Halloween Open House at the School of American Ballet

The School of American Ballet holds an open house for members of its Association (donors) every year on Halloween.  Most students in the Advanced Division (and a few faculty members and accompanists) dress in costume for the occasion.  Association members are invited to observe classes from 10:30am to 4pm.
  
I arrived around 11:15am and was able to look in on the three classes in progress:

• Suki Schorer was teaching the D women's class in Studio. Suki, of course, is a legend and always seems to inspire her students with her attention to detail and extensive knowledge of Balanchine technique.  She has been on the School's faculty since 1972, but was already a well-respected guest teacher at SAB by the mid-60's.

D Women's Class with Suki Schorer front and center,
 plus two Metrocards, a Sailor, a Greek Goddess and a Pig-in-a-Blanket in the front row.
Photo from SAB Facebook page

• Jonathan Stafford was teaching the C-2 girls in Studio 4.  Jon is a more recent addition to the SAB faculty (2007) and I had not seen him teaching a girls class before.  He offers lots of corrections and encouragement and knows the technique from many years of performing at NYCB and training at SAB and earlier at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet under Marcia Dale Weary, a legendary teacher of students who have moved on to SAB and then to careers with New York City Ballet.

C2 Women including (seated) Glinda and Dorothy from Oz, 3 Pop Tarts (front row standing), 2 'Do Not Disturb' in nighties (center of second row standing), a Ladybug and a Captain Hook among others.
Photo from SAB Facebook page

  

• Darci Kistler was teaching the C-1 girls in Studio 5.  As Balanchine's last ballerina, Darci is also carrying on his tradition.  She was teaching the C-1 girls a very difficult section of the Dewdrop solo from Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'.  Darci would stop after each student performed and make corrections.  You could see each of them improve as they repeated the passage incorporating Darci's suggestions.

C1 Girls Class with 2 Rabbits, 2 Cats, Wonder Woman, a Witch, and a Footballer in the crowd.
Photo from SAB Facebook page

All three are amazing teachers and I'm sorry that I couldn't see all of their classes from start to finish. 

At noon, I moved back to Studio 1 to watch Jock Soto teach the Advanced Men.  It was a smaller group than usual, and I learned later that several of these students were participating in the New York Choreographic Institute program up on the seventh floor.

Jock was in fine form, offering something for the students and something for the observers.  He gave the class a very fast combination at the barre that involved legs and arms moving on different beats two six-count phrases.  None of the students seemed to get it right, but Jock's point was that choreographers and composers can throw these things at dancers and expect them to learn them quickly.  On center combinations he urged them to use the whole space -- even chasing some across the floor.  In order to illustrate taking off from a tight fifth position on double tours he used four men to surround the 'victim' (my word not Jock's).  Jock's classes are never dull.

From the Advanced Men's Class -- Mr. B's Cat (Mourka), a Convict/Mummy and a Construction Worker.
Photo from SAB Facebook page

Following a half hour break for brownies in the Student Lounge (for the adults, not the students), we were treated to an Adagio Class taught by Darci Kistler and Jock Soto for the Advanced Men with D Women from 2pm to 3pm and with C2 Women from 3pm to 4pm.  They were teaching both groups the opening section of the Sugarplum's grand pas de deux from Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'.  Last year at the 2013 Halloween Open House, I had watched Darci and Jock teach a different passage from the same pas de deux.  It's amazing how much insight these studio deconstructions provide when I see actual performances at NYC Ballet.

D Women and Advanced Men in Adagio Class with a couple of Top Guns on the left, a Baby in a diaper with a giant pacifier (right of center).  Photo from SAB Facebook page

More photos of the students in their Halloween costumes are on the SAB Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152463363738870.1073741848.36603863869&type=1

2014 School of American Ballet Workshop Program -- It's all about the anniversaries

When I first learned of the program Peter Martins had selected for the School of American Ballet's 2014 workshops (on Saturday, May 31st at 2pm and 8pm and gala performance on Tuesday, June 3rd at 7pm) it seemed a bit of a jumble.  But the more I've looked at it the more Peter's choices make sense to me.

First, it's all Balanchine choreography, because he co-founded the School with Lincoln Kirstein in 1934 -- making 2014 the School's 80th anniversary year.

