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.

Last Saturday night i attended an limited run at a new downtown art gallery called NIETO FINE ART who was hosting the works of San Francisco Ballet principal Ruben Martin. Everyone came out to the event that night to show Ruben some love and it was great to see a lot of the local dance scene all in one place because the rarely happens with everyone schedules. Interestingly come to find out a couple days before i had learned that we had a works in progress showing for the new show INK that im choreographing for. I thought we were showing in October but already we have gotten offers for spaces to host us so i put on my thinking cap real fast!

We have been in the space all week hacking away at new material which is nerve racking because i get kinda worried about one of us(me) knocking a painting off the wall which i could not afford but the director of the space is a really cool dude and likes what i have come up with thus far which is good because if that happens ill be like “Well…..its part of the work!”. Lets see how well that would fly with him:) The showing on the 19th is gonna be really neat for the viewers to watch because not only is there gonna be some great dancing that never stops but there will also be live music and painting all working under the theme of “INK” and how it flows. Such a simple idea with infinite possibilities and not one show will ever be the same with a rotating cast of dancers and musicians from all over.  Ohhhhhh, Alex is gonna be dancing a 10 min solo with 4 live percussionist so please wish her well because she was dead after the run yesterday.

Man of the hour Ruben Martin thumbs up at his showing.

view from the top

dancers working in the space trying not to hit anything.

Click here for some rehearsal footage of Chris Stuart from the Nashville Ballet and I working out some new movement.

Click here to “like” on FaceBook. Only if you “like” it though!

lator gators.

b

On Thursday night, Damian and Heather Watts (Damian’s wife and legendary NYCB ballerina) led Up Close: International Evenings of Dance. Up first were Carla Korbes and Royal Ballet soloist Eric Underwood in the central pas de deux from Balanchine’s Agon. Heather – or Professor Watts, as she is sometimes called after a too brief interlude on the Harvard faculty several years back when Damian was getting his degree at the Kennedy School – spoke not only about Balanchine’s personal history from the Ballets Russes to the New York City Ballet, but also about the origins of Agon.

Heather Watts and Albert Evans rehearse Carla Körbes of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Eric Underwood of The Royal Ballet in Agon. Choreography by George Balanchine. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Balanchine famously said that when you put a man and a woman on stage you already have a story; but what is not always acknowledged is the narrative power of putting a black man and a white woman together on stage in one of dance history’s most abstractly erotic dances during a time in America when racial separation, rather than symbiosis, was the rule. Thus Agon may be one of the abstract ballets but it is undoubtedly informed by the cultural politics of the time it was choreographed in – not only by the hyper-frenetic New York City of the Beat generation but also by the events at Little Rock and across the nation. The original casting of Arthur Mitchell and Diana Adams suggests the influence of this era on the ballet, if not in direct and purposeful rebellion than at least in some sort of subtle irony. So the pairing of Eric and Carla, with this knowledge, becomes even more striking; not to mention they are two of the most gorgeous people in ballet.

Carla Körbes of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Eric Underwood of The Royal Ballet rehearse Agon with Wendy Whelan and Albert Evans. Choreography by George Balanchine. © The George Balanchine Trust.

Damian spoke of the format of UpClose as conducive to creating footholds for the audience members, some of whom maybe be wholly unfamiliar with not just the history but also much of the choreography; it is so much more enjoyable to watch a performance and recognize musical and choreographical moments with more understanding and intelligent perspective. Heather, Carla and Eric worked on the famous sequence in which Carla is in a penchee and Eric drops to the ground on his back and promenades her as he lays on the floor; undoubtedly the public loved seeing it again on Saturday night and felt like privileged insiders when they got to see if Heather’s advice worked out for Carla and Eric…if it didn’t that might have been awkward but of course it did and Carla and Eric were nothing less than stunning in performance.

Carla Körbes of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Eric Underwood of The Royal Ballet rehearse the penchee from Agon. Choreography by George Balanchine. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

The audience also got to see Joaquin and Daniil rehearse the Chopins/Robbins duet that was last danced by Damian and ABT principal Ethan Stiefel at the Bolshoi years ago, and before that, never since 1979…Then Herman and Misa came on for some Don Quixote and the open rehearsal version of the Keigwin world premiere, Rock Steady - with Tiler, Joaquin, Robbie and Sokvanarra - closed the evening.

