Archive for the ‘dance’ Category:
My Week: Dancing, Depression, and . . . Porridge!
After a brief period of warmth, both in temperature and atmosphere, York is once again freezing.
I’ve been keeping myself busy going to dance and fitness classes while Tom has been working. Last night we went to TDT to hear Christopher House and Deborah Hay talk about TDTs latest piece. Hay had a lot of really interesting and thought provoking questions about dance that, coming from anyone else, might have sounded flighty and pretentious. But, she has obviously put a lot of deep thinking both psychologically and somatically into her insights and was able to share them quite brilliantly. On Thursday I am going to watch one of her rehearsals and listen to her speak on dance writing afterward. The transit is long, but it will be worth it.
It was also nice to see so many familiar faces from the dance department. It brightened my spirits a bit!
Today, like many other union members, I took a shuttle to the polling station to vote on York’s offer. It took place at the Novotel Hotel about a half an hour away. The energy there was quite interesting. Cupe members (getting paid for a strike shift) milled about the building and tried to promote their extreme agenda answer voter’s questions. But, beyond that everything was quite somber. People seemed exhausted, frustrated, and hopeless. I was glad to get out of there.
Anyway, we just heard the news, and the vote was ~60% no. So, the strike looms on. Not only did we not go back, but there wasn’t even a particularly strong “no” vote that may have put more pressure on the situation. I don’t know how I’ll get out of bed tomorrow.
But, if I do get up I’ll eat some of my new favourite breakfast food: Millet Porridge. My recipe changes, but my latest favourite is:
1 Cup Millet
2 Cups Water
2 Cups Almond Milk
1 over ripe, chopped pear
Handful of almonds
1-2 tsp vanilla
Put in pot and bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for 1/2 hourish or until porridge-y. This makes about 4 breakfasts to me. I make it in the night and then reheat a bowlful in the morning with some extra almond milk or water if needed! It’s worth getting out of bed for.
Subscribe to the comments for this postHow Can Everyone Eat Ice Cream at Intermission Without Wanting to Force Feed it to the Dancers?
Coincidentally, last Thursday three people, who don’t even know each other, informed me of this great program the National Ballet has for students. Basically, students can get rush tickets for $20.00. Because the Ballet was doing a piece by Twyla Tharp this week, I decided I had to check it out. Tom and I got tickets for Saturday night, got dolled up and headed to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (a very impressive location).
The evening began at 6:45 when principal dancer Guillaume Cote (sidelined with an injury) hosted a pre-show talk in the lobby. He discussed his experience with performing the pieces and gave a brief history of the choreography and music. It was nice to have that contextualization.
We then took our seats, which I thought were pretty good at four rows back and all the way to the left. The program began with the projecting of a trillion cell phone rings to remind people to turn their phones off and to be able to do it without being embarrassed of the noise it would make. I thought it was quite clever.
The first piece they danced was Balanchine’s “Symphony in C”. It was okay, though certainly not performed the way it was orignally staged, or even as today’s NYCB would have done it. There were fingers and eyes out of place in the chorus and many of the girls were about an inch too short! The costumes were awful. The bodysuits were satiny but lumpy and really distracted from the movement. However, the novelty of the piece was Ethan Stiefel (aka Cooper Nielson from “Centre Stage” - oh, and there’s going to be a Centre Stage 2. I’m pumped) danced the male lead in the third movement. He was incredible. A whole different caliber of performance. There was an intermission after that and we discussed our impressions of the piece.
Next they performed Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia” accompanied by a single pianist playing ten unique polyphonic pieces. There were 8 dancers who performed the ten movements in various combinations. This piece featured a really cool “underwater” style dance, and some interesting lifts. We opted not to try them in the lobby during the next intermission.
The final piece of the evening was Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room.” It was incredible. The choreography is intense, physical, and mind blowing. Here is a link to an excerpt of some other company doing it. Though this really doesn’t do the choreography or the dancing justice. I was captivated the entire time. It was like ballet, tap, boxing, cardio spectacular with people appearing and disappearing all over the place.
The experience was great. Though the whole set-up of the National is quite, ummm, interesing to me - studying Canadian ballet and politics of difference - it was wonderful to be able to go and see that caliber of dancing. I need to do more dancing.
Forty Years of One Night Stands (and 750 Litres of Liquid Eyeliner)
It’s easy to spot a retired professional ballet dancer. They either have a cute “pixie” hair cut, or an interestingly dyed old-lady style perm. They wear liquid eyeliner and have their eyebrows plucked in a perfect arch. And they have impeccable posture. Even if they’re crippled.
