After reading this recent article in the New York Times about this decade's swing dance revival happening around New York City, I was reminded of one of the greatest (swing) dance scenes in film--the backstage swing dance party in the film Hellzapoppin' from 1941. It's a very entertaining movie, featuring one scene in particular that will knock your bobby-socks off.
This incredible scene showcases some of the most vivacious, exhilarating, and virtuosic partnering that, in my experience, makes every viewer want to get up and dance. I can watch this clip over and over again and continue to feel excited. I love partnering in any style of dance and this clip really feeds into those kinesthetic feelings of trust and generosity that is required when dancing with a partner.
This piece was my final for my group choreography class this past semester at Mills College. In celebration of finishing my first semester of graduate school, and the stressful nature of the end of the semester, I wanted to create something that was fun and that dealt with things I love. I started with the music--Otis Redding, Betty Harris, and Shirley Ellis--these are three of my favorite artists in one of my favorite musical genres, soul music of the 1950s and 1960s. This work was also created out of the love I have for the people I dance with, specifically in this work, Jeanette Male, Elizabeth Morales, and Judene Small. We had a lot of fun creating this and I hope you enjoy it. Unfortunately the lighting was pretty low and at times it is difficult to see details.
My birthday was this past Wednesday and in light of the celebration and introspection that comes with birthdays, I would like to share some of my dream roles. The various roles in dances already created that I would love to dance.
The Bluebird Pas de Deux from Sleeping Beauty
Neither the choreography nor the role are particularly interesting in terms of great pas de deuxs in the classical ballet canon, but there is something about this role that attracts me. Maybe it's the pure classicism of the choreography or perhaps the iconographic status of the pas de deux, either way it is a part I want to dance.
Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven by Ulysses Dove
I think Dove is one of the greatest under-rated choreographers. His work is incredibly technically demanding and aesthetically stunning while still containing honest and interesting emotions and relationships, a challenge that very few contemporary ballet choreographers have been able to meet. Danced to an evocative score by Arvo Part, Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven is one of my favorite ballets.
The Bronze Idol from La Bayadere
This is one of my all time favorite male variations. The music, the costume, the choreography, I love it all. It is difficult to believe that it's less than two minutes because every second packs a punch that makes it feel wholly realized and complete.
Afternoon of the Faun by Jerome Robbins
I think this is one of the best re-conceptualizations of an already famous ballet. Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes made this ballet famous in 1912 in Paris, and Jerome Robbins created his own version in 1952 in NYC, changing the roles from Ancient Greece to the contemporary and having the dancers play dancers acting as though the fourth wall of the audience were a mirror in a dance studio. It's brilliant.
Jewels is one of Balanchine's masterpieces, a non-narrative evening length work. Emeralds is my favorite section of the ballet and I would be thrilled to dance any part in it.
Le sacre de printemps by Pina Bausch
I have a slight obsession with the history and continuing life of The Rite of Spring (more on that later), and this version is tied for first as my favorite choreography to match Stravinsky's beast of a score. Bausch is known for using wild and at times outlandish sets in her work, and the simplicity of using soil in this work is so brilliant in its effectiveness and visibility in complementing the choreography.
In The Upper Room by Twyla Tharp
This is another one of my all time favorite works that I would relish the opportunity to dance. This year marks the 25th anniversary of its creation and it has continued to maintain in repertory in companies all over the world. I once read an interview with Ethan Stiefel who said that dancing this ballet was one of the greatest endurance tests of any ballet he has ever danced. Bring it on.
I lived in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina for the last five years, and growing up in Chapel Hill, I would spend part of almost every summer as a child in the mountains with my family. The Appalachian mountains have a rich cultural history in music and dance, amongst many other things. Below is a clip from a documentary made in 1964 in Madison, NC, showing a community gathered in a home playing music and clogging. Notice the how the rhythms of the dancers feet and the rhythm and melody created by the musicians play off each other, and the different partnering and floor patterns.
Appalachian clogging, like in this documentary, as well as Appalachian culture, have been highly influential on many choreographers across genres. Last winter while visiting a friend in Mahattan, we went and saw New York City Ballet perform Balanchine's Square Dance. In this work Balanchine joined the traditions of folk dancing with classical ballet. He said, "the American style of classical dancing, its supple sharpness and richness of metrical invention, its superb preparation for risks, and its high spirits were some of the things I was trying to show in this ballet." In the original choreography, Balanchine had a caller on stage directing the dancers. Later in his career he removed the caller and added a male solo variation that is stunning. The work is incredibly moving. When we saw it performed, after the curtain fell, I could see that many of the people in the audience were misty. While the steps are complex, the overall feel of the work is evocative of the spirit of Appalachian folk dancing. You can see the rhythms of the dancers movements and the patterns of the clogging withing the ballet's choreography. Unfortunately there are no public videos of Square Dance, so here is a clip of Pacific Northwest Ballet rehearsing the work to give an idea of what it is like.
One of Martha Graham's masterworks is Appalachian Spring. This work draws more from the ideas of Americana as experienced through Appalachian culture, rather than directly through any folk lineage of dancing from the region. The story told is a spring celebration of the American pioneers of the 1800s after building a new farmhouse. Among the central characters are a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a revivalist preacher and his followers. Below is the first part of a four part recording of the work.
This movement/dance video by the Trey McIntyre Project reminds me of the Butoh style movement of Eiko and Koma and the cinematography of surface studies by Rauschenberg and other Black Mountain College artists. The first part of the video creates strong imagery of the body's connection with the sculpted landscape, continuing to the two dancers together on the shore performing movement that makes me think of tectonic plates slowly shifting, or the water eroding the sand of the beach.
