Tag: So You Think You Can Dance

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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE SEASON FIVE WEEK THREE: Live Blogging This Week

Since I’m not at ABT tonight (unbelievable, I know! — heartbroken to be missing Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes though…), I can live blog the show.

Guest judge this week is Tony Basil. She says she is winning a hip hop award and is very happy that hip hop, popping and locking, street dance in general is being taken so seriously now, on stages / programs like this.

Jonathan and Karla’s hip hop: I thought that was really good! He had a great tumbling pass, wow. They both really had great rhythm and I just really liked it. Really in sync. What is Nigel talking about — it was boring and there was no chemistry? I don’t know what he’s talking about. Jonathan is so cute — he can do anything: hip hop, Latin, contemporary. Nigel says that wasn’t gangster at all. I thought it was enough — I mean, Jonathan doesn’t really have that look, you know. He did well with it, I thought. Tony says you gotta have the funk and the hard hit to do hip hop. I really thought it had both!

Asuka and Vitolio’s Jazz (choreographed by Mandy Moore):

Aw, they’re in Phoenix (my hometown) at the convention center this weekend for auditions!

Okay, back to Asuka and Vitolio: Wow, after that crying during practice, I thought they really brought it! Those two opening lifts — with her in the straddle splits and then the end overheard, wow — she has really gorgeous lines! And she had a great battement in there. He had a gorgeous jump. Hers weren’t all there (jumps that is), but Latin dancers aren’t really used to doing jetes, so it’s understandable she doesn’t yet have that kind of strength. He had kind of a Latin-y flavor to his dancing; his hips looked very Rumba-esque. I loved it.

Melissa and Ade’s Rhumba: Oh yay, a Rhumba with Tony Meredith!: Ooh, how passionate 🙂 I love watching ballet dancers dance rhumba. I thought she was really beautiful. Beautiful arabesques, the penchee (where she bent down to the floor and lifted back leg high, high). Gorgeous lines for her. It was hard to concentrate on him, but he really had the moves down too — the hip action, the slow walks. I mean, still, they weren’t a completely polished Latin couple, but so so good for people who don’t have ballroom training. I love how she turned her head toward his after the promenade and their lips nearly touched — or did touch. Sweet moment! Mary’s going nuts 🙂 Tony Basil talks about how hot Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin were in their day 🙂 (full disclosure of course: they are friends of mine).

Janette and Brandon’s hip hop (choreographed by Dave Scott): Whoa, Brandon! Wow, now I see what Mary and Nigel were so going on about during auditions! That man can MOVE! I really didn’t think the choreography was so great though — it didn’t have much to it. It was really a lot of rocking out, head-banging motions. I mean, if they did that a little bit, then fine, but it stayed the same throughout the whole thing. This may be unfair to Janette but I didn’t think she did anything with that choreography other than the actual moves he gave her, which is all I’d do too. But Brandon took every movement to its extreme and really did so much more than what was there. He’s the kind of dancer, I think, that every choreographer dreams of.

Kupono and Kayla (this week’s new couple) are doing a Viennese Waltz choreographed by Jean Marc Genereux.  Aw, really beautiful, very lyrical. I love barefoot Viennese Waltzes! I love the opening lift, where he carried her around while waltzing himself. Beautiful! He moved really well — they both did. His fluid movement in particular really surprised me, especially since last week I thought he should have been kicked off. I think he really stepped it up because of last week. I’m glad the audience stood up and cheered after Nigel said this routine wouldn’t make people stand up and cheer. Yes, people still can like things without pyrotechnics, Nigel. The only thing was that they weren’t close enough to each other in closed handhold, but that’s a teensy tiny thing overall. It was a really goreous routine. And now Mary puts them on the hot tamale train, to go against Nigel. Thank you Mary!

Evan and Randi are doing a Mia Michaels contemporary: Well, I love that Mia Michaels is not afraid to be really out there. Not sure how I feel about that routine, other than that it was starkly original, but I agree with Nigel that it was danced really well. That movement looked hard — all those hunched over jazzy, almost lazy-looking, but still very stylized, walks. Loved his sideways jump. And it wasn’t just for flash — it belonged there, because it was like his character was all excited about making a little breakthrough with the pretty girl. Very good acting too. Very Marilyn Monroe and — I dunno — one of those dorky-ish guys she dated?