Misa Kuranaga of Boston Ballet and Herman Cornejo of American Ballet Theater rehearse Don Quixote Pas de Deux as part of UpClose: Stars of International Evenings of Dance.

The gala on Saturday night had been sold out for weeks and was a huge success. In the New York Times, Alastair Macaulay likened the two international programs to a mini UN of dance and there is probably no more apt way to describe it. Countries represented on stage included Argentina, Japan, Russia, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Spain, Cambodia, Brazil and the United States; companies represented included American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Keigwin + Company, Tangueros del Sur, the Royal Ballet and Royal Danish Ballet. I will never forget the rousing standing ovation for the three Ailey men- Clifton Brown, Jamar Roberts, and Matthew Rushing - at the end of Sinner Man; three such powerful guys with so much intensity and ferocity, even, in their movement…yet that same movement is also so warm and organic and provides moments of calm freedom in an otherwise feverish dance.

Clifton Brown of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival as Tiler Peck, Joaquin De Luz and Daniil Simkin watch on. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Don Quixote with Herman and Misa of course brought the house down as did Daniil in his gala fare solo, Les Bourgeois. He’s young and cute and that’s what makes his parody of cynical French nonchalance charming; of course the solo is also inflected with ridiculous virtuoso tricks that no one can match Daniil in. Here is a an excerpt from the performance.

Also, some footage of Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood in rehearsal for International Evenings of Dance; on Friday night they danced Wayne McGregor’s Limen and on Saturday night they danced Christopher Wheeldon’s Tryst. The two of them are capable of such lyrical plasticity and have gorgeous physical chemistry together; she is so angelic and frail, and he is quite the opposite- dark and powerful - and when they are together they are otherwordly.

Eric Underwood and Sarah Lamb of The Royal Ballet rehearse Tryst Pas de Deux. Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

After the performance, patrons and dancers danced and mingled until midnight at a tent flowing with champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, set up at the Betty Ford gardens. Memorable moments included Sarah sliding across the floor in her platforms Jackson-style, Keigwin/New York City Ballet dancers freestyling, and tango star Gabriel Misse leading a train through the tent, seducing men and women, and being the general Argentinian life of the party.

Saturday night’s international evenings of dance was punctuated by the special brand of live theatrical spontaneity that isn’t easily produced or replicated. Nothing has stopped festival performances this summer. Audiences huddle in parkas through thunderstorms, assembled together in bunches under rare umbrellas; dancers perform way above sea-level in the midst of the mountains, with oxygen masks resting on benches in the wings for use in rare pauses during pas de deuxs. On Saturday, Herman and Misa were to close the first half of the show with the second act pas de deux from Giselle; after a breathtaking opening pas de deux, Herman came on for his solo and was greeted instead with the closing coda music. He smoothly walked off but upon his return it was the same coda music. So the coda music played for a bit, and then Damian, who had run like I didn’t think was possible backstage after Herman’s first entrance, came onstage and announced that due to a technical mishap we would break for intermission. The whole thing was handled so smoothly and graciously that most of the audience weren’t positive anything was amiss. After the intermission, we saw Wendy in the Ratmansky solo, Fandango – the ending is unforgettable, a deep backbend on her knees with her arms flat on the ground behind her, chest  upward to her band of seven as the flamenco reaches a climax (watch for footage soon). Then Damian came back on to announce that Herman and Misa have generously insisted on dancing the opening pas de deux of Giselle once more to lead into Herman’s solo and ultimately, the coda. I was imagining this happening at the MET Opera House and concluded that NYC balletomanes would die happy if they got to see a Giselle encore and after reading this would probably pay off stagehands to pull a Tonya Harding and injure the forearm of the first violin or something to that effect. Herman and Misa are both so amiable and giving; all smiles, they kept repeating “It’s okay, it happens!” I was blown away by their artistic and tenchnical consistency; their second time around they were better than the first, and when Herman flew on with his unparalleled cabrioles everyone went wild. All were so poised and composed, especially Damian, ever the hero, who brilliantly turned the malfunction into a real dance event that the balletomanes would kill for.

Herman Cornejo of American Ballet Theatre and Misa Kuranaga of Boston Ballet rehearse Giselle at the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Misa Kuranaga of Boston Ballet and Herman Cornejo of American Ballet Theater perform Giselle. Photo by Erin Baiano.

