Archive for TAYLOR
July 22, 2008 at 8:02 pm · Filed under dance, memory, TAYLOR
As usual, I’m WAY behind on blogging! This has been a crazy summer with thousands of things going on to update about. I’ll try to post soon about some of the excitement from the past few months since I last posted…highlights include attending ABT’s College Intensive, going to the Dance Critics Association Conference in DC, finishing my internship at The New Yorker, working on the summer issue of movmnt magazine, and loads more.
But right now the big event going on for me is moving to a new apartment (still in Manhattan, thank goodness). It’s been a slow and painful process dealing with New York real estate, haha, but I’m excited to be moving out of my college dorm and into my own (small!) space.
In the process of packing up my life from the past 2 years in order to transport it 40 blocks downtown, I had to go through piles and piles of old programs, photos, pointe shoes, and memories. Tedious as it was, I got a lot of laughs from going through everything and I thought I’d share some old dance memories I came across because they’re just too good to pass up 
The others in these pictures might kill me for posting them but it’s worth it, haha. They’re especially funny as I approach my 20th birthday next week, haha.
More blogging soon! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!
(As a Polichinelle in Boston’s Nutcracker…I was 9 I think? I’m second from the right standing up)
(As a Little Swan the summer I was 13. Looks like this could have been taken yesterday…I look the same age! haha)
(”Practicing” ballet in the dorms of The Rock School in 2003. What’s a dancer to do with their free time?)
(”Practicing” ballet at Christmas time at The Rock School 2004. We couldn’t stop
(Valentine’s Day at BAE last year…we got creative)
(Before Divertiment No. 15 last year at BAE)
(In class on Halloween this past year. I am Dorothy, and yes, I have a yellow brick road )
And last but not least…my first ballet class. Can you guess which one is me?
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
April 28, 2008 at 5:26 pm · Filed under dance, writing, reviews, performances, TAYLOR, dance criticism
(Cedar Lake’s “Glassy Essence” - Since my camera wasn’t working I borrowed one of Matt’s photos already posted on the Winger here.)
Over the past week I have been at the theater every single night – not performing, but watching, and writing.
With my second career (dance being the first…ideally…) starting to blossom, I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of dance writing lately, both for print and for the web, and both features and criticism. I’ve been lucky enough to see a LOT of great performances with my pen at hand recently, where before I would never have even considered looking for entertainment. Most of my life I was trained to believe that ballet was the only option, the ideal option, in the dance world. But now that I’ve joined the New York City dance scene from a position besides “student” – now being professional and a writer – I’ve had my eyes open to a slew of other opportunities just as exciting as pure ballet.
Here’s just a sampling of some of the works I’ve been to over the past week…I go through spurts of time where I hardly make it out of the studio or away from my laptop to see anything, and then I have periods where I can’t get my hands on enough tickets to the theater…like now!
There are so many performances I could include here…Ballet Tech,The Kirov, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Yasuko Yokoshi, and more…but here are a few in detail…
*Cedar Lake’s Glassy Essence was very cool. I missed the Blogger Preview fellow Winger Matt and others posted about, but got to see it last weekend. You can see other blogger reviews here from Matt, Evan, Philip, and Tonya. And the Times review here.
An excerpt from MY review on ExploreDance.com:
As the dances come out and step off the dance floor into the crowd it’s like they purge from a magic mirror. Suddenly an idolized image becomes real. The dancer is a person, not a fixture on an untouchable stage. And yet they remain in their own reflective world, refusing to make eye contact but sifting through the audience with high sensitivity. The audience revokes as if the dancers’ auras cast them aside…
(Petronio’s “Beauty and the Brut” photo by Chris Woltmann)
*Stephen Petronio’s Company at the Joyce a few weeks ago was also great, in a different way.
