Cincinnati Ballet’s “The Kaplan New Works Series,” running September 6 – 16, 2012 in the Mickey Jarson Kaplan Theater at the Cincinnati Ballet Center features choreographers Heather Britt, Paige Cunningham Caldarella and Amy Seiwert (presenting world premiere works) and Jessica Lang (whose La Belle Danse will be reprised).

Notably, the series choreographers are all women. At last night’s Ballet and Beer event in the theater, Artistic Director & CEO Victoria Morgan pointed out that of about 290 works presented during the 2012-13 season by American ballet companies with budgets over $5 million, only 25 of those are by women, whom she called significantly underrepresented. “Cincinnati Ballet is proud to be presenting seven of those 25 this season,” she announced.

I snapped choreographer Heather Britt, above, and dancer Cervilio Miguel Amador, who appeared in the preview/rehearsal of her “Opus 5.5″ with music from Peter Adams.

I am hoping to interview Heather during the next few days, and post our conversation, and some more details about her work.

Back at you soon!

“Acts of kindness are marked by selfless gestures that transform the lives of others. Louise Nippert’s selflessness was exhibited time after time at her alma mater, the University of Cincinnati.

For the College-Conservatory of Music, her support provided scores of vocal students with scholarships. She also contributed to the creation of CCM Village through her naming support of the Dieterle Vocal Arts Center.

The Nipperts also provided three endowed chairs to the university: The Nippert Chair of Law, The Dieterle Chair of Music named for Mrs. Nippert’s parents and the Thomas James Kelly Chair held by me as the Dean of CCM. Adjacent to the College-Conservatory of Music is another legacy left by the family, Nippert Stadium.

These selfless gestures will forever transform the lives of all of us who knew Mrs. Nippert and have been touched by her kindness and generosity.

We will miss her presence at performances and other events on our campus.” – Peter Landgren, Dean and Thomas James Kelly Professor of Music at CCM.

pictured above: Cincinnati Ballet resident choreographer Adam Hougland

To me, the dancers were nothing short of fabulous in three diverse offerings. The audience at last night’s opening seemed to agree. And, it’s big news in New York City that the Paul Taylor Dance Company cannot afford live music. But Cincinnati Ballet has been extraordinarily lucky in their ability to use the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under longtime music director Carmon DeLeone.

Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” was magnificently presented, with full dynamic range and attack from 70 musicians in the expanded pit. Strong choreography from Adam Hougland starred Courtney Connor, whose emotion and movement quality commanded the stage in her role as Chosen One.

pictured above: Courtney Connnor

The bill opener, Val Caniparoli’s “Vivace,” set to an equally well-performed Schubert Symphony, was all stamina, lightness and wit, in a displayof  petite allegro and various configurations  designed to warm any balletomane’s heart. It reminded me of one of those exquisite Swiss watches that display their intricate workings through a transparent face. Standouts were Gema Diaz, Zack Grubbs, Dawn Kelly, Liang Fu, Danielle Bausinger and Patric Palkens. But wait, the corps in this one (too many to name) left me breathless in admiration!

In Stacey Tookey’s world premiere “Oneself Perceived” we were shuttled into a modern world where couples embarked into relationships that seemed fated to end badly. Yet, in a silhouette pas de deux episode behind a scrim, it seemed that Maizyalet Velazquez as a misused woman was able (through the magic of perspective) to shrink her tormenter (Zack Grubbs) and emerge triumphant.

Hm, it’s early  in the am here, and I must go ahead and post. I hope I didn’t miss anything important, but point is, there is a matinee today and an evening show left for this production. If you haven’t figured it out already, I highly recomment you attend.

posted 3/17/12 at 5:42 am

In the Sleeping Beauty Pas de Trois, 1984

About that shoulder injury I mentioned in my last post.  I skipped last week’s ballet class because of one silly maneuver I tried to pull off during the class before.  There’s an exercise known as grand battement en cloche: the standing leg remains straight while the working leg swings from a high front kick to a high back kick, then repeats: front and back and front and back, like a pendulum or a real swing (your foot is the kid going higher and higher, you’re the tree and the mirror is the fence over which your foot can see the whole world).  Just as there’s some give to the rope of a swing, it’s okay to bend your leg in attitude as you cloche.  The idea is to free your hip and get a great stretch without straining.  Grand battement en cloche happens toward the end of barre when your body is pretty warm and at its most flexible.  When nothing particularly hurts it’s kind of fun, especially if you’re sixteen and each leg weighs about ten pounds.  When I was younger, my favorite thing to do was grab my foot at the end of the combination and pull it down over my head to touch my nose.

Doing the exercise two weeks ago, I experienced a warm surge of nostalgia, wacked my leg as high as it could go in back and lifted my chin.  Yes!  I could see my foot!  Just like in the old days!  On the next pass I kicked just as high to see if I’d been dreaming.  I hadn’t been: there was my foot, just inches from my forehead.  Then I pushed my luck.  On the last swing, I kicked with total abandon, arm in fifth overhead, turned my face toward the mirror to see if I looked just as fabulous as I felt, and heard a loud snap.   It was the head-turn that did it.  My leg came down, but my arm would not.  Nor would my head comfortably return to the front-facing position.  It shouldn’t have been a surprise; this had happened before.  I can usually recall the origin of my dance injuries—where I was when they started (my Cincinnati Ballet Knee-Blow-Out), what I missed, how my psyche was holding up.  Each old battle wound comes with its emotional baggage (my Pacific Northwest Ballet stress fracture, the subsequent weight gain and depression).  As for this shoulder thing, its era was high school.

