dvd review

DVD Review: BALLET 422

November 16, 2015 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.

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DVD Review: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

January 26, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

by Rachel Hellwig

The opening of the Royal Ballet’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland interposes a psychological basis for Wonderland. Alice (Lauren Cuthberton) is not a little girl in this version, but a young teenager who shares an infatuation with the gardener’s son Jack (Sergei Polunin). But, tsk tsk, this is the Victorian Era and Alice’s mother (Zenaida Yanowsky) disapproves of this class-disparate romance. She takes the opportunity to dismiss Jack after she erroneously believes he stole a tart. Not surprisingly, Yanowsky returns in Wonderland as the Queen of Hearts and Polunin returns as the Knave of Heart who “stole tarts”. The premise of dual characters is carried farther as family friend Lewis Carroll (Edward Watson) reappears as The White Rabbit, and tea guests such as the visiting Rajah (Eric Underwood) and Magician (Steven McRae) later morph into The Caterpillar and Mad Hatter.

Video projections are appropriately used to portray Alice falling down the rabbit hole. In the sequences that follow, a combination of projections and more traditional theatrical effects help create the famous “Eat Me” and ”Drink Me” episodes (where Alice grows and shrinks) as well as the “Pool of Tears”. All of these scenes are fun to watch, although, if you haven’t read the book in while, they might be hard to follow in places. “The Pool of Tears” is actually the most visually effective though it’s also the most conventional – dancers “swimming” in between rows of stationary scenery painted to look like waves. While suggesting just enough of reality, it retains the charm of a storybook illustration – something that is not as easy to accomplish with video projections.

A challenge in adapting Alice in Wonderland for a non-verbal medium is the fact that much of the story’s potency comes from wordplay and parodies of poems and songs. The wordplay, of course, can’t be translated into dance, but there is a perhaps a nod to it in some of the projected backgrounds which feature skies of scrambled letters. The element of parody though does find an interesting parallel in Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography which incorporates spoofs of classical ballet, most memorably in the Queen of Hearts’ botched Rose Adagio. Elsewhere, Wheeldon employs a mix of non-satirical classical ballet, contemporary ballet, and, occasionally, other styles of dance. The Mad Hatter is in fact reimagined as a tap dancer, an effect which works remarkably well.

As for the music, I admit I have mixed feelings about the original score by Joby Talbot. Of course, it makes sense that a soundscape for Alice in Wonderland would express the madness, confusion, curiosity, and even violence that are integral to the story. However, whether or not you enjoy Talbot’s approach to this will depend on your taste for modern symphonic music, which, of course, doesn’t shy away from dissonance and percussion-heavy moments. At the risk of sounding like a throwback, I think it’s harder to pull off effective dissonance than it is effective melody. So, to me, the score is most compelling when it sticks to the latter. During these moments, such as Alice and the Knave of Hearts’ courtroom pas de deux, the music takes on an engaging cinematic quality which enhances the already engaging visuals onstage.

Speaking of engaging visuals… the costumes, colors, scenery (with a small caveat about out-of-place grimness of the kitchen set with its sausage maker and pig carcasses), lighting, and overall composition of each scene is top-notch, sometimes to the degree that the designs begin to compete with the dancing for your attention. The courtroom in Wonderland just might be the best for its geometry, full prism of costumes, and a giant house of cards looming in the background.

When that house of cards literally and figuratively falls and Alice awakens in reality, we notice that she is now wearing a modern-day dress. The Knave of Hearts/Jack, sitting nearby her, is sporting a t-shirt and blue jeans. Yes, as it turns out, this story wasn’t about a Victorian youth dreaming of madness, love, confusion, and discovery based on her real-life experiences. It was instead a dream about a Victorian youth who had such a dream. Hmm… I’m not sure this conclusion is quite as interesting as the scenario seemingly set forth at the beginning.

The dancing, of course, is world-class all around, as you would expect from the Royal Ballet. As Alice, Lauren Cuthbertson is like a music-box ballerina in her seemingly effortless precision, line, and musicality – her technique so pure it’s almost startling. She also possesses a natural girlish playfulness and lightness that are ideally suited for the role. The other standout is Zenaida Yanowsky as the Queen of Hearts. Her acting is spot-on, and, even more impressively, her classical grace radiates so thoroughly through her every movement that you’re simultaneously in awe of how well she embodies her comical character and how she makes it so beautiful to watch — without dampening the fire of the satiric choreography.

This OpusArte DVD of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is from 2011. Since then, the Royal Ballet has revised and extended the production. I haven’t yet seen the updated version, but Sarah Crompton of The Telegraph wrote that the changes were all improvements. I truly believe that this ballet has masterpiece potential, though, as with all art, it takes time and revision to achieve that end.

