Ashley David – Page 4

Review: “Dance Class” Novels

September 25, 2012 by Ashley David

“Dance Class” Graphic Novels by Beka and Crip (Papercutz)

#1 “So You Think You Can Hip-Hop?”

#2 “Romeo and Juliets”

These two graphic novels are a charming romp into the world of middle-school-aged dance friends Julie, Alia, and Lucie. Some of the content is geared towards that age group, but the stories are easy enough reads to appeal to a younger audience, too.

Each book is a set of 46 page-long episodes. Dance “inside jokes” abound, from the girls using their horoscopes as an excuse to visit the local bakery, to failing a math quiz by forgetting what comes after number 8. Romance and rivalry are present too, as in the life of any preteen.

I found some of the scenarios in the “Dance Class” series far too silly to be realistic, but the girls’ sincere love of dance is at the heart of it all. Every scene ends with a note of humor, even when things go absurdly wrong—Murphy’s Law seems to govern everything that goes on in the world of “Dance Class!” If anything, these two stories set a positive tone for discussion about obstacles dance students face. The lively artwork is a visual treat.

Opus 4, No. 1: The White Swan And A Jungian-style Of Musical Analysis

September 18, 2012 by Ashley David

by Allan Greene

Cue the strings. Prepare yourself for something big. I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

Opus 4 is going to be big project. It’s going to synthesize several streams of thought that I’ve been carrying around with me for a while, one going back 36 years to when I was a senior at Carleton College. I’ve been intending to do something with these ideas for a few years, since George de la Peña, who was Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet School at the time, suggested I give a talk to the faculty and students on music and dance.

In order to get paid for such a talk, George had me submit a proposal to the school’s executive director. Unfortunately, George and the executive director parted ways before my proposal was ever processed. I had proposed doing five lecture/demonstrations on various topics, including the use both Stravinsky and Balanchine made of French Baroque poetry in Apollo, and the how the Ivanov/Legat choreography of the White Swan Pas de Deux in Swan Lake and Tchaikovsky’s music for it are interlaced to create a masterpiece. Long story short, no money, no revelations.

When the editor of this blog, Catherine, asked me to write about music and dance, and gave me carte blanche to write what was on my mind, the first thing that popped into my head was that long-delayed White Swan project. I had intended originally to recruit two dancers to demonstrate various parts of the dance while I played at the piano and did my Leonard Bernstein routine. In cyberspace, however, my audio-visual aids will be a little different. But it will get to the same place.

The more I thought about how to do this, the more I realized that my project rested on assumptions that, to be charitable, not everybody agrees with nor understands. [Read more…]

10 Questions With…Michael Levine

September 17, 2012 by Ashley David

Meet Michael Levine…dancer, teacher, app creator…yes, I said app creator…read on to find out more…

Michael Levine

1. How did you become involved in dance?

My mother. Isn’t that what we all say? My Mother was a recreational ballet dancer and attended performances while living in San Francisco. When I was younger and jumping around from activity to activity, she put me in “ballet”. I took to it and progressed fairly quickly beyond the level that my small town could support. I was lucky to have two parents that were willing to drive me further afield to get better training.

I ultimately left school early to attend the San Francisco Ballet School as a full time scholarship student. I was never a dancer because of the pretty parts: tutus and tights, etc. I loved the physical, the theatrical, and the transformative. Interests that expressed themselves throughout my career.

2. Where did your career take you?

Artistically or Physically?

Artistically it took me far beyond what I dreamt possible for me. The roles that I have portrayed and the ballets that I have gotten to be a part of still amaze me. Part of what I loved about being at Joffrey during the time that I was there was the mix of contemporary and historic ballets that we were doing at the time. When I look back at the roles that really strike a cord with me they are all theatrical in nature. For example: Romeo from Cranko’s Romeo & Juliet; Death from Kurt Joos’s The Green Table; and the Lover from Tudor’s Lilac Garden. Romeo and Death because I saw both of those ballets as a kid and loved them, but I never thought I’d do them, much less the leads. The Lover because it was the first time that I was moved beyond myself in the role I was portraying.

Physically my career took me all over the world. I was lucky while I was in both Joffrey and ABT that both companies were traveling a fair amount. I always found it fascinating how people in different countries would react to performances. In the end I was fortunate to travel to the Mediterranean several times: Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. I was on multiple tours to Europe, Asia, Middle and South America. I was fortunate to work with my wife for most of my career and we took advantage of the travel. After one tour to Australia we stayed on in New Zealand for 10 extra days (we considered that our honeymoon even though it was years before we got married). It was a fabulous way to see the world and I feel very blessed to have all those memories.

