A Wish for Organic Dancing to be on the Rise

 

Most of the true remarkable dancers of the generations – Fred Astaire, Margot Fonteyn, Erik Bruhn, Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov were all born to dance. Even Michael Jackson in MTV Landmark Video “Thriller” was amazing as he held the viewer’s memory in the palm of his hand.    These artist’s bodies claimed a sense of full absorption, complete commitment and underlying passion. How did they do it?

Sweat Equity of course and I say: It’s time to cover up the mirror.

Ouch!!!! 

”We had no mirror,” whines a black- tighted, fully covered up company member. ”No mirror! In ballet, you spend hours correcting yourself in the mirror. Now you can’t judge yourself. ” 

Now… young dancers .. this is not for you and pros –this is not to abolish or cancel or change your techniques. Why not consider that mirrors are totally out of kilter for dancers. They tend to be old-fashioned, narcissistic and unadventurous. They blemish you and disrupt you. They don’t help you in sensing where you are in space. Why not consider the possibility there could be a unique opportunity to have movement language become yours. It’s about changing habits and learning new ones. And you have the time, the talent, the desire to do it.”

“Now.. Don’t say no just yet. Engaging in this cover-up exercise,, I have found the dancers (re)experience the joy of dancing and the power of dance, by creating new possibilities that will affect their virtuosity and their creativity.

And I am not the first person to think this way.   Jerome Robbins spent time doing this, as did Anna Sokolov, Paul Taylor, and Ohad Naharin. I am sure there is more.

The Perfect example

A GENEROUS, visionary patron with limitless funds is the dream of every performing arts organization. Few get to experience that dream in real life, but the Cedar Lake Company, a contemporary-ballet ensemble, has been an exception: it was founded in 2003 by Nancy Laurie, a Wal-Mart heiress who is by all accounts a devoted dance fan, with the laudable intent of creating opportunities for New York dancers and choreographers. But as the company has learned, deep pockets aren’t everything.  Some of the benefits of patronage are undeniable. The dancers have an almost unheard-of 52-week contract, with health insurance and vacation pay. The buildings contain a large, well-lighted rehearsal studio, dressing rooms and a dancers’ lounge adjacent to the theater. A physical therapist is available to them, as are a resident video artist and an in-house wardrobe department.  In fact, such largess has occasioned a certain amount of jealousy in the dance world. “They are in a luxury situation, and that generates envy,” said the choreographer Emily Molnar. “I told the dancers, ‘You are going to have a hard time because you have what everyone wants.’ “

Master Choreographer Ohad Naharin recently discussed his commission with the Cedar Lake Company Though Mr. Naharin has staged ”Decadance” for companies other than his own, he says he has never received an offer like the one Cedar Lake made last year: three months of rehearsal, license to retrain the company’s dancers and 24 performances of his signature work. ”Usually when I work with another company, the time is shorter, and there’s a bigger adjustment of my work to the dancers’ habits,’’.  The generosity of the offer was typical of Cedar Lake, whose resources include a stable of highly trained dancers with 52-week contracts and two spacious, light-filled studios on the western edge of Chelsea, which once belonged to the photographer Annie Leibovitz. Yet its pristine rehearsal studio has been without mirrors since the day that Mr. Naharin’s assistants arrived and covered them up.

Nigel Redden, who presented Batsheva Dance Company and Mr. Naharin’s work at both the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. in Charleston, S.C., and the Lincoln Center Festival in the last year, , places him in ”a rarefied group” of the world’s foremost modern-dance choreographers.  For those of you who do not know Ohad. –

Ohad Naharin was born on an Israeli kibbutz 55 years ago, to an actor father immersed in psychodrama and a dancer mother. Genetic dispositions aside, his dancing life started at 22 with the Batsheva Company in Israel, then under the tutelage of Martha Graham. That strand segued into a yearlong stay with Graham’s company in New York. Naharin pursued advanced training, and fresh discoveries, at the Juilliard School before joining Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXe Siècle in Brussels. Neither Graham nor Béjart has had any measurable influence on his work

After a lifetime of mornings at the barre Cedar Lake’s ballet-trained dancers found themselves warming up in ”Gaga” class. , “Gaga,” is the class structure which his company, or any dancer he’s working with, trains with daily. It’s a system that he uses in his creative process to help dancers (and non-dancers) understand their movement habits, understand their places of atrophy, and explore new ways of moving, and ultimately being.  Gaga works on sensory awareness, co-ordination and sensitivities. The dancer is strong and loose at the same time. Gaga taps into the use of stretch, over- and under-exaggeration, high and low volume, and affects suppleness, agility, movement efficiency, intentionality and clarity. It’s about connecting to weaknesses, physical fixations, and what each one of us adheres to unconsciously. “It’s about giving yourself over to the movement, and the connection between passion, effort, pain and pleasure, sexuality and sublimation,” Naharin says.

Imagery — say, the suggestion of rubbing oil into the skin — stimulates the imagination. Dancers are encouraged to explore their weaknesses and break old movement habits. Other exercises focus on the placement of the body in space and developing sensitivity to the energy of the dancers nearby. The goal, Mr. Naharin said, is to connect dancers to ”pleasure and effort, madness and demons, to all the things that really create an interesting performer.” The kind of performer, he might add, that makes a potent vessel for his very specific body language.  

 ”I see a more intimate relationship with their bodies. I feel more the animal that they are.”  The changes were technical too. Lifelong ballet dancers dug their knees and feet into the earth, rose up in the air and came down flat-footed. In his quiet way Mr. Naharin gave corrections: never angry, never critical, yet in utter command of the room. ”Make sure you connect to the sensation and not to showing a picture,” he told the group. ”Relax your jaw. A little bit of space between your lips. Feel that?” They did. ”The whole attitude changes,” he said. ”It’s more alive.”

