Archive for matt murphy
September 28, 2007 at 8:36 pm · Filed under dance, 890 broadway, matt murphy, MATTHEW, matthew murphy
Today I headed up to 890 Broadway to peek into rehearsals for the upcoming City Center season. It’s frustrating not being a part of yet another season, but I feel like I’ve come to terms with the situation.
One of the hardest things about showing up is running into countless people and having to endlessly explain how I am doing, etc. I’ve thought about making a shirt that just lists all the improvements and current problems, as it would make my life a lot easier. Once I get past the “sick” business, I’m always so happy to see my friends. After being in rehearsals with them constantly year round, it’s been tough not seeing the smiling (or sometimes brooding) faces of my fellow dancers. We took a little photo to share with everyone!
(Alex Hammoudi, Blaine Hoven, Isabella Boylston and Jackie Reyes keep me company in the dancer’s lounge.)
Recent Posts by matthew
September 27, 2007 at 7:45 pm · Filed under dance, matt murphy, MATTHEW, matthew murphy
Oh, Fall For Dance, how I’ve awaited your arrival! It’s that time of year again, the time where you can test out your tastes in dance and not cry if you leave slightly disappointed; after all, you’ve only spent $10 on a ticket. In the dance and theater world’s current state, with prices sometimes soaring into the triple digits, it’s hard to not feel like you absolutely MUST enjoy what you spend your money on. If you’re trying to save a dime (and who isn’t in this city?) venturing into the unknown can be nearly impossible. Then, along came City Center’s brilliant festival “Fall For Dance” which started last night in New York City.
(Yes, I realize this is last year’s poster. I forgot my camera last night so this will have to do. Plus Terry, pictured above, was my date!)
Last year I attended three performances, and this year I’ll go for four. I’ll have the chance to cheer on some old favorites and perhaps find some new ones along the way. Getting tickets to this sold out, two-week sample platter of companies from around the world is a tedious process to say the least. From the minute tickets go on sale, the traffic on the website makes it all but impossible to get through. Everyone is hungry for a bargain, and from the air in the sold out theater last night, anticipation for this year’s festival is higher than ever before.
After herding into the front of the 56th street entrance like a group of sheep that had lost their Shepard, my friend Terry and I finally made it to our seats. City Center is notorious for their frustrating sightlines and from the back of the mezzanine I found myself constantly bobbing back and forth to peer past the various heads of hair in front of me. This all made the grandmother sitting next to me very anxious, as did every other movement or breathe that came from the surrounding area. It started by her asking me repeatedly if my phone was off (I assured her it was) and then telling the group behind me, who were whispering as the lights went down, to “Simmer down.” For a moment I thought I’d stepped into a taping of Saturday Night Live circa 1999, but once Paul Taylor took the stage, I realized Cheri O’ Terri was nowhere in sight.
I’m not especially familiar with Taylor’s choreography (the last time I saw his company perform was in 2005) but the piece presented last night, “Arden Court,” was not my favorite work of his I’ve seen. Containing a group of shirtless men, who fly across the stage executing consecutive jumps, the piece is highly musical and contained some breathtaking partnering once the women joined in. It was a solid opening piece, a vintage work from 1981 by one of the country’s foremost dance makers, but it went on a little bit too long for my taste.
After a brief pause, the Kirov Ballet’s “Middle Duet,” began. Ever since Alexei Ratmansky’s created a piece for City Ballet last season (which prompted one of my favorite reviews ever by Joan Acocella in the New Yorker) I’ve been eager to see this much-touted choreographer’s work. Bathed in a prison grid of light, Ekaterina Kondaurova and Islom Baimurandov executed the stark and angular choreography beautifully. They seemed locked within their own prison of partnership, only escaping each other towards the end of the piece. Kondaurova had gorgeous lines and an icy stare towards the audience that worked well with the starkness of the piece.
During intermission, Terry and I worked our way through the crowd down to the lounge that is set up for Fall for Dance. What I love so much about this festival is the diversity that you see in the crowd. There are the people spanning all ages and an excitement in the air that sometimes gets forgotten in the dance community.
