The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater complex on 9th Avenue and 55th Street in Hell's Kitchen, which the institution owns, is about to undergo a major expansion – $25 million worth that will bring 10,000 new square feet of classroom space and studios with three new floors added to the mid-block section of its building. Where did they get the money, you ask? Per the Wall Street Journal (subscription), the project is being funded via a $24 million tax-free municipal bond series that Ailey sold last year, and the City of New York is chipping in $4 million.
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Twenty-five blocks down along the scenic Hudson River Park path, more of New York's incredible iron and construction workers are toiling away to bring us the much anticipated Culture Shed in the Hudson Yards/High Line area. This is simply going to be extraordinary. It seems that the "culture" has been dropped from its name, but this will definitely be a performance and gallery space like none other in Manhattan.
The work site looks like a crane ballet:
Here's a little video footage (shot from the High Line path) of the iron and construction workers pounding away to bring us this incredible new facility. The huge blue and white crane rises from the middle of what will be the culture shed.
This place is going to be New York style big.
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After we published our piece last week on the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet's upcoming performances of Balanchine's Serenade, an Upper West Side Haglund'eeler alerted us to the fact that Julien Guerin, a dancer with the Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and a 2014 participant in the New York Choreographic Institute, will soon have his new ballet, Pas de Six, premiered by the HCM City Ballet.
Mr. Guerin's website has several videos of his works which mostly follow the current trends. But there is a particularly unique PdD which he recently made for the Académie Princesse Grace entitled Elles. It is the 5th video down on the video page of his website here. It's worth 4 minutes to watch,
What makes this interesting to Haglund is Guerin's treatment of the Satie music that Frederick Ashton used for Monotones. His sensitivity to the conversation within the music and his gorgeous use of geometry and symmetry are not the customary tools of today's choreographers, except for Wheeldon.
Thanks much, Sq.D., for alerting us to Julien Guerin.