Choreographer Roman Baca (above) is featured in this NPR segment discussing his newly-created HOMECOMING, a dance piece which deals with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on an intimate and personal level. Marine Sergeant Baca is possibly the only man who has served in Iraq with the ballet background to create such a work. Earlier this month Kokyat and I attended a rehearsal of part of HOMECOMING.
One of Roman's dancers, Taylor Gordon (above, photo by Kokyat) was recently profiled in the New York Times.
We've seen only a segment of HOMECOMING; I'm looking forward to seeing the entire work and to learning more about Roman Baca's perspective on these wars and the people fighting in them...and those who wait at home.
Sunday July 18, 2010 - Kokyat and I went to Long Island City for the afternoon. We wanted to check out PS1, the Queens branch of MoMA. After a delicious, huge lunch a the Courthouse Diner we went over to the museum...
...which is housed in an old public school building.
The building itself proved the most interesting aspect of the place; in the blistering heat of the courtyard, Idenburg Liu's Pole Dance was installed, winner of the 2010 Young Architect's Program prize. Netting on white poles fills the space; colorful beachballs (top photo) may be tossed or kicked around...
...and there's an alcove with two hammocks which Kokyat tried out. The setting was very summery and amusing but it was far too hot to stay out there for long.
The building itself has many interesting details...
...including a shaftway...
...that is mirrored on the floor. Photographing of the artwork in the museum is forbidden but in truth hardly any of it was memorable. As Kokyat observed most of the works seemed to be by young artists who were obsessed with being provocative but had not yet found their voices. A couple of the galleries were featuring deafening music or spoken word recordings, rather off-putting.
Visually, the graffiti at 5 Pointz was far more intriguing than anything we saw at PS1...
...and anyway, I kind of like graffiti even if many New Yorkers don't.
Here are a few faces from 5 Pointz:
"A bit scary!" as Kokyat observed.
The elevated rail tracks...
...cast shadows below.
We ended up over by the Citigroup Building where we found a wonderfully breezy spot on a park bench in the white birch grove and Kokyat dozed off while I...
...tried different perspectives of photographing the tallest building in the Boroughs outside of Manhattan.
After this relaxing interlude...
...we went back to catch the #7 into Manhattan, enjoying the mixture of old and new architecture as we walked along the nearly abandoned streets.
Here are some images from Gallim Dance's recent open rehearsal of their upcoming premiere work WONDERLAND. The rehearsal was held at the Jewish Community Center on July 14th. Photos by Hilary Johnson.
Paula Alonso and slumbering colleagues.
Arika Yamada with the ensemble.
Moment of repose.
Gallim Dance will present WONDERLAND at The Joyce on August 9, 11, 13 and 14. Details here.
July 17, 2010 - On this very hot Saturday Kokyat went to Coney Island and photographed in black and white. He sent me some of his pictures and these four images I thought were especially striking.
Click on the first two images (above and immediately below) to enhance.
Earlier in the week, while in Manhattan, he captured this evocative summer-evening moment:
There's a page of Kokyat's dance photographs on Facebook.
A few more images from our visit to the Met on July 16, 2010. Above: Clytie by William Henry Rinehart (1872).
The Libyan Sybil by William Wetmore Story (1861).
Memory by Daniel Chester French, 1880s revised in 1909.
Summer by Aristide Maillol c. 1911.
Detail from a fireplace mantel in one of the period rooms.
Detail from a clock. Wandering the Met galleries, I am often intrigued by these faces staring back at me from out of the past. I wonder who the models were (or were they carved from the artist's imagination?), what their stories were, and whether they ever imagined that people would by pondering their visages decades or even centuries hence.
Friday July 16, 2010 - Kokyat and I went to the Met Museum mainly to check out the bamboo installation on the roof. It's nice, but so crowded with people sipping cocktails that we only stayed up there a couple of minutes. But no trip to the Met Museum is ever wasted and both Kokyat and I took a lot of photos. Here are a few of the faces we saw: at the top, a detail from a table in one of the period rooms. The photos here are by me, I am hoping he will send me some of his images from the visit.
Venus, the first of three iconic figures carved in marble by Antonio Canova. These date from the first quarter of the 19th century and further include...
