HSDC's newest dancer, Jonathan Fredrickson. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

Hubbard Street welcomes Jonathan Fredrickson to the main company!  You may recognize his name from winning HSDC’s National Choreographic Competition which resulted in him setting a work, Luna Sea, that HS2 premiered in 2010. He also danced for Limón Dance Company and was named as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2011.

RB watched the tall, slim dancer in rehearsals for Ohad Naharin’s new piece on his second official day with the company.  Looks like he’ll fit right in.

Congratulations!

Last week I attended two evenings of dance at decidedly different ends of the artistic spectrum.  Both were highly entertaining with talented dancers and excited audiences and, IMHO, a big success.  Wednesday night was Joffrey Ballet’s opening night of Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow and Saturday night was The Seldom’s STUPORMARKET.  One lavish luxury, colorful camaraderie and romantic romps — the other bare bones, black box and earthy intellectualism.  I loved them both!

Victoria Jaiani as Hanna in The Merry Widow.

Joffrey’s Widow was a flirty rom-com that highlighted the collective strength of the company, yet again, while showing off the dancers acting abilities.  Victoria Jaiani was, as usual, exquisite.  (Her arches pointing the same whether on pointe or in the air…ridiculous!)  Miguel Angel Blanco proved to be a bravura dancer, assured partner and dashing Count.  He had great comedic timing.  (Who doesn’t love a tall, handsome leading man who is continually drunk throughout the show?)  The tiny spitfire that is Yumelia Garcia found a vessel that completely complimented her über-jubiliant expressions, acting abilities and extensions.  Together again in a smart comedic pairing was Matthew Adamczyk and Willy Shives (last year’s ugly step sisters in Cinderella), who built on their timing and had many moments of scene-stealing hilarity.  A couple of the male soloist were a bit off, which may have been due to opening night jitters.  The show was so much fun to watch and the best part was that the dancers looked like they were having a blast.  Oh, and fuschia dance boots!

A bit further north (and a couple of days later) in Lakeview, The Seldom’s took the stage at the new-ish multi-theatre venue Stage 773 with Carrie Hanson’s witty take on the financial crisis, STUPORMARKET.  At once funny, silly, poignant and depressing, the new hour-long work showcases the strength, talent and versatility of her dancers and Hanson’s finely-honed aesthetic.  Compared to Widow‘s extravagance, STUPORMARKET used minimalistic choices to make its point.  Costumes from GoodWill, no wings, some folding chairs for the dancers to sit on and unique props (bubble gum and a fake bearskin rug that talks), plus the group of eight dancers…that’s it, yet it was equally as entertaining as the lavish ballet.  Hanson has an extremely talented group and many have been with her for years.  It shows in their grasp of her ideas and their trust in the movement.  I find it hard to single out any one dancer as they were all integral to the piece and delivered a high-energy performance.  I have two complaints:  in the small theater, it was difficult to see some of the floorwork (which Hanson is brilliant with) and that Hanson herself wasn’t performing.  The Seldoms take STUPORMARKET to the Joyce Soho this June and I think they will knock them off their seats.

Carrie Hanson, Artistic Director of The Seldoms, had a very busy year in 2010.   Just a few things on her agenda:  a tour to Russia, a successful premiere run of Marchland at the MCA, a new home that was featured in TimeOut Chicago, a husband and a baby boy named Levi (who, by the way, might be the cutest thing on the planet).  Not one to stop and rest (unless there is ice cream involved), she set to work on STUPORMARKET, opening tonight at Stage 773 and then heading to the Joyce Soho in New York this June.

Paige Cunningham and Carrie Hanson in the 2009 duet Thrift.

Clear in her intent and aesthetic, Hanson is one of the most prolific and intelligent choreographers in Chicago (she also has a wicked sense of humor), continually challenging herself, her dancers and her audience.  Expanding on two earlier works Thrift (2009) and Death of a (Prada) Salesman (2009), she has revisited, revised and added to make the new 60-minute piece for eight dancers about the economic crisis.

