Still More Ballet Quibbles and Bits . . .

Wendy Whelan's Conversation with Damian Woetzel

While searching the internet for some background information on Wendy Whelan, I found this wonderful clip recorded from a discussion between Wendy and Damian Woetzel that took place at 'Studio 5' at City Center on September 29, 2014 -- during the days leading up to Wendy's retirement from NYC Ballet.  

Wendy Whelan enjoying a laugh with Damian Woetzel at 'Studio 5' at City Center.
Photo by Christopher Duggan

It's nearly 57 minutes long and includes Wendy dancing an excerpt from 'Bitter Earth' with Tyler Angle and the 'After the Rain' pas de deux with Craig Hall -- both choreographed on Wendy by Christopher Wheeldon:

http://www.nycitycenter.org/Home/Blog/October-2014/Whelan-Talks-Robbins

It's delightful and worth the time -- you'll wish you'd been there that evening.

Lincoln Center's Segal Award Goes to 3 from SAB 

Claire Kretzschmar and Silas Farley (both members of the New York City Ballet corps de ballet and SAB alumni) and Alec Knight (an SAB advanced student) have been named 2015 recipients of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Awards, which will be celebrated at a Lincoln Center gala at Alice Tully Hall on March 2nd hosted by Audra McDonald.  The awards are given each year to promising young artists nominated by Lincoln Center's constituent organizations -- Claire was nominated by NYC Ballet; Silas was nominated by the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library; and Alec was nominated by SAB.  The late Mr. Segal was a former president of Lincoln Center who had a special interest in the careers of young performers.

Claire and Silas both received their early dance training in North Carolina before coming to the School of American Ballet and then going on to NYCB.  Alec came to SAB from Australia and was one of four students featured in the 2014 Teen Vogue 'Strictly Ballet' videos which I wrote about here:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7731047659115669466#editor/target=post;postID=632383314230361649;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=2;src=postname

Here's a link to the SAB Facebook announcement about the Segal awards:

https://www.facebook.com/SABNYC/photos/a.399587493869.183424.36603863869/10152709748228870/?type=1&theater   

Congratulations to all of the honorees, but especially these three connected to SAB.

2/12/2015 Valentine's Day Open House at SAB

I attended the Valentine's Day Open House at the School of American Ballet.  Unfortunately, I arrived around noon, just as the advanced women were finishing classes with Kay Mazzo, Suki Schorer, and Susan Pilarre.

Suki Schorer (kneeling center) with the C-1 Class at SAB's Valentine's Day Open House.
Photo from the SAB Facebook page.

My first stop was for a brownie in the Student Lounge.  The bulletin board at the back of the Lounge was overflowing with posters and brochures for summer programs and professional auditions.  I counted over 20 schools and companies that will be holding auditions at the School between the middle of February and the middle of March.  As usual our students are in great demand.

Then I got a good seat in Studio 1 for the 12:30pm class.  I should have read the schedule more carefully, because watching Darci Kistler's class with the D ladies would have been much more interesting than Andrei Kramarevsky's class with the Advanced Men.  Mr. Kramarevsky is a beloved member of the faculty, but I always find his classes to be pretty chaotic and frustrating to watch.  

The students either don't understand his instructions or they ignore them.  For example, his sketchy instructions seem to suggest that the students should turn in one direction and then the other as part of a combination.  What happens is that the students turn in their preferred direction -- continuing to perfect their natural turning direction rather than striving to improve their turns in their weaker, less natural direction.

Twyla Tharp once said at a NYC Ballet seminar that Peter Boal was the only dancer she knew who could naturally turn equally well in both directions.  I'm sure that when Peter was a student at the School he practiced turning in both directions. 

Three students from the Advanced Men's class costumed for SAB's Valentine's Day Open House.
Photo from SAB Facebook page.

Following Mr. Kramarevsky's class I watched part of the Advanced Men's Variation class taught that day by Andrew Veyette -- a principal dancer with the Company.  He was teaching the opening phrases of the male variation from 'Swan Lake' (Balanchine's version I think) and his comments and corrections were illuminating for both the students and the observers.  Andrew seems to have a very good eye for spotting potential problems and then providing very positive feedback and understandable corrections to fix them.

More recently, I've watched as students in Andrew's Variation class perform the complete 'Swan Lake' variation.  It's amazing to see the progress that they've made working with Andrew in just two weeks.

A Chat with Resident Choreographer Justin Peck

On February 9th we attended NYC Ballet's seminar -- a conversation between Justin Peck, the Company's Resident Choreographer, and Ellen Bar, the Company's Director of Media Projects.  Of course, Justin has been the talk of the ballet world since the February 6th wide release of 'Ballet 422' -- the film about the creation of Justin's ballet, 'Paz de la Jolla' -- and the premiere on February 4th of 'Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes' -- his newest ballet for the Company.

My post about 'Ballet 422' and 'Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes' are here:

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2015/02/comments-on-ballet-422.html

http://zylopho.blogspot.com/2015/02/nycb-2815-matinee-performance.html

About the making of 'Ballet 422', Justin said that the filming by Jody Lee Lipes (he's Ellen Bar's husband) was not intrusive during the creation of the ballet.  He said that Mr. Lipes, who was the film's cameraman as well as its director, was always around with his camera during the two months that the rehearsals went on and that no special lighting or sound equipment was needed, so Justin and the cast just got used to it.

About his new Aaron Copland ballet, Justin said that he discarded the original scenario from the Agnes DeMille ballet, 'Rodeo', but tried to maintain the atmosphere.  He was inspired by nature, specifically weather in creating the ballet.  
The five men who dance the second 'episode' of the ballet -- Daniel Applebaum, Craig Hall, Allen Peiffer, Andrew Scordato, and Taylor Stanley -- were on hand to dance that section.  Seeing it danced in practice clothes with piano accompaniment offers the opportunity to see the sheer brilliance of the choreography.  

Justin obviously cares deeply about these men with whom he has danced for his entire NYCB career and whose unique abilities he has captured in this section of the ballet.  Justin said that he used these five dancers to set other parts of the piece, because it's hard to get rehearsal time in the Company for 14 or 15 men all at one time.

Craig Hall joined the discussion following the 'Rodeo' excerpt and discussed his reactions to working on Justin's ballets, sharing a dressing room with Justin, and being part of the creative process for several different choreographers.

Despite all of his recent accomplishments, Justin comes across as a serious creator who is dedicated to the process of making ballets.  At the age of 27 he is very self-confident, but modest about his  enormous success over the last five years.