By Kristy Johnson.

As Madonna’s personal trainer and the creative director of the ‘Addicted to Sweat’ program at Hardy Candy gyms, Nicole Winhoffer knows what it takes to keep Hollywood’s elite in tip-top shape. Yet, from speaking with the fitness guru, it becomes clear that it’s her passion for dance that has led her down such a successful path. Securing her first Broadway show at only 17 gave her a taste of what the future could hold with hard work and dedication.

Here we chat with Nicole about her dance background, working on Broadway and what it’s like to choreograph alongside the Queen of Pop.

Can you tell us about your dance background?

I began dancing at 7 years old. At 12, I began to seriously train in the Balanchine method of ballet and all other forms of modern, jazz, musical theatre and hip-hop. I was exposed to the best teachers who not only offered the best training, but were also working in the industry. I would have my parents take me to Manhattan to take adult classes at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway. Training with adults and professionals pushed me to the next level.

At 17, I booked my first Broadway show! This was the first national tour of 42nd Street. I didn’t get to go to my senior prom, but it was worth it! The best school in life is pure life experience.

Nicole Winhoffer. Photo courtesy of Xthestudio.com.

How was the experience of working on Broadway?

I was a swing and assistant dance captain for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams on Broadway. I was also attending Fordham University simultaneously; living in the dorms, going to class full-time, and by night, doing eight shows a week. My schedule was jam-packed as we began the show in New York with lots of rehearsals. But the experience was amazing! I was 19 and matured quickly. I had a lot of responsibility by covering eight girls and understudying four.

What did you learn from this experience?  

Broadway is such a great gig. You live in New York, have a call time 30 minutes prior to the show, work with talented artists and perform on stage. Your theatre is your ‘home’. After the show is over New York is your oyster!

As a dancer, I learned the importance of warming up and taking care of your body. Once you become a working dancer, it’s up to you to continue your training, including warming up, and body conditioning. With eight shows a week, heavy costumes, heavy wigs, heels and choreography repetition, taking care of your body is essential.

Was becoming a personal trainer a natural progression for you?

I come from an athletic family. With mum, dad and three soccer-playing younger brothers – fitness was in the blood! I would wake-up every morning before school to do my personal workouts: stretching, running, dancing and improving my craft. By dancing every afternoon after school, my curiosity toward the human body grew. I saw the amount of power and control that one had to change and improve their body.

This curiosity carried through up until now. During my work as a Broadway dancer, I developed my own body conditioning routine that allowed me to perform eight shows a week. I take class and have been a member at many different gyms. Being a student allows me to continue to learn. So, to answer your question – No I never thought I would be doing what I am doing today! It kind of just chose me!

Nicole Winhoffer. Photo courtesy of Xthestudio.com.

How did you become Madonna’s personal trainer?

I was on the European leg of her Sticky and Sweet Tour in 2009. I worked and assisted her and her dancers on their dance-conditioning regime. Watching her creative process inspired me. I watched her shows and danced with her and her dancers. I developed new solutions to fitness, combining performance, dance, anatomy, physiology and kinetic energy, and in the process, became her primary trainer.

How would you describe your working relationship with Madonna?

I love working with Madonna. We’ve seen each other six days a week for the past four years. It’s hard work, discipline, focus, perfection and high energy. Every day is a new day. We are machines, pushing our body to its potential. I have notebooks filled with all her programs and choreography. If she doesn’t like something, she will suggest a change to fix it. I like working like this. When we workout it’s a collaborative exchange and process. We stay creative even while working out!  

What’s next for you?  

I want to be the best in my industry – hone my craft, develop more innovative programming, collaborate with musicians and DJs, collaborate with fitness apparel brands, travel the world, shoot more DVDs, finish updating my website, collaborate with artists, take care of my clients and continue to stay grateful and in love with the world!

Photo (top): Nicole Winhoffer. Photo by Adam Rindy.

By Leah Gerstenlauer.

Music and dance — there was a time when the two were inextricably linked as live arts. Music was written for and tailored to movement; movement was created in conversation with that music; and performance was a continuation of the creative dialogue. But with the increasing availability of recorded music, that standard has changed. Choreographers save money by forgoing live music and commissioned scores, and musicians lose nothing by taking on more lucrative gigs.

For New York City-based dance-maker Leigh Schanfein and composer Jonathan Howard Katz, the rift between the two artistic disciplines is cause for concern. “When we showed one of our collaborative pieces at a dance showcase last fall, it was the only one of 11 pieces on that program to feature live music,” Katz recalls. “In a city where musicians are coming out of the woodwork, we had to wonder why.”

Thus was planted the seed for Periapsis Music and Dance, Katz and Schanfein’s venture to bring composers and choreographers, musicians and dancers together in the studio and on the stage. What began as a mere mutual thought last September blossomed into a full-fledged show in February, and will fuel the production of two more performances this month, at the Secret Theater in Queens on May 16 and the Actor’s Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn on May 20.

Leigh Schanfein and Mike Hodge in rehearsal. Photo by Alex Agor.

Though their first collaboration dates back only a year, Schanfein and Katz now find themselves facilitating what they hope will become a large-scale movement to reunite and revivify their artforms. Considering the massive response they gleaned from their initial calls for composers and choreographers, there is more than enough momentum coming from their respective realms to turn their vision into a reality.

