@giselle Screening at Lincoln Center
On January 14, 2020 a screening of @giselle by Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY was hosted at The Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York City’s Lincoln Center.
Beamish created a new take on the beloved classic ballet Giselle, where dating apps and social media platforms reinterpret love, sex and relationships.
Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY premiered @giselle at the Vancouver Playhouse in September 2019, commissioned by TO Live.
Performance of @giselle by David Cooper
@giselle stars American Ballet Theater’s Catherine Hurlin in the title role of Giselle and Betsy McBride as Bathilde, Pennsylvania Ballet’s Sterling Baca as Hilarion as well as National Ballet of Canada’s Harrison James as Albrecht.
What makes Beamish’s production so unique is the use of motion-captured digital projections and visual effects, that the director applied to reflect the digital world we live in.
"The ballet Giselle is one of the most profound constructions of the classical canon.” said Joshua Beamish, when introducing his show.
Catherine Hurlin and Joshua Beamish
He added: “I want the original work to exist within our production as its own ghost - a ghost from another time. Traditional romance is evaporating. The internet is threatening our ability to value individuals. @giselle shows the evolved hysteria born from unanswered texts, likes, and story views. In today's media saturated environment, is Giselle's descent into "madness" really so shocking? I hope audiences will relate to Giselle's journey and see themselves in the plights, struggles, and joys of the varying characters and their social interactions."
Performance of @giselle by David Cooper
After the screening of @giselle, the performing artists Hurlin, McBride and Baca joined Joshua Beamish on the stage to discuss and share the creative process of @giselle.
Baca emphasized Beamish’s ability to bring the old classic into the present time, by creating a version of Giselle we all know, yet never seen before.
Hurlin, McBride and Baca all agreed on the director’s distinctive characteristic of describing the detailed choreography with his broad vocabulary.
Joshua Beamish, Catherine Hurlin, Betsy McBride and Sterling Baca
The screening of the new interpretation of the ballet classic Giselle wasn’t only a unique chance to get a glimpse of the stunning production, but also to get an insight of the artistic process involved in the new must-see ballet and therefore made a special night for all guests.
Joanna and Brian Fisher underwrote the screening and served as hosts with Ben Rodriguez-Cubenas, Roger Kluge and Denise Roberts Hurlin.
Photos of the evening were taken by Sean Zanni PMC.
Bebe Neuwirth and Chris Calkins, Hank and Gerry Alpert and Jonah Boaker were some of the numerous guests that enjoyed the evening at the Lincoln Center.
@giselle honours the memory of every young life lost to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) complications.
Catherine Hurlin and Joshua Beamish
Brian and Joanna Fisher
PHOTOS BY SEAN ZANNI/PMC and DAVID COOPER
Youth America Grand Prix 20th Anniversary Gala
In the 21st century, mainstream media has little love for ballet. It’s too rigid. Too technical. While hip hop dancers churn out new moves, ballet dancers fixate on the old: Plié. Relevé. Pas de bourrée. The forms are sacred. There will be no #arabesquechallenge. The closest the ballet community has ever come to putting out a mass meme is that picture celebrating a ballerina’s bruised, bloody feet. More than anything, it was a reminder: ballet is brutal. A few years later, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan reminded us of something else: ballet is emotional. The stereotypes have taken hold. They make it all too easy to forget the crux of it all: ballet is beautiful.
It took me almost 23 years to learn this. When I saw Billy Elliot in the sixth grade, I learned more about the social stigma surrounding ballet than I did about the art itself. The same with Center Stage. In Black Swan the psychological dance was mesmerizing, the physical ones forgettable. It was only three nights ago, at the Youth America Grand Prix Performance at the David H. Koch Theater, that I learned ballet was beautiful, and I was hit with the knowledge all at once.
What makes ballet beautiful? Grace. Power. Precision. To be a ballerina is to exude both great strength and fine delicacy. The ballerinas who performed knew this all too well. They switched back and forth between the two extremes with ease. Their movements were spellbinding, no matter the routine, and they varied; from Lucia Lacarra and Fabrice Calmel’s intense performance of Gerald Arpino’s Light Rain, to Olga Smirnova and Kimin Kim’s classic homage to Swan Lake.
Thankfully, not everyone takes as long a time as I did to recognize the beauty of ballet. YAGP, the global network that put together both the performance and the follow-up gala, offers learning opportunities and scholarships to talented dancers ages 9-19 who have not only seen the beauty of ballet, but are dead set on becoming professional ballerinas. In between dance performances, the YAGP students took turns sharing how much the organization had helped them in their quest to achieve their dreams.
Following the show, ballerinas and guests alike were whisked away to the upper floor of the Koch Theater, where a live auction was held to raise money for future YAGP scholarships. Things got heated, with a bidding war breaking out between Olivier Sarkozy and Andrew Martin Weber, but it was all in good jest -- after the auction, all the guests settled down for a roast chicken dinner and made their way onto the dance floor, where they tried to keep up with a horde of enthusiastic young ballerinas.
