TV - - Page 9

February 7, 2008September 26, 2022

"West Side Story" Wins the Day

Since I’m late in posting again (sorry, was a bit depressed about something last night), most of the conversation has taken place on comments on the last post, so I’ll be brief here.

I loved Jose and Joanna’s West Side Story-ish showdance and I’m really happy to see ballroom combined with these classics (last week was the Fred and Ginger-esque routine by the Smooth showdance winners, Steven Doughtery and Eulia Baranovsky). I thought Jose was just so good; the way he moves his whole body — his upper body just as active as his legs, it’s like he’s a snake with no vertebra. He really got into the fun, fifties-ish theme and he looked to me like a character right out of Jerome Robbins’s dance-movie masterpiece. But he made it a rhythm showdance just the same including all the major rhythm dances, most prominently Swing and Mambo, and even a little Paso Doble thrown in at the end — all of which jibe really well with the Robbins. I’m not sure who choreographed it, but if he did, I think he may have a future as a dance-maker after he retires from competition. I like Joanna too, but to me Jose is the powerhouse of that partnership. He has so much charisma, and actor-ly ability, though I’m not sure if it comes across the same on TV as live.

I was sorry to see Bree Watson and Decho Kraev (below in photo by Jeffrey Dunn) place so poorly. I thought her leg extensions and her stretches were gorgeously balletic, especially in the slower dances, and I was kind of sorry they performed a Swing rather than a Bolero or Rumba for their showdance. But they seemed to know what the judges preferred, since they placed higher in the showdance than in the group dances.

And always love watching Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine, although I liked him a lot better dancing with Joanna (Zacharewicz, who is now dancing with Jose) than with his new partner, Julia Gorchakova. His routines with Joanna were really cute without being crass and I could have done without all the Robin Byrd-esque booty-in-the-face of their showdance. And watching her, it seems more to me that she is trying to be what he wants, to please him, than being her own person, although Joanna sometimes loses connection with her partner doing too much of her own thing… Still, this is a new partnership and I’m sure they’ll improve. And Emmanuel: he just has such a hunger for dance, and his wild abandon makes him such a compelling showman; I can’t help but root for him 🙂

I loved just-turned-pro couple Pasha Pashkov and Inna Brayer (who performed in the exhibitions; photo below by Jeffrey Dunn). What a lovely combination Latin routine — I love how they softened the Samba and blended it with Paso Doble. And what lovely flowing costumes!

And I just have to give a big huge shout-out to pro / am couple Scott Lazarov and Christine Stanko (Christine is the amateur student; Scott the pro teacher — also performers in the exhibitions; photo above again by Jeffrey Dunn). I’ve met Christine before at Nationals, when she became the national amateur Mambo champion, and learned that she is a full-time dermatologist, and only took up dancing when she was in medical school — so, as an adult — both of which just blow me away. Many amateurs don’t have day jobs; they practice all day long and have a sponsor to pay the bills. And most start as young children. It’s very hard ever to get really good (I mean at the competition level) when you’ve started in adulthood, and more so when you have a demanding full-time job. So big huge kudos to her!

Finally, I have to give the cameraman a whopping D-! Half the time — more than half the time, he completely cut off the dancers’ legs, sometimes everything below the ribcage. What am I supposed to get from seeing a dancer’s shoulders and face? It was like a sea of legless torsos moving across the stage somehow on their own. And I couldn’t believe all the focus on the women’s pelvises — especially with Carolina and Felipe Telona! And sometimes the camera was way too far away. I think cameraguy needs some lessons from the primetime people.

Anyway, I’m glad you guys had fun watching! Next week is beautiful Standard — more on that later.

February 6, 2008September 26, 2022

Tonight’s Rhythmic Showdown

I got so carried away with politics, I almost forgot to post about tonight! It should be a most fun evening on America’s Ballroom Challenge (PBS, 8pm EST), as this event — American Rhythm — is always a crowd favorite. Keep your eyes open for the always entertaining and hungry-for-a-win Emmanuel-Pierre Antoine and Julia Gorchakova,

their main competitors (and current US champs), Jose Decamps and Joanna Zacharewicz,

and the quieter, but lovely couple who always seem to get overlooked by spectators caught up in the relentless Pierre-Antoine / Decamps battle: Felipe Telona and Carolina Orlovsky-Telona.

Have fun!

February 1, 2008September 26, 2022

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).

January 30, 2008September 26, 2022

Don’t Forget!

