Oberon's Grove

Yoo & Dancers at the Korean Cultural Society

Above: dancer Yuki Ishiguro, photographed by Kokyat.

Wednesday January 30, 2013 - These words from the Yoo & Dancers press release piqued my curiosity:

“Glass Ceiling” turns the audience upside-down and inside out. The dancers defy the audience’s understanding of the traditional physics of dance by performing as if various walls and surfaces in the space were in fact the floor...by shifting traditional notions of orientation for a dance performance, “Glass Ceiling” opens the viewer’s mind to different perspectives, new ways to think of their relationship to the space. New aspects of movement and physicality emerge when the focus is rotated and the audience is no longer the dancers’ focal point. When the dancers are presenting towards imaginary audiences, real viewers are given the opportunity to question their own role in the performance environment."

Then I noticed that my friend Yuki Ishiguro was listed among the participating dancers. I decided to attend the performance: I seldom have an opportunity to add new dance groups to my calendar but by chance this evening was open and so I walked over to the East Side on a cool, damp night to see what Yoo & Dancers had to offer.

The work, at least the part of it that I saw ("Without A Net") is truly inventive and was expertly performed by Yuki and four fellow-dancers. The far wall of the space has become the floor for the dancers and they balance, stagger and climb across the actual studio floor with disorienting commitment. To live piano music - a collage of familiar and unknown works - real dance elements are woven into the choreography - a tango, a ballet pas de deux - but they are danced inside-out and sideways, so to speak.

The audience were clearly intrigued by the piece, and of the dancers Yuki seemed most at home in this off-kilter world: often balancing for long periods on one hand, he scrambled about the space with the grace of an earthbound Spiderman. Meanwhile his gestures and expressions were genuinely amusing. Since I'm unfamiliar with these dancers I can't say who the girls were (the Company's other male dancer, Sean Hatch, gave an engaging performance) but they all had the spirit of the work well within their grasp.

The space is perhaps not ideal to present this floor-oriented piece since only viewers in the front row have a clear sightline. Those seated further back had to stand or move about. Nevertheless I truly enjoyed it.

After the intermission, the seating had been re-configured and I was fortunate to still be placed in the front row - and very eager to see the rest of the performance. But as the lights went down, four very small children came and sat on the floor at my feet. I hastily grabbed my coat and left.

Dance From The Heart 2013

Above: Kile Hotchkiss and John Eirich of TAKE Dance rehearsing the men's quartet from Take's SALARYMAN, the closing number on this evening's DANCE FROM THE HEART programme at Cedar Lake Theater. Photo by Kokyat. Click on the image to enlarge.

Tuesday January 29, 2013 - This cloudy, drizzly day was a bright and dance-filled day for me, starting with a visit to Luca Veggetti's rehearsal at the Martha Graham studio where Luca and five Graham beauties were polishing up his new creation which will be shown at the upcoming Graham season at The Joyce. Then a brisk walk up to 26th Street to Cedar Lake for the annual Dancers Responding to AIDS gala.

The evening offered a nice diversity of dance styles, opening with an impressive tap solo by Ayodele Casel. Its title, ACID, seemed to herald an edgy and ominous piece yet it was anything but: the dancer was lovely and her dancing was lyrical, with delicate nuances in her tap technique.

Christina Noel Reaves and Lonnie Poupard in tangy orange costumes used the space beautifully in a Jody Oberfelder duet THROB in which the dancers are called upon for bold physicality, momentarily pausing from time to time in geometric constructions. The duet was well-sustained by Andy Akiho's score, and the dancers were excellent.

A shift in programmme order produced a slight glitch when the 'wrong' music started to play, but the tall and stately Julia Burrer of Doug Varone's troupe simply held her pose and her composure until things were set to rights. The excerpt from Varone's TUGGING UNDER was darkly entrancing: beautifully restless quality of movement with passing punctuations of stillness. A Julia Wolfe score set the dancers on their speedy trajectories with partnering motifs worked into the flow. Aside from Ms. Burrer, the dancers were Erin Owen, Hollis Bartlett, Alex Springer and Eddie Takata: a very handsome ensemble.

Mark Dendy's opening solo to Peggy Lee's "My Analyst Told Me" was witty and wonderful; but then there was a lull with too much talking and a bagpiper...until a ravishing goddess, Catherine Miller, rose spot-lit in the audience and took the stage for a shadowdance as Ms. Lee's sultry voice intoned "Me And My Shadow". Clinging to the brick wall, Ms. Miller looked sensational.