Well.  I got to agree.  It’s all about this higher education- to make you as good as you can be.  Fuel for Thought Maybe? 

Why Women Like Shoes

There is no question about it – We love  shoes. There are even women who cannot drive past a shoe store without dropping in to buy a brand new pair of women shoes. Have you ever driven past a shoe store when there was a sale going on? The parking lot is packed, and the way women walk out with boxes piled high, you would think that they were giving the shoes away!

If you open the door of any average woman’s closet, you will be able to tell quite a bit about her – by checking out her shoes. That scuffed up pair are her favorites. Those sneakers with the mud caked on them are an indication that she may be a runner – or possibly a gardener. If you see cowboy boots, she may ride horses, but if the boots are in excellent condition – with no dirt, scuffs or dust – she is probably into country and western dance. (I love my Gringos!) 

Patricia Cantwell, loves black shoes…last count I think was 68 pairs.

Our shoes tell other people quite a bit about us – more than most people realize. Tom Hanks, in Forest Gump said “Mama always said you could tell an awful lot about a person by the kind of shoes they wear.” And his Mama was right! ! A woman’s shoes really go a long way towards telling you who she is, what she is like, and what she does with her life.  Well the same is true with the ballerina’s shoes. !  Check out Melody Staples as she walks into class with at least 15 pairs dangling from her dance bag.

So you are getting your point shoes? First of all, Congratulations!!! You’re making such an important step in your dance career! They are the very foundation of advanced ballet technique for women.  Pointe shoes are the essential tool of the ballerina’s career. Without them, ballet would have a completely different look and feel. An arabesque, with the leg lifted high behind, arms outstretched, is a lovely attitude, and would be with the foot flat or even on demi-pointe – what we call standing on tiptoe – but en pointe, it transcends itself as the ballerina seems to defy gravity. Pointe shoes allow her to achieve this beauty

Structure Makes a Difference – Pointe shoes consist of many different parts, all of which are fundamental in how the shoe fits. When trying to find the right pointe shoe, consider these very important terms in making your choice

Box: the front, wide part of the pointe shoe

The box can be either wide or tapered. A tapered box is narrower toward the tip of the shoe and gets wider as it approaches the drawstring. Shoes with a tapered box are good for dancers whose toes decrease in length from the big toe to the pinky toe. Shoes with a wider box are great for dancers whose toes are all close to the same length.

•Vamp: the top part of the pointe shoe, which is a continuation of the box

Vamps can either be “V” shaped or “U” shaped. “V” shaped vamps are usually longer, which gives the foot a little extra support.

•Shank: the “spine” of the pointe shoe

The shank is the part of the shoe that must be “broken in.” The shank provides arch support in the shoe. Shanks come in different strengths: hard, medium, and soft. Most beginner pointe dancers should get medium or hard shanks to build strength in their arches.

•Platform: the flat end of the box that you relevee onto

•Throat: the open area where the foot fits into the shoe

Now .. make sure they fit you and that they’re completely comfortable. Dancers now use satin pointe shoes with a hard but pliable shank and a box made up of layers of cardboard. Dancers must break in their shoes by dancing in them using the proper techniques. Often, dancers improve their shoes by manipulating them. In today’s world of pointe shoes, there are many different companies that offer a myriad of pointe shoe styles and shapes. This variety of shoes allows dancers to find a perfect pair.

There are many different ways of breaking in pointe shoes, such as pounding the shoes against cement, hitting them with blunt objects, wetting the box then wearing them to class and bending them on door frames.

Even ten years ago, the selection of shoes was limited, and many dancers were forced to independently “customize” their pointe shoes to avoid injury. Though it is said that it is not now necessary, in practice, most dancers do still break their shoes in by the methods described above. Some manufacturers try to curb the practice by actually employing the wetting of the box method by suggesting the dancer to do a one-two hour barre work (to make the box wet by sweat and mold to the feet) then wait until the shoe gets dry and apply shellac inside the box, to keep it dry in the future.

Seasoned dancers select new pairs of pointe shoes carefully, checking that they are even and balanced. Usually, they have a favorite brand, model, and even maker. In the pointe shoe world the general consensus is that the best shoe is not one brand or another but the one that fits the dancer’s feet the best. There are many different types of pointe shoes, and each fits the dancer in a different way. Some dancers use different brands or models depending on the actual piece they perform; some shoes are better suited for lots of groundwork while others are better in dances with lots of jumps, and hops. The pointe shoe should be tight, with only a pinch of cloth at the heel when the pointe shoe is en pointe. Two ribbons wrap around the dancer’s ankle, one over the other as to form as cross at the front. The ends are then tied in a knot (not a bow which will look lumpy on the ankle and may come undone unexpectedly) which is tucked into the inside of the ankle so it is not visible.

