On Stage: Going Dutch

February 20, 2012

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust opened its Decidedly Dutch Festival with a Pittsburgh Dance Council presentation of Dance Works Rotterdam, which offered a European take on pop culture. Shades of Andy Warhol!  Read about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.


On Stage: Adventures in Art

February 17, 2012

What goes up, must come down. Now, what was out, must come in. Parkour and Freerunning, once the territory of Neanderthals, soldiers and Jackie Chan, who all employed similar survival skills, is taking to the concert stage.

Perhaps Dance Works Rotterdam was the first to embrace that concept, mostly due to artistic director Andre Gingras, who has been something of an artistic adventurer for most of his adult life. As a student of theater, English literature and contemporary dance in Toronto, he wanted to expand himself, primarily as a dancer. And that meant New York City, the ultimate mecca for the young Canadian.

Almost immediately he landed a scholarship at the Paul Taylor studio, where principal dancer, Christopher Gillis, became a mentor.  Andre eventually moved on to the Doris Humphrey and Doug Varone companies. But it was on a European vacation five years later that he auditioned for theatrical wizard Robert Wilson, who was creating a major work for the Weimar Festival in Berlin.

It was an immediate click with his work,” Andre recalls. And thus started a four year period where he became a regular contributor to Wilson productions. “Bob is very collaborative. He’s very, very curious about what young artists have to say. He has a huge love and respect for dancers and is really open to your input.”

Andre admits that the experience transformed him as an artist. Since it didn’t matter where Wilson artists lived, Andre slept on the couch in some friends’ apartment in Rotterdam.

Slowly he began dancing with small Rotterdam companies, then making his own work. It started to “take over his life” and Dance Works soon followed.

But he never stopped searching, with forays to India, North Africa and the Middle East. “My goal was to ‘hybridize’ and expand the art form, to really look at what other things could be integrated,” Andre explains.

That included martial arts, especially Brazilian capoeira. Or medical subjects, where he used the “beautiful, interesting vocabulary” of Terret’s Syndrome for his first solo piece, P17.

And the Netherlands sponsors Dancing on the Edge, a special festival in Amsterdam that focuses almost entirely on dance in the Middle East and then sends them through a network of cities.

Through the festival, Andre was connected with a group, El Funoun, in Palistine. He did workshops on contemporary dance technique. But the company was based in folk lore and had young dancers who were trying to look at “what would be the most authentic contemporary manifestation of their indigenous dance.” So they delved into choreography, with great success.

By now it was obvious to Andre that he saw dance everywhere he turned. Freerunning had become a hot commodity in parts of Europe. It’s an offshoot of Parkour, a new movement form that came out of the French army and became an art form of “getting from A to B with the least amount of flourishes, but the most effective way.”

Freerunning “embraced the flourishes and fun things.” It’s almost the same vocabulary, but it’s “a bit more spectacular.” In 2006, Andre was already asking, “Wow — why can’t we put this in a theater? Why does it have to be on the street? It’s such a beautiful language.”

So he hired a guy “to teach these insane things” to his dancers. Although he called the dancers “amazing” in absorbing the information, he realized that he had to put limits on the technique.

“You don’t do it once for a video — you have to do it every night.”

But it worked. Now it’s part of the repertory and his new dancers have to embrace those skills. But he’s careful, noting that “we’re a European dance company and we have workman’s comp people looking over my shoulder. I can’t have them jump four meters down onto concrete. And you can’t do another show like that the next day.”

Pittsburgh audiences can see for themselves this weekend (see CrossCurrents Listings for more information) when Dance Works Rotterdam brings Anatomica to the Byham Theater.

Well, part of it. Andre originally envisioned a three-part series about “the body on display. Why do we display the body? How do we display the body?” He thought it should be three pieces, but only had a good idea for the third one, so he decided to work on that first.

“The body is that magnificent instrument that can do all these extraordinary, remarkable, virtuosic things that fly through the air,” Andre explains of #3. “So it’s very acrobatic.” Next came #1, a beginning segment that shows “why do we show the body. Well, very often that’s tied to sexual drive, the desire to find a mate, to procreate. So we look at courtship rituals, mating dances and online chat room experiences — every that makes us put ourselves out there.”

And what about #2? Andre thinks that he’ll make it in 2014. He quips, “I’m in no rush.”


On Stage: We love you, Bill.

February 13, 2012

August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble uncorked its dancers in their own brand of choreography for Suite Bill, the latest in a series of such performances by local groups.

