MARK KAPPEL

252 West 76th Street
Suite 6E
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ph: 212-724-3889
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MARKKAPL1@aol.com

NEWSNOTES DANCE BLOG

NEWSNOTES DANCE BLOG

MARK KAPPEL

EDITOR

252 WEST 76TH STREET

SUITE 6E

NEW YORK NY 10023

TELEPHONE: 212-724-3889

FAX: 212-874-5039

E-MAIL: MARKKAPL1@aol.com

WEB SITE: http://www.markkappeldance.com

MISSION STATEMENT

FROM THE EDITOR

Recognizing the need to promote the personal accomplishments of creative artists and to inform dance audiences, dance professionals, dance supporters, and the general public about news in the dance world, I have established the NewsNotes Dance Blog. It is my goal to collaborate with the dance community in this effort. Please direct announcements and press releases for inclusion and coverage to Editor/NewsNotes Dance Blog at MARKKAPL1@aol.com

NEWS IN THE DANCE WORLD

1-10-12 - Founder/Director Valentina Kozlova has announced that the second annual Boston International Ballet Competition will take place from June 12-17, 2012 at the Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston, Massachusetts.

11-1-11 - Christopher Hampson has been appointed the new artistic director of The Scottish Ballet beginning with the 2012-13 season.

9-23-11 - Edward Villella will step down as Miami City Ballet's artistic director at the end of the 2012-13 season.

9-20-11 - David Hallberg will join the Bolshoi Ballet as a principal dancer beginning with the 2011-12 season.

7-14-11 - Chase Finlay and Anthony Huxley have been promoted to soloists at the New York City Ballet.

6-14-11 - Kevin O'Hare will succeed Monica Mason as artistic director of the Royal Ballet.

6-14-11 - Jillian Vanstone has been appointed principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada.

6-12-11 - Choreographer Kathleen Marshall won the Tony Award for Choreography for her contribution to the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Anything Goes.

6-6-11 - Isabella Boylston has been promosted to soloist of American Ballet Theatre.

5-31-11 - Francis Veyette has been promoted to principal dancer, and Lauren Fadeley has been promoted to soloist of the Pennsylvania Ballet.

5-5-11 - Bridgett Zehr and Zdenek Konvalina, principal dancers of the National Ballet of Canada, will join the English National Ballet, beginning with the 2011-12 season.

5-3-11 - Choreographers Rob Ashford (How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes), Casey Nicholaw (Book of Mormon), and Susan Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys) have been nominated for Tony Awards for their contributions to the 2010-11 Broadway theatre season.

4-27-11 - American Ballet Theatre has extended Alexei Ratmansky's contract as Artist in Residence through 2023.

3-20-11 - Sergei Filin has been appointed artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet.

2-4-11 - Johannes Ohman has been appointed artistic director of the Royal Swedish Ballet.

1-19-11 - Karen Russo Burke has been appointed the new artistic director of the Dayton Ballet.

1-5-11 - Cory Stearns has been promoted to the rank of principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.

11-3-10 - Luca Vegetti has been appointed Morphoses' first resident artistic director for the 2011-12 season. Vegetti's original full-length ballet, Bacchae, will premiere in October 2011 as part of Morphoses' fall New York season.

10-29-10 - Ethan Stiefel has been appointed the new artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet effective September 2011.

9-28-10 - The Nevada Ballet Theatre announced the appointment of Cynthia Gregory as the company's artistic advisor.

9-15-10 - Valentina Kozlova announced the first Boston International Ballet Competition which is scheduled from May 12-16, 2011 at John Hancock Hall in Boston, Massachussetts. The Boston International Ballet Competition will consist of three divisions -- Student, Junior and Senior. Margo Sappington and Edwaard Liang will each create a contemporary piece for the competitors. The Gala and Awards Ceremony will be on May 16, 2011.

9-10-10 - Jose Manuel Carreno will retire from American Ballet Theatre at the end of the 2010-11 season. His farewell performance will be in Swan Lake on June 30, 2011.

8-24-10 - Graham Lustig has been appointed the Oakland Ballet's artistic director beginning with the 2010-11 season.

7-28-10 - Nacho Duato will become the new artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet of St. Petersburg beginning in 2011.

7-21-10 - Nilas Martins has retired from the New York City Ballet joining recent retirees Darci Kistler, Albert Evans, Phillip Neal, and Yvonne Borree.

6-13-10 - Choreographer Bill T. Jones won the Tony Award for Choreography for his contributions to the Broadway musical, Fela!

6-11-10 - Susan Jaffe has been appointed to the position of Ballet Mistress at American Ballet Theatre.

5-4-10 - Choreographers Rob Ashford (Promises Promises), Bill T. Jones (Fela!), Lynne Page (La Cage aux Folles), and Twyla Tharp (Come Fly Away) have been nominated for Tony Awards for their contributions to the 2009-10 Broadway theatre season.

4-28-10 - Robert Battle will succeed Judith Jamison as artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 2011.

3-23-10 - Julio Bocca has been appointed Artistic Director of Uruguay's Baile del SODRE.

2-22-10 - Christopher Wheeldon has resigned as Artistic Director of Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company.

2-18-10 - The Oregon Ballet Theatre has announced that one of the company's principal dancers, Gavin Larsen, will retire at the end of the 2009-10 season. Ms. Larsen will continue to reside in Portland, Oregon, and take a more prominent role as a teacher at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre.

2-8-10 - Colin Dunne has been nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance his one-man show, Out of Time, which he had performed at The Pit in London in 2009.

2-5-10 - Heinz Spoerli will be leaving his post as artistic director and chief choreographer of the Zurich Ballet after the 2011-12 season.

DIARY

Les Ballets de Monte Carlo

Makes Joyce Theater Debut

February 15, 2012

Joyce Theater

By Mark Kappel

Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, currently directed by Jean-Christophe Maillot, made its Joyce Theater debut from February 15-19, 2012. Les Ballets de Monte Carlo has previously performed in large venues in New York including the City Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In this more intimate setting Les Ballets de Monte Carlo presented a mixed-bill program of abstract ballets rather than the full-length narrative ballets that the company has performed in New York in the past. This was another side of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.

Both ballets presented were choreographed by the company's artistic director, Jean-Christophe Maillot, whose work is now included in the repertoires of several American ballet companies. Maillot's preference of dance style in these ballets was modern and post-modern dance. These pieces were significantly different in style from the ballets that Les Ballets de Monte Carlo had danced during previous New York engagements. Both pieces have been in the company's repertoire for some years as Altro Canto I premiered in 2006 and Opus 40 premiered in 2000.

Maillot's Opus 40 had an all-American atmosphere as the ballet was danced to music composed by American compo -ser/choreographer, Meredith Monk, with costumes and scenery designed by American painter, George Condo. Maillot's choreography was a response to Monk's iconoclastic music.

Monk's music featured sounds of a forest and a pastoral setting which Maillot incorporated into this piece. Bernice Coppieters, in the principal role dominating Opus 40, was almost like a lark experiencing the wonders of the outdoors. Maillot's organic movement responded to the vocal and rhythmic patterns in Monk's music.

Opus 40 was primarily an ensemble piece. But in addition to Coppieters, Chris Roelandt, Mimoza Koike, Gaetan Morlotti, and Jerome Marchant were also featured.

In contrast was Maillot's more formalized Altro Canto I, an excerpt from a larger work, which was premiered in 2006. Danced to music in the Baroque style composed by Claudio Monteverdi, Biagio Marini, and Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, with gender alternative costumes designed by Karl Lagerfeld and scenery designed by Rolf Sachs, Maillot's choreography was a response to the music's liturgical and ritual underpinnings. All performed in a dimly lit and murky mist.

At the very beginning of the piece Maillot established a choreographic motif of candle flame with hand motions representing flickering candles. Also dominant was the drop and fall choreography associated with post-modern dance that was structured in group dances, and duets. However the most interesting sections were the "Deposuit" danced by the four-dancer female group of Carolyn Rose, Mimoza Koike, Noelani Pantastico, and April Ball, and the pas de deux danced by Chris Roelandt and Jerome Marchand in the "Sucepit Israel/Sicut lucutus est" section.

Maillot's pieces succeeded most in showing off the 32-member Les Ballets de Monte Carlo as an outstanding ensemble.

Les Ballets de Monte Carlo's engagement at the Joyce Theater was an opportunity to see the company's dancers in an intimate setting contrasting its previous New York appearances where large company works dominated and did not provide the opportunity to see these fine dancers up close.

China Jinling Dance Company of Nanjing

January 8, 2012

David Koch Theater

By Mark Kappel

Making its New York debut from January 5-8, 2012, the China Jinling Dance Company of Nanjing presented its production of the dance drama, The Peony Pavilion, at the David Koch Theater.

Based on a love story, written by Tang Xianzu, and first performed as Kunqu opera during the Ming Dynasty in 1598, the choreographic team of Ying Zhiqi, Lu Ling, and Wu Ning, transformed this ancient story into a dance drama focusing on the courtship of Du Liniang (danced by Hu Qinxin) and Liu Mengmai (danced by Xu Peng) in a version which premiered in 2008.

The plot of The Peony Pavilion focuses on a young scholar (Du Liniang) and the daughter of a high official in Nan'an in Southern China (Liu Mengmai). Both Mengmai and Liniang dream of each other but Mengmai never meets Liniang and dies heartbroken. She leaves behind a self-portrait, which Liniang rediscovers in a market place. Upon the discovery of his dream lover's portrait, Liniang begins a long journey to find her. It is only after the Infernal Judge in the Netherworld releases Mengmai's soul, that the two lovers find each other. Liniang finds Mengmai on her deathbed, but Mengmai is resurrected, and the young lovers are allowed to marry.

The first act of this production of The Peony Pavilion was an expeditious assemblage of exposition. In great contrast the second act is filled with passion as depicted in Mengmai's resurrection and the lovers' duets.

The story was told in a series of episodes which literally presented aspects of the story. But the choreographic focus was on the duets danced by the lovers and the ensemble groups that provided narrative details.

The entire presentation was an elaborate spectacle with choreography that was a hybrid of Chinese folk dance, acrobatics, and modern dance. Combined with effective scenery and lighting designs, t he China Jinling Dance Company's production of The Peony Pavilion made for an imaginative entertainment.

These performances of the China Jinling Dance Company of Nanjing were presented by the China Arts & Entertainment Group -- in collaboration with the David Koch Theater -- under the administration of the Ministry of Culture for the People's Republic of China in an effort to expose American audiences to current and classical Chinese contemporary performing arts.

Alan Ayckbourn's Neighborhood Watch

59E59 Theaters' Brits Off-Broadway Series

December 4, 2011

59E59 Theaters

By Mark Kappel

Alan Ayckbourn could be the most prolific playwright writing in the English language. His many plays have been produced on both sides of the Atlantic and many of them have incubated at the Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough in Scarborough, England, where Ayckbourn had been artistic director for 37 years.

Ayckbourn's plays focus on the flaws of people who inhabit England's middle and upper classes. It's comedy with a razor wit -- and sometimes dark. Presented by the 59E59 Theaters' Brits Off-Broadway Series in its Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough production, Ayckbourn's 75th play, Neighborhood Watch, falls into the dark comedy category.

Clues to how dark it could get was revealed in the somber opening speech by Hilda (Alexandra Mathie) focusing on the dedication of a memorial park named after her brother Martin (Matthew Cottle), a presumed neighborhood hero. The back story of these two newcomers to a suburban community unravels in Neighborhood Watch revealing Ayckbourn's thoughts and concerns about ideological politics, religious beliefs, hypocrisy, and how people can be controlled by power -- and how power can control people.

Set in the middle-class, suburban Bluebell Hills Development, intruders and criminals seem to be having a field day with petty theft, vandalism, and more. Martin and Hilda have recently moved to this suburban community -- bordered by an adjoining neighborhood that has been run down -- and the established residents feel that they have become the victims of a growing crime wave and abuse by police,

Setting events into motion, meek Martin confronts a youngster, he presumes to be an intruder feeling from a crime scene, and the encounter has taken on the significance of a major crime -- representative of a crime spree. Once his garden gnome -- a child hood gift -- is vandalized, this is the last sraw, and Martin transforms from a lamb to a tiger; taking on the over-the-top affectations of a political and religious leader. He forms a neighborhood watch committee integrating the community's resources freeing the residents to take matters into their own hands.

The neighborhood watch committee also takes a keen inerest in the personal lives of the Bluebell Hills Development's residents. However quoting Hilda's call to action, "Tea first. Then war!"

Martin's task is complicated by having to lead a disparate group of comrades in arms. The committee members run the gamut from a paranoid ex-security officer to the local busy body, and an engineer, whose wife is having affairs with every man in the Bluebell Hills Development -- even sparking some passion within Martin, who is entrapped under the control of his sister, Hilda.

But events take a curious turn as lines are crossed by perpetrators, enforcers, and victims leading up to a terrible tragedy.

