Modern Ballet

To help with our challenging petit jete, look up sissonne fermee and ballonnee.

http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/


Just so we don't get too stuck in classical ideas about ballet, here's a video featuring one of the most famous contemporary ballet choreographers, William Forsythe.



Here's Sylvie Guillem in a Forsythe ballet called "In the Middle"



What are your impressions of this kind of ballet?

Water Ballet

Dancers!

I've tenatively scheduled our trip to the pool for water ballet on Friday, March 7. We will work on our water ballet exercises in the studio before we go. I am proposing we go as a group, but you can go on your own if you wish. Please leave me a comment if you are good to go. Please email me directly if you have a concern at lgervais@u.washington.edu. Should be lots of fun!

But first! Do all students have access to the IMA with their student ID cards?

Louis

Bad Girls

How did it feel to be a bad girl?



Although, I hear ballet girls learn fast.

Emotion and Performance

Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Margot Fontaine were a famous ballet partnership. Margot was quite a bit older than Rudolf. Her legs never went very high, but it was their emotional connection to one another that translated into great performances.

It's important to remember that we study ballet or any performance art in order to bring an inner experience forward through our dancing. Emotions and images are carried through the body into space. Remember to connect to your emotional state whenever possible.

Can you feel a sense of connection between Rudolf and Margot? How was your experience in class on Wednesday as we worked to connect different emotions and elements to our dancing?

Rock 'N Roll Ballet Songlist

Here's the music from Rock 'N Roll Ballet:

Teardrops, Massive Attack
Vibrate, Rufus Wainwright, Want One (I love this music)
Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin, A Few Small Repairs
1234, Feist, The Reminder (Great album!)
Kiss, Prince
Eye in the Sky, Jonatha Brooke, Back in the Circus
Grace Kelly, Mika, Grace Kelly -
Salvador Não Inerte Virgínia Rodrigues Nós (Also, really wonderful)
Unwritten , Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten
Castle-Time, Chris Garneau, Music for Tourists
Hey Mami, FannyPack, So Stylistic
1999, Prince, Revolution

Visualize

I wrote a poem.

Ahem.


Sit on the side and visualize,
Sit on the side and visualize,
Saute, tombe, pas de bourre, glissade,
Sitting in the eye of your mind.

Please memorize. I may ask you to recite this poem if per chance you are sitting on the side and not dancing.

Speaking of sitting on the side and not dancing, please post your written responses here to the blog within two days of sitting out. Watching is just as valuable as doing (and visualizing!). Your written responses will help the entire class.



Here is Sylvie Guillem in Kitri's solo from Don Quixote. Sylvie is a star of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Visualize yourself doing this combination just like Sylvie. We may just do it at the end of the semester.

Here she is in performance

Rock n' Roll Ballet

If you search for rock 'n roll ballet on you tube, this is what you get. Not quite our rendition but it's fun! The music is painful, and the kids are cute.

Speaking of fun, today was totally fun.

For homework, look up penche, pique arabesque, tour jete and promenade on the ballet dictionary here: http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/

Please post your comments about this weeks class, rock 'n roll, or whatever you learned from the on line videos. Have a great weekend!

Louis