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BALLET

A Ballerina Steps Out — as a Choreographer

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A ballerina steps out as a choreographer

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Lauren Lovette surveyed her dancers before sliding into a split — one of her go-to positions when she’s contemplating a step — and rose suddenly to move through a dynamic passage in her new ballet. She calls this part “soft serve.” In it, dancers line up along a diagonal and pirouette away as their arms swirl above their heads like curlicues topping a dip of Dairy Queen. She made some tweaks; her dancers peeled away from the line with more refinement but no less verve.

“I think that’s going to work,” she said, half to herself. “I believe it.”

Ms. Lovette, a principal with New York City Ballet, frequently uses that phrase when assessing her choreography, which, like her dancing, is lush. “That’s when you know it’s good,” said Indiana Woodward, one of the leads in Ms. Lovette’s new work. “Because she believes whatever you just gave to her.”

This fall, Ms. Lovette, 24, is working from that place of conviction. Ms. Lovette, one of two women who will unveil new works at City Ballet’s fall gala on Sept. 20 — the other is the choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa — is under some pressure.

A New Sylphide at RDB

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La Sylphide

La Sylphide may be the name of the ballet, but the story does not belong to the Sylph. This is the story of James, a young man who is destroyed on his way to adulthood, to quote the legendary Danish dance critic Erik Aschengreen. In a company renowned for its extraordinary male dancers, James is a coveted role and, this time, three young principals were taking on the part: Ulrik Birkkjær, Alban Lendorf and Gregory Dean. I had the pleasure of seeing the last two (with Alexandra Lo Sardo and Amy Watson, respectively, as their Sylphs) when I visited Copenhagen. Lendorf has performed the role in Hübbe’s previous production, and he is an outstanding James. His dancing continues to be out of this world – those jumps! – and his acting is superb, with a highly individual passionate rawness.

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Hiplet: Hip Hop and Ballet

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Hip Hop and Ballet

 

What happens when you mix hip-hop and ballet?

You get hiplet, one of the more curious hybrids to make its way out of the dance world into popular culture.

Conceived by Homer Hans Bryant, the artistic director and founder of the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center, hiplet (pronounce it “hip-lay” to rhyme with ballet) showcases dancers on pointe as they twist and dip to the floor in a loose translation of hip-hop movement. These young swans, largely African-American and ages 12 to 18, are purposeful, arch and knowing. (For now, the hiplet dancers are all female, but if Mr. Bryant achieves his dream of starting a professional hiplet company, he said he would plan on adding men.)

In ballet, pointe, a term derived from “sur la pointe” — or on the tip of the toe — is how dancers convey the illusion of flight or weightlessness. Pointe work is an essential component of ballet; it is also important in hiplet, but here pointe work has a different, more grounded effect. Dancers master movements like the hiplet strut — walking on pointe with hips that sway from side to side — or bend their knees until their buttocks nearly brush the floor while hopping on pointe and swishing their arms back and forth. Nia Lyons, an 18-year-old hiplet dancer, calls this the duck walk.

If ballet aims for the ethereal, hiplet, generally danced to pop music, is more concerned with earthiness. It has soulfulness, too; while the lower half of the body can be sharp and percussive, the upper half — how the arms connect with the back — conveys a natural flow.

Feet And Pointe Shoes

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Feet and Pointe Shoes

The foot is a complex structure made of 26 bones & ligaments, muscles, tendons and nerves.

 

 

This photograph shows a pair of pointe shoes worn for rehearsals.  You can see some of the customization carried out by the dancer – especially the vamp which has been cut into a v (often to make the shoe appear longer and to accommodate bunions) and then sewn to hold the shoe
together.  Toe pads of all shapes, sizes and materials are used inside the shoe to cushion the toes and elastics, which are sewn in to give security around the heel area, are used to stop the shoe from slipping off the heel (often a percieved fear rather than an actual one).

