Category Archives: Ashley Wheater

Joffrey’s Nutcracker a Sweet Treat!

Posted on by
Reply

[simple_slideshow]

Time really does fly during the holiday season.  It’s been almost a week since opening night of Joffrey Ballet‘s annual The Nutcracker performance at the Auditorium Theatre and I can’t stop thinking about it (or get the music out of my head!).  Honestly, this is not a new development.  Nothing says Happy Holidays to me more than watching a good version of The Nut and, in my view, Joffrey’s is the best.  Set in 1850s America, Robert Joffrey took a classic German tale and made it ours.  There is so much action happening on stage that even the notoriously boring Party Scene breezes by leaving you wondering what you missed. Derrick Agnoletti as the bratty little Fritz provided comic relief for those not completely enthralled with Clara (Abigail Simon), her Godfather Drosselmeyer (Matthew Adamczyk) and her obsession with the wooden doll that happens to crack nuts.  Once the clock strikes midnight, the action escalates in Clara’s dreams aided with some magic dust from Dr. Drosselmeyer.  (Seriously, what is in that sparkly stuff? I’ll take two please!)  Dolls coming to life, an enormous growing tree, a, epic battle, a first kiss, a beautiful snow fall and a lovely pas de deux: and that’s only Act One!  The audience seemed a bit shy and lulled by the graceful snow pas danced by Victoria Jaiani and Dylan Gutierrez, but finally livened up to applaud during Agnoletti’s spirited dancing as the Snow Prince.

The excitement carried over into Act Two which had each of the divertissements getting rousing approval.  Erica Lynnette Edwards was sassy in the Spanish variation, Arabian showed off Jaiani’s super flexibility, the Russian Nougats’ gravity-defying leaps (as usual) brought down the house, Elizabeth Hansen proved perfectly pristine as the lead Marzipan Shepherdess and Gerald Arpino’s choreography in Waltz of the Flowers is just as gorgeous as the famous music.  The petite Yumelia Garcia as the Sugar Plum Fairy stunned the crowd (and RB!) with a spectacular balance at the end of the Grand pas that lasted at least 10 seconds!    No joke, she stayed perched in first arabesque so long, she missed the next section of choreography, then hurried with her cavalier (Ogulcan Borova) downstage for the dramatic end poses all to cheers and wild applause.

On a somber note before the show, Artistic Director Ashley Wheater dedicated this season’s Nutcracker performances in honor of the city’s former First Lady, Maggie Daley, who was a huge supporter of the arts and served on Joffrey’s Women’s Board.  Daley died last month after a long battle with cancer.

There are 16 performances left – get your tickets now and enjoy this holiday classic ballet.

Joffrey Ballet presents The Nutcracker through Dec 27th

Auditorium Theatre, 50 E Congress, 800.982.2787 or ticketmaster.com

 

Changing Scenes

Posted on by
Reply

Jonathan Dummar in "The Nutcracker". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

“I’ll be home for Christmas this year,” said a happy Jonathan David Dummar over coffee this past summer.  After dancing with the Joffrey Ballet for six seasons, Dummar, 27, decided it was time for a change of scenery and moved to San Francisco in August to dance with Smuin Ballet.  He’s currently performing in their annual show The Christmas Ballet.  No  Nutcracker?  “I’m so thankful for that,” he laughs.  “Don’t get me wrong, I love Tchaikovsky…and, by the way Joffrey’s is the best!  Bob (Joffrey) and Jerry (Arpino) really knew what they were doing. I’m so proud to be a part of the legacy of the Joffrey.”

From Reno, Nevada, Dummar began taking dance classes after being invited into his sister’s class by her teacher.  She had seen him watching from the window and trying to do the moves.  The physical child, who participated in gymnastic, swimming and diving, was hooked.  To avoid competition, his mom enrolled the children in different dance schools.  His very first teacher, Ava Kerr, basically changed his life.  “She was so fundamental,” he says.  “She taught me so much.  She had me partnering within two weeks.”  From there he participated in dance competitions, spent summers in LA at the Edge Performing Arts Center on scholarship, Pacific Northwest Ballet‘s (PNB) summer program and on to The Harrid Conservatory to finish high school.  “The training at Harrid is rigorous.  It’s boarding/ballet school.  They really helped me hone a lot of things and gave me a good base.  I’m a completely different dancer now.”  After graduating valedictorian, Dummar danced with PNB’s professional division until an ankle injury ended in surgery.  After healing, he danced two years with Ballet Memphis, where he met choreographer Trey McIntyre and became a founding member of the Trey McIntyre Project.  Feeling that he wasn’t utilizing his ballet technique fully, he auditioned for the Joffrey and joined the company in 2005.

At the Joffrey A Starry Night party after the final show of the season, I approached Dummar having just found out at the performance that it would be his last with the troupe.  “You should interview me,” he said.  A few weeks later, we sat down to discuss his career.

So, why did you decide to leave Joffrey now?