“For the February show, I made only a mini call for composers and ended up with a playlist of about 40 pieces for the choreographers to choose from,” says Katz. “Most of the composers had never worked with dancers before, and they were flattered and impressed to see their work transformed into movement.”

Schanfein received similarly enthusiastic responses from the four other choreographers on Periapsis’ inaugural program, all of whom enjoyed some level of interaction with the composers behind their chosen music. A high priority for next year’s projects is to increase coactivity amongst participants, allowing for a more integrated creative product.

“So far, we’ve only worked with previously composed scores,” Schanfein says. “Even Jonathan and I have collaborated only on concepts. He writes the music with our ideas in mind, and I choreograph on top of that. We’d like to move toward a 100% collaborative process. That means extra rehearsal time, more back and forth, a lot of unused music and choreography… It would be really cool and also kind of scary.”

But heightening the artistic intensity of their work will likely prove to be somewhat of a creative release, given the plethora of logistical challenges Schanfein and Katz have faced in the less than six months they spent producing their first show. Of primary concern is, unsurprisingly, funding — an aspect of Periapsis’ well-being that its directors are determined to stay on top of.

“Freelance dancers especially are used to being poorly paid. But we need to have the budget to compensate our artists — all of them — in a reasonable manner,” Schanfein asserts. Katz is equally adamant on the topic of payroll, and with this point in mind, is eager to see through the group’s application for 501(c)3 status. “I seriously want to address the issue of pay with the grant writing we have coming up because we’re working with people who should not just be surviving, but actually making a living as artists.”

Composer Jonathan Howard Katz at the USF Robert Helps Competition and Festival. Photo by Kyle Scharf.

Finding suitable performance venues for Periapsis is another problematic task, considering the various technical requirements of productions incorporating not just one, but two live arts. Quality of acoustics, proper flooring, availability of less transportable instruments (pianos, drums), soundproof rehearsal rooms, warm-up studios — Katz and Schanfein take all of these details into account when scouting venues. And when the pair is not scouring the city for the perfect performance space or piecing together a non-profit budget, they are making moves to cultivate an audience and get more people involved in their cause. The greater their following, they believe, the greater the opportunities for their fellow artists.

“We don’t just want to produce our own shows; we want to help other musicians, dancers, composers and choreographers to collaborate,” Schanfein says. “If a music group wants to have dance in its next show, we can help them make connections. We want to see these visions realized.”

To learn more about Periapsis Music and Dance, or to find out how you can become a part of its next season, head to periapsismusicanddance.org to snag a ticket to one of the group’s spring shows.

Photo (top): Dancer Robin Gilbert in a Periapsis Music and Dance rehearsal. Photo by Alex Agor.

By Leah Gerstenlauer.

Josh Beamish is on the move — again. The industrious young choreographer, who recently completed a triple-stop teaching tour in South Africa and India, has traveled the world with his work, and will likely circle the globe more than once again before he reaches the age of 30. But this spring, Beamish will stay stateside as he prepares for the premiere of two new pieces created in collaboration with some of North America’s most revered ballet dancers. The road from small-town Canada to a Manhattan rehearsal studio with New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan was certainly less than straight. But Beamish seems to embrace the unpredictability of a career that has been surprising much of the dance community — and the choreographer himself — since he was in his teens.

“I started off making almost urban hip-hop influenced contemporary dance pieces,” he relates. “I was young, and I figured this was just a temporary thing — I was going to go dance for Janet Jackson in Los Angeles. But I got my first commission on a ballet company when I was 19, and that work was, at the time, my most well-received piece. It peaked my interest in making more of a focus on ballet.”

Beamish formed MOVE: the company in Vancouver at the age of 17, establishing the perfect forum in which to experiment with different ideas and styles of movement. Though he developed most of his balletic work through external commissions from groups such as Canada’s Ballet Kelowna, the School of American Ballet (in conjunction with the New York Choreographic Institute), and the University of Missouri, Beamish has enjoyed recent opportunities to bring his creations back to MOVE: the company — and to bring the restructured company to its new home base, New York City.

“Originally, I wanted to have a full-time company in Vancouver, to have all the resources to train my dancers every day, and to give them health care and benefits… But I wasn’t given enough grants and support to build that there,” he laments. “So when two projects with Wendy [Whelan] came up, and I got my three-year 0-1 Visa, I elected to put having a full-time company on hold.”

Josh Beamish and Wendy Whelan work together in the studio. Photo courtesy of Josh Beamish.

Today, his group of dancers operates as a rotating collection of guest artists from other companies around the continent. This format allows Beamish to focus more on the creative process and less on the logistics of sustaining a year-round business. Difficult as it was for him to leave behind the city of his professional beginnings and his initial vision for MOVE: the company, he knew that he could not continue to challenge himself and grow as an artist while attempting to provide a consistent sense of stability for his dancers.

Beamish’s latest project, a new full-length ballet called Pierced, brought him into rehearsal studios throughout North America to work with top-tier artists such as Whelan, her fellow NYCB principal Robert Fairchild, Pacific Northwest Ballet principal Carla Korbes, and Royal Winnipeg Ballet principal Jo-Ann Sundermeier. “I’ve been developing this piece since August, 2011, and it’s turning out to be very interesting,” he says of Pierced, which is scheduled to debut at the American Dance Institute in Rockville, Maryland on May 18^th and 19^th. “It’s a full-length ballet with no narrative, and with a movement vocabulary that is juxtaposed against the classical technique of the dancers. In the past couple of years, I’ve figured out how to retain an aesthetic of classical technique while incorporating intricate limb coordination and rhythmic challenges that are usually only seen in contemporary dance.”

