Atlanta Ballet's Alessa Rogers in The Princess and the Goblin. Photo by Kim Kenney, courtesy of Atlanta Ballet.

ATLANTA – In her new ballet, The Princess and the Goblin, Twyla Tharp celebrates the innocence of youth and the strength of women with subtlety, sophistication and wit. Praise to her for choosing a worthy vehicle to communicate strong moral values in a modernly skeptical world.

The story follows young Princess Irene who courageously rescues captured children from underworld goblins. Her bravery shows how the sweet faith of children can save adults lost in darkness. It’s based on George MacDonald’s fantasy children’s tale with the same name, written 140 years ago, yet it remains relevant today. Tharp created the work for the Atlanta Ballet, which ran this month, and Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet which will stage the show Oct. 17-21.

Tharp, America’s most prolific living female choreographer, has created a timeless work appealing to all ages that could easily find a home in any major ballet company’s repertory.

In Atlanta Ballet’s production, Alessa Rogers, starring as Princess Irene, carried the role with a queen’s grace in the company’s final Feb. 19 performance at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. She lit up the stage with a portrayal that superbly balanced strength, delicacy and maturity.

The story opens with her at a party given by her father, King Papa, danced by John Welker. She sees the children taken by the Goblin and, after her pleas for help are ignored by the adults, she follows with her friend, Curdie, played by Jacob Bush, into the goblin kingdom. Her great, great grandmother, whom she’s named for, helps rescue the children. In the spirit of the actual novel, only the princess with her faithful eyes can see her ghostlike great, great grandmother.

The 75-minute ballet swiftly moves along, without any intermission, to Franz Schubert’s music led by Atlanta Ballet Orchestra’s conductor Ari Pelto and arranged by Richard Burke. Anne Armit created the costumes.

Twyla Tharp's The Princess and the Goblin. Photo by Charlie McCullers, courtesy of Atlanta Ballet.

Children are central to the story, and the princess’s sisters, Stella and Blu, played by Stella McFall and Flannery Bogost, have quite a bit of stage time. But Tharp doesn’t rest on available cuteness with her young cast. They are pulled, dragged and carried off by the goblins, before being rescued by Curdie, the princess and her great, great grandmother Irene. The dancing, signature Tharpian movement, is just plain enjoyable, flat-footed extensions and grounded gestures wrapped in ballet vocabulary. Tara Lee as Queen of the Goblin and Lootie, the nanny, knows how to use her small physique to its full extent with agility and grace.

Touches of humor and other details add texture; lighthearted gestures between the Queen’s goblin guards, played by Christian Clark and Jesse Tyler, make them less scary. When Curdie is captured and behind bars in the goblin kingdom, he casually waves his arms overhead, signaling to his distracted rescuers, “Hey, come get me.”

Tharp masterfully presents the narrative’s themes by weaving them into the contemporary movement; respect for an older generation is beautifully portrayed in the lyrical dancing and interchange between Princess Irene and her great, great grandmother Irene, played by Christine Winkler.

A transformation occurs when Princess Irene, wearing slippers, sees her great-great grandmother wearing pointe shoes. She must wait before being graced with a pair of her own, then she is taught how to move with them. Noticing the princess’s new shoes, the female goblins also want them. They too must learn, rather comically, how to dance with the toe shoes. Some of the goblins, in an off-beat touch, wear only one pointe shoe. The graceful shoes end up setting the beastly goblins free.

Through her journey, Princess Irene matures, though an embrace with Curdie makes her shyly giggle. Then she teaches a young girl to dance in pointe shoes, passing along what she has learned.

In the end, the goblins shed their dirty, disheveled clothes for clean ones, signifying a spiritual change of heart from the inside out. All in all a happy ending.

New Chamber Ballet. Photo by Kristin Lodoen Linder.

Dance choreographer Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet is an elegant display of the binding strength of a relationship between dance and music.

The company performed its latest work, a program of three premieres and repertory works, Feb. 10 and 11 in the informal New York City Center studios, where they have shown since their inception in 2004. Violinist Miranda Cuckson and pianist Taka Kigawa accompanied each piece.  It’s only natural that Magloire, a German born composer turned choreographer, present live music for his company, and a mutual respect between dancer and musician is apparent as he charmingly addressed the audience between each work introducing the performers and musicians, giving insight into the creative process.

