Kenneth MacMillan's "Romeo and Juliet" is a ballet that relies on its two leading dancers more than other ballets do. In Petipa, if the leads are mediocre, one can still be delighted by the elaborate patterns of the corps, the brilliance of the soloists' choreography, or the grand spectacle his ballets generally present. MacMillan's choreography is weaker than Petipa's, and I spent a good deal of the ballet waiting for the principal dancers to come back on as the choreographer fumbled about with the crowd scenes, trying to create a lively, exciting atmosphere but never really succeeding. Fortunately, the leading dancers were worth waiting for, even though the performance got off to a slow start.

In my opinion, Juliet is one of Julie Kent's best roles (I also enjoy her Giselle). In this performance, I did not find her totally believable in Act I. As a fairly tall dancer with a calm stage presence, she does not project that sprightly, childlike energy of a girl who has just entered marriageable age (perhaps 14) in the Renaissance, so the business with the doll did not really seem plausible. The ballroom scene was better, as it allowed her to display her smoothly polished classical line (Kent has perhaps the purest line in classical ballet today; never a harsh moment) and gave us a look at how easily she is able to communicate what her character is thinking and feeling.

Marcelo Gomes is, of course, the ideal Romeo, with his elegant line and noble presence, and he, too, did not really come alive until the ballroom scene. That is an understandable way to play the role, but I think it would be more effective for us to get a sense of who Romeo is before he meets Juliet so that the contrast registers more strongly.

Mercutio is the sort of role in which Herman Cornejo specialises, and he played it very well tonight. It's easy to go over the top with MacMillan, but Cornejo struck just the right note of witty playfulness without coming across as overly caffeinated or annoying. His quick, agile technique allowed him to zip right through the sometimes oddly put together steps, and his death scene was realistically but not melodramatically played. It felt right.

Act III is where the drama really gets going for Juliet, and here Kent really let loose from the decorum of the ballroom scene. During the bedroom pas de deux, I had the sense that her Juliet felt she was not going to see Romeo alive again, and she used that to create a kind of inarticulate, almost irrational desperation that was very effective.

Victor Barbee was a commanding, majestic, threatening presence as Lord Capulet--perhaps the strongest personality in the ballet. His Lady Capulet (Stella Abrera) did not have the same regal manner or acting skill, and mainly resorted to stylised swanning around.

While this is not my favourite ballet to watch due to its many weak points (essentially everything the corps has to do as well as MacMillan's feeble attempts to tell the story through either dance or very abbreviated, vague mime) Kent and Gomes brought out the best in the choreography and created a moving, heartfelt drama.

Lately I have been trying to challenge myself during class, so for the last two classes I've taken, I made a rule that I would use the barre as little as possible. That doesn't sound so difficult, but I soon found out just how much I rely on the barre, even when I think I don't. A simple battement tendu exercise in first suddenly required quite a bit more effort, and it only became more difficult from there. If I truly need the barre (for a very fast exercise, or one entirely on demi-pointe, for example) I use it, but otherwise try to do without. While I'm sure it isn't as pretty to look at, I've noticed one important benefit: the less I use the barre, the better my balance is in the center, particularly during pirouettes, because there's no "adjustment" period of trying to figure out how to get to demi-pointe without support.

I'm certain I'm not the only one who has experienced this, but I think it's an idea that could be used more often in ballet classes. Even when one is doing everything right, the barre ends up providing more support than it should simply because one's hand is on it, so the dancer ends up using it more than s/he is aware. There is also a great temptation to make the barre work as clean and neat as possible, which is an appropriate goal, but not when it comes at the expense of gaining strength and balance. Barre work is a tool, not an end in itself, and if the concepts one practises there do not transfer to the center, what's the point?

Ballet class--especially barre--is always a work in progress. One isn't there to present a perfectly polished performance but to challenge oneself and grow. When creating art, one frequently has to make a mess in order to make something beautiful, and ballet is no different. So make a mistake, lose your balance, miss a pirouette, yet always with the finished product in mind. That's how you get better.

In preparation for auditions for dance pedagogy programs, I have started taking classes again, mostly at the American Dance Institute in Rockville, MD. So far I have had two classes, each taught by a dancer with Washington Ballet: Runqiao Du and Elizabeth Gaither.

Both classes involved a long barre--45 minutes to an hour. Normally this is not my cup of tea, but as I am still pretty weak, it was nice to have the support. There were many combinations focusing on battements tendus and dégagés. Very good for precise footwork. By contrast, we did not do much in the way of jumps, which was also fine with me as by that point in the class I was running out of energy!

I've noticed that I seem to have a lot of trouble with combinations involving lots of battements fondus as I'm finding it difficult to plié on one leg with control. Not sure why that is, maybe I just need to get strength back. Pirouettes are also not working well, and I have trouble using good épaulement at the barre.

On to the positives: My foot articulation is still good, perhaps even better than before now that I've had to teach students to do it for several years. I can pick up combinations easily in my head, even if it doesn't yet always translate to my body. And I still have some flexibility, although it needs work. I'm basically doing a complete overhaul on my arabesque, as I don't think it's ever been placed quite right.