The pioneering dance-maker’s creative instincts have proven quite powerful so far, drawing the notice and praise of critics and other artists alike. Whelan showed her appreciation for Beamish’s ingenuity when she invited him to choreograph a pas de deux for her first self-produced show, Restless Creature, set to open at Jacob’s Pillow this August.  This yet to be named piece, which will preview at the Guggenheim on April 14^th and 15^th, will join the creations of three other male choreographers — each enlisted to craft a duet specifically for himself and Whelan — on an international tour to take place over the course of the next two years.

“It’s really exciting to be using her in two very different contexts — classical and contemporary — in my work. It’s quite fun,” he glows. “Of course, when you’re hiring dancers who are under contract with another company, you have to be their second priority. Sometimes, I don’t know if we’re going to rehearse until the day before, but it’s worth it to work with artists of such high caliber.”

For Beamish, it is this “work” — time spent in the studio imagining, experimenting, refining — rather than the presentation of a finished product that propels him through scheduling hurdles and the many other obstacles a freelance career in the arts world inevitably poses. A choreographer to the core, he declares that he “never wanted to be a dancer. It didn’t interest me at all. I like choreographing way more than I like dancing, and I like dancing in the studio a lot more than performing. Many dancers live for being on the stage, but for me, that’s a necessary byproduct of the process in order for people to see what I do.”

With his ever-growing all-star roster of dancers and his endless drive to create, Beamish will undoubtedly have plenty of eyes on his work for years to come.

Photo (top): Josh Beamish. Photo by David Cooper.

By Laura Di Orio.

Ashley Carter probably chose the name DoubleTake for a reason. At first glance, it’s another dance company. Looking deeper into it, though, DoubleTake (DT) Dance Company is a rare fusion of different dancers and genres of dance, with each work being completely different from the next and each with a strong message. The company’s repertory includes works that are tango, theater, jazz, contemporary, tap and neoclassical, a range that may be standard for large companies but less prevalent among smaller dance companies.

Co-directors Carter and Vanessa Martinez de Baños built New York City-based DT from scratch when Martinez de Baños saw something in Carter and encouraged her to start teaching and choreographing. From there, other companies began to ask Carter to choreograph on them, and after a while she just started submitting work under her own name and came to find she was getting a good response.

DT as a company and name was born in 2010 and since then has continued to grow. The company performed at NYC’s SummerStage last year and continuously performs throughout NYC festivals and venues, and has even performed in Madrid. Carter and Martinez de Baños only hope that their joint hard work can take them further.

“I never really planned to have my own company,” Carter says. “It’s something I sort of fell into. And I’m really glad I didn’t try to do it alone. It’s hard enough with two of us!”

Carter and Martinez de Baños come from entirely different dance backgrounds. Carter, primarily New York-trained, has performed with companies and artists ranging from Pilobolus to Nicki Minaj. She enjoys doing artistic company work but has also had the chance to dance in music videos, commercials and industrials for brands such as Nike, Lush, Microsoft and Nokia. Carter has also taught at such renowned dance studios as Broadway Dance Center, Steps, Ballet Arts and Lines, and for the past few years has successfully maintained her own contemporary jazz class at Peridance. As a choreographer, Carter has created work for a FuseTV commercial incorporating pop and breakdance and also for a sci-fi movie that required modern and contemporary.

DoubleTake Dance Company dancers, including co-directors Vanessa Martinez de Baños (center) and Ashley Carter (right), in performance. Photo by Stephanie Crousillat.

“It’s the huge range of work that prevents me from ever getting bored and it challenges me every day,” Carter says. “The variety is something that I also try to bring to DoubleTake Dance.”

Martinez de Baños, on the other hand, was born in Madrid, Spain, and began her career as an actress, which led into musical theatre and then a love for dance. She moved to NYC after receiving a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Martinez de Baños has danced for many choreographers, including Guillem Alonso, Lynn Schwab and Ryan Beck, and has choreographed for musical theatre and contemporary companies. She has also taught master classes both nationally and internationally.

Like Carter, Martinez de Baños strives to continue to learn and push herself further. “I’m passionate about my job and nourish every opportunity that comes my way,” she says. “I try to do as much as I can, which makes me versatile and stops me from ever getting bored.”

The variety of Carter and Martinez de Baños’ background has clearly fueled the direction of DT. The repertory has a wide range, and the company’s dancers, although all athletic, technical and musical, tend to be very different in terms of their strengths, body type and dance background.

“One of our main goals as a company is to create each new piece of work to be as different as possible from the rest of our rep,” Carter says. “We also try to use different ideas for props or costumes or influences to make the pieces meaningful.”

Last summer at SummerStage, DT premiered a piece that Carter calls an “experiment,” where they fused sign language with contemporary dance and used those movements to tell the story of how it feels to be an outsider. The company’s latest piece, Shirt Off My Back, is a work that utilizes the company’s technical strength and floor work to express homelessness and how the community of relatively “privileged” people responds and reacts to it. Carter and Martinez de Baños even gave their dancers a “homework assignment” – food to hand out to people in need as they came across them on their daily commutes. Carter says this was to “both help out and help our dancers understand the emotional connection to the story.”

