Archive for martha graham
July 16, 2008 at 11:55 am · Filed under dance, saratoga springs, saratoga performing arts center, dacners, miki orihara, MIKI, martha graham, stephen pier, martha graham dance compan
Saratoga Performing Arts Center
It has been a long pause since I posted my last entry…
“Water,water”, a dance that I did about 25 years ago, which we performed at LaMaMa Theater.
After LaMaMa, I went to join MGDC for our residency at the Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs to put MG’s master piece “Clytemnestra” back. Of course it was a residency so we had summer program dancers too. Technique classes, repertory, choreography and media classes are part of this residency. I ended up setting “Panorama”on these 37 dancers. They performed with us at SPAC on June 13. So it was a crash course of this wild dance…
Skidmore residency with Clytemnestra set desigh by Isamu Noguchi
Anyway, during this residency, yes we were putting Clytemnestra back together. But the students were leaning some parts, then making their own dance inspired by this piece. It was a very intersting process. and that process was captured on their blog at Clytemnestra Project.
Stephen Pier rehearsing his new ballet “Nameless Garden” in Nagoya
Then MGDC went to the American Dance Festival, unfortunately I was not cast for this so I went to Japan for a week. My husband Stephen was in Nagoya, Japan choreographing a new dance and setting a ballet on Ballet Studio M-deux. They also performed my new work, too. So I needed to see it. Stephen’s new piece “Nameless Garden” was inspired by his visit to Kyoto’s Moss Garden and Rock Garden. It is a beautiful piece with many images that I had too. I really wanted to see the perofrmance, all together with costumes and lighting, I am sure it was magical…
Berlin’s Staat Oper
Well my visit to Japan was just a week (5 days really) then off to Berlin, Germany for 2 weeks. We performed at the Staats Oper in Berlin. 5 shows in the first weekend, 8 in the second. Yes it was a lot of dancing…I am pretty beat…
Berlin’s Old and New, I like Berlin, it is an alive city…
Berlin in the evening…
So now I am back in NYC, rehearsing with Muna Tseng (Water,water) again, and we are going to Jacob’s Pillow tomorrow. We will have “Inside/Out” performance at 6:30 pm. It is a free performance so if you are close, stop by!!! We will perform a part from “Water Mysteries”, “water,water” and 2 new solos. I will dance one and Muna will dance the other.
Then I will go to Atlanta Ballet’s Summer Program. I will be teaching for 2 weeks. Some classes are 1 hour, so I am thinking this year I will teach more standing up and cross over exercise. Past years I tried to teach floor work, but it is very hard… I will not entirey cut the floor work but give them a little more moving in class than sitting on the floor in a cold studio… in the south, it is always cold inside since the outdoor tempture is pretty high. but that is so bad for your body. you have to have a lot of warm up clothes… I should pack them too!!!
After this, MGDC will be a part of a new festival in Chicago in August 17 . I should get more info regarding this. but I will be dancing ” Cave of the Heart” Legend of Media. It is a beautiful dance by MG with a set by Isamu Noguchi. I think we share a program with a few other dance companies. I will let you know when I know more about it… but until then,
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!
Recent Posts by miki orihara
April 12, 2008 at 4:04 am · Filed under dance, new york city, choreographer, juilliard, performance, miki orihara, MIKI, martha graham, stephen pier, aszure barton, east village
Duo Theater in East Village, is a pretty space. Built in 1889, as a ballroom, this space was a home of Roy Rogers( I think…I saw a lot of posters).
Very nice !
Aszure Barton is a most succeceful woman choreographer now in NYC, and her company’s performances this weekend. It is one act show of about 1hour 5mins. 5 dancers were very different from each other and their movement and quality was very different but when they move, very precisely as her choreography, amazingly together and they were TIGHT!!!
I had a previledge of dancing her work with MG”s season at the Joyce last September, ” Lamentation Variation” inspired by MG’s short study film of her master peice “Lamentation”, her choreography is very detail oriented and you have to be so precise to move… I had a great time!
this is Aszure(R) and one of 5 dancers, Banning Roberts who is the Juilliard Grad and ex-Cluberg Ballet dancer and now freelance lives in Paris!
anyway, this “A Travelling Show” added one more show on Sunday Matinee this coming April 13, highly recommended!!!
I don’t want to talk about too much since some of us might go to see it this week weekend!!!
From the Left to Right: Stephen Pier, Courteny Blackwell, Bannning and Williams Briscoe( who was another one of 5 !) these three of them were all Juilliard Grad. and Stephen and I somehow feel like “Parents”…
oh well.
Recent Posts by miki orihara
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
March 27, 2008 at 6:50 pm · Filed under dance, theatre, MIKI, martha graham
I need to wrtie about it… it will come soon…just bit busy…
“Gray Area”
“Appalachian Spring” (Martha Graham) by the Juilliard dancers.
This Juilliard’s concert was so inspiring. They danced very well. Appalachian Spring, Dark Elegies by Antony Tudor which I love, and There is a time by Jose Limon.
Yes I will write about it later…
Recent Posts by miki orihara
November 9, 2007 at 6:02 pm · Filed under dance, tour, performances, miki orihara, MIKI, martha graham, composer, martha graham dance compan
Graham Company was in Cleveland, OH.
Out side of the hotel that I saw was…
Just a few days after Halloween. Not even Thanksgiving….
What is happening in America? The end of October, you see the Christmas Tree, Snow man, at the Arts & Crafts Store, they are already playing christmas songs…
at the performance, Halim El-Dabh who composed Martha’s “Clytemnestra” came to see us. He worked with Martha to compose this great ballet. MGDC is putting this ballet back together next year. It will be so nice to have live music and singers…
Here Halim, Janet ( Artistic Director) and dancers.
PS:Sorry I did not have those pictures in bigger form.
Recent Posts by miki orihara
October 4, 2007 at 3:02 am · Filed under dance, books, photographers, photography, miki orihara, MIKI, martha graham, martha graham dance company
On September 20th (during our Joyce theater season) there was a book signing for “Acts of Light” at the National Arts Club. It was my day off from the season so I attended this event.
The National Arts Club is an old social club and it is very quiet, traditional and beautiful.
This is the entrance facing Gramercy Park.
Inside of the Club, at the bar, I looked up above… and it is such a gorgeous ceiling…
This is the slide of the book, and I am the cover.
This is John Deane, the photographer of the book, speaking how he started to take pictures for the Graham company.
It was a lovely event..
Recent Posts by miki orihara
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