetic portrait of a younger sibling lost in the shadows of his very famous sisters and searching desperately for his own voice. It drove home the point, without necessarily meaning to, that growing up in the light of the cameras with a large family and many flamboyant, big-personalitied drag queen friends, can, ironically, make for a very lonely life.
Of course he doesn’t seem lonely, having adopted that same ‘huge personality’ as his sisters and drag companions. It’s a self-made documentary, so his face and voice are everpresent, and, while his incessant whining can really grate on your nerves at times, overall he’s just simply fascinating. By the way, I’m very aware that some would say it’s wrong to use masculine pronouns to refer to him since he sees himself as a woman, but this was the crux of my problem here. Unlike Cal in Middlesex, who begins life as a girl but narrates his story from his older, male point of view which compels the reader to envision him as a man, Alexis, who changed his name in his teens but, interestingly, never says what from, for the vast majority of the film actually is a man and seems, to me, essentially masculine — a total preening Queen, who loves dressing in drag and wearing makeup and continuously changing hair colors, but definitely a man. The film includes several clips of him growing up, and spending his teens, twenties and early thirties as a gay man, and a really good-looking one at that — in fact, he kind of reminded me of Evan McKie on the Winger 🙂
A gay man, he seemed to know little of women’s bodies. When he goes to the plastic surgeon, of course he wants humongous breasts, with nipples practically at chin-level. The surgeon can only laugh. “What, you can’t do that?” Alexis asks dejectedly. Forced to undergo psychiatric therapy in order to gain the right to have the surgery — understandably humiliatingly aggravating (is this mandatory for people having breast enhancement or lyposuction?) — Alexis brings his therapist a self-made drawing of how he envisions his future vagina: it resembles a sweet, tiny peach core. First thing though, he is quick to assert, the nose has got to go. His nose, he tells his surgeon, is that of a man — the type of man he is attracted to for sure — but it’s just not a female nose. So, he has a very idealized notion of the exact female body he wants. It wasn’t surprising to me that many of his friends began to accuse him of making the film not because he actually wants the reassignment surgery, but for attention.
For a film about changing one’s sex organs, it dealt very little with actual sexuality. There are some really interesting interviews with doctors about how far male to female reassignment surgery has come in the last few years: parts of the penis are maintained and used to construct the clitoris, making the new clitoris nearly as sensitive as a real one — but that’s more physical than sexual. As a gay man attracted to and used to sleeping with other gay men, if he became a woman he would need to turn to straight men for romantic partnership, with whom he seemed to have little experience. That’s just so completely mind-boggling to me. I’d think it would take a very open-minded straight man to go for someone who was once another man. At one point, he does film himself with a very young boyfriend, but he is still male then, and it’s unclear whether this shy, untalkative young man, so different from Arquette, is gay, straight, or bi.
Unlike in Middlesex, where I felt myself vehemently hating any character who wanted Cal to remain female, here I found myself wanting so badly for Alexis NOT to get the surgery. Maybe it was just that I kept thinking of that young Alexis as so Evan-y and such a beautiful man, or maybe it’s that I was just so scared for him, as I would be for anyone, to have such a serious surgery. I won’t reveal the end, but he begins to freak out a little as well after he “passes” his psych exam.
All in all, I found it an absolutely fascinating portrait of a preening but confused, emotionally needy, but very human person whose need to feel comfortable in his skin, though taken to another level here, is ultimately something everyone can relate to. If he was trying to gain celebrity, and I DON’T think he was, I have to say, he is as unforgettable as Cal, Eugenides’s main character. From here on, I think every time I see anything starring any Arquette, I will definitely think of him. I highly highly highly recommend it when it hits the theaters.
On Thurday night, Dea and I, used Dance Link’s two-for-one ticket offer (you’ll get a one-year subcription to their discount program if you attend the Fall For Dance Festival), and went to see the fabulous Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet at the Joyce in Chelsea. They danced two pieces, “Migration” (about “the hierarchical migration of birds and mammals”), and our favorite, “The Moroccan Project,” a gorgeous contemporary ballet danced to beautifully rhythmic and melodious African, Moroccan, Arabic, and Andalusian Flamenco music. To me, it epitomized what I love in contemporary ballet — dance ripe with possibilities for taking traditional ballet and fusing it with other kinds of beautiful movement from around the world — here, African, Spanish, Moroccan, Indian — to create something really sublime and worldly.
