Review of Petrouchka, Monotones, and Sinfonietta

Petrouchka (1911)
Choreographer- Michel Fokine
Composer-Igor Stravinsky
Performed by the Paris Opera Ballet
*Petrouchka-Thierry Mongne
*Ballerina-Monique Lourdieres
*Moor- Jean Guizerix
*Magician- Alain Borgeau

The opening of the piece begins with an extensive set that looks like the streets of Russia. Each person is dressed in costumes that reflect a common day with various "characters" such as the street dancers, the Russian folk dancer, the strong man, and a strange magic man. At this point there is more acting than dancing. The magician and Petrouchka, Ballerina, and Moor come in by a stage. The magician controls people sized dolls that seem to come to life. I think that Petrouchka is cute in an Edward Scissorhands type of way. The dolls do very character like dancing. The next scene is in Petrouchka's room. Her he does a solo and seems extremely sad. The ballerina comes in but there isn't a lot of long combinations of ballet. I feel like there should have been more dance for this entire piece. The next scene is in the Moor's room. Here the Moor and the Ballerina do a short piece then the Moor and Petrouchka fight. The Grand Carnival has alot of folk dancing. Although this is cool, I still wish there would have been more ballet. Also I did not like when they were mean to the bear. The folk dancing was impressive for the fact that I think my quads would be killing me if I tried doing that. I didn't really understand the demons part. To me it looked like a wolf and then there were birds and a sheep but I really don't know what was going on for that part. Snow begins to fall and I liked that because it made the set very interesting. Petrouchka came back and then the magician made it seem like he killed Petrouchka when he spun a limp doll around. Really Petrouchka had escaped into a boat in the sky. What happened next I didn't really understand either, Petrouchka collapses over the side of the boat, so I am not sure if he died or what that was supposed to represent. I really wih there were longer sections of ballet in this piece but I enjoyed the story aspect to it. I feel like this would be a really good family ballet that almost anyone could generally understand.

Monotones 2 (1966)
Choreographer- Frederick Ashton
Composer- Erik Satie
Performed by the Joffrey Ballet
*Elizabeth Parkinson
*Glenn Egerton
*Tom Mossbrucker

The main idea of this piece came from the moon and Earth interactions. This could be seen by the frequent rotation of dancers. The whole dance had a strong sense of symmetry. Not only were the dancers in symmetric formations, but when one dancer did a move the others would too in a way that made it seem even. The choreography consisted of many beautiful extensions and elongated body positions. The movements were not rapid but did involve many repititions. Overall I liked this piece, I'm not sure if I would have known it was about the moon and Earth just based off the choreography and the non flattering white unitards with bedazzled head caps, but I think if the knowledge of space is there then the dance is understandable.

Sinfonietta (1978)
Choreographer-Jiri Kylian
Composer- Janecek
Performed by Nederlans Dans Theater

The first thing that caught my attention was the blue-green landscape that was set as the background for the piece. Male dancers wearing off-white baggy shirts with white short, entered the stage first. Their movements were quick and consisted of many jumps and turns. To me, the dancers seemed to be like birds in a meadow, the formations changed and shifted together like how birds fly and the frequent jumps gave a lifted sense. The next section included men and women. The women were stopped by a guy and then seemed to be slightly controlled. The man picked her up and she seemed kind of sad. I really like the part with the slowly, melting peel off. At the end, everyone came back onto stage and there was rapid movements again. The dance finished by everyone walking back towards the landscape and then dissapearing. I found it interesting that the dancers were in canvas ballet shoes instead of pointe because usually when I think of professional dancers I always think of pointe shoes. The lighting through out the piece really made me continue to think of birds in a field. Overall I enjoyed this piece and but didn't completly understand what the choreographer was going for; it was beautiful though.

Reflection on having a substitute teacher

On Wednesday we had a substitute teacher in for ballet. Her name was Jillian and she was quite a bit different from Richard but I enjoyed her class. We started off with barre, as usual, but her combinations were much more similar to the ones I used to do at my old studio. She gave corrections much more individually and to everyone which I believe is good. Usually in class a couple of us get corrections and are used almost as examples of what a common problem is; in her class, she really worked on the basic flaws that some of the less experienced dancers have such as pointing toes and fully straightening their legs. Some of the combinations she gave us were easier and some were harder but one thing that was difficult was she went through them rather quickly and expected us to have picked it up. I know that is the normal way classes work and that at an "Intermediate/Advanced" ballet level we should be able to pick up combinations quickly, but some people struggled. I personally forgot until we walked in that we were having a substitute and was not mentally prepared to be doing something beside the norm in class. Other students said that they felt similarly. After barre, we did a decent amount of across the floor work. I liked getting to move and do ballet rather than stay stationary. We learned combinations and for the most part they were the right level of difficulty for our class, but we just weren't really used to learning in her style of teaching. I think she was a very good teacher and I would definitely like to take class from her again. I also think that learning from multiple teachers is crucial in the development of a well rounded dancer. Once you become too comfortable with one style of teaching, it is more difficult to jump into a different setting. She had a very feminine voice and you could tell she was very well trained. I think she would be an excellent teacher for studio that had weekly classes and could develop into her style of teaching.

