Oberon's Grove: In the Studio with Skybetter & Group Therapy

Saturday August 15, 2009 - Before heading uptown to Central Park for MORPHOSES in the evening, Kokyat and I spent the afternoon at NYU's Tisch Center watching and photographing choreographer Sydney Skybetter (above) working in a studio with his dancers and a newly-formed chamber ensemble, Group Therapy. We saw some of Sydney's work at Dance Theater Workshop earlier this year and were anxious to see more. One of the dancers, Kristen Arnold, also dances with TAKE Dance and just returned all tanned and lovely from a week in Israel.

I arrived a bit early and heard the sounds of the musicians wafting out of the studio window down to the street below. It was a very hot and humid day and I didn't envy the dancers, but the studio was comfortable with large fans blowing and open windows.

The members of Group Therapy are:

Nolan Robertson, violin

Kiersten Cunningham, violin

Nick Revel, viola

Angela Karschney, cello

Jon Rose, piano

In the course of the afternoon they played Dvorak, Gorecki and Shostakovich. There's no denying the degree to which live music enhances dance, especially when played with such polish and clarity as these young musicians displayed. The Dvorak was particularly moving for me to hear today with its achingly melodic flow making me teary-eyed in this highly emotional state I've been in the past few weeks. Teary, but in the good sense.

Kokyat rolled up his jeans and began padding around the room barefooted; I love watching him work and am envious of his skill with the camera.

The dancers are:

Jennifer Jones

Bergen Wheeler

Elliott Reiland & Kristen Arnold.

In addition to choreographing, Sky (my nickname for him) was also dancing. The stark whiteness of the room and the fact that the dancers were all wearing black inspired Kokyat to present these images in black & white.

We watched the dancers warming up, then a rehearsal of parts of three of Skybetter's works. After a break, an invited audience came to watch a run-thru.

Skybetter and Associates will be in residence at Joyce SoHo starting September 15th:

Project Description: skybetter and associates’ Joyce SoHo Artist Residency will be devoted to the creation of Fugue State, a quartet to Shostakovitch’s Quintet For Piano & Strings op. 57 (1940). The company will also work in partnership with the technology firm Design Brooklyn to explore emerging audience engagement methodologies, including rehearsal live-streaming, online archiving and web-based sharing of the choreographic process.

More Skybetter studio photos to follow over the next two days.