And leading up to that tragedy Ayckbourn points out the dangers of leaving crime prevention to volunteer activists, and questioning how much privacy are we prepared to give up for absolute security.

Despite the play's underlying darkness, Ayckbourn approaches the subject matter with wit and humor -- and exposes human frailities with all its flaws with that same wit and humor.

Ayckbourn has ably directed his own play and Neighborhood Watch's original British cast is also ideal. These actors have Ayckbourn's characters under their skin. Matthew Cottle and Alexandra Mathie as Martin and Hilda intensely portray how these characters evolve and how they duel with each to the end. Eileen Battye, Terrence Booth, Phil Cheadle, Richard Derrington, and Amy Loughton portray their characters as much more than supporting roles - they are the engine of Ayckbourn's zig-zagging plot -- an ensemble at its best.

All of the components of this production of Ayckbourn's Neighborhood Watch should motivate any avid theater-goer to visit with these eccentric community activists.

Bolshoi Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty

November 20, 2011

By Mark Kappel

Continuing in its series of Bolshoi Ballet live transmissions, Ballet in Cinema, presented the Bolshoi Ballet in Yuri Grigorovitch's new production of The Sleeping Beauty, th eopening attraction of the newly restored Bolshoi Theatre.

A previous production of The Sleeping Beauty, staged by Yuri Grigorovitch, had been seen in New York in 1975, danced by the Bolshoi Ballet at the Metrpolitan Opera House -- two years after its premiere in 1973. That produciton was not Grigorovitch's last word on The Sleeping Beauty. This new production received its premiere on November 18, 2011, a refreshed staging by Grigorovitch with costumes designed by Franca Squarciapino and scenery designed by Ezio Frigerio.

This live transmission on November 20, 2011 offered many opportunities including the opportunity to see the newly-restored Bolshoi Theatre, and to see Grigorovitch's lavish production of The Sleeping Beauty with costumes and scenry designed in Western European fashion.

Grigorovitch's production of The Sleeping beauty streamlines this well-known story ballet down to its essentials while still recreating the atmosphere of a fairy tale. Grigorovitch's major new choreographic contributions include his addition of extra dancers in t he Rose Adagio, enlarging it to the point of being a suite of dances, and the large number of dancers filling the Bolshoi Theatre stage in the Act I Garland Dance. Also Grigorovitch created new choreography for the Hunt and Vision scenes in Act II and new choreography for many of the divertissements in Act III -- including a version of the Cinderella divertissement which is rarely seen in productions of The Sleeping Beauty.

The cast lwas led by Svetlana Zakharova and David Hallberg -- an historic moment for American David Hallberg, and an extraordinary opportunity to see Hallberg blend in with his new colleagues as a principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet. This partnership has potential with Hallberg as an elegant partner and Zakharova, a ballerina in the grand manner. Ingredients essential in a successful production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Maria Allash as the Lilac Fairy and Alexei Loparevich as Carabosse were the two perfect foils of good and evil, and Nina Kaptsova and Artem Ovcharenko gave a spirited performance of The Bluebird Pas de Deux.

City Center Fall for Dance Festival - Program Four

City Center

November 4, 2011

By Mark Kappel

The City Center Fall for Dance Festival's fourth program, performed on November 4, 2011, was eclectic not only from a choreographic standpoint, but also from a musical standpoint. This program defined variety.

Choreographed by Tao Ye, the Tao Dance Theater presented the U.S. premiere of its adaptation of Weight x 3, a series of two dances set to music by Steve Reich.

Performed by Duan Ni, Wang Hao, and Tao Ye (the Tao Dance Theater's artistic director), the opening dance was a solo performed with a metal rod used as a twirling baton that created hypnotic photographic images as it was spun in a pool light.

This dance was quickly followed by a duet that was choreographically distinctive by the dancers snapping their heads and other parts of the body in repetition. Both sections of Weight x 3 were tests of the dancers' ability to push their bodies to their limits.

Mixing music from samba, hip-hop, capoeira, bossa nova and electronic music, Agwa was choreographed by Mourad Merzouki for the CCN de Cretil et du Val-De-Marne/Compagnie Kafig's 11 dancer ensemble.

The theme of the piece was water and how it is an integral part of humanity's existence. The performance space was bounded and defined by towers of plastic cups, and barriers of plastic cups. The dancers danced in between the confined boundaries of towers and lines of plastic cups -- which were also filled and emptied with water as the dancers used every part of their bodies to respond to the mix of music that the piece was created to.

Merzouki's choreography was defined by its tongue-in-cheek humor and its street-sense style.

The Royal Ballet of Flanders returned to New York on this program to dance excerpts from Christian Spuck's The Return of Ulysses.

These excerpts focused on Penelope's (Eva Dewaele) vigil waiting for the return of her husband, Ulysses (Ernesto Boada), while at the same time fending off the advances of many persistent suitors.

Set to music by Henry Purcell and recordings of popular songs from the 1950's and 1960's,Spuck's use of music was a synergy of irony and parody. A rather violent duet between Penelope and one of her suitors was danced to a recording of "Magic Moments, sung by Perry Como, with the lyrics expressing the irony of the choreography created for the duet.

There wasn't a pointe shoe in sight in these excerpts as Spuck chose modern dance techniques and styles to be represented in his choreography. That combined with the simple contemporary dress costuming in black, created a minimalist feeling to this work.

Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba, a company of 17 dancers and seven musicians, danced Alfonso's 2001 creation, Pa' Cuba me voy -- danced to music influenced by flamenco, ballet, and Afro-Cuban and Cuban rhythms.

The three distinctive sections displayed different sytles of social dancing. The first section was a Rockettle-style number but danced to flamenco choreography. This was followed by a dance for three where girl loses boy and doesn't get him back. The spirited finale was a hybrid of flamenco and folk dance styles.

The cast was led by the exuberant Carmen Rosa Lopez, Claudia Valdivia, and Vadim Larramendi, and much credit to the excellent musicians, Efrain Chibas, Ernesto Hermida, Yamile Pedro, Jose Onell Carbonell, Dayron Echevarria, and Mauricio Gutierrez.

City Center Fall for Dance Festival - Program Three

City Center

November 2, 2011

By Mark Kappel

The City Center Fall for Dance Festival's third program on November 2, 2011, had an Australian theme with two pieces on the program danced by Australian dancers.

Making a welcome return to New York, the Australian Ballet danced Glen Tetley's Gemini, an enigmatic work for a quartet of dancers, set to music from Hans Werner Henze's Symphony No. 3. Although Gemini has been danced in New York before, the Australian Ballet was dancing Gemini in New York for the first time. This double pas de deux was created by Tetley for the Australian Ballet in 1973.

The unitard costumes designed by Nadine Bayliss andTetley's signature in the air choreography were nostalgic benchmarks. The Australian Ballet's well-schooled dancers, Adam Bull, Lana Jones, Amber Scott, and Rudy Hawkes, executed Tetley's choreography with the fluidity that was expected of them -- an endurance test in of itself.

Continuing the Australian theme of the program, Australian-born Steven McRae, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, danced a solo tap piece of his own choreography, entitled Something Different. The choreography was a hybrid of tap improvisation with ballet technique danced to the Benny Goodman Orchestra's renditon of "Sing, Sing, Sing". Displaying one of his hidden talents, McRae gave his solo a show-stopping virtuoso performance.

Pontus Lidberg Dance danced Lidberg's U.S. premiere of Faune. Faune was created in 2010, and was danced to Debussy's Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun. Lidberg's transcripted version of Afternoon of a Faun was for five dancers (Adrian Danchig-Waring, Craig Hall, Drew Jacoby, Gabrielle Lamb, and Pontius Lidberg) who exchange t-shirts and tights in what seemed to be the unraveling of a search for the feal "faune" (Lidberg). Produced in the style of minimalist simplicty this was a clever approach to a familiar theme.

Closing the program was the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago dancing the New York premiere of Ohad Naharin's Three To Max, a collage of past works that were created by Naharin over the past decade. Premiered by the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2011, this series of ensemble pieces emphasized ritual and repetition which tested the dancers' abilities to make such repetition refreshing and interesting. The dancers met that test in each and every section of the piece.

City Center Fall for Dance Festival - Program One

City Center

October 28, 2011

By Mark Kappel

The City Center Fall for Dance Festival's first program lived up to the Festival mission to present a variety of experiences to dance audiences and emphasizing the laudable effort of underwriting the tickets to allow them to be sold at $10 each.

Opening this program on October 28, 2011, was the Mark Morris Dance Group dancing Morris' All Fours. Set to Bartok's String Quartet No. 4 -- and having been premiered in 2003 -- Morris captured the folkloric spirit inherent in Bartok's music. Morris created a sense of community where people were accepted or not accepted. In the large ensemble cast, particularly notable were Aaron Loux, Dallas McMurray, Rita Donahue, and Michelle Yeard, who expressed Morris' intentions clearly.

Lil Buck's choreographed improvision, The Swan, was danced by Buck himself at this performance to the familiar music by Camille Saint-Saens. Buck transformed this classic piece into an exhibition of contortion, flexiblity and showmanship -- proving that dancing in sneakers does not prevent a dancer from articulating his feet and exhibiting a classic line when required. Developed by the New Ballet Ensemble and School in Memphis, Tennesse, and premiered in 2007, Buck expressed originality in his unique approach to this classic piece of dance.

The Trisha Brown Dance Company presented Trisha Brown's duet, Roques. A recent work premiered in 2011, Neal Beasley and Lee Serle danced in tandem and competitively -- in dance conversation -- filling more space on the stage than a larger number of dancers would have. With its veneer of simplicity, Rogues was an example of less is more.

Closing the program was the New York premiere of Edwaard Liang's Woven Dreams, danced by the Joffrey Ballet. Premiered in 2011, this piece for 18 dancers was set to a cobbled score including music composed by Benjamin Britten, Maurice Ravel, Henryk Gorecki, and Michael Galasso.

Liang's choreogrpahy was an elongated adagio for a large group of dancers highlighted by the duets danced by Victoria Jaiani and Fabrice Calmels. Up above the dancers' heads was a woven fabric piece of scenery, designed by Jeff Fauer, which emphasized that the choreography was an expression of regret from incidents and relationships in the past and dreams for the future.

Suzanne Farrell Ballet Returns to New York

Joyce Theater

October 19-23, 2011

By Mark Kappel

Celebrating its tenth anniversary the Suzanne Farrell Ballet made one of its infrequent New York visits at the Joyce Theater from October 19-23, 2011.

Under the directorship of Suzanne Farrell, a former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, and considered to be one of the primary exponents of Balanchine's choreography and style, the company has been on a mission to present the works of George Balanchine in the versions that Balanchine would have approved as well as reconstructing Balanchine ballets that have fallen into neglect.

For its Joyce Theater debut on October 19, 2011, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet performed repertoire that was familiar, and not so familiar -- an all-Balanchine program filled with a few of Balanchine ballets that are rarely performed. The overview of the program showcased Balanchine's range as a choreographer, his taste in music, and his works simply produced in practice clothes and others costumed with more specificity.

Among the less familiar pieces was Meditation, a pas de deux choreographed for Suzanne Farrell and Jacques d'Amboise, which was premiered by the New York City Ballet in 1963 -- and which had been performed by the Suzanne Farrell Ballet during a previous New York visit in 1999.

Choreographed to Tchaikovsky's romantic Meditation, Elisabeth Holowchuk and Michael Cook danced this piece about the emotional expression of love -- longing for love -- and also how a long relationship ends.

Also less familiar was Haieff Divertimento, created for Ballet Society in 1947, and acquired by the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in 2010. Structured to match the music, the configuration of the cast was a leading couple supported by an additional four couples as corps de ballet. Balanchine responded to Haieff' musical pastiche in his own pointed style. the cast was led by Elisabeth Holowchuk and Kirk Henning -- and in the male principal role, Henning gave all deference to the ballerina in this ballet.

More familiar was the Diamonds Pas de Deux from the Diamonds Act of Jewels, added to the Suzanne Farrell Ballet's reperotire in 2008. Farrell created one of the principal roles in the Diamonds Act of Jewels when Jewels was premiered by the New York City Ballet in 1967. Set to an entire movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3, this homage to the imperial ballet of the late 19th century, was danced with great dignity and reverence by Violeta Angelova and Momchil Mladenov.

Balanchine's iconic Agon, set to Stravinsky's commissioned score, was premiered by the New York City Ballet in 1957. One of Balanchine's masterpieces, it was given its company premiere by the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in 2009. This is Balanchine at his most astringent and concise. The choreography and music blend into a depiction of modern court dances and subtle references to relationships. Balanchine matched the pulse of Stravinsky's music with the interaction of the dancers.