...Paris...
...and Perseus.
Young Archer, attributed to Michelangelo, in the Spanish Garden.
The Nymph of Dampierre by Louis-Claude Vasse c. 1761, detail of a fountain.
I first discovered the young ballerina Puanani Brown when she appeared in a video I found at the New York Choreographic Institute website. (You can still find her there, though there is no direct link). There was something so lovely about her dancing and persona in that short film; I must have watched it a dozen times. At that time, Puanani was a student at SAB and the students were often tapped to appear in the Choreographic Institute programmes.
Following a natural course of events, Puanani became an apprentice at New York City Ballet and her dancing caught my eye at several performances. Things seemed propitious but then she vanished inexplicably and I heard from friends that she had gone to Harvard after NYCB did not extend a contract offer.
From time to time there have been young dancers who - it seemed to me - were poised to make their mark at NYCB and then for some reason they disappeared. Puanani was one of these dancers and something told me we hadn't seen the last of her. She and I recently connected on Facebook and she brought me up to date:
"I had deferred from Harvard to dance with NYCB, and so that is where I
was fall '08. While students can only defer from Harvard a year
initially (before losing their place) but if you go for just one semester
you secure your place and can defer indefinitely. I stayed all of
freshman year. I knew I still loved dancing...but I wasn't sure I had it in me to go back,
and I was happy (and safe) at Harvard. In the end I knew I wasn't
done dancing and so I left after freshman year to start training for
company auditions.
To make a long story short, after a summer at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Darla
Hoover invited me to continue training with her in NYC where I enrolled
as a full time student at Ballet Academy East last Fall. I auditioned for ABT in late
February 2010, and signed as a full corps member (thru the Met season)
about a week later. Then in June I was offered a full corps contract with
the Company for next year, which I was obviously so excited, honored and grateful to accept."
A great story, I thought, and something I'd want to put on my blog. In preparing to post it, I wanted the dancer to expand on a couple of topics:
~ I asked Puanani to tell me a little more about Ballet Academy East, and to compare it to SAB. She replied:
"As far as style goes, the difference between SAB and BAE is that BAE is
not a Balanchine school. While Darla Hoover, Peter Frame, and Stacey
Caddell (all former NYCB dancers) teach at BAE, there is also a strong
classical representation with Cheryl Yeager and Olga Dvorovenko (among
others). Also, BAE really stresses technique above style. It is a
smaller school where I was able to take 2-3 classes a day with a great
deal of personal attention."
~ I wanted to know more about the teachers who Puanani felt had made a special impact on her dancing:
"I have really been blessed with a great many wonderful teachers and
mentors who have inspired me. Mary Day (founder of the Washington
School of Ballet) taught me to always strive for excellence and quality,
and that talent is the ability to work.
Patricia Berrend (who
coached me to actually win competitions when I was 14 and 15 years old)
taught me the importance of humility, reminding me after every
competition to not 'get a big head'.
When I moved to NYC, the teachers that I had at SAB (more specifically
Suzie Pilarre, Kay Mazzo, Suki Schorer, and Katrina Killian) made a huge
impact on my dancing. In the three years that I trained at SAB, they
really pushed me to discover a level of artistry, speed, strength, and
freedom that I didn't know I had in me.
Last, but absolutely not least,
Darla Hoover. Darla has been a constant source of strength and
encouragement for me over the past few years. She saw something in me, she was always there for me and she believed in
me when I was reluctant to believe in myself. And she continued to believe
in me when I was at Harvard where she gave me the strength and encouragement
I needed to consider returning to ballet. When I left Harvard, she took
me into her school at BAE without question. Words can not describe the
gratitude I have for her as she helped restore my joy and courage to
dance."
~ The process of auditioning for a major ballet company has always intrigued me and I asked Puanani to tell me about auditioning for ABT. Here's her story:
"In order to audition for ABT you must submit a video and
your resume before being invited to take company class. I submitted the
most recent video I had (Mary Day's Snow Pas de Deux that I performed
guesting in December 2009...linked below). After my first class with ABT, Kevin
McKenzie spoke with me just briefly. He told me that while I still had
to regain strength after my year away, he felt confident that I could do it. He also told me that I had a beautiful quality of
movement about me and that I was a good fit for the Company. While there
would be no openings until June, he encouraged me to continue to come
take Company class whenever I had the chance. I came back the next week
(the last Thursday of February), with very little hope or expectations.
