25 to Watch (1).From our far-flung correspondents, here they are: the dancers, choreographers, troupes and trends we'll be watching in 2001 and for years to come 1 Xiao Nan Yu: Passion and Perfection BY PAULA CITRON When Rex Harrington, danseur noble of the National Ballet of Canada National Ballet of Canada, the leading Canadian ballet company. Based in Toronto, it was founded (1951) by Celia Franca (1921–2007) and modeled on Sadler's Wells (now the Royal Ballet). , laid his flowers at the feet of his partner and stepped back to join in the rapturous applause, it confirmed what the delirious audience already knew--that a star had been born. It was February 2000, and second soloist Xiao Nan Yu had just made her stunning debut as Tatiana in John Cranko's Onegin. At 23, Yu is ballet perfection. Her lyrical grace, elegant lines and physical beauty are underscored by a dramatic passion that takes the breath away. Yu was born in Dalian, China, and studied at the Shen Yang School of Dance and the Beijing Dance Academy Beijing Dance Academy (Simplified Chinese: 北京舞蹈学院; Traditional Chinese: 北京舞蹈學院 . In 1994, she represented China at the Prix de Lausanne The Prix de Lausanne is arguably the world's most famous international competition for young dancers and has launched the careers of some of the best known ballet dancers in the past 30 years. , and although she did not win a prize, Yu's future greatness was recognized by juror Mavis Staines, artistic director of Canada's National Ballet School The National Ballet School of Canada is located in Toronto, Ontario. The National provides a full-time program which combines classical ballet training with academic education from Grades 6 through 12 at its boarding school. , who invited the young ballerina to Toronto for further training. Yu arrived at the NBS (National Bureau of Standards) See NIST. NBS - National Bureau of Standards: part of the US Department of Commerce, now NIST. in 1995 and joined the National Ballet as an apprentice the following year. She became a member of the corps de ballet corps de bal·let n. The dancers in a ballet troupe who perform as a group. [French : corps, corps + de, of + ballet, ballet. in 1997, second soloist in 1999, and was immediately elevated to first soloist after her Onegin debut. Clearly, Yu is a superstar in the making. Paula Citron is a Canadian correspondent for Dance Magazine. 2 Calvin Kitten: Journey at the Joffrey from Wunderkind to Dancer's Dancer BY HERB MIGDOLL In the past year, Calvin Kitten has evolved from being a wunderkind to an extraordinary, mature artist. He began his dance training at the California Ballet School in San Diego, then spent a year (1989-90) as an exchange student at the Tbilisi Choreographic Institute in Soviet Georgia In Soviet Georgia (also called Old People in Russia) was the name of an advertising campaign used by Dannon yogurt in the United States to make the argument that eating the product would help one live longer. . After one season with The Joffrey II Dancers, he was invited by Artistic Director Gerald Arpino to join the main company in 1992. A strong jumper with superb technique, Kitten has been described by Chicago Sun-Times dance critic Hedy Weiss as "so light, effortless and airborne in his every move that it sometimes seems as if he's suspended from an invisible wire." His role as the Snow Prince in Robert Joffrey's production of The Nutcracker has become something of a signature piece. But his personal repertoire ranges from principal roles in Arpino's ballets to Kurt Jooss's Green Table, to Massine's Les Presages and The Revivalist in the Joffrey's premiere of Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring last October. Kitten was presented with Chicago's Ruth Page Award in 1997 for his performance of the Chinese Conjurer in the company's reconstruction of Massine's Parade; he received his second Ruth Page Award in 2000 for his performance of Prodigal Son. Maria Tallchief, who danced the Siren in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. Ballet's 1950 revival, said Kitten's performance was the best Prodigal she had ever seen. Small wonder Kitten's becoming known as a dancer's dancer. Herb Migdoll writes from his perspective as a veteran photographer for Dance Magazine and the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. 