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Hello all! Sorry I haven’t posted for so long, but I’ve been so busy the past few months, and now I finally have a bit of time to sit down and write. The past few months have been a whirlwind!
Our last program of this season consisted of Square Dance, Sonatine, Tarantella and of course, our world premiere choreographed by Twyla Tharp, costumes by Issac Mizrahi and with new music by Elvis Costello - “Nightspot”. The piece featured a live band on stage with the dancers as well as a full orchestra in the pit.
(Photo courtesy of Joe Gato)
Working with Twyla Tharp was really quite something. At first when we started choreographing, we didn’t have the score from Elvis Costello yet, so she worked with the dancers and believe it or not, we did a lot of our choreography to the Gypsy King’s “Bamboleo!” It wasn’t until later in the year when she came back the 2nd time that she brought a tentative score with her and then we started setting the piece to Costello’s music. It was a bit difficult to imagine what the music was like because the score was put into a program, and a synthesized version was produced (which is what we heard and danced to until the week of the performance).
After our run of program 4, we continued on to wrap up our season with a few shows in Long Island, NY and Princeton NJ. The tour was wonderful, and the audience was very appreciative and responsive. We performed Raymonda Variations, Sonatine, Tarantella and In the Upper Room. I thought I was going to drop dead when I saw the performance casting go up as I was casted to dance Tarantella and then right into Upper Room!
(Tarantella, photo courtesy of Zou Yang)
(Jeanette Delgado and I, photo courtesy of Zou Yang).
We just arrived back in Miami today and we have a few days off before we start some early rehearsals for next season. The dancers are all excited to start working on “Our Show,” which is a show made, produced, and put on by the dancers. It gives us a chance to experiment with choreography (and choreographers) and to also perform different styles of dance if we wish to.
That’s all for now, however I do have last thing to add in - Miami City Ballet will be attending City Center for a week of performances at the end of January 2009!