Magloire presented four works including a new solo entitled Spieglein and a dramatic trio. Long-term guest choreographer Constantine Baecher, an American dancer and choreographer with the Royal Danish Ballet, premiered an emotional duet for himself and Elizabeth Brown set to music by Kurt Weill. And Emery LeCrone, the company’s notable choreographer in residence, presented one of a series of three solos heavily influenced by a collaboration with Sarah Atkins and the original violinist Eric Carlson.

LeCrone, a former New Chamber Ballet dancer, has made a name for herself with a growing choreographic career including works for Colorado Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Her solo, Caprice, is simultaneously powerful and graceful, and a  strong opening for the evening.  The piece required a great deal of stamina and strength by Atkins, who at multiple points, goes from a slow, curved plié to a controlled battement behind her.  A natural elegance is emphasized by precise and floating port de bras that captivated from start to finish. It was refreshing to see such technical prowess in a performance space so intimate even the tutu emblem on the bottom of the dancers’ pointe shoes could not be hidden.

The first of three trios by Magloire was Leise, Leise, (German for softly, softly) set to music by Luciana Berio, and described by him as a family portrait. Atkins, Holly Curran, and Katie Gibson, in long pastel dresses by frequent collaborator Candice Thompson, take turns moving through the space from their original positioning, leaning forward with anticipation. Hints of emotion are not quite clear despite the precision in the dancing. There is a strong classical feel to the work, but it does not create a clear definition of the relationship between the dancers. I felt as though I’d been brought into a youthful perspective, a trait that remained true for each ballet Magloire presented.

Emilia, one of Magloire’s two premieres for the evening, is a trio for Brown, and the two “men” in her life, portrayed by Atkins and Gibson, both dressed in black tights and black blazers. Intended hostility is clear in angular movements led by elbows and hips, yet the aggression feels youthful and innocent as the dancers never fully give way to each other’s weight in moments of quarrel. Magloire’s other premiere took shape in Spieglein, a solo for Victoria North. The theme of innocence and youth continued in a loose narrative in which the soloist is surrounded by imaginary mirrors. Though the movement was clear, a lack of development to this concept made the piece rather forgettable.

Ghost Story is the closest to a clear narrative from Magloire. North portrays a haunting character, and an Agatha Christie like plot unfurls, complete with murder and revenge but with a happy ending. Lovely dancing continued in a cast of Atkins, Curran, and North.

The evening’s high point came in Baecher’s duet.  Appropriately titled Slow Dancing to Kurt Weill, the couple walks into the space and is embracing onstage as the audience returns from intermission. As they rock back and forth together, it feels as though we’ve walked into a moment not meant to be seen. Magloire then invites the audience to surround the dancers to view the piece from all sides. The result is bold and powerful and there are multiple instances when the audience could easily reach out and touch the dancers.  The piece progresses through the ups and downs of an intimate relationship, complete with playful wrestling, gazing into one another’s eyes, and shoving accompanied by frustration.  When they finish, in the same close embrace, your view of the gesture has entirely transformed.

New Chamber Ballet is a steady troupe of great promise. With access to talented dancers, choreographers, and musicians, the company will continue to foster new work and audience support.

Rachel Hagan is a dance and journalism major at New York University.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre's Sean Smith.

Boundless energy, bursting leaps and superb technique. Dancer Sean Smith moves rabbit quick with a grounded grace all his own. He radiates a palpable kinetic energy onstage, whether it’s lyrical expressiveness in Christopher Huggins’ Night Run or a quiet fierceness in Elisa Monte’s Pigs and Fishes.

In his second season with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Smith brings a high-powered pizzazz to the ensemble. His thin, 5’10” frame works to his advantage. “Sean is very intelligent and moves with a sensibility knowing how his body works and what his limitations are which makes him an exciting and interesting artist to watch,” says Melissa M. Young, the company’s associate artistic director.

At 25, the Canadian native is also a budding choreographer and has created works featured in the company’s annual Black on Black fundraiser performance and other showcases. “Sean has a bright future as a great dancer, choreographer and even a manager,” says Ann M. Williams, the company’s founder and artist director. “He’s a wonderful teacher, he loves working with people and leading them through very meaningful tasks and activities.”

