Above: Ariana Lott in Avi Scher's JUST PASSING at Columbia Ballet Collaborative's dress rehearsal. Photo by Kokyat.
Friday April 13, 2012 - Kokyat and I attended the dress rehearsal of the Columbia Ballet Collaborative's Spring 2012 programme. The show opened that same evening, and was presented again on Saturday the 14th at the Miller Theater. Works by six choreographers were danced, well-varied in style and musical settings.
Richard Isaac's darkish, sculptural PILOT was the opening work; this quartet for four women is set to music by Max Richter. It begins with an industrial 'prelude' which gives way to a lyrical and gently rocking theme and then takes on a chaotic feeling as it draws to an end. Danced with a sense of urgency in a pool of light, this gave the programme an impressive start.
Serena MacKool and Erin Arbuckle in PILOT
Rebecca Walden in PILOT
Richard Isaac's PILOT
We had previously seen a studio rehearsal of Anne Milewski Cary's ALLEGRETTO (above) which is danced to a vivid score by Karl Jenkins. Ms. Cary uses the classical vocabulary with a contemporary twist.
A central couple (Meredith Hinshaw and John Poppe, above) are backed by a quintet of girls in this fast-paced, exhilarating ballet. There's lots of wonderful Karl Jenkins music to draw upon, and I hope Ms. Cary might consider expanding on ALLEGRETTO and make it the finale of a longer work.
Meredith Hinshaw, Claire Wampler and Caitlin Dieck in ALLEGRETTO
John Poppe, Meredith Hinshaw in ALLEGRETTO
Meredith Hinshaw in ALLEGRETTO
Meredith Hinshaw, John Poppe and Caitlin Dieck in ALLEGRETTO
Two excellent dancers, Lauren Alpert and Dan Pahl (above), take the stage in Emery LeCrone's lively and quirky duet II set to three selections by J.S. Bach. Much of the time the couple dance the same combinations in parallel formation, and the in-sync adagio is performed on the floor. In the final movement, there are some partnered passages but overall this is a ballet for two individuals each in their own sphere. Lauren and Dan look great together and Emery's choreography tapped into their specific energies.
Here are some images of Lauren Alpert and Dan Pahl in Emery LeCrone's II:
Lauren Alpert & Dan Pahl in II
A young dancer Eleanor Barisser (above) performed a self-crafted solo entitled MIDNIGHT OIL. Cab Calloway's Kicking the Gong Around was the aural setting of this stylized solo which seemed to have a subtext that was at once pensive and restless. The movement evolved naturally out of the music in this solo which seemed whimsical on the surface but suggested darker emotions at play.
Eleanor Barisser
Eleanor Barisser in MIDNIGHT OIL.
Choreographer Avi Scher offered a gorgeous lyrical female trio entitled JUST PASSING. Rebecca Azenberg, Ariana Lott and Rachel Silvern clad in silky aquamarine frocks swirled and leapt through Avi's imaginative combinations, buoyed by a lovely collage of short works by composer Yann Tiersen.
Rebecca Azenberg (above) was the featured soloist in Avi's work which ends with her onstage alone in the brief final movement where the music and dance seem to suddenly be wafted away by a Springtime breeze. This charming ending punctuated the ballet in a pleasingly quizzical way.
More images from Avi Scher's JUST PASSING:
Rachel Silvern
Rebecca Azenberg
Rachael Silvern, Rebecca Azenberg
Rebecca Azenberg in Avi Scher's JUST PASSING.
Kimi Nikaidoh's classic-rock inspired MORNING WILL BREAK was another piece we'd had a studio preview of. The large cast looked fine in vibrant joy-of-dancing ensemble passages and each dancer had opportunities to shine individually in the course of the work. The colourful and extroverted outer movements (danced to Superstition by Stevie Wonder and Joy to the World by Three Dog Night respectively)...
...bookend an emotional solo danced by Dan Pahl (above) to Bill Withers's Ain't No Sunshine...
...and a spiritual/lyric interlude danced to Cat Stevens' Morning Has Broken. In this ballet, choreographer Kimi Nikaidoh has integrated the four dis-similar songs into an engrossing and cohesive work celebrating both the movement and the music of a now golden-seeming time in America, not so far in the past yet far enough to evoke a nostalgic longing for its simplicity and unfettered emotional expression.
More images from MORNING WILL BREAK:
Audrey Crabtree-Hannigan and Dan Pahl
Dan Pahl and ensemble
Dan Pahl
Evelyn Crabtree-Hannigan
Final ensemble of Kimi Nikaidoh's MORNING WILL BREAK.
Curtain call.
All photography by Kokyat. Click on each image to enhance.