NYC Ballet 'Swan Lake' Dress Rehearsal

On Tuesday afternoon, September 22nd, I attended the 'dress' rehearsal for Peter Martins' 'Swan Lake' which was opening later that evening.  The idea that it was a 'dress' rehearsal seemed pretty casual -- most of the corps dancers were in practice clothes, except the men wore their garish orange boots.  Even the principals weren't in pristine costume -- Prince Siegfried wore grey sweatpants over his costume through much of the first scene and Odette wore footless tights.

The 'orchestra' consisted of a piano in the pit 'conducted' by Stuart Capps and a violinist who showed up in time for the solo violin passage in the lakeside scene.

Still, it was an opportunity to see a brand new Siegfried, Russell Janzen, perfectly paired with a lovely Odette, Teresa Reichlen.  They are both tall, slender dancers with long arms and legs.  The pas de deux in the first lakeside scene was notable for their long, beautifully coordinated lines and for Russell's partnering of Tess with steady calm.  Surrounded by a corps of swans in drab and raggedy practice clothes Tess and Russell indeed stood out.   

Teresa Reichlen and Russell Janzen in the pas de deux from George Balanchine's 'Diamonds' from 'Jewels'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

At this rehearsal, Taylor Stanley in the role of Benno danced the pas de trois with Indiana Woodward and Sarah Villwock.  Ms. Woodward and Ms. Villwock are new to their roles and there were still a few kinks in the pas de trois to be ironed out later in a rehearsal studio.  Harrison Ball danced the Jester -- a role I dislike and find hard to judge objectively.  It's showy and requires a bravura dancer.  Harrison seemed to be having an off day.  Gwyneth Muller was regal as the Queen, although she or a page or lady-in-waiting need to mind her train which was doubled back on itself here.  The children from the School of American Ballet were well-drilled and adorable -- although they were still getting used to the Theater's stage and the adult dancers surrounding them.

In the lakeside scene, the four cygnets -- including Claire Von Eyck at one end of the chain -- were brilliant.  Silas Farley waved Von Rotbart's flaming orange cape with panache.  Although the role of Rotbart was created by Albert Evans, I see no reason to continue casting minorities -- Silas and Preston Chamblee in the current run -- in this role.  It's way past time for New York City Ballet to introduce color blind casting in all of its works and move beyond this type of tokenism -- it's racist and appalling.

This cast will  be dancing Thursday evening, September 24th -- when Russell will make his debut as Siegried -- and again at the Sunday, September 27th, matinee.

Following the rehearsal of the first half -- I'm never sure if it is two scenes and one act or two acts with no intermission -- of 'Swan Lake' there was a rehearsal of the pas de quatre from the ballroom scene with Megan Fairchild, Ana Sophia Scheller, Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz.  This stellar cast did a partially danced walk-thru of this so-so piece of Martins' choreography.  I assume that they've danced this enough times that they were saving themselves for the performance that evening.  It was a rather lackluster finish to a spotty afternoon.

On a different note, Jared Angle was listed in the handout as one of the 'rehearsal masters' and was on stage offering pointers to Reichlen and Janzen about their performance.  Does this portend a transition from principal dancer to artistic staff in Jared's future?  If so, the NYCB website hasn't caught up with the news.  We'd hate to see Jared stop performing, but he's a great addition to the artistic staff with a wealth of experience dancing a wide range of roles.

Still More Ballet Quibbles and Bits . . .

Wendy Whelan's Conversation with Damian Woetzel

While searching the internet for some background information on Wendy Whelan, I found this wonderful clip recorded from a discussion between Wendy and Damian Woetzel that took place at 'Studio 5' at City Center on September 29, 2014 -- during the days leading up to Wendy's retirement from NYC Ballet.  

Wendy Whelan enjoying a laugh with Damian Woetzel at 'Studio 5' at City Center.
Photo by Christopher Duggan

It's nearly 57 minutes long and includes Wendy dancing an excerpt from 'Bitter Earth' with Tyler Angle and the 'After the Rain' pas de deux with Craig Hall -- both choreographed on Wendy by Christopher Wheeldon:

http://www.nycitycenter.org/Home/Blog/October-2014/Whelan-Talks-Robbins

It's delightful and worth the time -- you'll wish you'd been there that evening.

Lincoln Center's Segal Award Goes to 3 from SAB 

Claire Kretzschmar and Silas Farley (both members of the New York City Ballet corps de ballet and SAB alumni) and Alec Knight (an SAB advanced student) have been named 2015 recipients of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Awards, which will be celebrated at a Lincoln Center gala at Alice Tully Hall on March 2nd hosted by Audra McDonald.  The awards are given each year to promising young artists nominated by Lincoln Center's constituent organizations -- Claire was nominated by NYC Ballet; Silas was nominated by the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library; and Alec was nominated by SAB.  The late Mr. Segal was a former president of Lincoln Center who had a special interest in the careers of young performers.

