ALAN BERGMAN

“In my photographs chance is a minor ingredient. My work is quintessentially the cumulative effect of years of artistic input and observation”.

Alan Bergman

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Cry Judith Jamison City Center, NY 1975

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Alan Bergman is the product of two generations of Russia / Polish Yiddish actors and the profound guidance his mother’s theatricality and artistic good taste. His very successful career as a principal ballet dancer was shaped by his legendary teachers at Balanchine’s School of American Ballet – Oboukoff, Vladimirov, Doubrovsk and Andre Eglevsky, whose protégé he was. His eye for dance is a result of these influences.

Alan began photographing quite by chance. His performing career had come to an abrupt halt – which was both physically and emotionally painful. He found himself accompanying the Harkness Ballet on a European tour. Some of the dancers named him “camera guardian”, and he began to get interested in the cameras and their workings. He says “The first images were a disaster. All the exposures were wrong, but the moments were perfect. He quickly mastered f-stops and film speeds. When he returned to New York he brought his images to Bill Como, the editor of Dance Magazine. Como took one look and sent Alan out to cover Ben Stevenson’s and Frederic Franklin’s National Ballet of Washington.

When asked how he managed to get his stunning historic photographs, Alan replied – “It’s true that I would do anything to get the shots. Once, for the U.S. premiere of Netherlands Danse Theatre’s Mutations, I sneaked into the theatre pretending to be one of the cleaners. Once inside I furtively hid under the tarpaulin in the first balcony for two hours or more. I remember it was hot. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remember was hearing the music and I was shooting”.

Over time, Alan decided to specialise in galas, premieres and special events. Out of respect to the audience, he developed several mechanisms to photograph in near silence. His dance photographs are proudly owned by private collectors throughout the world.

Alvin Ailey ADT

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater The Road of the Phoebe Snow by Talley Beatty Ensemble City Center, NY 1975

Alvin Ailey ADT

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater The Road of the Phoebe Snow by Talley Beatty Ulysses Dove and Sara Yarborough City Center, NY 1975

Alvin Ailey ADT

Ballet Hispanico

Rudolf Nureyev and Erik Bruhn

Nederlands Danse Theatre

New York City Ballet

Nederlands Danse Theatre Male Dancer in the air Brooklyn Academy of Music 03/72

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater two male dancers City Center, NY 1973

Rudolf Nureyev as James in La Sylphide, Nureyev and Friends His first performance at the Coliseum Theatre in London 1978

Harkness Ballet Raymond Collins Harkness Theatre, NY 1973

New York City Ballet

Nederlands Danse Theatre

Alvin Ailey ADT

Rudolf Nureyev

Nederlands Danse Theatre Male Dancer with cones Brooklyn Academy of Music 03/72

Alvin Ailey ADT

Raymond Collins

George Balanchine and Leonard Bernstein

Alan’s photographs are part of the permanent collections of institutions such as:
· Dance Division of New York Public Library
· New Jersey performing Arts Center - Newark
· National Portrait Gallery Washington D.C. Smithsonian Institute
· Theatre Museum – London
· National Portrait Gallery – London
· British Embassy of Panama
· Dance Museum - Stockholm
· e-Onegin.com dance collection
· ArenaPAL Images

Solo exhibitions have included:
· Gallery at Lincoln Center – New York 2002
· Luke & A Gallery – London 2002
· The Royal Academy of Dance – London 2003
· Van Ludwig Gallery – Surrey 2003
· Barbara Davis Gallery – Huston, Texas 2003

Travelling exhibitions have included:
· Kennedy Center – Washington D.C.
· Farnsworth Art Museum – Rockland, Maine
· The Brandywine River Museum – Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
· Luke & A Gallery of London -Vienna-St.Petersburg

Alan is a New Yorker, who currently lives in London with his wife Samantha and their 5 year old daughter, Alexia.

Nederlands Danse Theatre

New York City Ballet

National Ballet of Washington

New York City Ballet

Nederlands Danse Theatre Mutations by Hans Van Manen two nude male dancers Brooklyn Academy of Music 03/72

Pearl Lang Dance Company The Possessed – Premiere Betram Ross, Pearl Lang 92nd Street Y, NY 01/75, Photography by ALAN BERGMAN

Nederlands Danse Theatre Alexandra Radius on blocks Brooklyn Academy of Music 03/72

Nederlands Danse Theatre Mutations by Hans Van Manen Gerard LeMaitre Brooklyn Academy of Music 03/72

Louis Falco Company Female dancer in backbend with Louis Falco City Center, NY 1972, Photography by ALAN BERGMAN

George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins

Pearl Lang Dance Company

Nederlands Danse Theatre

Merce Cunningham a premiere at his Westbeth studio NY 1974

Nederlands Danse Theatre

Louis Falco Company

Reviews:

“To truly appreciate Bergman’s art you merely need to compare his contact sheets with other photographer’s. With rare exception his images are of perfect moments.”

(William Como, editor of Dance Magazine)

“Alan Bergman’s beautiful photographs capture so many classic moments in the theatre, performances of moderns dance and the ballet. They are fine record of international dance that will be seen by present and future generations of dancers.”

(Madeleine Nichols, director of the Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center)

Merce Cunningham

Harkness Ballet

American Ballet Theatre

Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell

National Ballet of Washington

Harkness ballet Erik and Sue McCullogh 1973

The London Festival Ballet The Sleeping Beauty Rudolf Nureyev and Manola Asensio Coliseum Theatre, London 1978, Photography by ALAN BERGMAN

The London Festival Ballet Manola Asensio in grande jete 1978

Nervi Festival Giselle Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova

National Ballet of Washington

Harkness Ballet

Rudolf Nureyev and Manola Asensio

Manola Asensio

Royal Swedish Ballet Konservtoriet Ensemble at barre City Center, NY 1974

National Ballet of Washington

Giselle, Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova

“When I photograph I see at once all the fragmental elements of music, movement and lights as they evolve into a whole. It feels as if they are part of my being. I can not explain how I know when the perfect image will form. I just know, and the button seems to be pressed without pressing.”

Alan Bergman

Royal Swedish Ballet

Marian Guilgud and Daniele Lomel

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