Monthly Archives: April 2019

GREAT DANCES, GREAT DANCERS! PICTURES! IDF@SV2019

The performers and choreographers in the Festival Concert, Awardees of the Choreography Competition, the Festival Artists leading open Master Classes and performing in the Festival Concert all add up to a great variety in every category but one: EXCELLENCE! You will not find the equal of our artists anywhere. Nope, not anywhere. Take a look: Festival Artists include Audreyanne Delgado Covarrubias, Tap Dancer extraordinaire! Her inventive choreography and rhythmic skills leaves every audience applauding for more. She will perform in the Festival Concert and lead two Master Classes: Tap and Pilates Mat. Etta Walton invites the audience to join her in her Electric Line Dances, and they all jump up to join in. She makes everyone smile. She performs in the Festival Concert and leads the fabulous Line Dance Master Class. Awardees of the 2019 Choreography Competition: Sierra Don, contemporary dance based on Irish legends; Jyothi Lakkaraju, new choreography for the classical Indian dance style Kuchipudi; Alyssa Mitchel, contemporary dance about interpersonal relationships; Peri Trono, contemporary dance about (maybe) inter-species relationships; Ryeonhwa Yeo new choreography in Korean dance. If you love dance, if you are curious about dance, if you are busy watching paint dry, you truly cannot miss the beauty, the inspiration, the fun of IDF@SV, 2019. FULL DAY OF DANCE©, Saturday, May 18, classes from 10 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. FESTIVAL CONCERT, Sunday, May 19, 3 p.m. All events at the Mountain View Masonic Center, 890 Church St., Mountain View, CA 94041. Contact livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net with any questions!

Pictures: Top row, (L to R) Audreyanne Delgado Covarrubias, Etta Walton; next row, (L to R) Ryeonhwa Yeo, Sierra Don; next row (L to R) Meena & Anjali Vemuri dance Kuchipudi by Jyothi Lakkaraju, Alyssa Mitchel; above: choreography by Peri Trono (Sierra Don photo by Andy Mogg)

IDF@SV 2019: Register & Buy Tickets NOW!

LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY: THE Great Dance Experience, The International Dance Festival@Silicon Valley, 2019!  ALL EVENTS take place at 890 Church St., Mtn. View. REGISTER for Full Day of Dance© classes:  Make your choice, one or any number of classes. Price per class reduces with each added class. You may pay in cash at the door. OR You may use a credit card at the door. OR Send us a check made out to The Lively Foundation and mail it to The Lively Foundation, 550 Mountain View Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94041-1941 OR use the PayPal offered on the landing page of this site. Go to livelyfoundation.org Scroll down the landing page to see “Donate.” Click on that. It takes you to PayPal. PLEASE send an email  to livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net  to tell us your name and which classes you have chosen to take. Full Day prices are: $25 single class, $40 for 2 classes; $54 for 3 classes; $64 for 4 classes; $70 for 5 classes. Scholarship aide is available; you must email livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net  in advance to apply.  BUY TICKETS for the Festival Concert: General Admission: $20; over 65 or under 10 years of age $12; Groups of 5 or more $12 each; Groups of SRS. or children $10 each. Mail your check to The Lively Foundation to The Lively Foundation, 550 Mountain View Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94041-1941 OR use the PayPal connection on our landing page. Scroll down the page to DONATE. That connects you to PayPal. PLEASE send an email to livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net to tell us who you are, how many tickets you have bought so that we have your name/s at the ticket desk.

FULL DAY OF DANCE© CLASS SCHEDULE NOW!!

The Full Day of Dance© is the BEST way to do something you love and try something new. Five classes: all open to mixed levels, each one hour long, fifteen minute break between each class. You may take one or any number of classes. BEST DEAL & MOST FUN: TAKE THEM ALL!Audreyanne Delgado Covarrubias: extraordinary Tap artist teaches Tap on Full Day of Dance© Saturday, May 19, 1:15 – 2:15 p.m.

Here is the schedule for Full Day of Dance© 2019. Doors open at 9:30 a.m.

10:00 a.m. – 11:00    Ballet ( mixed levels, no pointe work, all adults welcome, ages 15 & up & up) 11:15 a.m. – 12:15    Pilates mat (please bring a mat or towel, good for Pilates fans & newcomers

Etta Walton leads the audience in her Electric Line Dances. Take her amazing class, Saturday, May 18, 2:30-3:30

1:15 – 2:15 p.m.       Tap (If you have tap shoes, that’s great; if not, wear shoes that will stay on.) 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.       Etta’s Electric Lines (This is a wonderful class for all ages and all dance levels) 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.       Ballroom (Waltz & Cha Cha; no partner? no problem. Partners are provided).