The piece consisted of a combination of beautiful duets — some romantic, some playful, some fraught with discontent — solos, and ensemble work. During the group parts, the dancers would never dance alone but always worked with and off of each other, looking closely at each other, reacting to each other’s movement, at one point literally bouncing off of each other: during one of my favorite parts, four men laced arms and turned away from a lone woman who, in “Red Rover” fashion, thrashed and hurled her body at them desperately attempting to convince them to allow her into their fraternal circle.
Another favorite part of mine were the “solos” — where only one dancer is actually moving on one part of the stage, but other dancers are onstage as well, very closely watching the moving dancer, examining his or her movement, their facial expressions and tilted heads intently trying to understand the statement that moving dancer was making with her or his body. Visually, it had the effect of being an exercise in learning another language: the moving dancer was definitely speaking to the stationary dancers, and they were surely listening and understanding. With the music bearing foreign lyrics beating in the background, the point is compellingly made that dance is another language as vibrant, complex and meaningful as any spoken.
Dea and I also noticed that the dancers — all wearing matching costumes of understated peach dresses for the women, tan gaucho-styled pants for the men — somehow blended in with each other, though they had varying skin color: no one person stood out as being, for example, “the African American dancer” or “the Latino dancer.” Because it was a truly multi-ethnic company, it did not look at all out of the ordinary for, for example, a red-haired freckled man to be doing intense African-based movements to Gnawan percussive instruments. How awesome is that!! “If I could be a ballet dancer,” Dea said, “this is the kind of company I’d want to be in!”
Also, Dea brought this for me from Brazil:
It’s a CD by a Brazilian singer named Marisa Monte, with lots of really pretty samba songs. I’ve never heard of her and I love the music — how sweet is Dea 🙂
We Are Celebrity Whores, We Are ABT Fans, and We Are Proud, Dammit!: Jock Soto, Joaquin de Luz, Bill Clinton (and Marcelo) at NYCB Opening Night Gala
I hope no one takes the above title the wrong way — I’m totally joking, and trying to make light of out that earlier tiff on this blog 🙂 I do actually think there are different styles, aesthetics, even theater etiquette as Kristin Sloan called it (which I’ll get to soon) between the fans of American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet, which had its opening night gala dinner tonight and the official premiere of NYCB artistic director Peter Martins’s new version of Romeo and Juliet.
Since it was a nice day out, I arrived a bit early so as to relax at the Lincoln Center fountain and perhaps take some pictures. Last year, I saw Angel Corella out front on this gala evening kind of smiling out at the crowds and looking all handsome, so I figured I might see “someone” again 🙂
Sure enough, red carpet was rolled, Peter Martins and ensemble arrived, paparazzi power cameras began flashing away, and anyone who happened to be anywhere on the plaza at that time promptly made a mad dash toward the State Theater entrance.
Here is Martins with a young girl, I assume his granddaughter? (Late edit: I now know this is his daughter, Talicia. Thanks to everyone who emailed me, posted a comment, and replied to my post on the Winger message board for correcting me 🙂 Sorry about that!)
Anyway, I, apparently being one of the biggest celebrity whores, managed to make my way to the front of the railed-off section. Passersby began crowding around, whipping out cell phones, asking excitedly, “who’s that, who’s that?”
“Peter Martins.” I said. The woman next to me looked quizzical. “The New York City Ballet artistic director whose Romeo and Juliet is premiering tonight,” I said.
“Oh, I’m an ABT fan; I’m going to the opera tonight. I saw all the commotion. Are there any famous people here?”
“I don’t know, I think it’s just the gala attendees and City Ballet people,” I said.
“Leonardo, has Leonardo come yet?!” a woman shrieked, running up from behind.
“Leonardo who, diCaprio?” the first woman screamed.
“My daughter said he’d be here. I’m an ABT fan; I’m going to the opera tonight, but my daughter told me Leonardo was going to be here and to be sure to get a picture. Oooh, if I missed him, she’ll kill me,” she said dismally.
“Leonardo diCaprio?!” a guy said running over. “I have to get to the opera, when does this thing start?”
