Dance For Life Artist Spotlight: Lizzie MacKenzie

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Vicki

Dance For Life performer Lizzie MacKenzie.

“I love dance,” she said, eyes glistening with tears. Meet Lizzie MacKenzie – a petite, blonde whose energy and blue eyes light up the room. At 33 she has already lived lifetimes in the dance world. When she was 12, she joined a friend for “Bring a Friend to Dance Day” in Toronto, Ontario and was hooked. “It was immediate,” MacKenzie said. “I got to kick my legs and spin around the room. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I loved it. From the first class I took, I knew it was what I was going to do forever.”

Since that fateful day, she graduated from Interlochen Center for the Arts, danced on scholarship and as an apprentice for Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago (now Giordano Dance Chicago – GDC) before joining the company for five seasons, studied in New York City and Los Angeles, danced with River North Dance Chicago (RNDC) for six years. She started Extensions Dance Company while still dancing with RNDC and after “retiring” opened Extensions Dance Center. She is also on staff at Chicago High School for the Arts, Visceral Dance Studio and Steps Dance Center (Naperville), and choreographs and performs as a freelance/independent artist. If you’ve seen dance in Chicago in the last decade or so, you’ve seen her. And, if you have seen her, you won’t soon forget it. She radiates joy from the stage.

This Saturday, MacKenzie joins fellow Chicago dancers to perform in the 21st annual Dance For Life (DFL) at the Auditorium Theatre. Dance For Life is a benefit dance performance bringing together local companies and artists for a one-night-only show to raise funding for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Dancer’s Fund. She’s performed in so many past DFL shows that she honestly can’t remember how many. We settled on at least ten, where she participated in the finale choreographed by Randy Duncan (and one by Harrison McEldowney). This year is no exception. MacKenzie dances in one of Duncan’s infamously difficult closing numbers and will be performing with Ron De Jesús Dance. RB met MacKenzie at her studio to discuss her career and this year’s show.

What brought you to Chicago?

Nan Giordano came to Interlochen and taught a Master Class. She offered me a scholarship for the school in Chicago. I told my parents that I wasn’t going to go to college. They were always good about that, but they told me if I was going to be a big girl, then I was going to be a big girl and they were cutting me off. ‘If you’re not going to do college, you’re going to support yourself.’ Literally two weeks out of high school I moved to Chicago. I went on scholarship at Giordano Dance Center, lived in somebody’s attic without a kitchen and worked two jobs. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s definitely helped form who I am. It worked for me.

Since you’re “retired”, how do you stay in fighting shape?

I use the term very loosely. I’m not retired, but I felt like it was time to retire from full-time work. Sustaining a relationship isn’t easy. (She’s newly engaged to chiropractor Michael Pontarelli – “Dr. Mike”.) Not that I have that much time now, but I have more. I’ve been freelancing. I’m dancing with Ron (de Jesús), dancing in the finale, in Wade Schaaf’s new company Chicago Repertory Ballet, I’m going to do some work with Ahmad (Simmons) and Brandon DiCriscio. I manage to fill my time up. I commit myself to two classes a week. I try for three. I try to get in whenever I can. I teach a lot.

You started the youth company while you were still in Rivno. Have you always wanted to have a company?

I definitely always wanted to have a youth company. If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would’ve told you that I wanted to have a dance studio. That changed when I was teaching so much and realized how much stuff comes along with that. So I started the youth company, because I left a studio and a couple of kids came with me and they wanted to perform. We needed a name and I said, “It has to be Extensions”, because that was what I was going to name my youth company, I just didn’t think it was going to happen now. I thought that would be when I was done dancing. It started out with four girls in 2005. I just started “Extensions Too!” And that’s for ages 8 to 11. That was a new experience this year. That’s why we opened the studio. It was just a natural progression. There was no way I could do the things I wanted to do. I was renting space. This is great – now I have constant access.

You have such a wonderful stage presence. How do you teach that – or can you?

I have a really genuine and innate love for the art form. I love what it has done for me. I feel it has really brought me out of my shell. I believe in dance as a means to communicate and movement as a means to communicate. I’d say some really important things I try to instill in the kids to help them understand that is the love of the art form and a really open state of mind. We work a lot on being open. We improv a lot. We do a lot of things that allow them to really open their minds and see more. Harriet Ross once told me that every time she saw me dance it seemed new. It always looks new. And it always feels new. Even today in ballet class, every thing feels new. It’s not just another plie to me. It’s the investigation. A simple plie to me is amazing. The body is so amazing and the possibilities are amazing. From feeling the air around my skin to seeing the space with my eyes or feeling my back…the investigation of movement is fascinating to me and brings me a lot of joy.

