nci July 9-28, 2012
National Choreographers Initiative Molly Lynch, artistic director www.nchoreographers.org
Emily Ramirez & Andrew Brader in “Runaway Dream” by Peter Pucci photo by Dave Friedman 2011
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Table of Contents
From the Artistic Director.................................................... 3 About NCI.............................................................................. 4 The 2012 Choreographers Melissa Barak....................................................................... 6 Thang Dao............................................................................. 8 Darrell Grand Moultrie....................................................... 10 Wendy Seyb......................................................................... 12
NCI’s Choreographic Chronology..................................... 14 The NCI dance ensemble................................................... 16 NCI Discovery: The Showing............................................. 18 NCI’s Press Articles.......................................................19-25
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
The National Choreographers Initiative was developed to promote the creation and production of professional dance. It is also an opportunity to engage outstanding choreographers from around the United States in the creative process. There is a need nationwide to have a workshop setting where choreographers can initiate new work as well as experiment and develop their craft. The National Choreographers Initiative is an opportunity to develop and produce dance in support of the national dance community by inviting choreographers of note to participate in this project. NCI provides an opportunity for the southern California community to be a part of the process of creating new contemporary ballets and dancers: Corinna Gill and Adam Hundt / choreography by Edwaard Liang / photo by Dave Friedman 2007
seeing these works performed for the very first time.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
National Choreographers Initiative Advisory Committee
Bobbi Cox Sophie Cripe Diane Diefenderfer Joanne Keith Molly Lynch Lois Osborne Barbara Roberts Sally Anne Sheridan Jennifer Szabo Barbara Tingley
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
dancers: Dubrashka Arrivillaga and Joe Bunn; choreography by Emery LeCrone; photo by Dave Friedman 2008
Anne B. Nutt - Chair
Molly Lynch, artistic director Molly Lynch is an award-winning choreographer and artistic director, with over 30 years of experience creating, producing, and presenting dance. She is currently an Associate Professor of Dance in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine. She teaches ballet, pointe, partnering, ballet repertory, and dance management. Ms. Lynch is the Founder and Artistic Director of the National Choreographers Initiative, an internationally known project designed to nurture the development of new choreography. She was the Artistic Director for Ballet Pacifica from 19882003. During her tenure, Ms. Lynch established Ballet Pacifica as Orange County’s leading professional dance company and one of the area’s top performing arts organizations. Among her innovative trademark programs was the Pacifica Choreographic Project. Under Ms. Lynch’s direction, the company worked with forty choreographers, premiered more than forty new ballets and restaged some of America’s most beloved classics by George Balanchine, Antony Tudor and Choo San Goh. Ms. Lynch has also choreographed over 30 concert and story ballets, 6 children’s ballets and a fulllength production of “The Nutcracker.” Ms. Lynch recently created new ballets for Sacramento Ballet, Festival Ballet, Nashville Ballet, BalletMet (Columbus, Ohio), Dance Collage
(Hermosillo, Mexico), Academies of Ballet In Philippines (Manila) and Singapore Dance Theatre. She began her dance training with Lila Zali, received a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet and performed as a soloist and principal dancer with the Louisville Ballet and Ballet Pacifica for over 10 years. As a Fine Arts major at the University of California, Irvine, she studied with distinguished figures in dance such as Eugene Loring, Antony Tudor and Olga Maynard. Upon receiving her MFA in dance from UCI, she was named Outstanding Graduate Student, the first student from Fine Arts so honored. In 1992, Ms.Lynch was given the esteemed Outstanding Alumnus award from UCI and was named one of Orange County Metro Magazine’s “Ten Women Who Make A Difference.” She is also the recipient of the Red Cross Clara Barton Cultural Arts Award and the Boy Scouts of America Women of Excellence award in 1996. She is the recipient of the 2001 Choo San Goh Award for Choreography and the 2007 Outstanding Arts Organization Award for her National Choreographers Initiative from Arts Orange County. In April 2008 she was honored with the Irvine Barclay Theatre’s prestigious Jade Award for her extraordinary leadership and creativity.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Melissa Barak
www.melissabarak.com
Melissa Barak was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She trained at the Westside School of Ballet. In 1997 she entered the School of American Ballet in New York and joined the New York City Ballet as a company member in 1998.While dancing with the New York City Ballet, she began exploring her choreographic talents. She was invited by Peter Martins, director of the New York City Ballet, to participate in the first NY Choreographic Institute. Then he asked her to create a piece for School of American Ballet, Telemann Overture Suite, which was met with critical acclaim. Mr. Martins brought Telemann into the company’s repertoire the very next season, and immediately asked her to choreograph again, this time on the company. She was only 22, making her the youngest choreographer in New York City Ballet history to be commissioned an original work. Melissa has been awarded the Mae L. Wien and Choo San Goh Awards for Choreography and was named one of the “Top 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. She has had numerous articles written about her in such publications as Pointe Magazine, Dance Spirit, TimeOut NY, ELLEgirl, Angeleno, LA Times. She has created new works for American Repertory Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and Los Angeles Ballet as well as the National Choreographer’s Initiative and several New York Choreographic Institutes. In 2009 and 2010, she was invited to return to the New York City Ballet where she created two more works.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
Yueh Fei created during National Choreographers Initiative
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Thang Dao
www.thangdaodancecompany.com
