Reviews Day 3

Photo: Don Juan at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center.

Finished dancer reviews today. Had a very nice Education Department meeting today as well. Tomorrow will be the first real day off that I have had in a long, long time :) 

Watching The Quiet Man on TV. It is the most beautiful movie... and I hate it so.

 

Reviews Day 2

Photo: Don Juan at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

2nd day of mid-year reviews. The truth is that as difficult as the process can be, it is also necessary to get a handle on where everyone is. 99 percent of the time, we are all on the same page. Occasionally, a surprise pops up, but not often. One more day and then we are through with it. It HAS been nice to touch base with the dancers about their lives outside of the company. The joys of new home ownership or teaching pilates or outside artistic endeavors.

Other than that doing some final planning for setting the next season. The reviews also give a nice opportunity for Matt and myself to discuss future planning, etc. in a low key setting... while we wait for the next dancer to come in and start their review.
 

The Yearly Reviews

Photo: Don Juan at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

This week, we take a week off from rehearsal, bu not from the job of running a ballet company. It's time for the dancers' yearly review. Reviews can be a difficult time. Is a dancer living up to their potential? Have they been plagued with injuries during the season? Have they plateaued artistically? And from the other side... are they happy at the company? Do they have any other issues with SDB? A long time ago, I came to the realization that the best thing that can be done at these things is to speak as truthfully and plainly as possible. There are inevitably tears, bu that is only because dance means so much to these artists.

Ah well, as Shakespeare said "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Not my favorite week, but it all goes with the territory.
 

A (Not So) Heavy Lift

A moment of truth.

This past weekend was one that I had been dreading for months Not only was San Diego Ballet remounting and presenting a 3 act ballet (that we hadn't done in a decade) at a fairly high profile venue, but I was also facilitating (in charge of) the entertainment portion of rather high end gala for an organization that assists differently abled athletes, the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

Both events had a 7pm start time on Saturday. And each was an event that I could not say no to for noth professional and personal reasons. So back in the fall of 2023, I committed myself to the idea that on Feb. 24th, 2024.... my mind was going to have to be in two places at the exact same time.

I would say "luckily" for me, but there was no luck associated with it. Gratefully for me, I had two amazing teams making each event work beautifully.

From the staff at CAF, to the uber-professional event staff, to the Athlete Presenters, to the amazing Auctioneer (who brought it all together), and the inspirational talent (including a South African Youth Choir), who all came together to raise more money in one evening than I have ever seen at an event like this and made the Gala a success...

And the dancers and staff (including my executive director Matt, wardrobe mistress Marcia,  General Manager Karen, as well As Gabriela and Patty), who gave performances that SDB can be proud of...

They ALL made it possible for me to spend the last 4 days driving back and forth between rehearsals and venues... and rehearsals and venues.

Through it all, I would get comments about my ability to deal with so many projects at once. The truth is that I could only do so because way back when I chose  to do so, I ALREADY knew that I had two amazing groups of people who would deliver.

A special shoutout to my longtime lighting designer, Phillipe Bergman, with whom I have shared many "souvenirs" as the say in French and without whom, I could not have gotten through the weekend.

Adios Don Juan

The weekend gave us two very nice performances of Don Juan. The ballet fit organically into the space and the dancers all filled out their roles quite nicely. Best of all, the audience "got" it. They laughed when they were supposed to laugh. They gasped when they were supposed to gasp. Very well received. The nicest thing about the ballet for me is how compact it is. For a 3 act ballet, all of the props and scenic elements can fit into the treasure chest that is used to start the show. So it is all now safely packed away until the next time Don Juan decides to strut across a stage. Onward!

One Day More

Went to the theatre today. 

Walk through onstage while they lit on top of us. Then we did a run through in costume. A couple of hiccups at the start, but then we made it through. Tomorrow is the show. The dancers seem ready for an audience. The show fits well on the stage. 

Good thoughts for the weekend!
 

Almost There

Today, we added props into rehearsal. So rather than miming knives, treasure chests, and fabric waves, the dancers actually got to deal with the actual stuff they will use onstage. It's nice to see things added gradually. like the layers of an onion. Sometimes, everything (sets, props, costumes) gets dumped on all at once. I prefer the gradual approach. I doesn't overwhelm the dancers or make them forget the focus of  what we are doing... the dance. Tomorrow, we tech and dress in the space.