AIR
Paul Taylor's Airs
This is possibly my favorite of Taylor's ballets. The choreography is stunning and the dancers perform the incredibly difficult variations with such ease and grace that they perfectly embody the wind, the breeze, a gail, with amazing musicality. It's hard to believe that there are only 7 dancers in this ballet as it moves with the constant speed that only baroque music provides. In general I'm not a fan of baroque music, but the music of that era is responsible for accompanying some of the best dances ever created.
FIRE
Maurice Bejart's Firebird
This version of Bejart's Firebird is danced by the Wuyan Ballet. Bejart was one of the most avant-garde ballet choreographers of the 20th century (if you want to see one of the trippiest Nutcrackers, watch his). His choreography combined with the Stravinsky suite makes me feel like I'm watching a crackling fire breathe and grow. The floor patterns reinforce the urgency and wildness of an uncontained fire, and the simple costuming works to create the image of a flame rising out of and fighting the ashes.
WATER
Doris Humphrey's Water Study
It is hard to believe that this study was originally choreographed in 1928 as it still holds up remarkably in the modern dance canon. The beginning of the study looks like an optical illusion; it takes time to believe that those are simply people moving on a floor. This study makes me think of looking at an abstract expressionist painting, like one of Rothko's color fields. The movement is relatively simple and repetitive and the majority of the study the dancers are moving in varied unison, but it is so evocative of water that it is difficult to look away.
Elizabeth Morales, fellow MFA candidate, new friend, and all around awesome lady made this video for the dance for camera class. The assignment was to create a video using already existing choreography. I dare you not to smile while watching this.
The video also features her boyfriend, Jaime. I dare you not to be jealous.
The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow re-opened Friday night after six years of renovations. Read about the process of the renovation, history of the theatre, the reception in Russia, and the opening night gala here from BBC and here from the New York Times. Below is a video of the opening night gala performances that includes excerpts from many famous operas and ballets.
As the video is 2 hours and 17 minutes long, I suggest skipping to the 1hr 22min mark to watch an exquisite dancing of the white swan pas de deux. The orchestra is incredible and the ballerina dancing Odette moves with an unparalleled grace and beauty rarely seen in contemporary incarnations of the role.
Halloween is my favorite holiday. No pressure to find a gift or be romantic or buy rounds of Patron to make sure every one is the same level of inebriated before midnight. Just plain old dressing up like you're someone else and trolling for candy, partying, and scares and tricks. (Not that I'm a misanthrope that doesn't like gifts, romance, and Patron; I love those things.) In the spirit of Halloween I would like to share with you Mary Wigman's Witch Dance. Wigman is an originator of modern dance. She was a pioneer of absolute dance, dance composed of only essential movement; music is not necessary or needed. Much of her inspiration for movement came from exploring her unconscious.
The gestures and physicality that are culturally understood of being "witch-like" are found in Wigman's dance. I think you can see manifestations of this dance in many of our popular culture representations of the witch. In the Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, one of my favorites, Bette Midler is fantastic in her gestures and physicality of representing the witch you always imagined when you were a child with the perfect amount of kitsch. Watch this hallmark scene from the movie when the witches sing "I Put A Spell On You" and notice the similarities between Wigman's hands and Midler's hands, also the similarity in physicality in the way Wigman approaches the camera and the way Midler struts downstage at the end of her song.
The Balanchine Trust is very fastidious about removing full length recordings of his work from the internet. So I have to share this before it gets removed. Theme and Variations was first presented in New York City on November 26, 1947 to a stunning orchestral suite by Tchaikovsky, that is one of my personal favorites of the composer. This recording is from 1978 danced by American Ballet Theatre featuring none other than Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. In describing the ballet, Balanchine said, "it evokes that great period in classical dancing when Russian ballet flourished with the aid of Tchaikovsky's music." It is one of my favorite Balanchine ballets. It contains one of my favorite pas de deuxs in ballet. Not only does it showcase virtuosic partnering and musicality but it allows the soloists to dance alongside each other, creating a more conversational relationship, rather than the man only supporting the woman. The choreography and music of the final movement are so exciting that I find myself smiling every time I watch it.
This recording also has a bonus interview with Gelsey Kirkland. You can hear her talk about her process and what it is like to dance the ballet.
Hello, friends and strangers. For my first blog post I would like to share with you a dance I created. It was first performed the summer of 2007 in Chapel Hill, NC, and went on to be performed again in 2008 at my alma mater UNC Asheville, and then in 2009 at the NC Dance Alliance Choreographer's Showcase. This recording is the 2008 performance. This is the most popular piece I've created amongst audiences, dancers and non-dancers alike.
The process: I have a surprisingly vivid memory of when I conceived of this dance. It was my freshman year of college and I was talking with one of my closest friends about choreography, and I had this idea about seeing the back of a body from the audience's perspective. The movements would be subtle isolations accenting the musculature of the body. The isolations would also serve the purpose of creating an optical illusion. The body would not be one individual, but (spoiler alert) multiple bodies moving seemingly as one. The idea sat on the back burner of my mind until the summer after my freshman year when I was creating a dance review with some friends and was listening to The Blow. Their song "True Affection" has the perfect rhythms for the movement quality, and the lyrics made me think to create the abstract narrative of a man and a woman being next to one another with very little contact.
