this week in dance

CARMEN DE LAVALLADE: AS I REMEMBER IT

Carmen de Lavallade examines her life and career in multimedia one-woman show (photo by Christopher Duggan)

Who: Carmen de Lavallade
What: As I Remember It
Where: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater, 450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves., 866-811-4111
When: February 19-21, 24, 8:00, February 25, 1:00, $25-$30
Why: Legendary dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade’s one-woman show, As I Remember It, was developed during two residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2012 and 2014. The production will now make its New York premiere at BAC February 19-25, with de Lavallade using archival footage, personal writings, and live dance to share her compelling story, which includes performing onscreen and/or onstage with Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, and many others; she has also choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Philadanco, and the Metropolitan Opera. Sadly, since the show began its tour, de Lavallade’s husband of nearly sixty years, multidisciplinary artist Geoffrey Holder, passed away in October 2014, but the eighty-three-year-old de Lavallade has soldiered on. (Their love story was told in Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob’s 2006 documentary, Carmen & Geoffrey.) The hour-long As I Remember It is directed by longtime character actor Joe Grifasi and cowritten with dramaturg Talvin Wilks; the lighting is by James F. Ingalls, video design by Maya Ciarrocchi, set design by Mimi Lien, and costumes by Esther Arroyo. The February 25 matinee finale will be followed by a conversation with the ever-lovely Ms. de Lavallade.

WANG JIANWEI: SPIRAL RAMP LIBRARY

Who: Wang Jianwei
What: “Spiral Ramp Library,” live performance held in conjunction with the closing of the exhibition “Wang Jianwei: Time Temple”
Where: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St., 212-423-3587
When: Thursday, February 12, $12, 8:00, and Friday, February 13, $15, 8:00
Why: “I always want to position my works, the exhibitions, and the audience’s relationship to the exhibitions as part of a process. The process includes changes that take place during different periods of time. For example, the production of works as time, the exhibition cycle as time, and the audience’s viewing experience in different locations as time,” Beijing-based artist Wang Jianwei says in a video about his Guggenheim exhibition, “Time Temple.” The exhibition consists of a room of painting and sculpture on view through February 16; the fifty-five-minute film The Morning Time Disappeared, inspired by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, screening daily at 1:00; and the live multimedia performance event “Spiral Ramp Library,” taking place February 12-13 in the museum’s rotunda, incorporating sound, video, dance, theater, and improvisation, gathering ideas generated by the exhibition’s opening event, in which twenty speakers discussed ten topics, including maps, Jorge Luis Borges, climate, Frank Lloyd Wright, the universe, and the Guggenheim itself, in a way reimagining the building as Borges’s Tower of Babel in which every person is a book. (The February 13 performance will be followed by a Q&A with Wang.)

CEDAR LAKE CONTEMPORARY BALLET: INSTALLATION 2015

Chargaux and Cedar Lake team up for exciting immersive performance installation in Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/ees)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
547 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
February 6-7, $35, 7:00 & 9:00
212-244-0015
www.cedarlakedance.com

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s latest biannual immersive performance installation is their best yet, a thrilling display of movement and music that cohesively melds the vast skills of the talented sixteen-person Chelsea company with the unique sounds of Brooklyn-based string duo Chargaux. About fifteen minutes before the start of the event, which is choreographed by the full company along with artistic director Alexandra Damiani, the dancers start walking around the Chelsea space as the audience filters in. Dressed in all black, the serious-faced dancers occasionally pair off into brief pas de deux as they make their way around a central circular stage in silence. They hug, push, lift, and writhe on the floor with one another, weaving through the growing crowd. At the top of the hour, Jasper Gahunia’s electronic score kicks in and the show revs into high gear. Over the course of the next hour or so, the performers range about the room, gathering on the center stage, jumping onto large and small platforms on the south and east sides, climbing the light riggings to the north, and popping up high on a riser to the west. Charly and Margaux, wearing long, colorful skirts and tight tan bras, sometimes find themselves in the middle of the action — or grinding off to the side with one of the hulky male dancers. Nicholas Houfek’s lighting will suddenly shine on a specific area where a dance will break out, then shift to another corner. The eight women dancers (Vânia Doutel Vaz, Ida Saki, Rachelle Scott, Ebony Williams, Madeline Wong, Jin Young Won, Navarra Novy-Williams, and apprentice Daphne Fernberger) take over the stage, followed by the eight men (Jon Bond, Joaquim de Santana, Joseph Kudra, Matthew Rich, Nickemil Concepcion, Guillaume Quéau, Raymond Pinto, and apprentice Patrick Coker), in a kind of battle of the sexes. At one point, the dancers form into two horizontal lines and circle the stage, the audience moving with them, a rapturous moment of intimate bonding. Soon the black skirts and tops come off, the women magically manipulate the men from above, and then everyone joins in for an exciting finale featuring a musically erotic flourish. There will be two more performances on February 7; Cedar Lake will then hit the road, returning to New York City in June for four shows at BAM consisting of Crystal Pite’s Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue, Johan Inger’s Rain Dogs, and a new piece by Richard Siegal on June 3 & 5 and Jacopo Godani’s Symptoms of Development and Emanuel Gat’s Ida? on June 4 & 6.

