Pearlann Porter called it “( ),” an artist-known-as-Prince way to engage audience members. I saw a hug, a way to connect. As it turned out, there was, of course, much more to the piece than that.
There was traffic noise as we entered (or so I assumed). And the piece was performed with a dual front — where the action could be discerned from two seating areas at both ends of a long alley way that took up part of The Space Upstairs. I passed three couples in close contact, seemingly still, perhaps not.
Blackout.
What followed were a series of sections set to recorded music, so atmospheric in the . The first took advantage of a leaping bass line, only connected by wide intervals. A single couple at opposite ends of the alley were connected with a large rubber band, but maybe not.
Who was pulling? Who was in control? From my end, the woman seemed to be agonizing.
They moved farther apart, yet were still connected by an increasingly complex cat’s cradle.
Snap!
( ) continued to develop relationships, taking on an increasingly steamy, Tennessee Williams’ aura.
By the end, ( ) was unraveling. There were two couples at opposite ends of the alley. But one male was obviously connected to the female from the other couple. The partners were extraneous.
The final concept referenced Pearlann’s work with Freejazz over the pas several years, where the dancers start moving without a real preconceived notion of where they were going.
It’s an organic, highly sensory style of movement, but here it was served up in a new context, where the emotions played out with a heavy weight, giving this latest of Porter pieces a mesmerizing lock on its audience.
George Dvorsky (Adam Pontipee) and Mamie Parris (Millie)
The Civic Light Opera’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is that rarest of breeds — the truly manly musical. Mountain-brewed with a panoramic sweep, it’s the kind of tuneful show that had the audience humming as they went out the Benedum Center doors.
Not that the tunes were not that familiar, not like Broadway’s groundbreaking role model, Oklahoma!, but they felt familiar. Of course, I grew up with movie musicals and the campy, rough-and-tumble 1954 film was one of my favorites, with some of the best male dancers of the day, including New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d’Amboise, soon-to-be jazz legend Matt Mattox, the original Dream Curley from Oklahoma!, Marc Platt, and the future Riff from Jerome Robbins’ film version of West Side Story, Russ Tamblyn.
It was great to see how well the CLO’s brothers stood up against that memory. They were a bracing lot who could easily negotiate the multitude of tricks and tumbling that director/choreographer Sha Newman threw their way and handily showed how much dance technique has progressed over the years.
The newly refurbished brothers Ponipee jump for joy.
The steps themselves were direct and often repetitive, all deliberately designed to elicit applause — which they did in numbers like Goin’ Courtin’ and Social Dance. With a bigger budget, they could have benefitted from the prop dance specialty numbers that Susan Stroman (Crazy For You, Contact) does so well.
While dance is the driving force behind Seven, it has a folksy tale of a mountain man who sweeps a woman off her feet in a single day and the six brothers who attempt to do the same with disastrous results. Fraught with a few setbacks, including a some fights and an avalanche, it produced a friendly spirit along the way and and ended with a bracing camaraderie among all, including the audience.
It benefitted from an exhilarating score by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, with a couple of new and engaging songs by Al Kasha & Joel Hirschhorn and played with rousing brio by Tom Helm and the orchestra. Anna Louizos’ scenery boasted a great view of the mountains, which was cleverly altered from the farm to the town to a nearby mountain view by movable trees, although it was apparently created for a smaller stage. John McLain’s lighting contributed to the appropriate moods along the way.
The cast puts an exclamation point on their production numbers.
Although Seven told of hardy American pioneers, it was hardly a pioneering musical. However Lawrence Kasha & David Landay tinkered with it for the 1982 Broadway version. So what started as a old-fashioned, pre-feminist production (A Woman Ought To Know Her Place), evolved into a discovery zone for male star George Dvorsky.
He brought his best Howard Keel bravado with him, portraying the leading man with unequivocal authority and a booming voice. But his sensitive portrayal of that same A Woman Ought To Know, with the support of a few new lyrics, made his Adam a three-dimensional character.
That left Mamie Parris, who was a unquestionably a modern-day Millie, taking on a bevy of brothers with charm and determination and being a role model for the brides. It was also a taxing song-and-dance role, where she took charge whether singing a lullaby to her baby in Glad That You Were Born or leading the way in Goin’ Courtin.’
There was quite a lot of buzz over James Cameron’s latest project, the first live 3D dance film. Maybe he didn’t like Pina, Wim Vandekeybus’ brilliant Oscar-nominated film about Pina Bausch.
