Tag: The Blogging Life

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Movmnt Magazine Dance Blogger Party

 

Sorry I’m so late in getting this up! Last Monday evening, David Benaym, Editor-In-Chief and co-founder (with Danny Tidwell) of Movmnt Magazine hosted a dance blogger party at his office’s downtown NY headquarters. From left to right in picture above: Tony Schultz from The Winger, Doug Fox from Great Dance, Dea Soares Berrios, a friend of mine and The Winger’s, from Brazil who writes the personal blog Dea Nos Eua about her experiences moving to the U.S., her husband Al Berrios behind her, Taylor Gordon from The Winger and Off Center, me, Evan from Dancing Perfectly Free, David Benaym, and Brian Gibbs from The Winger.

It was a great time! David (pronounced Du-VEED) is extremely animated, and being from France, has a serious accent. People were having all kinds of funny mis-understandings 😀 We had some good discussions about dance and the internet, which companies are the best at using it (NYCBallet and Alvin Ailey, both of whom have YouTube channels), which are the worst (unfortunately my favorite American Ballet Theater was the sad winner in that category), which issues people are afraid to discuss in the blogosphere (dancer eating disorders being a big one), how most bloggers’ personas are so different from the writer’s actual personality (as well as pictures; we all agreed Schultz’s Winger headshot looks nothing like him!), and how we keep in touch with each other on a daily basis through our blogs though we’ve rarely met in person: at one point, David remarked how worried he was about Jolene. We asked why and he said, “Did you see? She said she would not come because she was very very sick and would soon go to hospital.” “Nooooo,” we all — and I mean all — sang out in unison, “that’s Ariel!” (who’s better now, by the way). Then he said, “Ohhh, well then who is Jolene?” Again, we all said in unison, “she’s the one who lives in San Francisco…” — I find it sweet that we all keep up with each other so well via our blogs; we really are a tight community. And finally, we talked about whether bloggers (particularly the snarky ones 🙂 ) should be anonymous (we’re all dying, for example, to know who Danciti is, though some thought anonymity was fine). I know I’m forgetting tons of stuff; we decided through Al’s suggestion, that the next time, we would take minutes or record.

 

At the end, David gave us little gift bags containing issues of the latest magazine as well as a few back copies, a pair of Movmnt socks (hehe, like they give you on VirginAtlantic for overseas flights), and a copy of his and Danny’s book, “Moving Still.” Since I helped to organize the event, I received a special copy, containing all of the featured dancers’ — including Tidwell’s — autographs 🙂 Even though I don’t agree with David about everything (for example, he thought about 10 posts a week on The Winger was good, otherwise it’s too overwhelming; I think, seriously, the more posts per day the better — my ideal number would be a Gawker-sized 30+ per weekday, although I realize this is never going to happen without a salaried, full-time blogger staff; there needs to be a Nick Denton of dance…) but I have a great deal of admiration for someone who has such an entrepreneurial spirit, who’s such a risk-taker and doesn’t think twice about creating his own path. He not only started his own magazine and wrote two books — his own novel (only available in French) as well as “Moving Still,” but he founded his own publishing companies to produce all of these things.

If you’re near a Barnes & Noble that carries it (one thing I learned from David is that you have to pay a bookstore shitloads of money just to carry your mag, even though they get a big profit from sales anyway?..), the latest issue is available. It includes an article by Taylor about dancer injuries, and two profiles from dancer Matt Murphy on composer Nico Muhly and “Center Stage 2” star Kenny Wormald, amongst other good things of course! Or you can visit their website.

Also, if you’re a dance blogger and near NYC and you want to be included on our email list, send me an email (found on my contact page). I don’t always organize these things but I seem to be the current “maintainer of email addresses.”

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It's Up!

Yipee, my Huffington Post blog is up! My first piece is a general rumination on the current dance craze on TV — kind of similar to my Explore Dance article, but more personal, from my own experiences as a ballroom dancer and balletomane, and more focused on the popularity in general than critiquing the individual shows. I’ll post there, soon hopefully, about the new dance show on MTV, “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Photo, meh, but at least no moustache, right 😀

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Ballroom Challenge Week One, and Head Shot Hell!

