The Wee Bees are at it again – PURRFECT!
May 31, 2008
Today is the day the kids get to shine..
What is it? KIDS DO CATS In 1939, T.S. Eliot published a book of poetry for children called Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. This collection (which eventually inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning musical) serves as the basis for this Charleston Ballet Theatre production. Kids Do Cats will be performed by elementary-aged ballerinas (and ballerinos) outfitted in “unbelievable costumes and make-up,” dancing to music from Lady and the Tramp, The Aristocats, Ted Nugent, and The Stray Cats.
Why see it? Professionally-designed costumes, foot-tapping tunes, and adorable, aspiring dancers.
Who should go? If your kid’s in the show, you should definitely go. If not, the production still provides a great opportunity to check out the always-professional CBT.
PICCOLO SPOLETO • $15-$20 • 1 hour • May 31 at 1 and 3 p.m. • Charleston Ballet Theatre, 477 King St. • (888) 374-2656
The Post and Courier article appears below.
Feline fun for the small fry
‘Kids Do Cats’ purr-fect for children
By Brenda Rindge The Post and Courier
Saturday, May 31, 2008
If you want to do a Piccolo Spoleto activity with the kids, why not take them to see children perform? Twenty-two children ages 9 to 15 perform in the Charleston Ballet Theatre’s ‘Kids Do Cats’ show at the CBT King Street Theatre. “Kids Do Cats,” a performance with 22 children from Charleston Ballet Theatre, will be performed at the dance school’s theater on Saturday. The company includes local children ranging from ages 9 to 15 performing an assortment of cat-inspired songs to choreography by CBT principal dancer and ballet master Stephen Gabriel. It incorporates songs such as “The Invitation to the Jellicle Ball” from “Cats,” “Siamese Cat Song” from “Lady and the Tramp,” “Everybody wants to be a Cat” from “The Artistocats,” the Stray Cats’ “Stray Cat Strut” and more. Gabriel has been working with five of the dancers for four years through the Broadway Dance Project, the brainchild of Charleston Ballet Executive Artistic Director Patricia Cantwell. The program’s goal is to train young students who hope to become professional dancers.
“My little group of five are pretty amazing at this point,” Gabriel says, giving extra kudos to “very, very strong dancer” Christina Slaton. That group was part of the Broadway Dance Project’s first performance, which was also “Kids Do Cats.”"We put it on with this group when they were younger,” Gabriel says. “Now they are the seniors, and there is a whole new batch of younger kids.”In addition to the five senior members, the remaining cast members are 9 to 12 years old, Gabriel says. One of the highlights of the show, he says, is Madison Harden’s solo number with the senior girls to “(I’m a) Mean Ole Lion” from “The Wiz.”"She is unbelievable,” he says. “She is probably 3 feet tall, and I taught her this little solo number with the bigger kids. The girl is so amazingly talented.”
This year’s performance includes new costumes and elaborate cat makeup that takes about two hours to put on. The troupe started practicing for the performance in September shortly after auditions and has been meeting at the CBT’s Mount Pleasant studio on average five hours a week. “The younger ones aren’t as experienced, so it took a lot of time,” Gabriel says.
CBT’s Heart belongs to Dany!
May 30, 2008
Meet the Magic Man… Dany Kapp.
When you leave the Twisted Tango show at 8 PM, at noon the next morning the studio is ready for a Brown Bag and Ballet performance, and then at 7 PM the theatre is set for Seven Deadly Sins. He often does this magic solo as all the available techies in town are busy for Spoleto.
Dany Kapp is Charleston Ballet Theatre’s production manager, set designer, the man who slaves away tirelessly to make the technical magic happen. all year long. It is his set design for Seven Deadly Sins and his high tech metal stage for Twisted Tango . The Michigan native holds a degree in marketing, but turned his keen ability as problem solver into building for theatre.
If the dancers are the soul of Charleston Ballet Theatre, Dany is the heart. He pumps away tirelessly so that they can be free to perform without technical hindrance. He shows the kindness and respect to each stagehand, dancer, designer, and choreographer that encourages total collaboration and pride. It is my honor to work alongside such a happy, considerate colleague and friend.