I guess you would have to say that advanced training institutions, whether in an academy or university setting, are doing their job in encouraging students to find their particular movement. But companies are also doing their job in presenting company members’ choreography in substantial performance formats — Attack Theatre with University of Pittsburgh graduate composers, Bodiography at the Kelly Strayhorn with guest artists, both musical and professional, the Conservatory Dance Company’s Student Choreography Project, with an application process and mentoring, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre members constructing their annual Dancers Trust, from program and lighting to the choreography itself, and The Pillow Project, where the dancers are intensely involved in the improvisational aspect of the group and beyond.

AWCDE joined the ranks recently. I thought it would be a largely informal gathering — after all, the company is barely two years old and it was being held in the August Wilson Center dance studio, although it is a handsome one, with a floor-to-ceiling carved wooden door that pivots on a central peg and windows that play out onto the delicious urban environment along Liberty Avenue from its second story perspective.

Surprise! Lighting designer and long-time Pittsburgh dance company friend Bob Steineck had rented curtains for the built-in tracks with some basic lighting and about 100 chairs were neatly arranged in four rows. (I’m sure, though, that a set of risers is on AWC’s wish list for the future.)

Yes, it was informal, but a great way to develop a core audience for the fledgling group. But there were perks, including a terrific video of William Harrison “Bill” Withers that was projected larger-than-life on the back wall and looked at the man behind Lean on Me and so many more hits. Artistic director Greer Reed explained that this was a part of AWC’s Affrilachia theme this season, spotlighting black artists who had flourished in the Appalachian Mountain region, as Bill did in West Virginia.

Then Vanessa German entered and proceed to put her own singular poetic spin on both Bill’s history and Suite Bill. This reigning Pittsburgh wordsmith can elevate any program and mesmerized the audience between the numbers.

She talked about grandmothers after Grandma’s Hands, the opening piece by Greer and James Washington, constructed much in the mold of Alvin Ailey’s fan-waving church-goers in Revelations.

After that, she beautifully connected the other works. Kendra Dennard (Use Me) and Annalee Traylor (Who Is He) mostly played on plenty of attitude and Raymond Ejiofor got the finale, Lovely Day. Everyone had a hand in Lean on Me.

Although the stagings were generally good and the spirit palpable, it was Kaylin Horgan, certainly the veteran dance maker among these 20-somethings, who showed both the joy of a relationship, then the dark side in a sensitively detailed fashion (My Imagination, Ain’t No Sunshine).

Then there was a bonus, which I wasn’t expecting, a tidbit from Camille Brown’s A New Second Line, which will have its formal debut in AWCDE’s upcoming Dynamic Women of Dance in March. And the dancers got to answer questions from an eager audience.

Overall very satisfying…and smart. It’s well-known that the choreographic process has a lot of give and take between choreographers and their dancers. Programs like this will enable those dancers to have something more to bring to the table.

 

 

 

 


Dance Beat: January, AWCDE on 25, APAP/Focus, MAC

January 5, 2012

New Year, New Month. January 2012 dance is up and running. See Listings.

“Watch”-ing AWCDE. The August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble has made an impact in Pittsburgh already, primarily through its unquenchable thirst for performing and some smart choreographic choices by artistic director Greer Reed. As a result, the company made my Top Ten list for 2011. Now the group’s scope is widening. Dance Magazine has placed AWCDE on its national list of 25 to Watch, certainly a terrific achievement for the fledgling group. Congrats!

Focus on Focus. The Association of Performing Arts Presenters takes over New York City’s performing arts spaces every January. The dance wing is called Focus Dance and comes in several tiers, with events at The Joyce Theater, Dance Gotham (New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on Washington Square South) and Studio 4 (New York City Center) Jan. 6-8. There will be a strong Pittsburgh presence this year. Kyle Abraham will perform at The Joyce on a program with Kate Weare, in whose group Point Park grad Luke Murphy will dance. But River City Artists Management’s Linda Reznik will showcase a good portion of her complete dance roster at Studio Four, including the above-mentioned August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble (see Facebook) and Duquesne University Tamburitzans. (Others will include LehrerDance, Chicago Tap Theatre, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater and Dance Now! Miami.) And surprise(!), Braddock mayor John Fetterman will be a featured speaker at APAP. A Harvard Kennedy School graduate and leader of “Allegheny County’s poorest community,” he will talk about his rebuilding efforts, which have garnered national attention. Check out Pop City’s video on John, which is the opening segment on the APAP website.