Although this performance of Agon seemed a bit constricted on the Joyce Theater's stage, Elisabeth Holowchuk and Momchil Mladenov dancing the Pas de Deux, Michael Cook dancing the first Pas de Trois, and Violeta Angelova dancing the second Pas de Trois all met the challenges of Balanchine's choreography.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet's presention of thisBalanchine mixed-bill program presented a wide range of Balanchine's choreographic sensibilities, and presented on the small Joyce Theater stage, one had the opportunity to examine the many details in Balanchine's choreography.

Houston Ballet Makes Joyce Theater Debut

Joyce Theater

October 11-16, 2011

By Mark Kappel

Although the Houston Ballet has made appearances in New York at the City Center's Fall for Dance Festival in the last few years, the last time the company performed in New York for a season of its own was way back in 1985 -- at the City Center. The Houston Ballet made its Joyce Theater debut from October 11-16, 2011 presenting a season of its own for the first time in more than 25 years.

The Houston Ballet, under the guidance of artistic d irector, Stanton Welch, performed a mixed-bill program including works by some of the most prominent choreographers working today. All of these had a contemporary bent, and all of the works were suited to the stage size of the Joyce Theater.

The opening night program on October 11th, included a familiar work by Jiri Kylian, and two world premieres created for the Houston Ballet by Christopher Bruce, and Jorma Elo.

Jorma Elo's ONE/end/ONE, set to Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, was presented on this program as part of a Nureyev Foundation grant to create world premieres for the Joyce Theater dance series.

Danced by the cast of Karina Gonzalez, Melody Mennite, Melissa Hough, Lauren Strongin, Connor Walsh, Garrett Smith, and Peter Franc, this ballet was given its Houston Ballet premiere in May of this year.

Elo's signature has evolved into brisk-paced choreography with unexpected lifts and unexpected responses to musical rhythms. In the instance of ONE/end/ONE, Elo was as much challenged by the dancers as the dancers were challenged by him. The Houston Ballet's dancers have a clean style that takes some effort to distort. The collaborative efforts of dancers and choreographer in One/end/ONE resulted in the success of Elo's artistic vision.

Also on the program was Christopher Bruce's Hush, a Commedia Dell Arte style piece depicting the life of a travelling circus family. Bruce's eclectic choreography was matched by the eclectic music by Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma that functioned as a soundtrack for this dance piece. Often there was inspiration from Marcel Marceau with characters being defined from within the choreography.

Danced by Kelly Myernick, James Gotesky, Rhodes Elliott, Ilya Kozadayev, Jessica Collado, and Melody Mennite, Hush is a work filled with melancholy and regret which was expressed superbly by the dancers.

The program was completed by Jiri Kylian's Falling Angels, which had its company premiere in 2009 -- a workthat Kylian created under the banner of Black and White. In this piece eight female dancers (Sara Webb, Danielle Rowe, Jessica Collado, Nao Kusuzaki, Katherine Precourt, Emily Bowen, Nozomi Iijima, and elise Judson) are costumed in black leotards, dancing to the continuous beat of Steve Reich's Drumming. Minimalist in presentation, minimalist in choreography, and ritual in nature, Falling Angels was equally inspired by the music it was danced to.

The Houston Ballet dancers distinguished themselves in all three works on the program justifying the company's reputation as being in the first tier of American ballet companies -- and a company that should be seen more often in New York.

Bolshoi Ballet in Esmeralda

October 9, 2011

By Mark Kappel

Ballet in Cinema was launched in early 2011 and since then has presented live transmissions of performances of the Bolshoi Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet in local cinemas all over the world. These transmissions have allowed audiences to view performances as audiences are watching them in their home cities, and exposing audiences all over the world to ballet productions that would not be featured in these companies' touring repertoires.

On October 9, 2011, Ballet in Cinema presented the Bolshoi Ballet's production of Esmeralda, staged by Yuri Burlaka and Vasily Medvedev, based on a libretto by Jules Perrot adapted from Victor Hugo's novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and set to music by Cesare Pugni (with additional music by Riccardo Drigo, Anton Simon, Pyotr Shenk and orchestrations by Reinhold Gliere) -- a production which premiered on December 25, 2009.

Esmeralda, as a ballet, has a long history, with a world premiere in London and Marius Petipa staging several productions during his regime at the Mariinsky Ballet.

For this reconstruction, the stagers employed research material from the Harvard Theatre Collection for the choreography and sketches housed in the St. Petersburg Museum of Theatre and the St. Petersburg State Theater Library to recreate the costumes and scenery.

The producers of this production chose Petipa's 1899 production to reproduce as it was felt that Petipa would be open to reproducing the best of Perrot's choreography and intent from the past. The producers added male dancers to the corps de ballet and revised choreography but all of these additions and revisions seemed to be blended together.

The complicated plot focuses on the gypsy girl, Esmeralda (danced by Maria Alexandrova), who marries a destitute poet, Pierre Gringoire (danced by Denis Savin) to save his life but falls in love with Phoebus de Chateaupers (danced by Ruslan Skvortsov), who is Captain of the Royal Archers. Their romance is tested by Phoebus' engagement to Fleur de Lys (Yekaterina Krysanova) as well as Esmeralda's admirers. Phoebus is assisted in his exploits by the bell-ringer of Notre Dame, Quasidmodo (danced by Igor Tsvirko) -- those exploits including the capture of the villain of the piece, Claude Frollo (portrayed by Alexei Loparevich). Interspersed in all of this action, gypsy dances, and swordplay is a ballet divertissement which includes the familiar Diana And Acteon Pas de Deux (danced by Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin) -- the version choreographed by Aggrippina Vaganova, which is presented during a court entertainment with the principal dancers revealing themselves from within a tapestry.

This production of Esmeralda, with a running time of nearly 3-1/2 hours, was danced and performed by the Bolshoi Ballet dancers with great conviction -- they were in the moment not only as dancers but also as actors -- which made the rather complicated narrative in Esmeralda understandable.

This live screening offered an audience the opportunity to experience a rarely seen ballet performed often by the Bolshoi Ballet but not seen during the Bolshoi Ballet's international tours.

Mariinsky Ballet Dances Bizet

July 16, 2011

Metropolitan Opera House

By Mark Kappel

The third of three programs presented by the Mariinsky Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, on July 16, 2011, was a mixed-bill program which was flavored with a musical theme. Both ballets presented were choreographed to music composed by Georges Bizet, but were the work of choreographers who had contrasting styles.

The narrative work on the program was Alberto Alonso's Carmen Suite, choreographed to Rodion Shchedrin's percussion/string arrangement of Bizet's music from his opera, Carmen, and excerpts from L'Arlesienne, and La Jolie Fille de Perth.

Alonso's Carmen has been performed in New York including performances danced by the National Ballet of Cuba, American Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Internationale.

Using Shchedrin's percussion arrangements to form the musical and rhythlmic patterns as a backdrop, Alonso devised his version of Carmen for a small cast and reduced the story to the basics. At times the reduction is more abstract than narrative.

The principal characters of Carmen (danced by Uliana Lopatkina), Jose (danced by Danill Korsuntsev), and the Toreador (danced by Evgeny Ivanchenko) play out the story of betrayed relationshps in the simple setting of a bull ring arena. Non-narrative duets were meant to to tell the story while relying on the audience's knowledge of the familiar opera -- the streamlining resulted in few details.

All of the principal characters were haunted by the figure of Fate -- their destiny is tragedy. By reducing the story to its basics, Alonso's Carmen Suite becomes a Greek tragedy. Part of this conception is a corps de ballet which sits in high-backed chairs and comments on the action as would a Greek chorus. The action is set in a stunning environment of black and red.

Alonso's Carmen Suite has its kitschy quality but that was overcome by the excellent cast -- in the particular, the charismatic Uliana Lopatkina.

As a companion piece for Alonso's Carmen Suite, the Mariinsky Ballet completed this program with a performance of George Balanchine's Symphony in C, set to Bizet's symphony, which the company had danced in New York in 1999.

Balanchine created one of the best company pieces ever choreographed -- and the Mariinsky Ballet has the resources and the number of dancers required to make this jewel sparkle.

The cast of Viktoria Tereshkina with Andrian Fadeyev (First Movement), Yekaterina Kondaurova with Evgeny Ivanchenko (Second Movement), Yevgenia Obraztsova with Vladimir Shklyarov (Third Movement), and Maria Shirinkina with Alexei Timofeev (Fourth Movement) danced the ballet with precision and musicality.

The multi-colored costumes for each movement designed by Irina Press created a rainbow of color on the stage.

The Mariinsky Ballet's performance of George Balanchine's Symphony in C was the highlight of the company's season at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Mariinsky Ballet Dances Anna Karenina

July 14, 2011

Metropolitan Opera House

By Mark Kappel

On July 14, 2011, the Mariinsky Ballet presented its second of two collaborations by Alexei Ratmansky and Rodion Shchedrin at the Metropolitan Opera House.

This second collaboration was Anna Karenina which Ratmansky had created for the Royal Danish Ballet in 2004, and received its Mariinsky Ballet premiere in 2010. Ratmansky choreographed his version of Anna Karenina to Shchedrin's ballet score which Shchedrin's wife, Maya Plisetskaya, had employed for her version of Anna Karenina, which was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1972.

Although few ballet versions of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina have been performed by Russian ballet companies, the Mariinsky Ballet has performed two of them. One by Andre Prokovsky and the other by Alexei Ratmansky -- both of which were created for ballet companies other than the Mariinsky Ballet.

Based on Leo Tolstoy's expansive novel, Ratmansky's version of Anna Karenina seemed constrained by Shchedrin's score and its musical episodes -- which are not always connected by dramatic and story-telling tissue.

At the beginning of the ballet, Count Vronsky (Andrei Yermakov) is seen at Anna Karenina's funeral remembering their relationship. And there is the recurring incident of a peasant being killed by a train throughout the ballet -- the first occurrence when Vronsky meets Anna Karenina (Yekaterina Kondaurova) for the first time. Although, in what seems to be a happy marriage with Alexei Karenin (Islom Baimuradov), Anna Karenina succumbs to Vronsky's advances, she leaves her husband and her son behind -- and when Vronsky loses interest in her and she is shunned by society, Anna Karenina reaches the conclusion that suicide is the only way out.

Anna Karenina is vicitmized by the two men in her life and the systematic sexism prevalent in 19th century Russian society -- and there are also dramatic threads from The Lady of the Camellias that Ratmansky has woven through his version of Tolstoy's story.

Ratmansky chose a minimalist approach in telling this emotionally complicated story, by focusing on the primary protagonists, eliminating the novel's subplots, and employing very few dancers on stage. He also used the 21st century technology of video projects, designed by American lighting designer, Wendall Harrington -- replacing conventional scenery -- but enabling the ballet to move from one scene to another in the most expeditious manner. There is also a major scenic piece, a railroad car, that travels on a stage turntable -- but it is, unfortunately, not effectively used.

The passion-filled performances by the principal dancers made up for some of the emotional gaps in this version of Anna Karenina, but this epic story needs a grand opera style production rather than Ratmansky's chamber-style production.

The Mariinsky Ballet Returns to the Metropolitan Opera House

July 12, 2011

Metropolitan Opera House

By Mark Kappel

The Mariinsky Ballet has returned to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York after an absence of more than a decade. In the intervening years, the Mariinsky Ballet has performed at the City Center, but the company's return to the Metropolitan Opera House, produced by the Lincoln Center Festival, has been a much anticipated arts event.

The Mariinsky Ballet's one-week engagement from July 11-16, 2011 will include three different programs which are linked in terms of the composers of the ballets chosen to be danced, and a focus on the choreography of Alexei Ratmansky. Two of the ballets are collaborations between Ratmansky and composer Rodion Shchedrin.

The first of their two collaborations that I have seen was Ratmansky's The Little Humpbacked Horse. Based on the 1834 poem, Konyok-Borbounok, by Pyotr Yershaov -- the poem's story has been the inspiration for versions of this ballet choreographed by Arthur Saint-Leon, Marius Petipa, and Alexander Gorsky.

Shchedrin's score was composed for a 1960 version choreographed by Alexander Radunsky, which starred Shchedrin's wife, Maya Plisetskaya, and Vladimir Vasiliev. Employing this score as well as the minimal costume and scenery designs by Maxim Isaev, Ratmansky's version for the Mariinsky Ballet premiered in 2009.

The story of The Little Humpbacked Horse focuses on Ivan, a peasant's son, sharing adventures with a magical humpbacked horse carrying out the tasks imposed upon Ivan by an unreasonable and loathsome Tsar.

All ends well as the dim-witted Ivan falls in love with a Tsar Maiden, and together they trick the Tsar into accepting challenges that cause his own death.

Ratmansky's story-telling formula is disconnected vignettes and dances that challenge one to seek out the narrative elements. The first act was filled with exposition and it wasn't until the second act that the characters were defined and there was interaction between those characters. It was at that point that The Little Humpbacked Horse began to spark.