RB spoke with Hanson at her West Loop condo last week and asked her about the new piece and economics…(she really knows her stuff!).

RB:  Tell me about STUPORMARKET.

CH: It is kind of a culmination or the final project in a series of smaller projects.  I did Thrift in early 2009, the duet that I did with Paige Cunningham.  I’ve stepped out of it and Christina (Gonzalez-Gillett) has stepped in to my role.  The sound backdrop is Paul Krugman.  That was the entry point into this economy project.  I knew that I wanted to continue with it and eventually go to a full-length work.  The next thing that I made was Death of a Prada Salesman, which was about the luxury market.  That whole idea came to me in one afternoon.  I was drinking on my roof in the sun…the heat and the alcohol (laughing)… I was intrigued by people, even people that could afford to continue their consumption at the rates they normally consume at the luxury level had kind of slowed down because of shame.  I was just really interested in that situation, that kind of embarrassment or changing your behavior because now it is in bad taste to continue to buy ostentatiously when people are losing their jobs.  Somehow Death of a Salesman came in there and I thought Death of a Prada Salesman!  That was a very theatrical piece.  I’m not sure it was wholly successful.  It’s made its’ way into STUPORMARKET in a very abbreviated way.  Thrift also sits in STUPORMARKET in kind of…I halved it and moved it around a bit.

The structure of it really feels like a series of vignettes.  Some of the other things we tackle or that I tried to make physical material around are the housing bubble, foreclosure…there’s a section that opens it where there is card dealing going on.  I wanted to reference the aspect of trading, the market that is speculative and about risk taking…managed risk.  It’s kind of like gambling.  I actually have a couple of guys wearing trader’s jackets.

There’s this rather complex economic concept called Ketchup Economics by Lawrence Summers that I thought would be more transparent, but is buried in the physical material…that’s just really about the process and the starting point, but it’s ended up with this kind of interesting section where the dancers are doing a move and they name the move and they give it a price, then someone comes in and looks at the price that they’ve put on that move and modifies it a little bit.  The idea of Ketchup Economics is that general economists look at the cost of tomatoes, the cost of labor…they would look at those hard factors in determining the price of ketchup.  Finance economists would look at something a little more arbitrary…what Summers says is…they’ve determined the price of a 2 quart bottle of ketchup by the price of a one quart bottle.  The 2 qt bottle is always twice as much as the 1 qt, which depends on the price of the 1 qt.  So if that price is wacked out…I thought that was interesting and related in some way to the housing bubble.

The piece includes spoken word.  There’s some humor in it.  There’s a section called build a bigger house, where one person builds a relatively modest, small house that they can afford and the next person build a bigger and it keeps going.  They’re chewing gum at the same time.  I was interested in for two reasons:  I wanted that literal bubble, to blow a bubble, but I the more we were chewing the gum…Chewing gum is a really self-involved, self-centered kind of physical act.  Some people do it modestly and some people don’t.  So the guy that’s building the big house is grossly, obnoxiously chewing his gum.

At the base of this, there is this look at these two different economic camps – the New Keynesian and the New Classicists.  New Keynesian advocating for more government intervention and more government spending, Krugman’s advocacy of really, really big injection into the economy through infrastructure projects, and the Neo Classicist where the idea is to let the markets do the work, because the markets are generally rational…and that government should basically stay out of it.  I set both of those things up in one solo. Richard Woodbury is doing the sound design.  We worked together to find a bunch of sound bites from former presidents, politicians, economists.  We hear them arguing those two points.  We’re also doing some projections (of news headlines), more as a delivery system for some of this information.

While Hanson is not performing in the piece, her signature wit, smarts and style are sure to be center stage.  At the time of the interview, she didn’t have an ending yet.  “I’m waiting for that creative answer to come to me at 3:00 in the morning,” she says.  According to her post-dress rehearsal Facebook post, it looks like that answer came and was celebrated with a pint of ice cream.

