Above: Victoria North of New Chamber Ballet; photo by Kokyat.
Friday February 10, 2012 - Over the past few seasons, Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet have carved out a special niche for themselves on the Gotham dance scene. Dancing in a salon setting with live music, Miro's troupe offer an intimate look at the connection between the choreography and the score. On this evening's programme, works by three choreographers were danced to music ranging from Handel to Michael Nyman. New Chamber Ballet tend to favor contemporary composers; Miro pointed out tonight that in the public's mind anything written within the last 60 years in the classical music genre is considered 'contemporary'.
A fast-paced and demanding solo created by choreographer Emery LeCrone for dancer Sarah Atkins (above) opened the evening; entitled CAPRICE, the dancer is accompanied by violinist Miranda Cuckson playing from Michael Nyman's Zoo Caprices. The music suggests Bach with a jagged edge; Emery sets high demands on her dancer in terms of both stamina and artistry, and Sarah carried it off to perfection.
Sustained applause would have called the dancer back for a solo bow but - as often happens at New Chamber Ballet - Sarah was already off changing for the next work.
In the first of three trios choreographed by Miro Magloire, pianist Taka Kigawa (above) played three short works for solo piano by Luciano Berio. The pianist's mastery of this intricate music - and later of Stockhausen and Feldman - underscored the success of the evening. The ballet is entitled LEISE, LEISE (Softly, softly) but it has nothing to do with the famous soprano aria from DER FREISCHUTZ.
The three women in LEISE, LEISE are Sarah Atkins and Katie Gibson (above)...
...and New Chamber Ballet debutante Holly Curran (above). In this lyrical ballet the dancers sit in silent readiness, each rising to dance in turn. They might be sisters, and we are unsure of their feelings for one another though their are hints of darker emotions beneath the surface. The mystery holds til the end, with the pianist maintaining the hushed atmosphere of a small domestic world held in a delicate balance.
Above: Katie Gibson and Holly Curran in LEISE, LEISE.
In Miro's new solo balet SPIEGELEIN (Little Mirror), dancer Victoria North celebrated both her birthday and Valentine's Day in a pretty pale-rose-and-white frock created by costumier Candace Thompson. With Ms. Cuckson and Mr. Kigawa playing a melodious Handel sonata from the sidelines, Victoria moved with the self-awareness of a pretty young woman slyly observing herself in a mirror.
Above: Victoria North in SPIEGELEIN.
Karlheinz Stockhausen is a composer Miro very much admires and the composer's music as played by Taka Kigawa set the scene for the evening's second trio entitled EMILIA. Again, unsorted relationships seem to be the theme but this work is altogether more ominous than LEISE, LEISE. Elizabeth Brown and Katie Gibson, above...
...and Sarah Atkins (above) are the points of a complex romantic triangle. Clad in black trousers, Katie and Sarah appear to be the men in Emilia/Elizabeth's life.
Emilia (Elizabeth Brown, above) ponders her troubling emotions...
...before taking her revenge (Elizabeth and Sarah, above).
Guest choreographer Constantine Baecher (above) from the Royal Danish Ballet has created a new duet entitled SLOW DANCING TO KURT WEILL for himself and his longtime colleague Elizabeth Brown. Before the piece started, Miro invited the audience to surround the dancing-space and view the duet in the round.
The two dancers are already waltzing slowly in silence as Ms. Cuckson and Mr. Kigawa strike up a sentimental Weill tune from Lady In The Dark.
They dreamily savour their reverie...
...before turning playful. The two dancers then take over the space, chasing one another and laughing out loud at the sheer joy of being with one another.
As the musicians move to 'Lonely House' from Street Scene...
...things become antagonistic. In a fit of rage, Constantine yells at Elizabeth and violetly pushes her away. She pounds savagely on his chest.
But in the end they settle back into their mutually amorous state. The Brown/Baecher partnership sizzles with an electrical current of charismatic chemistry; they dance with an almost reckless abandon and a complete sense of mutual trust.
For the evening's final work and its third trio, Ms. Cuckson and Mr. Kigawa (above) play Morton Feldman sparse and mysterious A Spring of Chosroes as the setting for GHOST STORIES.
Dancers Holly Curran and Victoria North (above) appear in this murder-mystery ballet along with Sarah Atkins.
It is a work about forces seen and unseen in which the glamorous ghost Victoria (above) stalks her unsuspecting prey...
...Holly Curran, who is aware of supernatural forces around her but can do nothing to stave off the inevitable.
Above, Holly Curran and Victoria North in GHOST STORIES.
Over their recent seasons New Chamber Ballet have built up an audience of dance-goers seeking unique blendings of music and movement; their next performances are slated for March 30th and 31st.
All photography by Kokyat.
