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Trailer of Locked up Laura

This duet was especially created for Celine Cassone and James Gregg, dancers of BJM-Danse Montreal.

Music by Bart Rijnink

Costumes: Yso.

Trailer of Zip Zap Zoom

Review 2 Zip Zap Zoom

by Rob Appel
Posted on 10/22/09

Montreal, Canada’s bjm danse company; A Snap-shot of Dance Excellence!

by: Rob Appel 

Once again, ARTPOWER – La Jolla – has to be “congratulated” for bringing to San Diegans ‘superb dance’ in the form of Canada’s bjm danse – Montreal Jazz Dance Company, at the Mandeville Auditorium in La Jolla. A capacity audience of dance enthusiasts, including many young dance students from the Master Classes offered earlier by bjm danse…all, were on hand to watch-in-awe the excellence of technique, looks and showmanship of these bjm 12-dancers (however, few, if any SD dance leaders were present … sad).

One of Canada’s foremost contemporary dance companies, the bjm danse brought this evening, the works of two rising female choreographers, in a program of surprise, humor and a touch of whimsy. The first act was devoted to Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, who has been making waves in Europe, with her intelligent, theatrical creations…and she opened this program with a pas-de-deux LOCKED UP LAURA, danced by Celine Cassone and James Gregg (originally premiered in 2008 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival). Both dancers possessing excellent ballet technique, with Celine Cassone completely enpointe, drew an audible gasp from the audience, when she extended her left leg straight-up over her head, perpendicular to the floor (all the while enpointe on her right foot…). The adagio moves by Celine and her handsome partner James Gregg, were free-flowing and emotional…flawless execution!

The second Lopez Ochoa ‘World Premiere’ piece was straight from the computer world of ZIP ZAP ZOOM … as animated videos by Javier Velasquez, flashed-up on a giant screen upstage … the full company of dancers interpreted (in brief segments) various elements of a computer in action. Performed mainly by soloists, duos and trios of dancers, the strenuous choreography was highly entertaining. Especially unique, were the six male dancers individually, in quick movements to calls, wave – jump – shake – wheeze – turn – freeze – and wave again, etc… not a step was missed! With Daniel Ranger’s clever lighting, Lopez Ochoa debuted this fascinating dance work to the roars of approval from the house … a ‘World Premiere’ in San Diego was now history!

Review 1 Zip Zap Zoom

BJM Danse Montreal, Zip Zap Zoom

October 19, 10:21 PMTemecula Dance Examiner by Rachel Holdt

This Saturday night’s performance at Old Town Temecula by Ballet Jazz Montreal was, once again, a wonderful experience. In the pre-show speech, given by Mt. San Jacinto College’s Lori Torok, the audience learns about the three pieces danced that evening. This informative speech is highly recommended and is helpful in understanding more about the dances, the companies, and the music or theme behind the movement. Making the long journey to Southern California for only three night’s showings, it was a privilege to view this popular Canadian company. Although their other two pieces are performed with flawless beauty, the second piece was the star of the evening.

The world premier of Zip Zap Zoom, a brainchild of the collaborating choreographer in residence, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, is a creation in response to the growing popularity of the online gaming industry. Award winning Ochoa uses this theme to explore the competitive nature of the gaming phenomena that is rapidly changing the way many people are spending their time. Because the company is of Montreal, a markedly large part of the music and lyrics are in French, but it was comical how much this truly didn’t matter. Screen graphics are in each scene of the piece and serve as a visual aid in conveying the theme of the interactive world that Ochoa creates.

Opening the very first scene, all nine dancers are on stage. As the 80’s flavored rap begins, each dancer, dressed as an ‘avatar’ responds to their avatar’s individual sound in the music. The dancers pair up in duets and orchestrate teams as well as dueling couples following the competitiveness of the game theme. The graphics are supportive of this as well, and display a colored ball rolling around the stage matching each of the dancer’s avatar colors.

In true game-like fashion, the next scene depicts another level of game play. A solo male enters the stage and attempts to beat the game by mimicking the actions that are called out by a narrator in the game. The word to be acted out is displayed in type on the background screen as each word is called. One by one the male dancers take turns sneezing, freezing, coughing, jigging, folding, burping, and even bumping. The comical nature of this is not lost on the audience as laughter spread throughout the theater. If the dancers make a mistake, a loud ‘wrong’ is shouted out and the next dancer steps up to try and beat the game. Quickly the game intensifies and a dance is born. Dancing to electronic beats and African derived masculine movement, the six male dancers command the stage. Notable is the male to male partnering—a welcome relief from ordinary.

