Choreography: Play Between Past & Present
This is the last installment in our series of posts on The Dance COLEctive‘s upcoming choreography showcase. We’ve talked with each of the choreographers, and today we have Melissa Pillarella with us to talk about her piece, where the dancers confront the complexities of feeling and accepting resentment by incorporating athleticism and a non-linear structure. Music from local band To Destroy a City furthers the tone and theme of the piece.
Melissa Pillarella
In life, I think there are always past events that people look back on and hold a little resentment or regret towards. Even if those events have brought them to a place where they are satisfied and happy, they may still think in the back of their mind about how they would like to go back and change something or do something differently. Of course, it isn’t possible, but the play between the present and the past, moving forward and looking back, is something that makes us who we are and is endlessly interesting to me.
What role did the band play in this process?
Usually music is one of the things I struggle with most, and I feel like it always becomes an afterthought once the piece is finished. I create something, and try to find something to slap on top of it that isn’t completely distracting. This time, I wanted to approach this project with a clear idea of what kind of music I wanted to use. I saw To Destroy a City perform at The Empty Bottle, and I turned to my brother and said, “I want to dance to that.” I was really into the mood and atmosphere they created with their intricate soundscapes.
At the beginning of the process, when we were first focusing on inventing movement, I played the album throughout rehearsals which I think influenced a lot of the vocabulary we created. As we got deeper into the project I was influenced by other sounds that I also wanted to incorporate in the piece, and it started to go a different direction. I decided I wanted to create a piece that used different samples of sounds I was interested in and convinced my hesitant friend, Donovan Lampa, to help me. Donovan is not a musician, so it was an experiment for both of us.
We liked what he created, but it needed something else. We decided to try reincorporating To Destroy a City, and it was exactly what the piece needed coming full circle. Now, the music is partially our experiment and partially the band (which is much better than our sorry attempt, but here goes nothing).
How did you communicate the idea behind this piece to the dancers—and was it difficult to do?
I actually waited until we were a few rehearsals in to discuss my idea behind the piece to the dancers at all. I didn’t want to feel confined by the desire to get a specific thought across, but instead I wanted to see where the piece naturally took us. It was only difficult to talk to the dancers about the idea because it wasn’t very easy for me to articulate. I do believe the original idea, whatever that was exactly, is very prevalent in the piece at least in structure and overall mood.
How much collaboration was involved in the creation of the piece?
I came into the process with some movement phrases and also gave specific assignments to the dancers to generate material. Together, we played with layering and working more in depth with the movement both I and they had created. Then I used a trial and error method for structuring the piece by watching the dancers work with various potential structures I threw out until we found one that seemed to make sense both thematically and aesthetically. Overall, I think the process was very collaborative, and I was incredibly lucky to have such talented dance artists working with me. The piece would not be the same without them.
Did you enjoy the choreographic process—or how would you describe it?
I have a love/hate relationship with the choreographic process. Like any true love, it can be horribly frustrating and totally satisfying all at the same time. Sometimes I wanted to throw out everything I had because it was shit and start over, and other times I thought that I was a genius who had just created the best work ever seen. In reality, neither are true, and I’m just beyond privileged to have a creative outlet that can sweep me up in the process… sometimes.
If you are interested in seeing this show, it runs May 18 & 19 at 8:00pm and May 20 at 7:00pm. Tickets are available here.
BIO: Melissa Pillarella, originally from Chicago, began dancing at Whitney Young Magnet High School and received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois. While at U of I, Melissa performed in works by Jan Erkert, Linda Lehovec, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Lorie Carlos and others. Currently, Melissa also dances with Mordine & Co. Dance Theater as well as independent choreographer Cristina Walterman. Melissa is excited and honored to be returning for her second season with The Dance COLEctive.
Three Days At ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School
Please join me in welcoming our newest contributor Dalia Rawson, who will be writing about ABT’s National Training Curriculum for 4dancers…
by Dalia Rawson
I was finally there, at 890 Broadway in New York City. This building, which houses the Laurence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theatre, is the legendary home of the American Ballet Theatre and ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. The building boasts floor after floor of dance studios, and it has been the site of rehearsals, classes, and auditions for countless dance companies, dance schools, and Broadway shows.