Raised in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on the outskirts of Vancouver, Smith followed his older sister into dance. He was smitten seeing dance on television, from the Bolshoi Ballet to Michael Jackson videos. He intently studied the choreography, mimicked the moves and made up little dances around his house using tables, chairs and whatever else as props. “Watching the movie White Nights with Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov was a really big thing for me,” he says. “And Tap with Hines really sent it over the top. Learning from a television how to move my body around just got the ball rolling.”

At 6, he took tap, then ballet, modern and musical theater followed. By 16, he was determined to become a professional dancer. Four days a week he commuted by Greyhound Bus to Vancouver, making the two-hour round trip alone, to take jazz and tap classes and audition for jobs.

One of his most influential teachers was Rachael Poirier, owner of Danzmode Productions in Burnaby, British Columbia. “She opened the doors and showed me different places I could go, and what I should audition for and different companies I should look at,” Smith says. He still wears his black Danzmode Productions warm-up jacket as a reminder of where his journey began. Smith’s self-determination was evident from day one. “He always worked hard and concentrated on the task at hand,” Poirier says. “He came from a background of modest means, but he never complained about his lack of material support.”

Smith ended up studying at Goh Ballet Academy, relatively late at age 17, then with the contemporary Ballet British Columbia.

Dancer Sean Smith is known for his musicality and keen sense of awareness.

In 2007 on advise from Poirier, Smith moved to Toronto, where he landed dancing gigs, one of which was at Ballet Creole, the contemporary dance company inspired by Afro-Caribbean cultural traditions, ballet and modern dance.  It took a while for him to find his niche. “When I auditioned for modern dance companies, they would always say, ‘You should be in a ballet company, you’re so classical,’ because that’s what I was able to do naturally. Every ballet company I auditioned for told me I needed to do modern dance, with a very strong emphasis.”

Toronto opened a world of possibilities for the young dancer after seeing for the first time the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre that showcased at the International Association of Blacks in Dance. When Milton Myers, the Ailey choreographer, set a piece on Ballet Creole, Smith’s career started taking shape. He became interested in Myers’ work and the Ailey company repertory. When the Ailey School held its first Canadian audition in Toronto a few months later, Smith tried out. He won a three-year fellowship and moved to New York City.

While at the Ailey School, his demanding schedule left him physically and mentally exhausted at times; three daily classes, evening rehearsals and performances, and working odd jobs to survive financially. But he pulled through, gaining a new perspective and a deeper resolve to realize his dream. “There were times when I didn’t know if I could make it through, I was so drained,” Smith says. “It tested my passion. Even at the lowest moment, what brought me to the Ailey School still shined bright, which was wanting to perform Ailey’s choreography.” Smith was chosen to dance in the final “yellow section” of Revelations, Ailey’s signature work, with Matthew Rushing and Renee Robinson for its 50^th Anniversary celebration and in Judith Jamison’s Divining, her first piece for the Ailey company, at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. He also performed in Ailey’s Memoria at New York City Center. Smith also choreographed works for student showcases at the school.

Smith auditioned in 2008 for regional companies, including Dallas Black Dance Theatre mainly because its repertory includes works from Ailey School instructors Christopher Huggins and Troy Powell and others, but ended up finishing his training. The timing worked out. In 2010, Dallas Black Dance, which has 13 performers, was looking for a sixth male dancer. “I called and flew down and did a private audition. I bought a one-way ticket hoping it would work out. And it did,” he says.

Dancer Sean Smith. Photo by Steven Ray.

The company’s repertory of jazz, modern, contemporary ballet and musical theater was a natural fit. Dancers are also encouraged to choreograph, teach and perform outreach in the local public schools. “My interest in movement was always broader than classical, so I’m very happy to be part of a company like DBDT,” Smith says. “With my training which is diverse, I’m able to use all of it including the classical ballet.”

Currently, the company is rehearsing Milton Myers’ Pacing, the Nina Simone Project by Dianne McIntyre and Angelitos Negros, a Donald McKayle piece set to Roberta Flack’s music for its Cultural Awareness Series Feb. 23-26 at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Wyly Theatre.

