Martha Graham. Photo Credit: Barbara Morgan.

“Fast forward, rewind, pause, hit that position…NO, wait, go back a little tiny bit, more, THERE, okay…STOP!” The Martha Graham dancers, busily rehearsing, acknowledge a single TV set with eyes furrowed in concentration. They are attempting to bring to life Graham’s Every Soul is a Circus, 47 years after it was created.  How can this older choreography be seen as fresh and modern today? Blakeley White-McGuire, who will take on Graham’s original role, shares how she manages: “Well I approach the choreography from the characters viewpoint [asking], what are her emotions, her intentions…?”

It begins as a Circus Ringmaster (originally Eric Hawkins) follows and calls out to his Female Empress (originally Martha Graham) to perform all sorts of odd gestures and movements. She really can’t help but return mocking, flirty glances. Graham played with humorous themes to, not only create memorable characters, but also to reveal, as a 1986 New York Times article points out, that the stage is “an arena of everyday life.”

The artists of the Martha Graham Dance Company dance out loud as if that were the only way they’d truly recognize and embody their characters, and later find themselves incorporating their own qualities into the role. With the feverish mingling of mind with body, body with mind, breath with soul, rhythm with actor we can truly tell this upcoming season will be one nobody should miss.

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Matjaz Marin and Tijuana Krizman in "Radio and Juliet." Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes.

Edward Clug, choreographer and avid Radiohead fan, did a wonderful job with his 2005 creation for Ballet Maribor, Radio and Juliet.  The performance at the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts was set to the music of Radiohead, an English alternative rock band formed in 1985. This is a very odd choice for a ballet, especially one telling the story of Romeo and Juliet. A ballet is usually set to classical music like that of composers like Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, who composed for earlier versions of Romeo and Juliet.

Radio and Juliet  retells William Shakespeare’s story from the point of view of Juliet. The evening begins with a video of the performers dancing and practicing, video of Juliet is incorporated periodically throughout the show, filling a huge projector screen backstage. During the initial film (or another word for video or projection) the entire cast walks on the stage. The last performer to enter is the artist playing Juliet, a Slovenian dancer, Tijuana Krizman Hudernik– the only woman in the group. She dances skillfully, with conviction, and matching the men’s moves and putting a feminine spin on them, to the robotic music playing with many sharp accents. She does not wear pointe shoes –a very modern choice.

Next, enter the remaining performers, seven male dancers who are dressed identically in black suits. It is difficult to figure out which of the well known characters they might be because they all look alike. They dance in superb synchronized rhythm. Their moves are performed more sleekly than Juliet’s. Though the show does not completely follow Shakespeare’s original story line, there are still some recognizable elements such as: the fight scenes, the marriage scene, and the famed death scene which had an added twist.

The music of Radiohead was a perfect fit for this production. Before watching this show I had not been familiar with them but after watching the beautiful dancing done to the music I was curious about their music. This production is perfect for the generation that is always in a hurry, as Radio and Juliet is short and sweet, clocking in at only 60 minutes. I definitely recommend Radio and Juliet.

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Dancers in "We Are Weather" by Vanessa Anspaugh. Photo Credit: Michael Hart.

I recently saw a contemporary dance performance in St. Mark’s Church-In-The-Bowery.  There were two parts; the first called “I’m Not Coming Back“.

The lights went out, making the scene ominous.  A little girl was revealed to be crouching in the middle of the floor when the spotlight illuminated her.

The music came on, surreal and mechanical and clockwork sounding; it sounded steampunk.  It was slightly disturbing, but not unpleasant.  The other five dancers came out when the music started, shaking their heads and limbs, walking forward with the music, with their eyes closed.

The dancing itself was very interesting. It seemed to be telling a very symbolic story, interpreted widely differently by each person, though it was unclear.  The adult dancers moved, sprang, rolled, dragged themselves, and staggered across the stage, chasing the little girl but never catching her.  At one point their ‘cogs and wheels’ (I did say it looked like they were clockwork) started to wear down and they gradually lost power; they lay on the ground, quivering, and when the girl touched them, they stopped moving.

I thought it was like physical modern art expressed through body movement.  The dancing wasn’t like traditional, or even popular, modern dancing.  It hardly seemed to be dance.  More like acted out art with music.

By the intermission, my idea of what dance was completely blown; revolutionized; changed.  After the intermission, three women came on stage (this part was called “We Are Weather“), one lying down, and the other two appeared to be fighting each other and dropping down dead over and over again. This part had a lot less music, just the occasional percussion music.  It was a lot more gymnastic, with a lot of yoga-like poses.  They used a light bulb; when it was turned on and off, it represented something (lightning?) and affected how the women danced whether it was on or off.  It was also wilder, but not in the crude sense.