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DVD / CD Review : Sur Les Pointes avec une Etoile and Ballet Class Music

September 8, 2014 by Rachel Hellwig

Sur Les Pointes avec une Etoile
Ballet Class Music
Sylvain Durand, pianist
Andrey Klemm, producer
Isabelle Ciaravola, dancer

by Emily Kate Long

This DVD/CD pair highlights the articulate pointe work of Paris Opera etoile Isabelle Ciaravola and the exceptional musical talent of accompanist Sylvain Durand. In the 72-munite Sur Les Pointes DVD, Andrey Klemm leads Ciaravola through a fast-paced, advanced-level barre and center. The accompanying CD features all of Durand’s music from the DVD, 52 tracks for 39 exercises.

Klemm’s combinations showcase Ciaravola’s exquisite footwork. The barre is quite typical, but several center exercises are a pleasing hybrid of Russian and French style, which the Bolshoi-trained Klemm discusses further in a short interview.

Sylvain Durand plays passionately throughout, and the fact that the CD was recorded live gives it tremendous energy. The sensitivity and attention to the subtle differences in dynamic is stellar, especially for the barre and allegro selections. Unfortunately, the short tracks limit the album’s overall usefulness. Only ten are longer that ninety seconds, making longer combinations or reversals inconvenient. In center, there are just a handful of pieces long enough to accommodate more than one or two groups of dancers without restarting the music.

Durand and Klemm both have other music and DVD releases available. This is their only collaboration to date.

DVD Review: Flex Is Kings

August 22, 2014 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

Directed by Deirdre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols

The 2013 documentary Flex Is Kings dives headfirst and somersaulting into the world of Flexing, a style of street dance centered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York.

Schoo has captured a do-it-yourself dance movement in the most appropriate way. In an interview for The Wrap, she describes how she met a Flex dancer on a photo shoot and felt inspired to tell the story of Flex. Flex Is Kings, like Battlefest, is a grassroots, self- and crowd-funded operation.

Much of Flex dancing is narrative, an extreme reflection of life in East New York. It’s athletic, flashy and theatrical, full of aggressive one-ups and punchlines (showstopping stunts involving anything from acrobatics to magic tricks) executed to the soundtrack of “B.A!” cheers from an all-ages crowd, including Flizzo’s finger-gunshooting grandmother.

There’s no discussion of Flex’s evolution as a dance style, and here it doesn’t seem to matter. What’s evident is what Flex is to the dancers: a fleeting escape from the tough realities of life, a way of getting out and bringing home culture with you, a way of shaping the future. As one dancer puts it, “It’s really raw. It comes from us, from the neighborhood.”

Schoo and Nichols focus on three personalities. The unstoppable impresario Reem is the force behind Battlefest, a series of dance battles in Brooklyn. In the film, he’s a guide and anchor for this universe who dreams of leaving “a global imprint of what Battlefest, of what extreme street dancing is all about.” He coaches the dancers that they’re role models in their world and representatives of Flex to the world outside. Without knowing who might show up at Battlefest, they should look clean and presentable, “your jeans not on your knees…You’ve got to understand where you want to go”

For Jay Donn, another featured personality, dancing opens up an entirely new world of opportunities. He’s sought by modern dance group Company XIV to perform in a new Pnicchio, an adventure that takes him on a month-long trip to Scotland for the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. Wide-eyed and speechless, he couldn’t look more incongruous than when passing out flyers outside L’Occitane on the streets of mostly-white Edinburgh.

Unemployed with two young children, Jermaine “Flizzo” Clement uses performing to escape from his rough past and harsh present. As a mentor to neighborhood youth, he uses his talent to help shape a better future for the next generation. He has a mentor in Jay, who urges him to “keep doing your thing…and if you don’t make it here we’re gonna make it somewhere, together. This is the life. I deserve it, so do you.”

The film culminates in a frenetic sequence that cuts back and forth between Pinocchio and King of the Streets. It’s all energy and inspiration from there, neatly finished with a brief epilogue for each of the three principal characters.

Flex Is Kings has appeared at film festivals across the country. This inspiring, don’t-miss-it documentary is available on iTunes and Vimeo OnDemand.

Disclosure: 4dancers previously ran an ad for this DVD.

DVD Review: Basic Castanet and Movement Technique Volume 1

August 18, 2014 by Rachel Hellwig

Basic Castanet and Movement Technique Volume 1
JoDe Romano

by Emily Kate Long

In this thirty-five minute instructional DVD, New York City-based teacher and choreographer JoDe Romano walks the beginning student through a series of six castanet exercises. She begins with simple instructions for putting on and adjusting the castanets, then moves on to finger exercises, and eventually incorporates arm, head, and leg movements. Each new element is added systematically, with emphasis on slow repetition and daily practice to develop strength and accuracy.

Romano’s verbal directions are clear and easy to follow, and each exercise is shown from the front and back. Her demonstrations cleanly show the technique for each combination, and she provides an inspiring example of the strength, passion, and power of Spanish dance.

This DVD is a useful tool for beginners of any age, or any dancer looking for a better understanding of the basics of Spanish castanet movement. Basic Castanet and Movement Technique is the first of a two-part series. Both DVDs can be purchased on Romano’s website, www.flamencoromano.com.

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