Archive for morphoses
October 24, 2007 at 3:40 am · Filed under dance, vail, CHRIS, morphoses, christopher wheeldon, edwaard liang, carla korbes, yaniv schulman, adrian danchig-waring, debut, journal, wendy whelan, craig hall, gonzalo garcia, teresa reichlen, lourdes lopez, olga kostritsky, miranda weese, laeticia giuliani, ginger tidwell, loreen domijani, cameron grant, maria kowroski, aesha ash
Photos ©Yaniv Schulman
Recounting Morphoses the Wheeldon Company’s first performance in Vail, CO in July/August…
Picked up at my apartment this morning at 7 am by Nev, camera in hand and tape rolling. Bleary eyed, I staggered into one of the two car services waiting. One had been called by mistake, by Ginger my assistant, and in an effort to be super organized we have truly pissed off a very grumpy Indian driver. We zip uptown on the early Sunday morning traffic-less streets of Manhattan’s Upper West Side to pick up Elizabeth our administrator, who is likewise bleary eyed and soapy smelling from the shower she has taken minutes before we pile back in the van and set off for La Guardia airport to take our flight to Vail. Today is Elizabeth’s 25th birthday, so July 29th is a shared birthday between Lib and Morphoses the Wheeldon Company.
Nev is shooting footage so we have film to make webisodes for our site and also to document the first steps of Morphoses. He clips a radio mike onto my belt as we wait for some of the dancers to gather by the United check-in desk. One by one, the dancers arrive, are they all really here for my company? Wendy Whelan, Craig Hall, Gonzalo Garcia who recently arrived in New York to take a position as principal dancer at City Ballet in the fall but dancing with us this summer. Following is Teresa Reichlen and Adrian Danchig-Waring. Immaculately organized and dressed in her own inimitable style. (She makes fabulous imaginative jewelry.) Victoria Epstein, our tour manager, instructs the dancers on the check-in procedure. All cruise through security except for me who is of course hauled aside for a scrutinizing extra check. I think it must have been my threatening English pinstriped trousers.
We sit in departures as a group happily chatting comparing technologies (mainly iphones and Blackberries). Lourdes and family arrive. Calista, her youngest daughter, chats excitedly with Wendy and I about a fish she had caught in the Hamptons. Adriel greets the group with a sleepy yet fresh and beautiful charm. George, Lourdes’s husband is dapper in a pressed shirt and grey slacks . His fatherly concern and devotion to Morphoses always touches me. He believes in us and it really translates into genuine caring support. A wonderful personal touch, he is surprising the dancers when we arrive in Vail with personalized backpacks and Morphoses sweatshirts. We continue to sip coffee and I eat my bran muffin suggesting that all the dancers take one. A suggested slogan :
“ Morphoses, we keep our dancers regular! “
Katy arrives with baby Jack . His blue eyes and white blonde hair enchant everyone. Katy will have her hands full in Vail between Jack and her ballet mistress-ing duties. Her family is in Colorado Springs so hopefully she will have her parents to help.
Looking around I am suddenly overcome with pride. This is my group of dancers. These people represent the beginning of a new part of my career, my life. They have come together to create dance, to emanate beauty, such important food for humanity. Can we really do this, change the way ballet is viewed by the dance world and the public? I believe that we have to try. Over the next ten days with a group from all over the world we will create new work, rehearse existing ballets and perform twice. Focusing on process and performance and developing a technique of presentation that allows the audience into our world just enough to feel welcome and involved and to fall in love with the people who are fascinating and often underestimated, the dancers.
Okay so I skipped a few days. Actually it’s August 29th today so I skipped quite a few days, and what amazing days they were.
We arrived in Vail to a warm reception from the festival. I think all of us were thrilled with our mountainside accommodations. We shared condos in a complex in Beaver Creek (unfortunate name but stunning location). The reps from the festival met us at the condos and filled us in on the various transportation and activities during our stay. It all felt a bit Dirty Dancing mixed with summer dance camp although I don’t think anyone was underestimating the amount of work that was ahead of us. That night I zipped over to Vail to watch the opening of the Festival. First act only, as Lourdes Lopez our Executive director and her husband George had arranged a welcome dinner for all the dancers to meet. So there we were, sun setting over mountain tops on a balcony-overlooking town. A group of dancers from several acclaimed international companies. A fantastic feeling of goodwill and excitement and a healthy dose of travel exhaustion. By dessert we were all close to passing out so the night swallowed us in.
