A Glimpse of My Year
I can hardly believe it… it’s been a whole year, and then some! As you can see, in my previous posts, it’s been so hard to keep you tuned in with all the changes in my life. I don’t think I will ever be able to catch you all up with everything that has happened in the past year, but hopefully giving you a glimpse will suffice.
The first tour for les Ballets de Monte-Carlo was to Ljubliana, Slovenia with Jean-Christophe’s, La Belle (Sleeping Beauty). When I think back on the tour, I felt like I was going to the first day of school after summer vacation. EVERY situation was new. New people, new places, new ballets, new teachers, new system, and a new way of working – everything was new, new, new!!! The change was scary and exhilarating all at once! The only comfort was knowing that others were going through the same thing with me. With every tour and new experience after the first, came the realization that change was inevitable, and it WAS the thing that sparked my move to BMC in the first place. I, of course, made comparisons from my past life to my new one, but eventually came to the understanding that in a change, nothing is better or worse – it’s just different. And that thought alone has opened up my life!
I guess if I were to talk about an initial hardship, it would be the language barrier. Simple everyday tasks like going to the grocery store or bank turned into a guessing game. I found myself (and still find myself at times) freezing up, and then asking, Parlez-vous anglais? Thankfully, a lot of people in the south of France and Monaco are english speaking, but in the long run it will not help me learn the language faster. I guess in the course of a year I can say that I understand French pretty well, but I don’t speak it - and this will take years!
In terms of company life, things are amazing! Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo is remarkable. The work, the creativity, the people, the places… the list is endless. Jean-Christophe is a definitive artist. I could say a whole lot more, but feel I don’t need to. I just know BMC is a good fit for me!
On a whole different note - Those of you who are close to me know that I am an avid believer in “The Secret”, and for the last two or so years I have been using its principles to shape my life. Now, I am not here to preach it, but I will say that I believe in it whole-heartedly. The power of positive thinking and knowing how the laws of attraction work have forced me to look at my life (and future) with a fine-toothed comb. And in return, have made this past season, and also my future endeavors, quite clear. I guess my point in even bringing this all up, is that it has made my transition into this les Ballets de Monte-Carlo pretty seamless. If you haven’t heard of it, I highly recommend the book or DVD.
I don’t want to make this post too lengthy so I will try to show you through some pictures what I’ve done & seen. The world is definitely your oyster, and life is what you make it. If you crave change or are contemplating something, just do it. The outcome in learning is golden.
This is a picture from the our first tour. It is the set for JC’s La Songe (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). There is a very modern approach to all of the sets of his ballets. I love it. I feel it brings more attention the the dancers and their intentions.
This is a picture from the theater in Bologna, Italy. The picture doesn’t capture the beauty of this enchanting space. This is where we performed JC’s Romeo et Juliette. It was also my first time dancing on a raked stage!!! My turns were never so bad, but by day three I started to get the hang of it.
We traveled to two small cities on the north of France, and along the way (on a free day), a small group of us stopped in Paris for a day. This is my impression of Mary Tyler Moore in front of the Louvre. Oh, yeah, and the Louvre is not pink, haha.. it was a setting that the camera was on!
Earlier this year, I posted pictures of La Belle in Japan. Here is a fun picture from that tour! It was of one of the best tours this season - sometimes I don’t think I will ever grow up!
Me & Nathalie Nordquist before our debut in JC’s Altro Canto. This is one of my favorites of Maillot’s! This was in Valencia, Spain
On our last, and potentially best tour, we had one free day to explore. The dancers took it as an opportunity to go to the Dead Sea & Jerusalem. We packed on black mud from the earth all over our bodies (like a mask), then rinsed it off, and went to literally float in the salty water of Dead Sea. It was UNREAL. I wish that I could post more pictures from this tour - Performing La Songe, and experiencing Israel… la vie est belle!
And now, this is what we are currently doing. JC’s new creation, Men’s Dance for Women. It’s been wonderful to work on a “creation” with Jean-Christophe. The dancers are still fine tuning the choreography in this piece, and we always will be. Jean-Christophe has an intention for every step in this ballet which does two things - one, makes it easier to have an objective so we know why steps are executed in a certain way. And, two makes it a challenge to focus on that objective. It’s great fun!!
