Oberon's Grove

Fall for Dance 2011 Program II

Above: Clifton Brown and Yuan Yuan Tan in Kokyat's image from a rehearsal of Jessica Lang's AMONG THE STARS. More photos from this rehearsal will be found here.

Sunday October 30, 2011 - The Fall for Dance 2011 festival continues with:

PROGRAM II
Vertigo Dance Company, Mana (adapted for Fall for Dance); Noa Wertheim, choreographer
Drew Jacoby, Bloom; Andrea Miller (Artistic Director of Gallim Dance), choreographer
Jessica Lang Dance, Among the Stars; Jessica Lang, choreographer
Richard Alston Dance Company, Roughcut; Richard Alston, choreographer

In Noa Wertheim's MANA (photo above by Gadi Dagon), Vertigo Dance Company from Israel featured eight dancers in dark-toned long tunics, skirts and wide-legged trousers dancing before a beautifully lit silhouette/facade thru the door of which they come and go. With folk-like motifs of circular patterns and casually organized duets, the movement feels both spontaneous and ritualistic. Ran Bagno's mid-East fusion score is rhythmically varied with some quirkly instrumentation; it is pleasantly innocuous and eventually unmemorable. The dancing was excellent and the dancers deserved the enthusiastic response of the audience, but the work would make a more persuasive statement if it were pared down a bit. It gives the impression of someone who goes on talking after his point has already been made.

The imperial contemporary ballerina Drew Jacoby (this year's calendar girl for Fall for Dance, in a Lois Greenfield photo above) then danced a new solo created on her by Gallim Dance's Andrea Miller. Entitled BLOOM, set to music of Radiohead, the solo finds the dancer on a blue-lit stage in a gossamer cerise frock; dancing bare-footed rather than in toe-shoes gives the ballerina a vulnerable look. Swirling thru windswept patterns that propel her around the space, Drew is restless and relentless. Elements of classic ballet technique are subtly spun into the choreography - big jete, attitude turns - and are executed at high velocity. In moments of relative calm the dancer seems aware of the audience but is then propelled on her way again, at times almost against her will. The curtain falls but Drew continues to dance at the lip of the stage and eventually sails back into the re-opened space. The solo personifies the dancer as a force of nature and is a wonderful Drew Jacoby portrait; we get to see Drew again at the Festival in Pontus Lidberg's Faune (November 1st & 2nd).

Yuan Yuan Tan, principal ballerina of San Francisco Ballet, and Clifton Brown, beloved Alvin Ailey star since 1999 and now a guest artist with that Company, created quite a stir as they danced Jessica Lang's mystically luminous duet for star-crossed lovers, AMONG THE STARS. Above, the two dancers at a recent studio rehearsal, photographed by Kokyat.

The duet draws upon the legend (found in many cultures) of Altair, a lowly herdsman who dared to love Vega, daughter of a goddess. They are punished by being transformed into stars separated by the vast river of the Milky Way, But it is said that the Goddess of Heaven, out of pity, decided to let them unite once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month as she was touched by their devotion.

Poetic images of tenderness and longing fill this pas de deux, which Ms. Lang has set to music of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Yuan Yuan Tan and Clifton Brown danced with poignant lyricism, the ballerina's compelling technical mastery wedded to her delicately nuanced gesture and expression while Mr. Brown was the epitome of masculine grace. The audience, spellbound by the piece and by these two magnificent artists, erupted in a frenzied ovation as the dancers stepped forward to bow.

ROUGHCUT, performed by the Richard Alston Dance Company, closed the evening. It was perhaps impossible to imagine something that could follow the sublime dancing of the Lang duet; in the event the Alston piece gave the right counter-balance of mood but stretched out beyond its viability as the choreographer worked to fill the two long Steve Reich pieces with dance. In the end it seemed too much of a good thing.