“Sean is extremely focused regardless if it’s rehearsal or a main stage performance,” Young says. “He’s in it from start to finish. Everything he does is well thought out. He’ll ask questions because he likes to be clear and know what he’s doing. I can see him pushing himself and wanting to be better than the last time. And how he can take the criticism and apply it and make the next performance even greater than before.”

Away from the studio and stage, Smith relaxes by cooking and baking for friends and writing on his blog. After moving around a lot over the past few years, he’s anxious to put down roots. “I plan on being here for a good amount of time,” he says. “I want to make a home here and continue to grow and develop with this company.”

Calcutta, India, from Metropolis, 2008. Photo by Martin Roemers courtesy Anastasia Photo.

Photographer Martin Roemers explores some of the world’s largest cities, documenting what makes them livable in his new exhibition, Metropolis.

“As of the last day of October,” Roemers writes, “seven billion souls inhabit this planet.  That estimate is according to the U.N.’s Population Fund, which also says that half those people are city dwellers.  About 35 years from now, two thirds of the world’s population will reside in cities. With this in mind, I am photographing the world’s megacities, those where the population is measured in millions.  How can people live in such immense, crowded places?  For all their chaos, big cities still have a sense of humanity. That’s what I want to reveal with these photographs – both the dynamic character of the city and the individual humans, the urban dwellers, who call the metropolis home.” – www.anastasia-photo.com.

Karachi, Pakistan, Metropolis series, 2011. Photo by Martin Roemers courtesy Anastasia Photo.

Roemers, 49, studied photography at the Academy of Arts in Enschede, The Netherlands. He works on long-term projects, such as The Eyes of War about people who were blinded as a result of World War II, and life in megacities in Metropolis. In 2009 his book Relics of the Cold War was published by Hatje Cantz. Roemers’ work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Newsweek and The New Yorker. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in public, private and corporate collections including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Ford Foundation in New York. Roemers has received awards and recognitions including two World Press Photo Awards in 2006 and 2011.

Manila, Philippines, Metrolpolis series 2010. Photo by Martin Roemers courtesy Anastasia Photo.

Jakarta, Indonesia, Metropolis series, 2010. Photo by Martin Roemers courtesy of Anastasia Photo.

Photo courtesy of Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

In many respects, Moulin Rouge, the ballet, makes perfect sense. Ballet, of course, is a French creation, and the Moulin Rouge is the most famous cabaret where the cancan dance originated.

But making a new story ballet that conjures the festive and artsy turn of the 20^th century Paris without kitsch, and basing part the story on actual historical figures, can be tricky.

Jorden Morris’s Moulin Rouge, created for Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, stays true to its theme and is choreographed, beautifully at parts, to a compilation score by composers such as Shostakovich, Debussy, Ravel, and Offenbach, his familiar Can-Can. The evening-length show, which premiered in 2009, was commissioned by the company’s artistic director André Lewis in his continuing quest to modernize the repertoire. The company is touring it across North America and recently played at the Eisemann Center in Richardson, Texas.

Morris weaves together two fictional stories, an ill-fated love triangle, and the tutelage between the French painter Toulouse-Lautrec (based on the real Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.) and a young artist. Period costumes by Anne Armit and Shannon Lovelace and elaborate sets including the dance hall’s trademark giant red windmill by Andrew Beck give the right feel.

Nathalie, a dancer auditioning at the Moulin Rouge, meets Matthew, a painter, and falls in love. Zidler, the Moulin Rouge owner (based on the real Charles Zidler, Moulin Rouge’s formidable manager) also is smitten with Nathalie and hires her.

Jealousy ensues when Nathalie meets the other cabaret dancers and La Goulue, performed by the accomplished Joanne Sundermeier, challenges her to a cancan competition in which a victorious Nathalie gets the coveted tower dressing room.

Matthew, played by Dmitri Dovgoselets, befriends Toulouse-Lautrec, performed by Nurzhan Kulybaev, who offered a flattering portrayal of the stocky and unattractive painter. After a somewhat silly paint-off scene between the two, they go to the Moulin Rouge where Matthew and Nathalie reconnect. The couple’s lovely moonlight pas de deux on a bridge with the Eiffel Tower in the background showed the evening best dancing. Amanda Green, as Nathalie, brought warmth and a sweet sincerity to the role, while Dovgoselets’ quiet expressiveness anchored the story.