I’ve been here for six years.  The company is skewing younger and more classical all the time and I’m going in the opposite direction.  I’m really thankful for the opportunities that I got.  My values are changing and they aren’t necessarily aligned with where Ashley is taking the company.  Ashley taught me a lot.  He gave me a lot of opportunities.  I’m really appreciative and grateful.  I feel really glad about what I did, but I can’t wait to start this next chapter.  There’s a lot of personal reasons too.   I’m from the West Coast.  I’ve been away from home for 11 years.  I’m ready to be closer to family.  San Francisco is like the promise land of the new age.  There’s organic produce on every corner, the yoga there is amazing, they compost, they have clean energy…I was so impressed with all of that.  It finally feels like I’m finally making a decision for me as a whole person.  It’s kind of selfish, but all of the things I’ve done to grow and learn and do what I wanted to do.  Now I can take it and share it with my family.

Well, I ‘m going to miss watching you dance.  What have been some of your favorite pieces at Joffrey?

“Round of Angels” has been one of my favorite things I’ve ever performed.  The Arpino rep is really fun.  You watch it and it’s easy to be critical, but when you do it, it’s so fun…fast and hard.  It’s part of dance history.  “Crossed” by Jessica Lang.  I really liked “Bells” (Yuri Possokhov).  When I first joined, Fabrice (Calmels), Val (Robin) and I did Kylían’s “Return To a Strange Land”.  We did the pas de trois.  It was a very emotional piece.  It was a fantastic opportunity.

Tell me about Smuin Ballet. 

Michael Smuin is the former Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet.  He wanted some more artistic freedom and wanted to do some things the board wasn’t in to, so he left and started his own company.  He was a Broadway choreographer before he did ballet, so all of his works are more showy, more dancy.  He died about three years ago. It was horrifically tragic for the company.  He was very much the lifeblood.  He died in the studio teaching class of a heart attack.  Everyone talks about him with so much reverance.  The company is going in a new direction.  We’re doing Trey McIntyre, some Kylían, lots of premieres, and a few by Michael Smuin.  It’s a smaller company.  I know I’ll be more valuable.  Some of the ballerinas there deserve a really strong, attentive partner.  I have some friends in the company. It was just an overall feeling.  I went and auditioned and thought this is where I need to be.  It was perfect timing with the Joffrey lock out.

What’s in your future?

I want to direct.  I know that’s in my future.  I know there’s an intellectual side that I’ll need to cultivate, but I think you can do that with dance.  Absolutely.  I’ve been to some modern shows and the ideas they present are incredible.  Ballet doesn’t even come close to presenting these ideas and I think they can.  I think further integration of these disparate kinds of dance is completely possible.  I’d love to work with Alonzo (King) at some point.

 

Joffrey’s Don Q: Q for Questioning

Posted on by
Reply

Derrick Agnoletti & Fabrice Calmels in "Don Quixote". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

The sets were amazing, the costumes stunning, the integration of video/images imaginative, the score fast and flamboyant, the life-size horse puppet fantastic, the choreography ambitious, the characters lovable, so why am I left with the feeling something was off? Last night’s premiere of  Yuri Possoknov’s version of Don Quixote for the Joffrey Ballet at the Auditorium Theatre had all the elements for a spectacular opening night, but it just didn’t quite get there.  That may be a bit harsh.  It was a wonderful show and sure to be a huge hit with audiences, but some of casting and staging were questionable and at times it seemed more like a full dress run and not up to the bar Joffrey has set for themselves.  The show was held for twenty minutes due to a medical emergency (someone slipped and fell in the lobby), which may have had a negative effect on the dancers.  I should also note that I sat in the third row, which was too close for my taste, and the ballet seemed almost too big for the stage.

Victoria Jaiani as Kitri in "Don Quixote". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

Let’s start with the good stuff – and there was more than plenty.  First, Victoria Jaiani as Kitri was fantastic as we have come to expect.  Her fiery, flirty interpretation seemed second nature (although she seemed uncharacteristically nervous in parts of Act I) and I assume, growing up in Tbilisi, Georgia, she was practically weened on the part.  Her ridiculous flexibility was on full display particularly in Kitri’s Act I solo with Plisetskaya leaps (named after Maya Plisetskaya who made them famous with the Bolshoi) where she literally kicks the back of her head.  But why was she carrying castanets if she wasn’t playing them?  The Act II wedding pas de deux coda famously has a run of thirty-two fouettes.  Jaiani’s was spot on, even tossing in doubles every third turn in the first half.  From my seat, while watching her turn, I could perfectly see her husband Temur Suluashvili’s face behind her beaming with love and pride.  Jaiani’s partner (hired to replace the injured Miguel Angel Blanco), Cuban guest artist Carlos Quenedit, was charming, charismatic and mui talented, although I kept wondering “who is this guy?”  The program only notes (with an asterisk) that he’s a guest artist.  He was great and would be a lovely addition to the Joffrey family, but why hire a guest artist?