Clarinetist Roger Heaton and guitarist James Woodrow played the demanding Reich scores live, standing at either side of the proscenium. The nine Alston dancers gave unstinting energy and flair to the choreographer's spirited, driven combinations, soaring about the stage in spacious leaps and turns. There were passages of near-respite in some solo and duet segments but the onrush of movement never abated. As the dancers were rightly hailed at the end, I was thinking how much ROUGHCUT reminded me of some of David Parsons' fast-paced works. But David would have known when to get out the scissors.

AMONG THE STARS/Rehearsal Gallery

These are some of Kokyat's images from a rehearsal of Jessica Lang's pas de deux AMONG THE STARS. The work was being prepared for two performances at New York City Center as part of the 2011 Fall for Dance Festival. Yuan Yuan Tan, principal ballerina from San Francisco Ballet, and Clifton Brown, who danced with the Alvin Ailey Company for over a decade and now appears with them as a guest artist, premiered the duet together in 2010. The music is by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

These images are from a studio rehearsal on October 28, 2011. Details of the Fall for Dance performance of AMONG THE STARS, which drew ecstatic applause from the packed house, will appear here shortly.

All photos by Kokyat.

The Bisley Boy

Over the centuries there have been many unsolved-mystery tales about royal offspring, legitimate or otherwise. Bastard babies of monarchs quietly strangled, starved or sold off; a royal infant who dies in the cradle and is secretly replaced by a serving girl's babe to preserve the succession; twins separated at birth for whatever reason only to meet up again when one is prince and the other pauper. But no such story that I've ever read matches Chris Hunt's fantastical novel of Tudor times: THE BISLEY BOY, which I have just read again after first encountering it a dozen years ago on a shelf at the Different Light bookstore.

The notion that Elizabeth I of England was actually a man goes back centuries; it stemmed from a time when the child Elizabeth was suffering from one of her many bouts of serious illness. Sent to a royal residence in the tiny town of Bisley to recover in the healthy air, she worsened and died...or so the story goes. A village boy of similar build and colouring was smuggled in to take the place of the dead princess, sparing her caretakers the wrath of Henry VIII.

But was it not too convenient that such a lad could be found and the substitution so cleverly made? Novelist Hunt solves this 'problem' by making his Bisley Boy a bastard son of Henry VIII's bastard son Henry Fitzroy. Fitzroy was married at the age of fourteen to Lady Mary Howard and while historically it was believed their union was never consumated, novelist Hunt imagines that the teen-aged Fitzroy fathered a son off Lady Mary. Fitzroy died at the age of 17 in 1536. His baby son, born in the very Bisley residence where Elizabeth came to convalesce, was raised in the house by loyal servants of Fitzroy until his death. Then the boy, at age 2 and known as John Neville, was taken in by a kindly Bisley family. Thus in the small village there was a boy who could believably take the place of Princess Elizabeth: a boy who - like the princess - sprang from a Tudor/Howard union.

John Neville is drawn to the house where he was born but his adoptive father refuses to answer any questions about the place, which now stands empty, and he forbids the boy to go near the royal cottage. But a few years later, sneaking back to his boyhood home, John finds a slender, elfin young girl playing in the walled garden - a girl who looks so much like him it's uncanny. It is the Princess Elizabeth. Katherine Champernowne (later to be famously known by her married name, Kat Ashley) is nursing Elizabeth back to health. Kat and the princess spot the boy and he becomes a playmate for Elizabeth. His adoptive father can say nothing to discourage the set-up since a royal wish is his command. 

One day for a joke, Elizabeth and John change clothes. John, dressed in Elizabeth's gown, fools even the discerning Kat who is astounded by how much John looks like her young charge.

When the princess suddenly takes ill again, withers and dies, the horrified Kat begs John to take the place of the Tudor princess and save the nurse from severe punishment. The boy, tired of Bisley and knowing himself to be a grandson of Henry VIII in his own right, agrees. It's planned only as a temporary ruse, but in fact there is no going back.

Thus the long charade begins: 'Elizabeth' passes muster when meeting her father and siblings as they'd seen her but rarely and of course she'd changed a bit since the last encounter. 'Elizabeth' survives the death of her half-brother Edward and the difficult years when Bloody Mary Tudor rules England in a reign of Catholic terror. Becoming queen, 'Elizabeth' continues the ruse til her death decades later, with only a very few trusted intimates knowing her secret.

