Sunday March 27, 2011 - Down at the DANY studios recently I ran into Alison Cook Beatty, a young dancer who told me that she's working with C Eule Dance and suggested we might like to watch them rehearsing sometime. I got in touch with director/choreographer Caron Eule who told me that her company are preparing for their upcoming tenth-year anniversary performances at Peridancein June. She invited Kokyat and me to drop in at her studio this evening.
Sometimes I think that Kokyat and I must have seen all the beautiful dancers New York City has to offer, but tonight walking in to Caron's studio we found still more we had not previously met, aside from Alison. When we arrived they were working on passages from a new piece ALTERED FIDELITY, set to music of Amir Khosrowpour, which will be featured on their June programme at Peridance.
Meanwhile, costume designer Arturo Vera and costume assistant Megan Grogan were busily measuring and putting finishing touches on the costumes for the new work which were being tried out today. The dancers slipped into this rich-coloured apparel and continued to dance as Kokyat snapped away.
The hour in the studio slipped by so quickly but hopefully we'll get to go back for another studio visit prior to Caron's performances at Peridance in June.
Tuesday March 29, 2011 - Tonight was my first visit to New York City Opera as a member of the press. I've been going to NYCO since 1966; my first evening with them at Lincoln Center was the opening of GIULIO CESARE when Beverly Sills made her sensational splash as Cleopatra. But even before that I had seen the Company on tour up in Syracuse and Oswego NY - I even saw Beverly before she was Beverly, singing Rosalinda in FLEDERMAUS.
Throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s I went to NYCO as often as to the Met; I experienced several operas at the State Theater for the first time: CAPRICCIO, MEFISTOFELE, BALLAD OF BABY DOE, PRINCE IGOR, THE MAKROPOULOS CASE, the Donizetti/Tudor operas and many more. Singers from the Company became top favorites of mine: Maralin Niska, Patricia Brooks, Phyllis Curtin, Johanna Meier, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Beverly Sills, Susanne Marsee, Frances Bible, Beverly Wolff, Placido Domingo, Enrico di Giuseppe, Dominic Cossa, William Chapman, Richard Fredricks, Robert Hale, Norman Treigle.
In recent seasons I have gone less and less to NYCO; of couse the Company have been thru exasperating times of late, but let's hope now that their future will be a bright one. Tonight's triple bill of 20th/21st century works for solo female voice looked fascinating on paper, and I asked my longtime opera-companion Paul to join me.
Aside from the three principal singers and an ensemble of dancers in MONODRAMAS, the key elements of this unusual evening were the direction of Michael Counts, the choreography of Ken Roht, and the conducting of NYCO's stalwart maestro George Manahan. The visual aspects of the evening were the work of video artist Jennifer Steinkamp, motionographer Ada Whitney, and as an homage to laser artist Hiro Yamagata.
There was one aspect of the production that I felt should be re-thought. About ten minutes before the curtain rose, a young man and woman dressed in tuxedos walked onstage before the curtain to pose and gaze about the house with in a somewhat bored manner. When the curtain rose on the Zorn the music didn't start til these two had sauntered around the stage a while, removing the bhurkas of a couple members of the ensemble and then of the soprano. They continued rather pointlessly to participate in the action during the opening work.
After the Zorn there was an interlude in which a digitized film of flowering tree branches (quite lovely) was shown as insects buzzed and chirped quietly. While this alluded to The Woman's lines in the Schoenberg about the garden at evening and the sounds of crickets, it went on a bit too long and then The Couple returned and removed more bhurkas to expose the women of ERWARTUNG in white dresses. All this business seemed stagey and self-consciuous and too drawn out; yet it might have worked had the orchestra then gone directly into the Schoenberg. But instead when the pit lights came up, they took a tuning break. Whatever dramatic connection was being sought between the Zorn and Schoenberg was thus lost. The Couple appeared later in NEITHER but simply as members of the ensemble, thus diluting their (pointless) presence as a link between the three works. In general, the movement group added a shifting visual dynamic to the staging; it would have been more potent in my opinion to maintain this 'choral' effect rather than trying to interject them as individuals into the 'plot'.
Beyond this each work was uniquely and impessively staged, the orchestra dealt persuasively with all the demands placed on them, and the three sopranos did their utmost to assure the success of the evening. The audience were extremely attentive and focused; why can't NYCB audiences behave like this?