So as I stood there, massaging my shoulder blade—two weeks ago, in January, 2012—1983 descended upon me.  Performing Arts High School, Dance Studio A: longer than it was deep, sticky with resin, rank with the bodies of energetic teenagers, of whom only a handful were fastidious about deodorant.  I see my friends in the mirror, dressed in tights, cut-neck t-shirts (we predated Flashdance with that, by the way), chiffon skirts, bunchy leg warmers.  Someone is out on the fire escape smoking a cigarette under the assumption that the teachers can’t see him.  There’s music playing, of course, and there’s me.  Tiny, hyperactive, even for a dancer, dressed all in slimming black, though I don’t quite weigh ninety pounds.  I’m making people laugh with a Gelsey Kirkland imitation,  now an imitation of the teacher himself.  I look like I’m having a blast until I look in the mirror, which I used to do often.  Checking, always checking.  That was how I got the trick shoulder.                                                                                                                                                                                                              I’d take a grande jete  ( a big leap) with my arms overhead, go as high as I could, split my legs 180 degrees, arch my back.  Then I’d toss back my head to look in the mirror.  When I came down, my left arm would stick in place and I’d have to get someone to help me release it.   The teacher would scold me; I shouldn’t turn my head at such a crazy, unnatural angle.  It wasn’t choreographed; it broke the line; it didn’t look right.  But I’d do it again the next time.  Just to see myself fly.  To see a joyous version of me when the real one was anything but.

The mirror was fickle.  Sometimes it showed me the best of me; other times the worst.  It was a crystal ball who reveled in the lies it could make me believe.  It held what I needed: a positive answer to the question on my mind—on the minds of all my friends: Will I make it?  Will I ever get to dance with a ballet company?  That was all that mattered.  We grew up hearing that out of a thousand little girls in pink tights and leotards, only one makes it as a ballet dancer.  But we’d worked so hard for so many years.  We’d passed auditions; we’d performed.  At this point, we all felt we were that one in a thousand.  Not making it would be the end of the world as far as we were concerned.

But Ballet is hard.  If you go to the ballet, look at the girls, the women.  The intricate moves they pull off with superhuman strength and delicacy.  It takes years of daily training, hours and hours each day.  Ballet technique is based on a series of geometric lines that describe impossible images of beauty.   A human body simply cannot do it perfectly, but to be a professional you must come close.

Now take ballet, add teenage girls, and you have a dangerous mix.  Our fear of failure was paralyzing; the likelihood of failure ridiculously high.  Many of us smoked, starved, purged and engaged in other “unhealthy coping behaviors.”  Still, we’d never quit because we loved ballet too much.

There were moments when everything came together.  You’d hit your balance in a pirouette and sail around six times, or take off  in a leap and defy gravity.  When the moment was over, you’d look around hoping someone saw.  But we were often too focused on ourselves to notice one another.  So you’d peak in the mirror as you danced, trying to record those split seconds of success for the darkest hours of self-flagellation.  Those times when you stood in front of the mirror alone, listening to your inner voice tell you how fat you were, how far from being a true dancer.   Compared to you, it said, your friends are perfect.   Then, a small, quiet voice might break through your private torture, whispering: yes, but you can fly.  Yes, but you did six pirouettes.  And you’d survive.

That was long ago, and how I’ve survived.  Suffering only a little from the aftermath of that wild kick and inopportune head turn.  When I was sixteen, a short massage from a friend was all I needed to pop my arm and neck back into alignment.  Since I am not sixteen, this shoulder episode takes several massages from my husband, a week and a half of hot baths and compresses and a whole lot of Ibuprofen to work itself out.   While I am healing, I find a moment to stand in front of the mirror in tights and try to remember what it was that I loathed so much.  I am not perfect—in fact I’m way less perfect than I was at sixteen.  But when I take in my form, the darkness doesn’t come back.  I think of my kids, how special they are, how this body made them, how lucky that I recovered from my eating disorders in time to have them.  I think how cool it is that I get to dance again.

• Learn to shoot a gun and bow.
• See Trans Siberian Orchestra preform live
• Go to a Jason Aldean Concert
• Go see the Cincinnati Ballet
• Write and publish a book
• Put together a family cook book
• Visit the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Nashville and D.C.
• Go to Paris, Prince Edward Islands, Ireland, Australia, India and hopefully Scotland, Whales, England and Finland.
• Start a Photography business
• Buy a car
• Get into yoga
• Go to a NFL football game
• Finish reading Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick and Jane Eyre
• Learn some French
• Learn to play guitar
• Write a love song
• Sing Karaoke publicly
• Meet and Marry Mr. Right
• Adopt a child (of course this hinges on marriage)
• Have a child of my own ( also hinging on marriage)
• Read the LOTR triology
• Get a professional massage
• Ride the Duck in Cincinnati
• Meet a fashion designer
• Volunteer at a local children’s home or Pro Life center
• Bake and Decorate a fancy cake
• Go Snowboarding
• Get some sort of Graphic Design training
• Try out for American Idol… just for kicks
• Kiss in the rain
• Ride a horse on the beach
• Take a weekend hiking trip
• Conquer one of my fears… Aka go Sky diving, Bungee Jumping, Parasailing, Hang gliding or Forest Ziplining.
• Take a picture of Paris, from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Pictured above: Cincinnati Ballet’s Sarah Hairston and Fu Liang, who will partner this Saturday evening in “Giselle,” with live orchestral accompaniment under Carmon DeLeone’s baton. Get ticket info at cballet.org.

Sarah, whose recent promotion to principal dancer and subsequent lead in the full-length romantic ballet, one of the top roles on most ballerinas’ wish list, was nearly derailed by an injury. She talks about her remarkable recovery in the excellent video (link below) and story published at Cincinnati.com.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20111023/ENT07/111023001/Long-painful-climb-Giselle?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Kyle Coleman as Albrecht in CCM's production of "Giselle."