 

Sorry it took me so long to get this post up — last two days were stupidly busy, partly because of my ridiculous obsession with my face — but more about that in a minute…

Anyway, so Wednesday night was American Smooth, which I have to confess is my least favorite competition event, at least until J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki began dancing about a year ago. So, I’m obviously very happy they won. And I thought their showcase routine was lovely — actually, I recognized it from the RHYTHM OF LOVE show that I saw in Connecticut; it was the “At the Ballet” number where they feigned performing on a stage for the show’s main characters, their dancing leading to the boy’s obsession with learning to dance himself. It reminded me of something one of my favorite Standard couples — Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed — would do; a traditional ballroom dance but with some lovely lifts and a little storyline to elevate it to something more than just a group routine. I loved it.

This, to me, is in contrast to Eddie Stutts and Valentina, whom co-host Ron Montez was going nuts over. I didn’t think much of their showcase though. Their routine was just basic ballroom, something they could have done during the group dances, albeit without the very few lifts they threw in; a showdance needs to be more than that — that’s why it’s called a showdance. JT and Tomas’s had character, passion — they acted.

Oh and I loved Steven Doughtery and Eulia Baranovky’s tribute to Fred and Ginger (pictured above, image taken from ABC website). I’ve liked this couple, who unfortunately are retiring this year, for a while now, and am sorry the judges haven’t. They never seem to place them very high. That’s how it goes with ballroom though … sometimes you just can’t make sense of the judges. So I was beyond thrilled to see them win the showdance. That routine was full of class and sass and loads of character; I loved everything from how they held their arms, to their little tap-dancing hops (reminding me of Rita Hayworth when she would dance with Astaire), to her gorgeous dress. They really were like Fred and Ginger brought back to life. I’ll miss them, but what a perfect showdance to end your competitive career on.

The rest of the showdances I wasn’t tremendously impressed with. I thought Tony Scheppler and Tonja Martin’s hip hop routine was interesting, combining as it did two starkly different dances (Latin and hip hop wouldn’t have been such a contrast). I thought the judges should have scored them higher, both for the originality and for doing pretty well with both styles. I don’t understand why the judges liked Mazen Hamza and Irina Sarukhanyan. Their routines are often odd, but unlike last year’s martial arts-inspired number, this leopard-clad animalistic thing didn’t make much sense nor did it involve anything very difficult.

Unfortunately I couldn’t see much of the group heats. The camera caught the dancers from very odd angles, often getting way too much of the audience in the shot, cutting off our view of the dancers’ legs — kind of important in dance… The group comps never come across that well on film; you kind of need to be there to experience its unique thrill. But I still think the camera person could do better. There’s nothing like sitting near the dance floor and watching the dancers twirl by you. I would like to see what that would look like on film: just having the camera person sitting at the edge of the floor and capturing whatever happens to fly by.

Next week is a most raucous event: American Rhythm. Showdown time!! (I’ll post more when it gets nearer)

Okay, on to other dance-TV matters. Well, I am extremely excited to announce that I will be writing about the thriving TV dance scene for The Huffington Post! As soon as my blog is up in their Entertainment Section, I’ll be posting about the TV shows there, and of course everytime I post there, I’ll put a link to it here.

Which brings me to my face obsession. My future editor needed a little picture to accompany the column, and not being a pro dancer or actor or anything, I don’t have a real head shot. So I had to do the homemade version, which I’m more comfortable with than having them professionally done anyway — I can be in control of myself. Of course it took me all night Wednesday night, trying to attain: the perfect background, the perfect camera angle, the perfect distance of the lens from my face, the perfect tilt of the head, the perfect smile (not too much so as to look like a goof but not too little so as to look like I have a rod up my backside), the perfect degree of widened eyes — seriously, I either looked like I was on some serious Speed or had just smoked a load of Pot. I would finally get a decent shot only to discover my bra strap was clearly visible. I guess these would be the reasons for having a professional… Yesterday, I forced myself to decide on a few. I downloaded them to the computer, obsessed over which one looked the best both in large and small (the headshots on the site are TINY, but still, I needed to send the picture in its original size so they could downsize it and crop it up however they liked and couldn’t bear to send regular-sized photo in which I looked hideous). I finally chose one and was about to send it off when I did a test run first and sent it to myself. I clicked on the attachment, hit open, and was faced with the biggest flipping representation of my face I’d ever come into contact with. I scrolled this way and that, viewing my face in all its various parts. When I scrolled down to my mouth area, I was shocked to find: MOUSTACHE!!!! Plain as day, there it was. I honestly never knew I had it. And it was dark — jet black. I sprinted to the bathroom, searched the cabinet for tweezers and began plucking around, feeling nothing, seeing nothing.