The first few minutes into morning class I would pinch myself. Here we were finally, a small company with a real performance to deliver. An absolutely stellar group of dancers, a wonderful executive director and spectacular place to perform. We assembled each day at The Ford Amphitheater, an outdoor stage with a roof covering the seated audience and stage but with no walls, revealing the spectacular surrounding mountains. By the Stage Door a stream rushed by and the backdrop of the stage was a garden of wild flowers. Sounds idyllic and it was, especially taking morning class in the open air.
Olga Kostritsky taught us every day, pulling together our different schoolings into one unanimously popular class. The mood was light and jokey although the mix of styles created a very interesting sense of friendly competition. The dancers from Hamburg displaying a distinctly classical training in class and a controlled abandon in performance. The City Ballet dancers characteristically American, theirs a full and daring movement quality with the distinct Balanchinian style. Laeticia Giuliani unquestionably Italian, her movement sensual and generous. It was wonderful to be working alongside Carla Korbes and Miranda Weese again, two dancers who left City Ballet to explore careers at Pacific Northwest Ballet . We all went along to cheer for them in their performances with PNB later on in the week. I was honored and proud to have such a group working for me and they reciprocated with hard work, many hours in the car driving to the rehearsal venues, and two absolutely spectacular performances.
Rehearsals over the ten days were divided between four venues some as far as 35 minutes away from each other. My particular favorite was the auditorium of The Valley Mountain School in Vail. It proved a quiet and removed space that allowed for focus in the creative process. It was also fun to create on the stage of The Ford Amphitheater. Nothing quite like mountains in the summer sun to provide inspiration for a new ballet. Both Edwaard Liang (an ex-City Ballet dancer, dancing and choreographing for me this year ) and I made some new work in Vail . Ed’s new pas de deux ‘Vicissitudes’ premiered at the end of our stay and we previewed a ten-minute excerpt from my new work, which will have its premiere in London next month at Sadlers Wells. I think we were both turned on by the majesty and beauty of the surroundings. One day during class it was difficult not to be distracted by the hummingbirds dancing around the flower garden at the back of the stage. Such is the inspired beauty of nature. It was at times easy to forget the struggles of the world whilst we were hiding out in Vail .
The first week was tough as we all found the travel between rehearsal spaces to be logistically challenging. Often the dancers had to spend their lunch break sitting in traffic on the highway between towns. Luckily tired as we all were, everyone seemed happy and we celebrated the end of our first week with a cookout in my condo . Of course it was meant to be by the pool but we were rained off so we gathered on Sunday evening and had an eat fest largely supplied by Lourdes and George.That was the day that confirmed my suspicions that I had gathered not only a supremely gifted group of artists, but also a fantastic bunch of people.
George and Lourdes
Aside from the dancers, Lourdes brought her family. Her husband George who was our biggest supporter and took it upon himself to be a very successful activities director. Their daughters Calista, ten going on thirty, and Adriel who is off to Yale this semester .They were a super family and included everyone in a feeling of love and support. Yaniv Schulman came along and made two insightful and moving short films that were shown at “ Up Close with Morphoses”, the first and most intimate of our two performances. These proved a hit with the audience as I knew they would . It really gave them a look into our personalities, our process, and above all our accessibility as people and as a company. It will always be the goal of Morphoses to be welcoming to the public and to shed some of the mysteries of our art form . That’s not to say that a certain amount of mysteriousness isn’t alluring, but I think that many people fear ballet because of a long enforced inaccessibility. Films and personal insight invites a wary and suspecting fence sitter into our world.
My assistant Ginger Tidwell came as well, and was soon nicknamed mother Ginger. She was awesome and made sure that everyone was well taken care of as well as seeing that I made it to my many rehearsals on time. I cant remember a happier professional time in my career.