Tonight, Wednesday the 30th, America’s Ballroom Challenge begins. PBS 8 p.m.! Check here for local listings.

January 29, 2008

Your Mama Do Dance

Another new TV dance show, Your Mama Don’t Dance, this one on Lifetime TV, will premiere on February 29th. This one sounds pretty funny: it pairs “up and coming dancers” with their parents, the latter of whom will have a thing or two to learn for their kids’ sake, in order to stay in the competition. At the time of auditions, which have already been completed, contestants weren’t aware of these rules. I’m not sure exactly what ages the dancers are, but imagine Danny Tidwell, Pasha Kovalev, Neil Haskell being told they’d be partnering their mothers. Producer Bob Bain says it will be a “testament to how far parents will go for their children.”

Update: one blogger reports Ian Ziering (who competed on Dancing With the Stars) will host.

January 29, 2008

DANCE WAR: Week 4

Maybe I’m just getting desperate, but it seems to be getting better. At least the dancing. When the two contestants from Team Bruno — Charity and Kelsey — had to sing for their lives, I nearly had to cover my ears they were both so off key. Of course they sounded fine once the recorded background singers joined in, which makes me think that what’s saving the team performances is just that. As singers, I’m really liking Mariel and Lacey and the rest I’m not so sure about. We got to hear a bit more from Chris this time — and those girls in the audience obviously love him — and he had a nice clean voice, always on note … although I’m not sure it’s memorable enough to make him “American Idol”-worthy. When Bruno announced that the award for the winning team would be a Hollywood recording deal, I thought hmmmm…

Anyway, the dancing. Overall it wasn’t really that of polished, professionals, but the choreography’s getting more fun and challenging. The opening 50s number was cute and I absolutely loved the jitterbug aerials, although none of the girls got enough speed on their jumps — or help from their guys — to propel them up very high. And when the girls jumped on the guys’ backs and did the kicks — cute but they looked nervous and the kicks were half-assed; legs should have gone up much higher. But again, with the singing and dancing combined, those require a lot of energy (not to mention fearlessness) to do them properly, and, like I said earlier, you can’t go doing barrel turns all around the perimeter of the stage while belting out Aretha Franklin lyrics; combining song and dance necessarily limits the range of movement.

Speaking of the jitterbug aerials: the background scene between Bruno and Lacey, where he taught her to trust, looked scripted, and it probably was at least a bit. But it makes sense that that he had the whole team doing that typical psych ‘fall back and trust your teammates to catch you’ excercise, given those opening aerials. Lifts, and even just some dips (I noticed throughout several chokehold dips — where the guy holds the woman up by wrapping his hands around her throat) –they can be frightening, and the woman must absolutely trust the man or both of you can get hurt. Just another thing that marks them as non-pros, but I guess that’s part of the point of the show, to turn them into real dancers.

So, it was Motown night for the team matches. I loved all the Step dancing, seeing as how I just wrote about it. I guess with all these movies — “Step Up 2” and “How She Move” — it’s making a big comeback. Everyone did surprisingly well with it too — lots of lightening-speed grand battemant kicks with underhand claps. Team Bruno’s first number, “Think (Freedom)” by Aretha Franklin, worked both because of the great use of Step dancing, and Lacey’s deep luscious voice belting out those words. Carrie Ann was right when she said it wasn’t balanced; that only Lacey shone, but don’t you need to go with what you have and put the best up front?

One thing — I think it’s rather ridiculous that they don’t have outside judges. Of course Carrie Ann and Bruno and going to prefer their own teams and criticize the other’s. I realize the public vote counts for 100%, but can’t they still hire some outside, neutral arbiters? Generally, Carrie Ann is less critical of Bruno’s team though, and more self-reflective about her own. And I think that is partly why she won the first match. She’s simply coming across as more likable than Bruno.

Carrie Ann got her team back into the team spirit with that studio football match. Kind of corny. But I like how she asked her group whom they were paying tribute to before they went on. Sometimes beginning performers forget the point of what they’re doing and it becomes just about the steps.

Overall, my favorite of the night was Team Carrie Ann’s first number, The Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” It began and ended with simple steps — a lot of basic jazz side steps, step-togethers, with a foot brushed smooth and slow on its way to meet the other. But it had attitude galore and you could tell the team was so into it. And I loved how she sped it up in the middle to create a completely different atmosphere: calm, cool and collected, turned into mad crazy fast Step dancing, then back to the smooth cool. The piece had movement and structure and the dancers showed their versatility. Too much smoke though — the team was nearly engulfed by it at one point!