Thang Dao was born in Danang, Vietnam. He currently resides in New York City working as both a dancer and choreographer. Thang received his formal dance education from the Juilliard School and the Boston Conservatory. Thang holds a BFA in dance from The Boston Conservatory and an MA from New York University. He danced for the Stephen Petronio Company from 2001-2006, leaving to focus on his choreographic career. He has also worked for the Metropolitan Opera and Little Orchestra Society. Thang has presented his works in Boston, New York City, and Austin, with acclaimed reviews by The Boston Globe, Austin 360 and The New York Times. In 2006, his ballet Stepping Ground, choreographed on Ballet Austin for the 1st Biennial New American Talent/Dance, received the Audience Choice Award on all four nights. Thang is also the recipient of the 2008 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
Dance Review
Before the Cast Takes the Stage, the Crowd Is on Its Feet By BRIAN SEIBERT Published: April 20, 2012
Glass Violin Concerto Thang Dao Dance Company
At the Ailey Citigroup Theater on Wednesday night, the standing ovation came before the show started. Robert Battle, the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, commanded the audience to rise, but the ovation would have happened anyway. After 38 years as artistic director of Ailey II, the organization’s second company, Sylvia Waters was stepping down. To honor her, the least you could do was stand up. The opening night of her farewell season had the feeling of a family affair, with lots of friends in the house to cheer both her and the latest lineup of the company she built. Her thank you speech, humble and warm, made it immediately apparent, for anyone who wasn’t aware, why she is beloved. Ms. Waters is also known for spotting choreographic talent: she brought Mr. Battle into the Ailey fold. But in this realm her record is less distinguished, and Wednesday’s program, one of two that alternate through the two-week season, represented that mixed legacy. “Echoes,” by the Vietnamese choreographer Thang Dao, came the closest to choreographic magic. Much of the work, set to a derivative minimalist film score by Ezio Bosso, was generically lyrical, pretty, marked by jumps that flicked at their peak and falls that stretched out along the floor. But Mr. Dao also divided the stage intriguingly, using a line of dancers to fence in a duet against one of the wings. Having individuals in a clump of dancers trade off lifting one of their number isn’t original, but Mr. Dao made it mean something. Elsewhere, moving like twin water sprites, Fana Tesfagiorgis and Elizabeth Washington, both in their second year with the company, showed the difference between standard seaweed smoothness and a more complex finesse. DANCE REVIEW
By JENNIFER DUNNING Published: September 26, 2002
S.O.S. Thang Dao Dance Company
The crafty wisdom of old age has been said to trump the energy of youth. But the young overachievers of the Thang Dao Dance Company nearly disproved that maxim in an impressive performance on Saturday night at the Merce Cunningham Studio Theater. Mr. Dao, a young dancer who appears to have begun choreographing only in the past few years, already knows how to put movement together so that it flows logically. His dancers are well schooled, mostly at the Boston Conservatory and Juilliard School, but they have retained or developed a spark of originality. And he is wise enough to accept that there are riches still to be mined in traditional dance styles. Mr. Dao’s new ‘’Concerto for the Lost’’ could probably use a little editing. But it would be hard to say where. This ambitious group work builds at its own inexorable pace. So does an intensely emotional subtext that pushes through the dance’s cool formal values and patterning, enhanced by strong performing and, even more, by a startlingly beautiful, atmospheric score by Sam Bird. ‘’Concerto’’ opens with a solo called ‘’9-9’’ for Mr. Dao as an exhausted corporate businessman, then moves on to two group sections that begin and end with rows of dancers facing away from the audience, bathed in brooding light by the designer Li Chuan Lin. Dancers unhesitantly melt into and pull away from the ordered fray that follows, often in ensemble dancing like a heroic solo for Kristen Foote and a male trio for Kurt Douglas and Pablo Francisco Tovar, guests from the Limón Dance Company, and Jesse Zaritt.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Darrell Grand Moultrie
www.darrellgrandmoultrie.com
Darrell Grand Moultrie was born and raised in Harlem. Darrell is a graduate of Juilliard in 2000, and a proud recipient of the 2007 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, Darrell’s work has been performed by Ailey 2, North Carolina Dance Theater, Cleo Parker Dance Ensemble, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, The Juilliard School, BalletMet Columbus, Milwaukee Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Rasta Thomas and his Bad Boys of Dance, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. In October 2010, he was invited to participate in Sacramento Ballet’s Capital Choreography Competition where his work “Moved” took home both the judges and the audience awards. Darrell has taught at many institutions across the United States including the Juilliard School, the Ailey School, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Perry Mansfield, and served as the Director of Musical Theatre at the Harbor Conservatory of the Performing Arts. As a performer, Darrell was part of the original cast of the hit musical Billy Elliot on Broadway. He has also been seen in “West Side Story”, “Radiant Baby”, “Sweet Charity,” and “The Color Purple.” He was seen on Broadway in the smash hits “Hairspray The Musical” and “AIDA”.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
DANCE REVIEW
Shifting Patterns That Flow And Stretch in the Open Air By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: August 31, 2000
Excerpt from “Boiling Point” created for Atlanta Ballet
One of the missions of Jonathan Hollander and his Battery Dance Company is to present companies that might not otherwise be seen in New York City. One such troupe is the Zig Zag Ballet, a year-old group based in Stamford, Conn., that performed on Tuesday afternoon at Mr. Hollander’s Downtown Dance Festival in Battery Park. Founded a year ago by Brett Raphael, Zig Zag is an ensemble of stylish dancers who look ready for anything. That was just as well, given the range of the two works they performed. Darrell Moultrie’s stylish new ‘’Pulse,’’ a witty jazz ballet set to a witty, pounding jazz-flavored rock score by United Future Organization, more than held its own on the open-air stage in the visually busy park setting. In part that was due to the dancers’ simple, stylish black trunks, tops and leotards designed by Elena Comendador. But Mr. Moultrie, a promising choreographer, is obviously someone to watch.