In gorgeously fitted quasi-Baroque Santo Loquasto costumes, two of the dance world's most marvelous creatures - Michelle Fleet and Michael Trusnovec - appeared to dance the courtly duet from Paul Taylor's Bach ballet CASCADE. Heavenly bodies? Look no further than these two superb dancers. They moved with measured elegance yet an undercurrent of sensuality is ever-present. A delicious appetizer to the upcoming Taylor season at Lincoln Center.

Tom Gold's SOME KIND OF ROMANCE takes wing on the lilting music of the Vitamin String Quartet. Stylish, witty and rooted in the vocabulary of classical ballet (the girls are on pointe) the fast-paced choreography has a touch of contemporary spice here and there, and the three sexy boys look enticing in their sparkly silver briefs. Tom culled his ensemble of young dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet (Abigail Mentzer - who also designed the costumes - Alexander Peters and Amir Yogev) and Miami City Ballet (Zoe Zien and Ezra Hurwitz). Last week I'd seen a rehearsal of this work, at which Tom told me he plans to expand on the currrent structure; we should be seeing the finished creation during his New York season.

The evening came to a fittingly exciting climax as the beautiful boys from TAKE Dance set the stage afire in Take's murderously demanding male quartet from SALARYMAN. To the relentless driving percussive throb of "Soul's Ville" by AUN, the guys (in suits and ties) stunningly fling themselves around the space, crashing into one another, leaping and swirling in competitive combinations and improbably off-kilter phrases, hitting the floor only to rise again and literally climb the walls. A momentary pause for a battery-charge and they are off again in this mad and magnificent masterwork for men dancers.

The boys - John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Brynt Beitman and Jeffrey Sykes - bought down the house with their remarkable performance. In a brief respite, Take's girls - Kristen Arnold, Gina Ianni, Marie Zvosec and Lynda Senisi - appear as coat-check girls and divest the boys of their jackets. Then the wildness continues. Great finale for an evening of dance.

A Dance Experience to Cherish

 

Above: Attila Joey Csiki and Clifton Brown. Photo by Nir Arieli. Click on the image to enlarge.

Sunday January 27, 2013 - I've had the great good fortune in recent years to witness some truly unforgettable moments in dance that the rest of the world isn't privy to. In the Autumn of 2012 Wendy Whelan gave me a precious gift when she arranged for me to sneak into one of her rehearsals - it was such a transformative experience, though I never wrote about it on my blog for fear of getting her in trouble with the powers that be. I had the memorable opportunity of watching Adrian Danchig-Waring's first-ever rehearsal of APOLLO. And I was at a MORPHOSES rehearsal when Pontus Lidberg kept dancing after the scheduled studio time had run out. He didn't ask me to leave, he simply danced on in his own private world and I sat there in a breathless state. Yuan Yuan Tan, Katherine Crockett, Maria Kowroski, Laura Halzack, Veronika Part...I've seen them all at their most beautiful - up close and personal - freed from the theatricality of a performance and simply working on their craft, immersed in the music and the movement. 

Dancers and choreographers have been so kind and generous, welcoming me into their studios and sharing the creative experience with me. In this way I have gotten as close as one can get to dance without actually dancing. At the end of a rehearsal, the dancers invariably will come up for an embrace and always they will say: "I'm all sweaty!" Your sweat is my holy water, please don't apologize.

So a week ago Attila Joey Csiki (above) contacted me and invited me to a reherasal of a Lar Lubovitch duet, set to Mozart, to be danced by Attila and Clifton Brown at an upcoming gala in Washington DC.  Mozart, Lubovitch, Attila and Clifton...what could be finer? I arranged to meet photographer Nir Arieli at the MMAC studios; it turned out to be an hour of dance that I'll never forget.

Lar Lubovitch created this dancework in 1986 - when the AIDS epidemic was decimating the world - and he named it CONCERTO 622 after the Mozart work usually referred to as "the Clarinet Concerto". The pas de deux for two men is danced to the concerto's adagio, music which became familiar to an audience that stretched far beyond the world's concert halls when it was played in the epic film OUT OF AFRICA.

