San Francisco Ballet School’s 2009 Student Showcase
Tonight San Francisco Ballet School with perform the first of three shows for the 2009 Student Showcase. If you are anywhere near the bay area I urge you go! All performances will be at the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Please visit the San Francisco Ballet Website for more information.
SF Ballet School Students in Minkus Suite at the 2008 Student Showcase (© Erik Tomasson)
Playing For Change - Can art really change the world?
I’ve just stumbled upon an absolutely wonderful website for a movement called “Playing for Change”. The idea of the movement is simple, yet powerful.
“Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.”
As I watched their videos it reminded me how powerful the arts can be. One of the musicians speaks about how music can be a time for meditation and peace, I think it is exactly the same with dance. In today’s world it is easy to become lost in frivolous and unnecessary things, but it truly is time for change. I have been doing some studying of the teachings by Eckhart Tolle, of Buddhism, and at the moment I’m reading a book by the current Dalai Lama. I have finally felt that peace has entered my life and every moment is truly a gift. Dance is my form of meditation and through it I have found my own peace. The world around us seems to be filled with things that are falling apart, everything from our economy to the planet we live on. These outer problems are only a reflection of the inner conflicts so many of us feel day to day, but there is a way to find enlightenment and peace. During these times we must not forget how extremely powerful the arts can be to the human race. Dance, music, and many other art forms can bring a stillness and peace where we would least expect it. We can’t underestimate the importance and power of the arts at anytime, but especially not during the hard times. The way this movement is using music is a reminder that through art we all have the power to unite and spread peace.
http://www.playingforchange.com/
Hamburg Ballet 2009/2010
Hamburg Ballet is approaching it’s last two and a half months before the 08/09 season is over. This year has been filled with so many wonderful experiences and I can’t believe how quickly it all passed by.
John has a beautiful way of tying his season together and the theme for next season will be “Floating World”. The paragraph below was taken from the Hamburg Ballet Website and gives a little more detail on this theme.
It is with great delight that I welcome you to the various exciting highlights of our next season 2009/2010. The theme of the season is “Floating World” - symbolizing the bridging of cultures and emotions. This motto is also the title of the second premiere. Here “Floating World” is reminiscent of Japanese art. This evening presents three choreographies inspired by the traditions of No and Kabuki theatre. The first premiere “Orpheus” approaches the inner fight between work and intention of this famous figure of antique mythology. Our revivals are similarly moving: “Streetcar named Desire” describes a story of violence, insensibility and vulgar behaviour whereas “Illusions – like Swan Lake” oscillates between reality and illusion.
Season 2009/2010 Here you can find a complete list of what next season holds for this beautiful company.
Want your spring clean to really be green?
(Sorry for the cheesy title, I just couldn’t resist.)
The beautiful weather here in Hamburg has led me to do a little spring cleaning around my apartment. I always hate using harsh chemicals around my home, especially in the kitchen, so I decided to do a little research.
Which one of these would you rather spread around your kitchen counters?…
I found a website with some great instructions on how to make your own cleaning products! By using natural products for cleaning you will not only save money, you will help out the world by being a little bit more “green”.
Check out the website.
Happy green cleaning!
Hamburg Revives “Sylvia”
At Hamburg Ballet
April 25, 28 and 30
May 6 and 7, 2009
July 4, 2009
7.30 PM
First performed in 1876, it broke with romantic ballet and the ethereal image of the fairy or sylphide. However my interest in “Sylvia” lies less in its historical and cultural aspects and original choreography than in its music. The score is full of poetry and sensuality. Danced sequences depicting an Amazon at that fragile moment between adolescence and womanhood. Torn between strength and vulnerability, she has difficulty in finding a balance between aggressiveness and tenderness, between denial and self abandon, and only succeeds in discovering true love with the awakening of her own sensuality.
The characters are pure and eternal, and use a rich and bright language. The ballet is fresh, showing invention and originality, appears to be one of the big successes of the American choreographer.