Claire and Silas both received their early dance training in North Carolina before coming to the School of American Ballet and then going on to NYCB.  Alec came to SAB from Australia and was one of four students featured in the 2014 Teen Vogue 'Strictly Ballet' videos which I wrote about here:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7731047659115669466#editor/target=post;postID=632383314230361649;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=2;src=postname

Here's a link to the SAB Facebook announcement about the Segal awards:

https://www.facebook.com/SABNYC/photos/a.399587493869.183424.36603863869/10152709748228870/?type=1&theater   

Congratulations to all of the honorees, but especially these three connected to SAB.

2/12/2015 Valentine's Day Open House at SAB

I attended the Valentine's Day Open House at the School of American Ballet.  Unfortunately, I arrived around noon, just as the advanced women were finishing classes with Kay Mazzo, Suki Schorer, and Susan Pilarre.

Suki Schorer (kneeling center) with the C-1 Class at SAB's Valentine's Day Open House.
Photo from the SAB Facebook page.

My first stop was for a brownie in the Student Lounge.  The bulletin board at the back of the Lounge was overflowing with posters and brochures for summer programs and professional auditions.  I counted over 20 schools and companies that will be holding auditions at the School between the middle of February and the middle of March.  As usual our students are in great demand.

Then I got a good seat in Studio 1 for the 12:30pm class.  I should have read the schedule more carefully, because watching Darci Kistler's class with the D ladies would have been much more interesting than Andrei Kramarevsky's class with the Advanced Men.  Mr. Kramarevsky is a beloved member of the faculty, but I always find his classes to be pretty chaotic and frustrating to watch.  

The students either don't understand his instructions or they ignore them.  For example, his sketchy instructions seem to suggest that the students should turn in one direction and then the other as part of a combination.  What happens is that the students turn in their preferred direction -- continuing to perfect their natural turning direction rather than striving to improve their turns in their weaker, less natural direction.

Twyla Tharp once said at a NYC Ballet seminar that Peter Boal was the only dancer she knew who could naturally turn equally well in both directions.  I'm sure that when Peter was a student at the School he practiced turning in both directions. 

Three students from the Advanced Men's class costumed for SAB's Valentine's Day Open House.
Photo from SAB Facebook page.

Following Mr. Kramarevsky's class I watched part of the Advanced Men's Variation class taught that day by Andrew Veyette -- a principal dancer with the Company.  He was teaching the opening phrases of the male variation from 'Swan Lake' (Balanchine's version I think) and his comments and corrections were illuminating for both the students and the observers.  Andrew seems to have a very good eye for spotting potential problems and then providing very positive feedback and understandable corrections to fix them.

More recently, I've watched as students in Andrew's Variation class perform the complete 'Swan Lake' variation.  It's amazing to see the progress that they've made working with Andrew in just two weeks.

A Chat with Resident Choreographer Justin Peck

On February 9th we attended NYC Ballet's seminar -- a conversation between Justin Peck, the Company's Resident Choreographer, and Ellen Bar, the Company's Director of Media Projects.  Of course, Justin has been the talk of the ballet world since the February 6th wide release of 'Ballet 422' -- the film about the creation of Justin's ballet, 'Paz de la Jolla' -- and the premiere on February 4th of 'Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes' -- his newest ballet for the Company.

My post about 'Ballet 422' and 'Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes' are here:

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2015/02/comments-on-ballet-422.html

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2015/02/nycb-2815-matinee-performance.html

About the making of 'Ballet 422', Justin said that the filming by Jody Lee Lipes (he's Ellen Bar's husband) was not intrusive during the creation of the ballet.  He said that Mr. Lipes, who was the film's cameraman as well as its director, was always around with his camera during the two months that the rehearsals went on and that no special lighting or sound equipment was needed, so Justin and the cast just got used to it.

About his new Aaron Copland ballet, Justin said that he discarded the original scenario from the Agnes DeMille ballet, 'Rodeo', but tried to maintain the atmosphere.  He was inspired by nature, specifically weather in creating the ballet.  
The five men who dance the second 'episode' of the ballet -- Daniel Applebaum, Craig Hall, Allen Peiffer, Andrew Scordato, and Taylor Stanley -- were on hand to dance that section.  Seeing it danced in practice clothes with piano accompaniment offers the opportunity to see the sheer brilliance of the choreography.  

Justin obviously cares deeply about these men with whom he has danced for his entire NYCB career and whose unique abilities he has captured in this section of the ballet.  Justin said that he used these five dancers to set other parts of the piece, because it's hard to get rehearsal time in the Company for 14 or 15 men all at one time.

Craig Hall joined the discussion following the 'Rodeo' excerpt and discussed his reactions to working on Justin's ballets, sharing a dressing room with Justin, and being part of the creative process for several different choreographers.

Despite all of his recent accomplishments, Justin comes across as a serious creator who is dedicated to the process of making ballets.  At the age of 27 he is very self-confident, but modest about his  enormous success over the last five years.

SAB's Summer Choreography Workshop

Last Thursday evening, we went to the Summer Choreography Workshop at The School of American Ballet.  There were two showings of the program -- one at 5:30pm for SAB staff and families of Summer Course students; and one at 6:30pm for SAB donors.  We went to the second showing.

