Archive for students
August 14, 2008 at 4:49 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, studio, schools, savannah, students, VERONICA, the STUDIO, teacher, dance companies, american ballet theatre, summer intensive, dance classes
Many of my students go off to summer programs. This year I had kids at Chautauqua, the Rock School, ABT and Virginia School of the Arts.
I wanted to share some of their experiences with you all.
Alston, 10, went to Chautuaqua and the Rock School.
Here she is at Chautauqua with Patricia Mcbride:
Here’s some from her own post on TIM
“Amy Price was another one of our teachers. She choreographed our classical piece and our contemporary piece for the show at the end of the intensive. She was fun to have class with, but she still expected alot out of us.
This is a picture of Ms. Amy correcting me in pointe class.”
And here is Linzy and friend, also at Chautauqua. They both felt that is was a very special place to be.
Alston with Bo and Stephanie Spassoff at the Rock’s coaching intensive
Angela spent her second summer at Virginia School of the Arts.
I’m really proud of them they are all such special dancers and people. I have a few more to share with you in my next post.
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
February 22, 2008 at 4:04 am · Filed under ballet, dance, rehearsals, studio, dancers, savannah, contemporary, students, VERONICA, the STUDIO, youth america grand prix, competition, variations, pointe
We have been very busy at the STUDIO preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix regional in Spartanburg, SC! We are leaving in the morning and the dancers begin in the early evening. It has been quite a process for them all, the usual blood sweat and tears. I decided to take 8 dancers this year: Justin, Emma, Skye, Angela, Kieran, Linzy, Shakira and Alston. I am so proud of them all and excited to see them reach their personal goals. They are an incredible group of talented young dancers and people. It has been so nice to see them grow together-their support of each other is amazing.
Here are a few shots from our rehearsals. (photographs by the STUDIO’s unofficial, official photographer-Mary-Margaret Macgill)
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
February 2, 2008 at 12:13 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, choreographers, video, SUSAN, contemporary, website, students, hamburg ballet, john neumeier, performance, competition, tickets, switzerland, blogging, paris opera ballet, bejart
© Prix de Lausanne
Exciting news: The final competition round of the Prix de Lausanne will be broadcast live on Sunday 3 February, starting at 3.00pm CET (Central European Time). To watch the competition, simply click here.
The Prix de Lausanne is an international ballet competition that takes place every year in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dancers between the ages of 15 and 18 have been competing in this year’s 36th annual Prix all week long. Judging them are some big names: Altynai Asylmuratova (Kirov Ballet), Elisabeth Platel (Paris Opera Ballet) and Anna Maria Prina (La Scala Ballet). Hamburg Ballet’s Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier is serving as the 2008 President of the jury.
This year, the finals will not only feature the competitors, but will also showcase two of Neumeier’s works. The first will be his Opus 100, in tribute to the late choreographer Maurice Béjart. The second will be Yondering, which will feature students from the Hamburg Ballet School, the Paris Opera Ballet School and the National Ballet School of Canada.
If you weren’t able to purchase tickets to the sold-out performance or if, like me, you are not able to attend the performance in Lausanne, this is a most excellent and very accessible alternative. Also, for anyone who is interested, the Prix de Lausanne has set up a videoblog to chronicle the competition experiences of six participants. Check it out here.
Recent Posts by susan kim
January 23, 2008 at 4:36 pm · Filed under dance, guest, TONY, dance technology, interactive, research, sarah lawrence college, students, education, dance teacher, performance, project, choreography, discipline, pedagogy, process, learning, intelligence, fun, dance criticism, dance lesson, social network, improvisation, Julie Cruse, VICKI, choreobot
For the last meeting of my class last semester, 12-21-07, I had Julie Cruse of Ohio State’s EMMA Lab as a guest to share her research in developing Chorebot VICKI. VICKI stands for Virtual Improvisational Choreographer / Kinetic Instructor. She a virtual automaton who guides a dancer through a structured improvisation using randomly generated verbal cues. Upon initializing VICKI she describes her purpose.