We arrived at the studio today for the final hour of the rehearsal; Clifton Brown has danced this work before but Attila Joey Csiki has not. Mr. Lubovitch had them ironing out the timing of certain passages, including a big lift which must be honed to perfection to make its effect. The boys ran thru the segment several times, and Clifton's keen eye and astute preparation soon had it mastered: his wonderfully deep plié as Attila came hurtling towards him was something to behold, and he swept his fellow danseur overhead in one sweepingly seamless motion.

Then Mr. Lubovitch put the music on and the dancers began the first of two full runnings of the duet. Quite honestly my reaction surprised me: chills ran up my spine, my heart started racing, I could barely keep myself from crying. This is a piece that transcends its components - music, choreography and dancing - and speaks to us of things that can only be felt, not seen. The two men are tender and noble, they console and support one another and their passion pulsates just below the surface. The duet is not sentimental or overtly romantic; it has a luminous purity that springs from the celestial melodies of the genius Mozart. The choreographer has found the heart of the music and exposes it to us in movement that seems inevitable. I'll never again be able to listen to this adagio without seeing Attila and Clifton in my dreamworld.

After a break and a bit more tweaking of certain partnering elements, the dancers began again and once again they moved me so deeply...words can't express it. If they are this gorgeous in the studio, what will they be like onstage? I sincerely hope we will have a chance to find out.

I hated to see the hour drawing to its close, and was feeling deeply grateful to Mr. Lubovitch for his kindness in allowing us to be in the studio today. Attila and Clifton were packing up, beautifully drenched in perspiration; their mutual affection and admiration was so evident: "We used to be rivals," Attila said. "And now we are friends dancing together."

More images from the rehearsal:

Clifton Brown

All photos by Nir Arieli.

BalaSole: VOCES

Sunday January 27, 2013 - Roberto Villanueva's current programme for BalaSole, entitled VOCES, was originally scheduled for late October 2012 but was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy. The presentation finally took place at Ailey CitiGroup Theater yesterday and today, with a slightly different lineup of participating dancers than originally planned. The performances played to sold-out houses both nights.

Roberto Villanueva created BalaSole Dance Company as a platform for dancer/choreographers to present their work in a concert setting. For each BalaSole presentation, ten artists are usually chosen in an audition process. In the time frame between audition and performance, Roberto mentors the dancers and helps them get their solos stageworthy. A week before the performances, the entire group work on new ensemble pieces which will open and close the show. Roberto creates a solo for himself, and his dancing is always a highlight of the evening - as it was again tonight. Fine lighting and sound enhance the work of the particiating artists, and Roberto has developed a faithful following so that the dancers have a chance to be seen in a very auspicious setting.

Tonight's collection of dancers was a strong one, with some beautiful individual work. The ensemble pieces were set to the heavy, relentless beat of Black Violin as the dancers - all clad in black -  moved in unison or in canonic phrases in smaller groups against deeply-hued changing colours on the back panel.

I sometimes wish the performers (both here and in general on the dance scene) would give a bit more thought to their musical choices. So many pieces seem to come with a rather anonymous, vaguely ominous sound track. It usually works, but if they would put a bit more thought into their music something really memorable might result.

Aaron Gregory's choice of Zoe Keating is a good one, his solo #Lovesick had a nice hesitant stillness to it. Lauren Alpert, a beautiful dancer I know from her performances with Columbia Ballet Collaborative, brought elements of classical ballet to her spacious solo, Surface Interface. Emily Pacilio's somewhat androgynous presence and her gorgeous dandelion-coloured leotard, maintained our focus as did her use of chiming Eastern/gamelan style music (her solo an except from Keeping Company With Cage). In 2 tears in a Bucket, Troy Barnes made a handsome impression in a solo limned in weeping and despair, though rays of hope seemed to manifest near the end. My companion Javier Chavez and I were both impressed by Sarah J Ewing in her solo Inside Looking Out which further benefitted from Dario Marinelli's harp-textured, other-worldly score.

Excellent lighting enhanced Morgana Rose's well-danced solo Sacred, and then Roberto Villanueva's solo - again turning to Black Violin for his music - was so expressively danced in a tuxedo and open white shirt. Roberto moves so sinuously, his face always beautifully poetic in the lighting. the solo Ssssssssshallow was - he told me - rather a last-minute affair. I never would have guessed, so compelling was his presentation. Nicole Calabrese moved from a chair into a pool of light in her restless solo Chaos/Contained, and Javier and I both especially loved Jessica Cipriano's moonlit solo We Could What If All Day with its opening setting of spoken poetry. The final solo came from Andrew Nemr, the first tap-dancer to appear in a BalaSole programme; his dancing was subtle and savory, performed to his own music in a solo called Node Beat. 