I was more impressed with Bruno’s second number and less so with Carrie Ann’s. It’s like each choreographer can only come up with one good number per week. Bruno’s “Caught Up” began with the dancers wielding sticks, which they used for good effect, to steady themselves as they performed bluesy swings of the head. The rhythm sped up and the middle portion, my favorite, was like a real Step dancing competition, with all members in pretty good unison dancing around those sticks. And it ended with some acrobatics by the men — flips and falls to the ground into a one-handed handstand. Tricks like this would bother me if they were the central focus, but Bruno used them only to spice up the routine and drive it to a culminating crescendo.

Carrie Ann’s “Upside Down” to the Diana Ross song, was pretty bland, and didn’t make much sense. It began with the women standing in picture frames, and the men coming to escort them out and to the center of the stage. Why? What exactly does the song have to do with woman as art object and the man as a kind of rescuer? Then, most of the choreography consisted of women doing simple stylized walks all over stage with a few upper body isolations. The movement can be simple, as long as it has attitude and meaning, and as long as it goes somewhere interesting. To be sure, Alyssa had a lovely arabesque near the end and there was a high over-the-shoulder lift, but they came too late and seemed more for effect than organic to the song. It was here that Carrie Ann should have asked herself, what am I paying homage to.

And then Team Bruno, as I had predicted, lost and Bruno had to choose a member to eliminate. Interesting set-up here. What if one team ends up losing most of its members well before the other? That’s going to be very unbalanced. And wouldn’t the season end prematurely?

It’s a toss up for me this week: I liked Bruno’s second number and Carrie Ann’s first. I’m going to go with Bruno though, since of the pieces that were so-so, I preferred his.

January 25, 2008

Movie in the Making: NY Export: Opus Jazz

I’m behind on my blogging. Last Sunday, I braved the freezing cold (I HATE NY when temps drop down to the teens and single digits; all I can think of is death) and ventured up to the Guggenheim for another Works & Process event. This one, entitled “Ballet in Sneakers,” was about the making of a new film of Jerome Robbins’ 1958 jazz ballet, “NY Export: Opus Jazz.” Two New York City Ballet dancers — Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi — are the impetus behind the project. The filming is still currently underway and, in fact, is not very far along unfortunately. I was hoping they would have more clips to show other than that which I saw earlier at NYCity Ballet (which I blogged about here), but so far the duet I wrote about in that post is the only one that has been filmed. The (very young!) filmmakers — director Henry Joost, along with Jody Lee Lipes and Ariel Schulman, were there to discuss a bit of the logistics of filming that piece and the locations in which they’re thinking of shooting other parts: a tobacco warehouse under the Brooklyn Bridge, a hidden area in Staten Island under the Verrazano Bridge, and they’re looking for a low rooftop surrounded by high rises. Joost gamely asked the audience to let him know if they knew of such a place. Basically, they are seeking to film one of each of the five parts of the dance in each of the five burroughs, which I thought was sweet, and fitting since Robbins was a quintessential New Yorker who loved this city, and made his ballet in honor of it. I’ll be interested to see the finished product.

I do wonder how long it’s going to be, though, since the ballet itself is not as long as a full-length feature film, and whether it’s going to show in regular cinemas, art house theaters, the New York State Theater, PBS, go direct to DVD, etc. I really wish the Works & Process organizers would allow some time for an audience Q&A. They do have a cocktail social afterward, but it’s often difficult to track down the speakers, and Sunday night it was impossible since the lobby is currently being used for the filming of another movie (don’t know which, but I heard Clive Owen was spotted in the museum earlier that day) and so was unavailable to us.

Speaking of movies, “How She Move,” of which they showed a trailer during “Dance War” on Monday night, looks kind of good. Well, the dancing at least looks decent… It opens here tomorrow night.