The building’s rich history is apparent the minute you step out one of its two operator-controlled elevators, into a maze of hallways and staircases leading to countless dressing rooms and dance studios. Innumerable legendary dance teachers have taught in these studios, and I was about to meet one of the most notable. American Ballet Theatre’s Franco De Vita, the co-creator of ABT’s National Training Curriculum and Principal of ABT’s JKO School had invited me to observe three days of classes. Ballet San Jose School is moving towards implementation of ABT’s National Training Curriculum, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled by this opportunity. Raymond Lukens, who co-created the Curriculum with Mr. De Vita, was out of town, so I would be learning about the Curriculum through watching classes taught by Mr. De Vita, as well as classes taught by other faculty members of the JKO School.
I had arrived early, not sure how long it would take to walk from the Chelsea apartment where I was staying to the studios, and found myself with a moment to catch my breath and reflect before classes were to begin. As I waited with the ABT receptionist, sitting under the framed Resolutions passed by the US Senate and House of Representatives recognizing ABT’s service as America’s National Ballet Company, I felt a growing excitement regarding what was to come. Having spent the previous night on a red-eye flight from San Jose to New York after Ballet SJ School’s Summer Intensive Auditions, I was slightly disoriented, adding to the almost surreal surge of anticipation I was feeling about seeing some of our nation’s most talented dance students up close in class. As it turns out, I wasn’t disappointed.
American Ballet Theatre Lobby, with the Senate Resolutions, Photo by Dalia Rawson & courtesy of ABT
Choreography: Transforming Personal Poisons Into Beauty?
Atlanta Ballet’s New Choreographic Voices is exactly what it sounds like–a showcase for talented emerging choreographers. This year, the company presents three pieces–two world premieres and one Atlanta premiere. The choreographers include Christopher Wheeldon, Helen Pickett and Atlanta Ballet’s own company member Tara Lee.
Tara Lee, Photo by Charlie McCullers
Lee is a principal dancer in her sixteenth season with the Atlanta Ballet, and her choreography has also been performed by New Orleans Ballet Theatre and Emory Dance Company. Here she shares some of the ideas that inspired her latest piece, as well as what it was like to collaborate with a composer…
How did you first begin choreographing for Atlanta Ballet?
The ballet held a choreographers’ workshop years ago, where those of us who were interested could create a piece on the company and then show our work to a small audience in our studios. I presented an unfinished piece for the workshop, and (Artistic Director) John McFall invited me do a completed version for the company’s following season. “Sixteen String” was my first professional work; it premiered at the Ferst Centre in 2003.
How many works have you choreographed so far?
About 6…”Pavo” will be my third work for the Atlanta Ballet.
What was your process like when you created this piece?
The process of creating “Pavo” has been unique, because we commissioned an original score (a first for me) from Dr. Nickitas Demos, professor at Georgia State. It has been quite an experience, to create something that is in constant flux from all ends. Thankfully, Nick is a wonderful artist and collaborator.
As for the choreography, it ended up being a mixture of prepared material and spontaneous creation in the studio with the dancers. I might teach a body of material, and then ask the dancers to insert their language into those sequences. Then we would continue to adapt that new information further.
Working on "Pavo", Photo by Charlie McCullers
Jesse Tyler (my assistant choreographer) and I might improvise some partnering work in the studio, end up teaching it to the cast, and then evolving it with the dancers’ input. We would usually put the music into the mix after the choreography was already shaped and find the dancers’ natural timing to synchronize all the elements.
Can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind your new work?
Initially, Nick and I had a couple of meetings to see if things clicked, and we quickly came up with a couple of themes we were interested in exploring: cycles and continuum. After deciding on instrumentation, length of movements, and general dynamics of each section, Nick began to send me pieces of the score.
I was at a bit of a loss at first. The music was dynamic, but I didn’t know what to do with it, choreographically or thematically. Then I found an article about the peacock. It resonated with me instantly, and it became clear that I wanted to base the ballet on the spiritual symbolism of the bird. “Pavo” is the Latin word for peacock.
Photo by Charlie McCullers
When I learned that the peacock can digest poisonous snakes, and therefore represents the transmuting of one’s personal poisons, I recognized one of Nick’s sections to be “the digestion of poisons”. Some riffs even sounded like snake charmer music. I read further and discovered that peacocks dance restlessly before rainstorms; this presented the inspiration for the musical section I was worried about–it’s a very complex, feverish 3 minutes, and it made sense that it would be the storm section.
