Morphoses, Year Three
November 6, 2009
Morphoses in Christopher Wheeldon’s Rhapsody Fantaisie, photo by Erin Baiano
During its third season at City Center last week, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company offered six ballets over two programs, along with behind-the-scenes videos of the dancers rehearsing at Martha’s Vineyard, live music, and a pre-curtain greeting from Christopher Wheeldon himself. There always seems to be a lot of fuss (both good and bad) over this three-year-old company – the “Ballet=Sexy” motto sparked interest in its first season, high-profile costume designers and dancers got attention in 2008, and this year’s uninspiring videos received criticism for focusing on butterflies and blueberries instead of on the choreographic process – along with speculation about how Wheeldon’s choices shape The Future of Ballet. Once all of the excess is stripped away and the expectations about Wheeldon filling Balanchine’s shoes are set aside, Morphoses appears to be a struggling dance company with flawed programs and inconsistent choreography – not unlike many other contemporary ballet troupes.
Last Friday evening’s program started out strongly with Continuum (2002), part of Wheeldon’s trilogy of works set to music by Gyorgy Ligeti. Featuring four couples, a thornily intriguing piano score, upside down scissoring legs and spidery hands, the work was structurally and choreographically similar to Wheeldon’s 2001 ballet Polyphonia. The geometric partnering was set within a meditative atmosphere that felt otherworldly yet grounded.
Morphoses in Wheeldon’s Continuum, photo by Erin Baiano
Paul Lightfoot and Sol León’s Softly as I Leave You, second on the program, was an insincere, angst-filled portrayal of the end of a relationship. Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk are talented dancers, but this work, which used the unusual pairing of Bach and Arvo Pärt, mainly featured their high extensions and flexible torsos as they struggled in and around a coffin. They deserved better, and so did the audience.
Unfortunately, Wheeldon’s newest work, Rhapsody Fantaisie, was a lackluster close to the program. Set to a lush piano score by Rachmaninoff with a bizarre backdrop of windsocks by Los Carpinteros, six couples in deep red costumes swept through movement that combined ballet vocabulary with folk dance influences and imaginative lifts. But it was all a blur, rushing by so quickly with nothing and nobody catching the eye, except for the radiant Wendy Whelan in a duet with Andrew Crawford. Their pas de deux demonstrated how Wheeldon’s movement is most enlightening when it slows down and allows both the audience and dancers to pause and sink their teeth into his choreographic cornucopia.
Wheeldon recently confessed that he’s uncertain about the future of Morphoses, citing fundraising obstacles and the stress of managing a dance company while also choreographing for it. These are challenges faced by many choreographers who start their own companies, except that Wheeldon was already in the spotlight and gaining plenty of publicity when he founded Morphoses because of his time as a New York City Ballet dancer and resident choreographer. For Wheeldon to abandon Morphoses after such a short amount of time would be cowardly. There are countless other struggling companies – many of which have been around for much longer than three years – that have persisted with fewer resources and smaller budgets than that of Morphoses. The company has been extremely fortunate to have performed at Sadler’s Wells, the Vail International Dance Festival, and City Center over the past three years, and there are plans to tour to several cities internationally in 2010. Performing worldwide is impressive for such a young company, but perhaps Morphoses should focus on smaller, local projects before calling it quits so that Wheeldon can devote his energies to the choreographic process.
Into the Twittersphere
November 5, 2009
I joined Twitter, much to my own surprise. In addition to loathing the idea of logging into another system everyday (after work email, personal email, work databases, Facebook, and this blog) and learning the Twitter lingo, I simply didn’t want to define myself in 140 characters or less. So, Twitter was not for me.
Some recent events have made me reconsider my position, and after weighing the pros and cons and assessing Twitter’s sociological implications (yes, it went there) with friends and acquaintances, I suddenly found myself immersed in the Twittersphere. So far, I’ve found that Twitter has been most useful not for answering the question “What are you doing?”, but rather for responding to, “What (online content) are you reading?” or “What upcoming event should I be aware of?” I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing links to content that I find interesting, and following other individuals and organizations has kept me informed and entertained.
In addition to retweeting all of my blog posts, I’m sure that my tweets will include links that reflect a plethora of other topics, along with stories or news that I find to be funny, insightful, outrageous, poetic, political, perplexing, touching…the list goes on (Note: I have no plans to tweet about what I ate for breakfast or which celebrity I saw on my way to work). So if you’re interested, I invite you to follow me. My tweets are protected, so just log in and send me a request. See you in the ‘sphere!