Duet for Nina Lafarga (In The Heights original broadway cast) and Natrea Blake (Juilliard) choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie
The group piece opened with a stretching, oozing solo for Chikako Inoue, danced in silence. Slowly the ballet’s other nine dancers spilled out from the sides, folding in and out around Ms. Inoue and then flowing off the stage again. That look of flow, ooze and stretch continued throughout ‘’Pulse,’’ with elegantly ordered lines and wedges of dancers forming shifting patterns that moved like strong apposite river currents. Mr. Moultrie seems to know how to make handsome patterns without appearing to strive for neatness. The score’s second and third sections included bits of what sounded like dialogue transplanted from a gritty 1940’s detective film and a science fiction movie. It all made a nutty kind of sense, in part because of Mr. Moultrie’s easy choreographic authority and the assured jazz-ballet style of the dancers. The lead cast was completed by Brian Carey Chung and Marcela Figueroa.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Wendy Seyb
www.wendyseyb.com
Wendy Seyb is an alumna of Boston University where she received her bachelor’s degree in archeology. Wendy creates in the worlds of theatre and dance; her choreography has been seen in musical theatre, comedic and dramatic plays, premieres and revivals. Her theatre career includes choreographing The Pee Wee Herman Show On Broadway, Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns, and the award-winning The Toxic Avenger Musical which garnered Wendy three nominations for her choreography: a Lucille Lortel Award, a Joe A. Callaway Award, and Toronto’s DORA Award. She was nominated for a second Lucille award for her choreography in TheatreworksUSA’s production of Click, Clack, Moo during the same season as Toxic, making her a double nominee for 2009-2010. Her company EveryDayMan Adventures has presented her dance comedies at Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce SoHo, Baryshnikov Arts Center, HERE arts Center, The Flea Theater, The Zipper Theater, St. Mark’s Church, The Duke Theater, The Ailey Citigroup Theater and SUNY Purchase. Wendy proudly participated in the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab in 2009 and DanceBreak in 2008. In 2007 she was honored to be invited to show her work at the Dancers Responding to AIDS Gala hosted by Bill T. Jones. Also in 2007, her Supernovas was awarded a Golden Nose Award; and she was nominated for an Innovative Theatre Award for her physical work and movement in the play The Great Conjurer. In 2007 and 2008 Wendy co-created and co-hosted Freshly Tossed, an evening of new innovative dance comedy choreography from a range of dance artists that was presented by the New York Musical Theatre Festival. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
CurtainUp www.curtainup.com
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Listings
The 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival REVIEW:
School Daze Reviewed by Joan Eshkenazi It’s delightful; it’s delicious; it’s delectable! Wendy Seyb, the choreographer and director provides us with fifty-five minutes of hilarity. It has been a long time since I have seen such a clever dance work that turns the audience into a sea of laughter. Twelve students dance out their fantasies, puppy loves and desires throughout the evening of their annual school dance. The stage is bare except for a simple banner announcing the “School Dance, Where Your Fantasies Come True.” The time is in the 1980’s. A dancer carries a skateboard as the rest of the ensemble gravitates to their chosen cliques. A Dork (Kathryn Fraggos) emerges with her notebook informing all that she is in love with the Jock (Tim McGarrigal), creating the setting for the energetic teenage gyrations that follow. The surprise is that all this is done to the music of Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro, “Overture”). The highly talented dancers continue their hilarious encounters throughout their unrestrained fantasizing, accompanied by Mozart, Rossini, Grieg,Tchaikovsky, Bizet and Ponchielli. The lithesome, graceful body of Keith Coughlin languidly drops in his drunken bliss and recovers to be courted by an amorous male corps de ballet, all to the “Dance of the Hours”. Heather Dunbar’s costumesare perfection. From Desire (Jennifer Bowles) to the Geek (Brian Spitulnik), we have known all these young people in our own high school days. We just never realized how colorful and talented they could be! Chris Hudacs has provided the perfect lighting to shine upon them all. To view Wendy’s video reels, click on the image to go to her website and then choose Video from the left column.
Throughout this dance comedy, the choreographer combines the classical dance with the contemporary forms so that we have fun recognizing great moments from other choreographic masters such as Robbins, de Mille, Bourne and even Michael Jackson. We are continually presented with the unexpected and fresh approach to dance. The combination of thef classical music with contemporary and popular movement succeeds. To create a successful dance comedy is extremely difficult for any choreographer as this is dependent upon skill of dances and creator, music, timing and facial animation. All of these were present at the performance I attended. Expect to see more works from Wendy Seyb. 37 Arts, September 21 at 8pm, September 23 at 7pm and September 28 at 3pm.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Women: Bridgette Burnett
Festival Ballet Theatre
Alexandra Cunningham Sacramento Ballet
Alissa Dale
Nevada Ballet Theater
Amanda Diehl Louisville Ballet
Nadia Iozzo
Kansas City Ballet
Isha Lloyd
Sacramento Ballet
Alessa Rogers Atlanta Ballet
Molly Wagner
Charleston Ballet Theatre
Karen Wing UC Irvine
The ensemble of professional dancers that is assembled each summer is an integral part of the success of the National Choreographers Initiative. The dancers come from various companies around the U.S. to spend part of their summer for the sole intent of taking an active part in the creative process. They all arrive with a strong background in ballet technique, but they must have much more to give. They must be versatile and adaptable to many different styles of dance, open to suggestion, and willing to try something they’ve never done before – and be able to learn a lot of choreography in a very short time. Each dancer works with two choreographers while they are here. For the three weeks of the Initiative, the dancers work 6-8 hours a day, six days a week. They start their days by taking class for an hour in the morning. Then they rehearse with one choreographer for 3 hours in the morning. After a lunch break, they rehease for another 3 hours with the second choreographer. The schedule requires incredible stamina, both physical and mental. NCI also provides an opportunity for southern California audiences to see some of the fine dancers from some important regional companies that rarely, if ever, tour to the West Coast.
