Rehearsals for Dance On Canvas/8th Season
Hi Wingers!
We have been relishing in our rehearsals at The Art Students League in Manhattan during a very special part of our process: Dance on Canvas. We share the space with visual artists and they draw/paint/sketch while we work!, it’s such a special feeling. Here are a few shots of yesterday’s rehearsal..
It’s such a great feeling to be surrounded by such inspiration!
We are over halfway through setting “Toward Home”, almost finished setting “the last of the leaves” and “Dolce” will be up and running soon!! SO much to do, but it’s a fun rush!! It’s always refreshing to re-set work because I get to know it a little more every time, and make some changes and just finesse it. It’s a good feeling.
Any New York Wingers around tomorrow should stop by our fun event “Dance Your Pants Off”! It’s a silly fun event where there is a “dance contest” (ALL shapes, sizes, abilities welcome) It’s a time to show off your living room dance grooves! More info here: Dance Your Pants Off!
And tickets just went on sale for our New York Season here:
Brownpapertickets.com
enter code “winger” for a discount 
xoxo
see you all soon!
Kate
www.syrendance.org
Getting ready for 8th NY Season performances!
We here at SYREN are excited to be in rehearsals for our upcoming New York Season!
Lots of work getting the pieces up and running! We are presenting “Toward Home” (music by Damon Ferrante), “Dolce” (Grieg) and “the last of the leaves” (Adams) in performances at Baryshnikov Arts Center March 29-April 3!
Toward Home photos: Christopher Duggan
We have some new company members so we are busy teaching LOADS of material to them and refining things as we go.
All the musicians are getting ready and we are getting that itch to hear it all live again!
super exciting all around!! Costumes being made, musicians rehearsing, press releases going out, postcards hot off the press…It’s almost showtime!! I will definitely start posting some rehearsal shots and keep everyone in the loop as we approach the shows!! And as always, we definitely create an online discount for fellow winger readers!!
Pacific Northwest Ballet, “Giselle Revisited” - Streaming Live Tonight
Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum presents Pacific Northwest Ballet–Giselle Revisited.
Watch the sold out show live tonight, right here, at 7:30p and join our online discussion:
Online Discussion moderated by me, Candice Thompson on DIYdancer and The Winger.
Works and Process and PNB live on The Winger!
A special event via The Winger: This Sunday night, January 9th at 7:30pm, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum will be live streaming one of their shows for the first time! You can catch the show and online discussion live on the The Winger and DIYdancer.
The show, Pacific Northwest–Ballet Giselle Revisited, will preview excerpts of Peter Boal’s new staging of Giselle, featuring reconstructed choreography utilizing Stepanov notation circa 1899-1903 and French sources from the 1840s and 1860s. There will be discussion among dance scholars Doug Fullington and Marian Smith and artistic director Peter Boal as well as performances by PNB dancers Carrie Imler, Carla Körbes, James Moore, and Seth Orza.
Not only am I looking forward to being enlightened by all of this history and retelling of my favorite classical ballet, I can’t wait to moderate the live chat accompanying the streaming! The show is sold out but you can be a part of it by coming back to The Winger at the above date and time, enjoy the show and be a part of the discussion online!
In all ways, this is going to an historic event, so don’t miss out!
{Photos courtesy of Works and Process at the Guggenheim. Amanda Clark in PNB’s new version and Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky in Ballet Russes’ Act 2.}
Columbia City Ballet Nutcracker
Isabel in the Columbia City Ballet Nutcracker (in green) and Katie Smoak as Clara
Over Thanksgiving break, my sister was in the Columbia City Ballet’s Nutcracker. As I sat in the audience, it felt weird to not be onstage dancing. Here are a few pictures from the dress rehearsal.
Today, I head back to The Rock School after being home for winter break. I’m excited to get back!
Isabel as a Party Girl
Ratmansky’s Nutcracker
ABT is premiering a brand new Nutcracker by Alexei Ratmansky at BAM this December 22-January 2. The Guggenheim’s Works and Process series gave a behind-the-scenes look at what makes this version Ratmansky’s own. Veronika Part’s vignettes in this video are gorgeous, but the brief moments of the Clara and her boy prince waking up are what really put me in the Nutcracker spirit. Totally priceless!
Nutcracker 1776!
This weekend, I have my first performances of Nutcracker 1776 with The Rock School. In this Nutcracker, the traditional Clara is Abby, Uncle Drosselmeyer is Ben Franklin, and the Nutcracker Prince is Johnny. There are several casts for all of the shows, and I am Abby in two of them (three if our dress rehearsal, also a performance for a school, is counted).
Me in the Abby Variation
Derek and I dancing the Snow Pas (Derek is Johnny).
Snow Pas
Snow Pas with Derek
SAVE THE ROYAL BALLET OF FLANDERS
http://www.royalballetofflanderssupportgroup.net/
Joke Schauvliege, the Flemish Minister of Culture recently made a decision that will ultimately destroy the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the only classical ballet company in Belgium. She has decided to merge the Royal Ballet of Flanders with the Flemish Opera, having one intendant to be the administrator for both the ballet and the opera. Yes that is right, one intendant to decide the programming and budgeting for two very different performing arts.
Kathryn Bennetts is the artistic director of the company. She is highly regarded and has created a world-renowned company since 2005. Each year she brings more and more of her wealth of knowledge and experience to the company and its dancers. Katherine has announced that if this merge happens she will resign.
