scott speck – Page 2

Joffrey Triumphs With ‘La Bayadere’

October 18, 2013 by 4dancers

april daly_erica lynette edwards_jeremy taulbee — April Daly, Erica Lynette Edwards and Jeremy Taulbee in Joffrey’s La Bayadere. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

by Catherine L. Tully

Even when choosing a large-scale ballet Joffrey is unique–and “La Bayadere” is certainly a bold choice. The ballet was first performed in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg, and it was choreographed by Marius Petipa. This version has been updated by Houston Ballet’s marvelous Stanton Welch, and it is easy to see why he is one of the most sought after choreographers of our generation. He has the ability to create such interesting movement that one wishes they had two sets of eyes to see it all–especially when the stage is filled with dancers.

Although the three-act plot seems convoluted, at the center of it all it’s really just a tragic love triangle between Nikiya (the temple dancer, Victoria Jaiani), Solor (the warrior prince, Dylan Gutierrez) and Gamzatti (the Rajah’s daughter, April Daly). The first act is set in India and it traces the forbidden love story of Nikiya and Solor–and the plot to bring about her death, crafted by Gamzatti and her servant Ajah.

Jaiani is achingly supple–offering her submission to Solor with tender, fluttering arms and yielding bends of the torso. Gutierrez, although an able partner, was at his best when soaring and bounding across the stage with passionate abandon.

Welch’s choreography is both brilliant and difficult with demanding lifts, whiplash turns and unexpected combinations. In the first act, the dance for the four men was especially impressive, but the group dancing was also a joy to watch. Instead of tutus, tights and tiaras there are dazzling bras and colorful, flowing fabrics everywhere. The bright, jeweled costumes and lush scenery by Peter Farmer add quite a bit to the visual appeal of this ballet and Scott Speck and the Chicago Philharmonic added depth and drama with their mastery of the musical score by Minkus.

Fabrice Calmels is the perfect choice for the High Brahmin–radiating authority and confidence and dominating the stage with his presence. Also compelling were the musical John Mark Giragosian as Agni the Fire God and Erica Lynette Edwards as the maniacal Ajah.

The second act is set at the palace gardens as the wedding preparations for Solor and the princess Gamzatti take place. Daly was spectacular as she whipped off a triumphant series of fouettés and Jaiani was limp and heartbroken as she danced before the couple prior to her death.

victoria jaiani_dylan gutierrez3 — Victoria Jaiani and Dylan Gutierrez in Joffrey’s La Bayadere. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

The beginning of the third act is in stark contrast to the color and vibrant atmosphere of the other two–especially in the “Kingdom of the Shades” where women in all white tutus–ghostly images–dance in unison. One by one these figures come down a long ramp in arabesque, balancing, bending back, balancing again. A trance-like scene, this is where Joffrey was at its most impressive. With only a slight sway or quiver here and there, the company triumphed over one of the more difficult corps de ballet scenes in classical ballet. They moved as one.

The three “shade solos” were all danced with verve. Cara Marie Gary bounced fluently, Amber Neumann floated lightly and Amanda Assucena’s solid balance and incredible extension appeared effortless.

Once Solor returns to reality the end of this ballet becomes a whirlwind–exciting and dramatic, if somewhat frenzied after the otherworldly scene before it.

La Bayadere runs through October 27th at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

Music, Ballet & The Russian Masters

September 9, 2013 by 4dancers

Joanna Wozniak, Sacre du Printemps, photo by Herbert Migdoll

Today we have Conductor Scott Speck with us to talk about the music for the Joffrey’s upcoming “Russian Masters” program. The company will perform Allegro Brillante (Balanchine/Tchaikovsky), Bells (Possokhov/Rachmaninoff), Adagio (Possokhov/Khachaturian) and Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) – with music by Stravinsky.

What are some of the particular challenges in preparing the Chicago Philharmonic to play for Joffrey’s upcoming Russian Masters program?

This is a brilliant program, masterfully constructed by the Joffrey’s visionary Artistic Director, Ashley Wheater. I love every piece on the program, both choreographically and musically. Together, these pieces present a number of fascinating challenges. Although all the composers in this program came from roughly the same region of the world, their styles are markedly different. The musicians have to shift gears very quickly from music that is suave, elegant and melodic to music that is dissonant and brutal. In addition to that is the question of endurance: this is a physically taxing program for the musicians, as well as for the dancers. One of our piano soloists, Kuang-Hao Huang, has to play an athletic Tchaikovsky piano concerto, and then shift gears and tackle a set of devilishly difficult Rachmaninoff preludes. All of this takes place in the orchestra pit, of course, and I hope that the audience remembers to pay attention to the feats of athleticism taking place underneath the stage as well as on it.