The story, though far-fetched, meshes well with several things we know about Elizabeth: her eternal virginity, her refusal to marry, her hatred of physicians, even her eventual hair loss which was disguised by elaborate wigs and headdresses. Over the years (in the novel) faithful serving girls smuggled phials of rabbit's blood into the royal bedchamber, spilling droplets onto the sheets to confirm the queen's periods. 

But what of her rumoured intimacies with Thomas Seymour and later with Robert, Earl of Leicester? In both cases, John Neville/Elizabeth - a beautifully androgynous gay boy with lustful appetites - so intrigues the men while keeping them at arm's length that when 'she' capitulates and reveals her true sex, they each admit to having had boys before ("What else can a man do while at sea?" asks Admiral Tom) and they are thrilled to have one now who also happens to be the most powerful person in the realm. Other dalliances come and go, the queen's aroused state in certain situations disguised by her stiff petticoats and voluminous skirts.

Near the end of John/Elizabeth's life, the impetuous Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, bursts into her bathing chamber and discovers Elizabeth's secret. Already in trouble for suspected treasonous activities against the crown, Essex is condemned to die although if he'd not found her out, Elizabeth, now an old woman in a man's withering body, would most likely have spared him. On the scaffold, he did not betray her secret - he didn't reveal the truth - and he died nobly.

What a film this would make! I even have someone in mind for the title-role.

In conjunction with THE BISLEY BOY I also read Beverley Murphy's BASTARD PRINCE, a factual account of the life of Henry Fitzroy. There seems to be a surprisingly vast amount of documentation about him and the incidents of his short life, culled from sources at the time when he was considered very likely to inherit the English throne. Despite his birth status, it was thought by many that a bastard king was preferable to a legitimately-born queen. The arrival of Prince Edward changed the succession quite decisively, and Henry Fitzroy did not live long enough to pose any threat to Bloody Mary's ascent to the throne following the early death of her half-brother Edward.

Fall for Dance 2011 Program I

Photo: Fabrice Calmels and Victoria Jaiani of The Joffrey Ballet in Edwaard Liang's WOVEN DREAMS.

Thursday October 27, 2011 - At the superbly renovated New York City Center, the annual Fall for Dance festival opened tonight with four companies participating:

PROGRAM I
Mark Morris Dance Group, All Fours, Mark Morris
Lil Buck, The Swan, Lil Buck
Trisha Brown Dance Company, Rogues, Trisha Brown
The Joffrey Ballet, Woven Dreams, choreographed by Edwaard Liang

The main reason I went tonight was to see the Edwaard Liang piece (photo at the top) and I enjoyed every second of his WOVEN DREAMS - and so, it seems, did the rest of the crowd who quietly "ooooohed" and "aaaaahed" throughout the ballet and then lavished the Joffrey dancers with sustained applause at the end. If Edwaard had taken a curtain call, that would have been the crowning touch. But he's too modest. We did see him during intermission and he looks - if possible - handsomer and more fit than ever. I'd give anything to see him dancing again. But the life of a choreographer certainly seems to agree with him, and we need his choreography.

But to start at the beginning of the evening, as the musicians took their seats to play the Bartok quartet #4 for Mark Morris's ALL FOURS, I thought maybe this was a piece that would revive my admiration for the choreographer. Back in the 1980s we trekked several times to see Mark Morris at the Pillow and always loved what he was was doing; but over the years it seems to me that he's run out of creative steam. ALL FOURS, from 2003, avoids the cliche Morris moves - fanny wiggles, pelvic thrusts, waving arms - for the most part. Much of the piece is given over to structured walking about; there's a good duet for two guys and a nice quartet. The dancers all did well, but as the work passed by it seemed that the same motifs kept cropping up; in the end the waving arms made their appearance. The piece was politely received, but the musicians were vigorously saluted at the end: Jesse Mills and George Valtchev (violins), Jessica Troy )viola) and Wolfram Koessel (cello).