“I dunno, I’m an ABT fan; I’m going to the opera,” said yet another voice.
“The ballet starts at 7:30,” I said.
“Oh good,” they all said in unison.
“Well then, all the famous people will have to get here by about 7:20 then,” the guy said assuredly.
Cameras began flashing.
“Oooh, ooh, who is it, who is it??”
“I don’t know. It’s not Leonardo, but it’s looks like someone famous.”
And for the next half hour, it continued like this. A paparazzi camera would flash, everyone would get their cell phones or digitals ready and ask who is it, who is it, oooh, that’s someone, I don’t know who, but they look famous, or I know them from some show just can’t remember which…
Good lord. Anyway, I can’t make too much fun of these people, seeing as how I was one of them and all :), so let the celebrity fest begin:
Actress Elizabeth Berkeley. Funny everyone knew her as “that girl from Saved By the Bell,” or “that girl from, oh what was it, that TV show about the high school kids?…” No one remembered that she was in Showgirls!!!
Artist Anh Duong.
Actress Anna Paquin, in the white dress.
Two young ladies no one knew, but everyone agreed “looked famous.” Does anyone know who they are?
By far the biggest, hugest, most important celebrity of all, Kristin Sloan!!! Here operating her enormous camera, likely for her latest project…
Kristin and her boyfriend, Doug Jaeger, who caught my eye, or my camera pointed directly at him rather(!), and had Kristin turn her camera on me… I have no idea what that one’s going to look like … yikes!
This girl in the red dress — gorgeous dress by the way — was apparently an actress from young adult films … someone mentioned “Ice Princess”??? If anyone would like to clue me in, I’d be grateful!
“Well, I have to get to the opera,” the Leonardo woman said around 7:20. “Yeah, me too,” another man said. “I guess he already went in,” she said sadly. “Well, it’s still good I came to see this; I need to know what to wear if I decide to go to ABT’s gala. They’re my favorite,” she blushed.
“Me too,” I said.
“Oh really? I wonder who all will be there!” she said, excitement returning.
Anyway, 7:25 rolled around and I figured I’d better go in and get my seat — I was sitting all the way up in the 4th Ring so it’d take me a while.
Before the show began, Martins took the stage and gave a little talk mentioning that this season marked the centennial of Lincoln Kirstein‘s birth. He then pointed out an audience celebrity, Bill Clinton! It took a while before I spotted him; he occupied a center seat in the first ring, the seat, Martins noted that had belonged to Lincoln Kirstein. Martins told Clinton whenever he wished to attend the ballet, he need only phone him and he’d reserve the Kirstein seat especially for him. Everyone applauded. Martins then declared May 1st “Lincoln Kirstein and New York City Ballet Day.”
But far far FAR more important than the former president, in the house was also
🙂 🙂 🙂
He sat in the very first row, sixth seat in from the right aisle — almost the exact same seat where I sit to see him perform 🙂
Anyway, the performance:
Well, I’m extremely tired and groggy and I’ll probably have more thoughts later, and I know people will feel differently and I’m not saying I’m right and anyone else is wrong, but my first reaction is: it was pretty and sweet and cute and overall a lovely little ballet. It didn’t take my breath away, it didn’t make me cry, it didn’t move me, it got long in parts, I got bored, with the exception of one scene I was nowhere near the edge of my seat, and with the exception of two dancers — one of whom had a non-dancing part my heart didn’t stutter. I don’t know why people in general go to the ballet — it likely varies for different ballets (full-length story or abstract one-act) and different companies — but the aforesaid reasons are the reasons why I go to see a full-length story ballet, and this didn’t do it for me. The balcony scene, which ended the first act (there were only two; one intermission), was very pretty. Juliet’s dress was lovely, much shorter and sweeter than the gown worn by ABT ballerinas — ABT should trim that gown; this one was far more beautiful! The choreography was sweet and lovely with several pretty lifts of the kind I’ve seem umpteenth times before — nothing out of the ordinary, nothing original, nothing striking. No MacMillan’s ‘let me run toward you at maximum speed, dear, and hurl myself at you whilst turning and you catch me and throw me up over your head feet first’ lifts that to me is what makes the balcony pas de deux so thrilling, so magnificent, so emotionally compelling, and by far my favorite pdd of all.
