10 Years of the NY Choreographic Institute
November 15, 2010
Justin Peck's "Tales of a Chinese Zodiac", photo by Paul Kolnik
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the New York Choreographic Institute presented three performances at Miller Theater last weekend that featured works by emerging and established choreographers. The Institute, which promotes the development of choreographers by providing dancers and other resources to make their creative work possible, was initiated in 1992 by New York City Ballet’s ballet master in chief Peter Martins. Thus, the performances featured NYCB’s own dancers and students from the School of American Ballet (SAB), the company’s official school.
By far the most impressive piece on the program was Tales of a Chinese Zodiac, choreographed by NYCB dancer Justin Peck. In his introduction to the work, Peck explained that he wanted to emphasize the undertones of the music by Sufjan Stevens and highlight its “youthful buoyancy”. Featuring thirteen students from SAB, Peck’s piece accomplished both of these goals – and much more. The work was architecturally rich, with changing spatial groupings and dancing that moved seamlessly from the floor to overhead lifts and jumps. There were moments of playfulness, but these didn’t detract from the overall sophistication of the work as shown by the dancers’ clarity and precision. It’s clear that Peck has an extensive dance vocabulary, which he knows how to apply to groups and individuals, along with a clear vision and a keen ability to capture a musical score through movement. I look forward to seeing more from this emerging choreographer.
Ashley Bouder, David Prottas, Ana Sophia Scheller, and Christian Tworzyanski in Alexei Ratmansky's "Untitled", photo by Paul Kolnik
In an interesting exercise, three choreographers – Larry Keigwin, Christopher Wheeldon, and Alexei Ratmansky – each presented an interpretation of An Inflorescence, a short musical score by Daniel Ott. Wheeldon’s solo for Sara Mearns had a breezy quality to it, while Keigwin’s interpretation – for four NYCB dancers – showed quick, whirling patterns of movement. Ratmansky’s piece, for another quartet of NYCB dancers, felt more frenetic and edgy.
Darius Barnes’s Mandala, danced by eight young NYCB dancers with music by Kyle Blaha, had an undercurrent of gloom. The dancers moved cautiously to Blaha’s delicate score, which was pleasant enough but never shined through in this lukewarm piece. Even darker was choreographer Marco Goecke’s For Sascha, featuring a string quartet by Mathew Fuerst and four NYCB dancers. Under dim lighting, spastic arm and hand gestures reflected the string music. With their backs to the audience for the majority of the work, the dancers’ limbs seemed to take on a life of their own.
Jessica Lang’s Droplet, performed by NYCB’s Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall, showed a slow accumulation of movements and gestures that built throughout the work. The dancers offered their lyricism to the choreography, which meshed well with the ethereal score. The piece itself looked like a work in progress – eager to expand into something more – but it was danced with such purity that I barely noticed. Referring to Wendy Whelan, the woman sitting behind me remarked, “She’s exquisite.”
Overall, it was a highly enjoyable evening of dance, and Peck’s work in particular suggests that a fresh, young crop of ballet choreographers are on the rise.
Open Rehearsal: Pontus Lidberg’s “Labyrinth Within”
May 18, 2010
Pontus Lidberg, photo by Lasse Lychnell
Ever wonder how dances are created? Are you curious about the questions artists ask as they create? Joyce SoHo opens its doors for work-in-progress rehearsals with its Artists-in-Residence. Next up is Pontus Lidberg on Monday, May 24th at 2 PM.
Labyrinth Within is Swedish-born choreographer Pontus Lidberg’s new creation for camera. Lindberg has been developing the work over the last three years and it is finally taking shape this spring and summer. The project takes off from the worldwide success of his 2007 dance-film The Rain. The new creation features some of the world’s foremost artists in their fields, including Pulitzer Prize Award-winning composer David Lang, world-renowned cellist Maya Beiser, New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan, and the choreographer and director Pontus Lidberg. The cast also includes stellar dancers from the US and Sweden: Gabrielle Lamb and Giovanni Bucchieri. The end result of the project will be a new dance piece created for the camera, as well as a chamber version of the same choreography for stage.
During the open rehearsal, in addition to screened excerpts of The Rain, sections of Labyrinth Within will be shown and rehearsed. A Q&A with the artists will follow the open rehearsal.
Monday, May 24th from 2 to 4 PM at Joyce SoHo: 155 Mercer Street between Houston and Prince. FREE with reservation: call 646.792.8377.
New York City Ballet’s All-Robbins Program
May 10, 2010
Wendy Whelan and Gonzalo Garcia in "Opus 19/The Dreamer", photo by Paul Kolnik
After last week’s all-Balanchine program, New York City Ballet presented three of Jerome Robbins’s ballets on Friday evening. Opus 19/The Dreamer is one of his most breathtaking works – always a pleasure to watch and always something newly discovered. While 2 & 3 Part Inventions and I’m Old Fashioned have some charming moments, there are definitely stronger works in the company’s repertoire that could have been included in the all-Robbins program. Yet, what was most apparent throughout the performance was Robbins’s use of quirky gestures: sometimes they added delicate humor, while elsewhere they looked silly or – at least in 2010 – very dated.
This was the case in I’m Old Fashioned, a 1983 ballet that paid tribute to Fred Astaire. His duet with Rita Hayworth in the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier was the inspiration for the work, which begins by showing the filmed dance on a large screen. Following a theme-and-variation format, three couples and a corps of eighteen swayed romantically to Morton Gould’s commissioned score, with occasional moments of old-fashioned, exaggerated humor in the duets and solos. Tyler Angle and Jenifer Ringer were divine in their intentionally clumsy duet, while Rebecca Krohn and Adrian Danchig-Waring were wonderfully elegant. Yet, Astaire and Hayworth’s duet was choreographically more interesting than Robbins’s interpretation, and the concluding section – in which the full cast danced in front of the filmed excerpt – was irritatingly sentimental.