DoubleTake Dance co-director Vanessa Martinez de Baños. Photo by Olivia Alvarez.

This broad spectrum of repertory not only makes DT unique as a small company, but it also helps set them apart in a place like NYC, where there is a sea of dance companies.

Remaining afloat in NYC remains to be difficult for almost any small dance company, but Carter and Martinez de Baños keep their standards high and the dancers’ priorities up front.

“Being able to always pay our dancers is challenging,” Martinez de Baños explains. “In a business where the new trend is to pay to perform instead of the opposite, it’s hard to stay afloat and do the right thing. We believe in the art, we believe in our dancers and respect their time and talent, therefore we always compensate them. We never pay to perform, unless renting a theater, and we don’t perform or rehearse in places that are not appropriate for dance.”

Carter adds to that list of challenges: the scheduling, and the technical, administrative, financial and logistical details.

Still, however, amidst these stresses there are rewards. “Watching our finished products is always rewarding,” Martinez de Baños says. “And seeing how our audience is moved, especially when they aren’t dancers. SummerStage is an example. When you see that hundreds of people decide to stay and watch despite a violent thunderstorm approaching, you know you must be doing something right.”

Next up for DT is a split-bill showing on April 19 at NYC’s Secret Theatre, where the company will present 40 minutes of rep. Further down the road, Carter says she hopes DT will continue doing what they’re doing, but bigger and better.

Martinez de Baños agrees. “We hope to get more people to know and fund us,” she says. “We have some projects in mind that can’t be accomplished without funds, so hopefully one day… And maybe have a place and not have to pay rental space. We would love to offer free classes to our dancers.”

For more information on DoubleTake Dance or to show support to their next venture, head to www.doubletakedanceco.com.

Photo (top): DoubleTake Dance in performance. Photo by Maverick Sean Photography.

By Leah Gerstenlauer.

By habit, dancers crave approval. A parent’s proud applause, an instructor’s silent nod of appreciation, a critic’s sparkling write-up — such external approbation is food for a dancer’s soul. But for choreographer Kate Ladenheim, a discouraging remark or a skeptical review is just as desirable as the highest of praise.

“I love getting people to talk about my work, even if they hate it,” she said. “It’s like when you go to a museum and see a beautiful landscape right next to a canvas painted yellow… Everybody talks about the canvas painted yellow because they think it’s really weird. But that yellow canvas made them think. I want to be that yellow canvas.”

At the age of 23, Ladenheim has yet to face any terribly scathing reviews. Though she has met with her fair share of rejection, she speaks about her work with remarkably easy self-assurance and conviction, characteristics that other artists spend their entire careers cultivating. And indeed, she has no need to doubt her creative capabilities. Within a year of her graduation from Boston Conservatory’s undergraduate dance program in 2011, Ladenheim had formed her own project-based company, The People Movers, with which she began to present her work at festivals and venues throughout the Northeast. Her desire to “be that yellow canvas” — to attract notice, engage minds and elicit strong responses — has her in perpetual motion, and she shows no sign of slowing down.

The People Movers perform ‘Bee Stings in My Bedroom’. Photo by Megan Cignoli

As Ladenheim’s dancers can attest, her energetic career path is a direct reflection of her choreographic philosophy. “Dance is physical,” the young dance-maker asserted. “I feel very strongly about that. I’m not good at stillness… I’m interested in the physical act of dancing. I’m interested in athleticism. I’m interested in exhaustion and how the body deals with that.”

Dancer Andrew Trego, also a Boston Conservatory alum and Ladenheim’s frequent dance partner, copes with this intense creative atmosphere by taking to the studio, the gym, the yoga mat — anything that will help him to keep pace with his energetic friend. “Kate is a magnificent machine,” Trego reported. “Her choreography demands endless energy, both physical and emotional, but I love the challenge.”

Equally valuable to Trego is the work environment that Ladenheim generates: “She trusts us and asks for our input. If something isn’t working, I let her know and we fix it together. Dancing for Kate is not just business, it’s personal.”

The pair’s sturdy creative partnership will prove useful in the coming months as Ladenheim continues to construct Pillars of Salt, a powerful duet that will premiere at the experimental New York performance space Dixon Place on April 2. Inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the project began as a physical exploration of love, loss and regret.

Kate Ladenheim and Andrew Trego in ‘Pillars of Salt’. Photo by Nir Arieli

“I was thinking about what it means to miss someone so much that you would brave the perils of the land of the dead to bring that person back,” she explained. “We’ve all missed someone like that. We’ve all lost something that we desperately wish we could get back.”

Not content merely to imagine the lovers’ plight, Ladenheim asked a friend with expertise in Greek mythology to write a script for her characters, to tease out what words the ill-fated pair would exchange had they had a chance to speak in the aftermath of Orpheus’ tragic mistake. But rather than clarify her artistic vision, this collaboration infused Pillars with a new depth. By the time the piece previewed in Boston and New York last year, Eurydice had become the biblical figure of Lot’s wife, and the focus of the work had shifted from a mere reflection on lost love to a statement on the gender politics of guilt — the variety of provocative, potentially controversial, subject matter Ladenheim loves to address. “If I feel that an idea generates movement, then I’ll work on it,” she said, even if that idea is not exactly easily digestible fare for her audience.

