Archive for class
January 15, 2008 at 1:55 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, class, VERONICA, the STUDIO
The second day of the workshop the dancers came in very focused and ready to work. It was like everything they learned on Saturday sunk in overnight. I had asked Finis to work on turns with them, so after barre they worked on them for about an hour. They also spent an hour on jumps and an hour for pointe-revisiting the turns they worked on before. Finis has a way of explaining things that is really logical-you could see the lightbulbs popping up over their heads all day. I’m really glad I was able to get him to come to Savannah and the kids are already asking when he is coming back.
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
January 14, 2008 at 7:31 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, class, VERONICA, the STUDIO, marley
Well I have been busy as usual….This weekend we had the honor of having Finis Jhung with us. He gave a 2 day 8 hour workshop for my students. It was a very special weekend! Finis is an unorthodox teacher as many of you may know. He has a unique way of getting his point across. The first day it took a bit for the kids to open up to it, but by the second day it was like everything he said started to sink in. Some of the students were even executing steps that they had trouble with before. It was an amazing experience that i am sure they will remember for a long long time.
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
November 6, 2007 at 5:03 am · Filed under dance, class, writing, dancewebsites, dancebloggers, costume, schoool, TAYLOR, communications
Hey everyone,
Wow, midterms and rehearsals have had me going crazy lately! Things are calming down a bit for the moment, but I have lots to share!
To start, I just HAD to post these pictures from our Halloween class. Every Halloween I can remember I’ve been in class or rehearsal, and we always dress up and attempt to have a serious class — but it always ends up being somewhat less than the normal plies and pirouettes and more of a blast of fun! This year was particularly amusing…I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and 2 of my friends were the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. I made a yellow brick road and actually danced on it at barre! What fun 
(note the yellow brick road haha)
Next order of business: The November issue of our college paper, The Monitor (where I’m the Features Editor), is now online. Lots of work went into it…click and go to pages 10-11 for my two articles. One is a set of interviews I did with student choreographers in the Dance Department preparing for a show next week. It was so interesting to hear their processes of working together with other students. Extended interviews here.
Also of note is that I’m starting to crack down and write my senior thesis. As I might have mentioned, our assignment as Communication Arts majors is to consider some aspect of new media and relate it to how it’s changing society.
Being the ballet dork that I am, I am focusing on dance journalism/criticism/discourse and the effect that the internet is having on it - basically the shift that’s going on from print to online dance writing (this website, The Winger, as an example!).
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts about this and how you think blogs, etc are changing the scope of communication about dance. Below is part of my proposal for my thesis - just a basic outline. Any comments or input would be greatly appreciated!—
Dance Journalism and Criticism in New Media
For my paper I would like to explore the changes that the internet and new media are bringing to arts journalism, specifically dance criticism. With the invention of online communities, blogs, and social networks, the journalism and publishing industries have seen significant changes in recent years. I want to investigate these changes and see how they are leading us to the future of arts journalism.
Being passionate about both dance and writing, this topic has intrigued me for some time now. The culture of the dance world is extremely unique and the way this community fits in and interacts with the larger world has proven to be a special relationship. Concert dance is far removed from mainstream culture and the art form has always struggled to find a place in popular media. I personally want to find a way to integrate this sector of society and raise awareness of what’s going on in the dance world by communicating with the mainstream. In a culture that thrives on celebrity pitfalls like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton it seems as though true art is far underappreciated.
With that being said, the most powerful method of communication about dance, besides movement, has been in print media. Newspapers traditionally provide entertainment listings where dance performances are given brief blurbs of details and ticket information. Only the country’s largest papers allot space to dance criticism, and as a result only few dance companies are represented in the press.
The more important issue is that in recent years there has been a severe cutback in print space given to dance coverage. Magazines, such as New York Magazine, have completely eliminated the position of Chief Dance Critic and run stories on dance very rarely. Newspapers have also seen a shortage of staff on this beat. The New York Times, which is the largest print outlet serving the dance community, has cut space for dance in the popular Arts section in recent years.
