This post concerns my students in Creative Dance, Combination Class and Pre-Ballet
Besides working on using dance to express how we're feeling, this month we are also working on direction during free dance. While I lead a free dance I'm calling out directions such as Dance FORWARD! SIDEWAYS! BACKWARDS! and the little dancers have to change direction on my cue. This game can definitely be played at home, but it is important to keep close watch when your little dancers are dancing backwards! Some students kinesthetic awareness develops more quickly than others so take care that your children don't go dancing into walls!
Inspirational Video of the Week : Brian Enos' Dipthong
May be of interest to my Advanced Jazz class.
Performed by Hubbard Street Dance
It's interesting...I've never seen this piece before and yet there are elements of it that are very similar to the style that I'm going for in the Indian piece. I like this choreographer!
Inspirational Video of the Week : Manon Bedroom Pas De Deux
Of interest to Advanced Ballet students:
A romantic pas de deux in the spirit of Valentine's Day! This is an absolute favorite and is brilliantly interpreted by (again) Sylvie Guillem and Zoltan Solymosi.
Inspirational Video of the Week : Complexions - Plus a Review
This past Saturday evening I attended a performance of Complexions Contemporary Ballet at the Tsai Performance Center in Boston. Complexions did not disappoint, offering up a varied program of intense contemporary dance.
This is their promotional video:
This first act was a Boston premiere of Dwight Rhoden's (the co-artistic director) Hissy Fits. The choreography demonstrated one technical challenge after another. Special mention should go to Bryan Arias his reappearing solo, each more challenging than the one before it. His pirouettes in particular were speedy and flawless.
The program notes describe Hissy Fits as a "suite of high voltage dances for 11 performers that captures the uncontrollable emotional impulses that frame our relationships as people." Despite the fantastic technical profiency I saw very few people relating to eachother on stage. There seemed to be, at first five set couples, and Arias' solo, and then people began to leave and switch off and return to their original partners. I found the intention of the piece to be muddy.
Act II opened with Barely Silent a quiet and understated work. The piece opened with Rubinald Rofino Pronk demonstrating a series of delicious developpes. Pronk and Clifford Williams, also in this piece, were the stars of the evening for me. Their similar physicality made them well suited to dance together in many pieces over the course of the evening - their hyperextended lines, and they are LONG lines, were breathtaking.
Barely Silent employed the use of text over the music which gave an eery feeling to the dance. The grey costumes and minimal lighting contributed to the atmosphere for this piece for two couples.
This Heart with choreography by Matthew Prescott was a favorite of the evening. The connection between Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Juan Rodriguez lit up the stage even in this quiet yet passionate duet.
The Cyclical Hour, excerpt only, was a fast paced contemporary tango. This was one of those dances where if you blink, you'd miss something. It was such a short and exciting glimpse, I wished that they had performed more of the piece.
Showman's Groove was a bit out of place in this contemporary heavy program. This piece was choreographed with a classical jazz/broadway flair. Christina Dooling truly understood the showy quality and stage presence needed to pull of this number and unfortunately her partner, Arias, did not. He did not have the same connection to the audience the Dooling had from the moment she stepped onstage.
The last number of the act, Wonder-full, was a highlight of the evening. Desmond Richardson was exquisite in this intimate solo. The fluidity of his torso and arms are just as mesmerizing as any developpe or leap. What I enjoyed most about this opportunity to see him perform was how "real" he was onstage. There was a light in his eyes not just in this number, but in the rest of the show as well, that showed a loving connection to the movements that he was executing. A tremendous performer - I feel honored to have watched him.
The third act brought Chapters, a work in progress to the music of Marvin Gaye. It was excerpts of a dance theater work to be premiered in 2008-2009. The choreography was fun, hip, and made you want to get up and dance yourself! Unfortunately this was slightly tainted for me, as this style of "dance theater" is territory that has already been covered by Twyla Tharp with her Movin' Out and The Time's They are a Changin', but perhaps the work in it's entirety will take away my skepticism.
I'll leave you with a video of Richardson performing in a clip of Episodes by Ulysses S. Dove. Pay special attention to that torso and his arms. So fluid and lovely!
This post concerns Combination Class, Creative Dance and Pre-Ballet
This month we are going to be focusing on emotion and expression during class. This week we will be focusing on facial expression. One of the games that we will be playing will involve mimicking each others' faces. I'll sit down with the students and give them a key word, like sad, happy, angry, silly, scared, etc... I'll ask them to make their own face to go along with the word that I say. Then everyone will get an individual turn and we have to guess what kind of face that they are making and then copy it.
Happily since Ballet New England is performing Snow White right now, I will be using the music during free dance to help the face-making game translate into dance. I'll ask them - how would you portray the Evil Queen? Snow White? The dwarves?
These activities will hopefully plant the seed in their minds that dance is a communicative art, a tool that they can use for expression no matter what age they are.
Sunday, February 4th 2:00 pm Thomas Meehan Performing Arts Center Cooperative Middle School, Stratham, NH
Saturday, February 10th 2:00 pm Peterborough Town House Peterborough, NH
Sunday, February 11th 2:00 pm York High School York, ME
Advance Tickets $8.00 Adults $6.00 Children & Senior Citizens
Tickets at the Door $9.00 Adults $7.00 Children & Senior Citizens
GENERAL SEATING. DOORS OPEN 30 MINS. IN ADVANCE.
Advance Tickets can be purchased by calling Ballet New England, 430-9309.
*I will also be running a program for 6-12 year olds an hour previous to the Stratham and York performances. This will entail a short dance warm-up and the opportunity to learn the dwarves' choreography which the children will get to perform onstage at the opening of the show. The price for the workshop is $20 which includes a ticket to the performance. Pre-registration is required, call 430-9309.
Inspirational Video of the Week : Sleepless - First Pas de Deux by Jiri Kylian
This post is of interest to advanced ballet, modern, contemporary and jazz students.
My apologies for the tardy video of the week this week!
I am just discovering Jiri Kylian years after a good friend of mine told me that I would fall in love with his choreography...thank goodness for YouTube for reminding me of these things!
I love the use of negative space in this pas de deux. The couple creates new shapes and fills those shapes somehow and they do this quickly moving from one to the next. A very interesting pas de deux.