-Review by Le Figaro
Find out more at Hamburg Ballet’s website
San Francisco Ballet Announces 2010 Repertory Season
I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that San Francisco Ballet has officially announced it’s 2010 Season, and it is a very exciting one.
The following is an excerpt from the San Francisco Ballet website.
SAN FRANCISCO BALLET ANNOUNCES 2010 REPERTORY SEASON
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE THE UNITED STATES PREMIERE OF NEUMEIER’S THE LITTLE MERMAID; WORLD PREMIERES BY POSSOKHOV, WHEELDON, AND ZANELLA; AND TOMASSON’S FULL-LENGTH CLASSICS SWAN LAKE AND ROMEO & JULIET
2010 Marks the 25th Anniversary of Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson’s Tenure with San Francisco Ballet
Nijinsky
Tomorrow the Hamburg Ballet will perform another one of John Neumeier’s masterpieces, Nijinsky. Even though we put the ballet together in an extremely short time, four days, it has definitely been a special ballet to learn.
The Hamburg Ballet in John Neumeier’s Nijinsky
Click on the above link to see a short video clip from this stunning ballet. (It will open in a new window)
Jirí Bubenícek and Ensemble
Otto Bubenícek and Ivan Urban
Ivan Urban and Jirí Bubenícek
Otto Bubenícek and Anna Polikarpova
Otto Bubenícek, Jirí Bubenícek, Anna Polikarpova
Otto Bubenícek and Anna Polikarpova
Jirí Bubenícek and Yukichi Hattori
Jirí Bubenícek, Anna Polikarpova, and Otto Bubenícek
Jirí Bubenícek and Ensemble
Jirí Bubenícek
Jirí Bubenícek, Yukichi Hattori, and Ensemble
Jirí Bubenícek
All Photos © Holger Badekow
The following was taken from the information section of the Hamburg Ballet’s website, www.hamburgballett.de <- clicking here will open a new window <-
This ballet is based on the life and legend of one of the most exceptional artists of our century: Vaslav Nijinsky. As a dancer, Nijinsky experienced popularity, publicity and fame comparable only to that of Rudolf Nurejev during his times. It was as a choreographer however that Nijinsky established a new direction - a dance vision pointing the way towards modern choreography.
The character and destiny of Nijinsky inspired John Neumeier once before to create a short ballet: “Vaslav” in 1979. In 2000, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Polish-Russian dancer’s death, Neumeier celebrates Nijinsky and dedicates the full-length ballet to this extraordinary artist and mysterious human being.
“Nijinsky” is the title of this “choreographic approach” to a dance phenomenon that has been part of Neumeier’s life ever since the beginning of his career.
During his approximately ten years as a dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky set a new standard both technically and expressively, while in his choreographic work he pointed the way towards modern dance. His personal fate and mental illness that forced him to spend the last 30 years of his life in various asylums and in the keeping of his wife gave his short artistic career an even more awe-inspiring and sensational quality.
All three aspects - the dancer, the choreographer and the person Nijinsky - form the starting point for John Neumeier’s latest creation. Neumeier, who as early as 1979 presented a short ballet “Vaslaw”, is regarded as one of the leading Nijinsky experts worldwide. Nevertheless, it was not without reluctance that he took up the task of honouring through dance a dance legend: “In creating a work about a historical person, what aspect should we concentrate on? Who was he truly: The man? The artist? Which witness, what information can we trust, which theories should one follow? What point of view can we take towards the complex puzzle Nijinsky? An instinctive choice must be made…”
Two major works form the musical basis of the ballet: Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic poem “Scheherazade”, and the 11th Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich, subtitled “The year 1905″. Furthermore, there are two short piano pieces, used for the prologue - Chopin’s C minor prélude and “Carnaval” by Schumann - as well as the adagio movement from Shostakovich’s sonata for viola and piano, his last work.