Our administrator Lib was with us and she made sure that all was running smoothly behind the scenes. And then of course Victoria Epstein, the most spectacular company manager of all time, and likewise Loreen Domijani who spent sleepless nights lighting the stage and running the performances with a biting wit that kept us on our toes and laughing even in the pressured moments. Katey Tracey was also a force to be reckoned with. Her perfect schedule calculations, and as always, totally thorough rehearsing of my work was invaluable. Katey is totally unflappable even with baby in one arm and a rehearsal schedule in the other. I was truly a blessed artistic director and couldn’t have wished for a better team.
Cameron at the piano
I know for those of you that were with us you might be thinking “but you forgot Cameron and Helena”. Ahh but I didn’t, I was just saving the best till last. Cameron Grant made our group complete with his exceptional playing of the piano in both ‘Polyphonia’ and ‘After The Rain’. He and his wife Helena had a close brush with nature when a baby bear broke its way into their condo, stole a yoghurt (low fat) from the fridge, only to be seen peering out the window yoghurt in hand, to make sure no one was watching. The rest of the week we would find signs posted all over the complex warning of the hungry bears.
Of course it would be unrealistic of me to think that I could always provide this kind of blissful environment for my dancers, and I look on these two weeks as our innocent time, probably the only innocent time of Morphoses, before we are looked upon and are judged for better or worse by public and critics alike. I do however feel confident in my philosophy that happy confident dancers give magnificent and radiant performances. From the beginning of the inaugural performance on the last night of our stay I knew that the dancers felt like they were part of a company. I also know that they felt the intense pride, support and appreciation from myself, Lourdes and all the others who had brought us to that point and we were not afraid to show it. I was moved by the way the dancers swept the audience along with them and especially by how the audience surrendered to them. It gave me such hope in our beautiful art form and in its future. For those of you that doubt we can do it, just watch us try. You may be right, but you certainly will have a hard time stopping us from giving it our best shot.
Vail International Dance Festival program
MORPHOSES/ THE WHEELDON COMPANY.
Gerald R Ford Amphitheater Vail Colorado Friday August 10th 2007.
POLYPHONIA.
Choreography by Chrstopher Wheeldon
Music by Gyorgy Ligeti
Carla Korbes Bakthuel Bold PNB
Miranda Weese Gonzalo Garcia PNB SFB
Helene Bouchet Thiago Bordin Hamburg Ballet
Teresa Reichlen Tyler Angle NYCB
Intermission
VICISSITUDES,
Choreography by Edwaard Liang
Music by Franz Schubert ( Death And The Maiden )
Maria Kowroski Tyler Angle NYCB
EXCERPT FROM NEW WHEELDON BALLET.
Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon
Music by Joby Talbot
Wendy Whelan Aesha Ash NYCB LINES
Craig Hall Gonzalo Garcia NYCB
PROKOFIEV PAS DE DEUX.
Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon
Music by Serge Prokofiev ( Andante Assai from the Second Violin Concerto )
Helene Bouchet Thiago Bordin Hamburg Ballet
DANCE OF THE HOURS FROM LA GIACONDA.
Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon
Music by Amilcare Ponchielli
Laeticia Giuliani Gonzalo Garcia Maggio Danza Florence NYCB
Intermission
AFTER THE RAIN.
Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon
Music by Arvo Part
Wendy Whelan Craig Hall NYCB
Maria Kowroski Adrian Dancig-Waring
Teresa Reichlen Edwaard Liang.
Check out Morphoses on the Morphoses MySpace page.
All photos ©Yaniv Schulman
Recent Posts by christopher wheeldon
October 19, 2007 at 10:34 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, morphoses, christopher wheeldon, city center, iphone
So it started with Chris casually addressing the audience and letting people know what they will be seeing (him giving the dancers some corrections on the piece - Mesmerics with music by Philip Glass- then a run through of the whole piece with rehearsal dress but proper sets and lights).
This format works absolutely perfect with Chris because he is so well spoken, especially funny/witty, and knows exactly what he wants in a rehearsal.
