wh2

As I said in my presentation, the Senior Exhibit has been a small step in many that it takes to be a professional ballet dancer. As the “Senior Exhibit Process” ends I can truly say that the beginning of the remainder of my training has arrived. As I look towards the future there are so many possibilities as to what to do now, with my scholarship to Indiana University and the wonderful acceptances to bother Skidmore and Dickinson and the opportunities to dance at both of those places I find myself at a loss of words. The last year have been such a time of growth for me, both as a dancer and as a person, and there are so many teachers, mentors, and heroes that have helped me along the way to become the person I am. In my presentation I showed a film of myself as a 3 year old at my first ever dance recital doing a solo that I made up on the spot, and compared it at the end of my presentation some film of me from last summer after I went to Carolina Ballet. The difference between those two people in those films is astounding to me, in some ways there is so much difference in knowledge and technique, but there is still an energy and a passion that I think drives me to go to the studio every day, and fight against my body’s complaints every morning because there is a truly special relationship that I share with ballet.

On a slightly separate note from my senior exhibit. I’ve been auditioning for Summer Intensives for this summer and I thought I’d mention the places I’ve been accepted to/rejected from so far as well as the schools I have yet to audition for.

Of the 13 or so auditions I’m doing this year in preparation for this summer, I haven’t heard from Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell, The Chautauqua Institute, and North Carolina Dance Theater. I have yet to audition for Miami City Ballet School, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Los Angeles Ballet, and this weekend the School of American Ballet, Orlando Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and Houston Ballet. I was accepted to Ballet Arizona, a traineeship (they look at trainees for the company or jr company) with Carolina Ballet, and a full scholarship to Nashville Ballet and an invitation to stay with their second company training program for the 2012/2013 year with a half tuition scholarship. I was also invited after the audition for North Carolina Dance Theater and Chautauqua (they do one audition and you hear from both places) to go and audition for their studio company (which is like a separate group of young up and coming dancers who perform with the company).

Yesterday I attended the Mark Morris Dance Company master class at the Kennedy Center. Mark Morris is a modern company so this was a serious leap outside my comfort zone. It bore very little resemblance to the ballet that I’ve come to know and love. The class was made up of people from George Mason University and other students as well as adults who signed up separately. but I went as a part of the Ballet Master Class Series, so there were dancers with a lot of different backgrounds. Most were modern dancers but there were about 5 or 6 of us from the Master Class Series who were just as lost as I was. The class had a small amount of ballet background, but there were a lot of influences from folk and Eastern European dancing. In ballet we turn out our feet and legs to give our bodies a longer and leaner look. turning out allows greater extension of the legs and greater range of motion while dancing, but it takes many years to develop the necessary muscles to turn out properly. In yesterday’s class, much of it required us to be turned IN, which took a lot of getting used to, and I found myself being corrected a lot because of my turnout and “classical” appearance. It was a lot of fun and like the Merce Cunningham class I took last month, I think that going to these master classes is really helping me become a more well rounded and knowledgeable dancer, in both ballet and modern.

After performing in the school plays for the first 3 years of high school I was very confident in my ability to get up in front of the Upper School and talk about my Senior Exhibit. It’s a straightforward task that doesn’t require an immense amount of planning or preparation but does mean you have to talk about yourself in front of a lot of people. When I’ve performed on stage before I’ve never had a problem with getting nervous, so I assumed I wouldn’t have a problem with being nervous for this. However, I can tell you that there are some big differences between a community meeting presentation and performing in a musical. I think what makes this kind of presentation scary is that you have to talk about yourself, you’re literally playing yourself, when you play a role in a play, you get to pretend to be someone else and anything stupid or odd you do is “acting,” and considered talented. But this is not acting, this is getting up in front of other people and being yourself, something that I fear I am going to struggle with in the big presentation. more than that I used a lot of filler words in this presentation, “um,” “kind of,” “like.” I think what makes a good speech is the speakers ability to sound like they’re talking individually to each person in the audience as if that audience member is the only person in the room. Great speakers like President Obama and videos of Martin Luther King Jr. utilize the powers of pause and silence in the same way we use words in conversation, something that I would like to be able to do not only as a speaker but as an actor and as a dancer and as a musician.