My review excerpt (full review here):
His style changes throughout the evening, keeping the eye intrigued. A common theme is his juxtaposition of movement versus stillness, where a single dancer holds a pose as if anchoring down the nearby storm of legs and arms. His dancers often cringe and repulse as if a weighted marble were traveling through their bodies. It falls out of nowhere, slips through the path of their veins, gains momentum, and rolls out a fingernail or toe for eternity.
(Take’s “Looking for Water” photo by Phil Echo)
*I also went to a blogger preview of Take Dance, a company founded by former Paul Taylor dancer Takehiro Ueyama. Their performances will be at the Miller Theater at Columbia University May 15-17 at 8pm. He also has a piece in The New School’s spring performance at Ailey next weekend.
It was such a nice morning. Take’s choreography is very free and released, with lots of swinging and throwing of the body. All the dancers looked like they were enjoying themselves so much. It seemed so natural for them, almost to the point that they were so comfortable it seemed they good be improvising just from their own internal impulses of movement. I wanted to get up and move! Everyone was extremely gracious, and we even got pieces of bamboo symbolizing good luck as a departing gift.
It was interesting to see the process as well, as they worked through lifts and tough spots in between running the pieces. Being that close to the dancers was cool too, because you could share their energy entirely, feeling the landing of their jumps through the floor of the Duke studios.
With the obsession of our culture with behind the scenes action (“the making of…” special features on DVD’s, outtakes, blogs, etc) it seems so right that dance companies reach out like this and expose their process. Through open rehearsals like Take’s or online outreach like Cedar Lake’s glassyessence.com, the creative internal processes of the dance world are starting to spread. Isn’t it what happens behind the curtain what makes life interesting for us artists?
Writing about dance has given me new ways of accessing performances and thinking about these issues surrounding dance. Does anyone else find it easier to understand abstract movement when translating to words? I’d be interested to hear about other people’s opinions and experiences at these and other performances!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
April 21, 2008 at 1:24 am · Filed under dance, performances, process, TAYLOR
As I’ve mentioned before, recently I’ve been dancing as an apprentice/understudy with Rebecca Kelly Ballet, a small contemporary company here in NYC. Their performances are this weekend at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College, so if you’re in the city try to swing by and see them! I’m not performing, but it’s sure to be a great program.
I wrote a full preview article for ExploreDance.com that should be up soon, but here’s a taste of what to expect from the thematic ballets…
(Therese Wendler in “Adirondack Elemental”)
“I always have much to say about what is on my mind that generates the energy for creation,” says choreographer Rebecca Kelly, whose 27-year old contemporary ballet company will present its theme driven spring performances April 24-26. “But my words are usually directed to the dancers to encourage them to go deep to understand the motivation behind the piece, to find something that rings true to them, or to find what they have to bring to the idea.” Rebecca Kelly Ballet distinguishes itself with a force of culturally significant issues behind the dancing. “Or just to help them be courageous,” she adds, “because it takes great courage to be a dancer.”
This courage is explored in the first ballet on the program, the premiere of “Writing in Water.” A metaphor for the ephemeral nature of dance, the work features 5 dancers intertwining in various combinations and phrases to music from Beethoven’s “Grosse Fugue.” The concept motivating the piece is that a performance is a moment in time you can never get back. Like trying to write in water, it is fleeting, transient, and gone almost quicker than it came. That feeling when you surface into the spotlight, out of the shadows of the darkness drowning you and into a state where no thought occurs but being alive – it can never be felt the same again. And if someone missed seeing you dance, that moment can never be returned. You are back in the endless stream of dancers in New York City wading desperately through to reach your dreams, resisting the tide of failure and rarely coming up for air.
This is the piece I have been understudying, and from my (admittedly biased) point of view it is amazing. The process was fascinating to be a part of, observing the development of relationships amongst the dancers onstage and their reactions to space and movement within context. If you’re a dancer you’d definitely be able to appreciate its message.