New York City Ballet in I’m Old Fashioned, photo by Paul Kolnik
Fortunately, 2 & 3 Part Inventions offered a spare, simple exercise for eight dancers, all of whom made debuts in this performance. Like Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, this ballet is unfussy and straightforward. Set to Bach’s “Inventions and Sinfonias” for piano (played by Nancy McDill), the piece premiered in 1994 at the School of American Ballet’s annual workshop. On Friday night, the young cast’s clear formations and disciplined movement reflected the uncomplicated music, which ranges from meditative to cheerful. While remaining mostly academic and formal, there were also playful moments, such as when two women clasped hands and pretended to climb up and down a wall. Ashley Laracey filled her solo with lovely lyricism and expression, and Kathryn Morgan, Chase Finlay, and Daniel Applebaum made strong impressions throughout the work.
Wendy Whelan, photo by Josef Astor, Dance Magazine 2003
In Jorge Luis Borges’s short story The Circular Ruins, the narrator reveals the dreams of a man on a quest and at one point says, “In the dream of the man that dreamed, the dreamed one awoke.” This quotation came to mind during Opus 19/The Dreamer, an otherworldly, hauntingly beautiful 1979 work set to Prokofiev’s mysterious “Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major”. Gonzalo Garcia added a breezy quality to the opening section in which he remained distant from the community of twelve women and men that tiptoed behind him. As he dreamt up an ethereal being, Wendy Whelan mysteriously emerged from the swirl of blue-gray costumes, only to suddenly awake from her own sleep and dance with wild abandon as the dream’s momentum built. Garcia and Whelan were alternately mesmerized by one another and swept into each other’s worlds, seemingly longing for something just out of reach. After the whirlwind of gorgeous movement that suggested a restless dream, the ballet ended with remarkable tranquility as Whelan and Garcia rested their heads in the other’s palms. Borges’s story concludes, “He understood that he also was an illusion, that someone else was dreaming him.” This was true in Robbins’s timeless work, as well, for both seemed to be the dreamers.
New York City Ballet’s Balanchine Opening
May 4, 2010
New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, photo by Paul Kolnik
In 1948, New York City Ballet performed George Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco at the company’s first performance. This past Sunday afternoon, it was a fitting opening to the spring season. With two other Balanchine classics - The Four Temperaments and Symphony in Three Movements – this superb program served as a reminder of Balanchine’s remarkable legacy, especially before the company looks ahead by presenting seven new ballets by seven distinguished choreographers throughout the eight-week season.
Wendy Whelan in "Concerto Barocco", photo by Paul Kolnik
The three pieces, which debuted between 1941 and 1972, were presented in chronological order and reflected a growing maturity and complexity in Balanchine’s movement over the course of those decades. Concerto Barocco started as an exercise for students at the School of American Ballet. The movement is so pure, so academic, so responsive to and reflective of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D Minor that it’s easy to see why it started in the studio. With Wendy Whelan and Ellen Bar in the principal roles, however, it’s just as easy to recognize that this timeless work deserves a place in the company’s repertoire. They crisply echoed the two violins in the first section – Bar quietly reserved and Whelan more extroverted – and both matched the music’s sheer energy.
By comparison, The Four Temperaments is emotionally richer and its movement more layered than that of Barocco. The ballet makes incredible use of Paul Hindemith’s wonderfully moody score (according to Peter Martins in this informative conversation, Balanchine paid the composer $500 for the commissioned music and said it was the best money he ever spent). Four variations illustrate the four medieval humors. In Sanguinic, Jennie Somogyi and Tyler Angle were both powerhouses, eating up the space with precision and attack. Sébastien Marcovici was achingly dramatic in Melancholic, while Albert Evans was appropriately detached in Phlegmatic. But most impressive was Teresa Reichlen’s interpretation of Choleric. With a newly discovered ferocity, she whipped through the lightning-quick spins that end on the floor, yet always remained in control. Her stunning extensions and jumps revealed a fire within, while her intense focus never let up.
NYCB in George Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements, photo by Paul Kolnik
Of the three works on the program, Symphony in Three Movements has the most flair, from the opening diagonal line of women who rapidly swing one arm and then curl their torsos, to the closing whirlwind of movement for the entire cast. The ballet looked chaotic at times (perhaps it was under-rehearsed) but the dancers were so in tune with Stravinsky’s dynamic score that it didn’t matter. Sterling Hyltin and Daniel Ulbricht’s competitive jumps colorfully echoed the changing piano chords in the first movement, while the large cast revealed angular limbs, precise lines, and touches of quirkiness (spidery hands and inward pointing knees!). In the past, Abi Stafford has seemed too youthful and sweet to match the maturity of the second movement’s pas de deux with Jared Angle, but on Sunday she showed intriguing depth while conveying the playfulness and charm that Balanchine wove into the duet.
At the beginning of a new season, there’s always an abundance of enthusiasm and passion emanating from New York City Ballet’s dancers, but on Sunday afternoon it seemed more pronounced than usual. Perhaps it’s due to the excitement surrounding the highly anticipated seven new works, or maybe it’s because the dancers have the opportunity to perform some of Balanchine’s greatest ballets. Or more likely, it’s both. How lucky they are to be a part of the company’s past while also shaping its present and future.
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.
