Wednesday October 27, 2010 - New York City Ballet dancer and rising choreographer Justin Peck invited me to watch a rehearsal of the ballet he is creating for the upcoming performances of the New York Choreographic Institute (at the Miller Theatre @ Columbia University on November 5th and 6th) Above photo of Justin at work in the studio by Rosalie O'Connor, courtesy NYCI.
Justin's using music of Sufjan Stevens, a composer who inspired Justin's most recent choreographic effort: the duet ENJOY YOUR RABBIT which he danced with NYCB principal Teresa Reichlen at Columbia Ballet Collaborative's performances earlier this year. This duet, along with the ballet QUINTET which Justin created at the NY Choreographic Institute in Autumn 2009 have me thinking of Justin in terms of being a delivering rather than a promising choreographer.
Justin is very fortunate to be dancing at New York City Ballet and to have access both to the dancers of the Company's roster and to the students at SAB as his ballet-building colleagues. For this work, entitled TALES OF A CHINESE ZODIAC, he assembled a really fine group from SAB. I've seen some of these young dancers in class but it's quite different to see them actually dancing choreographed patterns. Justin apologized for the absence of one key dancer, however the 'substitutes' were both perfectly fine so there was no feeling of anything missing. It was great to see the developing dance-personalities of these students today and to know that it won't be long before we see some of them onstage at NYCB.
What strikes me most about Justin's choreography is his clear and imaginative grasp of structure; I've seen enough aimless dance works to last a lifetime so it's really pleasing to see how Justin creates patterns, breaking the ensemble into smaller groups and organizing passages of visual polyphony. Justin's work is also clear in the Balanchinian theory of 'seeing the music'; he catches the undercurrents of the score without being a slave to metronomic devices. This gives the work a fresh and vibrant appeal.
The witty aspects of the choreography are not over-played; they seem to occur naturally and thus avoid any feeling of cuteness. In using the established vocabulary of dance, an imaginative choreographer will create original sentences from familiar words. Both here and in his Mendelssohn ballet, that is exactly what Justin is doing.
It's always fun to be in SAB's home at the Rose Building...you never know who might peek into the studio to see what's happening. Today it was Albert Evans.
The dancers Justin is using for the Miller Theatre performances are not the same ones as shown in Ms. O'Connor's photos which were taken at an earlier studio presentation of the work. The current cast has some standouts who I am sure will be noticed by the eagle-eyed fans at the Miller - always in search of new talent.
Here is the announced programme for the Miller Theatre performances:
TALES OF A CHINESE ZODIAC Choreography: Justin Peck Music: Sufjan Stevens Danced by: Students from the School of American Ballet
MANDALA Choreography: Darius Barnes Music: Kyle Blaha Dancers: Ashley Isaacs, Lauren Lovette, Erica Pereira, Kristen Segin; Zachary Catazaro, Chase Finlay, Allen Peiffer and Taylor Stanley
DROPLET Choreography: Jessica Lang Music: Jakub Ciupinski Dancers: Wendy Whelan & Craig Hall
FOR SASCHA Choreography: Marco Goecke Music: Matthew Fuerst* Dancers: Marika Anderson, Gretchen Smith, Daniel Applebaum and Sean Suozzi.
Three short works composed by Daniel Ott:
FALLING Choreography: Larry Keigwin Dancers: Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Antonio Carmena, Joaquin de Luz and Andrew Veyette
SARA SOLO Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon Danced by Sara Mearns
UNTITLED Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky Dancers: Ashley Bouder, Ana Sophia Scheller, David Prottas and Christian Tworzyanski
The performances are November 5th @ 8:00 PM and November 6th @ 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
Ticket information: 212-854-7799
The Miller Theatre is located at Broadway and 116th Street. Take the #1 train right to the door.
Composer Matt Fuerst is a friend and former co-worker of mine. He composed the score for Albert Evans' 2005 ballet BROKEN PROMISE at NYCB.
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