2012 NCI Ensemble Men: Grogori Arakelyan
Nevada Ballet Theater
Andrew Brader Ballet Met
Ballet Austin
James Fuller Ballet Austin
Geoffrey Kropp
Kansas City Ballet
Ty Parmenter Ballet Met
Preston Swovelin
Nevada Ballet Theatre
David Van Ligon Company C Ballet
Bobby Amamizu UC Irvine
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
NCI ensemble: photo by Robert Salas 2006
O.J. Canova
NCI ensemble: choreography by Peter Quanz; photo by Dave Friedman 2010
From 2004-2012 dancers from the following companies have been represented in the NCI ensemble.
American Repertory Ballet
Eugene Ballet
Nevada Ballet Theatre
Atlanta Ballet
Festival Ballet Theatre
Ballet Austin
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
North Carolina Dance Theatre Richmond Ballet
James Sewell Ballet
Sacramento Ballet
Kansas City Ballet
Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet
BalletMet Ballet Pacifica Ballet West Boston Ballet Carolina Ballet Company C Contemporary Ballet
Los Angeles Ballet Louisville Ballet Nashville Ballet National Ballet of Canada
Smuin Ballet State Street Ballet Tulsa Ballet Zurich Ballet
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Year
Choreographer
Original NCI Working Title
Premiere date
Title
Company
“The Guy in the White Shirt”
2006
“The Guy in the White Shirt” Marymount Manhattan Dance Ensemble; NY
“Whisper on the Wind”
2004
“Whisper on the Wind”
Snowy Mountain Range Dance Festival; WY
2004 Choreographers
Ann Marie DeAngelo Peter Pucci
2006
“Whisper on the Wind”
Symphony Space; New York NY
2004
“Anagram”
James Sewell Ballet; Minneapolis MN
2006
“Anagram”
James Sewell Ballet; Joyce Theatre, NY
2005
“Jamboree”
Carolina Ballet; Raleigh, NC
2006
“Jamboree”
Carolina Ballet; aired on Public Television
“Untitled”
2006
“Violins”
Richmond Ballet; Richmond VA
Christopher d’Amboise “Untitled”
2006
“The Studio”
South Coast Rep; Costa Mesa, CA
“In Passing”
2007
“In Passing”
Ballet Gamonet; Miami FL
“Subject Forgotten”
2005
“Subject Forgotten”
Paris Opera Ballet; Paris France
2006
“Subject Forgotten”
Cincinnati Ballet; Guggenheim Museum, NY
2008
“Cloudscape - Moon”
Saarbruecken Festival; Germany
James Sewell
“Modular”
Lynne Taylor-Corbett
“Appalachia Stories”
2005 Choreographers
Val Caniparoli
William Soleau Luca Veggetti
2006 Choreographers
Ron De Jesus
“No Fixed Points”
Graham Lustig “Yield”
Charles Moulton
Gina Patterson
2007 “Yield”
American Repertory Ballet; Ballet Builders, NY
“A Rope into the Water” “Broken”
2007
“Cryin’ Out” Nashville Ballet; Nashville TN
2007 Choreographers
Melissa Barak
Frank Chaves
Edwaard Liang
“Yueh Fei” “Untitled 1” & Untitled 2”
2009
“Tuscan Rift” & “Sentir em nos” River North Dance Chicago; IL
“Untitled”
2007
“Vicissitude”
Morphoses Ballet; Vail Intl Dance Festival
2007
“Vicissitude”
Morphoses Ballet; City Center, NY
Jerry Opdenaker
2007
“Bailame”
Ballet Gamonet; Miami FL
“French Twist”
Smuin Ballet; San Francisco, CA
“Fragments”
2008 Choreographers
Amy Seiwert
“SoCal Sketch #1” & “SoCal Sketch #2”
Edmund Stripe
“Shortened Suite”
Ma Cong
“French Twist”
Emery LeCrone
“Expressions of Leaning into Light” 2009
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
Chronology of NCI works and their premieres The choreographers chosen for NCI are not required to produce finished works during their time here. Their mission is only to create, to stretch themselves artistically, and share what they’ve learned with the NCI audiences. Many of the participating choreographers have chosen to expand upon their work at NCI and have taken these works to various companies across and U.S., Europe and Asia. Click on each choreographer’s name to learn more about his or her work. Year
Choreographer
Original NCI Working Title
Premiere date
Title
Company
2009 Choreographers
Sidra Bell “Iconography”
Deanna Carter
Rick McCullough
“Ash to Glass”
2010
“Ash to Glass”
Ballet Quad Cities; Ballet Builders, NY
“Weather”
2011
“Weather”
Florida State University
Olivier Wevers “Hush-Hush”
2010 Choreographers
Ann Marie DeAngelo “Process: Discovery and Integration” 2010 “I’m Really Dancing”
Helen Heineman
Viktor Kabaniaev Peter Quanz
American Ballet Theatre II Career Transitions for Dancers Gala
“Pieces for Eight” “Series of Unrelated Events”
2011
“Series of Unrelated Events”
Sacramento Ballet; CA
“Luminous”
2010
“Luminous”
Hong Kong Ballet; China
2011 Choreographers
Brian Enos
Heather Maloy
Peter Pucci
Paula Weber
“Cold Winter’s Waiting” “Interweave” & “Calm” “Runaway Dream” “Before the After”
Hitomi Yamada in “The Guy in the White Shirt” choreography by Ann Marie DeAngelo photo by Robert Salas 2004
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
NCI Discovery The three weeks of the National Choreographers Initiative culminate in a public showing of the work that has been created during the project. Each choreographer gives a short introduction to his or her work, which is presented in coordinated rehearsal clothing. A lighting designer works with the choreographers to give each piece an appropriate atmosphere. The last step of the NCI process is about providing insight. After all the pieces have been presented, Molly Lynch brings the choreographers back to the stage to take questions from the audience, and each other, and get audience feedback on the work.