Congratulations to our own Kyle J. Coleman, recipient of this year’s Basil Thompson Memorial Award. Sponsored by the Corps de Ballet International, the award offers a $500 scholarship for a university/college male dancer to support his training in classical ballet. The award was created in memory of Basil Thompson, renowned teacher, director and dancer.

Coleman was 16 years old training in Sidney, Ohio when he decided to pursue a higher level of technical training. After attending summer intensives including North Carolina Dance Theatre and Ballet Chicago, Coleman gained a level of technique that would get him accepted into CCM’s Ballet program. While attending CCM, Coleman has had the opportunity to perform with Cincinnati Ballet, as well as various regional Nutcracker productions. Coleman was most recently seen in CCM’s production of Giselle.

Connor came to Cincinnati in 2006 to join the Cincinnati Ballet and is now a corps company member. This year, she decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree knowing that CCM would allow her the flexibility to do both. CCM’s Dance Division is one of the few dance programs in the country in which students can work professionally while going to school, and the faculty recognizes the importance of doing both and supports these students’ efforts.

“Dancers mainly dance when they are younger, so having a degree gives them additional skills that can help prepare them for their careers after they are done dancing,” said Jiang Qi, CCM associate professor of dance. “We allow students to take the opportunities to dance with professional companies.”

Another reason faculty support professional dancers’ pursuit of higher education is the risk of injuries that can affect dancers’ careers.

“In case of injuries that end their careers early, or they decided to change careers, having degrees behind them can help them down the road,” said CCM assistant professor of dance Deirdre Carberry about dancers.

CCM graduate (2008) Kelly Yankle knows the impact of injuries all too well. After having surgery on her ankles, Yankle decided to go to school rather than work professionally, allowing her more time to recover before taking on the demands of a full-time dancing job. After two years at CCM, Yankle felt fully prepared to audition for the Cincinnati Ballet and was accepted into the company in 2006.

At that time, no other CCM dance students were going to school and working full-time. Not wanting to quit school, Yankle approached her professors about continuing her studies while working – paving the way for other students to follow suit. Together, the CCM faculty and Yankle worked out a plan that allowed her professional rehearsals to fulfill required university dance credits since she was dancing eight hours a day.

“Staff from the Ballet would send in videos and written reports so that my professors knew that I was doing the work,” said Yankle. “The professors often came to the Ballet performances as well, as another way to see my work.”

Technology has made this process easier for students to manage, whether it’s taking online classes or keeping in touch with professors through email to ensure that they are meeting deadlines. And for a field that is visual in nature, YouTube has made it convenient for sharing students’ work. This is especially true for students who are dancing with companies outside of the Cincinnati area, including the three current CCM students with the Louisville Ballet and one with Alabama Ballet.

But even with the benefits of technology, these students still face the challenges of scheduling their work and school commitments, including dance productions. Recent 2010 CCM graduate James Cunningham, who joined the Cincinnati Ballet in 2008 when he was a junior, remembers the busy schedules leading up to CCM performances. “Sometimes I had to come back to CCM after night class to rehearse or mend a costume; I really had to be on top of things and manage my time,” he said.

Most students/professional dancers are able to perform in CCM’s spring dance production in late May, because professional dance companies typically end their seasons by then. This year, two of the professional dancers/CCM students – Connor and Emma McGirr, one of the Louisville Ballet dancers – will play the lead role in CCM’s spring production of Giselle, which runs May 27-29. Connor and McGirr will join two other senior CCM dance majors in performing the role of Giselle.

Benefits of the program
One of the benefits of having professional dancers in the CCM program is the experience and knowledge that can be shared among students.

“Watching is part of learning in dance, so being in class with more mature dancers is an important part of that learning for any dancer,” said Michael Tevlin, CCM associate professor of dance.

Although only a small number of students in the CCM program work professionally at the same time, other students have opportunities to work as supplementary dancers for regional dance companies, particularly for larger works. Over the past winter holiday, several students danced with the Dayton Ballet – rehearsing over the weekends – on its production of The Nutcracker.

“When students go out and work with new choreographers and then come back to CCM, they reinforce the view that what we do here is of a high standard,” said Tevlin.

Typically, the CCM students who have pursued full-time dancing positions have completed a few years of school. According to Tevlin, part of this can be attributed to a change among the dance industry in which artistic directors are looking to work with more experienced dancers rather than hiring them straight out of high school – as was common during his dancing career.

“More dancers are going to college because the programs are better, and more artistic directors or professional companies are realizing the training dancers are getting makes them better, more mature artists,” said Tevlin.

So while Connor brings her experience to the classroom, having worked professionally for more than four years, she too is learning from other students as she adjusts to new classes and the university setting. Despite all the challenges in managing a busy schedule, Connor said that her psychology class has been one of the hardest aspects so far of going back to school.

“I was more nervous going into my first psychology test class than getting on stage,” said Connor.

One of our favorite bands, Over the Rhine (previously featured on the blog) performed with the Cincinnati Ballet for a show called Infamous Love Songs. It was fantastic! There were 3 different sections, if you will. Each was choreographed and costumed by different people. I wish I could remember exactly how they sectioned them off.. But they each had about 6 songs in them I feel like one was about breaking up entitled “Missing You” (if I’m not mistaken) one about flirting? (i.e. the fun songs) and last I have to believe had something to do with lust. Overall an awesome show! Over the Rhine performed live behind the dancers on a stage. My favorite was the last section! Lust, surprise surprise. It had the best costumes in my opinion! Plus one of their dancers was rocking a ‘fro & I simply loved it. Comment if you love it below, I’m trying to convince my roommate to rock one too =).