Ruth Hutson
Resident Lighting Designer
“A few interesting cliches can sum up Dany Kapp. ‘Jack of All Trades’, ‘Make somethin outta nothin’ and ‘the go to guy’ . We appreciate everything he does for the company, I couldn’t imagine it without him.”
Stephen Gabriel,
Ballet Master Charleston Ballet Theatre
“Through my blessed life I have always worked with people that wear many hats….but I have never worked with a man that has so many amazing gifts. Dany is endless with his gifts, creativity, generosity and joyful spirit. Our dance world has been graced with this incredible human being.”
Jerri Kumery
Ballet Master, Richmond Ballet
Repetiteur, The George Balanchine Trust
Curator of The Salvatore Aiello Trust
Dany is the original miracle man! He can make anything, do anything, is always charming and pleasant about it, and is one of the dearest people I know. His genius melds well with Jill’s creative genius for the perfect partnership.
Leah Greenberg
CBT Board Member
Dany is a study in personal perseverance and gracious generosity. A joy to work with.
Dave Hearn President DAVE HEARN, INC.
As you can see, Dany is a special guy. Next time you visit the black box. theatre .at 477 King Street.. Go say hello to Dany. And… If you have a sail boat invite him along on the trip. He loves to sail and you will cherish his company Thanks for everything.. Tonight he just put the Seven Deadly Sins back up . See ya there!
Th crowds keep a coming!!! Today’s Noon Show was filled.. and tonight’s crowd already promises more of the same. As “Dancing With The Stars” continues to captivate television viewers, its hard to imagine a time when ballroom dancing has been more popular in America. Charleston Ballet Theatre will join in the fray till the end of the festival ‘Twisted Tango is being repeated five more time..” Order you tickets . early . Don’t wait and have to be turned away !
THE FIRST DAY OFF… Nursing the Aches and Pains, Getting the Groceries and Hunting Down Monkeys..
May 28, 2008
Dancers are often called frivolous.
Ballet deals in the illusion of control and ease of movement. But the leaps and lifts, the hip turnouts and grand pliés, and sheer repetition of steps and stretches places ballet near the top of a list of physically demanding activities. Dancers labor in classes and rehearsals during the day, and then work like madmen again in performances at night. They tend to be as mentally alert as they are physically agile, and they are frequently long-lived. If their attitude strikes some as overly lighthearted, then perhaps we all should learn how to be frivolous.
But on the contrary the company dancer have learned to master time, beautifully . They can mentally rocket above it, just as they soar above the ground in their performances. The nature of their art requires them to be acutely aware of the necessity of using time well. Ideas may occur to choreographers throughout the day. But they can only realize those ideas by creating specific steps for specific people in specific rehearsal periods. Every minute counts. No wonder George Balanchine liked to say that his muse came to him ”on union time”. And of course Bob Fosse is quoted to say “I think Balanchine and Robbins talk to God on their day off and when I call – he’s out to lunch.
Because dancers’ lives are divided into such rehearsal periods and units, they learn how to concentrate upon whatever is demanded of them at any given moment. They give their complete attention to the task at hand. Although not all dancers receive a rigorously academic education, their memories are often phenomenal, possibly because anything learned by ones complete mental and physical being is not easily forgotten.
So CBT Dancers are enjoying two days off.. Melody Staples comments:
I will be cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen, dusting, vacuuming and generally straightening and putting away all the things that have been left around during performances. I will be making big dinners so that Steven and I have enough leftovers for when we are performing and I won’t be able to make dinner. I’ll probably read 2 or 3 books and go to the library. I hope to get another ¼ of my quilt quilted. I also have several phone calls to catch up on.
Jennifer Balcerzak Muller and her husband Tim headed to Journey to the West and to Harris Teeter for the grocery run
Classes, too, are of fixed duration and, like rehearsals, usually involve groups of people moving together. A few dancers give themselves personal warm-ups. Others receive private coaching. But, in the typical class, many dancers perform the same exercises under a teacher’s watchful eye. Class is a regular, necessary part of a dancer’s day. And when class is in session, dancers must be focused and attentive. Time is filled with meaningful, physically demanding activity. While a company class lasts, it can be a great leveler. Everyone from a troupe’s most famous star to the newest member of the ensemble can be seen lined up at the barre, and even though the teacher may treat the star with deference, the star may still falter, while the newcomer may dazzle. During class, students become aware both of human imperfection and of human aspirations toward excellence. But when class ends, it is truly over – and now it is time for the dancers to devote themselves to what is scheduled to come next in their day.
and the art form of nursing the body to health.