Later I met Ariel for a celebratory pig-fest at Magnolia Bakery (she just landed a most excellent gig covering the upcoming Fashion Week for an online magazine — go Ariel!). But we had to find another place in the area since blasted Magnolia STILL doesn’t have their sit-down area ready! What is up with them?! Who gets take-out cupcakes??? The whole point of having a dining establishment in NY is for people to dine there! It’s the dead of winter; who can take their cupcake outside and eat it on the bench or at the Lincoln Center fountain?! Have the owners no sense????? Anyway, we found a nice cozy little cafe called The Muffins Cafe just down the street, and substituted our cupcakes for chocolate croissants.

As soon as she got herself situated at the table, I spit out, “Okay, be honest. Am I in denial? Do I have a moustache? Be honest!”

“What? No,” she giggled.

“I can’t see it at all; can’t even feel it, but according to my camera it’s there!”

“Oh you mean when you downloaded and viewed it full-size on the screen,” she laughed. “Yeah, that magnifies everything. Don’t do that, especially with a portrait!”

Oh.

“Everyone has weird flaws!” she laughed shaking her head like I was a goof for not knowing this, which I guess I did; I just don’t obsess over anyone else’s. She told just to downsize it before sending it, at least a little.

“But then, can’t the editor blow it back to its original? I blabbered.

“Er, I don’t think he has time for that,” she said.

True.

Anyway, I am really excited to write about dance for such a large audience, most of which may not have much exposure. As I said, I’ll link to the blog column when it’s up and running! For now, here’s an article I wrote for Explore Dance about the various TV shows (at least the ones on network TV).

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Heads Up: Blogger / Winger Reader / Dance Fan Get-Together

For people in the New York area who happen to have tickets to the New York City Ballet matinee this Sunday, there will be an informal meet-up of dance bloggers, Winger readers, and dance fans on the promenade (that’s the main floor where the gift shop is) near the statue on the left side of the hall, during the second intermission. That’s right after Daniel Ulbricht will make his debut in Balanchine’s monumental “Prodigal Son.” Philip, who organized the get-together, and others, figured it would be an ideal meeting time since so many people are excited to see Daniel dance this role. It is a very big part for a young dancer 🙂 Jerome Robbins, Baryshnikov, and other ballet greats of yore have all danced it… So, we’ll all be there to discuss Mr. Ulbricht’s performance right afterward. And I’m sure there will be tons of press people there as well… Poor Daniel; the pressure’s on! Hehe, just kidding; this is what dancers live for, I’m sure!

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Danny Tidwell and David Hallberg (and CounterCritic) in the Same Room(!): Cedar Lake Ballet Blogger Shindig

Fun fun night! Big understatement! I didn’t even need to get drunk 🙂

Please excuse the Gawkerish, 15-year-old voice of this post. I waited until this morning to blog in hopes that the euphoria would dissipate and Kristin Sloan might post the group photo her boyfriend, Doug Jaeger, took, but as of yet neither has happened.

I must begin by calling myself a big fat hypocrit. I’ve laughed and rolled my eyes at Philip whenever he’s nearly fainted in front of the New York City Ballet stage door upon receiving a smile and hello from Jock Soto or Albert Evans or Wendy Whelan. Last night Danny Tidwell smiled and said hi to me and I promptly choked on my wine. Of course he doesn’t know me; I was just standing there staring gape-mouthed at him when he walked by with … oh crap I’m so bad, I think it was Jamie??… He was there with a girl from SYTYCD, but I’m not exactly sure who. Since the pre-show party was for bloggers, I was half-expecting his boyfriend to come (whom I was very much hoping to meet!) but Benaym was a no-show. I didn’t expect Danny though!!! Oh he’s so cute, and his smile is so warm and charming and sweet, it really just melted me. I can easily see why he is such a star. I got there earlier than everyone else and was nearly alone inside when the earth-shattering hello happened; each time one of my friends walked in, they greeted me only to get in return, “Omigod, omigod, Danny Tidwell said hi to me, Danny Tidwell said hi to me!!!” He’s so much smaller than he looks on TV or onstage. I couldn’t believe it. He’s always appeared to me the size of Carlos Acosta, but he’s well under six feet. It’s just the proverbial larger than life stage and screen presence I guess… And I’m very very very sorry for any SYTYCD fan who’s reading, but I just couldn’t bring myself to snap pics of him. In New York there’s an ironclad rule against “starf***ing.” Everyone does it, but everyone pretends they don’t and to break the pretense is practically illegal, a violation of the NYC social contract. Taylor and Evan and Ariel all agreed with me that I would definitely be immediately kicked out and may even be executed if I so much as tried surreptitiously to get a cell phone pic. So sorry!!! But Mr. Jaeger had a humongoid camera and was shooting up the place, so I’ll keep checking his site and see if he got any.