Sadly, there was a “no photography permitted” rule, so I scoured the internet to find a few from reviews and the Cincinnati Ballet’s website. So let credit go where it is due, not to me!

The cover of the programs.. sort of & the banner

The image of Over The Rhine in the program

Performing!

I believe this was part of "Missing You"

Okay I forgot my picture doesn't have her in a full fro.. but come on, you can imagine her rocking it. Also-- this is the costume I loved. Yay Lace!

A group of dancers, I believe from the first section.

One of the most romantic and beloved ballets about love’s triumph over treachery and death comes to life on the CCM stage as the Ballet Ensemble presents Giselle in the Patricia Corbett Theater on May 27-29.

Since its premiere in 1841, Giselle has become one of the most popular ballets of all time and is considered ballet’s great tragedy. Giselle tells the story of a young peasant girl seduced and betrayed by a nobleman. Having died of a broken heart, Giselle joins the ranks of the supernatural Wilis – women scorned before their wedding day and left to seek revenge for eternity. In the end, Giselle’s ghost tries to protect her lover from the vengeance of this group of evil female spirits.

For CCM’s production of the classical ballet, four different dancers will play the title character, taking on both an artistically and technically challenging role. Senior CCM dance student Kaitlin Frankenfield, who plays Giselle during one of the performances, has also faced the challenge of presenting her own interpretation of the lead character.

“A lot of this role involves watching and learning before going into the studio, where you need to relate with all the dancers on stage and use your personal experiences to pour into your own version of the role,” said Frankenfield, who is looking forward to concluding her undergraduate dance career with this production. “This is the perfect role for showing what I’ve gained from being here at CCM and how much I’ve changed as a dancer.”

Along with the four dancers portraying Giselle, four different male dancers will play opposite them in the role of Albrecht, Giselle’s lover. The CCM Dance Division aims to involve as many students as possible in its story ballet productions, which are typically only produced every few years. This allows more students to experience the demands of performing in well-known ballet standards.

“Our job is to create dancers, and we want to give as many students as possible the opportunity to take on the challenge of this ballet’s lead roles, no matter how much work it takes to prepare,” said Jiang Qi, CCM associate professor of dance and director of Giselle. “Each of the dancers will bring out different aspects of their characters, which really creates four unique shows.”

CCM’s production of Giselle will feature guest artist Anthony Krutzkamp, a principal with the Cincinnati Ballet who is a current University of Cincinnati student. He will dance opposite CCM dance student Courtney Connor, who is also with the Cincinnati Ballet (full cast list below).

In addition to Jiang, CCM dance faculty members Shellie Cash, CCM Dance Division head; Deirdre Carberry, assistant professor of dance; and Michael Tevlin, associate professor of dance, are involved with the production. With the great collaboration and effort that goes into producing a large-scale ballet, faculty and students are looking forward to presenting one of ballet’s masterpieces for their audiences.

“I hope that the audience sees all of us really transport ourselves in this ballet and sees how the dance division comes together to produce this pillar of ballet,” said Frankenfield.

Performance dates:
8 p.m. Friday, May 27
2:30 & 8 p.m. Saturday, May 28
2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 29

Location:
Patricia Corbett Theater, CCM Village

Tickets:
$15 general admission, $10 non-UC students, UC students FREE

Ordering or Additional Information:
Box Office: 513-556-4183 or boxoff@uc.edu

Parking Information
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the University of Cincinnati campus. For directions and parking information, visit the CCM website at www.ccm.uc.edu.

Cast list – Principals

Giselle…………………Courtney Connor (May 27), Carol Tang (May 28, 2:30 p.m.), Kaitlin Frankenfield (May 28, 8 p.m.) & Emma McGirr (May 29)

Albrecht……………….Anthony Krutzkamp (May 27), Aaron Hanekamp (May 28, 2:30 p.m.), Will Gasch (May 28, 8 p.m.) & Kyle J. Coleman (May 29)

Hilarion………………..Clayton Mandly (May 27 & May 28, 8 p.m.) & Grady Long (May 28, 2:30 p.m. & May 29)

Note: cast schedule subject to change. 

The Dance Division gratefully acknowledges the support of the Corbett Endowment at CCM.

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There is so much that you can do to support the arts in our community and continue to make Cincinnati a great place to be! The arts make the community more enjoyable, lively and brings so many people from all different backgrounds together.

Now thru April 23rd there will be an Art Sampler Weekend where you and your family can go and check out some of the arts in your own neighborhood. This is a great opportunity to get the whole family involved and interested in the arts! We sure are!

Check out how Ready Freddy is enjoying the arts wave, then you guys get out and enjoy too!

By the end of Victoria Morgan’s very funny revamped “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” drawn from Shakespeare’s play, which premiered last night at The Aronoff Center, all were reunited with their true loves after much comic entanglement in The Big Forest.   

When was the last time you heard people laugh out loud at a ballet? Really chuckle? Well, they were laughing during this ballet, and it was all good.

The Prologue and both Act I and II, were augmented by actors Billy Chace and Jessica Rothert (who sat unobtrusively but clearly visible in box seats) in periodic voice-overs during and occasionally outside the balletic action, and often as the dancers pantomimed.

During the complicated action of Act I this integration of dramatic readings (drawn verbatim from the Shakespeare play with the input of dramaturge Brian Isaac Phillips) worked very well indeed. The comedy was greatly enhanced, and, as was planned, the plot’s three interlocking stories were more easily comprehended.

Act II featured another comic set piece bya ragtag traveling theater troupe called The Mechanicals in a hilariously botched tragic play.  Much celebratory dancing of wedding guests, led by Janessa Touchet and Ogulcan Borova, was by contrast a little flat, if no less skillfully performed.