Hope you enjoyed my glimpse! Next for me is a small vacation & then a guesting with Ballet Hawaii!!! Very excited! Stay tuned…
Room with a View - Tel Aviv, Israel
We are currently in Tel Aviv, Israel on our last tour of the season. We just got in yesterday, and I have to say I was amazed at our surroundings! I will write more later about what we are dancing here, but in the meantime, here our some pictures from my hotel room. The beach is very reminiscent of Waikiki.
So You Think You Can Dance
Hi Wingers!
Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, but I have been keeping busy with So You Think You Can Dance, and since I wasn’t able to blog about that, I really didn’t have much to say!
Anyhow for anyone who missed it and wanted to see it, I’ve found some clips of it on youtube and I thought I would post it.
And for those that are new to the Winger, welcome! I blog here about dance and if you would like to keep updated on my season at Miami City Ballet, come check out the Winger!
Miami Audition:
Vegas Week:
Elimination:
Finally, I also wanted to thank everyone for being so supportive of me - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
The Dance Community Needs Your Help
Help save this beautiful company before it is too late!
As we all know money and businesses from every sector have been experiencing difficult times recently. Unfortunately the ballet world is no exception to this fact. I want to bring to your attention an issue that is very important to me personally; Oregon Ballet Theatre needs your help. If we all don’t pull together and help this company it will have to close it’s doors. Not only do I have close friends in this company, but it is also a company that the ballet world cannot afford to loose. I urge you to take action on this issue. If you can donate any amount please do! ( Click here for information on how to donate to OBT)
As you see from the poster above they will also be holding a benefit performance.
Here are a few links with more information on the company as well as the current issue:
http://www.obt.org/news_links/features/5-27-09_Oregonian_onthebrink.html
In the studio with Arthur Fink
heidi and jeff
(All images in this post: Copyright © 2009, Arthur Fink)
Lynn Peterson
Jeff Lyon and Brigitte Mitchell
We are less than one week until opening, and really, truly excited! We had company in the studio yesterday.. Along with lighting designer, Kate Ashton, taking a peek at the pieces, we had photographer Arthur Fink sharing the space with us. His intense interest in the process of creating dance is such an inspiration. Many people only get to see the final product, and Arthur’s work helps bring a perspective into the studio.. to see what its like as a group of bodies work together and create the ephemeral things that, typically, only we experience. Since an integral part of SYREN’s mission is bringing dance to the general public, it was certainly an inspiring first session with Arthur. We just worked and worked, and he just kept shooting and shooting. It was great.
me
Hope to see you all NEXT WEEKEND at Ailey Citigroup Theater (55h and 9th). Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm each evening.
Tickets: www.smarttix.com
(and remember to use discount code “winger” for discounted tix!)
Everything with Miami City Ballet and more!
Hello All!
Hope everyone has been well, we have all been keeping very busy here at MCB with the tour to New York City and a collaboration with the wonderful Cleveland Orchestra where we danced Symphony in Three Movements as well as Symphony in C. We’ve just wrapped up Don Quixote and are now moving onto Program IV. Now that I’ve had some time to settle down and take it all in I figure it would be a good chance to write an update!
Let me say first of all that the New York City tour was an absolute blast for me. Since the company had never actually toured to New York City it was quite a big deal for us to come back to Edward Villella’s home. When we arrived in the theatre, Edward was in such high spirits that he started telling us stories of how he used to dance in the theatre - where he had rested - on the heaters near the back of the stage - how Balanchine had spoken to him in certain moments… it was really such a treat for us to be back in the theatre “where it all happened.”
(Picture of all the dancers sporting our new gear on the last day of the New York City Center tour!)
