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Expect The Unexpected: Hubbard Street’s Evening Of Cerrudo

June 12, 2015 by 4dancers

Alejandro Cerrudo's Still in Motion
Hubbard Street Dancers Jacqueline Burnett, foreground, Jonathan Fredrickson and Ana Lopez in Still in Motion by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

by Catherine L. Tully

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Season 37 Summer Series takes place at the Harris Theater, featuring three works from resident choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. This is only the second time the company has presented a program that focuses on a single artist, and taking in an entire evening of this gifted choreographer’s work is truly a luxury to experience.

White feathers cascade slowly to the stage floor in preparation for the beginning program piece, Extremely Close. One of Cerrudo’s earliest works for the company, it’s perfectly bookended with his more recent Little mortal jump, showing the evolution of his choreography from one piece to the other. Both make ample use of large sliding panels, which add intrigue and energy throughout. The cinematic quality that is so often a hallmark of Cerrudo’s work is present here, along with the poignant moments he creates using unusual imagery. Hubbard Street dancers were meant for this choreography and they execute it confidently with both vigor and ease.

Hubbard Street Dancers
Hubbard Street Dancers Andrew Murdock and Jessica Tong in Extremely Close by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Todd Rosenberg. Hubbard Street Dance Technical Rehearsal of Extremely Close by Alejandro Cerrudo © Todd Rosenberg Photography 2015

The second item on the program is Cerrudo’s world premiere, Still in Motion, which offers a marked departure from his previous style. Even so, the highly edited and pared-down choreography still displays signature traits: a spectacular circular fluidity, moving from silence to sound, quick vignettes.

The set consists of a light-colored tarp that stretches long across the floor and up onto the back wall–with a strip of neon blue marking the top. Visually it resembles a strange sort of wave, something almost confirmed by two women stretching out on the ground undulating gently–as if floating under water. The set and lighting design by Michael Korsch offer a quiet, subtle compliment to the choreographer’s work.

Hubbard Street Dancers Alice Klock, foreground, and Garrett Patrick Anderson in Still in Motion  by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
Hubbard Street Dancers Alice Klock, foreground, and Garrett Patrick Anderson in Still in Motion
by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

While many of Cerrudo’s previous pieces display an urgency that tends to hold or build throughout, Still in Motion feels more relaxed, more refined. Movements here are simple, even at times, almost pedestrian. Three male dancers breathing deeply in unison. An exaggerated walk. Postures that are held. Slight gestures.

Rather than a watered-down version of his own work, however, Still in Motion instead has a clarity and streamlined sophistication previously unseen in Cerrudo’s choreography. It moves in a new direction without totally reinventing his style or abandoning the beauty of it. And the Hubbard Street dancers, chameleons to the core, adapt effortlessly to whatever they are asked to do.

Little mortal jump
Hubbard Street Dancers Jesse Bechard, left, and Ana Lopez in Little mortal jump by Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Closing the program is Little mortal jump. This was Cerrudo’s tenth creation for the company, and it highlights the athletic skills of the dancers as well as the choreographer’s ability to amuse, entertain and evoke emotion. A lighthearted, fun approach at the beginning of the piece gives way to a swirling, thrilling duet–a riveting end to a triumphant program.

Hubbard Street’s Summer Series runs through June 14th at the Harris Theater. Tickets are still available.

Filed Under: Performance Reviews Tagged With: alejandro cerrudo, choreography, extremely close, harris theater, hubbard street dance chicago, little mortal jump, performance review, still in motion

Creating Momentum & Forward Progress Between Dance Competitions

May 11, 2015 by 4dancers

"Once Upon A December" by Tom Godber. Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
“Once Upon A December” by Tom Godber. Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

by Karen Musey

Each competition experience brings new highlights and challenges! How time is utilized in-between events is a big factor in determining how each dance studio and dancer excels at each event, and how they grow over the year.

Keeping choreography fresh and spirits high after drilling and performing the same material week after week for months at a time can be a challenge! As dancers find their groove within the choreography, sometimes they start to sit back when they feel that they’ve accomplished the task. Also, often the choreographer is no longer on hand to continue the development of the work. It is important to maintain the structure of the piece, as well as encouraging each dancer to continue to evolve their own interpretation and ideas of it.

