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DVD Review: BALLET 422

November 16, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

by Rachel Hellwig

BALLET 422, a documentary by Jody Lee Lipes, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Justin Peck’s Paz de la Jolla, his third ballet for New York City Ballet and the company’s 422nd new work.

Without the use of voiceover narration or intermittent interviews, the film shows scenes of Peck dancing alone in the studio for a phone camera, making sketches of steps and formations for the ballet, using his computer as an aid, and giving directives in rehearsal–“isolate the elbows”, “it’s not crispy enough”. But if you’re looking for more detailed insight into his choreographic process and the ideas behind Paz de la Jolla (as a well as the filmmaking process), you’ll want to turn on the commentary by Peck and Lipes in the Special Features section. You’ll have to do this on your second viewing though, because it will be layered over the film’s sound. I found the commentary enriching and I wish it could have been incorporated into BALLET 422 instead being a supplement. Nonetheless, there is an effective, quiet drama evoked in the film’s minimalist approach.

BALLET 422 also features backstage scenes, Peck’s collaboration with costume designers, discussions with lighting director Mark Stanley, and work with the late Albert Evans, former NYCB dancer and ballet master. As for the dance scenes, they give glimpses of the unique qualities of the principals of Paz de la Jolla: the athletic, lightning-speed sprightliness of Tiler Peck (no relation to Mr. Peck), the rebounding energy and charisma of Amar Ramasar, and the understated sophistication of Sterling Hyltin. Moreover, the dance scenes and performance clips capture some of the most exciting elements of Peck’s choreography –the Balanchinian propulsion of speed extended into a digital-age pulse and the prose poetry in his manner of melding contemporary and classical movement.

Magnolia Pictures, 75 minutes.


Purchase this DVD:

Filed Under: DVDs, Reviews Tagged With: amar ramasar, BALLET 422, choreography, dance dvd, dvd review, Justin Peck, new york city ballet, nycb, Paz de la Jolla, review, Sterling Hyltin, Tiler Peck

DVD Review: The Magic of the Mat: Teaching Little Ballerinas on the Alphamat Volume 1

March 3, 2014 by 4dancers

Screen Shot 2014-02-27 at 6.28.58 PMby Emily Kate Long

This hour-long instructional DVD is a teaching tool from Magical Kingdom of Dance for use in preschool and pre-ballet classes. Developed by Mary Alpha Johnson over the course of 67 years of teaching, and continued by her daughter Tonie Johnson Bense, the curriculum in this DVD is designed to inspire young dancers with the use of characters, poems, and songs. There are games for learning right from left, using directions in personal and general space, and for basic ballet and locomotor steps. All the French ballet terms used are paired with a character to make memorization fun and meaningful: Saute the Bunny, Port de Bras the Octopus, and Bouree the Bumblebee are just a few friends featured on the DVD.

In The Magic of the Mat, Johnson Bense leads a group of sweet three- to six-year-olds through their paces on an illustrated 52” square mat. While the DVD and mat are designed to be used together, the exercises Bense teaches her young dancers could be easily adapted to any pre-ballet class setting. They would make an especially good starting point for someone new to teaching little ones. From putting on diamonds out of a jewelry box to buzzing around an imaginary front yard with bourees, The Magic of the Mat contains great strategies for a fun, imaginative, disciplined, and joyful pre-ballet classroom. The DVD and many other teaching tools, along with more information about the curriculum, can be found online at MagicalKingdomOfDance.com

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: dance dvd, dance video, magical kingdom of dance, review, teaching children dance, teaching dance

Contemporary Dance Warmup For Intermediate/Advanced Dancers With Bruno Collinet

November 4, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

“Organic” is the word Bruno Collinet uses most to describe his movement philosophy in this 60-minute Contemporary Dance Warmup (by Tezoro LIVE Productions). That word has become so widely used in so many different contexts that it carries little descriptive power, but in this case one thing “organic” certainly means it that the movement feels good. Technique is not the emphasis here, rather, a sense of listening to the body while directing its energy. The movement is expansive and invigorating, challenging yet therapeutic. Bruno Collinet’s teaching manner is warm and welcoming, dynamic and energetic as he guides the viewer through five sections of elastic, visceral movement.

1069Each section is demonstrated in the studio by Collinet and two assistant dancers, and then shown with music in a class. The dancers on the video are arranged in different facings, making the movement sequences easy to learn.

Section I is floor work—a series of contractions, swings, rolls, and stretches “to put the body in a good mood,” as Collinet puts it. This is followed in the class by shoulder stretches, balance, and spotting work. In turning the head, Collinet emphasizes taking the eyes (“the look”) first, then following through with the head, something that often gets overlooked in many exercises for spotting or head isolation. I was happy to see it addressed here.

Section II focuses on the hips, backs of legs, and outsides of legs in a sequence of standing weight transfers, loose developpes, a fall, and a little more floor work. In section III, plies in first, second, and fourth position are deliciously tangled up with suspensions, cambres, and balances on two feet and one foot. Sections IV and V are a set of leg swings front and back in attitude. Section V emphasizes equilibrium with more suspensions and balances punctuating each repetition of the leg swing set.

This warmup is a comfortable and stimulating full-body workout. It was easy enough to follow and left me feeling powerful, coordinated, and in touch with my limbs and the ground. Taken at a slower pace or performed in reverse order, it could also make a good cool-down for looseness and relaxation after dancing.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: bruno collinet, contemporary dance warmup, dance dvd, dvd review, tezoro live productions

DVD Review: Heinz Spoerli’s Magnificat, Zurich Ballet

May 8, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

zurich balletHeinz Spoerli’s Magnificat is challengingly intellectual and satisfyingly human. The choreographer took inspiration from the text of Bach’s “Magnificat in D major” and the arias of two Bach cantatas, “Where shall I flee” and “I have enough,” as well as from a visit to the Kolumba museum in Cologne, Germany—the art museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne.