Yesterday I went to the Kennedy Center and took a master class with the Mariinsky Ballet. The majority of the class is made up of students from various small studios and ballet schools from around the DC area but there is a large group of dancers who live and train at the Kirov Academy of Washington DC, and they are Vaganova Russian dancers all the way. so naturally they loved yesterday’s class, as a much more Balanchine trained dancer, I struggled a lot with the insanely slow jumps and some of the stylistic tricks and details that make the Russian style so unique and beautiful. The class was taught by one of the Ballet Mistresses of the Company (they’re like the second in command under the Artistic Director of a company and they primarily teach repertoire and make the dances look good, although they are not in charge of rehearsing the dancers). She spoke almost no English and used a translator to give corrections, thankfully all of the names of the movements in ballet are in French so there is a common language in ballet that makes taking class from people from other countries a little easier. I can’t say that I loved the class but it was wonderful to get a chance to feel what it’s really like and see the other guys in the class (who are all from the Kirov) who are in their element in the Russian style. Although i’m definitely looking forward to showing off a bit when Suzanne Farrell comes back and teaches class again in the Balanchine Style.

For my final performance I’m going to put together some works that are of the Balanchine Style, there will be a lecture/demonstration of a typical barre that was choreographed by Suzanne Farrell. A movement choreographed for me and another guy for the final performance at Carolina Ballet this year. And a few works of my own, including a pas de deux to the music from the movie Up. I’d really like to incorporate the ideas of off balance partnering and pointe work for the girls. The more I choreograph the more the more the pieces i create have started to be come more contemporary.

As part of my Senior Exhibit, I have decided that I’m going to include the Ballet Master Class Series as part of my application. After my time with Suzanne Farrell I absolutely fell in love with the Balanchine Style. The Ballet Master Class Series gives students in the Washington area the chance to take master classes with ballet companies that come from around the world on tour at the Kennedy Center. I think the Master Class series has been an eye opening experience for me this year because it has allowed me to get an idea about what styles I like and which ones I could handle doing as a professional. So far this year we’ve only had class with Suzanne Farrell and American Ballet Theater, which is a much more classical company.

My senior exhibit has direction! I have had a small epiphany and I have come up with a starting point for my performance that I will be putting up in the spring. I realized today that most of the people who will be watching my performance will know little or nothing about the mechanics and ins and outs of ballet. so I have decided to borrow a piece that Ms. Farrell had my class at Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell do this past summer. It’s a lecture/demonstration of the basic movements in ballet called “The Barre.” I’m very excited to have this piece put up because it was taught to me by Suzanne Farrell herself. I have a pas de deux of my own creation that I will be doing with my partner, and I’m debating on doing a solo or featuring another group piece. The finale is a surprise that I think is going to be awesome if it works.

I do not have any doubt whatsoever in my mind about my learning activity this year. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a summer than to spend it dancing. In as few words as possible I spent 5 weeks with Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, 3 weeks with Suzanne Farrell in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center, and the one week off I had in between I spent teaching a boy’s ballet intensive, taking class every day, and having private lessons for 4 of those days in the mornings in addition to regular classes. Even if not for my senior exhibit I would have spent this summer this way if i could have. I’m definitely going to try to have a repeat of this year next year. However, I made some observations about how efficiently I was able to function this summer. In doing this I have realized a significant weakness of mine that is very hard for me to fix, this summer I finally started to realize that my body physically couldn’t handle all the abuse I was throwing at it. I fell asleep at the studio on some pilates mats a few days that week I was home just because I was so exhausted. I think a strength of mine is that I’m able to recognize my weaknesses and act upon them to fix them. I had to make sure I was getting extra sleep at night and was going easy in the boy’s class each day so that I would be able to survive the evening class. I definitely think one of the strengths that I started to master this year was pacing myself throughout the day and throughout a week, how much energy I can invest in each class means I’ll be more tired later. As I want to try to go to the School of American Ballet this summer and do Ms. Farrell’s program as well, I think this is going to be a useful skill so that I can get as much as I possibly can out of every class.

I’ve decided that I’m going to choreograph some works in the style of Balanchine for my application. I will be putting up a show for free at my studio in February. There is also a possibility at the moment that I will be putting up at least one piece I choreograph at a dance festival in honor of the founder of the Ballet program at the University of Mary Washington in Dodd auditorium in February as well. I already have an idea for a pas de deux to a piece by Lizt that I’d like to put up.

To get a better idea of the ballets that Balanchine made, I had a wonderful opportunity to go to the Kennedy Center to see the Suzanne Farrell Ballet perform Diamonds, Concerto Barrocco, and Serenade, which is one of the most famous pieces he ever choreographed. Ms. Farrell has a way of setting ballets that expresses strong importance in perfection and details, because it is necessary to keep the ballets the way they were set when they were first made because otherwise they are not what they were intended to be. I definitely think this was a great way to get a better idea of the works of Balanchine and his way of storytelling and creating ballets.