Photo courtesy of Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Amar Dhaliwal thunderously plays Zidler, something of a dark, gun-totting Herr Drosselmeyer character, cape and all. Zidler is ruthless and over-bearing with Nathalie, who longs to be with Matthew. Dhaliwal has plenty of flair but some deeper character definition could have helped his role.

In the second and final act, a dancing green fairy appears, a bizarre choice, to inspire a drunk Toulouse-Lautrec to finish his painting. Tango dancing at the cabaret is interrupted when the love triangle heats up as Zidler pulls a gun on Matthew. Nathalie reluctantly agrees to stay with Zidler in a memorable dance scene where Green shows more of her dramatic range. Brokenhearted, Matthew drinks with his mentor and sees the green fairies. A plot to sneak Matthew into the cabaret while the can-can dancers are robustly dancing works. Things escalate when Zidler sees Matthew and Nathalie and shoots his gun, missing Matthew but striking her. Wounded (with fake blood smeared on her chest), Nathalie dances her final steps and drops to the floor, as her lover falls over her body.

Overall, clean dancing and adept storytelling bring this Moulin Rouge back to life.

Pacific Northwest Ballet's Karel Cruz and Carla Korbes (center) in Alexei Ratmansky's Don Quixote. Apprentice Steven Loch and soloist Sarah Ricard Orza on left. Photo by Angela Sterling.

As Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote debuted last night in Seattle, where it runs through Feb. 12, one young Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer reflects on learning from a master.

Don Quixote, one of the most famous classical ballets ever produced. Alexei Ratmansky, one of the most relevant and sought after choreographers of this generation. You can see where this is going.

Combining the best of well-loved tradition and recent innovation can lead to a beautiful and exciting breakthrough in the world of ballet. The company I dance with, Pacific Northwest Ballet, has the honor of being the first to premiere Mr. Ratmansky’s Don Quixote in the United States. Of course, it’s exciting to perform any production of Don Quixote. I grew up watching videos of the greats performing this ballet, from Mikhail Baryshnikov to Angel Corella. I got to dance Basilio’s variation from the third act at the Youth America Grand Prix as a young student. To this day, Don Quixote is one of my favorite ballets. But to get to work with Mr. Ratmansky on his version is icing on the cake.

We got just a short time with Mr. Ratmansky due to his extremely demanding schedule; about three weeks last July and two weeks in December to prepared for his highly-anticipated Seattle arrival. When we first started rehearsal, ballet masters from the Dutch National Ballet, where his Don Quixote first premiered in 2010, came to set the choreography on us. Much of our instruction was in making sure technical aspects of the dances were clean and that we, in the corps de ballet, had a clear outline of what was happening in each scene. That way when Mr. Ratmansky came, he could mold everything easily to how he envisioned it.

PNB's Kaori Nakamura in Ratmansky's Don Quixote. Photo by Angela Sterling.

Our focus was to react and respond believably with each character, no matter how big or small of a role. Every individual mattered to him, including all of us in the corps, who didn’t have specifically choreographed characters. Playing one of the seguidilla dancers (a fancy title for a person who lives in the town), I stay active and involved in the scene, helping the main characters feel like they’re in a town square in Barcelona where the ballet takes place. This requires about an hour onstage of acting without dancing. Mr. Ratmansky helped our acting by relating the story to us in a current way. For example, when Kitri and Basilio, the two main characters of the ballet, come out into the village, he told us we should respond as if they were the “it” couple of the town, that they are the life of the party, and their mood of the day can affect the mood of the whole scene. Our attention should focus on watching them flirt and play hard to get, and then turn to each other to discuss, or gossip, as if we’re saying, “They do this all the time!” or, “Hopefully they aren’t fighting today!”

With each scene, I noticed that Mr. Ratmansky concentrated on the big picture as well as the small details, for which he has a very picky eye. At any given time, he could focus on everybody onstage, not just the dancers in the spotlight. In one part of the first act, my character tries to flirt with Mercedes, the most beautiful street dancer in Barcelona, by serenading her with a guitar. During one rehearsal, as I was strumming the instrument attempting to entice her, Mr. Ratmansky stopped the music. He walked over to me and said I had to treat the guitar as if it were a valuable possession. If I were a guitar player, he explained I would be looking down at it occasionally while playing, trying to listen to the quality of the notes. He wanted my left hand to move and change finger positions on the neck of the guitar, so it actually looked like I was playing it. This showed me that a character comes to life through a dancer’s mannerisms and how they carry themself. These small details make it easy for the audience to believe the characters are real.