Cervilio Miguel Amador was spot on as Puck.  Sarah Hairston and Fu Liang (whose demonic chuckle as voiced by Chace was contagious)  also gave their characters dramatic richness.  Danielle Bausinger as Lead Sprite was just excellent, executing several difficult turn sequences with grace and lightness.

There were more excellent performances. *The previous version of this review inadvertently did not mention them by name, but Courtney Connor, Anthony Kruzkamp, Maizyalet Velazquez  and Zachary Grubbs each had key moments in the comic mishmash of mismatched lovers. Also notable were Oberon’s men, played by James Cunningham, Travis Guerin, standout Stephen Jacobsen and Joshua Bodden. Each managed to carve a unqiue humorous personality onstage.

I’m not sure who supervised the miking of the actors and blended all the sounds together, but the result was also fabulous – particularly the voicings, which were especially legible (I guess this is also a credit to the actors’ diction) and loud without being overwhelming.  

And as has come to be a welcome tradition after Cincinnati Ballet performances with live music, Carmon DeLeone was vigorously applauded during curtain calls.

One charming cast member of note was Alyssa Manguiat as the Changeling Child.  She is pictured above (on the left) receiving flowers in the lobby after the show.

*You can read a more complete review of this program at Valinkat very soon*

Cincinnati Ballet principal Cervilio Miguel Amador. Photo by Peter Mueller.

The music world’s loss was the ballet world’s gain when a young Cervilio Miguel Amador began studying dance instead of saxophone in his native Cuba.

These days the popular principal dancer with Cincinnati Ballet (he joined the company in July of 2004) brings his joyful Cuban sensibility and superb classical training to roles such as a swashbuckling Sinbad, the Nutcracker Prince, and Peter Pan. He originates memorable roles in works like Adam Hougland’s powerful Mozart’s Requiem, in which he portrayed a tormented soul frantically trying to outrun the inevitability of death. He is scheduled to appear in this spring’s world premiere Infamous Love Songs, set to the music of pop duo Over the Rhine. 

I talked with him Wednesday evening by phone just as he was leaving rehearsal for Victoria Morgan’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (opening this Friday at The Aronoff Center).

I wanted to know more about how he was introduced to ballet in Cuba, his role as Puck (he is reprising the character from 2005′s premiere of the work) and the production itself, which strives to enhance the ballet’s storytelling with new choreography and the innovative addition of dramatic onstage readings. 

I was also curious about his take on the recent brouhaha brought on by the epilogue to Jennifer Homans’ Apollo’s Angels, in which she reluctantly admits she thinks ballet is dying in today’s world.

Below are questions I asked, and his answers, some of which have been slightly edited and reordered. 

How did you start dancing? 

In Cuba, I discovered ballet through my older sisters, who were attending a local arts school and studying instrumental music.

I wanted to be in this school. It was the best school!  But I needed to do something. To be part of this school, you had to be in the orchestra and play an instrument, or be a painter or dancer.

And I really wanted to be in this school, because it was one of the best schools in my town and also my sisters were there. So – I needed to do something related to art. I decided I wanted to play saxophone. And that’s what I tried for, but . . . my sister told me ‘well, why don’t you try for ballet, too, you have a good body,’ because I was on the swimming team and I already had some muscle development. She thought I could be really good, but I said that I didn’t want to be a ballet dancer – ‘That’s not for me.’

It was decided that I would try both and see how it went, and I agreed.

Actually, I was able to enter with either dance or music, but my score for ballet was much higher. So, my parents decided I should do what I was naturally better at. They decided for me – they told me I didn’t pass the test for saxophone, so if I wanted to be in the school they said I had to take ballet.

They did kind of lie to me. Because if they had given me the option, I would have taken saxophone! But you know, both of my parents were teachers, and they wanted their kids to do what they were naturally good at. They knew the teachers at the school, who were on the same page, and they needed guys.

I entered the school at nine years old.  I actually loved it from the very beginning. There were like 25 girls and only 4 boys. It was so much fun, and it was so much exercise. When I was a kid, I always needed to be playing something. And I was always telling my mom ‘I’m so bored. I’m so bored.’ and this way I was always doing ballet and I was so tired, I would get home and just want to go to bed!

And my mom loved it! I didn’t tell my friends I was a ballet dancer until three or four years later. I kept telling my friends in the neighborhood I was a saxophone player. A couple of years later, I told them. By then, I was proud of it. 

So, that was how I started ballet!

Where is your saxophone today? 

Well, actually I had wanted to play saxophone, but I have never had a saxophone to play! I guess for me as a kid that was what I thought was cool! But I have to admit, I never did anything about it.

Were your parents happy that you were in the arts?

Yes. Because, also in this school, you were able to do both. Academics and arts. If I didn’t want to be a ballet dancer, I would still be able to go to university and be whatever else I wanted to be. In the school, you had five years where you could go either way – art or academics. Then you have three years, with emphasis on ballet. And you then have an audition to get into the National Ballet of Cuba when you are 18 (which I did). And that’s how it worked. 

In October, 2003 you defected to the United States while you were on tour.  Can you explain more?

Well, I was with the National Ballet of Cuba for two years. And during those years I was able to travel all around the world. I got to see all the companies and all the places.

And the life that I saw was better than the life in Cuba. Also, the problem with the Cuban ballet is that it’s only a classical company. I love classical, but I didn’t want to be stuck in doing classical all my career. And there is only one Cuban company. So I wasn’t able to change inside my country.  I needed to outside Cuba for what I wanted.

The thing is Cuba did not allow me to be part of the company and go and work for another company for a year and come back. I would have loved to do that. You had to stay or leave.

