Tag: Taylor Gordon

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Exit 12 Dance Company to Perform HOMECOMING This Saturday Aboard the Intrepid

This Saturday, May 28th, in honor of Memorial Day and Fleet Week, Roman Baca’s dance company, Exit 12, will perform his work, Homecoming, aboard the Intrepid. Homecoming depicts an officer’s return home after fighting in the Iraq war. Baca, a former U.S. Marine, based the choreography on his own experiences.

I know Baca through the internet but have never seen his work performed before – his company is based in Connecticut and I haven’t been able to make it up there. So this is pretty exciting. Also, famous freelance ballerina (and my friend 🙂 ) Taylor Gordon, will be dancing. The performance, which begins at 11:30 a.m., costs nothing, but you must buy a ticket to the Intrepid museum to be admitted. Click on the link below for the full press release, containing all the deets.

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SLSG’s Dance Highlights of 2010

Instead of trying to remember which were my favorite performances of the year, I’m just going back through my blog archives from January of this year and linking to the most memorable posts. More fun that way! A lot happened in a year…

January

Pacific Northwest Ballet made their debut at the Joyce; it was my first time seeing them live.

The Post‘s Page 6 announced that you know who and you know who are dating, and the ridiculous homewrecker attacks began.

Baryshnikov and Annie Liebovitz starred in a very cool Louis Vuitton ad.

February

I totally fell for New York City Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty.

…and Mark Sanchez 🙂

I found myself quoted in Colin Jarman’s book, Dancing With the Quotes.

I also fell for Sara Mearns’s Odette in Peter Martins’s Swan Lake.

On a personal note, my former judge, the esteemed Honorable Sylvia Pressler, passed away.

The Kings of Dance came to town.

Morphoses shocked the ballet world by announcing that Christopher Wheeldon was leaving the company.

March

My friend’s organization, Art for Change, held a benefit for Haiti after the earthquake.

Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance announced that Danny Tidwell and SYTYCD’s Jacob Karr were joining the company.

Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon finally made their NYC debut!

I found myself actually getting press for liking Kate Gosselin – or for not hating Kate Gosselin rather – on Dancing With the Stars.

I fell for Keigwin + Company’s Runaway.

I was delighted to receive an email from NYCB ballerina Yvonne Borree’s aunt regarding of all things, my novel.

April

I had my first experience as a dance writer panelist! Thank you, Marc, from TenduTV!

Tiler Peck appeared on Dancing With the Stars in a Travis Wall routine, which everyone was so excited about. But it ended up amounting to not a whole lot…

Roberto Bolle danced a naked Giselle, in Italy of course.

May

New York City Ballet opened their spring season with premieres of Millepied’s Why Am I Not Where You Are and Ratmansky’s Namouna, both of which I liked, though Ratmansky’s had to grow a bit on me.

Baryshnikov returned to the stage.

I greatly enjoyed ABT’s new production, Lady of the Camellias, though most critics panned it.

June

ABT celebrated Alicia Alonso’s 90th birthday with three all-star Latin American casts (plus Natalia Osipova) dancing in Don Quixote.

Yvonne Borree gave her farewell performance at NYCB.

Bill T. Jones won a Tony for best choreographer for Fela!

Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Natalia Osipova was mugged right outside of Lincoln Center.

Two of the greatest ballerinas in Europe – Osipova, and Alina Cojocaru – gave back to back Sleeping Beauty performances at ABT.

Albert Evans gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Tap great Savion Glover made headlines by voicing his annoyance with Alastair Macaulay’s NY Times criticism of him – onstage, during a show.

Conductor Maurice Kaplow gave his farewell performance with NYCB.

Darci Kistler officially ended the era of the Balanchine-trained dancer with her farewell performance with NYCB.

July

Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from ballet and his foray into modern dance.

Alex Wong, probably the second greatest contestant ever on SYTYCD was injured and unable to finish the show.

My friend, Taylor Gordon, was profiled as a freelance ballet dancer in a New York Times article 🙂

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s beloved Denise Jefferson passed away.

Nilas Martins retired from NYCB oddly sans fanfare, sans criticism, sans a performance.

August

I interviewed tWitch about his role in the movie Step It Up. Fun fun interview!