In the modern era, it is all too easy to dismiss ballet as niche art, one of those things that simply “isn’t for everyone.” Both YAGP and I are here to dispute that. I dare you to see a ballet and not find something to love -- from the meticulous movements to the dramatic expressions. Ballet is here, and it won’t be fading into obscurity -- in fact, as YAPG expands its global horizons and the internet becomes increasingly connective, more people are discovering the beauty of ballet than ever before. So what if mainstream culture has shuffled the art to the side? The way things are going, the 21st Century is bound to be remembered as no less but the era of the ballerina.
Gala Dinner Images Gratis of YAGP by Jared Siskin for PMC
Gala Performance Images Gratis of YAGP by VAM Productions
Sleeping Beauty Dreams
The legend of Sleeping Beauty has been reiterated by masters since the 14th century, but no one has explored what the princess was dreaming while she slept for 100 years. This question was answered in the New York’s Premiere of Sleeping Beauty Dreams, an innovative artistic performance that unifies dance, contemporary art, and cutting-edge digital technology.
New Yorkers crowded the iconic Beacon Theatre to see artists of different medias draw inspiration from the famous legend and explore the untold story of Princess Aurora’s 100 years of dreams. Combining real-time digital imaging technology, contemporary choreography, electronic music, and new media art Sleeping Beauty Dreams showed that the world of dreams is unique and doesn’t have to be confined by time or space. World famous ballerina Diana Vishneva, performed as Princess Aurora, and Marcelo Gomes, as Prince Peter, are reunited together in a fusion of dance, music, art, and revolutionary 3D digital technology never seen onstage before.
The visuals were a treat for the eyes. Sleeping Beauty Dreams hypnotized the guests with its spectacular imagery colors and it was a feast for the eyes. Every one of Diana Vishneva’s flow of moves was simultaneously interpreted digitally on a screen using motion-capture technology.
Diana’s dancing was full of emotion and intensity as she showed her active range in more modern fare with Choreography by Edward Clug. The real star of the production was the technology which was a truly multi-dimensional experience and everyone probably spent as much time (or more) watching the video projections as the dancers.
In 2019 Sleeping Beauty Dreams will tour nationally to 20 cities and in 2020, internationally. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com. For more information visit www.sbdart.com.
YAGP 20th Anniversary Kick Off
Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) celebrated their 20th Anniversary Season with a cocktail party at the New York residence of Jean Shafiroff. YAGP alumni dancers attending included Kimin Kim (Mariinsky Ballet), Dylan Gutierrez (Joffrey Ballet), Sasha De Sola (San Fransisco Ballet), Angelo Greco (San Francisco Ballet), Calvin Royal III (American Ballet Theatre) as well as Mariinsky Ballet's Xander Parish,Viktoria Tereshkina, Anastasia Nuikina, Maria Khoreva, Daria Ionova, Yuri Fateev, and Joffrey Ballet's Artistic Director Ashley Wheater.
The hostess greeted her guests in a hot pink Oscar de la Renta dress. The late-night soiree followed a performance of the Balanchine Festival at City Center and went into the wee hours with dancers and ballet patrons sipping champagne around her dining table.
Guest included YAGP board members Sergey Gordeev, Suzanne Hall, Judith M. Hoffman, Christina Lyon, Linda K. Morse, Richard Osterweil, Howard Paley, Elizabeth Papadapoulos, Susan and Greg Pappajohn, and John Sills as well as Edgar Batista, Delin Bru, Valentino Carlotti, Sue Dorn, Joanna Fisher, Marjorie and Ellery Gordon, Peter Hay Halpert, Cathy Hardwick, Sharon King Hoge, Michèle Gerber Klein, Aimee Maroney, Wendy Moonan, Cole Rumbough, Sana Sabbagh, Andrew Martin Weber, and Hal J. Witt.
Youth America Grand Prix is the largest global network of dance. YAGP fulfills its mission of dance education through scholarship auditions, master classes, alumni services, performances, educational and outreach activities. 2019 is YAGP's 20th Anniversary season! Over the past 20 years the organization has provided opportunities to 80,000 dancers worldwide and have gifted talented young dancers more than $3.5 million in scholarships to leading dance schools and companies around the world.
Today, more than 10,000 young dancers – ages 9 to 19 – audition annually. 450 Youth America Grand Prix alumni are now dancing with 80 professional companies around the world. 100 of these alumni are soloists and principal dancers. The organization was founded by Larissa Saveliev, who trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow and toured throughout the world, before defecting to the United States in 1995.
Photo Credit: Credit: Mark Sagliocco For PMC
Joshua Beamish and the MOVETHECOMPANY present: Saudade
On a cold and rainy Wednesday night, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Joshua Beamish, choreographer and the leader of the MOVETHECOMPANY, debuted his first full-length dance for New York dance admirers and critics. The piece was a direct reflection of it’s namesake,, “SAUDADE,” a derivative of a Portuguese word that refers to a feeling of longing or melancholy for a feeling of missing love.
