Tonya Plank's Blog, page 25

American Ballet Theater's Original New Nutcracker

More photos coming soon. This one (of Gillian Murphy and Catherine Hurlin as the two versions of Clara) is taken from culture.wnyc.org.

Last night was the official opening of ABT's much awaited new Ratmansky-choreographed Nutcracker at BAM. I loved almost every single second of it. I've only seen about six different versions of this ballet, but this one to me seems most original. It's very entertaining, very humorous at points, and can somehow maintain the attentions of small children while being clever and witty – and beautiful – for adults. It's very theatrical and it's not as "dancy" as the one I just saw from the Bolshoi (Grigorovich's version)- there's more non-balletic jumping and playing around in Act I at the party, but there's plenty of beautifully choreographed classical ballet during the grown Clara and Nutcracker Prince pas de deux and the ensemble snow scene and waltz of the flowers.

It opens with the cooks and maids in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner. They're going about their merry preparations when suddenly their space is invaded by mice. The mice completely take over, chase out the cooks, jump up on the tables and grab for the hanging meats. Adorable and hilarious. There's one very cutely mischievous little mouse who appears throughout.

Then the party scene happens and Drosselmeyer (a non-dance role here) presents the children with two sets of life-sized dolls. The dancing was very good, but there were no sharp, stunted staccato movements as in the Bolshoi's, so the dancers didn't look like real dolls to me. I loved the costumes for Harlequin and Columbine though. They looked the most commedia dell'arte that I've seen. All costumes were brilliant – one of the most excellent things about ABT's production. They, and the equally brilliant sets, were made by Richard Hudson, of Lion King fame.

When the dolls are ordered to return to their boxes, the children do a group dance that looks more like fitful stomping than anything balletic. But it's still musical and evocative and cute, and it got a lot of laughs. The nutcracker that Drosselmeyer then gives Clara (danced brilliantly by Catherine Hurlin) is half-doll, half-human. He's danced by a boy (Tyler Maloney) but he has a full nutcracker head, so he can't do as much as the Bolshoi's human nutcracker doll – his movements are much more limited. Once Clara's dream begins, the boy removes his doll head before escorting her off to the Kingdom of the Sweets. I have to say, I really liked the boy who danced Clara's bratty brother, Fritz – Kai Monroe. He was very entertaining, did a good job with both the acting and the dancing (high jumps!), and I think he will be one to watch for.

The Battle scene between the mice and the nutcracker and his soldiers was good, and, again, the costume for the mouse king (Thomas Forster) was fantabulous. I couldn't even count the heads he had there were so many. I think of all battle scenes, I like Balanchine's the best. I love how a mouse will scurry ominously across the floor right in time with a flute chord. Then the mice begin to gather and organize right in time with the flute ensemble so that it seems like the mice are talking. And Balanchine's battle scene seems the most theatrical. Balanchine's growing tree is also magnificent. Here, the tree only grows a bit, but soon they multiply and trees begin to eat up the wings, which was also spectacular.

The snow scene was really beautiful and this is where we first meet the grown-up Clara and her nutcracker prince (last night they were Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg, but there are many casts – see James Wolcott's review of a preview starring Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes here). Their first pas de deux is a beautiful waltz, and it's made very clear that this is Clara's grown-up vision of herself and her prince. The child Clara and Nutcracker boy waltz alongside Gillian and David until the classical ballet steps takes over, and the children stop dancing and gaze longingly at their grown-up selves as they finish the pas de deux. There's a really beautiful Viennese waltz-type of lift where he spins around with her perched on his shoulders.

The Kingdom of the Sweets is really different from other versions. The "Sugar Plum Fairy" or "Nanny" as she is alternately called here, is not a dance role, but more of an escort through this kind of tour of It's a Small World. She dons an absolutely gorgeous ancient Indian costume, as does her male companion. The dancer representatives from various countries are not dolls; they are real, but most of the dances are very different. The Arabians, for example, are danced by one man (last night, Sascha Radetsky) and four women, and the women are all cutely chasing the one very wickedly flirtatious man. It reminded me a bit of Kevin McKenzie's von Rothbart deviously flirting with all the court women at the beginning of the Black Swan pas de deux. At the end of this dance, though, the tables are turned and the women come into their own and no longer need him. Now of course, he's not very happy about that. It's great fun and I loved this dance the best.

The Russians (Mikhail Ilyin, Craig Salstein and Arron Scott) were more folksy than bravura ballet, which was fine, because they later did a circle of barrel turns as their part of the final ensemble dance.