Paris Opera Ballet Documentary Opens Tomorrow in NYC
November 3, 2009
In his latest film, La Danse, American documentarian Frederick Wiseman follows the Paris Opera Ballet as its dancers rehearse and perform seven different works. Pina Bausch, Angelin Preljocaj, and Rudolph Nureyev are among the choreographers whose ballets are featured in this whopping 158-minute documentary, but the film focuses mainly on the company’s dancers and administrators. La Danse opens at NYC’s Film Forum this Wednesday, and Frederick Wiseman will appear for a Q & A following the 8:30 PM screening. The two-week run of La Danse will continue through November 17th. Film Forum is located at 209 West Houston Street, between Sixth Avenue and Varick.
Performa 09: Creative Takeover
October 29, 2009
"Parades and Changes, replays", photo by Jérôme Delatour
This Friday marks the beginning of Performa 09, the third biennial of a city-wide, three-week festival of performance art. Unlike the last two festivals, Performa 09 will attempt to break down the boundaries that exist between artistic mediums. In a recent post on WNYC, festival director RoseLee Goldberg said, “This year we’re doing dance, theater, film, fashion, food, architecture, graphic design, and poetry. The idea that we can talk about all media, all the time, that’s what takes this biennial to the next level.”
Performa 09 will present new work by more than 150 contemporary artists in collaboration with more than eighty of the city’s arts institutions. Check the full calendar of events for dates and ticket information (though many of the performances are FREE). Friday’s opening night benefit, which includes a food installation by Jennifer Rubell (and indoor apple picking), sounds like an exciting way to kick off the festival.
One of the highly anticipated dance offerings comes from Deborah Hay and Yvonne Rainer, two of the founding members of the Judson Dance Theater and both influential voices in post-modern dance. They’ll present new work and share the stage at Baryshnikov Arts Center from November 17 to 19. Another exciting dance event is Anne Collod’s restaging of Anna Halprin’s 1965 work, Parades and Changes, at Dance Theater Workshop from November 18 to 21.
Cedar Lake Brings “Orbo Novo” to the Joyce
October 27, 2009
Cedar Lake dancers in Orbo Novo, photo by Julieta Cervantes
Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Orbo Novo (New World), created for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, made its New York City premiere last week at the Joyce Theater. The piece was inspired by “My Stroke of Insight”, a memoir by the neuro-anatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who suffered a stroke at the age of thirty-seven. Weaving together flowing movement and text that is both humorous and analytical, Cherkaoui attempted to illustrate distinctions between the past and the future, the left and right brain hemispheres, the old and new. In spite of seamless dancing, the result lacked texture and variety, never revealing a world more intriguing or complex than our own.
The stage created boundaries and constraints for the dancers with a set design of four red, metal grids on wheels, created by Alexander Dodge. When Acacia Schachte climbed the lattice structure, hung gracefully at the top, and then slithered to the floor – where she excelled at Cherkaoui’s undulating movement before collapsing – the audience saw the first of many literal portrayals of Taylor’s memoir. This clear illustration of a stroke was followed by spoken text – accompanied by slow walking and myriad arm gestures – that elaborated on Taylor’s thought process as the stroke occurred. Speaking matter-of-factly and at times humorously, the dancers conveyed the experience of mentally persevering while physically struggling to go through the motions.
Cedar Lake in Orbo Novo, photo by Julieta Cervantes
More compelling was the series of solos, trios, and ensemble dancing – filled with moments of calm stung by aggressive, tumbling spurts of adrenaline – that set the dancers into eternally-moving journeys that only came to an end because of confinement within the metal structure’s walls. When the dancers were trapped, their limbs dangled lifelessly through the grid, and suddenly they would glide through and come to life. Freed or contaminated, however, there was little variety in Cherkaoui’s choreography. It was just one undulating movement after another. And although watching their supple bodies ripple and curl was mesmerizing at times, the eyes tended to glaze over because of so little change in movement quality throughout the eighty-minute work. Szymon Brzóska’s meditative score, played by the Mosaic String Quartet and pianist Aaron Wunsch, was similarly unvarying with the exception of a few vibrant, fast-paced sections that infused the piece with energy.