Another major issue with dance journalism is the shift in dance magazines, with the merging of all titles into Macfadden Performing Arts Media in 2006.
What seems to have risen as a solution to these two major issues of coverage cutbacks and media convergence is dance criticism online. A number of message boards have been in existence for years, allowing dance enthusiasts and balletomanes to express their opinions on the goings-on of the performing world. But only recently have blogs begun to pop up that provide more in-depth coverage of performances, news, and general issues relating to dance. These sites allow a bigger variety of perspectives to be exposed and are not limited to the restrictions of time and space as print outlets are.
The internet has allowed for a beneficial increase in dance writing and has allowed for a close connection to be developed among the community. There is now an outlet for public discourse around the art form that would be nearly impossible to have without new media. Especially with the New York Times rumors of eventually going out of print and being solely online, this could be the future of arts journalism and potentially publishing as a whole.
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
September 27, 2007 at 4:28 am · Filed under ballet, dance, american ballet theater, class, SANDI, steps, damian woetzel
No Picture to go with this post, but I have been terrified to try to get back to class- sooo out of shape. I haven’t stepped foot into STEPS on Broadway since I was going to PCS, and that’s a LONG time ago. So, a friend recommended Kathy Sullivan’s beginner class (I want to get in good enough shape to take from Judy Rice!) and I went last week. I could barely walk all weekend, but I went back today, and already felt better. Kathy is great for adults without much childhood training, because she really has eagle eyes about bad habits and will not let you get away with them.
Anyway, the point of this post is really what happens after my class, which is a go stare at the real dancers.. Gelsey Kirkland was subbing today, so I perched in the doorway and watched Julie Kent, Damien Woetzel, Dena Abergel (who I graduated with, but I doubt would remember me) etc.. doing beautiful adagio. I recognized some other faces, but couldn’t place names. Then changed next to Tess Reichlen in the dressing room, which will probably make you NYCB-ers laugh that this is a big deal to me. I feel like I know you guys from reading all your post. I almost introduced myself, but then I though.. hmm.. does Tess read The Winger? Another girl there was talking to Tess about Gwyneth and lunch and it made me giggle. I am so in awe of the discipline it takes to be a professional dancer. I mean, singing takes discipline too, but it is nowhere near as demanding in my opinion.
I am just amused at myself for being so enamored with the process that you guys live every day, especially after meeting fans/audience members who felt that way about what I do.
That’s all!
Recent Posts by sandi degeorge
September 7, 2007 at 9:10 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, class, choreographer, choreography, contemporary dance, process, benefit, TAYLOR, college
Hey everyone! I’ve been without a computer for the past 2 weeks because my laptop crashed, so I apologize for not posting lately. You don’t realize HOW much you depend on technology until you are forced to be without it (I’ve been lost without it…I spend hours on end online!). Anyways I wanted to write about an article I saw in the newest issue of Dance Teacher Magazine (no I’m not a teacher but I read it anyway) and then give you a quick update because I have a lot of new stuff going on.
Moving Story Class
In the September issue of Dance Teacher there’s an interview with choreographer Christopher d’Amboise, a former NYCB Principal dancer and son of ballet legend Jacques d’Amboise (and sister of Broadway star Charlotte D’Amboise). In the interview he discusses his unique concept of choreography and “making steps your own” through is workshop class, “The Moving Story.”
He actually brought this workshop to us back in June at Ballet Academy East and so I thought I’d share my personal experience learning with him. We had worked with him back in the winter, when he choreographed an original piece, “On the Edge” for our Studio Showing. For most of us it was our first time working with truly contemporary choreographing and it was definitely a challenge to move in different ways while still maintain our ballet technique. One of the major things Chris emphasized while working with us then was that we had a freedom within the choreography to individualize it. At the time, it was confusing and a bit intimidating to have that task: To this point, I had always been taught to conform to a choreographer’s wishes and do things exactly as I was told. Here he wanted us to take his movements and manipulate them, however slightly, to make them comfortable in our bodies and personalities.
