Above: Amber Neff and Drew Grant dancing with Claudia Schreier & Company at Ailey Citigroup Theatre; photo by Nir Arieli
Saturday August 8th, 2015 - Exactly one year ago tonight, Claudia Schreier won the Breaking Glass Project's competition for female choreographers with her brilliant ballet, HARMONIC. Her prize was to present a full evening of her own work at Ailey Citigroup Theatre, and that prize was claimed tonight as five of Claudia's works were performed by an array dancers drawn together specially for the occasion.
The evening was an unalloyed triumph for all concerned, including two contemporary composers whose works were choreographed by Claudia (Jeff Beal and Douwe Eisenga - both of them were present and took a bow at the end); the choral group Tapestry who performed live for the ballet VIGIL; a chamber quartet playing Jeff Beal's score for ALMOST MORNING live, and - of course - the superb ensemble of dancers.
Above: the chamber musicians, with dancers Amber Neff and Drew Grant, in ALMOST MORNING
When we first started watching House of Cards, my partner and I were very much taken with Jeff Beal's score: "...this music would make a great ballet!" And now it's come to pass: ALMOST MORNING is set to an original score composed for Ms. Schreier by the multi-Emmy Award-winning Mr.Beal. Six dancers appear in a series of overlapping duets interspersed among ensemble passages. The music pulses and percolates, but can also turn moody or melodious along the way. The musicians - Kieran Ledwidge (violin), Tia Allen (viola), Kirin McElwain (cello) and Ta-Wei Yu (piano) - delivered the score with propulsive assurance.
The choreographer responds to this music with movement that has a broad overall sweep but also features countless felicitous and original touches. Amber Neff is thrice tossed into the air, spiraling before being caught by her partner Drew Grant; the blondes - Kaitlyn Gilliland and Elizabeth Claire Walker - dance in tandem; and a sustained duo for Ms. Walker and Mr. Grant is particularly striking. A pas de trois for Ms. Neff, Francis Lawrence, and Da'Von Doane progresses to a pensive solo danced by the incomparable Kaitlyn Gilliland. There are stretches of visual polyphony; the dancers form a circle before sweeping into a triple pas de deux set to the score's most lyrical theme. Then the dancers rush off in the end, leaving the stage to the musicians.
The conclusion of the ballet triggered the first of the evening's enthusiastic ovations: having observed ALMOST MORNING in a keen state of silence, the audience demonstrated their approval for both the music and the dancing in no uncertain terms. And this was only the beginning.
The evening continued on its soaring trajectory with HARMONIC, the ballet to Douwe Eisenga's stimulating score which clinched the prize for Claudia Schreier at last year's Breaking Glass competition. HARMONIC was originally created by Ms. Schreier in 2013 for the Columbia Ballet Collaborative, and was subsequently re-staged for Craig Salstein's Intermezzo Dance Company, who performed it at Vassar College in March 2014. Inspired by Mr. Eisenga's magical score, HARMONIC is a contemporary ballet that seems built to last.
Tonight HARMONIC received a mesmerizing performance, with ABT's entrancing Stephanie Williams displaying marvelous technique and a particularly attractive presence. Earlier this month, Stephanie danced - splendidly - for Joshua Beamish at The Joyce. The principal male role here was taken by Dance Theatre of Harlem's intrepid Da'Von Doane; Da'Von danced in four ballets tonight and, after a long day of tech/dress/performance, he seemed totally fresh at the end of the evening and looked ready to repeat the whole programme. Strength and stamina are essential, but when you add Da'Von's stunning physique, impeccable partnering, generosity of spirit, and his intangible gift for making everything seem right with the world, you have a paragon.
Da'Von's dancing with Ms. Williams (above) was electrifying to behold, for they are well-matched in terms of both daring and allure.
One could say there are no supporting roles in Claudia Schreier's ballets: she puts demands on everyone involved in a given work and then rewards them with opportunities to shine. Thus tonight in HARMONIC, Amber Neff and Elinor Hitt were utterly essential; they danced their hearts out, and basked beautifully in those passages of being partnered by Da'Von. Again, the audience response was thunderous.
More images from HARMONIC:
Elinor Hitt
Stephanie Williams
A new production of Ms. Schreier's 2009 ballet ANOMIE is imbued with a striking atmosphere of lyricism and poetry. Set to the heartfelt beauty of César Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variation...