Nick had also sent me a lovely adagio for the featured duet, and when I read that peacocks also represent fidelity and faithfulness, I thought it was another great match. It was exciting to see our once broad themes become more focused and inspired. We had talked about cycles at our first meeting, and the metaphor of the peacock represented a breaking out of a cycle—a negative one. Awesome.
What do you enjoy the most about choreographing a piece?
I love walking out of a rehearsal being completely surprised at what we all just created.
New Choreographic Voices will run May 18th – May 20th on The Alliance Stage at the Woodruff Arts Center.
Watch an interview with Tara Lee:
Student Spotlight: Steffi Acain
Nuevo Student Steffi Acain
Today we have another “student spotlight” to share with you. Meet Steffi Acain from Nuevo School of Contemporary Dance….
1. Can you tell readers how you became involved with dance?
When I was four years old my parents thought I was very shy and awkward around people my own age because I was an only child. So to remedy my lack of social skills, they enrolled me into my first dance class at The Dance Spot. My parents thought it would just be something fun for me to do after school. But after those first initial years, I think they started to take notice that I actually held promise and passion for dance. I then started competing at dance competitions, performing at recitals, attending various intensives, and taking classes at other studios in order to expand my dance vocabulary.
Currently, I am eighteen years old and a member of the Nuevo School of Contemporary Dance. I train about four to five hours a day, five days a week, in styles ranging from ballet and jazz to contemporary and hip hop. After having dance in my life for so long, my love and appreciation for the art form has grown every single day. And if it were up to me to judge, I would say that I’m not as socially awkward as I used to be.
2. What do you find you like best about dance class?
For me, I think just having that opportunity to take class so that I can learn and grow more as a dancer is my favorite aspect. One of the most important lessons that I’ve learned from dance is that you get what you put into it. Taking class can be nothing but help to a dancer because it is one of those rare times when mistakes are forgivable and expected. This is the time when you can experiment with what works on your body and truly explore who you are & can be as a dancer. Class can only be what you make of it. So although it is important to be physically present, you will only truly benefit if you are mentally and emotionally invested as well.
'Palladio' with choreography by Francisco Gella, Steffi Acain - back row center
Taking class is such an amazing experience because that is when I not only get to enjoy dancing myself, but also watching my friends dance and learning from them. Seeing different people interpret the same music and choreography in their own way is very eye opening since it shows the universal language of dance. The classroom experience is so real because you can’t hide behind make-up, costumes, or stage lights. It’s simply just dance at its most authentic state.
3. What is the hardest part about dance for you?
Personally, the hardest part is staying motivated and focused. Being in high school, especially as a senior, there have been so many times when I have let my mind wander off because I was worried about where I was going to be next year and what I was going to be doing. I would especially get even more anxious when trying to figure out how dance was going to fall into the equation. However, when I stopped thinking about problems that I could not fix at the moment and started focusing on what I was doing right then and there, that is when I got the most out of the class. Fortunately, I have an outlet like dance that allows me to temporarily forget about my problems and express how I am feeling through movement.
4. What advice would you give to other dancers?
My advice to dancers would be to always have faith in yourself. As dancers, we are constantly being compared and ranked against one another. It’s then that we begin to feel self-conscious of our looks and even question our own abilities. But despite what a judge at a local competition or a random bystander may think, it’s always important to have confidence in yourself and what you do. Their opinion is just one out of many people watching. It’s only natural that we are drawn to specific dancers more than others. By letting a couple of negative comments affect how you perceive yourself, you are not only doing an injustice to yourself but also to the many hours you have worked and trained to get to where you are.
Steffi Acain
Basically, just remember to believe in yourself. Even if you may not have the best technique or you’re not as skinny as the dancer standing next to you, I think everyone is drawn to a performer who possesses confidence. Before you expect people to believe that you are good, you have to believe that you are good enough and worth their attention. Although it is easier said than done, I think believing in yourself -both onstage and off- is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself.
5. How has dance changed your life?
Dance has been such a positive influence on my life. I definitely would not be the same person without it nor can I imagine my life without dance. Aside from growing as a dancer in the studio, dance has helped me grow as a person in the real world. From dance, I’ve learned what hard work, dedication, and perseverance can bring. The work ethic that has been instilled in me at the studio has also helped me succeed in school and other activities. Most importantly, the friends and relationships that I have made through dance are ones that I will carry even after the stage lights go down. My entire dance experience thus far will forever have a lasting impression on me.
