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Mercedes Smith – On Music And Ballet

December 14, 2012 by 4dancers

Living in Chicago I was excited when the Joffrey Ballet decided to do live music for their performances in the coming year. It got me thinking about what it must be like for those who play the music…

Enter Mercedes Smith – recently appointed Principal Flutist of the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. Mercedes has also served as Principal Flutist of the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet Orchestras. I reached out to her for some thoughts on ballet, playing for dancers and what live music can bring to a performance.

Here’s what she had to say…

What has your exposure been to ballet thus far in your life?

Other than a few years of ballet when I was a small child, my first real experience with ballet was in 2004 when I was appointed Principal Flutist of the Houston Ballet Orchestra. For the mixed repertory performances the orchestra often didn’t play on all three “acts” of the ballet, so I would sit in the audience and watch during those pieces. Since I was was often sitting in on multiple rehearsals and performances of the same pieces, I was able to see different dancer’s interpretations of the same works and this really helped me to appreciate the art form.

As a musician, what do you feel live music can bring to a ballet?

Live music greatly enhances the experience both the audience and dancers have during a performance. Having a live orchestra affords that the tempo of the music can be adjusted specifically for each dancer when necessary and is crucial for performance so that the dancers are able to fully express the meaning of the work as well as their own personal interpretation of that work.

If you have played ballet music before, what is your favorite piece and why? [Read more…]

Using Video Dance To Develop Choreographic Skills

December 12, 2012 by 4dancers

by Janet Neidhardt

As a dance educator I am constantly working to find new ways of engaging my students to learn about dance and making dances. Video dance has become more popular with the growth of YouTube and the ever present flash mobs popping up all around the world. It seems everyone has the ability to capture a video on some device and even the technology to edit it has become more mainstream. I have recently heard choreographers say they might start making video dances simply because they think they will get more exposure on YouTube than they will with a performance on a stage.

Last school year I decided to try and teach my high school students how to make a video dance. Together we researched many video dances on YouTube and discussed the site specific use of the environment and the various camera positions and types of framing. With this simple basic information I sent my students off to create their video dances and when they came back I was very impressed with the clear form their videos had taken. I could see how their skills in choreography from class had transferred into the video camera choreography. Their choreographic eye used in the studio was transferred to the camera lens. I was amazed that with such little instruction my students created great works and thought if I was really able to teach them more solid video dance content how much better their projects could be.

I still felt that I needed to learn more about this growing art form of mediated dance in order to better educate my students in the future. As luck would have it I was able to attend the Bates Dance Festival in July 2012, and there I took Media and Performance with Rachel Boggia, Shawn Hove, and Peter Richards. I gained practical experience in making my own video dance as well as a wealth of knowledge from these educators on how to teach students about making compelling video dances.

This Fall I returned to school with a new group of students and assigned a more specific video dance project. I created a clear worksheet with specific “Framing”, “Camera Positions”, and “Camera Movements” vocabulary which we discussed a length while watching and critiquing various video dances online. Through discussion and analyzing the students were able to identify their aesthetic for video dance choreography with the camera lens. I then asked them to pick a location and create movement based on their location for their film shoot. I told them that the environment is another dancer in the work, movement must be in response to the space the dancing is in, use the space like a prop, go over, under, through, around, and above it. I also asked them to shoot for “continuity”, something I learned from the Bates Festival teachers. Shooting for continuity means that a movement is continued from shot to shot. It is important to shoot the same movement sequence several times from several angles to have a variety of choices. Students were more prepared this time around before they went out the film their dances. Because of this preparedness they went out to shoot their dances with more precision and ideas than the group from last year. They added music and edited their footage on their own then presented well thought out, impressive, video dance studies. They all had a clear beginning, middle, and end, and clear motifs.

Since then I have noticed that these students create more successful choreographic works in the studio. They have a sharper eye for details within movement they are performing and movement they are watching. I think that their experience with viewing movement through the camera lens changed how they see movement in a stage space. I plan to keep evolving this video dance project each year.

