Watch: New York Choral Society, “God Is Seen”
Like dance and the other performing arts, choral singing has had a tough year. Singing is breath, breath carries germs, and these days large groups of people singing together are nightmares. But the urge to raise voices in a song together, like the urge to switch to music, is powerful. Now the New York Choral Society is combining the two – dancing and singing – in a new short film that will be released on February 23rd.
The film, a setting of the anthem “God Is Seen,” will be available indefinitely on the company’s website and YouTube page. It is tuned to the sound of 40 unaccompanied voices, recorded individually, and then mixed using software called Soundtrap. Like many ancient folk anthems, the earliest version of “God Is Seen” was based on an existing popular song that provided its simple, hypnotic melody. The Choral Society sings a 1967 version by the American composer Alice Parker, which has become an integral part of the American choral repertoire.
The dance that the Choral Society commissioned for this piece is a duet by Claudia Schreier. It was also remotely created with Schreier on FaceTime in a state while the dancers – Larissa Gerszke of Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Chalvar Monteiro of Alvin Ailey – rehearse in New York. In the film, Gerszke and Monteiro dance in a performance room in Brooklyn that has been converted by the church, the Irondale, a free, unencumbered room into which light streams in from above. “I wanted to keep it simple,” Schreier said in an interview, “to honor the human voice and the human form. I love the idea that it is about the two things that don’t need any additional elements. They are the most natural way we exist. “
Observe: Ronald K. Brown
The transcendence of mind has long been a central driving force behind the work of Ronald K. Brown, whose Brooklyn-based company Ronald K. Brown / Evidence turns 35 this year. Thanks to the emergence of “bubble residencies”, in which dancers quarantine and take several Covid tests so that they can rehearse together, the company has been able to continue working. (To attend one of these residences, the dancers traveled 15 hours on the charter bus to St. Louis.)
The result: a program with excerpts from dances that Brown has created over three decades and which will be broadcast live on February 18 at 8 p.m. Eastern. The performance – produced by four presenters – will be broadcast from the stage of the Joyce Theater in Manhattan to the world. (Tickets can be found on joyce.org and the stream will be available through March 4th.)
The pieces are from “March” 1995 and contain words taken from the speeches and writings of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With the exception of the ensemble work “Mercy” from 2019, by the singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello, the dances are solos and duets. The program is a great introduction to Brown’s style with its infectious mix of African, Caribbean and African American ballroom dancing.
Watch: New York Ballet, ‘Prodigal Son’
The New York City Ballet returns online with a series of weekly spotlights of key works by its founding choreographer, George Balanchine. Week 1 is dedicated to the biblically inspired “Prodigal Son”, Balanchine’s second oldest surviving work, created in 1929 for the Ballets Russes.
The title role has been danced by everyone from Jerome Robbins to Baryshnikov, but the man it belonged to in the 1960s was Edward Villella, who will speak about his experience of dancing the ballet on City Ballet’s podcast, which will start on February 22nd The company will stream an open rehearsal and conversation with Maria Kowroski, a dancer closely linked to the role of the Siren, the beautiful but dangerous nemesis of the lost, in the evening at 8 p.m. Kowroski is expected to retire in the fall, so this is a great opportunity to hear her thoughts. On February 25, the entire ballet will be shown in a recorded performance from a few years ago, danced by Daniel Ulbricht and Teresa Reichlen. You can find these free shows (which will be available through March 4th) at nycballet.com.
Relocation: beginners ballet lessons
If you’ve ever tried dipping a toe into ballet as an adult but were afraid of feeling ridiculous, now is a good time to try. What most people don’t realize is that most beginner classes in ballet studios require a basic level of knowledge. The same goes for most of the courses offered online by professional dancers with extra time.
What you really need is an introductory class given by a skilled teacher who can patiently teach the names of the steps and basic coordination. Thanks to Zoom, this is now possible at home without the fear of embarrassment. A chair or countertop to rest your hand, sweatpants and a small space – let’s say the gap between the couch and the television – are all you need.
Both the Mark Morris Dance Center and the Broadway Dance Center offer one-week virtual ballet introductory workshops. The Ballet Academy East, a small neighborhood school on the Upper East Side, lets you sign up for individual classes, which is very nice.
“We keep them at a really basic level so that people can feel comfortable and then move to one of our beginner classes when they’re ready,” said Julia Dubno, the school’s founder and director, on a phone call. Every week there are four different “Introduction to Ballet” classes to choose from (with different teachers). The Tuesday and Sunday courses include live piano accompaniment, also via Zoom. You can choose the teacher who suits you best or alternatively. And at $ 12 per class, there’s no excuse not to try.