I noticed that while the first part seemed to be decreasing in life force (like robots losing power), the second part seemed to me like they were gaining in power as the show went on.  I didn’t think of the performance as dance, I thought of it, and contemplated it, and appreciated it, like a very interesting, deep, surreal painting.

This, too, is dance, after all.

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Martha Graham rehearsing “The Witch of Endor" in 1965. Photo Credit: Sam Falk.

Lights, camera, DANCE ACTION! You would think that show business was as easy as those three words.  I know what these dancers do looks very easy, but in reality it is extremely difficult. During the first couple of weeks with the Teen Reviewers and Critics Dance Program I saw many performances, but it was a different experience to observe The Martha Graham Dance Company in practice mode.  I had always pictured professionals as perfect and incapable of making any mistakes, but in rehearsal I saw a lot of mess-ups— also, a lot of smiling and leg warmers. Even though the dancers would make mistakes in the choreography, they did not take it heart.  I was surprised to see that even during their break, the performers would use their time to continue working, “counting and watching like crazy maniacs,” as artistic director of the Martha Graham Company, Janet Eilber described.

According to Nancy Wozny, of DanceHunter.com, “Martha Graham premiered her first evening of solo work in 1929 and dance hasn’t been the same since.” Blakeley White-McGuire, who is performing Martha Graham’s role in Every Soul is a Circus, claimed to have no idea who Martha Graham was before moving to New York City from Louisiana.  Now she does. White -McGuire been working with the Martha Graham Company since 2002. When asked how much she practiced a week, she said that most of the week is dedicated to dance only, in specific, ballet.

When asked about the upcoming season White-McGuire optimistically exclaimed, “I feel like it’s gonna be a hit… “

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Emily Johnson performing the "The Thank You Bar”. Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy.

Imagine a pitch-black basement, with a lamp emitting just enough light for you to see the outline of your hands. Now…listen. Listen to the beeping sound, faint in the distance. Listen to the footsteps traveling offstage. Listen to the acoustic guitar, one string then two strings plucked. Again, footsteps. Listen to the harmonious double vibration of two strings plucked together that was just produced as if a responsive ’yes’ to the other negative, one high pitched string. Listen to the strings argue. Listen to the newer sounds layering on, louder than before.

Now…stop listening with your ears, breathe in, close your eyes, and travel with the music. The low pitched strings from the guitar resonate in your heart. You feel the bass. All of a sudden, this basement that you imagined, filled with life, is shut down, and again, you’re alone.

This is Emily Johnson’s “The Thank You Bar” at New York Live Arts with the band Blackfish consisting of musicians James Everest and Joel Pickard, thanking you for being there. The entire performance will move you, quite literally out of your seat, and it will make you relate to someone totally unfamiliar for a New Yorker: an Alaskan. A person who can sit down and tell a story, cutting through the small talk with creativity.

This is Emily Johnson raw, like tree bark you would have to eat if you were stranded in a forest. Fresh, beautiful, compelling, energetic, with a gleam in her eye when she moves to the rhythm of the live sound. She is sharing her story, her life as an Alaskan, as she hands you a part of her tiny igloo. She will give you all of herself with this passion and excitement. She shares it all, the good with the bad, making you feel as if you’ve known forever.

Johnson is your best friend from the very first minute. She is like that sister you always wanted. She is that teacher you never had but heard about. She is you. And yet, at the same time, you continue wishing you were her. You will walk out afterwards, sharing a peaceful exuberance with the other  thirty or so audience members and like a blackfish, you will be calm and slowly sink into yourself, breathing a sigh of relief with a ‘Thank You.’

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Antonio Douthit and Alicia Graf Mack of the Alvin Ailey American Dance. Photo Credit: Andrea Mohin.

Imagine a performance that fuses ballet, hip-hop and classic modern dance. Imagine an event where a 51-year-old piece of choreography is in the same program as a world premiere and the performances are so spectacular and fresh you have no idea which piece is older.

When part of an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater experience, you find yourself constantly in awe of each amazing dance. Then… BOOM, Alvin Ailey’s classic, “Revelations“, dominates and you are blown away like never before. The person, in the seat next to you, whether you know them or not, becomes your close friend as together you groove to the beats.

The dancers own City Center’s grand stage as they waltz and ricochet across it from the very first minute; they ensnare you in their force field.  These artists do not follow the music, they are the beat.

In AAADT’S new piece, “Home”, the dancers take on a pedestrian countenance and move through hip-hop as beautifully as an American Ballet Theater danseur performs “The Nutcracker”. Their ability to transform from slinky, cat-like jazz creatures in the first piece, “Night Creature”, to down and dirty street dancers in “Home” is impressive. “Home” exhilarates.