The only scene that had me on the edge of my seat was the beginning of the second act, the sword fight in which Tybalt slays Mercutio, then Romeo slays Tybalt and the reason for that is that the dancers were top quality. When I first sat down in my seat, I have to admit I pulled out my binoculars and began searching the floor for Marcelo since I’d just seen him in the lobby (sorry no pictures — I’m too shy to approach and didn’t want to be a bad fan and take pics of him unaware), and when I found him I began fixating 🙂 So, when the lights went down and the curtain up, I hadn’t yet looked at my program. When I first saw Tybalt I was mesmerized — I loved Daniel Ulbright‘s Mercutio too most definitely, but there was something about Tybalt that just blew me away. I couldn’t figure out who he was. Joaquin de Luz happens to be my favorite dancer in the company but he was wearing facial hair and his hair was shorter or gelled back and I didn’t recognize him, and didn’t know it was Joaquin until I later looked at the program. So, I WAS NOT sitting there thinking “where’s Joaquin, oh I can’t wait to see Joaquin;” he captivated me nonetheless.
I was also blown away by Jock Soto, one of the most illustrious NYCB dancers of the past who recently retired, who played the non-dancing part of Lord Capulet. I already knew he was going to play that part and when he and Darci Kistler, as Lady Capulet, emerged onstage, I went to clap then realized no one else was and if my hands met I’d make an enormous commotion. What’s wrong with people, I thought, do they not know who he is? I ran into Kristin during intermission and mentioned it to her, and she laughed and said, “No people don’t do that here, that’s ABT. It’s a different audience etiquette.” Even if I wouldn’t have known Jock was Jock, he had so much physical presence and power, he commanded your attention so, I just couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Anyway, I do think Kristin’s “different audience etiquette” was a great way of putting it. Generally, I do think there’s a totally different aesthetic between the two big NY ballet companies, which I guess are sort of rivals in that it seems not that people love one and hate the other (anyone who’s a real ballet fan is going to go to both) but that people really really love one and just like the other. For me this is why. Martins deliberately chose to cast the two main roles with young, relatively inexperienced dancers. He said he didn’t want the dancers to “act”; rather he wanted them to just be themselves — young. It takes artistry, though, and perhaps “star quality” — whatever exactly that is — to make the characters live and breath and move the audience to the edge of their seats, and you just can’t do that, no matter how hard you try if you’re too inexperienced. Robert Fairchild (who played Romeo) is really really cute and it was clear that he put his heart into it and tried with all his might, and I think he, and Sterling Hyltin (Juliet) both have bright futures ahead, but I really think it was a mistake to cast young, inexperienced people in these major roles. It’s as if Martins is saying Romeo and Juliet don’t really matter; it’s Tybalt and Mercutio and Lord Capulet who are the important characters here. They are important but certainly not more so than the leads. I feel like I’m saying the obvious and I can’t believe he hasn’t got more criticism for this…
Anyway, I hope I’m not offending anyone; I do think I have a certain thing I go to the ballet to see and part of it is acting and artistry that will blow me away and I didn’t get that here, although I did think the choreography was very pretty and the dancers were all very good-looking, and it was generally that — a good-looking ballet that, to me, lacked substance with the exception of Joaquin and Daniel and Jock — all of whom had relatively minor roles and couldn’t pull the whole no matter how much they wanted to. It would be interesting to see more experienced dancers dance the leads and perhaps I’ll see it again if they do, but only if they do.
Other thoughts: the sets are very minimalist, which is normally neither here nor there with me — I care more about the dancing, though here, perhaps it’s just that I’m used to the fuller stage apparatus of ABT because I just felt like there wasn’t enough for me to feel I was really “in” the world he was re-creating. He said he wanted “more dancing, less crowd action” — I felt like there was less of both though I guess he did cut down on those long, drawn-out sword-fight scenes and ball-dancing scenes at the beginning that I could do without in the MacMillan. I guess I just felt like most of the dancing wasn’t compelling enough to me, so it didn’t matter. I did like his balcony scene, pretty but plain though it was, better than the Lavery.
Anyway, I am falling asleep. Just wanted to get my thoughts down and I hope people aren’t angry! I’m sure everyone who sees this will have their own thoughts and feelings about it!