Amber Neumann & Anastacia Holden in "Don Quixote". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

The other star of the show was the puppet.  Crafted by Von Orthal Puppets, Rocinante, Don Q’s faithful companion was fresh and endearing addition to the cast performed by Shane Urton and Alberto Velazquez.  The creation, nicknamed Otis by the company, only appeared in a few scenes which was a shame.  Free Otis!  More of the horse please.  All of the character parts were perfectly played.  Fabrice Calmels as Don Quixote (dashing, distracted), Derrick Agnoletti as Sancho Panza (delightfully bumbling), Willy Shives as Lorenzo (deliciously daft) and Matthew Adamczyk as Gamache (scene-stealingly silly).  Soloists Amber Neumann and Stacia Holden were stand outs as Kitri’s friends.  The corps — toreadors, seguidillas, dryads and bridesmaids — were outstanding and, aside from Kitri, did most of the dancing.  Two female solo variations beautifully danced by Amber Neumann and Jeraldine Mendoza inserted in the middle of the Act II pas de deux seemed out of place and unnecessary.  Equally perplexing was the need for the character Mercedes, a street dancer (Alexis Polito) who danced in the village with the toreadors.  No offense to Polito who danced a lovely solo amidst daggers ingeniously stuck to the floor with frightening intensity, but I failed to see how her character aided the story line.

Victoria Jaiani & Carlos Quenedit in "Don Quixote". Photo by Herbert Migdoll.

The audience at first seemed timid and unsure of how to react to such a bold and ambitious production.  Case in point:  Kitri and Basilio do these amazing one-handed presage lifts about six times.  The first four are done in pairs and in quick succession separated by supported pirouettes.  Fair enough, the lift might not have been held long enough for them to really see what was going on.  The second two are held for a sustained period of time – long enough for Jaiani to hold, look at audience and shake her tambourine before coming down – with the orchestra (Chicago Sinfonietta) holding for effect.  The first lift…nothin’.  The second, held long enough for Quenedit to carry her  – with one hand! –  across the entire stage.  I laughed out loud before obnoxiously clapping, wondering what it was going to take to get these people going.  Luckily, they came around and were clapping to the music enthusiastically during the finale.  Over all, it was a tremendous undertaking that, once a few kinks are figured out (particularly the long, awkward “pause” in Act II), will delight for the entire two week run.  As Artistic Director Ashley Wheater said last week, “I think the company will grow into it.”  I think they will and hope Don Q will be in Joffrey’s rep for a long, long time.

Joffrey Waxes Quixotic

Posted on by
Reply

Joffrey dancers Victoria Jaiani & Miguel Angel Blanco. Photo by Sandro.

This Wednesday, October 12th, Joffrey Ballet premieres a new version of Don Quixote at the Auditorium Theatre. The two act re-envisioning of Cervantes classic literary tale brings humor, drama and love to life with bravura dancing and a dash of horseplay.  Choreographed by Yuri Possokhov (former star of the Bolshoi Ballet and current resident choreographer at San Francisco Ballet), the ballet promises to continue the Russian classical traditions, while adding in his charismatic flair.  Possokhov delighted Chicago audiences last spring with Joffrey’s premiere of his commissioned work Bells.  His history with Don Q is long.  “I was ten years old first time I dance in this ballet,” he says in halted English at an Artists Talk Series lecture hosted by Instituto Cervantes last week.  The Bolshoi is the only company to keep Don Q “alive” in it’s rep with every generation passing  it on to the next.  “It’s a gift for him to pass onto this generations of Joffrey dancers,”  says Artistic Director Ashley Wheater of Possokhov’s vast base of knowledge with this ballet.  “I think the company will grow into it.”

How do you take a classic that’s over 140 years old and make it fresh?  “I had to make some twist, something that belongs to this city, this company,” says Possokhov.  That twist includes a more dancing for Don Quixote, which is traditionally more a character role, projections and video by Wendall Harrington integrated to help particularly in the dream sequences, plus a life-size horse puppet created by Von Orthal Puppets operated by male dancers in the company (insert horse’s ass joke here).  Along with the lively score by Ludwig Minkus (played live by the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Joffrey-ized Don Q will surely keep you on the edge of your seat.  Shortly before Possokhov was set to come to Chicago to set the ballet, the Golden Gate Park Windmills, which had been under restorative construction for years, began to spin.  “Is good sign.”

Joffrey Ballet presents Don Quixote, Oct 12th – 23rd

Auditorium Theatre, 50 E Congress

Tickets:  800.982.2787 or 312.386.8905

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, the Official School of the Joffrey Ballet, is offering a Don Quixote-themed master class next Monday, October 17th at 5:30 pm.  Taught by dancer Ericka Mac, the class gives a brief history of the story and choreography, as well as giving a fun barre warm up and teaching the steps of Kitri’s (the female lead) solo.  The class is for students of all levels and ages.

Joffrey Tower, 10 E Randolph, $15, or $10 with a valid college ID.

Reservations:  reception@joffrey.org or 312.784.4600