Feb 22 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. More of one of the curvy motif poses that Juliet often finds herself in.

Rehearsal for SDB's Romeo et Juliet. Photographer: Gregory Olive. Dancers: Abby Avery & Max Tchernychev. I love this particular moment. Juliet actually does a couple of sexy, jazzy hip releases here. they are actually quite lovely and bespeak of Juliet trying to convince Romeo not to leave. They are kind of a cross between little pleadings and just feeling a little frisky. I remember setting them and being so happy about having the opportunity to bring some eroticism into the pas.

Daily Stuff - Went over the Gypsy entrance today. Then we choreographed the next section where the gypsy panderers show off the gypsy harlots.

Its an adagio, which is always a bit tricky because you don't want to give the impression that time has slowed down. That is one of the big problems with the way some ballet's are performed today. There have been dancers in the past (like Allegra Kent or Natalia Makarova) who could keep extremely slow adagios alive because of the internal tensions they brought to roles. Many of today's dancers can get into amazing positions, so they favor slow tempos to show off those sky high extensions. But too often they just seem to be dancing in molasses, even slowing down their emotional response.

Anyhow, we had a fun time because the girls were being slid across the floor, slung over guy's shoulders, and got to get into a catfight. Afterwards, I set the first of three female variations on Regan. Because of her contemporary dance background, I was able to sneak in a few body rolls. I was also very happy that the ending of the little dance came to me in an artistic flash. Nice when that happens.