{"id":3591,"date":"2012-05-04T17:08:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T21:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/?p=3591"},"modified":"2012-05-04T17:08:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T21:08:24","slug":"american-ballet-theatre-a-cast-of-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/american-ballet-theatre-a-cast-of-characters.htm","title":{"rendered":"American Ballet Theatre: A Cast of Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Misty<\/a><\/p>\n

American Ballet Theatre<\/a> : A Cast of Characters
\nWorks and Process at the Guggenheim<\/a>
\nApril 30, 2012<\/p>\n

Every time that I write about a Works and Process event, I always feel the urge to open the article by gushing about how grateful I am for this series.\u00a0 For those of us who love American Ballet Theatre and who love the ballet in general, it is wonderful to be shown the details \u2013 small and otherwise \u2013 that the artists take into consideration as they create the works that touch our hearts.<\/p>\n

This presentation, hosted by Vassar Dance Professor John Meehan, covered Character Dancing, Dancing Character Roles, and Characterization, three distinctly different topics.<\/p>\n

The evening opened with the Hungarian Czardas from Swan Lake performed by ABT\u2019s Studio Company with Kristi Boone and Roman Zhurbin in the featured roles.\u00a0 Meehan spoke with Boone and Zhurbin about the makings of a good character dancer.\u00a0 They emphasized the dancer\u2019s need to be versatile and they stressed the importance of epaulment and port des bras.\u00a0 Zhurbin said that in character dancing, he tends to move with a different physicality.\u00a0 His weight is pushed down to the ground, as opposed to being pulled up in the familiar ballet postures.\u00a0 Boone talked about the difficulties in dancing character roles when she\u2019s also dancing on pointe in another part of the same ballet.\u00a0 Quick costume changes which include a change from boots to pointe shoes are complicated, as pointe shoes can take a long time to put on, and the feet tend to swell with the change of shoes.<\/p>\n

To talk about characterization, Meehan introduced Misty Copeland, who will be dancing the role of Firebird when ABT presents Alexei Ratmansky\u2019s Firebird beginning on June 12th.\u00a0 It was such a great treat to see Copeland, clad in a red unitard and a luxurious red tail, performing a short dramatic excerpt, full of quick and birdlike footwork, and sailing attitude turns.\u00a0 The preview made me very excited about seeing the upcoming production.<\/p>\n

She said that Ratmansky expressed the entire story in movement and that he didn\u2019t instruct her about how to look.\u00a0 Isabella Boylston and Natalia Osipova will also be dancing the role, and Copeland said that they give three very different interpretations.\u00a0 She described Ratmansky as being calm and easy going, even when revising choreography up to the last minute.\u00a0 She also spoke a bit about the costume, especially about the tail, and the moment of truth when she has to find a feather to pluck and give to Ivan.\u00a0 This happens on the heels of a grueling pas de deux, and she has exactly half a count of music to find the feather and pluck it.<\/p>\n

I was so surprised to learn that Copeland began her ballet training at the age of thirteen, as most ballet dancers start so much earlier.\u00a0 With only four years of training, she was invited to join ABT\u2019s Studio Company.\u00a0 It was interesting to hear her say that she only recently started feeling more comfortable in her technique, because her dancing is just so sensational.<\/p>\n

The next speaker was Reid Anderson, Artistic Director of Stuttgart Ballet.\u00a0 He was so endearing and so refreshingly honest as he spoke about his training and his early career.\u00a0 He said that within the Royal Ballet School, he felt like the lumberjack from Canada and anything but a purist.\u00a0 When he was invited to join the Stuttgart Ballet, he was candid with choreographer John Cranko about his insecurities.\u00a0 He described his body as being difficult — a pack of cigarettes on 2 toothpicks \u2013 and Cranko said, \u201cThat\u2019s what I like about you.\u201d\u00a0 Anderson, who described the 1969 company as a group of misfits, was told by Cranko that many can do the steps, but very few can dance.<\/p>\n

Anderson told a story about Cranko, who when working with Marcia Hayd\u00e9e\u00a0 said that he did not want her to be coached \u2013 he wanted her to go on instinct.\u00a0 He preferred natural acting over stylized ballet gestures.\u00a0 He wanted the audience to be able to understand the entire ballet even if they hadn\u2019t had time to read the program.\u00a0 Under Cranko\u2019s direction, Anderson and the dancers learned to be theatrical.<\/p>\n

It was fascinating to learn about the detail that goes into characterizations.\u00a0 We watched Cory Stearns in the role of Onegin, dancing the Book Pas de Deux with Hee Seo, as Anderson explained the importance of Onegin\u2019s focus.\u00a0 When his gaze is focused upward, it\u2019s to show that he\u2019s thinking about what was, or what could be.\u00a0 When his gaze is cast downward, he\u2019s thinking about what\u2019s happening in the moment.\u00a0 He shows the audience that he\u2019s unimpressed with Tatiana\u2019s book, but his back is to her so that she can\u2019t see how he feels.\u00a0 He lifts her, but looks away as he lowers her, to show us that he\u2019s putting her out of his mind.\u00a0 I absolutely loved Anderson\u2019s description of Onegin\u2019s \u201csearching arabesques\u201d \u2013 even with his privilege and good looks, he\u2019s just not happy and he\u2019s searching for something that he can\u2019t find.\u00a0 This vocabulary of movement shows us the way that Onegin toys with Tatiana\u2019s affections, but keeps drifting away emotionally and going back inside his own head.<\/p>\n

Roman Zhurbin demonstrated a medley of excerpts from a series of five character roles, one right after the other.\u00a0 It was amazing to see him switch from one character to the next every few minutes.\u00a0 He talked about the heavy movement and the weight that he uses when playing Lord Capulet, as he demonstrated how he marches toward the audience.\u00a0 Then he danced Inspector Gavrilych from The Bright Stream, and talked about how he pictured him as being bowlegged \u201cas if he\u2019d just gotten off a horse\u201d.\u00a0 I am someone who swoons every time that I see any part of ABT\u2019s Swan Lake, so I especially loved his excerpt from Act 4, when Odette struggles to protect Siegfried, and Zhurbin as Von Rothbart reminds Siegfried that he\u2019s already sworn eternal love to Odile.\u00a0 Even though Zhurbin stood on a bare stage with no costume and no orchestra, that little excerpt really stirred my fondest memories of the dance.\u00a0 When I see Swan Lake again this year, I’ll have to pay closer attention to Von Rothbart.<\/p>\n

\"Roman<\/a><\/p>\n

The evening closed with the Danse Russe from Act III of Swan Lake, and talk about Kevin McKenzie\u2019s decision to give Von Rothbart some more dimension by having him flirt with the princesses at the party.\u00a0 Sascha Radetsky danced Von Rothbart and I was taken by the intimacy of this performance, and the way that it held its own without the stunning sets and lighting or the big orchestra.<\/p>\n

Tickets for American Ballet Theatre\u2019s Met Season are on sale now<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 I can’t wait for it to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Ballet Theatre : A Cast of Characters Works and Process at the Guggenheim April 30, 2012 Every time that I write about a Works and Process event, I always feel the urge to open the article by gushing about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[399,134,139,404,400,402,403,401],"class_list":["post-3591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-karen","tag-alexei-ratmanskys-firebird","tag-american-ballet-theatre","tag-guggenheim-museum-works-and-process","tag-john-cranko","tag-misty-copeland","tag-onegin","tag-reid-anderson","tag-roman-zhurbin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3591","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=3591"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3598,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3591\/revisions\/3598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}