From the big idea to the tiniest of refinements, Mr. Ratmansky has a very special eye and mind for dance. Working with him in the studios was an amazing honor, and the things I learned will stay with me.

This wasn’t the first time Mr. Ratmansky’s worked with PNB. Last season, he set his Concerto DSCH on our company. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a second cast. Watching him work with everyone and seeing his choreography onstage gave me insight into his artistic mind. I was inspired by how he created feelings and emotions without the need of a plot or fancy sets and costumes. I was inspired how he emphasized the importance of showing real and honest reactions onstage and that one must have a reason to perform a gesture or movement. These themes carry through with all of his works, including Don Quixote, fancy sets and all.

Steven Loch is an apprentice with the Pacific Northwest Ballet. PNB’s Don Quixote runs through Feb. 12 at McCaw Hall. www.pnb.org. 

Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia in Les Carillons. Photo by Paul Kolnik.

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon returns to New York City Ballet premiering a new work as the evening’s centerpiece.

The first New York City Ballet program dedicated entirely to the work of Christopher Wheeldon debuted on Saturday to an audience filled with high expectation.  The company typically reserves the honor of devoting an entire evening to a long-time (and often dead) choreographer such as its founder George Balanchine or Jerome Robbins. Wheeldon, who is under 40, proved his relationship with the company hasn’t dwindled since he left as its resident choreographer for a freelance career, and with good reason.

Wheeldon’s new work for the company, Les Carillons, was set to a lively Bizet score and began with ten men introducing port de bras that would become a restated motif; a sharp movement then over-head arms each lowered behind the back with circular gestures. Right away there’s royal-like presence mirroring Bizet’s recognizable theme.  The score left room for heavy emotions projected on the ensuing relationships between dancers. However, the stop and go nature of the score created little to transition with, forcing the work to feel like a succession of related dances rather than one cohesive piece. Still, the work of the corps de ballet and five leading couples trading on and off stage with seamless partnering and intricate pattern work displayed the choreographic intelligence for which Wheeldon has become known.

The female leads, in gown-like dresses with shades of red and purple, demonstrated exactly how they earned their rankings. In an early duet with fellow principal dancer Amar Ramasar, Sara Mearns commands attention with sweeping movement interrupted only by balances that prove her steady control. Mearns brings a distinct dramatic element to the non-narrative work that pushes emotional connections with the entire piece. But no single pair emerges as a central focus in Les Carillons.

A playful quartet for Ana Sophia Scheller, Tiler Peck, Gonzalo Garcia, and Daniel Ulbricht makes the audience brighten. Quick footwork and flirtatious partnering bring a lighter tone to the piece before delving back into a more dramatic element. This time, it’s an adagio for Wendy Whelan and Robert Fairchild. He pulls her delicate frame across the stage multiple times with the tips of her pointe shoes hardly touching the floor.  Their combined grace and presence is continued in a solo emphasizing Whelan’s elegant movement.

Quick sections for the men generally left me more impressed by the patterns created than the sequence of steps used to make them. Corps de ballet member Joshua Thew frequently joined the principal men in these progressions and fit in notably well. But the crown jewels of the piece  remained the women. Maria Kowroski shines in a pas de deux with Tyler Angle filled with sumptuous extensions and complex, tangled partnering. Tiler Peck performs a lyrical solo with a charming quality that made her standout throughout all of the evening’s works.

Les Carillons lacks the cohesive power I admire in previous works such as Mercurial Manoeuvres and the evening’s closer, DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse, however, it did take advantage of the technical abilities and strong musicality of City Ballet dancers who developed a well-crafted addition to Wheeldon’s growing body of work.

Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia in Polyphonia. Photo by Paul Kolnik.

