Class Visit at SAB

A good friend, Jean McC, was visiting from Wisconsin last week.  She and her good friend and former NYC neighbor, Anne McC, are Jock Soto groupies.  So the three McC's took in one of Jock's classes at SAB last Wednesday.  It was a two-hour Adagio (partnering) Class for the Intermediate Men and C1 Girls.

School of American Ballet, Adagio Class with C1 Girls and Intermediate Men,
photo by Rosalie O'Connor for School of American Ballet

Many of the C1 Girls have already gone through a growth spurt and emerged as tall (especially en pointe), lithe young women, usually between 13 and 16 years old.  Some of the Intermediate Men, sometimes as young as 12, are already quite tall and strong, but many are still growing and gaining strength.  In general, these girls are taller than these boys. 

In previous weeks, Jock had apparently taught this class the full wedding pas de deux from the final act of 'Sleeping Beauty'.  Needless to say, this is a very difficult piece of choreography and a challenge for the most accomplished professional dancers in the world.  Jock had modified the choreography only slightly to account for the technical level of these students -- a slight modification of the fish dives being the most obvious change.

Tyler Angle and Katherine Morgan in the Wedding Pas de Deux  from the final Act of 'The Sleeping Beauty',
as staged by Peter Martins (after Petipa), photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet
(in August, 2012, Katherine took a leave from NYC Ballet to deal with serious health issues)

There were more than twice as many healthy C1 girls as healthy Intermediate Men.  (There were several boys and one girl on the sidelines with injuries or illness -- students are required to attend classes unless they are bed-ridden or have something contagious).  So all of the men danced the pdd at least twice during the class while each girl danced just once.

Two couples danced at a time, except for the final run through when there were three couples remaining.  As with other Adagio classes I have watched, the first couples to dance receive more of Jock's attention than those who dance later.  In essence, though, all of the students waiting to dance are observing and learning from all of Jock's corrections and suggestions.  They are often practicing the corrections at the back of the studio as they await their turn to dance.  Jock delivers his suggestions and corrections with a light, often funny touch.  He has no problem assuming either the male or female role in order to demonstrate the point he is making. (Yvonne Borree is scheduled to join Jock for this class, but was unavailable on the day of the visit.)

In the early rounds, it is obvious that the couples have sought each other out and are comfortable dancing together -- a kind of balletic version of Darwin's theory of natural selection. Sometimes that's because they are a couple, or at least good friends, outside of the studio.  Hopefully, it's also because they complement each other dancing together.  In latter rounds, Jock intervenes a bit to make the best pairings among the remaining students.

Dancing the complete pdd, including the male and female variations and the coda, is a real effort for these still-growing young students.  Centers of gravity change from one partner to another and the young men struggle to adapt to different height and centering.  Some of the girls are less willing to trust their partners which can look more like wrestling than ballet at some points.  But at the end of each run-through these students are glowing with satisfaction and basking in Jock's praise.

Jock Soto is an extraordinary teacher.  He had a long and illustrious performing career, forming notable partnerships with several ballerinas including Heather Watts and Wendy Whelan, and becoming a muse for numerous choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon. 

Jock Soto & Wendy Whelan in Balanchine's 'Symphony in Three Movements',
photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Long before he retired from the stage in 2005, Jock began teaching at SAB.  When Stanley Williams (the revered SAB teacher who was recruited by Balanchine from the Royal Danish Ballet in 1964) became sick in the mid-90's and then died in 1997, several principals from New York City Ballet (including Soto, Peter Boal and Nikolai Hubbe) who had studied with Stanley agreed to teach Stanley's classes at SAB to fill the enormous gaps in the schedule.

Not only was Jock an outstanding partner during his performing career, but he knows how to convey the concepts of partnering to his SAB students, both male and female. Under his guidance a whole roster of exemplary male partners have emerged from the School into New York City Ballet and many other companies. The Angle brothers, Robert Fairchild, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Chase Finlay, Amar Ramasar, Craig Hall and Zachary Catazaro are among the exemplary partners at City Ballet who have emerged under Jock's tutelage. Seth Orza, a principal at Pacific Northwest Ballet, also comes readily to mind.  I hesitate to guess how many of today's ballerinas have learned to be partnered in Jock's adagio classes.