Image extracted from video by Alexander Iziliaev
by Lewis Whittington for The Dance Journal
The apprentice companies to Philadanco (D/2) and Pennsylvania Ballet (PBII) – are taking center stage for Together We Dance, their first collaborative concert at the Painted Bride Arts Center May 27.
Donald Lunsford has directed D/2 for over two decades and the troupe performs their own repertoire regularly 25 times a year and has built a strong following at the Danco of Danco concert series at the Bride. Lunsford is also a choreographer and teacher at the University of the Arts. Francis Veyette is principal dancer at Pennsylvania Ballet, sidelined in recent months due to knee surgery. He became director of PBII when last fall as part of artistic director Angel Corella new artistic staff.
A week before Together We Dance concert Veyette and Lunsford talked about the two companies collaborating and the importance for creative and cultural diversity in dance.
At Pennsylvania Ballet studios, Francis Veyette looks at his assignment board in his office with a leery eye, wondering if everything is on pace before PBII‘s first concert at the Painted Bride. “We’re as busy that we’ve ever been. The projects keep coming, we‘ve been doing more outreach in the community and we’re already working on a number of new things for next season, “Veyette explained. “Now all of the sudden I’m planning things into 2017. I’m never nervous before I go on stage to dance,” he intimates “but for this I have a few nerves. I’ve never been a strategic planner before.“
PBII ensemble of nine dancers regularly perform at schools and benefit concerts throughout the year and are called on at different times to perform in main company productions. They were recently in Pennsylvania Ballet’s revival of ‘Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake’ and of course, they fill in the corps de ballet for ‘The Nutcracker.’
Veyette credits his predecessor William DeGregory, director of PBII for ten years, for setting the excellent standard he has been able to build on. Veyette wants also to increase their visibility and immerse them in other creative environments. “ I wanted PBII to have their own show, where we sold tickets, because PBII had never done that,” he said.
At Philadanco studios the following evening Donald Lunsford was also organizing time between rehearsals for the event and commented that PBII will be more than ready for the Painted Bride stage, “that theater is such a welcoming space. They are going to move in and feel comfortable in no time. We wanted to do a collaboration. It allows you to play off other ideas. I try to take that approach that in general,” Lunsford said. Veyette echoed that sentiment as a vital component for dancers to be ready to work in as many different creative environments as possible as they embark on their careers.
D/2 currently has a roster of twelve dancers which Lunsford says is ideal so he can continue to work one-on-one with the dancers. Last month, D/2 dancer Edward Gillis performed in Philadanco’s ‘Having Our Say’ concert at the Perelman. Lunsford said “Audiences were impressed that he stepped right in and they remembered him as a young teen in the school and went through D3, now with D2.”
D/2 is presenting three new works, choreographed by former Philadanco dancers. “First is a neo-classical contemporary piece with full company called ‘Concerto Armonico’ by Francisco Gella, who is a freelance choreographer and has his own company as well.
Lamar Baylor is also wonderful student of mine at the University of the Arts, his piece is called ‘’IPEM’ (which stand for innocence, prejudice, eternal and merciful). It is in memoriam to the four black girls who lost their lives in the bombing of that church in Alabama. For four women, their spirits are eternal, very sensitive and uplifting,” Lunsford notes. The final work ‘Title Pursuit’ Jeroboam Bozeman, who dances with the Ailey Company now.
Veyette has choreographed ’For Six’ scored to music by Frederick Chopin, which Veyette describes as being danced with “very simple classical technique, “he said. The other ballets are by Pennsylvania Ballet recent choreographic award recipients Shelby Glidden and Shomari Savannah, whose works ‘A World I Never Noticed‘ and ‘Scared to Fall’ are presented as companion pieces.
Both Veyette and Lunsford said they will be presenting a ballet with all the dancers from both their companies onstage down the road but it was not possible for the first Bride concert. Meantine, this collaboration fosters “new forms, new discussions, new relationships,” Lunsford notes. Racial divides are still prevalent on the ballet stage in the US and Together We Dance carries the message of ethnic diversity, as well as bringing together different audiences.
Lunsford observes that “The beauty of this concert that the message of diversity is so important. But going into it my original thought was the importance of two companies coming together and showing the similarities. There is a classical ballet company and a modern company that is ballet based, but they work from the same place- a tendu is a tendu, a plie is a plie. Everyone in dance pretty much does a pirouette. We rehearse, we deal with injuries. We are all working in the same way… just different idioms. We’re kindred spirits as artists and that’s what it’s all about. “
Together We Dance at the Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA on May 27th Cocktail Party with WXPN DJ John Vettese at 6pm, performance 7pm.
For tickets go to https://paintedbride.org/events/togetherwedance/
Mr. Whittington’s arts profiles, features, and stories have appeared in The Advocate, Dance International, Playbill, American Theatre, American Record Guide, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, EdgeMedia, and Philadelphia Dance Journal. Mr. Whittington has received two NEA awards for journalistic excellence.
In addition to interviews with choreographers, dancers, and artistic directors from every discipline, he has interviewed such music luminaries from Ned Rorem to Eartha Kitt. He has written extensively on gay culture and politics and is most proud of his interviews with such gay rights pioneers as Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings.
Mr. Whittington has participated on the poetry series Voice in Philadelphia and has written two (unpublished) books of poetry. He is currently finishing Beloved Infidels, a play about the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. His editorials on GLBTQ activism, marriage equality, gay culture and social issues have appeared in Philadelphia Inquirer, City Paper, and The Advocate.
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