{"id":2299,"date":"2011-05-11T16:35:47","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T20:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2011-05-11T16:55:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T20:55:38","slug":"abt-on-to-act-ii-works-process-at-the-guggenheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/abt-on-to-act-ii-works-process-at-the-guggenheim.htm","title":{"rendered":"ABT – On to Act II – Works & Process at the Guggenheim"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Ballet Theatre<\/a>
\nOn to Act II
\nWorks & Process at the Guggenheim<\/a>
\nSunday, May 1, 2011<\/p>\n

Isadora Duncan famously said, \u201cIf I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.\u201d\u00a0 While I understand this sentiment completely, I\u2019ve found that there is definitely something to be said for having dancers talk to their audience.\u00a0 As a dance fan and a perennial dance student, I\u2019ve found the Works & Process series, in which artists discuss their process before an audience, to be a wonderful educational resource.\u00a0 I\u2019ve attended several of their events this season and each one was so illuminating.\u00a0 When one watches a dance performance, the experience is a personal one, different for each member of the audience.\u00a0 But I have found that if the dancer is willing to pull the curtain back just a little bit, and speak candidly about what goes on behind the scenes and how decisions are made, it winds up increasing my enjoyment of the dance performance exponentially.<\/p>\n

ABT – On to Act II was the final event for this Works & Process season.\u00a0 The evening introduced us to several dancers who spoke of the paths they traveled either when they retired from the stage or moved on from the company.\u00a0 This session opened with a slide show of beautiful dance photographs by Rosalie O\u2019Conner, who danced with ABT for fifteen years before retiring in 2002.\u00a0 She is now associate staff photographer for ABT and company photographer for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Ballet Arizona, Boston Ballet and Tulsa Ballet.<\/p>\n

Wes Chapman, former ABT principal and current Artistic Director of ABT\u2019s Studio Company, served as moderator for the evening.\u00a0 He presented the students of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, ABT\u2019s pre-professional training program.\u00a0 They performed the waltz from Les Sylphides<\/em>.\u00a0 They were absolutely lovely, despite being a little crowded on the Guggenheim\u2019s small stage.\u00a0 Later in the evening, the students performed Jessica Lang\u2019s beautiful Vivace Motifs<\/em>.\u00a0 Great work.<\/p>\n

Rachel Moore, Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre, appeared next.\u00a0 Her story was especially compelling, as it illustrates that dancers are usually multi-talented, multi-dimensional individuals.\u00a0 They bring additional talents with them when they join the ballet world, or they develop them alongside their ballet career.\u00a0 And then these talents can ultimately wind up serving the ballet world somewhere up the line.\u00a0 In Ms. Moore\u2019s case, she is the daughter of two economists who had experience in fund raising and working with unions.\u00a0 Her early exposure to economics guided her to transition to arts administration when she retired from the stage.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d danced with ABT for four years before becoming sidelined with an injury.\u00a0 She wound up attending college at a time when most ballet dancers didn\u2019t do so.\u00a0 She interned for the National Endowment of the Arts and she moved on to become an arts advocate in Washington, DC.\u00a0 She served as Director of the Boston Ballet School before becoming Executive Director of ABT.\u00a0 Her background as a dancer and an administrator enables her to \u201cspeak both languages\u201d — to translate economic realities so that dancers can understand them, while translating the world of ballet so that it can be understood by those who fund it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Susan<\/a>
Susan Jaffe teaching at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre - Photo Rosalie O'Connor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next, we met Susan Jaffe.\u00a0 Ms. Jaffe joined ABT in 1980 and danced with them through 2002.\u00a0 Today, she is Ballet Mistress for ABT, as well as a choreographer and teacher.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chapman asked her who had influenced her as a Ballet Mistress.\u00a0 She gave the reply that I love most \u201cEverybody is an influence.\u201d\u00a0 She went on to speak with great affection for those who trained her, especially for the Kirov Ballet\u2019s former Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Irina Kolpakova.\u00a0 Ms. Jaffe said that working with Ms. Kolpakova was like beginning again from scratch.\u00a0 She said of Ms. Kolpakova that, \u201cshe would run like a butterfly around the room calling, \u2018Be free!\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms. Jaffe went on to demonstrate the responsibilities of the Ballet Mistress.\u00a0 This segment really drove home to me how focused and smart dancers have to be.\u00a0 I have always been in awe of the way that pros can memorize so much choreography.\u00a0 But as I watched Ms. Jaffe coaching the lovely Sarah Lane who performed Swanhilde\u2019s entrance from Coppelia<\/em>, it became clear that the steps of the choreography are only the beginning.\u00a0 Each phrase of the variation is loaded with small details and each one of those details has to be committed to memory too, even when they change on the fly.<\/p>\n