How is working with Ron?

I love being in process with him. This is my third time – once w/ GDC, but twice as an independent dancer and older artist. I love working with him. I feel like there’s a nice balance between him appreciating who I am or who each artist in the room is as an individual, but still having a clear enough vision of what he wants that he’s able to mix them nicely. He doesn’t down you if you make a choice that he wasn’t thinking. He’s able to appreciate your choices, but make sure you’re meeting his vision too.

The show itself is such a community effort. What’s dancing in the finale like?

It’s great. I’ve never felt any stress. This year is definitely my hardest. The finale might be the hardest thing I’ve done in my whole life. The thing is, when you go on stage for “Dance For Life”, it’s a different feeling. You know what the audience’s intention is for being there. Of course, you’re a little nervous because you put an expectation on yourself, but for some reason when you step on stage, you know that even if you mess up, it’s ok. When I’m on stage at “Dance For Life” I feel warm. I feel good. The process is always a little daunting, because it isn’t a lot of time.

I’ve heard many dancers over the years say that Randy’s finales are always the hardest things they’ve ever done. Why?

I think he really likes to challenge his dancers. He has a lot of respect for the dancers he chooses and he really likes to push them, particularly physically. It’s all in a deep, deep plié and a deep contraction. Honestly, you don’t a lot of work like that these days. And the cardio of it all, that’s the killer. I literally thought I was going to throw up.

What’s in your future?

It’s always worked out for me that my future becomes very clear as I continue on my path. Of course, I look back and think, I could’ve done this. But I’m happy with my path. There’s only “x” amount of years to live. You can’t do everything. I think I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. Hopefully things will continue to grow. I don’t want the youth company to get too much bigger. I think we’re able to produce the quality we have, because it’s small. The open classes have been going well. I’ll keep dancing until I can’t anymore. Maybe have a kid. I really want to have babies, so that will happen sooner or later.

Dance For Life at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt Universtity, 50 E. Congress Pkwy. Saturday, August 18 at 8 pm. For ticket information, visit www.danceforlifechicago.com.

CDF 12 Artist Spotlight: Hubbard Street’s Jesse Bechard

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Vicki

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The studios at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) were eerily quiet last week. The dancers were on a well-deserved break and the staff was holed up in their offices busily preparing for the upcoming season (rehearsals started yesterday). Fresh off a three-week trip to Costa Rica, dancer Jesse Bechard agreed to meet with me before taking an afternoon ballet class. After spending an hour chatting with the 31-year-old, this is what I know. He’s smart, funny, loyal, curious, an avid reader, and a self-proclaimed news junkie. He plays drums, he loves kale – and, let’s be honest – he’s pretty easy on the eyes.

Bechard grew up in the Northeast (Connecticut, Massachusetts) and cites seeing Baryshnikov dance on tv as his impetus to start dancing. Here’s the Cliff Notes of his early career: danced in various Nutcrackers and recitals; quit dancing during the middle schools years to focus on academics and play sports like soccer, basketball and lacrosse; started dancing again at 16/junior year of high school; went to Walnut Hill School for the Arts for his senior year; attended Boston Ballet summer programs; quit dancing again to go to college (one year at University of Chicago); moved to New York City to dance (and wait tables); apprenticed with Ballet Austin for a year; joined Richmond Ballet in Virginia where he danced for eight years. Whew! “I didn’t have that much exposure when I was growing up dancing,” he said. “The things that were put in front of me as goals were all these white tights things. I didn’t know what was going on in Europe. I’d seen Hubbard Street, but I didn’t know about NDT (Nederlands Dans Theater). In the early 2000’s I went to see NDTII and that really changed my trajectory substantially. ‘Well, there it is! That’s what I’d like to do.’ I remember the next day in class, my whole motivation and what I was focusing on had really shifted overnight. I never really had that much of a desire to be the prince at all. You always idolize Baryshnikov. He’s beautiful. He does incredible things. But I don’t think I was built for that. It’s an interesting point when you come to the realization of what you want to do and what your body is aesthetically built for.”

The “third time is a charm” adage rang true to for Bechard and his bumpy adventure to reach HSDC. He auditioned for three times before everything worked out. The beginning of the financial crisis, other contract obligations and lack off an opening in the company all delayed his debut with HSDC until August of 2010. In 2011, Bechard performed at the Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF) for the Moderns (Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s Too Beaucoup) and Masters (Jiri Kylían’s Petite Mort) programs. This year he’s scheduled to perform Twyla Tharp’s Scarlatti in the Chicago Dancing program on Monday, August 20, and Ohad Naharin’s Tabula Rasa in the closing night’s Celebration of Dance on Saturday, August 25. (Casting may change.) Here are some excerpts from our chat.

