Tuesday November 16, 2010 - Attila Joey Csiki is a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. This evening in the studio with pianist Kathleen Tagg, Attila was rehearsing a trio of solos from Lubovitch's Little Rhapsodies for an upcomg gala benefiting The Trevor Project, an on-line site involved in suicide prevention and counseling for young gays and lesbians. The celebratory concert takes place on November 22nd at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 60th Street at Columbus Avenue.
Attila and his Lubovitch colleagues will be performing this coming weekend at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Details here. Atter finishing a long day of Lubovitch rehearsals, Attila came up to Ballet Hispanico to work on his solos for the benefit. Photographer Brian Krontz and I found Attila and Kathleen by following the sounds of Robert Schumann floating out from the studio.
Brian started shooting while I simply sat and savoured Kathleen's gorgeously emotional playing and the sight of the lithe and lyrical dancer moving across the floor with a sense of quiet rapture. How wonderful to have live music to dance to! Attila and Kathleen, who had never worked together before, quickly agreed on some subtle tempo shifts which allowed Attila's phasing of the steps to acquire maximum expressiveness. With a recording, the dancer has just a shade less interpretive freedom. In this collaboration, both dancer and pianist seemed to flourish.
After working on individual phrases, Attila took a short break and then danced thru the three solos. The Lubovitch choreography calls for extraordinary fluidity of movement, flowing port de bras and a buoyant lightness in covering the space: dancer and dance are perfectly matched.
Earlier this year, Attila and Christopher Vo performed Lar's powerful Dogs of War at City Center; I felt awed by their intense performance which remains clear in the memory. I was grateful for tonight's opportunity to watch Attila at work in the studio.
Midway thru the rehearsal, dancer Jonathan Alsberry came in to watch his Lubovitch colleague rehearsing. At the end of the session, Attila, Kathleen and Jonathan posed for a snapshot.
All photos by Brian Krontz.
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