Ailey 2013

Last week one of my dance friends sent me a text that put me into a (happy) tizzy. She had planned to go see Alvin Ailey on their annual tour through Boston with a friend, but the friend ended up having a conflict. Would I like the ticket… free?

Um, duh.

This friend and I had gone to see Ailey together last year and had a great time. Couldn’t wait to go again!

Coincidentally I had just watched Carmen & Geoffrey earlier in the week (another dance flick from my Netflix queue). If you’ve not heard of that documentary I highly recommend you watch it. Inspiring on many levels… the love story between the two and the incredible depth and breadth of talent the pair has. Carmen de Lavallade was the woman who, it could be argued, launched Alvin Ailey. Ailey and de Lavallade were in high school together and she was taking classes with Lester Horton and brought Ailey to class with her. The rest, it could be said, was history. Ailey and de Lavallade were very close and performed together quite a lot. In fact when Ailey was first touring internationally the company was called the De Lavallade – Ailey American Dance Theater.

Oh, and Geoffrey Holder is an equally fascinating person. Talented choreographer, artist, and altogether fascinating person. Seriously, watch that film!!!

Anyway, to the Wang Theatre we went… huge, gorgeous theatre. BB used to dance there, but through a variety of things (largely political, I’m sure) they left for the Boston Opera House a few years ago. I like the Opera House because I feel like you can be a bit closer to the stage. But the Wang is gorgeous for its grandeur. Really, you can’t go wrong either way!

The show we went to was a tribute to Renee Robinson who was giving her farewell performance to Boston. I believe she technically retired from Ailey last year as the program listed her as a guest performer and showed her dates with the company as 1981-2012. A 31 year career, can you believe it? She is the only dancer in the company to have performed for all three artistic directors: Mr. Ailey himself, Judith Jameson, and Robert Battle. The insert in the playbill highlighted the great things Ms. Robinson has done for dance education in Boston, introducing children to the arts year after year throughout her remarkable tenure with the company. The house was packed with her many fans.

I was slightly disappointed to see that the company was not performing Petite Mort (Kylián) on this particular evening (they were performing it on other nights), but hardly upset to see that our program included eight excerpts of Alvin Ailey’s own ballets along with the never-boring, and ever-uplifting “Revelations” (1960).

It showcased the incredible breadth of Ailey’s vision. Excerpts were from: “Memoria” (1979), “Night Creature” (1974), “Phases” (1980), “Opus McShann” (1988), “Love Songs” (1972), “For ‘Bird’ — With Love” (1984), “Hidden Rites” (1973), and “Cry” (1971). Some were soul-stirring, some were invigorating, some were groovy, and some were just plain fun. Seeing selections of all these works in one evening made it obvious why the company is perhaps THE preeminent modern company in the world.

The excerpt from “Memoria” was the one I found most stirring. Chills constantly zipped up my spine while I was watching.

The others were equally intriguing in their diversity. “Night Creature” was set to a jazzy score and yet I noticed a lot of traditional ballet moves in there. There was an entire section of very brisk allegro: sisonnes, jétés battus, glissades, etc. “For ‘Bird’ — With Love” felt like an after-hours jazz club. “Love Songs” was achingly poignant.

And then, of course, “Revelations”. The piece that made me fall in love with Ailey and modern dance back when I was 13 years old has not lost any of its soul-stirring quality in the many times I’ve seen in. In fact, I think this was perhaps the most wonderful I’ve ever seen, perhaps because of Ms. Robinson’s presence. Or perhaps because a different movement of the piece speaks to me each time. “Wade in the Water” and “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham” are the ones I always remember, but the one that made me stand up and take notice this time was “Sinner Man.”

The audience deserves some credit for the awesomeness of the evening. For one, it was an evening to honor the first responders of the Boston Marathon bombing. For another… I don’t know, sometimes when I go to BB I feel like the audience is there out of some sense of duty. There always seems to be a contingent of people who are zipping for the exit the moment the performers start taking their bows for the final curtain call (RUDE, people!!!). This audience paid rapt attention throughout the show, even those back in the nosebleed section with us. They were on their feet at the conclusion of “Revelations” and I saw hardly any early exiters.

