Oftentimes, during some of my less interesting English classes at Amherst, I’d skip out under the pretense of needing a ‘break.’Being the small school that Amherst is, it would have been conspicuously rude of me to have actually left Johnson Chapel, a second home to me and most of my fellow English majors during our time at school. So, I’d validate my excuse by truly popping into the loo (pictured above) underneath the stairs. I love how it so truly manifests what it is to be part of the Amherst community–to express yourself in whatever creative (and peculiar) means you’d like.(It’s actually a very creepy experience to use this toilet, but that doesn’t make me appreciate it any less! )
Ok, so this video was actually filmed during last season, in fact, it was in the middle of a performance during intermission after I had performed Balachine’s “Raymonda Variations” (I’m still in costume) and going into Anthony Tudor’s “Lilac Garden”. My fellow dancer Daniel Baker and I made up this um… “piece”… Enjoy.
After a 12 hour delay in New York, taking off to Buenos Aires, I have finally arrived and started a two week tour with the Teatro Colon and Paloma Herrera. Due to a massive renovation of the Colon in Buenos Aires, the company is doing a tour of the ‘other’ major cities in Argentina. This being my first time to the country, I will have first hand experience at real Argentinian flair, not just the BA side of things. Comparable to someone visiting NYC and not other cities in America. A different world this presents.
Not having much rehearsal time with the company, just a small dress rehearsal, we came into our first city, Rosario, for just one show. Dancing with Paloma is fun but doing so in her own country, where she is very well known, is another ball game. The audiences love her and they have that latin warmth.
Our first theatre as you can see was gorgeous (such a small pic), and we are now in Cordoba, where we are performing in a stadium… think sports. I’m assuming that something like this quite common here, as I have heard of Julio Bocca performing in stadiums all the time.
The dancers in the company have been so nice and took me out for Argentinian Asado, which is MEAT MEAT MEAT. Amazing, to tell you the truth. I have found the company, and all the dancers and staff to be overly warm and welcoming, which can be tough in the dance world, not to name any names.
So here I am, culture shock again, like Japan last year! More to come.
So I just wanted to post an entry in which I could just blog a bit about my first-year experience with NYCB. It turned out to be an experience jam-packed with excitement, stimulation, diligence, comradery, revelation, and growth (now I understand why they give us a whole year as apprentices—there is so much to absorb and adapt to).
Towards the end of my term as an apprentice, I was asked to write an article (that was eventually published in the Saratogian Newspaper) describing the whole experience. In the article, I focused particularly on how intense it is to get thrown into a ballet at the last minute (which happens very often at NYCB ). Thought I might share my words with you…
On My Toes
Thoughts And Encounters of a Dancer’s First Year with City Ballet
In the blink of an eye, everything can change for a dancer in the New York City Ballet. This is the most valuable perspective that I have learned—through raw experience—from my first year as an apprentice.
After weeks of endless understudying that deceivingly appeared to have no end or promise, I suddenly was catapulted into three ballets (Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Jeu De Cartes, and the Nightingale and the Rose) within three days, as a result of a few male dancers having to take time off due to injuries.
City Ballet puts on such a wide variety of ballets on a tight, back-to-back basis in one of the most demanding markets on the planet. Because of this, I began to realize that their need for understudies to willfully, systematically, and swiftly move into ballets to replace those who get injured is critical. This process is quite different compared to that of the School of American Ballet (SAB), where I, as well as 92% of the dancers that comprise City Ballet, come from.
At SAB, months of rehearsing are spent on just a few ballets for the end-of-the-year Workshop Performance. Such a performance is built brick-by-brick, step-by-step, with everything gradually and methodically staged in order to guarantee a polished performance. In City Ballet, while the same end-result is a foregone conclusion, a ballet can be rehearsed as little as a few times over a couple of days before being performed.
I was therefore rehearsed once or twice per ballet before being “thrown on,” and was expected nothing short of perfection when it came to retaining the choreography, remembering all the counts, and dancing with meticulous musicality.
In my attempt to be true to the ballet works and to come through for the Company, I quickly headed down to the video room, where dancers are able to watch past videos of ballets to assist them with learning those ballets.
After hours in the video room, more hours of constantly reviewing counts in my head, and the few rehearsals the company was able to give me on the short notice, I was able to dance the 3 ballets to City Ballet standards.
Under pressured circumstances like these, City Ballet becomes a team. Everyone involved seems to support each other when it comes to staging and producing each ballet. The ballet masters are easily accessible for last minute questions regarding the counts or the choreography. In addition, fellow dancers (especially the more senior ones, who somehow are able to perform as if they could walk on water) provide the support and guidance needed to help out the new kids on the block, like myself. I found this team-based interaction fundamental. This is what keeps City Ballet delivering on a high-octane level.
With these experiences and newly drawn understandings, I find that it is important for me, as a dancer with New York City Ballet, to always wake up each day with a blank slate of expectation. I’ve found that there are no speed limits on the road to excellence, meaning that it presents me with insurmountable opportunities. As a result, no ballet detail is too small to focus on and no performance is too big to attempt.
Mom and I are on the Tarmac waiting to take off for our three night trip to the blue lagoon in Iceland. They said it will be an hour before we can take off. Boo. Well, it will be nice to hit the hot< water after all the time in the little airplane seat. Can’t wait!
I bought these socks a few years ago. At the time, they were meant to lend a (visual) show of support for a good friend of mine who was having a difficult time coming out.
Now, they serve as some of my favourite warmers. There’s something irresistibly charming and cheerful about the colours and the poms at the heels…
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