Tonya Plank's Blog, page 14

Disturbing Dancing Dead Squid

One of my Google+ circle people posted this and I've been talked into re-posting it here, which I guess is apt, given that this is a dance blog?…

The squid is actually dead but the soy sauce activates its electrons in this traditional Japanese dish, ika-don, or odori-don. Wonder how popular it actually is in Japan? Go here for more info.

DOVE SEASON by Johnny Shaw & Cadillac Margarita

Still trying to figure out Tumblr… and Google+. Don't know why they are so hard, especially when I have a ridiculous amount of blogging experience! Anyway, here is my latest post on my Tumblr blog, Literary Aperitif. If you're a bookish person and you have a Tumblr account, please follow me – or whatever it's called…

PORTRAITS IN DRAMATIC TIME on Lincoln Center Plaza

Here are some photos I took of David Michalek's current installation, Portraits in Dramatic Time, shown nightly on the facade of the Koch Theater at Lincoln Center Plaza. Above is (SLSG favorite) ballerina Alessandra Ferri, apparently in the ending scene from Romeo and Juliet. Commissioned for the Lincoln Center Festival, Portraits is similar to Michalek's earlier installation from a few summers ago, Slow Dancing, which I wrote about here.

Unlike Slow Dancing, the only two dancers (at least that I've seen) in Portraits are Ferri and classical Indian dancer, Savitry Nair, above. To me, Nair was the most mesmerizing, I think because of the intricate (and to me exotic) movements she was making with her hands, but also because of the intensity of her eyes. Patti Lupone (below) was a close second.

Besides the two dancers and one diva, the others seemed to be all theater actors. Like, Slow Dancing, Michalek filmed the actors in a short scene, then slowed the movement way way down for greater dramatic effect. At least that was the intent. I've only watched a couple times, and plan to go more, but, as with Slow Dancing, I have mixed feelings. I think Portraits may be able to attract a larger audience than Slow Dancing due to the greater fame of the stars filmed, and Michalek did for the most part choose dramatic scenes, such as the one below of Alan Rickman throwing a glass of water in anger.

Not all of the scenes are quite as action-packed. You're often looking more at the intricate changes in facial muscles as the actors go from one emotion to the next. I felt like watching Marianne Jean-Baptiste read a letter and Lili Taylor converse with her daughter provided real lessons in acting.

But in other scenes, even if there was some kind of drama, I didn't always understand what it was about, or the characters' relation to one another, and consequently I failed to be as captivated by the mini narrative as I would have liked.

Watching and listening to others on the Plaza, I felt like I wasn't alone in that thought. The big screen captures your attention but oftentimes fails to keep it. Of course I really wanted to shout at people who were only glancing at Alessandra before passing!

I said this with Slow Dancing, and I'm pretty sure these films are moving faster than the original Dancing films, but I still think they're going just a bit too slowly. It would also provide variety to rotate more between performer-types – like dancer, actor, diva, dancer, actor diva, etc. But as I said, I saw mostly actors here. I also noticed, though, that there are many performers listed on the show's website that I didn't see, and I've gone on two different nights so far and have seen many repeats, so I don't know if all of the listed performers are appearing right now…

Anyway, imperfections aside, it's always wonderful to have something to go to Lincoln Center for and now that ballet season is over, it can be depressing around there. So I'm very thankful for this installation. Perfect for summertime, sitting near the fountain or at the little cafe in front of Avery Fisher Hall, sipping wine or eating Gelato. This is the best part of living in NYC, imo.

Portraits shows nightly through the end of July. For more info, go here and here.

Yulia Zagoruychenko Auctions Championship Dress to Help Fellow Dancer With Lung Cancer

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World Latin champ Yulia Zagoruychenko (whom this blogger adores, as everyone here knows) is auctioning off one of her championship dresses to help friend and fellow dancer Julia Ivleva with her cancer treatments. Ivleva is a pro standard dancer who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer in both lungs, though she's never smoked and, like all dancers, maintains a healthy lifestyle. It really can happen to anyone… Also like many (probably most) dancers, Ivleva has no health insurance. What a nightmare. There's lots of money in the world of pro / am ballroom dance (I mean possessed by the students), so I'm hoping people help her out. Here's the link to Zagoruychenko's auction. If you can't afford the dress but wish to donate go here. If all students donated the cost of a private lesson or two, that would be a pretty big sum.