STUPORMARKET at Stage 773 – Feb 17 – 19 at 8pm, Feb 20 at 3pm

Tickets at 773.327.5252, www.stage773.com

Who is John Meehan, you may be asking?  Meehan had an astounding ballet career dancing as a principal for the Australian Ballet and American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and traveling the world as a choreographer, teacher and guest artist.  He also did stints as the Artistic Director of ABT II and Hong Kong Ballet and is now teaching at Vassar College and serving as the Director of the Vassar Repertory Dance Theater, but enough of his long and accomplished resume.  Meehan was recently in town to set Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow — a ballet he has an intimate history with having originated the role of Count Danilo  — on the Joffrey.  “It’s a very romantic, very fun evening,” says Meehan of the 1975 ballet. “Very sumptuous sets and costumes, big sets and costumes, lots of people dancing…it’s a very rich, theatrical experience.”

RB spoke to him in January during an afternoon break in rehearsals (our original interview time had to be rescheduled because the dancers threw him a surprise luncheon on his last day here) and talked about his connection to the ballet, the Joffrey dancers and some of the famous ballerinas he partnered…in his own words.

John Meehan

A Lucky Ballet

When it was being created, none of us knew what to expect.  It was very surreal to be the first cast.  The wonderful thing about having a role created on you is that nobody leaves anything in that you can’t do.  It’s always the best thing for you.  It’s always the way I think you develop the most as an artist and also technically you develop so much, because you rehearse so much and you sometimes have to stretch and do things that you think you can do but have never done before.  I was working with Marilyn Rowe, who was a wonderful dancer in Australia.  It was a great experience.  Another thing that took us all by surprise…none of us expected the success that it turned out to be…just astounding!  I had a pretty long career as a dancer, but there was no other moment in my career more amazing for me as an artist than when the curtain went down after the first performance of The Merry Widow.

It’s been a wonderful ballet for me.  It was 10 years before another company got the ballet and that was because The Australian Ballet held on to the rights and wouldn’t give it to anybody, even though lots of companies wanted it.  The ballet has given me so much…first of all, there was a tour with the Australian Ballet soon after we did it, and because of that tour, I was offered a job in New York and I joined the American Ballet Theatre.  So that was one way “the widow” was good to me.  When the National Ballet of Canada did it ten years after The Australian Ballet, Ron asked me to come set the piece with him and dance it with Karen Kain and we made a film, so that was another way it came back to me…there’s actually a film of the production and I got to be in it, which you always want to do…and it happens rarely, so that was a wonderful thing.  I retired in Canada…when it came back after the original set of performances, I had some experience rehearsing the company and I gave an interview in Toronto, and because of that interview, the Royal Winnepeg Ballet sent me a package and asked me to apply as Director there and I got that job as an Artistic Director at the age of 40, so The Merry Widow was very good to me again.  Then in 1997, while I was setting the ballet on ABT, which is my old company as a dancer…I went and helped set it and taught company class there at the same time and they asked me to teach more regularly and finally they asked me to run their junior company as Director.  Again, The Merry Widow was very good to me.  In many ways I feel I owe The Merry Widow a great deal.

The Joffrey

I’m very impressed with the company.  The principals are very good.  The company has a great appetite for this ballet and they’ve been very respectful a very, very quick to learn.  I really didn’t expect the company to be quite this good.  I really think the rest of the world is unaware of the level of the Joffrey Ballet.  It’s going to be a very pleasant surprise for everyone when they see the Joffrey in these next few years.  With Ashley as director, they’ve really, truly taken it to an amazing level.  There’s a lot of talent and a lot of interest.  There’s a tremendous discipline in class and in the studio and a great variety of repertoire that the dancers get to experience.  I’ve been very impressed with Ashley.  I’ve known him a long time, but not as a director.  He has the right instinct as a director.  He’s in the studio, he’s caring, he’s pushing…he’s a very impressive director…a very impressive company.

