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Laura Molzahn reviews The A.W.A.R.D. Show! for SeeChicagoDance.com
July 31, 2010
“Mike Gosney, of Elements Contemporary Ballet, contributed an excerpt from Curiosity. The only work on pointe in the A.W.A.R.D. Show's two years, this septet was also Wednesday’s most ambitious piece. Gosney’s take on contemporary ballet is both respectful of tradition and intriguingly, expressively new; he uses romantic longing as a metaphor for curiosity in a larger sense. A male solo and a duet by a central couple (Joseph Caruana and Gabrielle DelRe Ashley, both up to Gosney's challenges) set the mood of yearning.”
Read the full review here: SeeChicagoDance.com
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Chicago Now’s dance blogger Natalie Cammarata reviews
In This Place
April 11, 2010
“Elements Contemporary Ballet presents standout In This Place"
Nothing makes me happier than pointe shoes partnered with contemporary dance. Last night Elements Contemporary Ballet presented the first evening of In This Place, a standout collection of new and previously performed works that capture the beauty of classical technique with the intensity of unique contemporary dance.
Elements is a young company (started in 2005) that boasts a unique philosophy based on the four elements: earth, air, water and fire. Artistic Director Mike Gosney's unique perspective on movement provides for a refreshing take in In This Place.
The program begins with the world premiere of Curiosity, a series of pieces that delve into every aspect of exploration as the dancers capture curiosity in its many stages. The dancers' technique is strong but the choreography stronger, as Gosney's work plays off of innovative use of movement, shapes and negative space. Elements brought in guest choreographer James Gregg, of BJM Danse Montreal, for the company premiere of Fallen, a piece about love and loss. This piece plays up strength and precision, as the dancers narrate the letting go of something close to them.
The standout element of Elements is by far company member and assistant director/company manager Joseph Caruana, whose intensity and passion align with outstanding technique and unmatched strength in his movements. Caruana captures every breath of movement with unbridled determination, his athleticism shining through even the slightest motion.
Caruana and fellow company member Gabrielle Del Re Ashley shine in a breathtaking pas de deux during the third segment of the show. Caruana choreographed the piece, entitled Angel, which is set to a beautiful acoustic guitar song and vocals. The choreography is matched perfectly to the score, and the two dancers ride the music with a fiery passion and yet also a gentility. My only complaint is that it had to end.”
(Read the full review in Natalie’s blog, Everybody Dance Now, here.
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The Chicago Reader’s Laura Molzahn reviews
In This Place
April 15, 2010
“Inventive new ballet choreography is hard to come by, but Mike Gosney's contributions to his company's spring concert, In This Place, are smart, clean, expressive, and well-performed. Despite its title, Gosney's 30-minute world premiere, Curiosity, is far from cute: darkly lit by Josh Weckesser and set to various string and piano compositions that come across as a single, poignant work, the piece creates powerful emotional effects, in part through fearless repetition.”
Read the full review here. |
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Romance Springs on Dance Circuit
By Lucia Mauro
Chicago Public Radio (transcript from “848”)
Date: April 29, 2009
Now that springtime appears to be creeping closer and closer to our area romance is blossoming in the air. And nowhere is it more apparent than in the month’s dance performances.
Historically, Chicago -- though a rich haven for dance companies in many styles -- had not been able to sustain its own homegrown ballet troupe. Since relocating to Chicago from New York in 1995, the Joffrey Ballet has succeeded at becoming our city’s resident ballet company. Its presence has no doubt paved the way for rising classical-dance groups. One in particular, Elements Contemporary Ballet, was established here four years ago by dedicated teacher-choreographer Mike Gosney. Originally from Wadsworth, Illinois, Gosney spent most of his life studying ballet across Chicago. As a teacher at the Evanston Dance and Joel Hall Dance centers, he has steadily been training a group of over a dozen ballet dancers who form the core of his company. Their upcoming concert at the Ruth Page Center is titled “Progress” as a way of announcing that the group has arrived. At a recent rehearsal, the dancers certainly exuded an impressive confidence and precision as they performed an excerpt from Gosney’s new “Haydn Cello Concerto in C,” a sleek mixture of traditional ballet movements flavored with a wry hip swivel or an unexpected twisting inward. The choreographer calls his daring and energetic approach to ballet a sort of kinetic architecture for the music. Gosney is very interested in creating beautiful, streamlined shapes on stage that can be breezy and fragile; quick and athletic. A former astrology student, he regards the basic structure of movement from a perspective of the four elements: water, earth, air and fire.
