nyc.dancr
“Choroegraphers and Cocktails” by the Joyce Theater at Gibney Dance tonight.
Had a wonderful time seeing the many wonderful artists in rehearsal including my favorites Shanna Irwin and Youngsil Kim and new members Eriko Sugimura and Brandon Taylor Gray of Complexions Ballet, reconnecting with swing dancers Kevin Clark and meeting new friends Gaby Cook.
Naturally, the two penguins got a little wild from the euphoria of seeing so much dancing… or maybe they’re just tipsy from the cocktails.
Am absolutely excited about the start of 2017-2018 Season at the Joyce Theater!!!
The new season at began this week with Twyla Tharp Dance presenting four choreographies, separated in time by 47 years as Twyla explores the language of dance throughout her career. We were treated to choreographies as varied as “The Fugue” (created in 1970 without music) and excerpts of “Entr’acte” (produced this year, using a spoken dialogue between Twyla and the audience to start off the piece).
My favorite part of the night, however, belonged to the curtain chat. Twyla, needing no introduction, took the mic and spoke candidly as the audience called out questions.
How did the 70s differ from today? (People were willing — and could afford — to work for free.)
Why do you create dance without music? (Twyla choreographed without music for 5 years, as part of her exploration.)
What do you look for in a dancer? (I need to fall in love with the dancer.)
What is your favorite choreography? (How many children do you have?)
Advice to dancers? (Work, work, work.)
Amy Seiwert’s Imagery delivered the best show so far at this year’s Joyce Ballet Festival. Two more chances to see “Wandering” by Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. Get your tickets for tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday at the Joyce Theater!
“I won’t listen to the heart’s complaints.
I won’t listen to its fears.
I’m content to wander.
Through the wind and the snow.” – Wilhelm Müller
I love so many aspects of Amy’s work tonight: the story telling, the aesthetics, and the exquisite dancing delivered by Anthony Cannarella, Alysia Chang, James Gilmer, Tina Laforgia Morse, Jackie Nash, Ben Needham-Wood, Gabriel Smith, and Shania Rasmussen. Bravos!!!
I would totally go back and see them again, if I had not already committed myself to seeing Paul Taylor and Bolshoi over the next two evenings.
The evening-length work explores the stories of a lost wanderer. Dancers in the company took turns to represent the wanderer. The stories are rich and emotional. They are as relevant to a traveller on a physical road — as they are to young adults growing up, searching for their place in life.
Here’s how I interpreted some of the stories. A lost traveller sought to orientate himself and find friendly companions for his trip. Another was sent on her journey reluctantly, but nevertheless braved every challenge along the way. Others wandered emotionally. A lost soul, searching for just one person, one true friend, one love, who would accept him for who he was but never did. Another looked beyond herself, reached out to all those around her, brought everyone together, and became a pillar of the community. Yet, another ran from the harsh realities of the world, before his choices ran out and a path was forced on him.
Artistically, Amy kept the essence of the ballet, its beautiful lines, and extensions, but added her distinct vocabulary with the arms and torsos. The end result was stunningly coordinated movements among her eight dancers, a strong sense of emotional connection amongst the dancers and with the audience.
I love her use of space. Layering to create depth, and small details such the snowfall to create height, and a record player on the side to create a sense of time.
I love her minimalist set involving only a black backdrop, eight lanterns, and the aforementioned record player. Together with a simple (but lovely) costume design, the bulk of the wonderful storytelling was delivered through pure elegant ballet.
I love her use of tempo. Her dancers delivered many a wonderful leap but, more significantly, they also slowed down to emphasize key moments. So slow, in fact, sometimes it took them minutes to cross half a stage. The end result, however, was amazing dance theatre.
I love her use of foreground and background dancers. Every space on stage was always filled but nothing was ever too busy. Instead, the “background” activities subtly enhanced the “foreground.” As a beautiful pas de deux took place, six dancers, three in front of and three behind the couple, walked ever-so-slowly across the stage without any expression. Focussing on the “foreground” duet, I saw a couple finding each other, falling in love, and building a relationship. As I looked at the entire stage, however, I saw a two lovers lost in an ocean of people….
