Plugged In

February 28, 2013

Ontheboards.tv, Create with Taylor and local dance hub websites; Ballet in Cinema;
Ballet: Photographs of the New York City Ballet

Raja Kelly, Anna Schon, and Christiana Axelsen in zoe/juniper’s
A Crack in Everything, available at OntheBoards.tv. Photo by Christopher Duggan, Courtesy zoe/juniper.

 

Websites

Seattle’s On the Boards, one of the country’s most adventurous presenters, has expanded its reach with OntheBoards.tv. The presenter films performances at home and in partnership with other venues across the country to make the works of artists like Ralph Lemon, Morgan Thorson, and Tanja Liedtke available for rent and download, or subscription (with special rates for educational use). Curated by OtB artistic director Lane Czaplinski (who considers expenses like music ownership in determining which shows appear on the site), the lineup is scheduled to include performances from 2013 festivals like PS122’s Coil in NYC and Fusebox in Austin. And right now, you can view Crystal Pite’s Dark Matters, Catherine Cabeen’s Into the Void, and zoe/juniper’s A Crack in Everything. —Kina Poon

 

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Launched last year, Paul Taylor Dance Company’s Create with Taylor site gave fans unprecedented access to the man and company—and is back again for a new world premiere. For a donation of $5, members—or “creators”—will be able to view videos, photos, and blog entries documenting the making of the choreographer’s latest work. To see a full list of benefit levels, go to www.createwithtaylor.org. —K. P.

 

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Looking to expand your dance horizons? Many regions have their own locally curated sites that can help you make the most of a short visit—or transition to a new locale. Most of the information is user-submitted, so double-check company websites for the most up-to-date information. Here are five of our favorites:

 

SeattleDances posts previews and reviews of what’s going on in Emerald City at www.seattledances.blogspot.com. Created by one of our freelance writers, Rosie Gaynor, the site links to area companies and schools, and lists upcoming performances, workshops, and events.

Arizona Dance Coalition’s monthly e-newsletter, to which you can subscribe at www.azdancecoalition.org, is filled with upcoming performances and special events.

PhiladelphiaDANCE.org posts an auditions board, journal entries, and grant deadlines, in addition to class and performance calendars.

Boston Dance Alliance (www.bostondance-alliance.org) welcomes new Bostonians with a “Moving Here?” page, in addition to performance and class listings, audition and job postings.

Dance Panorama in Detroit posts performances and available drop-in classes at www.dancepanorama.com. —K. P.

 

 

Cinema

 

 

 

Even if you couldn’t get to Holland for Crystal Pite’s world premiere for Nederlands Dans Theater last month, you’re in luck. Ballet in Cinema is bringing the full-length performance to theaters March 3 and 5. We expect that the NDT dancers will push her extreme movement and theatricality to the limit. International star Natalia Osipova has been scooped up as a guest artist with La Scala Ballet. Her performance, with Roberto Bolle, of Roland Petit’s Notre-Dame de Paris (based on Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame), will also air this month. Finally, filmed a little closer to home in Tampa, Youth America Grand Prix’s gala is a mix of excerpts by NYC stars (including American Ballet Theatre’s Marcelo Gomes and Veronika Part, and New York City Ballet’s Ashley Bouder and Daniel Ulbricht), with other favorites like San Francisco Ballet’s Maria Kochetkova, National Ballet of Canada’s Greta Hodgkinson, and Dutch National Ballet’s Matthew Golding. See www.balletincinema.com for times and theaters. —K. P.

 

Photo of Gomes and Part in
Swan Lake by Siggul/Visual Arts Masters, Courtesy Ballet in Cinema.

 

 

Books

 


Ballet: Photographs of the New York City Ballet
 

By Henry Leutwyler. Steidl, 2012. Illustrated. 488 pages, 270 photographs. $88.

 

 

Have a hankering for a six-pound book on New York City Ballet? We know just the one. During NYCB’s 2012 winter season, photographer Henry Leutwyler followed the company into rehearsal studios and backstage. He’s documented bleeding feet and ragged tutus. He’s experimented with blurry images, unusual vantage points, and haphazard timing. What redeems this tome is Chapter Five, where Leutwyler creates intimate, glamorous portraits of many of the lead dancers (some shot before 2012). Here you get a sense of Jenifer Ringer’s bright eyes and warm smile, Andrew Veyette’s determined face in a leap, Ashley Bouder’s flirty smile amid three leaping men, Benjamin Millepied’s chic 5 o’ clock shadow, and the cozy friendship of Teresa Reichlen, Sterling Hyltin, and Sara Mearns. But that’s only if you already know who they are. If you haven’t seen the company often enough to recognize the dancers’ faces, you’re out of luck. Nowhere in its 488 pages does Ballet identify the dancers. In the introduction, ballet master in chief Peter Martins lauds Leutwyler’s love of the company, and this book is certainly proof of his dedication. But it can be frustrating if you want to know who the actual dancers are. So if you splurge to buy this book, plan to spend some time searching the NYCB website so that you can distinguish one beauty from another. —Wendy Perron

 

 

Photo of Reichlen, Hyltin, and Mearns by Henry Leutwyler, Courtesy NYCB.