When we returned to our seats, I was starting to get anxious because I knew that there was only one piece left before we got to “Deuce Coupe,” the main reason I had bought tickets for the night. The piece that was the only thing in the way, ended up providing the type of surprise that only Fall for Dance can bring.
The curtain came up, and lining the wings on stage right was a group of musicians who began some entrancing Indian music. Alone upstage was Shantala Shivalingappa, looking radiant in bright pink traditional costuming. What began as minute gestures in which she was able to emphasize every flourish of the music with her fingertips and rib isolations, quickly escalated to an alarmingly fast, sometimes frenetic, type of movement that was egged on by the wonderful music. I was amazed and enthralled by how perfect her technique was, every bit as particular as the most classical ballet dancers, and how mesmerizing she was on the stage by herself. For me, she was hands down the surprise of the night and the audience responded very warmly. Her performance, an excerpt from “Varnam,” went on slightly too long, but it was still very beautiful.
With the conclusion of “Varnam,” there was only one more piece left on the opening night bill, Twyla Tharp’s 1973 hit “Deuce Coupe,” set to the music of the Beach Boys. This ballet brings up so many memories of my freshman year at NCSA and I was eager to see it again, almost seven years later.
(This photo has nothing to do with last night, other than that it was taken backstage at City Center. I know…it’s a stretch.)
A collaboration between the modern and ballet departments, as well as ABT Studio Company, when it was performed my first year at boarding school, I remember thinking it was the epitome of cool. As an underclassman, I wasn’t given the opportunity to participate in it, which frustrated me to no end. It marked the first time (that I really remember) I had seen a ballet that combined ballet technique, modern abandon, and pop music to tremendous effect. On top of that, the dancers of ABT Studio Company were doing a residency at NCSA and I would constantly slip away from classes to gawk at them. Among those young dancers, were Misty Copeland, Patrick Ogle, Craig Salstein and our very own David Hallberg. Even though I had no interaction with them as an underclassman, I remember them vividly. Before arriving at the theater last night, I had told David that my first memory of him was during “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” in “Deuce Coupe” as he flew through the air in a grand jete forward. Sure enough, there is that exact moment in the choreography! For once, my brain wasn’t fooling me.
I was really interested going in last night to see how much my memory had built up the ballet over the past several years. With any art, sometimes there is a tendency to embellish certain things, and while this is true with my memory of “Deuce Coupe,” I still found it thrilling. Danced by the students of Juilliard, each section prompted memories of being a young impressionable dancer. The role of the ballerina was beautifully danced last night, but nothing can erase Misty Copeland’s gorgeous lines from being forever identified with that role.
What I love so much about “Deuce Coupe” is the juxtaposition of the classical vocabulary used in the central ballerina role to the reckless abandon of the other dancers. At once both a reflection of the juxtaposition of styles, and the loss of purity during the 1960’s, it’s interesting to see this ballet after “Movin Out.” There are many similarities and it again amazes me how well Tharp can use completely different styles of movement and music. From the sound of the Juilliard cheering squad in front of me, the audience was ecstatic at the conclusion of this ballet and it wrapped up what was otherwise, a fairly uneven night.
Even though there was some unevenness in the program, it still left me feeling excited about the dance community. Having so many different styles presented under one roof over the next few weeks is what the dance world should be all about; experiencing the new and influencing each other. Watching dance is rather hard for me right now, since I’m sidelined, but I still can’t wait to head back to City Center three more times! Perhaps I’ll see some of you there.
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September 25, 2007 at 9:12 pm · Filed under dance, friends, music, playlist, matt murphy, abt, life, MATTHEW, matthew murphy, imix
It’s been a few days since I posted, and today’s post isn’t exactly the most exciting so forgive me. Even though this is just about a great new playlist (that’s perfect for warm-ups), the next posts I have coming up are going to be VERY exciting! I am just waiting on a few things before I can post them.
So if you’re in the mood for some great new music, check out the new “RANTING WINGER” iMix. Over the past five months of being sick, music has played a key role in brightening up my spirits. This playlist reflects the songs that help put a smile on my face at the moment. There’s a huge mix of artists, including M.I.A, Mika, Nellie Mckay, Patrick Watson, Rilo Kiley and many more! Check it out!