Yet as much as Ladenheim relishes challenging her viewers’ minds and her dancers’ bodies, she seems to savor opportunities to push her own limits much more. Near the end of 2012, she braved her greatest feat to date: sharing the creative reigns with artists outside of her tight-knit group. When commissioned to craft a piece for composer Peter Lane and the Juventas Music Ensemble last fall, Ladenheim found herself choreographing on a theme and to music not of her choosing for the first time. Anxious about the logistics of the project, but truly honored by the request, she dove into the making of Hackpolitik with an open mind. She said she ended up enjoying the process immensely.

“I knew that if I didn’t connect with the music for this piece, it would’ve been impossible,” she said, especially given the rather unusual topic — the true stories of Anonymous, an enterprising group of young computer hackers. “There’s a lot of movement written into the music Peter Lane created, a lot of nuance, and I actually think my choreography complements his score very well. It was never a struggle to come up with the next thing.” Ladenheim will expand Hackpolitik into an hour-long piece for its official world premiere in the latter half of 2013.

Busy as she is with her two current choreographic endeavors and a part-time job that helps to keep her and her company financially afloat, Ladenheim rarely rests in her search for more festivals, projects and possibilities to pursue.

“I work really hard — it’s not easy or cheap to do this. But I’m just not someone who gives up,” she said. “I moved to New York City so that I can have all of this dance and all of this art around me; so that I can be constantly inspired and shown something better than me and be pushed to improve in that way.”

If we’re lucky, maybe she’ll bring us along for the ride.

To learn more about Kate Ladenheim, visit kateladenheim.com. For more about The People Movers, visit peoplemoversdance.com.

Top photo: Kate Ladenheim by Jesse Weiner

City Center, New York City
October 13 2012

By Katherine Moore.

New York City Center was packed last Saturday, bustling with anticipation for the lively, jam-packed program to come. As the final performance of Fall for Dance’s 12-evening run, spirits were high and the dancing did not disappoint.

Opening the program was New York’s Shen Wei Dance Arts with Rite of Spring, a powerful and physically intricate exploration of Stravinsky’s famous score. The piece included 17 dancers who swirled, twisted, and leaped through the space with striking bodily control. Their movements initiated in one part of the body and sequentially moved to another, like water running through a curving pipe.

Shen Wei created an expansive visual landscape that corresponded with the sophisticated musical backdrop. Even though it grew repetitive after a time, it was a joy to watch the dancers’ movements layer over one another in relation to the multi-layered strains of the music. All was highly structured, carefully placed, and artfully done.

Second on the program was No Comment, the signature piece from Laboratory Dance Project, a 9-member, all-male troupe from Korea.  Using highly physical and acrobatic movement with clear roots in both martial arts and hip hop, these testosterone-pumping men showed the audience what they were made of.

Repetition, again, was a key element to the piece as they stomped the ground, hit their chests, and generally thrashed about the space. At times the piece veered off into a talent showcase instead of concert dance, but the sheer energy and physical capacity of these men kept this writer entertained to the very end.

Following intermission was Circa, performed by the Australian company of the same name.  The piece began with the startling image of a woman in spiky red heels standing atop a bare-chested man. She continued to traverse her way across his body, making sure to dig her heels into his hands, his thighs and his stomach as he moved and contorted to make way for her impressive balancing act.

After this comical, yet remarkable feat, the piece took a definite turn towards an acrobatic showcase as the three men and three women performed balances, lifts, turns, and throws that made the audience gasp and feel their stomachs drop. While lacking some of the seamless transitions and sense of performance that often accompanies a typical dance troupe, Circa offered up an exciting perspective on acrobatics in a concert setting.

The true delight of the piece was the final section where one woman managed to hula-hoop at least six hoops (I lost count) around her body at once, sometimes using her knees, her wrists, and even her neck. She weaved in out of the hoops with an ease and delight that was truly mesmerizing.

Closing the program was María Pagés Compa­­ñía, a flamenco company from Spain, with Desio Y Conciencia (Desire & Consequence). The piece was accompanied by live musicians onstage, and it alternated primarily between solos by María Pagés and ensemble sections with the rest of the dancers.

Pagés changed dresses about four times, each time revealing a slightly different expression of her character, but always with the sensual, emotional flair of flamenco dance. Her dancers seemed a bit more emotionally subdued, as their greyish costumes with red accents intimated, but their footwork was impressive and the true meat of the piece. Even in the final section, as the dancers and musicians sat, clapping, stomping, and cheering, while Pagés danced solo, one got the sense that without the community of all of them on stage, it would all fall flat. My only regret at the end of this long, nearly 2 and ½ hour program of dance was that we, the audience, could not participate from our seats.

Top photo: Circa. Photo by Justin Nicholas ‘Atmosphere Photography’ (2010)

City Center, New York City
October 6 2012

By Tara Sheena.

Fall for Dance descends annually in the wake of the cold air’s return to New York City to present dance spectators old and young with a smorgasbord of satiating performances. One rule: come hungry. Taking place at City Center since its inception in 2004, this year’s festival included 12 evenings of dance and 20 companies spanning over 10 countries with 5 uniquely matched programs. I had the privilege of attending Program 4 on October 6, 2012 featuring Bharat Natyam performer Shantala Shivalingappa, a pas de deux from Pacific Northwest Ballet, a quartet from postmodern choreographer Jodi Melnick, and the Hawaiian dance ensemble Ka Leo O Laka I Ka Hikina O Ka La.

