When you discover two of your favorite people are performing in the same weekend in separate but (kinda) nearby venues, albeit in completely different kinds of shows, and you think you can somehow make it to see them both, you tell them, Heck yeah, I'll be there. Every opportunity to go to the the theatre for a performance of merit … Continue reading Carpe Diem, and All That
Ballet
Postscript: A Fire in Her Belly
Yesterday I posted about my former students at Knoxville Ballet School who worked like crazy to achieve high marks on their American Ballet Theatre Affiliate exams, and three of them who went on to attend the Young Dancer Summer Workshop at ABT in August 2012 after a successful video audition. I wanted to share images … Continue reading Postscript: A Fire in Her Belly
A Fire in the Belly
Three tired Knoxville Ballet School monkeys after a <successful> video audition for American Ballet Theatre's Young Dancer Summer Workshop in 2012 The same three monkeys at ABT in NYC later that summer, with their idol, one Catherine Hurlin Last week during a discussion at a writers' workshop I attended over in Cambridge, NY, I listened … Continue reading A Fire in the Belly
Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
That is one Gwynn Root, a beautiful professional ballerina who currently dances for Festival Ballet in Providence, Rhode Island, although she has danced professionally with several other companies in her career to date. Here she is more recently, with Festival this past summer, in an image from the WaterFire Providence website: I met Gwynn eight … Continue reading Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
Works & Process
I love the theatre—lobby, house, backstage, on the stage—it does not matter. I have clocked time there since before I could walk. Friday night I had the chance to be there again at the small and mighty Paramount in Rutland, Vermont. A quirky and entertaining NYC-based company called Bedlam was reading a new play by … Continue reading Works & Process
Learning Curve
Once upon a time when I was the director of a small ballet school I taught classical ballet to adult beginners a couple nights weekly. They were dedicated people, mostly women, but also a few men, from all walks of life. Some of them told me it took them weeks to gather the courage to … Continue reading Learning Curve
Kingdom of Wilis: Foggy Vermont Morning
Giselle is a story ballet with Romantic-era sensibilities that still somehow reaches modern audiences. In it a pretty peasant girl—Giselle—dies at the close of the first act, duped by a handsome nobleman promised to a princess, her heart too weak to withstand the loss. In the second act she is transformed into a wili, a … Continue reading Kingdom of Wilis: Foggy Vermont Morning
Photo Essay: Found Objects
Moses Farm, Cambridge Arlington, Vermont Post Office Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs, Uncommon Grounds Arlington, Vermont Arlington, Vermont Tag Sale Finds: Vintage Tablecloth & Pie Tin
Why are you here?
A while back there was a meme floating around social media, a clever photograph of a (presumably) professional ballerina's feet on pointe in parallel, one fully shod in a pink satin pointe shoe and the other naked, besmeared with bloody padding and various daubs of gauze and other patching. The caption read something like, "Everyone … Continue reading Why are you here?
A Plié Is Not a Squat (and other truths of the universe)
See that up there? It's fifth position demi-plié in a class at the former Knoxville Ballet School, as executed by some of my Level 2-almost-Level 3 students. And that's my lovely friend Joan Kunsch of Nutmeg Conservatory teaching them; I had invited her for a springtime guest appearance. As you can see, the girls have (relatively) … Continue reading A Plié Is Not a Squat (and other truths of the universe)
