Allegra Kent and Bart Cook: "Concerto" from EPISODES.

[Place of publication not identified] : George Balanchine Foundation, [date of publication not identified]

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New York City Ballet dancers Unity Phelan and Taylor Stanley coached by Kent and Cook in the "Concerto" section of Episodes New York City: February 17, 2020 -- At the New York City Ballet studios, Lincoln Center, Allegra Kent and Bart Cook, working with NYCB soloist Unity Phelan, principal Taylor Stanley, and with Emma von Enck, Alexa Maxwell, Kristen Segin and Mary Elizabeth Sell, coached "Concerto" from Episodes, including the role originated by Kent in 1959 to a Webern orchestral score. Cameron Grant, solo pianist with New York City Ballet, accompanied the coaching session, after which Claudia Roth Pierpont interviewed Kent and Cook. The recording was supervised by Paul Boos, Video Archives Project Associate, aided by Video Archives founder Nancy Reynolds and senior editor Gus Reed. Episodes, a joint effort between NYCB and the Martha Graham Company, premiered in 1959 with Martha Graham's choreography occupying the first half and Balanchine's, including "Concerto," the second. "Concerto" is a dance in three parts for a principal couple and four women. John Martin of the New York Times wrote at the time, "Here we are under the domination of the supreme logic of irrationality. The characteristic muscular phrase of Kent becomes almost the theme, to be exploited to a super-mechanical nonhumanity. Again the outstretched heel recurs and becomes the final capping of a miraculous formal sequence of movement created out of nowhere. In the closing section, Balanchine's well-known 'daisy chains' and 'London Bridges' find themselves in lunatic inversions, and there would seem to be no further to go ... But there is." The GBF Video Archives document the insights of dancers, often principals from original casts (as in this case) or those who worked closely with Balanchine. The Archives' mission is to preserve this knowledge and pass it on to today's dancers, scholars, and audiences. The Archives are available world-wide through public and university libraries. In addition, the interview components can be accessed on the Balanchine Foundation's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/blnchn).D15.

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April 01, 2024