The first thing I remember seeing you in was Nacho Duato’s Arcangelo. Since then, it seems like you’ve been in everything. Who were some of your favorite choreographers to work with or favorite pieces?

Nacho was really fun to work with. It was really fun to work with Yoshi (Fumi Inao), who came to set Ohad’s (Naharin) work. “Too Beaucoup” was a really difficult process for me. I was new. I’d only been in the company six months at that point and certain things, like Nacho’s piece were within my comfort zone. Then we come in and have this crazy Israeli woman dancing around asking you what you got out of that. You get to a point in this company where you get much better at learning the way that things operate. It’s not often in a ballet company that someone will come in and do something and ask what you got from it, so you learn a lot more how to interpret what you do. We do a massive amount of improvisation. If you make it up and it looks convincing, it will probably work. It’s true. If you’re tentative and hesitant, that reads. But if you’re like this is what I’m going to do, that’s a choice. It really doesn’t have to be right, it just has to be what you intend to do. You can take risks and something can happen that you didn’t intend, but you have to make it happen. As you get more comfortable with that it becomes more enjoyable. In her process, I was not quite used to that and her movement style is…insane. The process was cool, but it wasn’t my favorite process, but now it is one of my favorite pieces to perform in terms of the visceral experience as a dancer. You’re in this unitard, you have contacts on, you have a wig on, you’re dancing to this killer music with these awesome lights and you’re just one little cog in the wheel. It’s awesome for your brain. You’re just in there, talking to yourself. You have to count everything. There’s 9 of these and 14 of these and 12 of these. I think that’s the piece with the biggest difference between how much I enjoy doing it and how much I enjoyed the process. I love Sharon and Gai, they were really cool, but the process was really hard.

“Petite Mort” (Jirí Kylían) – that’s another thing you want to check off the list in your dance career. That’s one that for most dancers, you really, really want to do. It’s almost a perfect piece. It’s concise, it’s short. It’s not overdone. It is so insanely musical and so simple. The whole men’s section…getting six guys to breathe together.

When you all turn around that first time and swipe the sword…it’s such a great moment.

That’s definitely one of the most stressful things…walking down with it balanced on your finger. Finding that balance point is difficult. You get good at it, but when the curtain opens up, there is a shift in air and then you’re trying to walk backwards, downstage and find your mark and look at the other person, then lower your sword down and as you lower it, trying to keep it balanced on your finger. I love dancing in silence with only the sounds of the swords. There’s such a cool internal rhythm to it.

Alejandro’s (Cerrudo) stuff feels really good to do. The movement feels really nice.

Does his work become shorthand after a while, since you’ve worked with him so much?

It becomes much easier to know what he wants. I think it’s like that with a lot of choreographers. You know what they like to see. Not even what they like to see, it’s not about ass-kissing or pleasing someone, but you kind of have an idea of what aesthetic they’re shooting for, so you can just get to it quicker.

The Forsythe piece in the Summer Series was amazing. You were in both casts. How did you get through that week?

It was really difficult. That was a hard program. I drank a lot of Pedialyte.

What was the learning process like for Quintett?

The people that he sent – Thomas (McManus), Stephen (Galloway) and Dana (Caspersen) – they were fantastic. None of us really knew what to expect when they came in. That process was great. I really enjoyed working with them. I think what Thomas was asking me to do and trying to get out of me and everybody felt massively different from the beginning to the end. And then it felt massively different from when we did it here and at ADF.

Did you get to meet William Forsythe at the American Dance Festival?

Yeah, he worked with us. He comes in wearing jean, sneakers and a tee shirt. He’s a totally quirky, awesome, incredibly laid-back guy. I’ve heard that he can really not be that way, but anyone who is trying to create something can go a little crazy. He wasn’t like “Forsythe”. He was joking about himself and totally mellow. He was super encouraging. In that piece, because of the nature of the music and the movement, you really are supposed to go for it as much as you can. And if something happens that didn’t happen before? See where it goes.

At the Harris, I’m pretty sure I saw you slide off the stage at one point.

I fell at one point. I was running and sliding and hit a tape mark. But honestly, that could be the movement.