So step off, football jocks. The ballerina needs the physical therapy table more than you do. So what do you think we do on our day off. ? Unlike professional sports teams, many classical ballet companies don’t have the money for on-site doctors and physical therapists. CBT ‘ sport medicine trainer Al Hawkins is the on-call guru. And calls often go to Jessica Roan Valentine’s husband, Brandon, an orthopedic doctor. “I think companies are realizing now that if they want to have dancers perform for a long time, they need to be proactive,” . Hawkins, who has worked for the ballet for over 10 years , says his role is with dancers, he says, it’s “maintenance.” Try telling a dancer with a chronic injury that she really needs to rest for three weeks to be pain-free. Not gonna happen.”
“So I’m giving them practical things to do to minimize the condition, if possible, and undo the damage, if possible,” Hawkins says. “I want to get to them before they get to the point where they can’t get out of bed.”
And what do choreographers’ do?
Well This FIRE MONKEY Won’t t Sit on a Fence like some Spoleto audience members . The Chinese zodiac says people born in the years 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 2004 are governed by the spirit of the monkey. These folks are sociable, cheerful, brainy strategists who slip into and out of difficulties with ease. The monkey is the sign of the inventor, the improviser, the motivator. I went to see my MONKEY COUSIN playing at the Sottile Theatre.
Monkey: Journey to the West is a stage adaptation of the 16th Century Chinese novel Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng’en. It was conceived and created by the Chinese actor and director Chen Shi-zheng, together with the British musician Damon Albarn and British artist Jamie Hewlett (the co-creators of the virtual band Gorillaz). However, the original idea came from Jean-Luc Choplin, head of the Chatelet Theatre in Paris.
Yes that’s right.. I saw the Journey to the West… the Monkey craze at Spoleto. Monday night. I have to admit even after making sure I was one of the first to buy tickets when they went on sale in January, talking it up to everyone I saw, spending endless hours hearing about the event from Foy Flying Master Dave Hearn – I so wanted it to be magnificent ( Dave and I have worked together for years with all my flying needs in ballets Dracula, Peter Pan and Camelot). Going to Journey to the West was my biggest project for the past two days.
Well ..
I was very underwhelmed. I am deeply saddened that my imagination planted a glorius garden of visual delights I wanted and expected to see, just got the better of me. Not the work itself . Post and Courier’s Tim Page, went to ‘Monkey’ last night and after 40 minutes he left. Not his cup of tea– was quoted, I however completed the event becuase the 20 years in Charleston courteousness , forced me to stick it. out, I would not have to get up in the middle of the show. But I wanted to ….
The work needs serious pruning, transition help and a much larger venue to demonstrate its probable potential.. Kudos to the tech crew for biting off as much as possible. and Nigel well.. I love his gamble. I adore Spoleto and want success for them at every turn.. And really the idea sounded alot better than Sweeney Todd..
So sorry, Cousin, my Chinese Monkey.. wanna come see Twisted Tango tomorrow?
Genius is another word for magic,
and the whole point of magic
is that it is inexplicable.
~ Dame Margot Fonteyn
Contributing writers: MOLLY HULETT & VIRGINIA GRANTIER
He reportedly is so brilliant that he started taking college classes in fourth grade, and graduated from law school at age 22. His sister Samantha is so brilliant she got a full scholarship to study physics at Texas A&M University.
So it would seem a predictable conclusion that Alexander Collen, 26, and his younger sister Samantha, formerly of St. Cloud, Minn., would now be big-time stars somewhere in a courthouse and laboratory, respectively. But that didn’t happen. Samantha Collen left her physics, and her scholarship, half-way through her engineering program. Alexander Collen graduated and then turned away from a law career. They left all that for what they both thought they were supposed to do with their lives: dance. Their interest began when their mother, Lynn Collen, who knew nothing about ballet, took them to a Houston Ballet performance because it was a show geared toward children.
