Victoria Leigh

Watermill, it really was sandwiched in when we could have them for an hour or so. I did start Pas de Quatre early, back at the end of Aug. and had several rehearsals the first week. But after that it was here and there. Jeff Edwards also started on Who Cares at that time, but John Goding did not do his ballet with them until the last two weeks. So, with John having more time the last two weeks, Jeff and I had less. In between the end of Aug. and the last two weeks there was a KC season and then massive all day rehearsals for setting Midsummer, which goes in January but the person setting it was here in October, so, that is when it got staged. That really cut back on rehearsal time for the Studio Co., and of course I was also teaching my regular schedule, so did not have a lot of time that I could give them either. I had a total of 4 rehearsals between the KC performances and the dress rehearsal for this production last Thursday. (Just checked back through my date book and I had 6 rehearsals prior to the KC season, and then the 4 after. Some of them were one hour and a half, others one hour, and one was 45 minutes.)

That was not my experience in working with Tudor at all. His first concern was the character. Who are you, why are you here right now, where did you come from and what were you doing before you were here? The steps were a necessary thing, and he was meticulous about them, however, they were not primary and had to emerge from the character and of course the music, at least in my recollection. Handling the dress was one of the biggest problems for my character, the Older Sister. It has a train and was fairly heavy. Very beautiful though, and the costumes we wore in the 60's were the original.

Watermill, this Pas de Quatre is "Le Grand Pas de Quatre", the one created in 1845 for Marie Taglioni, Lucille Grahn, Fanny Cerrito, and Carlotta Grisi. It was presented first in London and was produced in order to bring together four of the world's leading ballerinas of the time in one work. The music is by Cesar Pugni, and the choreography was by Jules Perrot, who was also the husband of Grisi. It was reconstructed by Keith Lester in 1936 for the Dolin Ballet, and then a different reconstruction by Anton Dolin, in 1941 for Ballet Theatre. The version I learned and danced a number of years ago was this version. I have staged it a number of times, and absolutely love doing it as it is just a very special work, as well as a history lesson for the dancers, and a major challenge to teach them the style of that period.

The age range is 18-22, mostly 18-19. One is a college graduate from Chicago who also did two years in Level 8 at Houston, and one, who was a WSB student did two years in college and then one with Nevada Dance Theatre. One is from Japan, one from NCSA, one from Maryland Youth Ballet and another from San Antonio who also studied at Maryland Youth. Another female, not dancing right now due to injury, is a graduate last spring from WSB, and the male dancer was a WSB student for two years. None were accepted from this past summer's SI, although they do plan to do that if there is someone they would like to keep. The other male who was supposed to be in the program was from Cleveland but stayed in our program last year after the SI here in '02. This year, in the middle of the summer, while at ABT in NY, he decided to quit dance and go into religious studies. I believe we have a second male dancer starting in the program in January, but not sure. I heard that the other day from the dancers. Thank you all for your very kind words about this program! I think it was a very good start to the Studio Company, and certainly an ambitious one for such a small group! Three of my Pas de Quatre dancers were in all 3 ballets, which was quite a marathon, especially with the costume and hair changes. Getting out of the Pas de Quatre hair takes as long as getting it done in the first place! The interludes between ballets could have used another pas de deux I believe for today's performance we have a pianist to play a musical interlude during the changes, as the Poet pas after Pas de Quatre and one solo between the second and third works were not quite long enough. (Second show is this afternoon at 4:30. It is primarily for the Cecchetti Council, which is holding it's annual event in our studios all day today.)

The Studio Company members are paid, and they are given pointe shoes. The pay is not as much as a company member or even an apprentice. It is more like a stipend. But they are not in the school classes. They take company class or a special class for them. They dance in the larger works with the company and they have their own repertoire for separate performances.

Welcome to Ballet Alert! Online, rplaut , and thanks for posting that information. Very interesting, and frightening too. We had heard about this case a long time ago, but no information since then. Very sad.

I couldn't either. :angry: Great photo!

When a lovely balance just "happens", it is joyous. When it is worked at, and obviously difficult, it is overkill and just showing off a circus trick. IMO, of course

Dr. Watermill, that was quite wonderful! Thank you!

...that I stay up way too late at night! :rolleyes:

Welcome, Gringa! Thank you for making your first post here with such kind words for the site! Be sure and post on the Welcome forum, so we can learn a bit more about you and you can get an "official" welcome from our wonderful Giannina, who is our very special and most delightful "Welcome Lady"! Congratulations, Alexandra! It's been a great 5 years, and I am very proud and happy to have been here and a part of this site for all 5 years! B) :hyper:

Kathleen Breen Combs has moved to Boston Ballet. Not sure about Richard, but I think there were problems with his visa and staying in this country. I could be wrong about that. Some of the new people are Trainees, and one apprentice. Luis Torres is a new company member, originally from Puerto Rico, but danced with Ballet Arizona for several years prior to coming here.

Oops! Yes, thanks, Leigh! Not sure how I did that :rolleyes:

Ballet Nutter, I believe you saw Glen Tuggle working with the dancers at the Open House. He has been here several weeks staging Mr. Forsythe's work Edited to correct Mr. Tuggle's name Thanks, Leigh!

