Just want to share with all of you our feature in the South Magazine’s Dec/Jan issue. You have to buy the magazine to get the whole article, but here is their teaser.
Swingin’ at Club Sweets
By Lindsey Eibergen Dec/Jan 2007-2008
Slicing yourself a piece of cake for a show that promises to be both the bee’s knees and the cat’s meow? If you’re a little lost in the lingo then brace yourself for a new twist on a time-tested holiday classic. The Studio, Savannah’s premier dance school, presents “Swinging at Club Sweets” an inventive flapper-era rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite.”
Studio director and lead choreographer Veronica Moretti Niebuhr explains her inspiration for the festive parody. “When I opened the school I wanted to do a December performance, and I noticed that there were about 5 or 6 Nutcrackers playing around town,” she says. “I just thought we needed something fresh that hadn’t been done before. I also wanted to showcase the incredible local talents that we have here in Savannah.”
This is something that has been lying around for a while.
Just a sketch.
Not too sure what to do with it.
This is how i work.
I like to get out an initial phrase that is very basic in structure. This way i will be able to retain the info while thinking about how to let the movement evolve organically. Watching the dancers interpretation of the phrase i am able to see other moments that i can later detail. That is why i call this phase a “Sketch”. The movement right now is in its embryotic phase. Who knows what it will grow up to be?(Don’t get me wrong. I have a pretty good idea)
dancer: Dana Genshaft.
HAPPY BELATED BDAY DANA!!!
ps. The game of “SKATE” got postponed until this Sunday. Lucky me…….?
As the City Center season winded down and ABT went on a week tour to Berkeley, CA, bringing some of the rep. that we did in NYC, the dancers then embarked on a four week lay off. My travels brought me all over the country, and then to Europe for a week of preparations for an upcoming debut.
The week in Berkeley was filled not only with performing repetoire that I enjoy very much, Ballo Della Regina and Benjamin Millepied’s From Here on Out, but also all the advantages that Northern California can bring. I had a wonderful meal at Chez Panisse, hailed as one of the best restaurants in the country, and soaked up some great art, the photography especially interesting, at San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA).
Outside my house, Camelback Mountain
With the tour finished and with the reason that I don’t get home to Phoenix as often as I would like, I spent a quick 48 hours being pampered by the ‘rents’ as only ‘rents’ could do. But most importantly, seeing my BEAUTIFUL GOLDENS, as I have shared with you in past enteries.
On to Minneapolis, where I spent another 48 hours gawking at the architecturally stunning Walker Art Center, newly redone by Herzog and De Meuron, the same architects that completed the refurbishment of the De Young Museum in San Fran, as Sloan pointed out on a recent visit. I had a much anticipated meeting with a very well respected artist that might possibly turn into a future project. We shall see…
The Opera House in Amsterdam
I only stopped over in New York, to do a little laundry and re pack my bags, to go onto Amsterdam for a week. Guillaume Graffin, a former Paris Opera trained and 17 year principal/ballet master with ABT, moved to Amsterdam 2 years ago and joined the Dutch National Ballet as ballet master. When he was working over at ABT, we formed a certain bond in the studio… he having coached me in my first full length ballet with the company, Swan Lake. I have always wanted to go over there and work with him, continuing my desire to learn from him as an artist, and I finally had the free time to do so. I am going to debut Giselle in the spring, with none other than Stella Abrera, GORGEOUS dancer with the company, dancing the lead. One of Guillaume’s great roles was Albrecht in Giselle, and I found the opportunity of him passing on his expertise to a fresh Albrecht something that I couldn’t pass up.
Guillaume in Giselle
The week was an intense one, mainly just talking about the character of Albrecht, and dissecting what to portray through out the story. Guillaume is such an intuitive artist, that I can only try and absorb what he tells me ‘he did’ or chose ‘not to do’ when he was dancing the role. It will take much more preparation for the actual debut but it was really nice to break the ice with someone I respect so much.
And that leads me here… back home, working on more preparations for the Met Season, and at my computer, finally with internet service and The WInger.
With Roberta Marquez.
In Ivan Nagy´s Giselle.
As Don Jose in Carmen.
In last scene in Marcia Haydée´s Carmen, this coreography is great, each caracter is just perfect, was magic this work with Marcia.
Here in Manon, how wonderful, McMillan genius.
In Cranko´s Romeo and Juliet rehearsal, Another Big Genius, I love his ballets.
In Jaime Pinto´s Don Quixote.
In Marcia Haydée´s Slepping Beauty.
In Tetley´s Le Sacre du Printemps rehearsal.
In Don Quixote.
In Romeo rehearsal with Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun , Georgette Tsinguirides, Georgette Farias and Pablo Aharonian.
Luis Ortigoza Working in His Bayadere version, with Stuttgart guest dancer Alexander Zaitsev.
In this beautiful Balanchine ballet, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.
In Marcia Haydée´s Carmen, This is very passion and erotic pas de deux.