When you set out to purchase new shoes, make sure that you are wearing the right type of tights  that you will wear with the shoes that you purchase. This is important, tights will change the way the shoe fits When you try on the shoes, stand on one foot at a time, allowing all of your weight to be on that one foot The shoes should bend where your foot bends. Next, think about the width of the shoe. At the widest part of your foot, does the shoe feel comfortable when standing on one foot, when standing normally on two feet, and when walking? Don’t just take a few steps, walk ten or twenty feet and then back to get a good sense of what the shoe will feel like when walking. It needs to be tight

 An elastic band is wrapped around the ankle to keep the heel pocket of the shoe in place when the dancer is en pointe. Dancers no longer attach the elastic through a loop on the heel as this has been shown to cause achilles tendinitis in many dancers and is no longer recommended. Because exact placement of the ribbons varies with the dancer’s feet, the ribbons do not come attached to the pointe shoes. The dancer must sew the ribbons and elastic on by herself after purchasing the shoe. Exact placement is imperative. Some stores will sew the elastic and ribbon on after the shoe is purchased. A good fitter will at least mark where the elastic and ribbon should be placed. Incorrectly placed elastic or ribbon can cause the shoe not to fit properly. Elastic and ribbon should be sewn on with the correct thread. Most professionals recommend embroidery thread. It comes in 6-string strands, but usually using 3-strands is sufficient. Some dancers also use dental floss, though embroidery thread works better.

The shank of the shoe comes in two different sizes, 3/4 and full shank. The full shank is traditionally for the dancer who has a strong arch, and needs more support than the 3/4 can offer. The full shank was used in the original pointe shoe. The 3/4 is shorter, and helps dancers go up en pointe with more facility. Very often dancers cut the shank to their own specific foot to provide just the amount of support they prefer. This is known as “shanking” the shoe. There is a wide variety of pointe shoes that have different attributes and longevity. The choreography will often dictate the type of shoe required: the supple, lyrical style of the white swan, for instance, requires a softer shoe, while the black swan’s dazzling turns are best done in a hard, stiff shoe.

Pointe shoes are usually made in light pink colors varying from peachy-pink to rosy-pink, to very pale pink.. At dance supply stores, pointe shoes retail for anywhere between $35 and $120. Students usually pay between $40 and $80 for one pair of shoes, which will last (with major fluctuations depending on the strength of the dancer’s feet, her weight, the type and strength of the shoes, and the amount of time spent en pointe) for about one to three months. Higher level dance students, who usually take several pointe classes a week, can often go through one or more pairs monthly. Professional dancers go through pointe shoes much more quickly and order shoes in bulk directly from manufacturers – one pair can “die” after twenty minutes of a performance. Many professional ballet companies offer shoe allowances to their dancers, allotting a certain number of shoes to each dancer per season, depending on her position in the company. Professional dancers may buy very expensive pointe shoes, ranging from $80 to $100, depending on what company and how they are customized.

Here is a list of pointe shoe companies you can google the names. 

Bloch (Australia), Freed of London Ltd. (England), Gamba Ltd. (England) , Prima Sansha (France),Chacott (Japan), Russian Pointe (Russia), Grishko Ltd. (Russia), Capezio (USA), So Danca (USA) , Gaynor Minden (USA) , Angelo Luzio (Canada) , Principal Shoes(Canada) , Repetto (France)

And last but not least is  my pet peeve.. I hate Gaynor Minden shoes. The shank is PLASTIC. This means that when you sweat the shoes don’t mold to your feet.  They don’t allow you to develop your own arch, or get any muscle memory. I believe they are cheater shoes. As you are learning to do pointe work, you have to develop your muscles instead of letting the shoe hold you up.   Parents you might love them because they last longer but they are not teaching a dancer how to utilize their feet properly.  If you ask my favorite shoe it would always be a Freed.  

The Value of Sweat Equity.

The More you sweat the more you work: the more you work the farther you get :. the farther you get the great parts you dance , the famous ballets you have experienced:  LIFE IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL ! Sweat Equity:  What does it mean?   The equity that is created in a company or some other asset as a direct result of hard work by the owner(s).,  So in terms of the dancer and the dancer.. I think these three points sum it up perfectly. 

Commitment: Is he or she committed to being dancer for the long haul?

Unique contribution: Does he or she bring specialized knowledge, skills, leadership ability or experiences that you don’t have?

Hopes and dreams: Are his or her hopes and dreams for ballet company’s  success and creative expression the same as yours?  If not, are the differences substantiate enough that they’ll pull the company apart.

To prepare students for advanced dance and professional training in a stimulating and creative environment   take a lot of care and determination from both sides of the party. 

1. The “P” word – PRACTICE. Yes, there are things you can work on at home. If you are unsure about what you need to work on, how to set goals, or ways to achieve these goals, talk to your dance teacher and I’m sure he/she will be able to assist. Please be careful and attentive in your practice, however, and don’t attempt anything that you have not already covered in class. Practicing something that you are not ready for, at the least, can form bad habits that will need to be broken and re-learned and, at worst, can lead to serious injury.

 2. Attend a summer intensive or dance workshop. If your studio has its own workshops, great. There is value in seeking something elsewhere, however. You will not only keep up over the summer, but expand your dance experiences with instruction, choreography, and concepts from different teachers and meet other dancers that perhaps come from other schools or backgrounds. Some deadlines for admission to workshops have already passed, however it may still be worth looking for something this summer.

3. Go to a dance performance, or two, or more! (Your own recital doesn’t count. Going to a friend’s, well that’s nice and all, but try a professional concert or a performance in a style with which you are unfamiliar for a change.) I can’t stress enough how important it is for dance students to see live performances, and summer is a great time to do that. If your family goes on vacation, check out the local dance companies, festivals, and performances at your destination. One way to do that is with sites like citysearch.com.  cyberdance.com, etc, Jacobs Pillow, American Dance Festival to name a few.

  4. Read and Rent. Visit the dance/performing arts section of your local public or university library and do some summer reading about your craft. Rent dance DVDs at your local video .  store (they sometimes have performance footage of famous or historic works available, so resist the temptation to rent Centre Stage or Dirty Dancing for the zillionth time) or try NetFlix.