Vladimir Shklyarov as Ivan, Ekaterina Kondaurova as a Young Mare, Vasily Tkachenko as the Little Humpbacked Horse, and Viktoria Tereshkina as the Tsar Maiden sailed through Ratmansky's complicated choreography. The highlight being the second act duet danced by Shklyarov and Tereshkina which was imbued with self-deprecation and passion.

Ratmansky's version of The Little Humpbacked Horse is an amusing entertainmgn but would have been better served with a clearer method of story-telling.

Something's Coming, Something Good - West Side Story and the American Imagination By Misha Berson

By Mark Kappel

West Side Story is now recognized as an iconic musical that broke conventional barriers and was instrumental in re-thinking what could be achieved in musical theater. The premise alone, a musical about gang wars on New York City streets, in the 1950's, exploring social and racial injustice -- and several of the characters who die in the process -- was revolutionary in and of itself.

There have been many books written by the individual creative team members which have explored their involvement in West Side Story. But until now all of these thoughts, perspectives, and backstage stories have not been merged into one volume. Misha Berson, in her "Something's Coming, Something Good -- West Side Story and the American Imagination", has cohesively brought together all of these details and documentation into a readable re-telling of West Side Story's path to Broadway and its implications, not only for Broaday and for musical theater, but also how its score influenced composers and how its choreography influenced dancers makers for years afterwards -- and still does.

One of the influential innovations in West Side Story was the telling of most of the story in dance terms. Even the book scenes were influenced by dance and movement -- and the choreography incorporated many styles as well as the social dances of the era.

Jerome Robbins, as director and choreographer, told as much of the story in dance as in dialogue and song, and his collaborators (Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein) are legends in their own right. And in spite of West Side Story's relatively short initial Broadway engagement, many thousands of people not only have claimed to have seen West Side Story during this engagement, but also claimed they were also present at its opening night.

In a series of lectures at Lincoln Center's New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Laurents stated that the inspirtation for West Side Story was not Romeo and Juliet, but was inspired by gang wars in Los Angeles -- and the story idea had been developed through discussions between himself and Leonard Bernstein. A fact confirmed in Berson's book. He also didn't like the film version of West Side Story, and West Side Story's Broadway revival in 2009 -- which Laurents directed -- included revisions which were meant to correct the record and enlarge the vision of this musical. That revival included surgical cuts in the dance sequences, the score and the book, and the translation of lyrics and dialogue into Spanish.

I had seen the two Broadway revivals of West Side Story and the film version, but Misha Berson has examined many other productions of West Side Story over the years. In her book, "Something's Coming, Something Good - West Side Story and the American Imagination", she provides detailed information -- contemporary and historical -- about its original production, how the production was conceived, and how West Side Story holds a special place in the development of the American musical.

But what is notable about Berson's approach is revealing the social and historical context in which West Side Story emerged in the minds and talents of the collaborative team, and providing sources that a reader can investigate herself or himself.

Royal Danish Ballet's La Sylphide

June 18 & 19, 2011

David Koch Theater

By Mark Kappel

The Royal Danish Ballet concluded its New York engagement with weekend performances of Nicolaj Hubbe's production of August Bournonville's La Sylphide. A production based on the original 1836 production and danced to the score composed by Herman Sverin Lovenskhold.

As Russian ballet companies dance different productions of the 19th century classics through the years, the Royal Danish Ballet has adopted that same pattern with its Bournonville classics. Hubbe's production dates back to 2003 -- before he became the company's artistic director -- and it is his vision of La Sylphide that was presented in these performances. Some details from previous productions were missing and there was a feeling that the production had been streamlined. I missed those details as those details had so much meaning in regard to the story-telling. In spite of the revisions, the essence of the best-known of Bournonville ballets was apparent.

La Sylphide was danced by two different casts, Caroline Cavallo in the title role and Mads Blangstrup as James (June 18th) with Lis Jeppesen as Madge the Witch, Nicolai Hansen as Gurn, and Camilla Ruelykke Holst as Effy; and Susanne Grinder in t he title role, Marcin Kupinski as James (June 19th) with Mette Bodtcher as Madge the Witch, Alexander Staeger as Gurn, and Louise Ostergaard as Effy.

What both casts had in common was their ability to execute well-articulated mime and in the moment conviction in their performances. That commitment and the clarity of their dancing made this production come alive from mastering the intricate patterns in the Scottish reel -- infusing the steps with musciality -- through the dramatic ending of this tragic ballet.

A very important element in the success of these performances of La Sylphide was the excellent portrayals of the character roles -- in particular Lis Jeppesen and Mette Bodtcher as Madge the Witch imbued the ballet with pathos and the audience felt the conflicts that the protagonists were experiencing.

Paired with La Sylphide on June 18th was Hubbe's staging of Act 3 of his production of Napoli danced by Amy Watson (Teresina) and Alexander Staeger (Gennaro). Although the modern details are not as harmonious with the traditional as they could be, Bournonville's style came across through the dancing.

One June 19th was a repeat performance of Flindt's The Lesson danced by Thomas Lund as the balletmaster, Ida Praetorius as the pupil and Gudrun Bojesen as the pianist. Lund's performing was the balletmaster had great emotional impact and the ballet was that much more disquieting.

Both of these very different pirces were danced with the same dramatic immediacy and commitment -- a wonderful attribute of the Royal Danish Ballet's dancers that is integrated into the ballets that the company danced.

Royal Danish Ballet's Return to New York

June 15, 2011

David Koch Theater

By Mark Kappel

The Royal Danish Ballet's engagement at the David Koch Theater from June 14-19, 2011, is the company's first New York engagement in more than 20 years. Now under the directorship of Nicolaj Hubbe, whose previous affiliations as a dancer have been with the Royal Danish Ballet and the New York City Ballet, this was an opportunity to see how the Royal Danish Ballet has evolved.

Hubbe decided to open this New York engagement with a mixed-bill program which included two creations for the Royal Danish Ballet and an excerpt from a classic August Bournonville work. This low-key approach to re-introduce the company to a New York audience was both provocative and audacious.

Opening the program was Flemming Flindt's The Lesson, created originally for Danish television in 1963 and staged in Paris and for the Royal Danish Ballet the following year. Based on Eugene Ionesco's La Lecon, with music composed by Georges Delerue, Flindt's version has transformed a teacher of mathematics into a ballet teacher who is a serial abuser of his students. Flindt's sadistic balletmaster (Thomas Lund) torments his pupil (Ida Praetorius) while a pianist (Gudrun Bojesen) functions as an enabler to the balletmaster's predatory attacks. Lund fully captured the balletmaster's psychotic behavior while Praetorius presented the naive foil to that behavior.

Flindt's the Lesson still creates uneasiness for the audience member but is effective as a theatrical experience.

As a resultof Jorma Elo's recent commissions for American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet, his work has been visible and exposed widely during New York dance seasons. Premiered by the Royal Danish Ballet in 2008 and set to music by Antonio Vivaldi, Elo's Lost On Slow is an ensemble piece for six dancers (J'aime Crandall, Lena-Marie Gruber, Jodie Thomas, Charles Andersen, Alban Lendorf, and Christopher Rickert), which unlike other Elo's works, is not fast-paced and there is more clarity of movement. The female dancers are in pointe shoes and tutus, and the male dancers are supportive partners -- a contemporary gloss on 19th century classical ballet. The choreography is angular and stops in fits and starts, but there is continual flow. Although its lighting design provided some atmosphere, the near darkness that Lost On Slow was danced in did not always make it easy for the audience to see the dancers on stage.

Bournonville Variations, which was staged by Nicolaj Hubbe, in collaboration with Thomas Lund, is a strange hybird of Bournonville steps inserted into a neo-classical structure. A piece for 12 male dancers, inspired by the daily classes formulated by August Bournonville, there is a juxtaposition of the past and present.

The ballet opens on an exposed stage with a sign quoting Bournonville, "Dance is an art, for it requires a calling, knowledge and skill." The dancers appear on the stage in rain coats and after removing those rain coats, they are revealed in costumes of contemporary designs which partially duplicate the costumes you might see in a Bournonville ballet.

The series of variations, duets and group dances includes steps from Bournonville's daily classes, and are set to music arranged and orchestrated by Martin Akerwall. The impression is that of a Bournonville ballet seen through the prism of George Balanchine.

Highlightedby the virtuoso dancing of Andrew Bowman, Nicolai Hansen, Alban Lendorf, Ulrik Brkkjaer, Jonathan Chmelensky, James Clark, Eliabe D'Abadia, Gregory Dean, Christian Hammeken, Marcin Kupinski, Julien Roman, and Alexander Staeger, Bournonville Variations is a showcase for a new generation of Royal Danish Ballet male dancers.

The mixed-bill program concluded with a rousing performance of the third act of a new production of Bournonville's Napoli. Assisted by Sorella Englund, Hubbe revised Napoli placing the action in Napoli, Italy in the 1950's with references to Fellini and the poverty of the time.

In Act III Bournonville'sPas de Six and Tarantella are danced by dancers in traditional Italian costumes from the 19th century. However bystanders are costumed in 1950's style dresses, andin working class street wear and uniforms.

One is very much aware that the setting is a working class neighborhood in Italy.

The biggest surprise is seeing Teresina (danced by Susanne Grinder) and Gennaro (danced by Ulrik Birkkjaer) arriving on the stage for their last entrance on a Vespa scooter.

This new production of Napoli, premiered in 2009, includes anachronism and incongruence but the Bournonville choreography was danced with exhilaration and enthusiasm (particularly in theTarantella led by Lena-Marie Gruber and Jonathan Chmelensky), and was representative of the Royal Danish Ballet's traditions.

National Ballet of Cuba

June 10, 2011

Brooklyn Academy of Music

By Mark Kappel

Due to the strained political relationship between the United States and Cuba, the American tours by the National Ballet of Cuba have been infrequent. We are in a time period when the restraints have been eased, if not entirely lifted, and the National Ballet of Cuba's performances in the United States have been more frequent and welcome. After an absence of a decade, the National Ballet of Cuba returned to perform in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from June 8-11, 2011.

The repertoire chosen for this engagement was The Magic of Dance, a highlights program that included excerpts from the 19th century classics -- all staged by Alicia Alonso, the company's founding and current artistic director -- and Alonso's neo-classic work, Gottschalk Symphony.

For the National Ballet of Cuba's June 10th performance, the company presented a diversity of its dancers in a variety of roles steeped in the 19th century classics. What these stagings of the classics all had in common was choreography that was a throwback to the ballet styles of the 1950's, focus on dramatic detail, and musicality.

Giselle had been one of Alicia Alonso's signature roles and special care was given to the excerpt from this ballet that was included in The Magic of Dance. In this excerpt Act II opened with Hilarion mourning at Giselle's grave while at the same time gamblers were rolling dice for their amusement. Thereafter the focus was on Hilarion's death (Hilarion was danced by Ernesto Diaz) in which the malevolent Willis were evil incarnate -- with arms and hands looking like spikes and ready to kill. That sense of evil was also emphasized in the performance of Veronica Corveas as the Queen of the Willis. One of the interesting dramatic detals in this battle between good and evil was the Queen of the Willis' wand bending in half when confronted by Giselle's enduring love for Albrecht.

In contrast to the evil represented by the Willis were the characters of Giselle (danced by Barbara Garcia) and Albrecht (danced by Ernesto Alvarez) who were sympathetic in the true Romantic tradition. Both dancers depicted a style that was Romantic in every aspect but also colored the forgiveness by Giselle and the acceptance of forgiveness by Albrecht. Barbara Garcia and Ernesto Alvarez danced the roles of Giselle and Albrecht with that tradition and style in mind. Alvarez not only danced well through his romantic encounter with Giselle's spirit but also showed his journey towards redemption.

The Sleeping Beauty is a grand ballet that cannot be well represented in a short excerpt. Butan anticipatoryatmosphere wascreated with the company's corps de ballet dancing the Act III Polonaise in a grand manner, setting the scene for the entrance of Aurora (Anette Delgado) and her Prince (Dani Hernandez) to perform the Grand Pas de Deux. Delgado and Hernandez, particularly in their musicality, executed the choreography in an assured manner and with clarity.

It is rare when a major international ballet company dances a full-length production of The Nutcracker in New York. A ballet danced by professional and school companies in the United States, it is the most identifiable of all ballets. Here the Cubans presented the Waltz of the Flowers led by Grettel Morejon and Aymara Vassallo followed by the Grand Pas de Deux of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Yanela Pinera) and her Cavalier (Alfredo Ibanez). Dancing a version of the Grand Pas de Deux that had its roots in the 1950's Ballet Russe style, Pinera and Ibanez were given the opportunity to present a pas de deux that was far less austere and more musical than the Balanchine version one sees most often in New York.