(”Long Time Passing” photo by Adrian Buckmaster)
Passionate about issues outside the world of dance, Rebecca will also present a heart rending work relating to the Iraq War, called “Long Time Passing.” Exhibiting particular cultural and emotional depth today, it is based on a series of letters received from Iraq from First Lieutenant Nolan Albarelli, brother of company dancer Kate Albarelli. “It was his words and his eyes, his bravery and despair, and his humanity that he was able to share with me that caused this dance to come into being,” says Rebecca, “back here, safely in the U.S.”
(”Tear of the Clouds” photo by Todd Bissonette)
The ideas behind her choreography are what she stresses most, and it is quite obvious from her extensive repertoire that environmental concerns are also at the top of her agenda. Timed for the celebration of Earth Week, the season’s program includes two ballets reflecting earthly themes. “Adirondack Elemental” is a ballet in three sections: Water, Earth (see excerpt here), and Air. Together the segments, through meaningful movement, bring awareness to nature’s beauty. “Tear of the Clouds,” her first environmental ballet choreographed in 1989 returns to complete the 2008 program, depicting the slow death of a forest from acid rain.
The program is ambitious in its tackling of such a range of hot topics, but Rebecca’s enthusiasm and the great dancers should make for an evening of deep thought within dance, an effective medium for expression of such important themes.
I’ve learned so much from understudying and working with them, and I’m looking forward to seeing the final result of all the work in rehearsals this weekend.
The details: The Gerald Lynch Theater of John Jay College (899 10th Avenue at 58th St, NYC.) April 24-26 Thursday at 7:30pm, & Friday and Saturday, at 8pm. For tickets call Ticket Central: 212-279-4200. (416 W 42nd St., 12-8pm) or click here. Student and Senior discounts are available, and student rush tickets - so take the time to go!
More Winger updates from my crazy life coming soon…
For now you can see some recent reviews I’ve written for ExploreDance here (Ballet Tech’s Mandance) and here (Stephen Petronio).
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
March 19, 2008 at 12:28 am · Filed under dance, TAYLOR
Wow, I’m way behind on my blogging this month! I try to update often, and then somewhere between grad school classes, rehearsals, article deadlines, and technique classes I get lost in time! Since there’s a ton to write about since my last post, I’m going to try to keep it brief by summarizing some of the stuff that’s been going on over the past few weeks…and it’s been a lot! My goal for the next few weeks is to stay on top of my news and blog in a timely manner, haha.
*My last post was about a blogger get together hosted by movmnt magazine. Since then, I’ve already started working on my next articles for their summer issue coming out in June. I received my assignments (3 articles this time = yay!) last week, and I’m already scheduling interviews with different people from the dance world. It’s so cool that I get the chance to speak to such interesting people and share their stories…that’s one of the things I love about writing, especially writing about dance.
movmnt magazine spring 2008 cover, courtesy of David Benaym, movmnt magazine
blogger get-together at movmnt’s office
Speaking of writing about dance, did anyone hear about how the LA Times recently eliminated their Chief Dance Critic position, held by Lewis Segal? Given all my research on dance criticism last semester and my aspirations to continue to write about dance in the future, I’d say this is a huge let down. Apparently staff cuts at the newspaper made them drop the position…it’s too bad dance isn’t given all the publicity it’s worth!
*Rehearsals started the past few weeks for Rebecca Kelly Ballet, a contemporary ballet company I’m apprenticing with. More on this in another post to come, but their season is at the end of April and it’s going to be a great one! I’m just an understudy at the moment, but their whole rehearsal process, especially of their new work, is so interesting. It’s so great to have the opportunity to learn like this…
*I’m teaching! One of my teachers at school last semester runs a dance program at this NYC public high school, and she asked me to choreograph for their spring performance in May. It’s my first (feeble) attempt at choreography besides little solos for myself back when I was younger, but it’s fun so far. The group of kids is a mixed bag of high school juniors and seniors with various levels of dance training, so it’s been a challenge to adapt my ideas to suit them, but my piece is coming along. I’m using the theme song from the American Beauty soundtrack (love that music…I danced my first pas de deux that I ever performed onstage to it back many many summer intensives ago) and we’re about 2 minutes into the dance. I only get to work with them once a week (and half the allotted time is spent giving a warm up class), but we’re pulling it together.