3 Shawn Bowen, Step Dancer on the Rise BY DARRAH CARR Those who follow competitive Irish dance should keep an eye on Shawn Bowen, age 13. After studying at New York City's Niall O'Leary School for just one year, he sailed through his very first feis (pronounced "fesh," a local Irish step dancing competition) on Long Island last September and claimed third prize in Open Championship. At press time, Shawn was preparing for the Oireachtas (pronounced "oh-RACK-tus" a regional competition) in Philadelphia, aiming to dance in the Worlds next spring. Nevertheless, he enjoys performing more than competing and ultimately wants to tour with Riverdance. Indeed, Shawn already has an extensive performance background in a variety of styles. Raised in Howard Beach, New York, he has studied and performed tap, jazz and ballet since the age of 3 under the direction of his mother, Eileen Bowen. Shawn cites Michael Flatley as his inspiration for pursuing Irish dance and plans to further the trend of combining modem-dance arm movements with traditional Irish steps. Darrah Carr, a New York City-based writer and choreographer, recently completed her MFA See multifactor authentication. at New York University New York University, mainly in New York City; coeducational; chartered 1831, opened 1832 as the Univ. of the City of New York, renamed 1896. It comprises 13 schools and colleges, maintaining 4 main centers (including the Medical Center) in the city, as well as the . 4 Michael Moschen's Magical Momentum BY JOSEPH CARMAN To say that Michael Moschen is a juggler juggler Entertainer who keeps several plates, knives, balls, or other objects in the air at once by tossing and catching them. The art of juggling has been practiced since antiquity. is a bit like saying that Einstein had a head for numbers. In addition to his abilities as an illusionist, a physicist and a humorist, Moschen is undeniably a mesmerizing mes·mer·ize tr.v. mes·mer·ized, mes·mer·iz·ing, mes·mer·iz·es 1. To spellbind; enthrall: "He could mesmerize an audience by the sheer force of his presence" dancer and choreographer who ingeniously uses props as his partners. When he manipulates crystal balls that undulate undulate /un·du·late/ (-lat) 1. to move in waves or in a wavelike motion. 2. to have a wavelike appearance, outline, or form.un´dulatory over his arms and neck like water droplets, he becomes inseparable from the objects he commands. And by bouncing rubber balls at light-beam speed inside a six-foot triangle, he forms a living sculpture with percussive rhythms. A winner of a 1990 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, he has recently performed in dance venues like the Kitchen, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, summer dance concert series held annually near Lee, Mass., in the Berkshires. The site, originally an 18th-century farm, was purchased by the American modern dancer Ted Shawn in 1930, and three years later it became the home of his Men , Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Academy of Music, performing arts center located in the borough of Brooklyn, N.Y. and popularly known as BAM. Founded in 1859 and opened in 1861, it is the oldest such institution still in operation in the United States. and the Joyce Theater, where he spent two weeks in November. More dates are coming up. Clearly the dance community recognizes Moschen as one of its own. Like any great dancer or choreographer, he renders the technique invisible and grasps the poetry of the movement. Audiences at his shows inevitably leave in awe of Moschen's masterly alchemy. Former American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre, one of the foremost international dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded in 1937 as the Mordkin Ballet and reorganized as the Ballet Theatre in 1940 under the direction of Lucia Chase and Rich Pleasant. dancer Joseph Carman is a New York City dance critic for Dance Magazine and a contributor to The New York Times and The Advocate. 5 3 point juncture's New Approaches BY GIA Noun 1. GIA - a terrorist organization of Islamic extremists whose violent activities began in 1992; aims to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state; "the GIA has embarked on a terrorist campaign of civilian massacres" KOURLAS As federal funding shrinks beyond recognition and rehearsal spaces disappear daily in Manhattan, three New York choreographers--Yanira Castro, Tiffany Mills and Pam Tanowitz--are fighting back. Their collective, 3 point juncture, is a brilliant model of choreographic ingenuity, one that links them administratively, not creatively. "This is not about programming, it's about administration--sharing a staff and, one day, a dance studio," Castro explains. The quick success of the venture (the threesome was presented at Tribeca Performing Arts Center A performing arts center, often abbreviated PAC, is a multi-use performance space that can be adapted for use by various types of the performing arts, including dance, music and theatre. last spring and will share an Association of Performing Arts Presenters A performing arts presenting organization is an organization, or department or program of a larger organization, that works to facilitate exchanges between artists and audiences through creative, educational, and performance opportunities. showcase at City Center January 8) proves that the collective is as intriguing to producers as it is to other struggling artists in the contemporary dance community. Chalk it up to their vastly different approaches: While Castro works with text and video, Mills's work is rooted in release technique, and Tanowitz, influenced by her studies with the late Viola Farber, is a classicist clas·si·cist n. 1. One versed in the classics; a classical scholar. 