Tag Archives: Movemedia

New works, new artistic voices ‘Handmade’ on GR Ballet’s new MOVEMEDIA program

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Nigel Tau, right, working with Grand Rapids Ballet dancers on his new work, part of MOVEMEDIA: Handmade. (WKTV/K.D. Norris)

By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org

James Sofranko, the artistic director of the Grand Rapids Ballet and a growing talent as a choreographer himself, is clearly an advocate of new contemporary dance by new artistic voices.

So it is only natural that, as an advocate for the team of dancers at the ballet, he would seek to include their voices in the upcoming MOVEMEDIA: Handmade program set to have its run Friday to Sunday, Feb. 8-10 at the Peter Martin Wege Theatre.

The headliner of the program is likely to be a powerful, searing work of “Testimony”, a work by the ballet’s continuing choreographer-in-residence, Penny Saunders, inspired by the U.S. Senate hearings for now-Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford. Although another new work by the Joffrey Ballet’s Nicolas Blanc — whom Sofranko worked with at the San Francisco Ballet — will undoubtedly be equally unique and impressive.

For a WKTV video on the program, click here.

But the five other works on the program will be original choreographic efforts by members of the dance company, including Nigel Tau, who apprenticed with the Grand Rapids Ballet in 2015 before joining the company in 2016.

(WKTV/K.D. Norris)

“I think it is wonderful to give an opportunity to the dancers … you do not necessarily have a lot of opportunities given to you,” Sofranko said to WKTV. “This is a program that is about creating new works … you are experimenting and this is a program where it is meant to be an exploration.”

Tau, according to his supplied biography, began dancing at age 10 with The Academy of Dance in his home town of Savannah, Georgia. In 2013, he became a trainee with Next Generation Ballet, and performed in the school’s own productions as well as with Opera Tampa and the Florida Orchestra. He went on to train with BalletMet on a full scholarship, where he performed and rehearsed alongside the company.

Tau’s work, titled “Errant Thoughts”, will not only be the dancer’s first dance creation but will continue his artistic journey — the journey of all artists, really — where excitement and frustration often exist side-by-side.

(WKTV/K.D. Norris)

“This piece is about two different things,” Tau said to WKTV. “It is the story of someone who has had a passion project, or a work they have really be invested in … that feeling of inspiration and excitement … (but also) that continuing cycle of excitement and frustration — is it good enough?”

Bottomline: Handmade is usually pretty good, and Tau’s work, as with the others on the program, are handmade.

MOVEMEDIA: Handmade will be on stage Friday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m.

For tickets visit GRballet.com or call 616-454-4771 x10. The Peter Martin Wege Theatre is located at 341 Elllsworth Avenue SW, Grand Rapids.

GR Ballet’s first 2018 MOVEMEDIA program embraces diversity of modern ballet dance

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By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

Modern dance, some say, is the perfect medium to delicately explore topics of emotional and social importance due to its ability to mix human, often non-verbal movement with unique if not jarring music.

 

It can be beautiful and uncomfortable at the same time.

 

So Grand Rapids Ballet upcoming MOVEMEDIA: Diversity two-installment dance program, the next in its yearly MOVEMEDIA contemporary dance series and premiering this week, Feb. 9-11, seems a perfect vehicle to introduce diverse works by a diverse group of choreographers on the subject of diversity.

 

Grand Rapids Ballet artistic director Patricia Barker. (Supplied)

“The MOVEMEDIA series was created specifically with this idea in mind: The ability to use dance and mixed media as a vehicle to address topics that are germane in today’s world,” Patricia Barker, Grand Rapids Ballet’s soon-to-depart artistic director, said in supplied material. “It’s also important to provide minority choreographers an outlet to create new works and make a mark on the dance world, so we’re very excited to see what they bring to the stage.”

 

Both the Feb. 9-11 program and March 23-25 second program will be presented at the ballet’s Peter Martin Wege Theatre in Grand Rapids. Tickets are still available.

 

MOVEMEDIA: Diversity features six new world premiere works by young choreographers: Jennifer Archibald, Norbert De La Cruz III and Loughlan Prior in the first program, and Olivier Wevers, Uri Sands and Danielle Rowe in the second.

 

Their pieces, according to supplied material, will focus on issues including autism, gender inequality, individual non- conformity, bullying, mental health, medical ethics, the right to love, and more.

 

Jennifer Archibald (Supplied)

Archibald is the founder and artistic director of the Arch Dance Company and program director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives and she is a graduate of the Alvin Ailey School. Her new work is titled “Vapor” and will explore the devaluation of individuality.

 

Norbert De La Cruz III (Supplied)

De La Cruz, who was born in the Phillippines, is a graduate of The Juilliard School and was named one of Dance Magazine‘s Top 25 to Watch for 2016. His work, “The Return of Balance” examines the roles in life we are expected to play and how that differs from our own personal reality.

 

Loughlan Prior (Supplied)

Prior, is an Australia/New Zealand native currently in residence at Royal New Zealand Ballet and the creative director of Prior Visual. He is also an award winning film maker whose work has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival. His work is titled “They/Them” and explores the “fluidity of gender in our new society.”

 

As part of the two-program MOVEMEDIA installment, Grand Rapids Ballet will partner with several local organizations in order to create “wrap-around” programming to help extend the messages to the public, according to supplied material. Those organizations include Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids Children’s Museum, Be Nice, Arbor Circle, and Out on the Lakeshore.

 

Tickets for MOVEMEDIA: Diversity can be purchased at the Grand Rapids Ballet box office at 341 Ellsworth Avenue SW, online at grballet.com or Ticketmaster.com, or by calling 616-454-4771 x10.