You will be conducting the music of four different composers that evening; Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Khachaturian. Which is the most difficult–and why?

By far our most difficult task — and also the most fun — is preparing Stravinsky’s masterpiece The Rite of Spring. This piece was once considered practically impossible to perform, because it often calls for instruments to play at the extremes of their ranges, with seemingly unpredictable changes in meter. Luckily, the musicians of the Chicago Philharmonic are some of the best in the world; they can do anything. They see this piece as a fun challenge, and I’m sure they will simply tear it up. (In a good way!)

Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) was a very controversial piece when it debuted in 1913 in Paris, danced by Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes company. Nijinsky’s choreography was part of the reason for this, but how did the music contribute to the audience’s reaction?

Controversial is right — the first performance created an actual riot, one of the few in the history of music! I think the music contributed to this chaos in three ways.

First of all, it is dissonant — or more to the point, it is poly-tonal, meaning that it’s in more than one key at a time. You might have one set of instruments playing it E major while another group play in E-flat. Nobody was used to this kind of “harmony” before.

Secondly, the rhythm is unpredictable, and that is very unsettling. Even the wildest, most dissonant rock music usually has a steady beat. But in this piece, the beat sometimes changes in every measure. The result is that unless you know the piece intimately, you never know what the rhythm is going to do next. There’s even a famous section near the beginning of Part One where at least four different meters are competing for the same moment of time. It’s the sonic equivalent of the earth shifting under you feet.

Third, and finally, we have to admit that the first orchestra to play this work, faced with groundbreaking polyrhythms and polytonality, and trying to make sense of a piece that they had never heard before, probably didn’t play it very well. I have heard a recording from a great orchestra of Paris in the 1940s — over thirty years later, with the same conductor (Pierre Monteux) who led the premiere — and it still didn’t sound very good. The musicians have to know what they are trying to express before they can get it across to the audience. Today, our orchestra musicians are so well-versed in this great masterpiece that we will have the opposite challenge: trying to make it sound unfamiliar enough.

Joffrey Ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps, Stacy Joy Keller, Erica Lynette Edwards, Jennifer Goodman; credit Herbert Migdoll

How is the music for this ballet historically significant?

Because of the riot itself, the piece will always be historically significant. But there were much more far-reaching ramifications for the history of music. After Stravinsky’s ground-breaking experiment in polytonality and polyrhythm, every other composer of the 1900s had to define himself or herself in relation to this piece. That is, either they decided to continue Stravinsky’s bold experiment, or they decided to reject it and carry on in spite of it. But everybody had to grapple with it; nobody could ignore it. And so The Rite of Spring changed the course of music history. It is hands down the most important piece of the twentieth century.

Because it is difficult to count, dancers sometimes find Stravinsky’s music challenging. As a conductor, is there anything you can do to try and make this easier for them?

The best thing that the orchestra and I can do for the dancers is to be consistent. The dancers have learned to count and memorize these unpredictable rhythms, and they could probably sing the piece note-for-note, at least the sections in which they are dancing. Now my goal is to present this ever-changing landscape to them consistently. It may be a moving target, but if it moves the same way each time, the dancers will have a good chance of hitting it.

Is there a particular section of the ballet that you particularly enjoy?

My favorite section is the last part, the sacrificial dance, in which the Chosen One dances herself to death. This is the section with the trickiest and least predictable rhythms to play — but if you study and practice it a lot (for decades, in my case!), you get into this marvelous groove that you can really feel in your body. This is the most difficult section for the solo dancer as well — she leaps some 90 times in a matter of minutes.

Because of these challenges, both for the dancers and the orchestra, Le sacre du printemps is very rarely performed. And in the reconstruction of the Nijinsky version, it is almost never performed. These will be the Joffrey Ballet’s final performances during this Centennial year, so I urge people not to miss it.

Joffrey’s “Russian Masters” program runs from Sept. 19th to Sept. 22nd at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

With recent performances in London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, Contributor Scott Speck has inspired international acclaim as a conductor of passion, intelligence and winning personality.

Scott Speck’s recent concerts with the Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky Hall garnered unanimous praise. His gala performances with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Midori, Evelyn Glennie and Olga Kern have highlighted his recent and current seasons as Music Director of the Mobile Symphony. This season he also collaborates intensively with Carnegie Hall for the seventh time as Music Director of the West Michigan Symphony. He was recently named Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet; and he was invited to the White House as Music Director of the Washington Ballet.