Jason and Caitlin’s Paso Doble choreographed by Jean Marc and France Genereux: Wow, that was unlike any Paso I think I’ve ever seen. They dance to Carmina Burana. I love that arabesque penchee standing on top of his knee. And that opening turning lift. It was so intense, so dramatic, and so in character that I didn’t even really pay attention to the technique. But yeah, Nigel is right about them not being grounded enough. Still, they really gave a strong performance, as Mary says, and I love Jason! I like her a lot too. There were some hard-looking tricks in that. That crazy chokehold dip at the end! Big kudos to them.

Jeanine and Phillip’s Tyce DiOrio Broadway routine finishes the night. Wow, how afraid would I be to work with Tyce Diorio? He tells a frightened Phillip he has to jump the length of a couch — “it’s six feet, get over it,” he says. Then when the poor guy does, and does it right, he splits his pants. Pretty funny, but I mean, he could have hurt himself, forget the damn pants. He seemed to end up a little in front of the couch, right? Like he went diagonally to make it a bit easier. Maybe? If he did, I’d do the same! Anyway, so I thought it was really good — very good movement, especially from her. He was holding back a little, but it could have been, probably definitely was, the splitting of the pants during the damn couch hurdle up front. Other than the couch jump, I was focusing on her. She was damn good. I think people will keep voting for them — he has a bizillion fans — they’re not going anywhere this week…

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DANCE YOUR ASS OFF PREMIERES

Okay, fabulous as the new Dance Your Ass Off sounds (like a Dancing With the Stars, but with “real” people, and hosted by the always entertaining Marissa Jaret Winokur), there’s simply no way I can finish ballet season and cover So You Think You Can Dance and cover the new Oxygen Network show as well. So, I’m referring you all to wonderful writer Marie at the Ballroom Dance Channel for DYAO recaps. Enjoy!

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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 5 WEEK 2, ELIMINATIONS

Argh, just as Max shows us what he’s made of, he gets axed. I’m shocked. I thought he so delivered in his Jive solo. I know before (when he and Kayla did a Cha Cha I think) I said I didn’t see that he was a great Latin dancer, but tonight I really really saw it. That’s was a world-class Jive. I love that he set it to Footloose. I love how planned it was — he really thought that out, and his choreography — all of those excellently done jive kicks, and that perfect multi-pirouette — was more than enough to show us how great a Latin ballroom dancer he is. I’m sad to see him go.

I really thought it was going to be Kupono, whose solo, as Nigel said “was underwhelming.” I think that’s a complete understatement. I have liked him on the show before, and I agree with the judges that he’s still interesting. So, I understand why they’re keeping him. But solo-wise alone, he probably should have gone.

And of course I love Jason and don’t even know how he got up there tonight. I think if he was booted I’d seriously not want to watch the rest of the show.

And the woman to go was Ashley. I guess understandably. I liked her contemporary jazzy solo, and I agree with the judges she was a real Hollywood diva in it — it reminded me a bit of Chicago — but I also agree that it lacked a bit of substance. And Caitlin and Kayla really brought it with their solos. Kayla’s was proof of how much she wants to stay on, even if it was filled with tricks. I hate how Nigel blames them for putting too many jumps and high leg extensions in — they want to wow the judges as much as they possibly can in those, what, two seconds. Of course dancing for your life means putting every athletic feat you have into it. I loved her routine. And I loved Caitlin’s and I’m glad the judges saw how excellent it was, because it wasn’t filled with a lot of tricks, and I was scared they were going to tell her she wasn’t “dancing for her life” enough. That arabesque penchee at the beginning was really remarkable – -better than I’ve seen a lot of pro ballet dancers do.

So we’ll have a new partnership next week: Kayla and Kupono.

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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 5, WEEK 2

Wow, hip hopper Phillip got a lot of applause during the opening solos. Did you guys notice that too?

Guest judge tonight is hip hop choreographer Lil C.

We get to know the dancers more. Evan says his partner Randi has a dog who she treats as a human, talking to him on the phone, etc. Brandi says Evan is an amateur mechanic who built his own car. They’re doing Jive this week, Louis van Amstel choreographing. So, wait, is this a “fun” routine you guys?! How many times did they say that word! It WAS fun. That leap frog he did over her! Those continuous pivot turns (those are hard, they’re hard to do without looking stiff and awkward since you’re so close to your partner but are trying to look free), the jive kicks, that fun lift at the end. They were really having fun out there. And she has a great Latin body. They didn’t really look like a polished pro Latin couple, but, they still did damn good, especially considering they are a Broadway and contemporary dancer. Nigel and Mary are disappointed; I disagree with them.