And we see Mother Ginger again (or who, as a child, I called The Fat Lady with the big skirt). I haven't seen her since Balanchine! And there's an added element of hilarity here involving the mischievous little mouse from the kitchen!

The only dance I didn't really care for was the Chinese. As I'd expected, these roles were danced by Daniil Simkin and Sarah Lane. But Ratmansky didn't really use them for what they are known for and the dance is very tame compared to this dance in the other Nut versions. I really wanted to see Daniil go flying around the stage in those crazy million times-overrotated turning leaps that he's known for. There weren't even any high jumps. It's just that I look to the Russian and Chinese dances for the bravura parts and it's okay if they're lacking in one dance, but not both! The Chinese weren't as goofily portrayed though as in other versions, so I appreciated that.

And I loved the waltz of the flowers. Included here are some very charming bees, but they're not used in a slapstick way at all, which I thought they would be when I initially saw them. They dance is very classical and there's a beautiful part where the four male bees toss the red and pink-clad ballerinas into each others' arms in a circular rotation. That received a lot of audience applause.

And then is the ending pas de deux again between Gillian and David. I'd written before, when I saw an excerpt at the Guggenheim, that it looked more modern lyrical than classical, but last night it looked very classical to me. Ratmansky used my favorite lift from the Grigorovich Bolshoi version where the prince lifts and holds Clara up by one lower leg and carries her all around stage like that. The solo variations were nice. David didn't seem to have the height he normally does on his jetes (I was told later at dinner though, by a dancer – not from ABT – that that choreography was crazy hard) but he made up for it in a series of spins. I know in ballet they're called turns, but he was going so fast they looked more like ice-skating spins to me!

The only thing I found bothersome was the acoustics in the BAM opera house. Maybe I've just never heard live music played there but it just seemed like the orchestra was playing so softly. The sounds of the toe shoe-clad feet and the sounds of children coughing dominated.

Oh, one final thing: when David Koch, who financed a good part of the production, gave his opening speech, he accidentally called Kevin McKenzie "Peter." Got a lot of ooooohs from the audience. I couldn't hear through the ooooohs what he said after that – I assume it was an apology – but whatever it was it elicited even more ooooooohs. Funny.

Overall it's a brilliant new ballet, a very original new production. Definitely get out to BAM if you can! Go here for the rest of the schedule.

Judith Jamison to Ring NYSE Closing Bell on December 27th

Apparently it's dance season at the New York Stock Exchange! Tomorrow morning, a NYCity Ballet Sugar Plum fairy will ring the opening bell (word in the Twittersphere is that that Sugar Plum will be Ashley Bouder). And now it's just been announced that Judith Jamison will ring the closing bell on Monday, December 27th. This will be in honor of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's final week at City Center and Jamison's final year as Artistic Director, and in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Ailey's Revelations. Jamison will be joined by incoming Artistic Director Robert Battle (photo above of the two of them by Andrew Eccles), AAADT dancers, and several other company members. The closing bell ringing will take place at 4:00 p.m. on the 27th and can be viewed live on the NYSE's website: nyse.com.

More Revivals at Alvin Ailey – THE PRODIGAL PRINCE is Electrifying!

Last night was, sadly, my last Alvin Ailey performance of the season. They performed two revivals – Geoffrey Holder's The Prodigal Prince from 1968 (which was astounding), and Judith Jamison's Forgotten Time, from 1989. They also performed Christopher Huggins' new Anointed, which I saw earlier in the season and wrote about here.  (Photo above, by Paul Kolnik, is of Samuel Lee Roberts in Prodigal Prince).

I liked Jamison's Forgotten Time. As you can see in the photos below, she created some very beautiful images with the partnering. Photos below are by Paul Kolnik. In the first and last, the dancers are Jamar Roberts and Antonio Douthit; in the middle two, they are Linda Celeste Sims and Clifton Brown.

[image error]

[image error]

It was very spiritual and I loved the ending image, with the ensemble of dancers – about 13 in total – all looking up and waving their arms back and forth. At many points the dancers would look up toward the sky, into the light, as if searching for something, some spiritual being. At points the men would lift the women on their shoulders so they could gaze even higher. And there was as stunning solo between the two main men in the middle. Last night that solo was performed by Glenn Allen Sims and Jermaine Terry, who were very good. The audience gave them huge applause at the end.

The music was hauntingly beautiful. It was by Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, and sounded like Bulgarian spirituals. I also loved the costumes (by Jamison and Ellen Mahlke).

