4dancers – Page 42

The Echos Of Iconic Dance Imagery

September 30, 2012 by 4dancers

by Christopher Duggan

It’s Jacob’s Pillow‘s 80th anniversary, and if you’ve had the chance to visit the Pillow, you’ll know that every year Norton Owen creates a beautiful exhibit in Blake’s Barn. This summer’s exhibit is the Decades of Dance and features photographs spanning the festival’s 80 years. I’ve always been inspired by these historic photographs on the Pillow grounds, and this summer I decided to create a personal project surrounding some of my favorite iconic images.

When The Horse’s Mouth program was presented this summer, taking advantage of the connection to Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers was a no-brainer. We were trying to do something interesting with the group to showcase that Ted Shawn was a pioneer for male performers. We recreated the famous photo of the Men Dancers in their bathrobes.

I wanted to recreate in the spirit of the original image and then we made another photo, because I wanted to give it my own spin with the creativity of the dancers.

That photo shoot got my juices going. I had always loved an iconic image of Ruth St. Denis from 1950 in this beautiful dress. When I saw Jessica Lang’s dance with the white dress by Elena Comendador, I thought “Oh my God, I wonder if she’ll be willing…”

The third and final “Then & Now” from this summer is tribute to a gorgeous picture by John Lindquist of a dancer on the Ted Shawn Theater with the doors open (a lot of people think it was taken on Inside/Out, but this was before the outdoor stage existed).

When I found out that The Joffrey Ballet was going to be in the Ted Shawn Theater and the company planned to open the back barn doors for one of their dances, I was overjoyed. I’ve been waiting for six weeks to make that picture. I was just getting in my mind how I’d execute the photo and things started to unravel. The Joffrey didn’t open the doors because it was too cold, and there were several floor lights on the edge of the stage that would alter the shot. There were so many factors that would make it difficult to recreate the photo that I gave up on the idea. But while the dance photography workshop was going on, I was walking by the theater, and they had just finished company class. I went on stage and showed the photo to one of the dancers on my iPhone, and we went for it.

If you visit Jacob’s Pillow, you’ll notice that every room in every building on campus has photographs on the wall. It’s so obvious that photographs are our window into the past, the living legacy of the festival. I honor that, I’m intimidated by that, and I’m proud of that. This was a way to connect to the past and to leave my own mark.

Christopher Duggan bio — Christopher Duggan, Photo by Julia Newman

Contributor Christopher Duggan is the founder and principal photographer of Christopher Duggan Photography, a New York City-based wedding and dance photography studio. Duggan has been the Festival Photographer for Jacob’s Pillow Dance since 2006. In this capacity, and as a respected New York-based dance photographer, he has worked with renowned choreographers and performers of international acclaim as well as upstarts in the city’s diverse performance scene.

He has created studio shots of Gallim Dance, Skybetter + Associates and Zvidance, among others, and in 2011 alone, he has photographed WestFest at Cunningham Studios, Dance From the Heart for Dancers Responding to Aids, The Gotham Dance Festival at The Joyce Theater, and assisted Nel Shelby Productions in filming Vail International Dance Festival.

Duggan often teams up with his talented wife and Pillow videographer Nel Shelby (http://nelshelby.com). A New York City-based husband and wife dance documentation team, they are equipped to document performances, create and edit marketing videos and choreography reels, and much more.

Christopher Duggan Photography also covers Manhattan’s finest wedding venues, the Metropolitan and Tri-State areas, and frequently travels to destination weddings. The company’s mission is straightforward and heartfelt – create timeless, memorable images of brides, grooms, their families and friends, and capture special moments of shared love, laughter and joy.

His photographs appear in The New York Times, Destination I Do, Photo District News, Boston Globe, Financial Times, Dance Magazine, Munaluchi Bridal, and Bride & Bloom, among other esteemed publications and popular wedding blogs. One of his images of Bruce Springsteen was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s celebrated photography collection in 2010. His company has been selected for inclusion in “The Listings” in New York Weddings magazine.

Review: Dutch National Ballet’s The Nutcracker And The Mouse King

September 28, 2012 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

Oh, Nutcracker. Few things in ballet are as adored, as abhorred, as pervasive, as cherished, or as misunderstood. Nutcrackers are often deplored for their lack of plot cohesion (or of plot, period) and lack of originality. Dutch National Ballet’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is above reproach on both counts. It is a real story ballet that can stand on its own without needing the Christmas season as an excuse to exist.

This film version was produced in 2011 from a live recording that same year. The stage production premiered in 1996, with choreography by Toer Van Schayk and Wayne Eagling that is tastefully classical while still being excitingly athletic.