Following an intermission the excerpts continued with the Mazurka from Coppelia led by Mercedes Piedra and Javier Sanchez, and followed by the Act III Grand Pas de Deux from Coppelia danced by Amaya Rodriguez and Jose Losada. What spoke effectively in this staging of excerpts from Coppelia were the folk dance elements which were carried over into the male solo variation in the Grand Pas de Deux. Those details seem to be lost in American ballet companies' productions of Coppelia. Alonso's staging included the necessary comic elements and the principal dancers let the choreography speak to the comedy.

What has become a signature work for the National Ballet of Cuba is its exuberant production of Don Quixote. Don Quixote is a showcase for the dancers' pyrotechnical technique and showmanship. Besides the character dances being danced with a Latin flair, there was plenty of pyrotechnics in the Grand Pas de Deux from Act III of this ballet. Presented from Don Quixote were scenes from Acts I and II including the Matador Dance and finishing off with the third act Grand Pas de Deux danced by Sadaise Arencibia and Alejandro Virelles.

Following the lightheartedness of Don Quixote, was the bittersweet White Act of Swan Lake feturing the White Swan Pas de Deux danced by Viengsay Valdes and Camilo Ramos. The Cuban swans seemed to be a bit more vicious than the Swans we may be used to. However Valdes and Ramos captured the pathos of this particular moment in Swan Lake.

The finale was the Creole Party from Alicia Alonso's Gottschalk Symphony, featuring a pastiche of Latin influenced dance forms and neo-classicism with an enthusiastic cast led by Barbara Garcia, Alejandro Virelles, Sadaise Arencibia, Jose Losada, Yanela Pinera, Ernesto Alvarez, and Anette Delgado.

For better or worse, the National Ballet of Cuba's lifeblood is steeped in the ballet style of the 1950's honoring Alicia Alonso's tradition which, to some, seems staid. I, for one, appreciate the dancers' showmanship and their goal to entertain an audience which is somewhat in collison with the low-key sophsiticated style of dancing in the 21st century.

The Best Is Yet To Come: The Music of Cy Coleman

59E59 Theaters Americas Off-Broadway

May 26, 2011

59 East 59th Street Theater

By Mark Kappel

The 59E59 Theaters' Americas Off Broadway presented the New York premiere of the Rubicon Theatre's production of The Best Is Yet To Come: The Music of Cy Coleman. Devised and directed by one of Cy Coleman's collaborators, David Zippel, this tribute to the prolific Broadway composer, Cy Coleman, is a survey of the Coleman catalogue and songs Coleman completed before his passing in 2004.

Coleman was a child prodigy, who had played in major venues in New York between the ages of 6 and 9, and became a jazz pianist. He then moved on to another chapter in his career as a pop song writer, and then on to another career as the composer of Broadway musicals including Wildcat, Little Me, Sweet Charity, Seesaw, On The 20th Century, Barnum, City of Angels, The Will Rogers Follies, and The Life. The Best Is Yet To Come is a compilaton of Coleman's diversified musical styles and his equally brilliant collaborators including David Zippel, Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Ira Gasman, Michael Stewart, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

The Best Is Yet To Come is a tightly-knitrevue -- without fill-in patter. Why speak when Coleman's music and his collaborators' lyrics communicate on their own -- and excellent voices can be heard. Also notable were Don Debesky's orchestrations and Billy Stritch's musical direction.

The cast of six plus seven musicians gave interpretations of Coleman's music with the sassiness and emotion required. All combined to entertain an audience that is won over as soon as these great artists step on the stage.

The cast assembled is the cream of the crop of Broadway and New York cabaret stars including Lillias White, Billy Stritch, David Burnham, Sally Mayes, Howard McGillin, and Rachel York.

Lillias White is particularly associated with Coleman's music having won a Tony Award for her performance in Coleman's The Life. White owns the song, "The Oldest Profession", and gave a rendition filled with emotion, power, and irony.

However all of the cast members offered individual interpretations of Coleman's music most notably Sally Mayes' performances of "Every Breath I Take" from City of Angels, and "Nobody Does It Like Me" from Seesaw, Rachel York for her rendition of "Come Summer", and the medley of "Hey Look Me Over/The Doodling Song", Howard McGillin for his performance of "You Fascinate Me So", David Burnham's take on "Witchcraft", and Billy Stritch's subtle and emotional take on "It Amazes Me".

Besides those familiar Cy Coleman tunes, also outstanding were Coleman's compositions that have yet to be heard on Broadway. From his musical about Napoleon and Josephine came "Only The Rest of My Life" and "I'd Give The World" (the latter sung by McGillin). And from Pamela's First Musical, "It Started With A Dream".

Colelman's music spans a range in styles and songs that define characters in the many musicals he composed. In a little over 80 minutes it would be impossible to include every note of Coleman's music. But how do you choose from an embarrassment of riches. First and foremost The Best Is Yet To Come is an overdue tribute to Cy Coleman's achievements as a composer for Broadway.

Even better, experience The Best Is Yet To Come yourself.

Boston International Ballet Competition and the Boston Ballet

May 13 & 14, 2011

By Mark Kappel

Boston became a focal point for dance as the location of the first Boston International Ballet Competition and the spring performances of the Boston Ballet.

Founder/Director of the Boston International Ballet Competition, Valentina Kozlova, former principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet and the New York City Ballet, faced a huge challenge in establishing a new international ballet competition. Drawing dancers from 23 countries, the dancers participated in three rounds of competition which included classical variations and contemporary solos. Solos which the competitors were required to prepare before their arrival in Boston. The contemporary solos were choreographed by Margo Sappington (Christina's World, set to Chopin's Prelude #21 in B Flat) and Edwaard Liang (an excerpt from As Above So Beloved, set to Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in E Minor) which were posted on the Competition's web site. Also the age limit was lowered to allow younger competitors than one would normally see participating in an international ballet competition.

From May 12-16, 2011 at John Hancock Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, dancers from ages 13 to 25 competed for prizes and recognition by an elite group of jurors. Observing Round II of the competition on May 13, 2011, which included the contemporary solos and classical variations, it was fascinating to watch dancers at various stages of development facing the challenge of learning a contemporary solo by a leading choreographer, and interpreting it and making it their own. It was truly a test of technical skill and artistry.

The dancers' skills were observed and adjudicated by a jury of international judges which included Mikko Nissinen (President of the Jury - Finland), Oleki Bessmertni (Germany), Hae Shik Kim (South Korea), Andris Liepa (Russia), Maria Luisa Noronha (Brazil), Violette Verdy (France), and Septime Webre (United States).

The standard of dancing was at a high level with notable dancers from the United States, South Korea, Canada, and Japan.

The award winners were:

Student Division:

Gold Medalist - Jin Sol Eum (South Korea)

Silver Medalist - Alicia Fotino (United States)

Bronze Medalists - Maggie Yin Horowitz (United States) and Hannah Park (United States)

Junior Division:

Silver Medalists - Thamires Cuvas (Brazil) and Minju Kang (South Korea)

Bronze Medalists - Yoshiko Kamikusa (Canada) and Ayaka Fujii (Japan)

Senior Division:

Women:

Gold Medalist - Ji Young Chae (South Korea)

Silver Medalist - Yae Gee Park (South Korea)

Men:

Gold Medalist - Young Gyu Choi (South Korea)

Silver Medalist - Andile Ndlovu (South Africa)

Bronze Medalists - Rodrigo Almarales (Cuba) and Brooklyn Mack (United States)

Gold medalists in the Senior Division, Young Gyu Choi and Ji Young Chae of South Korea, donated their cash prize to the Boston International Ballet Competition for the organization to send a dancer of its choice to next year's Seoul Competition.

Based on the mutual respect that developed between the competitors, it is my hope that the city of Boston and the international dance community will embrace this new competition.

Under the guidance of Mikko Nissinen, the Boston Ballet continues to improve on an upward trajectory in its dancing standard. Providing a challenge to the company's dancers and to the company's audience, the Boston Ballet presented four works by the master choreographers, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine, at Boston's Opera House on May 14, 2011.

George Balanchine was represented by Divertimento No. 15 and Symphony in 3 Movements. Divertimento No. 15, staged for the Boston Ballet by Susan Hendl and Russell Kaiser, was one of the few ballets Balanchine choreographed to Mozart's music and is Balanchine in a pure neoclassical style. Divided up into ensembles, pas de deux, and variations with emphasis on filigree choreography, the dancers are entirely exposed. Notable in the Boston Ballet's cast was Lia Cirio, Erica Cornejo, Whitney Jensen, and Misa Kuranaga.

In contrast to the neo-classical style of Divertimento No. 15, Balanchine showed his modernist side in Symphony in 3 Movements, presented in its Boston Ballet company premiere, Created for the New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival in 1972, Symphony in 3 Movements was one of the highlights of the Festival and is one of the gems that Balanchine created during the last decade of his life.

Staged for the Boston Ballet by Susan Pilaare, Balanchine followed Stravinsky's pulsating modernist music creating fleeting visual images. But Balanchine's approach to the ballet was similar to an artchitect refining a complicated structural design. Utilizing its resources, the Boston Ballet provided a solid cast to dance one of Balanchine's most abstract of ballets.

In presenting Jerome Robbins' two ballets, revealed were Robbins' contemporary version of the narcissistic faun and the other ballet a gathering of nymphs that might have tempted the narcissistic faun.

In his iconic version of Afternoon of a Faun, Jerome Robbins set the scene in a ballet studio where two dancers seem more focused on their images in a mirror than with each other. The narcissistic atmosphere was ably created by Rachel Sossar and Jaime Diaz.

Jerome Robbins' Antique Epigraphs, another Boston Ballet company premiere, offered another contrast in the style of Robbins' choreography. The all female cast danced choreography alluding to that of Martha Graham. Staged by Christine Redpath and Jerri Kumery, and danced by KathleenBreen Combes, Lia Cirio, Erica Cornejo, and Luciana Voltolini, Antique Epigraphs stood out on its own as a unique piece in Jerome Robbins' volume of work.

Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Performance Project Spring Gala 2011

April 16, 2011

Symphony Space

By Mark Kappel

Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Project's spring gala concert at Symphony Space on April 16, 2011 embraced programming that was different from previous concerts. The general level of performance of Kozlova's students improves with every year. But her advanced students also danced their assigned repertoire with more sophistication.

Kozlova and Olga Verterich staged excerpts from the classics, as in past years, and the students had the opportunity to dance new choreography as well. Programming that heightened the challenges for Kozlova's students.

Sarah Steele, winner of the Gold Medal at this year's Berlin TanzOlymp Competition danced the Pas de Deux from the Wedding Scene of La Bayadere with Albert Davydov of the New Jersey Ballet. Alicia Fotino, winner of the Bronze Medal at this year's Berlin TanzOlymp Competition danced Vainonen's Flames of Paris Pas de Deux and was also partnered by Albert Davydov.

Veronika Verterich, Bronze Medalist at the Grigorovich 2010 Sochi Ballet Competition expanded her artistic horizons performing Victor Gsovsky's Grand Pas Classique and Margo Sappington's Night and Day, partnered by Vitali Krauchenka of American Ballet Theatre.

The Dance Conservatory's students also danced excerpts from Paquita, Don Quixote, and La Bayadere, as well as choreography created by Margo Sappington, Nina Buisson, and Anuta Rathe -- all part of an effort to challenge the students and strive for an even higher standard.

In spite of the miserable and rainy weather, in attendance was a supportive and appreciative audience.

Janis Brenner & Dancers - 5 Decades II

April 7, 2011

Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church

By Mark Kappel

In 2009 Janis Brenner celebrated five decades as a performing artist and choreographer at Joyce Soho.The success of those performances promptedMs. Brennerto return to the Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church from April 7-9, 2011, topresent 5 Decades II, a second retrospective of Ms. Brenner's performing and choreography career which emphasized that there is more to come.

5 Decades II was another excellent survey of modern dance. Brenner's major contribution to the evening was the world premiere, The Mind-Stuff Variations, a collaborative work with her company members, choreographed to original music by Jerome Begin. Inspired by William James' "Mind-Stuff Theory", Brenner's piece was a synergy of dance movement and spoken word -- filled with humor and thoughtfulness.

In this program Ms. Brenner was seen as a performer in two solos, Seraphic Songs and Pastorale from Mary Wigman's Swinging Landscapes. These contrasting solos -- Seraphic Songs being ritualistic and spiritual, and Pastorale, with flowing choreography -- defined Wigman's contribution to modern dance and Brenner's commitment to prevent these dances from becoming merely museum pieces.

In 1976 Murray Louis created a full-length Cleopatra for the Royal Danish Ballet and on this program, Kyla Barkin and Aaron Selissen danced one of the duets from this unique piece. This duet for the mature Cleopatra and the young Marc Anthony was an example of Louis' signature sculptural choreography.

The remainder of the program was devoted to Ms. Brenner's work as a choreographer. The duet from Ms. Brenner's Pieces of Trust was danced by Sumaya Jackson and Chris Ralph with the appropriate intensity, and the ensemble of Kyla Barkin, Esme Boyce, Janis Brenner, Sumaya Jackson, Christopher Ralph, Aaron Selissen, and Chen Zielinski danced Ms. Brenner's popular HeartSTRINGS.