When Caleb Custer from Cedar Lake sent out the email announcing the blogger party, I had no idea who all was going to show. I was still swooning over Danny when who should breeze up his hair billowing in the wind but the beautiful one himself! When I spotted him pass by the large garage window (Cedar Lake’s studio is actually housed in a big garage, according to Philip, once used by photographer Annie Liebowitz), I couldn’t help myself. I screamed uncontrollably, “Look, there’s David Hallberg!” Doug (Fox), Philip, Ariel and probably about 75 other people in the lobby followed my point. David looked in at us, horrified. He promptly pretended to get a call on his cell phone and spent the next 20 minutes outside pacing up and down the street affecting a phone conversation, every so often peeking in the window to see if all the commotion at his arrival had died down. Meanwhile Danny remained huddled in a back corner with Jamie. Dancers are weird the way they sometimes crave and are other times embarrassed by attention.

Finally David braved the storm and ventured in. He is soft-friggin-spoken to make a massive understatement! He extended his hand to me and said something I couldn’t hear, I said simply, “hi, I’m Tonya,” feeling like a total ass, and he again said something I couldn’t make out. Soft-spoken or not, he clearly either had no idea who I was or was terrified of me. Ariel thinks it’s the latter, because of things like this and this. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the former though; he and Marcelo have got to be two of the only dancers on the face of the earth who never Google themselves. Anyway, the awkwardness was soon quelled by his sighting of Philip, who is apparently a friend of his through Craig Salstein. Philip was standing beside me. David doesn’t need to act at all; his natural reactions to things are so sweetly touching. You could see his recognition of Philip visibly register as his face brightened and he went bouncing toward Philip like a dog when it sees a regular playmate, practically rubbing his pelvis up against him when embracing. He then saw Ariel, standing beside Philip, whom he met when he was guesting once in Mobile, Alabama, and hugged her as well. I was feeling like the consummate dog crap, being the only one who didn’t receive a hug. But I guess that’s what I get for posting naked pictures and yelling at him for not blogging often enough on the Winger 🙂

Another highlight for me was meeting CounterCritic, whose original blog (critiquing the critics) I love. He’s such a fantastic writer whether he’s wickedly taunting critics or writing performance reviews himself, which are always spot-on (almost always anyway!) And he’s the only dance blogger who’s on Alex Ross’s blogroll. Oh jealously uncontained… Anyway, he’s so nice in person; all that blog pissiness is a total cover! I can’t really rib David for his puppyish behavior toward Philip because I followed CC around all night like a little dog, sitting next to him even during the show.

Speaking of which, could I talk a bit about the actual performance? Artistic director Benoit-Swan Pouffer, who by the way is really good-looking and personable and used to dance with my beloved Alvin Ailey, held a little Q&A with the bloggers afterward. He said he loves blogs: existing in a sphere so apart from traditional media, they bring something fresh and original to the dance world; they bring balance and new voices, and, though you never know what take you’re going to get from each one, it’s always interesting to see… I’m sure he never thought he’d be getting a blog post all about the pre-show hysteria of meeting Danny Tidwell and David Hallberg.

I want to look more at the (extensive!) press materials and the DVD they included (always an immense plus from dance companies), but for now I want to say how much I love dancer Jon Bond. Everything he does is so full-out, his lines are so sharp and even intense if that makes sense. Just little things like flexing a hand or foot, when he does it, it’s so pronounced that it looks all the more edgy in its awkwardness.