I had a blast covering Ailey Camp.

I nearly fell over when Wendy Perron, esteemed E-I-C of Dance Magazine recommended Swallow on Twitter!

September

NYCB began their excellent “See the Music” series.

October

I loved Ashley Bouder’s Serenade.

Emerging Pictures’s awesomely exciting Ballet in Cinema series began with the Bolshoi’s Flames of Paris.

This cool new Lincoln Center-area street art sprouted up.

One of my favorite posts of the year, though it received no comments, was about Anne Fortier’s novel, Juliet. I jokingly daydreamed about it being made into a film, and which of my favorite ballet stars might take the lead.

November

ABT made an historic visit to Cuba and oh how I wished I could have gone with them.

I think I was the only person in the entire dance world to sympathize with Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars.

I had a blast covering New York So You Think You Can Dance auditions.

All of a sudden Black Swan was everywhere.

Nearly fell over again upon hearing Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko took the world Latin ballroom title – making them the first U.S. couple ever to do so.

December

My take on SugarPlumpGate.

Black Swan finally premiered which I didn’t love but was happy to have ballet brought back into the spotlight.

I was in awe of Alvin Ailey’s 50-dancer Revelations, staged in honor of the 50th anniversary of that dance. I also loved several other dances in their City Center season – Ailey’s Cry, Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit, and Geoffrey Holder’s The Prodigal Prince – just to name a few.

Robert Wilson / Roberto Bolle’s Perchance to Dream exhibit in Chelsea was a lot o’ frightening fun.

ABT’s new Nutcracker premiered, which I really enjoyed, almost as much as the Bolshoi’s.

Portman and Millepied revealed they are now engaged and expecting.

I had great fun, despite the crazy snowstorm, going down to Wall Street and covering Judith Jamison’s ringing of the closing bell at the NYSE.

Pretty busy year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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So You Think You Can Dance Auditions, New York

Earlier this week, thanks to my friend, Taylor Gordon, I was able to sit in on some of the New York City So You Think You Can Dance auditions. They were held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in the opera house. This was my first time watching, so it was really enlightening.

First, it wasn’t at all as formal as I was expecting. I got there an hour early, fearing there’d be a huge line, and there really wasn’t. I don’t know how many people really knew about them; if it wasn’t for Taylor, I wouldn’t have known. So I got there early for nothing! But while I was waiting in the outside line, I spotted Alex Wong running down the street across from the opera house. Actually someone else spotted him and then everyone looked over and started waving wildly. He smiled and waved back. I didn’t see much of him but it looked like he still had a very slight limp. Later, former contestants Katee and Will were inside. They didn’t do anything onstage though; were just watching.

Anyway, when we got into the auditorium, we were confined basically to the far right-hand side of the orchestra. The middle of the orchestra was taken up with all the audio and camera people, and of course the judges. And the left-hand side was where the contestants and their families sat. A camera man was standing all the way to the left-side of the auditorium, right in front of the path the contestants took up to the stage. As their number approached, a contestant would walk up to the camera man, and stretch and pose in front of him while he shot them close up. As a contestant would leave the stage after auditioning, another camera man would follow him or her down the aisle. Funny, but I always thought, when I watched on TV, that of all that was happening in separate rooms, but it all happened right there in the same room.

Also, when the judges first came out, they had makeup and hair people kind of touching them up right there, before they sat down. Tuesday’s judges were: Mary Murphy, Jason Gilkison, and of course Nigel Lythgoe.

I’d thought they were going to make us check in our cell phones, etc., and that there would be all these production assistants roaming the aisles shushing everyone. But no. We could totally talk and laugh and make whatever noise we wanted; none of it would be heard on the tape without a microphone being nearby anyway. That was actually kind of annoying to me because of course everyone around me was taking on the role of critic him/herself, saying what they thought of the dancer to everyone around them. I couldn’t always hear what the actual judges were saying. Sometimes people even talked during the performance – talking about the dancer onstage, so they were involved in what was going on – but I just found it really disruptive. I guess I’m just so used to ballet performances, where everyone is silent.

