Above: Grant Dettling and Sarah Pon of Lydia Johnson Dance
Sunday May 3rd, 2015 - Down at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy, Lydia Johnson Dance opened their studio doors today for friends and supporters of the Company as LJD's phenomenal ballet mistress Deborah Wingert taught a Company class and then spent some time coaching the dancers in works to be presented when Lydia Johnson Dance perform in their annual New York season at Ailey Citigroup on June 11th thru 13th, 2015. Details here.
Deb Wingert's class
Class: Katie Keith Dettling
The Two Katies in Class - Katie Lohiya and Katie Keith Dettling
Following the class, the dancers ran thru the first movement of Lydia's Mozart ballet, “Barretts Mill Road: A Remembrance”. Above, Katie Lohiya and the ensemble. This work, inspired by memories of Lydia's mother who recently passed away, recalls an earlier and more elegant time. Following the run-thru, Deborah Wingert worked with the dancers on nuance of gesture and on finding keys to motivation in interpreting what seems, on the surface, to be an abstract work.
“Untitled Bach” (2010), a large ensemble work, is being revived for the upcoming performances at Ailey. Set to selections from Bach’s violin sonatas and partitas, the staging of this work includes the use of a raised platform upstage, creating a second performance space.
Although - again - this is an abstract dancework, relationships are developed between various pairings of dancers (above: Laura DiOrio and Brynt Beitman) as the ballet moves forward.
Min Kim and Chazz Mcbride
Katie Lohiya and Oliver Swan-Jackson
"Unititled Bach" includes a powerful duet for two men, danced by Blake Hennessy-York and Chazz Mcbride (photo above from an earlier rehearsal) which elicited murmurs of approval from today's viewers for the strength and emotional clarity of the two dancers' performance.
Ms. Wingert gave some detailed notes, and the session ended with audience members staying on to chat with these dancers who have worked so devotedly to bring these ballets to life.