Altogether amazing (though I expected nothing less). Congratulations to Ms. Robinson on her tremendous career and, as always, a huge thanks to Mr. Ailey and those who have come since and preserved and grown his company to the heights it has reached. If I could have a wish granted to have the talent and strength to dance professionally that would be my dream company, hands down.

Not quite Swan Lake, but…

Wild Swans!

What?

Last night my e-mail was bombarded with messages from the studio… some relevant to my life, some not:

* Rehearsal schedule for the week (relevant)

* Reminder to book photo time for those wanting formal recital pics (not)

* Reminder about importance of participating in summer classes/camps/etc. (somewhat relevant)

* Parent observation week (not)

And finally a big huge relevant and a big huge happy surprise…

* The ballet company is planning a summer ballet! Woot!!!

They had done A Midsummer Night’s Dream a couple summers in a row (I was there for the second), but last year the director had a newborn, so putting on a ballet was a bit out of the question.

I hadn’t heard anything more about resuming the tradition and I know a bunch of kids are headed off to intensives and such at various points, so I figured the summer ballet concept was deader than a doornail. But… no!

And even better is that we will NOT be reprising MND. It was a fun ballet, but I think if we did it one more year in a row it would take on a very tired, Nutcracker-ish feel. I’m all for keeping things fresh.

Instead we’ll be performing The Wild Swans which is going to be a take on the Hans Christian Andersen story (I had to Google the original story… in Andersen’s there was a man with eleven sons and one daughter… seeing as we have a dearth of guys and a plethora of girls, ours shall have all daughters).

Auditions will be held less than a week after our annual recital production as we’re going to have less than two months to put the show together. Eek!

Very exciting!

NYCB Workout Review

I’m totally late to this party, but finally got the two discs of the New York City Ballet Workout from Netflix. I had been tempted to buy these from Amazon before, but I’ve gotten a fair number of “ballet-inspired” workouts in the past that left me anything but inspired, so I figured I’d rather give it a test run before I committed to buying it.

I’m still not sure whether I’ll add this to my collection, but the dancer in me likes these slightly more than the Bar Method, Tracy Anderson, or Ballet Beautiful. Maybe simply because these aren’t workouts to just make you look dancer-ish, but are supposedly based on real exercises that NYCBers do (or did… these were filmed over 10 years ago now!).

The two workouts are pretty similar: some warmups (think port de bras, pliés, slow balancés, etc.), core strengthening (abs, back, and push-ups), some floor barre, a bit of center barre (tendus, dégagés, grand battements, etc.), a bit of jumping.

I wouldn’t call it hard-core. I did work up a minor sweat, but I’ve got some kundalini yoga DVDs that leave me feeling far more drenched. However, I think it might be a worthwhile home DVD set for us dancers who might want to add a little something in on our days outside the studio. I especially liked the core strengthening and floor barre stuff. I’ve always wished I could take a floor barre class… the little bit I’ve experienced has given me a lot to think about in terms of how I approach exercises and which muscles I’m engaging. So I appreciated that. And it seemed to offer good cross-training to enhance what we do in class. Not a total substitute for ballet class and not a total substitute for a stretch and strengthen class, but close.

For the non-dancer, I don’t think the exercises here are so far out there that someone unfamiliar with ballet couldn’t pick it up after going through it a few times. There are some unfamiliar terms and they don’t go over the mechanics, but if someone was thinking of wanting to try ballet this might be a good way to practice a few things in the safety of the home before venturing into a studio. Nothing is too technically complex and a lot is done in parallel position. It might be frustrating the first couple times through, though. The filming, especially in the core and floor barre, used a lot of dark lighting so you couldn’t always see clearly what the dancers were demonstrating. And Peter Martins, though I love listening to his voice, does not explain things exactly as they’re happening.

The bonus materials were kind of fun on these… there were behind-the-scenes segments and interviews with the dancers featured in the workouts. If you’re a balletophile like me, you’re always curious to see what a day in the life is like. They are getting a bit dated now, though. The first one is copyrighted 2001, the second 2003, but still fun. Most of the dancers featured were in the corps de ballet at the time, so I’m curious to see how their careers ended up.