There was something different about that work. Even in rehearsals, if was the first time I saw you guys laughing and having fun in rehearsal. Not that you don’t have fun, but everyone seemed really laid back and you seemed to be having such a good time, especially on stage.

It makes you smile. We don’t have a lot of smiling pieces. It feels like that when you’re doing it. We weren’t putting that on. In rehearsals, you’re kind of like – gasp! – dying, but on stage, it makes you smile. The fact that it was made right after his first wife passed away, you thought it was sort of memorial, but it’s a celebration of life and memory. Working with them there was no stress. There was so much respect.

So, Twyla. What was it like working with her?

It’s another one of these “icon” people. She was great. She was super fun to work with. She a little ball of energy. She could power a city. She 71 now. She was jumping on me and wrapping herself around me – totally off the floor. I’m there with Twyla hanging off of me thinking ‘I can’t drop her. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.’ She’s so professional and has such a specific style and procedure of working. She’s a workhorse. She didn’t take lunch. She would have lunch brought to her and stagger our lunches, so we could have lunch, but she could continue working throughout the day.

How is dancing Scarlatti?

It’s a fun piece to do. It’s entirely different than “Quintett”. In “Quintett”, you want to really throw yourself at it. “Scarlatti”, you throw yourself at it too, but there are parts that are much lighter on the floor. It is super musical, so it’s fun to dance. I think it’s exactly what she intended it to be. It exactly fits the music. I’d like to work with her again.

Chicago Dancing Festival 2012 runs August 20 – 25. For more information, visit chicagodancingfestival.com.

Slideshow Photo Credits:

Bechard with Ana Lopez in Jirí Kylían’s “Petite Mort”. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

Bechard in “Arcangelo” rehearsal with Penny Saunders and Nacho Duato. Photo by Igor Larin.

Bechard headshot by Cheryl Mann.

Bechard in Jonathan Fredrickson’s “Untitled Landscape”. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Bechard and Penny Saunders in William Forsythe’s “Quintett”. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

Bechard and Jacqueline Burnett in Alejandro Cerrudo’s “Malditos”. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Bechard and Ana Lopez in Alejandro Cerrudo’s “Little Mortal Jump”. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

CDF12 Artist Spotlight: Joffrey’s Amber Neumann

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Vicki

Joffrey's Amber Neumann & Graham Maverick in William Forsythe's "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

On a sunny morning in July, a perky little ray of sunshine walks toward me clad in a yellow sundress. “I made this,” she says, referring to the dress, her smile lighting up the sidewalk. Amber Neumann, 21, has a lot to smile about. Now entering her third season with the Joffrey Ballet (after 6 weeks off, rehearsals for the 2012-2013 season started yesterday), her list of accomplishments keeps growing.

She’s worked with well-known choreographers like Julia Adam, Yuri Possokhov, Val Caniparoli and Edwaard Liang. She danced the lead role of Kitri in Possokhov’s Don Quixote to rave reviews after an injury shook up the cast. She learned the part in a day (“four hours of rehearsal and a dress rehearsal”). She proved her acting chops last season in Wayne MacGregor’s Infra depicting an emotional breakdown center stage. She showed fearlessness in William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”, where she explosively danced what is known as the “jeté pas” (her entrance is three ball-to-the-walls jetés across the stage partnered by Graham Maverick). She recently purchased her first home and is enjoying nesting, gardening and making clothes. “It’s been the summer of experimenting,” says Neumann. “It’s been busy. I just started taking Krav Maga (an Israeli fighting technique). I took a trip to Canada with my Mom to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford. I went to a lot of weddings.”

This season, Neumann is looking forward to learning and performing Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table, Jiri Kylían’s Forgotten Land and is excited to be dancing for the first time at Dance For Life as well as participating again in the Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF). In last year’s fest, she performed in George Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concert on the Pritzker Pavilion stage. This year at CDF, she will be performing Forsythe’s In the Middle in the Chicago Dancing program on Monday, August 20th at the Harris Theater. RB sat down over coffee with Neumann at the end of her summer break.

Tell me about learning the Forsythe piece.

Working with Glen (Tuggle, répétiteur) was a blast. He was so much fun, but kept us all focused at the same time, which is not easy. He had this way of giving us just enough free reign so we could play with the timing and the steps. There’s a lot of improv, so you could change it up. You could do something a little different every time. There’s a certain amount of “ooh, what’s going to happen now?” and that’s always exciting.

And the jeté pas?

There are a lot of arms and things that are really intricate and you have to be really together with your partner. This is not on your leg. This is get off of your leg and twist your arms around your head and try not to choke each other. We had a really good time. It was hard, but once you get into it, it starts to flow.