0Finding Balance: Dancers On Coping With Injury
by Emily Kate Long
Last month’s “Finding Balance” explored the relationships among dancer identity, passion for dance, injury, and age. A month after writing that column, I can’t get away from the topic—it utterly fascinates and confounds me. I was directed by a friend to a widely cited study by Linda Hamilton (American Journal of Sports Medicine, March 1989) titled “Personality, Stress, and Injuries in Professional Ballet Dancers.” In it, Hamilton states:
“[The] dancer must possess extraordinary dedication, a limitless capacity for hard work, and the ability to persevere through more or less continual pain, in addition to having a specific body type and talent….[The] personality traits that are programmed into success in this profession may ultimately prove detrimental to those dancers who have not learned to work within the natural limitations of their bodies.”
The italicization of that last phrase is my own—is that the key to balance between doing our best and doing too much? How can we push ourselves hard enough that we achieve highly without letting those “success traits” run so rampant as to destroy us? How do we learn what our natural limitations are? How can we expand them?
Hamilton’s statement compelled me to seek out dancers I admire and view as highly self-driven, and ask them to weigh in on the subject of coping with and learning from injuries. Of those I contacted, three dancers were able to contribute to this article. My utmost thanks go out to them for taking the time to answer my questions candidly and thoughtfully.
Jeanette Hanley
Jeanette Hanley was a Leading Artist with Milwaukee Ballet when I was in the second company there. Her dancing and her spirit and her enthusiasm made a great impression on me—I never saw her get injured or upset, and her energy and motivation seemed endless. She was like superwoman, or the energizer bunny. She has since retired from dancing, but I still think of her as a role model. I decided to get in touch with her for this article to discover what strategies kept her going throughout her 21-year dancing career, and how she felt about retirement. She shared with me that her love of yoga and going to the gym made it easy to stay in good physical shape during layoffs, and that she never had trouble with injuries while she was dancing. With the birth of her daughter, healthy diet and exercise got her going again. Now that she’s retired, it has been helpful to have a new line of work that she loves. Always learning, Jeanette also takes karate with her daughter, and they will both be receiving black belts in the fall.
Katie Rideout
Katie Rideout and I attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s summer intensive in 2007 and spent two years together in Milwaukee Ballet II, 2007-2009. Katie has struggled with lower leg injuries as long as I’ve known her. In November 2011, after dealing with intense pain in her tibia for almost two years, she made the choice to take a break from dancing and finish her Bachelor’s degree from Point Park University. She later found out she had been dancing on two stress fractures. During her recovery period she struggled most with making decisions independently of a career-oriented framework. Addressing the reality of her injury –its severity was a direct result of overuse and denial—forced Katie to begin freeing herself from obsessive passion for dance in order to return to dancing and avoid re-injury. This, in turn, allowed her to establish new training habits: integration of Pilates work and a focus on technical efficiency rather than an exclusively aesthetic aim. Finishing her undergraduate degree also gave her another aspect of her person to cultivate: an understanding and exercise of her intellect, measured separately from dance achievements.
Jason Wang
My good friend Jason Wang tore his Achilles’ tendon on August 30, 2011 and underwent surgery to repair it three days later. Naturally a planner, he, like Katie, found one of the greatest challenges in his recovery to be the uncertain timeframe and absence of a familiar “roadmap” in his decision-making process. The stillness that was necessary while waiting for doctors’ orders quickly degraded to depression; Jason felt he had been “stripped from [his] lifestyle without [his] own consent.” Also significant for Jason was the difference in coping with this long-term injury versus the short-term ones he had previously sustained: “…sitting and watching dancers do what I loved for weeks on end made me extremely stressed and depressed….[If] you’re not clear and sound in your mind then your physical side will become its collateral.” He felt it was important to step back and take time to clear his mind before deciding how to approach re-entry into the dance world.
I consider Jason, Katie, and Jeanette all to be high achievers. Pushing themselves to the limit and beyond just seems like a natural thing for them. However, in Katie’s case, pushing led to chronic injury. In Jason’s case, his inability to work led to feelings of uncertainty, depression, and isolation. Jeanette, however, was able to push herself through a two-decade career without major setbacks caused by injury. What’s her secret?
Could it be than Jeanette is simply older and wiser?
I recall another of Milwaukee Ballet’s leading artists telling me once that the time she spent in Boston Ballet II was the hardest of her life. Perhaps the more time we spend with ourselves, and the more adversity we face, the more we can come to understand that one of the “natural limitations of [our] bodies” is our very own psyche.