This theory is exemplified in his other world premiere, titled “Gray,” an ambitious ode to the many shades, moods and dimensions of a cloudy, gray sky. Because it’s set to Tchaikovsky’s “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom”, the meditative ballet mirrors the progression of a Roman Catholic Liturgy, beginning with the notion of the Infinite, then moving to Reflective, Melancholic, Harmonious and Serene, or a state of Inner Peace. The duet for the Reflective section gives the impression that the man is a pilgrim carrying a female religious statue. He reveres her and, through a recurring gesture of touching their fingers to their foreheads, the two dancers seem to be releasing their thoughts or energy into the universe. Deep, grounded plies contrast with airborne lifts and an arresting visualization of the man drawing out the saintly figure’s aura.
Dancer Joseph Caruana’s pas de deux, “Angel,” unites the sacred and the profane in a muscular yet introspective dance that shows the personal journey of a man who has found his soul mate. In it, he reflects on the various relationships in his life that have led to his true love.
Elements Contemporary Ballet performs May 1 and 2
at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
The Joffrey Ballet’s spring engagement and Elements Contemporary Ballet’s performance reveal the limitless intersections between classical and modern movement – all embraced by universal themes of finding love and self-fulfillment. |
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Elements troupe brings edge to ballet
By Sid Smith, TRIBUNE CRITIC
sismith@tribune.com
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Time was, if you wanted cool and hip, modern dance was your thing. Ballet, in contrast, seemed home to the staid, stodgy and stiff.
Part of that's the way of the aesthetic world -- the young and adventurous love experimentation over tradition -- and part of it is simply size. Ballet typically involves large, lavish productions in big, establishment concert halls, hardly a natural for the atelier walk-ups and improvised theaters of the avant-garde realm.
But all that has been changing in recent decades, with ballet a darling of the postmodern set and increasingly a mode easily applied to small casts. George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Gerald Arpino and many others certainly explored trios and small ensembles regularly, while ultra-cool Twyla Tharp mixes ballet and modern with seamless ease. Anyone who caught Karole Armitage's work recently at the Dance Center of Columbia College saw ballet as feisty, sexy and au courant.
Though Chicago's scene of small dance companies is mostly modern, there's also the Elements Contemporary Ballet, a troupe devoted to exploring classic technique with a modest-size ensemble and an eclectic mix of young choreographers.
"When I went to my first lesson, coming from the world of gymnastics, I absolutely fell in love with ballet, with the most classical ballet, in fact," says Mike Gosney, the troupe's 32-year-old artistic director. "The direction ballet now is taking is utterly fascinating."
Gosney first took a class at age 13 and later danced with some smaller companies, never finding his niche. After a knee injury, he turned to teaching, and students and colleagues eventually came together encouraging the troupe, which was launched two years ago.
The company of 11 dancers and two apprentices will perform a concert of eight works by various choreographers, including Gosney, Friday and Saturday at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. The others are fellow company members Audrey Leung, Amy Roby and Joseph Caruana, along with Sean Hilton, who dances with River North Chicago Dance Company.
Composers range from Bach to Danny Elfman and Arvo Part. Costuming includes basic leotards, webbinglike attire made from pantyhose and even street clothes. The idea is to inject ballet into an edgier world and vice versa.
"Some of the choreography is more contemporary, more experimental than I myself might choose," says Gosney. "But we're up for feedback."
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