In the solo THE SWAN, Lil Buck (above) performed his unique fusion choreography to Camille Saint-Saens' classic Dying Swan: imagine morphing Michael Jackson and Maya Plisestskaya. At first there was some laughter as the street-clad dancer moved in a pool of light, but this quickly turned to admiring sighs and bursts of applause as Lil Buck rose onto the 'pointes' of his sneakers. With cellist Joshua Roman and harpist Rita Hequibal Printup rendering the familiar Saint-Saens melody onstage, a few feet away from the dancer, the piece made a cohesive statement of music and movement. True to Isadora Duncan's 'rule' that no dance work should exceed five minutes in duration, it seemed to me that Lil Buck really had something to say. A few toffs turned their noses up but the overwhelming response was whooping enthusiasm.

Trisha Brown's Rogues features two men - one tall, one short - dancing mostly in sync to a whimsical score by Alvin Curran. From a frenzy of buzzing insects, the music switches to piano, then some sort of electronic pipe, and then harmonica. The two dancers, Neal Beasley and Lee Serle, were genial and moved smoothly thru the choreography of this pleasant duet.

After a pause while the huge basket-weave drapery for the Liang piece was hung, the large contingent of Joffrey dancers took the stage for WOVEN DREAMS.

Looking at the Playbill, my first thought that Edwaard was using too many different composers but then: the soudtrack of a dream is never predictable. Thus he was able to develop this six-movement ballet using music of Ravel, Galasso, Britten and Gorecki. Throughout the piece, Edwaard's musicality and sense of structure - the keys to success of a large-scale work - were ever evident as was his daring sense of pushing the dancers to extremes of technique and partnering. As the work unfolded, the Joffrey dancers delivered everything Edwaard asked of them with a combination of energy and artistry that seemed perfectly aligned to both the music and the choreography.

Central to the ballet is a radiant two-part adagio danced by Victoria Jaiani and Fabrice Calmels (photo at the top of this article). As sometimes happens in dreams, this duet is interrupted by an unrelated passage (more about that shortly) but then the couple seem to pick up where they'd left off.

A choreographer could not ask for two more beautiful and expressive dancers than Ms. Jaiani and Mr. Calmels; the latter's magnificent physique, long powerful arms and splendid line served as a tower of strength for his radiant partner. Together they moved thru the flowing style of Edwaard's adagio, making the seemingly impossible partnering motifs look seamlessly grand. The underlying feeling of physical risk keeps the viewer entranced while the dancers' sense of lyricism sustained the dreamlike atmosphere.

Between the two pas de deux segments, Edwaard interjects what seemed to me the most brillliant scherzo: a quintet of men suddenly appear before a lime-green background to dance a remarkable pas de cinq to the pizzicato movement from Benjamin Britten's SIMPLE SYMPHONY. Here Edwaard finds a contemporary accent to the classic ballet vocabulary which male dancers have 'spoken' for decades. With its choreographic freshness and touches of subtle wit, this quintet lasted just long enough to leave us craving more. The Joffrey men gave their dancing an extra splash of darkish vibrancy.

In the larger-scale passages of the outer movements, all 20+ of the Joffrey dancers showed an intrinsic vitality and a willingness to follow Edwaard's lead into exploring new combinations and patterns. The cumulative effect of the ballet and the way the floating woven tapestry was brought into play seemed to vastly please the packed house and there was enthusiastic applause at the end; I think if Edwaard had  appeared onstage he would have been greeted as a rockstar. Which he is, in my book. 

Above: Kokyat's photo of the facade of the newly-renovated New York City Center.

On with the Festival! And thank you, Helene Davis.

MORPHOSES/BACCHAE Gallery

A gallery of Kokyat's images from the MORPHOSES production of Luca Veggetti's BACCHAE. Read about this performance here. Above: Frances Chiaverini. Click on the image to enhance.

Adrian Danchig-Waring

Gabrielle Lamb

Flautist Erin Lesser

Brandon Cournay

Opening ensemble

Willy Laury

Erin Lesser, Emma Pfaeffle, Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe

Christopher Bordenave

Frances Chiaverini, Adrian Danchig-Waring

Willy Laury, Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe

Erin Lesser, Christopher Bordenave, Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Gabrielle Lamb.