“Nijinsky” is not a biographical ballet: “A ballet can never be a documentary”, Neumeier says. “It is basically a biography of the soul, a biography of feelings and sensations. Perhaps, a particular situation, historical or imagined, might be suggested. But this is not a narrative ballet. Perhaps it’s not even one single complete ballet, but a series of choreographic approaches to the enormous theme: Nijinsky. In the end, it’s important that it is a ballet, a work of art in itself, understandable, enjoyable, and moving - without having read a single word about Nijinsky.”
The set and costumes have been designed by John Neumeier. To show various aspects of the person and performer Nijinsky, he has chosen to have several dancers represent fragments of Nijinsky’s persona.
The ballet begins in a reconstruction of the “Festsaal” in the Suvretta-Haus, a hotel in St-Moritz, the room of Nijinsky’s last performance as a dancer: it is a moment of transition, a place of memory and premonition.
Synopsis -
On January 19, 1919
at five o’clock in the afternoon in a ballroom of the Suvretta House Hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Vaslav Nijinsky danced publicly for the last time. He called this performance his “Wedding with God”.My ballet “Nijinsky” begins with a realistic recreation of this situation. The choreography which follows, however, visualizes his thoughts, memories and hallucinations during this last performance.
PART I
Prompted by the imagined appearance of his former mentor, impresario and lover, Serge de Diaghilev, Nijinsky recalls images of his sensational career with the Ballets Russes.Dancers, as aspects of his personality, perform fragments from his most famous roles.
“Harlequin”, the Poet in “Les Sylphides”, the Golden Slave in “Sheherazade” and the “Spectre de la rose” merge and mingle with characters from his private life.His Sister Bronislava,later a choreographer, his older Brother Stanislav, trained also to be a dancer - but marked from childhood by signs of madness, and his Mother, the dancer Eleonora Bereda, who along with his Father Thomas were the children’s first teachers, also appear in his dreamlike fantasy.
In another scene of the ballet, Nijinsky remembers his search for a new choreographic language. His experiments with movement result in his own original ballets “L’Après-midi d’un Faune”, “Jeux”, “Le Sacre du printemps” and later “Till Eulenspiegel”.
A woman in red, Romola de Pulsky who will later become Nijinsky’s wife, criss-crosses his confused recollections.
He relives their first encounter on a ship to South America and their abrupt marriage - an event causing the ultimate break with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes.PART II
Nijinsky’s madness drives him more and more inside himself.
Memories of Childhood, Family, School, and the Mariinsky Theatre blend with nightmare visions of World War I - and his wife’s infidelity.The scandalous premiere of his ballet “Le Sacre de printemps” appears juxtaposed with the brutality of World War I and his brother Stanislav’s death.
Romola is with him through difficult and bad times.
In Nijinsky’s eyes, it is the world around him - not “Nijinsky” that has gone mad…
The Suvretta House performance and my ballet end with Nijinsky’s last dance - the War.
J.N.
Nutcracker comes to an end…
Yesterday Hamburg Ballet performed their last Nutcracker so I thought I would simply post some of my favorite pictures from the day. Enjoy!
Backstage before first act.
Getting into character...Grandmother and the drunk.
Backstage before second act as "Esmerelda".
After the last show
Der Nussknacker
Hélène Bouchet - All Photos © Holger Badekow
Laura Cazzaniga, Silvia Azzoni, Otto Bubenícek, and Ensemble - Photos © Holger Badekow
Heather Jurgensen and Otto Bubenícek - Photos © Holger Badekow
Lloyd Riggins and Hélène Bouchet - All Photos © Holger Badekow
Lloyd Riggins, Hélène Bouchet, Jirí Bubenícek, Barbora Kohoutková, and Ensemble - All Photos © Holger Badekow
Last night I performed my first Nussknacker! I have performed many Nutcrackers in my life but last night I performed my first Nutcracker with the Hamburg Ballet. John Neuemeier’s version of Nutcracker isn’t the typical Nutcracker story so it was refreshing to experience this Christmas time tradition in a slightly different light. I have been casted in a few parts including Marie’s friends in the first act, one of the dancers during the rehearsal sectoin, flower waltz in second act, as well as a part called Esmeralda in the second act. I was lucky enough to be first cast of Esmeralda so then during second cast I will perform flower waltz. I am so grateful for so many wonderful opportunities to dance!