5.  Stretching is a key part of your stress equity  program. Stretching before your dance — especially if you have tight or injured muscles — can prepare your body to exercise. Stretching after your workout promotes better range of motion of your joints. Stretching also improves your flexibility, balance and coordination. When you’re stretching, keep it gentle. Breathe freely as you hold each stretch. Try not to hold your breath. Don’t bounce or hold a painful stretch. Expect to feel tension while you’re stretching. If you feel pain, you’ve gone too far.

 

 

 

 

A RISING TIDE FLOATS ALL BOATS

 

 

The aphorism “a rising tide lifts all boats” is associated with the idea that improvements in the general economy will benefit all participants in that economy, and that economic policy, particularly government economic policy, should therefore focus on the general macroeconomic environment first and foremost. The phrase is said to have been coined by Seán Lemass, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1959–1966] It was also associated with John F. Kennedy, who employed the expression to combat criticisms that his tax cuts would benefit mostly wealthy individuals.

 

 

As we near the end of our current fiscal year (June 30),.. I have decided to GO FOR THE ASK.  Not just for our Ballet Company, Charleston Ballet Theatre, but the Ask FOR ALL the ARTS ORGANIZATIONS here in the Lowcountry.  Be it The Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Stage, The Gibbes Museum, Footlight Players or Pure Theatre etc etc. . . . we all need you.

 Through sheer creativity and business acumen, CBT keeps trying to achieve the rare pas de deux of mastering both its art and its finances. Since its formation in 1987, CBT has been praised for its eclectic, bold and youthful programming that has wowed audiences and critics alike around the South. Raising money for the arts in today’s financial climate can be daunting, thankless and endless. Federal and state funds continue to be pushed into the background. And the product, dance, is difficult to sell.

I gotta say, I believe there is room and potential funding for everyone, but it won’t be as easy (if it ever was) to do what we’ve done in the past, we’ll have to come up to a new mark, generate new interest and operate in an accepting and generous manner…or if we’ll fail – that lost  becomes generational to our children .

It takes a driven group to carry off a high wire act like this, but Charleston is that place ya’all . Donors who come from areas other than the arts often want to see concrete results, like a statue in a public garden, or Darla Moore’s new 10 million dollar gift to the City of Charleston Parks infuses the concrete portion of the full pie. .  .

What we have is truly unique.  … but we also  have the cost of GAS.  .

These days, courting a donor gets even harder when you factor in the uncertainties that face every new artistic endeavor: the possibility of failure, the relatively short life of most dance and theatre works (most of which disappear in a few years from company reps), and the danger that donors new to dance may neither fully understand nor deeply appreciate the finished product; the issue of individual taste often creates complications. 

This season, is more reality than fairy tale, I am proud to say the company garnered the best ticket sales it ever – had in any Piccolo Spoleto festival due to the sell out Twisted Tango Performances .    plus our debut at the North Charleston Arts Festival and our joint performance with the CSO on the Custom House Steps opening night of Spoleto.    I hope that CBT’s whirlwind pace of artistic activity this past 20^th Anniversary Season will spur you to invest in us through season ticket sales, program ads and contributions.

In the next few days, a packet will be arriving at your house from CBT, outlining our revamped Dance Partner program.    I hope you remember community support, plain old-fashioned goodwill around town, is an essential ingredient in any arts organizations survival. Dance cannot afford to be seen as an elitist pastime, a fact confirmed by the great amount of time that artistic directors must spend these days in community-outreach projects, in educating and building audiences. 

 As my blogging continues..,   Think about joining our high wire act. Please remember what live performing arts do for you, your children and your community. It is art that defines how communities are viewed and so often is the only memory of any society and culture from ages past. 

Through movement, CBT speaks the primal self and makes an indelible impression on children that are a catalyst for change and create an appreciation that lasts a lifetime.  We need you.

PS

 If you did not receive a packet of info.. Email me !

 

Jill Eathorne Bahr
RESIDENT CHOREGRAPHER
Charleston Ballet Theatre
South Carolina’s World Class Dance Company
477 King Street Charleston SC 29403
www.charlestonballet.org

j.bahr@charlestonballet.org
843.723.7334

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blindsided by Facebook? — NOPE! Even Quicksilver Dancers can get Tripped Up.

I say..

Nope!!!! Not on My Turf! .

A Goldman Sachs trader in the UK named “Charlie” was warned by his employer that his visits to Facebook on company time were to stop. He spent, apparently, over 500 hours on Facebook in a six month period. That works out to about 4 hours per day. Unwisely, perhaps, Charlie posted the warning email on his Facebook account, saying “It’s a measure of how warped I’ve become that, not only am I surprisingly proud of this, but in addition, the first thing I did was to post it here, and that losing my job worries me far less than losing facebook ever could.”

Yowzie..  I couldn’t keep him – Glad he doesn’t dance..

Indeed.

But.. I love ballet and wish for millions of contributed dollars for the ballet but maybe –Hmmm.   Maybe I really wish I was a Facebook stockholder.  But no..   Nope not on my turf..   I am not going to be a stockholder,  but like a growing number of professionals, I did it… I finally jumped on the Facebook Bandwagon Social Utility.  

Anyway, I’m glad I took the leap and joined the “Facebook rage:  one, to just experience the joys of reconnecting with friends, respond to their messages, and post pictures. I have connected back with former dancers from CBT ;  For example : Bryon Suber who now is in his 18th year teaching at Cornell, Jennifer Gelfand, Deidre Miles  and Paul Thrussell brilliant dancers from my long 8 year summer tenure at Boston Ballet and of course many of my Paul Taylor Dance Company and ABT Connections.  Facebook has given back those friends to me.   I can visit with them at any hour of the night. .  I now  think, like my dancers, who have been Facebook and My  Space users  far longer than I , Facebook seemed to me to be nothing more than a culpable enjoyment of the internet age, complete with access to horoscopes, games, witty quotes and extreme photos.  That what I use it for and I don’t care if that is all that employees use it for.  