Gabrielle Lamb, Willy Laury

Gabrielle Lamb, Willy Laury, Emma Pfaeffle

Morgan Lugo, Emma Pfaeffle

Emma Pfaeffle, Morgan Lugo

Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe, Emma Pfaeffle

Gabrielle Lamb

All photography by Kokyat.

MORPHOSES: BACCHAE @ The Joyce

Wednesday October 26, 2011 - MORPHOSES presents its production of Luca Veggetti's BACCHAE at The Joyce. The work draws inspiration from - but is not a literal setting of - Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy. Composer Paolo Aralla and flautist Erin Lesser are major forces in this creation, with lighting by Roderick Murray and costumes by Mr. Veggetti and Benjamin Briones. In the top photo: dancer Gabrielle Lamb.

Luca Veggetti's BACCHAE is a dancework which summons up images of both the rites of the Bacchae - those wild women driven to ecstacy in their worship of Dionysus - and the death of the Theban King Pentheus at their hands. Set in a space surrounded in black silk drapery, the ballet takes on a funereal tone as the abstracted narrative moves to its brutal climax. The sudden exposure of the rear brick wall near the end draws us back to reality, awakening from a nighmare of deception and murder.

In a prologue, a puppet (skillfully manipulated by an actor all in black) mimes sets forth themes of the  Dionysian rituals to which the Bacchae subscribe. At the dress rehearsal this device seemed to me not to work very well, but it the performance it was surprisingly effective.

But we have already met Dionysus by this time; as in the play, 'he' is the first player to appear: Euripides describes his appearance and demeanor as feminine, and Luca Veggetti casts a female - Frances Chiarverini (above) - in the role. Frances is a mistress of the Veggetti style which calls for fluid movement, maintaining a steady flow of motion through knees that are often bent, keeping the body low to the floor. Pivoting and sliding across the space as the hands and arms cut thru the air in angled gestures, the effect can be spiderlike and in this darkish setting seemed almost ominous.

As King Pentheus, the antagonist of the disguised god and who is determined to end the Bacchic rites, Adrian Danchig-Waring (above) brought magnificent presence and powerful dancing to the role. Lured into the trap Dionysus sets for him - an invitation to witness the Bacchae at their rituals - Adrian's Pentheus is seduced and betrayed to his death.

The two-part pas de deux of Pentheus and his cousin Dionysus is a central aspect of BACCHAE, danced with a powerful sense of give-and-take by Adrian and Frances (above).

The third major character in the drama is Agave, the mother of Pentheus, who unwittingly murders her son after he is caught secretly witnessing the Dionysian revels of the Bacchae. Gabrielle Lamb's passionate sense of drama - seemingly a natural gift rather than something she's developed - was vividly projected through both her intense facial expressiveness and her superbly limber body.

The idea of a traditional Greek chorus is adapted here with an ensemble of excellent dancers who weave themselves into the dramatic situations, often appearing or vanishing under the hems of the silken drapes.

As one of the Bacchae, dancer Yusha-Marie Sorzano (above) carries a stick - a reference to the first confrontation between the Bacchae and the soldiers of Pentheus who were sent to shut down their celebrations and bring order out of chaos. The women, using only sticks, were able to fend off the armed guards thru the fervour of their passionate loyalty to Dionysus. In an ensemble, the woman swipe and flourish their sticks thru the air, moving to the swooshing sounds in aggressive stances.

In the opening scene, standing on the sounding platform which is a central element of the work, flautist Erin Lesser (above) evokes the shifting winds of time as she breathes and even speaks across the mouthpiece of her enormous contrabass flute. Throughout this long 'aria', Ms. Lesser's energies and technical skills seemed to re-double from one passage to the next...

...while in the final scene, she re-appears playing her silver flute as Agave/Gabrielle ponders her violent act.

