Jan 31 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. Now, here is an interesting thing. When I watch the ballet, this moment never really sticks out and I remember when I set it that I always felt it was lacking something. But it ALWAYS looks good in photos.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. And then this is a moment soon after, that I always felt would be a "special" section of the ballet. And it is. But it doesn't photograph well. Oh well, that's why you need to see live performances.

Daily stuff - More rehearsal for R & J. Set a pas de deux to When A Man Loves a Woman. Off to teach at Florence. Nothing amazing today so far.

Jan 30 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. Juliet prepares to jump up on Romeo's shoulder.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. A second variation on the dip. This one comes out of a series of pirouettes and stops dead. It is then held for a few seconds, so that the audience (and dancers) have a moment of "What's next?"

Daily Stuff- Day off. good thing too, as I have a slight cold. :(

Jan 29 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. We were working on this step today with this year's Romeo and Juliet (Max and Stephanie Maiorano). It isn't difficult, but the intent is a bit hard for the Juliet's to wrap their minds around. it comes after a series of lifts and precedes a series of supported turns. Juliet dives quickly into the arabesque and then has to come out of it slowly as if the intensity of her own feelings has caught her by surprise. Not  only does this give the dancer a chance to breathe but it allows the phrasing of the movements to have a bit of human color.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. Now this is a detail from a photo we would never use for publicity because it is partially blurry and catches the dancers at a moment in between the beautiful lines normally associated with ballet. However I chose to include it here because I love the sense of abandon on Abby's face.

Daily Stuff - Taught this morning. Set an old pas de deux to Patsy Cline. Its a piece I was always very happy with but that we haven't done in a long time. It requires a female dancer with clean lines and footwork, as well as an astringent, dramatic quality to her dancing. Then did Romeo rehearsal and finished by re-staging a group number set to the song L-O-V-E. The dance involves the dancers forming letters with their bodies. Since I had one Chinese and two Russian dancers as part of the corps, I wanted to make sure that the humor of the piece didn't escape them. So we had a little alphabet lesson as we went along.

Jan 28 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. Ah all the lines so stretched

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & MAx Tchernychev. Sometimes when you choreograph a piece there is a motif that keeps popping up. In my Romeo and Juliet, one of them is the "dip".  Dips are romantic. Each of their 3 pas de deux has some form of this step in it.

Daily Stuff - Taught class today for Max, who was off with some of the students of the school at a competition. Personally, I dislike the idea of dance competitions. I know there are many who would disagree with me, and that is fine. But it just isn't my bag. (Yes, I also dislike So You Think You Can Dance.) But the I also dislike any kind of games where people "lose," like Monopoly, etc. Anyhow, after class, I went over the non Romeo pas de deux's that have already been taught and then set a sweet little pas de deux from A Midsummer Night's Dream for Bottom and Titania, as well as a solo from a piece from 1998, set to some Patsy Cline music.

Jan 27 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. The big moment where Juliet lets go.

Daily Stuff - Had the whole cast together today for Romeo et Juliet. It was nice seeing what the ballet will be looking like this year. Afterwards, ran the first act pas de deux that was staged yesterday (set to Little Darlin) and restaged the Besame Mucho pas de deux from last year's premiere "How High the Moon." Was supposed to teach company class this morning, Max asked me if I would switch with him, so I will teach tomorrow.

Jan 26 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. This little pose has been the cause of more consternation for dancers and choreographer. Juliet sort of swings around and backs into this position and then she swings back into the pose below. Originally, the back foot was supposed to be on point, but when she did that, it never had the right sense of rebound.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. In the end, I decided that I really didn't care that much about the athleticism of standing on point and what I really wanted was the juxtaposition of the arms and bodies. When I told the original Juliet to just go off pointe for the step, she seemed disappointed. But after a few run throughs, she saw the method of my madness.

Daily Stuff - Put Paris into R et J today. Also worked on Juliet's death scene. Afterwards, reset an old pas de deux for the first part of the Romance program. Its a sort of 50's thing with lots of jumps and turns for the couple. I was a bit surprised at just how fast the choreography was that I had set. But just as before, after a few run throughs, it all started to make sense.