Wheeldon’s Polyphonia is the exact direction in which a modern-day Balanchine based company should be headed.  Simple costumes of plum leotards and tights for the women and matching unitards for the men are reminiscent of Balanchine’s abstract works. It’s classicism that doesn’t hide from parallel positions, angular juxtaposition, and even inverted positions for the women. An unsettling moment came mid-duet for Jennie Somogyi, who injured the Achilles’ tendon in her right foot and limped offstage in pain. Tiler Peck stepped in to replace her for the remainder of the ballet. A memorable duet came from principal Sterling Hyltin and soloist Adrian Danching-Waring. Their dynamics pushed the movement forward with urgency. Other standouts were the gentle duets between Whelan and Jared Angle and another solo moment where Mearns commanded the stage with ease.

New York City Ballet performing DGV: Dance a Grande Vitesse. Photo by Paul Kolnik.

In DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse, a piece originally created for the Royal Ballet in 2006, sleek, colorful costumes accompany physical partnering and a constancy driven by a steadfast Michael Nyman score. Theresa Reichlan and Maria Kowroski show off extreme lines and expressive movement with Reichlan’s partner, Craig Hall, also drawing attention with an authoritative movement quality. Peck stood out with her onstage presence that convinces me no one could dislike her in person. The piece doesn’t stray from its forward momentum until its end; the music concludes suddenly, and the dancers repeat final twisting partnered movements until the lights fade. Undeniably, the night was enjoyed by the audience which called the dancers and Wheeldon to the stage for several bows at the conclusion of each work indicating his staying power in a dance community eager for more.

Rachel Hagan is a dance and journalism major at New York University.

A Namibia zebra herd. Photo by George Steinmetz, courtesy of National Geographic.

“Shifting dunes, eerie shipwrecks, and a diverse array of migratory and seabirds draw ornithologists and adventure seekers to Namibia’s rugged 976-mile South Atlantic coast. November to April is summer here, where the ancient Namibian Desert meets the cool Benguela current. Days are cool, damp, and foggy, but mainly dry. From the seaside tourist hub Swakopmund, take a fly-in safari to view sand-encased shipwrecks and whale skeletons along remote Skeleton Coast National Park, or join a guided tour of Sandwich Harbour lagoon, an isolated marine sanctuary sheltered by towering sand dunes. Easy day trips include sand boarding in the dunes and visiting Walvis Bay lagoon, home to thousands of greater and lesser flamingos. From the bay, kayak out among the dolphins to the seal colonies at Pelican Point. Namibia’s newest—and largely inaccessible—national park, Sperrgebiet (“forbidden territory”) encompasses 5.4 million acres of the southern Diamond Coast including the famous De Beers diamond-mining lease. Limited, permit-only guided tours are available to specific park sites like the dramatic, 180-foot-tall rock arch at Bogenfels.” — From NationalGeographic.com

The collection includes celebrated photographers and those far lesser known, such as Lou Vest, a ship pilot in Houston, whose work is his art.

Lou Vest, Big Wake, Little Wake, 2011.

In his words: “I´ve always been interested in photography, but I put my film cameras aside when my children were young. Several years ago there was a request for old photos of the ship channel and the pilot´s association was unable to help. I resolved to begin carrying a camera around at work so that in the future people could look back and see what the ship channel was like at the beginning of the 21st century. This evolved into requests for photos to show at school presentations, at port meetings and requests to donate photos for some of the fund raising benefits for the maritime industry here. After the first event and some positive feedback I decided to get some good equipment.

Beyond that, if I have to put a label on my photography, I would call it a lyrical documentary of the Houston Ship Channel. That classification will surprise people who are accustomed to thinking of the ship channel as a nuisance and industry as ugly, but I think it fits. The ship channel is a huge part of Houston and is what has allowed the city to prosper. Houston is the largest port in the United States yet most Houstonians are only vaguely aware that we have one and are surprised to hear how big it really is. Unlike San Francisco whose maritime nature is part of the landscape or Venice where the port is interwoven into the city; in Houston the harbor is hidden away, invisible except from a few places. The port is just not a part of our culture. It seldom appears in our newspaper nor, that I know of, in our local art or literature. I hope, in a small way, to help change that.” – Lou Vest

Adrian Fernandez (Havana, Cuba), Untitled No. 24, 2008-11.

Cuban visual artist Adrian Fernandez, in his To Be or to Pretend series, examines how “table decorations with fruit or flowers has become an exceptional protagonist of the Cuban interior . . . the aesthetic pretensions and sign of the home identity. It is a discursive axis that summarizes the values repeated with less clarity in other decorative elements,” according to the artist.