Later that day I received notification to call in the next morning to
speak with Kevin McKenzie. In this conversation he told me that a place
had opened up and they needed someone to start immediately. He invited
me to come in the next morning (Saturday) to sign my contract to
start working and rehearsing with the Company the following Tuesday.
From the
start, ABT has felt like a better fit for me. Not only am I
constantly inspired by the extraordinary dancers I work with, I am
really grateful for the trust and encouragement that I've received from
the administration (Kevin and the ballet mistresses and masters here). I
am new but can tell this is a really special Company and I am looking
forward to the coming years."
What struck me in the preceding paragraphs was Kevin McKenzie's remark about Puanani's "beautiful quality of movement"; that's exactly what I felt right from the first time I saw her on that Choreographic Institute film clip and that's why her dancing always lingers in my mind.
Puanani danced with ABT during the Met season that just ended. She appeared in the SWAN LAKE that Kokyat and I attended and here she is (in Kokyat's photo, above) during the curtain calls, front row at the right. Click on the image to enlarge.
Watch a video of Puanani dancing the Snow pas de deux in Mary Day's production of THE NUTCRACKERhere. This is the very film she submitted to ABT to secure her audition.
What has moved me about Puanani's story was her need to dance - something I have heard dancers talk about over the years - and the fact that she was drawn back to it after initial disappointments. I'm so glad she decided to persevere, and I wish her the best.
I came across the DVD of this performance of AIDA from Tokyo 1973 at the Inwood Branch of the Public Library. They rarely have any opera titles here so I grabbed it and just finished watching it. Since I stopped working at Tower I'm completely out of touch with what is being released on CD and DVD these days; I sort of vaguely remember VHS tapes of this performance but I hadn't realized it was out on DVD.
The video quality is pretty good for a live performance of that era. Two great stars of my Last Golden Age of opera appear: Fiorenza Cossotto (photo at the top) as Amneris and Carlo Bergonzi (below) as Radames.
A couple of years prior to this Tokyo performance I saw Cossotto and Bergonzi in these roles at the Met (though not on the same night) and the memories of those performances have remained very clear and strong. On this DVD both singers hold up quite well against my recollections though in the intervening years - each having sung frequently and with their customary generosity - there are tiny signs of the passage of time. But in the face of the outpouring of tone and the beauty and expressiveness of their Italian diction and phrasing, it's wonderful to have this document of their portrayals. There is a black & white film of Cossotto and Bergonzi singing AIDA together at the Arena di Verona in 1966 but visually and sonically the Tokyo performance is vastly preferable, especially as it is a visually attractive production.
Musically things are not always in perfect sync between pit and stage. Oliviero de Fabritiis has fine tempi to offer but there are places where the singers get ahead or behind his beat, inexplicably since all are old hands in these roles.
Cossotto's tremendous instrument - one of the most powerful I ever encountered - spans the range easily. Known for her blazing chest voice and her ease in the high register, Cossotto treats us to magnificent singing from start to finish. She smiles a lot, but I think this is a vocal habit she developed: a singer friend of mine once told me that smiling brightens the tone automatically. Cossotto's passionate delivery and her superb manipulation of the registers is thrilling. After the Judgment Scene, Cossotto is called out for solo bows and the audience goes wild, though not as wild as the night I saw her Amneris at the Met. At that performance there was a prolonged mid-act ovation lasting several minutes and the conductor attempted to start the Tomb Scene several times only to be shouted down, even though Amneris was not permitted to take bows after this scene in that production.
Bergonzi does not attempt his usual diminuendo on the final B-flat of "Celeste Aida" and there are slight, almost imperceptible signs of fatigue in the final scene. But his singing is so sincere and sustained that I got goosebumps listening to him. A year or so after this performance, Bergonzi had a vocal crisis and his top - which was never 100% secure - seemed really imperiled. He managed to repair it and continued singing into the 1990s and even into the 21st century. Bergonzi was a great Verdi stylist; I love watching him sing as he uses his arms and hands to 'send' the voice into the house.