CEDAR LAKE INSTALLATION 2015

Biannual Cedar Lake immersive performance installation takes place February 6-7 (photo by Nir Arieli)

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
547 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
February 6-7, $35, 7:00 & 9:00
212-244-0015
www.cedarlakedance.com

We’ve been to several of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s biannual immersive performance installations, exciting, energizing evenings of art and dance in which the audience is encouraged to walk around the redesigned Chelsea space as the dancers move about and action can crop up anywhere. Previously held in the summer, this year’s program, conceived and directed by artistic director Alexandra Damiani, is scheduled for February 6 & 7, when the sixteen-member corps will perform to movement choreographed by Damiani and the full Cedar Lake company: Jon Bond, Joaquim de Santana, Vânia Doutel Vaz, Joseph Kudra, Matthew Rich, Ida Saki, Rachelle Scott, Ebony Williams, Madeline Wong, Nickemil Concepcion, Jin Young Won, Guillaume Quéau, Navarra Novy-Williams, Raymond Pinto, and apprentices Daphne Fernberger and Patrick Coker. The score will be played live by Brooklyn-based violin and viola duo Charly and Margaux, better known as Chargaux, interdisciplinary artists who used to perform in the subways but now have toured around the country in more professional venues. Space is limited, so get your tickets now for this always adventurous and entertaining event. (The company will also be at BAM June 3-6 in a more traditional setting.)

BALLET 422

Viewers are taken behind the scenes as Justin Peck creates a new work for New York City Ballet

BALLET 422 (Jody Lee Lipes, 2014)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center, Francesca Beale Theater, 144 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave., 212-875-5600
Landmark Sunshine Cinema, 143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves., 212-330-8182
Opens Friday, February 6 (special advance screening February 3 at 7:00 at BAMcinématek)
www.magpictures.com

In Ballet 422, Jody Lee Lipes takes viewers behind the scenes as twenty-five-year-old New York City Ballet dancer Justin Peck choreographs the 422nd original piece for the prestigious company, Paz de la Jolla. One of fifty dancers in the Corps de Ballet, which the film calls “the lowest rank” of NYCB, Peck was named by company head Peter Martins to be the New York Choreographic Institute’s first active choreographer-in-residence for the 2011-12 season, and he is the only current NYCB dancer to choreograph for the company. Documentarian and cinematographer Lipes (NY Export: Opus Jazz, Tiny Furniture) focuses on the fascinating collaboration that goes into creating a ballet. “As a former soloist with New York City Ballet, I had long dreamed about pulling back the veil on the making of a new ballet,” producer Ellen Bar explains on the film’s Hatchfund page, which has raised more than $55,000 for the project. “Even as a dancer who was often part of the choreographic process, I never saw the other artistic and technical elements develop until the very end. Wouldn’t it be amazing to invite audiences into a world they can never visit in person and to let them watch it unfold in real time?” Lipes does just that, showing Peck and ballet master Albert Evans working out specific moves with principal dancers Sterling Hyltin, Amar Ramasar, and Tiler Peck; costumers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung discussing materials with the performers; Mark Stanley detailing the lighting design; and Peck meeting with conductor Andrews Sill, who reveals that the orchestra is not particularly fond of playing the ballet’s musical score, Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s “Sinfonietta la Jolla.”