I wish there were more ballet workouts like this. It was more lively than some I’ve tried and definitely gave me the chance to work on some ballet-specific stuff in a space where I had time to really think about my turnout, abs, etc. I may add this to my collection, but even if I don’t it’s given me some ideas for things I can work on outside the studio.

Chroma!!!

Right now the show I consider to be the highlight of Boston Ballet’s 2012-2013 season is going on… Chroma!!!

Originally titled something snoozerific like “Spring Program,” Mikko Nissinen made the wise choice to retitle the bill to honor their premiere of Wayne McGregor’s incredible work. The show also featured two Balanchine works — Serenade and Symphony in C.

It was a gorgeous Saturday and the city of Boston was bustling with people alternately celebrating the food truck festival, the Kentucky Derby, and the Bruins playoff game. So lovely to see the city swarming with people. In the playbill both Nissinen and Barry Hughson (the executive director) addressed the recent tragedies in our city and spoke to the power of the arts to highlight the beauty that mankind can create and the sense of community we strengthen when we share an experience such as going to the ballet together.

Boston Strong.

The first piece was Serenade, which I saw NYCB do a couple years ago at SPAC. I thought the costuming looked familiar, though that was about all I remembered about the piece. The women are dressed in light blue leotards with a long, white, soft tulle skirt over top. I did remember seeing a tumble or two at NYCB at the hands of this costume and sadly saw one dancer slip last night on her skirt. My heart just breaks for the dancer when something like that happens! Aside from that brief moment, though, the piece was simply stunning. The dancer who stole my heart on this one was Seo Hye Han who, according to the playbill, is a member of the corps de ballet, but was a lead in this production. Her fluidity and her facial expression was so exquisite… Absolutely breathtaking. I won’t be surprised if I see that she’s been named a soloist next year.

One of the things I adore about this piece is the use of shapes and lines. His choreography for the leads is, of course, gorgeous, but the stuff the corps does is equally gorgeous. The lines they make, the interaction among the dancers, all just amazing. I found this YouTube video from NYCB with Ashley Bouder which I think sums up the piece nicely and gives you a little taste of the piece.

The ending, in particular, makes you want to cry or, at the very least, jump out of your seat and cheer wildly. Oh, and there was also one part where the Waltz Girl (I didn’t know the girls had different roles, but now, thanks to Ashley, I do!) is on the floor and one of the other female leads and her partner come out and the other girl does an arabesque en pointe in front of the Waltz girl while her partner kneels behind and turns her in a promenade (en pointe) by spinning her at the leg. I was amazed that the audience didn’t clap for that… it looks easy, but anyone who has been en pointe knows that it isn’t… especially to perform it without a moment off-balance. Stunning. Oh, and Tchaikovsky… that music. Sigh.

First intermission.

And now for something completely different.

CHROMA!!! Originally created for the Royal Ballet. I stumbled across another YouTube video of them performing this a couple years ago and fell in love with it from that alone. This is not the entire piece, by the way, but if you go to YouTube you can find the rest of it.

I was absolutely thrilled to see that Boston Ballet was going to be performing it this year. Now the one thing about watching a video and seeing it live is that you don’t get that perfect perspective. The video shows everything straight on and can zoom in on the faces and the individual dancers. When you’re stuck up in the mezzanine everything suddenly seems painfully far away. I am considering going back and watching this again from a different seat, hopefully one on the orchestra level and closer to the stage, because I want to see more. On the plus side, when watching a video the music comes across as much less dynamic. The Boston Ballet Orchestra rocked this one out. Seriously. The music was so intense. And how did I never notice before now that a good chunk of the music is Jack White’s (formerly of the White Stripes). The Hardest Button part was perhaps my favorite… that song made orchestral gave me a total adrenaline rush, so I can only imagine what it did for the dancers.

