Archive for contemporary
March 28, 2008 at 3:04 pm · Filed under dance, contemporary, research, martha graham, ohad naharin, batsheva, DEBORAH, fulbright, israel, dance history
At the Suzanne Dellal Center, Israel’s main center for dance.
Hi everybody! I figured I should give you some context about how I ended up in Tel Aviv and weave in a bit of dance history while I’m at it (a habit of mine, as you’ll see).
I started to study dance history while I was an undergraduate at Brown University, and there I researched American choreographers who were born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants – choreographers like Helen Tamiris (a contemporary of Martha Graham and major figure in the founding of American modern dance), Daniel Nagrin, Anna Sokolow, and Sophie Maslow. Both Anna and Sophie worked a bit in Israel, as did many prominent Americans in the 1960s through 1980s including Martha Graham, Glen Tetley, Robert Cohan, William Louther, Donald McKayle, Talley Beatty, Paul Sanasardo, David Parsons, and Daniel Ezralow. In fact, when the Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild founded the Batsheva Dance Company in 1964, Martha Graham signed on as artistic adviser and allowed the company to perform many of her masterworks. Learning about the links between American modern dance and Israeli modern dance sparked my interest in traveling here, and as my undergraduate years came to a close, I started wondering if I could get a Fulbright grant to fund some research in Israel.
What really got me excited, though, was seeing the Batsheva company perform Ohad Naharin’s Deca Dance in 2004 while I was studying for my MFA at Ohio State. I still remember the energy in the Mershon Auditorium when the performers pulled audience members onstage for some vigorous dancing; the fourth wall was clearly shattered, and it seemed that the entire crowd shared in a truly fun experience with the Batsheva dancers. I enthusiastically joined in the thundering applause at the end of the evening and marveled at how far the company had come from its roots in the Graham tradition. Over the next few years, I heard some buzz about other Israeli choreographers like Inbal Pinto, Yasmeen Godder, and Emanuel Gat, and so my curiosity about the entire Israeli contemporary dance scene grew. I finally applied for the Fulbright grant in the fall of 2006, and in September 2007 I got on the plane to begin my journey. 6 months, 57 concerts, countless contemporary dance classes, and dozens of dialogues later, I see what the buzz is all about. There is a LOT of dance in Israel – a country the size of my home state of New Jersey – and I’m happy to say, I think there’s a lot of GOOD dance here. Over the next few months, I will continue to take classes and workshops, attend performances, conduct research in archives, and interview Israeli choreographers and dancers. I am really looking forward to posting about my experiences here on The Winger!
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
February 25, 2008 at 5:53 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, savannah, contemporary, VERONICA, the STUDIO, youth america grand prix, competition, yagp
Well it was quite a weekend at the Youth America Grand Prix regional in Spartanburg, SC! A who’s who of young talent. All of my kids did very well-I am so proud of them. It was very intimidating and a lot of pressure. I am really tired so here is a quick post on our results:
Alston Macgill (pre-competitive) came in Third place and was invited to the finals in NY in April!!
Shakira Bell (pre-competitive) and Angela Novelli (SR Contemporary) both finished in the top 12.
The scoring was very tight due to the unbelievable amount of talent in all categories. I am very pleased with how they all did. Justin in particular brought the audience to tears with his moving performance. He narrowly missed the top 12 by tenths of a point. They certainly learned a lot this weekend and had a great experience.
Here are a few photos:
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
February 22, 2008 at 4:04 am · Filed under ballet, dance, rehearsals, studio, dancers, savannah, contemporary, students, VERONICA, the STUDIO, youth america grand prix, competition, variations, pointe
We have been very busy at the STUDIO preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix regional in Spartanburg, SC! We are leaving in the morning and the dancers begin in the early evening. It has been quite a process for them all, the usual blood sweat and tears. I decided to take 8 dancers this year: Justin, Emma, Skye, Angela, Kieran, Linzy, Shakira and Alston. I am so proud of them all and excited to see them reach their personal goals. They are an incredible group of talented young dancers and people. It has been so nice to see them grow together-their support of each other is amazing.
Here are a few shots from our rehearsals. (photographs by the STUDIO’s unofficial, official photographer-Mary-Margaret Macgill)
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
February 2, 2008 at 12:13 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, choreographers, video, SUSAN, contemporary, website, students, hamburg ballet, john neumeier, performance, competition, tickets, switzerland, blogging, paris opera ballet, bejart
© Prix de Lausanne
Exciting news: The final competition round of the Prix de Lausanne will be broadcast live on Sunday 3 February, starting at 3.00pm CET (Central European Time). To watch the competition, simply click here.
The Prix de Lausanne is an international ballet competition that takes place every year in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dancers between the ages of 15 and 18 have been competing in this year’s 36th annual Prix all week long. Judging them are some big names: Altynai Asylmuratova (Kirov Ballet), Elisabeth Platel (Paris Opera Ballet) and Anna Maria Prina (La Scala Ballet). Hamburg Ballet’s Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier is serving as the 2008 President of the jury.