*In spite of all the craziness of my schedule I found time last week to take a quick getaway “vacation” to see two of my best friends out in Salt Lake City. They’re at the University of Utah in the ballet program now, but even though they are far away from me I still consider them some of my closest friends (we were roommates at The Rock School…when you live, eat, sleep, go to school with fellow dancers you become like sisters!) It was refreshing to experience the mountains of the west for the first time and I came back to New York after only 3 days feeling renewed and inspired.
being inspired by the mountains in Salt Lake City
*My teacher that I work with most often (okay, obsessively often) recently started putting together these little student showcases that will happen every 3 months or so to give her adult students a chance to experience performing. It’s nothing major, and only held in a big studio with a fairly small audience, but we had our first one at the end of February. We performed an excerpt from Swan Lake, and I did the Gamzatti Variation from La Bayadere. It was fun…
This time around she got a “real” choreographer to come in to create a new solo on me that he’ll use for his demo reel as well. We had our first rehearsal yesterday and it’s definitely interesting…more details to come as we progress. Also, I’m officially her “webmaster” now, and we send out a bi-weekly newsletter with dance news and info about her classes/students, which is always amusing. Subscribe if you’re interested, or just check the archives.
Sorry to be so sporadic in this post, but that’s kind of how my life has been since I finished college in January! There’s more to catch up on but I’ll leave that for another post sometime soon…I have so many things going on and so many different schedules and dates running through my mind that it’s hard to keep it straight. I thrive off being busy, though, and I wouldn’t change a thing!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
February 19, 2008 at 6:15 am · Filed under dance, injuries, blogs, writing, wingers, magazines, marketing, TAYLOR, kristin sloan, bloggers
(LINKS UPDATED 2/20 SO THEY ACTUALLY WORK! HAHA SORRY ABOUT THAT)
Hi Wingers!
Life has certainly been keeping me busy since my last post about graduating from college, and there’s lots to catch up on (performing, teaching a bit, internship, writing…). But instead of focusing on that (which you can read about in my other blog) I wanted to write about an event tonight hosted by movmnt magazine.
Movmnt is a quarterly dance lifestyle magazine that just came out with it’s spring 2008 issue. The Winger was featured in their last issue, and in this new one there’s an article I wrote about injuries, featuring The Winger’s own Kristin Sloan. First of all, if you haven’t seen the magazine you need to get a copy of it…and I’m not just saying that because I write for them. It’s really a fresh take on the dance world that most other dance writing out there doesn’t offer.
THAT being said, tonight the magazine hosted another blogger get-together similar to the one that Cedar Lake Dance had last month. This time we were able to sit down and actual have some serious conversations about dance, publicity, pop culture, and so much more.
Readers, you should know that all of these bloggers you follow are really incredible people with unique perspectives, who all deeply care about dance on a level that I have personally never experienced before to such a degree. It’s different than being in a room full of dancers, or full of just dance enthusiasts. We all come from different places and have our own ideas, and to share them with each other and on blogs like The Winger really does something for the dance world (in my opinion!).
Tomorrow or someday really soon I promise to post details of our (fascinating) conversation and conclusions we came up with, but for now here’s a basic rundown of my experience at the get-together.
I ran into Evan of Dancing Perfectly Free in the elevator on the way up to the movmnt office, and when we got there we were welcomed by David, Editor and Publisher, some of his magazine staff, and Doug . A stack of sandwiches and multiple diet cokes awaited us, with chips and snacks added to make us feel at home. It’s funny because even though we all see each other in person once in a while (and only since the Cedar Lake event), we all have a sense of what’s going on with each other that we don’t really even need to ask, “So how are you?” Haha we read each other’s blogs and it’s such an amusing connection. Sometimes when I blog I think, who on earth actually reads this. It’s nice to hear that people actually do!
