Tonya Plank's Blog, page 46

ABT AT 70 AT THE GUGGENHEIM

Last night American Ballet Theatre put on a little celebration of its 70th anniversary and gave a little preview of its upcoming Met season (which begins next Monday, May 17th) at the Guggenheim, as part of the museum's Works and Process events. Dancers from each decade of ABT's existence — Susan Jaffe, Susan Jones, Donald Saddler, Lupe Serrano, and Rachel Moore – spoke briefly about what the company was like back in the day, and then there was (happily) a great deal of dancing.

Stella...

MIA MICHAEL IN MARY MURPHY OUT AS PERMANENT SYTYCD JUDGES

Apparently SYTYCD has changed its permanent judges for the upcoming season: in addition to Nigel Lythgoe, they'll now be Adam Shankman and Mia Michaels. Mary Murphy will still be with the show, but will be spending more time choreographing instead, as well as sitting as guest judge from time to time.

MICHAEL PAUL BRITTO

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Last weekend, my friend Alyssa and I went to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Open Artists' Studios visit. I was really taken with this artist, Michael Paul Britto, and I took some pictures with my iphone. Most of his work speaks for itself, but the bottom photo is of a video depicting a young black woman being attacked by police officials while John Mayer's song Daughters plays in the background. And several of the paintings (like the one up top) were done on mirrors so that, as you...

THANK YOU!

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Thank you so much to everyone who showed up last night for my little book celebration party! And as well to those who couldn't come but who were there in spirit [image error] I'm so very grateful to have such wonderful longtime personal friends as well as newer-ish Facebook and blog reader friends and Tweeps with whom to celebrate such things. And, as always, I'm immensely grateful for everyone's support. Thank you, you guys!

Photo taken by my good friend and fellow writer, Ariel Davis.

SWALLOW NAMED FINALIST IN 2010 IPPYS

So psyched! My novel is a finalist in this year's IPPY Awards, in the regional fiction division. I'm psyched both because, if the entrants mean anything (and I'm sure they do), this is a pretty prestigious contest for indie publishers (just scroll down to the Literary Fiction division, for starters – I mean, Matterhorn guy is there for cry eye! And the highly regarded indie publisher Other Press has a bunch of finalists, McSweeney's has one in the Popular Fiction category, Rachel...

DEMA DANCE COMPANY TONIGHT AND TOMORROW NIGHT AT ALVIN AILEY THEATER

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Tonight, DeMa Dance Company performs at the Alvin Ailey theater. This is the company I'd blogged about earlier, when I attended their rehearsals and interviewed Sonya Tayeh and Billy Bell. They'll be performing Tayeh's piece, When the Love Enters, the Light Shines, and Bell will be dancing. Act fast if you want to go: they're only on tonight (at 7, gala reception follows the performance) and tomorrow at 8! For tickets and more info, go here.

Still hoping Bell will be on So You Think You Can...

THE LEGACY OF LUCIA CHASE ON WNYC

Listen to Alex C. Ewing, the son of Lucia Chase, founder of American Ballet Theater, discuss his mother's legacy with Kevin McKenzie and Leonard Lopate on WNYC here. Ewing's enlightening biography of his mother came out late last year and is part of ABT's celebration of its 70th anniversary this year.

TONY NOMINATIONS

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They were announced yesterday and Bill T. Jones's Fela! received many! And rightly so. If you haven't seen this brilliant musical, definitely do go. I wrote about it here. Also, Bill T. Jones is to receive the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award at this summer's festival; he'll be there in person to collect it at their opening night gala in June.

Memphis (the musical Danny Tidwell danced in) also received a few noms. I wrote about that show here and here.

The Tonys air on on June 13.

Photo of Fela! cast ...

MAKSIM CHMERKOVSKIY NOMINATED FOR ASTAIRE AWARD!

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Maks Chmerkovskiy has been nominated for a Fred Astaire award for his dancing in Burn the Floor. Other nominees of note are Holley Farmer for Tharp's Come Fly Away in the female dancer category and Tharp herself and Bill T. Jones in the choreographer category for Come Fly and Fela! respectively. Also nominated are the female ensemble of Fela! and the male ensemble of Memphis, as well as that show's choreographer Sergio Trujillo, and Frederick Wiseman is nominated in the film category for his ...

NEW YORK CITY BALLET OPENING NIGHT GALA: NAMOUNA AND WHY AM I NOT WHERE YOU ARE

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All photos by Paul Kolnik. Top two are of Benjamin Millepied's new Why am I not where you are, and bottom two are from Alexei Ratmansky's new Namouna: A Grand Divertissement.

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Sorry I'm late with this post — I had serious internet problems over the weekend and they'd better not continue today or I may kill someone from Time Warner. Anyway, Thursday night was the opening night of New York City Ballet's Spring / Summer season, and there were two world premieres: first Millepied's Why am I not...