The evening opened with John Zorn's LA MACHINE DE L'ETRE, having its staged premiere in these performances. In this rather brief wordless piece, the Finnish soprano Anu Komsi gave a truly impressive rendering of the demanding vocal line. Jagged coloratura roulades occupy the vocalist for most of the work's duration; she also whispers, speaks and screams. There is no plot, no meaning, no message other than the music itself - colorfully orchestrated with piano, celesta and a variety of percussion effects.
Backed by a 'chorus' of bhurka-clad dancers, Ms Komsi not only sang compellingly but moved with statuesque grace. I'd love see her again in a more familiar piece, the better to judge her capabilities.
Above: Kara Shay Thompson as The Woman in Schoenberg's ERWARTUNG, the only one of tonight's three works with which I am somewhat familiar, having seen a peformance of it at the Met in 1989 with Jessye Norman, James Levine conducting. That production remains vividly in the mind - the stage setting consisted of a grand piano and hundreds of white candles - as does Ms. Norman's powerful singing. Tonight at NYCO, The Woman was portrayed by Kara Shay Thompson whose voice at first seemed more lyrical in quality than one might expect to hear in this music. She proved however to be an accomplished vocalist, taking the demands of the piece in stride.
Red rose petals fell gorgeously against the deep blue sky throughout this piece in which a deranged woman wanders thru the woods in the depths of night, seeking her lover. She stumbles upon him...literally; his corpse has been abandoned on the forest path. The Woman speaks of another Woman, a rival. Which of them is the murderer? Or are they one and the same?
Schoenberg wrote of his work: "In Erwartungthe aim is to represent in slow motion everything that occurs during a single second of maximum spiritual excitement, stretching it out to half an hour." Based on a case study of Freud, The Woman's multiple personalities are here evoked by six identically dressed woman who cunningly slip down a trap door as the opera draws to a close.
When I worked at Tower, Morton Feldman's NEITHER was a much-sought-after item; the one existing recording at the time came and went from the distributor with maddening uncertainty. If a definitive recording were to be made today, it should most surely feature Cyndia Sieden who tonight turned the fiendish vocal writing of the work into a personal tour de force. The libretto of NEITHER is actually a poem by Samuel Beckett:
"to and fro in shadow from inner to outer shadow -- from impenetrable self to impenetrable unself by way of neither -- as between two lit refuges whose doors once neared gently close, once away turned from gently part again -- beckoned back and forth and turned away -- heedless of the way, intent on the one gleam or the other -- unheard footfalls only sound -- till at last halt for good, absent for good from self and other -- then no sound -- then gently light unfading on that unheeded neither -- unspeakable home"
Feldman met Beckett in Berlin in 1976 and asked the writer to provide a text for a vocal work commissioned by the Rome Opera. After replying that he didn't like having his words set to music, Beckett finally agreed to style a brief libretto based on "the theme of my life". He mailed Feldman the poem a few weeks later; the composer meanwhile had already started to write the music. The result, nearly an hour-long, is a unique and challenging work - challenging both the singer and the listener.
New York City Opera's visually rich production sets the protagonist and 'chorus' surrounded by high walls of textured reflective material above which are suspended mirrored cubes which fall and rise above the action. The cubes reflect dazzling light into the auditorium while the walls are illuminated in rich hues: green, mauve, yellow, red, purple by turn. In this dreamlike space the tuxedoed choristers move with stylized gestures as Ms. Sieden, in a striking black gown with train, takes on the aspect of a priestess.
I first heard Ms. Sieden singing Mozart in the film ANDRE'S MOTHER; later she was a Met Lulu and Queen of Night. It was exciting to re-connect with her tonight and find her on such thrilling form. The vocal writing lingers in a very high tessitura - clarity of diction cannot thus be expected, and the super-titles here compensated - and Ms. Sieden proved not only a mistress of the heights but also produced tone of unusual beauty, almost sweetness, with some lovely taperings of dynamic.
Watch a video featuring the three protagonists of the MONODRAMAShere. Three performances remain to catch this unusually powerful and rewarding triple-bill of music and theatre: March 31, April 2 matinee and April 8.
Production photos by Carol Rosegg, courtesy of New York City Opera.
Above: Mariana Cardenas of Jennifer Muller/The Works photographed by Matt Murphy.
Friday March 25, 2011 - THE WHITE ROOM is an evening-length creation by Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS which will premiere at the Cedar Lake Theater on June 22nd. We have been following the creative process of this piece since April 2010 when we were invited into The White Room for the first time. In October 2010, Kokyat and I went back to Jennifer's studio again to see how the work was evolving.
