Archive for city
August 20, 2008 at 12:47 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, dance event, KATE, manhattan, art, modern, city, new york, nyc, mercecunningham, new york city, abt, choreographer, modern dance, contemporary dance, new york dance, companies, city center, dance culture, dance companies, american balet theatre, KATE-M, SYREN, kate mehan, chroeographer, SYREN modern dance
This is one of the posters starting appear around the city (this one at 5th Ave N/R/W train stop). This is a great event at City Center (all tickets $10!!!) The shows are in Sept. Everything from Shen Wei, ABT, Cunningham, to Oregon Ballet Theater and much much more. A great mix, the right price, and a SUPERB venue. One of these days, we hope SYREN will get on the bill! In the meantime, we are enthusiastic supporters.
Check it out!
http://www.citycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=3775
www.syrendance.org
Recent Posts by kate mehan
September 6, 2007 at 3:49 pm · Filed under backstage, dance, lincoln center, video, DAVID, 890 broadway, japan, city, nyc, dancebloggers, paris, abt, broadway, blogging, american ballet theatre, MATTHEW, matthew murphy
I’ve been sitting at my computer for a few tense hours minutes trying to think of a way to introduce myself on The Winger. Even though I’ve been blogging on my own site for a while now, for some reason I was struck with a bit of writers block when it came time to post here. I’d like to take a minute to thank Kristin for letting me join her growing global family (and even out the Lincoln Center scales a LITTLE.) You see, it was because of Kristin’s website that I began taking blogging seriously. David had mentioned it to me when he became interested and other than a few random (and slightly pathetic) MySpace blogs about my feelings, I hadn’t spent much time blogging before I came across this lovely site.
So after a few minutes of writers block, it hit me that I still hadn’t responded to a fellow blogger’s (Winger regular Tonya) tag to share 8 Interesting Facts About Myself. “Interesting” is a quite generic and loose word which almost automatically makes my facts look boring, but I’ll give it a try. Perhaps it will give readers a chance to get to know me (as if “Ranting Details” isn’t personal enough) before I start blogging up a storm here!
1. I am extremely proud of my Montana upbringing.
There are very few dancers that hail from Big Sky country, and even though I was born in New York City, I still consider myself a Montanan at heart. I spent my formative years there before heading off to High School at NCSA and made life long friends that I miss more with each passing day. On top of genuinely nice people, crazy wildlife (we would often have bears walking through my neighborhood), and INCREDIBLE scenery, how often do you get to see a sunset like this?!
2. The only other place I can see myself living soon is Paris.
After visiting Europe for the first time in February (fellow Winger Evan even visited our class), I immediately decided I would live in Paris at some point in my life. The architecture is incredible, the art is overwhelming and the croissants…well, I could live on them (in fact I did which is perhaps why I got mono.)
3. I’m also oddly obsessed with Japan.
My first trip out of the country was with ABT when we went to Japan a few summers ago and it was life changing. Much of Japan feels like being in the heart of Times Square except in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Everything is so overwhelming, from the mobs of people to the neon lights. I ended up having a rather Asian themed apartment and have a “wall of crap” that contains MANY Japanese toys. One of my favorite posters is an old Japanese movie poster I bought right by these incredible lotus lily pads (?) pictured below. I will always have a special place in my heart for Japan and will never forget wandering around completely lost in the winding streets. We also had an infamous night at a club called GasPanic on our last night in Tokyo, where we didn’t get back to the hotel until 5am. The subways shut down at midnight and don’t open until 5am so we just kept exploring. Too many memories to share in one post.
4. I am constantly in awe of my family.
Being in a family of artists can be difficult at times but I realize I would NEVER be where I am without my family. My father was an actor, my mother a dancer and they both teach now. My sister is also an INCREDIBLE tap dancer (pictured with me below.) All of them push me to reach for more in my art and look beyond the regular and for that I’m eternally thankful.
5. I’m a TOTAL musical theater dork.
Perhaps the most embarrassing fact about me, but true nonetheless. Instead of Sesame Street, I listened to Sondheim as a child and would kill to have dinner with him. One of my favorite things to do in the city is go see shows and prove to people that musical theater isn’t always fluffy nonsense (although a lot of times it is and what’s wrong with that?!) Fortunately, some of my best friends go to school at University of Michigan for Musical Theater so I will get to watch them on stage soon. The picture below is with two of my closest friends, Michael Lowney and Jessica Hershberg who you will see on a Broadway stage in the near future. Perhaps we are acting out a 21st century version of “The Telephone Hour” from Bye, Bye, Birdie?
6. I almost didn’t join ABT.
When I was at NCSA I was offered a contract with Studio Company during my sophomore year but before that I was rather convinced that I would try to go to City Ballet. Melissa Hayden represented that side of my training while Warren Conover took the ABT side, so I loved parts of both companies. The way things fell into place, I ended up at 890 and my jaw dropped to the floor. I still have moments when I have to pinch myself when I look around the room at who is dancing.
(One of my favorite pictures ever with Craig Salstein, Jeff Golladay, and Marcelo Gomes.)
(Me with fellow Winger and best friend extraordinaire, David Hallberg. This is turning into “The many hairstyles of Matt Murphy.” I’ll refrain from the bowl cut I sported my whole adolescence.)