 

Have a MAC. Mid-Atlantic Contemporary Ballet (MAC) artistic director Gerard Holt, former member of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, will start up a new ballet class, geared to dancers 14 years or older who wanted to start ballet again or have a basic knowledge of the vocabulary. He promises “a fun and light approach,” with “ability-appropriate positions, exercises and combinations for the barre and center floor.” Gerard joins the dance faculty at the Father Ryan Arts Center in McKees Rocks. Click on schedule for more information.

 


Dance Beat: Martha, PBT, H2O

November 24, 2011

DIAL UP RIAL. Pultizer Prize-winning photographer Martha Rial has put together a series of uncommonly beautiful images of GIMP, the production by Heidi Latsky that was recently presented by the FISA Foundation, along with the Pittsburgh Dance Council and August Wilson Center. For her Vimeo slideshow, click on GIMP. For more of her work, which has its own incandescent take on humanity, click on Martha.

NOTHING LIKE HOME. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre returned “home” for its annual ball, which means the Omni William Penn Hotel and its 17th floor ballroom, which has to be the best space in the city for an event like this. The theme this year was perfect, a variation of the recent production of “Peter Pan.” That meant exotic table decorations  and starry projections on an already beautiful ceiling (kudos to chairs Trace and Dr. Kenneth Melani). Of course the PBT performances, a compendium of the current season, are always a highlight. That meant a couple of “Peter Pan” tidbits with an exuberant Amanda Cochrane as Tinker Bell (plus Christine Schwaner, Luca Sbrizzi and Makoto Ono), a sensual “Nutcracker” Arabian dance from Eva Trapp and Alexandre Silva and a gracious “Coppelia” pas de deux from Alexandra Kochis and Chrisopher Budzynski. But more tantalizing were sneak peeks of a full-fledged ensemble number from Dwight Rhoden’s new Bach ballet, set to debut in February, and Dennis Nahat’s “Brahms Quintet” duet with the luminous pairing of Julia Erickson and Robert Moore. Of course everyone got to dance with the ever-terrific Gary Racan and The Studio-E Band.

FOR A GOOD CAUSE. H2O Contemporary Dance recently performed at The Chadwick for Crisis Center North’s annual meeting. As CCN’s executive director, Grace Coleman, put it, “we feel fortunate to welcome H2O to our event for a private viewing of The Phoenix. Based on the company’s excellent reputation, we feel confident that they will inspire the community members to join us in advancing our mission to end domestic violence for all women in this community.”


On Stage: A.I.M.-ing to Dance

November 23, 2011

Favorite Pittsburgh son Kyle Abraham came back to the city with his company, Abraham.in.Motion (A.I.M.) and premiere his latest work, “LIVE! The Realest MC” to a savvy and highly supportive crowd at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Read about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.


On Stage: A New Look at China

November 23, 2011

It’s a vast, mysterious land filled with terra cotta soldiers, bamboo trees and pentatonic music. And while Pittsburgh has seen its share of dazzling acrobatic troupes, the Beijing Dance Company, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, was the first to connect both the sweeping historic landscape, thousands of years old, and the artistic future that China has to offer.

Beijing Dance Company was somewhat a mystery in itself. It appears to be an official company of the Beijing Dance Academy, which is China’s national (and only) school for producing professional dancers.

Maybe it was the name. Often an internet search confuses Beijing Dance Company with, yes, Beijing Modern Dance Company and BeijingDance / LDTX, the first company to be independently founded outside the federal government.

BDC’s repertoire proved to be rooted in what is called the Chinese traditional classical dance tradition. But it turned out to be much more than that.

What we saw was an enormously disciplined 33-member troupe in a pivotal state of transition, perhaps in a similar category as India’s Nritiyagram Dance Ensemble, with one foot in the past, the other in the future.

China had a strong influx of Russian teachers as early as the 1920’s and it was the Russian ballet technique that was installed at the academy when it was founded in 1954. Perhaps BDC comes closest to the famed Moiseyev Dance Company that set the standard for folk dance by presenting a large contingent of dancers trained in ballet.

But in its last performance in Pittsburgh, the Moiseyev devoted the last part of its program to what might be termed a contemporary ballet based on Moussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.” The Beijing company presented a similar finale, “The Yellow River,” inspired by China’s second longest river, often called “the cradle of civilization.”

This epic piece, so “Bolshoi” in its impact, used a large cast to create a moving panorama of movement, literally full of the rolling hills and valleys, where the dancers collected in a group, and the surging currents that rippled through the choreography.