The program was introduced by Meredith Robbins, the School's Director of Development, and Caroline Langerman, Director of Individual Giving, who welcomed the audience and introduced Peter Walker, one of the two choreographers.

Peter Walker in Balanchine's 'Who Cares?' at the 2011 SAB Workshop performances.

Peter is an alumnus of SAB and a member of the corps of NYC Ballet.  He told us the sad news that one of his dancers was sick and unable to perform in his ballet, 'Passage'.  He and the remaining seven dancers in his work had just held a meeting and decided that they could not perform 'Passage' without her.  It was a gracious speech given in the aftermath of disappointment for Peter and the eight students who had all been working hard on his piece.

There is a delightful Youtube video that Emily Kikta created with Daniel Ulbricht, Harrison Coll, and Peter Walker during NYCB's week in at the Kennedy Center last March.  You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjtxvQrHIhU

It looks like it was fun to make, and it sure is fun to watch. 

Then Silas Farley spoke about his new ballet, 'The Dowland Dances'.  The ballet uses seven pieces by the English composer John Dowland (1563-1626) from the 2006 recording 'Songs from the Labyrinth' by Sting with the lutenist, Edin Karamazov.  Silas said that in addition to the music, he was inspired by court dances of the Elizabethan period -- the gavotte, the galliard, the lavolta.

Silas used eight advanced students -- Anissa Bailis, Jarod Curley, Andrea Fabbri, Jared Kelly, Anastasia Kubanda, Carolynn Rowland, Xhosa Scott, and Samantha Schaubach --in various combinations of solos, duets, trios and more.  One or two dancers would emerge from group patterns for solos or duets, then recede back into the group again.  One dancer's phrase was sometimes elaborated by other dancers in cannon.  Silas has mastered the art of drawing the audience's focus toward specific dance images -- no mean feat in an evenly lit studio where viewers are arrayed in four rows on one long wall with the rest of the space used for the dance.

In 'The Dowland Dances' Silas gives each of the eight dancers opportunities to display their singular capabilities.  All of them seemed fully invested in making their individual moments count while remaining within the context of Silas's complete work.  Is this perhaps part of a trend to eliminate the hierarchy in ballet and fully embrace the concept of 'dances at a gathering' of equals? 

I found the lyrics, sung by Sting, to be a distraction.  You can't easily understand them and concentrating on them detracts from enjoying the dance.  When music, choreography and dancers are all largely unknowns, adding unfamiliar and largely unintelligible lyrics creates another layer of complication.  I would like to have the opportunity to see this work again after listening to the Sting/Karamazov recording (and perhaps seeing the PBS Great Performers program that arose from it).  It would help to have the titles of the seven selections and perhaps their lyrics printed in the program. 

Silas is also an SAB alumnus and NYC Ballet corps dancer.  During his years at SAB, Silas was known as a student who could quickly learn and retain ballet combinations and choreography.  Even before he was eligible to choreograph for the annual Student Choreography Workshop, Silas volunteered to act as a 'ballet master' for the older students.  Since joining NYC Ballet in 2013, Silas has also taught classes at SAB and created pieces for student dancers to perform at the 2013 and 2014 SAB Winter Balls.

Silas Farley teaching an SAB class.  Photo by Rosalie O'Connor

Silas Farley is definitely a talent we'll be watching in the future.

JR's Art Project for NYC Ballet Reconsidered

I was hasty in criticizing JR's photo-mural on the floor of the promenade at New York State (Koch) Theater for encroaching on Philip Johnson's gorgeous space.  I still do believe that the space is better left unadorned.  But on second and third viewing during subsequent visits, the JR work itself does have resonance.  It resembles one of those wonderful ceilings in baroque churches and palaces except that it's underfoot and the glorious gods and goddesses are beloved members of New York City Ballet.  The entire piece is in the shape of a giant eye which can best be appreciated from one of the upper rings.

JR's eye from the west end of the fourth tier, photo by McClure

It's interesting to see the audience interact with the piece -- something missing from my first view of the installation at a dress rehearsal.  With audience members walking over the floor, casting moving shadows and interacting with the images makes it more interesting.  Also, it's surprising to watch them searching for a favorite dancer.  And almost shocking to see them lie down next to them. 

Two people lying in the 'pupil' of JR's eye installation at State Theater as others walk by, photo McClure

The group of dancers forming the 'iris' are like carytids gracefully holding up some far off temple on the Acropolis -- particularly the gorgeous Faye Arthurs in a blush pink leotard.

Anthony Huxley and Faye Arthurs in JR's 'iris', photo by McClure

Here are a few other favorite dancers spotted around the installation in no particular order.

Harrison Coll and Rob Fairchild with admirers, photo by McClure

Silas Farley as part of the 'iris', photo by McClure

Ashley Bouder with an observer, photo by McClure

Olivia Boisson in anti-gravity mode, photo by McClure

Craig Hall dreaming among shadows and scuffs, photo by McClure