New York City Ballet’s Justin Peck and Charlotte Ballet’s Alejandro Cerrudo are sharing the spotlight at Smuin Contemporary Ballet.
The company’s artistic director Amy Seiwert, who recently completed her first year at the helm, is now presenting her first program as the sole curator. “Extremely Close” promises to demonstrate new directions the company plans to forge into the future. Performances run from Sept. 12 through Oct. 5 at venues in Mountain View, Walnut Creek, and San Francisco.
The slate of works on the program are the West Coast premiere of Partita from Justin Peck set to a score by composer Caroline Shaw, the Bay Area premiere of Alejandro Cerrudo's Extremely Close, and the West Coast premiere of Seiwert's own creation, A Long Night.
Every choreographer's process is uniquely their own, even varying for each individual work. Peck, who was appointed resident choreographer of New York City Ballet in 2014 and holds 3 Tony Awards for Best Choreography, said he has no standard template for producing choreography.
“I have a lot of different methods to prepare for making a dance. A lot of it has to do with structure,” Peck said. “When my daughter was super young we played with blocks a lot, so I just took her blocks and started to build the shape of the first movement. Structurally it's a very complicated piece of music, so it took a lot in terms of planning and years of studying the music before feeling ready to choreograph it.”
The choice to have the dancers wear sneakers in Partita was of special importance to the choreographer. “To me, this is almost an American modern folk way of presenting dance in that it's the everyman's — or every person's — footwear to tackle the world,” he said. “And Caroline's music is this modern, almost folk-like composition.”
For Partita, Peck shortened the name of Shaw's a cappella piece, Partita for 8 Voices. Peck said he has been “obsessed” with listening to Shaw’s composition for over a decade while working with the composer on other projects.
Alejandro Cerrudo choreographed Extremely Close, set to music by Philip Glass and Dustin O’Halloran, in 2007 when he was dancing with Hubbard Street Dance. Seiwert said she originally wanted to showcase it last year. The piece, which involves a stage covered in white feathers and three enormous moveable panels, is worth the wait.
Cerrudo trained in classical dance with Victor Ullate in Madrid and at the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany. According to Cerrudo, it wasn’t until he went to the Netherlands Dance Theater that his interests expanded to contemporary dance.
“With contemporary dance, there was an extra thrill in many works. It was not just about the technique or the artistry of the dancers, but there was something else very intentionally added,” Cerrudo said. “It wasn't just a gimmick or trick. It really gave more depth to the art form.”
In an interview with SF Classical Voice, Cerrudo addressed the difficulties the set design for Extremely Close could pose, and how his dancers navigate the environment. “As you know, we rehearse, get used to it, and use it to our advantage, hopefully,” he said. That became clear upon watching the dancers at work when rehearsal director Benjamin Warner asked them to practice the ‘wallography.’”
The choreographer said he is excited to share the dance with audiences but wants to keep them curious ahead of performances.
“It has always been my intention to surprise the audience,” Cerrudo said. “At the end it becomes, I don't like to say ‘abstract,’ but it suggests things without being rigid or confining.”
