After catching up with Lisette Oropesa, who I hadn't seen for months, I passed by Lincoln Center on my way to the subway. They were showing an HD-cast of DOCTOR ATOMIC projected on the Met's facade. The steps leading up from street level to Plaza are ablaze with lights. Welcoming greetings in several languages alternate with listings of coming events, and the names of Lincoln Center's constituent companies are periodically beamed forth.
And what of Lisette? After a super-busy Spring/Summer (ABDUCTION with Welsh National Opera, Nanetta in FALSTAFF at Bilbao, Fiorilla in Rossini's TURCO IN ITALIA at Dusseldorf, ABDUCTION at Tanglewood and Susanna in NOZZE DI FIGARO at Ravinia) she is at the Met having flying lessons for her appearances as Woglinde in the new staging of Wagner's RING Cycle.
Saturday August 28, 2010 - Choreographer Emery LeCrone invited us to her rehearsal at MMAC today for the upcoming performances of her ballet FIVE SONGS FOR PIANO by Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet which take place at City Center Studio on September 18th and 19th. Above: the dancers, Alexandra Blacker at the right. Click on the above image to enlarge.
The ballet was originally created for the Columbia Ballet Collaborative and is set to music of Felix Mendelssohn. Pianist Melody Fader was on hand to play the score 'live' for today's rehearsal; Melody and Emery above. The ballet is set for five women, the dancers being Victoria North, Madeleine Deavenport, Elizabeth Brown, Lauren Toole and a new face at New Chamber Ballet: Alexandra Blacker.
FIVE SONGS FOR PIANO is truly lyrical, taking wing on the music of Mendelssohn which Emery has visualized with clarity of movement and rich emotional undercurrents. One key element of today's rehearsal was the meshing of steps with the right tempo for each movement to show the dancers to best advantage. Adjustments were readily made and Emery also asked Melody for to linger momentarily in a couple of transitional passages to underscore the nuances of a dancer's upper body or port de bras. In a final run-thru, everything seemed to be jelling quite nicely.
Here are some of Kokyat's images from the rehearsal:
Victoria North
Victoria and Emery
Elizabeth Brown
Maddie Deavenport
Lauren Toole
Victoria North, Alexandra Blacker
Victoria North
Melody, Emery and Miro
For New Chamber Ballet's upcoming performances, in addition to Emery's Mendelssohn ballet, there will be a revival of Miro Magloire's Adue
(http://www.newchamberballet.com/rep/adue.html); then Miro's Haydn
ballet (which premiered this past Spring but will be completely re-worked and re-titled), and a new ballet set by Miro to his own music. Melody Fader will be the pianist. Ticket information here.
August 27, 2010 - Another really nice day at the US Open qualifying tournament. Due to the rain earlier in the week, the qualifying rounds will stretch into Saturday and since I have a commitment tomorrow this will be my last visit to the Open for this summer. Above: the Japanese player Tatsuma Ito after his win today.
I watched two full matches and bits of several others today. Tatsuma had really impressed me last summer and I was glad to have a chance to see him play again. He's a no-nonsense player with excellent shot placement and he thrashed his opponent, Chase Buchanan of the USA, with his steady delivery and seriousness of intent. Chase expended too much energy protesting a line call: a waste of time since there's no electronic line monitoring on the outer courts so generally the chair relies on on the linesmen's calls.
But anyway, it was all-Tatsuma and I really enjoyed watching him play.
Then over to watch Kevin Kim putting on an impressive display of tennis talent as he pretty much dominated the Brazilian Caio Zampieri. Despite one game where Kevin's serving went awry, he mostly had everything going in his favor. Speaking of wasting energy, Caio had a few 'mad scenes' over line calls and talked to himself loudly during changeovers. But Kevin was cool and methodical, and he was especially brilliant in three very tricky points at net when he pulled fantastic shots out of his hat.
Speaking of which, when Kevin removed his cap after the match his long hair cascaded down. A couple of Kevin's mates passing by gave his long hair thumbs up.
