Archive for miami city ballet
April 29, 2008 at 12:26 am · Filed under dance, tour, ALEX, miami city ballet, twyla tharp
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!
Recent Posts by alex wong
September 27, 2007 at 7:41 pm · Filed under dance, miami city ballet, JUSTIN, daniel baker
When I was a student at SAB, Daniel Baker (now of the Miami City Ballet) choreographed this ballet called Nightminds on Maira Barriga (also now of the MCB) and myself. It was a haunting, sensual pas de duex filled with relatively intense apprehension and desperate human emotion. It was such a cool piece that MCB ended up commissioning him to stage it on the company this past year.
Recent Posts by justin
September 18, 2007 at 3:26 am · Filed under dance, travel, rehearsal, studio, friends, miami, wingers, miami city ballet, twyla tharp, life, JUSTIN, rubies
So I just returned from a fun 5-day visit to Miami. I went to visit a bunch of very close friends of mine, who are now prominent members of the Miami City Ballet.
My first order of business upon my arrival was to really take in South Beach (where most of the dancers down there reside). At first it gave off a feeling of surrealism. It was as if I had walked into a postcard setting. Or as if the city of Miami Beach is simply one great big extensive resort in paradise. There are miles and miles of beaches engulfing South Beach, and the weather is in a constant tropical state. I’m not sure how I would feel about living in such a peculiar corner of the country, but visiting it was, beyond a doubt, an experience of its own.
Visiting my friends gave me a prime opportunity to get to see what Miami City Ballet is all about. Like with any ballet company, it has its pluses and minuses. However, overall I found that I really took a liking to the company. It seems like a great company to work for. There are roughly 50 dancers, and they appear to have created a sort of family-based feeling to the work environment. The company is saturated with talented dancers from all walks of life. Everything from Cuban virtuosos, to Chinese technicians, to talented alums of the School of American Ballet.
I also loved their repertoire, and remain to be particularly jealous of the Twyla Tharp ballets that they get to dance (In the Upper Room, 9 Sinatra Songs, + more). Sometimes I find that, after a while, Tharp choreography can begin to mesh and look very similar. But it’s the type of movement that I could watch all day. Its like candy to me. Or ice cream. In ballet slippers.
One thing I couldn’t help but noticing was the average height of the Miami dancers. Their tallest dancer can’t be more then 5’11”, thus making me feel like some sort of colossal freak. I constantly caught myself crouching over when I talked to the other dancers, out of self-consciousness regarding my height and size 
.
So I definitely had a great time on my 5-day stint. I will absolutely be back to visit again very soon.
South Beach! A few of my close friends being sandwiched between two Winger correspondents
One of MCB’s beautiful practice studios. The company is in the middle of rehearsing “In The Upper Room” here
Me with a big group of the MCB dancers
Fellow Winger correspondant Alex Wong, doing the ‘rubies tilt’ with MCB dancer Daniel Baker
Recent Posts by justin
January 24, 2007 at 6:31 am · Filed under ALEX, performing, miami city ballet, twyla tharp, athletics
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| Posted by Alex Wong
So, I am writing today because I just finished a peformance tonight and had a really funny feeling. I just did “In the Upper Room” today, and as you all probably already know, this ballet is such a marathon. However, today we performed it on a smaller stage (because we tour around florida) and it felt so much easier… now you would think that would be a good thing right? Well this is why I feel strange. Usually I am backstage, leaning forward, hands on my knees, out of my breath, wishing that I wasnt, but today I really actually wasn’t, and it just didnt feel right.
Normally, I am on stage, pushing with all my might, using that last little hair of energy I have left….using my breath to just keep going and hanging on to that… holding on to a cliff with all my strength, but today, it didnt happen for some reason, and I feel unsatisfied. I felt like I needed to be struggling to really FEEL what this piece was about. Since when do you feel better dancing when you are absolutely ripped to bits, dead and out of breath? I think this is what Twyla meant when she called the piece “In The Upper Room”. You get to a point where you are SO tired, SO out of breath, yet SO… high… in a crazy state of mind that you are just “in it”. Things become a blur and you ride along as the music is pounding in your ears, and you just go for it. And now I find that I am craving that feeling again… like a drug… that killer feeling when you are just pushing for it, when nothing matters, but yet everything matters, going for the finish line, that euphoric state of mind - so out of breath but so determined… it hurts, I can’t breathe, but yet I want it, and realize now that I love it, I need it and I want more. It’s a feeling of ecstacy that cannot even be explained in words.
I guess I really am IN The Upper Room”. I’m in it. THIS is what this piece is about. This is what dance is about. This is the real deal.
Jumping in #3.
Ballet in #4.
Stompers in #5.
#9…. this is where you start feeling it…
Almost the end of the ballet. I also need to say that without my fellow stompers Jeremy Cox and Daniel Baker, this feeling wouldnt be the same. When we dance, we dance as 1, I feel their energy and I feel connected to them in some crazy way.
Jeanette Delgado in #6
A picture of me in #9.
Thanks for reading!
-Alex
Recent Posts by alex wong