In recent seasons Scott Speck has conducted at London’s Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Washington’s Kennedy Center, San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, and the Los Angeles Music Center. He has led numerous performances with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Houston, Chicago (Sinfonietta), Paris, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing, Vancouver, Romania, Slovakia, Buffalo, Columbus (OH), Honolulu, Louisville, New Orleans, Oregon, Rochester, Florida, and Virginia, among many others.

Previously he held positions as Conductor of the San Francisco Ballet; Music Advisor and Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony; and Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera. During a recent tour of Asia he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the China Film Philharmonic in Beijing.

In addition, Scott Speck is the co-author of two of the world’s best-selling books on classical music for a popular audience, Classical Music for Dummies and Opera for Dummies. These books have received stellar reviews in both the national and international press and have garnered enthusiastic endorsements from major American orchestras. They have been translated into twenty languages and are available around the world. His third book in the series, Ballet for Dummies, was released to great acclaim as well.

Scott Speck has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Voice of Russia, broadcast throughout the world. His writing has been featured in numerous magazines and journals.

Born in Boston, Scott Speck graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. There he founded and directed the Berkeley Chamber Orchestra, which continues to perform to this day. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Berlin, where he founded Concerto Grosso Berlin, an orchestra dedicated to the performances of Baroque and Classical music in a historically informed style. He received his Master’s Degree with highest honors from the University of Southern California, served as a Conducting Fellow at the Aspen School of Music, and studied at the Tanglewood Music Center. He is fluent in English, German and French, has a diploma in Italian, speaks Spanish and has a reading knowledge of Russian.

Scott Speck can be reached at www.scottspeck.org

Why Othello Is The Best Ballet Of The Last 30 Years

April 23, 2013 by 4dancers

Joffrey Ballet Othello 2009 — Fabrice Calmels and April Daly in Othello, Photo by Herbert Migdoll

by Scott Speck

This week the Joffrey Ballet embarks on its encore production of Othello: A Dance in Three Acts, with choreograhy by Lar Lubovitch and music by Elliot Goldenthal. This is my favorite ballet to conduct, and for good reason: It’s the greatest full-length ballet of the past 30 years.

The Joffrey’s visionary Artistic Director Ashley Wheater really stuck his neck out when, very early in his tenure, he brought Othello to the Joffrey. As far as anyone in Chicago knew, this was a huge financial risk. This ballet was originally so expensive that it took two companies — American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet — to co-produce it in 1998. Yet Ashley had no doubts. He knew what an incredible success this would be.

As a conductor at the San Francisco Ballet during the premiere, I had the unforgettable experience of conducting for the original SFB production, together with Emil de Cou (who is now Music Director for Pacific Northwest Ballet). Ashley was Associate Artistic Director at SFB at that time, and we saw how this ballet absolutely electrified audiences, both in San Francisco and on tour at the Opéra Garnier in Paris. Having practically memorized the score at that time, I mourned the end of the San Francisco production, and hoped for a chance to conduct it again someday.

It was Othello that brought me to Chicago. When Ashley boldly programmed the work for the Joffrey Ballet’s 2009-10 season, he invited me to conduct it, and thus began my association with the Joffrey. As Ashley predicted, the production was enormously successful in Chicago — so much so that it is now coming back, three seasons later.

I have conducted hundreds of ballets, and seen hundreds more. Yet if I had to choose one full-length ballet from the past generation, Othello would be the one. Here’s why.

All of the elements are original from the ground up. When Tchaikovsky wrote his score for Sleeping Beauty, he had particular choreography in mind. The music was inextricable from one choreographer’s vision, one costume design, one set design, and one lighting design. And the same goes for Elliot Goldenthal’s music for Othello. It’s a completely new score written for a completely new ballet. How many full-length ballets in the last generation can claim that distinction? I can count them on one hand. And none of them are as ingenious as Othello.