To end, here are a couple more pics, taken from inside:
Yum! Dinner for the gala guests, from above.
And, a side pic of the gala guests. Sorry so dark – -I need a new camera badly!
Tonight
Ugh, it’s only 1:58 p.m. When it is going to be tonight??? I just can’t wait!
Since I’ll be at the premiere of NYCB’s Romeo & Juliet tonight, and since I forgot to set my VCR before leaving this morning, I’ll have to miss Dancing With the Stars, which means when I get home, I’ll be forced to consult the dreaded message boards… I don’t have much to say about the show at this point other than that I hope Laila sticks around for a while! And, I wish they would use real Samba music for that dance once in a while! I know it’s difficult since they have a live band and all, and it’s definitely much easier for American singers to scratch their way through “Besame Mucho” than try their hand at Portuguese, but, it’s like a 10 bizillion-dollar show; you’d think they could have a real Brazilian band play for once… With all of those cool pulsating drums — it just makes me mad that Americans are so missing out!
Ballet, Ballroom and Dirty Dancing
Just two weeks now @#$$%^&*!!!!!
I’m so bad; I’m so obsessed with Marcelo and his people I haven’t been properly blogging about another huge ballet event happening tomorrow night: the New York City Ballet‘s opening night gala and the premiere of the much-anticipated new version of my personal favorite classical ballet, Romeo and Juliet. My favorite version is by Sir Kenneth MacMillan (which American Ballet Theater performs); this one is by NYCB artistic director Peter Martins — we’ll see how it stacks up! This also marks the culmination of a HUGE amount of hard work Winger creator and NYCB ballerina Kristin Sloan has put into making the company’s Tragic Love project, which provides fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of various aspects of the making of the ballet. Do check it out, and of course check out the ballet as well — it’s showing through May 13th.
As I had blogged about earlier, Dirty Dancing was shown on Thursday night at the Tribeca Drive-In, as part of the awesome Tribeca Film Festival. I couldn’t go, but my friend, Steve made it, and sent me his report (sorry about the weird spacing; I could not get WordPress to format it properly):
“I went to the Tribeca Film festival drive-in event featuring a free outdoor screening of Dirty Dancing at
the World Financial Center on Thursday night. The pre-screening entertainment included a dance show, a
live performance by singer Lumidee (whoever that is) and a Dirty Dancing Trivia contest. A chilly night and
the threat of rain did not keep movie and dance fans away from this fun event set alongside the marina at
the WFC. First a group of dancers including Anya Fuchs performed some Latin and tango numbers. Four
principal couples were on stage and about ten others fanned out into the audience and danced in the aisle
and on the sides. Eventually, they drew audience members up on stage with them to dance to various
songs from the movie. It was a good way to keep warm. I enjoyed myself even though Anna Garnis decided not
to be in the performance. I didn’t stay for the movie and headed back up town to the DTS practice party,
which was pretty good. Nobody puts [studio owner and 1995 U.S. National Latin Champion] Melanie [LaPatin] in the
corner.”
Thanks for the report, Steve, and thanks for being my first “correspondent” hehe 🙂 Dance Times Square puts on pretty good little ballroom dancing parties every third Thursday of each month. Visit their website for deets. Of course the showcase at Hunter College is upcoming as well, next week.
And finally, apparently in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Dirty Dancing, they are re-releasing the film in theaters for a very limited amount of time (the next two days basically), which is to contain never-seen-before footage. Go here for movie times and locations throughout the country.
Really Cool Stuff From Korea, Japan, and Brazil!
Fun but busy weekend. I attended two very different kinds of dance competitions and saw some really amazing stuff. Last night, I went to the Tribeca Drive-In at the Tribeca Film Festival, to see a new film, Planet B-Boy, a documentary that follows the lives of the members of four teams of break-dancers culminating in a big worldwide competition, held yearly in Germany. I’m so glad I saw this — it exposed me to a whole culture I didn’t really know existed. I knew about break-dancing on a very basic level, but didn’t know it was such a huge thing world-wide now. Like soccer / international football, it’s not very big in the U.S., but in this case that’s rather ridiculous since we started the dance…
Anyway, these international team competitions involve some of the most incredible dancing. It’s so much more gymnastic than I ever knew — some of these dancers I’d swear had formal training in the sport. In addition to super athletic floor-work, they do these amazing acrobatic stunts — lifting each other, leap-frogging over a sea of bodies, building human pyramids from which they perform spectacular jumps, and dance with such character and, yes, beauty, and artistry. Each team is judged on its synchronization (about eight dancers doing same moves in complete unison), artistry and technique of individual dancers, and conceptual idea of team theme. Each team came up with a theme that illuminated an aspect of their culture — I thought the Korean and Japanese teams were by far the most original. The Koreans, who basically own this dance nowdays, were just incredible. They really have to be seen to be believed — so go see this movie when it hits the theaters!