The closing ensemble work had a sexy sway, and then Roberto bade us goodnight, inviting us to the next performances which will be happening in July.

I'd like to urge all my dancer-friends - in whatever genre and at whatever point in your dance-career - to take Roberto's next audition (Sunday March 24th - details here). BalaSole's concept is a unique one which provides a rare opportunity to present your work in a theatrical context to an audience who really care about dance.

NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #6

Saturday evening January 26, 2013 - This evening's performance at New York City Ballet was filled with wonderful dancing (and playing from the pit) and went a long way to compensate for the previous evening's late-seating debacle.

The programme was the same as the night before, but what a difference! Tonight we were able to fullly enjoy the delicate mysteries of BAISER DE LA FEE, led by Andrews Sill. I have a special fondness for this ballet since it was the first work I ever saw at NYCB lo! these many decades ago. My 'premiere' cast featured Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson and it is pleasing to report that Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette made just as fine an effect in the ballet as ther illustrious predecessors. Megan and Andrew caught the quality of rhapsodic youthfulness right from the start, abetted by the very nice dancing of the corps ensemble. Andrew's solo had a dreamy feeling, but it's one of those restless dreams (we've all had them) where you are seeking something that seems to elude you; his dancing was so expressive, making me want to see him as Jerome Robbins' Dreamer in OPUS 19. Megan's solo, set to the birdlike song of the flutes, was fetchingly spun off by the ballerina. The couple then brought a lovely feeling of quiet ecstacy to the magical backing-away which brings this Balanchine jewel to a close. Erica Pereira and Mary Elizabeth Sell led the corps to charming effect.

Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz then went to town, pulling out all the stops for an exciting Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux in which Tiler scintillated with her magical pirouettes whilst also capturing the warm lyricism of the adagio. Joaquin fills the stage and the theatre with his generous dancing and genial smile; if there's a dancer with a bigger heart than Joaquin de Luz I haven't met him. The two dancers swept thru the bravura fireworks of the coda to the audience's delight, and if the fish dives took on a risky quality tonight, that's part of the fun. They swept off as the curtain fell, igniting a full-house ovation which made them smile all the more as they stepped out to take their bows.

Now being in a really good mood, I even decided to give BAL DE COUTURE another try and strangely enough I liked a lot of it tonight, or maybe I should say that I saw where it might - with a few alterations - become something to enjoy. The music's wonderful for one thing, but my first change would be getting rid of the women's bizarre, fanciful costumes. And since the costumes are the whole point of the piece my other 'fixes' wouldn't matter. It's nice to see all that star-power onstage even though - as a friend pointed out - turning principals into a corps tends to make them anonymous.  Despite its drawbacks, I found I could sit thru it, and could again - if the need ever arises. 

In the concluding DIAMONDS, Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle were elegant, and they seemed to filter the melodies of the score directly into their dancing. Maria's magical way of sculpting her long limbs into the regal poses of the adagio was finely echoed in Tyler's handsome and ardent partnering. There's a lovely simpatico quality between these two dancers and it was shining brightly tonight. The demi-solistes and corps filled the stage with Mr. B's grand patterns in the finale; the audience loved it.     

Andrews Sill conducted the first two ballets tonight, then passed the baton to Daniel Capps for the rest of the evening. The NYCB musicians played the entire programme very appealingly and they well-deserved the audience's warm cheers as they took a spot-lit collective bow at the end. The players were recently chided in the press for playing too many wrong notes. Yes, musicians - even the finest ones - do sometimes hit wrong notes, especially the wind players. Anyone who has ever played a musical instrument knows that the best intentions and plenty of rehearsal can still be undone by fatigue or plain old bad luck. It's nothing to write home about since it tends to happen randomly, even among the excellent players of at the NY Phil or the Metropolitan Opera (where the orchestra is considered one of the best 'pit bands' in the world). For myself, having played piano, guitar and French horn, I always have a sympathetic ear and am grateful when things go as well as they do on a given night. The NYCB musicians work hard and it's nice when the audience acknowledges their nightly contributions to the success of the ballet.

Heading home on the A train, I met the three people who'd been sitting behind me at the performance. Students at Columbia, they drew out a season brochure and began asking me questions about what they should see next. "Who was that woman with the long legs in the last ballet?" the girl asked. "She was awesome!" I could only agree. 