Jan 25 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Max Tchernychev & Abby Avery. Romeo has just entered and as Juliet runs past him he reaches out and grabs her at the last moment. Which gives us this odd little moment where she is spinning around reacting to him.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Max Tchernychev and Abby Avery. After a few awkward moments, the pas de deux starts in earnest, with Romeo advancing towards Juliet, as she bourees backwards away from him. Keep the eye contact.

Daily Stuff - Romeo rehearsal. Worked on the bedroom pas de deux today and plugged in the Nurse to her scenes. Today teaching the Level 5 class.

Jan 24 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Abby Avery. The solo finishes with a restatement of the first sequence of steps. That to me was always suggestive of replaying the first time you meet someone over and over in your mind. Its also a way for the dancer to relax and know that they get two cracks at the same movement pattern.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Abby Avery. At this point, Juliet has heard a suspicious sound and her reverie is broken. In a moment Romeo will appear.

Daily Stuff - Ran what we knew of Rome and Juliet. Added Lady Capulet's Mad Scene and the following scene in Juliet's bedroom. I rather like the bedroom section with the corp de ballet as it has a lot of fast flowing backup movement. Onward to teach at Florence Elementary.

Jan 23 2012

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Abby Avery. The "balcony" pas de deux in my mind is actually danced in a garden. It starts with this little solo for Juliet. It was also the first part of the ballet choreographed.

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Abby Avery. The solo is filled with a lot of gestures that are evocative of a young girl remembering her first dance at a ball. Or at least, what I think that would be like.

Daily Stuff - Rainy Day off.

Jan 22 2012

  Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: San Diego Ballet corps

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Abby Avery. The pas de deux begins.

Daily Stuff - Today in rehearsal, we killed Tybalt and Mercutio. It's always one of the male dancers favorite parts. For some reason, the really seem to enjoy stabbing each other and dying. It's a bit like Cowboys and Indians.

Jan 21 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Rachel Sebastian-Hagquist. Looking very much like the subject of some painting by a Dutch master.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Max Tchernychev. Yearning for the big smoochy pas de deux that will take stage in a few seconds.

Daily Stuff - Rainy day in San Diego today. Romeo and Juliet rehearsal. We cleaned up the second street scene. The ballet is in pretty good shape. Yesterday had a meeting for a collaborative project between the San Diego Rep and the San Diego School for Creative and Performing Arts. for the past two years, the organizations have been working together to present a summer musical. The first year's collaboration was a production of Hairspray for which I won a San Diego Critic's Circle award. Last year's show was Tommy (for which I am nominated for a San Diego Critic's Circle Award.) As for this year's show, I am still a little up in the air as to whether I will commit to it. I have to speak to the director they have chosen first to see if we are on the same page about the show.

Jan 20 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Rachel Sebastian-Hagquist. A study of Lady Capulet.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Rachel Sebastian-Hagquist.

Daily Stuff - More Romeo rehearsal. I'll be about halfway through cleaning it up today. Should be done with it by the weekend.

Jan 19 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: All the usual suspects. The jig is up and Lady Capulet wants Romeo to leave the party.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Rachel Sebastian-Hagquist. I love the way Rachel looks like one of those Russian icons in this photo. Those scary, sinister Madonnas.

Daily Stuff - More cleaning up Romeo and Juliet today. Yesterday's educational outreach show went very well (apart from a cd player that didn't want to recognize a disc.) Usually we only take 2 guys and 3 girls to the Spring outreach shows. Because we had to learn it quickly, I ended up teaching it to everyone, so that each dancer would only have to learn less. So we all went to the school together and the school got the special treat of seeing the whole company perform. A win win situation.

Jan 18 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Max Tchernychev & Abby Avery.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Max Tchernychev & Abby Avery. Still in the ballroom scene, so we can't get too passionate.