It wasn’t until he came back to teach the Moving Story class that I was fully able to grasp this concept. He began the first session without speaking a word. He demonstrated a series of steps and we automatically imitated them. After a while he began to repeat the steps one at a time while saying what appeared to be random words. Soon the connection was clear. Each step was supposed to look like the object or action he was saying. For example, “fly swatter” was a loud clap as if you were literally swinging at a bug. “Jump over the fence” was a Jerry Robbins inspired jump (think the opening number in West Side Story) where you pretended to be going over something.
Over the following sessions we developed a “movement language” as a group. Every step we did had a name that we established together. Similar to the ballet vocabulary, every step led to something else and the connections and in between steps were important as well. The hardest part of all this was that not only did we have to work our way through the foreign choreography but, as we danced it, we had to speak the names of the steps out loud! It was truly a challenge, especially for me because I am quiet. I remember he actually made me dance and speak alone the very first lesson. He pointed to me and made me go first, and all I remember was that my mind went blank. I did the steps and said the words without even thinking about it, and all of a sudden it came so naturally. It was a very odd feeling - dancing and speaking without thinking. I don’t know if that was the intention, or even if I did the sequence correctly, but from that moment I knew this technique was something I wanted to explore and incorporate in my dancing.
As the workshop progressed we learned how to convey different emotions through movement and eventually how to create short stories through dance. It was very specifically not an acting workshop - the point was to create feelings through our bodies. For example, if you do something sharp and strong it might mean you’re angry, whereas a slower, legato movement might convey exhaustion. He had us create “emotional maps” and use them in his choreography to make the combination “our own.” The result was 15 very different interpretations of the same movement and a clear example of the point of the workshop.
(my “emotional map” and the long list of emotions to convey)
He also spoke a lot about back phrasing and front phrasing, namely playing with the music to decide which particular steps are “important” or emphasized. Already I did a bit of this naturally, but after hearing his explanation of this I found myself considering new ways to hear things, even just in ballet class. I can honestly say that since taking the Moving Story workshop I have implemented some of the concepts I learned about movement analysis and it has added a whole other dimension to interpreting choreography and even basic steps in class.
On another Note…
An Update
September is always exciting and full of new beginnings, but this years seems to be exceptionally busy. Here’s a few things that I’ve been up to and that are coming up soon:
-Last Semester of College!
This week I started my final semester at Marymount Manhattan. I really can’t believe I graduate in just a few short months. It went by too fast (only 2 years!) and in some ways I don’t feel like I’ve even had the college experience. I’m taking an overload schedule to finish all my required courses. I’m also working as the Features Editor of our school paper, The Monitor, so we’re getting set up for a new issue.
-Starting Grad School!
My school has this special program where you can take graduate courses in your last semester that will count for credit as both undergrad and grad school, so I’m also taking courses in Magazine Publishing at Pace University. We had orientation the other day and I’m really excited about the program. It lets me really focus in on what I want to do after dancing.
-Benefit Performance
Details for this are still in the works, so I’ll post more later…but on October 24 I’ll be dancing in a benefit performance for the Tyler Dunne Foundation. More on that soon…
-Nutcracker, already?
Next weekend I start rehearsals for Nutcracker with the Albano Ballet Company in Connecticut. Performances are in December at Mohegan Sun, one of the biggest arenas in the northeast!
-Ajkun Ballet Theater
I also officially start as a Trainee with the international company Ajkun Ballet Theater in a few weeks. Not sure what that will bring, but it’s an exciting new beginning!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
August 24, 2007 at 4:55 am · Filed under dance, friends, SUSAN, class, fun
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…
:-)
Recent Posts by susan kim
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