ballet at the joyce

 for amelie's last night i was able to get tickets to the joyce's ballet festival. tonight's program was curated by the royal ballet's artistic director, kevin o'hare, and it featured dancers lauren cuthbertson, sarah lamb, marcelino sambé and several others whom it was very exciting to see.

amelie's favorite piece was the pas de deux danced by calvin richardson and joseph sissens and choreographed by christopher wheeldon . . i think my favorite was (surprisingly) the wayne macgregor piece titled qualia and danced by sarah lamb and edward watson. i also really liked liam scarlett's asphodel meadows. (it was the first time i saw romany pajdak dance and she was beautiful.)

at the joyce

in the springtime i received an email from the joyce theatre that twyla tharp and company would be appearing september 19 to october 8th. i immediately went online and was shocked to see that there were still twenty dollar seats available. i immediately bought two tickets and chanda and i attended the concert this evening. four pieces were performed: the raggedy dances, the fugue, entr'acte, and dylan love songs. i loved them all (chanda didn't like the first one) and the dancers were amazing. there was also a "curtain chat" afterwards, when ms tharp took questions from the audience. she was incredibly energetic and articulate and had a brisk answer to all the questions. audience members had specific thoughts about her early dances, such as would she bring back certain ones, and shared observations to a prior performance in harlem about a year ago. she has a lot of followers! i was impressed by her personality and intelligence and energy. she shared that she's ready for "barre" by 6:30 every morning and that she doesn't really have any specific inspiration except to get into the studio and "work!" but that she does like to read a lot.

the scottish ballet

chanda and i walked up to the joyce soho for a performance of the scottish ballet company. afterwards, there was a chat with the artistic director (christopher hampson) and three of the dancers (sophie martin, christopher harrison and bethany kingsley-garner). we really enjoyed hearing how the pieces were chosen for new york, and about how the dancers liked working on them. it's a lovely company and we were both impressed. they performed sinfonietta giocosa (music by bohuslav martinu and choreography by christopher hampson based on balanchine technique - it was very good and originally made for the atlanta ballet company in 2006); motion of displacement (music by bach and john adams and choreography by bryan arias  - i had read about this piece on their website - the choreography was inspired by his mother's journey from her native land in search of love); and ten poems, ten dylan thomas poems read by richard burton - all pieces woven into an nyc state of mind, which we definitely felt.