Vitro NasuIconoclastic Incubator
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(Madison Chock and Evan Bates)
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy birthday Harriet Andersson (90 years old today)
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(Peter Weller and Diane Keaton in Shoot the Moon)
Also a birthday of Alan Parker who directed Midnight Express, Shoot the Moon, Angel Heart etc. (See an obit for Alan Parker who passed away July 2020)
Four Phrases Justin Peck Ballet improvisations
See a documentary on Justin Peck at Kanopy Ballet 422
NYC Ballet’s Justin Peck and Taylor Stanley on Peck’s RODEO: FOUR DANCE EPISODES
May 19, 1965: George Balanchine examines Suzanne Farrell’s hand in rehearsals for a NYCB production of Don Quixote at New York State Theater. (Gjon Mili/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
In Balanchine Classroom is streaming at Kanopy.
Filled with never before seen archival footage of Balanchine at work during rehearsals, classes, and in preparation for his most seminal works, along with interviews with many of his adored and adoring dancers and those who try to carry on his legacy today, this is Balanchine as you have never seen him, and a film for anyone who loves ballet and the creative process.
Balanchine, 1941
(Above photo by George Platt Lynes)
Balanchine Teaching – the New Yorker
Shakespeare of Dance and Our Contemporary
Balanchine danced with John Maynard Keynes‘s wife who was
a ballerina.
Anna Halprin 
(Anna Halprin, 2016, Kentfield, CA. Photo: Sarah Beckstrom.)
Anna Halprin 1920-2021 (Artforum)
Known for innovating what is now called postmodern dance in the early portion of her wide-ranging career, and for her participatory choreography involving the audience, Halprin devoted her life to “expanding dance so that it’s part of life,” using it to explore social conditions and the importance of communion as well as healing, teaching the form to senior citizens and AIDS and cancer patients. In 1966
Modern Dance innovator and healer dead at 100 (SF chronicle)
Jacques d’Amboise, Charismatic Star of City Ballet, Is Dead at 86
He helped popularize ballet with an all-American style, combining the nonchalance of Fred Astaire with the nobility of a classic male dancer. Hollywood came calling, too.
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(Suzanne Farrell, Jacques d’Amboise and George Balanchine)
Rehearsing ‘Move ments for Piano and Orchestra’ with Suzanne Farrell, who was replacing the pregnant Diana Adams, and Balanchine in 1963.
Photo Essay Jaqcues d’Amboise early days National Dance Institute (See many photos here)
I think I did my solo before I was seventeen and I was doing principal roles while I was still quarter ballet. And Freddie Ashton came to the U.S. and did a ballet for me, and then I did my first movie. I turned eighteen on the set. I just did what I wanted and had everything given to me. And in a way that was why I started National Dance Institute: I never had to audition for anything; I never had to pay for a dance class.
Jacques d’Amboise Legacy (See 3 dance videos, two from films)
via
(Robert Cohan and Helen McGehee in Cave of the heart)
Guardian tribute to Robert Cohan dance choreographer
Robert Cohan: mesmerising master who changed the course of British dance
Robert Cohan, 95, Dies; Exported Contemporary Dance to Britain
A New York-born protégé of Martha Graham, he and a rich patron revolutionized dance in the U.K. with a cutting-edge new form.
Ballerina who shot to fame in a sensational Carmen in 1949 and went on to star in Hollywood films and the Paris music halls
Dancing Voices Meredith Monk (previous post)
Corradp Cagli, Vittorio Rieti,Tanaquil LeClercq George Balanchine -the Ballet Society; Photo by Irving Penn
What did Gorey appreciate about Balanchine’s work?
He had a real artistic genius’ ability to zero in on genius in other artists, and he appreciated Balanchine at that level. As he famously said in one interview, “What makes Balanchine so extraordinary is that when you see his dances, you feel ever after as if the steps were absolutely perfect for the music, and there can be no other choreography.” It was literally as if the music was becoming flesh before his very eyes. And it was that absolute clarity and concision and complete mastery of the medium that I think struck such a responsive chord with him. In the same way that Balanchine famously said, “Ballet is woman,” I daresay Gorey would say ballet is Balanchine.
Balanchine and Arthur Mitchell
(Balanchine with Farrell, McBride, Mimi, Paul, Verdy in promo for Jewels)
Photo by Martha Swope
Arthur Mitchell passed away at 84.
Dancer broke barriers for African Americans in the 1950s in leading roles with the New York City Ballet
George Balanchine with Suzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell working on ‘Slaughter on Tenth Avenue’ in 1968.
Photo by Martha Swope from the collection of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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George Balanchine and Arhtur Mitchell
Mitchell shares interesting stories about Balanchine. (youtube) or why Pad de deux was so controversial (youtube)
Arthur Mitchell is an African-American dancer and choreographer who created a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem.
In 1955 Mitchell made his debut as the first African American with the New York City Ballet
Mitchell was the only African-American dancer with the NY City Ballet until 1970. Choreographer and director of the NYCB George Balanchine created the pas de deux in Agon especially for Mitchell and the white ballerina Diana Adams. Although Mitchell danced this role with white partners throughout the world, he could not perform it on commercial television in the United States before 1965, because states in the South refused to carry it.
Slim dragon-fly
too rapid for the eye
to cage,contagious gem of virtuosity
make visible, mentality.
Your jewels of mobilityreveal
and veil
a peacock-tail.— by Marianne Moore
Paul Taylor’s Esplanade – Part 1/5
Part 2/5
Part 3/5
part 4/5
Happy birthday Paul Taylor! (biography)
Born on July 29, 1930, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Paul Taylor started the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954 and worked with icons like Martha Graham and George Balanchine. Taylor went on to establish a massive repertory with his company and created a distinct, acclaimed mode of choreography in works like “Esplanade” and “Arden Court.”
Kiki Smith and Paul Taylor
(via)
The Paul Taylor Dance Company Performing Tracer, in 1962. Robert Rauschenberg’s Bicycle Wheel was the only scenery on stage.
(Dogs designed by Alex Kats)
Yerba buena SF 2015
“I had seen Paul dance for the first time shortly before we met with Edwin [Denby] and thought his choreography was one of the most surprising things I had seen as an artist. Paul’s dancing seemed to be a real break with that of the previous generation: no expression, no content, no form, as he said, and with great technique and intelligence.”
Paul Taylor proves staying power of ’70s and ’80s dance
Pictured all smiles and full of joy the dance trio Gwen Verdon, Mikhail Baryshnikov & Rudolf Nureyev in performance benefitting the Paul Taylor Dance Company ..(via)