As for the dancers, I mean… wow, to go from Serenade which is contemporary, but very pretty, flowy, ballet-ish, to Wayne McGregor’s crazy inversions and intense moves… yet another testament to the versatility today’s ballet dancer must have. BB came through, as always, in tremendous fashion. Oh, and the set… I absolutely love the set. Ours came courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada… I was wondering if they had to build their own. As you can see from the video it looks like the dancers are in a big white box with just one entrance on either side and then the square hole in the back which dancers enter and then step over onto the main stage. I really… I just… I need more Chroma, please!!!

What particularly thrilled me about this was how much the audience loved it. I know contemporary stuff can be a bit risky and some ballet-goers just don’t like it. I saw some people disappear during intermissions of All Kylián, for example. But after this the audience was on its feet, applauding and cheering loudly. They did me proud on that one!

Another intermission in which we collect ourselves and calm down to get ready for the more sedate Symphony in C.

This… perhaps my least favorite piece of the evening. Which is not meant to be negative, simply that after the gorgeousness of Serenade and the hair-raising adventure of Chroma the audience member is a bit spent and Symphony in C is a bit, hm… floofy. It’s got the more traditional looking dancers in their tutus dancing prettily. But, upon reflection, this was probably the best way to end the evening. Brings the tone back down a bit.

There are four movements in this piece with a finale that features 52 dancers on stage at the same time. Fifty-two!!! That is simply amazing and breathtaking all on its own. I believe there were some BBS students included in that, as well. It might sound crazy to say that I had a favorite dancer among 52, but Jeffrey Cirio in the third movement was mine. His jumps and leaps make him appear weightless. He lands like a cat, without a sound, and then springs back up again. The other men are terrific, as well, but he just has this quality that makes it look simply effortless and incredibly fun. All the dancers were incredible, of course. Though there was one corps dancers whose port de bras drove me batty. I realize that there are different schools of thought on the wrists and how straight they should be, but her port de bras looked perpetually broken at the wrist and it was maddeningly distracting.

After seeing two Balanchine pieces on this particular evening my respect for his choreography increased moreso. The way he uses the music is simply incredible. It’s like the score and the choreography were made to go together. The steps highlight all the right parts in the music. Being both a musician and a dancer it just seems so… right! The other thing I love is his use of technique and simplicity. I obviously respect boundary-breaking and funkiness in dance, but there’s something, too, to be said for pure, clean technique. Sometimes through the simplicity the audience can focus more on the emotion being expressed. I always think of pliés and tendus as those things you do in class because it’s good for you and it’s the basis of so much of our movement. Balanchine manages to make them dance steps that look good! All on their own. The corps doing a nice tendu en croix with port de bras is suddenly a stunning frame for the action in the center.

Altogether a lovely evening of dancing capped by a special treat after the show: one of Mikko Nissinen’s post-show talks in the lobby. He, Russell Kaiser (the assistant artistic director), and Ashley Ellis (a soloist according to the program, but, as Nissinen announced to us, now a principal dancer!) chatted with the group that remained about the program, upcoming events, and the BB 50th anniversary season coming up in a few short months. There were some great audience questions about how long it took to prepare the works and how the dancers are chosen for different pieces. It surprised me to learn that the rehearsal time is actually fairly limited. After hearing exactly how many things the group has in the works at any given time — I mean, not only do they have the home season in the works, but they’re also putting together different pieces to perform in Washington DC and in London — it amazes me that they can present everything so professionally. Of course, I imagine that for dancers who have been around a few years, much of what they do is in the rep, so when they approach it to prepare for a performance it’s not like everything coming at them is brand new. They’ve seen it before and it’s a matter of simply relearning, tidying, etc. Plus, I realize I’m looking at this from the perspective of a recreational dancer. I only get to work on pieces for an hour or two a week. They are doing many more pieces, but since it’s their job working on them day in and day out for a few weeks will yield much greater results than my sporadic practice. But still… impressive, nonetheless.

I really am seriously considering heading back for a second helping of Chroma before the run ends next weekend. If you’re in the area I suggest you get at least one dose in. You won’t regret it.

Some say I’m high maintenance…

But who can help it when one has been crowned a princess?

That’s right.

Princess Rori, comin’ atcha!

I guess there somehow ended up being an odd number of princesses in Cinderella, so I just got drafted to even out the ranks.

I do hope this means a tiara is in my future!