I really loved The Prodigal Prince, as did the whole audience. I didn't know when we were going to get out of there after the performance was over, the dancers received so many curtain calls. By Geoffrey Holder (who's won Tony awards for The Wiz and Timbuktu), from 1968, the company revived it this season. I think they should do it every season though. It's a good dance to end the evening with, so they could alternate more often between it and Revelations.

The subject of The Prodigal Prince is Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite (see some of his images here). According to the program notes, Hyppolite was also a houngan – a high priest of Voudoun, the religion of the Haitians. In 1943 St. John the Baptist and the Voudoun Goddess Erzulie came to him in a vision which inspired him to take a sojourn to Africa (which he may have imagined) and paint the Voudoun loas – or African gods. His paintings became celebrated after leading surrealist Andre Breton discovered them and brought them to Europe.

Most of the choreography consists of Haitian and African dance; I'd never seen Haitian before and I found it spellbinding. It's amazing all that the Ailey dancers can do, and do superbly. The music, also by Holder, was very drum-heavy, very rhythmic, very African – the type of music that makes you want to take up African dance. Samuel Lee Roberts' depiction of Hyppolite, as he encountered Erzulie (danced by Akua Noni Parker) and Saint John the Baptist (in African form, danced by Jamar Roberts), then dreamed of Africa and was taken with the African spirit (danced by Michael Francis McBride), was excellent. Samuel Lee Roberts is so good at roles that require the dancer to act as well as dance. Earlier in the season, he danced the role of Lazarus in Mary Lou's Mass and he was the highlight of that entire dance. He's very entertaining and can bring out the humor in a story without reducing its depth.

The whole dance was so mesmerizing, the costumes brilliant, and the beat of that music so infectious. Definitely one of the highlights of the season. Here are more pictures, all by Paul Kolnik.

(Lee with Briana Reed as Erzulie.)

All photos from AlvinAiley.org.

The company still has about two weeks left of their City Center season. Go here for the schedule.

The Bolshoi's Nutcracker

So of course I went yesterday to see the Bolshoi's Nutcracker, live-streamed into movie theaters all over the world, though, judging by the opening remarks made by announcers and intermission interviews, I think most of the audience was in France. Anyway, there was a pretty good turn-out at the Big Cinema in Manhattan – bigger than turn-outs for the two recorded Emerging Pictures ballet films I saw earlier (the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker and the Bolshoi's Flames of Paris). Still, the theater wasn't packed, as it should have been.

Anyway, this was the best Nutcracker I've seen so far. I really loved it. I don't think anyone puts on a show, makes ballet into theater, quite like the Bolshoi. And their dancers have got to be among the most talented in the world. The things they can do… I think every single woman had a point like Veronika Part and every man like David Hallberg.

This production, by Yuri Grigorovich, had no Sugar Plum Fairy, but instead the grand pas de deux was danced by Marie (so-called here instead of Clara), and her nutcracker, turned into a prince in her dream. I like it so much better this way than having a Sugar Plum Fairy. It just makes more sense in the story to have the young girl imagining herself as a grown-up princess. It makes that final pas de deux so much sweeter. And here, they actually get married, Marie and her prince.

The same ballerina – the exquisite Nina Kaptsova (who I remembered immediately from her role in Flames of Paris as the delicate and sympathetic Marquis's daughter; photo above from dance.net) – danced both the young and grown-up princess versions of Marie and she was surprisingly believable as both. You'd have to have a small dancer with a very youthful physique to be able to dance both parts. (San Francisco Ballet has grown-up Clara dancing the final pdd too, but two different dancers dance the young and older Clara). Kaptsova's prince was Artem Ovcharenko, who was also very good though he didn't stand out quite as much as she. For ABT fans, he reminded me a lot of Maxim Beloserkovsky.

What I really, really loved about this Grigorovich production, though, was all of the dancing. It begins with the guests en route to the party, and they dance across the stage. There are really no non-dance moments as there are in most Nutcrackers I've seen, where you have the party with children scurrying about and the grown-ups chasing after them and chatting with each other, and Clara and her brother fighting over the little nutcracker, who is actually a doll. Here, the children aren't really children but dancers in the company (one reason why there's so much more dancing), and, magnificently, the "toys" are all dancers as well! I don't think I've ever seen a real dancer play the little nutcracker doll. And s/he (not sure which gender, as unfortunately the name isn't listed in the program) was brilliant  – one of the best parts of the first Act. A shame there's no name – unless it's Anna Proskurnina, who's listed as Marie's brother? I'll have to look it up.

The other two toys in the first Act – Harlequin and Columbine – were danced brilliantly as well, by Vyacheslav Lopatin and Anna Tikhomirova. Those dancers were the most doll-like dolls – with their stunted, sharp staccato movements – that I've ever seen.