(Fellow corps dancer Blaine Hoven and I enjoy some music at Marcelo’s end of summer barbecue. It’s a battle of the sunglasses!)
(Jackie joins the battle and wins.)
Recent Posts by matthew
September 21, 2007 at 6:57 pm · Filed under dance, 890 broadway, matt murphy, american ballet theatre, MATTHEW, matthew murphy
It’s time for the conclusion of my Top Ten Met Moments! If you haven’t checked out the first five, you can click here to get caught up.
6. The Final Performances
Each season since I’ve joined ABT, the Met Season has marked the end of one of our principal dancer’s careers. Being surrounded by them all the time is overwhelming but their farewell performances are on a whole different level. From the roar of the crowd, to the tears of fellow dancers, each of these has been a night to remember.
My first season we said farewell to Ashley Tuttle with “Romeo and Juliet.” Season Two (I type this like it’s a TV show) was Amanda McKerrow’s final “Giselle.” In perhaps the most emotional season yet, Season Three was Julio Bocca’s final season. The crowd was the most intense at his final performance, and as a male dancer, this one was especially touching. Even though I was out for my fourth Met season, I still made a point to be back in the city for Alessandra Ferri’s final performance of “Romeo and Juliet.” I spent the entire show sitting in the downstage left front wing, inching as close to the stage as I possibly could. There was something so magnetic and luscious about her dancing, you could tell by the packed wings that everyone wanted to cherish every moment for one last time.
(Enjoying a beer center stage, celebrating an incredible career.)
7. The Mistakes
In my first five of the top ten, I came clean about losing it on stage more than a few times. All of those events pale in comparison to an event in my first season that had the entire stage in tears for far too long of a time.
It was during “Raymonda” and there is a dramatic entrance with Abderakhman and his henchmen, who were played by supers (hired extras.) After doing their business on stage, the supers swept upstage, split and ran off on two large staircases that towered in the back of the stage. I can’t recall if it was the giant staff he was carrying or just a misstep but one of the supers tripped on his way up the stairs and fell flat on his stomach. The stairs weren’t too sturdy so the entire set was shaking. Instead of standing up and getting off as quickly as possible, he decided that he would army crawl up the stairs, making them shake even more. Once he made his exit, the entire corps did their best to contain the laughter but something about the situation was so ludicrous that we all quickly had tears streaming down our cheeks from laughing. People slowly started to excuse themselves to gather their sanity in the wings but we couldn’t all leave at one time. Those of us left on stage did our best to avoid eye contact but I was still laughing during the prima ballerina’s slow hand clap variation. So, so, so very professional of me.
There are endless other moments that I could share but I only have time for a few more. Misty Copeland whizzing across the front of the stage during the garden scene of “Cinderella,” only to do a weird army role/somersault center stage is fresh in my memory. Walking on for the dream sequence coda during “Raymonda” and seeing the spot next to me empty because the boy was distracted in the wings is another. We’re human, we all make mistakes.
(Another mistake. My shoe exploded right when I went on stage during “Jeu de Cartes.”)
(Perhaps an idea for a future mistake? Instead of Cinderella lowering in the pumpkin…it could be David!)
8. The Cafeteria
I think the importance of the Met cafeteria can best be described by a phone call that I received at the beginning of this past Met when I was sick in bed with mono. Marian Butler called to see how I was doing but the main point of the message was to inform me that everyone was angry because it was Friday and there was no creamed spinach. When rehearsals are going full throttle and you are in the middle of an eight show work week, the schedule at the cafeteria is usually one of the key things to help you get by. Creamed spinach and macaroni are the special Friday treat but they’re always cooking up something good for us. We spend tons of time in there, sitting eating cookies and chatting, that it holds a special place for all of the dancers. The staff is also great, and we all develop a special bond with the women working the checkout. Who knew I would become so attached to cafeteria food?!
(I didn’t have a picture to put up from the cafeteria so this will have to do as a filler. We are in cab. Cab/Cafeteria. They both start with C’s. It’s totally the same thing.)