I wanted freedom. I wanted to be able to choose what I wanted to dance, and who I danced for. You know there are many problems in Cuba with Communism, how things are run. But, in my case, I was young, so I was just really looking for all that freedom and to take my career in any direction that I wanted.

Didn’t your parents come recently to visit?

Yes, they did. It took me five years to be able to go back to Cuba. I saw them, then. That was incredible. It took them seven years to come and see me here in Cincinnati, to show them the company I dance for, and see me dance for the first time. 

This was one of the biggest things to happen after I left Cuba. My parents had lived all their lives in Cuba. So that’s all they knew – Cuba. They had never been outside.  I’m very, very, very thankful. It [was wonderful] for me to be able to bring them here and show them what I was doing.

How is this weekend’s  A Midsummer Night’s Dream different from the original version?  The three interlocking plots and all the different characters are a lot to keep track of. 

I think it’s really different. Victoria has re-choreographed a lot of scenes from the previous version. She has made it more animated. It’s really gonna be new in that way. 

Also, what she has done with the actors – I think it is great. It gives the audience another idea of what is going on besides us [the dancers] telling the story. I think for some people it is really hard to figure out the plot. But, this time, if you follow the lines, and then you follow our dancing and our pantomime, you can have a really good understanding of what is going on. On top of that, the actors that are working with us are great.

It’s been really fun, it’s something really new.

How are the dramatic readings put in? 

They are integrated through the whole ballet. Sometimes there is no music, and they are just talking and dancers on the stage are doing pantomime to what they are saying. Other times, they do talk over the music. Everything they say is from Shakespeare’s play.

I can tell you that the directors, the ballet masters and Carmon [DeLeone, the CB music director] are doing a great, great job. It’s extremely hard to pull all this together – such as when the music or voices come in or out, and for how long.

The actors have to be with us, the dancers, in the pantomime and we have to try to hear them and try to act at the same time they are talking. You know, all these things are really hard. 

Do you feel that two different performances are side by side? Is your attention taken away from your performance? Do you have to concentrate extra hard on dancing?

No, for the dancer, everything becomes a dance. Everything becomes dancing at the end. It’s not divided – we as dancers don’t feel like that. But it is much harder this time. 

Like I said, Victoria has re-choreographed everything and made it harder. And there are last minute changes. Just tonight, I had a new line for my role as Puck.

That’s how it is – you always have to be paying attention and knowing what you are doing. And she’s hard to please. When she’s in the room, she expects the best out of you.

pictured above:  CityBeat dance writer Julie Mullins and Cervilio.

Do you feel that dance is in decline? In the epilogue of her ballet history Apollo’s Angels, Jennifer Homan’s has said (reluctantly) that she thinks ballet is dying.

I don’t think that ballet will ever die. I think that ballet is underestimated. A lot of people don’t realize how hard it is, and a lot of people don’t give it as much credit as we deserve. But at the same time, I know there are many people in this world that will never let ballet die. Never. It won’t happen. 

Honestly, the struggle is more here in America. I mean – in Cuba, dancers were like gods – really, we were treated like gods. And when we toured all over Europe, it was the same thing. Here sometimes you say you are a ballet dancer and they say “But what do you do for a living?” And you get so frustrated, you are like no, no. I mean – what do you say to that?

To find more about Cervilio Miguel Amador at valinkat,  use the search box at the top of this page.

CAN’T GET ENOUGH CERVI? GO TO

Anthony Krutzkamp and Jill Marlow. Photography by Peter Mueller

ANTHONY KRUTZKAMP

PERFECTS THE BIG PICTURE ON STAGE 

- collected and edited by Kathy Valin

In today’s ballet world, men are no longer just “porters” carrying and displaying the ballerina. Often they execute choreography in which there is equal sharing of weight, or they dance in unison with their partner, or solo in dances displaying not only bravura but drama. However, it is an important part of the tradition for the man to be a noble partner. A couple of years ago, I talked with Anthony Krutzkamp, a very thoughtful fellow, about the intricacies of partnering from the man’s viewpoint. Below are his comments.

I’m not exactly the quickest learner, because I want to find out everything from “A to Z.” I like the big picture before I move on to the details of the choreography. 

That’s important, because I don’t want to have to learn it by doing it seven hundred times. I’m also thinking about my partner—I’m not in pointe shoes and I don’t know what it is like to have “hamburger feet” from too much rehearsing.

I need to feel the woman’s movement, but each time I change partners it takes a little while to revisit each one. Their weight and height is different. Sometimes when I need to put a ballerina down from the air onto her pointe, the choreography doesn’t allow me to look down and check, so I have to “feel” her foot come down. 

It’s key to figure it out, since I am the support. I have to rely on my strength and control to keep her from being injured. For instance, I always think about where her weight is going, and where my arms have to be to take her to that place. I’ll note if I have to take her from my right arm to my left, or, if there’s a circular motion, I know I have to push with my right, and pull with my left. You’ll figure out when you CAN look down, and how to align your head with her.

After you’ve figured all that out, as a partner you have to figure out how not to show the in-between–to make it look like you are not doing anything. That is actually my favorite part!

I am lucky because the way I am built allows me to dance the roles I want. I am strong, but I am the runt in my family. My brother’s twice as wide as I am, he’s a 44 in a jacket. He’s got 4 inches on me. 

When I watch other dancers in a pas de deux, I look for all the transitions to judge how good they are. One of my pet peeves is when the man needs to be a certain distance away from the woman in order for the line to work. If he cramps her, there is no shape, there is no line.

I think there are some really great partners in this company, like Jay Goodlett and Zack Grubbs. They are very strong:  it’s like “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Who leads? In certain times she needs to lead, but in certain times the man needs to lead. Because if you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where she is. And if she decides to move first, she is nowhere, she is on the ground. 