DIVERTIMENTO FROM ‘LE BAISER DE LA FÉE’: M. Fairchild, Veyette, Pereira, Sell

TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: T. Peck, De Luz

BAL DE COUTURE: Lowery, Reichlen, Krohn, Scheller, Hyltin, A. Stafford, T. Peck, M. Fairchild, Bouder, Taylor, J. Angle, la Cour, Danchig-Waring), Veyette, R. Fairchild, Ramasar, Finlay, De Luz, Carmena, Marcovici

DIAMONDS from JEWELS: Kowroski, T. Angle

NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #5

Friday January 25, 2013 - There nothing like a late seating to ruin an evening at the ballet. And it's particularly maddening when the opening ballet is BAISER DE LA FEE: a ballet where atmosphere is everything. Yet conductor Andrews Sill had no sooner begun to spin this delicious score when the ushers began tromping up and down the aisles with their little flashlights and urgent stage whispers and their footfalls on the uncarpeted floor: the magic of the Tchaikovsky/Stravinsky score went out the window. Once the spell of a ballet has been broken there's no redeeming it, and so despite truly gorgeous dancing from Tiler Peck, Robert Farchild, the lovely demi-solistes Alina Dronova and Erica Pereira and the pretty flock of corps ballerinas, BAISER went for nought tonight.

There's really no excuse to seat people after the conductor enters the pit: there are closed-circuit screens on each level where latecomers can watch the first ballet. Excuses like "the traffic", "the MTA", "the weather" don't fly: that's life in Gotham. Why should the seating of a score of stragglers infringe on the enjoyment of the vast majority of people who have made the effort to be there on time? I suppose there's no point in kvetching: no one cares anyway.

Unfortunately, the bad vibe stretched into Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux also, and despite the charming dancing and daredevil flourishes of the beloved Megan Fairchild/Joaquin de Luz partnership, I was feeling grumpy. Soon the two dancers cheered me up, and Megan's marvelous fouettes in the coda were a real treat. Joaquin's solo drew sighs of admiration from the crowd, and even though the second fish dive in the coda was a bit off-kilter, this delightful duo already had their success sewn up.

BAL DE COUTURE is a Peter Martins ballet created to show off costumes designed by Valentino; it is a sort of pageant in which twenty principal dancers promenade and waltz to Tchaikovsky. A dreamy adagio for Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici seems unrelated to the rest of the ballet, and their romance is intruded upon by Rob Fairchild who momentarily lures Janie's attentions. The choreography throughout is formulaic with ballroomy touches. The women's costumes are singularly unflattering, with Janie's wafting pink a la SONNAMBULA bearing no relation to the black-white-and-red get-ups the other girls are wearing. The dancers went thru the motions sportingly, the music is so much more-than-pleasant (both dance numbers EUGENE ONEGIN are played) but the sum total effect of the piece is negligible: the time, expense and talent involved could have been better put to use elsewhere.

At last the evening bloomed in full with DIAMONDS; I don't like the gaudy tinsel-town decor of the current setting but from a musical and choreographic viewpoint DIAMONDS always glows. Sara Mearns danced with meltingly magical style in the adagio passages: she gracefully incorporates the allusions to Odette and Raymonda into the ballet, and she is simply gorgeous to watch. In the allegro section, her bravura dancing did not quite have its usual impetuosity but in the finale she was grand in every way. Ask LaCour made his debut in this ballet tonight: his partnering was very supple, his expression noble and poetic, his sense of the underlying courtly romance of the piece right on the mark. Long-legged danseurs do not always command the allegro footwork in a given ballet, but Ask came thru very nicely in the showy moments. As the ballet drew to its final minutes, Sara beamed her luxuriant smile on Ask and it seemed this rather last-minute partnership had worked out well in every regard: Sara and Ask basked in a very warm ovation and took and extra curtain call, very well-deserved. The demi-soliste quartet of Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Gwyneth Muller and Megan LeCrone and the excellent work of the corps helped to compensate for the evening's unsavory start: thoughts of the late seating were gone. But not forgotten.    