“It was serendipity, “she said about her taking them to the ballet. It was the spark. “They were mesmerized,” said Lynn Collen, of St. Joseph, Minn., a college instructor at St. Cloud State University. From that day forward, she said her kids danced everywhere, even down grocery store aisles. Lynn Collen said she knew early on she was going to have some mountains to climb with these two children when, at a birthday party, she was alerted to a problem with her children. She recalls walking out into the backyard to see that Alexander, about 4 or 5, had climbed up a tree and was about 25 feet off the ground. And his sister was walking across the top bar of a swing set, about 14 feet up, in her dress and patent leather shoes. They waved and said, “Hi, mom.”She acknowledged them and then walked back into the house to help with the ice cream. She said she reacted that way because she always had confidence in her children’s abilities to adequately assess what they were capable of doing. She doesn’t want to disempower them in any way with negative reactions. “I don’t want to hold them back.”
Lynn Collen would like to say she didn’t have any inner struggle at all with her two brilliant children turning to ballet for a living. But she can’t. “It is a struggle as a parent. You know the realities of our world, especially in America, “she said. “… But I’m at peace with it. It’s hard to explain.” She said they both have a good education, and she thinks they’re doing what they were meant to do.
Growing up in central Minnesota, Alexander Collen endured his share of restless, after school hours waiting for his little sister to finish her ballet lessons. Eventually weary of watching the kinetic class whirl by the window, he decided to join the other young dancers – a seemingly small decision that ended up sparking his professional path.
Although Collen danced throughout childhood and college, he didn’t seriously think about shaping his craft into a career until he was attending law school at the University of Minnesota, balancing a demanding course load with daily dance classes at Ballet Arts Minnesota. “I realized ballet was the only thing I ever found I enjoy the practice of,” says Collen, who spent a year preparing for a professional ballet career with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s graduate program after he earned his law degree. “Someone once said you don’t dance because you want to, you dance because you can’t do anything else,” he continues. “I don’t know that I’d go quite that far, but it is the only thing I’ve found that I really like to do to that extent. Many people fixate on the performance, but I really enjoy the classes and the pursuit, as well as the performance. I like the feeling of trying to reach for perfection.” Awed by the invitation to perform in the prestigious International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, in 2006, alongside his sister – who now dances professionally in San Diego – Collen went on to dance for a year with the Northern Plains Ballet in North Dakota before joining Charleston Ballet Theatre (CBT) last year, energized by the company’s diverse range, repertoire and receptive audience. “Performing feels so different from night to night, from audience to audience, and from ballet to ballet,” says Collen, who thrives on the convergence of intellectualism, athleticism and artistry that fuel the roles he has danced for CBT, ranging from Captain Hook in “Peter Pan” to Lust in “Seven Deadly Sins.”
“You always have to be paying attention, fully aware and making decisions, never quite knowing what’s going to happen next onstage. I think the challenge is to make every role stand out.” Collen also is honing his role as a choreographer, deepening his understanding of the artistic process. “For me, choreography is the completion of the artistic pursuit,” he explains. “It’s that idea of communication, of recapturing what we as dancers do and being responsible for it. It’s a fulfillment of dancer as artist – not only how you give expression to someone else’s ideas, but causing your own to be expressed artistically.” But for Collen, the most invigorating challenge resides in the daily routine of redefining movement and defying the natural limitations of the body. “You come in every day and keep trying to improve, trying to be a better dancer,” he says. “I think that’s prevalent here, and I really appreciate this kind of environment. I always want more the next day, in all those intellectual and artistic ways. That always keeps me coming back.
CBT Dancer Melody Staples Comments “My favorite thing about partnering with Alex is that he is so consistent. I can depend on him to stay calm, remember choreography, be on the music, and always get me to where I need to be. He is also very strong and I know that when he has me, I’m staying exactly where he put me. Which can lead to humorous situations during the learning process if he has me off my leg and I’m struggling, but can’t fix myself! I just have to relax and let him fix me
Rick Dean’s New book “Momentum” hits the press.