Ade says Melissa has a sister who’s married to her brother’s something or rather — complicated, slightly incestuous-sounding family situation; Melissa tries to pronounce Ade’s full African name — four words long, the first about 12 letters. He pronounces it in full, then says, see, that’s why I go by Ade. They’re dancing a contemporary routine by Sonya. Well, that was interesting choreographically — it was kind of sexually aggressive, a bit robotic, impish as Cat Deeley said. It had a lot of intricate lifts, a lot of angular movement. What I actually liked about it was how differently they did on some of the side by side moves. There was one point where they both did a simultaneous jump, unconnected, and another where they lay down on their backs and lifted their legs in the air, making interesting shapes, and on both his feet were flexed and hers pointed. I just thought that was so interesting — his movements were more African-looking and hers ballet. It was really a beautiful distinction, I thought.

Caitlin says Jason has an obsession with Michael Jackson, and we see videos of him as a child doing Moonwalks — adorable! Jason says Caitlin does baby voices and has a scream like nails on a chalkboard. They have a hip hop routine

Continue reading “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 5, WEEK 2”

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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 5, 1ST ELIMS

So contemporary dancer Paris and pop ‘n locker Tony are the first to go. I’m not all that surprised I have to say. She didn’t stand out to me at all, not during auditions (if we even saw her) and then not last night. And I thought his solos during auditions were clever and funny, with all the pulling out of the Nigel photos to “Someone’s Watching Me”, but as a mover, I just didn’t think he was all that compelling. He does have wit and charisma though.

Vitolio’s solo completely blew me away. I don’t know what the judges were on saying they didn’t see any character there. I thought he danced with great passion and is a really a stunning mover. I must have missed him during auditions because this is the first time I really saw him dance. I’m kind of glad he was in the bottom three just so I could see him. Ditto for Karla.

I love Luis Bravo’s Forever Tango! I forgot this is the part I really love about this show — seeing a different pro dancer or dance group each week during the elimination night.

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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 5, WEEK 1

I was at NYCBallet last night and then absolutely needed to go out to O’Neals afterward with my friend to discuss Tiler Peck’s brilliant performance in Mercurial Manouevres (and yes, Ashley Bouder in Lifecasting, whom my friend has an enormous crush on 🙂  — we got kicked out of O’Neals at 12:15 a.m. – -ridiculous that they close that early; that’s why ballet isn’t attracting young audiences — there are no bars open late in the Lincoln Ctr area…argh!) Anyway, I’m watching the recording this morning. Here’s my recap:

First on, popper Phillip and contemporary dancer Jeanine dancing to a Tabitha and Napolean hip hop routine. The first dance of the season. It was pretty good. I thought she did really well, especially for a contemporary dancer. I think she even kind of outdanced him! It wasn’t tremendously memorable to me, but was good.

Next, Asuka and Vitolio, in a Tyce DiOrio Broadway routine. She has ballet training and he grew up in an orphanage, so interesting combo. Cute. His opening jump didn’t have much height but other than that everything went well — great solo, side-by-side movement, good lifts — she has great lines. And he had a good multiple pirouette in there. I really enjoyed Vitolio — I thought he stood out much more than she. Mary’s nuts. They didn’t just “do their steps, do the right thing.” They gave it a lot of umph. I think the character was totally there. Nigel’s critical too — what are the judges on?

Third, Karla and Jonathan’s Cha Cha choreographed by Tony Meredith. So, Karla has danced on Broadway, toured with Wicked, and Jonathan’s a Salsa dancer who started dancing after seeing this show. (I like how we’re learning a bit about these couples now). Eh. It was okay. But her legs were too bent, she didn’t straighten enough, and it looked like it was lacking in precision and leg lines. He was pretty good. It didn’t look anything like a professional Latin routine though. She looked like a Broadway dancer doing Latin. Judges are all going wild though. Judges sure like sexy.

Fourth is Randi and Evan’s Tyce DiOrio Broadway routine. Randi’s from a small town and big family and not used to flash. Evan’s the Broadway dancer, from Michigan, who most stood out to me during auditions. He kind of reminds me of Craig Salstein — which means, I really really like him! So, she says she’s married and doesn’t like doing sexy, romantic things with Evan — because dance is real of course, it’s not an act. It took them a bit to get into the mood of it, but when they did, Wow! That really blew me away — so passionate. He did a very nice tour jete in the middle, she had very lovely leg lines, beautiful lifts, and some excellent staccato movement (are they called isolations in contemporary?) in the middle, emphasizing every body part, and, as Nigel says, exhibiting excellent control. Really fabulous movement. I’m so glad the judges like them. If they didn’t I was going to be beyond annoyed.

