Above: Daniel Applebaum in a solo from PROGRESS. Photo by Brian Krontz.
Monday April 18, 2011 - Troy Schumacher of New York City Ballet is the founding choreographer of Satellite Ballet, an ensemble of NYCB dancers founded in 2010 by Schumacher and producer Kevin Draper as a collaborative arts workshop based out of Lake Michigan, New York and Portland, Oregon. Satellite Ballet is a creative company rooted in designing collaborations between digital artists, dancers, musicians, photographers and writers. Their current project is to create an evening of three works - two ballets and one staged vocal work - set for final workshop in the summer of 2011 and then to be premiered in New York City this Autumn.
Starting with a commission by the Satellite Gallery in conjunction with the Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts in Fremont, Michigan, Schumacher and his dancers presented PROGRESS at the Center during the summer of 2010.
Tonight at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Troy invited a small group of dance and arts devotees for a private showing; earlier in the day there was a run-thru which I watched and my friend Brian Krontz photographed. Five dancers took part in the studio performance: Teresa Reichlen, Ashley Laracey, Justin Peck, Daniel Applebaum and Sam Greenberg. Two other ballerinas are part of Satellite Ballet: Lauren King and Marika Anderson. A contingent of NYCB dancers came out to support their colleagues this evening: Sterling Hyltin, Gwyneth Muller, Sean Suozzi, Ralph Ippolito and Cameron Dieck. It was great chatting with these dancers before the presentation; they are really busy now preparing for the NYCB Spring season which begins on May 3rd.
Delicious hors d'ouevres and wine were served and then the dancing began. We were shown two excerpts from PROGRESS: a pas de deux for Ashley Laracey and Justin Peck, and a solo for Daniel Applebaum. Then Ashley performed a solo (in silence) and Tess Reichlen and Sam Greenberg a duet from the work-in-progress entitled EPISTASIS.
Composers Nick Jaina (piano) and Nathan Langston (violin) performed their scores live for the dancers, giving an added immediacy to tonight's showing. The music is melodious yet thoroughly contemporary; the theme of the PROGRESS pas de deux is particularly appealing. Troy's choreography is vibrant in its clarity and use of space; the dancers - all familiar from their work at NYCB - looked superb and the entire presentation felt fresh and exciting.
Ashley Laracey and Justin Peck in a rhapsodic duet from PROGRESS.
Daniel Applebaum
Teresa Reichlen and Sam Greenberg in a duet from EPISTASIS; the music for this has a lilting, jazzy feel.
Sam and Tess
There's a Satellite Ballet YouTube channel with several videos - both studio and performance - here. The Company are planning to present their work here in New York City in October 2011.
Photos: Brian Krontz.
Hi. I have been reading your blog for years. First, I want to thank you for the dedication and care that you put into this dance journal. I don't see a lot of comments, which can be discouraging to the owner. Sometimes low comments make a owner abandon the journal. Yet, you keep it going strong.
You post the most AMAZING (and large) photos of any of the dance journals, which I love. And your textual coverage of dance (and opera) is very indepth and interesting.
I feel so connected to the dance world after reading your journal. Thank you very much for being outstanding.
Posted by: David | April 20, 2011 at 11:57 AM
Thank you, David!
I appreciate having people leave comments on my blog but I don't regard them as a measure of the blog's success; the true sign that I'm doing well is in the daily readership stats which far exceed the numbers I thought I could reach when I started blogging.
One of the drawbacks of blogging is the large number of 'spam' comments that I have to deal with every day. This is very time-consuming but I guess all bloggers who allow comments at all have to deal with it.
Posted by: Philip | April 20, 2011 at 01:05 PM
Hi Philip. Spam comments? I didn't know that spam comments were a problem on performance arts blogs. Interesting.
One more comment from me. I very much like the overall appearance and format of your journal. Visually, it has a classic and classy appearance.
Posted by: David | April 20, 2011 at 02:02 PM
Yes, my fellow dance bloggers and I cope with spam all the time. That is why comments left on my blog have to go thru a moderation process. I get maybe a dozen spam comments a week but at least one blogger I know gets that many in a day and she's tried everything to prevent it.
Posted by: Philip | April 20, 2011 at 02:46 PM