While Kevin was winning, Kei Nishikori was also winning on an adjacent court, and Yuichi Sugita and Brazil's feisty Julio Silva also posted victories. Shuai Zhang of China succumbed to a strong showing by Mirjana Lucic (once considered a potential powerhouse and now attempting a comeback). Yelena Dokic, another player who started off as a youthful prodigy and whose career has had many ups and downs, did not make it past the first round of qualifying.
I was glad to see later that Lourdes Dominguez Lino won her match today. Ivan Sergeyev and Pedro Clar-Rossello who looked so good yesterday went down to defeat today.
Wednesday August 25, 2010 - I had a great time at the US Open qualifying tournament today: incredible weather, relatively few distractions from the crowd, and some really good tennis. Even though I am dying to go next week to the main tournament I resisted buying a ticket because I keep remembering what awful experiences I've had there the last couple years with cellphones, baby strollers and the overwhelming crowds of inconsiderate spectators.
My first match was Kevin Kim (above) vs Brydan Klein. Things were going really well, the players seemed about evenly matched and each had 3 games on the board when suddenly the bolt that anchors the middle of the net to the court popped out.
Something we've all done: waiting for the repairman.
It took about twenty minutes to get it fixed. Once play resumed, Brydan never got his rhythm back. Kevin's level on the other hand really notched up. He totally dominated the second set, allowing Brydan only one game.
Because of the extended schedule to make up for 2 days of rain, they were rushing players off the courts after each match. There was little opportunity for fans to meet the players or to take post-match photos.
Two big hitters: Ivan Sergeyev of the Ukraine (above) and Vincent Millot of France put on a great, hard-fought battle. My initial impressions favored the Russian...
...but Millot (above) powered thru to win the opening set.
Then Sergeyev settled in and pounded his way to victory.
My discovery for the day was Spain's Pedro Clar-Rossello (above). Tempers flared on both sides of the net as the Spaniard and his Italian opponent Daniele Giorgini each gave operatic outbursts when things displeased them. Pedro showed impressive skills and...
...he prevailed, happily.
China's Shuai Zhang (above) couldn't get her pacing in the first set against Ioana Raluca Olaru but then the tall Chinese woman steadied herself and marched to victory, pummeling her opponent in with a dominating display of skill in the third set.
Two matches that were continuations of rain-interrupted matches from the prior day took only minutes to settle. Yuichi Sugita (above) quickly won the deciding game against his compatriot Go Soeda even though Go opened the finale with a resounding ace. Sugita is swift and crafty; Go was dismayed and pounded his racquet into a twisted mess.
Kei Nishikori (above, leaving court with fans) and Paul Capdeville took longer to warm up than to complete the single game that gave Kei his victory. I really like both players; it's a shame one of them had to lose.
Japanese TV are so good with their coverage of the Japanese players. They were on-court and talking to Sugita (and later to Kei Nishikori) within seconds of the players' handshake.
Another Chinese woman, Xinyun Han (above), has plenty of talent but she could not get far against the...
...steady, confident playing of Columbia's Catalina Castano.
The ballboys have spiffy new Polo outfits. Above: my ballboy of the day...
...who showed good court coverage.
Perhaps in honor of Ken Mehlman's coming out party (duh!) the Open seemed extra gay and cruise-y today. Cute guys everywhere...I loved this guy's top-knot (above)...
...and this dude watching Kei Nishikori and Paul Capdeville battle it out...
...and this kid waiting for the train. I'm getting good at surreptitious photography.
It was so lovely out at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center as evening fell...
..and the sky turned pale purple-blue as the court lights came on.
Troy Schumacher of the New York City Ballet spent part of his summer creating a new piece entitled SATELLITE. Above: Marika Anderson. View videos from the ballet here.
I asked Troy to tell me a little about his ballet. He replied:
"This was a work commissioned by the Satellite Gallery in
conjunction with the Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts in Fremont,
Michigan. I put a group of dancers together including myself, Ashley Laracey, Justin
Peck, Marika Anderson, Lauren King, and Daniel Applebaum. In the first
half of the programme, excerpts from Agon and Barber Violin Concerto as well as the complete Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux were danced.
