Solo for Two Takes Flight

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev will introduce three new works to the world this evening at Segerstrom Center: MERCY by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, PASSO by Ohad Naharin and FACADA by Arthur Pita. The program is called Solo for Two – the title paying tribute to the unique talents of these two extraordinary dancers whose spirit, passion and commitment unite into riveting works of art. Following are glimpses into the creative process, photos from the recent rehearsals at the Center. 

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui rehearsing with Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. Photo by Steve Dawson.

Final dress rehearsal of MERCY. Photo by Gene Schiavone.

Solo for Two will be performed Friday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 26 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday July 27 at 2 p.m. It will then receive its London and Moscow premieres, culminating with its New York premiere next year. 

Final dress rehearsal of PASSO. Photo by Doug Gifford.

Final dress rehearsal of FACADA. Photo by Gene Schiavone.

For more photos from Solo for Two rehearsals, visit the Center’s Facebook page here. 

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. Photo by Doug Gifford.

Soccer Fans Storm the Arts Plaza

Fans for The Netherlands and Argentina gather on the Center’s Arts Plaza

Soccer fans at the Center

There’s been ballet, dance classes, opera, an electric guitar concert, parties, rock bands, The Car Plays, Movie Mondays, community festivals, Walks for various causes – and now – World Cup soccer! The Center welcomed soccer fans to watch The Netherlands vs. Brazil on Saturday, July 12th and Argentina vs. Germany on Sunday, July 13th (lucky 13 as it turned out for Germany). The games were shown on LED jumbotrons. Food trucks fed the hungry, and the Center’s children’s Imagination Playground provided diversions for little ones not yet in the soccer groove. 

The great Russian dancers Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, with Russian 
impresario, dance producer and artist manager Sergei Danilian, center. Vasiliev 
and Osipova took time off from their rehearsals for Solo for Two, in which they will 
perform a world premiere and two American premieres July 25 – 27.

And the tension builds.

A little advertising for Segerstrom Center worn by 
Director of Education Jason Holland at the Imagination Playground.

And the win goes to Germany!

For more fun on the Arts Plaza, don’t miss the Center’s Movie Mondays: Gigi on July 21, Cabaret on July 28 and ending with Sweet Charity on August 4. For more information about Movie Mondays, click here. 

All photos by Doug Gifford.

Center Favorites Make Olympian Impressions in Sochi

Ivan Vasiliev in the opening ceremony

Among Russia’s great artists and cultural ambassadors to the world who performed during the opening ceremonies at the Sochi Olympics were Maestro Valery Gergiev, general and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and dancers Diana Vishneva and Ivan Vasiliev. Gergiev has appeared at the Center many times and is probably best remembered for bringing the Mariinsky Orchestra, Ballet and Opera for the opening celebrations of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in 2006. 

Maestro Valery Gergiev conducts in the 
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in 2006

The brilliant Diana Vishneva swirled among other dancers on the Sochi stadium floor until they eventually created the shape of a dove, which was followed by opera star Anna Netrebko singing the Olympic anthem. Among Vishneva’s many appearances at the Center, she has starred in two solo evenings created for her by the Center in association with Ardani Artists – Diana Vishneva: Beauty in Motion and Diana Vishneva: On the Edge. Her performance in Beauty in Motion won Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask award for the Center, that nations’ highest accolade for achievement in the arts. 

Diana Vishneva in the opening ceremony

Following his appearance in the opening ceremony, one report said, "The brilliant Ivan Vasiliev brought the stadium down with astonishing leaps.” Vasiliev has also appeared at the Center. He has been seen here with the Bolshoi Ballet, in two Tour de Force gala evenings, Reflections and Kings of Dance. He returns in July with Natalia Osipova in a special night titled Solo for Two. Included in that program will be two world premieres.

Dancers with Diana Vishneva, center

Prima Ballerina is Prima Assoluta in the U.K.

Natalia Osipova.
Photo by Damir Yusupov.

