Archive for ballerina
March 2, 2008 at 9:57 am · Filed under dance, choreographers, EVAN MCKIE, stuttgart ballet, choreography, ballerina, marcia haydee
The Oscars turned eighty this past week and so did Georgette Tsiguirides. (above)
Georgette is an incredible woman who was chosen by John Cranko to assist him and notate while he was creating his masterpieces. She has given close to sixty years of her life to the Staatstheater Stuttgart (she was here at the Opera Ballet before Cranko had his breakthrough in the sixties even…) and she is still in the studio with us every day being deliciously bossy. We marvel at her showing the steps pretty close to ‘full-out’ and any male dancer who has worked with her in any of the world’s big ballet companies can attest to her love of being lifted. (It must be said; she is around five feet..give or take an inch and is a perfect candidate for such aerial activities!) Georgette likes to pay particular attention to detail and nuance in the choreography which brings us closer to re-creating the flow of movement that Cranko intended in his work.
I, myself, am indebted to Georgette so when the time came to celebrate her many years, I jumped on it! Along with two other Georgette enthusiasts, Stefan Stewart and Marijn Rademaker, I started to think about how to properly pay tribute to this awesome lady. The timing was hardly accomodating as we only had two days before boarding the plane to Hong Kong for Swan Lake and two days after returning to organize the event. In the end, however, we pulled a last-minute soiree together with various stars giving hommage through numbers or speeches and close to 150 people in attendance. I made a ’short’ film (ended up being 50 minutes…) where a Georgette-double/crank-yanker-style puppet finds that she’s missing a step from her notes and embarks on a quest through the theater…running into Cranko’s characters (from Onegin to Juliet) in various highlights from their respective stories…(all in drag of course…). Stefan Stewart created a big-bang Broadway-like finale with most of the company doing jazzified- versions of some of Cranko’s most signature steps and Marijn Rademaker stage-managed everything from beginning to end. I was a bit of a tyrant in planning the whole thing with friends and colleagues who really just needed sleep after a 13-hour flight back from China but I’m glad that I was (and I think they were too..) just to see the look on Georgette’s face during the whole thing. I remember Marcia Haydee once saying that if you put good energy out into the world, then it invariably finds it’s way back to you. Well, Georgette Tsinguirides is brimming with the stuff so if we were able to give even a tenth of it back to her as a company then I am satisfied.
Happy 80 Georgette! 
(Photo: Gundel Killian)
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Note: Georgette was one of the earliest candidates to become a ‘Fellow of The Institute of Choreology’
The FI Chor. is the highest award given by the Royal Academy of Dance (incorporating The Benesh Institute) in recognition of outstanding and exceptional service rendered over a substantial period of time to The Benesh Institute and Benesh Movement Notation.
Recent Posts by Evan McKie
January 28, 2008 at 2:49 pm · Filed under backstage, ballet, dance, injuries, choreographers, japan, EVAN MCKIE, the stuttgart Ballet, pina bausch, national ballet of canada, wingers, website, dancebloggers, opera house, opera houses, choreographer, issues, dacners, stuttgart ballet, back injury, choreography, bolshoi ballet, suttgart ballet, ballerina, marcia haydee, web, swan lake, injury, stuttgart, paris opera ballet, chirstopher wheeldon, john cranko, reid anderson, marcela goicoechea, luis ortigoza, balet de santiago, patrcio melo, debut, american balet theatre, opening night
( …in the world of Geraldine Georges. more at www.geraldinegeorges.be )
!
It’s been awhile!… I suppose it’s high time that I share a few minutes with the ever-popular Winger family!
Though I have become more of a ‘’distant guest contributor'’ here (not my words) due to an increasingly heavy workload, I still check in from time 2 time to see what has been going down. I have been able to meet a few other contributors in 2007 and especially enjoyed catching up with David H. after a decade, seeing Patricio dance with Luis and Marcela from South America and first meeting and then sharing jet-setting tips with Christopher in a german Christmas market only to realize who it actually was a day later!!!! I also want to congratulate Kristin on being an absolute role-model this past year while making difficult life choices. I wish you, Kristin, happiness in your new position at NYCB and am glad you still manage to make time for this site. There doesn’t seem to be any other cyber-place with such a variety of different artistic voices!