NCI ensemble: photos by Dave Friedman 2010
Every NCI project is unique and different than the summer before. It’s an eye-opening journey into creation and the world of dance. NCI Discovery has become the must-see dance event of the summer in southern California.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
Photo: Robert Salas, Courtesy NCI
➧ Click to play
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ If you’re not at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on July 22 to see the newest choreography of Ron De Jesus, Graham Lustig, Charles Moulton, and Gina Patterson, it’s a safe bet you’ll get another chance. The choreographers are in Southern California at the invitation of Molly Lynch, director of the National Choreographers Initative. Each year since 2004, NCI provides tudio space at the University of California Irvine, for three wekks, and shows the results in a public performance attended by the artistic directors of dance companies who are shopping for new works to add to their repertoires. In just two years, NCI has established itself as an incubator that gives new choreography a large footprint. In March, for instance, Richarmond Ballet premiered Val Caniparoli’s piece created at NCI in 2005. Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Carolina Jamboree became a full-evening work for Carolina Ballet and aired on public television in January 2006. Ann Marie De Angelo’s Guy in the White Shirt from 2004 (pictured with Eddie Mikrut of Nashville Ballet and Hitomi Yamada of BalletMet) was performed in New York by students of Marymount Manhattan College this May, and Peter Pucci’s Whisper on the Wind is on the fall bill at Symphony Space in New York. www.nchoreographers.org – Karen Hildrebrand DANCE MAGAZINE
JULY 2006
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
91
DANCE
The Orange County Register
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Play time
The National Choreographers Initiative allows four artists the freedom to create and challenge themselves. By LAURA BLEIBERG
T
The Orange County Register
here are few places in this country where choreographers are told, “Go ahead – make whatever kind of dance you want.” The third annual National Choreographers Initiative (NCI), a private, nonprofit program done in partnership with the Irvine Barclay Theatre, is one. Directed by Molly Lynch, NCI brings together four choreographers and 15 dancers at UCI’s dance studios and lets them “play,” without any strings attached. The choreographers get rehearsal time, a stipend and the freedom to experiment. They might complete a dance, but they do not have to. Ron De Jesus, Graham Lustig, Charles Moulton and Gina Patterson are this year’s
participating choreographers. An informal, works-in-progress showing is scheduled for Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Here is a snapshot of the choreographers and what they have been working on: Ron De Jesus Age: 43 Based in: New York City, Résumé: Independent choreographer, former member of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and original cast of “Movin’ Out.” Working title:”No Fixed Points” Music: Selections by composers Owen Belton and David Lang • What have you been working on? “Since this (NCI) was sort of a lab to kind of mess around and explore, I thought it would be
interesting to do a pointe piece. ... And I found it extremely difficult in the beginning. I think I was favoring the females, what their capacities were, their capabilities, and I stopped choreographing from within. Then I just realized, ‘Take the pointe shoes off.’ It wasn’t coming out naturally. So we took the pointe shoes off, continued to work, and then about four days into it, I decided to go back to the pointe shoes. I said (to myself), ‘Don’t give up. Push, push.’ Because I wanted to go back to my comfort zone. So it is exactly what the program is designed to do, to allow you to have that exploratory process to see what will you discover about yourself and the dancers.”
a therapy and we have exercises and we keep a journal and we get very ‘Kumbaya.’ We just have a wonderful spiritual journey. ... This process was different. I came in aggressively. There was a resistance; it was a different way for me to work, a different way for them to work, and then all of a sudden, a light bulb came on.”
• Are you using a different working process?
Working title: “Yield”
“Yes. Usually when I start a piece, I have soft music and we do
Graham Lustig Age: 51 Based in: New Brunswick, N.J. Résumé: Artistic director of American Repertory Ballet; choreographed ballets for Scottish Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and many others. Music: piano pieces by Philip Glass and selections from different techno bands.
