Three new ballets will open NCB 's 2008-2009 season three weeks from now. Lauren Toole's new work, her first for the company, juxtaposes a duo of women against a couple to a violin sonata by Paul Hindemith. Constantine Baecher's Arachnophilia brings the entire company on stage in a spidery character piece to music by John Cage. Miro Magloire finds a sultry side to Karlheinz Stockhausen's Sonatine in his new solo.

Twentieth century music is one of the themes of the program, with a special nod to Stockhausen, who would have turned 80 this month - Sonatine will be joined by a repeat performance of Klavierstück, Magloire's piano ballet to Stockhausen's eponymous piano piece.

The final item on the program makes do with no music at all - at least in the conventional sense. In Magloire's Dreams, it is the dancers' sounds that are composed into a score for the dance.

Don't miss this program! Tickets are on sale already - reserve your seats today!

Friday, September 5th at 8pm &
Saturday, September 6th at 8pm
New York City Center Studio 4
130 West 56th St, 4th floor (betw. 6th and 7th Ave)

When Constantine Baecher's new ballet Arachnophilia premieres this fall, one of the crawling creatures will be performed by Elizabeth Brown (photo). "I am always excited and nervous to work with Constantine, and the piece always becomes a favorite of mine," she said recently. "He has very clear ideas as to what he is looking for."

Brown, who hails from Fort Worth, TX, has an eclectic dance background. But although her training included both ballet and modern dance, she eventually settled for ballet: "I always liked the work of it all - doing the pliés everyday, the routine of class and rehearsal. I always loved pointe work! And I liked, and still like, the philosophy of it: that dance is a metaphor for life. Living and Dancing seem like the same thing to me."

After meeting Miro Magloire in 2004, Brown became one of New Chamber Ballet's founding members. She cherishes the special atmosphere in the company. "One of the things I love about NCB is that I get to dance with the most incredibly wonderful people! We are all trying to create something that is extremely important to us, and it is interesting to see yourself and others move through that kind of commitment and the slight insanity it breeds."

The company's musicians are another inspiration for Brown: "What a joy to have live music to dance to at every show! When Erik and Melody come to rehearsals before the performance and we get to hear them play, it seems like hearing the music for the first time." That joy may be what prompted Pointe Magazine to describe Brown as dancing "with such fine attunement to the music ... that the sound appeared to emanate from her body." And in those moments, living and dancing really are the same.

Not one but two guest choreographers have contributed to NCB's repertory over the summer: Constantine Baecher and company dancer Lauren Toole.

With Arachnophilia, Baecher created his fourth work for the company (photo, in rehearsal). Following last year's popular Viduity with its exploration of mourning, this time he followed a different path: set to quietly mysterious music for piano and violin by John Cage, the ballet evokes a realm of spidery creatures. One inspiration for the piece were the giant spider sculptures by French artist Louise Bourgeois. Like Bourgeois', Baecher's creatures have a very human side that give the new work an appealing aura.

The second new creation comes from company dancer Lauren Toole. Toole, who has been sidelined since the spring with a knee injury, conceived a plotless ballet for four dancers set to a violin sonata by Paul Hindemith. "I found myself so compelled by the juxtaposition of the ominous overtones and gravitas against moments of fleetness and lightness" in Hindemith's music, Toole said. Creating the ballet so shortly after her surgery may have been a challenge, and rehearsals included surreal scenes of Toole on crutches directing the dancers through physically demanding phrases, but the finished ballet is anything but tentative with its emphasis on speed and physicality.

In late June, the New York Times Sunday edition ran a feature about Miro Magloire and his work at New Chamber Ballet, written by Claudia LaRocco. If you missed it, you can read it online, complete with a video excerpt of Magloire's Reflections I.

It is rare, it seems, that small companies give an appropriate send-off to their departing dancers, a fact that Roslyn Sulcas noted in her positive review of our season finale in which we bid farewell to Christin Hanna. Read the full review here.

With the beginning of the new season Maddie Deavenport will join New Chamber Ballet. Maddie hails from San Diego, CA and started her ballet training at the California Ballet School. She continued her training at the Rock School in Philadelphia, PA and went on to dance for two years with North Carolina Dance Theater as an apprentice.

A year ago Maddie moved to New York City and has been freelancing since, most recently dancing with Pennsylvania Ballet. Her first appearance with New Chamber Ballet was in March of this year, when she filled in at the last minute for an injured Elizabeth Brown. In the upcoming season opening performance, Maddie will perform in a new solo by Miro Magloire, as well as new ballets by Constantine Baecher and Lauren Toole.

New Chamber Ballet's artists once again have been busy since the last show:
Emery LeCrone spent three weeks in Irvine, CA at the National Choreographers Initiative, where she created a new ballet entitled Expressions of Leaning Into the Light (photo) ... Guest choreographer Constantine Baecher barely had time to finish his new NCB creation before joining the Royal Danish Ballet on a tour to China, performing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing... Closer to home, pianist Melody Fader performed with violinist Ian Swensen at the Banff Centre in Canada, before going on to appear in Jacqulyn Buglisi's "Interplay" at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, NY... And Emily SoRelle Adams performed at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts with Rebecca Kelly Ballet...

The new season is here, and we're asking for your money again... Why? Ticket sales still cover only about 20% of the costs of each performance. We aim to keep our costs as low as possible, but there are rehearsal studio fees (a big item here in the city), performance space fees, music royalties, performer fees, printing costs, costuming and costume maintenance, sheet music costs, stamps, banking fees, advance ticket sale fees, PR costs...

All of these items are necessary to produce our bare bones performances. Instead of cutting back, we try to perform more to keep our art alive and you, our audience, happy. Not an easy task, but we can do it with your help! Please take a moment to go to our website and find out how you can support our work...