Carmen Maquia by Ballet Hispanico

Carmen has been in my life ever since I can remember. I was a kid when I heard Maria Callas singing that famous Habanera for the first time and I felt very intrigued by this enigmatic opera. George Bizet's music is so moving because it embraces a story full of passion, love and death. His score has been my inspiration for choreographing, even for solo dances based on personal experiences. 

I have seen many ballet versions of this opera by Ballet Nacional de Cuba (live performance), Roland Petit's Carmen, and many others. Last year, I finally could see the complete opera at Lincoln Center and catch many parts of it thanks to my intermediate French. Every single time, Carmen leaves me the sensation that something could have been done to avoid the terrible tragedy. Also, I always feel that great impulse to choreograph this powerful music again, to recreate by my own the passion and tragedy of love that Carmen's life represents.  

Last Saturday,I was very excited to see for the first time the company that I work for performing at the Apollo Theater. Lovely and cold night in Harlem which made me be closer to my contemporary ballet artistic preferences. Ballet Hispanico presented a minimalist choreography charged of a dance language full of plasticity and movement exploration that clearly fits in the contemporary dance field. The sets and costumes, in black and white, completed the search of pure movement, done by the choreographer who did not forget the emotive and deep emotional story that has to be told. 

I liked very much this choreography because it presents another way to re-stage the dance creations of Carmen that have been done in the past. By recreating the classical music of Bizet, the choreographer Gustavo Sansano played with the contemporary aesthetic and semiotic message that challenged the audience's connection with this dance. 

To know more about this choreography, please visit Ballet Hispanico 's webpage. To follow, an excerpt from the Apollo's site:  

In what has become an eagerly-awaited annual tradition, the nation’s leading Latino dance company returns to the Apollo stage to premiere its first evening-length work. Hailed as a “masterpiece” by the Chicago Sun-Times, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s CARMEN.maquia is like Georges Bizet’s iconic opera about a passionate gypsy, riveting from start to finish. The energetic and sensual choreography fuses ballet and modern dance with nods to the Spanish paso doble and flamenco. A stunning set design by Luis Crespo and minimalist black-and-white costumes by fashion designer David Delfin evoke the paintings of Pablo Picasso. Highly original and full of elaborate partnering, CARMEN.maquia is a smoldering reimagining of this tragic tale.

Excerpt taken from Apollo Theater 's web page

Ludovico Einaudi in New York

Besides the fact that Black Swan was an interesting movie, this film brought to my attention Millepied's name and the whole story about Sarah Lane's dance double role for Natalie Portman. However, other name was presented to me during that movie: Ludovico  Einaudi. 

After having listened to his music on different sources,  I was curious enough to see Ludovico's live performance. It is true though that famous artists' performances in New York are sold out very quickly. However, once again, I was able to get extraordinary seats just few hours before the concert. 

Having been told about the high commercial standard of his music by an Italian friend, I went to see this famous musician and his orchestra. I liked the combination of styles that he has been able to master and the  strong stereo acoustic sound of some of the pieces. It is a different work that many people enjoy, even though, I do believe that is very commercialized. Fact that is not clear if it comes from his artistry or from his recording house. However, I was impressed by the age average of his orchestra, a very young troupe and the variety of audience that attended an over sold Skirball center. 

Legendary pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi performs a rare and exclusive concert in New York.

“A pianist with Rock God tendencies” DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON, UK)Ludovico Einaudi’s unique musical alchemy draws on elements of classical, rock, electronica, ambient and world music. Stunningly beautiful and effortlessly lyrical, his music redefines traditional genres. Ludovico Einaudi has scored over twenty films, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Soundtrack for Fuori Dal Mondo. His music has been featured in numerous Hollywood blockbusters Black Swan, The Reader, and J. Edgar, as well as in high-profile ad campaigns for the 2012 London Olympics, the NBA Finals, Nissan, and American Airlines.  His most recent album, In a Time Lapse, broke UK chart history for a classical artist, and is the #1 iTunes Classical Album across Europe and the U.S.
Excerpt taken from Sirkball Center for Performing Arts  http://nyuskirball.org/calendar/ludovico

Interview with King Swami

Maria Piedad was interviewed by the musician based in California, King Swami  for The Bright Seed. His work, together with JWG’s, is to create “simple, elegant and attractive music” for other artists such as choreographers, film makers, digital artists, etc. Their work is natural and strongly connected with love, peace and living harmoniously with other fellows respecting our planet Earth.