The renowned Bharat Natyam performer Shantala Shivalingappa opened the evening’s performance with incredible grace and fluidity that was truly mesmerizing. Shivalingappa was the sole performer of this classic Indian dance form, but was accompanied on stage by three musicians and a vocalist. This contained world enacted rumination on Shiva, the Lord of Dance, and Ganga, the Goddess of the sacred river Ganges. Shivalingappa began her solo with a traditional offering that begins most Bharat Natyam performances. This gestural acquaintance is highly meditative and is directed at both her accompanying musicians and the audience, gently ushering us into her magical world. The highly articulate hands that welcome us into these conceptual etudes on Shiva and Ganga constantly whirled and twisted over highly percussive, grounded legs. In this traditional Indian dance form, the music and movement mimic each other in a completely engaging manner; stomping of the feet and twists of the head and torso power the musical elements to follow suit, and vice versa. It was never completely apparent who was leading who, but the result managed to avoid an all-too-literal interpretation of music and movement. By the end, boundless knee spins led Shivalingappa around the stage and the audience roared in applause—enamored by her disciplined movement but, more so, by the sacred experience she provided.

One classical form was followed by another in a pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s Carousel (A Dance) by Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Carla Körbes and Seth Orza. Körbes depicted a hesitant, submissive female figure to Orza’s urging comfort, alluding to the “poignant, doomed nature of the couple’s relationship”, as explained in the program notes. Set to the familiar, show-tuney music of Richard Rodgers, Orza seems to cushion Körbes’ constant falling at every chance. Both a literal movement and figurative statement, Körbes slid across the floor en pointe and before it looked like she could hit the deck, Orza was there to prop her back onto her legs to keep going. These moments were exciting. They happened with precision and abandon, but grew old fast when the promenades and overhead lifts started to become overwrought. Wheeldon seemed to exercise these fall-and-catch mechanisms too much, so they lost their initial excitement by the end of the piece. In fact, so did this fictional relationship. The game of cat and mouse that Orza and Körbes engaged in became more of an overly dependent farce; Körbes’ submission was lost to Orza’s ambivalence and the performance did not leave me wanting more.

I have wanted to see the work of Jodi Melnick for a long time. As a descendant of powerful postmodernists Trisha Brown and Twyla Tharp (among others) and a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, I have wondered what kind of work she would produce under this myriad of influences. Melnick along with performers Jon Kinzel, Hrisotula Harakas, and Kayvon Pourazar, as well as acoustic-electronic music group People Get Ready made up Solo, (Re)Deluxe Version. The top of the work found Melnick onstage alone, red hair slightly disheveled, in a metallic silver jumpsuit. Was this the postmodern dancer of the future? Maybe not, but at least an imagined version of such. Not surprisingly, Melnick’s movement was at its most clear and engaging when she performed it—she has an unblemished sense of articulation that is never forced. This relaxed motion makes it as if water is running through her bones, unobstructed, in a gentle, steady stream. Joined by Harakas and the pumped up musical styling of People Get Ready, the movement was amplified in this beautifully oxymoronic meeting of post-rock and postmodern dance. The movement’s stripped down, casual quality was further supported by the removal of the upstage scrim, completely gutting the usual masking of the large City Center stage. Even on this massive scale, Melnick found a way to keep her detailed work intimate and personal.

As someone who was not familiar with traditional Hawaiian dance forms before this night, I can now say that I am definitely a fan. The ensemble of dancing men and female musicians that make up Ka Leo O Laka I Ka Hikina O Ka La, led by Artistic Director Kumu Hula Kaleo Trinidad, ushered me into this energetic world. Wearing nothing more than green loin cloths and flowered headpieces, this eleven-man army moved with the groundedness that resembled many African dance forms, while maintaining the precision and physicality of trained Olympic athletes. Even the female musicians were perfectly choreographed in their synchronization of the traditional ipu, a pear-shaped instrument made from gourds that provides a clear beat to most Hawaiian dance forms. Repeated squats, deep lunges, and wide stomping found vibrant, rhythmic patterns against the ipu’s percussive accompaniment. The movement and music seemed like a ritual performance that was uprooted from its traditional setting for the proscenium stage. This high-energy performance was quite the crowd pleaser and a perfect conclusion to the night. We feasted on dance and were all full. ‘Til next year.

Photo: Pacific Northwest Ballet, Wheeldon. Photo ©Angela Sterling

By Stephanie Wolf.

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City
June 2012

Innovation is continuously on the minds of choreographers and dancers. Yet, what defines innovative dance is nebulous. Is it something that has never been seen or experienced before? Or is it taking something considered highly traditional and making it relevant to modern society? On the Australian Ballet’s recent New York tour, the company addresses these questions—leaving a lasting impression on the city’s dance-enthusiasts with Graeme Murphy’s bold, original interpretation of Swan Lake.

Swan Lake is the consummate classical ballet; the most recognized production was choreographed in 1895 by Marius Petipa and has been re-staged by ballet companies all over the world. Most dancers have come to expect a particular formula for the dramatic ballet; young Prince Siegfried celebrates his 21^st birthday with joyous dances in Act 1; in the “White Act”, he encounters the Swan Queen, Odette, and the star-crossed lovers dance a heart-wrenching adagio; Act III’s Black Swan Pas de Deux, danced by the evil Odile and Siegfried, is famous in its own right; and Act IV unites the lovers in either death or happiness, depending on the production.