Like in student ballroom-dancing documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, filmmaker Benson Lee goes beyond this particular competition to explore the larger meaning of dance — freedom of expression and individuality, keeping young people out of trouble by giving them a creative outlet, and, interesting to me since it’s mainly men who break dance, allowing the dancers to act out aggression in a safe way. Watching the movie – -and the pre-film break-dance demos shown in the photos above — I realized how breaking was like a dance version of the rapping jams seen in Eminem’s movie 8-Mile in the way that the dancers taunt and mock each other — jokingly and without touching each other — before each round of competition, the teasing actually becoming an art in itself. And, being a globally-set movie, cultural / political issues are explored. My favorite part, filmed in Korea at the border between North and South, was when the “guards,” gravely serious and bearing frighteningly large weapons, suddenly break into dance! And, like with Mad Hot Ballroom, you find yourself rooting so hard for one team, you almost become teary-eyed at the end. It’s really a lot of fun — go!
Today, I went with Dea, my friend from Brazil who I met on the Winger, to the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition, founded by Gennadi Saveliev from American Ballet Theater. Dea’s former ballet studio in Sao Paulo was competing in the group ensemble competition and she wanted to go watch them.
Above is Dea, inside the competition, which was held in the auditorium of Martin Luther King High School. Below is a picture of goings-on outside in front of the school — some dancers warming up, applying makeup, and hanging out after their piece. We were strictly forbidden from taking pictures inside — the head judge even threatened people with camera confiscation! — so, as soon as Gennadi posts the pics on his website, I’ll see if there’s anything I can link to that I saw.
Well, I’ve been to about a bizillion ballroom competitions now, but this was my very first Ballet comp. It was so fun! We only saw the ensemble competitions — apparently the solos have been going on for the past three days — but I saw some really good dancing from some very young people, and some very interesting, novel choreography. This Japanese school, consisting of four girls, wheeled some backless, rolling stools out onto the stage, and the girls used the chairs in amazing ways — arching over them and spinning, standing atop them on one leg, kneeling on one hand and one knee and lifting the opposite arm and leg high in the air — talk about balance! Acting was involved too, as the girls laughed, cried, and screamed — very expressive and perhaps a bit over the top but dramatic and emotionally compelling in its own way.
And about a quarter of all the teams were from Brazil! Poor Dea kept getting up go to the bathroom, but when the next team — yet another Brazilian one — was announced, she’d have to sit back down to watch. The Brazilian teams were all so diverse. One did a spectacularly synchronized traditional Irish step dance with gorgeously decorative costumes — Dea said she didn’t even know Irish step dancing was taught in Brazil! One, which received massive applause, did a contemporary piece danced to techno music, one danced to traditional Bossa Nova — Dea and several people sitting around me sang along with the lyrics and I felt dumb not knowing them 🙂 , and one — my personal favorite — did this really cool combination flamenco / paso doble / belly dance / Martha Graham — it was a true original and I LOVED it, though others felt there was too much going on and it was just weird. Dea’s school did a contemporary ballet danced on pointe. I think her school had technically the best dancers and their choreography was original as well with some humorous moments, but I still loved the crazy fun everything-but-the-kitchen-sink number 🙂
It’ll be interesting to see who won. Hopefully Dea’s school! Tomorrow night at City Center the winners will perform along with professionals. I went to this show last year and it was really nice. Marcelo danced with Sofiane Sylve from New York City Ballet in the pro part, and David Hallberg danced in a pas de trois from Le Corsaire. I think David is dancing again this year, but Marcelo’s not on the list. Dea’s going but I still haven’t decided if I will. Going to all this stuff gets expensive!