Sterling Hytlin, Amar Ramasar, and Tiler Peck rehearse with Justin Peck on 422nd original piece for New York City Ballet

There are no talking heads in the film, no experts chiming in on the beauty and intricacy of ballet, no one pontificating on how unusual it is for such a young dancer to already be choreographing his fifth work for the company, following Year of the Rabbit, Tales of a Chinese Zodiac, In Creases, and Capricious Movements. No one stops and looks into the camera, sharing their fears, hopes, or dreams; Lipes doesn’t even identify who’s who, instead allowing the drama to play out sans editorial comment. A few times, the camera goes with Peck as he puts on his backpack and heads home to his unglamorous Queens apartment, and the surprise ending puts everything in fabulous perspective. You don’t have to love ballet or know anything about it to enjoy Ballet 422, an intimate, compelling inside look into the creative process, but don’t be surprised if you soon find yourself ordering tickets for an upcoming NYCB production — perhaps even Peck’s latest work for the company, a new interpretation of Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, which is having its premiere February 4 at the David H. Koch Theater. Ballet 422 opens February 6 at the Landmark Sunshine and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where Lipes and Peck will participate in a Q&A following the 7:15 screening and will introduce the 9:35 show on February 6. In addition, the film is having a sneak peek February 3 at 7:00 as part of the BAMcinématek series “Two by Jody Lee Lipes,” followed by a Q&A with Lipes.

DANCE ON CAMERA — BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB vs. GRAVITY

Documentary reveals how Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company (including Jackie Carlson, seen here) take dance to a whole new level

BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB vs. GRAVITY (Catherine Gund, 2014)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Sunday, February 1, 3:20
Festival runs January 30 – February 3
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com
www.borntoflymovie.com

Over the last several years, New Yorkers have gotten the chance to see Elizabeth Streb’s Extreme Action Company perform such dazzling works as Ascension at Gansevoort Plaza, Kiss the Air! at the Park Avenue Armory, and Human Fountain at World Financial Center Plaza as her team of gymnast-dancer-acrobats risk their physical well-being in daring feats of strength, stamina, durability, and grace. In addition, Streb herself walked down the outside wall of the Whitney as part of a tribute to one of her mentors, Trisha Brown. Now Catherine Gund takes viewers behind the scenes in the exhilarating documentary Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, going deep into the mind of the endlessly inventive and adventurous extreme action architect and the courage and fearlessness of her company. Gund follows Streb as she discusses her childhood, her dance studies, the formation of STREB in 1985, and her carefully thought out views on space, line, and movement as her work stretches the limits of what the human body can do. “I think my original belief and desire is to see a human being fly,” Streb says near the beginning of the film, which includes archival footage of early performances, family photos, and a warm scene in which the Rochester-born Streb and her partner, Laura Flanders, host a dinner party in their apartment, cooking for Bill T. Jones, Bjorn Amelan, Anne Bogart, Catharine Stimpson, and A. M. Homes. Gund also speaks with current and past members of the talented, ever-enthusiastic company — associate artistic director Fabio Tavares, Sarah Callan, Jackie Carlson, Leonardo Giron, Felix Hess, Samantha Jakus, Cassandre Joseph, John Kasten, and Daniel Rysak — who talk about their dedication to Streb’s vision while using such words as “challenge,” “velocity,” “endurance,” “magic,” “invincibility,” and “risk” to describe what they do and how they feel about it.