I was asked recently what some of my highs and lows of 2007 were…I thought it might be a good way to discuss what’s been going on with me since I last wrote.
Aside from the little problems that can arise in a world filled with blood, sweat and tears, I found myself confronted with some more threatening issues in 2007. I became sort of plagued by a variety of significant injuries that prevented me from doing things that I REALLY wanted to be a part of; like touring to Korea again with Sue Jin Kang, creating a new role in a Christian Spuck ballet, and just generally working on improving my abilities as a dancer. This is when I was forced to realize that ‘lows’ can turn into ‘highs’ if you come at problems from the right angle. Every dancer goes through a huge injury at some point and having the advice of friends and accomplished dancers like Bridget Breiner and Robert Tewsley to guide me through was invaluable. I launched into therapy that taught me new things about my body and I learned about the power of breathing among other things. I decided to have a GREAT time and so I spent days visiting friends from Berlin to Paris. I was happy to see wonderful art and theatre in both places and meet exciting new people. One night after seeing an ABT(on tour) show at the Theatre du Chatelet I found myself on the Avenue de L’Opera. I stood staring at the beautiful Opera Garnier where I had JUST danced one month before. Now I was an invalid dancer shivering outside in the rain wondering if I’d ever be onstage again. A friend called me and invited me to hear him DJ at Le ParisParis which is also on the Avenue de L’Opera so i turned my back on the Garnier and swore to myself that I would forget the stage if just for that night and have a good time. I did but it was difficult to remove my thoughts from the theatre. During the following months I started to let go a bit and noticed an immense improvement in my condition (two ruptured and herniated discs in my lower back). The time soon came to come back to work and I was ready to take on new challenges and more mentally/spiritually prepared to do so than I was before I left for therapy.
Because things move so quick here (the company has had about 70 shows since I penned my last post even…), I was back onstage within a 2 week time period. Being there this time was like a new experience though. I enjoyed myself more than ever because I could feel that through letting go of the ’silly stresses’ of dancing, I had matured as an artist…if even just a tiny bit. 
I won’t bore with other small details that followed this event but I will mention one thing that happened right around that time that I consider to be a highlight of my year: I was cast as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake!
I was going to dance my first principal dancer role with a great big company AND my partner would be doing it for the fist time aswell! What happened next was a combination of greatness and misfortune…
My Odette/Odile, Linda and I rehearsed and rehearsed. The company and staff were so behind us and I felt incredible chemistry with my partner. We were finally ready to dance our first show! We stepped onstage together and with adrenaline flowing heavily, we delivered to a hungry audience that was eager to witness our virgin attempt of the Tchaikovsky classic. Things went well and the excitement increased as we completed the 3rd act where the sorcerer’s evil swan daughter deceives the Prince and tricks him into marriage. It was time to ‘fall into’ the beauty of the 4th and final act that has a tragic love pas de deux that is exclusive to the Cranko version. We danced together for what was to be the Swan and the Prince’s final dance before she is turned back into a swan creature indefinitely and the Prince drowns trying to save her. I could feel her breath on my neck and the moment was magic when suddenly there was a funny sounding click and I realized that my partner’s shoulder had come dislocated in one of those backwards port de bras movements that distinguished the swan from all other classical roles. We exited the stage and she courageously held-in screams as the orchestra played on. Her shoulder wouldn’t pop back in and it was a devastating sight. I ran back onto stage and somehow managed to improvise with the corps de ballet of swan girls as if I was looking for the swan queen who I had lost somehow. 5 whole minutes played out as I performed the ballet til the end while wishing I could somehow help my beautiful partner who was by now being taken to the hospital.
