So did anyone here participate in yesterday’s live chat? I thought it was a tremendous success, especially since it was the first time the Guggenheim had done it. At one point, there were 364 participants, which the Works & Process people noted was a larger audience than could fit inside the Guggenheim’s actual auditorium. It was fun to see some familiar names from the past – several Winger bloggers, old Winger message board members, and some new dance Twitterers. One commenter (chatterer?) said, it was nice to be able to “talk” throughout the performance, as well as snack! I agree!
If you missed it, the program is archived here in its 90 minute entirety – so have a look. Peter Boal, Doug Fullington, and Marian Smith from Pacific Northwest Ballet talked about where they found the original sources for Giselle – the choreography and the music, and how they reconstructed it. Boal noted this is the first time an American company has attempted to mount a production of the work as it was originally done in 1841. I found the music section most interesting – the music sounds exactly like the action or the words the characters would speak – as well as of course the dancing. One thing I found fascinating was how the original choreography called for dancing that was much faster, though much closer to the ground. So lots of small jumps instead of high leaps. But some of this crazy fast choreography (that one dancer even had a hard time doing) illustrates that there was once another kind of virtuosity than we’re familiar with today. The longer, higher leaps we see so much of today are, Boal said, the Bolshoi’s influence.
All four dancers were excellent. I’d seen Carla Korbes, James Moore, and of course Seth Orza before, but never Carrie Imler, and she really amazed me. She was one of the few who could actually pull off all those insanely fast steps. I must see more of her.
The full production will take place in Seattle in June. How nice would it be if PNB could live-stream that too?
Just a reminder that this evening at 7:30 EST you can watch for free the Guggenheim’s Works and Process discussion of Pacific Northwest’s new Giselle, and participate in a live chat. See my earlier post for deets.
Super cool! The Guggenheim has just announced it is going to live-stream its upcoming January 9th Works & Process program, Giselle Revisited, a discussion with Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal and others from PNB about the company’s new production of Giselle. Of course excerpts will be performed, by principal dancers Carla Korbes, Carrie Imler, SLSG fave Seth Orza, and soloist James Moore (who I also remember liking the last time PNB performed here).
The discussion / performance will be live-streamed direct from the Guggenheim beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 9th, at this web channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/worksandprocess. The Winger‘s Candice Thompson will lead an online discussion, so people watching via the live-stream will be able to chat with each other in real time.
Click on the link below to see the full press release.
And it looks like there are several good dance events, including the Royal Danish Ballet with Nikolaj Hubbe, a program on how judges judge the big ballet competitions like the Youth America Grand Prix, a sneak peek at Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new Giselle production, a night of Robert Wilson-curated choreography and performance art, and more ABT.
Click on the link below for their press release, containing the full dance event schedule.
Photo of Luciana Achugar’s Puro Deseo, from NYTimes, taken by Chad Batka.
You guys, I am really sorry but there are several things I’ve seen lately that I don’t have time to write about. So, I’m linking to other writers’ reviews. The first is Luciana Achugar’s exploration of the occult, Puro Deseo, which premiered recently at the Kitchen. I generally agree with NYTimes’ Gia Kourlas that Achugar needs to go a bit deeper with this piece, but this is a strong start, and parts of the performance I found very compelling, such as when, toward the beginning, Achugar is wearing a large black cape and moving back and forth in a diagonal pattern across the stage, and every time she backs up, toward a light projector, she casts an ominous shadow that eventually eats up the entire theater. Very cool lighting effect that achieved the result she was aiming for. At points her partner, Michael Mahalchick, would contort his body in ways that were both creepy and unsettling but also ultimately human. At times her movement would mirror his, and at times she’d react off of him, sometimes writhing on the ground seemingly in erotic pleasure. This is what I thought needed to be developed a little further – the connection between eroticism and the occult, but regardless, ever since Tere O’Connor’s Nothing Festival a couple of years ago, Achugar has become one of my favorite experimental artists and I always love seeing her new work.
Second, is Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Works & Process event at the Guggenheim over the weekend. I loved seeing James Moore and Carla Korbes again, and especially Seth Orza. Moore’s performance of a beginning excerpt of Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, and Korbes and Orza dancing an excerpt from Balanchine’s Apollo were, to me the highlights of the evening. But here is Oberon with far more detail on the evening than I can provide right now.
Also, last week I saw two NYCB programs – one comprised of some of Balanchine’s most famous leotard ballets (Symphony in Three Movements is always a favorite of mine, especially in contrast with Concerto Barocco), and an evening of Robbins during which I was blown away, once again, by Gonzalo Garcia as the poetic figure in his Opus 19 / The Dreamer. And, call me a goof (because everyone else seems to hate it), but I always love to see Robbins’ I’m Old Fashioned, with the dancers performing a balletic interpretation of Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth as a movie excerpt of the latter two dancing plays on a screen erected at the back of the stage. Anyway, here is Macaulay on the Balanchine program and Roslyn Sulcas on the Robbins.