9. Cheering On The Girls
A popular argument in the corps usually centers on who has it harder, the boys or the girls? We try to trump pointe shoes with dance belts (after wearing both, I can assure you that they both suck but pointe shoes take the cake HANDS DOWN) but in the end we all know that the girls have it much harder, especially during Met. Between “Bayadere,” “Giselle,” “Swan Lake,” and countless others, a few weeks into the season can find the girls depleted on every level. The only thing I can do is stand in the wings to support them. I do my best to get out of costume as quickly as possible and rush back downstairs to cheer them on. Between the incredible score and the brilliant dancing from the corps, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of watching “Swan Lake” from the wings.
(The girls, looking eerie during “Giselle.”)
(Another reason to praise the girls: they are a little more flexible than the boys. Take Kristi Boone for example.)
10. Tom the Makeup Guru
Part of the fun of some of our full-length ballets is the intricate and often zany makeup that some of the parts require. Even though we usually do our own makeup, there are always parts that require a journey to the makeup room for some professional assistance. While all of the staff does incredible work, there is something about Tom that has us all rushing to his chair. Instead of just giving us lines to make us look old, he adds strained veins to our face or a bruised eye to show that the times have gotten tough. What is even more amazing is that he does it so effortlessly. After a season without doing any makeup, I thought about perhaps just stopping by to have him do me up like some crazy animal just for fun. I’d be sure to get some looks on the subway.
(A little of Tom’s magic before “Sylvia.”)
(True Tom magic. Jared Matthews in Von Rothbart makeup.)
(Perhaps one of my favorite roles of all time as the Waiter in Don Q. Tom always did fun things with this one. Nothing like smiling at people on stage with some missing teeth. Hint: Use a sharpie. Seriously.)
Recent Posts by matthew
September 19, 2007 at 8:47 am · Filed under dance, matt murphy, MATTHEW, matthew murphy
Tonight when I came to check out the site, I saw Susan’s post about viewing David Michalek’s “Slow Dancing” film installation in Los Angeles. While it’s certainly a different setup than what we had in New York, I still want to urge everyone to go check it out. It’s an incredibly unique experience and I was lucky enough to conduct an interview with Michalek himself for my site back in July. Thought this was the perfect opportunity to share it with some new readers. It’s up at the Music Center of Los Angeles until the 26th of September. Enjoy!
Rounding the corner by Avery Fisher Hall as you approach the plaza at Lincoln Center has been known to take people’s breath away. The plaza itself is such a New York City landmark with the incredible history housed within the three theaters that surround the fountain, and at night it remains one of the most beautiful New York locations. Yet what is happening right now at Lincoln Center is sure to take your breath away like never before. In years past, the salsa bands have beckoned dancers to strut their stuff under the clear summer skies, but as you approach Lincoln Center as it is now, you will see dancers of a size and speed you might never have imagined.
David Michalek’s brilliant “Slow Dancing” film installation towers over the plaza on three 50-foot high screens covering the face of the State Theater. Each screen hosts one dancer at a time who goes through a 5-second movement pattern that Michalek has stretched out to a length of roughly 10 minutes using state of the art high definition video equipment. There may be hundreds of dancers samba-ing on the plaza below but it is these projections that will keep your attention.
After reading several articles about Michalek’s work I was anxious to head up to Lincoln Center to view some of the 43 dancers captured by his camera. It was with eager eyes that I got off the subway a few weeks ago and braved the crowd for a chance to see some of the world’s finest dancers from almost every discipline imaginable. The dance community is a notoriously small world, and between Michalek and his wife, New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan, they were able to gather the diverse group used for the project with only one to two degrees of separation. Michalek grew up watching dance and was a fan during his schooling at UCLA but it wasn’t until his marriage to Whelan that he became fully immersed in the dance world. On my second visit I worked up the courage to approach Whelan, who I have admired immensely in the years I’ve watched her at City Ballet, and Michalek who I noticed standing on the side of the crowd. They were both incredibly kind and Michalek was nice enough to do a phone interview with me.
“I really like something about every single one of them,” Michalek admits of his subjects. “Some of them are less easy to watch in that there’s not a kind of virtuosic movement, the Asian disciplines working with small hand gestures and limited movement, which requires more patience. Even those have extraordinary moments.”