We saw three ballets: “Symptoms of Development,” by choreographer Jacopo Godani, a harsh, unsettling piece which dealt with technology and how it works against human interaction (Evan remarked to me afterward that it was an interesting inclusion in the rep they showed us, since we’re bloggers); “Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue,” by Crystal Pite, my favorite duet being one in which Bond struggled to reach the female dancer in front of him, palm open and fingers extended to the max, running in place to catch up with her, but in vain, as she, running in place as well, was always too far ahead; and “Rite” by Stijn Celis, another take on a dance to Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring,” nearly all of which — of the ones I’ve seen anyway — evoke in different ways the chaos bordering on horror of the rite of passage of boys and girls into men and women. If you’re interested, here’s a YouTube clip of Pina Bausch’s take on the theme, and here’s Maurice Bejart’s, which I’m partial to. Celis’s “Rite” was different in that all characters were androgynous, so there was no real distinction between male and female. All dancers — about four men and four women — were dressed in Asian-looking strapless mini-dresses and wore heavy, almost operatic facial makeup. It actually reminded me of Nacho Duato’s Castrati, which I wrote about here, except both sexes were included, though not both genders (that I saw anyway; others may have different interpretations). The dancers darted, leaped over, and ran atop these three long log-looking sets, covered with green material and meant, I think, to evoke a primitive landscape. The dancers almost looked like nymphs as they interacted: regarding each other quizzically, examining the powder and sweat left on the ‘log landscape’ by each other in a somewhat grotesquely sexual way; performing dangerous run-and-jump catches with each other; it was kind of “Afternoon of a Faun“ish (original Nijinsky version) as well. All pieces were abstract, and all unsettling, but I think this was my favorite because it seemed to have the most going on that I could latch onto and make something of, and, because of the other “Rite’s” I’d seen, I had something to compare it to.

This is a new company, only four years old, and this is the third time I’ve seen them. They tend to take on edgy, visually striking and thought-provoking work and their dancers are very unafraid and do everything full force. For more info on their season, go here. Thank you so much to Cedar Lake for organizing this most fun, and thus far original, event. I’ll post pictures taken by the pro photographers if Caleb sends any my way…

For now, here’s a picture of Ariel taken in The Half King around the corner, where we afterward went to discuss the performance. Okay, where we went to discuss David and Danny 🙂

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Polls Open :)

 

I’ve now been nominated in both the “best design” and “best blog written by a PD that has nothing to do with the job” categories. It’s so sweet of them to recognize me — so flattering! Go here to vote! And happy New Year everyone!

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Nominated For Another "Rodney"!

 

Public Defender Stuff has nominated me for another “Rodney” blog award (you know, because we PD’s get no respect!) in the category “best PD blog that has nothing to do with the job.” I won in a similar category last year (best title of a blog that has absolutely nothing to do with the job). Last year, my main competition was a knitter; this year there are poets and novelists, and just a bunch of interesting types. I love how they do this; it’s very flattering to be thought of and included, especially since I’ve hardly ever blogged about anything to do with my job. See, PDs are nice lawyers! And arty! And what I do blog about of course gets left out of everything else… Speaking of which, Bloggies noms are coming up soon. Philip and I petitioned them last year to include a dance category this year, but I’m sure that suggestion went right down the toilet… Dance bloggers (and dance writers) get no respect either, man…

So, I thought Karina Smirnoff and Jonathan Roberts were cute tonight with their waltz / quickstep / samba / jive / swing on the ‘Holiday at the Ford’s Theater’ thing. Definitely the highlight of the show. Although, her costume was a bit skimpy — for that kind of special I mean, not for Karina; she is known as the bikini queen for her usual competition attire. I love how they ended with the Charleston. I haven’t had Lindy Hop in a really long time now and I miss that dance. What a dead crowd though! Every time they focused on a spectator he or she looked completely dumbfounded at what was going on onstage. Such the antithesis of an Ailey audience, where everyone’s bouncing up and down in their seats and cheering throughout. Matthew Rushing said when they were on tour in London, people were actually dancing in the aisles! Methinks the Alvin Ailey fans are taking over where the ballet audiences left off after Baryshnikov and the other greats left the stage a couple decades ago…

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Season Crush

On Kirven Boyd! I usually end up with a horrible mad crush on one dancer per season and this year it’s him.