Elizabeth Streb and her partner, Laura Flanders, prepare for a dinner party in new documentary

Gund focuses on the latter, as virtually every one of Streb’s pieces is fraught with the possibility of serious injury, as evidenced by their titles alone: Fly, Impact, Rebound, Breakthru, and Ricochet, not to mention the use of such materials as spinning I-beams, plastic barricades, dangling harnesses, and a rotating metal ladder. “I have to be able to ask someone to do that and be okay about it. Those aren’t easy requests,” Streb explains. “Knowing where you are is how you survive the work,” adds former STREB dancer Hope Clark. Gund goes with Streb to her doctor, where the choreographer describes what happened to her gnarled feet, and also meets with former dancer DeeAnn Nelson Burton, who had to retire after breaking her back. The film concludes with an inside look at STREB’s spectacular “One Extraordinary Day,” a series of hair-raising site-specific events staged for the 2012 London Olympics at such locations as the Millennium Bridge, the London Eye, and the sphere-shaped city hall, photographed by documentary legend Albert Maysles. In her Kickstarter campaign, Gund (Motherland Afghanistan, A Touch of Greatness) said, “Action architect Elizabeth Streb has reinvented the language of movement. [Born to Fly] will rewrite the language of documentary.” That’s a bold declaration, but the film does have a lot of the same spirit that Streb displays in her awe-inspiring work. Born to Fly is screening with Benjamin Epps’s 2014 short, Angsters, on February 1 at 3:20 at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual “Dance on Camera” series and will be followed by a Q&A with Gund and Streb. The festival runs January 30 – February 3 and includes such other movement-related works as Meredith Monk’s Girlchild Diary, followed by a Q&A with Monk and cast member Lanny Harrison; Kenneth Elvebakk’s Ballet Boys, set at the Norwegian Ballet School; Louis Wallecan’s Dancing Is Living: Benjamin Millepied, followed by a Q&A with the director; the U.S. premiere of Don Kent and Christian Dumais-Lvowski’s Jiri Kylian: Forgotten Memories; Isaki Lacuesta’s Perpetual Motion: The History of Dance in Catalonia, followed by a Q&A with choreographer Cesc Gelabert; and a handful of free events as well.

CHOPIN: DANCES FOR PIANO

Jerome Robbins’s IN THE NIGHT is part of Chopin evening presented by the Mariinsky Ballet at BAM (photo by N. Razina)

THE MARIINSKY BALLET
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
January 24 (7:30) & 25 (3:00), $30-$175
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.mariinsky.ru/en

St. Petersburg’s legendary Mariinsky Theatre, now in its 232nd season, concludes its nearly two-week residency at BAM with the Mariinsky Ballet performing Chopin: Dances for Piano, a lovely evening of three diverse works that effortlessly blend together. The program, with Valery Gergiev serving as musical director, begins with Michel Fokine’s elegant 1908 piece Chopiniana, with revised choreography by Agrippina Vaganova, in which eighteen women dressed in white tutus with small wings attached at the back surround several principal dancers, including the sole male, Timur Askerov, forming different groupings, from circles to lines, often coming to a stop in difficult yet beautiful positions, in front of a forest set designed by Vladimir Dementiev and Alexei Popov based on original sketches by Orest Allegri. The relative quiet of Alexandra Zhilina’s piano allows the percussive tapping of their in-union en-pointe movement to echo through the Howard Gilman Opera House. Chopiniana is followed by Benjamin Millepied’s dynamic 2011 work Without, in which five pairs of dancers, the women in red, orange, green, blue, and violet dresses, the men in similarly colored tops, with black pants and shoes (Millepied designed the costumes as well), interact with strong emotions, creating different relationships in short vignettes; it’s quite a relief when the dancers finally match up by color. On January 24, the pairings were Anastasia Matvienko and Konstantin Zverev, Kristina Shapran and Andrey Ermakov, Ndezhda Batoeva and Filipp Stepin, Tatiana Tiliguzova and Ernest Latypov, and Margarita Frolova and Xander Parish, with Philipp Kopachevsky playing Chopin preludes and études. If you took Chopiniana and Without and mixed them together, you’d end up with Jerome Robbins’s splendid 1970 piece, In the Night. In this staging by Ben Huys, stars twinkle on a back curtain as three couples (Anastasia Matvienko and Filipp Stepin, Yekaterina Kondaurova and Yevgeny Ivanchenko, and Viktoria Tereshkina and Yuri Smekalov) perform a series of graceful pas de deux in costumes by Anthony Dowell, with Liudmila Sveshnikova at the piano. Chopin: Dances for Piano is an exquisite trip through the history of the Mariinsky, with works separated by more than one hundred years, set to the majestic music of a masterful composer.