Murphy decides to create his Swan Lake for a new century. He maintains the title of the ballet and the black-and-white aesthetics, but takes artistic liberties on every other aspect, crafting a new storyline to string together his series of intricate partnering and difficult steps.

Adam Bull & Amber Scott in The Australian Ballet's Swan Lake. Photo by Jim McFarlane

The ballet opens to a woman in a white dress; her back faces the audience and her arms cross her chest. She begins to ripple her supple arms, prompting the first few chords of the overture. The main characters: Odette (Amber Scott), Siegfried (Adam Bull), and Baroness von Rothbart (Lana Jones), are introduced through a series of vignettes. It’s clear this is a darker Swan Lake, exploring love’s ability to consume and torment the psyche. The scene transitions into the wedding festivities of Odette and Siegfried.

Amongst the abundance of ensemble dancing, a love triangle between the newlyweds and the Baroness, unfolds. Odette drives herself mad over her jealousy and suspicions of Siegfried’s betrayal—reminiscent of the mad scene from Giselle. Scott is compelling in her frenzied state.

For those accustomed to a traditional staging, the first act can be jarring. Murphy’s choreography feels hurried—though executed seamlessly by the dancers—and he borrows music traditionally reserved for the Black Swan Pas de Deux in Act III. It moves slowly and Murphy makes odd choreographic choices, creating images that are sometimes unattractive. There is no balletic rule demanding visually appealing movement, but much of the choreography feels overly complicated and cumbersome. The highlight is the Hungarian Dance to the czardas, but the rest leaves the audience feeling anxious. It’s difficult to identify if the choreography would have resonated differently in another context or if it simply didn’t work.

Act II opens in a sanatorium; Odette is committed and, after a visit from Siegfried, has tormented dreams of swans. Here, Murphy finds his niche. Kristian Fredrikson’s minimalistic sets and costumes create a stunning contemporary vision of an isolated lake, teeming with maiden swans that take their time emerging from their positions perched atop a circular platform. They move authentically, often piked forward at the hips with their ‘wings’ caressing the length of their backs. Murphy’s choreography no longer feels laborious, but has a new freedom and fluidity. He wins the somewhat hesitant audience over with this iconic act, especially in the dance of the four cygnets—in which he plays on the traditional patterns and facings of the interconnected little swans. Danced supremely by Halaina Hills, Heidi Martin, Karen Nanasca, and Brooke Lockett, the difficult choreography is inventive and works well. Scott and Bull’s Act II adagio is poetic, plucking gently at the heartstrings of the audience. As the curtain falls, there is a new energy in the auditorium.

Act III opens with a party at the Baroness’s home. Odette, recovered from her insanity, arrives at the party in a white dress and gauzy overcoat, setting her apart from the dark scenery and costuming of the act. The effect is captivating, as she seems to eminent purity and glides from one party guest to another in a series of suspended lifts; thus, re-capturing Siegfried’s heart. Scott and Bull dance another tender pas de deux, drawing gasps from onlookers; followed by an enraged solo, danced passionately by Jones.

Odette flees the party to avoid being recommitted and Siegfried follows her to the lake. Again, Murphy’s choreographic strengths are highlighted. His interpretation of the ballet’s most powerful acts and perception of how a swan might actually move is mesmerizing. Now, the swans are black and the imminent sense of tragedy and desperation exists in their every move. Despite having re-won Siegfried’s love, Odette knows she will never feel at ease; she turns to the lake to find eternal peace in its watery depths. Her descent into the shimmering black lake, as Siegfried mourns at the edge, is stunning and haunting, drawing tears from several audience members.

While it took a while to warm up to the unique interpretation on this classic ballet story, Murphy and the Australian Ballet should be commended for taking risks and committing to the production. The ballet goes against the expected and stirs up powerful emotions in its viewers. Making society think and feel differently is the mission of most artists. Murphy and the dancers succeed on both fronts.

Top photo: Adam Bull & Amber Scott in The Australian Ballet’s Swan Lake. Photography Jim McFarlane.

By Tara Sheena.

You’ve seen his smooth moves gracing promo events for the high-school-hopefuls on Oxygen’s The Glee Project; you’ve caught his tightknit choreography on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition featuring beloved Broadway beauty, Kristen Chenoweth; you may have even witnessed the exciting chatter erupting after his class at Broadway Dance Center (BDC) on a Tuesday afternoon, but do you know the man behind this diverse spread of choreographic terrain? It is none other than Jim Cooney, Broadway vet and master teacher, who currently spreads his knowledge and know-how four days a week at Broadway Dance Center. Cooney not only teaches four high-energy classes weekly, but he advises the elite Professional Semester training program as well as the Summer Intern program.

Given all his roles within the BDC community, it is evident that Cooney is passionate about teaching students of all levels. In one week, he can encounter up to 200 different students at the busy NYC studios and says it is “seeing them succeed is the most rewarding and gratifying experience.” In particular, it is the students in the Professional Semester and Internship programs that fuel this joy. Cooney works intimately with them to acquire skills to sustain a career in dance. Those skills range from technical training to developing audition prowess, but the most important, according to Cooney, is developing performance skills.

“It’s the way the dancer interprets and executes the movement that matters most,” Cooney explains. “I often tell my dancers that your face is indeed part of your body and that their dancing doesn’t happen from the chin down.” One of his methods is to encourage his students to approach dancing like an actor would approach interpreting a script. This means asking questions like, ‘Who am I?’, ‘What do I want?’ and ‘How do I get what I want?’ Cooney feels it’s essential to know why you are doing each step before you do it; he encourages his dancers to think about their personal connection to the steps he gives them— “only then will it be organic and true,” he notes.

