22 February 2006Hello again from New York!! Now that everyone’s back dancing I'm really feeling the fact that I’m away from you all—I miss you! However, life in New York continues on its exciting path. It really is a place where there’s something amazing happening every day, if only you can get to it all! I’ve been immersing myself in the Broadway scene. While you’re lucky to have one musical playing in Sydney at any one time, there are literally dozens playing simultaneously in New York, all within a few block’s radius around Broadway in an area known as ‘the theatre district’. It’s interesting in that the theatres range from the glamorous to the somewhat run-down, and the audiences too range from glamorous (fur coats and diamonds!) to fairly run-down (jeans and t-shirts—I’m usually at this end of the spectrum!), but everyone is there to enjoy what’s on offer. I’m pleased to say that I think the talent and production qualities in musicals in Australia measure up really well to those on offer on Broadway. We may not have the audiences or available theatres to support a wide range of musicals playing at any one time, but we sure do have the actors, dancers and singers to put on a great show! Go Aussies! My Broadway outings since my last postcard include: The Producers, Mamma Mia and Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life. The Producers was a hysterical romp through the old Mel Brooks musical. It did exactly what I think a musical should do—it made us laugh and escape into another (often ridiculous!) world for the duration of our time in the theatre. We were only sorry that on the evening we saw it, Jai Rodriguez (the ‘culture guy’ from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) was not playing his regular role as the ultra-camp director’s assistant! Mamma Mia was a great ABBA sing-a-long, as you’d expect. It brought me back to The Jazz Factory’s 2004 ABBA Finale—I actually think we did some bits better, but perhaps I’m a little biased!?!? I know many Jazz Factory students are big fans of the 2000 dance movie Centre Stage (as am I!), and it was exciting to have Shakiem Evans (who plays Erik in the film) as a dancer in this production. Definitely the highlight of my Broadway outings to date was Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life. Chita Rivera is a legend of the Broadway stage, having won two Tony Awards and having starred with such greats as Sammy Davis Jr, Dick van Dyke, Shirley MacLaine and Liza Minelli. She was Broadway’s first Anita in West Side Story and also the first Velma in Chicago. She is now 73 years old (!!!) and told the story of her life through singing and dancing her way through two hours on stage with hardly a break. I swear, she sang every number, spun, kicked and danced through hits from the shows that have made her career—and she does it for eight shows a week! She did draw the line at jumping into the splits with the other dancers—but I think we can forgive her for that! Being in the audience really felt like you were witnessing an important event in Broadway history. I’ve also recently seen two other dance pieces. The first was a performance from the New York City Ballet. Having been used to The Australian Ballet presenting just four programmes each year, it’s amazing to me that the New York City Ballet has the resources and the audiences to present a Winter Repertory season during which they present a different programme every single night over the course of the eight week season! Each programme is made up of three or four short ballets, and although these ballets are repeated during the season, it’s always in different combinations. We saw a programme which included: Songs of the Auvergne choreographed by the Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins; Songs and Interludes, a pas de deux to piano music by John Cage; Allegro Brilliante, a technically amazing performance of a classic choreographed by the NYCB’s founder George Balanchine; and finally An American in Paris (our favourite), a whimsical piece to Gershwin music by the Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. There is no doubt that the company is technically amazing, but I must say that I missed the passion of Australian ballet. To me any dance has to be more than a serious of tricks and technical feats—I felt the performance lacked ‘heart’. Still a lovely night out though. I’ve recently discovered the Joyce Theatre in the district of Chelsea (the gallery district of Manhattan, not too far from where we’re living). It’s a historic cinema which has been converted into a theatre specifically for dance. It presents short seasons (often three or four shows only) of touring US and international dance companies. I went to see the Richard Alson Dance Company (no, not the former Australian Minister for Communications!), a modern dance company from England. They had a beautiful contemporary style and made me realise why contemporary dance really is such a favourite of mine! I’m looking forward seeing lots more at the Joyce—check out the website for what’s coming up! Apart from getting out to the theatre as often as possible, it’s busy, busy, busy with family life. India (5) has started school and is also taking lessons in yoga and ballet (in a class with a star’s child—think Ground Control to Major Tom and black supermodel!). Atticus (3) is doing ballet (because he thinks the girls are “so beautiful”!) as well as African dancing and drumming—the only blondie in a class of African American kids—see www.djoniba.com. Arlo (1) is very busy getting very good at shopping and admiring galleries with Mum! All of that plus trips to The Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Modern Art, Central Park, the Central Park Zoo (think Madagascar!), The Bronx Zoo, the Staten Island Ferry, the Statue of Liberty, the Children’s Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum ... and the list goes on!! I’m starting a course in Black & White Photography at NY Unversity this evening, so that’ll be great too. I’m in touch with Kim almost every day and love hearing news of how everyone’s settling in to the new dancing year. Work hard and give it all you’ve got in all your classes—I’ll be back to check on you before you know it and I can wait to see how much everyone’s grown and improved! All my love, Hanne xxxxxxxxxxx |
2nd April 2007 |
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