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KAITLYN'S GUEST POST: The Pontus Chronicles II

10/22/2015

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Pontus in Faune, photo by Mats Lindgren
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Georgina Pazcoguin and Kaitlyn in Tactile Affinity, photo by Mats Lindgren
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Georgina Pazcoguin and Christopher Adams in Tactile Affinity, photo by Mats Lindgren
Flashback: October/November 2014, Havana, Cuba
 
 
Autumn ended a dreamlike summer residency in Pocantico for Pontus & Co, and we agreed to meet again in October to continue preparation for our scheduled performances at the International Ballet Festival in Havana, Cuba.  This was an impossible promise to keep, as time with artists from many different companies—countries, even—in one New York studio (correction! Two, as we continued to commute between Gibneys) proved almost nonexistent. The group’s rehearsals quickly shrank from two weeks to a mere few hours of scattered and sparsely attended review sessions.
           
I was back in the business of making myself a particularly difficult freelancer to herd. Days after sending Pontus a virtual (emailed) love letter re: our Pocantico residency, I’d settled back into the comfortably uncommitted hectic of my usual extracurriculars: running quickly between school and “work” (instructing SAB’s youngest), and showing up tardy for scheduled rehearsals with mismatched socks, a poorly pinned bun, dying electronics plugged into any available outlet, and an alarm set for my early departure. This behavior does not bother Pontus. He is usually as unruffled as I am frantic. “When you have to leave you’ll leave,” he nods, “and until then, we’ll work.”
           
I landed in Cuba a day behind the other dancers, carrying at Pontus’s behest a box of several large antlers that had arrived in Brooklyn via Amazon(.com). The antlers made it through customs while my Columbia Spanish failed an Ebola-related entrance interview, during which the company’s presenter eventually came to my aid in assuring my interrogator I was neither Texan nor feverish. At last I was reunited with Pontus Lidberg Dance, but our allotted free time had dwindled. I brought my rusty Balanchine technique to a very Russian ballet class, played entitled tourist in Old Havana (peering invasively into small living spaces) and spent regrettably long hours connected to 

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Fall for Dance

10/16/2015

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Patricia Delgado and Miami City Ballet, photo by David Azouley

I accompanied my friend Carla Körbes to the opening night of Fall for Dance recently. Carla was in town to support the L.A. Dance Project, to which she was recently appointed Assistant Artistic Director. Fall for Dance, a festival that began in 2004, is a great tradition. The cheap, flat-rate tickets and eclectic programming bring out an audience of dancers and true connoisseurs. Everyone there is passionate and knowledgeable about dance, which makes for an invigorating environment.

The evening kicked off with an excellent rendition of George Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante by the Miami City Ballet. I am always thrilled by the energy MCB brings to every performance, and they did not disappoint here in one of Balanchine’s most kinetic works. Patricia Delgado danced the ballerina role and she was just lovely. She gave full value to every step, especially in the carriage of her head and neck. She is such a sunny presence onstage and off; she radiated pure joy even in the trickiest cadenza passages.
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The corps looked sharp and tight, and my eye was frequently drawn to the very pretty Zoe Zien. The men had clean lines and were perfectly synced in what is one of my favorite passages of choreography of all time: the moment at the end of their first entrance, right before the women reenter, when they perform a simple sequence of cabriole arabesque to tendu derrière four times in a row to Tchaikovsky’s ebbing piano chords. Never has a repeat been so effective, in my opinion.

The only qualm I had about the piece was the canned music. In Allegro, the interplay of the ballerina and the pianist is crucial. Without that spontaneity in phrasing there is some frisson of excitement that is lost. It was unfortunate to have been deprived of Pat’s full musical artistry here. It was also a shame in the measured ritards before the

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KAITLYN'S GUEST POST: The Pontus Chronicles I

10/4/2015

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Pocantico, photo by Pontus Lidberg
​Flashback: August 2014, The Rockefeller Estate, Pocantico
 
Today, like every other day, I’m running late. I’ll review, on the commute from _________ (fill in the blank: school, teaching, another rehearsal) as much choreography as a delayed train, and decorum, allows. I might also muscle my way into a partially obstructed subway seat, where I use my Pilates Magic Circle for a few inner thigh exercises in transit. I’ve set a phone alarm for my anticipated early departure from said rehearsal for my appointment at _________ (fill in the blank: Columbia, SAB, DANY studios).  My ensemble is predictably sweatpants-centered, accessorized with a backpack, a dance bag, and an oversized Magic Circle worn as a necklace.
 
Today, I arrive five minutes late and (this is a first) at the wrong studio. Pontus, as it happens, has made the same mistake. Gibney Dance Center, where we’re scheduled to rehearse, has two locations in Manhattan: one on Broadway and another also on Broadway. I am (again) on a crowded train, this time in the company of my colleague, and we match in our baggy, movement-ready outfits except that mine is almost always black and his are never black and always various shades of blue. My coffee cup hovers menacingly above a stranger’s head as I brace myself against the train’s sudden starts. When I catch Pontus’s concerned gaze across the car, we both laugh. Some days, the real work is making it to work.
 
Other days, special occasions, space is a given. Whenever I travel with Pontus, hustling to keep up with his purposeful stride, I suspect neither of us has forgotten where we met: in the dappled oranges of an expansive, temporarily repurposed carriage house. In August of last year, I joined 

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    Faye Arthurs
    - Faye Arthurs

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