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Last Thursday the Harvard Dance Center was filled with vibrant energy as Boston Ballet dancers and artistic staff presented Boston Ballet Dance Talks: Kylián’s Black and White Ballets.
Boston Ballet dancers performed two full dance pieces, the dark and sculptural No More Play, and the light-hearted comic ballet Sechs Tanze, both choreographed by Jiří Kylián.
Guest speakers Roslyn Anderson and Kees Tjebbes of the Kylian Foundation joined Boston Ballet’s Anthony Randazzo, Ballet Master, and Shannon Parsley, Assistant Ballet Master and Artistic Coordinator, for a conversation about the works. Anderson, a former dancer with Nederlands Dans Theater, has been staging Kylián’s works since 1986. Tjebbes has designed the lighting and sets for Kylián’s works since 1979, both on Nederlands Dans Theater and on any other dance company that performs Kylián’s choreography.
Anderson explained that the distinctive shapes in No More Play were inspired by Alberto Giacometti’s gaunt, angular sculptures, while the antics of Sechs Tanze were the result of Kylián’s “choreographic doodling” while listening to Mozart. Tjebbes described how Kylián uses sets and lighting to add complexity to the dances through dramatic shadows that sometimes obscure all or part of a dancer, and blocks of light that evoke chess boards or footpaths.
After the onstage discussion, Anderson, Tjebbes, Randazzo, and Parsley fielded questions from the audience. Several people asked about the rehearsal process, and how dancers or stagers like Anderson remember so many ballets. Anderson explained that she almost never uses video footage to teach dancers choreography, preferring instead to demonstrate movement herself and talk about the choreography. “I don’t want the dancers to copy,” said Anderson, “I want them to bring their own personality to the dances.”
Randazzo and Parsley explained the process of reviving two Kylián works (Sarabande and Falling Angels) that the Boston Ballet last performed three years ago: since a fair number of the dancers performing those two pieces this year also performed them three years ago, those dancers watched a video of their previous performance, reconstructed the pieces from memory, and proceeded to then teach the choreography to new dancers in the company. All panelists emphasized the person-to-person nature of passing on choreography, stressing the importance of physically teaching choreography to others instead of relying on video or notation.
The final question of the evening was whether there was any overarching theme or concept to the entire “Black and White” series. Anderson replied, “Jiří Kylián never wanted to impose his ideas on an audience. The work is there, and everyone in the audience is free to take away something different from it.” Tjebbes added, “It’s about life.”
Dance Program (Office for the Arts at Harvard) and Boston Ballet present
Boston Ballet Dance Talks: Kylián’s Black and White Ballets
Thursday, February 5, 7:30pm
Harvard Dance Center
60 Garden Street, Cambridge
Nederlands Dans Theater performs Jiří Kylián’s “Petite Mort.” Photo by Daisy Komen.
Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Boston Ballet and its creative processes next month at Boston Ballet Dance Talks: Kylián’s “Black and White” Ballets. The Harvard Dance Center will host a conversation about innovative Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián and his “Black and White” ballets, moderated by Boston Ballet’s Shannon Parsley, Assistant Ballet Master/Artistic Coordinator, and Tony Randazzo, Ballet Master, with guest speaker Roslyn Anderson, stager for the Kylián Foundation. Boston Ballet dancers will perform selections from the repertoire.
Boston Ballet is the first company outside of Jiří Kylián’s resident company, Nederlands Dans Theatre, to perform the full Black and White series.
Click here for a video preview of Kylián’s Black and White series.
Tickets are $10 general admission, Free for Harvard students**
Free Harvard Student tickets expire at 7:15PM **
Tickets are available through the Harvard Box Office and at the door.
Tickets to Boston Ballet’s Black and White at the Citi Performing Arts Center(SM) Wang Theatre will be sold at the event for $20.
Dance Program (Office for the Arts) presents
Dance Showcase 2
Saturday, December 6 at 8pm
Sunday, December 7 at 3pm
Harvard Dance Center
60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA
Come celebrate the diversity of dance at Harvard! This family-friendly event features a new work choreographed by Tai Jimenez, former Boston Ballet principal dancer, as well as seven student-run dance companies: Asian American Dance Troupe, Harvard Ballet Company, Corcairdhearg Harvard Irish Dancers, Crimson Dance Team, Expressions Dance Company, Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company, and TAPS.