Beth Moon’s Heart of the Dragon was shot on the remote island of Socotra off the horn of Africa in the Arabian Sea. “There are few places left on earth so remote and untouched by time. Socotra is one of the world’s last truly wild places with a uniquely diverse and enchanting landscape of surreal beauty.  Rich in mythical history, Herodotus wrote of the immortal phoenix that came to this island to be reborn in a nest of cinnabar and incense every 1,000 years.  Frankincense that burned in the temples of ancient Greece and Egypt was harvested from this island. Glimpsing the dragon’s blood trees that mantle the Haghier Mountains, one imagines this is what the world must have looked like millions of years ago.

Beth Moon, Heart of the Dragon, 2011.

I believe it is through the unique vegetation that the spirit of Socotra is defined, with mythical trees like the dragon’s blood tree or the fabled frankincense trees and the island’s culture so closely linked to nature which sets this island apart from the rest of the world.” – Beth Moon.

The 2012 Print Auction Exhibition runs through Feb. 20 at the Houston Center for Photography. The auction, held at the conclusion of the exhibition on Feb. 22, raises money to help support the center’s mission which includes educational, outreach and publication work for the local community and the international photography community. Its goal is to increase society’s understanding and appreciation of photography and its evolving role in contemporary culture.

www.hcponline.org.

Keith Carter, Masked Couple, from the portfolio, Imagining Paradise, 2011.

Herman Cornejo in Seven Sonatas. Photo by Rosalie O'Connor.

American Ballet Theatre brought a robust mixed repertory program to Dallas that showcased its many strengths in weekend performances presented by TITAS.

This was third time in 30 years the world-class company has visited North Texas, where they played to a mostly filled Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center on Friday and Saturday. The company showcased a few selections of its contemporary repertoire by some of the leading choreographers of our time.

Alexei Ratmansky’s beautifully airy Seven Sonatas was created for the company in 2009. It’s set to Scarlatti’s piano sonatas which Barbara Bilach played seamlessly seated onstage at the piano.  The 33-minute piece for three couples is fluid and full of elegant steps and partnering. Breezy white dresses by Holly Hynes worn by the women help set the mood. The piece balances nicely with some dramatic pull, bravura lifts and jumps and playful touches reflective of Ratmansky’s style. The work becomes so engaging, especially seated close to the front, that at some point you no longer notice the piano onstage.

Perhaps the most riveting was Merce Cunningham’s Duets (1980), a hypnotic study of balance and form set to John Cage’s percolating, rhythmic score. Six couples dressed in bright solids bend and pose, slowly balance and shift their weight into sculptural shapes.  An unhurried grand plié by Julie Kent with her partner Jared Matthews becomes an idea to consider.  This is the sole Cunningham work in ABT’s immense collection, and touring it to places outside of New York, just weeks after the Cunningham Dance Company gave its final performance, underscores the importance of keeping this modern master’s works alive. After Cunningham’s 2009 death, his company embarked on a two-year tour which culminated last month in a New Year’s Eve performance in New York City before it closed.

Paloma Herrera and Eric Tamm in Duets. Photo by Gene Schiavone.

Paloma Herrera brought eloquence and authority to Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, with Cory Stearns on Friday in the only classical piece. Xiomara Reyes and her longtime dance partner Herman Cornejo, however, left a more memorable impression in Saturday’s show. Reyes’s expressiveness and pure gusto matched beautifully with Cornejo’s mastery, giant double cabrioles and thrilling spins. Tchaikovsky’s music for the 10-minute piece was originally part of his Swan Lake for the Bolshoi Ballet but was cut. Years later after it was discovered, Balanchine used the music to create this gem in 1960 which has been danced for generations by every major ballet company in the world and at galas.

In Company B, Paul Taylor’s feel-good, post World War II era suite of dances are fueled by its catchy Andrews Sisters compilation. ABT dancers smartly showed the verve and the lows Taylor expresses of wartime loss.  Aaron Scott was strong in Tico-Tico, while Simone Messmer in There Will Never Be Another You with Grant DeLong aptly captured the despair. Sascha Radetsky brought a high-energy, stylized cool to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.  Though audiences here have seen Company B performed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company in recent years, ABT left its own impression of how good contemporary dance can be.