But as with everything involving the internet, life on Facebook or any other social network, it appears and is much more complicated.  It’s very fashionable to declare that Facebook is an over-hyped fad and will never make any real money, certainly not enough to justify its insane $15 billion valuation. At first glance, it’s easy to understand why some people might think it’s a fun pastime – most of the activity there seems to involve sending karma, biting, poking, and joining groups with funny names. However, I think that assessment misses out on something very interesting: Facebook is capturing everyone’s identity and relationships. For example :  John Twelve Hawks, the best selling author of the book Traveler.. refuses to be “on the grid”

Both John Twelve Hawks and his American publisher state that he has never met his editor and that he communicates using the Internet and an untraceable satellite phone, usually employing a voice scrambler. No photograph of Twelve Hawks has ever appeared and all biographical information about his background is based on four sources.     Durn!  He writes well..and,  I would want to meet. Him   Guess what? He is not on facebook member.

Of course there’s some noise caused by random friending, but by examining the larger graph as well as other details such as location, affiliations, interactions, and of course explicitly entered relationship details (“how do you know Paul?”), Artistic Directors  can get a pretty good idea of which people are actual friends and acquaintances

Facebook boasts “your page can be about anything… promoting your company, keeping in touch with friends, even trying to track the suspect of a double homicide (Dolly Madison Homicide 2002).  What goes on your Facebook page and who is allowed to see your page is up to you. 

Hmmmmm nah…  I don’t agree — neither does the power of Googling.

Cyber-security expert Chris Malinowski of Long Island University at CW Post puts it this way: “Why would anybody give me something cool to run on my computer for free? And the answer is- to gather statistical information.” Malinowski, the former head of the NYPD’s computer crimes unit, warns specifically about downloading so called Facebook “applications”–things like games, “gifts”, virtual bookshelves, etc. These applications seemed harmless to CBT Dancers, wanna be company apprentices potential “hired’ dancers and  summer school applicants. 

But according to Malinowski, by doing so, she and other Facebook users could be exposing the personal information on their page and in their computer to outsiders. That’s because these applications are run, not by Facebook, but by outside companies- “developers,” in the parlance of the Facebook world. When you download the applications, says Malinowski, you are giving access to these outsiders.  ) Spend a few minutes looking at the social-networking site Facebook and you’ll see that it’s not uncommon for the millions of college students who use it to post photos of themselves at last night’s kegger or dressed in less-than-conservative attire.

 But, as CBS News correspondent  Sharyn Alfonsi reports, an increasing number of potential employers are accessing these profiles — and using them to decide whom they hire.  Dunia Rkein is a college sophomore. She has a stellar resume and an Ivy League education.  “I’m applying for analyst jobs,” she says.  Rkein also has a profile on Facebook.com — just like millions of other college students. In fact, 7.5 million college students use Facebook.  Rkein agrees that the social-networking site for students consists primarily of pictures of people partying and says “I hope that employers aren’t looking at it too in-depth 

The bad news is that employers are doing just that.  And yes so are Ballet Company Directors.

Take Tim DeMello, who owns the Internet company Ziggs, which lets people post an online business-oriented profile that the company says will come up first in most Internet searches.  When DeMello was asked if he does an Internet search for online profiles when he chooses whom to hire, he replies, “Of course. Everybody does.”   The Same is true for ballet companies  Take Ballet company directors who watch on the sidelines the actions of their employees ..  “It’s almost like inviting a guest into your home and saying have a run of the house,” says Malinowski. “If they don’t have any respect for your home, they’ll do damage.” Facebook does post a warning that you are supposed to read before accepting the applications; but, like many, Morris never paid much. Attention to it. “I thought my personal data was all protected by Facebook,” she says.

Facebook’s response: “Our goal at Facebook has always been to provide a trusted environment for our users and we are continuously focused on safeguarding user information. Through the Application Privacy page, users have total control of what data is accessible to the applications that they or their friends interact with on Facebook. Also, for the safety and security of our users, third-party developers building on Facebook Platform are subject to technical and policy restrictions that strictly prohibit the collection and storage of user data.”

(CBS) Spend a few minutes looking at the social-networking site Facebook and you’ll see that it’s not DeMello estimates that about 20 percent of companies are secretly scanning online profiles before they interview applicants. What they often find is shocking — including profiles that detail drug use, orgies and illegal behavior.  “They come in all buttoned up, their clothing is meticulous, they spend years building this resume, and this person that’s sitting there is almost entirely different than the person posting on these Web sites,” says DeMello.  Many employers admit they’ve even learned how to access profiles students think are “private” — and they’re surprised by how many students don’t care if everyone knows everything about them.  What most students don’t realize is those party pictures make up their “online footprint” — one that will follow them well beyond sorority row.  Take Rkein’s pictures. They don’t show anything lewd or illegal, but … “Within a short period of time, you could find these 83 photos on every search engine on the Web, and these 83 photos could be attached to your name for the rest of your career,” says DeMello.