James Fuller ‘10. Photo by Jessica C. Flores.
Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office in Holyoke Center (617.496.2222).
$12 general admission, $8 students, seniors, and children.
Harvard Dance Center is located at 60 Garden Street in Cambridge, next to the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center (corner of Garden and Linnaean Streets).
Take the Red Line subway to Harvard Square and walk up Garden Street.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The Harvard Ballet Company returns to the New College Theater with “Pointes of Departure,” an evening of masterworks and premieres accompanied by Harvard’s finest musicians. The program features Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring, new ballets by Susan Shields and Claudia Schreier ‘08 and guest appearances by Harvard Ballroom and the Harvard College Irish Dancers. In a unique collaboration, Larissa Koch ‘08-09 will choreograph to a new composition by Matthew Mendez ‘09. Don’t miss this exciting event!
November 21st, 8 PM
November 22nd, 8 PM
November 23rd, 3 PM
Tickets available at Harvard Box Office in Holyoke Center, 12-6 PM Tues-Sun; by phone 617-496-2222; or online at http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/tickets/search_results.cfm?EVENT_NAME=pointes
Hey everyone,
My name is Patrick Quinn – I’m a junior in Cabot House, and a dancer and choreographer for the Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company (HRMDC). I’m new to HarvardDances, and just wanted to share my perspective with you as a student choreographer!
I’m currently enrolled in Dramatic Arts 121: Group Choreography (DA 121), an independent-study style course in which I work closely with Elizabeth Bergmann, the director of the Dance Program, on finding my own voice as a choreographer. Specifically, the course’s goal is to guide me in creating a dance piece for performance this semester, and I am now hard at work trying to put together a seven-dancer piece for HRMDC.
Titled “No One Knew Me,” it’s a rather theatrical piece about connections and disconnections between people, the complex circumstances surrounding social situations. The idea that humans thrive on social networks, an idea becoming more and more explicit in recent times (Just think of how many hours you’ve spent on Facebook in the past week! Eek.). I’ve had this concept in mind for a while, but I’ve been wrestling with the details – who are the characters, what are they feeling, how can I expect the audience to understand something so abstract?
I don’t have that much time left to sort out such details. My piece will be performed in the Dance Program’s Dance Showcase 2, which means that crunch time is here – I have only one rehearsal left before we enter tech week, and the time pressure is definitely there. It all seems so strange – while the rehearsals began the first week of classes, over two months ago, I still find myself wondering where all of the time went! Yet here I am, with a little over two weeks left before the performance, struggling to find ways to “fix” my piece.
It’s hard to use the word “fix” in this situation; for all intents and purposes, my dance is fine. Except for a few moments where the dancers change formations, everything has been set and looks relatively clean. However, there is that intangible, irritating nagging in the back of my head, and I can feel that something just isn’t right. My latest showing for DA121 was yesterday, during which I decided the “problem” was in the second of the piece’s three sections. Granted, the first and third sections are due to be tweaked and fixed, but something just doesn’t feel right about the second. What exactly is the problem, you ask? I wish I knew.
I’ve worked so hard on incorporating different choreographic elements – there are plenty of formations, phrase manipulations, and motifs, and I’ve tried my best to keep the movement original, evocative, and striking. Uninspiring music has been replaced, confusing costume ideas trashed; I’ve been trying so hard to make the dance’s intentions clearer, and to make the dance itself more entertaining. So much thought and effort has been put in, and it seems like I am just missing something so fundamental. This is why I’ve been so frustrated; this is a choreographer’s dilemma.
Multiple Emmy Award- and Tony Award-winning performer Bebe Neuwirth took the stage at the New College Theater this past Wednesday, October 29th for a lecture demonstration moderated by Dramatic Arts Visiting Lecturer Leslie Woodies.
Bebe Neuwirth at Harvard Dance Center
Although she is most renowned for her work on screen and Broadway (Cheers, Chorus Line, Chicago, Sweet Charity, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and more), Neuwirth insisted she is a dancer first. She emphasized the influence of her background in ballet on her current dancing, citing classical training as a necessary foundation. She also discussed her creative process and the moment she realized her future was onstage: after seeing Pippin on Broadway.