And then Misa, as though she hadn’t just danced the Giselle pas de deux twice along with all its other constituents, came on with Daniil to deliver the most sensational Le Corsaire pas de deux I’ve seen since Noche Latina at ABT; thirty-two spot on fouettes with doubles and triples casually thrown in…it was unbelievable. Daniil as the slave is something I am sure we will be seeing for many years to come; he may be blond (cough cough) but is he fierce… I would say I’m well-versed in ballet vocabulary but I doubt if there are names for half the things he effortlessly throws in there.

Misa Kuranaga of Boston Ballet and Daniil Simkin of American Ballet Theater perform Le Corsaire Pas de Deux. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Other highlights of Night Two included Carla and Robbie Fairchild in the White Swan Pas de Deux, Sarah Lamb in the Dying Swan, Tiler and Joaquin in 3 Chopin Dances and an always ethereal Wendy with a fresh out of retirement Albert Evans in Wheeldon’s After the Rain. I loved this when Rachel Foster and Jeffrey Stanton danced it last week but there is nothing like Wendy in that soft pink leotard, her blonde hair keeping pace with the wind and the piano and her famously sculpted legs carving out the heartbeat of the music.

Carla Körbes of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Robert Fairchild of New York City Ballet in a White Swan lighting rehearsal during the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Wendy Whelan of New York City Ballet rehearses Fandango, the new Alexei Ratmansky ballet at the Vail International Dance Festival. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Afterwards, the entire cast gathered at Pazzo’s restaurant in Vail Village for pizza, pasta, salads and for some, shots. Lots of photos were taken, toasts were made, numbers exchanged. Around midnight most were shuttled back to the hotel to get some rest for their early flights; Herman, for example, was due to dance with Angel Corella’s company in Spain in the following forty-eight hours, and Daniil was soon en route to Japan where he is guesting with Tokyo Ballet.

Curtain call at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Heroes all around.

Stay tuned for more about closing night, with Gabriel and Natalia leading Romper el Piso, as well as more video and photo footage/reportage from International Evenings of Dance and UpClose: Tango with Damian, Natalia, Gabriel and Suki Schorer. And don’t forget about the hundreds of photos on the Vail Valley Foundation Flickr.

Erica

Hi Wingers!!

It’s been a long time now! I promise it’s not because I have been lazy!! We have been SOOOOOOOOO busy making this new work that I became totally saturated! It is just about finished now after nearly a year (WOW!). The title of the piece is “Toward Home” and it involves the 8 dancers of SYREN, and 7 musicians of Steeplechase Arts & Productions who are playing a completely original score composed by Damon Ferrante. It’s been a wild journey to say the least, but I am thrilled, and a bit in awe, of how it’s all coming together!

Here is a little video about the process: click here!

The show goes up for it’s premiere on Wednesday August 18th at the beautiful Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY. It’s interesting to be performing in the Hamptons! We will be back to NYC very soon, but we are enjoying getting ready to share the work with the great, enthusiastic crowd out there!

Below are some pictures from an open rehearsal we did at Ballet Tech a couple months back when we were still in the thick of creating this baby. It was a fun day where we shared a bunch of the piece and had a Q&A after with the students and faculty.

Hope to see you all soon!
If you are near the Hamptons, come join us for the premiere!
“Toward Home”
Wednesday August 18th at 8pm
www.smarttix.com

And all about SYREN news and events here:
www.syrendance.org

Thanks so much! Hope you are all doing great during this busy summer season!

Carla Korbes, Daniil Simkin and Joaquin de Luz in class with Artistic Director Damian Woetzel for the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival on 8.2.10. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Herman Cornejo arrived late last night from Madrid, directly from a performance with Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon, and was greeted with a hot dinner, chocolate and a Heineken. Today he will rehearse with Boston Ballet principal dancer Misa Kuranaga; other than a week of rehearsal at the ABT studios at 890 Broadway in NYC, they have never danced together before but have always had the one degree of separation in Herman’s sister, Boston Ballet principal dancer Erica Cornejo. They are so perfectly matched physically and stylistically and I am so excited to see them dance the Act Two Pas de Deux from Giselle as well as the Wedding Pas de Deux from Don Quixote. Yesterday, Misa was in the studios choosing between three different versions of Kitri’s solo music; that opening with the pique arabesque into the glissade and saute de chat is intense if the music is too fast but she chose to stick with it as she’s done it in the past. Daniil and Joaquin rehearsed their Robbins/Chopin duet; I think they bring out the best in each other, a very thrilling sort of competitiveness and comraderie. Daniil and Misa will also dance the Pas de Deux from Le Corsaire; they are both two of the most ridiculous virtuosos today and are also dancing together for the first time. It’s been too fun watching all the guys outdoing each other and fooling around at the back of the stage… where else can you see all of them share a stage performing works from Bournonville and Petipa to Wheeldon and MacGregor?