May 26, 2008
Now in his fourth year living in the Southeast, Rick Dean is drawn to photograph that which surrounds him. His newest offerings include new Black & White Lowcountry images, a selection of images from his Carolina Bay Series that was published in Charleston Magazine in October of 2006, as well as images from his latest body of work celebrating movement in the human form featuring the Charleston Ballet Theatre company. ….take a look.
Just in time for Spoleto …. Finally Rick Dean’s wonderful book about CBT has been published. Call 843. 723.7334 to order your copy today.
Below is the forward I wrote for the art book.
One of the world’s most illustrious genius’ Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) wrote
“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, or from a passing shape.
Everything everywhere is seed for inspiration. The seed of inspiration for photographer Rick Dean has been his eye opening venture into understanding the beauty of the elegant athlete called a dancer.
From the very beginning, I recognized Rick’s kinetic artistry and keen photographic eye to be unequaled. Charleston Ballet Theatre proudly presents the premiere edition of “Momentum”, Rick Dean’s distinctive photographic stamp depicting the originality of Charleston Ballet Theatre’s 20th Anniversary Celebration (1987- 2007).
This book was not produced to represent a chronicle of photographs of historical significance, but to be an unparalleled artistic creation forecasting what the next twenty years might entail as CBT continues to carve its mark in the dance world. Twenty years ago Artistic Directors Don and Patricia Cantwell and I promised to create a matchless professional ballet company synonymous with the athleticism of today’s America, a company as spontaneous and youthful as any MTV Video or as engrossing in striking theatricality as a new bestselling novel. “Expect the Unexpected” has been our mantra, and now that mantra can also be applied as a subtitle for this art book.
The comprehensive process from the breeding of the inspiration for a book, through the countless photo sessions watching CBT dancers move in ways only Rick’s subconscious could dream, to endless hours of editing, and finally to witnessing the dawn of this fully realized book, has been a delight for all involved. It is Charleston Ballet Theatre’s desire that “Momentum” challenges your perception of dance, movement and the human body. Welcome to our world! Please enjoy.
RESIDENT CHOREGRAPHER
Charleston Ballet Theatre
South Carolina’s World Class Dance Company
477 King Street Charleston SC 29403
www.charlestonballet.org
843.723.7334
Oh Stephanie!!!!!!
May 25, 2008
CBT’s beautiful on stage dancer, Stephanie Bussell has again won the fans’ hearts. Following is Post and Courier’s art critic, Dottie Ashley’s review of yesterday’s Brown Bag and Ballet opening show.
Stephanie pirouetted through the Kirov Academy of Ballet, the Boston Ballet School, the Bolshoi Academy at Vail, and performed around the world. In the daytime, She can be found in my rehearsals of the company . On occasional evenings, she has moonlighted as dance part of Cabaret Kiki, working alongside such dangerous strangers as the multi-talented Bivins brothers (Jump, Little Children) and chanteuse Cary Ann Hearst. ( And yes - Stephanie is a beautiful person as well both on stage and off-actually every single one of the dancers are beautiful ) Upcoming in this blog is a feature article about her written by Molly Hulett.
Ballet and Lyle Lovett work
By Dottie Ashley
Post and Courier Reviewer
Sunday, May 25, 2008
“Ballet Lover” was on the North Carolina license plate of a car parked in front the Charleston Ballet Theatre’s studio on King Street during CBT’s Brown Bag and Ballet performance at noon Saturday.
Obviously balletomanes were in attendance, as at intermission audience members were discussing when they had last seen this trio of dances. The favorite seemed to be “Nine Lives,” which premiered at the Boston Ballet in 2004 featuring Daniel Pelzig’s splashy choreography that never grows stale.
Joining a cadre of male dancers, strutting their stuff in cowboy outfits, are four women in dressed in satin trimmed in glitter, wearing opera hose and black pointe shoes. The work was proof that classic ballet can be effectively used with any music, even Lyle Lovett’s country-western tunes.
Simmering with sexuality, from her opening shoulder shrug to her final leap, was Stephanie Bussell in “All My Love Is Gone.” Her partner Alexander Collen displayed his terrific strength as he caught Bussell in her leaps into his arms. It’s not easy dancing with a bombshell.
In the comic “She’s No Lady, She’s My Wife,” Melody Staples was striking with her powerful kicks and partnered well with the on-target Steven Hammell. Spinning on one foot and playing air guitar was Jonathan Tabbert in his solo “She’ Hot to Go,” while the pixieish Muller played against type as an abused wife in “Black and Blue,” with versatile Trey Mauldwin as her down-and-out lover. Jennifer Balcerzak Muller showed her versatility in “Dracula” as the prim Lucy, who is fascinated by the forbidding vampire, compellingly danced by Roy Wei Meng Gan, whose splits were flawless.
The ensemble showed great flair in Ravel’s “Bolero,” starring Stephen Gabriel and Melissa Weber in this mesmerizing work.
Charles Leocha of Travel Lady Magazine offered his comments about our the audience favorite ‘Bolero”.
Who would expect world-class ballet in an unimposing building resembling an old Woolworth’s? The Charleston Ballet Theater only seats about 180 people in a simple, low-ceiling space with stark black staging, but their “Bolero” transformed the place. As the familiar music intensified, more dancers appeared in pairs. Eventually ten ballerinas, in bright red, and six male dancers, wearing black and white, were spinning together across the dance floor which then seemed to compare with Moscow’s Bolshoi or Naples’ San Carlo.
Brown Bag and Ballet performances run through June 7.
This program repeats on June 5. Today’s show features Who Cares?
It has begun!
May 24, 2008
The festival has started! CBTand the Charleston Symphony Orchestra joined forces at the annual opening night Customs House evening show last night. Between the rain drops, the company performed to a huge crowd. Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra was danced with Kyle Barnette narrating . The event was stopped for a few minutes . but the audience patiently waited for the musicians to begin again.
Twisted Tango
Charleston Ballet Theatre’s impressive take on the tango
TWISTED TANGO
What is it? Charleston Ballet Theatre’s impressive take on the tango.
Why see it? This is a hot show that’s guaranteed to leave you panting for more. It left this reviewer blushing. CBT dancers bring their strong flexibility to the table, and Bahr twists them up like pretzels. The best part is that the music is traditional tango, so you’ll be toe-tapping the time away. Note to men: Your significant other will be signing you up for ballroom dance the next day.
Who should go? Men on Viagra and the women who love them.
PICCOLO SPOLETO • $25 • 1 hour • May 26, 29 at 12 p.m.; May 29, June 1, 6, 7 at 7 p.m.; June 1 at 1:30 p.m.; June 6, 7 at 9 p.m. • Charleston Ballet Theatre, 477 King St. • (888) 374-2656
The company and I are racing to the finish line. As of 4 PM Friday, all the ballets are now finished for the Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Festival. Performances begin next Friday. This schedule means, two full length shows, nine smaller works, and the collaboration with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. This is over 400 minutes of choreography that the company dancers retain in their minds. Remember they don’t write the steps down anywhere. Sound like 3 dimensional chess?
Next week, the rehearsal process moves to the hardest part of a dancer’s work. Bringing out the artistic essences of each work is what makes each presentation unique. It is the art of squeezing out finishing touches. The power of the ballet master or coach is synonymous with a personal trainer for an Olympic athlete, or an executive coach for a CEO. Dancers often need the single of eye of a trained eye to offer important tips to make a performance day an unforgettable moment in a person’s own experiences. The coach must be the third pair of eyes, and the scale that keeps it in balance.
Many dancers have a lot of things they can tell you with their soul, but sometimes they don’t feel their body. They need to free up their upper body, need to breathe and let air in.” A coach emphasizes musical phrasing and reminders or “make good transitions a normal occurrence at this time.
Coaching is a special process that takes the dancer to the next level. It ignites the imagination and burnishes the luster of a performer’s unique qualities. Even in the age of videos and virtual imaging, there is no substitute for the intimate exchange between coach and dancer that passes on the artistry of ballet from one generation to the next.
Regular coaching sessions are as essential as taking class if dancers are to maintain their characterization and grow as artists. The famous ABT ballerina Dvorovenko once was quoted to says, “It is like dust on the furniture. If you don’t clean it, the next day there will be dust a little bit more.”
Bringing along young talent and helping dancers reach their potential is another aspect of coaching especially for the less experienced dancers of a company. For many apprentices have a long way to go in the way they present herself.” “They can absorb the information on one day but not necessarily put it into their bodies. It can be processed overnight and become crystal clear the next day, or it may take years. It can only be a work in progress.”
Besides me, the other two members of CBT’s coaching triumvirate are Stephen Gabriel and Jessica Roan. Before Gabriel assumed the ballet master leadership role at CBT, he had been principal dancer with CBT for almost a decade. With his regal beating, exceptional musicality, and pure American style, he brought unusual depth and emotional power to a wide range of leading roles–from the classics to psychological dance dramas. Mindful of the diverse training of any dancer dancers, coaching requires I encourage them, and in some cases, demand that they consider styles outside their training. As principal ballerina Jessica, can only great insight into many of the challenges the ladies of the company face including the demands of unison in corps de ballet work or the use of the pointe shoes. Both dancer still dance principal roles..
This is why we are too busy.
The perfect example of the coaching process has been the extensive work with Miki Kawamura and Alexander Collen in the Bedroom Pas de deux from Carmen. To create the role of Carmen and Don Jose, the process takes extensive coaching in melding of the complexity of two main characters magnetism. Carmen is a portrayal of magical temptress, a captivating story that exalts sensuality and an alluring sexual energy. It is an emotionally vivid and dramatic pas de deux that echoes the percussive, strikingly memorable score. The story, the music and the hard dancing make a strong challenge . Make sure you catch the tempting tidbit during Spoleto to whet your appetite for next season’s Full Length presentation of Carmen in the fall.
So next week we will still be a busy
William Faulkner once said – “ An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.”
hmmmmmmmmm
A Dance Journey in the Mind
May 11, 2008
Seven Deadly Sins
Charleston City Paper Arts Writer JOHN STOEHR November 2007 article about Seven Deadly Sins follows with a photographic essay as CBT readies for the ballet’s return at Piccolo Spoleto 2008
Jill Eathorne-Bahr is a control freak. Just ask her. As the resident choreographer of the Charleston Ballet Theatre, she has, since the organization’s founding in 1987, worn about as many hats as one can wear: that of leader, manager, fund-raiser, teacher, visionary, and more. On one recent afternoon, I paid a visit to her dance studios on Upper King Street. We talked after a rehearsal of the ballet company’s upcoming anniversary performance, featuring three of their greatest hits, so to speak, of the past 20 years. The anniversary celebration comes in two parts. One is this weekend (Nov. 16-17). The other is in March. This first features Eathorne-Bahr’s Seven Deadly Sins, plus two audience favorites: Bolero, a dance by Helena Baron set to Ravel’s work by the same name, and Nine Lives, a work created by Daniel Pelzig that adapts the music of Lyle Lovett. “I like control,” she told me after rehearsal. “Most choreographers don’t conceive and execute from beginning to end. It’s easier if I do everything the way I want it done.” It’s in her nature. But there’s one thing she can’t control.
Despite having written more than 30 works for the ballet company, comprising fully half of its repertoire, Eathorne-Bahr can’t influence, coerce, persuade, or make demands of the most elemental stage of creativity. That stage is inspiration. Most artists accept the reality that creation is mostly perspiration. Hard work, however, is secondary. It happens after the initial spark. What accounts for that burst of light? The artistry of the universe would be nothing without that first big bang. She doesn’t know the answer, though the question clearly fascinates her. As we talk over bottles of water in the lobby of the studio, where the performance will be held, about the centerpiece of this weekend’s show, Seven Deadly Sins, she seems intrigued, as though she’d never considered it. “You can’t tell where inspiration comes from,” she says. Then she shows me something unexpected. Returning from her office, she hands me a coffee table-sized book on Paul Cadmus, the representational artist best known in the 1970s and ’80s for his work against the dominant vogue in minimalism and for his paintings of nude males, social-realism, and erotic grotesqueries. Eathorne-Bahr opens the book and points to something disgusting: a human figure so fat his fingers are mere nubs. His skin is taut and pink and scaly and thin. His abdomen is bursting. Guts are dripping onto his feet. And he’s eating, no gorging, on what look to be the guts of another entity of some kind. In fact, he’s swaddled in intestines. He can’t get enough. “This has been my inspiration,” she told me. The disgusting figure is “Gluttony,” part of the painter’s series of egg-tempura panels that the author of the book, famed New York impresario Lincoln Kirstein, calls the “capstone of Cadmus’s career.” Kirstein continues, “Riveting in their diabolical repulsiveness, imagined with an awareness of essential morality, their precision of imagery and intense realization in form and color present a universalized iconography of evil unique in our time.” I’ll say.
