Taking up where we left off at the end of Sunday night’s rehearsal, dancer Melody Mennite writes, “I fell in love in this city, got engaged here, shed blood, sweat, and tears on stage here. I haven’t ever lived in New York, but each time I return, it feels like I never left. Now we are here to Whim… And doing Monster this time, and doing it here again, feels different. It feels like it has grown up, or maybe we have grown up. Whatever it is, it feels good. Really good.”
And here she is (thanks to Lucien Postlewaite) seen above at a Duane Reade late Sunday night and below with him, Whim W’Him artistic director Olivier Wevers, and choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.
Monday morning the dancers had time off. The ladies from Grand Rapids Ballet, Yuka Oba and Laura McQueen Schultz, went out shopping (documented by Emma Nagasawa, who has known Yuka since they danced together in Japan).
I walked the High Line with Julie Davis, where we saw this sculpture by Ruby Neri. The label for it said someithing about combining the vernacular with classicism, not a bad description of Whim W’Him…
And Tory Peil has this to say of her New York experience. “This is like a dream. I keep forgetting where I am. But then I walk outside onto the new York streets and remember and I’m taken aback at what an honor this is.”
At the afternoon dress rehearsal, Olivier fielded one crisis after another. The dance floor for Monster was 3 hours late. Part of the backdrop cloth was missing. The sofa ropes came down at the wrong angle and couldn’t be changed.
“We’ll deal,” he said, and moved on…
Patricia Barker, artistic director of Grand Rapids Ballet was pressed into service down in the dressing rooms, altering costumes at the last moment before dress rehearsal.
Molly Magee of Bamberg Fine Art Photography Whim W’Him’s official photographers, was in the theater, though bound by many rules—no shots of any crew member, no going on stage with them or standing in the wings. No photos yet from her today, but we’ll have a post full of them later on! (The weird eyes in some of these images show they are genuine candid non-professional photos.)
With all the complications and mishaps beforehand, the show went on.
An electric performance before a cheering crowd.
And everyone went out to celebrate!
