Dance On A Shoestring

Laughing Matters

Dance on a Shoestring performances have been given in NYTB's in-house performance space, The Dance Gallery, for many years. They enable established and developing artists to try out new ideas and roles. They offer a way for the dancers to regularly perform and learn from small classic masterworks that reflect the Company's Cecchetti aesthetic. The performances are offered in a venue where community groups can come with little fanfare and minimal cost to see high quality ballet offered by "their" neighborhood company.

The work presented this season will be a combination of classic ballets, new works, and popular NYTB productions. Four different programs will be presented - each for two consecutive Friday and Saturday evenings from 7-8 pm. Special choreography for children from the NYTB training school is often included in the program.

2008-09 Dance On A Shoestring Performance Dates

September 19 & 20

November 14 & 15

January 30 & 31

March 27 & 28

For further information, or to reserve your seats, e-mail cpaolucci@nytb.org
or call 212-679-0401

ALL SEATS $10!

All performances for Dance On A Shoestring take place at:

New York Theatre Ballet

The Dance Gallery

30 East 31st Street, 5th Floor

Click here for directions.

Illustration of Chase Brock's Stoptime Sketch by Robin Hoffman.

From The Dance Insider [April 2000, Paul Ben-Itzak]

"Bertold Brecht once said, and I paraphrase, "I found my theater in the street; I found it in the docks: I found it in the warehouse." Yesterday, the first day of National Dance Week, I found my dance in a small but homey studio on East 31st Street - in the supple and exquisite dancing of Jessica Viles, her back muscles rippling in the light as she bent forward, interpreting the simple but expressive choreography of Rachael Kosch; I found it in the reverie of Diana Byer as she enacted the choreography of Martha Connerton, in the same studio...

I got the feeling of being in someone's gallery, looking at their treasured works of art and promising works in progress. The lighting was simple and soft. Viles, mentioned above, danced Kosch's "After Daphne," her limbs extended by long stalks with peacock feathers jutting out at the ends. Sounds like a gimmick, perhaps, but the effect, as executed by Viles, was sheer elegance, ending in a tableau where, in addition to the stalks extending her arms, she attaches one to one foot, and lifts that before freezing. Choreographically (oh, and Michael Kosch's music helped in producing the lyrical elegance), this was the most sophisticated work I saw all day, and not a little of the credit goes to the poised and frank dancing.

The most poignant, touching, dreaming, heartbreaking, and multi-level dancing I saw all day was Mary Sugawa's performance of a solo from Antony Tudor's "Dark Elegies."

And the dance that most captures what dance means to this non-dancer was Martha Connerton's "He Loves, She Loves: A Radio Reverie." The reverie in this case is that of Byer's character, who enters in frumpy attire, equipped with blanket, glass of scotch, crackers, and knitting, and as she settles down to listen to a radio program - it sounds archival and genuine - of Gershwin tunes, sung by Ella Fitzgerald. It's hard for dances set to pop standards to win me over - the same moves tend to pop up - but the refreshing dancing of this cast got across the choreographer's intentions, and I think captured the jazzy, Charleston-era spirit of the music…..In the end, Byer rises from her comfy chair and is, inventively, swept up, variously and victoriously, by four couples. And so was I."