This absorbing evening of dance was illuminated by the excellent lighting designed by Mitchell Bogard.

Martha Graham DanceCompany At LincolnCenter

March 17, 2011

Rose Theater at Jazz At Lincoln Center

By Mark Kappel

The Martha Graham Dance Company has had its ups and down since the passing of its founder in 2001. Martha Graham's unique vision has had a lasting impact, not only on dance, but alsoon our contemporary culture. There was the necessity to protect her creations. Righting the company's artistic ship under the direction of Janet Eilber, the Martha Graham Dance Company is celebrating ists 85th anniversary, and made its debut appearance at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center from March 15-20, 2011.

On March 17, 2011, the Martha Graham Dance Company presented a program of classic Martha Graham works which were also prime examples of Martha Graham's collaboration with designer Isamu Noguchi. These works were also examples of Graham's individual approach to creating narrative dance pieces.

Chronologically the oldest work included in this program was Graham's Appalachian Spring, which premiered in 1944. Set to a commissioned score by Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring is Graham's reflection on the aspects of American expansion and the resiliency of the American spirit.

The optimism in the piece is represented in the role of the Pioneering Woman (Katherine Crockett) and the resiliency is represented in the characters of the Bride (danced by Blakeley White-McGuire) and the Husbandman (danced by Tadej Brdnik) who are building a house in the American wilderness. The underpinnings of religious faith is represented in the role of The Revivalist (danced by Maurizio Nardi).

It is in Appalachian Spring that Graham's feelings about the American spirit are near the surface.

In stark, and dark, contrast was Graham's Cave of the Heart, herinterpretation ofthe Greek tragedy, Medea, which premiered in 1946, and is set to a score by Samuel Barber. Graham skillfully defined Medea'sfatal flaws as her passion leads to the death of her rival and her children. Mikki Orihara gave an outstanding performance in the role of Medea, and was ably supported by her fellow dance-actors, Katherine Crockett as the Chorus, Tadej Brdnik as Jason, and Jacquelyn Elder as the Princess.

The program also included Graham's Embattled Garden which was given its first performance in 1958. Choreographed to a commissioned score by Carlos Surinach and danced in the environment of Noguchi's forest of poles and a tree, Graham's tragic-comedy retells the biblical story of Adam (Oliver Tobin) and Eve (Mariya Dashkina Maddux) adding two intruders, The Stranger (Maurizio Nardi) and Lilith, Adam's first wife (Carrie Eillmore-Tallitsch). Graham's Garden of Eden is transformed from a calm setting into an arena of conflict and passion.

The Graham dancers are committed to Graham's vision and meticulously danced these works. This program was a wonderful survey of Graham's choreography -- an important program for dance students to have experienced.

State Ballet Theatre of Russia Performs Swan Lake

January 21, 2011

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

By Mark Kappel

The State Ballet Theatre of Russia, based in Voronezh, Russia, has been touring in North America since 2006, performing the great Russian classics. The company performed its production of Swan Lake at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Prudential Hall, in Newark, New Jersey, on January 21, 2011.

The State Ballet Theatre of Russia's production of Swan Lake is credited to Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Konstantin Sergeyev, with the overall production directed by Dmitry Korneev. With costume and scenery designs by Valeriy Kochiashvili, the company's production of Swan Lake was a reflection of 1950's Soviet-style ballet, a retro productionrather than a modern one or a production of Swan Lake that harked back tothe ballet's 19th century roots.

An indication of the focal point of this production of Swan Lake was on the show curtain -- both a white swan and a black swanwere depicted -- the eternal battle between good and evil.

Interpolations from the Soviet era included the intrusive Jester anda happy ending, and the dramatic element of the Act 3 Spanish dancers forming Von Rothbart's entourage. The story unfolded at a quick pace with little time for dramatic impression.

Directed by the company's artistic director, Lyudmila Sycheva, the State Ballet Theatre of Russia's corps de ballet performed as a unit and the engine within the production itself. And there was a stylistic unity and precision in the corps de ballet's performance.

Thedual role of Odette/Odile was danced by Svetlana Noskova, and Prince Siegfried was danced by Alexander Lityagin. Although their performance did not produce the chemistry to ignite the drama in this production of Swan Lake, their story was told in a straightforward and forthright manner. In particular, Lityagin is an elegant dancer suited to the princely role of Siegfried.

The State Ballet of Russia's performance of Swan Lake was enthusiastically received by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's audience.

2010 Brits Off-Broadway Festival - Bonnie Langford

December 19, 2010

59E59 Theaters

By Mark Kappel

The 59E59 Theaters annually presents the Brits Off-Broadway Festival which showcases playwrights and actors, and theatre companies from Great Britain.

In presenting"Bonnie Langford: Christmas in New York", the 59E59 Theaters' 2010 Brits Off-Broadway Festival made it possible for New York audiences to experience the opening of a Christmas cracker.

Bonnie Langford has two arms full of theatre credits on Broadway, inLondon's West End and on tour in the United Kingdom which have included roles in the legendary musicals, Sweet Charity, Me and My Girl, Peter Pan, The Pirates of Penzance, 42nd Street, and the Donmar Warehouse's revival of Guys and Dolls.

She began her career on the musical stage appearing in the first London production of a musicalized version of Gone With The Wind, followed by her portrayal of Baby June in the London production of Gypsy opposite Angela Lansbury -- a production which toured the United States and was transferred to Broadway -- and in which, Langford made her Broadway debut at the age of ten.

Langford's West End stage career had her appearing in the original London cast of Cats, and more recently she has toured inthe UK in Fosse. After taking over the role of Roxie Hart in the London production of Chicago, Langfordreprised Roxie Hart in the Broadway production.

Infused with energy and the instinctive talent to entertain an audience, Langford's intimate one-woman show threaded the needle with music and anecdotes that focused on her performing career as well as on the opportunities that were presented to her that she grabbed with both hands. Including songs from the musicals she has appeared in and special material peppered with stories about her working relationships withleading ladies of Broadway and the West End, Langford's outpouring of effervescence was metaphorically comparable to trying to re-cork a champagne bottle.

Singing excerpts and selections from Gypsy, Gone With The Wind, Cats, Peter Pan, Funny Girl, Sweeet Charity and Chicago, as well as special material including the Flanders/Swan parody, "A Word On My Ear", Langford displayed her versatility as an appealing cabaret performer.

Langford is a welcome addition to the New York theatre and cabaret scene.

Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Company - The Nutcracker

December 11, 2010

Symphony Space

By Mark Kappel

Valentina Kozlova's and Margo Sappington's production ofThe Nutcracker was danced by Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Company at Symphony Space on December 11, 2010.

What has now become an annual event, the performance was highlighted by Margo Sappington's performance as Baroness Drosselmeyer, Alicia Fotino as Clara, and the Bronze Medalist from the Yuri Grigorovich Competition for Young Dancers, Veronika Verterich as the Sugar Plum Fairy, partnered by Emanuel Abruzzo as the Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier.

Every year the standard of dancing improves with Kozlova's students notonly presenting an appropriate classical style but also showing artistic maturity and confidence.

Both Valentina Kozlova and Margo Sappington have made changes and additions to their production of The Nutcracker -- all enhancements -- and withthe new production values, the performance of this Nutcracker is also enhanced year after year.

American Ballet Theatre at NJPAC

November 20, 2010

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

By Mark Kappel

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center has become an important player in presenting all forms of the performing arts since its doors opened about a decade ago. Ballet companies such as American Ballet Theatre, the National Ballet of Cuba, Miami City Ballet, and the Stuttgart Ballet, have been among the beneficiaries of NJPAC's commitment to presenting dance in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area.

American Ballet Theatre returned to perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey on November 20, 2010 after an absence of a decade.

As American Ballet Theatre cancelled its annual season at the City Center in New York, this performance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center was the company's onyly appearance in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area this fall.

The mixed-bill program chosen for this performance included two ballets that American Ballet Theatre had premiered during its Avery Fisher Hall engagement in October of last year.

One of those premieres was Alexei Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas, set to seven of Domenico Scarlatti's "Keyboard Sonatas". Influenced by Jerome Robbins' piano ballets, Seven Sonatas set a mood and Ratmansky used the dancers wisely. Seven Sonatas provided the showcase for the virtuoso performances of the cast which included Christine Shevchenko, Xiorama Reyes, Stella Abrera, David Hallberg, Herman Cornejo, and Gennadi Saveliev.

The second premiere was Benjamin Millepied's Everything Doesn't Happen At Once, a large ensemble piece set to music by David Lang, flooding the stage of the NJPAC's Prudential Hall with 24 dancers, and six musicians. Beginning with a group dance and then focusing in on the centerpiece pas de deux danced by Isabella Boylston and Marcelo Gomes, Millepied filled the borderless stage with dancers moving in diverse patterns. The piece's sections were separated by blackouts and the ballet ended in a blackout immediately after one of Danil Simkin's virtuoso solos. The piece was William Forsythe-like influenced in its sparseness, intricate partnering, and angular silhouettes, and was veneered with a European sensibility.

Also on the program was Paul Taylor's Company B, acquired by American Ballet Theatre in 2008. Taylor's choreography was inspired by the recordings of the Andrews Sisters and in Company B, Taylor recreates the atmosphere of life in Washington DC during World War II. Company B celebrates the American spirit, and in its tongue and check fashion, is highly entertaining.

Although entering American Ballet Theatre's repertoire recently, the company's dancers, Marian Butler, Gillian Murphy, Misty Copeland, Simone Messmer, Elizabeth Mertz, Lauren Post, Mary Mills Thomas, Arron Scott, Craig Salstein, Sascha Radetsky, Roddy Doble, Grant DeLong, and Isaac Stappas, now own it.

Capturing the audience's attention was the workman-like process of the stagehands preparing the stage, musicians being set up, and the dancers warming up on the stage, during the intermission before Everything Doesn't Happen At Once when the curtain was lifed and all was exposed. An unusual behind-the-scenes look at the labor intensive efforts that are required to produce dance performances.

Broadway Musicals - The Biggest Hits and The Biggest Flopsof the Season - 1959-2009 By Peter Filichia

By Mark Kappel

The failures and successes during a typical Broadway theatre season are dissected by critics, audience members, writers, composers, and theatre craftsmen for hours on end. The unique American art form, the Broadway Musical, attracts the most attention these days as enthusiastic and devoted audiences spontaneously respond with standing ovations at the end of performances and wait at theatre stage doors for autographs -- and then there is "Glee!"

As Broadway aficianados are able to debate the best and the worst on the internet these days, they have a large appetite for information -- particularly behind the scenes stories.

In his book, Broadway Musicals, Newark Star Ledger's theatre critic, Peter Filichia, provides readers with a unique and knowledgeable survey of the musicals he has deemed hits and flops -- decade by decade and year by year from 1959 to 2009.

Each hit and flop has its own narrative sprinkled with information about backstage connections, and what might have been the ingredients that resulted in the successes and failures of these musicals.

Filichia's profile of a hit is that it is the musical that motivates a stampede to purchase tickets at the box office, and a flop is defined as a musical, that no matter the marketing, advertising and discounts, does not intrigue the public enough to purchase tickets.

Then there is the criteria of whether a musical made money -- or not -- and what were anticipated expectations for these musicals. Expectations that have become more and more importantin the internet age as a musical in an out-of-town tryout or in New York previews can have its flaws exposed before opening night.

There are many reasons why Broadway musicals fail and succeed. The road taken seems to be different for each musical and Filichia does not come up with a formula that will result in a Broadway musical smash or a Broadway musical that implodes even before the curtain goes up. Each musical has its own story and that is what is intriguing about Filichia's Broadway Musicals.

Even flops have redeeming qualities. Among them legendary flops,"Mata Hari", "Darling of the Day", and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- are more memorable for the route they took to open on Broadway and those flops that never made it to Broadway.

Filichia defends his choices with contemporaneous backstage stories which include comments by original cast members or original creative team members who provide some insight as to why a Broadway musical emerged out of the process with universal acceptance or why a Broadway musical morphs into a universal failure.

These stories offer the "why" some musicals resulted in failure or success -- and "what if" -- changing directors, choreographers, composers, book writers that might have made a difference. Often flops are a result of bad producing and hits are a result of luck and fate.

Esteemed flops such as "Chess" and "Merrily We Roll Along" have been revisited in London and perhaps might be revisited on Broadway in the future. "Whistle Down The Wind", a big hit in London, but didn't even make it to Broadway.

Of course one person's flop could be another person's hit. As every audience member has experienced, one person's entertaining evening in the theatre could be another person's evening of torture.

In his book, Filichia challenges the reader to enter the debate.