On Saturday night I was lucky enough to be in the presence of about a zillion of them (or 50, they just have so much presence it feels like a lot more). Through a connection at DCD, I was asked to volunteer for their fundraiser - the Toronto premier of “Forty Years of One Night Stands: The story of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet” at the Betty Oliphant Theatre. In a stylish white shirt and black pants I directed people to their seats. When everybody had settled, I was able to go into the theatre to watch the show. The film started with Evelyn Hart and David Peregrin performing the Belong pas de deux from “What to do Till the Messiah Comes” (the footage was not the same as my link), a piece I have loved since I first saw it, though never knew it’s real importance until last night. So, this started the tears, and they really didn’t stop until the end of the film. The documentary was comedic and quick-witted. I paused the tears to laugh at these parts. But, interestingly the audience laughed much more than me. Many of them had been a part of the film, or were intimately involved with these historical figures of the company. They laughed and sighed in a way that is only possible when you are watching yourself or your best friends on tape. They laughed at the sight of someone, before I even knew the person was funny. They “oh-ed” at the first pictures of people like David Yeddeau and Arnold Sphor, not only because they respect these people, like I do, but because they knew them and loved them. It was a powerful experience. I really want to reflect more on it, to understand what I can learn about myself and the world from experiencing something like this.
After the film I helped lead the VIP audience to the NBS building. It is gorgeous. There we had wine and sushi (which is an appropriate hors d’oeuvre here) and mingled. I met a few people who were/are important movers and shakers in the Canadian dance community, only famous enough for me to be humbled and excited by, but no names that most of you would recognise.
I have vowed to be a fabulous retired ballerina when I grow up . . . even if I never actually have a career to retire from.
and plie and stretch and I’ll try not to use the “f” word . . .
With my first York ballet class in the morning last night was like Christmas Eve for me. Okay, well maybe I just read some Anne and went to bed, but either way I was excited (though for the record I did hang my “stockings” and bodysuit so I wouldn’t make a racket getting them in the morning).
When looking at my options for technique classes at York there was tons to choose from. Ballet, Jazz, Modern, and several different types of World Dance. Although jazz is probably my best technique and modern my favourite to have fun with, I decided that I couldn’t part with the comfort of ballet.
What? The comfort of ballet? Apparently yeah, I’ve found some sort of creepy comfort in it. I’ve taken ballet for years, but I’ve recently begun to see it in a new light and I really want to explore that here in these next two years. It was actually scary to think about being away from it. I will try to get to open classes in other disciplines when I can though as well as working with other graduate students in their movement studies.
For the longest time ballet, for me (and I think for most young dancers), was a negative physical and mental challenge. I could never be good enough and no amount of hard work would make me good at ballet. I used to use this idea to make myself work harder and it eventually ended up with a real disintegration within my physical and mental ballet practice. This lead to both physical and mental tension - an inevitable path to injury (or the worst thing ever for a dancer).
However, as of late my ideas about dance, and ballet in particular, have begun to change. Now that I am pursuing dance as a career (though in a different way than I ever imagined) a lot of the pressure is off. I’m also older and have to respect that if I want to have a long career in anything, especially physical practice, I’m going to have to stay healthy. This has lead to an exploration of many prevention and healing strategies including integrated movement and looking at the actual anatomy and physics of the body in different movement techniques. Through this lens I have been able to use ballet as a location to cultivate this practice. Ballet is now a place where I can learn about and develop my body. This makes the body a positive thing, and while I could get into a huge scholarly rant about “the body,” essentially the point is that ballet has become a way to learn about and cultivate my body as opposed letting it be controlled and despised through the power structures of ballet. This is where the “f” word (ie feminism for those unfamiliar with it’s ‘recent’ taboo) enters my ideological framework.
Which leads me to, ballet at York. I decided to approach the class with a strong work ethic but determined not to compare myself to the 17 year old former competition dancers with. I would get what I could from the classes and learn from the other students without using value judgments. I talked with several professors here to determine which class to take and eventually I settled on Ballet 2205 with Claire Wootten. Claire has a similar ballet ideology to mine and, get this, teaches using feminist pedagogy (though she admitted that she makes a conscious effort not to use the “f” word in class)! I’m fascinated by this approach and am going to journal about my experiences in her class throughout the semester so that I have a good record of her pedagogy and my reactions. More about her and the class can be found on her website.
So, I’m looking forward to my morning ballet classes and will keep everyone up to date on how they progress! I’m also interested in how others perceive ballet and perceive my take on it so e-mail me (don’t use the grenfell account b/c it may expire soon) and we’ll start a fun discussion!