San Francisco Ballet is jumping into the world of new media
I’m very excited to share a new section of San Francisco Ballet’s website that is dedicated strictly to new media!
http://www.sfballet.org/interact/index.asp
I believe that new media is a wonderful way for the ballet world to connect and I’m very happy to be part of a company that is exploring everything new media has to offer. Within this new section you can find videos, pictures, blogs, podcasts, and more. I would definitely suggest you check it out!
At The Ballet
This summer I’ve shot everything from angry water creatures to the occasional roadside seductress, but the one thing I didn’t shoot much of during my time in Montana is what I spend most of my time shooting in New York: dance. That all changed yesterday when I did a promo shoot for one of the local studios with a few of the most senior girls and a few of the youngest. It was an exciting challenge and I’m more pleased with the results than expected.
Vail 1st Three Days Photos
Here are a few of my favorites:
Chris at work. Photo by Caitie Kakigi
Savion. Photo by Rex Keep.
Celebrate the Beat education program kids Photo by Caitie Kakigi.
Morphoses rehearsal- Tiler Peck and Ed Watson Photo by Caitie Kakigi.
Miami City Ballet just landed, they’re next onstage with an all Balanchne program on Saturday. Serenade outside under the moon… yes!
Damian
Paris in Spring
Our week long engagement of Martha Graham Dance Company at the Theare du Chatelet ended last Saturday evening. It was a wonderful run for the company and for Parisiennes.
Cherry Blossom over Notre Dame
It was a perfect season for visiting Paris. Flowers are blooming, it was warmer than NY and no rain( except 1 day)!!!
We left Saturday night, arrived on Sunday afternoon. It was “Easter Sunday”. In France, following Monday is also a national holiday. So our day off was a holiday… that means NO SHOPPING… well museums are open! Some of us went Rodin Museum, Picasso Museum, Luvre… you name it. It’s all there so which ever you pick, you will have tremendous time. That is Paris!
For me, it was a day to see few of my friends. So I had nice time with my friends, walked Marais area to Montparnasse where we stayed( Hotel Concorde Montparnasse). Passed Notre Dame, Jardin de Luxemburg, cafe…
On Tuesday, our heavy days are starting.
Company class, Dress rehearsal and the opening performance. We started at 10:30am.By the time we finish the day, it was 10:30pm. It was a sold out performance!
The last time we were here was 1991, we danced at Paris Opera Theatre, Garnier. So it has been 18years…actually we were here in 1994 or 95 at out door performance at Palais Royal. So not that long ago I guess but still more than 10 years?
We opened with “Errand into the Maze” beautiful music by Menotti, and set design by Isamu Noguchi. I recently read Isamu’s biography(?) by Japanese woman. I wished that when I met him back then, that I knew he could speak Japanese… so I could ask him a lot of things in Japanese… Oh well…
Second was ” Divirsion of Angels” music by Norman Dello Joio. This ballet has three acpects of Love which indicate the color of white, red and yellow.
There was a trail color film by Kodac, moving film with color and first trial was MG’s “Lamentation”. It was not a complete ballet but appear as her study of this ballet. Janet Eilber, who is the artistc director of MGDC had a concept that choreographer inspired by this particular film to creat new works for MGDC is called ” Lamentation Variations”.For the first time, we had Richard Move, Aszure Barton and Larry Keigwin from New York. They each had 10 hours of reheasrsal time and use public domain music and casual attire for the costume. I was involved with Larry’s and Aszure’s pieces. Very different approach. I will need to write about this experience later as an entry.
then forth was “Cave of the Heart”. I danced Medea, who were heart broken by her husband Jason to take a young princess as his new wife. Beautiful music by Barber, set by Isamu. I danced a role, the Daughter of the King, now called Princess. Originally created for Yuriko, who taught me when I was casted to dance this role. I did not learn from video. Yuriko talks about when Martha told her about making this ballet,
” Yuriko,this dance is about Medea and her husband, Jason, and he will leave Medea to marry this young, beautiful princess. This whole story is about what jealousy can do to a woman. Then character you will portray, the princess , is pure, very innocent, not tained in anyway. She has no malicious feelings towards anyone/anything, and does not suspect anything. Medea is going to try and kill her. You do not see her as a dangerous person, you gesture - do that to me in a very inoccent way. The princess is very beautiful but she does not realize her beauty and she loves Jason blindly and totally and does not know the background that has taken place between Medea and Jason.”( Yuriko an American Japanese Dancer: To Wash in the Rian and Polish with the Wind/ by Emiko Tokunaga )
I remember Yuriko told me how innocent you could be, that makes Medea’s Jealousy stands out. It is a dance of 4 charactor and each of us has such a role to complete this work. and to me, this work is full Dance/Drama work. Has prologue, story and epilogue. And to dance Medea, I could get lost in dance, which I started to experience when I danced in “Deaths and Entrances”.
