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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery

Pointe: Tess Voelker Is Only 23, but She’s About to Premiere Her First Work for the Paris Opéra Ballet

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By Laura Cappelle

12 November 2020

Not many 23-year-olds get commissioned by the Paris Opéra Ballet. For Tess Voelker, who grew up between Chicago and New Jersey before moving to Europe to start her dance career, 2020 has turned into an unexpectedly charmed year: In addition to getting a contract as a dancer with Nederlands Dans Theater, she created a pas de deux, Clouds Inside, for POB corps members Marion Gautier de Charnacé and Antonin Monié, as part of a contemporary-choreographers’ evening.

While a second national lockdown in France means the November performances have been canceled, Clouds Inside will still get an audience. On November 13, the Paris Opéra Ballet will stream a closed performance of Voelker’s work, along with creations by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Mehdi Kerkouche, on Facebook Live at 8 pm Paris time for €4,49. (Tickets are not available in the U.S.)

Pointe recently spoke with Voelker to learn more about how she landed this remarkable opportunity.

 

How did this collaboration with POB come about?

It all started with the social media world during quarantine. I rented a yoga studio down the street and I kept publishing lots of improv videos on Instagram. And one day, a dancer said he’d found my account thanks to Aurélie Dupont [Paris Opera Ballet’s artistic director]. I sent her a message to say it was an honor. She asked me if I ever choreographed, and I said no.

Then a few months later, I get a call from her. Due to coronavirus reasons, they were having a smaller show and she thought to use this time to reach out to more risky artists. I certainly am a risk, and I’m a cheap risk, too [laughs].

Read the full story here.

Forbes: Artists Clobbered By COVID-19, With 2.7 Million Creative Job Losses In The United States, Study Finds

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SMU/DataArts: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Workforce Demographics Pilot Study Results

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Brookings: Lost Art: Measuring COVID-19’s devastating impact on America’s creative economy

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Dance Magazine: Kyle Abraham Is Dance Magazine’s Guest Editor This Week

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By Jennifer Stahl

16 November 2020

During my first year at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, there was a grad student in my ballet class who mystified me. At the end of almost every across-the-floor combination, he’d drop the classical positions and improvise for an additional count of eight, mixing hip-hop swagger with contemporary abandon. In ballet class! As a sheltered bunhead who’d always strictly followed the teacher’s combinations like they were The Law, watching him find his own groove in the corner blew my mind. Partly because it felt so rebellious, but also because his movement was simply mesmerizing to watch.

That guy was Kyle Abraham. And even back then in 2003, he was already making his own rules.

 

He would go on to win a MacArthur “genius” grant 10 years later for his bold, haunting works about police brutality and violence, intimacy and vulnerability. And he endeared himself to the dance community by using that money to help fund his A.I.M dancers’ 52-week contracts (with health insurance and vacation days—even through a pandemic). Then he became even more beloved by refusing to be presented on any rep program that didn’t also include a work by a female choreographer.

I’m thrilled to announce that this week, he’s Dance Magazine‘s first-ever guest editor for our website, taking over starting today with stories that were all his ideas. Stay tuned for pieces about what it’s like to join a new company during the pandemic, what goes into titling a dance work, how directors choose rep, what happens to a choreographer after they “emerge” into mid-career and more. It’s an exciting lineup with lots of insight for anyone in the dance field.

Read the full story here.

The Guardian: Royal Ballet Live: Within the Golden Hour review – sheer, ravishing class from top to pointed toe

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15 November 2020

Planned for a live audience then switched to a streamed show, the Royal Ballet’s latest gala is pretty much an all-killer no-filler programme with a company of dancers who, if anything, seem to have benefited from their hiatus away from the stage.

Valentino Zucchetti gets the honour of opening the show with a world premiere, Scherzo. Zucchetti has been choreographing for some time without making huge waves, but this confident piece of neoclassicism shows he knows what he’s doing. It’s set to Rachmaninov, as, coincidentally, is the evening’s other new-ish piece, Cathy Marston’s In Our Wishes. Extracted from her ballet Three Sisters, this pas de deux was debuted at the Royal’s first post-lockdown performance last month. I found it more compelling this time round, perhaps thanks to the dancers (Romany Pajdak and Calvin Richardson), perhaps because the camera’s lens brought us closer to Pajdak’s haunted expressions. In a short duet they find gravitas, stoicism, desperation and great love between two people who just can’t melt the barrier between them.

Elsewhere, we get to explore the company’s history, with three Frederick Ashton works, including Dance of the Blessed Spirits, originally made for the opera Orpheus in 1953. William Bracewell dances the solo as if it’s a stream of consciousness. Full of feeling but never OTT, his dancing has an honesty about it that’s very moreish. Ashton’s divine Monotones II from 1965 is a trio that depends on absolute control and synchrony, plus Melissa Hamilton’s ability to do vertical splits – toe pointed to ceiling, head clasped to knee – while Reece Clarke and Nicol Edmonds rotate her on pointe. It’s extremely exposed, and skilfully pulled off. Staying in the 60s, Yasmine Naghdi and Edmonds bring seriousness and a scrupulous precision to the stark beauty of Kenneth MacMillan’s Concerto, the combination of choreography, Shostakovich’s music and glowing sunset backdrop quite ravishing.

Read the full story here.