… Would ANYONE ever know of their story? Or, are they JUST another pair of lost wanderers in this world?
Congrats to Gemma Bond Dance for two amazing performances and their debut at the Joyce Theater.
I had a lovely time watching the many talented ABT dancers up close at the intimate Joyce Theater. Gemma created some of the most physically intensive choreography at this ballet festival. Of course, her dancers stepped right up to the challenge and delivered two evenings of beautiful ballet. Bravo!!!
(More notes to come)
Don’t miss the Cirio Collective — performing again tomorrow night (Monday) as part of the Ballet Festival at the Joyce Theater!
Energy — If I could use only one word to describe tonight’s performance, I would say Jeffrey introduced an “energy” to all his pieces. Not energetic, though one certainly needs to be bold and powerful to execute Jeffrey’s choreographies. Energy as in the “vital force” that every living is said to possess in the martial arts. Or, energy as in the invisible force that Neo is able to channel at the end of The Matrix.
In Jeffrey’s works, dancers interact with one another as if they could pass along their emotions, their psyches, and their invisible energies onto each other. Partnering is no longer a physical push-and-pull but an exchange of psychological states.
His pieces felt as much (abstract) dance theatre as they were contemporary ballet. Starting in “Fremd” and through “Minim” in Act I, the intensity of the exchanges rose, and the emotional states on stage darkened. Lia Cirio‘s facial expressions, enraged and almost villainous, were unforgettable. Jeffrey Cirio himself joined the dancers in “Minim.” Though the dancing has been great up to this point, Jeffrey took his own choreographies to a whole different level. He was more powerful, faster, and stronger. Whitney Jensen who partnered him was perhaps the only one who matched him in speed and energy.
Theatricality aside, my favorite part was seeing this whole new side of Jeffrey, completely different from his classical ballet roles with ABT, and seeing just how much he loved it.
Whitney opened Act II with “In the Mind: The Other Room” and the most sinister scene yet. Performing a solo on a chair, she evoked simultaneously the images of a prisoner in a psychological ward and a lone heroine in a futuristic sci-fi movie fighting for her survival. She was later joined by Lia as the antagonist, and two other dancers who intervened and accentuated the vicious encounters.
Emotional states turned much warmer and brotherly-like in “Tactility” choreographed by Gregory Dolbashian, and performed by Jeffrey and Blaine Hoven.
Finally, to close the show and featuring live violinists on stage, “Efil Ym Fo Flah (Half of My Life)” showcased yet another creative side of Jeffrey. I love the movements as much as the interactions between the dancers and the musicians.
Many of the works tonight included spoken words in other foreign languages (written words, in the case of his video). I was told by a native speaker that his movements did not match the meaning of the words, which was confusing if not jarring.
Overall, Jeffrey showed both his signature and his versatility as a choreographer tonight. Even though I generally enjoy the more graceful presentation of ballet (such as Emery from last week), I was taken through an emotional journey by his works, and look forward to seeing more!
Gemma Bond and 16 dancers from my favorite ballet company, America Ballet Theatre, are invited to present at my favorite venue, the Joyce Theater!
What a way to wrap up the Joyce Theater’s 2016-17 season and let the ABT season linger on just a little longer. I was lucky to see a rehearsal of two of the works to be performed, and they are BEAUTIFUL.
Go see Gemma Bond Dance at the Joyce Ballet Festival on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tickets are almost sold out. Get yours soon!
I get to see 12 ballet companies at four shows and one studio rehearsal this weekend. I’m super excited!
Only in New York, can you find such a high concentration of dance talents… where budding choreographers (under 25 years old), rising stars (Claudia Schreier, Jeffery Cirio, Gemma Bond), and world-class ballet companies (Bolshoi Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and New York City Ballet) are all presenting in the same city at the same time.
The first of the twelve…
Claudia Schreier showcased six works at the Joyce Theater tonight featuring ballerina extraordinaire, Wendy Whelan. Her company also included Unity Phelan (one of my favorite NYCB dancers), Amber Neff (who stepped into and danced beautifully in Emery LeCrone’s shows earlier this week), and other amazing dancers.