Natalia Osipova has won Britain’s Critics’ Circle National Dance award for Best Dancer of 2013. Qualifying artists must have performed in the U.K. between August 31, 2012 and September 1, 2013. Britain’s Judith Mackrell reported for The Guardian in her DANCEBLOG that, “there are few more dramatic and virtuoso stars in ballet today than Natalia Osipova – yet while the Russian ballerina wins her best female dancer award for performances with the St. Petersburg company the Mikhailovsky Ballet, and has been nominated in previous years for her performances with the Bolshoi, there is an extra frisson to her win this time around, given that her recent signing to the Royal Ballet has, for the time being, made her one of our own.” 

Natalia Osipova. Photo by Gene Schiavone

Osipova has appeared at the Center with the Bolshoi Ballet, the Center’s Tour de Force dance galas, in Reflections and American Ballet Theatre’s world premiere of its new production of Firebird. The incomparable Osipova returns to the Center with her equally phenomenal partner, Ivan Vasiliev, July 25 – 27. They will perform a special program titled Solo for Two.

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in Don Quixote.
Photo by Mikhail Logvinov, copyright Bolshoi Ballet.

Natalia Osipova and Vasiliev Ignite the Stage

Photo by Damir (left) and Stas Levshin (right).

Get ready for the dynamic duo that Bachtrack is raving about. Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev returned to dance with the Bolshoi Ballet, performing The Flames of Paris to close out the company’s three-week season in London. Reviewer Margaret Willis raves, Osipova and Vasiliev “set the stage ablaze with their vitality, energy and sparking virtuoso dancing. Their natural effervescent characters lit the fuse, which fired up the whole company, resulting in an explosion of delighted cheering from the whole auditorium."

Osipova and Vasiliev performing The Flames of Paris

“Like a greyhound let out of the slips, Vasiliev shot across the stage in a series of mind-boggling leaps, putting in triple turns in the air where normally there would be two; pirouetting so fast, it would seem that he would bore through the floor; leaping and hanging horizontally in the air; and concluding with barrel turns and multi-complicated flourishes – and all done with a wide grin. 

Osipova and Vasiliev performing The Flames of Paris

“Not to be outdone, Osipova, showing off her talents, sped across the stage, her twinkling feet barely touching the ground; twizzled in multi pirouettes; jumped with high soaring stretched leaps to end with cyclonic spins. Her expressive face exuded the joy of being on stage and of dancing, and she too won the hearts of the cheering public. Their curtain calls went on and on.” 

In 2009, the pair performed a pas de deux from The Flames of Paris during the Center’s dance extravaganza, Tour de Force. This brilliant couple, the toast of the dance world, are the stars of a special engagement at the Center in 2014. Tickets are available now through a subscription to the International Dance Series. 

To read the full article by Willis, please visit Bachtrack.

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev: Ballet's Power Couple

Osipova and Vasiliev. © Gene Schiavone

Gregory Wayne comments in DuJour magazine that not since Nureyev and Fonteyn have two dancers so captivated dance audiences as Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. Wayne writes, “Now that the 2013 season is upon us, dance mavens are gathering again to witness the magic.” He is referring to Osipova and Vasiliev’s appearances in New York, but Southern California dance audiences can see them in a special program being created for them by the Center and Ardani Artists that will be performed January 24 – 26, 2014. The evening will include “The Kingdom of the Shades” scene from Petipa’s La Bayadère, Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la mort as well as a world premiere work. As Wayne says, “The annals of millennial-era ballet have not seen a more mesmerizing duo than Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova.” Tickets to the Center’s engagement are available now through subscriptions to the 2013 – 2014 International Dance Series.

www.dujour.com/2013-06/1226/ivan-vasiliev-natalia-osipova-american-ballet-theatre 

Vasiliev in The young man, and death. © Damir Yusupov

Osipova as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. © Gene Schiavone