She says:
Choreobot is designed to challenge a dancer’s movement skills, and asks the dancer to draw upon advanced improvisational interpretation. I am programmed to make dances using theme and variation as prescribed by my creator. I use textbook dance methods, but - I am unpredictable. The dancer will demonstrate as I begin my next new dance.
Read more of Julie’s description of the technology HERE at the project website.
Before the lecture demonstration Julie and I had to rebuild modules of the assembly so that we could get VICKI to talk off Intel-based Macs. Retooling software under time constraints can be terribly stressful but I am glad to report we patched things up in time for the class. Julie’s lecture/demonstration was wonderful. She took some time to explain her impetus for building the machine and gave the students a tour of VICKI’s inner workings. Next Julie fired up the choreobot and demonstrated how she danced under VICKI’s instruction. Next she invited the students to try. Watching the student’s improvisation was exciting.
The system forces the dancer to think on their toes and make quick decisions. With time I could see a dancer becoming expert at navigating in this environment. Julie has clearly taken the time to do this. For her it was the first time she was able to observe other people dancing inside her system. By the end of the class everyone was incredibly energized and immersed in conversation regarding future research using choreobot VICKI. Julie has left us with a copy of VICKI and has encouraged us to continue experimenting with and mutating the system.
Matt Gough has taken a good deal of time developing an analysis of this work. In particular Matt takes issue with the description of the work as an “artificial intelligence” simply seeing it as an automated version of Cunningham’s method of chance procedures. Julie has documented the critical discourse HERE.
I met Julie inside Sector 9 of the blogosphere. There she has made bold gestures regarding dance-technology as a field. Like Matt Gough, she has voiced discontent over the current state of dance-tech.
She writes:
When I hear dance and tech, I think - it better not be ANOTHER interactive audio/video environment. It better not be ANOTHER…
…dance contextualized by projected videos
…dancer controlled by robotics or sensors improvisation in real time that composes the score
…motion capture in real time translated to animated projections
…wearable technologies that do something with sound or video
…animated avatars in second life real time “telematic” improvising
I find such pugilistic remarks invigorating and am excited to see what trouble Julie stirs up in the future.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
August 20, 2007 at 3:01 pm · Filed under dance, teaching, savannah, students, VERONICA, the STUDIO, russia, st. petersburg ballet, santa barabara artists management
Posted by Veronica Moretti Niebuhr
I met Sayat and Olga about 5 yrs ago when he called me to ask about teaching a class at the studio I was teaching at. It is a small world and we seem to run in the same circles.They are the cutest couple ever. He is sort of the “Borat” of ballet.
Olga danced with the Kirov & St. Petersberg Ballet and Sayat with St. Petersberg Ballet. They run Santa Barbara Artists Management, which brings international artists into local communities. They are based part-time in Santa Barbara and part time on St. Simon’s Island.
I love to expose the girls to different styles of teaching, but really their style is caring about the students they teach.
Karilena and Isabel are chosen to demonstrate at their first master class!
Angela gets some much needed partnering advice….LOOK AT MR. SAYAT!
Our beautiful future.
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
August 14, 2007 at 2:34 am · Filed under SLOAN, ballet, dance, travel, teaching, savannah, students, VERONICA, beach
Posted by Kristin Sloan
Posted by Veronica Moretti Niebuhr
The plié/releve circle
In case it hasn’t been clear, the place where I have been teaching in Savannah is Winger contributor Veronica Moretti Niebuhr’s studio (called The Studio).
On Saturday Ms. V, four of our students (Caitlin, Kieran, Michelle, and Siena), Ms. V’s kids Enzo and Sophia, Caitlin’s mom Janie, and I went to the beach to do a little dancing! I gave them a bunch of center work, from tendus and grand battements, to single pirouettes and coupe jetes en menege. It was so much fun!
Pliés in fourth
Rhonds de Jambes
Circles in the sand!
Ballerina tracks… Tendus to the side, coming front and going back.
Caitlin gives the girls an adagio combination when we first got to the beach. I think everyone was so excited and giggly to be there that the penchées got a little out of control. Good times.
Sienna and me (with crazy salty hair), pre-”class”
Enzo and Sophie, doing a dance of their own design
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
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