Rose Marija - Page 6

In the first week of New York City Ballet's return to the Koch Theater after Nutcracker season, I was excited to attend the January 21st performance featuring Russian composers.

Misty Copeland transforms into Clara the Princess

'Tis the season. On December 11, 2014 my first viewing of The Nutcracker this season was the opening night of Gelsey Kirkland Ballet's delightful version, choreographed and directed by Michael Chernov, co-artistic director, after Vasili Vainonen, assisted by Gelsey Kirkland and Alexandra Lawler. What a pleasure! The decor and the costume design, adapted by Chernov, are beautiful, even a growing Christmas tree. Especially impressive are the doll cabinets: the large mechanical clock, which housed the three mechanical dolls in the party scene, and the huge toy cabinet, out of which emerged dolls, representing the dances to come in the second act and toy soldiers, standing on the top shelf, in the Midnight Battle. Costumes were by Jennifer Wood-Bonnell, Lynda Mead, Susan Sandford, Jetty Maika, and Naomi Morin, and carpentry by Technical Director, Brandon Walker.

When a gifted dancer continually gets better and better, breathes fresh air into a classic ballet, and attracts all the eyes in the theater, attention must not only be paid, but commanded. Misty Copeland is proving herself to be just such a dancer.

With live broadcasts­ in major cities around the globe, the Bolshoi Ballet opened it's season of seven simulcasts with Yuri Grigorovich's Legend of Love, originally performed in 1961, with Maya Plisetskaya, Marius Liepa, and Natalia Besmertnova in the leading roles. In this current production, the principals were Maria Allash (replacing Sveltlana Zakharova), Denis Rodkin, and Anna Nikulina. The drama of this story was written by Turkish Poet and political prisoner, Nazim Hikmet, while in prison. The composer, Arif Melikov was in attendance, at the Bolshoi Theatre. The set designer, Simon Versaladze, created a Middle Eastern decor. The costumes, too, although anchored on colored unitards, had a Middle Eastern flavor.

From a modern dance education, Kathryn Posin has emerged as a contemporary ballet choreographer. In the program, she presented, October 17, 18, & 19th, at the 92nd St. Y, with Associate Choreographer/Associate Artistic Director Momchil Mladenov, her long time collaborator, the girls danced on pointe, in every ballet. The vocabulary is decidedly classical with a contemporary approach, meaning that the movement dictionary is enlarged to include today's culture. Emil Tabakov, acclaimed Bulgarian conductor and composer, who had a hand in this production, was in attendance at the 10/17, 8:00 PM performance, which I was fortunate to see.