The important part, though, is that class is still fun, even after all these years!

I have taught my first class of the year, and I am afraid it is going to be an uphill battle. The first problem is that the students are only in ballet class once, or in some cases twice, a week, so building strength and coordination will be a challenge. I've decided to give them the same lesson for several weeks in a row so that they will be able to concentrate on correct technique while performing familiar exercises. They will also write down their classes so that they learn to spell and use ballet terms correctly.

For the first lesson, I was very strict about doing each exercise as perfectly as possible. This is not something that has been demanded of them before, and it took some getting used to: we ended up spending the entire 90 minutes at the barre. However, next week they will be more familiar with the exercises, and we will get to do center, and hopefully next week and the week after we will get through allegro. Then on to a new lesson!

I am also choreographing a dance for four girls to be performed in competitions and at the end of the year. I am considering using a section of 'Danse Macabre' by Camille Saint-Saens, as I am trying to get them to be more expressive in their dancing. Right now their idea of 'performing' tends to be gluing on a smile.

Unfortunately, all the competitions they do don't really leave much room for a Kennedy Center field trip to watch professional ballet, but I will still look for opportunities. I received nothing but positive comments when I took them to see Veronika Part in ABT's 'Swan Lake' last year. Maybe this year we can see something more unusual. The classics are important, but I want them to experience newer works as well.

I will update again when I've taught some more, seen a performance, or taken a class.

I think I have finally, at long last, got my students to begin to understand turnout and how the legs move to the side. It has taken a while, but last class I used some ideas from the Teachers forum on BTfD to help them understand. A yardstick was very helpful.

First, I repeated something I've done before: have the student stand in 1st position, place the yardstick on the floor in front of him/her so it forms a horizontal line just touching his/her toes, and have the student tendu side along the line formed by the stick. This gets them to understand that the leg needs to move directly to the side. Otherwise, when they go from 1st to 2nd position, the legs will not be in line, glissades will move slightly forward, échappés will be a problem, &c. Also, it forces the student to use the appropriate muscles. A tendu that moves along the line of the foot will, in many cases, end up somewhat forward of 2nd, and it will not improve turnout, just reinforce what the student already has.

Second, once the student had established pointe tendue à la seconde, I held the yardstick vertically at his/her working toe and had him/her raise the leg as high as possible without moving the leg forward and without losing the turnout of either leg. To do this, they had to keep using their turnout muscles (which often get relaxed when the leg is held too far forward).

For a few weeks now, I have had my less advanced class do the following exercise:
Beat 1: Plié in 5th
Beat 2: Relevé to pirouette position
Beat 3: Hold the position
Beat 4: Close 5th on demi-pointe

Last class (after having them practice battement tendu and rond de jambe par terre en tournant) I modified the last two parts so that it went like this:

Beat 1: Plié in 5th
Beat 2: Relevé to pirouette position
Beat 3: Remaining on demi-pointe, turn 1/8 en dehors
Beat 4: Hold the position, or if necessary, close 5th on demi-pointe

It was not perfect, but they made a good start. Once they get stronger at that exercise, I can have them learn pirouettes, but I will continue to have them work on learning tour lent on demi-pointe. Having that control is very good for pirouettes, especially as the study of tour lent on demi-pointe will instill muscle memory of correct position.

I have been an advocate of less pointework in ballet for some time now, and here's why, in no particular order:

1. Having to dance en pointe limits possibilities for female dancers who may be very talented in every other way but simply don't have feet and ankles that are flexible enough to allow them to stand sur les pointes.

2. Pointe shoes ruin a dancer's jump, making it not just lower but also more noisy, no matter how well the feet are used during the takeoff and landing.

3. Pointework encourages/allows choreographers to rely on (neo)classical partnering, with the man standing behind the woman either supporting or manipulating her, rather than allowing the woman to dance for herself and freeing up the man to do the same.

4. Because modern pointe shoes are basically designed with only the idea of being sur les pointes in mind (thereby allowing the dancer to perform Petipa and Balanchine ballets) it is more difficult to perform Romantic and Bournonville ballets. Not only do these ballets use more jumps (see above) but also the necessary thickness and narrowness of the shank make it harder to perform an unsupported adagio, of which Romantic ballets make more use. The dancer may be very strong and stable, but when she is standing on what is essentially a tiny balance beam in her shoe, wobbles are inevitable.

5. Too often, pointe is used as a foot-strengthening/posture tool. While it is true that pointework makes your feet stronger and that if you are not standing properly you cannot stay en pointe, both of these qualities must already be in place before starting pointe--otherwise there is a greater risk of injury. Learning to perform various steps on demi-pointe has the same strengthening effect with a much lower injury risk.

I am not saying that pointework should be eliminated from ballet or that dancers should go back to wearing glorified technique shoes that do not properly support their feet. (Well, maybe a slightly softer shoe could be made for Romantic ballets that require more jumps and less pointe.) But as ballet moves forward, I think it is time to stop relying on what is essentially a "trick" and start focusing on developing movement that allows women to have the same freedom of movement as men.