2. An adherent of classicism. 3. An advocate of the study of ancient Greek and Latin. Noun 1. whose lush dances are based in rigorous experiments of form. This prototype may not be for everyone; however, 3 point juncture works for a simple reason. "We really like each other!" Tanowitz exclaims. "We'll have a two-hour meeting set aside to write a grant, and that's not a lot of time, but we'll end up schmoozing so long that it takes hours. So we made a role that we can only talk for a half an hour. But of course we never follow it." Gia Kourlas, a New York City critic for Dance Magazine, is dance editor for Time Out New York. 6 Yokoshi and Heggen's Fine Madness BY WENDY PERRON Dancer/choreographers Yasuko Yokoshi and Gonnie Heggen team up for Royal Madness, a wacky fantasy of what goes on in the courts of royalty. Yokoshi, a riveting performer, peeks into the imperial courts of Asia, while Heggen, a master improvisor from Holland, gives us a glimpse into the royal courts of Europe. The conflict between "noble emotions" and real human behavior gets played out in dance, improvised text and a moveable sound installation. After a showing of the piece in progress, Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times called the two women "inspired lunatics who work well together and who leave few of today's icons unassaulted." The finished piece will be performed at The Kitchen in New York February 21-24. Wendy Perron is Dance Magazine's New York editor. 7 T.J. Espinoza, Cool Guy in a Hot Medium BY GROVER DALE If you've ever seen teen-pop diva Britney Spears perform, you've probably seen T.J. Espinoza do his stuff. In today's world of pop-tour, music-video dance, T.J.'s stuff is no secret. In a year, he went from being the one back-up dancer of Britney Spears that every teen girl was dying to get her hands on to getting a recording contract. His electrifying e·lec·tri·fy tr.v. e·lec·tri·fied, e·lec·tri·fy·ing, e·lec·tri·fies 1. To produce electric charge on or in (a conductor). 2. a. and "oh-so-cool" moves have captured the admiration of teens around the world. He has his own online Yahoo! fan club and thirty-seven--count 'em--Web sites promoting his many talents. Now T.J.--who's 23 but looks 17--is launching a career as a solo recording artist. Six appearances on MTV's top-rated show, Sisqo's Shakedown, have led to a nomination for Fay New Artist by the Teen Scene Awards. Little wonder Teen Scene magazine already is touting T.J. as the "Next Pop Prince." Dancer-choreographer Grover Dale's advice column, Answers 4 Dancers, appears in Dance Magazine and online at www.dancemagazine.com 8 Young Hoofers: The Future on Tap BY JANE GOLDBERG Every Saturday afternoon Traci Mann calls rehearsals for her talented group, The Young Hoofers, to start tapping and ready up for their next gig. Inspired by Lon Chaney's The Original Hoofers, Mann has taught her young men, from grade school to high school, what she acquired directly from the hoofers' mouths. Troupe members hail from Brooklyn, New York, where they studied with Mann when she taught dance in the depressed Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. With the rhythms and techniques of Chaney, Chuck Green, Buster Brown, Carnell Lyons and Savion Glover in his feet, Lance Liles, 17, attends Nassau BOCES BOCES Board Of Cooperative Educational Services (Bureau of Cooperative Educational Services) High School on Long Island. Tap dancing was not accepted as an audition piece, but Liles convinced the panel to let him tap anyway. Calvin Booker, 15, a fellow Young Hoofer hoof·er n. Slang A professional dancer, especially a tap dancer. hoofer Noun Slang a professional dancer Noun 1. , studies at New York City's LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. The other Young Hoofers are Jamal Brown, 17, Sheldon Gordon, 15, and the Torbert brothers--Sekou, 17, Ade, 13, and Shakir, 8. All have worked on the same bill as Little Richard, A Taste of Broadway, Tribute to Gregory Hines and Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk is a musical that debuted Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater in 1996. It moved to the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway, opening there on April 25, 1996. . (Sekou Torbert also appears in Spike Lee's latest film, Bamboozled.) Mann also trains The Pee-Wee Hoofers (5-year-olds) and the pre-teen Little Rhythm Kings to take up where Chaney and Glover are leaving off. All the groups do freestyle improvisation and flash based on classical tap tradition. LaGuardia student Booker notes that his school offers tap, but not as a major. He's trying to change that. Jane Goldberg is a tapper and frequent writer on dance. 