Award Winning Choreos Debut Works In NYC
Choreographers Jaci Royal and Kate Jablonski each debuted new works this weekend in a joint show at The New World Stages in NYC. The women were runners up in the 2009 Capezio A.C.E. Award choreography competition, and as part of their prizes, they received money to help them put on this show.
Royal kicked things off with “Beneath The Surface,” a collection of dances set to pop music, designed to inspire the audience to find new meaning in the ordinary moments we all experience each day: from brushing our teeth, to riding the subway, to hitting the town at night. These universal experiences provided an excellent template for Royal and her dancers to build upon, as the dancers (including Dance Spirit Cover Model Search 2010 finalist Alexa Anderson!) were able to portray individual characters through the idiosyncratic movements they each used to complete the tasks at hand.
Jablonski’s “Beyond Words” transported the audience to a fantasy land of her own creation. Each of her dancers was tasked with portraying a creature with unique characteristics and the mannerisms and movements to match. Though each group was interesting to watch on its own, the most exciting moments occurred at the end of the production when all of the groups finally came together onstage and were able to move in unison, while still maintaining a sense of their individual characters.
Both choreographers should be commended for their creativity and imagination, particularly when it came to incorporating props into their work. In particular, Royal’s use of Bosu balls as launching pads for her dancers’ jumps and tricks was especially surprising and exciting to watch.
Interested in checking out the show? You’ll have one more chance tomorrow night. The final performance takes place at 8 p.m. at The New World Stage on West 50th St in NYC.
The winners of the 2010 Capezio A.C.E. Awards will be announced later this week, during the Dance Teacher Summit, here in NYC. Check out this year’s finalists here.