Of late I’ve seen him dance with beautiful precision the third man in the quick-paced balletic “Solo” (top photo; I wrote about the piece here); the body-shaking “flag man” possessed by both spirit and rhythm in “Wade in the Water” from “Revelations;” the soft jazzy / modern solo at the opening of “Love Stories;” and the other night he was perfectly frightening while somehow managing to be charming as well, as the leader of the thugs in “The Road of the Phoebe Snow” (which I wrote about here). (Another thing I noticed, that I love about “Phoebe”: the ‘bad guys’ are wearing white and pink.)

“Love Stories” by the way is a dance in several parts with styles ranging from jazz / modern to hip hop, co-choreographed by AAADT director Judith Jamison, modern choreographer Robert Battle, and hip hop guru Rennie Harris. Music is by Stevie Wonder, and I think the title refers, basically to one’s love affair with dance. My favorite part is the beginning solo. Go here (scroll down to Love Stories) to see some excerpts. Clifton Brown is dancing the solo in this video. He’s been my crushee in years past, but I feel like now that he is so famous and every critic in the country and beyond is drooling all over him, it’s a little boring to have him as your favorite! That said, I thought Clifton was absolute magic a couple of years ago and I noticed this season he’s improved even further which I wouldn’t have thought possible. I do think he’s developed into one of the greatest dancers in the country now and it goes without saying you must see him dance if you ever have the chance!

On Thursday night, the company also premiered “Unfold” by Robert Battle, danced by Clifton with Linda Celeste Sims, this season’s royalty, as they seem to be dancing in just about every premiere. It was a very short pas de deux (only five minutes long), but beautiful. Danced to an aria brilliantly sung by Leontyne Price, it’s about, Battle says, the first meeting between a man and a woman. To me, it seemed to tell the story of a man’s discovering and becoming impassioned by this magical, ethereal creature. The curtain opens on Sims doing this breathtaking, and impossible-looking back arch, with no support, just on her own two feet. The position of her body and the way the fabric of her gown drapes in back, it had a spiritual, mystical feel. She looked otherworldly. Clifton sees her in the distance, becomes taken, approaches, pulls her to him, “unfolds” her, perhaps. They make various shapes together, her body alternating between convex and concave. At one point she’s on the floor, her torso and legs in the air, balancing only on the small of her back. He lunges over her and pulls her up; it’s beautiful. But too short! I do want to see more by this choreographer; his rep sounds very interesting. And Kirven danced with his company previously!

Perhaps another reason I like K: he participated in one of the company’s little Saturday post-show matinee talks I saw.

Sorry so dark; I didn’t want to use the flash. He’s in the white shirt. He was so cute talking about his training in Boston and with Ailey II (their studio company), giving little kids advice and signing autographs, etc. I think dancers should participate in more things like this so the public can get a chance to know them. That’s why Danny Tidwell, and Pasha, and Maks and all the DWTS dancers became so popular — of course they’re very skilled and charismatic dancers (people wouldn’t be so into them if they weren’t), but the public also got the chance to know them a bit outside of their dance lives by watching them chat about themselves and interact with others on TV shows. Not everyone can or will want to go on TV, but with the internet, everyone can blog a bit. I know, dancers hate blogging. There are still so few. The Ailey company has two blogs — written by dancer Matthew Rushing and choreographer Camille Brown, but they’re not proper blogs since there’s no comments section, so you can’t interact with them, and they’re very seldomly updated anyway. And you need to join Ailey’s e-club even to access them, which is very easy to do and free, but it prohibits bloggers like me from linking or anything.

Anyway, more on this later, I’m late for a ballroom competition!

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Junot Diaz is a Chatty Character, Who Knew?!

Look what Maud Newton found. Apparently, Google has a whole series of authors reading from their books and giving little lectures available for viewing on YouTube. The video embedded in Maud’s post is of Junot Diaz, whose collection of short stories, Drown, I loved, and whose new novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I’m dying to read. Funny how chatty he is; often authors are so shy and introverted. He reads very slowly too, so you can get all the details. Many authors read fast, probably because of the shyness… There are other authors too: Jonathan Lethem, Jeffrey Toobin, Alex Ross… The series makes me very happy because I used to go to a lot of readings, but since I’ve taken to spending my evenings for the past couple of years at either dance performances or dancing myself, I’ve really missed them.