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake

October 16, 2010

City Center

By Mark Kappel

In 1998 when Matthew Bourne's unconventional and deconstructionist version of Swan Lake made its Broadway debut, its impact onthe American dance universe was significant, as much as it was on the Broadway theater universe. Bourne turned the fable of Swan Lake into a provocative experimental dance theatre piece that turned the plot upside down and made, what were then current, references to the British Royal Family.

Fifteen years after its world premiere and twleve years since its New York premiere, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake has returned to New York for a limited engagement at the City Center from October 13-November 7, 2010.

In traditional productionsSwan Lake's Wagnerian themes are presented as a conflict between good and evil as well as the sexual awkaening being experienced by a young Prince Siegfried -- whose reticence in deciding to marry may be influenced by being a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome and the psychological influece of a smothering mother figure represented by the Queen.

The most conspicuous departure from tradition in Bourne's Swan Lake is the role of the Swan which is played by a male dancer -- with a male corps de ballet of Swans -- and it is this male Swan that the Prince encounters in search for affection. The Queen remains the grand manipulator as her parenting skills are questioned and how she influenced the psychological and emotional development of the Prince.

Bourne's Prince is not only a facing a conflict between good and evil, but also his sexual identity as he is sexually attracted to the male swan and isintriguedby other male sexual figures that are presented in Bourne's reworking of Swan Lake's plot.

Abandoning the familiarclassical choreographyin Swan Lake, Bourne chooses vernacular and modern dance choreography to tell his version of the story.

In the intervening years between this production's premiere and its present form, Bourne has tweaked and streamlined his interpretation of Swan Lake. In so doing the references to the British Royal Family of the 1990's have been somewhat neutralized and what is portrayed is a dysfunctional family that is universal.

Also the comic elements have now become more prominent and the story is threaded through this Swan Lake with more clarity. The ballet is not entirely focused on the conflict between good and evil. There is now much more ambiquity.

Bourne's Swan Lake is energized by the excellent performances of the dancers in the production's principal roles. Nina Goldman's Queen is unfeeling and icy towards her son but at the same lascivious and lusty. As she is a youngish Queen her confrontation with the Swan's black counterpart is now more believable and seductive.

Jonathan Ollivier's Swan and Stranger are counterweight opposites and were both danced and portrayed with strong presence. Simon Williams' Prince exuded innocence and as each important person in his life prevents him from growing up, his emotional turmoil is that much more compelling. This Prince is a victim of those around him, letting him down at every turn.

In contrast to the heavy drama was Madelaine Brennan's perfectly timed comic performance in the role of the Prince's Girlfriend.

Bourne's re-invention of Swan Lake has evolved since its Broadway debut -- and has evolved in a positive direction making Bourne's intentions clearer and making this Swan Lake both thought-provoking and entertaining. Another result of this Swan Lake, as an evolving piece of art, is that it has also achieved a universality that makes it current and relevant -- and will stand the test of time.

Dancers Over 40 - Agnes de Mille: From Ballet to Broadway

October 11, 2010

St. Luke's Theatre

By Mark Kappel

Dancer Over 40's first event for the 2010-11 season was a tribute to Agnes de Mille held on October 11, 2011 at St. Luke's Theatre in New York. Titling this tribute as "Agnes de Mille: From Ballet to Broadway" one was prepared for the overview and examination of de Mille's extensive work inconcert dance, her work for ballet companies, and her work on Broadway.

Agnes de Mille was a visionary but she was also a trailblazer as a woman in a man's world. She not only choreographed ballets for major ballet companies and for Broadway musicals -- she was also one of the few director/choreographers who has worked on Broadway.

Her vision, her persistence, her outspokenness, and her assertive methods in the creation of her work and how she mined the talent out of the dancers she worked with, were aptly described bythe participants in the two panels that were assembled for this tribute to Agnes de Mille.

Providing insights into de Mille's ballets, Paul Sutherland moderated a panel which included Gemze de Lappe, Christine Sarry, Crandall Diehl, Gail Reese, and Bill Guske, most of whom worked with de Mille while de Mille was associated with American Ballet Theatre. All of the panel members discussed de Mille's unique fusion of ballet and vernacular dance, comic timing, and how story and drama, threaded through the choreography, were important elements in how de Mille's ballets were danced.

The panel of Gemze de Lappe, Bambi Linn, Iva Withers, Hope Clarke, Paul Berne, Stuart Hodes, Kathleen Marshall, and moderator, TedChapin, focused on de Mille's work on Broadway with particular emphasis on the creation of her choreography for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma and Carousel. There seemed to be a consensus that de Mille's goal was to emphasize story-telling and emotion in choreography -- and every step had meaning. Also emphasized was the succinctness and clarity that de Mille demanded from the dancers when dancing her choreography.

Video clips served up de Mille's lack of fear in expressing her opinions about dance, art, and politics -- often putting people in their place.

It is fortunate that de Mille's work is documented for the ages. One of de Mille's duets from Paint Your Wagon, danced by two young dancers (Elena Zahlman and Joshua Nieto of New York Theatre Ballet), juxtaposed with the video of the same duet danced by its creators, Bambi Linn and James Mitchell, represented hope that de Mille's choreography will be passed from one generation to the next for years to come.

In all Dancers Over 40 presented yet another interesting and important tribute.

City Center Fall for Dance Festival -

Program V

October 9, 2010

City Center

By Mark Kappel

The fifth and closing program of the City Center Fall for Dance Festival on October 9, 2010 featured another showcase for diverse styles in dance.

This program featured the New York debut of the Dresden Semperoper Ballett of Germany dancing William Forsythe's The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. TheDresden company's artistic director, Aaron Watkin, had been a member of William Forsythe's Ballet Fankrufrt, which might have influenced the choice ofrepertoire that the company danced.

TheVertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, choreographed to the final movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 9, is a non-stop series of solo variations, pas de deux, and ensemble sections for five dancers (Anna Merkulova, Leslie Heylmann, Chantelle Kerr, Maximilian Genov, Jon Vallejo) which is a test of speed and agility. The well-school dancers from Dresden executed Forsythe's Balanchine-like choreography with clarity and verve.

Also on the program was Hee Seo and Jared Matthews of American Ballet Theatre dancing Frederick Ashton's Thais, a romantic and exotic pas de deux that was created for Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. Ashton's choreography makes allusions to La Bayadere and Scheherazade, and makes a major choreographic statement in the short duration of a pas de deux. Seo and, Matthews, who ably partnered Seo, captivated the audience with their interpretation of Ashton's choreography.

The Tero Saarinen Company of Finland, founded in 1996, presented the American premiere of Carolyn Carlson's Man in a Room. Created as a solo for Tero Saarinen, Man in a Room's inspiration came from the life of contemporary painter, Mark Rothko.

Set to Gavin Bryars' "A Man in a Room Gambling" and music by the Finish rock band, Apocalyptica, the voice over often juxtaposed a gambler's life in comparison to the life of an artist. Rothko's primary colors were represented as Saarinen frequently changed his pants whichhad designs incorporatingRothko's primary colors, as well as paint that Saarinen threw randomly on his body.

In Carolyn Carlson's slice ofRothko's life, one sees an artist experiencing the anxiety of creation and survival while in John Logan's Tony-Award winning play, Red, Rothko was seen as overcoming anger.Thanks to Saarinen's performance there was an emotional balance in Manin a Room.

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company gave a committed performance of Brown's spiritually inspired Grace, a work Brownoriginally created for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Ritualistic in nature and sincere in its performance, this was an appropriate finale for this year's City Center Fall for Dance Festival.

City Center Fall for Dance Festival - Program III

October 3, 2010

City Center

By Mark Kappel

The City Center Fall for Dance Festival's third program,which was presented on October 3, 2011, once again spotlighted the Festival's emphasis on variety.

Opening the program was Shu-Yi & Company from Taiwan, making its American debut in Shu-Yi Chou's Ravel and Bolero. Set to a short excerpt from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana as a prelude to Ravel's Bolero, choreographer Shu-Yi Chou placed his Bolero on a leaf-strewn stage with an oscillating fan blowing on the leaves. An ensemble of dancers drop and fall on the stage in groups and as individuals in counterpoint. The movement was not only accompanied by music but also by the dancers' shouts, groans, and screams until two of the group members emerge and then fall backinto the group. Throughout his Bolero, Shu-Yi Chou created repetitive patterns in his choreography that supported the theme in, and momentum of, Ravel's music.

Emanuel Gat Dance was represented with the American premiere of Gat's solo, My Favorite Things,danced by Roy Assaff and danced to John Coltrane's arrangement of Rogers & Hammerstein's My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. Integrating Coltrane's musings on Richard Rodgers' iconic music, the choreography also exhibited Gat's musings with interesting floor work and varied use of space. Throughout Assaf commanded the stage.

Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith of the San Francisco Ballet danced a pas de deux from Yuri Possokhov's Diving Into The Lilacs, set to Boris Tchaikovsky's Sinfonietta for String Orchestra. Possokhov's unexpected and note for note response to Tchaikovsky's music gaveTan a showcase for her skills as an adagio dancer while Tan was ably supported by her partner, Damian Smith.

The Paul Taylor DanceCompany offered up the closer of the program, Taylor's Company B, a nostaglic series of dances recreatingthe atmosphere of war-time Washington DC, choreographed to the recordings of the Andrews Sisters. Taylor's chorepgraphy captures a knowing innocence of those years which is inspired by the Andrews Sisters' unique stylings of music made popular during World War II. As always the Paul Taylor Dance Company gave a quality ensemble performance. But the performances of Francisco Graciano in Tico-Tico and Robert Kleinedorst in Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy were particularly noteworthy.

City Center Fall for Dance Festival- Program I

September 29, 2010

City Center

By Mark Kappel

Although the programming goal for each of the City Center Fall for Dance Festival's performances is focused on presenting a sampler of dance styles, the City Center Fall for Dance Festival's first program on September 29, 2011 also emphasized ensemble dancing.

What might be the focal point of this year's Festival was the presentation of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company which is currentlyin the midst ofits two-year Legacy Tour. On this occasion the Merce Cunningham Dance Company danced Cunningham's XOVER, which was given its world premiere in 2007, and was given its New York premiere during the City Center Fall for Dance Festival. Representing a classic collaboration by Cunningham, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg, this performance of XOVER was a reminder of the important contribution that Cunningham has made to the art form.

John Cage's score was dominated by random urban noise, while Cunningham's meticulous angular choreography was set against a conventional urban photographic montage. Cunningham's classic and controlled movement was set within and set against urban chaos.

Seeing Cunningham's expert dancers (Brandon Collwes, Dylan Crossman, Julie Cunningham, Emma Desjardins, John Hinrichs, Jennifer Goggans, Daniel Madoff, Rashaun Mitchell, Marcie Munnerlyn, Silas Riener, Jamie Scott, Melissa Toogood, and Andrea Weber)in XOVER, one is reminded that we may not see Cunningham's works performed with the same skill and subtlety in the future.

Gallim Dance's artistic director, Andrea Miller, created an of the moment piece in I Can See Myself In Your Pupil, for her company that required acrobatic and physical comedy skills from the dancers as well as contorting themselves in quirky solos and group dances. Miller's choreography, as performed by the company's dancers (Billy Barry, Caroline Fermin, Andrew Murdock, Troy Ogilvie, Francesca Romo, Dan Walczak, Jonathan Windham, and Arika Yamada), made a direct connection with the audience and resulted in a reciprocalaudience response.

In Vistaar, Indian Odissi dancer and choreographer, Madhavi Mudgal, created a series of rhythmic dances which were danced in patterns that filled the City Center stage space. Vistaar's choreography was ritualistic in nature and was performed in a refined manner by Madhavi Mudgal, Arushi Mudgal, Diya Sen, Snehasini Sahoo, and Shalakha Rai.

Miami City Ballet returned to New York in an energetic and dynamic performance of Twyla Tharp's The Golden Section, an ensemble piece set to music by David Byrne. Originally created in 1983 -- and acquired by the Miami City Ballet in 2010 -- Tharp's style was not as clearly defined as it is today and there were vernacular choreographic references from jazz to modern that were randomly interpolated into the structure of this piece. The Golden Section was enthusiastically brought home by the cast of Jeanette Delgado, Patricia Delgado, Sara Esty, Tricia Albertson, Jennifer Carlynn Kronenberg, Callie Manning, Isanusi Garcia-Rodriguez, Renato Penteado, Renan Cerdeiro, Yann Trividic, Carlos Miguel Guerra, Yang Zou, and Alexandre Ferreira.

Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Performance Project - Spring Gala

June 19, 2010

Symphony Space

By Mark Kappel

The joy of observing ballet students as they develop in their training is always absorbing. One always has such an experience when attending a performance produced byValentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Performance Project. It is not an accident that Valentina Kozlova inspires improvement and a high standard of performance from her students. Then there is the additional ingredient of being given the opportunity to work with choreographer, Margo Sappington, in the creation of new works.