Dishing on Ballerinas

Cynthia Gregory (ABT) – I was lucky enough to dance with some wonderful artists and Cynthia is certainly one of them.  She was so musical, so easy to partner.  We heard the music the same way, so there was never any guessing as to where she was or when she would hit a pique or a pirouette or whatever.  She always did it the same every time.  She was always with the music and I knew where it was going to be.  She was fun.  It wasn’t sort of a painful experience with her.  We didn’t spend hours and hours and hours digging.  When something was working, she was happy and we’d move on.  She’s a very, very dear person.  I see her every now and then and it’s always wonderful to see her.

Gelsey Kirkland (ABT) – Gels was quite the opposite (laughing).  It was a very interesting process with her, because she…it wasn’t always clear what she was going for, but you knew just from watching her dance alone that it was something really profound and that’s always worth the effort.  It taught me a great deal about finesse.  She wanted to work on the very, very smallest details.  Cynthia…she was prepared to let chance happen on stage and with Gelsey, she wanted chance to be a bit more controlled, I think.  It still happened.  She took big risks.  They both did, but Gelsey wanted to feel secure.  She wanted to feel like she’d looked at every possibility of the role and the movement and the partnering.  She wanted to expand and develop things.  She did a lot of that in the studio and it was quite painful sometimes, I have to say, but the results were amazing…truly amazing.  She’s an amazing artist.

Margot Fonteyn (Royal Ballet) – She was in her mid 50s and I was in my mid 20s.  The Australian Ballet – they arranged to do a tour (of They Merry Widow).  It ended up Margot dancing with me, which was just something I never thought would happen.  It was an amazing experience.  It was really interesting.  She’s such a woman of the theater that she taught me about dramatic focus and humor and comedy on stage.  She painted the role of the Merry Widow with very broad strokes.  She knew it was an operetta.  Until Margot had done the role, it was always rather serious.  We had a rather young, introspective approach to it.  Margot was quite the opposite.  It was very out there…not quite cartoonish, but on the way to.  When you think about an operetta, it’s not so deep and heavy, it’s more big, theatrical gestures and moments…not melodrama, but certain melodrama of humor (whatever that is), but the romance was very…was really played up as well, but it was balanced with humor.  I think there was more humor in it when she did it.  It was an amazing thing.  What she taught me, I was able to take to other roles and other partners and I was never the same again after dancing with her.  We did more than 50 shows together.  And then she asked me to come dance with her and do other things.  It was wonderful.  She wasn’t in her prime technically, but she had a lot going on still.  She had a very…her upper body was very free and very mobile.  She could move, when she moved, she really moved across the floor.  It was a tremendous experience.  You know, those three women couldn’t be more different and it was such a privilege to work with one of them…to work with all three of them was just incredible.

The Merry Widow runs Feb 16 – 27th at the Auditorium Theater, 50 E Congress.  Tickets:  ticketmaster.com or call 312.386.8905 or 800.982.ARTS

Color me cold, but happy.  RB had a fun and exciting week.  It started off with the disappointing SuperBowl loss by the Steelers, but by Monday had rallied into a full-on dance prance.

Monday night, had me tucked cozy in bed with a glass of wine, Giselle and Apollo’s Angels while listening to Andrew Patner‘s 10pm WFMT (98.7) show Critical Thinking featuring dancer, author, historian Jennifer Homans.  This was part one of two – the second half will air this coming Monday at 10pm.  Listen in!

Tuesday had me interviewing Artistic Director of The Seldoms, Carrie Hanson at her lovely home in the West Loop.  I got to meet the new man in her life, 7 month old Levi, who turns out to be perhaps the cutest human on earth under 1 year.  Then I hopped (well, climbed mountains of snow) over to Hubbard Street to chat briefly with dancer Benjamin Wardell and sit in on a rehearsal for Sharon Eyal’s world premiere that, from what I saw, is going to be way creepy cool!

Wednesday, I braved the arctic winds to schlep over to Link’s Hall to visit with Joanna Rosenthal, Artistic Director of Same Planet Different World, then watched four of her dancers run a new, extremely physical piece that will premiere at their show in March.

