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Hedi Pope Centennial

Hedi Politzer/Pitt/Pope was born 100 years ago on March 18 in Austria. She was a pupil of Vienna’s waltzing and ballet-based modern dancers (particularly of Ellinor Tordis, Hedy Pfundmayr and the internationally renowned Grete Wiesenthal) and can be seen in the 1937 film “Silhouetten”. She fled from Austria’s 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany to the United States, where she appeared as a leading dancer in “refugee revues” that introduced European cabaret to New York’s Broadway.  She was told to forget her earlier dance training and become an American modern dancer. Is it possible, though, for the body to forget what it once danced? Hedi did acquire new skills in America, shortened her last name to Pitt and during World War 2 married an American sailor (William Pope). She founded CODA (Contemporary Dancers of Alexandria, Virginia), making it a prominent studio and company across the Potomac river from Washington, DC and, as Hedi Pope, directed it for decades. Hedi now lives at a retirement home in the mountains of North Carolina, near her daughter’s and son’s families. Happy 100^th to you, Hedi!     

(see also the tribute to Hedi P in the March issue of the on-line Austrian dance publication tanz.at)

Bits & Pieces

Demo: Now 2020
with Damian Woetzel, Jon Boogz, Robbie Fairchild,
Lil Buck, Lauren Lovette, Roman Mejia, Dario Natarelli,
Melissa Toogood,  Brooklyn Rider quartet, Kate Davis, Alberta Khoury
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 2, 2020

 by George Jackson
copyright 2020 by George Jackson

There wasn’t the familiar sparkle. This series of highbrow vaudeville acts usually comes to a sizzling climax. Not this time. I don’t think the coronavirus can be blamed. Moreover, the program got off to a good and snappy start with “1.2.3.4.5.6”, a rhythmic phrase danced, recited and clapped by three men (Lil Buck, Robbie Fairchild, Dario Natarelli) and one woman (Melissa Toogood). Then our host and curator, Damian Woetzel, appeared and was his suave self, giving the evening a spoken introduction. What followed, though, seemed random fragments. Even variety shows need substance.

The cast of DEMO in A Story. Photo by Mena Brunette

Achievement

“Defile”, “Birthday Offering”, “Meditation from Thais”,
“Allegro Brillante”, “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” 
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 20, 2020

 by George Jackson
copyright 2020 by George Jackson

It is a fun program, the Balanchine and Ashton (and Kent) quintuple bill that The Washington Ballet is flaunting this February week. An audience that seemed to fill the theater enjoyed itself from start to stop – especially the stop: Balanchine’s “Slaughter”, which isn’t one of his sublime masterpieces. I’ve seen many performances of it but never a better one. It is a “character” ballet with the gals not on toe but in heeled shoes and the only academic danseur a comic lampoon. Yet this choreography as danced on Thursday night revealed the classic steps and stances that are at the core of all the shimmying and shaking and hoofing by Sona Kharatian as the striptease girl, Daniel Roberge as the tap dancer, their cronies and combatants. Whatever else artistically and commercially these five dance pieces achieved, there was satisfaction!

Sona Kharatian and Dan Roberge in George Balanchine's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" Photo by xmbphotography.

Stalwart in Step or Stance

 

“A Tribute to Marian Anderson”

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company

McEvoy Auditorium

National Portrait Gallery

Washington, DC

February 3, 2020

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2020 by George Jackson

 

She was one of the world’s greatest singers. Marian Anderson (1897-1993) specialized in German lieder and African American spirituals. Opera she had the chance to try only late in her career because prejudice against her African ancestry had, earlier, kept her off stages such as New York’s Met. Currently, Marian Anderson is the subject of a Portrait Gallery exhibition as well as the inspiration for Burgess’s choreography. Almost all the music Burgess chose is by Johannes Brahms, half a dozen of his lieder (songs) - from Opus 43 to Opus 121. Burgess placed the singer (soprano Millicent Scarlett) prominently on stage, either left (between pianist Jeffery Watson and the dancers) or center (surrounded by the dancers). He uses the seven dancers in two ways, as dancers and as watchers, perhaps as wardens. This piece displays the most austere dance images Burgess has made, repeatedly from song to song, over and over again. Yet no two of the danced “songs” are actually alike. Remarkable is the effect of subtle differences.

 

Photo: Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company. Tony Powell for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

Current Classicism

“The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude”,

“Approximate Sonata 2016”, “Petite Mort”,

and Shostakovich “Piano Concerto #1”

The National Ballet of Canada

Opera House

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

January 28, 2020

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2020 by George Jackson

 

The Canadians opened their visit to Washington by exploring what classical choreography looks like today. The four pieces on this program share very basic features yet are intriguingly distinct, even the first two works which were made by the same individual. Everyone interested in the state of dance could learn a lot from these ballets by America and Germany’s William Forsythe, by Czechoslovakia and The Netherlands’ Jiri Kylian and by Russia and America’s Alexei Ratmansky. There were just two chances to catch this event, Canadian National Ballet’s first night in town and its second. Then the company goes on to standard, 19th Century classicism with “The Sleeping Beauty”. 

 

Naoya Ebe and Harrison James in William Forsythe's "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude."