Thankfully no lasting damage was done to Linda’s body but mentally it was difficult for everybody invloved to have been a part of such a beautiful process that was abrubtly cut short. The newspapers carried the story in their headlines and there was an influx of well-wishing notes. Linda still needed time to recover so I was scheduled to dance with Anna, another of my frequent partners. I was sad to see Linda watch as I rehearsed with another soloist just a day later but the show HAD to go on. Luckily Anna and I have chemistry that matches the intensity of Linda and mine together. This is rare (the two ladies share the same birthday too) but I was happy to be dancing with her and glad to not have to try and manufacture any feelings that should come naturally. Our show went over well and I felt the confidence that only a second show can bring. My ballerina told me she had never had so much fun and I believed her.
Since that time the direction was kind enough to give Linda a chance to redeem herself in the role and we danced the ballet, in it’s entirety, on a Christmas tour of Spain. Due to the incedible emotional journey that the ballet inspired for me, I’d definitely put Swan Lake at the top of my personal 2007 ‘crucial moments’ list.
4th Act embrace with Anna Osadcenko in ‘Swan Lake’ with the Stuttgart Ballet. Galina Mezentseva as Odette.
As Stuttgart’s autumn season brought scattered flurries to the Schlossgarten outside the theatre, indoors there was a blizzard of different ballets being performed. ‘The CRANKO festival’ was underway. Infact it was all planned far in advance to celebrate the company’s founder. We all danced a long list of roles that Cranko had created for his star-personalities of the time and many of them came back to help us get into each individual role. I danced Lenski in Onegin and special parts in ‘Brouillards’, ‘Jeu de Cartes’ , ‘Holberg Pas de Deux’ and ‘Initials’. Infact, I just debuted over this past weekend for the final two shows of ‘Initials’ in the hauntingly beautiful pas de deux created for Marcia Haydee and Heinz Claus from the 3rd movement. ‘Initials’ is one of those rare ballet’s that demands a large company fueled by a sense of camaraderie. Four principals represent four seasons and the music by Brahms is so powerful and melodic that it is hard for me to imagine it without steps attached. The choreography is difficult and there are alot of leading roles so that everyone has their own personal responsability to the ballet. We were all in it together and every single person felt like an important ingredient that was required to bring this ballet to fruition. The Cranko festival was a ‘high’ for me because it afforded me with the chance to dance roles that I loved while being a part of a 3 month long seminar-like expereince where I was able to focus solely on what made Cranko, the choreographer tick. I saw footage that I had never seen before, saw roles that had been lost in ballet history and celebrated (night after night) the ballets and steps that made the choreographer so famous. There were gala events where guests were invited to come dance all of the most popular Cranko roles. How lucky for them to be able to dance such roles on the stage where they were first received and how lucky for us, here, to be able to see how other artists interpret the roles that we know so well. (Alina Cojucaru as ‘Tatiana’ from ‘’Onegin'’ was one of my favourites.) I also thouroghly enjoyed getting to know Polina Semionova while dancing ‘Lenski’ with her ‘Tatiana’ in a special gala performance of ‘’Onegin'’.
1st time Siegfried in ‘’Swan Lake'’. Flirting with Katja Wünsche’s ‘Olga’ in ‘’Onegin'’
I’ll leave it at that for now as the new year is well underway now and I want to go out and accomplish brand-new things to reflect on at a later date. Altogether, I feel good about celebrating the ups and downs that my career as a ballet dancer brought me in 2007 and I want to make sure to thank the people who have celebrated WITH me! Whether it’s european balletomanes, my family and colleagues, or original Stuttgart Ballet members (antiques) who encouraged me to keep writing here at the WINGER (.. ..) I have recently been getting alot of attention in Japan aswell and am frankly quite baffled by it as I have only ever done ONE show there!..BUT I am always thrilled to receive the notes and extremely creative gifts from my friends in and around Tokyo. I don’t know what I did to deserve you but I am thankful and proud to have such a dance-educated group be interested in me! Thank you.
Let’s see what’s in store for ‘08. I promise to do my ballet-best !………
-Ev
Photos: The Stuttgart Ballet. (I am sorry I only have the few from recent while. The truth is I don’t have that many at my disposal!)