The first contestant came onstage from the left wing, her number pinned to the front of her waist. Nigel told her to approach the microphone directly in front of them and she shyly did so. She was petite and blond, and very nervous. She said she was dancing contemporary. Nigel asked her her age (I think it was 19) and dance training (she’d trained in almost everything). It all seemed sweet and informal; no nastiness from anyone, at least in the beginning. Nigel was really nice and considerate, as were the other two. Then, he told her to proceed to center stage and when she was there, called out, “cue music.” She danced very well. Good technique, and nice choreography. You could tell she was very nervous, though, and didn’t give it the emotional punch it needed, as the judges said (along with the very vocal people behind me). She was sent through to choreography.

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MY FRIEND TAYLOR GORDON IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

There’s an interactive feature with my friend, dancer Taylor Gordon, in the New York Times today. She talks about her career as a freelance ballet dancer – from performing in Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular to taking extra work in ABT Met season productions, to venturing into jazz and contemporary roles. Yay Taylor!

And here is the full article by Claudia La Rocco.

Photo above by Rosalie O’Connor, taken from Explore Dance.

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REBECCA KELLY BALLET

 

Over the weekend I went to see my friend Taylor Gordon (dear Lord, I almost typed @taylorgordon — my writing brain is becoming Twitterfied) dance with the Rebecca Kelly Ballet in the Alvin Ailey theater. I’d never seen the Rebecca Kelly Ballet before — it’s been around since the late 70s — and I was very pleasantly surprised. Sometimes with very small ballet companies (modern companies too) you see dancers of varying ability, but here, all of the dancers were very skilled. Ms. Kelly’s movement language was original — a combination of ballet and modern with movement by turns lyrical and balletic and more angular and staccato.

There were three pieces on the program: Trouve Moi (making its NY premiere), The Travelers (from 2001), and Desire (NY premiere). Trouve Moi was a short sweet pas de deux performed by Raul Peinado and the very engaging and dramatic Therese Miyoshi Wendler (probably my favorite dancer in the troupe — besides Taylor of course!). The Travelers (pictured above), which has understandably received good reviews over the years and was probably my favorite on the program, was abstract but intense and suspenseful with dancers traveling around the stage in pairs, alone, and in ensemble, at times seemingly fleeing a crisis, sometimes coming together, forming various liaisons. I also liked Desire, evoking the many faces of desire, at times conveying emotional turbulence, at times becoming more mellow. Kelly uses not only classical music but contemporary as well, which goes along with her balletic / contemporary mix of movement. Her dances always seem intense and laden with meaning even if abstract — I mean when do you see barrel turns used to signify emotional turbulence rather than used simply as a stunning trick?!

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VERONIKA PART AND MATTHEW RENKO IN AVI SCHER’S TOUCH

Here are some photos Jade Young and Avi Scher sent me of Monday afternoon’s performance at City Center’s studio 4.

 

 

 

 

 

All photos by the fabulous Jade Young, who I was able to finally meet (along with Marcelo and Veronika’s agent — and former ABT dancer — Scott Schlexer)! It was a great afternoon — SO many people were there: James Wolcott from Vanity Fair, Mark Kirshner from TenduTV, Reese Thompson from Ballet.co, and practically all the bloggers I know of — like Philip and Taylor — and many many blog readers. It was a small room but it was so overcrowded I know there are several people there that I missed (which was probably a good thing since my laryngitis was so bad I really sounded like a frog). Apart from Veronika’s fame, I think Avi is just such a nice and talented guy that people turn up to support him and check out what he’s doing, even if the program is really short. Which this was … it was a couple of  excerpts he showed (for APAP) from his larger work, Touch, which will premiere at the Alvin Ailey theater later this spring. I will definitely post when I have more details!

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RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR

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Last week, my friend — the illustrious Taylor Gordon! — invited me to watch her dance in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. (Taylor, trained in classical ballet, is not a Rockette but a seasonal dancer in the show.) As last year, the show is a lot of fun, very Christmassy, very geared toward the tourist crowd and to children, with a somewhat corny story-line (younger boy strives to and eventually convinces older, more skeptical boy of Santa’s existence). But the dancing and the costumes and the sets are tremendous and are the reason you really go (if you’re an adult, that is 🙂 ).