The next performance of Nutcracker is on the 28th of December so I will post some backstage pictures soon!
Below I have posted the description of John Neumeier’s “The Nutcracker” which was taken from the Hamburg Ballet website. Click here for a short video that is also from the Hamburg Ballet website Hamburg Ballet\’s \”The Nutcracker\”
“It has become a tradition for ballet companies all over the world to perform Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” at Christmas time. John Neumeier’s version of “The Nutcracker”, however, avoids direct reference to Christmas. In his ballet, the central character Marie celebrates her twelfth birthday and is drawn by the mysterious ballet master Drosselmeier into the fascinating world of dance … It is, in fact, a ballet about ballet itself.
Synopsis
Act 1
Scene 1
Marie’s Birthday
Marie has turned twelve, an age at which little girls stop playing with dolls. Her brother Fritz is a cadet and has invited his regimental comrades to the birthday party being held in her honor in their parents’, Consul and Mrs. Stahlbaum’s home. Marie’s grandparents are also there, as are two aunts, one of them tipsy (the General’s wife) and the other one art-conscious. Louise, Marie’s sister and a ballerina at the Court Theater, has come with the ballet master Drosselmeier. Günther, one of Fritz’s friends, is the spokesman for his fellow cadets, and in their name makes Marie a present of a Nutcracker. Drosselmeier the ballet master gives her a pair of silk ballet shoes. Marie is fascinated by Drosselmeier but falls in love, as little girls will, with the handsome cadet Günther.
Scene 2
Marie’s Dream -The Rehearsal
When the party guests have left, Marie returns carrying her Nutcracker and puts on her ballet shoes. In her dream, a vision of Drosselmeier startles her, but when he introduces her to the strange, magical backstage world of the theater, she is entranced by her surroundings. The meeting with Günther reoccurs in her dream. She sees him again but now as a soloist in the Court Theater ballet ensemble. With him she dances for the first time on point, and then takes part in the general rehearsal.
Act 2
Scene 3
Marie’s Dream -The Performance
Drosselmeier shows Marie how the production of a ballet is put together. The empty stage is transformed into a setting in which every preparation is being made for the following performance. Drosselmeier demonstrates a variety of Divertissements and occasionally dances in them himself.
First, a “Living Garden”, then “The Beautiful Girl from Granada”, “The Pharao’s Daughter”, “Esmeralda and the Clowns”, “The Chinese Bird”, Pas de Quatre, Variations for the Men, a Gigue, and “The Dancing Lieutenants”.
In the Grand Pas de deux Louise and Günther dance together. But after the turbulent “Ballabile” Finale, the magical world of the theater disappears. Marie is awakened by her mother and sadly takes leave of her dreamworld.”
A Wonderful Thing
I am a firm believer that we attract and control everything within our lives.
A friend of mine from Central Pennsylviania Youth Ballet sent me an e-mail explaining how one of his friends has started a dream. Her dream is a “29-Day giving Challenge”. I think it is a wonderful idea, so I wanted to help spread the word.
Her website is www.29gifts.org and there is a video on the opening page that explains everything. I have also attached that video below…
click here to view the video on youtube
“Why? Because to see the world change, we have to do something to change the world. Plus, the best way to attract abundance into your life is to be in a perpetual state of giving and gratitude. Be an important part of the global giving movement that inspires more generosity on our planet.” - from www.29gifts.org
