Above: Sarah Braverman of Parsons Dance. Photo: Brian Krontz.
Thursday January 5, 2012 - Today I stopped in at the Ballet Hispanico studios with photographer Brian Krontz where the dancers of Parsons Dance were preparing for their upcoming season at The Joyce. Performance dates are January 10th - 22nd, 2012. The programme features a new work by David Parsons: Round My World (music by Zoe Keating) and the premiere of Kate Skarpetowska's A Stray's Lullaby, set to an original musical score by Kenji Bunch. Kate Skarpetowska is a former Parsons Dancer, now dancing with Lar Lubovitch's company. Also on the bill are David Parsons' 2003 classic Swing Shift, with music by Kenji Bunch; a duet excerpted from David Parsons' 1994 hit Step Into My Dream, set to music by Dr. Billy Taylor, with costumes by Missoni; and the ultra-demanding Parsons masterwork Caught. For the Family Matinee on January 14th only, an all-Parsons show includes the early Parsons hit The Envelope as well as Hand Dance and Slow Dance.
At the rehearsal we attended, David ran the entire programme for us, and the dancers - who'd been in the studio all day - delivered all the technical and emotional demands of the works with seemingly boundless energy and performance-mode commitment. They are some of the most powerful, sexy, generous and vibrant dancers on the Gotham scene.
Eric Bourne and Sarah Braverman (above) rehearsed the duet from Step Into My Dream while three other couples marked it in the corners of the studio. I'm guessing that there will be alternating casts during the Joyce season; all four couple look ready to go.
Even in this studio setting, Kate Skarpetowska's A Stray's Lullabye made a distinct dramatic impact. Above, the work's four dancers - Jason MacDonald, Christina Ilisije, Christopher Bloom and Maria Elena D'Amario - portray young people on the down-and-out, stranded in the big city where they are buffeted by waves of traffic noise.
Portraying outcasts and loners, Christina Ilisije (above) and Jason MacDonald perform dramatic solos...
...while Maria Elena D'Amario and Christopher Bloom try to connect in a starkly passionate duet.
But the work ends with a ray of hope as the unlucky quartet look for a way out of their troubles; for this closing segment, Kate Skarpetowska turns to the haunting old Stephen Foster song, 'Hard Times Come Again No More':
"Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all share sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh, hard times come again no more."
Jason and Christina, above. I'm looking forward to seeing A Stray's Lullabye staged at The Joyce; its darkish, urban feel seems both contemporary and timeless.
The new Parsons work, Round My World, shows the choreographer's style and structural integrity in an ensemble piece where the individual dancers have ample opportunity to shine. The Zoe Keating score gives an Americana feeling; the music both cushions and propels the dancers in turn.
Ian Spring and Melissa Ullom in Round My World.
Ensemble
Steve Vaughn and Maria Elena D'Amario
One truly fascinating aspect of the rehearsal was to watch the famous solo CAUGHT being run in a studio setting. Above: Eric Bourne. This solo, which has flabbergasted audiences since its premiere a quarter-century ago, is one of the most demanding danceworks ever created. How well I remember some of its earliest performances at Jacob's Pillow where audiences literally gasped in disbelief. Over the years, some people have questioned whether there is a gimmick involved in the staging of this solo; because it seems humanly impossible, it's sometimes thought that the dancer is on some kind of flywire. There's no gimmick, unless technique, sweat and sheer guts have become gimmicks. Today both Eric Bourne and Steve Vaughn ran the solo and although they marked some passages the sheer physicality of the piece left the dancers both breathless and energized.
Melissa Ullom and Steve Vaughn dance to another Kenji Bunch score in Swing Shift, a mecurical work to end the programme. The multi-coloured score shows why this composer is a favorite with contemporary choreographers.
To me it looks like a great Joyce season for Parsons Dance. A gallery of more of Brian Krontz's images of the Company's dancers appears here.
Background: I was among the first to witness the emergence of Parsons Dance.