Oh… and, uh… I guess this means I need to stop being a slacker about pointe class. Good thing I finally got my custom Freeds sewn up!

It gives you wiiiings!!!

Did I mention that my studio is doing Cinderella for our annual recital?

We are.

And our all-adult ballet class is playing the role of Winter Fairies. In case you don’t get the drift, the Spring Fairies are little kids (6-7 year old range), the Summer Fairies are slightly older kids (10-11 or so), the Autumn Fairies are the teens en pointe, and then there’s us… the Winter Fairies, AKA the one-foot-in-the-grave fairies. Hahaha…

Of course fairies need wings.

This week we got to practice our dance wearing the wings.

Keep in mind that we have not yet received our costumes, so it was us in our normal dance attire with wings on top.

Did I also mention that this studio has a LOT of windows that face into the rest of the school?

So here we are, a bunch of “mature” ladies, rehearsing away in T-shirts, leotards, and… wings. While the other students and their parents come and go, looking in the windows as they pass, and GIGGLING!

Giggling, dear reader!!!

Now who would laugh at old ladies in wings, who?! I ask you.

Okay, it was a pretty comical sight.

One of my dance friends got too close to the mirror and got the edge of her wing stuck in the crack in the mirror mid-dance. A few of us got bopped in the heads with our flapping wings. Flying takes practice, it seems.

They do have a nice added benefit of ensuring lovely posture, however. You can’t help but keep your shoulders back when the alternative means being smacked in the face with a glittery wing.

I can’t wait to see what dancing in a shield with a hood will be like for my hip-hop Guard dance. Or dancing in an apron and mob cap with a basket in hand for our lyrical Baker dance. Thankfully our mixed teen/adult ballet Townspeople dance seems to be straightforward with no props or funky costume elements whatsoever!

Ballerina

Okay, so I kick it old-school when it comes to Netflix. Because of my refusal to deal with the cable company for anything (I haven’t had cable for almost 9 years now) I get my internet from my wireless service provider which means I have a data usage limit and can’t take advantage of as much streaming video as I’d like to. So I’m still in DVD-land when it comes to Netflix.

I’m also horrible about watching the DVDs sent to me. Sometimes I’ll be good about watching them promptly and sending them back. But then a few weeks will go by and they just sit. This means that the DVDs I’m getting currently are ones I added to my queue approximately two years ago. I’m not kidding.

It would seem that approximately two years ago I added a ton of ballet-related DVDs to the queue. Which makes sense… that was about the time I started getting involved in the dance blog-o-sphere and finding out about some of these gems. So now I’m finally watching them.

The first one I got was Ballerina (2006) which was a documentary profiling five female dancers from the Mariinsky (Kirov) ballet. The five dancers they chose were all at different levels.

The first, Alina Somova, was in her final year at the Vaganova Ballet Academy and preparing for the graduation performance which served as her audition for the Mariinsky. She was accepted into the company and you get to see her transition from student to professional.

The second, Evgenia Obraztsova, was a graduate of Vaganova, but had already completed her first year in the company and so it showed her as a professional who was starting her ascent through the ranks.

Then there were two dancers who were already established prima ballerinas in the company, Svetlana Zakharova and Diana Vishneva. The focus on them was really on how they rehearse their roles and bring their characters to life and their attempts to perform outside of the Mariinsky (it showed Vishneva travelling to Paris to work with the Paris Opera Ballet and Manuel Legris).

The fifth dancer was Ulyana Lopatkina who was coming back from two years away from ballet. She had endured an injury that required her to step back and took advantage of that time to get married and have a baby. She was now working back towards performance shape.

With covering five dancers they really couldn’t get into as much detail as I would have liked on the progression of each of the dancers, but I loved that they showed people at various levels of their profession and the challenges they face at each point.