Is it difficult to count?

It was at first. It was really difficult. There are some parts you absolutely have to count. If you don’t count, you’re screwed. It is hard to count unless you really listen and understand the music. Once you do that, its a solid meter. If you can find the meter, you’re fine. There’s the second pirouette section in the back, where everyone is going at a different time…that took us longer than I care to admit for us to get that. And the sets are minimalist, there aren’t really wings, so you really have to know your counts. It’s a little bit of flying without a net.

Have you started putting it back together yet?

No. Right when we start back we’ll start putting it back together. There’s not a lot of time. Stamina-wise, it’s so incredibly difficult. It really doesn’t matter if you run and exercise; it’s a different kind of stamina.

For more information on the Chicago Dancing Festival 2012, click here.

Ballet Lab Chicago

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Vicki

Photo by William Frederking.

Are you a ballerina with an edge? A dancer with classical training, but likes to move more outside of the box? Dare I say, a rogue ballerina? Local dancer/teacher/choreographers Emily Stein and Paige Cunningham Caldarella have a workshop designed just for you. Ballet Lab Chicago is a one-week intensive contemporary ballet workshop being held July 30 – Aug 3 at Visceral Dance Center (2820 N. Elston Ave.). Two morning technique classes – 10:00 to 11:30 and 11:30 to 1:00 pm/teachers will alternate – give you a warm-up and a solid base for an afternoon rehearsal – 1:00 to 3:00 pm – where both choreographers will “workshop” new choreography. On the final day, there will be a works- in-progress showing of the resulting dances. Aside from the full workshop ($300), there are two class options: a 5-class option (you can choose any five classes – $100), or the entire week of nine classes ($150).

Stein and Cunningham met about five years while teaching at the Dance Center of Columbia College. Because they both taught the same level and had some of the same students, they started talking about what was going on in the classes and found they had similar approaches. Columbia’s summer program ends in mid-July and although there are many other companies housing workshops around Chicago, they thought this would be a good time for their students to get some extra classes before school session start up again in the fall.

I sat down with Stein and Cunningham at the Dance Center to find out more about their Ballet Lab.

Why did you create Ballet Lab?

ES: We both are interested in choreographing using the ballet vocabulary, which we don’t always have the chance to do here. It’s also an opportunity for us to get some playtime choreographically that was something more specifically focused on contemporary ballet. There’s a showing on the last day. I think we’re both hoping that it gives us a chance to springboard into some new work next year, either in terms of choreographic ideas that we develop in that week, or in terms of meeting new dancers or finding people we want to work with in the future. We’re both interested in approaching the ballet vocabulary in a choreographic way. I’ve always been teaching ballet, I was classically trained, it’s my first language and my first love, but obviously most of my performing career was in modern dance…very avante garde modern dance. I’m trying to bring the ends of these things together, because in my brain there are similarities.

Can you explain what you mean by “approaching ballet choreographically”?

ES: A lot of my work in the last ten years since I did the solo-commissioning project (working with Deborah Hay), kind of sent me on this journey of improvisation and scores. I’m really interested in structure. Ballet is full of structure, but it’s not improvisational structure. It’s the opposite…or is it? I guess that’s my question. I’m interested in exploring the vocabulary and playing with ideas of structure and score. For example, if I create a combination and then I give instructions of what to do with the combination, what will happen to it? Each dancer will bring something new to it. How open can that be? Or how specific does it need to be in order to be a replicatible piece that’s interesting to watch? Scores are really interesting, but it’s a big risk because sometimes it’s just boring to watch. It just doesn’t work. Can you make it work and make it different every time, or not? A lot of times in improvisation workshops there was “not that”, “not an arabesque”…well, why not? That’s in my body, that’s part of my language. If that comes out, why is that wrong? I don’t mean it to be judgmental. I’m just questioning these things. What if you take these really abstract ideas of score, but you approach them intentionally with ballet vocabulary in your body, as your language…allowing yourself to access that.

PC: I like that. I feel like that is something that comes up. I’ve caught myself working with young students saying, “that’s familiar, don’t do that” and then they shut down. That’s what they know. How do you let them do that, but find a new, interesting approach to it.

How are your teaching styles different?

ES: My class has a classical base, but I approach it from a really somatic point of view. We spend time in class working on mechanical and somatic principles that they can then use in technique. They develop efficiency. They get to know their body better and it’s not just about being able to do stuff, but about finding pathways to do things effectively.