As the music changes, another ‘level’ of game play emerges. Three female dancers in brightly colored wigs and tutus emerge. Playfully themed against umbrellas in the graphics, they dance to light and airy French music. The luminescent colored ballerinas exit the stage in extraordinary fashion with their legs only visible on stage, and while lying face down on the floor, their legs and tutus bounce up and down as they giggle along with the game narrator.

Another level change accompanies another mood set on stage as two male, and a single female enter. With movements that can only be described as sinuous contact choreography, they both partner the female dancer with intoxicating seamlessness. French narration plays over placid piano music to make this dance one of extreme beauty and elegance. The end of this ‘level’ is signaled by a graphic on screen that reads, “Press Escape.”

The final scene changes yet again to include all dancers in street clothes, and paint splatters on the background graphics. Hip hop movement accompanies the piece as all nine dancers show truly remarkable and eclectic training.

This piece is more than relevant, and it is more than current. It is contemporary, and it is what dance is now. Ochoa is truly a masterful choreographer with an edge for what dance can and should be in this constantly changing industry. As her schooling well predicted her a “rising star of the Dutch dance scene”, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa has shown that she is a star today, and deserves the recognition for this simply phenomenal piece of work.

Review of Nube Blanco

Review by Trailerpilot.com

I didn’t realize until last night how long it’s been since I’ve attended a world premiere and experienced the luscious power of seeing a great work intensified exponentially by the fact that it’s being performed for the first time. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Nube Blanco (White Cloud) ended the drought.

Educated at the Royal Ballet Academy of Antwerp and associated with a litany of global dance companies, Columbian-Belgian Ochoa’s pedigree may explain her choreographic fluency, but understanding where it comes from doesn’t make it any less impressive. Five minutes into Nube Blanco, I felt I was seeing Luna Negra glide confidently into its quinceañera, the belle of the ball and five years early. The company performed Ochoa’s work pitch-perfectly, hitting every tonal shift and visual joke with a maximal balance of clarity and subtlety. There are an interesting collection of echoes in Ochoa’s dance: Paul Taylor, in composition and especially during Bobby Briscoe, Hamilton Nieh, JP Tenuta and Javier Amaya’s showstopping, Cloven Kingdom-esque men’s quartet; Crystal Pite, in a smart, hilarious inventiveness and efficiently-framed internal logic; and Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, in the way Ochoa’s references to the history of dance form (here the zapateado technique of traditional flamenco) are puréed with touches of the surreal and absurd. This last may come as no surprise, given that Ochoa recently collaborated with the fashion house for an event at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum.

Far from being a portfolio of her good taste, however, Nube Blanco is the fully-realized expression of an individual voice. Opening with a macho solo (by impressive newcomer Amaya), one group each of men (in high-waisted black flamenco pants and blood-red character shoes) and women (also in red heels, along with flirty tulle skirts under sheer black shifts) enter the stage, laughing, catcalling and gossiping. Immediately, and throughout the piece, Ochoa shows serious chops not only as a dancemaker but as a director of dance theater: None of the text or light acting reads as half-baked, and each dancer is obviously full of useful information about how what they are doing relates to the scene as a whole. Even though the “narrative” arc bears no logic, it’s firmly grounded in the rich textures of Maria Dolores Pradera’s voice, whose songs’ energy and mood translate into stage action with ease; it’s impossible not to notice how much Ochoa loves this music. In a perhaps unconventional way, Nube Blanco could almost be read as an homage to Pradera.

The chic costume elements (by Diana Ruettiger) are ripe with hidden mileage: Ochoa brings each back onstage multiple times in various guises. Following an astoundingly hot solo by the liquid Garcia, his frozen arm becomes a towel rack upon which a line of entering ladies casually drape their shifts (which, having been removed, become opaque and nearly unrecognizable), and one of the piece’s finest moments comes when Wyatt holds a shoe up to her ear and leaves an angry voicemail for her boyfriend, complaining (in Spanish) about his perpetual tardiness and warning him to wear the white t-shirt she bought him. He stands beside her the entire time, bare-chested with a white t-shirt hanging out of his mouth, which flails around as he dances a solo that playfully yet poignantly suggests his frustration at being left mute in the face of her motormouth commentary and constant disapproval.