Entrechat #

Entrechat is known as " a step of beating in which the dancer jumps into the air and rapidly crosses the legs before and behind each other" in the Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet. They can be be anywhere from 2 beats to 10. The even numbered entrechats land on two feet and the odd numbered entrechats land on one. Dancers are trying to get to ten and even more beats if possible. The following are some examples of dancers performing various entrechats.

Entrechat duex, entrechat quatre, entrechat six- These are entrechats performed with two, four, and six beats. The dancer beats on th way up especially when performing more than just two beats. He consistantly lands in 5th position in plie and uses this as his prep for the next jump.

Entrechat huit- This dancer performs an entrechat with eight beats. The dancer isn't as clean with his jumps as the one in the previous videos but it was a little hard to find footage of someone performing this move. The dancer could do better by making his beats more distinct and trying stay in the air even longer.

Entrechat Dix- I was unable to find footage of someone actually performing an entrechat dix, entrechat with ten beats. So instead I will talk about the person who first did one, Vaslav Nijinsky. Najinsky was a Russian dancer of Polish decent, born in 1889. He studied under Cechetti and Nicholas Legat at the Imperial Ballet School. He was a performer in multiple dances and even had his own company. In 1919 his career ended when he was diagnosed with schizofrenia. He later died in 1950. Here is a link for more information http://www.russianballethistory.com/nijinskythelegend.htm. 

Entrechat Douze- This is a entrechat with 12 beats. Wayne Sleep is the only dancer that has been said to have done this move, however I cannot find a video of him actually doing it.

Entrechats require plie, control, precision, and alot of practice to be able to increase their number of beats. While I doubt I will ever be able to do an entrechat dix or more, by watching others technique, we are able to see how the little details make all the difference in being able to do more beats.

How did they just do that? Amazing accomplishments in ballet technique

The following is about current levels of ballet techniques and the extrodinary moves people can do. Ballet has always had amazing dancers who could turn, leap, and twirl with ease: however in order to stand out in the crowd, dancers have pushed their limits to hit more turns, jump higher, and overall be even more impressive.
The first video shows Maria Alexandrova performing a couple of amazing sequences. She is a fearless dancer who can leap multiple feet and trust that her partner will be there and also makes fouettes on point look like anyone could do them (which they can't).
Maria Kochetkova I believe has the best outlook on current dance and is shown in this video. She talks about the stigma of what a dancer should be and how youshould excel at what you can to become your best. Highlights of Maria as Principal of the San Fransisco Ballet.
The next video is actually a trailer of an upcoming movie but I believe it is a great example of the feelings of young dancers to pushing themselves to be even better First Position. The Youth American Grand Prix features top dancers from around the world who are aspiring to be professionals. They are absolutely amazing! Dancers here are able to do multiple turns in the air with one jump, and over 4 beats when doing a changement and extremly flexible. Top YAGP dancers are shown in this video but there are some other young dancers I find amazing and cannot stop watching.
Another One Bites the Dust is performed by Hannah Bettes, in this video she is a bit younger but still amazing! She has great control, flexiblilty, strength. She is older now and has been featured magazines and is hoping to get a scholarship from the Royal Ballet (article on Bettes). Daniil Simkin is an amazing young dancer who pushes ballet to his furthest abilities. Here he is performing Don Quixote and you can see just a few of his amazing "tricks".
What does all this mean? All these amazing young dancers are pushing the ballet comunity to new limits. Triple pirouettes are the norm, double beats are a thing of the past, and you better be flexible to even fit into a crowd. As these young dancers grow up, they will become even better and will set new standards for ballet. I believe that even though ballet is an older form of dance it is evolving and remaining to amaze audiences just as it has done for the past centuries. Always remember, you can't jump if you don't plie.

3 ballets, 3 different styles

Last week in ballet, we watched 3 different pieces. Each had differences but one thing that was the same was the amazing technique the dancers possessed. The following is a description of each piece, including: patterns, material, complexity, and simplicity.