This year, the finals will not only feature the competitors, but will also showcase two of Neumeier’s works. The first will be his Opus 100, in tribute to the late choreographer Maurice Béjart. The second will be Yondering, which will feature students from the Hamburg Ballet School, the Paris Opera Ballet School and the National Ballet School of Canada.
If you weren’t able to purchase tickets to the sold-out performance or if, like me, you are not able to attend the performance in Lausanne, this is a most excellent and very accessible alternative. Also, for anyone who is interested, the Prix de Lausanne has set up a videoblog to chronicle the competition experiences of six participants. Check it out here.
Recent Posts by susan kim
September 16, 2007 at 3:31 pm · Filed under dance, contemporary, recommendation, event, new york city, choreographer, performance, contemporary dance, physical theatre, exhausting dance
Photo by: Dieter Hartwig
“…and pulled out their hair” by Berlin-based choreographer Jeremy Wade is outstanding.
I went with two friends last night, both of which have seen a lot of dance, and we all agreed: This is the best performance dance work we had seen in a LONG time. I kid you not, if you have plans tonight, change them. It’s the last day of his show. It’s that good. Jeremy and his four dancers deliver ten-fold. Trust me, go.
Recent Posts by nancy garcia
September 16, 2007 at 10:37 am · Filed under dance, friends, lifestyle, london, KATE, graham, contemporary, dance teacher, scottish ballet, dance studies, glasgow, the place, contemporary dance, martha graham dance company, summer intensive
I’m looking out of my window and trying to get some work done on a rainy Sunday morning. It’s really wet out there and the leaves on the trees across the street are starting to change colour and fall. This has been a rather sunless summer - not just here in Glasgow but my old friends in London have been complaining about it too. (We British DO talk about the weather, it’s not just a great big cliche…)
I find it very hard to believe we are nearing the end of September already. This has been the busiest summer of my life, and unfortunately it’s been almost all about work and not about dancing or anything else. However, it’s been good in the sense that I have learned a lot, especially since I have been working alone and for myself - both for my PhD and in doing some advertising consulting to pay the bills.
But it’s not all been about work and rain, oh no. At the beginning of August I went to London for a week, ostensibly to do some research but actually so I could hang around with some of my friends and do some of the summer intensive at the Place. The intensive was great. I did Graham Technique with Kim Jones from the Martha Graham Company - this was amazing. I was so happy to be doing the class again because it’s my favourite contemporary technique to do and yet it’s really hard to get a proper Graham class where I live. (Actually in London it wasn’t all that easy.) It made me sad that I wasn’t able to do more than just a week of class in the summer - because there’s no way I can ever be the dancer I want to be, because of money, time constraints, location, etc, etc. In Glasgow I can do a couple of good classes each week, and they are good, but they are not enough. But this is the way that people who love dance but aren’t full-time dancers live - we just have to make the most of what we’ve got. It’s hard to pop in and out of something like Graham, because during a week’s intensive it draws you in, like a life philosophy, and when it stops you feel bereft.
The other course I took was contact improvisation, which in the end I loved. I say ‘in the end’ because it was the first time I had ever done it, and to be honest for the first two or three days I felt completely lost and out of my depth. Not because it was technically difficult, because it’s not, but because it’s so much about trust and letting go. I had to let go of lots of preconceptions about things. For example, we were practicing lifts and I was scared that i would be too heavy, but our teacher said to remember that we are not as heavy as we think, and it’s much more about timing and trust. Having said that, I found it really hard to lift people who were shorter than me because the centre of their weight seemed to be so much lower down than mine. Over the course of the week I grew less scared about dancing with other people and by the end I was in love with it. I was also covered in bruises, because I did get dropped and fall down rather a lot. Unfortunately there’s nowhere I can do contact improvisation here, there used to be but it was discontinued because there weren’t enough people. Oh well.
The thing that I noticed when I was on the Intensive was how much better my alignment is and how much more movement I have in my back and my hips. This is because since May I have been taking weekly gyrotonics sessions with Penny Withers. Penny was trained at the Royal Ballet School and had a career with the Scottish Ballet, where she now runs the young associates training programme. Penny is a great teacher and I have learned so much from her.
Later on in August I went with some of my friends to a place in the woods which I love near Dumfries, in the south-west of Scotland. There we stayed in a reconstructed iron-age roundhouse, which had a thatched roof and a fire in the middle. There’s also an outdoor hot tub and sauna! The iron age people knew how to live. The fire was good because it rained all weekend and we were soaked, so at night we sat around the fire and dried off, drank rather a lot of wine and played games. It was really fun.
I’m now really excited because a) this week my favourite Glasgow contemporary class starts again (which is Graham/Cunningham style) and b) I am going to Greece for a week this coming Saturday.
Stand by for tales of sunshine and the seaside.
Recent Posts by kate bordwell
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