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.