 

Image and Impact

Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake”

A New Adventures Production

Opera House

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

January 22, 2020

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2020 by George Jackson

 

The image of a swan in ballet is, traditionally, that of a human figure streamlined to the stretching point with arms undulating as if they were wings about to lift off and toes pinpointing the ground. Usually the figure is female. Likely this image predates the initial (late 19th, early 20th Century) “Swan Lake” stagings by Julius Reisinger and by Joseph Hansen in Moscow, by Marius Petipa and/or Lev Ivanov in and near St. Petersburg, and then by Jaroslav Berger (Act 2 only) and (the complete 4 acts) by Berger and Achille Viscusi in Prague. The ballet’s composer, Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, kept changing and complicating the music. The score had started as one for a simple, amateur production and early on had included singing. Passages by another composer, Ricardo Drigo, were added and later removed sometimes. Tchaikovsky’s ultimate music was very Wagnerian. The staging he seems to have liked the most was that of Act 2 in Prague by Berger. However, most productions today refer back to Petipa and/or Ivanov as their source for drama and choreography.

Moonlighting

“The Day”

Wendy Whelan and Maya Beiser in

choreography by Lucinda Childs to

music and poetry by David Lang,

Eisenhower Theater,

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,

Washington, DC

December 6, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

At the start of the 20th Century, Diaghilev’s ballet dancers such as Pavlova, Nijinsky, Karsavina, Bolm et al. did “moderne” numbers on their comcert programs. Nijinsky, of course, has been considered an innovative modern dance choreographer as well as a classic-romantic performer. If ballet and modern dance are analogized to poetry and prose, then the reverse examples - modern dancers doing ballet - aren’t as frequent. They haven’t the requisite bodies nor techniques. Yet there is the instance of Merce Cunningham’s partner, Carolyn Brown, daring to dance in Fokine’s  “Les Sylphides” and doing so quite credibly.

 

Maya Beiser and Wendy Whelan in "The Day." Photo by Hayim Heron and Courtesy of Jacob's Pillow.

Nearly Neighbors

“Increasing”, “Little Prince”, “Its Not a Cry”, “Switch Phase” Duo, “Last Glass”

BalletX for Damian Woetzel’s Demo

Terrace Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

October 25, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

Although the two cities are close on the map, Philadelphia and Washington have dance scenes that pretty much remained strangers. The Pennsylvania Ballet, which is at home in Philadelphia, did visit Washington in the past. Yet the  “other” troupe in Philadelphia – BalletX -  had not been seen in DC until now, when Damian Woetzel made it his business to introduce that “contemporary classical” company to audiences in the capital. There are 10 dancers in BalletX, and there was one guest artist for this visit – Robbie Fairchild, formerly of New York City Ballet. Three of the program’s five dances were choreographed by Matthew Neenan. He was one of the principal reasons for founding a “second” ballet troupe in Philadelphia. Neenan uses the dancer’s total body and often deploys it as a unit, as a whole. His choices of music range from a Franz Schubert quintet to folk melodies to dramatic film scores. Something always seems to be happening in Neenan ballets.

 

Ballet X in "The Little Prince." Photo by Teresa Wood.

Ambitions

“Défilé" “Reverence”, “Delusional Beauty”, “Racecar”

The Washington Ballet’s Next Steps Program

Harman Hall

Washington, DC

October 24, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

The next steps danced are not necessarily new ones. Instead, they can stir memories. This program began with silent video clips of dance and short messages before the company’s director, Julie Kent, stepped in front of  the curtains to welcome her audience. The former ballerina looked trim on high platform shoes with tight, light trousers and a top that resembled a feather duster. The audience had been expecting three new ballets but not a fourth, the opener – Kent’s own défilé for 25 young pupils of The Washington School of Ballet, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. This ballet’s title, of course, derives from the Paris Opera’s historic défilés, or filings by, in which the dancers walk, just walk, over the stage. Also, Kent may have been prompted to mount her work by the recent hit made by 20 children from Russia’s Vaganova Academy in the Mariinsky Ballet’s “Paquita”. Our local kids, girls and boys, hadn’t the polish and push of the Russian pupils yet presented more than just promise. Their persistence in skipping, jumping and keeping order created an awesome mood as pianist Glenn Sales supported them with Leo Delibes music. The next ballet, Jessica Lang’s “Reverence”, seemed to have evolved from défilés.

 

Worth Its End

“Paquita”

The Mariinsky Ballet

Opera House

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

October 8 and 10, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

The tastes and skills for this 2017 production of the ballet “Paquita” span several centuries. The story derives from the writings of Spain’s Miguel Cervantez (1547 – 1616). The first dance version premiered 1846 in Paris, choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to music by Edouard Deldevez. The work is named for its principal character: Paquita appears to be a beautiful, young, Spanish gypsy woman. Yet, unknown to everyone (but the audience) she is of noble birth, having been kidnapped as an infant by gypsies who raised her to be a dancer. The knotty plot reveals her true lineage so that she can wed the handsome Andres, an officer who deserts for her sake and is also her cousin. The first Russian production of “Paquita” in 1847, on the heels of the Paris staging, was by choreographers Marius Petipa and Pierre-Frederic Malevergne (the teacher of Lev Ivanov, Petipa’s later and better known collaborator). Petipa restaged “Paquita” several times, adding music by Drigo and Minkus to the Deldevez score, especially for the splurge of dancing at the ballet’s end. That splurge survived on its own. It is Act 3 of the current production, with Petipa’s steps restored by Yuri Burlaka from Stapanov notations now at Harvard University. Is seeing the ballet’s first two acts at all worthwhile?

 

Photo:  The Mariinsky Ballet in "Paquita." Photo by Valentin Baranovsky @State Academic Mariinsky Theatre