It sustains a mood for two hours. Since I’m a musician, I’ll start with the music. Elliot Goldenthal is the master of mood-setting. From his Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio to his scores to Frida, Interview with a Vampire and Batman Forever, he has continuously discovered compelling techniques to keep us on the edge of our seats with anticipation. In Othello, the moods range from deep love and ecstatic frenzy to dread, rage and horror. He pulls us along through the drama, from beginning to end. And the great Lar Lubovitch accomplishes similar wonders, because…

The choreography is unmistakable. If you have ever seen a Lar Lubovitch dance, you know that his style is unique. The shapes that he creates with human bodies are impossible to mistake for the work of anyone else. More importantly, Lar has found a way to tell the story of Othello entirely through gesture. Yes, the dancers portray their roles with intensity and passion, but those are secondary to the moves they make. Lar has discovered a unique shape or momentary pose to communicate each hyper-specific emotion and plot point of the story. It’s not just love or anger — those would be simple enough to portray. It’s the much more complicated sentiments like “I derive erotic pleasure from the thought of ascending to the throne,” or “I submit to your brutality out of a sense of duty,” or “I am devastated by the fact that I now have to murder you.” One gesture is all it takes. And not a hint of ballet mime.

Interestingly, Lar doesn’t really consider himself a ballet choreographer. Though Othello clearly incorporates advanced ballet techniques and could never be performed by anything other than a world-class ballet company, Lar modestly calls it “A Dance in Three Acts.”

(For much more insight into the ingenuity of Lar’s vision, in his own words, please read this terrific recent interview.)

It’s a uniquely integrated work of art. Not only are the costumes, sets, projections and lighting totally in service to the story — as you would expect in any great ballet — but here, the dance is completely in service to the music, and the music in service to the dance.

There’s a reason for this: They were composed at the same time. Once Lar identified Elliot Goldenthal as the perfect composer for this project, he gave Elliot an elaborate “storyboard” to work from. From that point on, the two of them worked simultaneously. Each night Elliot composed a section of the music; and the next morning, he brought it into the studio for Lar to choreograph. If Lar needed more time for a particular dance, he asked Elliot to expand it by a few measures. If he wanted to omit a scene, cuts were made in the music. This is exactly how Peter Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa collaborated on Sleeping Beauty.

I want to point out one chillingly beautiful example of how well-integrated the elements of this ballet are. At the beginning of Act II, we see a ship come in: it’s Othello, Iago and his men returning from battle. When the ship docks, sailors quickly stretch three thick and heavy ropes all the way across the stage, securing them on the other side. At the same time, another group of three ropes appears onscreen, higher than the original group. Now picture this: While the two groups of ropes are clearly separated, the ropes within each group are tangled and twisted.

Now, if you were to express the concept of three ropes in music, you might use three long notes. And since the ropes are tangled, the notes don’t form a straight line up or down, but instead they create a twisted pattern. You might choose one long note — say F, followed by the closest possible higher note, G-flat, followed by the note that’s lower than the first, yet as close as possible, E. There you have it: three twisted ropes.

Now to describe the second, higher set of ropes in music, you might do the same thing, but higher up. Those three notes would be C, D-flat, and B.

Elliot Goldenthal’s music to Act II of Othello is completely based on these two groups of three twisted notes each: F, G-flat, E, followed by C, D-flat, B. Not only do they appear as long tones, describing the ropes themselves — but these notes are also the basis of an enormous, breathless, thousand-measure-long tarantella which makes up the entire second act.

Why would Elliot Goldenthal choose the ropes, of all things, to depict in music? As Act II progresses, this becomes clear: the ropes are a visual depiction of the story. As Othello becomes increasingly deceived by Iago, more and more tangled ropes gradually appear in the background, until they form a literal web of lies. And simultaneously, the music becomes increasingly complex, dissonant, and twisted.

It’s compelling to all audiences. When Othello first played in Chicago three and a half years ago, word spread fast. This was not your typical girls-in-tutus type of ballet. It was searing, electrifying, and sometimes brutal. People who never saw a ballet in their lives flocked to watch Othello, and I’m sure that will happen again.

Othello appeals to our modern sensibilities more than any other ballet I know. It’s an ancient story that pre-dates Shakespeare, but it’s told in a way that we can immediately identify with. Without sacrificing quality, line or technique, it takes ballet off the pedestal and brings it to the people.

If you are anywhere near Chicago, don’t miss this production. And if you get a chance, please steal a glance at the orchestra pit, where the Chicago Philharmonic and I will be having the time of our lives with a modern masterpiece. Did I mention that this is the greatest ballet of the last 30 years?

—
Scott Speck is Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet, Mobile (AL) Symphony, West Michigan Symphony and Washington Ballet, and the newly designated Artistic Director of the Chicago Philharmonic. His books Classical Music for Dummies, Opera for Dummies and Ballet for Dummies have been translated into dozens of languages and reached a worldwide audience.

