Tonya Plank's Blog, page 49

AVI SCHER & DANCERS' FIRST FULL SEASON A SMASHING SUCCESS

Here are some photos of Avi Scher's first full season at Alvin Ailey theater, sent to me by the amazing ABT dancer-turned-photographer Matt Murphy. Visit Matt's blog, and his photographer website.

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Savannah Lowery (from NYCB) who, for the first time, completely blew me away, flying over Ralph Ippolito (also from NYCB) and Eric Tamm (from ABT), in Touch.

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Ashley Bouder (NYCB principal), who replaced Sara Mearns, who had a minor foot injury. Marcelo Gomes (ABT principal, of course!) in the...

AVI SCHER, VERONIKA PART, SARA MEARNS AND MARCELO THIS WEEKEND AT ALVIN AILEY THEATER!

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Isn't this a gorgeous rehearsal photo of Marcelo Gomes and Sara Mearns, taken by the excellent Matthew Murphy! They are rehearsing for an upcoming performance of Avi Scher & Dancers, which you must go see if you're in NY. I don't know how ticket availability now stands, but this is an excellent opportunity to see some of the world's greatest dancers up close in the small, intimate Citicorp theater in the Alvin Ailey studios. The show will star these two above as well as Veronika Part...

CHANGES FOR NEW SEASON OF SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE

So, if you haven't heard, there are big changes afoot for next season's So You Think You Can Dance (which begins May 27th). Apparently, there are only going to be 10 dancers who advance from the final Vegas round instead of the regular 20, and those 10 will be partnered with a SYTYCD finalist "celeb" from the past instead of with each other. Only one person, instead of two, will be going home each week.

Hmmm, what do we think of this new set-up? Go here for one pov.

DEVIN ALBERDA IS HILARIOUS!

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Headshot by Paul Kolnik, from NYCB website.

One of my Twitter followers, a law blogger go figure, sent me a link to this article, by Gia Kourlas in the NYTimes about how several ballet dancers, mostly from NYCB (apart from Maria Kochetkova and Daniil Simkin) are now actively tweeting. I found Alberda's posts to be absolutely hilarious. Follow him!

Kourlas didn't mention them, but David Hallberg, Marcelo Gomes, Drew Jacoby and Roberto Bolle are all on Twitter too. Roberto and Marcelo...

DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON 10, WEEK 2

My thoughts are posted here.

SMALL WORLD: BORREE'S CORNERS, ARIZONA!

You guys, last week I received this really sweet email from a woman who read my novel. I figured ballet lovers, particularly fans of New York City Ballet, would appreciate it:

"Hello.  I hope you don't mind me writing.   But  as your email address is listed, I shall write you.

"I first came across you by cruising the Internet and bought your book, Swallow, because my dad's family, Borree, lived in Florence AZ.  There is even a Borree's Corners in AZ where the family owned a gas station and a...

Swallow is a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let people know that my debut novel, Swallow, which I recently entered in a giveaway here, is a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. That means that if you didn't win the giveaway, you can download the first 18 pages for free on Amazon (you don't need a Kindle; you can download their Kindle software on a PC, a Mac, an iphone, or a Blackberry), read, rate and give me a little review based on the opening pages. Go here for the excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/Swallow-Excerpt...

Also, check out some of the other quarter-finalist excerpts here: http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-No... (Look on the left-hand side of the page for the various categories).

Reading and voting is fun, and you can have a part in an emerging author's career!

Thanks you guys; I'm so psyched!

xo, Tonya

KEIGWIN + COMPANY'S CAPTIVATING "RUNAWAY"

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Here are some photos of Keigwin + Company's recent season at the Joyce in Chelsea. Above is Larry Keigwin's absolutely stunning Runaway, which I loved, and below is his Bird Watching, which had its premiere at the start of the season. All photos by Christopher Duggan.

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My friend and I were blown away by Runaway. It began with a woman onstage wearing a 60s-style dress and a huge bouffant hairdo, checking herself in a mirror held by two male tecchies. The program had advertised that there was to ...

I'M A BLANK SLATE WHEN IT COMES TO KATE GOSSELIN, I CAN'T HELP IT!

Dancing with the Stars: Controversial Stars Steal Show – More free videos are here

Hahaha, I sound like a total dumbass! Seriously, I don't watch reality TV (other than the dance competition shows, if you want to call them that), so I'm a total blank slate when it comes to many of the celebs on DWTS every season (remember when I didn't know who Kim Kardashian was…). Well, apparently Kate Gosselin has a bad reputation for something. But I'm basically seeing her for the first time now, and her ...

SWALLOW IS A QUARTERFINALIST IN THE AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD!

You guys! My novel is a quarterfinalist in this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in the adult fiction category! That means you can download an excerpt here for free (you don't need a Kindle, you can download right onto your computer), read it and (I think) rate it and comment on it. Please please please please do! I am told there will be a Publishers Weekly review up there soon. Yikes!

Also I would ever ever ever so greatly appreciate if anyone who's already bought the book and read it (...