The Rockettes in particular are wondrous. Talk about astoundingly perfect synchronicity…

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The soldier scene is my favorite. They march, they step, they turn in formation in almost mind-boggling unison, and then they fall, one by one, s-l-o-w-l-y, ever so slowly, one after and onto the other, in, again, mind-bogglingly perfect timing.

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And now a few pictures of Taylor! She’s in the middle, in the coolly colorful tights.

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Pink scarf, green bag, cool tights. So proud of her … again!

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As a Santa — I’ve no idea which one.

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And as a tutu-clad bear.

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And a few more of the Rockettes.

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Kick line!

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Finale.

Taylor’s also a writer. Visit her blog for her accounts of what it’s like to be in the show.

And here is our friend Michael’s write-up of the evening.

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New York City Ballet Season Finale and Wrap Up With Response to Sir A

 

 

So, Sunday marked the end of New York  City Ballet’s winter season. I was honestly in a blue funk all day yesterday, which shows, I guess, that I am really beginning to love this company since I’ve normally only gotten so sad over ABT and Alvin Ailey.

Sunday was a one-day only program, the All-American Season Finale, which included Robbins’s Glass Pieces, Martins’s Hallelujah Junction, and Balanchine’s Tarantella and Stars and Stripes. Tarantella (this is the only time it showed this season) is always fun, with its cute Neapolitan peasant boy-tries-to-get-girl caricatures, lightening-charged footwork, and series of bravura solos for both man and woman, all performed with a tambourine. I was completely out of breath after watching Joaquin de Luz fly across the stage and ultimately steal a kiss from Megan Fairchild. Joaquin is not just a dancing virtuoso but a dramatist as well and his characters are always these virile, sexed-up, but charming, innocuous men. I really love him.

Glass Pieces and Hallelujah Junction also really grew on me. I don’t know if it was Maria Kowroski or what, but the  slower, more adagio section of Glass Pieces was very compelling this time, and it really spiced up the last man-centric, drum-beating, section as well. At first I wasn’t a huge fan of Maria Kowroski, but either she has improved or she has really grown on me. I always thought she had an excellent dancer body, but now she is using it in a much more expressive way, really to say something. The only thing I’m not in love with choreography-wise in Glass Pieces is in the last section, how the men come jogging out, hands powerfully punching the air, doing their ‘man things’ to the booming drums, and then the women daintily slink in to the sound of the flutes. Corny.

I was able to watch more than just the mesmerizing lighting in Hallelujah Junction this time. I love the movement theme –toward the beginning — of the landing a jump or phrase on releve and then swiftly lowering the ankle to the floor. On Andrew Veyette it looked kind of teasing but in a sinister way, like the slicing of a knife. There is something very sinister in general about Andrew Veyette, very virile in a threatening way, which makes him perfect for the devious man dressed in black here.

And I love how Sebastien Marcovici, the man in white, kind of Janie Taylor’s saviour, would powerfully jete across stage after him, threatening him, banishing him. Sebastien and Janie are such the romantic couple, in part because they work so well together and in part because of their respective sizes. Someone very knowledgeable in the dance world told me they thought he’d been working out a lot, trying to build muscle. I do think he seems to have become more muscular lately, especially his legs. Building muscle often decreases the muscle’s flexibility and he doesn’t seem to make a perfect split on a jete like some of the others, but I still think it’s so romantic that he’s so much larger than little Janie; he can just sweep her off the floor and scoop her up into his arms — aw 🙂

The program notes state that Stars and Stripes, the somewhat cheesily patriotic but excellently danced Balanchine ballet, was shown at presidential tributes, like that of Kennedy and Johnson, and at Nelson Rockefeller’s NY gubernatorial inauguration. It’s so weird to me to think of that, though I could see it performed back then. But now? At President Obama’s inauguration? It just doesn’t seem like it would fit. It would seem kind of anachronistic, sadly…

Anyway, the talk of the ballet world lately has been Sir Alastair’s New York Times season wrap-up.

Taylor Gordon, my friend and fellow blogger / dance writer, says, “whether you agree with him or not, it boggles me that one person has the power to say these things in basically the one print medium dance criticism has left. Ouch.”

Macaulay basically takes the women of NYCB to task, saying none of them really command authority like true ballerinas,

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