Emeralds- featuring Merrill Ashley, Gerard Ebitz, Karen Von Aroldingen, Sean Lavery, Bonita Borne, Daniel Duell,  and Heather Watts

Emeralds set was a large structure with green jewels which matched beautifully with the girls green costumes. The dance had many flowing formation changes. There was initially a focus on two dancers who did not show much emotional attachment to each other. The two did a lot of partnering while the corps did simple movements in the back. The other dancers seemed to provide a setting to the main two rather than be a focal point to the audience. They formed lines which the two principals walked through and had non-moving formations in the back. Following this part of the piece was a trio. I enjoyed the ways that the two girls interchanged places with the one man. One thing I noticed about the technique of this piece was that the man’s retire was crossed over instead of being at the knee. The girls did movements that were very elongated. This part of the piece had a light bouncy feeling to it. The next part of the piece featured only two dancers for a short amount of time. This part was much slower than the previous section and had an older feeling to it and a sense of being regal. The dancers did ticking movements at times. The choreographer doesn’t repeat large sections of choreography. The next part was featuring a man; his movements were young and springy. He was then accompanied by a large group of dancers. They had beautiful crossing formations with many turns. I really enjoyed the smooth transitions between formations and the fast paced peel off towards the end of this section. Finally the last part of the dance had 3 guys and 4 girls. They did similar pull through changes of spacing to those that were seen earlier in the dance. They used both the upstage and downstage quite a bit and had very nice pictures. The choreography had moments of complexity yet many of simplicity depending on the section and whether you were watching the featured dancers or the background dancers.

Diamonds- featuring Suzanne Ferrell and Peter Martins

Diamonds began with many gesturing movements, almost seeming to welcome the audience and each other. The dancers possessed amazing amount of control during slow movements. This section did not have a lot of foot work or small quick motions. The partnering was beautiful and I loved all the lifts, and rotating steps. Towards the end there were more moments of quick movements but in comparison to the Emeralds piece, this dance seemed more regal which works with the name of this section of the “Jewels” collection. I also enjoyed the kiss on the hand at the end because I love seeing an emotional connection during dances.

Stravinsky Violin Concerto- featuring Kay Mazzo, Karen Von Aroldingen, Peter Martins, and Bart Cooks

The beginning of this dance had four guys and one girl on stage. This dance was extremely modern. The attitude position was contemporary and many of the movements were quick. Instead of constantly being turned out, this dance had many moments of parallel. The costumes were very contemporary as well. Throughout the dance, groups of dancers ran on and off stage and formations grew and condensed. The next section had a man and woman who kept with the contemporary theme. They had flexed feet and very asymmetrical poses. There was a walking backbend which I never thought I’d see in a ballet piece. Also there was a lot of musicality, the dancers hit flicks on accents and flowed when the music flowed. Overall this section had many broken lines and was not like the “normal ballets”.  Next featured another set of partners. Right off the bat I have to say that this girl was abnormally skinny. She and the man made very tangled positions. The man seemed to control the girl more than the previous duo but I enjoyed the interactions between the two. Lastly there was a group part. The dancers seemed friendly and had a pedestrian aspect to them. The choreography for this section seemed much harder than what it actually was. The swinging arms made a chaotic feeling when really it was just composed of simple movements repeated. Overall this dance was extremely modern and had a pedestrian feeling with good use of music and unique lines.

Glissade on over- 6 forms of glissades

Glissades are one of the basic steps in ballet. Glissade means to glide and is a moving step where one starts from a fifth position and pushes off of one foot to land on the same foot while closing the second moved foot secondly. Although they might seem simple, when one begins to switch the ways of doing them, they can become quite challenging. The following is description of commonly used glissades.

• Glissade Dessus- (glide over) In this step you switch the back foot to the front. For example if you stand with the right foot back, you would initiate the step with the right foot and then have the left foot finish behind the right in a fifth positon.
• Gilssade Dessous-(glide under) In this step you switch the front foot to the back. Starting with the right foot front, glissade and end with the right foot in back by closing the left in front.
• Glissade Devant- (glide in front) This glissade does not require a switch in the front foot. For this step, one starts with a foot in front in a fifth position (say right) and then does the glissade movement closing the back foot in back. The initiating foot is the direction the dancer travels as well as the front foot.
• Glissade Derriere- (glide in back) This glissade is the opposite of the glissade devant. This step begins with the back foot, travels towards the foot which in back, and ends with the same foot back as it began with.
• Glissade en avant- (glide forward) This glissade is very simple to figure out. Start with the front foot, glide it forward and close the back foot in back. Unlike the previous glissades, this one travels forward instead of side to side.
• Glissade en arriere- (glide back) Glissade en arriere is similiar to the glissade en avant in that it starts with the back foot, travels backwards, and ends in the same position as it started with.

These are the six basic glissades. They can be used in various combinations and in between other steps. The following video is an example of glissade dessus and glissade dessous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-DUOlHKKVU

Hopefully this helps anyone who wanted to know more about glissades =]
Keep dancing