The music for Satellite was
created by Nick Jaina (piano), Nathan Langston (violin), and Amanda
Lawrence (viola). This was a collaborative process
between the four of us. It started with Bernard Tschumi's Manhattan Transcripts and an epic poem and a 'mood arc' by Kevin Draper. The
musicians and I took those three inspirations and created an initial
structure for the piece that developed as the project continued. What I
found particularly interesting was that each musician also collaborated
to compose their own parts in this piece, which seems to be quite rare. The musicians played live and it was wonderful. And Andrew Scordato of NYCB designed the costumes."
Ashley Laracey and Justin Peck
Lauren King
Daniel Applebaum
Photos by Lora Robertson, used with her kind permission.
UPDATE: Well, they did resume play and managed to finish about half of the matches that had been scheduled for today.
Glad to hear that Japan's Tatsuma Ito advanced; I so enjoyed his playing last year.
China's Xinyun Han also won her opening match.
I'll plan on going tomorrow.
Tuesday August 24, 2010 - I took the #7 train out to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center thinking that the cool, overcast weather might deter some of the hordes of people who seem to come to the US Open for the event rather than for the tennis. Of course, the clouds also meant the risk of rain. But the mid-60s temperatures would be a boon for the players who have sometimes in the past had to play on scorching courts.
I was right: there were fewer spectators in attendance than usual. None of the first matches being played at the 11:00 AM start time were of consuming interest to me, but starting with the second matches on several courts the day looked promising in terms of seeing players I like or wanted to get acquainted with.
So I was wandering from court to court, biding my time while the first matches were played. A few interesting players caught my eye (the diminutive Rika Fujiwara reminded me a lot of Ai Sugiyama and she broke her opponent in the first game) but I continued moving around. Then I ran into Lleyton Hewitt; he was alone - no entourage or minders - and carrying his own huge bag. He smiled, knowing I'd recognized him.
Then, with most matches having gotten only to three or four games, the rain started. Misty at first, the players remained on-court, sitting under umbrellas held by the ballboys. Then it began raining in earnest. The courts were abandoned and spectators sought shelter.
After twenty minutes I decided to leave. I was almost back to the train station when the rain stopped, the clouds seemed to be lifting and the cool wind diminished. I went back to the courts; they were bringing out the drying machines. I knew it would take an hour or two to get the surfaces dried and for play to resume but I thought it worthwhile to stay.
Then it started to rain again...
The top photo is of a test pattern on one of the scoreboards. I didn't even get to take a single 'tennis' photo today...and tennis was one of the main reasons I bought a camera in the first place.
Monday August 23, 2010 - A rainy, cool day: perfect for watching dancers in the studio. Choreographer John-Mark Owen is preparing for an appearance at the DanceNOW Festival on September 9th and today he working with dancer Julie Voshell on his duet Unam Ceylum, set to music of Heinrich Biber.
This was Julie's first rehearsal of this piece and they'd been working on it for a half-hour when I arrived. Julie and John-Mark are great friends so it was a very easy-going, laugh-filled atmosphere. They watched a performance video of the piece and talked their way thru it, then began trying some phrases and marking various passages. In this way, Julie learned the basic structure and key elements of the piece in less than an hour.
It's really interesting to see how dancers assimilate verbal cues and translate them into their own language of movement. John-Mark has scheduled plenty of rehearsal time but I think they'll have the duet at performance level very soon; they can spend the remaining sessions polishing the fine points.
Unam Ceylum is one movement of John-Mark's memorable and deeply personal TRIPTYCH: three duets danced by the same couple which trace the development and dissolving of a relationship. The music is achingly beautiful and the work has an intrinsic spiritual quality.
The studio was rather dark for taking pictures today; I was wishing Kokyat was there with his two cameras. The photos here were shot with my little Lumix.
Friday August 20, 2010 - TAKE Dance offered a two-week summer intensive this year and eighteen young dancers participated, taking daily class from either Take or Jill Echo and then working on pieces from the TAKE Dance repertoire with members of the Company.
Click on the images to enhance.