Bit by Bit

Entering the homestretch. 

Today, we worked on spacing out the larger pieces of the ballet on the stage. Don Juan was originally made to fit on a deeper stage than what we will be performing on. That means that the dancers have to hold back a little on some of the traveling steps and a few of the patterns need to be re-adjusted. We taped out the parameters of the stage and go it all done. Some sections will look quite "generous" in the space. Also, hopefully, the dancers will have fun with spilling off of the stage. There are quite a few sections where they watch each other dance. I knew when I chose the piece for the Conrad that I would be having the dancers sitting on the steps that lead up to the stage. Hopefully, by breaking the procenium line, it will add to the intimate feeling of the piece and help the audience feel as if they are inside the piece.

Getting there.
 

Byronic

Byronic. Adjective: Characteristic of Lord Byron or his poetry. Alluringly dark, mysterious and moody (typically used to describe a man).

"He knew himself a villain - bu he deem'd

The rest no better than the thing he seem'd:

And scorn'd the best as hypocrites who hid

Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did."

The Byronic hero (who is actually not quite a hero) has caught our imaginations from his inception to his re-inventions via the Bronte sisters and Jane Austin to the actors who played him in Hollywood films to the covers of romance novels. Today, we seem to like them to be a bit moist (Thank you, Colin Firth), so they will often be found in a nearby pond.

Alas there is no convenient pool of water at the Conrad where our show will be this weekend. So Marshall (our Don Juan) will just have to up hold the Byronic tradition of appearing "alluringly dark, mysterious, and moody" through his dancing. :)

The More The Merrier

Putting my cinephile hat on. Why, if this is a blog for a choreographer? 

When Diaghilev was fostering new choreographers (like Fokine, Massine, Nijinsky, & Lifar) for his Ballet Russe, he didn't keep them in the studio. He took them to museums and art salons. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum. Especially art that is supposed to strike a chord with an audience.

There is no such thing as too much exposure to art, if you are an artist. See as much as you can. Even viewing bad or mediocre art is informative. It helps with developing your own likes... dislikes... and singular voice. Of course, once you get to a certain age, you don't need to go to everything. Life is too short. :)

Anyhow, motion pictures are just as much of an art form as sculpture and painting. If I were to pick two things to go in a capsule to be saved forever to highlight the height of man's artistic accomplishments, right next to Michelangelo's David would be a film of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dancing Cheek to Cheek.

So if I am presenting a ballet highlighting love, desire, and passion the more visual references I have in my mind for those things the better.

Luckily, I have always loved the movies.

Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn saying goodbye in Roman Holiday. John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in the rain in The Quiet Man. Debra Kerr and Burt Lancaster in the waves in From Here To Eternity. William Holden and, well, William Holden and anybody... anywhere.' It all feeds the inspiration. And also, the depth of what I expect my dancers to present. Yes, I could hide behind the patina of ballet and say "It is enough to be aesthetically pleasing and to impress the audience," but I don't want that. I want the audience to feel something.

I was reminded of this two nights ago. TCM was playing one of my favorite movies, The More The Merrier. The director, George Stevens, became known for his dramatic work.The two stars, Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, were know for their work in light comedy. But in the middle of the movie is the most tender, romantic scene of seduction you will ever see on film. McCrea is literally luminous as he becomes a languorous, delicate human octopus and Arthur is completely transparent in every nuance that flashes across her face. It is a beautiful erotic dream.

Why shouldn't i hold myself up to the same bar with Don Juan? I should. I do.

So Close

Huzzah! For all intents and purposes. the ballet is staged. There is a small bit at the beginning and end to set, but it doesn't involve dancing. Day off tomorrow. Hopefully, everyone will rest up to get ready for the big week ahead. Nice to see it all on its feet. What strikes me is how cohesive it actually seems. One set of fingers crossed for a smooth week.