The Center’s 2013 – 2014 International Dance Series also includes an exclusive engagement by the incomparable Diana Vishneva, On the Edge, with all new choreography. Returning to Segerstrom Center are Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo with the American premiere of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s LAC (Swan Lake), the Hamburg Ballet performing the American premiere of John Neumeier’s award-winning production of Liliom and the always amazing Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Ivan Vasiliev in Rehearsal for Kings of the Dance 2011

We are very pleased to have special guest blogger Anya Korisch writing from City Center in New York where she’s behind-the-scenes at rehearsals for Kings of the Dance 2011. For the next few weeks, we’ll be posting Anya’s insider photos and updates. Her first blog post, below, provides a front row seat to the solo piece, Labyrinth of Solitude. Kings 2011 will receive its American premiere here Oct. 21 – 23.

Sept. 8th, second day of fall rehearsals. City Center.

With the Moscow world premiere less than a month away, rehearsals for Kings of the Dance 2011 are in full swing at the City Center studios in New York.

This week, choreographer and former Compania Nacional de Danza principal dancer, Patrick de Bana, is choreographing a new solo, Labyrinth of Solitude, for the Bolshoi's youngest, and arguably brightest, star – Ivan Vasiliev. The music is a stirring orchestral version of Tomaso Antonio Vitali's Chaconne in G Minor for Violin and Piano. When finished, the solo will be 10 grueling minutes long, and de Bana and Vasiliev have only six days to complete it start to finish. It helps that Vasiliev is a quick study – by the end of second day, they have set over five minutes of the music.

In keeping with the title, the piece begins with Vasiliev, his back to the audience, slowly trotting center stage, taking small bouncing steps like a bull or prize-fighter in the ring. “Use your bones, feel your bones,” de Bana tells him. The direction produces a more articulated, weightier quality of movement. At another point, demonstrating a pose of almost extreme contrapposto, de Bana tells Vasiliev to think of the Nijinsky photographs, their oppositions of lightness and weight, the suggested stillness at the heart of the movement. “When I look at you, I think of Nijinsky,” de Bana tells Vasiliev. The dancer doesn't flinch at the comparison.

The choreographer's feedback is full of imagery and he is concerned that each movement convey an emotion, a message to the audience. At the first rehearsal, trying to describe an effect he is looking for, de Bana tells Vasiliev of his own experience watching bullfighting. On day two, the choreographer says, “This is your labyrinth of solitude, but it's your own mind, you know.” Vasiliev immediately hits the right emotional tone. “He is amazing,” exclaims de Bana. “Did you always learn this fast?” Vasiliev nods.

Most of the movement is extremely fluid with huge jumps that are Vasiliev's specialty, bursting into the air like sudden gusts of wind. From day one, even while marking, he colors each movement with an emotional quality and de Bana urges him to play with the timing of the music, to feel free to go slower or faster within the phrase in order to produce the pitch that in the end will fit the music perfectly. “Be the echo,” is the last comment of the long second rehearsal day.

Text and photographs by Anya Korisch

Segerstrom Center Favorites Win Dance Awards

Winners of the UK Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards 2010 were announced earlier this week and a few of Segerstrom Center favorites were included – Bolshoi Ballet superstars Natalia Osipova won for Best Female Dancer, Ivan Vasiliev received the award for Best Male Dancer and the Bolshoi Ballet nabbed Best Foreign Dance Company. Natalia and Ivan appeared in Reflections, a joint project with the Bolshoi Ballet, which received its world premiere here in Segerstrom Hall last Thursday. Both dancers will return to the Center to star in Tour de Force II: A Gala Dance Extravaganza this coming May as well as a special commission dance event in the Fall of 2012. Audiences at Tour de Force I in 2009 were blown away by the pair's performance of a pas de deux from Flames of Paris.
The National Dance Awards were established by the Critics Circle in 2000 to highlight the astonishing range of dance on offer in the United Kingdom. A big congratulations to everyone!

Photo: Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in Serenata (Reflections); by Steve Dawson