Yesterday I also got a chance to see the two huge world premieres slated for International Evenings of Dance. The solo choreographed for Wendy by American Ballet Theatre Resident Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky is set to a brilliant flamenco score that brings out Wendy’s earthy fluidity. I remember Ratmansky’s last ballerina piece d’occasion- a tour de force for ABT ballerina Nina Ananiashvili in her farewell season set to Khachaturian’s “Waltz Masquerade” in which she jeteed back and forth across the stage and tempted each of her former star partners at ABT. That was something I will never forget and I am so excited to see a special partnership with another brilliant ballerina come to fruition again. I also got to see Tiler, Joaquin, Robbie and Sy Sar rehearse Larry Keigwin’s Aretha Franklin ballet, now called Rock Steady.  There is so much chemistry between Tiler and those three guys and its such a sassy, sexy romp; I hope it will have a long life beyond the festival because it’s hard to imagine having more fun watching a piece.

Joaquin de Luz and Tiler Peck in rehearsals for Larry Keigwin's Rock Steady at the Vail International Dance Festival on 8.2.10. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Stay tuned for video of Daniil, Misa, Wendy, Joaquin, Robbie, Sy, Tiler and Royal Ballet dancers Eric Underwood and Sarah Lamb in rehearsal.

Tuesday night was one of the most exciting nights at the Amphitheater, Dance for $20.10; every Pavillion seat was $20 and every Lawn seat was $10. One thing that I have really admired about this festival is the emphasis on education and outreach that has been instituted. Before each performance Damian speaks to the audience about each of the works to be performed. Tuesday evening featured a kaleidescopic array of dance from Balanchine’s Who Cares?, danced effervescently by Tiler and Robbie, to Black Swan Pas de Deux danced by Carla and PNB Principal Karel Cruz, to Larry Keigwin himself and partner Ashley Browne in an excerpt from Love Songs and a surprise appearance by tango stars Gabriel Misse and Natalia Hills. We were taken from New York to Buenos Aires, from Imperial Russia to contemporary US of A and provided context for each shift. 

Speaking of geographical shifts, BeijingDance/LTDX, led by Artistic Director Willy Tsao, took the stage on Wednesday night; the company became, in 2005, China’s first professional dance company founded independently from the government and has quickly grown into a pioneer of cutting edge choreography. Artist in Residence Sang Jijia created the world premiere of Solitude in Numbers for the festival. The program note read, “You don’t need to be alone to be lonely” and Damian seized the moment to make the apt observation that this was the first visit to America for most BeijingDance/LTDX members. Liu Bin and Song Tingting’s piece October, set to Tchaikovsky’s emotional piece of the same name, was very moving, but I think the heart of the evening was All River Red, set to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” Having studied the 1913 premiere at the Theatre Chatelet in Paris in a Russian Avant-Garde class at school, it was really fascinating to see this music employed to suggest not historical Slavic ritual and pagan sacrifice but rather violent oppression in 20th century China, through largely parallel patterns of narrative progression and similarly primitive, earthy and primal movement. And that incredible music in that setting…you feel it in your bones in a way that maybe only the Parisians did when they rioted inside the theater in 1913.

BeijingDance/LTDX rehearses as part of Vail International Dance Festival. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

I’ve now been transported to the Vail Mountain School where the Argentinian imports playing in the band for Romper el Piso are rehearsing my favorite tango in the world, “Invierno Porteno” by Astor Piazzolla. I can sit here and listen to this forever…there is nothing as seductive as the bandoneon….but in two hours we will be taking Natalia and Gabriel to a radio interview at the theater, after which the first Up Close (Stars of International Evenings of Dance) will commence.And finally, a video montage of Pacific Northwest Ballet - with some surprise guests - in class and in rehearsal for Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements and Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels:

Thank you, PNB!