Fifth, Paris, a contemporary dancer, was in a car accident and has no sensation below her knee on one leg. Wow. She’s paired with Tony, a hip hop dancer. He chose dance over sports in high school. Good for him 🙂 They’re dancing to a Tabitha and Napolean hip hop routine. Oh, I remember him from auditions — the comical guy who kept flashing the photos of Nigel during his routines. I liked him, personality-wise, though I didn’t think his dancing was anything to write home about. Well, I thought the choreography here was a little bland, but I do think they did as well as they could. Or, maybe it’s as Adam says, that they didn’t have enough attack. They were fine, but there needs to be more. They were a little too soft and bouncy.

Sixth are contemporary dancers Caitlin and Jason. She has a gymnastic background (I remember liking her in audition; I was really rooting for her, when it seemed her sister’d be the one to make it). They’re doing a Bollywood routine by Nicole (I didn’t get the choreographer’s exact name). Whoa, that was excellent! My favorite dance so far! Everything was so excellent — he is just oozing with charisma, and a really natural dance ability. And she has gorgeous lines. Beautiful lift up front, loved the low-to-the-ground deep knee bounces, excellent plastique — beautiful lines with the wrists and hands and feet. Whoa. He’s my favorite so far. Nice to go with the Slumdog Millionaire song as well.

Janette and Brandon. She’s a Latin dancer from a Cuban family and learned to dance at home. Brandon is that contemporary dancer who during auditions some of the judges wanted to die for and two couldn’t at all understand the fuss. It was something that annoyed me during auditions, because we didn’t get to see a whole lot of him and so couldn’t take a side and participate in the debate. So, now we’ll see. They’re doing a Foxtrot. Wow, that was really pretty, ended up being a nice Foxtrot once they got into it — it did take them a little bit though, but once they loosened up and swayed their upper bodies, it had some real spice. Not at all one of those stiff Standard dances you sometimes see when both partners are too nervous. That ending lift sequence was gorgeous. He did have charisma but I’m still with Mia — he’s okay but I’m still waiting to see what Mary and Nigel were going on so about during auditions.

Ashley and Kupono are doing a Jazz routine by Wade Robson. So they’re crash test dummies. Wade Robson is so weird! I thought it was more rubbery than robotic, but I guess that’s right — right? Crash test dummies are rubber so they can bounce all about. It was good. I thought he outshone her. I like how he made those nervous little flutters ripple throughout his body. That looked hard and he did it well. She was a little too fluid, which normally would be proper for contemporary dance, but here it wasn’t quite right. Mary likes her though.

Melissa, the ballet dancer (“I’m strictly a ballerina, also called a buff ballerina and naughty ballerina”) is partnered with contemporary dancer Ade. They’re doing contemporary with Mandy Moore. Whoa, tied with the Bollywood for my favorite of the night! She was gorgeous — like a bird, she just flew! Adam Shankman is crying! She’s 29, the oldest dancer on the show, and he tells her she’s living proof that we get better with age. He says her power is profound. He’s right! Mary screams! She keeps saying the quality of the movement, the quality of the movement, you can’t deny training, you can’t deny training. Yes, you can see all the ballet training — she lifted herself in those lifts. And did you see how high she danced on releve! Oh, for all the people who aren’t watching because of Alex Wong, she is so worth watching the show for this season! Poor Ade — I didn’t even notice him — though I did notice one jete where he made a perfect split, which was marvelous. And he’s a good, strong partner.

Finally, Kayla and Max are doing a WOO HOO, Louis van Amstel samba! Welcome to SYTYCD, Louis 🙂  Max is Russian, a ballroom dancer. Kayla’s contemporary, from a single-headed household; it was a struggle for her to take dance lessons as a child, but they managed. Aw, Louis’s being so nice — telling her he can’t believe she hasn’t done ballroom before 🙂 But, you know, I was disappointed. The music totally outshone them. He didn’t do much for me, unfortunately. He didn’t have the flash I’ve seen in most male Latin dancers. His hips weren’t that fluid and his movement range wasn’t that wide, and his rhythmic sensibilities just didn’t seem to be all there. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe he’ll get better. She was very good, although she didn’t looke like a proper Latin dancer. But how could she be expected to be at this point — she’s contemporary. That back kick was stunning. The judges are going nuts, though, and Mary did her crazed hot tamale train screams. I don’t know, I didn’t see what they did.

My favorites of the night: the lyrical Mandy Moore routine and the Bollywood number, and dancers Melissa, Jason, Evan, and Kupono. I can’t believe someone is going home already tonight.