Today I asked photographer Matt Murphy to join me for a third visit as Jennifer prepared to show us newly-created scenes from the second act of THE WHITE ROOM. This dramatic dancework, to a score compiled from various works featuring the cello, runs an emotional gamut from violence to tenderness. Power (and the corrupting influence of power), deceit, passion, despair and the myriad facets of human relationships are depicted by Jennifer's brilliant ensemble of dancers who move with a distinctive combination of raw physicality and spiritual grace thru her demanding steps and often harrowing dramatic situations.
One of the most exciting aspects of a visit to Jennifer Muller's studio is that her dancers go into full performance mode, giving unsparingly of themselves both from a technical and an emotional standpoint. Above: Elizabeth Disharoon and Pascal Rekoert. Since I began blogging I have had many wonderful experiences of getting close to dance both figuratively and literally. That is especially true at Jennifer's studio where the intensity of the atmosphere seems to put the viewer in the very center of the dance.
Matt produced a beautiful portfolio of images from the rehearsal which I think reflect the generosity of spirit that the choreographer and dancers of Jennifer Muller/The Works always evince.
The men of the Company
Seiko Fujita
Abdul Latif, Elizabeth Disharoon
Jen Peters
Gen Hashimoto
Rosie Lani Fiedelman
Elizabeth Disharoon, Pascal Rekoert
Ensemble with masques
Elizabeth Disharoon and ensemble
Pascal Rekoert
Rosie Lani Fiedelman
Dancers watching dancers: Mariana Cardenas, Duane Gosa, Jen Peters, Mario Bermudez Gil and Seiko Fugita.
When I mentioned to my friend JR that TAKE Dance would be performing SAKURA SAKURA at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC on March 26th, I thought it would be something that she'd enjoy watching. But she decided to try her hand at dance photography (for the first time) and arranged with the Festival to shoot the performance. Here are some of her images:
Gina Ianni, Nana Tsuda Misko
Nana & Gina
Gina Ianni, Lynda Senisi
Nana Tsuda Misko, Marie Zvosec
Kristen Arnold
Jill Echo, Marie Zvosec
Nana, Marie, Lynda, Jill, Gina
SAKURA SAKURA (Cherry Blossoms) was created in 2005 by Takehiro Ueyama and is set for six women to traditional Japanese music and Mozart; it's a perfect Festival piece for its ritualistic feeling and its clarity of expression.
TAKE Dance will premiere their newest work, SALARYMAN, at Dance Theater Workshop May 18th - 21st. Information here.
Saturday March 26, 2011 - Choreographer John-Mark Owen invited us to watch a rehearsal of his newest work, Sonatae II, set to music of Alexander Balanescu. The duet will be shown at the 92nd Street Y on Sunday March 27th at 3:00 PM. The dancers are Jennifer Goodman and Josh Christopher, above in Kokyat's photo.
When Kokyat and I arrived at the studio, Jennifer and Josh were putting the finishing touches on the duet.
They worked in silence with John-Mark and all the movement seemed so expressive. With a performance scheduled for the following afternoon one might have expected an atmosphere of urgency or even panic in the studio but instead there was an air of calm with the dancers taking their time to perfect the small nuances of gesture and expression that John-Mark was looking for.
With the studio time running out, John-Mark played the Balanescu music and what had been an attractive series of danced passages took on a deeper and more intense feeling altogether.
The music is just so poetic, and the dancing took wing on it.
As soon as the run-thru finished the dancers quickly bundled up and packed off to the Y for further rehearsing. All photos: Kokyat.
Jennifer Goodman is currently dancing a featured role in performances of Strauss' CAPRICCIO at the Metropolitan Opera.
On May 6th and 7th, John-Mark Owen's Sonatae I will be performed by Jesse Marks at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center on a programme shared with the Island Moving Company of Newport, RI.
Jonathan Ollivier and Gabrielle Lamb (photographed by Kokyat, above) are among the dancers who will appear with MORPHOSES in their current season which will feature the New York City premiere of Luca Veggetti's BACCHAE in October.