9 Kaori Nakamura, PNB's Glowing Aurora BY MARTHA ULLMAN WEST Pacific Northwest Ballet's Kaori Nakamura is the quintessential twenty-first-century ballerina, a can-do dancer whose versatile technique and acute musicality make her a knockout in a highly varied repertoire. As an allegro dancer in Balanchine's Divertimento divertimento Eighteenth-century chamber music genre consisting of several movements, often of a light and entertaining nature, for strings, winds, or both. Though the name was applied (c. No. 15, she is a miracle of musicality and rapid-fire technique; Mozart's music resides in her bones. As the deceived, melancholy woman of the "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" pas de deux pas de deux (French; “step for two”) Dance for two performers. A characteristic part of classical ballet, it includes an adagio, or slow dance, by the ballerina and her partner; solo variations by the male dancer and then the ballerina; and a coda, or in Kent Stowell's evening-length Silver Lining, she is at once sultry and lyrical. Nakamura is equally at home in adagio roles in the classical repertoire. In February, the PNB PNB Produit National Brut (French) PNB Punjab National Bank (India) PNB Philippine National Bank PNB Producto Nacional Bruto (Spanish: Gross National Product) and former Royal Winnipeg ballerina, whose medal-winning classical technique was acquired in her native Japan and whose neoclassical ne·o·clas·si·cism also Ne·o·clas·si·cism n. A revival of classical aesthetics and forms, especially: a. A revival in literature in the late 17th and 18th centuries, characterized by a regard for the classical ideals of reason, form, skills were developed at the School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet is located in New York City, in Lincoln Center. It is considered one of the most prestigious and notable ballet schools in the United States and teaches some of the most talented young dancers in the country. , will take on a new challenge: Aurora in Ronald Hynd's staging of The Sleeping Beauty. While she's danced the role before with the Winnipeg, Hynd's staging after Petipa/Ashton, as he puts it, requires a highly centered performance style. No doubt about it: She's an Aurora to watch. Martha Ullman West is a Dance Magazine correspondent. 10 Adam Hendrickson: On a Roll at NYCB NYCB New York City Ballet NYCB New York Community Bank BY CLIVE BARNES With his compact body and leonine le·o·nine adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a lion. looks, hair brushed back like a mane, Adam Hendrickson at 19 looks a little like the young Jean Babilee, and even dances with much of the intensity of the great French dancer. It is difficult to take your eyes off him when he is onstage. Hendrickson followed in the footsteps of his sister Jessy, both to the school and later into New York City Ballet New York City Ballet, one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. , which he joined in the summer of 1998. However, note had been taken of Hendrickson even before he joined the company. At the 1997 SAB Annual Workshop performance, Hendrickson had appeared in Balanchine's two-act Harlequinade, dancing Harlequin, the role made for the artistry and technical wizardry of Edward Villella. Although still immature--even his legs looked a little spindly at that point--he was remarkable, and he solidified that reputation at the SAB performance the following year, immediately before being taken into the company, with a dazzling, buoyant account of himself in Donizetti Variations, dancing with what Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times called "awesome aplomb." Once in the company he shone---outstanding in Peter Martins's Les Gentilhommes and as the Jester in his Swan Lake, and leaving an indelible impression with an almost non-dancing role in Eliot Feld's The Unanswered Question. And he also shows signs of being a fine, responsive partner. City Ballet has a batch of good young male dancers at present--but none, I think, better than the young Hendrickson. Clive Barnes is Senior Consulting Editor to Dance Magazine. 11 Daniel Ulbricht, Big Fish in a Great School BY HARRIS GREEN Ballet has a budding superstar in Daniel Ulbricht, a 17-year-old student at the School of American Ballet. At five feet five and one-half inches--he scrupulously stresses the "one-half"--Ulbricht is a remarkably compact package of burgeoning pyrotechnics and innate musicality. In February 1999, while on tour with Les Jeunes Dancers, a troupe from his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg (often shortened to St. Pete) is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The city is known as a vacation destination for North American and European vacationers, as well as a politically important battleground in U.S. Presidential politics. , he dropped by SAB to take class as a visitor. He doesn't recall doing anything out of the ordinary, but New York City Ballet principal Peter Boal, who teaches at the school, says, "All our jaws dropped open when we saw how well prepared he was." (Ulbricht was a product of the Judith Lee Johnson Studio of Dance and a student of Javier DuBroq.) He first dazzled NYCB subscribers last winter with his springy splits in the jester pas de trois pas de trois n. pl. pas de trois A dance for three. [French : pas, step + de, of, for + trois, three.] Noun 1. in Peter Martins's Sleeping Beauty. SAB's spring workshop found him dominating the fourth pas de trois of Balanchine's Danses Concertantes and in command of the men's regiment in Stars and Stripes Stars and Stripes nickname for the U.S. flag. [Am. