New York City Ballet dancer Emily Kikta moved last weekend, and had a few days of overlap during which her old Upper West Side apartment was vacant. So she and three compatriots in the company decided to perform a four-person routine in the lofted studioto the tune of "Where's My Bow?" by Yo-Yo Ma and Stuart Duncanusing the ceilings, closet, ladder, windowsill and more to great effect. (NYCB's Peter Walker, who is also Kikta's friend, choreographed.) The idea was proposed last Wednesday, rehearsals started Thursday, and the apartment was handed back to the landlord on Sunday. Kikta posted it on her YouTube channel with the comment: "Because why waste an empty New York apartment?" Ain't it the truth.
Of the video-making process, Kikta wrote in an e-mail:
Peter did an amazing job of utilizing the different parts of the apartment in ways that I had never thought of and that read very well on film. The nice thing about us being the editors, dancers, choreographers and cameramen, is that it allows us to make sure everything is really tight and exactly how it was envisioned. Nothing gets muddled in transition from person to person. There's no middle man: we do it all. ... Our goal for this video was just to see what we could do in such a small and unique space. We're very used to dancing in large empty rooms, so changing our environment changed the steps we could do and the whole feeling of the piece. Making videos like this are just a lot of fun for us and we learn more every time. We eagerly await the next one.
· Emily Kikta's Channel [YouTube]
· Video Interlude archive [Curbed]
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