Daily Stuff - Finished choreographing the Lecture Demonstration. Off to perform in 20 minutes and then back to teach at SDB this evening. the  tomorrow we get back to rehearsing Romeo and Juliet.

Jan 17 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. Romeo and Juliet finally get to meet each other at the ball. Time seems to slow down. This is always a problematic scene in the ballet. You want to show that they have this sort of instant attraction, but you can't really have them do much, because they are at a public ball after all, so...

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Reagan Nuchereno & Vinnie Prisbrey. The Greek Chorus/Renaissance Figures go wild around them, to portray what R & J are feeling inside.

Daily Stuff - Well, we managed to set all but 20 seconds of the educational outreach program we will be doing tomorrow. Thats fine though. We have 2 hours of rehearsal time in the morning before we jet off to the performance site. These little ballets are narrated, to add to the literacy component. I had forgotten how wordy that this particular one is. Luckily, I don't have to memorize it.

Jan 16 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Stephanie Maiorano. Rosaline (one of Juliet's handmaidens) leads a very coquettish dance, where all of the girls wear masks to confuse the boys as to their real identities.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Stephanie Maiorano. Somehow, I think the boys can still tell them apart. I was always very happy with the construction of this section of the piece.

Daily Stuff - Went in today to try to find a video to reconstruct a lecture demonstration that we are doing on Wednesday. Unfortunately, when I found the tape, it had been partially taped over. :( By me. The good thing is that there was a script and once I read it with the music, enough came back that I should be able to reconstruct it without to much difficulty.

Jan 15 2012

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Leila Gardner. These are both reaction shots from the ball scene.

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Noriko Zaragoza & Max Tchernychev. I love this shot because it literally captures what is just a millisecond of a moment in the ballet. Tybalt is about to get into a fight with Romeo, so Lady Capulet sends Juliet off and one of of Juliet's attendants rushes in to get Romeo out of harms way. Looking at the pic, you would think that Noriko was Juliet  herself because she looks so concerned. But she is really just Handmaiden #2.

Daily Stuff - Came back to rehearsal for the first time today. The company has learned quite a bit, but still a lot of clean-up to do. Mainly lots of getting enough "weight" into the movement. Also worked with Stephanie and Max on the pas they performed yesterday.  Fixed some lines and steps that were not quite clear on the video.

Jan 14 2012

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Matt Carney, Abby Avery, Leila Gardner

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Matt Carney & Noriko Maruzoe

Daily Stuff - Whew! Today was the dedication of the aforementioned Performing Arts Center in the South Bay. I was asked if the San Diego Ballet would be willing to have guest performers at the dedication and I, of course, said yes. I thought it would be a good way for this year's Juliet, Stephanie Maiorano, to begin getting familiar with the part. I also thought it would be a nice way to see a newer dancer with the company partner her a bit. All was set yesterday afternoon, and costumes were allotted. Then late last night, I got a message that Stephanie's partner had become ill and would not be able to do the show. So a quick scramble and rearrangement this morning freed up Max from some teaching assignments, so he could go down and do the job. The thing is that Max and Steph had not rehearsed together. One quick run through onstage and the audience never knew that there had been any change in plans. they did a lovely job.
On a personal note, caught up with many old friends and students. Nice

Jan 13 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Meghan Lotz. We are now deep in the ballroom scene and the renaissance chorus has become a mixture of celibrant/gargoyle architecture.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Marshall Whiteley & Rachel Sebastian- Hagquist. And the principals get to schmact.

Daily Stuff - Went in today and managed to work for an hour before I had to turn around and come home. Nice to know that the world still goes on :)

Jan 12 2012

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Marshall Whiteley $ Rachel Sebastian - Hagquist.

 Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancer: Meghan Lotz

Daily Stuff- I think if all goes well tonight, I may be able to return to work tomorrow afternoon.

Jan 11 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Marshall Whiteley & Rachel Sebastian-Hagquist

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Marshall Whiteley & Rachel Sebastian-Hagquist

Daily Stuff- Still on my sick bed. Luckily, there are those at the ballet company who can reset my stuff for February.