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Audition Reminiscences


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Just received the Spring Edition of SAB's newsletter. On July 3, the latest crop of national audition tour winners arrived at SAB for five weeks of training. A number of current NYCB dancers recalled their auditions. A very short summary of each:

Wendy Whelan. "Suzanne Farrell gave my first audition for SAB in Cincinatti when I was 13. It was a long and really difficult class with a lot of pointe work.... One day after school recess I came back to the classroom to find my mom had taped the acceptance letter to my desk..."

Jared Angle. "I was 14...Miriam Mahdaviani gave the class..... I thought I wasn't going to get in because we did a tendu side plie combination and she stopped when she got to me and told me, 'do it again, but this time with your knees turned out.'"

Janie Taylor. "I auditioned in New Orleans when I was 14 with Garielle Whittle and then again at 15 with Nichol Hlinka. I remember being nervous... I hoped for the best the second time around and luckily I was accepted. I had the time of my life that summer..."

Tom Gold. "Kay Mazzo gave the audition in Chicago in 1986 when I was 15. The audition...was a very abbreviated class--plies to one side and tendus to the other with only a few combinations in the center....I would be going to the most pretigious institution where I could see how I fit in with the big guns."

Maria Kowroski. "I was 14...when my mom drove me 3 hours to Detroit... Violette Verdy gave my audition class and I liked her bubbly and fun energy. I was so shy back then that if we hadn't had numbers on us that the auditioners used to line us up, I would have been hiding in the back the whole time."

Christian Tworzyanski. "...I was 13 and we drove four hours from South Carolina to get to the North Carolina School of the Arts...Stacey Calvert, Elizabeth Walker and Ashley Tuttle had all come from my school and gone to SAB... It was really scary... (but) Garielle was straight-forward and to the point the way people are in New York..."

Jenifer Ringer. "Susan Hendl gave my audition class at the Kennedy Center when I was 14.... We were doing grand battements and Susie came over to correct me. She wanted more energy and sharper movements, so she would clap her hands each time I moved my leg. She still gives me the same correction 20 years later, and she says she still remembers me and everyone else she has accepted into the School!"

Dancer alums recently promoted (other than the ones already posted at NYCB):

Boston Ballet: Misa Kuranaga to Second Soloist.

Miami City Ballet: Jeremy Cox to Principal Soloist.

Pacific Northwest Ballet: Jonathan Poretta and Jeffrey Stanton to Principals; Maria Chapman to Soloist.

Saint Louis Ballet: Jennifer Cudnik to Principal.

There is a photo of guest teacher Francia Russell teaching D pointe class. She and Kent Stowell were guest teachers at the School in January.

The newletter is edited by Dena Abergel. You may see the new mom, with dad Ronan and baby Odelia on the Winger:

http://www.phontographer.com/winger/archiv...7/dsc00089.html

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Pacific Northwest Ballet: Jonathan Poretta and Jeffrey Stanton to Principals; Maria Chapman to Soloist.
I think they're a little behind: Jonathan Poretta and Maria Chapman were promoted last year, and Jeffrey Stanton has been a principal dancer for over a decade.
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