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DANCING WITH THE STARS: IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND SHARON BALIK

 

 

Yesterday afternoon, I received some shocking news: that a reader and frequent commenter here, Sharon Balik, had passed away that morning suddenly and unexpectedly. She commented here under the name BDC_Sharon and had just left a message over the weekend on my most recent SYTYCD post.

I’m still in shock and can’t stop thinking about her. She found my blog a couple of years ago and we’d become very good friends. She became enamored of ballroom dancing after Dancing With the Stars premiered. She began taking lessons with her husband, Tim, and when DWTS pro dancers Maks Chmerkovskiy, Elena Grinenko, and Tony Dovolani founded the Ballroom Dance Channel website, she began to work for them, researching and writing articles about various aspects ballroom dance, writing recaps of the dance shows on TV, leading discussions about such issues as whether DanceSport should become an Olympic sport, and helping to promote the website’s online ballroom dance lessons. She kindly linked to my blog and my HuffPo reviews, and brought me a load of new readers. She really became a tireless promoter of all things ballroom.

When she began writing for BDC, she’d email to ask me questions about the ballroom competition scene since she knew I had experience with that. And we just became friends. She was one of those people who’s so easy to befriend, who’ll listen to you go on and on and will end up offering you all this really well thought-out, sound advice. Whenever I had a problem with dance or with a heckler here or an angry artist writing me nasty emails about a critical review, she naturally became one of the people I’d send my “Help!” email to 🙂 And of course she always had such funny, clever, thought-provoking, opionionated things to say — both in response to those emails and here on the blog. I am going to miss her so much.

It’s funny how close you can become to someone you’ve never met in person. People who say you only make superficial connections on the internet are so wrong. I am really going to miss you, Sharon.

Read the tribute to her on TVGrapevine, where she posted frequently as well, here.

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WHY ARE THE WORLD’S GREATEST DANCERS SO PATHETICALLY UNDERVALUED?

 

 

I was originally going to title this post “WHOSE PUBLICITY STUNT WAS THIS?” because I couldn’t imagine how someone who was just promoted to principal at one of the most prestigious dance companies in the U.S., helmed by one of the most famous names in dance, could possibly want to jeopardize his career by doing something so publicly that is explicitly forbidden by his contract and then admitting on national TV that he wasn’t fulfilled at his job and wanted more — like the chance to dance ballroom and hip hop. And then I did a Google Image search of Alex Wong for this post and found two pictures of him dancing, and that was after I had to narrow it down substantially to exclude all the many other Alex Wongs in the universe. Even given all I said at the top of the post, he hardly has an internet presence.

For those who didn’t watch tonight’s SYTYCD, it was the last day of Vegas-round auditions, when the judges called each contestant onstage and told him / her whether they’d made the top 20. Of course everyone in the ballet world was ecstatic over Alex being on the show — it would be just like Danny Tidwell; we’d actually have someone brilliant to watch. When Alex was called up, the judges all confirmed how brilliant he was. Then Nigel told him that, given that he was under contract with “Miami Ballet,” he’d spoken with Edward Villella to see if the artistic director would allow Wong out of his contract for the time necessary to be on the show. Villella said no, we need him. Nigel said he didn’t blame Villella. Nigel, completely blowing me away here with actual wisdom, looked at Wong like he was completely off his nut and told Wong he was currently enjoying the opportunity to work with one of the greatest dancers  in the history of dance. Enjoy that time, learn everything you can, he said, and then maybe in the future if you still want, you can be on the show. Nigel actually shrugged at those last words. Like he knew how it sounded to anyone who knew the least bit about dance. Good for Nigel, for once. Seriously, I have a completely newfound respect for the man.

Wong cried — as if he didn’t know this was coming — and said he was so limited in his company; here he’d seen so many people enjoying so many different kinds of dance, he’d been exposed to so much here. His tears looked real.

So, my first thoughts were – –just like Count Albrecht — WHAT THE F— WAS WONG THINKING???? Did he not talk to Villella beforehand? Did he not read his contract? Was he never asked these questions when he auditioned for the show? Did he talk to Villella about, you know, having just a little time off? There are the auditions, the several months of the show, and then, if you go far, the whole year-plus-long tour. Was none of this really considered? So, I thought — and am still wondering — was this a publicity stunt? And if so whose? Villella’s to get Miami City Ballet on the map (even though that backfired a bit by Nigel’s failure to say the name of the company correctly), the show’s producers’ to get fans of serious dance interested in the show, Wong’s to get famous?

But then, considering how horrendously, ridiculously, unjustly little known ballet dancers are these days, maybe I can understand Wong’s desperation. Maybe he really didn’t think. Or maybe it was a publicity stunt — I half expect it to be announced on the show next week, that, yay, Villella came through!

