It is July 16th in the middle of the afternoon, and I am standing on a concrete island in a sea of asphalt outside the Delta terminal at La Guardia. The breeze is doing exactly nothing to avert the blistering heat, and I am wondering where the heck my hired car has gone; with envy I watch a few well-heeled travelers climb into [...]
Knoxville Ballet School has had a mainly quiet summer, but much has transpired behind the scenes. For starters, the school has acquired a circa-1950 Gulbransen piano serendipitously. It once belonged to my grandparents, but my late Uncle Stan (a lifelong professional musician, for many years at the Light Opera of Manhattan) implored me to take it shortly before his death. Sitting in [...]
These last weeks as I have begun working with American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum in my own ballet classroom I find myself bumping up against a small dilemma: improvisation is to be explored in the lower levels of the curriculum.
Er, okay. See, the thing is, I suck at improvisation. I always have. Once I [...]
Dear Diary,
In an earlier post I told you that my tenure in New York City was punctuated several times by visits with some dear friends, so now I would like to share those happy moments. (This, by the way, is the building at 890 Broadway, where ABT has its offices and studios, and where I [...]
Dear Diary,
I went to New York to learn, plain and simple.
I was not sure where I would fall along the continuum of teachers attending the National Training Curriculum intensives at ABT, although I feared it would be dangerously close to zero. In fact, I think I barely squeaked past the admissions committee because of my training credentials, which are respectable at least. [...]
Dear Diary,
Before I left for New York, lots of people asked me where I was planning to eat and shop, what shows I was going to see, which museums—that sort of thing. My answer was simply, I don’t know. This was mainly because I had no idea how much free time I would have, if [...]
Following delightful conversation among friends over a lovely high tea earlier today (thanks, Elizabeth!), I could not resist posting an excerpt of the hilarious all-male ballet ensemble, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, dancing Pas de Quatre, or as the Trocks call it, Le Grand Pas de Quatre 1/2. This is my favorite of their [...]
Okey-doke. So I had my annual allergy check-up last week and complained almost as an aside that the air quality this spring has been horrid—more horrider than usual, even. I told my doctor that for the first time in about a decade of running I’ve had to stop on occasion and prop myself against whatever [...]
I do. Her name is Jane Shelton, and she teaches ballet in Memphis, Tennessee. I have known her since I was four, when she was a young psychology student at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) and I was a rising kindergartner at Church of the Good Shepherd. She danced at Memphis Ballet [...]
American Ballet Theatre superstar Angel Corella announced last year his plans to found a new ballet company in his native Spain, Corella Ballet. It was his hope that—given the absence of a professional classical ballet company in Spain—his new company would afford professional opportunities for Spanish nationals, who until now have had to seek work [...]