Then the last ballet was the last ballet that Martha created and completed,” Maple Leaf Rag”. Music by Jopplin, famous rag time music. When Martha gets stock with her creation, she used to call “Louis, play me the Maple Leaf Rag”. So this dance starts with that. We have MG’s voice, everytime I hear it, that makes me smile. Actually when she was working on the ballet ” Eyes of Goddess” she got stock and could not go on. Then we had a tour to Charleston, SC where she found Juggling Boad. SO she shipped it to NY then immediately we started to work with it. In the beggining, I thought it was for “Eyes of Goddess” and how we can put this boad( actually a big bench) on the stage? But I realized it is a new ballet!!! Oh well it was! We did many different things on it, under it or standing on it… many things. It started to form the piece, and finished very quickly. and it was her own ballets’ parody. She can make fun of her self in the end of her own life!!! That is amazing.
And that was our opening of Paris, Theatre du Chatelet. Of course I have more to share.
But What happened to NY Spring???
Eiffel Tower in the dusk
La Bayadere by Luis Ortigoza Ballet de Santiago rehearsal
Ballet de Santiago open the season 2009 with LA BAYADERE, Luis Ortigoza choreography. The premiere was in 2007 and after big success Marcia Haydée the Ballet de Santiago artistic director, choose La Bayadere to begin the celebration of the 50 years of the Ballet de Santiago.
- Luis Ortigoza Principal Star and The Bayadere choreographer
The Shades II act Ballet de Santiago
The Shades II Act Ballet de Santiago.
Lidia Olmos and Luis Ortigoza Ballet de Santiago
Marcela Goicoechea Principal Star Ballet de Santiago.
The Shades II Act Ballet de Santiago.
Luis Ortigoza
The Shades II Act Ballet de Santiago
The Fakir I Act Ballet de Santiago.
Luis Ortigoza Ballet de Santiago.
The Shades II Act Ballet de Santiago.
Marcela Goicoechea.
Luis Ortigoza.
The Shades Ballet de Santiago.
The Shades Ballet de Santiago.
Ballet de Santiago.
Ballet de Santiago.
Luis Ortigoza Ballet de Santiago.
La Bayadere Backstage 1 - Coreografía Luis Ortigoza - Ballet de
LA BAYADERE by Luis Ortigoza - Ballet de Santiago - Dirección Artística Marcia Haydée.
La Bayadere Backstage - Coreografía Luis Ortigoza - Ballet de Santiago
In the Studio: Cedar Lake
Last week I had the pleasure of photographing one of my absolute favorite companies: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. At the moment, the company is preparing for an upcoming full-length work titled Orbo Novo, which is being choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. The piece, from what I’ve seen, is a spectacular mix of spoken word and incredibly challenging movement, which the company is tackling with their usual thrilling abandon. I had such a great time photographing these dancers, and I thought I’d share a few of the images with The Winger readers! You can check out more of my photography here.
(Jubal Battisti)
(Jon Bond, Ebony Williams, and Jaime Rodney)
(Sabra Johnson)
(Oscar Ramos and Manuel Vignoulle)
(Jon Bond)
(Harumi Terayama)
(Jason Kittelberger)
(Jason Kittelberger)
(Soojin Choi)
(Ana-Maria Lucaciu and Jason Kittelberger)
(Christopher Adams, Golan Yosef, and Soojn Choi)
(Golan Yosef)
(Acacia Schachte)
(Ana-Maria Lucaciu and Acacia Schachte)
(Jason Kittelberger)
Ballet Austin - Hamlet 3
It was recently brought to my attention that I had promised to post photos of my husband and I in Hamlet. I don’t often have a hard time sharing what is going on in my dancing life, but I do have a hard time talking about myself. Often we are our own worst critics and in an artform that we can never perfect we can always find room for improvement and things to “nit pick”. This is probably why I have been delaying posting these, but here they are!
