Category: DANCE

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Columbia Ballet Collaborative

Fall Performance by Columbia Ballet Collaborative tonight at the Alvin Ailey Theater.

Love “Where We Go” by Zhongjing Fang and her empowering message to dancers. Bravos to the five lovely ballerinas: Sophia Loo, Grace Puckett, Samantha Sacks, Bethany Schwartz, and Alexandra Waterbury.

Also love “it starts with one” by Emily Schoen especially the beautiful and fluid movements by Katrina Crawford, Paige Hinkley, Nicholas Rio, Grace Puckett, and Maya Weiss.

Overall, the seven choreographies each presented its own unique take on ballet. It was wonderful to see the amazing talents of this student-run organization.

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The Tenant

The Tenant at the Joyce Theater with a post-show chat with the cast.

A complex dance play that’s dark, disturbing yet at a deep level, completely relatable. A stunning performance for those open to experiences.

Love Cassie Trenary‘s solo at the start of the show depicting the mental state of Simone. Love James Whiteside‘s and Cassie’s duets; James’ transformation; and the final dance where they mirror each other. I would go back just to see those dance scenes again!

However, the show has so much more. Love Kibrea Carmichael‘s movements and portrayal of her various characters. I generally try to focus on the dancers, but major kudos to Frank Moon for the live music, sounds, and voice.

At the post-show chat, we learnt about:

The significant amount of research that the dancers undertook to master their characters.

How the cast wind down at the end of the night, after being so emotionally invested in dark roles that involve suicide, deep anxiety, paranoia, and so on.

And the various coincidental events that happened during the creation of the piece. Are we really watching a story replaying in a loop? Or perhaps… just perhaps… are we all living the story ourselves?

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program V)

Program VI of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center.

The festival closed this afternoon with four stunning performances.

Hometown favorite American Ballet Theatre put on an amazing presentation of Symphonie Concertante. Devon Teuscher was so beautiful in her lead role, as were Christine Shevchenko and Thomas Forster. Wonderful to see how much Cate Hurlin and Katie Williams have grown and blossomed (and of course been promoted) in the 3 years since I moved to NYC and started attending ABT performances regularly.

The other programs today include repeats (but gorgeous ones!) of the Four Temperaments by Joffrey Ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Sae Eun Park and Hugo Marchand, of Ballet Opera de Paris, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux by Victoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim.

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program III)

Program III of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center.

Kimin Kim continued to own the spotlight with his incredible jumps in “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” earning an applause from the audience every time he leaves the floor.

Tonight’s program also featured the colorful “Scotch Symphony” by San Francisco Ballet. A graceful and beautiful “Divertissement Pas de Duex” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Sae Eun Park and Hugo Marchand of Ballet Opera de Paris. The technical and precise “the Four Temperaments” by Joffrey Ballet. I especially enjoyed Christine Rocas and Dylan Gutierrez in the second variation, Sanguinic.

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program II)

Program II of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center on Thursday.

My favorite tonight goes to Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe of The Royal Ballet in “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux”. What a beautiful presentation of my favorite duet. WOW!!! 😍😍😍

I wasn’t the only one who fell in love with them. The crowd cheered so loudly that the house re-opened the curtain for them to take an extra bow.

After seeing Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz of NYCB perform the piece this spring, I didn’t think anyone could possibly come close. However, within seconds of coming onto the stage, after the first spin and the first lift, Anna Rose was already signaling to us that we’re in for a treat.

Anna Rose and Marcelino had an incredible chemistry between them that brought the duet to a different level.

I also love every aspect of Anna Rose’s presentation. The way she lingered in the air just a bit longer than expected at the end of a turn. Her facial expression, her eyes, her glaze alone could tell endless stories. Technically, she travelled backwards in her arabesque faster than anyone I’ve seen. Her fish dives at the end were the most daring of a leap into a fish dive that I’ve seen. Like I said, I didn’t think anyone could possibly outshine Tiler but she just did!

San Francisco Ballet put on a beautiful performance of “Divertimento No 15” featuring a talented female lead cast of Frances Chung, Dores André, Sasha De Sola, Koto Ishihara, Ana Sophia Scheller accompanied by Ben Freemantle, Angelo Greco, and Lonnie Weeks.

Maria Khoreva, Anastasia Nuykina, Daria Ionova, and Xander Parish put on an emotional rendition of “Apollo”. Bravo!

I also love the pairing of Maria Kowroski and Abi Stafford in “Concerto Barocco” by New York City Ballet.

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Balanchine: The City Center Years (Program I)

Program I of “Balanchine: The City Center Years” at New York City Center on Wednesday.

Memorable moments from the opening night include…

Kimin Kim‘s jumps in “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux”. The crowd collectively gasped when he leaped off for the first time, and stayed in the air forever and ever. Kimin continued to impress throughout the piece, executing some of the best jumps I’ve seen, and owned the spotlight in this duet.

Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambe were amazing in “Tarantella”. They were playful, technical, and daring. I love the chemistry between them, and look forward to seeing them perform “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux” tomorrow night!

Tiler Peck, Ashley Bouder, Anthony Huxley, and New York City Ballet were lovely in “Symphony in C”. Miami City Ballet opened the night with a beautiful presentation of “Serenade”.

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Medusa

Absolutely love love love “Medusa” by Jasmin Vardimon Company tonight. Two more performances at Sadler’s Wells through Wednesday. Go see the show!!!

I was blown away by the company’s production of “Pinocchio” last year. I’ve been both excited yet nervous about tonight. Will the new work bring the same level of creativity, intensity, playfulness, and stunning technical execution as last year — especially when the new creation is an abstract concept?

Medusa surpassed Pinocchio at every level.

I interpreted the show as centering around men’s desire for power, control, and exploitation — over women, over the environment, and even over mythical creations — and the resulting damage. The piece is dark and emotional, speaks to current events, and challenges the audience to think twice about the complex, unspoken, or forgotten root cause of the societal issues today.

Thank you, Jasmin and the dancers Jasmine Orr, Olga Clavel, Patricia Hastewell Puig, André Rebelo, Lucija Božičević, Silke Muys, Kieran Shannon, Joshua Smith, for giving us an absolutely incredible experience tonight.

Memorable scenes.

“The Housewife” and how men assert psychological, emotional, physical control over women. The girl on stage is a pretty inanimate doll to be dressed up, to be accessorized for men, to be waltzed (and tossed) around by men, until she is eventually transformed into a housewife. Even in her adult form, her body is still owned by men — who extended their arms, reached inside of her vagina as they pleased, and ripped the fetus right out of her as they wished. In the background of the housewife scene are two young women out and about — trying to enjoy a day at the beach while wearing a gas mask to survive.

During the post-show chat, Jasmin explained that most people remember only the ending of the Greek mythology where Medusa is a terrifying monster. However, she was not born that way. Medusa was once a beautiful maiden, but was raped by the God of the Sea in Athena’s Temple. Her later form came from her anger and her rage, yet the early part of her story is often omitted or even forgotten.