While some of her photos may be “cute,” DeMello says posting these photos online is like “she’s telling me a secret.” There are  photos of Rkein that don’t exactly scream “CEO material”  “I think some of these sites out there are going to be the most expensive free Web sites to their careers that they’ve ever seen,” says DeMello.  It might have cost Rkein a job.  “I think I’d have other candidates I’d probably talk with,” says DeMello.  Says Rkein: “I really don’t think employers should be basing their opinion on me on Facebook.” But asked if she might edit it when she begins interviewing, Rkein says, with a laugh, “Perhaps.”  If you’re supposed to dress for the job you want, employers say some of these students really need to just put something on.    Facebook does not provide a “one-click” solution for leaving the site. Members may delete content they’ve submitted to the site, one item at a time. For active users, tearing down all that content could take dozens of hours. And even then, Facebook retains much of your basic contact information, making it possible for other members to contact you through the site.

Googling this issue.. subject matter can be fount email that the CEO of Plazes, Felix Petersen, has allegedly been caught in a white lie, exposed by none other than his own product: Plazes. The story says that he had canceled his appearance at the Next Web Conference, citing some personal as well as business reasons Neuroeconomics-How-Executives-Think , and said that he was going back to Berlin to tend to his sick daughter and troubled business. However, he was – again, allegedly – spotted enjoying a beer in Copenhagen, and this seems to be confirmed by his Plazes log. If you’re not familiar with Plazes, it’s a service that locates you geographically and puts you on an online map whenever you connect to the Internet – of course, if you choose to be visible.

The frustration, even anger, that many such users feel toward Facebook is palpable. The NY Times quoted several readers who had attempted to delete their information from Facebook, with varying, but never total, success. Facebook began as a social network for college students, many of who believed that what happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook. But as the social network has opened membership to those without .edu e-mail addresses, it’s become a much broader community, with many professional organizations maintaining groups and contact lists through the site. 

So are you an internet Facebook junkie or a Dancer.? . Well, I have a simple rule of thumb for you: if you’re absolutely sure that you’ll never regret making a piece of your personal life public (not even 20 years from now), you shouldn’t do it.

However, you can’t blame services like Facebook, YouTube, Plazes and other social networking/sharing sites for your privacy issues. You’re not actually forced to use any of these, and even if you do, you and you alone choose what information you will make public. If Mr. Petersen has indeed been caught in a lie, he has only himself to blame. Turning off Plazes was just a click away.

Bottom line before I get off my soapbox I sure..hope I meet you first in the studio .  not by auditioning for a job on YouTube. You’d better hope your personal tutu doesn’t get exposed to the Web’s all Seeing Eye. 

And parents check it out as well. Make sure your kid’s site is PG -otherwise… your dancer child might be on your payroll longer than you think.

Still stewing. 

 

Fast on the Draw… Madeleine Meehan’s Mostly Musical Art

Madeleine Meehan’s Newest Series gets its inspiration from the Opening Movement of Jill Eathorne Bahr’s “Twisted Tango” 

 

 She is a conduit for all kinds of creativity, which resonates in oil aquarelle, mixed media and pen and ink.    Madeleine Meehan’s subject is music, musicians, and dance. In capturing their essence she strikes visual high notes of her own.    Audiences might find Meehan sitting in a front row at a variety of musical venues where she listens, watches and sketches.  Madeleine has captured the work of Charleston Ballet Theatre at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival for the past 12 years. In the span of a one hour performance, Meehan will sketch dozens of dancers dancing, as the fluidity of the her stroke emulates the dancers movment to fever pitch clarity. Audience members are often as equally enthralled watching Madeleine busy at her artform as they are experiencing the performance on stage.  

This year’s collection of CBT Dancing heralds some of her finest works.    Coined as “the Al Hirschfeld of the Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Festival”, Meehan’s caricatures are almost always drawings of pure line with simple black ink on white paper with little to no shading or crosshatching.  Her  drawings  manage to capture a likeness using the minimum number of lines. Though her caricatures often exaggerate and darken the faces of her subjects, she is often described as being a fundamentally “nicer” caricaturist than some of her contemporaries.  The passion present in  Twisted Tango. sent Meehan into a creative frenzy of splashes of vibrant color. Hence here  is a sampling of some of this season’s work

Cuban born Meehan, who maintains studios in St. Thomas and East Hampton New York, has exhibited internationally in more than 100 exhibitions and solo shows, and has collectors in the Caribbean, U.S. Europe and Australia. Classically trained in the major art academies and Ivy League educated.  Madeleine Meehan’s “gift” is reflectively imaging sound and music with line and color on paper, canvas, et al.

 

Madeleine Meehan exhibit, MostlyMusicArt has traveled the globe. From the Cuban- born artist’s Caribbean energy to Peking Opera, symphonic orchestras of London, New York, Spoleto USA, Minnesota, chamber music festivals, Irish fiddling, New Orleans and Istanbul blues and jazz. Her drawings have been  serially published in the New York Times, East Hampton (NY)  Star, Southampton (NY)  Press, Yeni Yuzyel (Turkey national daily newspaper), the ubiquitous Dan’s Papers, as well as Lincoln Center commemorative books, magazines, playbills and her own book, Golden Beaches, Crystal waters: An  American Paradise in Drawings by Madeleine Meehan (Honey Press, USVI).Madeleine Meehan Art has been exhibited in more than 100 solo and group shows throughout the Caribbean, United States, Europe and Turkey.  Madeleine Meehan Art Studios are located in East Hampton, NY and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

CBT considers being drawn by Madeleine Meehan an honor.  Thank you Madeleine.  For more information on Madeleine’s work send me an email.. and I will hook you up directly with her gallery and agent.   We can’t wait till next year! 

 

An Email from a Proud Mom and Elated SON

I found this email so delightful.. that I hope every stage mom will read it- and smile on the inside – As I did.. A perfect morsel for this day as we begin preparing for all of our students that arrive for CBT’s Summer Intensive Workshop next weekend. 

 Harrison Ball (Age 12) and CBT School Director Patricia Cantwell in 2006. 