The more dancers move out of a neutral approach to performing their piece, the more the piece will evolve and affect the audience. And PS – continually finding ways to improve, define and deepen the work is great preparation for understanding how to develop work as a professional dancer; it is also a great skill to develop for any job…


Deepening The Work

Play! – Once the piece is memorized and the muscle memory has set in, then the artist is free to explore! If you can experience your piece through different kinds of filters (just like Instagram!), you will discover new layers and depth within the choreography. For example – changing up how we work with resistance helps us to discover different kinds of qualities in a movement. Moving through peanut butter vs feeling like you are made of bubbles vs oozing like green slime all change the dancer’s interpretation of the same movement, which opens up new possibilities of expression.

arrows-27112_640If a piece has a light, carefree expression to it, try approaching the choreography from an opposite angle – tension, gravity, labored. After experiencing the opposite, turn the filter back in the reverse direction, to extreme lightness and fluidity – more than was experienced originally. You will find that the piece will naturally want to lean in a certain direction. Changing the intention will open up new ideas in how the choreographer was interpreting the music. Maybe adding more lightness creates more freedom. Maybe adding weight and stillness creates a stronger emotional impact in the choreography. Maybe the intention stays the same, but now the original movement has expanded in feeling and has more nuance and variation. Playing with an opposite intention against the original goals of the choreography can open up huge, new emotional spectrums in the piece. Finding unexpected pockets in movement for hope, sadness, sweetness, longing, and connection is wonderful to discover.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Competition Tagged With: choreographer, choreography, competition dance, Dance Compeition Advice, dance competition, Dance Competition Judges, karen musey

Dancing Balanchine’s Theme And Variations

April 30, 2015 by 4dancers

Boston Ballet Balanchine
Ashley Ellis and Paulo Arrais rehearse George Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations”. Photo by Lasha Khozashvilli.

by Ashley Ellis

Boston Ballet’s upcoming program is titled Thrill of Contact, and it’s an amazing collection of ballets. Costumes range from Classical tutus to goofy hats—to dancers wearing socks. It’s an ideal program to display Boston Ballet at its best; showcasing the incredible power and range of styles that its dancers can achieve. It features works by Robbins and Forsythe, and a world premiere by Principal Dancer, Jeffrey Cirio.

It also includes George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations.


It is extremely gratifying to push myself to try and achieve the control and precision demanded by Balanchine’s choreography. In addition to the demands of the steps and musicality, there are stylistic details that are important to apply when dancing these ballets. They say that some of these stylistic changes surfaced when Mr. B would ask his dancers to do steps quicker than they were typically executed. Part of the fun of dancing Balanchine ballets is applying these details and “flares” that are particular to his choreography and are part of what makes it unique from that of any other choreographer.

At the moment I am preparing for the iconic Theme and Variations. My first experience with Theme was when I was 15 years old; I was chosen to dance an excerpt from the role for the final show at the ABT Summer Intensive. Although it was just a tidbit of the ballet, the experience really stuck with me. A couple of years passed and I got to be a part of the ballet as a whole, dancing one of the corps spots in ABT’s productions. This time around, I have the honor of dancing the principal role alongside my wonderful partner Paulo Arrais.

In Theme, the female variations are very short, but what it lacks in length is made up for in speed. I feel that my heart already needs to be beating overtime just to make my muscles react with the urgency and briskness needed. At first I found the variations to be intimidating; almost like little packages of anxiety when the music played; your legs and feet required to move so fast—all the while making it look like it’s easy. But as with other parts, you work on it and the steps start to feel more natural—and then you are able to apply the quality—like putting icing on a cake.

Paulo Arrais and Ashley Ellis
Boston Ballet’s Ashley Ellis working on the pas de deux with Paulo Arrais. Photo by Lasha Khozashvilli

The second female variation goes directly into the pas de deux. This is difficult because you are so tired, but it almost doesn’t matter because the music is just so beautiful. I even remember the first time I heard the music during a show with ABT; when it began, my attention was immediately drawn to what was happening on the stage. There is something very unique about it.

I am not an expert on the Balanchine style, or his ballets. What I do know comes from what I have experienced while preparing for and dancing a selection of his wonderful works. His choreography demands a high level of technique and a strong sense of musicality. Both of these details are things that entice me. It is so much about the music, and in turn about the quality of how your execution of the steps embodies that music.

George Balanchine was one of the most influential choreographers of his time. He may even have been the most influential. I always find that I feel something special when dancing his ballets, and because of my long history with Theme, I know that performing this particular treasure will be very dear to me.