OUT OF THE MOLD: NCI’s opportunity for experimentation drives choreographers in various ways. Graham Lustig, above, looks to surrender to the creative flow, while Charles Moulton, at left, seeks new inspiration in the beauty and innocence of centureis-old music.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
• What is the piece you are working on? “My idea was the word ‘yield.’ And because this is a very unique project, without begin indulgent, I wanted to yield to my fancy, to my wish, as a choreographer and to move away from the critical voice that sits on my shoulder at all times when I’m in the studio and try to shut that up and try to go with the flow. So ‘yield,’’ on the one hand, it speaks of giving up, surrendering to a pressure of some sort. But yield also has another meaning, which I also found very fine and that was the meaning of return on investment, of harvest. So the idea of working with a group of dancers over this period of time and taking that as the harvest and investing that into the work ... that’s what I’ve been exploring. “I’d love to feel that I’ve come away from here and my horizons have been broadened further, that I haven’t narrowed myself ... My goal, I suppose, is to explore the music of Philip Glass. Contained within his repetitiveness is such an exhilarating amount of movement and change and yet it seems like something that is static....” Charles Moulton Age: 51 Based in: Oakland Résumé: Independent directorchoreographer; dances made for White Oak Project, Joffrey Ballet,
Lar Lubovitch and many more; “Another aspect of this which is choreography for “The OCRegister.com Matrix very interesting for me that I have Reloaded.” not explored ... is that this (music) Working Title: ”A Rope Into the is very beautiful and I think that beauty in the world of modern art Water” has gone out of fashion. There’s Music: Various violin sonatas and an uplifting quality to it and an partitas by J.S. Bach. innocence to it, which I find very childlike and quite attractive. I • Tell us about your piece. have a niece and a nephew who “I am making a completely are 16 and 12 and some of this different kind of work than I’ve work, I’m thinking, well, maybe made in the past. My work has I’m making this for them. Maybe been post-modern, which means it this is something that is about deals with very formal structural aspects of our emotions that are investigations often using unusual not sophisticated, that are not vocabulary in combination with ironic. ... How does one make new structure of some kind. a work of art that is emotional (J.S.) Bach’s structure is as old without it being idiocy, without as structure can be. It’s really A, it being mindless sentimentality? B, A, B. That’s it, and that was And Bach is doing this.” interesting to me – to go ‘What if I am actually working with a very old structure. How would I animate Gina Patterson that?’ And the result is very, very emotional. The vocabulary is very Age: 36 expressive, very emotional, quite Based in: Austin, Texas spare in some ways. ... I’m trying Résumé: Principal dancer Ballet to say, ‘What about this speaks to Austin; choreography for Hubbard me and to people in an audience? Street 2, Ballet Florida and Why does this music still work? others. It’s 400 years old. It’s still very moving, very passionate, very Working title: ”Broken” important, and it says a lot about Music: Selections by Nashville the dignity of the human spirit. musician Gary Nicholson and I think it says a lot about the Alberto Iglesias’ soundtrack for revivification of life and death, the movie “Talk to Her.” how this cycle works for us.” • What have you been working • In what ways are you using this on? experience to make something “It’s the first time I basically different from what you’ve came (at a dance) with nothing done before? (prepared), and so for me that’s
A MATTER OF MOTIVES: Choreographer Gina Patterson says she relishes the chance to be creative outside of her commission work.
very different. I had one (dance) phrase as an idea that I started with. I have a commission from Nashville Ballet for next year and so my idea for coming out here was I would workshop what I’m doing there, so I would have more time with it. I’m going to be working with a musician, Gary Nicholson, and it’s going to be live. The recordings I have are fully produced and what we will have in Nashville is Gary is going to play the guitar and sing and maybe have a pianist. So the sound of the recordings will be quite different. So that got me thinking, how does that change if you choreograph to one piece of music, and then you change it (the music)? What does that look like?” • In what ways are you using this experience to make something different from what you’ve done before? “I just wanted to get back in touch with ‘What do I have to say right now?’ and really let it be about the process. When you have commissions, you’re working for an end. I think it’s really important to have some time to feel creative and let it go in another direction if you want it to. I feel I’ve made a lot of discoveries – even though it’s only been a week and a half – that I think will be instrumental in my future as a choreographer.” CONTACT US: 714-796-4976 or lbeiberg@ocregister.com
REACHING: De Jesus works with Gina McFadden.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
SEMANA DEL 27 DE JULIO AL 2 DE AGOSTO DE 2007
Coreógrafos y bailarines juntos en la NCI
BAILARÍN: Nativo de Venezuela, Gilmer Durán interpretará el sábado lo que será la culminación de su entrenamiento en un programa de tres semanas.
COREÓGRAFO: Frank Cháves está participando en el Programa “Descubrimiento / NCI” por segunda vez. (Fotos cortesía de Irvine Barclay Theatre)
Un programa intensivo de 3 semanas es un foro a la creatividad Por Gloria Díaz Excélsior
Durante cuatro años, 15 bailarines y cuatro coreógrafos se han reunido en la Universidad of California, Irvine, como parte de la “Iniciativa Nacional de Coreógrafos” (NCI, por sus siglas en inglés). Los bailarines aprenden cuatro piezas originales creadas por cada uno de los cuatro coreógrafos que asisten al programa intensivo que está bajo la dirección de Molly Lynch. El final del proyecto es la presentación pública de los cuatro ballets creados durante las últimas tres semanas. Recientemente, Excélsior tuvo la oportunidad de conversar con el coreógrafo Frank Cháves y con el bailarín Gilmer Durán sobre sus experiencias en el
programa. Ofrecieron su propia perspectiva sobre el particular.