All in the Family

Today, we went back and finished the opening "wealthy family" section of the ballet. We originally had to put it off because of dancer illness and I have ben trying to get back to it for a while. One of the things that I like about this ballet is that depending on where Don Juan goes the scenes all have a bit of a different flavor. Unlike the joyous wedding or lusty gypsy camp, or even the dancy lyrical dream, the family section has a very deliberate feeling and presentation. It demands dancers who enjoy "acting." Not in a melodramatic way., but in a very clean, specific way. The trick with choreographing this type of movement piece is that you have to give the dancers enough heightened dance movement so that it seems as if they are daning, but you can't load it so much with complex choreography that they can't "breathe into" and relax into the roles. They need to have "space" in which to react to each other.

Hopefully, it will all be set tomorrow. 
 

A smile

 

Today was a bit of a slog. The 3rd Act is a bit of a bear to get through, but we pushed our way forward. Still didn't finish it. But we had to go back and review everything we had learned previously in the other acts. Can't let a day go by without it. Also we had a couple of guest from the media who were coming in today. They say that they just want to watch a rehearsal, but hey really respond better when you show them things that are completed. They tend to get a bit restless if you are working in process.

One of the nice things about the run is seeing the dancers working. There are some dancers who just are innately joyous when they move. Whether they are in the front line or in the back corner, you can see that they come alive when they put steps together. It doesn't have anything to do with ability or technique or training. It is something inside a dancer that makes itself easily evident on the outside.

It reminds me of my favorite line from a lovely movie, Chariots of Fire. The beautiful actor Ian Charleson (who was taken from us too soon) says, " I believe that God made me for a purpose, but... he also made me FAST and when I run I feel his pleasure." Now, I am not a religious person, but I completely understand this sentiment. And so do some of my dancers.

Making the Effort

Ran what we knew and I cleaned up as I went along. Loved doing the detail work. I was able to clean up Act 1 and then we ran Act 2. Tomorrow, we run Act 1 and clean Act 2. Act 3 is coming along.

Today, I made an effort to get out a bit more in the arts community. 

After rehearsal, I dropped by a stained glass art studio in Liberty Station. I had gone there a month back and mentioned that I might commission a piece. So I put my money where my mouth was. I have an odd narrow window by my front door, so that basically anyone outside can see me inside when they knock. As the house has a hacienda feel, I figured that I would do something different. Perhaps an agave-inspired stained glass window. How unique! Evidently not :)  When I went onto google to get some agave ideas to give the artist, I saw that there are tons of agave inspired stained glass pieces. Ah well, it is still what I want. The artist (Lisa) was very nice. Looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. Her website is below.

https://www.verredesigns.com/

Also went to a gallery opening for an artist pal, Joe Phillips, at a local gallery. Went for 3 reasons. First was to support a local artist.Honestly, if you can support by going to an opening or checking them out at a street fair or market, do it. Likes on social media are fine, but it isn't the same thing as making the effort to make the human contact.And shelling out a bit of $. Second reason I went was because I needed to do my own work on people skills. Happy I did so. Met a very nice artist couple. Chatted with some art lovers. Asked the gallery owner about business, etc. The gallery link is also below. Nice space.

https://www.sdartadvisory.com/

Finally, without being morbid. Today was my parents wedding anniversary. I lost them both in quick succession last year. I did go yesterday to place roses on their grave, but today I felt like I wanted to go out and do new things and get out of myself a bit, and not be too introspective. I am sure they would have approved of my soon-to-be-prairie-style-agave-inspired-glass entry window. The lovely small nude I bought at the gallery might have taken a bit longer to grow on them :) But they would have accepted it all with the grace that they always did of having an artist as a son. I was truly lucky to have had them with me as long as I did. I miss them everyday.

Odds and Ends

Starting the workweek had a lot of odds and ends to deal with. 

Was called into the Old Globe to help put in an understudy for The Age of Innocence. It is a world premiere piece that I choreographed a little waltz for. Lovely cast and director. One of the actors was just walking around in "real life" and rolled her ankle. So she had to be replaced for the day. The show opens in two days, so (fingers crossed) she will be better by then.

Also had to do a logistics meeting for a gala I am helping out with. It is for CAF (Challenged Athletes Foundation). They do great work helping differently-abled people who wish to excel in sports. The gala is next week and has lots of moving parts, including a choir from Africa... all on a rotating stage... in a tent. So that killed some brain cells for a bit.