After all, Cameron made Titanic and Avatar and is considered a pioneer in 3D filmmaking. But instead of breaking new ground — a new ballet created for the camera — he and his company, CameronlPace, went for another piece of history — a new film of Swan Lake by the company where it originated over a hundred years ago. Yes, the Mariinsky Ballet, still famously known as the Kirov.
Along the way it appeared the project was plagued by problems. Theaters, days and times in Pittsburgh kept changing. And in the end, the much vaunted “real” 3D was presented in less than a third of the theaters, surprisingly with none in New York City. Luckily Pittsburgh has the Robinson Cinemark, which also presents the Metropolitan Opera productions — thank you!!
The film began with a travelogue of picturesque St. Petersburg, a plus, and we caught a glimpse of the new contemporary theater, finished just over a month ago. Although the interviews before and during intermissions were stilted, the original Mariinsky itself never looked better, showing off the gilt and architecture.
It began late and had 25-minute intermissions, bringing the total run time to over three hours. Maybe they should have served champagne and hors d’oeuvres at Cinemark (kidding, but a thought).
On to the ballet itself.
Evidently they had two trial runs in Paris. But I found the Mariinsky cutaways too MTV-like. Great Performances/Dance in America always presented things with such clarity, even when dealing with the fleet feet of Balanchine.
Here there were some blurry shots; sometimes it was hard to know where to focus. On the other hand, there were moments of brilliance, like the Swan Queen walking through an arbor of cygnets as the camera moved backwards.
It also captured the panorama of great ballet. The sets were fabulous and included a projection of the lake with swans moving across it, a sign of the future. And the cast was selected from a cinematic perspective. In other words, those who looked best on camera.
The Mariinsky itself made up for some lost ground. The Bolshoi had been part of Evolving Pictures’ Ballet in Cinema for the past several years. So this was an important project…and it showed.
Ballerina Yekaterina Kondaurova, who cuts a magnificent figure with her long, curving lines, , was noticeably stiff (perhaps two-dimensional) in the second act. But she showed her prowess as the Black Swan, with a dominating technique and flexibility.
Partner Timur Askerov was less so, a dancer with a clean technique, but with a personality that was slightly pursed. Andrei Yermakov took full advantage of the unusually dancy role of von Rothbart with powerful jumps.But the audience at the Cinemark responded best to the Joker (jester), Vasily Tkachenko — such efficient clean lines and buoyancy, so reminiscent of Mikhail Baryshnikov.
He was only a member of the corps, as was British dancer Xander (a story in itself), who performed as a friend of Prince Siegfried in Act I. So handsome, with beautifully arched feet. It is obvious that artistic director is nourishing his career — he will make his debut as Albrecht later this month.
But the final word has to rest with the corps, an ensemble of women who seem to move with one breath, one heartbeat. Of course they have been weaned on this particular ballet, an icon in Russia that has produced the most popular ballet world-wide. This was a superb chance to see the poetry of it all in high definition. Even up close and personal, they were a marvel.
Beth Corning watched her life unfold around her and for New Hazlett Theater audiences. Read about her fearlessness and the drama of it all in her latest piece, the solo work Remains in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Beth Corning was running on empty. Over the past several years she had stared at one loss after another — her company (Dance Alloy Theater), her mother, her friends.
But what she could still control was her work. Not just the steps, though. “I wanted to grow at a cellular level,” she explains after a rehearsal for her upcoming premiere at the New Hazlett Theater.
But at that stage of the game, after over 30 years of choreographing in Sweden, New York, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, where do you go? “I was taught that if you wanted to ski better, ski behind somebody better,” she quietly asserts.
For years she had admired Dominique Serrand, Tony Award-winning theater director of Theatre de la jeune Lune in Minneapolis and now, fortuitously, with The Moving Company there. Armed with a grant from the Heinz Foundation for choreographic process, she called up her old friend and said, “Want to play with me for a year?”
Beth recalls that she was sweating, but he didn’t hesitate. “She wanted to do it with someone she could trust,” says Dominique on the phone from Minneapolis.Then he asked what she had in mind.
A solo. She didn’t want to take care of anyone else — the salaries, the schedules, the egos. “I want to take care of myself,” she told him. “I just need to be filled back up.”
So they set up a performance date, like a carrot. It was as simple as that. But between the two there was a complete understanding that only if something was developing would they proceed. There was no obligation on anybody’s side.