LA PERSPECTIVA COREOGRÁFICA Residente de Chicago, Frank Cháves ha sido desde 2001 el único director artístico para la Conpañía de Baile de River North Chicago, a la que se unió en 1992. Esta es la segunda vez que el bailarín de 47 años de edad ha participado en el programa NCI. Aunque nacido en Cuba, Cháves fue criado en los Estados Unidos. Ha sido miembro del Ballet Hispánico de New York, algo que dijo “tuvo sentido para mí física y emocionalmente”. ¿Cuán importante es ser un latino en esta industria? Mientras más viejo me pongo más importante es ser latino. Cuando trabajaba con coreógrafos, ellos comentaban acerca de la pasión en mi trabajo y empecé a reconocer las diferencias y era que yo soy latino y cubano. ¿Qué significa involucrado en NCI?
estar
NCI Discovery 28 de julio, 8 p.m.
Irvine Barclay Theatre 4242 Campus Drive, Boletos: $22 - $28
www.thebarclay.org Esto es un lugar donde uno puede llegar para hacer cualquiera cosa que nos haga feliz. Para un coreógrafo tener un lugar como éste es un sueño que se ha vuelto realidad. ¿Qué has aprendido de esta segunda participación en NCI? Disfruto cuando he obtenido la oportunidad de hacerlo de nuevo. La gran lección es saber que puedo venir aquí y hacer un trabajo coreográfico completamente diferente.
LA PERSPECTIVA DEL BAILARÍN Nacido en Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Gilmer Durán ha trabajado con el Ballet Nacional de Caracas y estudió en la Fundación Arte Nuevo por dos años. Al llegar a los Estados
Unidos, Durán se convirtió en miembro del Tulsa Ballet, pero dejó la compañía después de media temporada. A los 34 años ya ha cumplido su cuarta temporada con el Eugene Ballet/Ballet Idazo. ¿Cuán importante es ser latino en esta industria? Al pensar que estoy aquí e intentando hacer algo diferente, descubro un cierto sentido de propiedad de lo que hago. Y eso es lo que ser latino representa para mí. ¿Qué significa para ti participar en NCI? Te concentras en trabajar en lo que necesitas trabajar, lo que es el proceso. Hay algo que es muy regocijante para el bailarín o el coreógrafo, ésto es el proceso creativo. El ambiente es perfecto. ¿Cuál es la parte más difícil de estar aqui? Desde todos los aspectos esta es una gran experiencia, pero la parte más difícil es la estámina y el entrenamiento. Tener que entrenar todos los días y esforzarse hasta el límite todo el tiempo porque al final del día es lo que te hace mejorar como bailarín.
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
Show
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER • SATURDAY, JULY 26, 2008
‘Dance lab’ results go into action onstage The annual National Choreographers Initiative gives artists freedom and support to create new ballets, which will be performed tonight. By DEBRA LEVINE SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
A choreographer’s life can be lonely, Molly Lynch observes. She should know. The Orange County native has worked closely with choreographers her entire career – first as a professional dancer, then as director of Ballet Pacifica, and lately as artistic director of the annual National Choreographers Initiative (NCI). “When choreographers arrive in a new town on assignment,” Lynch explains, “they live in the local hotel, and work long hours alone in a dance studio. They make the dance, transfer it to the cast, and then leave.” Choreography is a particularly hard gig in the ballet world, she notes, because “commissions come as part of a larger package. A ballet’s theme, music, length, set and costume design, and lead dancers are all often predetermined.” NCI provides a break from this system. Four selected choreographers create new compositions over a three-week period, using 16 professional dancers hired especially for the summer program. This annual Orange County “dance laboratory” closes its fifth summer session with a showcase tonight at Irvine Barclay Theatre. “NCI grants these
burgeoning artists the luxury of making a work of their desire. They choose their own music, theme and cast. That’s a significant gift to creative people,” Lynch says. “They’re granted the freedom to experiment, noodle and tweak for three weeks – with or without a finished product.” In principle, an entire NCI creation can land in the waste bin. Or only three good minutes of a 10-minute dance may be usable, finding its way into a larger work at another time. Many ballets do reach fruition. According to NCI officials, a dozen of the pieces begun here have been premiered or further developed and performed elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad. “Some choreographers arrive at NCI armed with a specific commission,” Lynch says. “Gina Patterson came with one from Nashville Ballet. Val Caniparoli had one from Richmond Ballet. Lynn Taylor-Corbett began her Appalachian music piece here, and then expanded it to a fullevening work for
EYE ON THE PROCESS: Artistic director Molly Lynch watches the dancers and choreographers during the National Choreographers Initiative in June 2007. Carolina Ballet.” NCI fellow Edmund Stripe finds the “no results necessary” policy astonishing, but in a good way. Says Stripe, “I’m used to working on deadline, so the open-ended concept is a bit alien. But it’s great.” Stripe’s abstract ballet, set to music by minimalist composer Marc Mellitz, will be on view tonight.
and choreographers. The dancers we hire all speak the language of contemporary ballet. I want to support this vocabulary because I feel ballet choreographers don’t have as much opportunity as those working in modern dance.” “Many major ballet companies run in-house creative workshops,” Lynch says, “including
Lynch is devoted to the evolution of the art form: “I lean toward ballet dancers
Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and New York City Ballet. But
there’s no independent program comparable to NCI.” Experts at a national level praise the program. “It’s fantastic,” says Sasha Anawalt, director of USC Annenberg Cultural Journalism Programs. “It’s so important to give choreographers the chance to work in a relaxed atmosphere on something that is not ‘Swan Lake.’ “Also, Molly has very good taste in recruiting talent.” Some are puzzled by why the performance is one night only. This is a strategic decision by Lynch: “The performance is not the point; it’s about the threeweek process. We videotape the show and the audience Q&A, all for the
choreographers’ benefit.” One innovation this year is youtube.com/ncidance, where videos of daily studio sessions are posted. “The video diaries give our audience insight into a ballet’s origins. You can see that dance phrases are not set in stone; they’re molded, like clay sculpture,” Lynch says. “You see that dancers have input into choreographic decision making. This takes place in rehearsal. NCI is dedicated to the value of that process.” “We want to demystify our art form so audiences understand there is no right or wrong in interpreting a dance. It’s not fixed. Choreography evolves,” she says.
