Still More Ballet Quibbles & Bits. . .

NYCB's Program for Children with Disabilities:

This spring New York City Ballet launched a program specially designed for families with disabled children.  It's extremely moving to watch principal dancers Maria Kowroski and Adrian Danchig-Waring work with 19 youngsters with cerebral palsy and their families as they experience the joy of dancing in this short video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp6LeOIkUuQ&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FY16SummerCerebralPalsyAppeal&utm_content=version_A

"I didn't want to treat them differently from a normal child.  I didn't want to make them feel disabled, " Maria says in the video.  "I was worried that I was going to get emotional watching them because it's difficult to see someone struggle."

Maria Kowroski and Adrian Danchig Waring in Ulysses Dove's 'Red Angels'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

City Ballet partnered with a cerebral palsy specialist, Joseph Dutkowsky, M.D., who helped Maria and Adrian design and lead the workshop -- a total of four sessions ending with a 'performance' where their young students donned purple tutus and red super-hero capes to perform the movements they had worked on in earlier sessions for an audience of parents and family members.

The final 'performance' of NYC Ballet's workshops for disabled children.
Photo is a still from the video filmed by Upworthy.

Of the 'performance' Adrian says " it was a really emotional day.  Maria and I had not been prepared for how connected we would feel immediately with the group of kids that we had.  In fact, we had underprepared for how energetic, enthusiastic, and physically capable these kids turned out to be."  Watch the video -- it will make you proud of New York City Ballet and Maria and Adrian for undertaking this project, which became a labor of love.


SAB's Summer Choreography Showing:

On Thursday, July 30th, we attended School of American Ballet's Summer Choreography Showing.  Toward the end of every Summer Session the School offers two choreographers the chance to create a work for the most advanced summer students.  This summer, Alec Knight and Jock Soto were the choreographers (Jock stepped in when Sasonah Huttenbach, who was originally selected, dropped out for health reasons).

Alec Knight has choreographed works for the past two Student Choreography Workshops.  For this Summer Choreography Showing, Alec created a work for 16 advanced students to a piece of music called 'Ēvolūtiō' by Break of Reality -- a cello rock band that consists of three cellists and a percussionist.  

Break with Reality, the American cello rock band

Break of Reality was formed in 2003 by four freshman at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.  Two of the original founders, Patrick Laird and Ivan Trevino, are still with the band.  The other two current members are Laura Metcalf and Adrian Daurov.

'Ēvolūtiō' consists of four movements:  'Intactus' (untouched, pure, to one's self); 'Exordium' (the start, an introduction, or to have curiosity about another being); 'Amare & Luctus' (love and heartbreak); and 'Recomminiscor' (to reinvent, rebuild).  It is an adventurous choice of music for a budding choreographer and Alec Knight used the four sections to portray the transition from often lonely adolescence to adulthood.  Using 16 advanced students dressed in black leotards (the women) and black T-shirts and tights (the men) Alec portrayed in often quirky, abstracted movements and interactions between dancers the evolution he had described in his introductory remarks.

'Ēvolūtiō' begins with a single woman alone in the center of the studio and then moves groups of dancers on and off the performing space.  Interactions are fragmentary and the sense of isolation -- both of the individual and of smaller groups -- permeates the first movement.  In the second movement, interaction becomes more frequent as individuals break through their isolation.  In the third movement an infatuation between two of the dancers emerges, but ends in disappointment.  And in the final movement, the dancers have become a community from which individuals and couples emerge and retreat.

In SAB's Studio One the audience is spread along one long wall adjacent to the performing space which can make watching a performance (or even a class) seem like watching tennis from a front row seat.  Many neophyte choreographers struggle to help observers focus on the important elements of their dance design.  Alec was largely successful with groupings that attract the eye and canonical movements that lead the audience from one 'important' element to the next.

Jock Soto chose 'Valse' from  Alexander Glazunov's 'Raymonda' (beautifully played by Ala Reznik) for his piece, 'The Waltz', for 26 advanced students.  The music was familiar to New York City Ballet followers since it is used by Balanchine in 'Raymonda Variations'.  Jock decided to present the rest of the summer course advanced students (and to round out his design -- two of the women from Alec's work) so all got the opportunity to dance in the showing.

Jock used a female soloist, three male demi-soloists (the Cuban triplets) and an ensemble of eleven couples.  His answer to the 'tennis match' problem of Studio One was to employ symmetrical patterns for the ensemble and also for the triplets -- though I thought they were spaced too far apart.  

The overall look of 'The Waltz' was traditional (the women in white leotards and tutus and the men in white T-shirts and black tights) and the choreography was lyrical.  The triplets were given several bravura passages and the female soloist had a long passage of intricate pointe work.  The 11 couples in the ensemble showcased the impressive results of Mr. Soto's (with Darci Kistler or Yvonne Borree) Adagio classes during the summer session.

The showcase was a wonderful evening of ballet potential -- with student dancers, a budding choreographer and another one too seldom seen exploring new horizons together.


New York City Ballet's 2015-16 Season Artwork:

I'm not wild about the cartoony artwork the Company is using for it's 2015-16 Season brochures, posters and other advertising/PR materials.  

Art by Jamie Lee Reardin from NYC Ballet's 2015-16 Season Subscription Brochure.

It's by Jamie Lee Reardin, who has worked primarily in fashion illustration.  Anyhow, here's a short video which provides a translation from the Company's outstanding repertory and superb dancers to Ms. Readin's caricatured interpretations:

https://video-lga1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xta1/v/t43.1792-2/11774942_10155916651600529_1243611289_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjE1MDAsInJsYSI6MTAyNH0%3D&rl=1500&vabr=626&oh=2d42d309de7e6f4b810639ae590d3a61&oe=55C2BD1E

I really can't imagine Reardin's art blown up to gigantic proportions on the Columbus Avenue side of the Koch Theater!

Jamie Lee Reardin's interpretation of 'Swan Lake' for New York City Ballet.