Boston Ballet presents Thrill of Contact, a striking program of precision and impressive athleticism featuring works by Balanchine, Robbins, Forsythe, and a world premiere by Principal Dancer, Jeffrey Cirio. It runs from May 14th – May 24th.


Ashley EllisContributing writer Ashley Ellis is a principal dancer at Boston Ballet. Ellis hails from Torrance, California and she received her dance training at the South Bay Ballet under the direction of Diane Lauridsen. Other instruction included Alicia Head, Mario Nugara, Charles Maple, and Kimberly Olmos.

She began her professional career with American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company and later joined American Ballet Theatre as a company dancer. In 1999, Ellis won the first prize at the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award, and went on to become the recipient of the Coca Cola scholarship award in 2000 and 2001. She has performed in Spain with Angel Corella’s touring group and joined Corella Ballet in 2008 as a soloist. In 2011, Ellis joined Boston Ballet as a second soloist. She was promoted to soloist in 2012 and principal dancer in 2013.

Her repertoire includes Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty; Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker; Natalia Makarova’s  La  Bayadère;  Marius  Petipa’s  Swan Lake; Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse, VIII and Polyphonia; Harald Lander’s Études; Michel  Fokine’s  Les  Sylphides;  Rudolf  Nureyev’s Don Quixote; Christopher Bruce’s Rooster; George Balanchine’s  Serenade,  Coppélia,  Symphony  in Three Movements, Symphony in C, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto; Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room; Stanton Welch’s Clear; Angel Corella’s String Sextet; Wayne McGregor’s Chroma; Jorma Elo’s Awake Only; Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free; Jiří Kylián’s Wings of Wax, Symphony of Psalms, and Petite Mort.

Filed Under: Editorial Tagged With: american ballet theatre, Ashley Ellis, boston ballet, choreography, Forsythe, george balanchine, Jeffrey Cirio, Paulo Arrais, robbins, Theme and Variations

Choreography, Collaboration & Laughter: Margi Cole & Peter Carpenter

April 24, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

Choreographers Margi Cole of The Dance COLEctive and Peter Carpenter of Peter Carpenter Performance Project discuss collaborating on “Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times #14: Curious Reinventions”, a project that explores the concepts of mimicry and imitation.

Photograph by William Frederking.
Photograph by William Frederking.

What first inspired you to collaborate?

Margi Cole: Pete and I go way back, and I have always admired his work as a performer and choreographer. After a very chance conversation about the possibility of me being a performer in his work, it happened, and I had the great pleasure of performing in two of his very recent installments of Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times, the series he is working on. To be blunt, I am totally turned on by working with Pete in the studio, creating movement vocabulary, exploring the use of text and the creative process. As a result of my own experiences, I wanted my dancers to have an opportunity with him too, as I know firsthand how much can be gained from the work. Double bonus: I get to be a co-choreographer and continue to learn as well. It’s an awesome opportunity created by being in the right place at the right time.

Peter Carpenter: Margi and I have known each other as part of Chicago’s dance community for years. In the fall of 2012, she performed in an earlier installment of the Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times series (a series I’ve been working on since 2011), and then last year she invited me to come and do some workshops with her company. Several of her company members are former students of mine (from Columbia College Chicago, where we are both faculty members) so I was excited to work with them. From there we pursued an opportunity via the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for a produced event at the Storefront Theater. That was about a year ago, and we’ve been in the planning stages of this performance ever since.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Editorial, Making Dances Tagged With: chicago, chicago dance, choreography, collaboration, DCA Storefront Theater, making dances, margi cole, Peter Carpenter, Peter Carpenter Performance Project, Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times #14: Curious Reinventions, the dance colective

Difficulty vs Execution – Which is More Important To A Judge?

March 20, 2015 by Karen Musey

"Flying High" by BdwayDiva1. Licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic.
“Flying High” by BdwayDiva1. Licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic.

by Karen Musey

What matters more in a competitive piece – difficulty or execution?

I feel this quandary plagues a lot of competitive teams and dancers. A competing studio’s dancer executes a new “trick” successfully onstage and suddenly the bar of what is considering ranking in an age category jumps up. The pressure to stay current with the bar of excellence is then set, so obviously you need to start pushing yourself to do stuff you can’t do yet.

Really?
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Competition Tagged With: choreography, dance competition, dance competitions, dance studio, judging dance, karen musey

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