For me, this was pretty much the experience a dancer has when they are understudying a piece, so it kind of felt like I should be memorizing the steps and taking mental notes. It was neat to see that Chris was exactly himself as if it were a regular rehearsal, and just happened to be letting the audience in on it all, in a casual way.
Now that the “performance” is done (everyone was fantastic), he let the dancers go and is now giving a great question and answer session.
The orchestra is completely full and it sounds like there are lots of people in the balcony as well.
Go Morphoses!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
October 19, 2007 at 10:26 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, morphoses, christopher wheeldon, city center, iphone
In case you missed the announcement, Christopher Wheeldon’s new company Morphoses is giving an open house of sorts in the midst of the company’s New York debut/City Center run. It’s a 4PM event and you could just walk right up and they handed you a ticket with seat assignment to walk right in.
Not the mad house I had expected (I’m sure the rain and time of day had a lot to do with that) and it looks like a fairly standard ballet audience as of now, but its early. I have no idea what’s in store for the “show” but so far the curtain remains up while the stage crew is getting ready. The back of the stage is elevated a few feet, with a row of chairs on the platform.
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
October 5, 2007 at 11:37 pm · Filed under dance, review, morphoses, christopher wheeldon, JUSTIN, fall for dance, justin peck, armitage gone!, ligeti, kyle abraham, trisha brown
Hey Readers! Alright, so I guess most of you know that I was Matt’s “mystery” guest at Fall for Dance last night (Wingers of the world, UNITE!). So yeah, we have a fun time watching the variety of dance that the festival had to offer. Also, they totally opened up the nose-bleed seats at City Center (which was where we sat)! I’ve never seen that happen before.
Matt and I—maybe a step up from the ‘Golden Girls’ photoshoot from Matt’s post (Maaaatt! You told me that if I dressed up as a 70-year-old woman, you would keep those photos private!)
One thing that I noticed was the immense support the audience seemed to have for all of the acts throughout the evening. I’m not sure if it was because of the tickets being just $10, or maybe because the entire audience truly loved every piece (somehow unlikely), but either way I think its great that there was such unconditional support from the audience. From a performer’s point of view, it really does make a huge difference and gives off a satisfying feeling of accomplishment.
Anyway, enough chatty-talk, here’s my recollection/review of the evening:
An Evening of Dance Tapas, for just $10
By Justin Peck
October 5, 2007
Each Fall For Dance performance at City Center showcases several dance companies back-to-back over the course of one evening. At yesterday’s performance, the Festival continued to present an exciting, wide-ranging variety of high with the low, sweet versus spicy, and even downright fresh as opposed to dieing-on-the-vine.
The evening began with Ligeti Essays, which was danced by the Armitage Gone! Dance Troupe. It was a series of modern dances set to Gyorgy Ligeti’s music that had poetry spoken along with it. The setting was an empty white stage with a blank, white tree mounted off-center, all of which conveyed a “Waiting for Godot”, existential type mood. The choreography, which includes a series of typically contemporary solos and pas de duex, was oriented towards expansive movement, but very often fell short of reaching its potential.
Following Legeti Essays, Inventing Pookie Jenkins, a solo danced and choreographed by Kyle Abraham, was performed. The solo was danced to rap music by Dizzee Rascal. The choreography combined an eclectic mix of hip-hop, ballet, and street dance. It began in silence with an adagio variation and progressed towards wholehearted movement involving Abraham’s entire body and soul. Although Abraham has some interesting conceptual ideas involving the fusion of multiple dance forms, the piece itself lacked the essential structure necessary for a dance act to be wholly effective.
If the first two pieces of the evening had any sort of main purpose in relation to the evening, it was to frame and accentuate the final dance of the first act. After the Rain, performed by Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company (Christopher Wheeldon’s new company, which is independent of New York City Ballet), was powerful and memorable. The piece consists of a contemporary pas de duex set to a serene adagio by Arvo Pärt.
Craig Hall and Wendy Whelan floated through the pas de duex with a true viscous quality. Although Jock Soto cannot be replaced (it was choreographed by Wheeldon specifically with him in mind), Craig Hall performed well as a tender partner and provided grounded support for Whelan at all the right moments. The only shortcoming was that the entire first half of After the Rain (the “rain” section) was excluded, thereby eliminating the significant, chaotic set-up prior to the tranquil pas de duex.