Modern times has made us live in a quick and non-stop society that, sometimes, loses connections with spirituality and nature. Modern life also makes us live in an extremely technological era, fact that is advantageous if we realize how lucky we are to be able to shorter distances and easily cross any border helped by the internet. The cyber space made this interview possible with the plus of having met such a wonderful artists living on the opposite coast of the country.

It was very interesting as an artist to recap how dance has modeling my life and career since very early stages as a child and adolescent. How ballet has brought me to very different places and societies to learn from different people, cultures and countries has been core for building my life philosophy and professional practice. Along the interview, artistic influences, experiences, mentors and masters were emerging showing to me, one more time, how lucky I am to be able to make a living with my dance, my childhood dream that became true and continue being part of me. Family, teachers, classmates, friends, students, colleagues, among others have been part of my life journey.

To have access to the full interview clicking here: Maria Piedad, Ecuador’s Shinning Light 

American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive 2014

Maria Piedad was a counsuelour for  the ABT Summer Intensive 2014. It was an extraordinary experience, artistically and personally rewarding. She was able to share five weeks full of ballet with the talented young dancers of the Violet level as well as with the ABT and JKO School faculty and staff.

Violet level, ABT Summer Intensive 2014

NYU Dance Education Program Distinguished Faculty Concert

Maria Piedad performed the dance/theater piece “Having Conjunctions” choreographed and directed by the well known choreographer Claire Porter. The piece was part of the 2014 NYU Dance Education Program Faculty Concert NYU which happened at the Frederick Lowe Theatre in New York last April.

This piece´s creative process embraced movement, interpretation and linguistic clusters explorations to create unique stories for each character. Along the choreography, small stories were told using only grammatical conjunctions as language. The piece had a humoristic touch, a characteristic of Claire’s work. The audience enjoyed this piece and Maria Piedad could use her oratory skills playing with a text and its counterpart in rapid Spanish.

"Having Conjunctions" Cast

Backstage moment

Enjoying Claire Porter´s choreography

Maria Piedad presented her Master's thesis to NYU/Steinhardt

After several months of research, Maria Piedad presented her thesis “Ballet and the Contemporary Choreography Creation: a relation to be revealed” as one of the requirements for her Master of Arts degree in Teaching Dance in the Professions: The American Ballet Theatre Pedagogy at NYU/Steinhard.

The research question addressed if ballet, as a dance technique, facilitates or not the contemporary choreography creation. However,  Maria Piedad’s research purpose had nothing to do with ballet as facilitator of the contemporary technique performance. Conversely, she investigated about how the creative processes of contemporary choreographers, such as, Jiri Kilán, Willian Forsythe, Hans Van Manen, among others, are stimulated or not, when they work with dancers who have had a strong ballet training.  During the research process, different theoretical lens and theories were used to collect and analyze data; for instance, Modernism, Post-modernism, Avant-Garde  and the history and heritage of Judson Dance Theater and The Grand Union were taking into consideration for this research. 

This thesis was a practical complement. Maria Piedad did an extensive movement research along many hours of studio rehearsal in order to create the movement language that she used in her choreography “Á la première, á la deuxième, á la troisième...". In this way, she put in practice her theoretical analysis about ballet as facilitator of the contemporary choreography creation. This choreography was performed at the NYU/Steinhardt Masters’ Dance Concert 2013 by Steinhardt and Tisch masters students last November. 

A la première, à la deuxième, à la troisième...

The latest Maria Piedad’s choreography is entitled  "A la première, à la deuxième, troisième à la ..." music by Philip Glass.  This piece was presented for the Master's Dance Concert 2013, Dance Education Program of New York University NYU, November 16^th and 17^th, at the Frederick Loewe Theatre in New York City .

The dancers, NYU Steinhardt/Tisch master’s students, performed a contemporary ballet piece with a psychological theme. The aim was to explore the experiences and feelings of what it means to be a woman; its femininity, independence, thoughts, conscious, subconscious and emotional worlds and personal, intrapersonal and social relationships as well. This dance work was carried out in an environment of artistic collaboration. The primary choreographic exploration started more than five months ago and it was complemented by the academic research done by Maria Piedad for her Master’s thesis. 

A la première, à la deuxième, à la troisième...

Photography by James Alonzo White