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646
Choreographers Show Works in Progress The program’s four dances were over, and the applause faded away. But most of the Saturday-night audience at the Irvine Barclay Theatre remained rooted to their seats. Chairs materialized onstage, and it was time for “Ask the Choreographer,” a favorite part of the annual National Choreographers Initiative (NCI) worksin-progress showing. One man wanted an explanation for dance-maker Rick McCullough’s choice of music: a full 15 minutes of airraid-siren noise (by composer Michael Gordon). “I knew it was going to become a challenge for the audience,” McCullough admitted. “There’s no escaping the emotional intensity of it. It’s about being afraid.” Then he added: “I beg your pardon if it was hard to listen to.” Getting an explanation from an artist, let alone an apology, is one of the reasons that NCI has become one of the most popular Southern California dance events. The independent, nonprofit NCI, run in partnership with the Barclay Theatre and UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, attracted a near-capacity crowd Saturday. Nearly everything about it defies conventional wisdom. The pieces are incomplete and often experimental; they are performed by a pickup group of 16 dancers from mid-size troupes across the United States, with nary a star in the bunch; and the choreographers are little known outside the dance world. But NCI, now in its sixth year, sells tickets to those who want a behind-thescenes look at the mysterious and normally private process of creation. As movies such as “Center Stage” and television programs like “Dancing With the Stars” have demonstrated, there’s an allure to dance’s backstage scene, which even sophisticated events like NCI can tap into. Every year the NCI works-in-progress showing attracts neophytes, die-hard dance fans, local arts administrators and usually a surprise out-of-town guest or two. On Saturday, international star Vladimir Malakhov, now a dancer and director with the Staatsballett Berlin, was spotted.
Culture Monster All the Arts, All the Time July 27, 2009
Dancers perform Deanna Carter’s “Ash to Glass.” Credit: Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times
The director of NCI is Molly Lynch, former artistic director of Ballet Pacifica and now a UCI professor, and she served as host and moderator. The participants have been in Irvine since July 6 practicing six days a week for nine hours day, she explained. The 16 dancers were chosen from 100 applicants, a record number. The choreographers have no conditions on what they can make, and they retain the rights to their works. (The performance is not reviewed.) First up was Deanna Carter, a ballet mistress and professor at the University of Iowa. With five days to go before the showing, Carter said she finally put music (excerpts from compositions by Ezio Bosso and Gary Eistler) to her composition, “Ash to Glass.” “I came here without a preconceived idea of what I wanted to work on,” she explained, adding that the creation process would go on back home. “So for me...,” she continued. Lynch gently touched her arm. “You can’t tell everything,” Lynch said, and the two women left the stage so the eightperson lyrical piece could begin. McCullough’s rapid-fire work “Weather” was second. “One of the things I set
out to do was to develop my own personal contemporary ballet vocabulary,” said McCullough, a professor at Florida State University. New York resident Sidra Bell, the only one of the four who has her own company, said she had been experimenting with gestures for her piece “Iconography.” She commissioned a vocal score from her father, jazz musician Dennis Bell. “I’m very fascinated by hands and upper body. One of the dancers told me, ‘I’m still trying to understand your language,’ ” she noted. “Hush-Hush” was last. Created by Olivier Wevers, a principal with Pacific Northwest Ballet, it was an exploration of clandestine relationships, and was framed by a shadow play scene in a doorway. Like the others, Wevers began with movement before music. Well into the process, he still couldn’t choose between harpsichord compositions by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass. Stumped, he turned to his collaborators. “I let the dancers vote,” he said, revealing just how democratic the fabled artistic process can be. -- Laura Bleiberg
National Choreographers Initiative • www.nchoreographers.org • July 9 - 28 , 2012
Events • laweekly.com July 23, 2010 National Choreographers Initiative Sat., July 31, 2010 at 8:00pm Irvine Barclay Theatre
GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY By Ann Haskins
Hardly the capital of the cutting edge, Orange County nonetheless harbors passionate proponents of contemporary dance. Exhibit one: Molly Lynch, who showcased new choreography during her years leading Ballet Pacifica, where she built an audience that trusted her taste in dancemakers and dancers. That audience followed Lynch when she left Ballet Pacifica and established the National Choreographers Initiative. Now in its seventh year, NCI has again recruited four choreographers, who range from the known and established -- Anne Marie deAngelo and San Francisco’s Victor Kabaniaev, with the less familiar; Europe’s Helen Heineman and Canada’s Peter Quanz, who are given three weeks to explore new movement with 16 dancers. With professional ballet dancers on hiatus during the summer, NCI consistently attracts a high caliber of dancers from major U.S. ballet companies. With Lynch as moderator, the postperformance Q&A offers insights into the choreographers’ process. Catch a preview of the choreographers and dancers preparing atthebarclay.org.
Location
Irvine Barclay Theatre 4242 Campus Dr.; Irvine CA
NCI Discovery July 28th at 8pm • Irvine Barclay Theatre • www.thebarclay.org • 949.854.4646