Oberon's Grove: Lydia Johnson Dance @ Westbeth

Above: Chazz Fenner-McBride, Laura DiOrio, Katie Lohiya, and Willy Laury of Lydia Johnson Dance; photo by Dmitry Beryozkin

Sunday May 1st, 2022 matinee - Lydia Johnson Dance offering a studio showing of excerpts from new and recent works; the event took place in the Westbeth home-space of the Martha Graham Dance Company, previously the headquarters of Merce Cunningham. The space is especially dear to Lydia Johnson, as she did some of her earliest choreographic work here...many, many moons ago.

The Graham home is one of my favorite places in Gotham; you can actually feel the vibrations of accumulated memory-energy of all who have danced here thru the decades.

The program consisted of excerpts from Lydia's 2018 dancework Undercurrent, to music by Henryk Górecki, and from two works-in progress: one set to the music of Chopin and the second to music by the New York-based string quartet ETHEL. Lydia's Company has recently returned from a week at Kaatsbaan, where the new works being shown today were developed in intensive rehearsal periods.

This was my first opportunity of seeing LJD in performance mode since the pandemic hit New York City just over two years ago. There are three dancers new to Lydia Johnson Dance since they last performed live in the City: Amanda Egan, Willy Laury, and Michael Miles.

Amanda Egan graduated Summa Cum Laude from Fordham/Ailey in 2019. During her time at the Ailey school, she trained closely with master teachers Christine Dakin and Carolyn Adam and performed works by Paul Taylor, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Clifton Brown and Hope Boykin. She has performed at Central Park’s SummerStage, The Joyce Theater and La Mama in NYC, and at Campeche, Mexico and in Reisa, Germany, where she represented Team USA and was awarded first place at the 2014 Tap Dance World Championships. She joined LJD in 2020.

I first met the charismatic Willy Laury a few years ago when he danced for MORPHOSES and also appeared in an evening of works by Emery LeCrone. You can 'meet' and read all about Willy, who was born in Paris, France, at his website here.

Michael Miles hails from St. Mary’s County, Maryland, and completed his BFA in Dance at New York University. He has performed works by Ronald K. Brown, Lar Lubovitch, and Wayne McGregor, and most recently appeared with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre at New York Live Arts. I first saw Michael at one of Ms. Selwyn's rehearsals and felt his contemporary lyricism and astute partnering would be right at home in Lydia's choreography. Today, he proved me right.

This afternoon, Amanda, Willy, and Michael joined LJD Company members Laura Di Orio, Chazz Fenner-McBride, Min Kim, Katie Lohiya, Emily Sarkissian, and Michelle Siegel. The new dancers have quickly taken to Lydia's style, and they each made their mark today.

Undercurrent was a huge hit when it premiered in 2018; the audience really took to the Górecki score, which includes driven, propulsive rhythms, haunting themes with a spiritual feeling, and a finale with the feel of a big-scale folkdance.

The excerpts shown this afternoon included...

...a duet for Min Kim and Michael Miles...

...Min and Michael...

...a duet for Laura DiOrio and Chazz Fenner-McBride...

...and a beautifully-danced solo for Michelle Siegel.

For Eli is set to music by Frédéric Chopin; this dancework was commissioned by Laura Lou Levy in honor of her son, Eli, a pianist who loved playing the music of the Polish composer.

For Eli opens with a long and pensive solo danced by Katie Lohiya (above)...

...Katie is then joined by the other women for a ritualistic ensemble dance (above: Katie, Michelle Siegel, Emily Sarkissian, and Amanda Egan)...

...Katie Lohiya and Willy Laury in For Eli...

The afternoon's presentation concluded with a preview of the second new work Glide Path.

Above: Laura DiOrio and Willy Laury in Glide Path

The music for Glide Path is by Todd Reynolds, Marcos Zarvos, Bryce Dressner, and John King and is performed by ETHEL and Vanessa Wagner; the score wends its way thru many moods, finally arriving at what seems to be a hoe-down with a slow, bluesy finish.

More images from Glide Path: