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The Royal Ballet Dances La Fille mal gardée

April 30, 2015 by 4dancers

Frederick Ashton’s ballet La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is based on an 1828 French ballet, but was inspired by the Suffolk countryside. This is a ballet with both wonderful choreography and a delightful sense of humor. Where else can you see dancing chickens, folk dance, clogging and maypole dancing–all in one performance?

Ballet fans across the country will be able to take in this well-known ballet on May 5th as it shows on the big screen. Find a cinema near you to get a ticket for this classic, danced live by The Royal Ballet.

The Royal Ballet's Steven McRae. Photo ROH, by Tristram Kenton — The Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae. Photo ROH, by Tristram Kenton

Philip Mosley as Widow Simone and Francesca Filpi, Samantha Raine, Vanessa Fenton and Kristen McNally as Clog dancers in The Royal Ballet production of La Fille mal gardÈe. Photo ROH, Tristram Kenton — Philip Mosley as Widow Simone and Francesca Filpi, Samantha Raine, Vanessa Fenton and Kristen McNally as Clog dancers in The Royal Ballet production of La Fille mal gardee. Photo ROH, by Tristram Kenton

Here’s a sneak peek for you as well:

Disclosure: 4dancers accepts compensation for promoting this series

Choreography, Collaboration & Laughter: Margi Cole & Peter Carpenter

April 24, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

Choreographers Margi Cole of The Dance COLEctive and Peter Carpenter of Peter Carpenter Performance Project discuss collaborating on “Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times #14: Curious Reinventions”, a project that explores the concepts of mimicry and imitation.

What first inspired you to collaborate?

Margi Cole: Pete and I go way back, and I have always admired his work as a performer and choreographer. After a very chance conversation about the possibility of me being a performer in his work, it happened, and I had the great pleasure of performing in two of his very recent installments of Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times, the series he is working on. To be blunt, I am totally turned on by working with Pete in the studio, creating movement vocabulary, exploring the use of text and the creative process. As a result of my own experiences, I wanted my dancers to have an opportunity with him too, as I know firsthand how much can be gained from the work. Double bonus: I get to be a co-choreographer and continue to learn as well. It’s an awesome opportunity created by being in the right place at the right time.

Peter Carpenter: Margi and I have known each other as part of Chicago’s dance community for years. In the fall of 2012, she performed in an earlier installment of the Rituals of Abundance for Lean Times series (a series I’ve been working on since 2011), and then last year she invited me to come and do some workshops with her company. Several of her company members are former students of mine (from Columbia College Chicago, where we are both faculty members) so I was excited to work with them. From there we pursued an opportunity via the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for a produced event at the Storefront Theater. That was about a year ago, and we’ve been in the planning stages of this performance ever since.

[Read more…]

French Twist Tutorial

April 19, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

by Cara Marie Gary

The dismissal bell rang to signal an end to a long school day. Students crammed materials into a large book bag and bustled about the halls. It was an inevitable race to leave the building in order to avoid the long traffic line in the parking lot. My ballet studio was an hour away and I didn’t have a second to spare. I took off in my swift sprint and was one of the first students to drive out of the lot. I took off my lanyard and placed it on the rearview mirror while I grabbed a hair elastic off the stick shift. One might think a cup holder held a refreshing beverage, but mine held dozens of tiny hairpins. At the first stop light, my foot pressed against the brake as I quickly maneuvered my hair into a ponytail. A flash of green light meant it was time to keep driving. Twist and pin as fast as you can was my method for my completing my bun. This definitely wasn’t the safest driving method, but it was efficient at cutting out a few minutes so I could do my splits before ballet class started.

Experimenting with different hairstyles has always been an interest of mine. I love being able to change a look completely by simply adjusting where a few strands of hair lay. It’s amazing how hot rollers, straighteners, curling irons, gels, and hairspray can transform one’s hairstyle.

A common image associated with ballerinas is a high, slicked-back bun. However, there are so many options for dancer’s hairstyles (a French braid into a low bun, center part messy bun, cinnamon roll bun, side twist into a bun, etc.). One of my favorite dancer hairstyles is a French twist.

I believe this is a unique and elegant hairstyle. I’ve developed a 10-step process to perfecting a French twist:

1) Start by brushing your hair and parting the front to the side of your preference. (I like a left part.)

2) Using both hands, collect all of the hair into the center of your head. The hair should be gathered in line with the top of your ears. Avoid going too far towards the nape of your neck or top of your head.

3) The next hairbrush I use is called my “smoothie” brush. It’s produced by Conair and has nylon tuft bristles. This brush is the best at smoothing down bumps and wisps. Keep holding the hair in your left hand while brushing your hair towards the center gathering with your right hand. [Read more…]

Atlanta Ballet’s “The Best of Modern Choreographic Voices”

April 18, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

Seven Sonatas - Photo by Charlie McCullers, Atlanta Ballet. — Seven Sonatas – Photo by Charlie McCullers, Atlanta Ballet.

by Rachel Hellwig

Atlanta Ballet’s “The Best of Modern Choreographic Voices” opens with “Seven Sonatas” by Alexei Ratmansky, a work originally created for American Ballet Theatre. A piano ballet, featuring live performance of Scarletti selections, it depicts three lyrical, windswept, and witty couples in white. Some of the most distinctive features of Ratmansky’s style are its improvisational quality and playful, sometimes irreverent use of classical ballet, as well as unexpected moments of humor. Hard-to-get, push-pull, please-don’t-go-yet courtships are highlighted in the pas de deuxs, often with comedy. When one man’s beloved skims offstage out of his reach, he merely shrugs and keeps dancing until she returns. Interestingly, intermittent somberness and the quiet ending hint at a more solemn undercurrent of anxiety about losing “the one you love”, though this is usually hidden behind much lightheartedness. [Read more…]

Searching For Swans…

April 16, 2015 by 4dancers

Swan Lake Ballet — Jessika in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Swan Lake. Photo by Lindsay Thomas

by Jessika Anspach McEliece

The dreary landscape stretched out before us as we migrated northward on I-5. Headed to the Canadian border, we were searching for that powdery white stuff they call snow. A ski weekend for him, not so much for me – there’s always the lodge and hot cocoa, right? Sitting in the passenger seat, the scenery seemed to mimic the weariness of my own self, having spent weeks recovering from mono.

And then, in the brown bleakness he saw it. He saw them.

“Hey. Hey babe? Do you see that?” my husband asked me as he drove. “On the left…”

I looked over his shoulder through the driver’s window and across two lanes of traffic to see a field, all white. And no. It wasn’t snow.

Squinting his eyes he continued, “I think… Are those..?”

The little kid leapt out of me as my eyes grew wide with wonder; as my heart began to flutter; as I shouted aloud, “SWANS!”

There they were. A whole field of them. Swans. Dozens of them. Maybe even hundreds. An invisible string tugged tightly on my heart and suddenly my soul felt awake – alive.

“PULL OVER BABE!” I implored. “Seriously. Please. Please?!! We can take that next exit… At the very least drive past them? I just have to see them!”

His eyes smiled at me as he laughed and shook his head.

This invisible string.

This strange connection to these beautiful white birds. Why did I feel so drawn to them? What was it about them that so compelled me? When had this affinity begun? [Read more…]

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