THE LEMON SPONGE CAKE CONTEMPORARY BALLET
Walking my limping mutt, Redford, last night (he has a sprained ankle) up at Chautauqua last night, I ran into longtime friends and colleagues Jen and Robert Sher-Macherndl. I hadn’t seen ’em for a long while. We talked over their upcoming show, and I updated ’em on elephant’s growth from print to web, and how much happier I was these days.
elephant had proudly sponsored them for years back when we were a magazine, but we’d fallen out of touch. Check out their next show—this Saturday, in Boulder—they’re a still too-rare spot of worldclass culture in our otherwise wonderful little green valley, and they’re worth supporting, and enjoying! ~ ed.
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“LIQUID-SPACE” WORLD PREMIERE
THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 8 PM
$17-$36
Press Contact: Jenifer Sher 303-545-2298 www.lemonspongecake.org
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PRINCIPAL DANCER RACHEL VISELLI COLLABORATES WITH DANCER/CHOREOGRAPHER ROBERT SHER-MACHHERNDL FOR THE BOULDER PREMIERE OF LIQUID-SPACE AT THE CHAUTAUQUA SUMMER SERIES
Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet Invited On Its First European Tour
“…a highlight of the program….a choreographer to watch for.”~ Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
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July 22, 2009–Dancer/choreographer ROBERT SHER-MACHHERNDL, director of the Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet and RACHEL VISELLI, acclaimed principal dancer formerly of the San Francisco Ballet and a current guest artist with the Dutch National Ballet will perform the Boulder premiere of Sher-Machherndl’s Liquid-Space, August 8th at the 2009 Chautauqua Summer Series.
In Liquid-Space, the dancers meticulously investigates extreme combinations of movement, sound and silences. Expressed through the choreographer’s unique technical and musical style, the emotionally charged work juxtaposes ballet technique, pedestrian movement, and gesture. “I feel a responsibility to take bold steps, reach for new information,” states the choreographer about his new work, set to minimalist electronic music by Berlin DJs Pole and Thomas Brinkmann.
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The New York premiere of Liquid–Space successfully took place this past April at the Ailey Citigroup Theater danced by Machherndl and acclaimed principal dancer MINNA TERVAMAKI of the Finnish National Ballet.
The highly-skilled collaborative team will tour Liquid-Space in Europe next season with 3 performances on February 12 & 13, 2010 at the historic Alexander Theater, Helsinki.
“(Sher-Machherndl’s choreography is)….explosive, aggressive, beautiful, and in control.It’s the voice he’s been developing for some 40 years.”Brian Melton, Denver Magazine, March 2009
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Rachel Viselli, Principal Dancer, SAN FRANCISCO BALLET…
Aurora and pas de six in The Sleeping Beauty (Tomasson); Myrtha and pas de cinq in Giselle (Tomasson); Rosalind in Romeo & Juliet (Tomasson); Princess, Aristocrat, and pas de trois Swan Lake (Tomasson); Kitri’s friend and Driad in Don Quixote (Tomasson/Possokhov);
Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen, and Spanish in Nutcracker (Tomasson); Nutcracker (Christensen/Tomasson); Othello (Lubovitch) Sylvia (Morris); Prism, Silver Ladders, The Fifth Season, Blue Rose, Nanna’s Lied, principal in
Autumn section of Quattro Stagioni, and created role in 7 for Eight (Tomasson); Symphony in C, Stars and Stripes “Emeralds”, “Rubies”, demi-soloist in “Diamonds”, soloist in Symphony in Three Movements, principal in Divertimento No. 15, Ballo Della Regina, Allegro Brillante, Serenade, Calliope in Apollo, demi-soloist in Square
Dance, Stravinsky Violin Concerto 1st and 3rd theme in The Four Temperaments, and principal in Who Cares (Balanchine); imaginal disc (Adam); Monotones I and Symphonic Variations (Ashton); Pas de deux in The Dance House (Bintley); Jinx (L. Christensen); Dreams of Harmony (Kudelka); Elite Syncopations (MacMillan); Second variation
soloist and pas de trois in Paquita (Makarova after Petipa); Red couple in The Waltz Project (Martins); Sandpaper Ballet and Maelstrom (Morris); Hungarian in Raymonda, Act III (Nureyev after Petipa); L’Arlésienne (Petit); Created role of Princess in Firebird, Damned, Reflections, and Study in Motion (Possokhov); Afternoon Faun, Fanfare,
Glass Pieces, and first pas de deux in In the Night (Robbins); Gala Performance (Tudor); Grosse Fuge (van Manen); Tu Tu and Falling (Welch); Continuum, There Where She Loved, and principal pas de deux in
Rush (Wheeldon); Celts (York).
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Robert Sher-Machherndl, Lemon Sponge Cake’s choreographer and artistic director…
is well known to New York audiences for his striking contributions to Ballet Builders over the years. The Viennese native appeared with the Dutch National Ballet and Bavarian State Ballet, dancing principal roles in Swan Lake,Giselle, Romeo and Juliet and other classics, as well as Balanchine’s Serenade, Symphony in C, Agon, Concerto Barocco, among other contemporary works. Sher-Maccherndl was also a member of the Nederlands Dance Theater and was featured in the documentary “Moment of Light” with Evelyn Hart. He was co-director of the Salzburg Ballet and assistant to artistic director Ed Wubbe at the Scapino Ballet. In England, Sher-Machherndl taught at Ballet Rambert and for Matthew Bourne’s production of Swan Lake. Relocating to the U.S., he has been guest choreographer for several companies and has created numerous full evening ballets for his own Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet, which has appeared at the Santa Fe Dance Festival, Chautauqua Summer Series, and other festivals around the U.S.
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Minna Tervamaki, principal dancer with the Finnish National Ballet…
joined that company in 1986. She has danced all the ballerina roles – Sylvie Guillem’s Giselle (Giselle and Myrtha) , Odette-Odile in Vladimir Bourmeister’s Swan Lake; Nikiya and Gamzatti in Makarova’s La bayadere; Aurora in Nureyev’sSleeping Beauty; Tatyana in Cranko’s Onegin, and others. Her contemporary repertory includes Ratmansky’s Anna Karenina, as well as ballets by Balanchine, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Kiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Glen Tetley and Jorma Elo. She has choreographed several ballets and produced an evening of dance at the Opera House. Her awards include the Philip Morris Dance Flower Award (1997), the Edvard Fazar Award (2000) and Libris Award (2006). Tervamaki is quite the celebrity outside of the ballet world at home; she has taken part in ballet competitions, galas, and fashion shows. The beauty has also been seen on the cover of magazines and in various commercial ads.
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Links:
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LIQUID-SPACE
August 8th at 8:00 p.m.
Chautauqua Summer Series
900 Baseline Road
Boulder, Colorado 80302
Tickets: (303) 440-7666
From a past show, Alien Nation:
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