We had a very ambitious programs for New York:
Program A:
Symphony in Three Movements (Balanchine)
La Valse (Balanchine)
In the Upper Room (Twyla Tharp)
Program B:
Square Dance (Balanchine)
Rubies (Balanchine)
Symphony in C (Balanchine)
I danced the lead jump couple in “Symphony in Three Movements” (which happens to be one of my favourite roles!), one of the stomper boys in “In The Upper Room,” and 3rd movement lead in Symphony in C. To be honest, Symphony in C was very nerve-racking for me. I had never performed the 3rd movement lead, and it is very difficult, pretty much all jumping! I didn’t have much time to prepare for it as most the other leads had been veterans in their spots. When we first started rehearsing it, I could hardly finish it, but eventually it became easier (just a little, haha) and I could start to feel more comfortable in the role.
There was something about City Center that felt so special, I am a bit sad that they will be undergoing renovations. Just being in the theatre, being back stage, and dancing on stage - I really felt the history behind the whole theatre. It didn’t just feel like any theatre. It felt like great things had happened there, and I was honoured to be able to dance on that stage. Back stage on the walls, there were signatures and logo’s of many of the companies that had the opportunity to dance at City Center - I hope that when they do the renovations, they leave these there.
(Our MCB wall at City Centerwith our photos and signatures)
The performances I believe went very well for us and the audience was very appreciative. One of the great things I felt when dancing at City Center was the audience was so close to you, you could really feel their energy. It felt very intimate and I liked it.
One final highlight for me was after we finished “In The Upper Room,” Twyla Tharp surprised us by coming on stage to bow with us, she told us how happy she was with our dancing and that really made all the difference! I really felt she was proud of us, and it really touched me.
(Twyla Tharp taking a bow with us after)
The New York City Center tour was definitely the highlight for me this season!
Returning from City Center I had a little while to calm down. Our next program was Don Quixote and I was cast to do Sancho Panza in almost every show. Now for those of you who don’t know, Sancho Panza is a character role in Don Quixote. Although I didn’t really get to dance for a solid month, and to top it off was in a huge fat suit everyday, there were other aspects of the role that were satisfying my creative needs. Sancho Panza plays a comedic role in the production and it was fun to have some freedom to play around with the role. When you play a character role, it’s not as much like doing a dancing role where you don’t really have as much leeway for interpretation. Every night before the show, I would sit a think and go through all my sections to see how I could improve it. Seeing that I had been given almost every show, I had time to experiment with what worked and what didn’t. It was fun to focus purely on acting and musical interpretation on stage rather than having to focus on technique. In the end, it very rewarding as I felt I had grown as an artist.
With that said, the early make-up calls gave us a lot of free time, and this is what we ended up doing.
We are currently getting ready for our last program of the season:
Concerto Barocco (Balanchine)
In The Night (Jerome Robbins)
Symphony In C (Balanchine)
Anyway hope everyone enjoyed this post! Sorry it’s been so long, and I will write again soon!
Black and White in Boston
I just got back yesterday from a trip to Boston. I was lucky enough to be there for the US premiere of Jirí Kylián’s “Black and White” ballets. I saw the show at the Wang Theater on Sunday night and LOVED it. I have seen a video of Netherlands Dance Theater doing Petite Mort but nothing compares to watching the movement live. Although I wasn’t a big fan of No More Play and Sarabande, the other 3 ballets in the program made it so worth while. Fallen Angels, done by 8 girls, was so gorgeous and looked like a tough one to get through but the dancers performed the whole thing so amazingly. Sechs Tänze is the last piece in the series and was so entertaining. I am so glad I got to see Boston Ballet perform for my first time and I was so lucky to be able to see Kylián’s amazing works. I hope someday I have a chance to perform Petite Mort because it really is such an amazing masterpiece. Anyway, I am glad to be back to San Francisco where I won’t freeze my fingers off every time I walk outside.
Alaskan Beauty
MGDC was in Anchorage, performing this past weekend.
Nature there is gorgeous!
sky
I wish I could ski...
But I surely will go back there anytime!!!
Nutcracker and the New Year!
Hi Wingers! I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had much time to post, but we’ve been so busy with Nutcracker performances and getting ready for NY City Center. Miami City Ballet will make its first Manhattan debut at the NY City Center from January 21-25th.
The programs are as follows:
Program A:
Symphony In Three Movements
La Valse
In the Upper Room
Program B:
Square Dance
Rubies
Symphony in C
Hope to see you all there! I’ll write more soon!