PC: My class tends to be more contemporary ballet, like a ballet hybrid. We’ll do a more traditional barre, but the center work might be phrase work or explore things choreographically, so it isn’t necessarily the traditional ballet class structure. I feel like I was a dance misfit. I started ballet when I was 3, so I had a lot of classical training, then I went to Julliard and had a lot of formal, technical training. I was never going to be in a classical ballet company. Body-wise and the way I approached ballet class, I knew I wasn’t going to be in a ballet company. Then I ended up at Cunningham which was perfect, because I could use a lot of my ballet training, but still be a modern dancer. I never felt like I could fit into a downtown modern dance scene. I wasn’t weighted in that way, so I was in this weird in-between place, but I love ballet vocabulary. For me, it’s exploring taking your pelvis off-center or you may go into the floor and come up to find that verticality of ballet. It’s kind of a mish-mosh approach. There are probably teachers that would call it “bastardized ballet”. I think part of it was when I came here I saw so many students struggling with ballet, because we have generous admissions, we have students that are 18 and have never studied ballet before. I started thinking, how can we approach this so they can see how modern can feed into it, or jazz or African.

ES: You said ballet misfit. That was kind of our point of connection. We’ve both felt that way. We have a ballet background, but we don’t fit into that mold as performers. I feel that for both of us, making connections for the students…trying to make the students understand they don’t live on the ballet planet. There’s one planet, it’s rewarding, it’s not scary or limiting to be able to be able to do all these other things, to be able to think about movement in all these different ways. There’s a place where if you approach it a certain way, ballet really is organic.

PC: Ballet Misfit Academy! That’s what the t-shirt should say.

What’s your end goal aside from a successful workshop?

ES: We’ve been talking for a long time about doing a collaborative show, but we have some extenuating circumstances that are changing the game a little bit. (Caldarella is pregnant.) Both of us look at it as an opportunity. Any time I get to play and make stuff, it becomes something. There is no end goal. Everything is a step to the next thing. We’d like to do the workshop every summer.

PC: Maybe finding ways of connecting with other Chicago organizations. Maybe time it so we have a group of five weeks and make it a larger collaborative intensive.

Ballet Lab Chicago, July 30 through August 3 at Visceral Dance Center, 2820 N. Elston Ave. Spots are still available, register here!

Wednesday in the Park with Giselle

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Vicki

Crowd at Pritzker Pavillion for Paris Opéra Ballet's live simulcast of "Giselle". Photo by Robert Carl.

An estimated 14,000 people showed up at Millennium Park Wednesday evening to watch the live simulcast of the Paris Opéra Ballet‘s performance of Giselle. After a greeting from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Commissioner, Michelle T. Boone and a few words from Brigitte Lefèvre, Paris Opéra Ballet’s Director, the audience fixed its collective gaze at a giant screen set up on the Pritzker Pavilion stage. The LED screen set up by Staging Solutions was 18′ x 32′ according to the City’s press release or 16.5′ x 32.5′ according to Hedy Weiss in the Chicago Sun Times – it was big! Hi-tech, LED, surround sound and arguably the most famous ballet company in the world performing my favorite ballet…for free. I love my city!

Chicagoans have been privy to this ballet before. Local fave Joffrey Ballet presented Giselle in October 2007 and American Ballet Theatre has performed it here numerous times, most recently in March. The ballet was created for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1841, however, the current version was staged by Patrice Bart and Eugene Polyakov in 1991. The french version is pretty much the same as what we’ve seen before with one notable exception. The Americanized adaptations throw in more grandiose choreography. For instance, ABT’s version has Albrecht’s brisé diagonals and grand jumps in Act II, where Paris Opéra has him doing slow changements that grow into a crescendo of entrechat quatré and six (performed with great ballon by Nicolas Le Riche). Where ABT’s Myrta breezes back and forth across the stage and in and out of the wings in a bourré flurry, Paris Opéra’s Myrta’s doesn’t leave the stage, stopping and balancing in sous-sus before taking off again, an exercise in complete control (danced brilliantly by Nolwenn Daniel – she was scary!). Clairemarie Osta’s Giselle was a sweet, innocent take on young love, but her mad scene lacked the dramatic prowess of a Julie Kent. Rounding out Wednesday’s cast was hottie Vincent Chaillet as Hilarion and a stellar corps de ballet. Those Wilis were on!