Readers, what dance-related experiences have forced you to face your inner demons and come out on top?
Emily Kate Long, Photo by Avory Pierce
Contributor Emily Kate Long began her dance education in South Bend, Indiana, with Kimmary Williams and Jacob Rice and graduated in 2007 from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Schenley Program. Ms Long attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s Summer Intensive on scholarship before being invited to join Milwaukee Ballet II in 2007. She also has spent summers studying at Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive, Miami City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, and Ballet Chicago.
Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed the title role in Courtney Lyon’s Cinderella and the role of Clara in The Nutcracker. Prior to joining Ballet Quad Cities Ms Long performed with Milwaukee Ballet and MBII in Michael Pink’s The Nutcracker and Candide Overture, Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadére, Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Bournonville’s Flower Festival in Genzano and Napoli, and original contemporary and neoclassical works by Tom Teague, Denis Malinkine, Rolando Yanes, and Petr Zaharadnicek.
0Bal-loopers: When Ballet Dancers Fall From Grace
by Risa Gary Kaplowitz
Lee Bell, Paolo Porcino, and Risa Kaplowitz from 2002 Easy Lessons, Choreography by Stuart Sebastion, Dayton Ballet, 1987
Last month, I attended a week-long training session for the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum in Orlando. The sessions are akin to being in a ballet nunnery, with attendees concentrating hard on learning, thinking about, and discussing the logical progression of technique. So when, on the last day, our instructor, Raymond Lukens, Director of the NTC, went off on a tangent about ballet bloopers, or what I like to call “bal-loopers”, we were ripe for hilarity.
In an instant, we transformed from nail biting, head-scratching teachers-turned-students into guffawing former professionals who had each survived a major on-stage mishap or two. One woman recounted her awful experience of having her skirt fall off mid-performance. Another in the class—a former male principal with a thick French accent—told us about a time when a faulty lift left him holding his female partner between his legs “like a piece of dental floss”. We were rolling.
Ballet is perfect; dancers are not. And thank goodness! A blunder now and then is just enough to remind the audience that what looks easy is actually brutally difficult, and it reminds us that we are not the gods and goddesses we sometimes think we are.
My most embarrassing stage moment came unexpectedly during a performance in Japan. I became disoriented onstage after a lift, and I continued the pas de deux facing the backdrop instead of the audience. It felt like an hour passed before I figured out where I was. My partner laughing at me didn’t help, and the fact that that the Prince of Japan was in the audience made it all the more humiliating.
But my encounter with a backdrop was nothing compared to what I saw a dancer from a major company do. During a guest performance for a ballet competition of which he was a former winner, he did a circle of gorgeous split leaps directly into the scrim. The impact sent him flying backwards. Ever the warrior, he went on to do a final double tour en’lair to his knee and toppled. No doubt, a performance he’ll never forget.
Thanks to youtube, bloopers like the above are no longer left to memory alone. Hundreds if not thousands of people can view what’s embarrassing to the fallen. A student has graciously allowed me to show this clip, which occurred during a performance of The Nutcracker, which Susan Jaffe choreographed for DanceVision, a company she and I founded and of which I am Artistic Director. The repeats in slow motion—courtesy of videographer Jamie Watson—could be overkill, but oh my, they are funny. Thankfully, the dancer survived to tell the tale, and now when she sees it, she laughs almost as hard as the rest of us.
I googled “Ballet Bloopers” (only for this post, I swear), and I found the mother load of unnamed dancers of yore having, shall we say, less than stellar moments. The clips that are most endearing (aka funny) are the ones in which the victim attempts a very noble cover up.
But not everyone tries to pretend a fall didn’t happen. Ever the noble himself, Edward Villela chose to bow after a crash to the tush. According to my friend Anne Levin, who was the dance critic for Trenton Times, the former New York City Ballet principal and Miami City Ballet Artistic Director, got up from his fall, bowed to the audience, and took his place upstage to start again.
While surprising bloopers can be funny, so can those that are planned. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the company of men that parodies classical ballet while dressed as females, makes audiences laugh at prat falls and the like. Here, in a snip from Swan Lake, one can see every corps member’s worst nightmare come true. (As an aside, the bowman is Serge Manolo Molina, who teaches at my studio.)