Students enrolled in Woodies’ class Dramatic Arts 124 (DA 124) then performed the “Manson Trio” from Pippin, originally choreographed by Bob Fosse, for the crowd of over one hundred gathered at the NCT. The students were accompanied on the piano by DA 124 Teaching Fellow and Adams House Arts Tutor Matt Corriel. With bowler hat and cane in hand, Neuwirth then got up with the students to coach them on the subtleties of the Fosse style.
Bebe Neuwirth with Dramatic Arts 124 students at Harvard Dance Center
Neuwirth’s coaching of the DA 124 students continued the following day with a master class on musical theater held at the Harvard Dance Center. Other Harvard students and the public were invited to observe the class, which was followed by a Q & A session. She spent the 2-hour class fine-tuning the “Manson Trio,” familiarizing the students with Fosse’s way of not only moving, but also of conducting a rehearsal. She mentioned that a 6-hour rehearsal was the norm for her, and that class etiquette and attire were crucial.
Bebe Neuwirth dancing the “Manson Trio” with DA 124 students
She started by having everyone take off all of their extra warm-ups so that they were on par with the look of her ankle boots, sheer tights, and high-cut leotard. “You have to be able to see a dancer’s lines,” she insisted. She was also very candid about her age and recent surgeries: at 49 and with 2 hip replacements, her incredible movement quality was all the more impressive.
Bebe Neuwirth at Harvard Dance Center
Check out the Harvard Crimson’s article on Bebe Neuwirth’s visit by clicking here.
(Written by Larissa Koch ‘08-’09 and Marin Orlosky ‘07-’08. All photos by Andreas Randow.)
Many Harvard students and recent alumni/ae were involved in the dance world this past summer:
Harvard had a strong presence at this year’s Vail International Dance Festival. Students Julia Lindpaintner ‘09, Caitlin Kakigi ‘09, and Jordan Roberts ‘09 were joined by recent alumnae Sarah Kenney ‘08 and Claudia Schreier ‘08 as interns at the Festival. Julia Lindpainter was the Production Intern, stationed at the Gerald Ford Amphitheater, setting up for classes and performances, and working the Amphitheater performances backstage right. Claudia Schreier was Morphoses Coordinator and Assistant to Morphoses Artistic Director Christopher Wheeldon, responsible for aiding Mr. Wheeldon in rehearsals and researching and writing about the company’s repertoire, in addition to writing the programs for all VIDF performances. Jordan Roberts also assisted Morphoses. Sarah Kenney and Caitlin Kakigi worked with Celebrate the Beat, an outreach program that teaches inspirational music and dance classes which help children discover their potential by motivating them to believe in themselves, value artistic expression and develop a personal standard of excellence.
Kevin Shee ‘10 and Merritt Moore ‘10,
in a 2007 Harvard staging of Balanchine’s “Apollo”
(Photographer: Courtney Bryant)
Kevin Shee ‘10 was a guest artist with Crockett-Deane Ballet over the summer, performing the Don Quixote pas de deux and the lead male role in Coppelia. About his experience, Kevin says, “it was just a few performances and minimal rehearsal time, but the roles I got the chance to perform were phenomenal and it really kept me in great dance shape over the summer.”
Sarah Christian ‘11, Nina Stoller-Lindsey ‘10, and Ray Keller ‘08 attended the Paul Taylor Dance Intensive in New York City.
Joanna Binney ‘08-’09,
performing student choreography at Harvard
(Photographer: Eric Antoniou)
Two Harvard students and one alumna joined dance companies over the summer. Madelyn Ho ‘08 joined Taylor 2 and recently embarked on her first tour with the company. Merritt Moore ‘10 is on leave from Harvard to dance with the Zurich Ballet Company in Switzerland. Joanna Binney ‘08-’09 joined local dance company Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, and is starting her first performance run with the company. “Fearless Symmetries,” Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre’s fall production, runs October 10-26 and features two contemporary ballets, one of which is a premiere. Joanna says, “I’m really enjoying working through this choreographic process and am finding Jose’s work is incredibly musical and intricate.”
This week’s Harvard Gazette features an article about one of the Dance Program’s dance courses for academic credit, Dramatic Arts 124: Dance in Musical Theatre.
This course also welcomes Bebe Neuwirth for two amazing events at the end of October.
Visit the Dance Program website for more details on Bebe Neuwirth’s visit!