The Joffrey: Live Music For American Legends

February 6, 2013 by 4dancers

Scott Speck conducting — Scott Speck, Photo Courtesy of The Joffrey Ballet

The Joffrey Ballet’s American Legends series is coming up at The Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, and this mixed repertory program will feature live music with the Chicago Philharmonic. We wanted to learn more about the process of what goes on behind the scenes to bring this partnership between dance and music to life, so we reached out to Scott Speck, Music Director for the Joffrey. He shares some insights here about how the program has taken shape, as well as what life is like for him during the process…

How far in advance will you arrive prior to conducting for the Joffrey’s American Legends performance series at the Auditorium Theatre—and where will you stay while you are in town?

Well, although I regularly conduct symphony orchestras around the country (including the Mobile Symphony and West Michigan Symphony, where I’m Music Director), I should tell you that I am a part-time Chicagoan. Chicago is one of my home bases, and I have a beautiful apartment overlooking Millennium Park. It’s a four block walk in one direction to the Joffrey Studios, and a four block walk in the other direction to the Auditorium Theatre, where the Joffrey Ballet performs. Couldn’t be more convenient!

The Joffrey Ballet usually begins rehearsal for all the season’s programs during the previous summer, so I spend several weeks during the summer in the studios, learning to understand the dancers’ needs and the choreographers’ vision. For the upcoming American Legends, some of the ballets were also rehearsed throughout the fall. One of the ballets, Stanton Welch’s Son of Chamber Symphony (set to the music of John Adams), was performed several times during the company’s most recent national tour — and most recently, I conducted it for them with the LA Opera Orchestra at the Los Angeles Music Center. So I am very familiar with all of these works by the time I show up to conduct for them in Chicago.

What type of advance preparation do you do before your arrival?

First and foremost, I learn the music as music, rather than as accompaniment. Since the vast majority of my experience is as a symphonic conductor, I have developed ways of analyzing and internalizing a score that work for me. Of course, some pieces are much more complicated than others. In some cases, preparation means starting to learn a score a year in advance. And in other cases — for example, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring — I’ve been studying the music on and off for 20 years!

Once I know the musical score inside and out, it’s time to learn what the choreographer has been inspired to do with it. It’s fun to see how a certain melody or sonority gets translated into movements of the bodies onstage.

Tempo is a very important consideration. The choreographer usually has a particular tempo range in mind when he or she sets a work. Sometimes, as in John Adams Son of Chamber Symphony, the music has a steady motor rhythm with very little leeway for tempo changes — so that no matter what the dancers are doing, the music has to go a certain way. But in other pieces, such as Gerald Arpino’s Sea Shadow (set to Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G), there is room for plenty of ebb and flow, give and take, going faster and slower. Especially in pieces like this, I try to understand exactly what the dancers need to do on each beat, and where they need time to breathe. My goal is to be true to the intent of the music while simultaneously supporting the dancers and allowing them to do their best.

joffrey ballet — Son of Chamber Symphony, Victoria Jaiani & Miguel Angle Blanco, Photo by Christopher Duggan

Once you are in town, what is does your schedule look like in terms of rehearsing/meeting with Joffrey, etc.?

At the Joffrey studio, almost all rehearsals take place between 11:30 am and 5:30 pm. So when I’m in town, I plan to be in the studio for most of that time. That gives me the morning for exercise, Bikram yoga (my biggest hobby), writing emails, and taking care of other orchestra business, and the evening for studying scores and then unwinding, alone or with friends. We performers tend to be late-to-bed, late-to-rise types. Breakfast? What breakfast? But I’ve had some great dinners at 1 am.

Performance days are different — especially Saturdays, when we usually do two shows. Then the performance dominates the day, and I plan everything around it. I’ll usually get plenty of sleep, maybe exercise in the morning, do mindless stuff for a few hours, eat a big high-energy meal a few hours before the show, take a short power nap, and then spend a couple of hours getting into the right head space for performance. I once asked a Broadway performer, who had been in Les Miserables on Broadway for several years, what time each day he started thinking about the show and getting into character. His answer was, “When the curtain goes up.” I couldn’t be more different — not at this point, anyway! I’m living the music for a couple of hours before I get on the podium to conduct. But after the show, the rest of the night is mine. That’s one reason I like to stay up late!

What is it like to work with Ashley Wheater and the dancers?