I think for both my husband and I, Hamlet is the highlight of our career, to date. This might sound cheesy, but truly all the blood, sweat, and tears during the years of training, trying to get a job, and trying to find my place within that job were all worth it in this singular fleeting moment. Never before have I felt so complete as a dancer and as an artist. The fact that I got to share that experience with my husband was the icing on the cake.
Now it’s over, and we’ve moved on to the next thing. But I’m choosing to ride this high for a while….
(all the performance photos are thanks to Tony Spielberg!!)
Paul and I in our Act I Pas de Deux
Paul, Act I Scene 3
Paul and I, Act I Scene 5
Me, Paul, and Chris Swaim, Act I Scene 5
My drowning scene at the end of Act I
Paul with Aara Krumpe as Gertrude
Paul and Johnstuart Winchell as Laertes at the end of Act II
Paul and I post-performance with the people that make it all happen: Executive Director Cookie Ruiz and Artistic Director Stephen Mills
Paul and I with the other people that make it all happen: our familes post-performance with the Long Center in the background.
Ballet Austin - Studio Theater Project
This weekend and last we’ve been busy at Ballet Austin putting on our “Studio Theater Project”. Performing in our Austin Ventures Studio Theatre (that seats approximately 280) is a very intimate experience, for performers and audience alike. It’s a short program with just two ballets: Nicolo Fonte’s “Left Unsaid” and Stephen’s new work for us “Songs of Innuendo”.
“Songs of Innuendo” (which I don’t have a picture to share… yet) is set to the music of Ray Charles, James Brown, Nina Simone, and others is a blast to dance. In contrast, Nicolo’s “Left Unsaid” is set to Bach. These two pieces, both with two casts, give us a great variety of things to do over the two week performance period.
Always unable to simply leave my camera at home, and with a couple fully capable photographers in house, I decided to experiment. Nicolo, among other things, often spoke of the dynamic changes in the work. I wondered if I could find a way to express these changes photographically, so one rehearsal I played around with prolonged exposures. I tried to find moments where a dancer might sustain a moment before jetting out of it.
I’m not usually one for blurry dancing photos, but I thought some of them were fun:
Paul Michael Bloodgood in "Left Unsaid"
Ashley Lynn and Ed Carr
Ashley Lynn and Ed Carr
Frank Shott and Allisyn Paino
Paul Michael Bloodgood and Ed Carr
Allisyn Paino and Ashley Lynn
Ashley Lynn and Allisyn Paino
Aara Krumpe, Paul Michael Bloodgood (foreground) with Allisyn Paino and Frank Shott (background)
If you’re in Austin, come check the Studio Theater Project out!
My own choreographic plunge
Attempting to conjure up my own choreographic concepts has been something on my mind for several years now. Often times, while listening to music, I would find myself visualizing dance movement inspired by that music. I have finally taken the plunge and have made my first real ballet that will premiere tonight as part of the Columbia Ballet Collaborative at the Miller Theatre (116th and Broadway). It’s just a short pas de deux—barely anything, really—a dance for two of my closest friends who have generously donated their time and energy towards making my ideas a reality (which I am eternally grateful for).
The music I chose to use is an interesting work for a string section, composed by Joby Talbot and inspired by the music of Jack White of the White Stripes. I felt that this would be a good musical selection given the college audience. Hopefully many of them will recognize and relate to the subtleties of White’s music intertwined in Talbot’s string arrangement. So my intentions for the pas de deux was to make something inspired by the intensity and distortion of the music. I wanted to, above anything else, maintain my respects to the classical dance line & technique, while interjecting my own style of movement into the mix. In the end, the piece became a 5-minute sprint towards a non-existent finish line, a competition between two dancers with limbs for days.
Whether the piece is actually bad or good is another story; what’s of value to me is that I took the plunge and created my first ballet work.
Teresa Reichlen and Russell Janzen (photo by Gwyneth Muller)
Columbia Ballet Collaborative – Broadway at 116th St. 212-854-7799. April 3-4 at 8:00 pm