Until later,

Erica

I knew that the weather would be somewhat menacing and I was a bit concerned about how the Celebrate the Beat kids would fare that night, opening for Pacific Northwest Ballet in their Broadway tribute. The festival had provided each child with two vouchers for lawn seating, and I was terrified that all those parents who had waited weeks to see their kids perform for the first time would drown in a torrential downpour and swear off dance forever (…ultimately quite the opposite). So a bit apprehensively I went on my way to the amphitheater on Sunday and resolved to spend as much time inside as possible, getting everything ready for the children.

I was going backstage when I heard the strains of a violin playing Arvo Part’s “Spiegel im Spiegel.” There are a few pieces of music that always make me cry; this is one. Of course I dropped everything and ran to the stage. There, PNB Soloist Rachel Foster and Principal Jeffrey Stanton had just begun to rehearse Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain Pas de Deux. Before my eyes the wind grew more and more forceful, the trees behind the two swayed with the rhythm of the breeze, and every strain of the violin was suddenly complemented with this haunting swoosh. Rachel’s hair billowed in the wind every time Jeffrey rocked her in his arms in those carousel-like spinwheels. There were about twenty people in the audience and you could hear a pin drop. As Rachel and Jeffrey stood facing each other motionlessly, Jeffrey gave her a silent kiss on the forehead and I heard the first bolt of lightning. Then the thunder came. No one dared move. The downpour had instantaneously become so strong that it was hard to hear the violin, but magically and very naturally it became a necessary extension of the music. As they lay on the floor at the end, a final clap of thunder resounded in the mountains, and all I could make out on the faces around me was otherwordly awe.

Rachel Foster and Jeffrey Stanton of Pacific Northwest Ballet rehearse After The Rain during the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Here is a video I compiled of those unforgettable moments:

PNB Rehearses ‘After the Rain’ in a Thunderstorm

In summary: weather hasn’t stopped the dance. Yesterday at the performance of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, all audience members with lawn tickets were upgraded to regular seats. I would even venture to say that the thunder only heightened the drama. A ballet needn’t have a name like After the Rain to benefit from some precipitation; Paul Taylor’s Promethean Fire is a lesson in atmospheric dance. Dancers shot up into the sky to Bach’s “Prelude” and it was as though thunder was written into the score. What an exhilirating and passionate performance by all the Paul Taylor dancers; it was justly rewarded by one of the most instantaneous standing ovations I’ve observed here yet. Promethean Fire was preceded by Company B and Piazzolla Caldera - lucky for me as The Andrews Sisters’ “Bei Mir Bist Du Schein” and Astor Piazzolla’s “Michelangelo 70″ top ninety percent of my On-the-Go playlists. Company B evokes the vibrations of the 1940s as America was drawn into the Second World War; my favorite section is still “Rum and Coca-Cola” which was danced with so much instinctual charm. Piazzolla Caldera got me really excited for the tango program next week, Romper el Piso, brought here by Natalia Hills and Gabriel Misse from Buenos Aires. When I was 16 I traveled to Buenos Aires with my parents and fell in love with the tango- my mom and I spent 6 nights straight at tango clubs then, so I am very excited for the public milonga in the Betty Ford Gardens on Saturday, led by Natalia and Gabriel.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company performs "Promethean Fire" at the Vail International Dance Festival. Photo by Erin Baiano.

Several PNB dancers are still in the house for either International Evenings of Dance or Tuesday’s $20.10 program, which will feature a range of dances from Black Swan Pas de Deux to Balanchine’s Who Cares? PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal has remained in Vail with his six dancers who will perform this week; this morning he taught company class on stage, which was joined by several of the dancers who have already arrived to prepare for the gala, including American Ballet Theatre Soloist Daniil Simkin. PNB had a fantastic residency; I loved watching Damian coach PNB Principal Lucien Postlewaite as Riff in ‘Cool’ from West Side Story Suite and I could watch millions of interpretations of Tharp’s ‘That’s Life’ section from Nina Sinatra Songs. Corps dancer Carli Samuelson’s fuschia tulle dress in “Forget Domani” was gorgeous and I’ve been listening to “One for my Baby (and One More for the Road)” on repeat for the past two days. I’m beginning to think that all ballet should be seen only in the mountains.

Damian Woetzel coaches Lucien Postlewaite of Pacific Northwest Ballet in "Cool" from West Side Story Suite. Choreography by Jerome Robbins. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Check back for a video montage of PNB in class and in rehearsal.