A couple of other things on the net recently: Laura Jacobs has an article about ABT dancer Veronika Part’s “Sleeping Beauty” out in The New Criterion, which isn’t available online for free, but James Wolcott has substantial quotes from it on his Vanity Fair blog. I’m currently reading Jacobs’s Landscape With Moving Figures, a collection of her dance writing in New Criterion covering about a 10-year period, and the first thing I noticed is how poetic she is when speaking about individual dancers. She talks about them so beautifully; it’s like they’re her muses. She has a chapter called “Assoluta,” which is about then current (2004) ballerina assolutas, or prima ballerinas, and she has a lengthy section on Part there. She describes Part as “a snow princess… (with) white white skin, black hair, a young Ava Gardner, a big white rose … (with) lotus-blossom aplomb, … (an) ivory-sceptor extension … pacific delicacy in the wrists and hands” and she calls Part’s developpe (slow lift of the leg, first by the thigh, then extending up and out as the knee straightens) as “not a step … but a glory,” that “comes up like a law of nature, almost animal, and stays like light.” Anyway, go here to read her writing on Part’s Sleeping Beauty.

Also, Ariel has posted several interviews she conducted with four New York City Ballet dancers when they guested recently with her hometown company, Mobile Ballet. The interviews are here and here and here and here.

Finally, there’s an interesting discussion going on between writers, bloggers, and readers about what the internet means for the future of dance journalism. See the comments section here.

And speaking of such, Doug has begun a new blog within his Great Dance blog devoted to dance reviews for each region. He’s started with New York. Anyone who’s written a review may submit.

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"Artless" Weblog Awards

The 2007 Weblog award winners were announced today here. Again, there is no category for Dance. Nor is there a category for Performing Arts. Nor is there a category for Art. If you look at the Culture blogs, they’re all pop. Thankfully, there’s at least a category for Literature. Will I ever not be saddened by the role the arts does not occupy in our society?

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More Voices on Morphoses

So, the first round of Morphoses reviews are flowing in. Thank you Tobi Tobias for saying what I was trying so very hard to say way too late at night (there are plusses and minuses to writing immediately after a performance: on one hand the “afterimages” in Arlene Croce speak are the most vivid and fresh that they’ll ever be, but on the other sometimes your brain needs to chew things over a bit). Particularly resonant with me was Tobias’s paragraph about Wheeldon not engaging the emotions of his audience, or even perhaps himself. And thank you, Ms. Tobias for giving me one brief glimpse into the value of “Slingerland.”

One thing Tobias mentions that struck me: she says that she doesn’t know if Wheeldon’s desire to give the dancers too much free reign in the dances’ creations is a good thing. I’ve now heard several choreographers (Jorma Elo, Wheeldon, and most recently Nacho Duato — promise I’ll get to that review today!) say that the way they work is that they have some vague notion of what they want when they go into the studio, they choose the music, they have a general idea in mind, then they let the dancers go and figure it all out, discover the movement and how best to convey that idea. Helen Pickett even said at a Works & Process event that she lets her dancers improvise right on stage, during the actual performance. So what is the choreographer then? The music selector, the originator of the basic idea? I’ve heard theater and film people laugh when someone asks if they’d thought of a co-director. No way, they all say, there’s got to be one person and one person alone behind the helm of a project or everything just gets all confused and there’s no “voice” to the work and meaning is lost. I wonder if that’s partly what’s happening to me, I can’t always make sense of things in dance because there are too many interpretations going on at once on that stage and there’s no single voice or authority (ie: that of an older person with life experience and well-developed artistry) in control?

Anyway, I so would have liked to have gone to the Morphoses open rehearsal yesterday, but unfortunately couldn’t take off work. Kristin went and wrote a bit about it — apparently it was a rehearsal of Mesmerics, one of the pieces on Program 2, wherein Wheeldon corrected and instructed dancers on the movement, but it doesn’t seem that he talked about his process. There was an audience give and take but Kristin didn’t write anything about. I always like to hear what audiences have to say about something, what others get and don’t get and what they want to understand and know from an artist. Oh well, maybe next time I can go. Damn work interfering with my blogging life!! Also, maybe Works & Process can institute a little audience Q & A into their programs in the future?