Being a former dancer himself (he’s been a dance captain for eight major productions!), Cooney understands what a vulnerable experience this approach can be for many aspiring professionals. For this reason, he strives to ensure the classroom environment is as safe and supportive as possible so the “students feel secure to let go.” Cooney also believes this environment enhances what it means to be a professional dancer.  “The more we work together, the more we can create,” he states, “Being cutthroat or negative does not in any way help you get a job. More importantly, it doesn’t feel good to have that animosity in your heart.”

Cooney’s classes are more than physical training or an amalgamation of repertoire. His views and approaches reflect important life lessons that any individual, dancer or non-dancer, can benefit from. One of the largest pillars of his approach is the lesson of gratitude. He knows pursuing a career in professional dance is a tough business that can be made more difficult with competitiveness in class, rejection, and the relentless toll that performance can take on the body and mind. To thwart this oftentimes-unpredictable lifestyle, he tells his students to think of ten things they are grateful for every night. “It puts you in the practice of knowing how many wonderful things you have in your life, and also let’s you fall asleep in peace,” he says.

Cooney conducts a rehearsal at Broadway Dance Center

Remembering gratitude, maintaining professionalism, and giving an authentic performance each and every time, sounds like the ideal performer to me. And, it works. Cooney’s students have gone on to win leading roles in Broadway and national tours, and professionals consistently pop into his weekly classes.

“We’re blessed to be able to do what we love for a living everyday,” Cooney states. And, for the students and professionals who have taken class with Cooney, I am sure they all agree.

Catch Jim Cooney’s classes weekly at Broadway Dance Center.

Photos: All photos courtesy of Jim Cooney.

By Tara Sheena.

Like many dancers with aspirations to perform professionally, Catherine Coury moved to New York City after graduating from the University of Michigan in May 2010. A woman who wears many hats, she is currently the Development Associate for Gallim Dance, founded by Artistic Director Andrea Miller, as well as Director of Development for the Playground, co-founded by Loni Landon and Gregory Dolbashian. However, her distinct performing talents are reserved for her work with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre (ASDT). The New York-based company will be celebrating their twelfth New York performance season at New York Live Arts later this month.

A lean, compact dancer with a remarkably lyrical presence, Coury honed her training in Michigan dancing with the Mack Avenue Dance Company at a young age and moved on to dance the works of Paul Taylor and Laura Dean while in college. Since moving to New York, she has enjoyed working with Darcy Naganuma and Spark(edIt) Arts, among others, but has found a singular home with ASDT.

Coury has come full circle with the company, serving as an apprentice for last year’s New York Live Arts season and joining as a fulltime company member this past fall. Attracted to the welcoming energy and group dynamic of the company, Coury considered her transition into a fulltime member as a seamless progression. Of her involvement with the company, she notes, “[the] support and positivity can be felt and seen embedded into Amanda’s work.”

Catherine Coury. Photo by Simon Lo

A large aspect of ASDT, Coury explains, is collaboration. All of the artists involved with the company, from scenic designers to composers to dancers, serve the creative process on an equal level. She explains that every role is seen as essential to the success of the company. “Witnessing the progressive stages of lighting, costume, and design is exciting—to watch how they too evolve and refine with the shape of the dance,” she says. “To see the sketches and the blueprints, to hear ideas bounce off of one another—I like that!” Coury makes it clear that all of the artists collaborate and all of their efforts are easily seen in the final work.

Because of this all-parts-equal brand of creating, she describes rehearsals as being a very fast-paced environment, forcing her to think on her feet and trust her instincts. “Amanda has made me more appreciative of following my gut instinct rather than psychoanalyzing every tiny gesture – to not judge, just act,” Coury states. When developing the choreography, the dancers pass along movement to one another until they get different variations. Like the childhood game of telephone, these variations keep getting passed along until they reach an endpoint that fulfills the particular concept of the piece.

This season, these variations of movement will come together in Detour, an evening-length work for the entire company. Detour examines what it means to subvert any chosen path; as Coury puts it, an exploration of the “roundabout way to get us to where we’ve always been going.” Coury explains that the company has abstracted the role of a detour into something personal for each of them, and cites a duet she has with fellow dancer, Robert Vail, as an example. In their duet, titled Reflect, they act as mirror images of each other. Exploring questions like, “what does it mean to look at yourself in the mirror?” and “how do you interact with that reflection?” propels this physical, dynamic duet to display their personal reactions to these prompts.

It is clear that the performers of ASDT are a tightknit community of talented artists. This creative energy is reflected in the dancers’ outside endeavors as well. In a company of seven, five of the performers are currently pursuing their own choreographic projects and maintain their own work outside of dancing for ASDT. Coury notes that the sense of community and distinct theatricality is something that is noticeable in everyone’s work, both inside the company and out.

This camaraderie will undoubtedly come through later this month at New York Live Arts, where Coury and the other dancers of ASDT are excited to present the work in its entirety for the first time.

Amanda Selwyn  – Detour
Jun 21 – 23
New York Live Arts
www.newyorklivearts.org/event/Detour.

Dancers: Alexander Dones and Catherine Coury at the Amanda Selwyn Detour preview at Dixon Place. Photo by Christopher Duggan