Beamish managed to merge two completely different styles of dance, ballet and street-style, in order to pinpoint feelings that are often too difficult for individuals to express through words. The performance could be viewed as a confrontation between feelings that people are too often afraid to admit to unless they are left alone. What made the performance even more memorable was the fact that it was executed by an all-male ensemble, which included six dancers: David Norsworthy, Sean Aaron Carmon, Kevin Quinaou, Dominic Santia, Timothy Stickney, and Lloyd Knight. Although the 21st century has been making history for breaking down boundaries, it is still quite rare to witness an all-male cast perform such a delicate and tender choreography without a lady holding the lead.
As the audience took their seats, and the lights went dim, there was a feeling of suspense and excitement in the room. Although most of the audience knew the dance company and the choreographer behind the piece, no one really knew as to what to expect. However, as soon as the first dancer came out on stage, everyone moved to the edge of their seats. The performance created a storyline of several men, who experience jealousy, anger, madness, love, and passion, which were all expressed through body language and movement. As one solo performance ended, a duet followed, which eventually flowed into a group performance. It was fascinating to witness how complicated issues related to love, such as love triangles, would be expressed through movement without having the words being spoken, or even the music including any implications. However, dance is not just movement; it is also theatre, which was proved true by Saudade. Each segment within the performance, whether completed as a solo, pas de deux, or as a group, produced a stream of intricate emotions, which allowed the audience to be present and be engulfed by the performance. Just as convoluted and fragile as love, each dance portrayed a story that carried those sentiments within itself, resulting in a ride on a roller coaster of emotions.
The performance left the audience in an uneasy state, due to the great reveal of feelings, and how deep and profound the piece was not just to the dancers, but to the viewers as well. The feelings it carried made you reminisce the lost love that once might have existed, but has never really gone quite right. Yet, it had its magic which was worth remembering through the performance just one last time, almost as if it was the final closure.
Performance photos by Ani Collier
Event photos by Jared Siskin/PMC
Youth America Grand Prix 2017
Lincoln Center, New York’s harmonious epicenter, and stage to some of the most acclaimed performances in the world, was the place to be yesterday. Last night, the beautiful New York crowd trekked to the Upper West Side to appreciate some of world’s most renowned ballet dancers. Ballet aficionados, parents, and celebrities alike all assembled at The Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater for the annual Youth America Grand Prix’s (YAGP) Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala. This yearly event has become synonymous with the discovery of new dancers, and choreographers, featuring the performances of international ballet stars, while presenting the world’s brightest young dance talent
CBS’s Keltie Knight was the emcee for the evening, and she did an incredible job of pumping up the crowd before the showcase. The initial performances were a display of great potential by the stars of tomorrow, the young YAGP finalists, who put on a spectacle for their families and friends. The audience saved its greatest applause for the conclusion of the first act, where an assemblage of more than 200 plus YAGP dancers took the stage for a grand dance party.
Before the second act, the presentation of YAGP’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Bruce Marks, whose accomplishments as a dancer and artistic director could fill this article. Bruce was gracious in his acceptance speech and echoed a very important political message: “Stand up and fight for Art.” The second act began as the more established and world-renowned dancers took the stage and exhibited their world-class moves. Major ballet stars of today such as Svetlana Lunkina and Evan Mckie (National Ballet of Canada), Tamara Rojo and Cesar Corrales (English National Ballet), Skylar Brandt and Gabe Stone Shayer (American Ballet Theatre), and Tiler Peck and Zachary Catazaro ( New York City Ballet) all came to prance their pointe.
Following the splendid show, guests made their way to the promenade for dinner and socializing. Celebrities quickly filled the room as visitors scrambled to get a word in with their idols. A group of gorgeous women particularly caught the attention of everyone, especially the photographers, as camera flashes lit up their beautiful dresses. The amazing group of women were none other than Amy Astley, the honorary chairman, Marcella Guarino Hymowitz, the chairman, Samantha Boardman-Rosen, Colby Mugrabi, Candice Jordan Miller, Ashley Olsen, Mary Kate Olsen, and Lesley Thompson Vecsler who all served as co-chairs. Strolling around the room, there were many other major names such as Chelsea Clinton, Woody Allen, Nicky Hilton, and Tony Gonzalez.
From the amazing performances, to the sit-down dinner and dancing, Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala was a truly successful night. However, many young dancers are still in need of scholarships, and we cannot let the next generation of kids filled with talent and promise to miss out on this opportunity.
YAGP is the world’s largest and one of the most prestigious international ballet competitions, as well as a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. The mission of YAGP is to provide a global network of dance organization that provides scholarship opportunities and master classes for young dancers’ ages 9 to 19 around the world. The YAGP also holds annual competitions in multiple international and national venues that continues for nearly a full year. Each season, selected students from these competitions are invited to New York City to participate in the week-long finals. These promising dancers will receive in-depth mentoring and greater scholarship, professional, and performance opportunities. In less than twenty years YAGP has become an institution – not only for the esteem of its awards, but for the exposure it provides to young dancers to be seen by, and to make an impression on, representatives of ballet schools and companies from across the globe. For more information and how to donate to YAGP, click here.
Photos courtesy of Annie Watt Agency and Presley Ann/ Patrick McMullan