On a more serious note, in the vast majority of cases, a slippery Marley, the vinyl floor covering that every ballet studio and company uses, is the culprit of bal-loopers. At Youth America Grand Prix gala a few years ago, nearly every ballet dancer, some of who are major stars, took a spill or two on the ice-like floor. This weekend I witnessed similar problems with performances of my ballet, The Secret Garden. After watching one of my company members take a nasty fall during dress rehearsal, I’m convinced that, as wonderful as Marley is for dancers, there has to be something better for ballet.
Have a favorite bal-looper of your own? Share the fun!
Have an idea for a better floor? Please make it!
Risa Gary Kaplowitz
Contributor Risa Gary Kaplowitz is a former principal dancer with Dayton Ballet and member of Houston Ballet and Manhattan Ballet. She has also performed with Pennsylvania Ballet and Metropolitan Opera Ballet and as a guest artist with many companies nationwide.
She was originally trained at Maryland Youth Ballet by Tensia Fonseca, Roy Gean, and Michelle Lees. She spent summers as a teen studying on scholarship at American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Houston Ballet. As a professional, her most influential teachers were Maggie Black, Marjorie Mussman, Stuart Sebastian, Lupe Serrano, Benjamin Harkarvy, and Ben Stevenson. She has performed the repertoire of many choreographers including Fredrick Ashton, George Balanchine, Ben Stevenson, Stuart Sebastian, Dermot Burke, Billy Wilson, and Marjorie Mussman.
After spending ten years in a successful business career while building a family, Risa returned to the dance world and founded Princeton Dance and Theater Studio (www.princetondance.com) and DanceVision, Inc. (www.dancevisionnj.org) with Susan Jaffe, former ABT principal ballerina. Risa is now PDT’s Director, and the Artistic Director of DanceVision Inc. Risa also founded D.A.N.C.E. (Dance As a Necessary Component of Education), an outreach program that brings dance to New Jersey schools.
Risa has choreographed more than twenty pieces, and her original full-length ballets, The Secret Garden and The Snow Queen, premiered with DanceVision Performance Company in 2008 and 2011, respectively. Additionally, she has choreographed for several New Jersey Symphony Orchestra family and school outreach concerts.
Risa is an ABT Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 5. She has lectured the ABT/NYU Master candidates on starting a dance studio. She is most grateful for her teachers who gave and (in the case of ABT Curriculum) give her the exceptional tools necessary to have had a performance career and the opportunity to train others in authentically. She also feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to dance with and learn from many exceptional dancers.
7Ahnu — Shoes Inspired By Dance
If you are the outdoor activity type, you may have already heard of this company’s shoes–they make hiking boots, trail runners and other performance footwear. Starting out in the San Francisco Bay area in 2007, three founders got together and created a shoe line that reflected the name that they chose for it: Ahnu.
Ahnu is the Celtic goddess that embodies the balance between well-being and prosperity. To that end, not only has the company succeeded in doing well in the industry, but they have also donated over $250,000 to charitable causes–something they plan to continue doing.
The “Zen” and “Karma” shoes are among Ahnu’s latest efforts, and they were inspired by dance. Here’s a closer look at both:
The Zen
The Zen ($80) is a luxe leather slide with a sculpted EVA footbed. I recently wore a pair of these around town for a week, and I’m here to tell you that they are quite comfortable. Although they are casual, they are dressier than flip-flops, but just as easy on the feet, with a little added protection for tender toes. (Note–for the record, they have a toe-seperator like flip-flops do, so those who just don’t like that feeling may want to think twice before purchasing a pair.)
I found these shoes to be incredibly light–kind of like Crocs, but ever so much more stylish. And they are available in black, garden green, plum and smokey brown, so there is plenty of variety.
The Karma
The other shoe they have is the Karma ($90). Made from soft, supple, full-grain leathers, these flats are good for all day wear. The stretchy back heel provides a secure fit and they don’t take up much room in a travel bag. The sculpted EVA footbed is wrapped in micro-fiber suede to offer a soft feel with every step. These shoes are available in black, mood indigo, plum and garden green.
I liked the Zen shoes…they felt more like slippers. The only thing I own that is as comfortable is my (well broken in) pair of cowboy boots. But wearing those in the summer isn’t exactly practical…
What do you wear when you want to rest your feet?