All I know is that I really don’t want to watch the show now. Does anyone else?

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EIFMAN BALLET’S "EUGENE ONEGIN"

 

 

Last night I went to see the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg in their New York debut of Boris Eifman’s Onegin, based on the 1837 novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin. I’ve seen this company once before and I’ve always been thoroughly entertained. They’re very Russian, very dramatic, very theatrical, very emotional, very angst-filled, doing everything as full-out both movement-wise and acting-wise as you possibly could. There’s never ever a dull moment.

Mr. Eifman’s work is very controversial here amongst the critics — I remember Joan Acocella (of the New Yorker) calling him a “public menace” at one of her book signings! I think he’s very Russian though (as well as very daring), and many in the audience are Russians, of all ages. I felt just as much as if I were in a nightclub in Brighton Beach as at a ballet performance. I also think he would be well-liked among the So You Think You Can Dance crowd. He often combines classical ballet and classical music (here Tchaikovsky) with more contemporary dance (like hip hop or jazz / theater dance) and music (here by contemporary Russian rock musician Alexander Sitkovetsky).

He sets his Onegin not in Imperial Russia but in 1991 in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union and local uprisings against Gorbachev and his liberalism. We see, above the dancers, projected onto a circular backdrop, video clips of people marching, demonstrations, police trying to keep order, and then the images switch to an ensemble of classical ballerinas performing what appears to be Swan Lake. The dance / play begins with the main male characters — Onegin and his friend Lensky (who in Pushkin was a poet, here is a guitarist and musician) in a bar. Lensky seems to be trying to comfort Onegin with his guitar-playing but it doesn’t seem to help much.

Next we’re in the countryside where Lensky has taken Onegin, presumably so Onegin can have a break from the city. (In Puskhin, Onegin is a jaded aristocrat who retires to the country). The setting, by Zinovy Margolin, and lighting, by Gleb Filschtinsky and Eifman, are really cool by the way. Whenever the characters are in the city, the back wall on which are painted a series of black lines is lit in red and those lines become kind of abstract but imprisoning; when they are in the country, the wall is lit in blue and the lines turn into a bridge crossing a river, and the circular backdrop (which the movie images were projected onto) becomes a moon.

Anyway, Lensky goes to the country to see his girlfriend, the playful, flirtatious Olga, and there the bookish Tatyana immediately falls for Onegin, who doesn’t return her affections. Tatyana (danced brilliantly by Maria Abashova) has some really compelling dance sequences, by turns lyrical (showing she’s in love) and more angst-filled with awkward, angular lines and contorted mid-body movements. During part of this sequence, Tatyana’s love letter to Onegin is read (in Russian) by a voice-over. As Olga and Lensky dance a romantic duet, Tatyana walks up and across the bridge holding the letter. It’s really striking, the contrast between the sexually suggestive dancing of the pair and the lone Tatyana with her letter.

Soon, Tatyana has a dream in which she is being seduced by Onegin (pictured at the top of the post). The stage is lit in red and hard rock music is played. It’s very sexual and turns very violent, as soon Onegin turns into several men all clawing at her — a foreboding of the violence and tragedy to come.

I didn’t completely follow the story in the next section — and this is where I think it’s hard to bring Pushkin into the present — but Onegin gets angry at Lensky for some reason — (in Pushkin it’s because Lensky organizes a socialite party which angers Onegin because it represents everything he desires to escape from) — but it wasn’t as clear to me here. Maybe here Onegin’s just a tormented soul in general, maybe his anguish has to do in some way with what’s going on politically and culturally in Russia. Anyway, Onegin gets angry and starts to flirt obnoxiously with Olga (in a very intense duet filled with daring lifts and sexual overtones), leading the same place it does in Pushkin – -to Lensky’s anger resulting in a fight in which Onegin stabs Lensky to death (in the Pushkin, Lensky challenges Onegin to a duel, which Onegin wins).

Then, there’s a really beautiful scene — one of my favorite — where Lensky returns to life, ghost-like, and he and Onegin do a pas de deux. It begins with Lensky hovering over a small table, Onegin underneath. The men see each other through the glass and Onegin pulls himself up as Lensky slowly lowers himself down. They then do a lift sequence, but a very masculine one — with lots of kicks and anguish-filled jumps. One critic interpreted this as a gay scene, but I thought it was more about Onegin expressing his sorrow at what he’d done to his friend, praying for forgiveness.