There are three types of foot – Greek, Egyptian and Peasant.  A Greek (or Morton’s) foot has a longer second toe and narrow width foot, an Egyptian foot has a long first toe and then the others taper with a narrow width foot, and finally the Peasant (or Giselle) foot has three toes the same length and is a medium width foot.

It’s worth mentioning here that it’s the dancers foot that makes the ‘pointe’, not the shoe.  Essentially, the pointe shoe is a covering for the delicate bones of the feet, to allow the dancer to extend their line and to jump and turn as the choreography demands.

Photograph by Bex Singleton.

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Dutch National Ballet Presents First Virtual Reality Ballet In The World

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The choreography is inspired by the world-famous ‘white acts’ from Romantic ballets like Swan Lake, La Bayadère and Les Sylphides. The ballet was choreographed by Peter Leung, a former dancer with Dutch National Ballet, to music composed by Robin Rimbaud (Scanner). It was directed by Jip Samhoud and Marijn Korver from &samhoud media. Night Fall is a co-production by Dutch National Ballet, &samhoud media and Chester Music. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Gear VR provide the technology that makes it possible to produce the first ballet in Virtual Reality.

Choreographer Peter Leung: ‘It was quite a challenge to coordinate all the different aspects and to see if it would work, as a Virtual Reality ballet has never been created before. The filming was a totally new experience for me as well. We had to hide away and not get in the camera’s sightline, as it films everything in 360 degrees. That meant that I couldn’t see how a take had gone. The result, however, is poetic and magical’.

Director Jip Samhoud is proud of the collaboration. ‘It’s very special to combine this new technology with such a classical art form. The result is magical, as the viewer is literally in among the dancers, in the middle of the stage. You get a sense that the dancers are creating a performance especially for you. It’s a really extraordinary experience’.

‘Virtual Reality has the unique quality of changing experiences. Since the introduction of the Gear VR, new experiences have become accessible to the general public’, says Gerben van Walt Meijer, Marketing Manager Mobile of Samsung Nederland. ‘We are really proud to have been able to create this first-ever VR ballet experience together with Dutch National Ballet’.

Anyone with a smartphone can watch the film. To optimise the experience, it is best to use a Samsung Gear VR or a smartphone in combination with a Cardboard. And the experience is completed by using headphones.

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La Scala’s orchestra, chorus and ballet company embark on a month-long tour

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Simon Boccanegra photo by Brescia e Amisano Teatro alla Scala

La Scala’s orchestra, chorus and ballet company have flown out of Milan for a month on tour which will see them in Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

Tomorrow night at the Lotte Hall in Seoul, Myung-Whun Chung will conduct a concert performance of Simon Boccanegra with Simone Piazzola, Carmen Giannattasio, Fabio Sartori and Dmitry Belosselskiy. On 31 August he will again be on the podium for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, which he recently conducted at the open-air theatre of the Milan Expo site, with soloists Eva Mei, Michelle Breedt, Michael Schade and Detlef Roth. The same programme will be performed in China at Shanghai’s Oriental Art Centre on 3 and 4 September.

From China, the chorus and orchestra will head for Moscow where from 5 until 16 September they will perform staged performances of Simon Boccanegra in Federico Tiezzi’s production, recently seen in Milan, as well as Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of La Scala’s Music Director Riccardo Chailly with Maria José Siri, Daniela Barcellona, Francesco Meli e Dmitri Beloselskiy. Chailly will also conduct an Italian Concert on 15 September with pieces by Cherubini, Verdi and Rossini.

Photograph by Brescia e Amisano.

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Is Ballet an Art Form or a Sport?

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Is ballet an art form or a sport

Art (noun): ‘The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.’

Sport (noun): ‘An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.’

Combining extreme physical exertion with grace, beauty and subtle interpretation: are dancers athletes or artists?

‘Sport is about staying within the lines, art is about transgressing them.’

‘You find the same competitiveness in the ballet studio on a football pitch.’

Photograph by ROH.

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