Some video dances we looked at in class are listed below-

Aroma 2006 by Doug Rosenberg:

Drive 2008 by Jane Osborne:

Horse:

dancer posing upside down — Janet Neidhardt

Contributor Janet Neidhardt has been a dance educator for 10 years. She has taught modern, ballet, and jazz at various studios and schools on Chicago’s North Shore. She received her MA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and her BA in Communications with a Dance Minor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout her time in graduate school, Janet performed with Sidelong Dance Company based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Currently, Janet teaches dance at Loyola Academy High School in Wilmette, IL. She is the Director of Loyola Academy Dance Company B and the Brother Small Arts Guild, and choreographs for the Spring Dance Concert and school musical each year. Janet is very active within the Loyola Academy community leading student retreats and summer service trips. She regularly seeks out professional development opportunities to continue her own artistic growth. Recently, Janet performed with Keigwin and Company in the Chicago Dancing Festival 2012 and attended the Bates Dance Festival.

When she isn’t dancing, Janet enjoys teaching Pilates, practicing yoga, and running races around the city of Chicago

Student Spotlight: Joe Foster

December 10, 2012 by 4dancers

ballet dancers — Joe Foster and Emily Wohl

Today’s student spotlight features Joe Foster from Princeton Dance & Theater Studio…

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

I was fascinated by the art at the age of 11. I wanted to be like the men who I saw leaping and flying across the stage. Seeing others was what ultimately inspired me to become a dancer.

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

Dance class is repetitive and allows one to focus on perfecting his/her technique. I can focus on what is good and not good for my body and get a fine grip on my limits as a dancer.

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

The hardest part of dance is learning how to be in control of my emotions. I find that I save so much energy when I don’t beat myself up on days when I cannot do a particular step. Trying not to get too frustrated is the key to success as a dancer. It is always important to remember how fun it is to dance and not get tangled up in the bad emotions of it.

4. What advice would you give to other dancers? [Read more…]

DVD Review: The Nutcracker (ABT/Barishnikov)

December 5, 2012 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

This is one for the home library. There’s nothing quite like seeing this particular Nutcracker performance–after all–it’s Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland, along with ABT members, dancing one of the most famous ballets of all time. The Blu-ray quality and remastering make it a much better viewing than it would be otherwise, given the fact that this was way back in the late 70’s.

Sets are a bit dated and the film quality isn’t perfect, but this is a real treasure anyway. The choreography is lovely and the dancing sublime. I had seen this version when it first came on TV and remember thinking how absolutely delicate Kirkland was as the Sugar Plum, and Barishnikov is always impressive.

I hadn’t seen this version since then, and it was really interesting to see how much choreography has changed over the years. The execution here is clean and sure, and while the lifts and solos may not be as technically complex as most modern-day versions, it’s still a joy to watch.

Was That Original Ballet Hatched or Snatched?

December 4, 2012 by 4dancers

by Risa Gary Kaplowitz

Snow Queen jete2 — DanceVision’s The Snow Queen. Photo by Melissa

A few weeks ago, I found myself watching a YouTube video of an “original” ballet choreographed this year. It had been posted by a small professional company on the West Coast. I don’t remember how I came upon it because the shock that hit me within the first few minutes obliterated any memory of that minor detail.

The ballet that I had found on YouTube was based on the same classic children’s story as the one on which I had based my original choreography for a DanceVision production that premiered in New Jersey six years ago. The California based company had used a contemporary vocabulary, while I had used a neo-classical one. Also, they had commissioned an original musical score, while I arranged classical pieces to create the music for my ballet.

Still, there were undeniable similarities between my treatment of the story and the version I found on YouTube. For example, I had focused on a minor character in the story, and so did the other company. The flow of my narrative differed from that of the book on which it was based, yet the other company seemingly used the same order of events as I did.

Most troubling was how similar the other company’s production looked to the one I designed for DanceVision. The YouTube video showed a digitally animated backdrop to support the storyline, a tool that was not widely used in ballet productions at the time. I used it in my production, well before the highly original animation tool helped garner acclaim for The Royal Ballet’s version of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. DanceVision’s animator and I painstakingly organized my animated backdrop. I subsequently saw projections very similar to ours in the other company’s production, to which my reaction was one of jaw dropping recognition. One scene in particular appeared to have miraculously flown into their video.

Was it merely coincidence that enabled a company on the opposite coast to produce a ballet twin-like to mine? [Read more…]

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