Archive for city tour
August 31, 2007 at 1:04 am · Filed under ballet, dance, tour, rehearsal, DAVID, cities, city tour, david hallberg, companies
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.
Recent Posts by david hallberg
March 16, 2007 at 3:40 am · Filed under tour, travel, vacation, dvd, DAVID, cities, opera house, city tour, opera houses, david hallberg
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| Posted by David Hallberg
Venturing to an unknown place is always intriguing for me.
Venturing to an unknown place in the Nordic part of the world in the dead of winter is another story.
And so explains my recent trip to Stockholm, Sweden to visit my close friend Serguei and his girlfriend. Serguei dances with the Royal Swedish Ballet in a beautiful Opera House…
We met oh so long ago at the Paris Opera School. I, a naive American on foreign ground, him, a second year student fluent in French. We have since kept in touch, and due to my recent tour to Paris and London, I decided I owed him a visit, after all, I have over half Swedish blood. So I finally went back to my roots and visited some family and brushed up on my Swedish… not really, but froze my culo off.
We had the best time, even though it snowed THE WHOLE TIME, and we couldn’t walk for more than twenty minutes intervals before warming up with some tea, or beer. Now I know why so many Swedes are alcoholics!
I brought bascially nothing by means of warm clothes so Serguei and I traded his ‘Russian’ fur hat off and on…
And as we were shopping one fine COLD day, I ran across this familiar show we all know as…. Vanner!!
Recent Posts by david hallberg
January 29, 2007 at 7:10 pm · Filed under backstage, ballet, tour, kennedy center, washington dc, DAVID, american ballet theater, cities, opera house, city tour
| | Posted by David
I always feel that when we go to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., it is one of the ideal theaters for dance.
Along with the plush red EVERYTHING in the Opera House, the stage, dressing rooms, and backstage area are very accommodating. The size of the Opera House is not as big as the Met, but just as beautiful, with the jeweled chandeliers hanging from the theater ceiling. It is always a pleasure to dance in the Opera House and the dancers from the company have a good feeling from the feel of the stage.
Although,
As big and intimidating as the Met seems to be, I feel most comfortable on that colossal stage (with 4500 people watching…)
Recent Posts by david hallberg
January 28, 2007 at 10:05 pm · Filed under architecture, CATHY, brazil, history, opera house, sao paulo, city tour
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| Posted by Cathy
Dear readers, I invite you all to join me on a tour around old São Paulo. As this big and cosmopolitan city has turned 453 years old on Janurary 25th, why not visit where it was born?
So, as I am sure most of you know, the Portuguese were the founders of the city, as they ‘’owned'’ Brazil at that time. Specifically, Portuguese priests, who came here to convert the Indians to Catholicism. Therefore, the first building in the whole city was a church and a school, that we call “Pátio do Colégio”, which translated means school’s yard, or something like that (unfortunately I don’t have pictures taken by myself, but you may open this link and see an official picture, found in the city hall’s website).
Of course, this is not the original building from 1554, it has been rebuilt in the past, but there you can still see some old walls preserved. Something curious about this place is that in the past you were able to see the sea, as it is located in a very high place (the city is over a mountain and therefore kind of far from the beach itself). Nowadays, unfortunately, that isn’t possible anymore, due to several reasons that you may guess (stuff built in front of it, pollution, etc etc).
Now that you know a little bit of the history (I’m not sure if you all already know this, but I’m a bit of a history geek, so I’m stopping here because otherwise I’d get very happy writing and this would turn into a monography 
).
Shall we see some of the beautiful old buildings then?
So, I got the subway in the station near my house, and got down right in front of the Mosteiro de São Bento, after around 15 minutes. This church and monastery was built in 1598 and it’s one of the oldest in the city. Its interior is VERY beautiful, too bad we aren’t allowed to take any pictures. Nowadays the monastery still works and they also have a university in which they offer theology courses.
Now, a block ahead we have an important place in the city. The very beginning of Avenida São Jõao (avenue).
This is Edifício Martinelli. By the time it was built (1922 to 1930), it was the biggest in the city. Nowadays this is not true, of course. A curiosity: the person who built it (the Martinelli guy, a rich italian), had a house on the top of it (a mansion, actually). No, not as a penthouse, but literally, a big house built over the “edificio'’. He did that so that he could prove it was safe.
New Yorkers, can you guess what the inspiration to this ‘’edificio'’ was?? Anyway, it’s not as big as the ‘’original‘’, but it also used to be one of the tallest of the city (it has 38 floors). A bank works there.
Looking at the opposite side of the same avenue, this pic shows the Post office. This building has just been restored. You can also see some old fashioned street lamps.
If we walk some more blocks… we end up in the very famous “Vale do Anhangabaú” , or “Anhangabau Valley”. See the thing with the green roof resembling a little bit L’opera de Paris?
Let’s take a closer look.
My favorite spot in the city! The THEATRO MUNICIPAL. Or, translated, Municipal Theater. Guess you can figure now why it’s my favorite!
And, if we take a walk inside of it… look who has been here!
Hey, Paloma! Too bad I was very young when it happened, it was in 1996.
Anyway let’s go back to the ‘’valley'’.
Here we are on the top of “Viaduto do Chá“, a bridge. Translating: “Bridge of tea”. And why is that? Well, back in the past, there used to be a plantation under it. And yeah, it was a tea one.
Now let’s look at the other side, opposite to the theater’s one:
That white short building is the city hall.
Wingers, our trip is over. I hope you have enjoyed it. This is just a small part, because I haven’t shown the cathedral yet, for example. But this will be some other time, another part of the ‘’tour”!
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