After the snow scene, Marie and her Nutcracker (now, in his human version, danced by Ovcharenko) didn't really go to a Land of Sweets but more like a land of toys, as male / female pairs of dolls from various parts of the world entertain them. I went to the performance with my a Chinese friend and of course I was really embarrassed by the Chinese dolls. He thought they were funny though, and we both agreed they were danced very well, by Svetlana Pavlova and Denis Medvedev. I can really see Daniil Simkin dancing this role in ABT's production, if Ratmansky does it the same way. ( I know Simkin will also have a turn as the Nutcracker Prince / Cavalier at ABT). I also hope Ratmansky doesn't resort to stereotypes in creating these roles, as virtually every other choreographer has.

As the Indian dolls, Victoria Osipova (relation to Natalia?) and Andrei Bolotin had a bit of a slip and she fell, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. She got up immediately and there was no sign of injury. This is usually the dance most of us in the US know as "coffee" or the Arabian part, but here the costumes are very different – more classical, no bare midriff and tiny top – and the dancing more conservative.

I loved the grand pas de deux. It was both sweet and innocent (like you'd expect of a young girl's dream of her older self being swept off her feet by a handsome prince), and stunning in its athleticism. Some of those lifts are the most breathtaking I've ever seen. At one point, he held her up by her calf and she's upright, and he carried her all over the stage that way. There are many overhead lifts where he's holding only her waist, with her legs in the air, feet delicately crossed, and she looks down at him, crossing her hands beatifically. And at the end of the wedding, he carries her off in a cradle lift. So sweet. The solo variations for each were equally breathtaking. Kaptsova had a series of super-fast chaine turns but with all kinds of additional footwork thrown in. Watching her dance, at points I couldn't believe my eyes.

Oh and also Drosselmeyer was much more of a dance part than most other Drosselmeyers I've seen. He was danced very well by Denis Savin.

Overall brilliant production. I feel spoiled now, like I'm never going to be able to see another Nutcracker again. But I will this Thursday – when Ratmansky's opens at BAM!

Misty Copeland in Blackberry Bold Ad

I just saw this in Ashley Bouder's Twitter feed. Very very cool!

More Highlights From Alvin Ailey Season

Some more highlights of Alvin Ailey season, which goes until January 2nd:

First, from now through December 19th the company is joined onstage by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Live music always makes the evening so much richer. I was there last night, when they played music by Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie from Ailey's Three Black Kings and Billy Wilson's The Winter in Lisbon. Try to go if you can to one of these live-music performances. See the City Center schedule here.

Also, on January 2nd, the company will close the season, and Judith Jamison's tenure as artistic director, with special performances by guest artists – including Caught by David Parsons' Dance Company, and a live performance by Sweet Honey and the Rock.

Okay highlights (mainly in photos):

[image error]

[image error]

Ronald K. Brown's Dancing Spirit. This is a beautiful dance that premiered last season and grew on me even more this year. It's set to music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead, and War and combines American modern dance with movement from Cuba and Brazil. It depicts a community of people whose dancing suggests that they're each doing their own thing, each embodying their own spirit through dance, but also coming together for ritual. The dance takes place at night, as the background depicts first a starry night, and ends with a fully-visible moon. I love its energy, and how it builds. It's simply mesmerizing. (Above photos by Paul Kolnik, and Christopher Duggan, respectively.)

Jamar Roberts dancing Robert Battle's brief but compelling solo, In/Side. Wow. Audience went wild with applause. I think the company should consider showing this on So You Think You Can Dance – it's akin to many of the contemporary pieces danced on that show. (Samuel Lee Roberts is pictured above, though, not Jamar. Photo by Paul Kolnik.)

[image error]

Alvin Ailey's Night Creature. This is not a new production, but it grows on me every year. I love the structure – how there's a jazzy section, followed by a balletic one, then returning to jazz. I love the little story in the middle with the main woman – the jazz diva – getting a little carried away with herself.

But for me personally, I love how much the movement resembles samba. So many of the steps are the same exact steps I learned in ballroom, but of course they're danced much differently. Here they're much slower, slinkier, jazzier, with the upper body much looser. It always makes me wonder about the origins of American jazz dance. Samba is a merging of African and Latin dance – it's Brazilian. So jazz dance must have origins in African and Latin. Yet, it's also balletic. I always thought there was something balletic about samba too and if that were emphasized it would be all the more beautiful. My ballroom teachers always rolled their eyes at me when I said that. But I feel like Mr. Ailey had the same idea, because this is that dance! You can see the samba-like movement in some of his other dances too, like at the beginning of the "Honor Processional" in Revelations. (Photo by Nan Melville.)

