Tom Gold, former New York City Ballet soloist, invited Kokyat and me to a rehearsal for the upcoming performances in Tel Aviv featuring dancers from the New York City Ballet. The rehearsal was held at City Center studio on Saturday October 16th. Since every dancer on the NYCB roster is like a god or goddess to me, you can imagine how wonderful an experience it was for me to see some of them at close range. And...Tom's dancing! He's doing a really witty, fast-paced Twyla Tharp piece called Junk Duet, dancing with Abi Stafford. Top photo of Tom in his solo.
It's been many years since dancers from New York City Ballet appeared in Tel Aviv, so it's something of a historic event. Merrill Ashley will also be there with Tom's group; she will give a master class and also a lecture about her experiences as a great Balanchine ballerina.
When we arrived, Maria Kowroski (above) was working on Terpsichore's solo from Balanchine's APOLLO. Kokyat is absolutely smitten with Maria since seeing her dance with MORPHOSES in Central Park last summer and more recently in one of her luminous performances of CHACONNE and LUCE NASCOSTA at NYC Ballet.
Amanda Hankes is dancing Polyhymnia in APOLLO at Tel Aviv (Tyler Angle has the title-role and Rebecca Krohn will dance Calliope) and I loved Amanda's interpretation of the 'silencing' solo. Having admired her from afar these past few seasons at NYCB it was so nice to see her dancing today.
Two other City Ballet corps women who are heading to Tel Aviv on the tour are Gretchen Smith (above)...
...and Likolani Brown (above). They are dancing in a new work by Tom: SHANTI.
The great teacher Willy Burmann is ballet master for the tour. Above, Tom and Willy compare notes at the rehearsal.
Willy Burmann can see the tiniest nuances of a step - or the elements of a pose - that would look incredibly beautiful to you and me but that he sees can be made even more beautiful. So he would frequently step in and work with the girls to get just the right look and feel of perfection. Amanda, Willy and Likolani, above.
Abi Stafford arrived for a run-thru of the Tharp duet with Tom. And she'll also be dancing in SHANTI (above).
Tom and Abi make a great team in the Tharp (above). See more photos of them here.
A gallery of more of Kokyat's images from this rehearsal will be found here.
Here is the press release about the Tel Aviv performances:
"As part of the fourth annual Tel Aviv Dance Festival, Works & Process at the Guggenheim and The Suzanne Della Centre for Dance and Theatre in Tel Aviv join forces to present TO DANCE a full evening dance performance featuring dancers from New York City Ballet. The performances will feature George Balanchine’s iconic work Apollo and the spectacular Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. Twyla Tharp’s Junk Duet and the premiere of Tom Gold’s Shanti complete the evening. New York City Ballet principal dancers include Tyler Angle, Maria Kowroski, Sterling Hyltin and Abi Stafford and the Company will also feature Likolani Brown, Tom Gold, Amanda Hankes, Stephen Hanna, Rebecca Krohn, and Gretchen Smith.
In addition to the performances, legendary Balanchine ballerina Merrill Ashley, whom Balanchine choreographed both Ballo della Regina and Ballade for, will present a workshop and lecture and book signing. The workshop will take place on October 21 at 6pm, Ashley will teach and demonstrate the Balanchine technique to advance ballet students—there will be limited seating for members of the public to view the workshop. On October 22 at 11am, Ashley will lecture on her life, her experiences with Balanchine, and the Balanchine technique. Following the lecture, attendees will have the chance to purchase Ashley’s book Dancing for Balanchine and have Ashley sign the book.
This will be the first time in decades that dancers from New York City Ballet will perform in Israel. In 1965, New York City Ballet performed in Israel visiting both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The company has not returned to Israel since. In the early 1980’s Jerome Robbins brought a group of New York City Ballet dancers to Israel, but the group did not perform any Balanchine works."
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