Olivier Wevers and Carla Körbes of Pacific Northwest Ballet rehearse Duo Concertant during the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Choreography by George Balanchine. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi.

Lastly, School of American Ballet (SAB) Faculty Member Suki Schorer arrived on Sunday and taught two morning master classes for dancers in the Vail area. Suki was my teacher at SAB for five years and I never in a million years could have believed that I would take her class once more.The dancers loved Suki’s Mr. B anecdotes- i.e. the $10 note in between a dancer’s thighs to ensure that the fifth position stayed nice and compact back in the days when a $10 bill actually amounted to something - and now there’s word Suki might teach company class this week. She’s also been dancing the tango  - in New York and in Buenos Aires - for over a decade and will be joining Natalia and Gabriel at the Up Close: Tango rehearsal this Saturday.

Oh yes- Wendy Whelan, officially landed and checked-in. So looking forward to seeing her in After the Rain again…

That’s all for now, check back soon! Remember to check the Vail Valley Foundation YouTube Channel/Vail Internation Dance Festival Playlist for lots more performance footage, as well as the Flickr channel for photos from the resident photographers, Caitlin Kakigi and Erin Baiano.

Erica

The Winger calls. I am stepping out of longtime lurkdom to document some of what is going to be a whirlwind two and a half weeks in Vail, CO at the 2010 incarnation of the Vail International Dance Festival, spearheaded by Winger blogger, and Festival Artistic Director Mr. Damian Woetzel. Damian has been shuttling back and forth between all the different (gorgeous) venues around here and confirming that everyone is settled with piano accompaniment, studio space, rehearsal time, smooth check-ins, etc., so I’m here to provide some running commentary.

ABOUT ME:

Erica Sheftman, 20. Former School of American Ballet student (‘99-‘08), Fiorello H. Laguardia HS grad, current Harvard undergrad and festival intern.

My first intern experience was helping to register close to seventy elementary students for Celebrate the Beat!, a dance workshop initiated by Jacques d’Amboise with an annual summer residency at the festival. Directed by the amazing Tracy Straus, the week-long program culminates in a special presentation by CTB dancers this Sunday, August 1 at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, Vail’s stunning outdoor amp housed amidst the Gore range of the Rockies and the beautiful Betty Ford Alpine Gardens.

The kids will open for Pacific Northwest Ballet, in their “Broadway, Ballet and Beyond” program, featuring The Winger’s Carla Korbes in Benjamin Millepied’s 3 Movements and Mr. B’s Duo Concertante, as well as Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain Pas de Deux, Robbins’ “Cool” from West Side Story Suite, and my personal favorite, Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs. In tribute to the ballyhoo of Broadway, the kids are rehearsing a group dance to a medley of Leonard Bernstein and Marvin Hamlisch, among others; they shuffle between A Chorus Line and West Side Story as though they’d been born doing it, they mambo like nobody’s business. It’s hard to believe that some of them have been dancing for only four days, and all of them are high-kicking to One (singular sensation) for the first time in their lives. It’s been so inspiring to have the kids run to class out of breath in the morning and to watch them feel more and more at ease with abandoning themselves to impulse.

 
Watch The Video

 Savion Glover and Eddie Palmieri, along with their respective ensembles Bare Soundz and The Otherz, opened the festival this past Tuesday. I’d seen Glover perform once at ABT’s Opening Night Gala at the MET Opera House, preceding Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca in Roland Petit’s Carmen Pas De Deux; it was an altogether different experience this time around at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. The interplay between Glover and Palmieri was unbelievable; they fed off of each other, and undoubtedly the air of the place was inspiring. People dancing and popping champagne, cooled in ice buckets, on the lawn; the occasional vehicle and the less frequent mosquito; the suspense of an impending thunderstorm and a final champagne reception with “Empire State of Mind” reverberating through the mountains….it’s a one-of-a-kind experience. There’s nothing like it. 

Savion Glover, Eddie Palmieri, Bare Soundz and The Otherz rehearse at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater during the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Photo credit: Caitlin Kakigi

On Wednesday, I watched Damian rehearse NYCB principals Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz in a suite of Chopin/Robbins dances, including excerpts from Other Dances, Dances at a Gathering, and a piece originated by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride that hasn’t been seen since 1979, but was filmed live for the well-known “Baryshnikov at the White House” telecast. The last time I saw Other Dances was at NYCB in 2008, when Julie Kent joined Damian in it as a guest in his farewell season, so I loved watching him demonstrate once more. Damian spoke a lot about Robbins; his specialized form of cool nonchalance and reticence in musicality, in movement, and in gesture….