(At the end of the night after my first gala with fellow dancers in 2004.)
7. I can’t drive.
Ugh, I took my first lesson (with Nick and my sister Carson) this past weekend and it was comedic to say the least. Being a dancer prohibited me from ever having time to learn! The following video might scare you…
8. I wrote the screenplay for “American Beauty,” and won an Oscar for it.
Okay, so I lied. I was running out of “interesting” things about myself. It’s one of my favorite movies though…I guess that’s a fact.
Now who do I get to tag? Perhaps I’ll share the love with 8 fellow Wingers? Chosen at random, since I don’t know many of you! Let’s see if everyone can join in and we can get to the know the dancers that much more!
David, Kristin, Cathy, Susan, Carla, Benny, David B., and Candice.
Recent Posts by matthew
February 19, 2007 at 1:05 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, friends, london, american ballet theater, KATE, kids, scotland, contemporary, cities, city, twylatharp, twyla tharp, abt, choreographer
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| Posted by Kate Bordwell
Where HAVE I been?
Well, last night I was at Sadler’s Wells in London watching ABT perform Symphonie Concertante, Spectre de la Rose, Swan Lake Act II Pas de Deux, and In the Upper Room. Unfortunately the Winger’s own David H. was having a well-earned night off, so I didn’t get a chance to see him dance and offer you all a fresh critique of his technique! I’ve not seen ABT perform before and I felt this programme was interesting because it consisted of a range of pieces that showed what the various members of the company did well. The only thing that was new to me, was In the Upper Room, and it was this that I had chosen the programme for. I am a huge Twyla Tharp fan - I think the style is so natural, so energetic, so fun, so athletic - and having read David’s posts about this piece I vowed I would take the first opprtunity I had to see it performed. I didn’t realise I would have a chance so soon! I thought it was truly wonderful, the best thing in the night, one of the best things I have seen. The costumes and the smoke were very effective but it was the dancing I loved. I have no idea where those dancers get their stamina from. It was a marathon, but we wanted more when it ended.
Previously to this, where have I been? Being between houses for the last three or four months has rendered me slightly incommunicado - no wireless broadband to fuel my fire. As it is I am posting this from the train to Glasgow, which has been my home for the past four weeks. The joy of a first class ticket: broadband and free tea.
So far, in Glasgow I have:
- Taught European History (the very precise 1500-2000 variety) to first-year university tutorial groups
- Been to a nightclub on a boat on the Clyde that played swing dance and rock n’roll music and let me in for a discounted price because I was “fabulous enough”
- Had debates in old man’s pubs about postmodernism
- Eaten Tunnocks Snowballs
- Revelled in travelling on the mini subway trains
And a whole bunch of other things which I promise to post about soon. I have not yet taken a dance class, but I will check out the classes at the Scottish Ballet, as I have heard they are good, and I am not entirely enamoured with going to the smelly university gym all the time.
So this weekend I was only in London for a few days. I took the opportunity to say good bye to my friends, and to various other things. My husband is still living in London because we haven’t managed to sell our house yet (grr to the lawyers) so we went on one of our inflamously long walks around London yesterday.
On Saturday we met friends at the Museum of Childhood - they brought a child. Their child, Saskia was two and a half and had been taken to her first Nutcracker at Christmas. She and I danced in the car park.
Then in the evening we met many of our friends in The Duke of Cambridge to say goodbye. This is an organic pub quite close to Sadler’s Wells, in Islington. The food is great. We had great fun but were very sad to be leaving everyone behind. Here’s me with two lovely friends, looking slightly worse for wear…
I will miss my friends, the shops, dance classes at The Place and the Royal Ballet most. Most of the stuff I see at Sadler’s Wells comes to Edinburgh or Glasgow so I won’t miss too much in the way of touring companies. But for the glitz and glamour and excitement of Big Ballet I will have to go to the Royal Opera House, which will just so happen to involve staying with friends, perhaps hitting the shops and taking a class or two, so I am not complaining. My new life in Scotland just means I get to do everything I do, nation-wide.
Recent Posts by kate bordwell
December 14, 2006 at 2:56 pm · Filed under backstage, ballet, SANDI, New, city, york
New York is never more beautiful than at Christmastime…. even when it’s 60 degrees!
The Lincoln center tree:
During my visit to the Nutcracker- I had the pleasure of meeting our own “Miss Winger” herself! I got to run back during intermission since Kristin is only doing party scene- she had to wait for me to say hi to get to go home!
This also fulfilled a childhood dream of being backstage during a NYCB Nutcracker performance- and seeing some of the dancers in costume warming up.
I hadn’t been to NYCB’s Nut in over 15 years!
On the way home, I had to try to snap a picture of the Time Warner Center’s light show- which is fast becoming one of my favorite NY Christmas sights/sounds. The huge lights/stars change colors in time with christmas music. It’s really spectacular, and quite hypnotic. 
I’m getting my fill of NY Christmas, because I leave on Sunday for Sunny California to start Camelot rehearsals. I’ve never been away from home on Christmas- and being in warm weather will just seem so wrong!
Happy Holidays everyone!
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| Posted by Sandi
Recent Posts by sandi degeorge