Since the beginning of the film highlighted Somova it also showed the training at Vaganova and was really interesting to see. They showed the 10-year-old girls auditioning and it was quite eye-opening. There was little in the way of dancing from what they showed of the audition process. Instead they showed a group of girls in their underwear in front of a panel. One of the teachers (I assume) tested their flexibility in their legs and back by putting them into various positions (side extension, arabesque, cambré back). The student didn’t really do much herself. It seemed a bit demeaning in some ways. I mean, aside from the audition in one’s underwear, I saw no part where the child demonstrated her dancing ability. It was really all about their physique. On the other hand it highlighted the whole hand-picked aspect of Vaganova training. There is a lot of controversy about the demands of the Vaganova technique in terms of flat turn-out, etc. But you could see how they really were picking kids that had the physical capacity to meet the demands of training. So… I guess reassuring in some ways and a bummer in others.

What showed the flip side of all of this, at least in my opinion, was an interview conducted with Manuel Legris later in the film. He discussed how every Russian ballerina has a unique quality to her dancing, that no two dance the same. Which I found interesting because of how exacting Vaganova is known to be. I mean, all those pictures of the Vaganova kids in class where they look like they’re all cut from a mold. You’d think they would all dance similarly as professionals. But no.

And you could see that in the rehearsal footage. It was amazing to me to see how hard these ballerinas would work on maybe an 8-count snippet of choreography to get the expression just right. It wasn’t simply a matter of memorizing the choreography and executing it cleanly, it was about which way the head was tilted, how the hand was moved, etc. So fascinating to see the focus on even the most minute detail. And the work that the ballerina would do with a teacher, the back and forth discussion of what the character should be, how to best express that. The amount of real, true work went into the rehearsals was staggering to me. It wasn’t all about physicality, it was a lot of give and take, feedback, tweaking, etc. Truly impressive.

As an adult re-beginner I also particularly enjoyed the section about Lopatkina because I could relate in some way to her struggle. Obviously she dances at a much higher level than we amateurs can ever aspire to, but she was completely out of the dance studio for two years dealing with her injury and becoming a mom. To watch her come back and say the same things that so many of us have… working to get back to where we were previously, building strength that has been lost, etc. Truly inspiring. And what I loved was how gentle she was with herself in the process. She had realistic goals of building herself back up to her previous level. It was coming back all guns blazing. It was working back up to classes and and then some small roles, hoping to get some solos and duos. But what I also loved was the interview with the artistic director who was saying that Lopatkina’s best years were still to come. I mean, she had stepped back from the company when she was at a very high level and then had to make up for lost time. But her higher-ups still felt that this hadn’t been a detriment to her and that she was going to do great things. I think all of us adults can take that into consideration… we may have lost time, but that doesn’t mean that our best years are behind us!

Overall, a nicely-done documentary that managed to put a lot into a brief 80-minute span. I found it wholly engrossing and inspiring! Oh, and I loved seeing the images of the theatre having visited there in 1995! Such a beautiful building.

The big league arena

I live in a rather sports-obsessed area. I don’t happen to like the sports teams in this area (shhhh!), but for those who do, the fields, arenas, and stadiums where they play are places worthy of pilgrimage and I think it’s safe to say that each fans dream of one day being able to play on the field, ice, or floor where their revered team plays. My employer is an official something-or-other for one of these sports teams and we have a yearly event where different groups of employees can register to win a chance to spend a day playing on the field and it’s VERY popular.

Of course, just being on the field isn’t QUITE as cool as playing professionally, but since it’s as close as most of us mere mortals will get, it’s still something noteworthy!

I think it’s safe to say that most of us in the dance world feel similarly. It’s cool that I have danced on the same stage as some pretty major acts (not at the same time, of course!), but those were touring acts in our own puny venues. It’s something completely different to be on the home stage of a major player.

Well, dear reader, I got to have that experience!

So I’ve mentioned that I became a Boston Ballet subscriber which means I’ve been spending some quality time at the Boston Opera House. This past weekend I was there to see a very different kind of show… a touring production of a rather irreverent and foul-mouthed Broadway musical. You might have heard of it — shares its name with a religious tome — and was written by the chaps responsible for an equally irreverent and foul-mouthed group of four cartoon boys. That one.