The opening work will be 'Serenade' to Tschaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings' -- because it was the first work that Balanchine choreographed in America.  He made it in 1934 (also it's 80th anniversary) for SAB students.  According to legend Balanchine incorporated things that actually happened in the School during that first year -- creating each section for the number of students who showed up for class that day; using a student's late arrival for class and finding her place in the opening formation; incorporating a student's stumble and fall to the floor.

The opening moments of Balanchine's 'Serenade' from an earlier SAB Workshop performance, 
photo by Paul Kolnik

But 'Serenade' is far from improvised and remains one of the most cherished works of the Balanchine repertory.  It will be staged by Suki Schorer for the workshop.  Suki has staged this work many times before for SAB performances -- and also for companies around the world as a repetiteur for the Balanchine Trust.  

For anyone who wants to know what dancing in 'Serenade' feels like, I suggest that they get their hands on Jenifer Ringer's new book, 'Dancing Through It', wherein she describes just how dancing in 'Serenade' (at the Washington Ballet School, at SAB and at NYC Ballet) changed her life. 

Jenifer Ringer & Philip Neal in Balanchine's 'Serenade, photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The second work will be selections from the last act of 'Coppelia' which was co-staged by Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova in 1974 (40th anniversary) for New York City Ballet -- based on original choreography by Arthur Saint-Leon in 1870, restaged by Petipa in 1884 (130th anniversary) and by Cechetti in 1894 (120th anniversary).  The Petipa/Cechetti version is the one that Balanchine and Danilova would have known from their student days at the Maryinsky in Saint Petersburg.  Mme. Danilova had a long and distinguished stage career and was a noted interpreter of Swanilda, the heroine, in 'Coppelia'.

Alexandra Danilova coaching Helgi Tomasson & Patricia McBride in 'Coppelia',
photo by Martha Swope

The selections from 'Coppelia' are being staged by SAB several SAB faculty members -- Sheryl Ware, Katrina Killian, Lisa de Ribere, Yvonne Borree, and Jock Soto.

When Mme. Danilova began to teach at SAB in 1964 (50th anniversary), she persuaded Balanchine to present the annual workshops as a way to showcase the students' talent and hard work and give them invaluable on-stage experience. Balanchine resisted calling them 'graduation' performances because it sounded too final and too judgmental, but agreed that a public showcase at the end of the school year for a select audience would be appropriate. The first workshop was performed in 1965, making the workshops in June, 2014 the 50th workshop performances. 

Of course, Peter Martins knows that the inclusion of 24 little girls in this section will add to the demand for workshop tickets, as parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and siblings will have to be accommodated.

Balanchine's one-act 'Swan Lake' based on Ivanov's choreography of the lakeside scenes for the Maryinsky was also selected by Martins as a tribute to Mme. Danilova, who was a renowned Odette/Odile.  

Alexandra Danilova as Odile in 'Swan Lake', photo from the Bettman Archive

Balanchine created this 1-act version for Maria Tallchief (his third wife) who has been deemed America's first native-born prima ballerina.  There is a wonderful photo of Mme. Danilova coaching Darci Kistler and Cornell Crabtree for the 1980 SAB workshop. 

Cornell Crabtree and Darci Kistler being coached by Alexandra Danilova for the 1980 SAB Workshop,
photo by Carolyn George

Darci, of course, went on to a distinguished career at New York City Ballet where in 1982 she was the last dancer to be promoted to principal by Balanchine before his death in 1983.  She became a full-time member of the SAB faculty in 1994 (20th anniversary) and retired from NYCB in 2010. Darci is staging the 'Swan Lake' excerpt -- symbolically closing the circle of ballet life -- student-performer-teacher.


It will be interesting to see if they use the ice cave scenery and/or the black costumes for the corps that are the current decor for the New York City Ballet version or hark back to earlier, more traditional decor. 

The last work on the program will be the final movement (Rondo) of 'Western Symphony', the four movement work to traditional American folk music orchestrated by Hershey Kay that Balanchine created in 1954 (60th anniversary). 'Western Symphony' is Balanchine's buoyant tribute to the mythical American West of cowpokes and dance-hall girls. The finale finds the enormous cast all on stage doing fouettes as the curtain descends.  It's a favorite workshop closing ballet because it provides parts for lots of advanced students to perform a high-spirited, yet classical piece to familiar music.  