Act II began with Spanish Dance by the Trisha Brown Dance Company. It is set to a Bob Dylan rendition of “Early Morning Rain” by Gordon Lightfoot. Five girls stand in front of the lowered stage curtain swaying back-and-forth to this Bob Dylan song until they reach the right stage wing. The piece itself was light, breezy, and simple, although it didn’t convey much of an idea with respect to exactly what the strengths and overall style of this company is. I would have preferred Trisha Brown selecting a piece that more compellingly showcased her company.
The final dance of the evening was by the Noche Flamenca & Soledad Barrio. The piece, titled Martinete y Solea, was a sensual flamenco dance that took the audience on a journey through Spanish culture. These flamenco dancers were gushing with talent and could easily give Savion Glover a run for his money. The music, accompanied by Miguel Perez on the guitar and vocals, was very much fiery and alive. Adam Gabel provided effective lighting that made the entire venue feel more like a Spanish night club then an Opera House. Martinete y Solea was a perfect closing performance for the evening’s very much mixed smorgasbord of dance.
Recent Posts by justin
July 25, 2007 at 6:40 am · Filed under dance, travel, CARLA, pacific northwest ballet, vail, morphoses, photography, festival, angela sterling, damian woetzel, chirstopher wheeldon, gigs, pnb
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2007 Summer Vacation was definitely a quick one! We got back 2 ½ weeks ago to get ready for our tour to Vail, Colorado, where we will be performing at the 2007 VAIL INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL. Damian Woetzel was named the new artistic director for the festival and we are very honored to be invited to perform during his first Festival. PNB will perform three shows, July 29th and 30th and August 1st. We are bringing incredible ballets to Vail, from Balanchine to Nacho Duato to William Forsythe to Twyla Tharp. These performances should be very exciting.
Additionally to these shows I will also be dancing on August 3rd and 4th at the International Evenings of Dance, an evening Damian organized that will show stars from the Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Pacific Northwest Ballet and many others. Bold and I will dance a Pas de Deux from Rassemblement, a Nacho Duato piece, and Balanchine’s Diamonds.
And I will also be dancing on a very exciting night. The premiere of Morphoses, Christopher Wheeldon’s new company. The performance will be on August 10th, and a preview on the 8th. I am so excited to be able to dance Polyphonia with his new company. Thank you Chris for inviting me to be part of this special evening.
And if all this preparation wasn’t enough I had some time to do a photo shoot with Angela Sterling this past weekend. Angela and I had a great time together. Angela was shooting for a promotional shoot for PNB. I think I have given the winger readers her link before, but for the ones that haven’t got a chance to see her work you can go to www.angelasterlingphoto.com to check out her amazing photos.
Hope some of you can make it to Vail. It is going to be a very exciting festival.
Packing up our costumes, shoes, thights, headpieces…….
PNB’s programs in Vail.
Angela Sterling doing her magic!
Recent Posts by carla korbes
May 22, 2007 at 5:52 pm · Filed under travel, san francisco ballet, CHRIS, morphoses, christopher wheeldon, edwaard liang, australian ballet, australia, sydney, after the rain, sydney opera house, matz skoog, trinidad sevilliano, company class, matt trent, lucinda dunn, kenneth macmillan, white lodge, steven heathcote, muriel maffre, morphoses/the wheeldon company
I have been out and about recently working with some more spectacular dancers. A recent trip to Sydney, Australia was a highlight and although the travel was brutal, I found every moment worth the neck cramps and jetlag. I also discovered that, although far away, Australian Ballet are a company of the highest order.
Sydney is a glorious city. Fantastic weather, amazing architectural and natural surroundings and plenty of people to share a cold beer and a chat with. Then there is of course the magnificent Sydney Opera House. Perched in majestic splendor on the end of a bluff jutting out into the harbor. I don’t think my walk to work has ever been more pleasant. Watching the bright colored ferries crossing the bay, walking passed aboriginal groups performing old favourites on the Digereedoo.
