From Tuesday’s New York Times:

“Mr. Battle, the youngest choreographer, has recently made a name for himself with original rapid-fire movement and unexpected imagery. His “Mass” was accompanied by John Mackey’s percussion score, commissioned by Mary Rodgers Guettel. Mr. Battle cast Corey Scott-Gilbert as the leader of a silent choir. The Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, at the rear of the stage, provided the sound, growing in intensity.

Mr. Battle took the senior class along the same path. The dancers scooted around, huddled and worked themselves up wonderfully into astounding vigor. The ritual ended with the leader throwing himself to the floor and a group flying out into the wings.”

The whole review is here.

Overall, a very positive review. I wonder how Mary will react to the rather public crediting of her generosity…

Just a short entry while I wait for the pizza dough to rise…

I’m heading down to Florida State University tomorrow morning. If all goes well, I should arrive just in time for their dress rehearsal of “Redline Tango.” The concert is on Thursday night.

More from the road…

Well, this afternoon was the final performance of “Mass.” The whole run at Juilliard was amazing. The musicians played the hell out of the piece, and they actually seemed to get better with every show. (You worry about things like that, because it’s common that a weak performance often follows a really good performance, because people get overly confident. This group not only avoided that, but just kept improving.)

The dancers were, as somebody said after one show, “off the hook.” The whole experience — from the beginning of the collaboration with Robert Battle, through the rehearsals with the dancers, through the music rehearsals, through the closing performance today — couldn’t have gone better. Well, unless it had all lasted longer. We should have been extended! There were only four performances, all of them completely packed, with people even breaking fire code and sitting on the stairs, and last night — Saturday — the theater had to turn away over 300 people. 300! That’s 300 that didn’t get in! And the Juilliard Theater seats a little over 1000 people. It was thrilling to be part of it.

I can’t thank MRG enough for funding the work. It meant a great deal coming from her, as I’ve loved her work since I was a little kid. It’s pretty amazing to see one artist so generously support another. If I were in her position, I’d like to think I would do the same, but I think she’s a far better egg than I.