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MADISON KEESLER |
Photo Credits:
San Francisco Ballet School Students in Neumeier’s “Yondering” © Chris Hardy
Being the infamous procrastinator that I am I am finally going to write about the amazing experience I had in San Francisco during January. As many of you may know this is a huge year for San Francisco Ballet, it marks the 75th Anniversary of both the company and the school. So, it should be no surprise that the Gala, the kick-off of SFB’s 2008 season, was quite the event.
This Gala was especially different for the school because many of the dancers in the top levels got to perform. Not only did the school have this amazing opportunity and exposure at such a major event, but we all got the chance to work with John Neumeier for a couple of days before the gala. We performed his ballet, Yondering, which was created in 1996 for the Hamburg Ballet School and since has been performed by such schools as The National Ballet School and The Paris Opera Ballet School. This was the first time that any American school was privileged enough to perform this ballet, and I felt honored to be in the premier. I felt even more fortunate because I performed one of the lead parts for the girls.
I have always been a huge fan of Neumeier’s choreography, but somehow I learned to love it even more after working with him. Everything was so meaningful and every single movement had a very specific reason behind it. John Neumeier is a true artist. He understands everything that I believe ballet should represent. I could go on for days about all of this but I am going to talk about one incident that will always stick in my mind. At the end of the ballet there is a section that revolves around the death of a child. In order for us to get the correct feeling of what John wanted he started explaining what was going on. That sounds very logical and simple I guess, but it was so much more than that. While he was explaining these intense emotions and feelings to us he was speaking in a very matter of fact way. During this he paused for a second and while a single tear streamed down his face he continued. There was not one ounce of shame or embarrassment as he began to get so emotional and I admire that so much. Human emotion is a beautiful thing and I feel that too many people are constantly trying to hide those emotions. I respect this man so much and I hope to be able to work with him again one day soon.
From what I got to see in dress rehearsal the rest of Gala was mind-blowing, but there is no surprise there. If you want to read more about it here is just one review from the night… http://danceinsf.blogspot.com/2008/01/sf-ballet-gala-1232008.html
Here are some more pictures.
This one is my roommate and myself in the dressing room after the show.
Here is a picture of the cast of Yondering. Sorry the quality of the picture is so bad.
In the middle from left to right is Lola De Avila (associate director of the school), John Neumeier, and Jean-Yves Esquerre (assistant to the artistic director, as well as the trainee program supervisor)