Eventually Tatyana meets and marries a blind colonel and moves to the city, becoming a member of urban high society the way Pushkin’s Tatyana did. Years later Onegin (who now has greyed hair) spots her at one of the clubs he frequents and becomes enamored of her. There’s an intense pas de deux between them and she tells him she is taken, she’s no longer his to have. It ends with Onegin sitting at a desk crazily writing love letters to her the way she once did him, trying desperately to get the wording right, shredding paper after paper and starting anew. But the letters go nowhere, his time and energy is wasted. Instead, a wind comes along and blows the papers about and he becomes flooded by them.

The main dancers — Abashkova as Tatyana, Oleg Gabushev as Onegin, Dmitry Fisher (who bears a striking resemblance to Slavik Kryklyvyy!) as Lensky, Natalia Povoroznyuk as Olga, and Sergei Volobuev as the Colonel — and are all excellent, both with the intensity of the acting, and the incredible flexibility and gorgeous lines for the women and the athleticism for the men. The two women especially really moved like their characters — Abashkova at times making her movement awkward, at times beautifully lyrical, as if in love, and Povoroznyuk, more playful and sexual as Olga, would often fall into these amazing splits, legs wrapped snakily around her male partner.

One thing: I wish the women would have been on pointe. They all danced in flat ballet slippers. I think pointe work brings out not only the poetry and beauty of ballet but its intensity as well. Eifman could have used it to powerful, dramatic effect here.

The company performs at City Center through Sunday. I think they’re definitely worth seeing if you have the chance, though it might be a bit of a jarring experience for people devoted solely to classical ballet 🙂

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GILLIAN AND ROMAN STEAL THE PIRATE SHOW, AND THE LAST OF THE SYTYCD AUDITIONS

 

Ethan Stiefel was supposed to dance Ali last night at ABT, but he was out with injury. I was disappointed of course, but it wasn’t like it was such a horrible thing having to see Angel Corella in that role again! He jeted out from behind the curtain during curtain calls last night (as did Gillian!– so I was happy)

Anyway, the male cast was mainly the same as opening night: David Hallberg as Conrad, Carlos Lopez as Birbanto, Daniil Simkin as Lankendem. The main differences were the two female leads: the spectacular Gillian Murphy as Medora, and the small, lovely Maria Riccetto as Gulnare — and, as it turned out Roman Zhurbin as Seyd, the goofy pot-bellied pasha. See my earlier post if you don’t know the characters and story.

Gillian and Roman made my night. Gillian has definitely got to be athletically the strongest ballerina in the company, maybe in the world. During her fouette sequence she did so many multiple pirouettes between each fouette I couldn’t even count; she was a blur. I don’t even see how that’s physically possible. She is truly a marvel, to make a massive understatement. And she goes so fast during the chaines and those traveling pirouettes around the stage’s perimeter. But not only that, she has such soft, beautiful liquid lines. And she and David I think are so used to each other now, they dance so well together in the romantic scenes. The bedroom scene was really really beautiful. She threw herself into those lifts like Nina did with Marcelo, except David isn’t Marcelo and so he didn’t do such flamboyant dives that it looked like he’d practically shoot her to the sky 🙂 But it was a really beautiful scene and she really floated in his arms.

And David is so good at those romantic scenes because of the kind of romantic dancer he is. I think he’s aware that those looks can at points be limiting and so he tries overly hard to be a hardass in those pirate-y bravado scenes. He was really kicking at and pushing around some of his fellow pirates! But I think maybe he doesn’t really need to do that. He doesn’t need to be a kick-ass aggressive warrior Conrad; he can always go for the more brooding Romantic pirate and let his hard-ass buddies help him along with getting the girl and fending off Lankendem and his crew, etc. And then the scene where he realizes Birbanto has betrayed him and he has to kill him to protect himself and Medora is all the more compelling since it may not be his nature to do that.

Anyway, Roman stole the show as well. Good lord! They usually have retired dancers who still teach and coach at the company do these character parts — the role of Seyd has been played by Victor Barbee at the last two performances I saw. But sometimes they give Roman these parts because he’s such a good actor. He was so giggle-out-loud hilarious as he rolled around the stage patting his big old pot belly and goofily lusting after all those slave girls. He was too much! It reminded me of this short film I saw a few years ago about a couple of movie extras. One of them just could not fulfill the requirements of “extra” work, and at one point there’s this scene where the two principal actors are having an important dinner conversation and you see the guy in the background open-jawed, smacking his hands on the table, laughing hysterically about something and it’s so funny because your attention is completely drawn to him and away from the main characters’ all-important conversation. (The film was mainly a comedy but had a little of the tragic about it, focusing as it did on the minor people who work hard and never get any recognition but who are essential in making a big film happen — kind of like Jerome Bel’s film about Swan Lake from the perspective of a corps dancer). Anyway, Roman was very lively, to put it mildly. Absolutely hilarious.