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 8567] See : America . "Just to have fun onstage" is his goal. His already marked concern for formal discipline should guarantee joy for audiences as well. Harris Green, a freelance writer, is the former features editor of Dance Magazine. 12 Marcelo Gomes, ABT's Man from Rio BY GUS SOLOMONS jr At age 20, American Ballet Theatre soloist Marcelo Gomes has been dancing for thirteen years. Born in Brazil, he knew at age 7 he'd be a dancer. He began his studies in Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, city, Brazil Rio de Janeiro (rē`ō də zhänā`rō, Port. rē`  thĭ zhənĕē`r with Helena Lobato, going on to train at the schools of the Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opéra Ballet is the official ballet company of the Opéra national de Paris, otherwise known as the Palais Garnier, though known more popularly simply as the Paris Opéra. , Houston Ballet, Boston Ballet and Ballet Nacional de Cuba National Ballet of Cuba (Ballet Nacional de Cuba), is managed by Cuban prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso and is one of the top ballet companies in the world. The artistic standards and technical severity of the dancers and the wide diversity in the aesthetic . Matinee-idol handsome, Gomes is exuberant onstage, whether in the classics or ABT's growing modern repertoire. In person, he's a charmer--friendly, confident and generous with his colleagues. In a coaching session for a difficult Balanchine variation, he displays virtually flawless technique. Then, under the guidance of veteran ABT principal Victor Barbee, he instantly assimilates suggested dynamic nuances and expressive finesse. Promoted to soloist last August, Gomes drew critical praise for his Rothbart in Kevin McKenzie's new Swan Lake. He also dances Romeo in Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lovers die as teenagers. [Br. Lit.: Romeo and Juliet] See : Death, Premature Romeo and Juliet archetypal star-crossed lovers. [Br. Lit. , Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew and leading roles in Tharp's Brahms/Haydn Variations, Graham's Diversion of Angels and Lar Lubovitch's 1999 Meadow, new for him this season. Gus Solomons jr, a New York City critic for Dance Magazine, dances in his company, Paradigm, with Carmen de Lavallade and Dudley Williams. 13 Daniel Marshall, DCDC's Loose-Limbed Marvel Daniel Marshall is having a terrific second season with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Deliciously loose-limbed, he lets a leg fly up, tipples his spine and then switches directions mischievously. A graduate of San Diego School of Creative & Performing Arts and a former student at The Ailey School, Marshall has danced with the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Jean-Isaacs of San Diego and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. He's also served as the artistic director of the Contemporary Dance Ensemble in San Diego, and recently won San Diego's Tommy Award. Anna Kisselgoff, in her New York Times review of DCDC's New York season, raved about him, saying his "high leg extensions and rubber-legged resilience only hint at his genius." Ultimately, what he expresses is the pure pleasure of dancing. --Wendy Perron 14 Richard Move, Camping and Decamping With his hilarious send-ups of Martha Graham, Richard Move has developed a cult following in lower Manhattan. Tall and statuesque, with jutting jut v. jut·ted, jut·ting, juts v.intr. To extend outward or upward beyond the limits of the main body; project: chin and flashing eyes, he would occasionally bump into a hanging lighting instrument at the tiny nightclub where his Martha @ Mother series became an underground hit. Gia Kourlas, writing in Time Out New York, deemed his diva act "too brilliant for words." Whether "Martha's" guest was Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yvonne Rainer, Isaac Mizrahi or Murray Louis, the audience was treated to a dance history lesson delivered with high camp. This winter Move moves into Town Hall, appearing for the first time in a regular theater. Will so much room cramp his style? Find out on January 20, when his guests include Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris and Sharon Kinney. --Wendy Perron 15 Retail Dance Shops for New Audience BY HEIDI LANDGRAF |
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