Van Schayk and Eagling depart considerably from the traditional Nutcracker story, always for the better. Set in Amsterdam on St Nicholas Eve 1810, the ballet opens in a cozy upstairs bathroom where oft-stilted young Clara, lovable troublemaker Frits, and their frivolous teenage sister Louise prepare for the St Nicholas party. The Party Scene includes some delightfully magical stage effects: a slide projector, a mechanical cat, and a walking Nutcracker doll, all of which appear in huge scale later in the ballet. The dances flow seamlessly as natural elements of the plot and provide a great deal of foreshadowing. The shapes of the choreography are pleasantly surprising, and the crispness of the Dutch style is evident in the dancing of children and adults alike. That crispness carries over to all of the mime sequences, making an already-sensible plot even easier to follow. [Read more…]

Student Spotlight: Gabriella Meiterman-Rodriguez

September 24, 2012 by 4dancers

Today we have a student from the University of Maryland with us for the “student spotlight”…

My involvement in dance began when I was an infant. Most parents enroll their children in gymnastics, soccer, football, etc., but I was enrolled in dance! My mother enrolled me into my first ballet class and I have been dancing ever since. I was told that I picked up the movement and was always focused in class. I would come home and practice my tendus, plies, and arms, so from that point on, dance was my primary hobby. It was not until I was a freshman in high school when I realized dance would be my passion to pursue as a career.

2) What do you find you like best about dance class?

My favorite part of dance class, surprisingly enough, is the warm-up. Although it is difficult to start moving around at 9:30 a.m. in a cold studio, I find this part to be where I am most connected and aware. I have always found it fascinating when the body can transform from a stiff, cold structure into a state where it is warm, limber and ready to move and take on the class. This part of class is where I have the most self-awareness for which body parts need more attention and time for stretching. This awareness practices my self-connectivity and really teaches me to listen to my body’s needs every morning. The warm-up is both my favorite part and the most crucial part of class.

3) What is the hardest part about dance for you?

The hardest part with dance for me is being able to keep my facial expressions active throughout the movement. Sometimes I find myself getting so caught up in the moment of a performance that I lose some of the character. My face during performances is my main focus this year every dance class and it is something I am hoping to make stronger so that I can be a well rounded dancer and performer.

4) What advice would you give to other dancers? [Read more…]

DVD Review: Bolshoi: A Renaissance

September 19, 2012 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

What an impressive renovation! The rescue and restoration of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre is the centerpiece of this interesting film, which has a running time of 54 minutes. You can watch it in French if you can track it, or opt for English subtitles. Either way, it’s worth the time…

Directed by Denis Sneguirev, a combination of documentary footage, photographs, interviews and animation brings the story of this project to life for the viewer. Rather than present things by using a step-by-step approach–chronicling each phase of the restoration, the director chooses to highlight moments and use the voices of those involved with the project to personalize the breadth and depth of its importance. For example, we hear from the head of security, who walks through the space pointing out the fact that everything from the door handles to the mirrors is historic here—items that were touched by and gazed into by dignitaries from many, many years ago. It really does make one stop and think…

The theatre itself is interesting (did you know it was designed in the shape of a violin’s body?), but the film also does the artists themselves justice. Footage of icons from the dance world (think Ulanova, Plisetkaya) helps tie the space itself in with the fabric of Russian culture–something that is already inseparable there.

A section of the film that was especially interesting dealt with the acoustics of the theatre. Great care was taken to make sure these details weren’t lost during the renovation. For example, the experts wanted to make sure that the floor transferred vibration so that the audience felt the music in their bodies as well as heard it. Amazing.

Bolshoi: A Renaissance, BelAir Classiques

Opus 4, No. 1: The White Swan And A Jungian-style Of Musical Analysis

September 18, 2012 by Ashley David

by Allan Greene

Cue the strings. Prepare yourself for something big. I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

Opus 4 is going to be big project. It’s going to synthesize several streams of thought that I’ve been carrying around with me for a while, one going back 36 years to when I was a senior at Carleton College. I’ve been intending to do something with these ideas for a few years, since George de la Peña, who was Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet School at the time, suggested I give a talk to the faculty and students on music and dance.

In order to get paid for such a talk, George had me submit a proposal to the school’s executive director. Unfortunately, George and the executive director parted ways before my proposal was ever processed. I had proposed doing five lecture/demonstrations on various topics, including the use both Stravinsky and Balanchine made of French Baroque poetry in Apollo, and the how the Ivanov/Legat choreography of the White Swan Pas de Deux in Swan Lake and Tchaikovsky’s music for it are interlaced to create a masterpiece. Long story short, no money, no revelations.

When the editor of this blog, Catherine, asked me to write about music and dance, and gave me carte blanche to write what was on my mind, the first thing that popped into my head was that long-delayed White Swan project. I had intended originally to recruit two dancers to demonstrate various parts of the dance while I played at the piano and did my Leonard Bernstein routine. In cyberspace, however, my audio-visual aids will be a little different. But it will get to the same place.

The more I thought about how to do this, the more I realized that my project rested on assumptions that, to be charitable, not everybody agrees with nor understands. [Read more…]

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