(headshot from ABT site)

Also, happily, the Lincoln Center fountain is operational again!

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Unfortunately, it was such crap weather last night, no one was able to enjoy it.

So then I came home and, since I remembered to record SYTYCD for once, was able to watch the last day of auditions, which I was thoroughly disappointed with. I wish I would have seen Alex Wong’s audition Wednesday night because I feel like they only have the bad people on at this phase– like that blonde contemporary dancer whose father has multiple sclerosis (sorry, I can’t remember names this early on!) She was pretty — and all three judges kept remarking on that ad nauseam. She did a pretty pirouette at one point, but she seemed totally off-balance, like she was on the verge of falling every time she lifted one leg off the ground. The judges didn’t seem to notice that at all and advanced her straight to Vegas seemingly on the basis of her looks (since they kept going on about how gorgeous she was).

I did really like the pop & locker guy though – the one with the charming smile. He was amazing — not only what he was doing with his facial muscles, which Nigel recognized as well, but those ticks (I guess that’s what they’re called). His didn’t seem to be as robotic as they normally look (which are cool anyway), but his seemed more fluid, and it looked like he was moving in slow motion. Amazing. I’m glad he passed choreography and advanced. And I also thought the female tap dancer from last season was very impressive and am glad to see she made it.

What were they going on with that Asian Latin couple about? Nigel telling her to make sure and be sexy and then all of them remarking how much she stole the show with her sex appeal. I honestly thought he was technically better than she. Do the judges care about the art of dance or about sex appeal? And, when the female of the couple said when you think ballroom you usually think Russian or South American dancers, not Asian: anyone who’s ever been to a ballroom competition knows that’s untrue. Russian yes — ballroom is dominated these days by Eastern Europeans, Western Europeans (mainly the Italians, Germans, and English), and by Asians — Asians are a huge presence in ballroom competitions these days. Japan often has a team at Blackpool for the world competition and the Chinese always have Latin formation teams there (which are a blast, by the way – the Chinese Latin formation teams!) And the world pro demos take place in Japan. And Asians often take the top individual awards. So Asians are everywhere in serious ballroom competitions right now; South Americans nowhere. South Americans dominate ballet these days, but they don’t dance serious ballroom; Latin dance is social dance for them, not competitive.

Anyway, sorry for the rant — it just upsets me when something really wrong and misleading to the public is said on these television shows!

Maybe we just didn’t see enough of the other dancers, but none of the others seemed very good at all. Except for the ballerina who didn’t advance because she couldn’t pass choreography. That really made me upset because her solo was beautiful and technically very solid. I can’t imagine David Hallberg — or many of the current ballet greats — excelling at hip hop either. So then I got upset all over again just like I did last year during the auditions wondering what this show is about and why everyone can’t be valued for what they’ve worked on their entire lives to be brilliant at.

Anyway, I’m glad the auditions are over and we can advance on to the real show so I don’t have to get so pissed off anymore 🙂

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DANNY TIDWELL UPDATE

 

You guys! I missed So You Think You Can Dance again last night! I thought it was on on Thursdays (wasn’t it on Thursday last week?) and was all set to tape tonight when commenter Jonathan sent me an email asking me what I thought of the second week of auditions. Argh. Trying to find somewhere online to watch re-runs…

Can’t they wait till ballet season is over?! Seriously, it wasn’t on this early last year right? I don’t remember it conflicting with Blackpool, ABT, and NYCB like this.

Anyway, in lieu of a post on this week’s show, I thought I’d just link to this Rickey post (which is where I got the pic above from), which commenter Jonathan sent me. Thank you, Jonathan!

Apparently, Danny Tidwell will be in the Broadway cast of Memphis, which is scheduled to open in the Fall, and will be in Fire Island over the summer for the Fire Island Dance Festival.

It’s always interesting to keep up with the SYTYCD dancers and see what becomes of their careers, if and how the show has helped them. So far we have Danny and Neil Haskell on Broadway, Sabra in a very cool NY-based contemporary ballet company, Chelsie Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin on Dancing With the Stars… I wish Danny would come back to ABT but I know that’s not going to happen. But it’s okay — there are plenty of fabulous dancers there to keep me in a pretty constant state of awe 🙂

For others who missed last night’s show, I find Ballroom Dance Channel does a good job of straight-forward reviews.