Sunday April 3, 2011 - Matthew Westerby (above) is a dancer and choreographer from Portsmouth, England. He's been working here in New York City for the past six years and he will be presenting a programme of five works at Speyer Hall, University Settlement on April 15th and 16th.
Matthew invited Kokyat and me to his rehearsal at the DANY studios (a really nice dance complex on West 38th Street) on Sunday evening; we walked into the studio to find a roomful of young dancers putting some finishing touches on an exciting new piece called COURT, danced to a fantastic score by Karl Jenkins. COURT, inspired by England's Elizabethan period, is a non-stop swirl of motion calling upon deep resources of energy from the dancers. The opening movement of this piece, with its habanera pacing, really grabbed by attention.
After a brief break for the dancers to catch their breath and get hydrated, Matthew ran his entire programme for us. In addition to COURT there is another Karl Jenkins piece entitled WATERSHED MOMENT. STRICKEN, a work for the full Company, uses music by Coppe and Basement Jaxx. In the lirico-dramatic duet SLOW FALL, Radical Fashion provide the music. A lively quartet to songs by Pink Martini has a Spanish feel: this is HELL HATH NO FURY.
Here are some of Kokyat's images of Matthew's dynamic dancers:
Dylan Baker
Kristin Licata and Bafana Matea
Amanda Gavan
Dylan Baker
Amanda Gavan
Amanda Gavan, Hannah Marie Corbin
Dylan Baker, Hannah Marie Corbin
Matthew Westerby, Alessandra Larson
Dylan Baker and Bafana Matea; the boys were trying out the Tudor-era ruff collars that are part of the costuming for COURT.
Mandy Sau-Yi Chan
Hannah Marie Corbin
All photos by Kokyat.
Here is the performance information:
Ah, Karl Jenkins! I love his music, and it should be great to dance to.
Posted by: EMartin | April 04, 2011 at 04:15 PM