Orianna Santunione is a perfectly viable Aida though not a memorable one; her voice is a bit light in texture for the role and her timbre is not distinctive but she manages pretty well, though she is not at ease on the top-C of "O patria mia". Santunione's best singing comes in the final scene. Piero Mastromei is a burly Amonasro who has the power for the role but sometimes gets over-emphatic. Ivo Vinco is a sturdy Ramfis.
Yoko Morishita is among the ballet soloists. In the Triumphal Scene, Ms. Morishita (not on pointe) and her partner Tetsutaro Shimizu are quite exciting with a couple of one-arm lifts thrown in. The temple scene ritual dance for women garbed in diaphanous black with
gold headdresses is especially nice. Less successful is the the boudoir scene ballet where women in comical/awful blackface and pickaninny costumes tame a lion: with better costuming it might have worked.
Wednesday July 14, 2010 - Gallim Dance are in rehearsal for their August performances at The Joyce of a new work entitled WONDERLAND. Tonight at the Jewish Community Center on Amsterdam Avenue friends of the Company were treated to a preview presentation as excerpts were performed and the creative process discussed in an interview and Q & A with choreographer Andrea Miller.
In WONDERLAND, Ms. Miller explores the pack mentality, an inherent and dangerous element of human instinct. The work was
inspired by Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s installation Head On (photo at top) which Ms. Miller saw at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. The artist depicts a pack of 99 wolves heedlessly following their leader who has crashed into a glass wall.
In her work-in-progress,
Wonderland,the choreographer uses imagery from war, sports, religion, and
communication to depict "...the psychological and physical episodes of a
herd acting as a unit through the uncoordinated behavior of self-serving
individuals. Although moving as a pack is a natural and ongoing
strategy in the animal kingdom, among humans it can indicate a vicious,
desensitized brutality and disregard for humanity – a concept that is at
the core of Wonderland."
Set to a recorded score that evolves from
primitive to electronic to Disney, the work as performed by the Gallim Dancers
is both physically and emotionally charged. In performance an
original lighting design by Vincent Vigilante will also be in play.
Watch a preview video of WONDERLAND in rehearsal here.
A full house watched tonight's rehearsal which opened with four men moving in strikingly athletic combinations to a galloping motif. This gave way to an unexpected rendition of the Mickey Mouse Club theme song in which the dancers joined with riotous expressions of glee: the Mousketeers were in fact a pack phenomenon of the 1950s, a cult of lock-step youngsters marching to Euphoria.
Ms. Miller's juxtapositions of the ominous and the darkly witty were interpreted with power and passion by her excellent troupe of dancers. The choreographer told us that the overall structure for the ensemble is set and she is now concentrating on bringing individual dancers into higher relief in solo passages. She worked on some of these in detail, refining movements and expressions to achieve the rather nightmarish quality that colours the work.
In one of the work's lighter - but still rather unsettling - moments, Troy Ogilvie leads the ensemble. Photo by Hilary Johnson from the JCC event.
The excerpts presented will entice me to see the completed piece: WONDERLAND will be presented at the Joyceon August 9, 11, 13 & 14 as part of a festival of female choreographers. Gallim Dance shares the programme with Camille A Brown, and works by Monica Bill Barnes and Kate Weare are also featured.
I was up in New Haven visiting friends. The place where we always have lunch, Hot Tomato, has morphed into Downtown at the Taft (photo above). The music was kind of loud, even after we asked them to turn it down (they did, but then I think someone kept turning it up) but the blood-red strip steak was really good.
At the British Art Museum, I spotted the above poster for an exhibit that I thought for sure would include some of Theyre Lee Elliott's work...but didn't.
It was, nevertheless, a very appealing collection and I could have spent another hour there, but it was starting to rain so we headed for Claire's where Nancy loved her pomegranate-sangria cooler. I had a delicious chocolate-coconut cake with raspberry glaze.
Whimsical painting on the wall at Claire's.
Nancy is always amenable to being photographed...
...but Ginny is not.
At WaveI found a beautiful (early) birthday gift for my sister and had it wrapped and shipped on the spot.