DIVERTIMENTO FROM ‘LE BAISER DE LA FÉE’: T. Peck, *R. Fairchild, Pereira, Dronova

TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: M. Fairchild, De Luz

BAL DE COUTURE: Kowroski, Reichlen, Krohn, Scheller, Hyltin, A. Stafford, T. Peck, M. Fairchild, Bouder, Taylor, J. Angle, la Cour, Danchig-Waring, Veyette, R. Fairchild, Ramasar, Finlay, De Luz, Carmena, Marcovici

DIAMONDS from JEWELS: Mearns, *La Cour

Carrie & Kate

Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch (above, photographed by Brian Krontz) will be dancing a solo made on her by Kate Skarpetowska during the upcoming Buglisi Dance Theatre season at The Joyce. Details of the season are here; the new Skarpetowska solo entitled Sjawa is scheduled as part of Program B.

Kate, an outstanding dancer from Lar Lubovitch's company, has in the past two seasons created two very distinctive works for Parsons Dance: A Stray's Lullabye and Black Flowers. I first encountered Carrie when she was dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company; more recently she made a beautiful impression dancing with Martin Lofsnes' 360° Dance Company. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the collaboration of Kate and Carrie will produce.

In the Studio with Tom Gold & Willy Burmann

Monday January 21, 2013 - Tom Gold is creating a new ballet to be premiered at the upcoming Dance From The Heart gala performances. This annual dance event, which benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, will take place this year at the Cedar Lake Theater on January 28th and 29th. Details and ticket info here. Tom's ballet will be performed on the 29th at both the 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM shows.

The new ballet is entitled SOME KIND OF ROMANCE and will feature five dancers: Abigail Mentzer, Alexander Peters and Amir Yogev from Pennsylvania Ballet, and Zoe Zien and Ezra Hurwitz from Miami City Ballet. Earlier in the week, Tom invited me and photographer Brian Krontz to a studio rehearsal at DANY where the three Pennsylvania-based dancers were working on the piece.

We arrived near the end of the rehearsal period and watched the dancers run the ballet twice: it is fast-paced, witty and physically demanding, and I was constantly wondering how it will look with the two additional dancers. 

Above: Willy Burmann with Amir Yogev.

Willy Burmann is Tom's ballet master, and at the rehearsal he was giving a virtual master-class in technical refinement. His suggestions and his hands-on shaping of the dancers at various points in the rehearsal are a revelation to observe and a key element in preparing the ballet for the stage. Willy's spot-on analysis of the steps and combinations and his wry sense of humour create a tension-free work environment; he treats the dancers like colleagues and his advice invariably turns something that already looks really good into something that looks great. There were plenty of laughs but also a sense of diligence as the dancers took Willy's suggestions to heart. As the rehearsal progressed the ballet took on a very nice polish. It'll be interesting to see it onstage next week, and Tom spoke of his plan to expand on it in the future.

Abigail Mentzer

Amir Yogev

Alexander Peters

Abigail

Stretch: Amir

Abigail

Tom Gold in a Bad Boy of the Ballet moment.

One of the best things about going to Tom Gold's rehearsals is watching him demonstrate!

All photos by Brian Krontz. Click on each image to enlarge.

Tom Gold Dance will have their second New York season March 12th and 13th, 2013 at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College. Details will be announced soon.

Preview of Justin Peck's New Ballet

Watch a brief video preview of Justin Peck's new ballet for New York City Ballet here. Entitled PAZ DE LA JOLLA, the ballet is set to Bohuslav Martinu's Sinfonietta La Jolla and will premiere on January 31st, 2013 with additional performances February 2nd, 6th and 8th. Justin talks about the work and his choreographic career in a Time Out New York interview here.

Photo of Justin by NYCB's Paul Kolnik.

NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #4

Tuesday January 22, 2013 - Where better to be on January 22nd than in the house that Philip Johnson built for George Balanchine? Today we celebrate the great choreographer's birthday and New York City Ballet saluted their founding father with a beautiful evening of Balanchine ballets set to the music of Tchaikovsky.

Conductor Gerry Cornelius and the NYCB musicians mined all the melodic gold to be found in these three marvel-filled Tchaikovsky scores. Six principal ballerinas appeared (including our newest two) along with four of the Company's most impressive and unique cavaliers; two handsome boys from the corps de ballet assumed major roles, and two girls who should be soloists led the ensemble passages in SWAN LAKE.