A similar, subliminal seriousness rides just underneath the entire work; part of what makes it so satisfying, and so funny, is that it’s as grounded as it is silly. The closing scene, featuring the ensemble limping rhythmically in one shoe each and Wyatt again in the most brilliant costume-repurposing of all, not only brings the piece’s title home but hints that something ethereal and pure might be found among life’s draining, pedestrian quarrels and struggles. Nube Blanco not only announces the Latina Choreographers Project as the plum prize for a barely-visible creative demographic: It points toward a Luna Negra Dance Theater that’s a platform for the most vibrant, inventive work in the concert dance field.

Nube Blanco at Luna Negra, March 2009.

I was asked to write a blog about my impressions of the working process on "Nube Blanco" for Luna Negra Dance Theater's website. This is what came out with some pictures taken during rehearsal by Altin Kaftira (former principal with Dutch National Ballet), who happened to be in Chicago during the same time as I was creating the piece. Thanks Altin!

It’s been nine days since Luna Negra dancers and I started working on Nube Blanco (White cloud) and I guess I can say we finished the piece yesterday right before the company took off on a small tour to Ahsville. I’ve been surprised and amazed by the dancers’ energy, dedication and extreme speed in learning steps. The yearning for learning and making it work as a group is tremendous and reminds me of my old days as a dancer with Djazzex, a modern-jazz company of a small size as Luna Negra. I guess therefor I’ve been feeling very much at ease around the dancers as if I had come back to my old company.

Nube Blanco is set on music by Maria Dolores Pradera, my mother’s favourite singer. I grew up with her songs from a very young age but at the time I did not understand the lyrics because I was raised in French. I always promised myself that when I’d stop dancing I would finally learn Spanish and I did. So I understand what the songs are about now and I also understand why my mother was in love with this powerful music.

I used the flamenco zapateado as a red thread in the piece. I’ve taken seven years of flamenco dance in school and performed a couple of flamenco pieces. I love playing with rhythms using the flamenco basics and mixing them with modern dance and even hip-hop movements. The piece is a fusion of different styles like I am a cocktail made of a Colombian father and a Belgian mother, stirred with a zest of humor. I like a hard working energy in the studio but I always leave space for laughter! It enables me to discover the personalities of the dancers because without their colorful presence the piece would not be what it is now!

Songs featured in the piece are" Pa' todo el ano, Amarraditos, Nube Blanco, Y YA.

The dancers of Luna Negra are: Javier Amaya, Bobby Briscoe, Elise Drew, Ricardo Garcia, Louis James Jackson, Rebecca Lemme, Hamilton Nieh, Sarah Rodriguez Roberts, Kirsten Shelton, JP Tenuta, Vanessa Valecillos, Jessica Alejandra Wyatt.

 

In memoriam of Sebastian Edward Nichita

On January 6, 2009 Sebastian Edward Nichita has passed away at the age of 33.
We met 7 years ago when Eddy came to watch the piece "Replay" I had choreographed for Djazzex. After seeing that piece he invited me to choreograph for the annual workshop of the Dutch National Ballet. That's where I created the duet "Before After" for him and myself on music by Marc van Roon.
We did not know at the time that this duet would become my signature piece. Since then "Before after" has been invited to several festivals throughout the world and has been danced by several casts.
Eddy had so many questions about the after life and I hope for him he has found the answers now. Nevertheless he went too soon. Much too soon. May you rest in piece Eddy.
I want to thank you for sharing these intense moments of dance on stage.

Sebastian Edward Nichita and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

A few pictures of Satie

All pictures are taken by Ahu Savan An, to whom I'm very greatful.

I want to thank all the dancers of MDT Ankara to have been so open and trustful all the way which made it possible for me to create my very first modern fairy-tale ballet : "Satie" a fairy-tale in 5 tableaux.

The dancers are:  Misket Alkım, Yıldız Kaplan, Aslı Güneş Sümer, Nazlı Dirin, İlke Sayıner, Zerçin Sönmez, Can Gökdoğan, Kerem İnanç

Two new premieres at MDT Ankara.

On November 29, 2008 my new piece "Satie" and a revived/reworked version of "IN<Fusion>IN" will have its premier night at the State Opera of Ankara.(Turkey)
"IN<fusion>IN" is a 20 minutes piece for 18 dancers on three parts of the violin Concerto by J.S. Bach.
"Satie" is a 30 minute piece set on 5 different interpretations of a famous Waltz by French composer Eric Satie. The piece will be danced by 7 women and 2 men.
This is the poster of the evening.

Roze Kater

Some pics of the play "Roze Kater" by the theatre group Fantasten, which I co-directed, choreographed and for which I created also the video images.



You can find the Youtube trailer at this link:
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKh-XV4l8CU