In lieu of some well thought out and insightful post about the difficulties of dance and how you can best work to overcome them, I have decided to instead be incredibly lazy with this entry! I want to get away from all the official, productive stuff and just let you in on all the fun stuff you can get up to on the weekends when away at an intensive. Many schools that provide room and board also plan Weekend excursions or activities so that everyone can a.) have some fun and b.) not go crazy from boredom since you often can't leave the dorms without permission or a chaperone. These can include trips to the zoo, a lake, a mall, an amusement park, or any other number of cool things depending on what city you find yourself in. What I have most appreciated about my experience at Nashville so far is the freedom that the "adult" students have to explore the city ourselves. Ah the joys of having a car AND being over 18... but I digress. I direct you below for a bit of the stuff I've done while here - or perhaps it should be - a bit of the wonderful food I've eaten while also happening to be in a beautiful city. Correction of the day: Visualize the interconnecting lines that flow through space and then show them to the audience with your dancing. Everything flows into itself.
0 Comments
All right boys and girls, it's time for another exciting edition of "Jessica vents on the internet about her problems and tries to disguise it under a thin veil of advice about vague ballet concepts!!" When we last saw our hero, she had been thoroughly discouraged with the prospect of months of physical therapy and overall angst. But now, She has finally been able to see an orthopedic (sports medicine) doctor! What is the prognosis? Find out this week on....
Now that I have drawn out that metaphor far longer than it should have been relevant, on to business.
It's a bit apart from the class itself, but I noticed how excited the notes from our first variations class sounded when I read through them again. With my inflammatory all caps handwriting as inspiration, I thought that I'd go into how to get the most out of this kind of class. I also may have wanted to use the title as click-bait, but I figure if I present enough relevant information you'll forgive me for my small foibles.
I'm back! Hooray! (although I have a sneaking suspicion that no one is really going to read this, or notice I stopped updating for two years... but I am going to remain optimistic.)
This summer, I am at Nashville Ballet in the pre-professional level, which also serves as an extended audition for Nashville Ballet II and the trainee division -the highest level of the company's school, along with about 40 other dancers. I would have thought that the environment in class might be more strained than usual due to this extra evaluation, but thankfully there is a wide spectrum of dancers, each with distinct talents, weaknesses, and physiques that softens the feeling of directly competing with one's neighbor into something closer to competing with one's own weaknesses. This is especially apparent to me, as I have done nothing but sit and watch class since I dislocated my knee in the very first technique class on Monday morning (insert appropriate piteous crying noises and indignant laughter here.) Worst timing EVER; it's actually kind of impressive, if I do say so myself. No word yet on what my specific prognosis and recovery time will be like, but I'll be sure to vomit my problems on - I mean - keep y'all updated on the latest goings on.
I can already tell that this week is going to be crazy, what with the all the preparations for the final shows. I'm just happy that my back has finally recovered! I'm sure that I was grinning uncontrollably when I could make it through the entire class, arabesques and all. In other news, all of us level nines were nervous when it was announced that we'd be taking class with the artistic director of The Washington Ballet: Septime Webre. I'm happy to report that it went off without a hitch. (thank heavens) In fact it was remarkably similar to the classes we've been having all summer, although there was definitely a change in how the company members who took class carried themselves. Hopefully I made a good impression. So altogether, I had a great last day of our normal schedule, now I just need to navigate the final few days of crazy schedule.
But to get to the only reason you're reading this, I thought you all might like a summary of the corrections I've gotten on how to best perform fouettes. It seems like I've received a ton of helpful information on their intricacies, so it seems a waste not to compile it... So today was stressful because it included a performance. My group of 7 girls presented our self-choreographed piece that was supposed to be inspired by petrichor, or the smell after it rains on dry earth. I won't lie, it's been hard, especially since we had fewer than 4 class meetings to create a final product. So yeah, stressful.
Why is the third week always the hardest? Let it be known that I almost made it though "hump week" without anything going seriously wrong. And then I threw my back out in modern class today - sigh. Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to go over the best way to keep in top condition during the rigorous schedule of an Intensive.
|
WelcomeI post journal entries a few times a week when I'm attending a summer program (and sometimes when I'm not) detailing my day to day experiences. Be sure to look for a few of my favorite teacher corrections at the end of each post! Archives |