Kokyat and I were invited to the final afternoon of the audition process where he photographed some of dancers who will be part of the MORPHOSES Company for the Veggetti project:
Willy Laury and Yusha-Marie Sorzano
Luca demonstrating with Gabrielle Lamb
Luca working with Jonathan Ollivier
Luca coaching Sarah Atkins
Jonathan Ollivier, Gabrielle Lamb
Willy Laury, Yusha-Marie Sorzano
On March 20th two of the other Company dancers, Frances Chiaverini and Emma Pfaeffle (above) participated in a demonstration of a special platform that will be part of the MORPHOSES staging.
The complete roster of dancers for MORPHOSES 2011 will be:
Sarah Atkins
Yusha-Marie Sorzano
Brittany Keefe
Frances Chiaverini
Gabrielle Lamb
Emma Pfaeffle
Christopher Bordenave
Brandon Cournay
Willy Laury
Morgan Lugo
Jonathan Ollivier
Kokyat and I plan to follow the various stages of the creation of BACCHAE for my blog and we are very grateful to Lourdes Lopez and Luca Veggetti for opening their studio doors to us.
Thursday March 24, 2011 - The Playground was founded by Loni Landon (above) and Gregory Dolbashian as a dance laboratory where choreographers and dancers can meet in an informal setting to explore movement ideas and share in a creative process, all at a price so reasonable that it's almost impossible to resist. Over the past few weeks at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center some wonderful young dancers have reaped the benefits of working with choreographers like Bennyroyce Royon, Alexander Ekman and Emery LeCrone. I went once a week, always wishing that I was participating rather than observing.
It's great to walk into a studio and see so many familiar faces; aside from Gregory and Loni, Cat Cogliandro, Christopher Adams, Giorgia Bovo, Marie Zvosec and Lynda Senisi (both of TAKE Dance) and Lauren Birnbaum were all taking the class.
Gregory started things off with a slow warm-up, commencing on the floor and then having the dancers rise to "awaken the space and fill it...": what a nice image that evokes.
In small groups, a tactile passage got everyone on the same wave-length...
...then Loni and Gregory (above) started with phrase-making; it was a large class so it took a few run-thrus for everyone to get into it. IBroken down into smaller groups the movement began to illuminate the individual dancers.
Lauren Birnbaum and Giorgia Bovo trying out the phrase.
Gregory and Loni then split the group in two and commenced on an exercise called Adjective/Action. Half the dancers were assigned adjectives and the other half were assigned specified actions. Each dancer had time to work out a movement-sentence based on their word or activity and employing the stylistic tone of the phrase they'd just been taught.
Lauren Birnbaum working on the improvisation.
Then the dancers were called to the center of the floor in pairs - one 'Adjective' and one 'Action' per couple. They each ran their improv standing a few feet apart; then they were told to transform them into an intimate duet. The results were exciting to watch, with some real chemistry and energy flowing between the participants. Contemporary-style dancers are so good at improv and I found out from talking to some of them afterward that they really love doing it.
It's been a great run for The Playground @ MMAC this month. I appreciate the access that Loni and Greg gave me and wish I could have gone more often. Here are a few more photos from today:
Cat and Lynda did a teriffic improv-duet. Sorry the photo is so fuzzy.
FOREVERis a 2007 documentary film by Heddy Honigmann in which the filmmaker observes the comings and goings of visitors to Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. She strikes up conversations with some of them, asking what has brought them to this garden of the dead. A few stories are pursued beyond the gates of the cemetery: a young Japanese concert pianist who feels a special connection with Chopin; an embalmer who finds inspiration in the paintings of Amadeo Modigliani for his restorative work. Top photo: the tomb of Modigliani where the painter rests with his lover, Jeanne Hebuterne who committed suicide the day after Modigliani's death. Photo by Kokyat.
The stories of the famous people buried at Pere Lachaise and of the people drawn to their tombs are of course fascinating - a young Korean man with no French or English visits the grave of Proust; a Parisian woman takes it upon herself to tend the tombs of poets buried there.
But even more touching are the stories told by people who have come to Pere Lachaise to visit their long-dead spouses, parents, lovers...or the resting places of a total stranger. One gentleman tells of his random discovery of the tomb of a young Israeli-French chanteuse Danielle Messia who died at age 29 leaving behind only two recorded albums. He found the recordings, was entranced by her voice and visits her grave often; only once has he found any sign that someone else has been to this forgotten monument.
One of Kokyat's image from Pere Lachaise from his visit to Paris in 2009. Although the film lingers on the poetic atmosphere of death that pervades the cemetery, many of the stories curiously evoke uplifting sentiments of hope and tranquility.