Pillow Prep: John-Mark Owen

Saturday July 24, 2010 - Choreographer John Mark-Owen is taking an all-male ensemble to Jacob's Pillow on July 30th and this afternoon Kokyat and I went down to the studio at Joyce SoHo to watch a run-thru of the three pieces John-Mark will present. Above: CANZONETTE in rehearsal, danced by John-Mark Owen, Sean Stewart and Ramon Gaitan. Click on the image to enhance.

John-Mark has created a new solo for the young dancer Paul Monaghan (above). Click on the images above and immediately below to enlarge.

Paul, who seems to have stepped out of a Caravaggio canvas, is a unique dancer with a very personal mystique. We arrived at the rehearsal just in time to see him run thru the solo with John-Mark making a few polishings; I'm hoping to see more of this young dancer in the future.

John-Mark hadn't planned on dancing himself at his Pillow presentation but as things turned out, he will be performing in two works: a duet, and CANZONETTE, a trio which he is re-working for three men.

In the duet, John-Mark dances with Ramon Gaitan (above).

More images below of John-Mark and Ramon:

In the trio CANZONETTE (above), John-Mark and Ramon are joined by ABT's Sean Stewart.

More of Kokyat's images from this trio:

Sean Stewart, above.

Rehearsal break.

Ramon and John-Mark cooling off. It was a sweltering day in New York City and with the sun streaming in, the studio was quite warm. Sean wore a glistening layer of perspiration as if it was a costume.  

In 1992, another all-male dance troupe caused something of a scandal at the Pillow. The group, called Men Dancers to honor Ted Shawn's legacy, danced restored works from the Shawn repertory as well as new pieces. In one, the men appeared in white long tutus with nothing underneath; in another piece they danced in the nude. This caused an uproar among the locals who worked themselves into a fit and flooded the Festival with demands that the nudity be banished. They prevailed, and on the second night the men wore black briefs under their tutus and dance belts in the other work. When we attended later in the week, there was talk of nothing else all around the grounds. For myself it was fine since I dislike nudity in a theatrical context because it's so distracting (male strippers at a bar are a different matter) but my friend Tony who had gone to the infamous first night said the effect was really beautiful and he despaired over the victory of the prudes. Meanwhile we heard that there had been a run on the box office after word got around about the initial performance; people who came to see the boys in the buff were disappointed.

I related this story to John-Mark and he laughed, saying there was a clause in his Pillow contract specifically forbidding nudity in the works to be danced.  

Comments

[Melanie Soleil Jaramillo]

beautiful!!!

[Ian Paul]

Wish I could be there!!!