Above: dancers Blake Hennessy-York and Sarah Pon of Lydia Johnson Dance; photo by Dmitry Beryozkin
Saturday March 12th, 2016 - Over the span of the ten years that I've been covering the New York dance scene, I've become truly fond of a number of dancers, from great ballerinas like Wendy Whelan to young dancers working in the dozens of smaller companies here in Gotham. Their artistry, commitment to dance, and their sheer physical attractiveness have made their performances memorable.
As the years have flown by, a number of these endearing dancer-friends have left the companies where they honed their skills and lit up the stages of the City's various dance venues. Some have retired, others have moved to other cities (or other continents); some have had babies, or gone back to school. When the rosters of my favorite dance companies change due to the departure of certain dancers, it usually alters the whole scheme of things within the company in question. And while the vast numbers of dancers working in the City makes it comparatively easy to find substitutes for those who leave, it's seems to me that there are some who are virtually irreplaceable...not just as dancers, but as people.
In the past two or three seasons, Lydia Johnson Dance has undergone several roster changes: three key dancers, on whom major works were created, have left: Jessica Sand, Lisa Iannacito, and Kerry Shea - to give them their maiden ('stage') names - were dancers whose work was a major factor in developing my abiding interest in this Company. Sadly, all three women left LJD without making formal farewells.
Tonight, the closing night of Lydia Johnson Dance's 2016 New York season, two dancers who have played an integral part in the Company's recent seasons, danced with their colleagues for the last time. Sarah Pon and Blake Hennessy-York have announced that they will soon be moving to California. Tonight we bade them the fondest of farewells.
I first saw Sarah and Blake in a Lar Lubovitch rep class taught (at Peridance) by the one and only Attila Joey Csiki. The lovely qualities of these two very youthful-looking dancers caught my eye immediately. After the class I met them briefly.
In 2011, I was very pleased to find that Sarah and Blake had joined Lydia Johnson Dance; immediately their particular gifts for finding the emotional center of a danced passage inspired Lydia to begin creating on them; the process reached a special peak last season with WHAT COUNTS, a jazz-based dancework which premiered in 2015 and which won Sarah and Blake well-deserved praise in The New York Times.
Tonight, Sarah and Blake danced in all four works on a demanding program. The evening ended with a heartfelt round of applause for these two beautiful people, as their fellow dancers handed them roses and embraced them warmly.
The house was nearly full tonight, a very attentive and enthusiastic crowd. The program lacked the musical contrasts that can make a good evening of dance truly memorable: two Golijov works (with some Marc Mellits thrown in) book-ended a pair of jazz pieces. A wider variety of musical styles would have thrown each piece on the program into higher relief. Nevertheless, compelling dancing made the evening work.
In her strikingly original NIGHT OF THE FLYING HORSES, Lydia has created a dynamic yet spiritual ballet which mirrors the various moods of the eclectic Golijov score to perfection. The seven dancers - Laura DiOrio, Sarah Pon, Katie Martin-Lohiya, MinSeon Kim, Brynt Beitman, Blake Hennessy-York, and Chazz Fenner-McBride - danced with the perfect mixture of fervor and poetry that the music inspires; Ms. DiOrio and Mr. Beitman found a deep emotional connection in their gorgeous, moody pas de deux. The costumes - the red dresses for the girls that give this ballet an iconic feel - were by former LJD dancer Jessica Sand Blonde; Jessica's designs enhanced all four pieces tonight - and the only regret was that she wasn't wearing her creations and dancing for us.
Blake Hennessy-York and Chazz Fenner-McBride have a sprightly, bouncy duet at the start of WHAT COUNTS. A trio of women, dancing in stylized-sync, bring a quirky mystery to the piece. The central duet for Blake and Sarah (they are offstage spouses) begins with resistance on her part and moves to a kind of quiet ecstasy, their arms raised towards the heavens. But then Sarah abandons Blake and rejoins her sisters as they continue to move about the space in their elegant, self-absorbed patterns.
The second jazz dance on the program, a premiere entitled HINDSIGHT, uses chairs on which the woman sit, lounge, and pose before being joined by the men. Solos for several of the dancers highlighted the diverse talents of these beautiful beings; and in duet passages, Laura and Brynt again stood out, as did MinSeon Kim dancing with Blake Hennessy-York. In this work, Blake and Sarah danced superbly in solos made expressly for them; and solos for both Chazz Fennner-McBride and Katie Martin-Lohiya utilized the chairs in imaginative ways. Audra Leigh Edwards and Justin Lynch made their only appearances of the evening in HINDSIGHT, which ends with waltzy, ballroom-y combinations. Each of the three songs used was a trifle too long, and a motif of the women standing on the chairs and then collapsing into their partners' arms was over-utilized.
The evening finished on a stronger note with GIVING WAY, which premiered last season. Two propulsive movements to music of Marc Mellitts are pleasingly counter-balanced by Osvaldo Golijov's haunting Mariel for cello and marimba. This ballet unfurls with some of Lydia Johnson's most gratifying choreography: a tense yet lyrical duet for Brynt Beitman and Blake Hennessy-York, and strikingly personal solos for Sarah Pon and Chazz Fenner-McBride linger in the memory.
Much of GIVING WAY is given over to partnerships, and Laura DiOrio and Brynt Beitman - yet again - danced with a deep rapport, whilst MinSeon Kim and Chazz Fenner-McBride seized every opportunity to show off her suppleness and his strength. An impressive dancer new to the Company - Riccardo Battaglia - was a hero of the evening in more ways than one. Coming into the work with only 3 weeks to prepare, Mr. Battaglia took everything handsomely in stride, displaying excellent skills as a partner aligned to a charismatic presence and a fine feeling for the flow of the music and movement. He provided his partner, the luxuriantly leggy blonde Katie Martin-Lohiya, with admirably steady support which in turn let Katie's dancing take wing. This is a partnership calling out to be developed.
Meanwhile, watching Sarah and Blake's performance in GIVING WAY summoned up many memories of their dancing, both in performance and in the studio. The waves of affection from audience and colleagues as they took their bows together was both genuine and richly deserved.