3. What are you doing now? [Read more…]

London Contemporary Dance School’s EDge

September 11, 2012 by Ashley David

by Jessica Wilson

EDge12 - Group performing Tony Adigun's Unleashed — EDge12 – Group performing Tony Adigun’s Unleashed

EDge, the postgraduate performance company of London Contemporary Dance School founded in 2000, completed its annual spring tour earlier this year, coming to a close on 12 July 2012. Under the direction of Artistic Director Jeanne Yasko, the company’s 12 exceptional dancers visited 21 venues nationally and internationally, travelling to places such as Denmark, Austria and Portugal, in addition to performing at their home, The Place’s Robin Howard Theatre in London.

The varied programme was populated by highly stimulating and thought-provoking contemporary dance pieces, choreographed by esteemed dance artists such as leading dance makers Matthias Sperling and James Wilton (winner of the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest in 2010), choreographing Dances With Purpose and Through Shards respectively. In addition to these two new pieces, The Place and Dance Umbrella co-commissioned Rachel Lopez de La Nieta and Tony Adigun’s own version of Richard Alston’s iconic Wildlife (1983) reinterpreted with the choreographers’ own individual artistic voices; both pieces were first seen at The Place in Autumn 2011. Completing the programme, dancer and choreographer Delphine Gaborit restaged The Quartet, a powerful piece set to György Ligeti’s String Quartet Nr.1 by world famous German choreographer Sasha Waltz. Delphine, who has danced in Waltz’s company, was given permission to restage the iconic piece for EDge’s Spring tour, marking the first time a piece of repertoire by Waltz has been re-staged for a postgraduate performance company. [Read more…]

Student Spotlight: Murilo Leite

August 30, 2012 by Ashley David

Murilo Leite - Earthfall Dance - Hugo Glendinning — Murilo Leite, Earthfall Dance, Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Here’s another of our “Student Spotlights”…get to know Murilo Leite…

1. Can you tell readers how you became involved with dance?

Dance has been in my life for as long as I can remember but not in the usual sense. I didn’t start ballet when I was 3 years old and go through all the exams in tap and modern. I grew up next door to a dance college in Brazil and even as a kid I used to sneak out of my house to watch the classes because there was something about the atmosphere that enticed me. I’d then go home and teach myself the sequences in secret but it wasn’t until I was 12 or 13 that I attended my first class and really I didn’t start doing it regularly until I was 16 when I co-founded a performing youth company called Re*Flex Dance Co. which is still going today 8 years later!

2. What do you find you like best about dance class?

The hard work. I love a class that challenges my mind and body to the maximum, there’s no better feeling than finally being able to do a sequence that at first seemed impossible but with perseverance and determination the reward is unmatched. Also sweating is the sign of a great class!

3. What is the hardest part about dance for you?

For me the hardest part is also the most productive. I find myself constantly comparing myself to other dancers in the studio, admiring the ease of his grand battement or how beautifully curly her feet are! Naturally there are things others can do that I can’t, I’m quite self critical and always striving to be better so though I find it hard it also pushes me to jump higher, land softer, run faster or move slower… You get the idea.

4. What advice would you give to other dancers?

I always say to dancers who are beginning their training to think hard about what it is they are doing it for. For me, I think you have to love it, no – you have feel more than love for it because it’s tough, it’s full of knock downs, it’s not the best paid job and so on. Saying that, if you love it there’s nothing else that will satisfy you more, it will be exactly the life you always hoped for and none of the bad stuff will come close to taking away from how it fulfills you.

5. How has dance changed your life?

Dance hasn’t changed my life, it has shaped it. It is something I’ve always loved and for many years it was my sole focus, all my energy was being put into dance as my final goal. I feel I am blessed to have had dance in my life because it has always given me a path to follow so that when in other parts of my life or when my friends and family reached that part in growing up that we all go through where we are unsure what the hell we’re doing I could put my efforts further into dance.

Since then I’ve realised that it doesn’t need to be the only thing in my life which I guess could be something else I would use as advice, but I also think this is something one needs to find out for themselves. Yes, to succeed with dance as a career you must put 200% and more but you should never forget that you are a person first, a dancer second. That is something that really opened my eyes to life and the world when the penny finally dropped.

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