Well, I just got off the phone with a very, very pleased young man!  He got to watch New York City Ballet from the wings – and he said the audience loved Percussion. They got a huge applause.   Peter Martins watched from the front wing – Harrison said, luckily, he didn’t know until afterwards.

 The little bugger never got me a program though – I told him he must find one by the time he gets home.  You only dance on State Theater’s stage for the first time ONE time…at least he will get me one from tomorrow’s performance.

 

He loved watching Wendy up close and Jenny S…something or another.  He said dancing felt so natural – that  it was just incredible and that he could see all of the audience from the stage.  Especially – he loved the floor..said it was great to dance on.

 

Earlier, after rehearsal he called and said like he felt like he was falling backwards on the stage – he said it just felt so huge and overwhelming. ( word for the year )

 

As we finished talking he said “mom, I love you …can you please call Patty and tell her I did it.”  all in the same breath…he loves his Mrs. Cantwell !

 

Who would have thought he’d follow Wendy Whelan and be part of a NYCB program – proper - for his first time on stage ? (no idea if I am spelling her name correctly )  In my wildest dreams, I hoped he’d get Workshop – never did I imagine he’d get to dance in State Theater this year – especially on the program.  He’d sounds like he has a whole new drive – he’s been bitten by the stage big time now.

 

If he never got to do anything again – at least he got to dance there and loved it!  Here’s to many more chances and at least one when we can sit side by side and know all the grief as well as hard work that has gone into that little monster of mine!

 

Thanks for everything.

Sincerely,

Vera

Pictured Below is Harrison Ball and Jerry Burr in Jill Eathorne Bahr’s Camelot that premiered last season in March of 2007.  

Its Over!

Nineteen shows later.. 2008 Spoleto is over.. and now it is just history! CBT grossed the largest tickets sales in the history of dancing at the festival.!  Tango sold like hotcakes… Dancers, Board Members and Friends celebrated yesterday at an outdoor party downtown.    

Nicole Harden, Jonathan Tabbert, Jennifer Alterman and her husband Brock, Karin Yamada, Bonnie Pike 

Roy Gan, Stephen Gabriel. Murray Duffin and Brenda

Stephanie Bussell, Trey Mauldwin, Kyle Barnette, Steve Varn

 

Jon Burgin , Melody Staples Tom Nall, Char Stricklin, Dave Hearn.

Marcie Campo Strang and her husband Justin  

 Now its time for a little break… see you in a few days..Stay out of the heat!

 

A Star in the East —Harrison Ball — 5th from the Left

As  CBT heads into its last 7 performances during the 2008 Spoleto.. we take our hats off to Harrison Ball – 14 year old CBT trained dancer, now a  full time student  at School of American Ballet ( The professional school of New York City Ballet)    Harrison is the youngest dancer ever to perform in the student workshop..  Below is famous dance critic Tobi Tobias,  report on the event.       

Asked to introduce herself, Tobi Tobias said, “My writing is my ‘letter to the world.’” Tobi Tobias, an internationally known dance writer, is the New York dance critic for Bloomberg News. She also writes about dance in New York for Voice of Dance.  Much of her work appeared in Dance magazine (where she also edited the criticism for nearly a decade) and in New York magazine (where she served as the journal’s dance critic for 22 years). She has also reviewed dance regularly for the Village Voice and written feature stories for the Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times.  Her involvement with dance has extended to major oral history projects as well as writing for the public television series Dance in America and Live from Lincoln Center. In 1992, she was awarded a Danish knighthood in recognition of her extensive writing and oral history project on the Royal Danish Ballet and its Bournonville tradition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Harrison Ball is see above in Charleston Ballet Theatre’s 2007 World Premiere of Camelot 

Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC  June 3, 2008

By TOBI TOBIAS © VoiceofDance.com 2008

2008 marks the 90th anniversary of Jerome Robbins’s birth and the 10th year since his death. Since he remains the second most important choreographer the New York City Ballet has had, it’s no wonder that this year’s Workshop Performances of the School of American Ballet (SAB), the company’s prestigious academy, should feature his dances.  Surprisingly, though, the repertory announced in advance for this program’s three performances (same works, different casts) was ill-conceived. Of its four ballets, half were fixated on children. Circus Polka, a Robbins bagatelle, is set to a brief score that Stravinsky originally agreed to compose for Balanchine when that choreographer was creating an eight-minute dance for the Ringling Brothers’ elephants. (The composer facetiously agreed to take on the job only if the pachyderms were very young.) In 1972, Robbins reconceived the blithe project for the City Ballet’s Stravinsky Festival as a frolic for 48 SAB girls, most of them under the age of puberty.   

Because of the children’s no-nonsense training—for lightness, speed, and clarity—the piece isn’t cloying, but it can’t avoid being cute. The single adult participant is a male Ringmaster who directs the proceedings with a lightly wielded whip. At the parent company, the role has been played with a twinkle in his eye by Robbins, who originated it, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, among others. On this occasion we had Jock Soto, now an SAB instructor after a stellar career with the City Ballet, who gave it both energy and irony. Needless to say, the little girls were fleet-footed and filled with delight. (Soto’s Interlude, a prove-your-mettle showcase for the male teenagers he trains, was a last-minute addition to the program.)