[image error]

Memoria by Alvin Ailey. This is not a new production but for some reason I don't remember seeing it before. It's a tribute to one of his friends who died, a choreographer named Joyce Trisler. I love how the first part of it is like a memorial service – slow, somber, and spiritual. Then in the second half, the momentum builds into a rhythmic celebration of her life. The night I saw it, Briana Reed (who's not pictured above) danced the lead very powerfully. (Photo by Andrew Eccles.)

Camille A. Brown's three-part solo, The Evolution of a Secured Feminine. It's a short, clever piece, by turns funny and sad, filled with lots of spastic-looking movement that doesn't always seem to accompany the lyrics. But that is part of its humor and wit. I like the third section the best because it tells a little story. (Briana Reed is in Paul Kolnik's photo above).

Uptown, by Matthew Rushing. This piece is just as much theater as dance and it takes you on a little tour of the Harlem Renaissance. You visit the Cotton Club and the Savoy, and Zora Neale Hurston, WEB DuBois, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, and Florence Mills all make appearances. But it was Clifton Brown's portrayal of the central character in a Langston Hughes poem that really touched me. He's really good at those kinds of solos, Clifton. He's really good at finding and expressing the deepest interior of a character, and really dramatizing it. I can't find any photos of him in this, but above is a photo by Paul Kolnik of Amos J. Machanic as Victor, the hilariously wacky tour guide, along with the cast. This year, I saw that character danced by Abdur-Rahim Jackson, who had a lot of fun with it, really brought it to life.

Okay, I have to stop now, but more to come, especially on the new pieces!

All photos from the Alvin Ailey website.

Learn REVELATIONS at the Alvin Ailey School

Another fun announcement. You can learn the choreography from Alvin Ailey's masterpiece from several Alvin Ailey dancers in classes at the Ailey School from now through December 30th. Hope Boykin, along with two former members of the company, Aubrey Lynch and Milton Myers, will teach the steps. You have to be at the intermediate level to enroll. For more info: visit the school's website.

Photo above: Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims, by Andrew Eccles.

Sugarplum Fairy's Opening the Stock Exchange on December 23

This is cute. A sugarplum fairy from New York City Ballet, along with her cavalier, will ring the bell that opens the New York Stock Exchange on Monday morning, December 23rd. Click on the link below to read the full press release. I wonder if it will be Jenifer Ringer and Jared Angle?

The ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. and can be viewed beginning at 9:15 on nyse.com

NEW YORK CITY BALLET'S SUGARPLUM FAIRY AND FRIENDS

TO RING NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE OPENING BELL

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2010 at 9:30 A.M.

The Sugarplum Fairy along with her Cavalier, and other characters from New York City Ballet's production of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™ will ring the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, December 23 at 9:30am.

The Opening Bell ceremony celebrates the 56th season of New York City Ballet's presentation of the holiday classic which runs through January 2, 2011 at the David H., Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

Set to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky's glorious score, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™ features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates. The production includes the Company's entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as two alternating casts of 50 children from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet.

For more information on New York City Ballet's production of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, please visit nycballet.com.

The New York Stock Exchange is located at 11 Wall Street. The Opening Bell Ceremony can be viewed live online beginning at 9:15 AM at nyse.com.

SWALLOW is in Kindle Nation's Indie Authors Hall of Fame

Was very pleased to see this! Especially when I'm having a kind of crappy day…

And I'm right next to J.A. Konrath

I've been meaning to read some of these books and just haven't had the time, especially now that I'm heavy in research / writing mode for my next book (as well as trying to keep up this blog). Anyway, in particular I've been wanting to read Karen Fenech's Gone, Scott Nicholson's Disintegration, and I have Konrath's Shaken and Victorine Lieske's Not What She Seems on my iPhone already. Also, Imogen Rose's Portal looks good, as does L.J. Sellers's The Sex Club, and Monique Martin's Out of Time. I'd heard an online interview with Robert Kroese that made me want to read Mercury Falls. And, hadn't heard of it, but Kitty Thomas's Comfort Food looks intriguing too!

BLACK SWAN = SHOWGIRLS!!!! HAHA!!!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! All throughout watching this movie, I kept thinking, damn, this is really on the same level as Showgirls. Actually, more like Showgirls meets Valley of the Dolls meets Mommy Dearest. Apparently, others had the same thought. Thank you!!!! And thank you so much, dear friend, btroubles, for linking to it.