Archive for stephen pier
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
July 4, 2007 at 1:03 pm · Filed under dance, new york city ballet, saratoga performing arts center, choreographer, performance, choreography, MIKI, stephen pier, new yrok city ballet, nilas martins, megan lecrone, ask lacour, lake placid
Posted by Miki Orihara
Last night at Lake Placid Center For The Arts was Nilas Martins and Friends “Stars of Ballet” performance. Program for this performance was:
Valse Fantasie, Edge(World Premier), Tchaikovsky Pas De Duex, Agon Pas De Duex, La Sylphide, and Carrie Okay(World Premier)
My partner Stephen Pier Choreographed “Edge” for Ask La Cour and Sara Mearns. And we found out on Saturday afternoon that Sara is not able to perform that she has very bad hip pain. So Stephen had 2 choices. 1 is to take this piece out , and 2 it to teach to somebody. Well the piece had 3 sections. So.
I suggested that I could dance the first section if somebody could do tthe Pas De Deux section which is defenitely nice with on point, that is NOT possible with me. Saturday night, I learned the section and on Sunday, Megan LeCrone who is dancing Agon Pas De Duex with Nilas stepped in and she learned it. So this piece became a trio!
Nilas, Stephen and Meagan on Tappanzee…
That night we left for Saratoga where NYCB is going to have their 3 week season at Saratoga Performing Center. We took the West side highway and Sawmill ParkWay to Tappanzee bridge. We saw some smoke before getting on the bridge, and when we were on middle of the bridge, the bridge closed! Well everybody waited, nothing was moving, and finally they backed everybody up and we had to make another plan to get Saratoga. We took Taconic Park Way and I-87 and finally got to Saratoga around midnight.
LONG DAY!!!
Next day, was even longer…
We left Saratoga, headed to Lake Placid. It took about 2 hours and 15 mins to get there. It is beautiful there. Air is so clear and actually too cold for summer, and inside the theater is ususally TOO cold for me. Theater has a dance studio. The wall of the studio is painted with famous dance people/episodes. Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Alvin Ailey. They all had residency there in the past. Graham was there last in 1970’s or early 1980’s.
At the theater, we had dress/tech rehearsal. I am the only modern dancer. Some of the dancers do not even know me… I am kind of shy, not able to introduce myself to them. But everybody in Nilas’s group were so nice. On stage, they are great artists and off stage, they are just young people.( Sounds like I am such a old person…but )
So for the perofrmance. It went really well. I was pretty nervous but I had fun! Meagan danced beautifully with such confidence that it is hard to believe that she just learned it the day before. and of course for Ask to deal with these new changes, he is such a nice person to begin with and he was great in it.
After that, I could watch them dance. After intermission, I went out to the audience and watched the second half. Agon Pas de Deux is a beautiful duet. It is so contemporary, even though that ballet is old. Something about Balanchine, it is so slick and stark.
And such a classic La Sylphide was amazingly danced by Joaquin De Luz. His amazing jumping, I felt so sorry since the floor was very hard. but we did not even notice it from his dancing. He was flying!!!
Final dance was the world premier of John Selya and Nilas Martins “Carrie Okay”. this was very sweet and broadway/entertainment piece that the audience loved it. Four guys dressed like stage hands, and Carrie who is a singer dances with them off stage. this was a very sweet short version musical. John and Nilas did a great job!!!
Well then reception and after that we drove 2 hours to North River where it will be my first vacation in 4 years!!! a lot of hiking, fishing and swimming if it is not too cold…
Recent Posts by miki orihara
June 8, 2007 at 2:19 pm · Filed under backstage, books, art, photographers, photography, dance photography, miki orihara, MIKI, stephen pier
Posted by Miki Orihara
Yesterday, we went to see the exhibition of Gerald Uferas’s pictures. Title of the book is the Paris Opera Ballet “In The Company of Stars” and pictures were beautiful. It was at the gallery at HERMES on Madison Avenue. Somehow I recieved the invitation, and so we went. Met the photographer and he is a very nice gentleman. This exhibition is open until July 21, so you don’t need to buy anything(Hermes is one of the most expensive store in NY) but go up on 4th floor to see these pictures!!!
Recent Posts by miki orihara
May 7, 2007 at 7:00 pm · Filed under choreographers, students, choreographer, modern dance, choreography, dance studies, contemporary dance, MIKI, stephen pier, suny purchase, edwaard liang, tally beatty
Posted by Miki Orihara
I went to see SUNY Purchase’s “MFA Spring 2007 Dance Concert” on Friday night.
It was interesting to see two chinese students’ work. One student is from Beijing and the other is from Taiwan. Two different cities, and you could see the difference between them somehow.
There were 6 dance pieces in this concert. 3 BFA program students works, and three solos by
Stephen Pier, Edwaard Liang and Tally Beatty.
“Triagon” choreographed by Stephen Pier, music by Elliot Carter was nice, physical solo. Dancer walks on to the stage, walk around with heel pounding, then Carter’s music with just percussion comes in. Pounding sound and music match, then whole movement starts. Use of shifting the weight, off balance is effective with this music. In the middle, there is a slow section in which the dancer stretches her body then clings to sitting position, like yawing of the body. Then back to the wild drumming, with physical movement and in the end, she goes off with a little suprise.
“Underneath it all…” choreographed by Edwaard Liang, music by Arvo Pärt. This dance was more like mixture between Kylian and Ek. Movement and costume and use of music reminded me of Ek’s “Wet Woman”( this is a work Ek created for Sylvie Guillem).
“Mourner’s Bench” choreographed by Tally Beatty, with a spiritual sung by Dalm Gileab. This work, as other master choreographer’s work are interesting. They all made very similar dance in the same time era. Male solo on bench with graham/horton technique like Ailey’s “I wanna be ready” gives you the idea of hardship of human beings. It was a very nice solo.
It is nice to see BFA and MFA students together in one concert.
Recent Posts by miki orihara
April 28, 2007 at 5:24 pm · Filed under SLOAN, welcome, wingers, miki orihara, MIKI, martha graham, martha graham dance company, stephen pier, city center
Posted by Kristin Sloan
Hello Wingers,
I’d like to introduce to you the newest member of our family, Ms. Miki Orihara.
with husband Stephen PierA principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, frequent guest artist around the world, and teacher… I couldn’t be more thrilled to have such an experienced view from the modern dance world.
I remember seeing Miki perform with MGDC last year at City Center and she was the dancer that left the most lasting impression on me. So talented and beautiful!
Welcome Miki!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