Luca Veggetti and his collegues have crafted a work that is unlike any other, a unique and evocative summoning of an ancient tale that speaks clearly to us of the vanity of gods and the fervor of their followers which can so often go to extremes. Very apt for today's world.

More of Kokyat's images from this production appear here.

I felt it was of tremendous benefit to my enjoyment of the evening that I took the time to read the Euripides play before attending. The ballet, which lasts a little over an hour, seemed too short in a way; I wanted more.

So good to see Arlene Cooper, Giorgia Bovo, Emery LeCrone and Justin Peck among the audience this evening.

Synopsis of the dancework:

"Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility returns to his birthplace in Thebes in order to clear his mother's name and punish the insolent city-state for refusing to allow people to worship him.

King Pentheus of Thebes has declared illegal the Bacchic rituals initiated by his cousin Dionysus. As these rituals represent a threat to social order, King Pentheus orders his soldiers to violently suppress them.

Dionysus begins the long process of trapping Pentheus, leading him to his death. He convinces the intrigued and excited king to witness the rituals and volunteers to help him clandestinely observe the highly secretive all-female gatherings.

Dionysus, manipulating the situation, orders the Bacchic worshippers, including the king's mother Agave, to attack the now vulnerable ruler. As he falls, Pentheus reaches for his mother's face but Agave, driven mad by Dionysus, proceeds to rip her son limb from limb."

MORPHOSES dancers:

Sarah Atkins

Yusha-Marie Sorzano

Brittany Fridenstine-Keefe

Frances Chiaverini

Gabrielle Lamb

Emma Pfaeffle

Christopher Bordenave

Brandon Cournay

Adrian Danchig-Waring

Willy Laury

Morgan Lugo

Watch an brief BACCHAE video here.

Kokyat and I have followed the creation of BACCHAE from the audition process thru a preview evening (where the mystical 'sound platform' was introduced) to a recent studio rehearsal. Luca Veggetti and MORPHOSES artistic director Lourdes Lopez have graciously given us an insider's look at their creative process, and the dancers have been so kind and generous as we eavesdropped on their work.

Benjamin Millepied Has Retired from NYC Ballet

Not unexpectedly, Benjamin Millepied has announced his retirement from dancing at New York City Ballet. The slender and elegant danseur has danced with increasing infrequency in recent seasons; I believe I may have seen what was his final performance with the Company in January 2011. Of late he has been tremendously busy both with choreographing and with his personal life but for those of us who follow NYC Ballet closely, it's as a dancer we will think of him first and foremost.

Of the many ballets in which he danced for us here, I have special memories of his brilliant performance in Pater Martins' HALLELUJAH JUNCTION, in RUBIES, SYMPHONY IN C, as Oberon in MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM; in Jerome Robbins' DANCES AT AS GATHERING and FOUR SEASONS, in Wheeldon's CAROUSEL, Angelin Preljcoj's LA STRAVAGANZA, and Mauro Bigonzetti's IN VENTO; as both Benno and Siegfried in the Peter Martins SWAN LAKE and in the haunting adagio of Ratmansky's CONCERTO DSCH with the divine Wendy Whelan.

When I was working at Tower I had the pleasure of meeting Benjamin a few times; he had a keen interest in music, fore-shadowing his choreographic success, and his French accent was charming. He once saved the day at New York City Ballet when Robert Tewsley became injured during a performance of VALSE-FANTAISIE and Benjamin, who was backstage, quickly scrambled into some tights, threw on a vest and rushed out to finish the performance, to the delight of his partner Yvonne Borree who had been improvising after Mr. Tewsley sudden departed.

In June 2010, Benjamin partnered Yvonne in her farewell performance of BRAHMS-SCHOENBERG QUARTET; in the above Paul Kolnik photo, the two dancers holding the ballet's opening pose as a sustained ovation greeted the retiring ballerina. Benjamin was always the most gallant of cavaliers.

Benjamin's next choreographic work for New York City Ballet will premiere on May 10, 2012 set to a score by Nico Mulhy.