Ms. Jaffe urged Ms. Lane to demonstrate Swanhilde\u2019s excitement in the way she runs when she first enters the scene, even if it meant delaying her entrance by a breath so that she could run faster when she finally does appear, and still hit her mark on time.\u00a0 Ms. Jaffe urged Ms. Lane to be less lyrical, to display Swanhilde\u2019s happiness through the quickness of her movement.\u00a0 Ms. Jaffe also demonstrated what is called a \u201cpick up\u201d, in which a dancer who is facing one direction, is about to turn to face the opposite way, but leads by turning her head slightly before turning her entire body.\u00a0\u00a0 Another little nuance was demonstrated in the gesture in which Swanhilde wonders why her fiance keeps blowing kisses to the doll.\u00a0 At first, Lane just opened her arms as she mimed, \u201cWhy?\u201d\u00a0 Ms. Jaffe suggested that she take a step backward as she opened her arms, and that one subtle little detail really magnified Swanhilde\u2019s bewilderment and the urgency she feels to have her question answered.<\/p>\n

As Lane moved across the stage on the diagonal, Ms. Jaffe coached her to have her arm arrive in position before her leg reached its maximum height \u2013 to travel on the cabriole, but not on the pique.\u00a0 There is so much for the ballerina to memorize, so much for her to commit to her heart and mind so that she can ultimately forget it all and just play the role in the moment of the dance.\u00a0 What amazing skill it all takes!<\/p>\n

Martine van Hamel appeared next.\u00a0 She joined ABT in 1970 and danced with them for over twenty years.\u00a0 She now plays character roles, and she treated the audience to an excerpt from Cinderella<\/em> in which she plays the step mother.\u00a0 In James Kuldelka\u2019s choreography, the step mother is \u201ca faded beauty and a drinker\u201d.\u00a0 As Ms. van Hamel rose from the interview chair, she reached for her robe and said, \u201cLet me put on my shmattah<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The moment that she donned that robe, she transformed into her character.\u00a0 She talked about the way that Kuldelka had instructed her to shuffle her feet rather than to walk, to show how the drink had affected her.<\/p>\n

The evening ended with the appearance of Jose Manuel Carreno.\u00a0 This is his final season with ABT after sixteen years with the company.\u00a0 He spoke of how he\u2019s looking forward to freelancing, coaching and teaching.\u00a0 He wants to do more contemporary dance and even Broadway.\u00a0 The evening ended with a performance of Transparante<\/em> performed by Carreno and Melanie Hamrick.<\/p>\n

Chapman did a great job of moderating for the evening.\u00a0 He raised all of the questions that I\u2019d have wanted to ask and then some.\u00a0 Thanks to the Guggenheim for a fantastic Works & Process season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Ballet Theatre On to Act II Works & Process at the Guggenheim Sunday, May 1, 2011 Isadora Duncan famously said, \u201cIf I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.\u201d\u00a0 While I understand … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[134,247,243,244,242,245,246,240,241],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-karen","tag-american-ballet-theatre","tag-guggehneim-works-and-process","tag-jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-school","tag-jose-manuel-carreno","tag-martine-van-hamel","tag-rachel-moore","tag-sarah-lane","tag-susan-jaffe","tag-wes-chapman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2315,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/2315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}