But, I love to run after a girl onstage. When you don’t know where she is going to stop. And then—whoosh—you pick her up.

Or when you are running stage left and she is running a circle stage right, and we are meeting up—she’s completely in charge. She’s going to jump whenever she wants to jump, and you need to be there!

Every pas de deux is different as to how many supported turns there will be. Some partners will just say “we are doing five pirouettes,” and when they are done that’s it. But, certain other women will want to go to that last note. For them, it’s not about the number of rotations, but how you slow it down to the final turn.

Sometimes I do get sucked into a pas de deux to the point where I am so immersed in the acting I actually am remote from what is happening. When I’m done, I’ll ask myself “did that just happen?” It’s the coolest feeling. 

Pirouettes with a woman are simple. So is a torch lift, the pose when the woman sits in your hand above your head. Once she is up there, you hold her foot against your chest. She is not going anywhere.

Harder are supported promenades, where the woman pivots around the heel of the supporting leg. You have to walk a perfect circle around her. There are no ovals! And in a ballet like The Sleeping Beauty’s Rose Adagio, where the promenade by different partners is the highlight, if you are not perfect you can ruin it for the ballerina. 

One of the hardest maneuvers is the double assemble into a fish dive. The woman spins around and lands in your arms chin down, leg up. You can talk it out, but once you are committed to doing it, you have to do it. It’s like in driving school, where they tell you to commit to the light. Not to think “is it yellow? Is it red?” 

And once she is up there? If things go wrong, you can’t let her go down, no matter what. You have to put yourself in harms way in order that she won’t be hurt. Because she has to trust you. It’s never gonna look right if she doesn’t trust you.

The risk I take myself often has to do with the role I am playing. Sometimes, if it’s modern, you just get out there. You’ll see what you have to give. But if I am in Swan Lake, I’m not gonna be the guy that tries to eek out that final flashy pirouette that I might not be able to do. I’m supposed to be The Prince. And The Prince doesn’t bobble.

I last saw them in October 22′s “The Sleeping Beauty” at the Aronoff Center, she in the Wedding “Pas de Trois” and he as the Lilac Fairy’s Cavalier and also in the “Pas de Trois.”

Both are beautiful dancers, and Valinkat applauds their upwards move!

Read below for one my of first appreciations of Sarah – she is truly an amazing performer who easily takes on technical challenges and has the personality to “hold the stage,” as they say.

I named her performance number 5 in my top ten for 2003. At that time she was a professional performing in a pre-professional production. That she has kept performing all these years, many times performing at principal level, is just great!

Best of 2003: Dance

By Kathy Valin
Cincinnati Enquirer contributor
December 28, 2003

New collaborations and visitors from the around the world – plus a solid core of local creators, presenters and performers – kept Cincinnati’s dance scene buzzing in 2003.

1. Salia ni Seydou – The impact of amazing physicality and breathtaking modern sensibility combined with traditional African rhythms and steps was presented in October by Contemporary Dance Theater.

2. Gala of International Ballet Stars – For the second straight year, ballet tech ohio has assembled scads of world famous dancers. They converged at the Aronoff Center in August to strut their stuff, with choreography from Alonzo King and John Cranko.

3. Come Together Festival – Contemporary styles of choreography put Cincinnati Ballet members like Jay Goodlett, the company’s finest contemporary dancer, in the spotlight in March. The farewell performance of principal Lorna Feijoo was scorching.

4. Dayton Contemporary Dance Company – Artistic director and resident choreographer Kevin Ward and associate artistic director Debbie Blunden-Diggs keep founder Jeraldyne Blunden’s vision alive with blazing performances from dancers like Sheri Williams.

5. Guest professionals in pre-professional productions – Cincinnati Ballet’s eye-catching Sarah Hairston and high jumping Andrey Kasatsky got to do a full-length classic; ballet tech ohio performing arts association kids got to appear on stage with them.

6. Choreographers Without Companies – Contemporary Dance Theater again provided an outlet for the resilient, creative local choreographers and dancers.

7 & 8. Cincinnati Ballet’s collaborations – We were able to see Columbus’ BalletMet dancers with Cincinnati dancers in a sparkling, fully-staged version of Balanchine’s Jewels in October; in November, a collaboration with the Cincinnati Arts Association brought the world-famous Paul Taylor Dance Company to town.

9. Performance and Time Arts Series – In its ninth year, Contemporary Dance Theater continues to provide a solid slot for avant garde choreography and dance with its emphasis on the experimental at its College Hill Town Hall home.

10. A city rich in dance – This writer couldn’t fit everything she wanted to see into her schedule. For a dance fan, it’s a kick to live in Cincinnati.

E-mail ValinKat2@aol.com

Principal dancer Janessa Touchet, partnered by a devoted Ogulcan Borova, brought confidence, stamina and stunning technique to her role as Princess Aurora last night during Cincinnati Ballet’s new version of “The Sleeping Beauty” at Cincinnati’s historic Music Hall. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Carmon DeLeone’s baton brought richness and dynamic breadth to Tchaikovsky’s brilliant score.

What’s a modern dancer to do when her role demands that she be exquisite rather than extravagant? For Touchet, there was not a hint of grandstanding – from her first appearance as she executed diagonal pas de chats into smooth, spooling turns ending in a glorious, expansive developé in Act 1, to the stately apotheosis at the end of Act III, she maintained her demeanor as a princess nonpareil. Yet, when she is onstage, you can’t take your eyes off her.

This sense of demeanor, that the characterizations stay inside the ballet rather than out of it, is the hallmark of Marius Petipa’s late nineteenth century choreography, as revealed by Devon Carney. Today’s dancers of course have a different level of technique – they jump higher, and turn faster, and love to show off – but it is to Carney’s credit that across the board the performers executed their roles appropriately and the results were amazingly effective.