In extensive collaboration with composers and musicians, Claudia’s pieces featured live piano, string instruments, and chamber choir. There’s great depths in the music throughout the night. If anything, judging by the number of audience members who looked left during the show (towards the area where the musicians sat), the music might have even overpowered the dance. The movements on stage, though beautiful, felt slow in comparison to the tempo and rich development of the music.
Everyone views dance differently; music lovers may respond more strongly to this performance. Her second and final show is tomorrow (Saturday) at the Joyce Theater Ballet Festival.
The Joyce Theater Ballet Festival opened tonight with a performance by and reception with Emery LeCrone Dance.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show which consisted of five works: three World Premiers, a U.S. Premier created in 2016, and an excerpt from Emery’s debut at the Joyce in 2015.
What I like the most about tonight is seeing Emery’s emerging style. She has a “contemporary lyrical” interpretation of ballet. I love how beautifully and gracefully her dancers moved across the floor. Grand jetés lingered in the air, as if the dancers could stretch time. Lifts descended slowly, softly, and elegantly. Yet, periodically, ballerinas would accelerate out of a chaînés with an outburst of emotion.
Her company featured several dancers over 6 feet tall. Combined with costume designs that showcased the dancers’ bodies, Emery created a distinct visual style that accentuated height on stage. She also experimented with music. Four of the five choreographies tonight were done to live music including one with vocals.
Altogether, I had a wonderful experience. My favorites go to “Beloved” and “Time Slowing, Ending” which I thought were the smoothest and most elegant of her work tonight.
Emery LeCrone Dance is performing at the Joyce for two more nights until July 20th. Check them out!
Also look forward to seeing Claudia Schreier and Company, Cirio Collective, Gemma Bond Dance, and Amy Seiwert’s Imagery over the next two weeks!
Tonight I learnt that there’s no limit to pushing the boundary of imagination.
Moses Pendleton and his company innovated “dance” beyond what I thought was possible. Go see MOMIX at the Joyce Theater through July 16!
. . .
How do you capture the attention of a sold-out crowd at the Joyce Theater, within the first minutes of a show? With tumbleweeds!
Tonight’s performance opened in complete darkness except for half a dozen translucent dust balls on the ground. As the scene continued, a storm picked up the tumbleweeds, carried them through the air, and we were treated to a dazzling dance of the dust balls. The lights never came on throughout the first scene, but this simple and creative concept set the tone for the remainder of the program.
MOMIX’s “Opus Cactus” is inspired by the landscape of the American Southwest, and features 18 scenes in two acts. Each scene focuses on an element of the southwest: desert storms, desert blooms, cactuses, snakes, lizards, totems, fire dancers, and so on.
Other than the common inspiration, however, the concepts and deliveries of the 18 scenes are completely distinct from one another. Every scene brings a new and unique experience through lighting design, costumes, props — but most of all, the unbound imagination of how a human body can move, both on its own and in relation to other human bodies.
In the “Desert Blooms” scene, dancers dressed in full-circle flowing maxi skirts reversible with two colors, coupled with lighting design, conjured the image of beautiful flowers coming to life in a desert.
In the “Sundance” ballet, the typical tutu on a ballerina was replaced by a ginormous golden folding fan that opened 4- to 5-feet wide. Hand-held and controlled by the dancers, the fans flowed along with the dancers as if they were real fabric, opening on grand jetés and gracefully falling back down afterwards. Two ballerinas then combined their two folding fans to form a full circular tutu, and combined their torsos and their legs for form a single “ballerina.” The dancers moving in sync, the new “ballerina” appeared to defy gravity and dance in mid-air.
A giant lizard roamed the stage in “Gila Dance” by dancers who moved both in unison (as the gila monster shed its skin) and sometimes in opposition (as if to remind us that under all the visual illusions, we’re only just watching four camouflaged human bodies on a stage).
All manner of creatures walked, crawled, and flew tonight. Company members moved upside down, stacked on top of one another, danced with a pole, on a pole, on a roller board, or on a swing. Oftentimes, I could not tell when one body ended and another began, or how objects stayed afloat in the air. Perhaps, I should just enjoy the visual illusions and take in all that the American Southwest has to offer.
Just remember, as you watch the “Fire Walker,” the flaming torch is still a dancer with his leg lit on fire.