...ANOMIE opens (above) with New York City Ballet's distinctive Lydia Wellington posed in Daniel Applebaum's arms in a pool of light; Lydia slowly unfolds and the ballet begins its beautiful flight. In addition to the abounding artistry of this wonderfully simpatico City Ballet duo, we could also savor the ever-vivid clarity of Amber Neff's dancing, the aristocratic face and silken line of Elizabeth Claire Walker, and the handsomely assured presence of Drew Grant.
Elizabeth Claire Walker (above) with Drew Grant...
Elizabeth Claire Walker and Daniel Applebaum
All five dancers appear in a diagonal, with a canonic dramatic port de bras motif, before Lydia Wellington and Daniel Applebaum meet again to end the ballet as in a fading dream.
I can't resist sharing more of Nir Arieli's images from ANOMIE:
Daniel Applebaum and Elizabeth Claire Walker
Lydia Wellington, aloft
Daniel Appebaum and Elizabeth Claire Walker: a most congenial partnership
Daniel Applebaum and Lydia Wellington
Lydia Wellington and Daniel Applebaum
Following the interval, the atmosphere became spiritual as Vigil, a pas de deux danced by Elinor Hitt and Da'Von Doane to sacred choral music by Tomás Luis de Victoria and Sergei Rachmaninoff which was performed live onstage by the 20-member choir Tapestry. The singers, clad in black, arranged themselves in a semi-circle around the dance-space; they are a wonderful, physically diverse group of musicians and they harmonized with a kind of gentle intensity that created an atmosphere of both reverence and hope.
Above from VIGIL, danced by Elinor Hitt and Da'Von Doane
Ms. Hitt was one of the revelations of the evening; her jazzy dancing in HARMONIC made us think of her as an extroverted allegro dancer, yet in VIGIL she displayed a poignantly expressive adagio style that put me in mind of Sara Mearns' elegiac luminosity. It almost goes without saying that Da'Von Doane achieved another miracle of control, strength, and grace here; the partnership had a gorgeous flow and resonance, so finely attuned to the music. The dancers seemed angel-like in their white costumes, and their shaping of Ms. Schreier's port de bras and the heavenly quality of the duet's numerous lifts really cast a spell. The performance moved me to tears.
More of Nir Arieli's images from VIGIL:
PULSE, a driving full-company work, is set to Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga's marvelous Piano Concerto: I. With her customary flair for visualizing the music, Claudia Schreier molded the Eisenga score into another fascinating dancework: as exciting as HARMONIC, but bigger and splashier. In its dynamic thrust, PULSE reminded me at times of Robbins's GLASS PIECES.
Claudia's full contingent of dancers took the stage for this impressively-structured ballet, and there were some dancers in the cast we hadn't seen earlier in the evening, including New York City Ballet soloist Lauren King (above); always a welcome sight onstage, Lauren danced with her trademark mixture of lyricism and edge: a combination that always makes her so exciting to watch. Also appearing in PULSE were Nayara Lopes and Craig Wasserman, vivid dancers who I wish we could have seen more of over the course of the evening.
Da'Von Doane's opening solo in PULSE showed yet another facet of this dancer...a dancer to whom the word "amazing" can most truly be applied. The solo becomes an echo-duet for Da'Von and Craig Wasserman...
...with motifs later taken up by the male ensemble (above): Da'Von, Craig, Daniel,and Francis.
PULSE plunges forward, Claudia Schreier's choreography ever-attentive to the nuances of the Eisenga score. At one moment, an air of mystery pervades only to surrender to the inevitable forward impetus of the music. There's a buildup as waves of dancers enter...
...and then suddenly we are lured into a solo passage for Kaitlyn Gilliland (above), dancing with goddess-like authority. Lines of dancers along a right-angle converge...
...and then Lauren King and Da'Von Doane (above) meet up for a duet, followed by other fleeting episodes. The women dance as a group, and then the men, and then everyone, as PULSE sprints to the finish line: a perfect finale for a grand evening of dance.
Amber Neff and Da'Von Doane in PULSE: "We could have danced all night...in fact, we did!" To the dancers, one and all, heaps of roses and buckets of iced champagne.
The performance ended with a colossal standing ovation and a din of cheers; the enthusiasm poured out into the lobby where the audience seemed reluctant to take leave after such an extraordinary evening. Although I have been following Claudia Schreier's work for a few seasons, I must say that experiencing a full programme of her choreography surpassed my expectations, which were very high indeed. In addition to her enviable ability to choose just the right music and fill it with meaningful movement, her work is blessedly free of gimmicks or self-indulgence. Claudia knows the value of not over-extending her ideas, so that after each piece we are left wanting more.
All photo by Nir Arieli, with my sincere thanks for his patience and his artistry.