Artwork: a gift from the amazing Geraldine Georges
www.geraldinegeorges.be
Recent Posts by Evan McKie
August 21, 2007 at 4:31 am · Filed under ballet, dance, teaching, history, abt, teacher, ballerina, style, steps, baryshinkov, TAYLOR
Posted by Taylor Gordon
(I’m a little late with this post seeing as Gelsey’s guest teaching finished last week, but forgive me…things have been crazy.)
One of the best (and sometimes worst) things about the ballet world is that it is so small. Especially in American ballet history, it’s easy to trace a lineage of teachers and see where we fall in the “family tree” of ballet education. With so few professional dancers and even fewer notable teachers, ballet is one of the few art forms where we can truly learn from the legends in a personal classroom setting.
I’m writing about this because recently Gelsey Kirkland spent 3 weeks teaching open classes at Steps on Broadway. Regarded as one of ABT’s finest dancers while under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov, she has been out of the limelight until recently. This past spring she helped to restage The Sleeping Beauty for ABT and also performed the role of Carabosse in the production.
And from July 30-August 17 she taught Professional Advanced level open ballet as a substitute for her mentor, David Howard.
First of all, it is ironic that she was teaching in the place of her former teacher, a legend in his own right. But besides that I think it’s wonderful that she, and many other brilliant dancers and coaches, dedicate their post-performing careers to passing on the traditions of ballet. It’s nice that there are well-trained dance educators in regional areas to provide solid training to aspiring dancers, but there is something truly special about learning from ballet “stars,” if you will.
What struck me most in Gelsey’s class was her unbelievable, purely classical porte de bras. Every combination she demonstrated was mesmerizing because of her upper body. She spoke a lot about the focal points a dancer should use, referring to the level of the eyes going up to the balcony, straight ahead, or into the orchestra pit, and emphasized their use even during barre exercises.
Though she taught in a more strictly classical style than I am used to, she wasn’t overly pushing for the class to maintain her specifications. Her hard-to-work-with reputation preceded her, but she was nice and a very effective teacher! I found myself deliberately trying to recreate the shapes she made with her upper body, no matter how unnatural they felt to me. I guess it’s something you learn by osmosis after a while: there are some things in ballet that just can’t be taught, but hopefully after observing that “special something” for a while it will rub off and in sink in to your own technique.
I was only able to take her open class twice, but I’ve found this to be true with other “legends” with whom I’ve worked. Cynthia Gregory, another ABT prima ballerina, was beautiful in her porte de bras as well when she set the 2nd Act of her Swan Lake on us at Ballet Academy East. Nikolaj Hubbe set a section of Bournonville’s Napoli on us as well, and from him I took away a strong sense of character in the Danish style. Both of them worked with us over a year ago, but it is their unique outstanding characteristics that keep the lessons I learned from each clear in my mind. Another, more recent experience was with Christopher D’Amboise, who gave me a new understanding of how to interpret movement and “make it your own.”
What is significant about Gelsey as compared to these others is that she taught open class, meaning that basically anybody could take it (though it was advanced level). That means that even those who are no longer in a pre-professional school with guest and master teachers could still have such an important experience. I think it’s so great that so many people could benefit from her wisdom in her class over the 3 weeks, and I hope she and other respected “stars” continue to offer the wider ballet community that opportunity!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
May 16, 2007 at 1:48 pm · Filed under ballet, gala, american ballet theater, dancewear, abt, performance, david hallberg, ballerina, miki orihara, MIKI
Posted by Miki Orihara
On May 14th, Monday was the Opening Gala for American Ballet Theater for this season.
Started at 6:30 PM, it is a bit early for the performance but think about the Gala Party after tha , I understand. They want to drink, eat and dance. but it is still Monday…
Curtain opens!!!
Started with the white, illusion of La Bayadère Act II excerpts.