0Choreography & Following Directions
Today we’re continuing our series on choreography, thanks to the dancers from The Dance COLEctive who are choreographing for a show that is coming up in May…
Alaina Murray
Alaina Murray’s trio is about following directions. “Everything comes with directions: driving, cooking, games, taxes, school, work. What is the outcome of following, or not following, directions? Can not following directions prove to be its own path altogether? Routine movement sequences layered with surprising detours will explore these questions.”
Alaina’s pieces is called “Please read carefully. Here’s more about it…
1. How did you decide on this idea for your piece?
Recently the concept of rules has been a point of interest in my life. I’ve been thinking a lot about how this affects my life and the decisions I make. The initial broader concept of rules seemed to narrow into following directions as I thought about it further. This idea seemed to naturally lend itself to movement, and I was excited to explore it.
2. How did the idea of following/not following directions inform your choreographic process?
We were able to generate movement from very literal directions. We used a bread recipe, directions for changing a tire, and directions for being a good housewife. I wanted to convey the sense of order and repetition that comes from following directions in the structure of the piece. I also asked the dancers to write about their own experiences with following directions early on in the process. I wanted to know if they see themselves as rule followers or not; this was helpful in creating their individual characters for the piece.
3. Do you think that the piece would have been the same if you worked with different dancers? Why or why not?
Absolutely not, the dancers invented most of the movement vocabulary in the rehearsal process. I then was able to piece it all together with the dancers’ writing in mind. The dancers were very creative and thoughtful throughout the process, allowing the dance to unfold naturally. It has been a very collaborative process.
4. Did exploring this idea leave you with any new ideas once the dance was created?
The movement that we generated started to take on a very feminine tone early on. This was not my initial intention, but I went with it. What evolved was a vintage feminine theme that naturally displays the order and uniformity of following directions.
5. What was the most enjoyable part of this process for you and why?
I have loved quirkiness in the piece. It was not my intention, but there are several humorous moments that evolved unexpectedly, and I love them.
BIO: This is Alaina Murray’s seventh season with TDC. Originally from Michigan, she received her BA in Dance from Western Michigan University. Alaina has also worked with Open House Dance Collective as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher for many years. She performed with Inaside Chicago Dance as a guest artist in 2006. Alaina shares her love of dance with little ballerinas every day at A Fairytale Ballet, a children’s ballet and creative movement program. She is the Chicago Regional Director of A Fairytale Ballet and Starbright Dance and manages four studios in the city.
If The Shoe Fits…Pointe Shoe Preparation
by Catherine L. Tully
Pointe shoes have become an integral part of ballet as an art form and, just as each dancer has a unique pair of feet, every ballerina has their own way of preparing these shoes for class or performance. Some slam them in doors to soften them up, while others work on them with little hammers to get the feel “just right”. The break-in method can vary depending on factors such as the brand of shoe and the type of role that is being performed.
We talked a bit at the beginning of the year about these special slippers, and today we’re going in for a closer look…
Rebecca King, corps de ballet dancer with Mimi City Ballet and author of the dance blog Tendus Under A Palm Tree wears Freed pointe shoes. We asked her to share her “secret formula” for getting them ready to wear, and this is what she had to say…
Rebecca King
“Preparing a pair of pointe shoes is as much a ritual to a ballerina as it is a necessity. Even though, as professionals, our shoes are shipped to us straight from London, made by hand with love by our chosen “makers” to our exact specifications, many dancers find it necessary to make some extra alterations. It can take dancers years to get their shoes exactly as they want them and some dancers go their entire career in search of the elusive perfect shoe.
A maker hand-builds about 30-40 pairs of shoes at Freed of London every day, each shoe costing around $100. About two-thirds of the shoes produced are created for individual dancer’s specifications. (Find out more about these fascinating pieces of art on Freed’s website.)
I wear a size four, with a double X width, made by my beloved “U” maker. On the bottom of my shoe underneath the width, he stamps his symbol, “U”, as a kind of signature; laying claim to his craftsmanship. The thing I love most about Mr. U is how aesthetically beautiful his shoes are. Something about the way the toe of the shoe is built compliments every wearer’s foot. He is a very important person in my life.
The first thing I do is remove the pesky nail from the heel of the shoe. This nail is meant to secure the paper “shank”, or the inner sole of the shoe, to the outer sole of the shoe. Once it is removed, I cut the paper shank to the shoe’s middle seam, essentially cutting it in half. Because my feet are not very good, this allows the sole of my shoe to bend and lets me point my feet to their full potential. I then glue the end of the shank to the outer sole so it does not move around as I dance.