Cedar Lake’s dancers are undoubtedly a talented, disciplined group, but in Orbo Novo they appeared unmoved by the content of the work, and sections of their speaking were forced and insincere. While they beautifully achieved the illusion that their physical beings were pushed and pulled by external forces, their performances lacked the emotional and psychological depth that the piece required. Perhaps this has more to do with Cherkaoui, who never shared his own voice in the piece, instead relying solely on Taylor’s memoir for direction and interpretation. The result was a one-dimensional, unchanging world that was more bland than peaceful.
Neal Medlyn, Carmine Covelli, and Farris Craddock in … Her’s A Queen, photo by Yi-Chun Wu
The press materials for Neal Medlyn’s …Her’s a Queen, which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop on Thursday evening, came in a folder with a picture of two kittens on the front, sitting in a field of flowers and grass. Although the folder was probably in a pile of leftover back-to-school supplies at Duane Reade, Medlyn’s choice was certainly not a careless, last-minute one. The kitten folders – part of a Mead series called “Purrs & Grrrs” – were merely an introduction to Medlyn’s exploration of the struggle to attain purity and innocence in a ruthless, media-crazed world. …Her’s a Queen was much more than a commentary on the rise and fall of Britney Spears, the fifth pop icon that has been the subject of his work. It was also a messy, genuine offering from Medlyn himself on coping with loneliness, emptiness, and existential crises.
The piece occurred roughly in reverse chronological order, beginning with the destroyed, reckless Britney (portrayed by Medlyn) that tabloids depend on for sales. Distorted lyrics and melodies from her songs could be heard, with Medlyn fittingly starting with lyrics from “Everytime”: “Notice me. Take my hand. Why are we strangers when our love is strong?” A continuous photo shoot reflected the paparazzi craze, and as the photographs were projected onto the scrim, they revealed how a viewer can easily piece together a few moments caught on camera and create a fictitious story. How alienated and misunderstood these pop personalities are.
Carmine Covelli and Neal Medlyn, photo by Yi-Chun Wu
Yet, Medlyn “wants to be pure like milk”, and as the piece progressed, he attempted to pull his life – and Britney’s life – together, to return to a state of innocence and purity, and to forget everything that drove him away from innocence in the first place. Carmine Covelli played several roles, all of which aimed at feeding Britney’s hunger for purity and happiness. He served as Britney’s baby, Britney’s conscience, a puzzling bear, and a figment of her imagination. Covelli and Medlyn’s twisted interactions involved arguing, flattering, attempts at forgetting what they had just discussed or forgetting the night before, and a continuous return to an awkward entanglement on the floor. No matter how long they remained in their uncomfortable embrace, it was clear that it couldn’t provide any lasting comfort. And the “non-sexual cuddling party”, which involved audience participation, was suddenly dismissed by Medlyn as being too overwhelming, claustrophobic, and reminiscent of past experiences. “I was happier when I didn’t remember anything at all”, he said. Thus, the party guests departed and solitude prevailed.
Medlyn shed Britney’s glamorous, sugar-coated exterior to reveal hidden layers of vulnerability, isolation, and pain. Indeed, he was often fumbling towards self-destruction as his body writhed and his voice transformed Britney’s pop sensations into angst-filled rages. Just when it seemed as though he were drowning in a pool of delusion and alienation, quiet was restored, until the cycle repeated itself and he did it again. Medlyn ended where the Britney phenomenon began, by ironically announcing “I’m not that innocent”, from her first hit single, “Baby One More Time.” The endless cycle is sad, painful, and tragic. Perhaps more than anything, it is inescapable.
Pointe Shoe Tossing
October 22, 2009
On my way back to the Beacon train station after visiting the Dia, I looked up and snapped some photos of this puzzling image. I wonder who wore these pointe shoes, for what performance, when, where, and how many tries it took before their owner got them slung over the wires. There are lots of explanations for shoe tossing, but the meaning behind this one is definitely a mystery.
photos by Evan Namerow
Over the past few years, Israel has consistently produced some of the most exciting, innovative, and unexpected choreographers working in the field today. As a result, contemporary dance is one of Israel’s most respected and innovative exports. Under the influence of Ohad Naharin’s signature movement language Gaga and the worldwide success of the Batsheva Dance Company, a new generation of Israeli choreographers has been making a name for themselves in the contemporary dance world. Join renowned young choreographers Deganit Shemy, Saar Harari and Andrea Miller (of Deganit Shemy & Company, LeeSaar The Company, and Gallim Dance, respectively) as they share excerpts of their work, discuss their methods, and explore the meaning of contemporary movement in relation to historical conceptions of the Jewish Body. Moderated by Elizabeth Zimmer and presented by the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the JCC in Manhattan.
