Carnival - Monkeys

Now come the Monkeys!!!



As our Tigress gets carried off in a spectacular one armed lift by Mr. Lion, two Culture Shock monkeys bound on to the stage. These monkeys are b-boys (or more to the point, one b-boy and one b-girl.) So there is much bouncing, spinning and flipping that occurs.

Then the SDB monkeys stroll in to the jaunty, Calypso-infused strains of "No More Monkeys."

"5 monkeys were jumping on the bed.
1 fell off and bumped his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said...
No More Monkeys jumping on the bed!

4 monkeys were jumping on the bed..."

You get the idea. Here is a rehearsal shot.



As you can see... no costumes. I actually knew what the costumes for this piece were going to be for a longtime, but I put off buying them because I knew I could get them easily and there were larger issues to deal with.

Just imagine 5 girls in pink, over-sized Curious George pajamas with soft little monkey ears and gloves.

Now usually in a ballet most of the girls will wear point shoes. But as the choreographing of this number progressed, by the time I was finished, I realized that there was not one step in the piece which required standing on point. It was all jumps and cartwheels and rolls.

So I let them do without the point shoes.

Which, in the end, I think added to the feel of 5 monkeys jumping around a bed. That, and their little woolen mittens.

What was interesting about this ballet was that all of the pieces felt "special" in some way. Usually in a ballet, there are a few sections which have an extra "pop." Whether that be a dramatic or lyrical or cool "pop," there are pieces which have an extra cache' (like the Arabian Dance in the Nutcracker or the 4 Little Swans in Swan Lake.)

In Carnival, every piece felt like the "special" piece.

And in turn, the dancers danced them with that knowledge.

Carnival - Cats

More Carnival...

Our SDB birds are chased off by... Culture Shock Cats.



More hip hop :)
This time they mirror each other. Apart from a general idea as to what the piece is about, I generally leave the choreographic content of the hip hop pieces to the hip hop artists themselves. The Culture Shack felines seemed very house cat-like to me, so the SDB cats (to contrast) had more of a "jungle" feel.



A pas de deux for a sprightly tiger and a somewhat studly lion. The pieces were all joined together by brief verses (spoken by SDB actress Dana Hooley). In this case...

"Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright..."

As this was a rehearsal, Noriko is missing her tiger ears and Askar's costume is missing some fasteners, but you get the idea.



The piece of music used was a traditional version of the South African tune Mbune. A tune known to all Lounge music fans as Wimoweh. It is also know to non-Lounge fans as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."

"In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the Lion sleeps tonight..."



I actually love that the Lion costume looks like pajamas (a theme we will see later as well), since the song is all about the Lion sleeping.

This was a VERY easy piece to choreograph. I had used a different version of the song in a very different ballet, "Exotica." Exotica was a very adult ballet (featuring a topless number and a martini glass as a backdrop) and the song was used as the finale. In Carnival, it is a very simple sweet little pas.

Little girl.
Big guy.
Lots of lifts.

Carnival-Birds

Sorry for the delay between posts, but the further we got into Nutcracker season, the more I retreated into my shell. I don't particularly like performing, so I try to conserve my happy feelings as much as possible :)

So back to Carnival!

If you remember, we left a very happy little swamp filled with frogs, lizards, fish and alligator all samba-ing away. When the Samba finishes, the stage is taken over by a group of Culture Shock dancers portraying a flock of birds.



The dance that they did had a great kind of Tahitian-Hip-Hop flavor to it. Like Hula-ing ravens. After they are done, the SDB dancers come back on the stage with their own version of birds.



This dance is done to one of the pieces from Carnival of the Animals that was retained, the Aviary. The first dancer to appear is Abby Avery (seen in her rehearsal leg warmers) as a Bluebird.

Abby Avery.
Abby "Aviary."

Get it? Actually, she told me she used to be kidded about it as a kid.

The piece was originally designed to be a solo to be followed by a trio for Abby and two butterflies. But things changed.

As I was choreographing the entire ballet, I had finished a very nice tango for a pair of Rhinos. At the same time, someone had donated some very flashy, ballroom dance-y costumes to the ballet that were just staring at me all day long in the office.

Pretty much all at once, I thought... why do I need to have two Rhino's? Can't it be a Rhino and something in a two piece hot pink costume.

Like a flamingo!



Ta-da. The character change made the dancer very happy. (She had ALSO been eyeing the costume for awhile.) She also went into the next rehearsal letting her partner know that she would no longer need to wear the pre-requisite Rhino horn in the dance.

So now I had a Flamingo... and a Bluebird... and a Swan.



Remember her.

Since I had 3 birds in the ballet, I could now have an... aviary. Even though it is still Abby's solo, we have a couple of guest crossovers from the Flamingo and Swan (who we will see later). So I actually get to make the ballet seem as if it has a bit more continuity rather than just be a bunch of disparate parts.

We also have a couple of crossovers from the two butterflies, who will join Abby for the following trio.



There are no insects in the Saint-Saens Carnival, so the inclusion of butterflies gives a nod to the insect world, without having to include anything too icky. (We also had the wings in storage. As a ballet company, there is no shortage of fairy/butterfly wings lying about.)

I loved the new music that was used for this trio. It had a lovely soaring quality. It was as if you were flying over Machu Pichu or some Andean mountain range. As a mater of fact, there was a lot of running in big arcs across the stage.

But it was pretty much another happy, happy dance. After all, butterflies and a bluebird flitting about. What else could it be?

Blog Day 2

Okay... second day of the blog.

Had my semi regular walk with Angie (Culture Shock Director) Bunch this morning. We make an odd pair as we walk the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. Neither of us lives there, but we love the area. There is also a KILLER hill that goes down into Old Town that serves well to remind us of our mortality.

Zipped off to rehearsal at SDB. Being Nutcracker season, we of course rehearsed Nutcracker.

A few Nutcracker insights.

At SDB, we have been doing it for 17 years. There are dancers who have been with us for quite a few of those years. Nutcracker is an interesting time as, we need to juggle who would best fit a part, who has been doing a part for years and who would grow by understudying or alternating in a part. Of course, the main concern is putting on the best show possible.

I will try to hit a point or two daily.

Let's start from the top...

The Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier.

Unlike most well known ballets, the two "leads" in the Nutcracker (the above young lady and her man), don't really have alot of onstage time. What they do have, however, are two amazing pieces of music.

The first is the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Tchaikovsky specifically wrote this for a novelty instument that he had recently heard... the Celeste. A sort of mini piano with a tinkling, frothy, lighter than air sound.

And the second is the Adagio to the Grand Pas De Deux, which is the dramatic highlight of Act Two. One of the most romantic repetitions of a repeating theme ever concieved.

So what does that leave us with. Two evocative pieces of music and two non-existent characters.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about how we bring these characters to life.