From its cerebral beginnings, Magnificat becomes more tangible with each movement. Where it tests the viewer’s mind, it rests the eyes. The scenery is minimal and geometric, the costumes are uncomplicated in structure, and the ebb and flow of the dancing allows eyes, mind, and heart to process the layers of symbolism in this work. Peter Schmidt’s set designs are imposing while remaining in harmony and conversation with the choreography.

The program notes discuss Spoerli’s interest in the conditions inherent in religious devotion: “…expression of a profound devoutness, which also involves rejection, exclusion, uncertainty, and separation.” The featured dancers in Magnificat represent and experience all these things with powerful impact.

In the opening movement (the first of ten), the stage is lit in deep blues and littered with floating balloons. Dancers costumed in white and neutral beige sit on or carry large white cubes. Gradually, they process offstage. Soon eight women wearing warm pinkish-browns begin with decorative arm gestures, then move to joyous, generous dancing through the whole space. Eventually they are joined by sixteen men, eight of whom dance a very pleasing allegro section traveling sagitally in counterpoint.

Notably in this movement (in the women especially) the dancers look unabashedly forward at the audience, even at times when other head facings seem more appropriate. (Later on, all enter looking deliberately not forward. Some appear disgruntled, arms crossed, others thoughtful or defiant. They collect downstage, and a few at a time, they sit, then all point outward. A lone man crosses stage in front of the group while none make eye contact—the ultimate exclusion.)

The stage then empties and darkens for a gloriously lit pas de deux, danced with electricity by Galina Mikhaylova and Vahe Martirosyan. They are supple and dynamic, tense without brittleness. A second duet for this couple later in the ballet evokes despair and longing and is decidedly less restrained.

The ensemble dances again, this time clad in black, snaking their way across the stage. One woman (She Yun Kim) remains separate from the group, repeatedly assaulted by their angular gestures. The visual effect created here is repeated later with a corps of men assaulting a physical barrier of triangular pillars.

Devotion is perhaps best embodied in the dances for Kim, Filipe Portugal, and Arman Grigoryan. Duets for the two men are full of power, trust, and compassionate brotherhood. Later the two are respectfully combative. Their movements are synchronized more often than not. Kim’s ethereal quality is mesmerizing. Is she mortal? Divine? The three lay hands on one another, palms flat, as if experiencing some communal magnetism. She is grounded, then on pointe, then suspended over and over by the two men.

Two pas de deux for Melanie Borel and Olaf Kollmansperger present them as an obviously human couple, in stark contrast with the tingling austerity of Mikhaylovna and Martirosyan or the transcendence of Kim and her guardians. Their duets suggest first misunderstanding, then outright conflict.

A trio of noodly women appears ominously throughout the work. Sarah-Jane Brodbeck, Juliette Brunner, and Sarah Mednick are lovely and boneless and vaguely sinister. As a group, they seem to be an entity of manipulation or fate.

The ensemble work is formidable throughout Magnificat.  The corps de ballet echoes Schmidt’s set pieces and Bach’s music in form and energy. A wonderful moment happens about two-thirds through the ballet in which they parade boisterously over the stage, a triumphant congregation. The whole chorus sings as the dancers flock, circling the stage, collecting in lines and dispersing as if pulled along by the current of the “Magnificat in D major.”

At the climax of the work, all the featured dancers are finally onstage together, each group reprising its own choreography. They assemble downstage and all prostrate themselves behind Kim as the chorus sings its loudest gloria. The effect is monumental, with Kim processing slowly, purposefully, directly toward the audience. Finally, the whole flock takes one final lap and demolishes a stacked structure upstage. Humanity makes peace with itself and breaks free from its bonds on the final “Amen.”

All the intellectual and human elements of art come together to make Magnificat a film well worth watching.

Magnificat (If Today Were Tomorrow and Yesterday Today)

Choreography by Heinz Spoerli

Music by J S Bach

Zurich Ballet

BelAir Classiques, 75 minutes

Filed Under: DVDs, Reviews Tagged With: dance dvd, heinz spoerli, magnificat, zurich ballet

DVD Review: Dance Crazy In Hollywood

February 6, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

Dance Crazy in Hollywood, directed by Robert Kuperberg, is a discussion with film choreographer Hermes Pan about his work with dance legends like Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, and Cyd Charisse. The film runs just under an hour, and the companion booklet is indispensable, providing biographical information not discussed in the interviews.

The film opens with Hermes Pan describing the beginning of his dance career as being kicked out of school for dancing on the desks and tables. He and his sister supported themselves by dancing and singing as they traveled from New York City to California in the 1920s, and in 1933 Pan met Astaire and began a career-shaping partnership.

Rather than focusing in the development of a distinct choreographic style, Pan let the qualities of the dancers and films shine through. The construction of this documentary echoes that; here, the true highlights are the clips of dance sequences from films like Cleopatra, Kiss Me Kate, Silk Stockings, and Meet Me in Las Vegas.

The composition of this film lacks homogeneity and smoothness, with little flow between dance clips, interviews, and wobbly aerial shots of Los Angeles. However, the information contained herein is a valuable piece of times past—dance doesn’t get much more stylish than Old Hollywood!

Filed Under: DVDs, Reviews Tagged With: dance crazy in hollywood, dance dvd, fred astaire, hermes pan

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