Photo by Rebecca King
Next, I put super glue in the tips of the shoes. When the tip of the shoe gets soft, it no longer functions like I need it to; this is my ultimate pointe shoe pet peeve. Mr. U even puts an extra piece of burlap in the tip with extra glue upon my request, but I always apply more glue for good measure.
Then I cut the satin off the top of the shoe and quickly darn around the edges. This gives me a little extra support when my shoes start to die, and also ensures that the freshly cut satin stays in place.
Finally, the ribbon process begins. I use pink ribbons secured over crisscrossed thin pink elastic. I prefer the thin elastic, as I don’t feel a lot of pressure on my ankles, while the crisscross restricts my movement laterally, helping to prevent ankle sprains.
Though this is my current process, if you check back with me in two years, I am fairly certain I will have a new procedure, as my system is constantly evolving. But as for now, I feel I can dance my best with a half shank, extra super glue, and Mr. U on my side.”
As Ms. King clearly illustrates, ballerinas have a special relationship with their pointe shoes. However, for ballet companies, the costs associated with keeping the ladies on their toes can be astronomical. According to Miami City Ballet’s website, the average pair of pointe shoes typically only last for one performance.
Photo by Rebecca King
Here is a closer look at what ballet companies across the nation pay to keep the ladies on their toes:
Last year the dancers at Oregon Ballet Theatre used about 1,500 pairs of pointe shoes which added up to $120,000.
Texas Ballet Theatre will spend $80,000 on pointe shoes this year.
Miami City Ballet dancers wear 3,000 pairs of pointe shoes each season for a total cost of $200,000.
Last season Cincinnati Ballet spent $82,000 on pointe shoes for the company.
And New York City Ballet? Their dancers can go through 40 to 50 pairs each performance. This means a staggering total of 8,500+ pairs of pointe shoes each year. I don’t even want to do the math on that one. (But according to this article on The Huffington Post, it adds up to $500,000!)
2Keeping Dancers Dancing: Outside Conditioning — Pilates
by Jan Dunn, MS
Jan Dunn, MS
Last month we talked about what ”conditioning” means for a dancer, and why working on this important aspect of your dance life outside of class is so important. This month and next, I’ll give you some specific information on what forms of conditioning you might consider incorporating — if you aren’t already doing so!
Let’s start today with Pilates, something with which many dancers are already familiar.
Pilates has been in the dance world a long time, so most dancers have at least heard of it, even if they’ve not had personal experience. It is of course now very much part of today’s fitness world (and rehab) as well, but that’s only happened in the last 20 years.
History:
Joe Pilates was German-born, always interested in the body / exercise / helping people, and began developing his system during WWI, while living in Britain. He began working with injured soldiers, initially with floor exercises (“mat work”), and later using the springs on the beds as resistance (which evolved into the Reformer).
Joe immigrated to the USA in the 1920’s, settled in NYC, and with his wife Clara, set up a gym to begin teaching his developing work. During the 1930’s, his gym and the fledgling New York City Ballet were located in the same building, and dancers from the company began working with him. Joe himself was never a dancer, but that’s how the work came to be integrated into the dance community. Many dancers in the NYC area worked with Joe over the years, as they could see how much it benefited and helped their bodies and dance life.
Photo courtesy of Christopher Duggan
Pilates exercise (originally called “Contrology”) remained primarily in the NYC area for many years, until several of Joe’s dancer students who had trained with him moved to other parts of the country, and began teaching on their own. This first generation of teachers, now called “The Elders”, include people like Ron Fletcher, who recently passed away at the age of 90, and studied in NYC with Martha Graham. He moved to CA, opening a studio in Beverly Hills which catered to movie stars, and helped to popularize and spread Pilates on the West Coast.
There was also Eve Gentry, who studied and danced in NYC for many years, and was in Hanya Holm’s company. She settled in Sante Fe, NM, in the 1960’s, and began teaching both Pilates and dance. Over the years she produced many teachers of the next generation, who, like Fletcher’s students, helped the spread of Pilates all across the country.
There were other dancers among that first generation who became teachers, and slowly Pilates became known in other parts of the country. Today, almost 100 years since Joe first started developing his system during WWI, the work is taught and used world-wide, not only in dance, but in medicine / sports / fitness / geriatrics, etc.
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