Many times called upon to maintain her poise in balances (as when her four suitors – the Princes Cheri, Charmant, Fortune and Fleur de Pois promenade her and briefly release her from their support) Touchet sparkled as she demonstrated her abilities. However, the sparkle seemed to emerge from her character’s natural exuberance. This Princess, though thoroughly accomplished, was not a driven overachiever by any means.

Originally, “The Sleeping Beauty” was presented in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theater—what became the enduring classic we see today was presented by a French choreographer for an Italian ballerina in Russia. Carney’s “The Sleeping Beauty” is clearly the work of someone who loves the art of ballet, and is fully able to respect this unwieldy masterpiece, which perhaps has more unity in its presentation as a work of art than originality.

Certainly it requires us as audience members to slow down, and to enjoy the ride. The wonderful interaction between the music and the dancing needs to be fully appreciated. This is partly because Petipa, at age 68, was not given to changing his methods of composition even when working with a genius like Tchaikovsky. He presented the composer with detailed specifications as to the number of bars, the tempo and time signature for each episode. Historian Fernau Hall marvels that Tchaikovsky was able to adapt himself “with extraordinary ease to these rigid demands, writing music that not only conformed to specification but was full of wit, fantasy and spontaneity.”

For instance, I think that we are able to appreciate the extensive use of mime in this ballet (sometimes I had the odd impression that mime, with its enjambment of a series of clichéd expressions, was a precursor to today’s obsession with texting) because the music that accompanies it is so gosh darned expressive. Occasionally, there are hints of humor in the ponderousness of it all – after Prince Désiré defeats Carabosse (a wonderful role played to the hilt by Dawn Kelly as a kind of D-List Fairy) he mimes “What now?” to the Lilac Fairy. “What do YOU think?” she mimes back. “A kiss?” he ventures. “YES, THAT’S IT!” she replies.

I will be writing more about the individual roles in this ballet, but want to get this all out right away. I think that the lesson learned from experiencing a full-length like “The Sleeping Beauty” might be that maybe we should not expect everything from anything – but, to quote Mattie Ross in the wonderful movie “True Grit,” “Enough is good as a feast.”

Freddie Franklin and Stacey Recht

Janessa Touchett in Cincinnati Ballet's 2009 New Works. Photo by Peter Mueller.

at the Mickey Jarson Kaplan Performance Studio. There’s no time to post everything tonight, but read on for some highlights.

Touchet brought outstanding technical brilliance and dramatic flair to her roles: she appeared with a cast of twelve in Sergey Sergeiv’s futurist “Dreaming in Colour” and solo in Victoria Morgan’s “Modulus of Elasticity,” a tiny horror movie of a dance in which a mask both fascinates and terrifies, set to a throbbing original score featuring two marimbas.

With a burst of energy that nearly broke through the fourth wall, the program closed with Heather Britt’s emotionally vivid “Strange Loop,” a rush of imaginative movement to music by Peter Adams. An obvious sequel to last year’s stunner “All Too Wonderful,” also to an original score from Adams, the composition reflected the choreographer, as she noted in a short pre-performance note, in a “mood” where she wanted things more “raw.” As the seventeen dancers swooped in pairs and in unison across the intimate stage of the company’s Mickey Jarson Performance Studio,  the sense of rushing exhilaration was palpable, whether it came from intense physicality or seeming emotional breakdown, personified by Gema Diaz as a woman cast out from a world of couples. All ended in harmony, as the dancers returned to the floor from which they came, perhaps ready for another encounter with the vicissitudes of life.

There is more to come on other New Works choreography and standout performances, all to be posted very soon.

Stay tuned!

INFAMOUS LOVE SONGS with OVER THE RHINE
April 29-30, 2011 | Aronoff Center for the Arts
Choreography: Devon Carney, Missy Lay Zimmer, Andrew Hubbard, Donald Byrd Music: Over the Rhine

[3 WORLD PREMIERES] Artistic Director & CEO Victoria Morgan offers an audacious and adventurous series.  Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist’s internationally beloved band Over the Rhine performs live for three performances.

Three choreographers bring artistic movement to this exciting live performance.  Devon Carney, Associate Artistic Director, blends classical vocabulary and contemporary energy.  Exhale Dance Tribe’s co-founders and artistic directors Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard offer their daring lyrical and narrative style.  Donald Byrd, artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle and former artistic director of Donald Byrd/The Group brings his internationally acclaimed contemporary vision.

[Click here to read more about Over the Rhine and the choreographers]

PERFORMANCES:
8:00 pm : April 29 & 30, 2011  |  2:00 pm : April 30, 2011

Ticket Info: http://www.cballet.org/performances/infamouslovesongs

~Dan – np: Dream Theater – Black Clouds and Silver Linings

The fundraiser, held at the lovely Hyatt Regency, was a fashion-forward feast for the eyes and the taste buds. Not only did we get a sneak peak at upcoming trends from a runway show courtesy of Saks 5th Avenue, but we enjoyed delicious a little champagne and some goodies to go, too. Not a bad way to spend the workday.

And we did our part to help the cause as well. Aranzamendez Design was responsible for developing the “Women on the Move” branding and creating all the fundraiser’s marketing materials. Arlene Aranzamendez has also been heavily involved with the organization: sitting on the board, networking, etc. Cause it’s good to give back. Other sponsors included Tide, Unifund and American Financial Group. You can learn more about the event at http://dfscincy.org.

Lastly, many kudos to Honoree Chair Victoria Morgan, Cincinnati Ballet CEO who oversaw the whole splendid affair. Can’t wait til next year!