While one screen may be projecting a traditional Japanese dancer, the screen next to it will contain someone like Dana Caspersen (The Forsythe Company), Herman Cornejo (ABT), or Janie Taylor (NYCB) who stretch out every limb in a constant barrage of (slow) movement. Each night the projections are displayed randomly and the combinations seem almost endless. Part of what I enjoyed so much was being able to take one screen at a time or view the interaction between the three screens. Even though they were created separately in their 10X10 foot space, they take on a new life together.
Even Michalek, who is more familiar with each projection than anyone else, admits his fascination. “It’s still a very exciting show night to night,” he says. “Even for me the fact that we start the play heads in different positions makes it a randomized effect with juxtapositions that happen on any given night that are new and exciting.”
The juxtapositions are just one of the many things I found fascinating about “Slow Dancing.” The first time I arrived I was overwhelmed by the amount of people in the plaza for “Midsummer Night’s Swing,” although it was exciting to see them shaking their hips only to slow down one minute as the images on screen above them caught their attention. How often does dance attract such a diverse crowd as this? Of course for something as stark and beautiful as Michalek’s images, sometimes I found the Samba dancing distracting. “In all honesty,” he confesses, “from a visual standpoint I at times wished that the Midsummer Set hadn’t been there. From a conceptual standpoint I appreciated the juxtaposition. If we hear a statistic that only 8 percent of the United States will see a live performance in their lifetime, while that might be true and it might suggest a lack of interest in dance, it doesn’t relate to social dancing, which is alive and well.” Even if just one of the social dancers was moved enough to stop and take notice of the ghost like dancers looming above, it’s worth it…and I assure you many people were stopping to take notice.
The images evoke a sense of wonder and it’s no surprise as dance is rarely seen like this. Dance is usually an interactive process between the music, the dancer and the audience but dance on film is notoriously difficult. Taking it a step further, Michalek uses silent images of the world’s greatest dancers to stunning effect. The crowd becomes the music and it changes every night. I become afraid when watching a video of myself dancing at regular speed, I might go into a coma were I to see it slow down to 1000 frames per second. It seems as I am not the only one, as Michalek admitted that the dancers were “more or less freaked out when they saw it the first time.”
The creation of this installation was a very interactive process that took almost a year to come to its present state. Of course there was much planning before that even if it was just in his head. “It was an idea that I had been carrying around for a long time. For something on this scale to arise, you need the financial support, the institutional support and the cultural support on many levels.” Fortunately, he got it.
Filming was done during November, December, January and March in four day cycles each of those months. Even though the film used for each dancer was barely over 5-seconds long, it took roughly three hours per dancer to get the desired result. “The dancers and myself could see the footage,” he remarks of the time filming. “I could put in my two cents about how things might be able to be improved slightly by turning things on an angle.”
Needless to say, the dancers put a lot of trust in this talented artist and his project. When I was talking with Michalek it became obvious what a labor of love this was to him. “It felt the project had really good karma from the start,” he says. “Some projects are struggles, but if you’re going to work in this way and take on the responsibilities of the project life you have to think of it as a small business. It’s incredibly complex in the sense that I start of with a flow chart. There are so many people to get involved and it’s a difficult process of finding the right things. With this project, I really felt the flow from the beginning. ”
My second viewing of “Slow Dancing,” was on a perfect summer night last Sunday. Joined by friends and fellow bloggers, I was again fascinated by each of the dancers and their moment in the spotlight. Without the sound of the big band of “Midsummer,” it felt more than ever like a meditation on the creation of movement. The subjects are surrounded by darkness and often you can’t tell where the floor is. The only time that this bothered me was with tap dancer Roxanne Butterfly because of tap dancing’s requirement of the floor. Oddly enough I didn’t miss the sound, but I would like to have seen what she was in contact with.
Michalek had little to do with what movement was executed, he simply requested that they practice in a 10X10 space and realized that even the five seconds could have some framing. “We experimented and found that the films that had the most trajectory of something happening had a beginning middle and end, which became more interesting.” But even within the confines of filming what is essentially a live art, nothing ever seems stifled by its place behind a lens. Instead he captures the essence of his subjects, something he aims for as a portrait artist.