Robbins’s Fanfare, a more ambitious ballet on the bill, could only appeal to children and I’m not sure one can even count on that anymore. It’s a visualization of Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, meant, as the composer himself wrote, to “edify and entertain.” The instruments are presented in their groups (winds, strings, horns, and so forth), then separately. The choreography Robbins created for the three men representing the percussion section is amusing, although its timing has lost its casual ease over the years, and the Harp has a simple but lovely solo. A deliberately pompous Major Domo emcees the proceedings, which conclude in the instruments’ dancing a fugue on a Purcell theme.  Barely adolescent, I saw this ballet at its 1952 premiere and even then objected to its clever, arch quality. Even then, I knew that the huge appliqués emblazoning the chests of the dancers so that there could be no mistaking what instrument they represented was not what ignited my imagination at the New York City Ballet and drew me to the company like a moth to the flame.

While the dancers, under Susan Pilarre’s direction, surely did their best, the present production looked too mechanical, like a Broadway musical that had been running forever. Had he been around to rehearse it himself, Robbins, who did some of his best work for Broadway, would no doubt have checked in to make the proceedings look more spontaneous. As it now stands, it seems to be one of those diversions that wrong-headed adults deem “good enough for kids.”

Moreover, while there are lots of young children in the audience at Workshop, especially at the matinee—siblings, cousins, and friends of the performers—the event has never been intended as child-oriented entertainment. Though a bit of dancing for the younger pupils is sometimes included to indicate that a ballet education must start young and be exigent, Workshop is at heart a demonstration of the pre-professional gifts and accomplishments of the academy’s advanced students, which are considerable. SAB ranks with the schools of the Kirov, Bolshoi, Paris Opera, and Royal ballets as the world’s most revered training grounds for classical dancing.

Luckily, the balance of the program had more substance. Robbins choreographed the pure, abstract 2 & 3 Part Inventions for the Workshop Performances of 1994. This dance for eight was then taken into the City Ballet’s repertoire and is now, for the first time, back at its birthplace. Actually it belongs here, performed by students, since it is most pleasurable seen an exercise for innocents. In this it echoes the score—piano exercises Bach devised for one of his young sons.

There’s something of the schoolroom in the choreography, which takes the individual steps an advanced student has been perfecting for some eight years and, as if through metamorphosis, turns them into dancing.  The performers of this piece—staged by Elyse Borne, assisted by Katrina Killian, both SAB and City Ballet alumnae—moved with a graciousness, fluency, and technical prowess you’d hardly expect from aspirants of their tender age. They also have a more than nascent command of style and remarkable stage presence. I was especially taken by Lauren Lovette, who headed the evening cast on May 31 (I also saw the matinee). She has the grave dignity of a princess without being high and mighty about it.

George Balanchine, the raison d’être of SAB and the City Ballet, was represented by his 1941 Concerto Barocco, set to Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins. It was by far the outstanding choreographic offering on the program. However, despite Suki Schorer’s typically scrupulous staging, the production felt a little tame at the matinee and somewhat mistaken in tone in the evening—albeit very beautiful on both occasions.

Though the principal women in the evening cast, Sara Adams and Kristen Segin, had more vitality than the delicate, precise Megan Johnson and the lush Lydia Wellington, who danced in the afternoon, they offered an excess of “personality,” as if the ballet were not a sublime abstraction but about them. To correct this, they might begin by not smiling so much—or at all. Balanchine referred to dancers as angelic messengers, thus essentially without ego. Such divine creatures have no need to seduce the onlooker with charm

 

Harrison Farthest right Way to go Harrison..

 

 

 

 

Molly Hulett talks to Stephanie

Stephanie Bussell

 

Stephanie Bussell vividly remembers her first kiss, her first death and the first time she knew she could fly.  Throughout her five seasons with the Charleston Ballet Theatre (CBT), diverse roles in performances ranging from “The Great Gatsby” and “Don Quixote” to “Camelot” and “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” have allowed the versatile performer to assume various onstage personas and interpret both subtle and extreme emotions through the nuances of dance.

 

 

“I feel like movement is the simplest form of expression,” says Bussell, a Michigan native who spent her teenage summers studying in prestigious programs at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C., the Boston Ballet School and the Bolshoi Academy at Vail before graduating from Butler University in Indianapolis.  

 

“I really enjoy the process, the physicality of dance,” she continues.  “I’ve always been very connected to that – the ritual, the routine, the rehearsing.  I also really love the performance aspect of it.  Just being able to transcend the space and really move people, or make people feel the emotions I feel when I’m dancing.  I try to give people that feeling of exhilaration by watching someone pushing themselves to the limits of what their body can do.”

 

Bussell has danced professionally with the Lexington Ballet, Dance Kaleidoscope and Terpsicorps Theater of Dance, and has appeared as a guest artist for a number of companies, including Ballet Internationale, Taylor Ballet Americana and the Georgian National Ballet in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.  In Charleston, she also dances and choreographs for Cabaret Kiki – what she describes as a “looser, let-your-hair-down” style of performing that has influenced her interest in choreography.    

 

“It’s one of those things that just makes sense to me, to see movements in music,” says Bussell, whose choreography also has been featured in CBT’s Fountainhead Competition.  “I’ve always really loved all kinds of music.  I like being able to interpret what I would like to see when I hear something, or take an everyday set of movements and turn them into something completely original.”

 

The dance artist says her work as a choreographer has refined her perspective as a performer, renewing her appreciation for the countless rehearsal hours that culminate into a palpable energy and exuberance in front of an audience.  

 

“It’s almost like time stops onstage,” says Bussell, pausing to try to give words to an almost surreal sensation.  “When everything is right on, and you’re feeling confident, and you’ve gotten past the nervous jitters that we all get, even now – when you get past that, you put yourself into the moment and just forget about everything else.  You are completely there and able to enjoy every second of what you’re doing.  And then to be able to share it with people in the audience – well, it’s hard to think of a word to even begin to describe that feeling.  It’s just a wonderful thing to be able to share.”