Review coming soon of Wayne McGregor’s new Outlier, although I said some of what I have to say already on Twitter. I’m actually really enjoying tweeting about performances. I find Twitter a useful device for paring down sentences to the essentials. Of particular use to verbose people like me anyway 🙂
Haha! So the gossip papers are reporting that Ben Millepied and Natalie Portman had gone to see Gyor National Ballet of Hungary on January 9th. But that’s wrong! Pacific Northwest Ballet was performing at the Joyce Theater (outside of which the above photos were taken) on that date. Gyor IS coming to the Joyce though — on January 26th, and I can’t wait. I’m very intrigued…
Tuesday night, the Pacific Northwest Ballet opened its 5-day run at the Joyce. This was my first time seeing this company, and it has a reputation as one of the most prestigious in the U.S. Helmed by Peter Boal, a former dancer with New York City Ballet, the company is already familiar to many NYCB fans, but not yet to me.
I really wish they could have brought the whole company and danced at City Center, a more suitable stage for ballet. The Joyce is small and known for modern dance and so they could only bring a small portion of the company. And, the small stage limited their choice of choreography and prevented the dancers from dancing full-out. So I felt it lacked a certain balletic grandeur, although I still greatly enjoyed the evening.
For one thing, I was thrilled to finally be able to see Brazilian ballerina Carla Korbes dance, after being introduced to her on the Winger. She had a part in just about every ballet and she did not disappoint — she has great charisma and dances with great dramatic intention.
I was also happy to be able to see Seth Orza again 😀 (Everyone who’s read this blog for a while knows how downright devastated I was when he left NYCB…) He’s so sharp and precise, and so strong — I think he definitely needs to be promoted to principal (he’s now a soloist, as he was when he left NYCB).
So, there were four pieces on the program: Opus 111 by Twyla Tharp, Fur Alina by Edwaard Liang, Mopey by Marco Goecke (my favorite, and pictured above, James Moore dancing), and 3 Movements by Benjamin Millepied.
I’ll start with my favorite — Mopey, by Goecke, danced very intensely by Moore.
I’d always been curious about this young German choreographer ever since this little exchange (the “Evan M.” being Evan McKie, a principal with Stuttgart Ballet).
Anyway, Mopey is hard to describe — basically just a solo for a man who by turns twists and contorts his body into awkward shapes, bounces up and down, makes muscle-man poses, waves his arms about gracefully, appears to be possessed and struggling to control his limbs — his fingers bent and curved down somewhat grotesquely, almost monster-like. It was short but really engrossing. Here’s a YouTube clip of a dancer from Stuttgart dancing an excerpt from the piece. Unlike in the clip, which is danced only to one piece of music, Moore danced first to silence, then to Bach, then to pop punk by The Cramps.
I also liked Millepied’s 3 Movements, pictured below (dancers are James Moore and Lucien Postlewaite).
All photos by Angela Sterling, by the way.
It was abstract but I thought I detected a bit of a men versus women showdown (I think this is a recurring theme of his — at least in his recent works). It was set to rather unsettling Steve Reich music and filled with original movement, the way the groups of men and women would go at each other at times, almost like they were from separate clans. But the costumes were contemporary: almost casual work attire for the men and little flirty dresses for the women. Costumes were designed by Millepied’s girlfriend, Isabella Boylston, corps dancer at ABT.
I also liked Fur Alina by Liang. It was a man woman pas de deux danced by Carla Korbes and Karel Cruz and it seemed to be the somber story of two lovers slowly deciding to part. It was set to Arvo Part (who it seems, understandably, is becoming the most used composer for contemporary ballet these days — at least for these despairing pas de deux).
Oddly, the Tharp was my least favorite (below: dancers in front are Korbes and Batkhurel Bold).
I’ve never seen Opus 111 before and this one (set to Brahms) didn’t seem to have any of Tharp’s signature comical character roles or her theme of ballet versus other kind of dance (fill in the blank: American social — like in Deuce Coupe, Scottish folk, hip hoppy aerobics — like in Upper Room) or her crazy, almost death-defying lifts. It was pretty and lyrical and the dancers lightly flew around the stage, at times coupling off. But sweet as it was, it just seemed to lack something. Might have been the small stage though and they just couldn’t dance it full-out?… Sir Alastair saw something more in it though.
I hope the company comes to NY again — to City Center.
Our David Hallberg (with flying blonde mane and miraculous feet!) rehearses the Black Swan pas de deux with Ashley Bouder, which they’re currently performing at the Vail International Dance Festival. Great Paloma Herrera-esque fouettes, Ms. Bouder (with the multiple pirouettes thrown in; I haven’t really seen the NYCBallet ballerina in a dramatic part yet; she and David look good together!)
Bouder’s also performing Balanchine’s Who Cares with SLSG favorite Robert Fairchild, and David’s dancing Apollo with Pacific Northwest’s Carla Korbes. So wish I could be there…
Here. Looks exciting — Pacific Northwest Ballet, Jason Samuels Smith (in pic above), Rennie Harris, Cedar Lake, Doug Varone, Merce, etc. etc. I hope I can make it up there for a day or two. Or three or four. So nice and quiet, and a rather studious atmosphere, like a college campus in the middle of the woods. See my photo album from 2007 here.