Thursday was watching rehearsal and a partial run-thru of Thodos Dance Chicago‘s new work premiering next week in Skokie (and then heads to the Harris in early March).  A lovely chat with Artistic Director Melissa Thodos and collaborators Ann Reinking and Gary Chryst followed.  Truth be told, RB had to really concentrate to not completely geek out in Ms. Reinking’s presence.  She was funny, fabulous and gracious…just like you would expect her to be.

Today is the normal job (boo!) and organizing all the info to start transcribing and writing.  Go!  Joffrey opens next Wednesday with The Merry Widow and The Seldom’s concert is next weekend, so look for both of those to go up, um…soon.  Also tenatively on RB‘s agenda for next week is another rehearsal viewing and talk with HSDC A.D. Glenn Edgerton and a (fingers crossed) interview with Chicago dance scene dynamic duo:  Harriet Ross and Gail Kalver.

This week Rogue also got an email address (rb@rogueballerina.com) and business cards!  Look out people, she’s had coffee…

Check out this hilarious MadTV take on the Black Swan movie…starring Miz Swan via Perez Hilton’s site.

ht:  thanks Towns!

You can now reach me via email!  Send any thoughts, ideas, concerns or even jokes to:

rb@rogueballerina.com

While the rest of the Chicago dance world was watching the amazing (so, I’ve heard) Joe Goode Performance Group at the Dance Center, I was at the Bank of America Theater at Burn the Floor, a Broadway in Chicago tribute to the growing fascination with ballroom dancing — or something I like to call “the Riverdance of Ballroom”.  A bit cheesy at times, but ridiculously sexy and high energy, Burn the Floor is a fun mash-up of all the ballroom dance styles presented in a variety of settings (a ballroom, a swing club, a disco, etc).  Featuring live vocals from Peter Saul and American Idol finalist Vonzell Solomon, some of the world’s best ballroom dancers took the stage to strut their stuff.  The international crew (US, Russia, Ireland, UK, Australia and Venezuela) was lead by So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) alum couples Anya Garnis and Pasha Kovalev and husband and wife team Ashleigh and Ryan Di Lello.  Clearly the familiar fan favorites, these couples grabbed the spotlight on the not-so-big stage for the group numbers and each performed a duet from their time on SYTYCD.

I’m partial to the quicker styles like Cha Cha, Rumba, Samba, Swing and Jive, but one of the most memorable moments was during a waltz.  While one couple was Fred and Gingering it up, another couple, identical in coloring, size and costume, came on the stage behind a scrim to create a perfect mirror image.  It was a beautiful moment and a noteworthy pause in the frenzy of shakes and shimmies surrounding it.

The cast is stunningly talented (HOT!) and, even if ballroom isn’t your thing, it will make you want to get up and shake your groove thing.  Shake it!

The Joe Goode performance scheduled for this evening at The Dance Center at Columbia College has been canceled due to the weather and aftermath of the thundersnow storm this week.  If you have ticket to tonight’s show, please call 312.369.8330 between 11 and 5pm to exchange your tickets or discuss other refund options.

Yes, the obsession continues unabated. My post Fouette Madness, showing more videos of talented turners prompted a few readers to post suggestions. Yay! Thanks to Steve at YouDanceFunny (Tamara Rojo) and the lovely ladies Emilia and Linda at The Ballet Bag (Sofiane Sylve) for telling RB about these awesome pirouetting primas seen below.

First up, Sofiane Sylve.  Watch for the pull in at the end…

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t472gU4PmQI]

Next, Tamara Rojo in practice throwing in some triples and double, but watch in her second run where she starts to change her spot!

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7VVkSxvUok&feature=related]

And, of course I kept looking and found incredible videos of Katherine Healy (freak show prodigy).  Does anyone remember her from the movie Six Weeks?  Am I dating myself?

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANo-uE8wtdI&feature=related]

I mean really.