Here's a video of Ivleva dancing with her partner Igor Litvinov:

Prince Charles Gets Down with the FELA! Cast

Bill T. Jones' FELA!, which I raved about here, opened last week at Sadler's Wells in London. Prince Charles held a special reception for the cast and apparently they taught him a few moves. He actually looks at ease, like he's having fun! But where are Kate and William?…

Codfish "Caviar" in Koreatown

Despite the heatwave, last night my friend and I went to Koreatown for some Korean barbecue. I ordered a dish that looked interesting, which was translated as "Codfish caviar and clams." Hehe, my friend surmised that perhaps caviar meant the entire reproductive organs of the fish. I looked again. It was rather veiny, did kind of look like a uterus and ovaries. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting – which was roe about the size of salmon! I tweeted a picture and a Twitter friend told me they actually are eggs, along with the egg sac. His father has them all the time, he said. Funny, I thought I'd tried practically everything, but apparently not! Anyway, they didn't really have much of a flavor to me, but their consistency was similar to English pudding.

Also ordered a glass of plum wine, not realizing I'd get the entire bottle. Even I couldn't polish off the whole thing Best thing we had, imo, were the spicy little sausages, right at the front of the bottom picture. Delic!

Film of the Bolshoi's DON QUIXOTE Starring Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev Showing at BAM This Thursday

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For New Yorkers: this Thursday, July 21st, Emerging Pictures' "Ballet in Cinema" series will be showing a repeat of the Bolshoi's Don Quixote starring Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev – the very same production I'd raved about here. This time, though, they'll be showing it in BAM's cinema, beginning at 7 p.m. I highly recommend it if you missed it the first time around. It's the most spectacular Don Quixote I've ever seen and can ever imagine seeing. It's also exciting because this is the first time a "Ballet in Cinema" production will be screened at BAM instead of the Big Manhattan Theater. Tickets are $24. If you can, go go go!

Curtain Call Photos of Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in Ashton's Romeo & Juliet

Here are some curtain call photos of the recent London performance of Frederick Ashton's Romeo and Juliet, performed by Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. My friend was there and nicely sent me his photos.

He says Alban Lendorf (above, in red) was excellent as Mercutio.

Did anyone else see it?

Vladimir Shklyarov: the Marcelo Gomes of the Mariinsky?

I'm usually not a stage door person, but Friday night, after the Mariinsky Ballet's second-to-last night performing in New York, I decided to follow some friends down into the bowels of the Met. Actually, now that construction has finished down there, it's not a maze like before; you just take the elevator in front of the gift shop down and you exit onto an open street; mid-way down is the stage door.

I didn't actually go to the Friday night performance. I watched the David Michalek slow motion films out on Lincoln Center Plaza (more about that later). But I'd planned to meet ballet-goer friends anyway for late dinner. At the stage door, several of the dancers came out – including our Diana Vishneva, who danced Carmen that night – but everyone (a mix of women, men and teenagers of both sexes) seemed to be waiting for someone in particular. Finally, at the tail end of the string of exiting dancers, he arrived. Vladimir Shklyarov. I knew he was the one everyone was waiting for by the outburst of giggles was followed by a mob-like rushing of the poor guy. Since I hadn't gone to the performance, I wondered what was so great about him. He seemed like an ordinary guy. He seemed very American. He was wearing his hair in that kind of mussed-up style that is trendy here right now. And he was wearing American style jeans with the low-pockets, suede loafers, and a button-up shirt with the collar up at the top, preppy-like. And when he spoke (at least as much as I heard him),  he seemed to have only a trace of a Russian accent. Seemed like a very nice guy.

The next night I saw him in Balanchine's Symphony in C, and immediately understood why everyone was going to gaga over him the night before. He only had a small part in the third movement but he stood out so much, he really made that ballet. His jumps are enormous and, more, his personality – that endearing combination of cocky and charming- really shone through, even in the mere ten minutes I saw him dance. How much did I wish I'd seen more of his while the Mariinsky was here??? Well, I'll know for next time…

Anyway, I found a couple YouTube videos of him:

Other reflections on the Mariinsky's NY tour: also fell in love with Alina Somova, who danced the Saturday matinee lead in The Little Humpbacked Horse, a fantastical Ratmansky ballet based on a Pyotr Yershov tale. I've heard people express dislike of her, but I don't know what they're talking about. I absolutely loved her. She's very flexible and very fast and fluid, so perhaps she can sometimes look a bit like a rubberband. But I loved her lines, and her speed, and her playfulness, and her sweet personality. She made that ballet for me. During lunch after the performance, my friend Art said it depends on what she's cast in – and this, he thought, was her best. Everyone agreed it suited her. (So fun hanging out between performances with Art, critic Marina Harss, and Emilia from The Ballet Bag! Emilia is originally from Brazil, which I didn't know ) Anyway, I'll have to see Somova in other things, because from what I saw, I can't imagine not liking her.