And speaking of “Dance War” — really, I’m sorry this post is so all over the place! — I wasn’t tremendously impressed with Monday night’s first team dance-off. I liked Team Carrie Ann’s last performance the best, mainly because they did what I said I’d most prefer in my last post on the show: put the divas up front and center and have the men as backup dancers. The women can really sing (at least four of them can), and though I’m not sure I’m tremendously impressed with anyone‘s dancing, at least the choreographers seem to be entrusting the men with somewhat more interesting moves than the women. I didn’t much care for Carrie Ann’s first team performance, though — the hip hop with all the posturing. I thought it was interesting at first, and very initially reminded me of Camille A. Brown’s “Groove to Nobody’s Business,” but it got old fast and went nowhere. I couldn’t much appreciate Bruno’s first piece, with all the pimpish sex kitten crap. He basically said he wants “sexy women and strong men,” so that is apparently where it’s at for him. And I honestly can’t remember his second piece…

January 18, 2008September 26, 2022

"Sex and The City" and Ballet Go Together Like…

First Candace married Charles, then Baryshnikov graced the TV show with his majestic presence, and now yummy Magnolia Bakery, whose original West Village location was popularized by the same (Sex & the City, that is, not Misha 🙂 ) is opening a new location just a few steps from Lincoln Center. Should make for an ideal after-ballet snacking ‘n chatting ground. Ariel and I, who were in the neighborhood, went to check it out today, since I’d heard it opened its doors yesterday, but unfortunately it’s only been available for private parties for the last two days. Tomorrow is its official public opening, 11 am sharp. Cupcakes for breakfast!

January 16, 2008September 26, 2022

Mark Your Calendars!

For America’s Ballroom Challenge 2008! The show will air five Wednesdays in a row from January 30th through February 27th, 8-9 EST on PBS. This year there are two new hosts: replacing Marilu Henner and Tony Meredith are Jasmine Guy (remember her from The Cosby Show?) and many-times champ Ron Montez. If you’ve missed the past two years, each night of this show (filmed live at the Ohio Star Ball held in Columbus in November — probably the largest and most popular ballroom competition in the country) will consist of a different ballroom style danced at the American comps: American Smooth, American Rhythm, International Standard, and International Latin (woo hoo), and the final night will be a “best of the best” competition among the four winners of each style, dancing two unique solos.

To me, highlights this year will be Katusha Demidova in Standard dancing with her new partner, Arunas Bizokas, as well as the newly-crowned U.S. National champs in Smooth (the smashing JT Thomas & Tomasz Mielnicki) and Rhythm (Jose DeCamps & Joanna Zacharewicz; this category is always a huge show-down though thanks to DeCamps & Zacharewicz, and the wild and spectacular Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine & Julia Gortchakova). Unfortunately, we’re not going to get a shot of my favorite Yulia Zagoruychenko in Latin, since she was, at the time of that competition, just beginning a new partnership. Still, watch Latin for longtime champs Andrei Gavriline & Elena Kruychkova and two couples who are solidly on the way up: Delyan Terziev & Boriana Deltcheva, and new favorites of mine: Vaidotas Skimelis & Jurga Pupelyte. I’ll post again closer to January 30th in reminder, but for now, go here for deets. (It doesn’t look the PBS channel is updated yet for this year’s show, but once it is, it should be here).

January 14, 2008

Divas With Male Backup Dancers

Okay, everyone who said “Dance War” would get better was right. I think the show is generally more focused on the singing — both from the judges’ and camera operators’ perspectives — which disappoints me, but I’ll still watch it. This week I noticed that many times the camera would focus on the person singing — especially with the girls — excluding the people in the background who, in some cases were doing some of the more difficult dance moves. Just when someone (I think it was Kelsey) went to do a grand battement, the camera right then left her and homed in on the girl singing, so you missed the full extent of the kick. Movement definitely took a back seat. Anyway, that’s probably why I thought everyone was such crap at dance last week.

I thought the guys were overall the better dancers — although I’m still seeing a lot of floor gymnastics; but the choreography they were given was generally faster, more varied, and slightly more challenging than that of the girls, who basically just did sexy stylized walks and a few stationary pelvic rolls (and, happily, at one point, a set of double pirouettes) while belting out lyrics. The three-woman “Lady Marmalade” completely blew me away, and I have to say, that was the first time in the whole show that I think I actually understood what Bruno was saying. I definitely get when he’s excited or let down, but on this show I can’t always make out the English, which is weird since I don’t think I’ve had that problem on DWTS. I think Mariel, the girl Carrie Ann first picked, is going to be the main diva of the show, followed by Allysa, whom I was really surprised to see be one of the last two chosen. I can’t tell with the guys yet who’s going to stand out, but I foresee basically a battle of female voices backed by sexy male dancing peppered with acrobatic theatrics. We shall see…

January 14, 2008September 26, 2022

David Hallberg Stage-Steals Again, This Time in Fabulous Christian Lacroix at the Guggenheim!