Then they began. Would it be a dialogue from the start? Or so Beth thought. But what Dominique wanted was material from Beth’s own source of inspiration.
“I spent the first couple of months lying on the floor crying because I just didn’t know what to do or how to do it,” Beth reveals. Maybe she didn’t have to worry about anyone else, but she also didn’t have the companionship — the physical and social camaraderie that dancers tend to breed.
There was also no mirror, just four walls at the New Hazlett, which she had begun to consider her professional home. So she began to journal, writing her thoughts in a notebook. That helped.
It all began to spill out. But Beth started to offer too many competing ideas, a source of frustration for Dominique. The dialogue had begun.
Oddly enough that had taken the major part of their year together. They settled on biographical elements from Beth’s life, the Remains of her memories. What “remains” after loss? What “remains” after dinner? What “remains” after youth?
The work started to form only three months ago. Then it “really became exciting” according to Beth. She now calls Dominique her “mentor.” He calls himself a “dramaturg,” intent on developing the piece “in an honest fashion.”
Edit. Edit. Edit.
Dominique says that they “started with everything. But as you go, you get rid of unnecessary things and keep what is personal and exceptional. Make it stunning.”
They took all of her thoughts and memories and will present what is left of her memories, a personal journey, in Remains.
Now Beth can’t remember which sections have been “birthed” by whom. “I don’t know who’s done what now. We seeded it. We sat on the egg. We hatched it together.”
Beth calls the “final” product dance theater, although Dominique firmly believes that “theater should be physical anyway.” “Already I feel sophisticated,” Beth says happily. “I feel filled up — more than I felt in years, in decades, maybe. I now get why the work he does is so good.”
He has discovered how “courageous” Beth is, noting that “after all, when you do a solo about you, you’re so exposed and I admire that.”
And they both have discovered that the Hazlett Remains will just be a next step. The journey will continue, because art, at its best, continues to breathe and to grow…
But it’s not the bathtub-sized bird of Rubber Ducky fame. This is Studio Florentijn Hofman’s The Rubber Duck, four stories high (about 40 feet) and it will open the third Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts.
This installment will run four weeks (Sept. 27 – Oct. 26, 2013) and will include an international array of theater, dance, music, performance and visual artists in performances never seen before in the United States.
The Rubber Duck has already created a craze in Hong Kong, with people leaving work to see the colossal-sized fowl up close and personal. It’s “the 14th or 15th international city,” according to the Netherlands artist. But despite numerous American fans and overtures from cities like Baltimore, Detroit and Los Angeles, the winning nod went to Pittsburgh, which will harbor this fine-feathered friend for three weeks, mooring it between PNC Park and Heinz Field, where it could garner national attention during a Steeler game. It will open the Festival with a huge outdoor party from an adjacent bridge.
Compagnie Marie Chouinard
The Cultural Trust, along with Pittsburgh Dance Council, had already announced Montreal’s Compagnie Marie Chouinard in a premiere of GYMNOPÉDIES, set to Erik Satie’s iconic pieces (Byham Theater, Sept. 28) and Swiss artists Zimmermann & de Perrot, a “mischievous marriage of theater, circus and dance” (Byham, Oct. 18-19).
The rest of the list embraces all of the artistic senses, beginning with Michèle Anne De Mey & Jaco Van Dormael of Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, who will let their fingers do the walking in Kiss & Cry, which tells the story of an older woman recounting her greatest loves ((New Hazlett Theater, Oct. 2-4).
Robin Frohardt’s THE PIGEONING, features Frank, an obsessive compulsive man with set routines. Bunraku puppetry, music and video populate this darkly comedic work. He is the first American, a Brooklinite, to be featured here (Bricolage, Oct. 9, 10 and 12).
Australia’s Perth Theatre Company brings It’s Dark Outside. It explores Alzheimer’s and Sundowner’s Syndrome through puppetry, mask, animation, live performance and an original music score by award-winning composer Rachael Dease (Peirce Studio, Trust Education Center, Oct. 9, 10 and 12).
New Yorkers Christopher McElroen and T. Ryder Smith bring Measure Back, an interactive war event devised nightly for an intimate audience. Sure to be sold out (Baum Building, Fifth Floor, Oct. 22-26).
The God That Comes
From Canada’s 2b theatre company comes sex, wine and rock ‘n roll. Hawksley Workman (love that name!) brings a one-man cabaret recreating the story of Bacchus (yes, from Euripides’ The Bacchae) (Cabaret at Theater Square, Oct. 24-26).