Here's a video:

And here's a video of her in Humpbacked, for which, apparently she won an award.

I also found myself smitten with Yevgenia Obraztsova, who seemed really sweet at the stage door as well, and who danced with Shklyarov in Symphony in C. She's a tiny powerhouse who I imagine would dance well with our Daniil Simkin. She's very lyrical as well.

I didn't care much for Ratmansky's Anna Karenina. (A big thank you to Marie Mockett for giving me her ticket to that by the way!) I have to agree with Sir Alastair on this one. There were some impressive stage theatrics – particularly a rotating train that you see from both outside and in, and some moving images on a background screen that were used to interesting effect – but overall the production didn't really convey the story. It was more like a series of tableaux than a narrative, which has worked in other productions (a San Francisco Ballet production of an Ibsen play comes to mind) but didn't work here – maybe because thematically and mood-wise, it was all so one-note: suicide, encroaching death, the aftermath of death, actions leading up to death, etc. But also, I really didn't find the choreography interesting at all. It was really basic. I mean, many of the lifts were lifts I learned in the ballroom studio for my cabaret routines. You learn all the very basic lifts: the t-lift, the shoulder-sit, the fish, etc. etc. I'd get so annoyed with my teachers for not being more artistic, for not being able to come up with creative partnering that was more evocative of the story or mood we were trying to convey. That's one reason I left ballroom – I got bored. So I feel like when I see those same basic lifts in ballets created by supposed choreographic greats and produced all over the world, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. This is why I love MacMillan so. None of his partnering is something you'd learn in a studio lesson – it's specific to the story and characters.

I also wasn't too enthralled with the Mariinsky's Carmen Suite, choreographed by Alberto Alonso. There was a big round mat in the middle of the stage where the dancing – most of it by Carmen alone, some of her dancing duets with men – took place. There were chairs setting on a raised platform that encircled the mat, and the men sat on the chairs and watched her. My Carmen was Ulyana Lopatkina (who was also my Anna Karenina), and her dancing to me looked, in Carmen, very gymnastic. But I think it was the way the stage was set up – it looked like a gymnastic mat – and she kept doing these standing poses that reminded me of a gymnast about to take off in a tumbling pass during a floor routine. It was another ballet that didn't focus so much on recounting a narrative than creating a feeling, a tone, through vignettes. It worked a little better here than in Karenina, maybe because it was a shorter piece, but I think the gymnastic thing, and the overall creepiness of the men sitting in their chairs just watching her, didn't really work for me.

Favorites were definitely Little Humpbacked Horse and Symphony in C.

Here are a few more stage door photos:

Yevgenia Obraztsova.

Yuri Smekalov.

Danila Korsuntsev.

And princess Diana, who is even more beautiful up close than she appears onstage.

Wish now I'd have gone every night. Trip to St. Petersburg…

Literary Aperitif

Hi guys – I've just begun a new Tumblr blog, called Literary Aperitif, pairing two of my loves (other than dance of course): books and booze. I wanted to call the blog something along those lines but didn't realize there were about 100,000 websites, meetups, blogs, books, book clubs, webzines, and what have you, all with variations of that name… Anyway, I plan for that one to be photo-heavy, minimalist on words (unlike this blog :S)

Sorry once again that I'm so behind here. Part of the reason for that is that I write so many review-style posts, and it really takes a long time (as opposed to posting pics and doing mini photo-based essays, which takes virtually no time at all). And I haven't had a lot of time since I began working full time plus again. Nevertheless, I maintain fantasies of spending this weekend blogging about: the Mariinsky at the Lincoln Center Festival, the Royal Danish Ballet's recent visit to NY, the Paris Opera Ballet's Children of Paradise (streamed live via Emerging Pictures' Ballet in Cinema series), the Bolshoi's Swan Lake (ditto), a wrap-up of American Ballet Theater's Met season, a wrap-up of So You Think You Can Dance thus far (including what's been said during some of the Friday afternoon over-the-phone press conferences I've participated in each week with the eliminated contestants), and the Manhattan Dancesport Championship held in Brooklyn last weekend. Okay, I'm obviously not going to get to it all this weekend – especially when I have more Mariinsky to see tomorrow and Saturday – but I'll have material for the rest of the summer, if you can bear with me that long