I took class with Aussie Ballet every day under the watchful eye of Matz Skoog, the ex-director of London’s English National Ballet and a dancer I had enjoyed watching as a student. I remember fondly his Romeo opposite the exquisite Trinidad Sevilliano as Juliet in the old Ashton production. His classes were thoughtful and he really taught, meaning that there was a dialogue that made sense that wove his combinations together. A real development of ideas from the beginning to the end of class. He was not afraid to correct the dancers and follow with a clear explanation for his corrections. He was demanding yet nurturing. These are all qualities I find missing from most company classes. Class needs to be treated as more than a warm up. It is a refinement of our technique that allows us the freedom to be artists rather than just technicians on stage. I really appreciated Matz’s class.
The company are beautiful, spirited and athletic. They have a work ethic and an understanding of one another that reminds me of San Francisco Ballet. Rehearsals were a pleasure and it seemed to me that whomever it was in the front of the room, the dancers gave them their full energy and attention. Edwaard Liang had been down there for 5 weeks before my arrival and had set my ballet ‘After The Rain’ immaculately. The dancers fully embraced his personality and the ballet was so well set, my working week was easy. The only pain of it all was in my neck, having put it out on the plane trip. Lucky their physio was fab and she soon sorted me out. Not so comfy for the first couple of days though.
One of the joys of the trip was catching up with my friends Matt Trent and Lucinda Dunn. Luci and I danced our graduation performance at The Royal Ballet School together as Sweethearts in Kenneth Macmillan’s ‘Elite Syncopations’. One night at dinner she shared with me a video her mum had shot of us flailing around as teenagers in that very pas de deux. Luci is now a ballerina of extraordinary qualities at Australian Ballet and she danced two roles in ‘After The Rain’. In the first cast she was one of the first movement couples and in the third she danced Wendy Whelan’s role in the pas de deux .
I couldn’t believe how well Ed had prepared the three casts for me. The company perform upwards of 35 shows between their Sydney and Melbourne seasons . Three casts are a necessity and I have heard recently that Luci is the only pas de deux girl still standing.
Matt Trent is a great friend . He left Australian Ballet as a principal dancer last year and is now teaching in Sydney and will be taking a role in ‘Billy Elliot’ the musical when it arrives there in the fall. Matt and I go back to White Lodge together and like so many of my friends from that era we have remained close. I guess bonding really happens when you are thrown together with other kids for five years in such a highly competitive environment.
The opening night of ‘After The Rain’ was bittersweet as it marked the final performances of the company’s leading man Steven Heathcote. Steve chose to dance my ballet, which was an honor and very touching considering his long standing relationships with other more local choreographers. His performance on opening night was met with rapturous warmth . I couldn’t help but feel the power that I am blessed with . That I can at times find it in myself to create works that not only launch careers but also help with seeing them to an end. I guess ‘After The Rain‘ will not just be exclusive to Jock Soto although of course his beauty and spirit as a dancer and as the creator of the role will always be there. It was nice to see this work danced by other dancers who made it their own tribute . I understand now that it is a ballet about dancers and their unique relationships with one another. An unspoken love affair that is consummated only onstage.
Sydney was a remarkable experience as was my weekend stoppover in San Francisco to say farewell to the incomparable Mark Morris choreographed for a shorter dancer, to a comedienne in Macmillan’s ‘Elite Syncopations’ to a sculptural goddess in ‘Agon’ pas de deux. She did all of this on her farewell program proving that the San Francisco Ballet has now lost something so rare in this day and age. A true Ballerina.
THANK YOU MURIEL AND WE WISH YOU LOVE AND SUCCESS IN WHATEVER DIRECTION YOU CHOSE TO FOLLOW.
I hope you will all follow my progress with Morphoses/ the Wheeldon Company. We are gearing up for our summer season ,the details of which are on our webpage www.morphoses,org. Soon to come will be a website of magnificent proportions that will follow our progress and provide you with insight to our rep and dancers.
Thats all for now .
Keep dancing, its what you love and do best !
Chris
Recent Posts by christopher wheeldon
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