Tiler Peck and Joaquin De Luz rehearse at the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Photo credit: Caitlin Kakigi

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Pacific Northwest Ballet arrived late on Wednesday night, and was already in the studio on Thursday morning. Artistic Director Peter Boal taught company class, which was combined with the dancers rehearsing Larry Keigwin’s Aug. 6 world premiere (set to Aretha Franklin!): Peck, De Luz, NYCB Principal Robbie Fairchild, and Sokvannara Sar (of Dancing Across Borders). VIDF staff finally loaded-in the amphitheater following the NY Philharmonic’s residency (lots of us went to hear Andrey Boreyko conduct selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet; Boreyko closed with an encore of the Garland Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty that had all of us ballet nerds doing balancés on the lawn). PNB company class took place onstage at the Amphitheater and dancers rehearsed Balanchine’s Square Dance and Serenade, and Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels.

Peter Boal teaches PNB company class at VIDF 2010; Carla Korbes, pictured. Photo by Caitlin Kakigi

Finally, on Thursday night, Larry and Damian led more than one hundred spectators at the Arrabelle Square in Lionshead Village in Fosse’s Rich Man’s Frug at what has become a traditional VIDF event, “Dancing in the Streets.” Afterwards, Damian, Larry and his dancers broke it down to some Gaga, Beyonce, and yes, some “Empire State of Mind”. Lots of the Celebrate the Beat kids were in attendance; they got to fouetté and put a ring on it with some of the leading dance stars in the country. 

Artistic Director Damian Woetzel and Artist-in-Residence Larry Keigwin led Dancing in the Streets, a free, interactive evening of dance during the 2010 Vail International Dance Festival. Photo credit: Caitlin Kakigi

 
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When I was 14 years old I attended my very first summer program with San Francisco Ballet School, and ever since then I knew that one day I would dance with this beautiful company. At 16, I came to the San Francisco Ballet School for the year-round program and had many wonderful experiences. It was the first time I stepped onto the opera house stage with the company in both Nutcracker and Giselle. I performed the leading role for the school in John Neumeier’s “Yondering” for the 75^th anniversary gala, and I received wonderful training throughout the year that helped shape me during my final days in school.

At the end of my year with the San Francisco Ballet School I chose to join John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet in Germany. I spent one year there and am forever grateful for everything they gave me. John, his ballets, his staff, and his dancers have forever shaped who I am as an artist.

Now here I am, writing to you before the start of my second season with San Francisco Ballet! I officially joined in July 2009 and had an incredible first season with the company.

I flew to San Francisco the day after Hamburg ballet had its final performance. I allowed myself to rest for one day in order to recover from the jet lag, and I had my first day as a company member with SFB the next morning. It was a very easy transition because for my first two weeks with SFB it felt as though I had never left Hamburg - John Neumier, Kevin Haigen, Leslie McBeth, Niurka Moredo, and Lloyd Riggins were all in San Francisco to set “The Little Mermaid”. It was terrific because it felt as though everyone from Hamburg came with me! I had also done many performances of “The Little Mermaid” with Hamburg Ballet so I felt very comfortable with the ballet as well. I really couldn’t have asked for a better transition.

While I would love to go into detail about all of my experiences during my first year with SFB I’m sure you all do not want to read a novel so I will do my best to sum things up.

My first year was filled with some marvelous moments and I am so grateful for all of them. From the “off season” rehearsals, to the tour in China, as well as the entire season– even up until the very last day! There are countless moments that I will never forget. I’m getting extremely excited for my second season to start on July 5^th and I plan to write much more this following year so keep an eye out for more blog entries!

Heres a quick time lapse that I made with visual artist and collaborator Daniel Diaz-Tai using ink and water plus a digital camera.We are starting a new collabo together for a concert dance piece. The challenge for me is to use the movement of the Inks as a guide to movement vocabulary. As you watch this clip think about all of the numerous possibilities. With that said…. Not sucking would be the hugest concern for me because it would be too easy to go off the deep end on a project like this. Currently we are in the first phase of the project and I’m work shopping material with a couple dancers as a sort of “Blue Print” because this project will have me using the largest cast that i have ever worked with before. Im looking forward to rising up to the occasion and soooo stoked on this!

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