Ashley Wheater is a truly great Artistic Director, with a very clear creative vision for the company. He knows what he’s aiming for, and he knows how to make it happen. He has already brought the company to a new level, recognized throughout the world. My primary role at the Joffrey is to support this vision and give it a brilliant soundtrack.

Ashley is extremely musical, more so than just about any other Artistic Director I have ever met in the field of ballet. I am gratified to be working with a leader who values the great musical tradition so highly. And having concentrated my conducting career on the great symphonic masterworks, I truly have a foot in each world — I feel that I can offer our company an enhanced perspective on the music that accompanies ballet. Ideally, the music is a full partner to the dance. In so many companies the music falls by the wayside. Here, I am doing everything I can to ensure that we eventually have live music for every performance. What a pleasure it is to know that this is Ashley’s vision as well. Despite the extraordinary expense, Ashley has gone to the mat for live music, because it’s the right thing to do. (More on working with the dancers below!)

How do you prepare the Chicago Philharmonic to work with Joffrey?

We concentrate on the music first, just as I do when I’m studying the scores. The Chicago Philharmonic is a finely-tuned instrument, truly a stunningly good orchestra. The musicians are already very well-versed in listening to each other and reacting in real time. So first we prepare the music as if we were going to perform it in an orchestral concert. This is extraordinarily gratifying to us, even when we perform underground in the orchestra pit.

What makes this work unique is that we know that while we’re playing, there are 42 virtuoso athletes dancing above our heads. It’s a fine balance, and it works best when the musicians and I truly appreciate the intricacies of the dance, and the dancers appreciate the intricacies of the music. In orchestra rehearsals I often tell the musicians exactly what is happening onstage so that they can imagine the movement as they are accompanying it. And in the studio, I often help individual dancers to understand how they are embodying a musical phrase. In performance, of course, my job is to act as a conduit between the two. I’m the only person in the theater who can see all the musicians and all the dancers at once. When a dancer makes a leap, my baton follows the same arc as the dancer’s body, landing at the same instant so that the music can connect exactly.

But there’s something more. In an ideal performance, there is a marvelous creative spirit that infuses the dancers, the musicians and me simultaneously. We are not so much reacting to each other as sharing equally in this communal spirit. This is something I feel in the best symphonic performances as well. We’re not making music — the music is making us.

Do you have any places you especially enjoy going in Chicago when you are in town?

Since I live right by Millennium Park, I love hanging out there. I don’t know of a better park in the world. During the summer there are free concerts nearly every night, and fireworks all year long. I also love getting to know the incredibly diverse neighborhoods in Chicago, and especially their restaurants. I’m currently in love with the Vietnamese food near the Argyle stop on the Red Line.

Not all your work with Joffrey is in Chicago. What is it like to work with them on tour?

Intense! We just came back from a fantastic set of performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The highlight of the program was Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, with a brilliant reconstruction of Nijinsky’s original choreography by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer. We had three highly-charged, sold-out performances, and I’ve almost never seen such a rapturous response to ballet. The Joffrey Ballet is one of the world’s great companies, and it’s on tour that they find out how much they are appreciated around the world. What a pleasure to be a part of that.

American Legends runs from February 13th through February 24th at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre

Scott Speck can be reached at www.scottspeck.org

4dancers In 2013

January 1, 2013 by 4dancers

Catherine L. Tully in 1987 — Catherine L. Tully, 1987

Happy New Year to all!

As we go into 2013 here on 4dancers, I have some exciting things to share with you…

First of all, we’ll be teaming up with Nichelle from Dance Advantage to bring you some terrific content, based on a shared editorial calendar throughout the year.

Our first quarter will feature subjects near and dear to the dancer’s heart–footwear/foot care, commercial dance and Broadway, dance fashion, competitions and conventions, career and auditions and summer intensives. Look for posts on those topics on both of our sites in the coming months in addition to the usual compilation of interviews, reviews, contributor posts and more.

Also, we’ll be adding some new contributors this year–please join us in welcoming Janet Neidhardt, who will be writing about teaching dance, as well as Scott Speck, a well-known conductor (and currently the conductor for the Joffrey Ballet), who will share some insights on music and dance. We’d also like to announce the addition of our new intern, Rebecca Walker.

You may notice a few changes over the coming months in the way the site is arranged as well. We’re trying to upgrade the user experience and make navigation easier so that you can find what you need–whenever you need it.

We are looking forward to serving you in 2013. Please do let us know if there is anything in particular you’d like to see–and as always–thanks for reading!

Catherine, Editor/Owner

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