During the Second World War Winston Churchill was asked by his finance minister if Britain should cut arts funding to support the war efforts. Churchill’s response was, “Then what are we fighting for?” While time has passed since the Second World War it seems that we are still dealing with this same question, “What are we fighting for?” In today’s world everywhere we turn we hear about the global financial crisis and how each government is trying everything in its power to fix the problems. I want every government in the world to understand that allowing the arts to be the first thing to be downsized is a disastrous decision. What artists do is not simple, mindless entertainment. Great art is capable of changing minds and hearts. Art is a power unlike any other, a power that is capable of bringing peace and enlightenment to the world.
This recent decision by the government of Flanders is an enormous tragedy for The Royal Ballet of Flanders, but it is also a tragedy for art and dance throughout the entire world. As artists our only option is to stand up for what we believe in and support our fellow dancers and artists. This is not the only situation where arts are being abandoned, it is happening everyday more and more. We must be heard, and we must make a difference.
Is true art really so lost in today’s world that it can be pushed aside so easily, without even a second thought? I have not dedicated my life to art because I believe it is something so feeble. We can not let the government of Flanders undermine the importance of great art.
Ways you can help:
- Visit http://www.royalballetofflanderssupportgroup.net/ and sign the petition
- Write a letter addressed to Joke Schauvliege (the Minister of Culture). Send your letter to ">
Important things to be mentioned in the email
1) The Company does not want an “Intendant” who will do the programming for the ballet
2) The budget should be raised
3)The actual proposition from the Minister of Culture will mean the end of the Royal Ballet of Flanders
Armitage Gone! Dance at Abrons Arts Center
Hey guys,
I will be performing at Abrons Arts Center with Armitage Gone! Dance. Our 2010/2011 season pretty much lives in this venue. But we will have our Joyce Season in late April/early May 2011. The company has been working hard for the past two weeks. We have a couple new dancers with us this season: Sean Hilton, Jarvis McKinley, and Sara Beery. Also, the fabulous Christina Johnson, former principal dancer at Dance Theater of Harlem, keeps us in shape everyday! She is our new permanent Ballet Mistress and Rehearsal Director.
Come support us if you can!
Love,
Benny
It takes four or five to tango
The first time I fell in love with tango it was at City Center in New York, arguably a hyper-stylized somewhat lyricized version danced by Julio Bocca and his Ballet Argentino - a sexy and whirlwind two hours called BoccaTango in which Julio partnered women, ladders, men and tables, all with equal eroticism.
The second time I fell in love with tango it was at Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires, the legendary coffee house on Avenida de Mayo with an intimate theater space toward the back where waiters seduce you with Piazzolla and cocktails as you watch a tango show at all hours of the night.
The third time I fell in love with tango it was in Vail, Colorado when I walked in on Natalia Hills and Gabriel Misse rehearsing an intense pas at two in the morning during a late-night lighting rehearsal onstage at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater.
Natalia Hills and Gabriel Misse dance as Damian Woetzel watches on during UpClose: The Art of Tango, as part of Vail International Dance Festival 2010. Photo by Erin Baiano.
All were dressed in black - though sometimes you saw a snatch of black tulle or fuschia chiffon in the wings - and the strains of accordion, piano and bandoneon seemed haunted in the deserted theater, during that strange and lonely part of the night when it’s neither evening nor morning. The effect was heightened by the pitch-black sky, illuminated by thousands of stars the likes of which seemed, in that moment, unique to the mountain. It was magic.
Along with their band and their troupe of dancers, all rehearsing for the next day’s premiere of Romper el Piso, they went until three in the morning even though they had an 11am call the next morning. These Argentinians are absolutely restless! That day, they had participated in UpClose: The Art of Tango, which was moderated by Damian. Other participants included SAB faculty member Suki Schorer - who has been in love with ‘Mr. Tango’ for 15 years, as Damian duly noted - and even Carla Korbes, who was in the audience and did an impromptu promenade with both Damian and Gabriel.
Suki Schorer, Damian Woetzel, Natalia Hills and Gabriel Misse speak at UpClose: The Art of Tango as part of Vail International Dance Festival 2010. Photo by Erica Sheftman.
Both Suki and Damian spoke of the differences between ballet and tango lying largely in the control of musicality and in the dynamic between the female and the male; Suki talked about the many years it had taken her to be okay with allowing the man to steer her and Damian observed that it was a good skill for any man to actually learn how to lead a woman. Natalia spoke - through a translator - of the passion and freedom of expression that tango intensifies, as well as of the closeness and trust that must exist between partners.
Romper el Piso dancers during UpClose: The Art of the Tango, as part of Vail International Dance Festival 2010. Photo by Erin Baiano.
Click here to watch Damian, Suki, Natalia, Gabriel and Carla at UpClose.
Vail audiences were so lucky to get an early insider’s glimpse at the world premiere of Romper el Piso. Some of it was excerpted at last year’s Fall for Dance at City Center, but the two-hour show was largely created for this year’s festival and featured Hills and Misse, as well as other duets, quartets, and sextets, endless costume changes and interludes like the hypnotizing live performance of Piazzolla’s Invierno Porteno.
Alastair Macaulay boldly announced in the New York Times that as evidenced in Vail, the partnership between Gabriel and Natalia is the most spellbinding in dance today… it seems our leading critic himself has been seduced.
Watch some of the premiere of Romper el Piso here, as well as an excerpt of Natalia and Gabriel here.
Damian Woetzel and Natalia Hills during UpClose: The Art of the Tango, as part of Vail International Dance Festival 2010. Photo by Erin Baiano.