Anyways, multiple other bloggers filtered in within the next half an hour, including Tonya and fellow Wingers Tony & Brian (visiting from San Francisco). After munching and marveling over each other’s real life personas versus blogging personalities (haha), we got down to business.
The nearly 2 hour long conversation went everywhere from what influence do bloggers really have on the dance world, to what dance companies are/aren’t doing to modernize themselves through publicity, to social networks and the fame culture, to where is the blogosphere headed in the future (any thoughts on any of this, please comment!). Everyone raised some very interesting points and sparked some great debate/dialogue. It’s really inspiring being surrounded by people who care so much about dance…I was fascinated by each person at the table.
After saying goodbye and walking away with another copy of the new issue, I took the subway uptown with Evan and we continued the conversation for the whole ride, discussing the issues already raised and bringing up other things we forgot to mention. Now that I’m home and thinking it over I realize there is so much to be discussed and we’ve only touched the tip of it. I hope we have more get-togethers like this regularly in the future, and it would be great to hear from blog readers about some of the issues mentioned above.
More details from our conversation and photo(s) to come soon, but big thanks to movmnt for hosting the get-together. If you get a chance, head to Barnes & Noble and pick up the new issue to see my article and lots of other interesting dance writing!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
January 28, 2008 at 2:18 am · Filed under dance, writing, school, TAYLOR, communications
As of this week, I officially graduated from college! I have my BA in Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College…and since I’m only 19 it’s a little scary to be facing this major turning point in my life!
It’s been a LOT of work trying to continue a dance career while finishing school in 2 ½ years, but I have to say that I’m really glad I stuck it out, because now I have two career paths to follow, both of which I love!
Before I write about some highlights of the last two years, here’s a quick update of what’s been going on lately and what’s coming up soon:
-I did a workshop with Rebecca Kelly Ballet, a contemporary company here in the city. One weekend I got to understudy the company for a small showcase they were doing, which was really great but hard! Learning choreography in the back of a studio while trying to stay out of the way of the company dancers flying by is really the art of the apprentice…haha.
The next week she taught a whole series of work from her repertoire. It was lots of quick learning and contemporary movements, some of which were rather foreign at first to my ballet based body. They have an interesting approach where feeling and expressing the movement is emphasized. She spoke a lot about getting rid of the “student” image and dancing more like a “professional,” which is definitely what I’m working on at this point in my dancing. It was such a great experience!
-In terms of my writing, a lot is going on. I started my internship at The New Yorker, which is great. You can read more about that on my other blog. And I was asked to take over the studio newsletter at my former studio, Ballet Academy East. On top of working on that, I got a new article assignment from Dancer Magazine, and my piece in movmnt magazine comes out in the next few weeks! Keep a look out for both of those articles, and see some recent reviews I wrote on ExploreDance.com
Moving on…
TOP 10 MOMENTS FROM MY 2 ½ YEARS IN COLLEGE AND DANCING
(in chronological order)
1. Moving to my dream city
2. Getting an internship at Pointe Magazine & seeing my first real (short) article printed
3. Dancing a soloist role in Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations with BAE
4. Working with big names in dance at BAE
5. Meeting the best teacher in the world
6. Finding the guts and opportunity to interview important people
7. Cashing my first major paycheck for performing with a ballet company
8. Having my website take off and getting writing opportunities from it
9. Starting my internship at The New Yorker
10. Realizing that all the hard work paid off as I graduate and move forward with both careers
To anyone who is torn between pursuing dance or falling back on college - I say YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL
Last but not least, today we had another blogger meetup like the one at Cedar Lake a few weeks ago…this time it was at NYCB’s matinee performance, which was amazing by the way! I’m reviewing it for ExploreDance. It was nice to see all the other bloggers again!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
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