And then f course we have... Don Juan. All goes well. 

Had a nice meeting with Marcie, the wardrobe mistress. Pulled most of the costumes. Repairs of course need to be done and some need to be replaced, but not that many.

Ticket sales are going well. The show will be a little outsized for the stage, but that will just mean that it will have a nice generous quality.

Started working on Act III tody, the wedding scene. I had forgotten that it is pretty much just non-stop dancing. I mean, it just never stops :) Today, I worked with a principal couple, while Stephanie taught the background couples their parts. Tomorrow, we will put them together and try to finish it. That will just leave a section for Don Juan with the girls, his entrance and exit for the ballet, and a family scene at the beginning of the piece that had to be delayed due to illness. With any luck we will be done by Saturday. That should give us a nice cushion.

Onward!

Putting It Together

 More clean up today and worked on some odds and ends. 

There is a sort of comical section in the piece where Don Juan goes on a bit of an ocean voyage. Once of the nice things about this ballet is that it keeps changing locations and background characters. So it is like reading a bunch of different short stories. You don't hang around long enough in one to get too comfortable. 

Today, we worked on a section where, within 2 minutes, we run into sailors, harem girls, geishas, and a couple of mer-people. The mermaid section had to be reworked because it used to be performed by 2 female dancers. This year, I decided to turn it into 1 mermaid and 1 merman. Why? Because I had a nice male dancer available and I thought, "Why not?" Of course that meant changing the choreography a bit, but that can be fun sometimes.

We had a guest come in and watch. The dancers are used to people dropping in, but I always feel as if I have to entertain them a bit. It all ended up working out for the best because I ended up running the Dream sequence (above). And the dancers need the daily repetition to help with stamina.

Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow, we will have almost all of Acts 1 and 2 set.

A Good Day

My absolute favorite place to be is the rehearsal room. Theatres have a special magic, but even an empty theatre has an elevated feeling. Rehearsal studios have an intimacy, but also a very "work gets done here" quality. My dad was a workaholic. His favorite saying was, "If you have to live to work, you might as well work to live." His favorite place to be was his workshop, where he would spend hours grinding and buffing castings that he had made. In many ways, I am the same, but my grinding and buffing has to do with shaping performances.

Sometimes the shaping is just repeating things over and over, so the dancers can get the steps comfortably in their bodies. Contrary to popular belief, the dancers shouldn't be thinking about which step comes next. Ideally that has become second nature through repetition. Once a dancer no longer has to worry about the sequence of steps, they can actually start to think about the presentation of the steps and relax into the discovery of the dance that is created when the steps are put together. That is actually the best part of rehearsal. 

Today, I actually got to do that for a few hours. Clean things up. Dive a little deeper into "why hat step follows the other one." Specifics of musicality. Start to make Don Juan come to life. 

So as the title says... a good day.

 

What's in a Name?

I have had some curiosity thrown my way regarding the name of my blog. So here is the (semi) interesting story. 

Back when I began dancing, we didn't have the Interweb and such. We had libraries. And as young dancer, I could not get enough information about dance. Photography books. History books. Collections of dance reviews. You name it. I read it. I was voracious in my need to know everything about the mysteries of dance. There were also biographies of dancers. Some good. Some bad. One of the books I stumbled across was Dance to the Piper by Agnes de Mille. 

I was already familiar with de Mille because my dance teacher would often regale us with stories about having danced in the movie Oklahoma under her direction. Additionally, she had presented 2 very entertaining (and informative) specials (The Art of Ballet and The Art of Dance) on television. On TV, she had a very intelligent, dry, humorous, yet intense way of speaking. 

The book, itself, was pretty nondescript. It had no photos. There was nothing visually memorable about it, but...

The writing was a revelation. It was not the story of an artist written by a 3rd party. It was a series of essays in the artist's own voice. She was having a passionate conversation about something that I was very passionate about. Later, I would discover that she brought this intelligence and passion to everything she spoke about from theatre to civil rights. 

Needless to say, I poured through that book.

When the time came to create a blog and leave my thoughts in this corner of the Internet, perhaps forever, I could think of no more aspirational reminder of speaking in an artistic, passionate (yet entertaining) way then to name the blog after that book A book that fed that need I had as a young dancer so well.