The Sleeping Beauty excerpts:Lilac Fairy Variation by Michele Wiles, Rose Adagio by Veronika Part and 4 men, Aurora Variation by Diana Vishneva, Grand Pas de Deux by Irina Dvorovenko and Mixim Beloserkovsky
Lady’s Choice by Stella Abrera and Sascha Radetsy accompanied by Lang Lang
Piece d’OccasionLang Lang
Romeo & Juliet Balcony Pas de Duex by Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo
Othello Act III Pas de Duex by Alessandra Ferri and Marcelo Gomes
Swan Lake Act III(Black Swan) Pas de Duex by Nina Ananiashvili and Angel Corella
Manon Act I Pas de Duex by Julie Kent and Jose Manuel Carreño
La Bayadère Act I excerpts, temple Pas de Duex by Paloma Herrera and David Hallberg, Gamzatti Pas d’action Variation and Coda by Gillian Murphy, and Solor Pas D’Action Variation by Ethan Stiefel
This is the curtain call in the end.
I really enjoyed the whole evening. Lang Lang played beautifully. His fingers are like a snake on the keys. Cornejo is now mature, dancing beautifully. Gomes’s Othello was nice with mascular presence. “Black Swan” Pas de Duex was exciting. I was sorry about Stiefel’s knee, I hear he has some problems but did not show. And Murphy’s strong technique showed ‘you can trust your technique and forget about technique’ that she nailed all of it.
I attended this year’s Yourth America Grand Prix’s Gala in which I felt all the eyes are on how much you can show (how much you can jump, turn, get your leg up… and so on except for a few dances.) And to see this ABT gala, it was mature and no nervousness or worry. I think I will go next year’s gala too.
Recent Posts by miki orihara
April 19, 2007 at 7:32 pm · Filed under friends, germany, EVAN MCKIE, stuttgart ballet, sue jin kang, ballerina, kammertänzern, south korea
…as Tatiana in ‘’Onegin'’.
The Stuttgart Ballet has alot of beautiful girls on it’s roster. However, we all know that it is rare when a dancer is able to combine talent, drive, intelligence and instinct along with that beauty to create an outstanding stage career. Sue Jin Kang has done just that.(and then some…)
I have been absolutely captivated by Sue Jin’s artistry since her performance in ‘The Lady of the Camellias’ held me ,and most likely the rest of the audience, spellbound about 6 years ago when i had just come to Europe to become a student of the John Cranko School. Since joining the company, I have become quite close with Sue Jin and still, everytime I see her am struck by her serene beauty. Whenever I mention this to her she blushes and sort of just shrugs in disbelief. She is certainly the most accomplished ballerina in the company at the moment and has worked with countless major choreographers of our generation since starting her twenty year career here. She is a star of phenomenal proportion in her native South Korea aswell(tabloid-worthy!) yet she manages to remain completely humble about it all.
I think she is an exemplary figure at our theater which is why I wanted to share the exciting fact that she has just been named ‘Kammertänzerin’ on behalf of the country of Germany. ‘Kammer’ dancer is a title that is hardly ever reached in German theater and is an honour that is exclusive to Germany. It is really like a ‘lifetime achievement’ recognition (a dancer’s life ‘onstage’ usually occurring before the age of 40…) The acknowledgement is more common (though still incredible) amid the Opera crowd but is hardly ever given to a dancer. I believe there are under 10 Kammertänzern in existence and the rank can only be given by the German government after each big theater recommends various candidates. The last time I saw someone receive the title was around that time when I first got to see Sue in ‘Lady of the Camellias’ over five years ago. The title that year went to Tamas Detrich (now our assistant Ballet director) after a memorable performance of ‘Onegin’ with Susan Jaffe. Needless to say, such an acheivement is not something that happens every day… or even every year.
Sue Jin will be performing the role of ‘Juliet’ this Saturday in a very special performance. One that I think is sure to merit an upcoming post…
…as Maurgerite in ‘’Die Kameliendame'’.
Sue Jin Kang’s brief biography may be found here…
http://www.ballerinagallery.com/kang.htm
Recent Posts by Evan McKie