Being outside had the effect of enhancing, yet separating you from the performance. The breeze made you feel like you were in the glen celebrating the wine festival and as the sun set and the sky became darker, you could imagine yourself in a wooded graveyard. The minimal downside was random fire engine sirens and the weekly fireworks exploding at nearby Navy Pier, but that made the experience uniquely Chicago. There was a disconnect not being in the theater. A twice-removed feeling: one, you’re not in the theater and two, you’re watching live dance being filmed on a screen. Nothing beats a live performance experience, but knowing it was being performed live a few hundred feet away (and below) was pretty cool. The actual filming was fantastic with close-up shots of the lead dancers, a peak into the orchestra pit, an angled shot that showed a hint of the entrances from one wing. It gave those of us in the cheap (free) seats a VIP feel.

Chicago Dancing Festival 2012

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Vicki

Martha Graham Dance Co dancer Xiaochuan Xie on the Pritzker stage.

The Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF) hits Chicago stages for a week of free dance performances again this August. Now in its sixth year, CDF – the brainchild of Lar Lubovitch and Jay Franke – is expanding (again) to six days of events with new programs and a couple of commissioned world premieres to boot! RB will be part of CDF’s blogger initiative for the second year, bringing you sneak peeks, dancer/choreographer interviews, event coverage, reviews and wrap ups. I’ll also be live-Tweeting pre- and post-event coverage for the Fest complete with photos, behind-the-scenes happenings and audience quotes.

New to the fest this year is an all-Chicago program, Chicago Dancing, featuring local faves Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (HSDC) and Joffrey Ballet and three CDF commissioned works. Giordano Dance Chicago (note the new name!) makes its CDF debut in a work by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman. New York-based choreographer Nicholas Leichter will work with the After School Matters students to create a world premiere honoring the memory of Maggie Daley, former first lady of Chicago, who started the program in 1991. A two-week residency led by Larry Keigwin blends dancers and non-dancers from Chicago into a world premiere, Bolero Chicago. Keigwin’s new work, set to Ravel’s most famous score, will incorporate local movement traits for a uniquely Chicago piece. New groups performing at the fest this year include Pacific Northwest Ballet and Ballet Arizona, along with returning companies San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company and Brian Brooks Moving Company.

A partnership with Chicago SummerDance, the city’s outdoor dancing series, for Dancing Under the Stars and prolific local dance writer Zac Whittenburg leads a lecture demonstration, Chicago Now, with local companies at the MCA Stage. Programming for both of these event to be announced at a later date. A day of Dancing Movies also takes place at the MCA with films including PINA, All Is Not Lost, Two Seconds After the Laughter and Fanfare for Marching Band curated by local artist Sarah Best. The fest always ends with a Celebration of Dance at the outdoor Pritzker Pavilion stage in Millennium Park showcasing a number of artists that have performed throughout the week.

Tickets for all of the events are free, however, you do need to reserve seating for the indoor theaters in advance. These will “sell out” very fast! More information on tickets will be available the week of July 16th.

Thoughts on HSDC’s Summer Series 2012

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Vicki

In a word: brilliant. The dancers, the dancing, the choreography, the curation – all of it. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago‘s (HSDC) Summer Series opened last night at the Harris Theater with a three-work program that solidified the company as an elite group of dancers at the top of their field. Breaking new ground as the first U.S. company to perform William Forsythe’s Quintett, HSDC proved (again) they have the chops to tackle anything. HSDC resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo’s cross-company collaboration with HSDC and Nederlands Dans Theatre Malditos and Batsheva Dance Company artistic director Ohad Naharin’s 2011 mash-up of previous works THREE TO MAX bookended Forysythe’s piece for a full, lush, well-rounded evening.

Malditos is a study in shadows. Dark lighting is a tool Cerrudo uses often, but never with as great effect as in this work. The dancers slip in and out of the darkness like ghosts appearing and disappearing at the edges of your mind. The score from the film The Beat That My Heart Skipped by Alexandre Desplat beautifully compliments his choreography. The end, where an almost naked Ana Lopez dances duets with three interchangeable men, is breathtaking. The dancing continues as the lights fade out and back in as a different partner joins her. Each partner touches her with the top of his head, but she reacts differently to each touch eventually taking over and touching one back with her head before they melt to the ground together as the lights fade. The duets throughout are stunning displays of love and trust studded with architectural partnering and razor-like technique. Cerrudo holds his own next to master choreographers Forsythe and Naharin.