You want a dance that will get you out your seat (literally), but still move you to tears and thoughtful reflection? “Revelations” touches all these aspects. This classic, choreographed in 1960 by Alvin Ailey himself, finds the dancers leaving their heart and souls on stage with every step. You might feel as if you are trespassing, but are too hypnotized to leave.

The technique is breathtaking. A magnificent woman stretches her leg to the sky and sustains its position as she takes a slow turn on her opposite foot. The men seduce the audience by attacking the air with  split jumps and quadruple turns.

Now, imagine that you are one of the dancers, taking your bows and receiving your standing ovations for a job well done. In a question and answer session after the show one of the Ailey performers joyously shares, “I am so grateful to be here and performing on this stage every year. It reminds me why I love to dance.”

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Kiribu in "Fall and Recover". Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes.

[Torture]

v. to punish or coerce by inflicting excruciating pain.

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

The floor to the entrance of La Mama for the “Fall and Recover” dance is different when you exit. There are outlines of bodies stretching across the floor that look like the outlines you see in criminal investigations. The scene comes of as a surprise, but the surprise feels more like finding out another part of a secret you already know. That is because at the conclusion of the dance, every dancer lays down on the stage and creates an outline around his or her own body with thick white powder.

“We have left our past there,” explains Kiribu during the talk-back after the performance, pointing to the traces covering the floor.

The traces are not the only thing that is reminiscent with the past for the dancers. All of them have been victims of torture. They are trying to cure themselves from the past through dance. “Fall and Recover” emerged from John Scott‘s workshops with clients of Center for Care for Survivors of Torture in Dublin, Ireland and many elements of the dance are actually exercises or activities they did at the Center. The loud breathing we encounter at the beginning of the dance, drawing (which is violently ripped up and discarded later), or even gathering together of the dancers and lifting their hands up are examples of that.

“I lift my arms up to the sky, and I don’t feel pain. I’m reunited with my family,” said Kiribu. “Everyone wants to be with their families. But we lost our families,” she adds.

It is apparent that the dance troupe has become a family. And throughout the dance they act like one – the movements are simple, but in perfect sync with each other. Much is said through repetition, through mimicking, or through doing the same thing differently. An interesting instance is when everybody is standing in a line telling his or her own story, loudly, slowly, each in the native tongue, over the sound of other speakers. We do not understand the words, but the sound of the chaos of voices sounds like a single mind about to explode. Much of the dance is also complemented with music which fades in and out, unpredictably, like a dream.

During the talk back Kiribu also describes the difficulty of being a victim of torture in a foreign country: “It’s a new kind of torture – you have to express yourself, but you cannot talk.” Although most of the dancers now speak some English, they found a much better way of communicating, of erasing the difficulties of the past, and of celebrating human spirit and determination through dance.

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Richard Move as Martha; “I’m sorry, I don’t think I answered the question…”

1963 allegedly marks one of the most concentrated years of Martha Graham’s alcoholism. Well, at the Walter Terry interview, was she drunk? It seems that she may have missed answering a question or two, but whatever the case might be, Martha Graham was portrayed precisely by Richard Move in “Martha@…the 1963 Interview” at Dance Theater Workshop.

I would have easily presumed Graham’s distinct style of speaking to be incapable of being mimicked and impersonated. Her intricate explanations, her rhythmic, poetic choice of words, and her capacity for seemingly going off on tangents are unique and true to her. Yet Richard Move, who has had years of genuine interest in what is “Martha Graham,” the renowned choreographer, managed to come along and drive his audience away with a vivid, witty, and almost incredulous portrayal.

The initial entrance of Richard Move along with two other dancers instantly had me engaged. The slow, steady, rhythmic steps of the dancers moving across stage built up anticipation to the ingenious animation of an interview that was only miraculously recovered from the archives of the 92nd Street Y. The sharp contrast in mood from the 3 dancers walking in complete silence against Walter Terry’s bold and excited introduction to the Dance Laboratory was so unexpected, it made me smile.

Throughout the interview, excerpts and synthesized portions of Martha’s pieces are performed by dancers Catherine Cabeen and Katherine Crockett. They enter stage left and right while their dancing brilliantly correlates to what Martha has to say at the interview. Whether the chat between the two good friends, Walter Terry and Martha Graham, are of characters from Martha’s epic ballets or of the fundamentals of her technique and choreography, the dancers add a different dimension to the interview. They give the audience a larger insight to further understand and appreciate Martha Graham.

The tide of the interview shifts throughout to discuss the mythological heroines composed in select Martha Graham pieces along with their characterizations. Many depict  the ancient Greek Myths and include characters such as the infamous Medea, Jocasta, the Minotaur, Theseus,
and Ariadne. While Graham and and Terry discussed the representation of Medea along with the creative process for such a psycho-dramatic
character; a crazed, terrifying, animalistic creature enters stage right. It was that spur of the moment wit brings that brought audience
to laughter.