Wicked FREAKIN’ expensive, but hilarious (assuming you have a high tolerance for crude language) and, in its own bizarre way, kind of sweet, made all the more special because I knew someone on the stage! The son of one of my dance teacher/friends is the dance captain and a swing for the show. He performed with us a couple years ago as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Since this is a dance blog I’ll avoid much review… there was some dancing, but nothing too remarkable. Typical cheesy musical theatre dance moves, which were oh-so-totally-appropriate for this show.

The part I wanted to tell you about took place afterwards when we met up with the Captain at the stage door and got a private backstage tour! OMG, wow!!! This was, what, the fifth time I’ve been in that theatre in the past six months, and I’ve only really seen the lobby and the mezzanine and (this time) the orchestra seating. I didn’t even know where the stage door was until now!

Going down the stairs from the stage door led us straight backstage. And what a backstage it was. I’ve danced in places with teeny-tiny (aka, nonexistant) backstage areas. And some that seemed quite adequate. Well, this was way more than adequate. It was huge. Cavernous. Made me feel strangely reverent.

We saw where the props hung out backstage and then went onstage. The company brings their own floor which is laid over the existing stage floor. There are tracks in it for the moveable pieces of scenery (I guess it’s all computerized). Now this is where things got weird for me. I felt like Alice after she drank the potion. The stage seemed tiny. Keep in mind, of course, that the scenery takes up a huge part of the stage, so it makes sense that the open area is small. But from the audience it looked way bigger. But then an equally weird part. I turned to look out at the audience (because isn’t that everyone’s dream?! to be on the stage looking out at the audience?) and it looked… equally tiny! I mean, when I’m in the audience I feel like I’m surrounded by a huge expanse of seats. But from there it looked downright puny. But it’s 2600+ seats! Weird.

We went to the other wing where more of the moveable scenery pieces were kept. Captain told us that not all theatres they visit are this expansive. In fact, in San Francisco there were essentially no wings on the left and any crossovers to the other side of stage had to be accomplished by going downstairs and running under the stage, then coming back up. Crazy! We saw the backstage dressing areas (I somehow expect that BB has a more formal dressing room area that they use, though I could be wrong… I think for the purposes of this show there are so many quick changes that it makes sense to just do it all backstage).

We learned about their travelling crew… amazing how many people it takes to keep the show going. The number of tractor-trailer trucks they use to go from one city to another, the props, hair/makeup, electricians, etc. that they travel with. They hire some local people for the shows, but a lot of it travels. I’d love to spend a week there just to see how it all works.

I’d still love to get back there to see it from the ballet perspective, but regardless of the show, I’m thrilled that I was finally able to see some of what the BB dancers see when they perform. Awesome-sauce!!!

Sleeping Beauty

Not referring to myself, here, though I’ve acquired a cold recently that certainly has me wanting to sleep for 100 years. It’s not making me feel very beautiful, though!

In spite of this, I powered through the snot to go see Boston Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty this weekend.

Although I claim to not really like story ballets, Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in my heart. For one because, during my freshman year of high school, our ballet teacher decided that we would do an excerpt from the 3rd act in the dance school’s annual recital. She adapted it to fit our small class (and our limited abilities), but we had a White Cat and Puss in Boots, the Bluebird, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. I was the Lilac Fairy and Aurora, the Prince, and I performed the pas de trois together. It was a small portion of the recital, but I enjoyed it tremendously.

Then, a few years later, BB performed Sleeping Beauty and the same ballet teacher brought a group of us to see it. As a special treat, she arranged for the girl who played Aurora and me to see the company warm-up. I don’t remember much about the ballet, but I do remember watching the warm-up and being awed while watching professionals go through the same exercises we did.

Needless to say, I was very excited to be seeing this again with fresh eyes.

If you’ve not seen Sleeping Beauty, let me warn you that it’s rather a loooong ballet. I mean, Princess Aurora does sleep for 100 years, so they want to give you a taste… ha!

Seriously, though, I enjoyed myself far more than I expected to. For one thing, the costumes and sets are terrific. Lots of sparkle and elegance. The sets make the stage seem huge. From a visual standpoint alone there was a lot going on to keep the audience’s attention.