This afternoon there was a well-attended showcase performance; the participating dancers danced an excerpt from a new piece by Take, somewhat comic in tone, reminding me at times of Snow White's dwarf-pals, or of the goons in PRODIGAL SON. The students stomped, wobbled and swayed...
...and sometimes they took to the floor...
...only to be "revived" by their colleagues.
Emily Chapo, Sylvana Tapia
The dancers then split into two groups to perform an excerpt from Take's recent success, FLIGHT.
The segment being performed today uses music of Philip Glass and I especially like one stretch of the work where the music's going very fast and the dancers are moving very slowly. Take is one of the few choreographers who could pull this off convincingly.
Here are a few more of Kokyat's images from the afternoon:
Sophie Bromberg
Jasmine Saunders, Iwalani Martin
Grace Sanford, Corinna Phillips, Alex Rodabaugh
Grace Sanford
Susan Ponomarenko, Natalie Walters, Sylvana Tapia
Kelsey Berry, Lauren Calzolaio, Sophie Bromberg
Kelsey Berry, Emily Chapo, Andrea Dispenziere
Ensemble in FLIGHT
A big round of applause for all the Intensive participants.
TAKE Dance will appear at the DanceNOW Festival on September 11th, and they will collaborate with the composers of PULSE for performances at Judson Memorial Church on October 14th and 15th; further details of this collaboration will follow.
Saturday August 21, 2010 - Kokyat and I went over to Governors Island today. The very brief boat ride (it leaves from South Ferry, right next to the Staten Island ferry pier) barely takes five minutes. You step off into a crowd of bicyclists, strollered infants and somewhat dazed tourists all of whom have come over from the bigger island of Manhattan. Although there are many buildings (including a hospital and 3 churches), private homes and apartment units on Governors Island, no one lives there.
The Dutch lost New Amsterdam to the British who re-named it New York and then lost control of it during the Revolutionary War. It remained an army post, served as a prison for captured Confederate soldiers during the Civil War, and in 1966 became a Coast Guard station until 1995 when the Coast Guard closed the facility and all personnel were evacuated and re-assigned.
Buildings from various periods (some dating back to the 17th century) cover the northern end of the island and for the most part all stand empty save for a few used by the Parks Department, a small Children's Museum and a gift shop. It seems a colossal waste of living space but the deed transferring ownership from the Coast Guard to the City prohibits permanent housing or the establishment of casinos on Governors Island.
So it is rather like wandering around a ghost town; we peered into windows of the most recent structures (utilitarian apartment buildings) to see electric stoves and baseboard heating. A beautiful street lined with yellow houses (above) stand empty.
Kokyat and I thought we'd love to live in this little cottage.
St. Cornelius Chapel was our favorite place on the island. In the darkly shadowed interior the pews have been ripped out and the baptismal font sealed closed. Yet one could almost imagine the sound of a choir singing or a bride arriving in the vestibule for a military wedding.
There is a carillon...I wonder when it last sounded?
Lovely stained glass...
The angel Gabriel looks pensive.
There seems to be an accommodation for the Jewish population but no sign of a mosque, which I suppose is just as well given that 127% of New Yorkers are opposed to a mosque (and to everything else) at this point.
Flowers thrive on Governors Island...
...and there is a beautiful, stately row of London plane trees.
From time to time one comes upon plaques marking various aspects of the island's history.
There are also some rather nice pieces of sculpture: above, Matador's Cape by David Curt Morris...
...Quixotic Aquatic Erotica by Robert Michael Smith...
...and Commando by Mary Ellen Scherl which we especially liked.
Another view of Commando.
The hospital...
...and the Governor's house...
...with its descriptive plaque.
A few modern touches crop up here and there...
..and there are places to buy food and beverages (alcohol is prohibited: they search your bags before boarding the ferry to be sure you aren't packing a six-pack),
We did like these red benches which appear throughout the park.
The oldest aspects of the island were the most pleasing, and much of the time I was imagining the people who might have been quartered in the barracks, lived in the yellow houses and sang hymns in the old church.
After a nice outdoor lunch in a breezy spot by the water, we returned to Manhattan.