amitava

Texas Ballet Theater kicked off their 2006-2007 season with a gala, celebrating the talented Chita Rivera. Ben Stevenson's Bartok was the main item. Short pieces by the members of the company followed. The Don Q PDD with guest artists, Anastasia & Denis Matvienko, from Russia was amazing. Images from the performance will be available for viewing for the next few months. If you are interested in my written impressions, please visit my blog.

Some unusual images resulted from the light show.... http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance Serenade and Sleeping Beauty (Act III) will follow in a month or so. Enjoy.

Houston Chronicle has the scoop. I have only seen her in Welch's Swan Lake, and am looking forward to her in the Gala coming up.

I do not know how long the NY Times keeps these articles online. But if you have membership (free) you should be able to see the review of Simple Elegance and article on Mr. Tetley. Houston Chronicle reviews...here and here. The performances run through this weekend.

Photos can be viewed until October 2006 here. A detailed review is here Enjoy

There was some discussion on the group Nrityagram a while ago. Rudrakshya is another group, in the same genere, touring the USA. They finished covering Texas in early August. Images from the performance in the DFW metroplex can be viewed at insightphotography.smugmug.com Enjoy

Austin's newest dance company, the American Repertory Ensemble, gave their premier performance in Austin with some stellar artists. Dancers from Ballet Austin, Boston Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Joffrey Ballet , and OBT displayed their expertise in classical and contemporary pieces. The company followed the Austin performance with a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Visit photographyinsight.blogspot.com for impressions and images of the performance. For images only, visit insightphotography.smugmug.com. Enjoy

Are ready at the usual place at http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance until July 2006.

Melinda Nelson, the marketing director of TBT, indicated that next year's season includes the full Sleeping Beauty and Mr. Stevenson's Alice in Wonderland. Of course the Nut, and a few mixed rep programs are on the agenda. Two dancers from the Kirov will guest for excerpts from Don Q some time. Details are here.

A few photos from the latest production of R&J are available for viewing. BA Academy's Spring Recital was also held in May, on Mother's Day. A couple of photos from the performance are in the May Summary gallery. These will be removed in July. I plan to remove all the galleries from the dance section by the end of June. Only productions I have shot over the last few months will be on display from now on. So enjoy the older galleries for one last time.

Ooops.. Act III. My mistake

This should be up in on the web site soon...at http://balletaustin.org 2006/07 Golden Anniversary Season Sept 23-24 ~ Not Afraid of the Dark Oct 27-29 ~ Sleeping Beauty Act II, and Serenade Dec 9-23 ~ The Nutcracker Feb 15-18 ~ Director's Choice/Golden Apr 6-8 ~ The Taming of the Shrew May 10-13 ~ A Special Evening with Stephen Mills

http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance The show will run in Dallas this weekend. The production is well paced. Production values are excellent as usual. Christina Gianelli's lighting was beautiful. Using males for the stepsisters is imaginative, but a tad much at times. Nevertheless it works. The court jester brings a wonderful energy I really enjoyed the PDDs. The choreography was very lyrical and gentle - not over dramatic. I alway look for different types of peaks and combinations in Classical Ballet. Creating something fresh and different I am sure is difficult. There were some very beautiful surprising moments. I am told that the ABT version was choreographed by Mr. Stevenson as well. Has anyone seen both versions?

http://www.cubanballetgala.com/ Scheduled to appear... Rolando Sarabia Lorena Feijóo Juan Boada Katia Carranza Luis Serrano Lorna Feijóo Nelson Madrigal Reyneris Reyes

Full Lengths.... Nutcracker Dracula CoppÉlia Madame Butterfly Carmina Rest 4 are mixed reps http://www.houstonballet.org/Ticketing_Sch...eason_Calendar/

To avoid cross posting, please visit the Dance Salad Link to view the shots from TBT/Ben Stevenson's Vivaldi PDD. June will be the last month to view the Swan Lake photos. I will empty out the dance gallery and display only a few photos of selected productions shot in the past couple of months. The photos from Cinderella came out very well. I was a fun production. I would venture to say this are the best TBT photos I have taken to date at the Bass. I will update the thread once TBT approves the shots. Enjoy

To commemorate Dance Month (May), I have selected photos of dances, dancers, and choreographers from across the world. They have been a great source of inspiration to me. My sense of aesthetics has been honed, understanding/appreciation of the Arts has improved significantly, and ultimately expanded my understanding our society. Expand your horizons of the human form and imagination at http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/share/qWfaP839KHCfU. The bad news is that starting next month, I will be removing most of the dance galleries from public view. Only the performances for last few months will be accessible. New galleries will be rolled in and older ones removed. So enjoy one last month of viewing the dull set of galleries at http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance. Happy moving. Amitava

They can be found in the "April 2006 Dance Summary" gallery at http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance. Enjoy

The latest issue (May 2006) of Dance Magazine has a review by Wendy Peron.

You are welcome Helene and Bart. Yes there is quite some variety, and one can experience all the pieces in two days. I enjoy buffets, not because they are all you can eat, but due to the variety. Dance Festivals make me drool...is all I can say. Here is a link to a review... http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/ar...ce/3794651.html Some general comments overheard (but I did not personally confirm). The groups from China seem to use "textbook Graham technique" in their classes, as per once of the assistants (an ex dance teacher) of the producer. William Pedro is supposedly only 17. Pedro is a captivating and engaging performer. He has superb form and timing. I (and my camera) were very taken by him.

Dance Salad 2006 presented 11 companies over three days, during the Easter weekend in Houston. The official site is http://dancesalad.org/. A couple of groups who will perform at Jacob's Pilllow 2006 were featured.....Photos are at http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance. ACDFA's regional was held over Spring Break at the University of Texas at Austin. Some photos from the classes and performances are available for viewing as well. Enjoy

Photos from the latest Ballet Austin presentation are available for viewing at http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance. Works by Stephen Mills and Gina Patterson' first BA commissions, are juxtaposed with their latest works. The gallery includes moments from the piece that premiered at the Joyce last Fall. The March summary gallery has some photos from Ballet San Antonio as well. Amitava

http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/Dance has been updated with two of the three choreographer's performances. Unfortunatly, I am not sure I will be able to post photos from the third piece. From the next month onward, I will only post 1 combined dance shots gallery, summarizing every month - rather than one gallery performance. The latter takes more time than I can afford now. Thanks for viewing.

Thaddeus Davis was the judge winner while Thang Dao was the audience favorite. All choreographers stuck with modern/contemporary styles. Unfortunately I am very backlogged with projects. I will update the dance gallery with shots in the next few weeks. Meanwhile one shot per choreographer has been posted at the standard location of http://insightphotography.smugmug.com/dance.

BA is having an exciting event this weekend to raise funds and awareness of its new facility/studios and theatre for its Company and Academy. Event details are at... http://balletaustin.org/contribute/index.html There will be silent auction as well. Some the items include: A Family Package for The Nutcracker Miss Joan’s Ballerina Party for 12 Catered dinner for 12 by Whole Foods Market and Twin Liquors UT Bat Boy for a day Sunset Cruise on Lake Travis donated by Sail & Ski Learn to WaterskiFamily Package donated by The Cedar Family Original Oil Painting by Paul Stankiewicz Academy Summer 2-week Junior Intensive Package Academy 3-week Senior Intensive Package Original Spencer Hodges Oil Painting donated by Rick Bennett Hand-crafted Armoire donated by Pam Parker & Billy Lambeth Girls Night Out Package Two prints of scenes/dancers from BA's performances have been donated as well. This is the first time any of my prints will be available to the general public. So if you are in Austin or visiting, drop by and support the construction project.