Also on view will be several Kurt Hentschlager’s 3D-animated audiovisual installations, using choreographed motion, light and sound. They include Hive (Wood Street Galleries, Sept. 27-Dec. 31), Granular Syntheses: Model 5 & POL (SPACE, Sept. 27-Oct. 20)and an encore presentation of Zee (934 Liberty Avenue, Sept. 26-Oct. 27).
FYI: At the first Festival in 2004, we had groups such as Germany Theatre Titanick, England’s lone twin, Spain’s Cesc Gelabert, Akhe Group from Russia and Teatre Rozmaitosci from Poland. In 2008, the Festival featured Spain’s Theater of the Senses, Slovenia’s Ballet Maribor, British performance artist Paul Reder, alto sax player Rudresh Mahanthappa, Dutch-based Kassys in Liga and Norway’s Jo Stromgren in The Department, and Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips’ collaboration with The Warhol, 13 Most Beautiful.
In 2004, there were plenty of empty seats, but by 2008, most performances were sold out. Don’t miss it — a great opportunity to catch a real slice of what is new and exciting in the world of visual and performing arts!
Tickets for all performances are $25. — trustarts.org/first, 412-456-6666, Box Office at Theater Square. The Hentschlager exhibits are free.
You’re going out there a youngster, but you have to come back a star!
Yes, it’s the dream of any current Broadway hopeful, to step on stage at the last minute and hit the equivalent of a home run with the bases loaded. That’s what gives 42nd Street, a 1933 film that morphed into a 1984 Broadway musical, a sense of currency.
42nd Street rode a wave of nostalgia onto Broadway when Gower Champion decided to take a chance and
Ephie Aardem (Peggy Sawyer) and Tyler Hanes (Billy Lawlor)
adapt the movie material for the stage. Although no one “shuffles” off to Buffalo anymore, it’s still a musical chock full of familiar standards like I Only Have Eyes For You, We’re in the Money and the title song, all framed in an iconic story about Peggy Sawyer, a starry-eyed dancer just off the bus from Allentown. She gets all the breaks — a spot in the chorus, the recipient of the star’s freak accident and the resulting role of a lifetime.
Now Civic Light Opera audiences can once again go and meet those dancing feet in a tap-happy season opener at the Benedum Center.
In fact, that’s the way it starts. The curtain rises on scads of tap dancing legs, something that lies at the core of the musical and gives it the celebrated “hip hooray and bally hoo” in several driving production numbers choreographed by Michael Lichtefeld.
Worried about the economy? There’s We’re In the Money, where the cast rat-a-tat taps on giant dimes (although that bought a lot more in those days). Can’t sleep? Listen to the Lullaby of Broadway, both soothing and passionate.
Sure it’s sentimental, dipping into minimalist Art Deco sets that combine a little Radio City Musical Hall with the lights of Broadway. But under the direction of Charles Repole, it’s still smart, tapping (in another way) the heart and soul of The Great White Way.
The cast, a fine CLO assemblage of talent, seemed to take it to heart as well. Patrick Ryan Sullivan had already played director Julian Marsh on Broadway and had the moxie to carry off his larger-than-life character. At the other end of the spectrum, Ephie Aardema played Peggy with a wide-eyed awe, while George Dvorsky was a real catalyst in bringing the two together as show star Pat Denning.
Among the supporting cast, Luba Mason, was a suitably weary Dorothy Brock, hiding a heart of gold, and Mara Newbery delivered veteran chorister Anytime Annie with a suitable punch. Former Dancing With the Stars contestant and NSYNC member Joey Fatone made the most of Bert Berry, co-writer and producer of the show in question, Pretty Lady.
Joey Fatone (Bert Barry) and Mara Newbery (Anytime Annie)
Among this show of stars, though, the real shine came from the chorus. Yes, 42nd Street may have followed the ode to the Broadway gypsies, A Chorus Line (1975), but this production really preceded it by virtue of the movie. Although the cast was short on male dancers, they all danced up a storm.
This is one of those shows that you have to see once. In the words of Julian Marsh, think about “all those kids you’ll be throwing out of work if you” don’t attend. Think of all the songs “that will wither and die” if you don’t hear them. Think of “all the costumes that will never be seen, the scenery never seen, the orchestrations never heard.” Think of this show and “the thrill and pleasure” it can give to you. Think of “musical comedy, the most glorious words in the English language. Think of Broadway, dammit.”
Uncategorized | Tagged: 
Posted by jvranish 