This from the Winger website. (By the way, in the top pic on the post that I just linked to, Danny Tidwell (trying to be incognito in hat) and the girl who I think is Jamie from SYTYCD are in the forefront.) This picture (that I copied here) is the Cedar Lake Ballet pre-party blogger get-together I have been going on about for some time now. From left to right: Counter Critic Ryan Kelly, Ariel, Philip / Oberon, goofus me, David!!!!! (who doesn’t look that terrified at all to be standing next to me, right?!), Taylor Gordon, Evan, Doug Fox, and of course, the mother of all dance bloggers, Kristin Sloan 😀

Second, last night was another Works & Process event at the Guggenheim. This one was in celebration of Frederic Franklin, a delightfully sweet 93-year-old man who’s enjoyed a wonderously long career in dance. He started out in a tap dance ensemble in Paris in 1931, performing with the likes of Josephine Baker, was quickly snatched up by the Markova-Dolin Ballet in England, and eventually ended up with the famous Ballet Russes. After retiring from dancing, he joined ABT both performing non-dance roles in the big story ballets and helping to re-stage classics. In between an interview with Mr. Franklin by moderator Wes Chapman, they showed film clips of him dancing and speaking about his life (which I figured out afterward, while talking with Barbara, a reader of this blog and the Winger, were likely culled from the great documentary Les Ballet Russes), and excerpts of ballets that Mr. Franklin has staged. Two excerpts were from Coppelia, one performed by very good young dancers from ABT II (ABT’s studio company), the other by students at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School (ABT’s ballet school). The program only listed the students’ names in alphabetical order, but I was blown away by the ballerina who performed the lead in that excerpt. I can’t give her proper credit because I don’t know which name belongs to her; but Barbara and I agreed that she was brilliant.

And two of the other excerpts — a pas de deux from Leonide Massine’s “Gaite Parisienne” and one from Balanchine’s “Mozartiana” — were performed by ABT principals Julie Kent and Mr. Beautiful (center, in pic above, as well). Julie, as always, was lovely and she really is such a beautiful ballerina, so light and feathery, she just floats around the floor. But Marcelo is the consummate partner for her. Marcelo is the consummate partner period. Oh, I haven’t seen Marcelo in months now and I miss him 🙁 … But David just steals every smidgeon of attention whenever he is onstage, wherever he is actually — passing by a damn window… On a stage, he becomes the stage. And it’s not in any way his fault; he doesn’t try to do it at all. He really tries very very hard to highlight the ballerina; he showers all of his attention onto her, whether he’s partnering her or standing off to the side simply watching her, as he did last night in “Mozartiana.” How do I know this? Because the entire time Julie was dancing, I was looking at him. I’m too tired to try to look it up right now, but I just read an article where the writer was saying that Baryshnikov was a great dancer and brought new steps into to the canon and all, but that’s not even the half of what he meant for Ballet; he could stand completely still on a stage and you couldn’t stop looking at him. That’s exactly how I feel about David. It goes without saying he’s a sublime dancer, but that’s not even the half of it; not even ten percent.

In “Mozartiana” Julie and David wore workout clothes — typical for Works & Process, but in the “Gaite Parisienne” pdd, oh my oh my, costumes! Gorgeous, fascinating, jaw-droppingly breathtaking Christian Lacroix costumes. Normally, I’m not that into designer clothes, but Lacroix is on a whole different level; the man is so clearly an artist to me. If only more ballet companies would hire him to re-design all the classics… David’s costume consisted of this bright celebration-red velvet tux, gorgeously loud varicolored striped tights, and black shoes. Julie’s was less colorful — simple beige and black — but stylistically stunning in a sweetly sexy little girl / china doll kind of way, suiting Julie to a tee. And the choreography — I haven’t even checked to see if ABT is doing this during their spring season (a quick internet search reveals they last put it on all the way back in 1988?), but it was the most sweetly sexy waltz-ballet I have ever seen. I really want to see the whole.

Anyway, it was a fun people-watching night. Sir Alastair was there wearing this very interesting red Mexican-y pancho-esque jacket and a gold scarf tossed spiffily around his neck. I saw him talking to Wendy Perron, EIC of Dance Magazine, at one point. And it was nice seeing Barbara again at the cocktail thingy afterward 🙂 Always a fun night at the Guggenheim. The only negative, the museum was apparently remodeling or something and they had half the lobby roped off; very hard to negotiate the large crowd without spilling your wine!