They were matched by a musical score that had the groundswell of a Rachmaninoff piano concerto. But with movement and music that was thick with such images, this “River” didn’t really need the panoramic pictures projected behind it.

Most of the program drew heavily on China’s history and traditions, including “The Thousand Hands of Boddhisattva,” where the women were bedecked in golden costumes and manipulated the long fingers of their gloves with such precision, and “Flying Fairy,” a solo featuring Zhao Qiao, who artfully created colorful brushstrokes with her long ribbon-like sleeves.  “The Lone Crane,” a remarkably performed solo by Ma Jiaolong, contained rippling, wing-like arms one minute and leaps that had their own flight pattern.

Other selections indicated that the Beijing Dance Company is redefining traditional dance from new inspirations. Chen Weiya, one of two resident choreographers (he also created “Flying Fairy”) drew from Xian’s recently-discovered terra cotta warriors and translated it into a bold, percussive showpiece for the men, “Emperor Qin’s Soldiers.”

Zhang Jianmin, well-known as the choreographer of the film, “House of the Flying Daggers,” created a new production of China’s version of “Romeo and Juliet,” called “The Butterfly Lovers,” and kept to a free-flowing translation of ballet. But he also produced “The Spirit of Bamboo,” almost New Age by Western standards, where the men softly waved and dipped in an intriguing meditation.

These were dancers who had to be able to define everything, beginning with the delicacy of the fingers and the supple maneuvering of a fan. On top of the minute details, they had a rigorous technical clarity with assertive finishes and powerful leaps that echoed the Russian teaching. But their sky-high extensions and fluid phrasing that were distinctly Chinese.

As the company grows (and Chinese contemporary dance is still in its infancy), it would be shrewd if BDC staff or even guest choreographers were encouraged to experiment with the movement. while remaining true to the boundless inspirations of the Chinese culture.

FYI: China might be termed a sleeping giant when it comes to contemporary dance and little about it is known here in America. So a brief, although admittedly incomplete, timeline might help. After being banned from 1960 to 1980, Chinese modern dance began to absorb various styles from the West. Shen Wei, a founding member (1992) of Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first of its kind in China, elected to come to America in 1995 to choreograph and is now based in New York City. For the past decade or so, groups like Paul Taylor Dance Company and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have been invited to perform to great acclaim. 

Then San Francisco-based Margaret Jenkins brought her collaboration with Guangdong Modern Dance Company to tour America in 2009 and appeared at the Pittsburgh Dance Council. And BeijingDance / LTDX, the first contemporary group to be founded independently of the government, has come to the United States on a number of occasions since its founding in 2005.

Beijing Dance Company headed for the West Coast last year, but was sent on a tour of Boston, New York, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh this fall, which is a major step for the group and Chinese dance at large. Locally we have seen alumni such as Ying Li and Jiabin Pan, former principal dancers with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre who returned to their homeland to run the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre (SSCAC) Ballet and Yanlai Wu, Chinese traditional classical dancer who runs Yanlai Dance Academy in the North Hills. The three knew each other during their student days in Beijing.


On Stage: Catching Kyle

November 16, 2011

Exciting. Scary. Satisfying. Frightening. Those are the kinds of emotions that have running through Kyle Abraham’s mind since June.

The Penn Hills native has been on a steep artistic curve lately with the success of “The Radio Show,” largely inspired by the silencing of WAMO, a pivotal part of Pittsburgh’s black community and his father, a pivotal part of Kyle’s life, who also stopped speaking when he contracted aphasia.

Certain subsequent events have been sad because some of his original company dancers have opted to have children and can no longer tour. At the same time, he’s getting plenty of opportunities to tour with the support of the prestigious National Dance Project.

It’s been a big slice of life for the still 30-something choreographer.

From the Joyce Theater’s Gotham Dance Festival performance in June, he’s been on the go. Some of the highlights: a return to Jacob’s Pillow for the second year in a row, the Fire Island Dance Festival, a number of residencies and adding fellow Pittsburgher Patrick Ferreri as company manager.

Kyle also found out that he is “the big poster boy person” for the dance season at his alma mater, SUNY Purchase, where his company will be appearing. He jokes that he “has such an inner giggle because I was probably the only guy in the dance program who did not enter with a scholarship” (although the school rectified that after the first semester and has offered continued support).