Beyond Gaga: Contemporary Israeli Dance and the Reinvention of the Jewish Body will be held on October 22, 2009 at 8 PM at the JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street. Tickets are $10 and are available online or by phone at 646.505.5708. You can also RSVP on Facebook.
This event is presented in partnership with Nextbook Inc., as part of Jewish Body Week (October 18-25) – a series of events in New York City exploring the subjects raised in Melvin Konner’s 2009 book, The Jewish Body. Visit Jewish Body Week’s website for a full schedule of events.
Vanessa Justice Dance at the Joyce SoHo
October 19, 2009
Vanessa Justice Dance in FLATLAND, photo by Ian Douglas
FLATLAND is a curious name for such a richly textured work that draws on many forms and mediums – movement, film, and animation – for inspiration. Last Thursday, the evening-length piece by Vanessa Justice premiered at the Joyce SoHo, where Justice is currently a Residency Artist. Chilling effects, such as audio excerpts from the 1977 film “Eraserhead” and black and white video projections of the piece’s three women (Maggie Bennett, Kendra Portier, and Alli Ruszkowski) wove their way through FLATLAND, and although many moments were hauntingly striking, Justice never connected the dots to deliver a satisfying whole.
Situated in a hazy, eerily lit space, the three dancers created multidimensional images by interacting with their surroundings and each other. They picked up free-standing stage lights and replaced them center stage in order to create shadows on the white walls, which later served as the dancers’ partners as they built upon its two-dimensionality by engaging with their own shadows. Harrowing video projections of the women set against the sound of wind – perhaps during a storm – were ominous, and later on, the dancers’ pulsating head-throwing and fast breathing pushed them to the edge of anxiety and exhaustion. FLATLAND was not a comforting place. Its atmosphere was cold and disturbing, and its three characters seemed tense and tormented. At one point, they spoke robotically and insincerely to the audience, stating their wish for the audience to be comfortable and relaxed. They even invited one lucky audience member to take a seat in a plush, blue-green chair near the front of the stage (a young girl eagerly accepted the offer).
In spite of its myriad layers and the variety of texts and sources of inspiration, the work felt fragmented and its dancers too fragile and psychologically damaged to ever reveal the essence of their mysteriousness. Transitions from one moment to the next seemed arbitrary, and although Justice noted in the program that she wanted the audience to have “plenty of room for varying responses and interpretations”, there was not enough structure and substantive content to create a meaningful interpretation. Throughout the piece, repetitions of an excerpt from “Eraserhead” revealed a man saying, “I thought I heard a stranger”. By the end of the work, it seemed that FLATLAND was in fact the stranger, for it was just as elusive and perplexing as when it began.
Gibney Dance: View Partially Obstructed
October 15, 2009
How do we come to terms with knowing so little? Gina Gibney poses this question in her newest work for Gibney Dance, View Partially Obstructed, which premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center on Tuesday evening. The hour-long piece explores the subjective nature of perception and the fact that we can never see or feel everything. In spite of having incomplete or distorted information, we shape our understanding of ourselves and others based on what we know.
View Partially Obstructed features a brooding score by Ryan Lott, with a mix of delicate piano and electronics, and a sleek set design by Lex Liang that allows the piece’s five dancers to move transparent, rectangular panels along a suspended grid. Live animation by Joshue Ott/superDraw creates projections that echo and interact with the dancers’ fluid partnering, meditative pauses, and curving limbs. The movement, music, design, and animation combine to create a viewing experience that is deeply personal. Without fully understanding the creative process for Gibney, the performers, and the collaborators, the audience can choose what to watch and how to interpret it. Where one viewer might find something meaningful, another might feel unaffected. It’s all a matter of perception.
Gibney Dance performs View Partially Obstructed through Saturday, October 17th, 8 PM, at Baryshnikov Arts Center: 450 West 37th Street. On Friday evening, there will be a post-performance Q&A and reception. Tickets can be ordered through SmartTix or by calling 212.868.4444. General admission is $20. Seniors, students, and dancers can obtain $15 tickets with the discount code “DANCE” through SmartTix.
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