 

Modern dance premieres on GR Ballet’s stage with MoveMedia series

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Robert Dekkers and Vanessa Thiessen will be presenting their new work “Dear Light Along the Way to Nothingness”. (Supplied)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

The modern dance scenes in Chicago and San Francisco are two of a very short list of the world’s incubators of dance innovation, and this week the Grand Rapids Ballet is part of the innovation process as it hosts the latest installment of its MoveMedia series.

 

Robyn Mineko Williams will present the world premiere of “Gleam”. (Supplied Hubbard Street Dance Chicago/Todd Rosenberg)

Inbound to the ballet’s Peter Martin Wege Theater will be three world-renowned choreographers bringing world premiere works to the stage: from Chicago’s Hubbard Street dance company is Penny Saunders and Robyn Mineko Williams, each with new works, and from San Francisco’s Post:Ballet is Robert Dekkers, who will be collaborating with Vanessa Thiessen on a third new work.

 

“MoveMedia: World Premieres” will be presented Friday to Sunday, March 10-12, with 7:30 p.m. performances the first two nights and a 2 p.m. matinee on the final day. Tickets are still available for all performances, but the Friday night is near a sell-out.

 

Williams’ work is titled “Gleam”; Saunders’ is “In Frame”; and Dekkers and Thiessen’s work is “Dear Light Along the Way to Nothingness”.

 

Now in its seventh year, MoveMedia is “a contemporary dance series featuring dance works merging visual elements of sets, props, costumes and lighting, framed by technology and digital media to enhance the body in space by providing internationally recognized choreographers a creative canvas,” according to supplied material.

 

Taking full advantage of that “creative canvas” will be the impressive group Saunders, Williams and the duo of Dekkers and Thiessen.

 

Penny Saunders will present “In Frame”. (Supplied)

Saunders began her professional career at The American Repertory Ballet, has been part of Chicago’s Hubbard Street company since 2004, and in 2016 was the recipient of the Process Grace Choreographic Fellowship.

 

Williams, originally from Chicago, spent 12 seasons with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, where in 2010 a work co-choreographed with Hubbard Street 2 director Terence Marling her work premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

 

Dekkers has been named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine and in 2013 was nominated for an Isadora Duncan award for “Outstanding Performance — Individual” with the Diablo Ballet. Thiessen graduated from the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, teaches at Reed College and the Northwest Dance Project in Portland (Oregon), and is the Post:Ballet’s movement director.

 

For a video of Dekker’s Post:Ballet, visit here … and click on Season VI Highlights.

 

For more information on MoveMedia, visit GRballet.com .

 

Grand Rapids Ballet opens season with American modern ‘Movemedia’

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Gerald Arpino’s “Light Rain” will be one of three works presented Oct. 7-9 by the Grand Rapids Ballet as part of its MoveMedia; Made in America program. (Supplied photo)
Gerald Arpino’s “Light Rain” will be one of three works presented Oct. 7-9 by the Grand Rapids Ballet as part of its MoveMedia; Made in America program. (Supplied photo)

Grand Rapids Ballet artistic director Patricia Barker, recently discussing the company’s season opening MoveMedia program of three 20th Century works created in America, was asked how one restages modern dance works which defy easy description – music has its scores, drama its screenplays; but dance?

 

infobox“Tribal memory,” Barker answered, explaining that while notes, video and living memory exist, revisiting works such as Gerald Arpino’s “Light Rain” – one of three works on the “Made in America” program – begins with previous presentations of the work but is always influenced by the unique strengths and personalities of the company and its dancers.

 

If the brief interaction with the works offered in the ballet’s free to the public Inside Look live rehearsal and discussion Sept. 28, the unique personalities of the dancers as well as the unique visions of the three choreographers will be on full display Oct. 7-9 at Peter Martin Wege Theatre.

 

Grand Rapids Ballet artistic director Patricia Barker discussed MoveMedia; Made in America program at a free to the public Inside Look live rehearsal and discussion Sept. 28. (Supplied photo)
Grand Rapids Ballet artistic director Patricia Barker discussed MoveMedia; Made in America program at a free to the public Inside Look live rehearsal and discussion Sept. 28. (Supplied photo)

“MoveMedia: Made In America” features work ranging from classical to neo-classical and contemporary, and will include George Balanchine’s 1935  “Serenade” (the first work by the famed Russian emigre after moving to America) as well as Arpino’s “Light Rain” from 1981, and Paul Taylor’s “Company B,” a truly Americana homage from 1991.

 

With a deeper appreciation of what some call “contemporary” modern dance, “Light Rain” is the work I am most anticipating experiencing.

 

Created to showcase the new young dancers of the Joffrey Ballet on its Silver Anniversary, Arpino described his work as “my gift to these talented youngsters … I am inspired by their modes and rituals, their passions.” The work features a contemporary original score by Douglas Adamz and Russ Gauthier.

 

And it will, undoubtedly feature the unique personalities of the Grand Rapids Ballet’s “tribe”.

 

What’s Next:

The Grand Rapids Ballet, as part of ArtPrize 8 and through Oct. 9, is hosting a UICA-commissioned “in-process” mural by Louise “Ouizi” Chen and photography by Grand Rapids Ballet dancer Isaac Aoki; it will also present its Michigan Dance Festival on Oct. 15 and the ballet’s Junior Company presents “Peter Pan” Oct. 21-23.

 

For more on the Grand Rapids Ballet’s season, visit