A black hole
Now remember: Not minutes earlier I observed the company run through Eathorne-Bahr’s Seven Deadly Sins. It’s about a psychiatric patient who ends up killing her dubious doctor after having exorcised herself of the sinful septet. I saw two statuesque and quite beautiful women dance together in a charming and elegant depiction of Envy.
I saw a group led by a tall, clean-cut male dancer pounding their fists in order to portray Avarice, or Greed.
I saw a solo by a man dressed like Wimpy from Popeye. He bumbled around, pulling hamburgers from his pockets. It was light, frolicking, and fun. He certainly wasn’t hemorrhaging his entrails or gorging on someone else’s. And “Gluttony” is tame compared to Cadmus’ other sins.
”Wrath” is red and violent, with spikes coming out of his fingers and toes; shards of bloody glass slice into his body.
”Pride” is a female figure wrinkled and empty and filled with gas. Her balloon-like skin is pricked by a crop of sharp rocks.
”Lust” is even worse. She’s stripped of all sensuality, beauty, and appeal. Her legs are thick, her skin is jaundiced, and she gestures with her stubby, knuckled hands at the large, gauzy black hole below her hideous navel. She’s just awful. Cadmus’s sins are pure spectacle, utter fantasy. They are brash. They are emotionally distant.
They are in your face. Eathorne-Bahr’s sins, by contrast, are intimate. They are ominous, but also inviting. They are strange, but also familiar. They are dangerous, but still a reflection of humanity’s fall from grace. The narrative of Seven Deadly Sins is, it must be said, raw: It ends in murder, after all. But because the sins are so archetypal, so universal, it’s easy to understand the patient (danced by company principal Jessica Roan). We understand what she’s going through. We are connected to her. We see ourselves in her. We are her. The question remains: How did one work of art inspire another, from Cadmus to Eathorne-Bahr? What psychic calculus computed to get from the spectacularly grotesque to the intimately frightening?
The devil inside
When I use the word “spectacle” to describe Cadmus’ work, Eathorne-Bahr’s eyes glint. As we talk, she says she started to understand her inspiration. During the act of creating, she didn’t pause to reflect. She was too busy inventing gestures, movements, sounds, and textures indicative of each sin. She was also busy coming up with a narrative thread to string the vignettes together. “I wanted to get a feel for the sins, to figure out a way of creating ordered chaos,” she says. “I wanted a question in the dance to give a sense of forward movement.” And here’s where we start to understand Cadmus’ affect on Eathorne-Bahr. The key is this question, this aching state of unknowing: Why is the psychiatric patient seeing visions of these sins? What are they? Then Eathorne-Bahr is inspired. She says this: that Cadmus’ paintings make visible the sinful nature of one’s interior self. Only in this way is Cadmus’s series, indeed, spectacle. Internal subjectivity is rendered into an over-the-top external reality. The same goes for our poor psychiatric patient. The sins she encounters are not separated from her. They are her. Just as we are her. The sins are her subjective nature made real. As the story moves on, we see she’s overcoming her inner demons. All that’s left to wonder is why she kills the doctor. “I don’t know,” Eathorne-Bahr says. “Maybe that’s what’s inside me.”
Sat. 5/24 7:00 pm
Fri. 5/30 7:00 pm
Sat. 5/31 7:00 pm
Thur. 6/5 7:00 pm
All Performances at CBT’s
Black Box Theatre
477 King Street
For more information call
843.723.7334