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger. More beautiful. More powerful. This is power, it is glory on Earth and it is yours for the taking." - Agnes de Mille

New Look

Just as promised, here is the new sleeker image, featuring the current dancers. I particularly like the way her arabesque leg matches his extended left leg. In many interviews, I have mentioned that our Don Juan is unusual in ballet in that it is centered around a male character rather than a female one. But just because it is centered around a guy, doesn't mean that there is a big juicy female role. Quite the contrary, the lead female dancer keeps cropping up. It is just that she does so as different characters. Gypsy. Street Vendor. Peasant Bride. Ideal Dream Woman. She even becomes a jaunty Cabin Boy. Seeing the pic also reminds me that this was the first full length ballet that I created on SDB dancer, Stephanie Maiorano. She had danced principle roles with the company before (Juliet, Sugarplum Fairy, etc) but this was the first big role created specifically on her. And she is still performing it.

Rainier Day

So we are having an "atmospheric river" (a term unknown to anyone until two years ago, thank you global warming). Luckily though, we also have the miracle of the Weather Channel on the Internet. So we had planned on giving the dancers today off and working a few extra hours on the weekend to make up for time lost. So far, fingers crossed, San Diego has been spared the torrent that landed on LA, but it isn't over yet. But just because I cant get into the studio doesn't mean my work isn't ongoing. Had to do some copy for the exact right 20 words for a Valentine's promotion for Don Juan (Love is in the air!), and to ok a video spot, and to ok a new promo for the show. We have been using the above for the season promo of the show, but we needed a second promo to push sales. There is also another reason for the second promo. Marketing materials for theatre. opera, ballet companies are often done months  before a show (sometimes even a year out). If you have an existing ballet this is usually fine. In terms of a brand new show this can be challenging, as not only does the ballet not exist, but it certainly has not been cast. But media deadlines are media deadlines, and you have to put out something that is at least representative of what people will see. As regards Don Juan, the image IS from Don Juan. You WILL see that moment in the show, but the male lead dancer is different. Now that may spur a slight uproar in some (False Advertising), but it is pretty much the industry standard. If you see and ad for the Globe's Grinch Who Stole Xmas in February, it probably isn't the same guy who will be doing it in December. Anyho, a second media campaign that pushes closer to the show allows us to now put out an ad featuring the actual cast that the audience will see and also reinforces the idea that they are coming to see the ballet, not the person. I'll post the new campaign tomorrow. Stay dry.
 

A Rainy Day Off

It is Monday. Our traditional Day Off... but not for me. Had an early AM interview with Dave Drexler, all around good guy and host of Inside Art for Jazz 88 radio. Best thing about it was that... it wasn't live. I hate live interviews. I have always been a bit of a slow thinker and sometimes the hosts will try to ask you something tricky. That usually produces lots of "umms" and silences. Prerecorded is great because then I can take my time and actually comeup with a semi-cohesive (semi-entertaining) answer. Also, by this point, I have had a bit of time to get myself into the Don Juan groove. Like, why I chose to do it again in the first place. But first, why the return to blogging. When I gave it up, things just started getting a bit hectic. So I kind of just needed all my energy for... life. When things slowed down again, it just kind of fell off the radar. Then Covid came along and last year, as Queen Elizabeth once said was my "Annus horribillis" Lots of change.With the beginning of the new year, I have time, and perhaps shifted priorities, that make blogging, and perhaps, reflection make more sense. Once again, more on that later. Above is some corps de ballet work from Sunday's rehearsal of Don Juan.

Return of the Blog

 

Hello everyone!

After a decade off, I have decided that it is time to return to the world of blogging. Over the next few days, I'll get into the whys and wherefores of that decision, but for now, let's just say, "I'm back." And it is fitting that the ballet that we are getting ready for is Don Juan, which was last presented 10 years ago. Above is an image from today's rehearsal of Marshall Whitely (far left) as the Don, with Stephanie Maiorano as his vision. They are being assisted by Tonatiuh Gomez and Jonas Olivera. Tune in tomorrow and I'll discuss what exactly is going on :)