This mentoring process was on display in Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory Performance Project'sSpring Gala at Symphony Space on June 19, 2010. This process was in evidence in Kozlova's staging of Paquita in which the students were committed to this ballet in terms of its technical challenges, which were performed with a sense of grand style.

Kozlova also staged a variation from Marius Petipa's Satanella, and the Pas de Deux from Harlequinade, and there were contributions by Nina Buisson, Ingrid Roberg -- as well as Margo Sappington's choreography for Raggio Di Luna, La Piccolino, Bossacucanova, and the rousing Grand Finale, all of which allowed these students to grow artistically.

Besides the students in this performance, Ekaterina Smurova of the New Jersey Ballet and Vasiliy Baldin of Manassas Ballet Theatre danced Esmeralda, and Albert Davydov of the New Jersey Ballet danced Harlequinade and The Sleeping Beauty with Veronika Verterich.

These students must be seen and watched to monitor their continuing progress.

Michael Bennett: A Joyful Noise

May 17, 2010

St. Luke'sTheatre

By Mark Kappel

Dancers Over 40, a non-profit organization which was established to provide support for the needs of mature dancers and choreographers, presents tributes to history-making Broadway choreographers,to support its mission and enhance its fundraising activities. Thereby raising funds for those in the dance community who need financial assistance and providing a forum to document the creative process and back stories that are informative in describing how Broadway musicals have evolved into the American musical theater classics they have become. These tributesnot onlyrecognize the contributions of the choreographersbut alsothe dancers whocollaborated with the choreographers.

On May 17, 2010 at St. Luke's Theatre, Dancers Over 40 presented a tribute to Broadway choreographer, Michael Bennett, Michael Bennett: A Joyful Noise.

Born inBuffalo, New York, Michael Bennett pursued his dancing career on Broadway appearing in Subways Are For Sleeping, Here's Love, and Bajour, before beginning his notable career as a choreographer and as a director/choreographer.

Best known for his work as the director/choreographer of A Chorus Line, Bennett made his choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise in 1966. He was also the choreographer for Coco, Henry Sweet Henry, Promises Promises, and Company; co-director and choreographer of Follies, and was director/choreographer of Seesaw, Dream Girls, and Ballroom. It was unfortunate that we lost this great talent at such a young age.

In this tribute to Michael Bennett, which was moderated by Harvey Evans, panelists discussing Bennet's work included Bob Avian, Kelly Bishop, Baayork Lee, Margo Sappington, Larry Fuller, Carolyn Kirsch, Nancy Dalton, Steve Boockvor, Karin Baker, Rita O'Connor, Dorothy Danner, and Joy Serio Dunbar. The panelists presented their personal memories about Bennett's creative process that resulted in the successes Bennett's musicals became.

Among the film clips shownwere Turkey Lurkey Time from Promises Promises, Poor Little Person from Henry Sweet Henry, Always Mademoiselle from Coco, and footage from Follies. In these clips there were examples of how Bennett solvedproblems of story-telling in dance terms, and in the instance of Coco, where there was little choreography to speak of, how Bennett moved dancers, costumed in Coco Chanel's creations, on turntables, creating the illusion of movement.

Michael Bennett's choreography has not been incorporated into recent Broadway revivals of Company, Follies, and Promises Promises. Audiences who have seen these revivals were missing an inspired element that have made these musicals classics. It is fortunate that Bennett's choreography will be forever preserved for future generations in revivals of A Chorus Line.

Boston BalletPresents The Company Premiere of Danilova/Balanchine Production of Coppelia

April 17, 2010

Opera House, Boston, Massachusetts

By Mark Kappel

The Boston Ballet became the first American company, outside of the New York City Ballet, to acquire the Alexandra Danilova/George Balanchine production of Coppelia with its performances from April 8-18, 2010 at the Opera House in Boston, Massachusetts.

Premiered by the New York City Ballet in 1974 at the Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, this production of Coppelia has become a staple of the New York City Ballet's repertoire. Set to Leo Delibes' tuneful score with new choreography by Balanchine inthe ballet's third act, theBoston Ballet's production waspresented with refurbished and redesigned costumes and scenery -- costumes designed by Robert O'Hearn and Kenneth Busin, and scenery designed by Robert O'Hearn and Benjamin J. Phillips -- which had been commissioned by Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Judith Fugate took charge of thiscompany premierewith Garielle Whittle assisting onthe staging of the children's choreography. To their credit the production was meticulously staged and highlighted the musical elements in the choreography.

The original production of Coppelia had its world premiere in 1807 at the Paris Opera Ballet with choreography by Arthur St. Leon. Coppelia's libretto was based on the Charles Nuitter interpretation of E.T.A. Hoffman's Der Sandman, which was, in turn,influenced by the Romantic literature of the 19th Century that produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the prototypes for robots that were exhibited in world expositions in Europe.

The focus of Coppelia is a toy maker (Dr. Coppelius played by Sabi Varga) who fashions a mechanical doll that he wishes to infuse with a human spirit and bring to life. It is the doll Coppelia that comes between the two protagonists, Swanhilda nad Franz, as Franz becomes infatuated with the doll. Swanhilda and her friends follow Franz into Dr. Coppelius' house and Swanhildasees her opportunity to take revenge on Franz and Dr. Coppelius by switchingplaces with the doll, Coppelia,thereby bringing the doll to life.

This production captures the original spirit of Coppelia in the first and second acts, and differs fromtraditional productionswith new choreography by George Balanchine in the third act where Balanchine also inserted the male solo variation from his Sylvia Pas de Deux into the Grand Pas de Deux.In additionBalanchine included many children's roles in this production of Coppelia, an opportunity to show off the students of the School of American Ballet at the time of its premiere and thereafter, and suits theresources of the Boston Ballet which also supports a school with talented students to showcase.

Overall this production of Coppelia was a marvelous vehicle for the Boston Ballet and its principals dancingin this performance, Erica Cornejo and James Whiteside -- the kind of light entertainment that is a remedy for troubling economic times.

Richmond Ballet Returns toNew York

JoyceTheatre

April 6 & 7, 2010

By Mark Kappel

Five years after the company's New York debut, the Richmond Ballet returned to the Joyce Theatre where the company performed from April 6-11, 2010.

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Ballet became Virginia's first professional ballet company in 1984, and has been a frequent visitor to New York. This engagement commemorated Stoner Winslett's 30th year as artistic director of the Richmond Ballet. Winslett's tenure has been a remarkable achievement, but even more so when one recognizes that Winslett is one of a few female artistic directors in chargeof a major American ballet company.

The dance pieces presented on the Richmond Ballet's two mixed-bill programs were all commissions and a significant number of those commissions were from modern dance choreographers. This mix of choreographers and ballet-trained dancers has evolved into a successful formula for the Richmond Ballet.

Program A was presented on April 6th, which opened with Stoner Winslett's reverential interpretation of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances. Ancient Airs and Dances had been premiered by the Richmond Ballet in 1986.

In her ballet, Winslett chose to create patterns, for four couples (Valerie Tellmann, Kirk Henning, Maggie Small, Jesse Bechard, Cecile Tuzii, Igor Antonov, Shira Lanyi and Phillip Skaggs), within group dances and pas de deux which were inspired by the exuberance in the music. Stylistically Winslett also respected Respighi's references to the Baroque Era.

In contrast to Winslett's Ancient Airs and Dances was the second piece on the mixed-bill program, Jessica Lang's To Familiar Spaces in Dream. Lang's work was an exploration of space circumscribed by the movement of white boxes and white towers (representing giant piano keys) as much as the movement of the dancers themselves. The dancers moved these white scenic elements on the stage to define the dancing space infusing the choreography with the added facet of defying formality.

Created to the music of Philip Glass, Craig Armstrong and John Cage, the music provided a soundtrack for the manipulation of the dancers' bodies as well as the manipulation of the white boxes and the white towers.

The Richmond Ballet's Program A closed with Mauricio Wainrot's Voyages, a dance piece which defined itself by virtue ofthe inclusion of ritualistic movementperformed to a broad spectrum of traditional music. Most of the seven dances in Voyages were notable for the matrix of separate group dances for women and men -- women and men that rarely interacted. Wainrot's choreography was focused on athleticism, reminiscent of Robert North's Troy Games.

The Richmond Ballet's Program B, presented on April 7th, included an additional three commissions.

William Soleau's Misa Criolla, choreographed to music by Ariel Ramirez, was a response to loss and how one overcomes loss. Soleau's choreography transitioned from the solemnity of mourning to remembering happier times. The mourners (Cecile Tuzii and Igor Antonov) were consoled by the sense of community and the spirit of their village with the choreography fluidly responding to Ariel Ramirez's music. Misa Criolla was the only work presented by the Richmond Ballet to have a dramatic source and dramatic intensity.

Program B opened with Val Caniparoli's Violin, which was an interpretation of Biber's Passagalia for Solo Violin. Dividing the Passagalia into sections Canaparoli's first movement was a dance for men; the second movement was a dance for women; and within the remaining sections, the groups intersected to include a series of pas de deux -- and ended in a spirited finale.

Colin Connor's Vestiges was comprised of quick fire choreography danced to Michael Nyman's relentless music. Conor juxtaposed modern dance movement and Bolshoi acrobatic lifts in the composition of Vestiges -- producing a stream of choreographic ideas one right after another.

As in past New York visits, the Richmond Ballet performed dance pieces created for the company's dancers. The Richmond Ballet deserves credit for its commitment to the commissioning of new works.

In all six pieces the Richmond Ballet's dancers gave polished and committed performances. All six pieces' energy levelswere increased as a result of the dancers' positive and eager to please performances.

Corella Ballet Y Leon Makes American Debut at City Center

City Center

March 20, 2010

By Mark Kappel

Spain has a vibrant dance scene but it is dominated by contemporary ballet companies and flamenco dance companies. Most of the ballet dancers trained in Spain have pursued their careers abroad.

Government support for ballet companies in Spain has only recently been instituted. This new interest in establishing classical ballet companies in Spain and providing employment for Spanish-trained dancers, motivated the founding of the Corella Ballet Castilla Y Leon, which began rehearsals in 2008 at its home base, the Palace of Santa Cecilia in La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia, Spain.

This company of 60 dancers, founded by, and directed by Angel Corella, made its American debut at the City Center from March17-20, 2010.

Angel Corella's career flowered while a principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre and he is one of the many Spanish ballet dancers who have pursued their careers abroad. Besides being the company's artistic director, Corella is also one of the company's principal dancers and he also contributed choreography that was performed during the City Center engagement.

In founding the ballet company which bares his family name, Corella has been wearing many hats and has also involved his family -- his sister, Carmen Corella, is associate artistic director and a principal dancer; and Angel Corella's brother-in-law, Herman Cornejo, principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre, frequently appears with the Corella Ballet. Although the Corella Balletwas making its American debut, many of the company's dancers were familiar to New York ballet audiences.

The establishment of a new ballet company in Europe is rare and it was a risk for the Corella Ballet Castilla Y Leon toreveal its growing pains in the fish bowl atmosphere that is New York.

The Corella Ballet presented a mixed-bill program on March 20, 2010 which included three commissions and a company premiere.

Showcasing the unique talents of Carmen Corella and Angel Corella, sister and brother danced Maria Pages' flamenco style duet, Solea, set to flamenco music composed by Ruben Lebaniegos. The Corellas danced this bravura, gala-type piece with humor and a command of the stage.

The two other commissions were divergent in style with Angel Corella's String Sextet choreographed in the neo-classi-cal/Balanchine mold, while Epithemeus, choreographed by company member, Russell Ducker, was choreographed in the style of William Forsythe. Both pieces were well-meaning in regard to showing off the company'sdancers. But there were moments of lack of craft in both ballets -- including instances of empty stages, and entrances and exists that werenot as fluid as they could have been. There was potential in both pieces, and I am certain that with more experience and opportunities that both choreographers will evolve in future ballets.

In Corella's String Sextet, notable performances were given by Kazuko Omori, Yegven Uzlenkov, and Herman Cornejo,and Ashley Ellis and Fernando Bufala were notable in the Third Movement of Epimetheus.

Christopher Wheeldon's DGV (Danse a Grande Vitesse) was also included in the mixed-bill program, presented as a New York premiere. Set to music composed by Michael Nyman, DGV was commissioned by the Royal Ballet in 2006.

Inspired by urban landscape and performed in a scenic landscape of metallic rubble, DGV travels the same road as Jerome Robbins' Glass Pieces which examines the pace and anonymity of urban life. Wheeldon's choreography was complex in contrast to Nyman's minimalist music.

Although DGV is virtually an ensemble piece the four principal couples -- Carmen Corella with Sergey D'yachkov, Adiarys Almeida with Herman Cornejo, Natalia Tapia with Angel Corella, and Ashley Ellis with Fernando Bufala -- dominated the choreography with their stage presence.

One looks forward to seeing how the Corella Ballet Castilla Y Leon evolves in frequent New York engagements.

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