So what does the future hold for Michalek and “Slow Dancing”? He tells me he looks forward to working with dancers again, which should be welcome news to the dance community that needs all the exposure it can get. “Slow Dancing” itself will have more exposure as Michalek hopes to tour it around the country. It will undoubtedly play differently in different spaces, and when asked whether he was intent on it staying as public art, Michalek notes, “I would really like to take it around and I think when I can show it in public I will, however I don’t want to limit the viewing possibilities by enforcing any parameters on it. If a small Midwestern gallery wants to show it, that would be great. Different, but great.”
Sometimes it is the different things that end up becoming great, which is exactly how I felt leaving my second viewing of the film. Go check out this unique experience in it’s first stop away from New York! Now through September 26th only. Who knows when you will see something like this again.
Recent Posts by matthew
September 15, 2007 at 7:57 pm · Filed under dance, theatre, matt murphy, teacher, broadway, MATTHEW, matthew murphy, broadway dance center
A fire has been lit inside Judy Rice, and I can warn you that it’s only getting started. When I sat down for lunch with Ms. Rice the other day, I saw a woman who was transformed. You see, Rice was one of my very first ballet teachers, so I’ve known her for quite some time. She used to come to Montana every summer when I was just a young boy who could barely plie and thought that a battement was a creature that lived in the mountains by my house. It goes without saying that Judy played a key role in my passion and development with ballet from the start.
In a strange turn of events, my best friend ended up at the University of Michigan where Judy has held a post on the dance faculty for the past 17 years. Suddenly I had more reason than ever to journey to Ann Arbor and even though my nights were spent with friends, my days were spent under the watchful eye of this incredible teacher. Now in an even more exciting turn of events, Judy Rice has arrived in New York City to take a job on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center.
Words cannot even begin to express what an exciting event this is for the dance and theater community. Rice has a passion that is unrivaled in her teaching and an eye like a hawk. She claims she’s been likened to Jaws, that famous shark who creeps around in the water to attack one minute and go under the next. Yet nothing about Rice’s teaching habits ever seem ferocious. From the moment you meet her, you can tell she cares personally for every student in class. Some teachers struggle giving individual attention without neglecting the rest of class but Rice excels in giving each and every dancer personal attention that seems like private coaching. Her years of teaching experience across the US, highly successful video and CD series “Behind Barres,” and training in National Ballet of Canada followed by a career with Joffrey are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her immense talent.
Part of what sets Rice’s class apart, from my viewpoint, is the incredible mix of students that it encompasses. Not only will you find Broadway professionals (she’s responsible for training Tony Nominee Gavin Creel, among MANY other hotshots) but you will find professional dancers and others who haven’t danced in years. One thing that her class never lacks is a sense of invigorating energy and fun. Armed with a witty sense of humor and her ever watchful eyes, she has everyone laughing yet never doing anything but their hardest work. This is such an incredible attribute and part of what has always drawn me to Judy. Some teachers intimidate dancers to the point of submission but Judy only provokes a work ethic that you may not even know exists before you set foot into her room.
I, for one, couldn’t be happier that she is here. One thing that can be especially difficult with dancing professionally is the difference in personal attention from that which you receive during school. Just because you have a contract under your belt doesn’t mean that suddenly the work stops. In fact, personal attention should only multiply but due to the insane schedules of company life, it is nearly impossible to replicate that schooling you were once accustomed to. Every dancer has a certain teacher who they gravitate to and finding someone you feel comfortable with is a deeply personal and sometimes difficult task full of hits and misses. However, I feel 100% confident recommending that everyone go and try Judy Rice’s class at Broadway Dance Center. As soon as I’m healthy I will be there in a heartbeat. Rice’s class has a way of changing you, as my friends will attest to. After I returned home from my first Michigan trip in 2005, they all noticed that I had a newfound excitement for dancing. Perhaps I was mistaken when I said a fire had been lit within her, because Judy is simply on fire and she’s busy lighting the fire within everyone else. The city obviously agrees with her and I can’t wait to see what the next year holds in store.
Judy Teaches M/W/F @ 10:30am and T/Thu @ 9am.
Check out Broadway Dance Center for more info.
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