The original fourth movement cast was led by Tanaquil LeClercq and Jacques d'Amboise.  LeClercq was Balanchine's muse (and his fourth wife) from the late 1940's through the mid-1950's when this work was created.  Known both for her superb classical technique and her sly humor she was ideally cast as the strutting dance hall queen in the extravagant, black hat:  

Tanaquil LeClercq in costume for 'Western Symphony'

You can find a black & white video of the original cast performing the entire work here:
http://www.ina.fr/video/VDD11021500/western-symphony-video.html
The music in this video is extraordinarily fast, but the insouciant personalities of LeClercq and d'Amboise come through clearly in the fourth movement (Rondo).

The excerpt from 'Western Symphony' will be staged by Susan Pilarre who has staged it for several prior SAB workshop performances.

So this workshop program has a lot to do with anniversaries and tributes.  It provides challenging roles for the students, interesting contrasts in mood and style, and ends with a crowd pleasing bang!  

In order to get a jump on all of those little girls' families, go to:
https://www.sab.org/news_events/workshop_performances/tickets.php 
for tickets to the Saturday, May 31st performances, or to:
https://net.sab.org/development-/workshop-benefit-ticket-order-form--for tickets to the Gala Workshop Performance on June 3rd. You'll see the ballet stars of the next generation performing in works by the greatest choreographer of the last century.

  

Valentine's Day at School of American Ballets

I would normally avoid writing about classes I've observed at the School of American Ballet, but this is a place I love and the Valentine's Day open house is a wonderful event.  Both the students and the faculty are by every measure extraordinary.  This year, I observed the Adagio Classes taught by Darci Kistler and Jock Soto to the advanced men and D and C-2 girls (i.e., the top students at the school -- I use the School's terminology of 'girls' for the advanced women and 'men' for the advanced boys which I believe is an anachronism carried over from the early days of the School).

Darci and Jock have been teaching these students Balanchine's pas de deux from the Act II divertissement of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' which was first staged in 1962.

Wendy Whelan & Philip Neal in the Act II Divertissement from Balanchine's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
photo probably by Kolnik for NYC Ballet

This is a pinnacle of Balanchine choreography, an idealized love duet performed as part of an entertainment at the wedding of the three dysfunctional couples reconciled at the conclusion of Act I (which contains virtually all of the action of Shakespeare's play).  It was created for Violette Verdy and Conrad Ludlow. Ludlow was a rather stolid performer, but a terrific partner and Verdy was a beloved French ballerina who had joined the company in 1958 at the height of her powers.  After her retirement from NYC Ballet in 1977, she went on to a distinguished career as artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet and the Boston Ballet and as a teacher.  In recent years she has been a frequent guest teacher at the School of American Ballet.

The duet that Balanchine created for Verdy and Ludlow to the Andante from Mendelssohn's  'Symphony #9 for Strings' looks deceptively simple, filled with promenades, bourrées, and low lifts.  It is clearly the predecessor to the duet Balanchine created for Verdy and Ludlow in 'Emeralds' in 1967.

Watching Soto and Kistler patiently coax an approximation of this pdd from the advanced students at SAB on Friday afternoon was fascinating.  The steadiness and strength required of the men is astonishing.  And the ability of the girls to trust their partners and allow themselves to be guided through the choreographic complexities seems to be an even bigger challenge.  There is no question that the students learn an immense amount from Darci and Jock in these classes.  The student couples compete eagerly to be the first to perform at the beginning of each class, knowing that they will get the most attention and hands-on coaching from the teachers.  Because they do receive so much attention during the first run through, the latter part of the class becomes more chaotic as each student couple struggles to have enough time and space to practice what they are learning.

The students will have a chance to see the finished product as part of the full 'Midsummer Night's Dream' to be performed by NYC Ballet during the final week of Spring season.

Tiler Peck & Tyler Angle in the Act II Divertissement from Balanchine's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
photo by Kolnik for NYC Ballet