More News from Ballet Next

Ballet Next, the new Company being formed by Michele Wiles (above) and Charles Askegard have announced repertory and participating artists for their November 21, 2011 premiere performance at The Joyce. The Company will present new works by four leading choreographers and classic works from Petipa and Balanchine, all performed by internationally acclaimed dancers.  Ballet Next Musical Director and concert cellist, Elad Kabilio, will lead a classical ensemble of musicians performing the programme 'live'. Ticket information here.

Ballet Next’s debut performance features the world premiere of Mauro Bigonzetti’s La Follia, a duet for Michele Wiles and Drew Jacoby set to Antonio Vivaldi’s trio sonata of the same name. The programme also includes: a solo work for Maria Kochetkova (San Francisco Ballet) entitled One Overture, choreographed in 2011 by Jorma Elo and set to music by Mozart; Entwined, a pas de deux created for Charles Askegard and Jennie Somogyi (principal ballerina at New York City Ballet) in 2011 by Margo Sappington with music by Erik Satie; and One, choreographed in 2011 by Robert Sher-Machherndl to “The Nature of Daylight” by Max Richter, and danced by ABT's Misty Copeland. NYCB principal Joaquin de Luz and ABT soloist Jared Matthews will also be performing.

The first half of the program is inspired by Tchaikovsky and includes classical works from George Balanchine and Marius Petipa including White Swan Suite, The Sleeping Beauty pas de deux, and the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.

Anna Sokolow's ODES: Rehearsal

Sunday October 23, 2011 - My curiosity is truly piqued by the news of upcoming showings of Anna Sokolow's ODES; I had been hoping for a chance to see a rehearsal prior to attending the actual performance and this evening, unexpectedly, the opportunity arose. I met Kokyat at New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop) on West 19th Street for a look at ODES in the studio.

You can help fund the revival of this Anna Sokolow work by contributing here.

Jim May, artistic director of Sokolow Theatre Dance, gave the dancers - an assembly of Company members and free-lancers - a brisk warm up that included some shouting. Then we saw a run-thru of the opening movement of ODES.

Jim May coaching the women.

Dancers Lauren Naslund, Yayoi Suzuki and Greg Youdan

Atsushi Yahagi

Jim May coaches Durell R Comedy

Flautist Roberta Michel (above) was in the studio to work out tempos with the dancers who will be performing the central duet of ODES, set to Edgard's Varese's Density 21.5. This pas de deux is book-ended by other Varese selections: Octandre and Poème Électonique, both set for a large ensemble of dancers.

The pas de deux is danced by Yayoi Suzuki and Luis Gabriel Zaragoza (above and below)...

Jim May gives notes to Yayoi and Gabriel after the run-thru.

More photos from the rehearsal:

Atsushi Yahagi

Read about the upcoming performances of ODES here.

My appreciation to Jim May and publicist Audrey Ross for arranging for us to watch and photograph this rehearsal. More of Kokyat's images will be found here, and my Facebook album is here.

In April 2010 I was very taken with Sokolow's LYRIC SUITE, set to music of Alban Berg and danced by students from the Eugene Lang College Dance Department. I am very glad to have an opportunity to see more of Sokolow's work.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION:

November 10th - 13th, 2011  (Thursday/Friday/Saturday at 9 PM; Sunday at 2 PM)

 [At  7 PM - Thursday only - a special pre-performance fundraiser for the series, followed by the performance]

Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, 11th floor

Tickets: $35  ($100 for opening night with 7 PM fundraiser at a location near the theater)

Tickets: here or by phone at 1.800.838.3006

Nicole Corea

Over the past few months, Kokyat has had the opportunity to photograph some of the most beautiful and expressive dancers in our City. One for whom he and I share a special affection and admiration is Nicole Corea, a member of the prestigious Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Nicole recently danced a solo created on her by choreographer Ursula Verduzco; entitled Nothing to Hide, the solo is set to music of Yann Tiersen. These images by Kokyat are from a rehearsal of the piece on October 18th, 2011.

We're looking forward to seeing Nicole performing with the Lubovitch Company during their season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, November 9th thru the 20th. Ticket information here.