In this case, true, carbro!

I saw Wed. night and this afternoon's performances. Two different casts. Interesting. I was not totally happy with the program Wed. night, but liked it much better today. A major part of that was seating. I was too close and on the side Wed. night, and further back but center today. Very different, especially for In The Middle Somewhat Elevated. I also preferred today's cast, especially in In The Middle. Elizabeth Gaither is a new company member to watch, and there are several others. I agree with Scoop that the company is stronger than it ever has been, at least in the last ten years since I have been watching them. I was underwhelmed with Firebird, but to be totally honest, I have never seen a production of that ballet that I liked. Everything was well danced in both performances, but it seemed to be a lot more cohesive today, which is also to be expected since the first night's show, even with different principals in most, but not all, parts.

I haven't seen enough Forsythe to know, as I have only seen In The Middle Somewhat Elevated. I saw the Australian Ballet do it, and then I saw it last night with Washington Ballet performing it for the first time. (Official opening is tonight.) I find it a "dancers' ballet", in that I think it is a work that they love to do, and it's very, very challenging. I have no idea about the theory behind it, therefore the quote from Anna K. seems appropriate to me. It is certainly highly energetic, and I suppose would be exhilerating for some, but personally I have a very hard time dealing with the "noise", which is what, IMO, accompanies this work. I do like watching the dancers do it, but just wish the noise would go away!

Alexandra, I did see Nora Kaye. I was never enthralled with her technically, and did not like her in classical works at all. She was very strong, but somehow just not overly pleasing in tutu roles. However, in Tudor and DeMille works she was something else. It was a very long time between stagings of Pillar for ABT, and that was because, I think, Tudor never had anyone after Nora until Sallie Wilson for Hagar. Sallie was also exceptional in the Tudor and DeMille rep. I believe she was the first to take on Lizzie Borden after Nora too, although I could be wrong about that.

In "Etudes", which is not Bournonville, but Harold Lander choreography for the Royal Danish Ballet, there is a section with piqué turns en manège where the singles are done at the back of the leg in cou de pied derrière, which is normal, but the doubles are done with the foot in cou de pied devant, which is quite unusual. There are four girls doing a complete circle (square, actually) of 3 single, 1 double, 3 single, 1 double, etc. (This section was not particularly problematic except the downstage portion when on a raked stage! :rolleyes:

Giannina, in my opinion being able to act is part of being a dancer, and a dancer is not an "artist of the ballet", so to speak, without that ability. Being able to execute technique does not make a classical ballet artist. Perhaps it makes a skilled technician, but it does not make an artist. Without the art, there is no ballet, just as a fine actor without the technique will not create good ballet either.

I love story ballets I have always thought of ballet as telling a story through movement, and dancers are actors who tell the story with their body instead of words. It is what makes it universal, like the music, and it makes the music visible. While non-story ballets are a challenge, and fun to dance, creating a role is, for me, much more of a challenge. From an audience member standpoint, I enjoy watching a story come to life more than watching an abstract work, although there are certainly a number of those which I enjoy very much too. From a dancer standpoint, for a corps de ballet dancer the abstract works are more fun to dance because you dance more than in a story work. There is much less standing around and posing. But for soloists and principals who have major roles to create, the story and the amount of dancing can be quite different from that of the corps. But that varies too. I certainly loved dancing the corps of Giselle Act II and Swan Lake. Works like this, and Bayadere, for instance, are different from the works which are much more about the principal characters and have much less work for the corps, such as Romeo and Juliet. Not all story ballets are full evening works, and I really love some of the one act dramatic works, such as those by Tudor. Story ballets do not have to take 3 hours to do, although I can't imagine trying to do some of them in less than two or 3 acts! If it can be told well in 30 minutes or so, though, it can often be just as effective and important a work as a full length. Sort of like a writer who takes 3 pages to explain something that could be done in half a page As a dancer my favorite ballet was always Giselle, and still is, with La Sylphide a very close second. But almost every Tudor work is right up there at the top of the list too, especially Pillar of Fire! Dancing Tudor can be an education in itself, through the way he uses the music and the subletly of the way he tells the story, which is much more through the use of the body and not through pantomime or anything else which make it very obvious. I think the dancers and the audience have to work a bit harder, as his works are not simple to understand.

Thanks, Dale! I had tried just typing in bostonballet.org, but that did not work.

I think the height of the male dancers is much less uniform, BW, even in a classical company. In the large companies that can do the classics there are enough male dancers to be able to allow more variation in the height, since, as you said, they rarely work in a large group. Naturally they need enough tall ones to partner the female dancers though!

Mary Lynn, I just got the same thing. My guess is that they are redoing the site, but I don't know.

Koshka, I don't know about that area, but actually I don't think you can even go by areas, since the power outages and the damage seem very random. For instance, Washington Ballet has no power, and the traffic signal at that corner is down, however McLean Gardens, right across Wisconsin Ave. did not lose power. I did not lose power, but half a block away, on the other side of Old Georgetown Rd., they did, and a couple of blocks north too. Parts of Bethesda are out, but it seems to vary street to street.