The performance of Quintett was transformational. What these five dancers (Meredith Dincolo, Penny Saunders, Jonathan Fredrickson, Jesse Bechard and Kevin Shannon) created on stage was extraordinary. They are always good, but this was something truly special. A looped score of a homeless man singing “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet” created a base canvas for the movement to take life. The repetition let you focus on the relationship of the five characters. Simple ballet moves like a tendu devant or a double pirouette seemed to take on new meaning. The piece was created in 1993 in collaboration with five of Forsythe’s dancers. Three of the original cast – Dana Caspersen, Stephen Galloway and Thomas McManus – worked with the HSDC dancers to set the work over the past few weeks. The connection, emotion and energy of the dancers was palpable. Bechard, a strong presence in all three pieces on the program, at times simply defied gravity. One quiet moment as Saunders rested her head on Bechard’s back for a couple of seconds let the audience catch their breath before being sucked back in to the wonderful whirlwind happening on stage.

Naharin’s piece has the dancers clad in simple jeans and colorful tank and tees. Dressed as civilians, the dancers seemed stripped down to their bare essence. They were open, honest, subtle, sensual, vulnerable. Human. The rich movement sections captured their talents and personalities. At one point a dancer looks at his hands and then extends them to the audience, giving us what’s there as if saying “here, this is who I am”. The counting section (where the dancers ascribe a movement to a number as a voice counts to ten, adding new movements each time the counting starts over) and a partially improvised follow-the-leader sections are stand outs.

Three shows remain in the Summer Series. I highly recommend it.

For ticket information: hubbardstreet.com, call 312.850.9744 or visit the Harris Theater box office at 205 E. Randolph.

Breaking News: Joffrey

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Vicki

Joffrey Music Director Scott Speck. Photo courtesy of Scott Speck.

This is great news! The Joffrey Ballet just announced a new partnership with the Chicago Philharmonic to present live music for all performances in the 2012-2013 season. Citing budgetary restrictions as the reason for switching from the Chicago Sinfonietta, the orchestra that has accompanied the Joffrey since 2003, executive director Christopher Clinton Conway stated in the press release: “Having live music makes a huge difference both to the dancers and to our audience as it enriches the overall experience for everyone.”

Joffrey’s Music Director, Scott Speck, will guest conduct for the Joffrey performances which will include James Kudelka’s Pretty BALLET, Lar Lubovitch’s Othello and the company’s ever-popular version of The Nutcracker.

For more information on Joffrey’s 2012-2013 season, visit joffrey.com.

Take Five

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Vicki

Elements Contemporary Ballet dancers Yu Suzuki & Joseph Caruana. Photo by John Sisson.

Tomorrow night (Saturday, May 12) in a one-night-only performance, Elements Contemporary Ballet (ECB) celebrates turning five. There was some confusion in the anniversary, since founder/artistic director Mike Gosney actually started the company in 2005, but he explains that the first two pivotal years which produced experimental material were not incorporated. Once incorporated, the clock really started ticking and now ECB is hitting the five year anniversary. Congrats! Gosney and his company are known for solid technique and stylized movement with an unique approach to teaching and choreographing. By incorporating the natural elements (fire, earth, air, water) to represent major points of dance (expression, physicality, focus, freedom) his work takes on an organic quality that allows the dancers to take risks and really shine.

For the Five Year Anniversary Spring Engagement at the Atheneum Theatre this weekend, ECB presents five works – three world premieres, a company premiere and an audience favorite. Gosney revamps a previous work-in-progress set to Mendelssohn titles Songs without words. “I’ve asked the cast to sing as if they were standing in line or waiting for the bus on a summer’s day,” he said. His newer work, Pathos, to Mozart’s Requiem follows a journey through purgatory where a man is guided by the characters “Love”, “Hope” and “Mercy”. ECB dancer Joseph Caruana also has two pieces on the program. His premiere The River deals with two women who are battling cancer and his older work Angel was pickes to compete in 2011’s Dancing Under the Stars festival. Rounding out the show is choreographer and former Hubbard Street dancer Brian Enos’ Dark and Lovely, Mmm, originally set on Houston Ballet. ECB’s core group of eight dancers will be joined with guest artists, which Facebook suggests will include some local favorites including Lizzie MacKenzie and Ricky Ruiz.

Elements Contemporary Ballet at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Saturday, May 12 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25-$30. Call 773.935.6860 or visit web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/9584725

Another Joffrey Affinity Night Update

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Vicki

Just a quick note – The RSVP list for tomorrow night’s Spring Desire Affinity Night at Joffrey Tower is full. However, Joffrey Ballet is generously willing to let you take advantage of the ticket discount offered to attendees.

For a 50% discount on Spring Desire performances this weekend at the Auditorium Theatre, click here and enter code DANCE.

rogue ballerina

dishing on dance diva-style

Category Archives: ballet