REGISTER NOW & receive Early Bird rates. EB rates end one month before the event. Class costs: Price per class reduces with each added class. Early Bird registration: $20 single,$36 for 2; $48 for 3; $56 for 4; $60 for all five; Regular registration: $25 single; $40 for 2; $54 for 3; $64 for 4; $70 for all five. Please send a check made out to The Lively Foundation to: The Lively Foundation, 550 Mountain View Ave, Mountain View, CA 94041-1941  OR  pay at the door (no Early Bird at the door) OR go to the landing page of this blog (livelyfoundation.org), scroll down until you see the DONATE sign. Click on that and follow directions for using PayPal. PLEASE IF you pay through PayPal notify us through email that you are doing that and which classes you want to take. THANK YOU! See you on March 18 for a great day of dance!

Contact livelyfoundation@sbcglobal.net with any questions.

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN: Phenomenal Pianist at San Francisco Symphony

The recital by pianist Marc-André Hamelin, Sunday, March 31, at Davies Symphony Hall was phenomenal. Mr. Hamelin is a great artist. Read this article, then get a ticket to fly somewhere soon to hear him. His technical brilliance is well matched by what appears to be his total immersion in the music; he understands it, he knows it, there is not a note that is not important to him. Not only can he play at warp speed, he can play slowly, even very, very quietly. I am tempted to call it playing “magically,” except it is not magic. The music is real. The musician is of this real world. The program knocked my sox off. Mr. Hamelin, however, is not a flamboyant presence. He is all about the music.

Marc-André Hamelin (photo by Fran Kaufman)

J.S. Bach’s Chaconne from Violin Partita in D minor, No. 2, BWV 1004 as arranged by stellar pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) opened the performance. It was representative of the now seldom performed 19th-early 20th century transcriptions of Bach’s monumental works. Whatever the historical instrument and performance style fans might think, it was fascinating musically. There was Bach but something different. It thoroughly engaged the listener’s attention. Written for the violin, translating it into piano language gave it different sounds, textures, and a different spirit. It was a wonderful introduction to Mr. Hamelin’s playing as he demonstrated his total mastery over the many dimensions of the piano.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Robert Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Opus 17 is a gigantic work conveying myriad emotions as it ventures into different rhythms and suggests images. Having seen Mr. Hamelin play it, one can barely think anyone else would approach its technical difficulty and multiple meanings. The music explodes with Romantic energy and ideals and, in its third movement, seems to hover in moon glow. It is sometimes closer to a symphony than a sonata and draws on all of the young Schumann’s piano knowledge and technique as well as imagination unbound. Schumann wrote part of it in 1838, during the time he was separated from Clara Wieck, his true love, by her father. He wrote to Clara telling her, “I think  it is more impassioned than anything I have ever written–a deep lament for you.” Yes, romantic in every sense. They were married in 1840: she recognized as one of the great if not greatest pianists in Europe and he as a leading composer. Let us leave their history there before the tragic story’s end.

Mr. Hamelin is known for exploring less well known composers as well as the most celebrated, classical masters. His program included Six Arrangements of Songs Sung by Charles Trénet. Mr. Hamelin found a recording, Mr. Nobody Plays Trénet, of Trénet’s songs which typify French cabaret in the era from 1930s-1950s. The pianist who recorded the songs was Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012). Mr. Hamelin created a score from listening to the recording and then received arrangements of four of the six songs from Mr. Weissenberg’s granddaughter. The performance of the six very different songs was a delight: personal and intriguing music with a special lilt and character. A wonderful addition to the recital.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cipressi (Cypresses), Opus 17 was a revelation to those of us unfamiliar with this composer. The music calls out visions of the cypress trees which were in the environment of the place in Italy where Castelnuovo-Tedesco spent summers in the 1920s. For this listener, the image of eucalyptus in the Bay Area mist immediately came to mind. It is a relatively brief, but beautiful and completely original work. The composer wrote extensively for the guitar as well as piano, symphony and voice. Like other artists who were fortunate to leave Europe in the 1930s, Castelnuovo escaped to Los Angeles in 1938. The beauty of this composition with its slightly mysterious sound impels me to look for his operatic work for Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well.

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

One may often hear Chopin’s work described as “jewel like” meaning both brilliant and, especially in comparison to a symphony, small. The thing about Chopin’s work is that it is perfect. This was my rejoinder to a friend who thought Chopin’s lack of symphonies made him less a composer. No. His work is perfect, that is in addition to enchanting, beautiful, entirely only itself. The two pieces chosen by Mr. Hamelin, the Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat major, Opus 61, and the Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Opus 54, were vigorous and large, full of invention. Chopin’s performances and compositions helped to enlarge the piano’s world in technique and sound. Mr. Hamelin seemed to revel in the bright, ebullient and continually challenging music, and so did the audience.

Standing and cheering for Marc-André Hamelin, the audience brought him back for bows and then received two encores. The first was his own composition, Toccata on L’homme armé. Fast, incredibly intricate, it had thirty premieres as all the contestants in the 2017 Van Cliburn contest had to play this work by Hamelin, one of their judges. Bowing to the insistence of music lovers greedy for more, Mr. Hamelin also played Herberge from Schumann’s Forest Scenes. It was played lovingly, and with careful attention to the unusual phrasing and a surprise rest before the delicate ending.

Mr. Hamelin performs all over the world, and he will be in Madison, WI, April 12- 14. The ice has probably melted. You will be glad to be there even if it has not.