Richard Move’s “Martha@…the 1963 Interview.” is a comedic, genuine, and loving retribution to the great Martha Graham. Move’s perfect-pitch act, makes the audience laugh while at the same time revives an interest in the Mother of contemporary modern dance. The production is a well deserved and whole-hearted dedication to Martha that is as clever as it is revealing and informative.

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Eiko and Koma’s presentation of “Naked” at the Baryshnikov Arts Center can best be described as breathtaking and shocking. The installation piece, which ran for 4 weeks on the BAC’s first floor provided an intimate and refreshing perspective of Eiko and Koma that fans and critics alike have never seen before.

Lying down in the middle of an almost opaque room, spotlight beaming on them from above, Eiko and Koma couldn’t have given their piece a more appropriate name. Situated in the center of the floor lying amid dirt, uncooked rice, salt and small branches, the duo is completely in the nude making as little movement as possible. Honestly, when first catching a glimpse of this setup (through one of the many holes in a distressed, earthy curtain that blocks Eiko and Koma from full view) my initial thought was a single word: boring. The duo’s barely noticeable movement and stoic expressions left me initially wanting more. After a few more moments of expectantly gazing at the work, I realized that I had become strongly infatuated with the piece, despite my initial boredom.

“Naked” is the most subtle of dance performances, using movements as minute as possible to tell what Eiko and Koma have described as a story of aging and the body approaching death. After spending decades as professional dancers, going from young performers to older dance veterans, Naked tells the story of the pair’s transformation to their present selves, and how their bodies have changed along with the times. Ironically, the image that Eiko and Koma presents also resembles one of birth. Their bare bodies, the nest of earthly debris surrounding them, and the complete silence gives the impression that these two are fragile beings just entering the world. Then again, maybe that is the point: to show Eiko and Koma’s departure from youth and transition to older age.

No matter if audiences agree with this meaning or create another from imagination, all will agree that Eiko and Koma’s Naked is a calm yet thrilling work that will leave you captivated.

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Photo of Isabella Boylston by Rosalie O'Connor.

A man in a dog costume. Another man comically gliding by on a bike. The sound of an audience laughing and cheering. You might think I was at the circus. But I wasn’t.  This was American Ballet Theater’s “The Bright Stream,” complete with cross-dressing dancers and much, much more.

This comic ballet running through June 15 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center is quite different from a traditional ballet like “Swan Lake” in its bold and humorous storytelling. It takes place in Northern Russia, specifically, during a harvest festival on a Soviet farm in the 1930’s. An arrival of artists and dancers stir up lighthearted drama, reunion of friendships, and lots of celebrations. In the manner of a Shakespeare comedy, the characters switch identities to reveal infidelity in marriages and simply to have fun.

It is different than what people usually think of as a ballet. It is surprisingly funny, and audience was laughing out loud and cheering, mainly due to the dancer’s exaggerated movements and the absurdity of the storyline.

In one particularly funny scene, two dancers perform a dance badly, on purpose, in such a way that it actually requires tremendous skill to make it funny. Another amusing moment is when a man dressed in an oversized furry dog suit (to mock a friend) stands up and starts to prance along with all the other dancers.

There is a variety of movement, sometimes modern – almost like hip-hop – in the group numbers, but the solos and duets feature more traditional ballet, with twirling leaps and powerful lifts.

The characters wear a variety of clothing within a basic color scheme of brown, pink, and tan, giving the ballet a realistic feel. Although most women wear pointe shoes, everything else from costume designer Elena Markovskaya looks like regular clothing one might find on a farm: overalls instead of tights for men, cloth skirts instead of tutus for women, and boots, aprons, and bonnets.

One of the most enjoyable and unusual aspects of “The Bright Stream” is that for much of the second act, two of the male dancers dress and dance as women – including going on pointe – and two women dance the role of the men. Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky keeps the comic level high (having the male dancers occasionally hobble over to massage their aching feet) while also making the technical level of the dancing impressive. It is thrilling to see one of the women perform the same athletic leaps in a solo dance that a male dancer had performed in the first act.  (See the photo above.  Amazing!)

In one of the final moments  of the evening, the dancers piled into the middle of the stage, waving and grinning at the audience, as though acknowledging and thanking us for being part of the fun. Ultimately, people who don’t like ballet (or don’t think they do) could enjoy this for its exuberance, but the level of dancing skill is also so impressive that even those who attend ballet regularly or prefer to watch traditional dancing would find an enriching and surprising evening of entertainment in “The Bright Stream.”

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