No one who was there will ever forget the performance of Peter Martins' SWAN LAKE in 2006 in which Sara Mearns - then a young unknown from the corps de ballet - stepped into the role of Odette/Odile and took her first leap to stardom. Tonight she re-created her Odette in the Balanchine setting and danced radiantly and with a quiet intensity that was enhanced by the nobly responsive presence of Jared Angle as her cavalier. Both the partnering and the poetry of this pairing made the familiar ballet seem fresh and ever-resonant. Megan LeCrone leading the Pas de Neuf has her own brand of magic - a truly intriguing dancer - while Lauren King, always a pleasure to watch, seemed particularly ravishing tonight as she embraced the full-bodied lyricism of the Valse Bluette. Scanning the ranks of the black-clad corps de ballet, faces and forms both familiar and new to me continually seized my imagination.

Megan Fairchild's plush technique finds a perfect expression in ALLEGRO BRILLANTE; she begins in a rather serious mode but as the ballet sweeps onward her smile illuminates the stage just as her silky-smooth pirouettes illuminate the music. Amar Ramasar's space-filling dance, his deft partnering and sheer magnetism all add up to a top-notch performance in this ballet. The ensemble of King, Laracey, LeCrone, Gretchen Smith, Laurent, Peiffer, Tworzyanski and Andrew Scordato (stepping in unannounced) added nicely to this charming classic-style ballet all underscored by Elaine Chelton's playing from the pit.

Rebecca Krohn appeared in the haunted ballroom of TCHAIKOVSKY SUITE #3 to dance the Elegie, which has over the years become one of my great favorites among all of Balanchine's works. Bare-footed and beauteous, Rebecca seemed so Farrellesque to me tonight. Zachary Catazaro, his pale and handsome face recalling the great matinee-idols of the silver screen era, made a wonderful impression as the lonely lover who momentarily finds his ideal. As Rebecca wafted her gorgeous gown and hair thru the music, Zachary was an ardent dream-cavalier; yet when the moment of their parting came his downcast expression of resignation was so moving: his fingers brushed the spot on his face where her hand had caressed him - did her perfume linger there? - and then he looked at his hands which had held his beloved and which were now empty. A frisson swept thru me at that moment.

In the Valse Melanconique, Abi Stafford looked so angel-like and lovely with her hair down and clad in diaphanous white; as she swept about the ballroom amidst the bevy of beautiful corps ballerinas, Abi constantly kept us aware of the pulsing nuances of the waltz tempo. Justin Peck was excellent in the cavalier role here. And it's always a real pleasure to see Faye Arthurs onstage.

Beauty and brilliance combine in Ana Sophia Scheller's superb dancing of the Scherzo; she brings a touch of prima ballerina elegance to everything she does and she puts her own gracious signature on every ballet in which she appears. Viva Ana!! Antonio Carmena's vivid leaps and the handsome polish of his dancing matched up so well with the remarkable Scheller as they flew about the space in high style.

Costume note: could we get rid of the blouse-like Pagliaccio tops for the men in this ballet's first three movements?

Ashley Bouder whipped up a delicious frosting for this evening's Balanchine birthday cake with her brilliant dancing in Theme and Variations. In total contrast to her wonderfully lyrical performance of SERENADE's Russian Girl last week, here was Bouder in full ballerina tutu-and-tiara mode and dancing with regal aplomb. Andrew Veyette's dynamic series of stupefying air turns won the crowd's cheers, and his partnering was strong and sincere. The demi-solistes Mlles. Hankes, Sell, Muller and Pollack were finely shown-off by their handsome cavaliers: Devin Alberda (welcome back), Cameron Dieck, Daniel Applebaum and David Prottas. 

In recent seasons they've taken away the lyre and re-branded the Company (like cattle?), changed the name on the theater's facade, carved aisles in the seating where Balanchine/Johnson wanted none, arranged an alienating ticket-pricing scheme, scattered the faithful of the 4th Ring Society, put butt-ugly furniture on the wonderful wide-open space of the Promenade - where they have also (currently) piled up a useless tower of mediocre MoMA PS-1-type artwork - and all for what? But it doesn't matter in the end because all that really matters is the dancers and the dance, the music and the movement. And in those essential elements, the Company stays strong.

There was no Balanchine Birthday Vodka Toast this year but I'd rather be intoxicated by the dancers than by any beverage that might be served up. Happy Birthday Mr. B !!

SWAN LAKE: Mearns, J. Angle, LeCrone, King, Dieck

ALLEGRO BRILLANTE: M. Fairchild, Ramasar

TCHAIKOVSKY SUITE NO. 3: ELEGIE: Krohn, Catazaro; WALTZ: A. Stafford, J. Peck; SCHERZO: Scheller, Carmena; THEME & VARIATIONS: Bouder, Veyette