On his way to Ecuador in July, Kyle heard that his father was in hospice care. He made a quick stop, a good thing because he learned that his father had passed the day after he got back. “I’m glad I got to see him,” Kyle says, although his dancers had to work on a residency without him while he dealt with funeral arrangements. People responded with “a lot of letters and donations” and the International Aphasia Movement has since expressed an interest in “The Radio Show.”

These days, though, the grieving comes in waves. But Kyle doesn’t allow it to engulf him. He will be heading back to the Joyce in January on a program with fellow NDP recipient Kate Weare and, in the meantime, premiere his latest project, “Live: The Realest MC,” at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater.

“Live” will be a re-imagining of Pinocchio and his quest to be a real boy, “putting that into a gay urban context.” Kyle says that the piece took a darker turn when the Tyler Clementi story, about the gifted 18-year old Rutgers student who was outed on the Internet and committed suicide, broke in the middle of the creative process.

Tyler’s tragedy influenced the work, giving it a more aggressive outlook with much more movement. But there is still “a bit of humor” to be had in “Live.

As there is in Kyle’s return to Pittsburgh to visit some of his favorite haunts. Record Exchange, “one of my favorite stores.” Michael Varone at Shadyside’s Moda, where Kyle used to work and where his dad shopped. Gullifty’s for the apple pie.

And pizza in general, because Pittsburgh’s “doesn’t taste like any other.” Therein lies the quandary, because Kyle can’t choose between Aiello’s and Mineo’s. So he just gets both because “one tastes better warm than the other and one tastes better cold than the other.”

Which is which? You’ll have to ask Kyle.

Check Listings for the Abraham.In.Motion performance of “Live: The Realest MC” this weekend.


On Stage: A New Vision at Point Park

November 15, 2011

Photo by Drew Yenchak

Point Park University’s Conservatory Dance Company is casting its choreographic net wider this year without losing a nifty Pittsburgh connection. The quartet of choreographers each brought s distinctively different perspective to their contemporary works on the succinctly titled fall program, Contemporary Choreographers. Read about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.


On Stage: SYTYCD? Yes!

October 4, 2011

Melanie Moore was a freshman at Fordham University majoring in art. A Georgia native with a passion for dance, she still was taking classes “on the side” at New York staples like Steps and Broadway Dance Center. Trained in “everything but ballroom,” she decided to take a leap of faith and audition for So You Think You Can Dance.

It would change her life.

Only 19, Melanie went on to win it all — $250,000, a prominent place on a whirlwind SYTYCD tour and “jobs and offers coming my way.”

Melanie will be coming to Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center along with members of the Top Ten from the SYTYCD cast. “There’s such a great relationship between the dancers,” she says over the phone from Long Island. “We’re all so close.”

Her modesty was apparent on the show, but let’s face it, they all were. What set her apart? You could say a strong, clean technique, but the best dancers never made it to the top in previous years.

This is a reality dance show and that means personality comes into play. The public doesn’t choose America’s Best Dancer, but America’s Favorite Dancer. But almost right off the bat, Melanie popped off the television screen with a winning smile and perky rehearsal footage. Yes, she apparently had the winning personality to go along with that smile and it sent her to the top.

Now at the ripe age of 20, Melanie fires off smart answers to questions. The hardest part of SYTYCD? “Standing in front of the judges — they don’t see how far the dance has come. Our hearts are on the line.”

What did Melanie learn about herself on the show? The staff cautioned her about reading blogs. But she did read compliments on Youtube — it was too tempting. Still the petite dancer learned that she “had to find positivity and stay strong.”

Are Cat and the judges the same off camera? Yes, and Cat invited the dancers over to her house for the Fourth of July.

Her favorite dances? “Game On” with Sasha, “Turn to Stone” with Marko and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with Neil, who also happened to be her favorite partner. “I mean I love Marko,” she gushes (meaningfully). “But Neil is so funny and talented.” They also did dialogue exercises for “Heart” to flesh out their dance characters and “shared our lives. He made me feel so comfortable.” Which was a good thing, because the couple also shared one of the most exhilarating moments on the show, when she took another, flying leap of faith into his arms. It only took three tries, one next to him, one half way across the room and the third at full tilt. She said it was “not hard with Neil.” (FYI: as in Haskell, a former student here at Point Park University.)

When all of this is over, Melanie is ready to take yet another leap of faith. She’s taking at least a year off from school, but when she does go back, she hopes to study choreography. Unlike many young dancers in a field that is growing like a weed, she has a sense of history, noting that “so much is rooted in the past.”

But Melanie is still eager to explore the future and once again leap into it…smiling all the way.


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