Here’s Sir Alastair’s review. He echoes others, saying that the most notable thing about the company thus far was the fame of the dancers (true), but also adds that in his opinion, Wheeldon doesn’t take seriously enough his female dancers, makes them too passive. It’s an interesting take and something I hadn’t thought of.

Joel Lobenthal in The Sun gives a very fair, balanced review saying Wheeldon may not be the “great white hope” of ballet but is nevertheless a young, very talented choreographer “still in the process of finding himself.”

Apollinaire’s Newsday review is also fair and balanced (as always with her), and I love this paragraph in particular: “The sculptural twining of limbs yields imagistic sparks, but they don’t light a fire this time. Wheeldon seems to have gotten carried away by his own dexterous invention.” So, my “meaningless weird abstract shape after meaningless weird abstract shape” gibberish expressed much more eloquently 🙂 She also gives me more to understand regarding Forsythe.

By the way, speaking of my phrasing, James Wolcott linked to my write-up (so wonderfully nice of him!!), calling it “a trembling ordeal of terror worthy of the Simpsons’ Halloween special” as I found myself “buried under a paper mache rock slide of ‘meaningless weird abstract shapes,’ and live[d] to tell the tale.” Hehehehe, I couldn’t stop laughing. I guess it did sound like a nutty Simpsons-esque Halloween cartoon! Good, imaginative writers can make things sound so nice… (Off the topic of Wheeldon but on the topic of Wolcott, he has an entertaining, socio-cultural history of the Twist in the November Vanity Fair.)

And here is Philip, who said what I thought he would, focusing on all of the great dancers involved in the program (although he is also a big opera lover and talked about the beauty of the music a bit too).

Here’s a Washington Times review.

Here’s what Ballet Talk balletomanes had to say.

And, in case I left something out, here is a fuller list of reviews, including those from London, where Morphoses premiered in September.

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Critics Becoming Subjects of Art, JP Morgan's Interesting Alternative to Altria, and Nacho Duato at BAM!

I saw Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato’s Compania Nacional de Danza last night at BAM and had an absolute blast — both during the performance and afterward at BAMs audience dialog with the choreographer, which was nearly as well attended as the dance performance — something I don’t think I’ve EVER seen before. Anyway, I have lots and lots and lots to say about both the dances (in particular about the second piece performed, “Castrati,” a gorgeous work about Italian male sopranos) and the talk (the latter not so much for what the choreographer said but for the audience’s scintillating questions and how he responded to them … or not!) It was a thrilling evening, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get the post up and I don’t get a lot of readers on late Friday afternoons, so I’ll just say now that I highly encourage everyone in NY to go out to BAM and see this show: it’s only on tonight and tomorrow. Go here for info.

A couple of other things: experimental choreographer Clare Byrne sent me a couple of videos she put on YouTube in response to chief NYTimes dance critic Alastair Macaulay’s writings (and some of his remarks recently at Barnard), which I think are quite funny, especially the second one (which can apply to some other people I know as well 🙂 ). I once saw a piece at PS122 about the choreographer’s excitement over a cool pair of shoes he saw Gia Kourlas wearing, which was pretty funny. Interesting when critics become the subjects of the art they critique…

And here is something else I found really interesting. JP Morgan is apparently running a writing contest for students. The subject is which non-profit organization do you think is most deserving of funding, and the winner gets a $25,000 grant given to their subject organization. Chris Elam of Misnomer Dance Theater is encouraging students to enter the contest in support of dance.

Finally, Doug Fox is going to be giving a talk downtown next Wednesday on the internet and the future of dance. He found classical music writer (and blogger) Alex Ross’s article in the New Yorker about the internet’s promotion of classical dance thought-provoking. I’d skimmed that article but started to get discouraged because many of the things he highlighted seemed largely inapplicable to dance because of the way music better records than dance (shades of Paul Parish here). Anyway, read Ross’s article and Doug’s post on it yourself and if you have any thoughts write to Doug and he’ll hopefully address it all next week.

And (NYers) don’t forget to go to BAM this weekend (and read my enormous upcoming write-up on castration and female genital mutilation and gender and masculinity and femininity and beauty and drag and all the other deliciously sexy thoughts Duato’s work and discussion of it provoked!) Dance can really be so much fun 🙂