As for the choreography… I was wondering what to expect having just come off seeing the very modern and innovative Kylián. Would the 120 year old Petipa creation keep my interest? Surprisingly, yes. In fact, I really enjoyed the choreography. It’s much simpler than modern-day works. I could name most of the steps I saw. But instead of being boring (which I complained of with the new BB Nutcracker) I found it refreshing. Very clean with more of a focus on the story and the interpretation.

Although, this leads me to one of my complaints about the show. The casting. Now, like any ballet company, they have multiple people cast to play the parts and they rotate through the shows. I understand that the principals are going to be the main characters. But that doesn’t mean that all of the principals are appropriate for each of the leads. Our Princess Aurora was Lia Cirio, who — let there be no doubt — is a tremendous dancer. I’ve seen her in multiple shows now and she is clearly an exceptionally talented, poised, and strong dancer. But I think that poise was part of what made her feel so… inappropriate in this role. Princess Aurora is supposed to be a 16-year-old girl. While this is a fairy-tale, I still expect a 16-year-old character to display certain characteristics… a bit shy, a bit of reckless, a bit awkward, a bit naïve. Cirio was technically brilliant, but somehow came across as being too self-assured, too confident. Not very teenager-y. I found myself wishing that she were the Lilac Fairy, instead, something where her confidence and maturity would be a better match.

Along with that… I wish they had given Aurora a slightly more romantic tutu. Hers was the classic style, which was beautiful when she was dancing, but when she fell asleep was comically distracting. Here’s the slumbering Aurora and here is her tutu sticking straight up in the air like a saw blade. I wished they had given her a romantic style, or even a bell tutu for the first two acts, something that would have looked a bit softer, more in keeping with a young ingénue.

In general all the performances were lovely, though. The third act remains my favorite, and if I could play any role in the show I’m quite sure I’d want to be the White Cat. Sassy little scamp! It was such a joy to watch this part of the ballet and pull some memories out the recesses of my mind from 20 years ago!

Oh, and I must say a kudos to BB… I had complained about the fact that the Nutcracker cast list didn’t include the names of the students anywhere. This was rectified this time around. Students and supernumeraries both were listed at the end of the cast list. Bravo, BB! My ballet companion and I decided that our new goal in life is to become supernumeraries.

I have to say, this show changed my mind about the story ballets. While the stories themselves can be a bit silly, they are a completely different animal from the contemporary works and are deserving of respect in their own right, from the style of dance, to the set and costume design. And, of course, they are a great way to engage young people in the performing arts. The audience was noticeably larger last night than the one two weeks ago for All Kylián and there were many more children in the audience. While this can be a bit annoying for someone like me (when DO kids learn how to whisper quietly?), I was impressed that the ones around me paid attention for the full (nearly) 3 hours. Even if Carabosse did make a little kid cry during the prologue (I guess it was a testament to his — for it was a “he” on this particular evening — ability to project the fairy’s evil character), the stories pull the children in and I was glad to see so many parents bringing their children out to the ballet for an evening.

After gorging on BB for the past couple weeks I have to wait until May for Chroma (sooooo excited) and Coppélia. But, I did just get info about next season… including an opportunity to continue my super-awesome $25/ticket deal, OMG! It will be BB’s 50th anniversary and I am thrilled about all of the shows they’ve got planned: La Bayadère, Close to Chuck (also featuring Kylián’s “Bella Figura”), Cinderella, Pricked (with works by Zuska, Ekman, and Lander), and Balanchine’s “Jewels”. Cannot wait!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

In case you were wondering how my DWTS competition went:

Yes, that is the championship trophy in my hands right there! Woohoo!!!

Okay, in all fairness, I think it was a tie between us and the other couple from our studio. That star’s table was louder. My star had more tables. The applause-o-meter was probably registering about equal. I would have been happy if either of us won. Because the mini mirror ball trophies the other couples got were trés adorable and I was a teensy bit jealous. Seriously.

But all in all a tremendous experience. And so happy for the music school we were fundraising for. They sold out and I think next year might have to find a new venue to accomodate everyone. The faces I saw were all smiles and there was a ton of buzz around. It was an honor to be part of it. The winning trophy was just the icing on the cake.

Also… I think I may have been born in the wrong era. I kind of loved my 1940s get-up.