I feel similarly about lifts--when used well they are beautiful and effective, but too often they are merely a substitute for dancing, not to mention that they are often used as an excuse to keep women thin. The fact that it is not actually necessary for a woman to be particularly thin to be lifted has not silenced this reasoning.

To discuss this performance, please go here.

This was my first live full-length "Bayadère," although previously I have seen the Royal Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet productions on video, and I have seen the Maryinsky do the "Kingdom of the Shades" scene several times, both live and on video. This production is beautifully designed, with lush sets and beautiful costumes, and although there were too many obviously fake animals for my taste, at least it omitted some of the more racist elements of the original ballet.

Unfortunately, I found the staging (until the Grand Pas Classique and the Kingdom of the Shades) rather weak despite the deployment of more people onstage than most companies have the resources for. Nikiya is not given much to do in her Act I entrance besides saunter around en pointe for a while, and the mime between her, Solor, the High Brahmin, and the fakir was so vaguely sketched out that I had a hard time understanding what they were "saying," even though I understand classical mime and know the plot.

Act I, Scene II was not much better--lots of incoherent attempts to mime, which surprises me, given that the Maryinsky has been miming since before most ballet companies in operation today existed. A bright spot was the D'jampe dance, performed with spirit and precision by the corps. Less enjoyable was a mostly boring pas de deux featuring a little contortion toward the end, and by the time Act I was over I was beginning to see why certain people think old ballets ought to be scrapped. Lots of over-wrought, hand-wringing melodrama, hardly any choreography, and precious little logic or sense.

Act II was (eventually) an improvement. Aside from ladies dancing so carelessly with their taxidermied parrots that had the birds been alive they all would have had motion sickness, we had a tiger that appeared to be from Toys R Us, more taxidermied parrots hanging at bizarre angles from flower garlands, and a mechanical elephant with a dark-skinned mannequin attached to its head. This act featured a large corps dancing boring steps leading up to the Grand Pas Classique, which is beautifully choreographed for a couple and two trios, followed by Nikiya's sad dance.

Act III is, of course, an unsurpassed choreographic triumph. However, it is an unsatisfying ending to the ballet, as it leaves the gods' vengeance on Gamzatti, the Rajah, and the High Brahmin unresolved.

I was mostly unimpressed by the dancing, as the Maryinsky principals and soloists have been performing for a few years now as if they are competing at the Prix de Lausanne. Lots of big jumps, high extensions, careful preparations for pirouettes, student-like mistakes during relatively simple steps, and hardly any acting, refinement, or adapting one's style to suit the demands of a particular ballet or character. Tereshkina, with her small-featured, unexpressive face, was not, in my opinion, an appropriate choice for the dramatic, mysterious character of Nikiya. She did all the steps just fine, and often very well, but she has an overly long, un-classical line, and this combined with her willowy figure and careful way of moving prevents her from being powerfully expressive. Similarly, Korsakov as Solor had very neat technique, with soft, silent landings and precise footwork, but he is so intent on splitting his legs to 180º during every grand jeté that he often ends up looking as if he's auditioning for "A Chorus Line" rather than expressing nobility. I believe he could be a moving Solor with better coaching. The lady who danced Gamzatti was extremely pretty, with features that "read" up to the balcony, but she too was not a strong actress, and her dancing was riddled with technical insecurities.

The dancers I most enjoyed watching in this performance were the soloists and demi-soloists. Unlike the corps, which was very precise and detailed but whose steps were insultingly simple (I found myself thinking, "They were trained for eight years and mastered the difficult Vaganova syllabus to spend their days doing toe-pulls and jumping on one leg a few times?" Granted, technique at the corps level was probably not as advanced in 1877 as it was in the 1890's.) the soloists have steps that are just challenging enough to be interesting but not intimidating, and as they are not called upon to express anything in particular besides beauty and grace, they are able to just have fun and shine, and they excelled at this. Unfortunately, they too were subjected to the complete lack of attention to petit allegro that seems to have occurred at the Vaganova Academy about ten years ago, so their footwork was not as clean and precise as that of earlier dancers, but they were lovely to watch nonetheless.

In Act III, the corps danced, as always, perfectly, but the three soloists had problems. The first shade clearly wanted to dance at a faster tempo, and she would have been much better had she been allowed to. The second shade also had musical issues, perhaps due to the conductor not understanding how the steps fit to the music. The third shade was fine musically, but she was trying so hard to raise her leg during her opening diagonal that she unfolded it in two counts instead of one, landing from her sissonne in an awkward position before straightening her working leg. She had some trouble during the second part of her variation as well, but those steps are notoriously difficult. At the end, she floated down from her final grand jeté, making a completely seamless transition to her landing on one knee.

"La Bayadère" is, obviously, an important ballet, and it must continue to be performed. However, it must be performed as if it is still alive, not preserved in formaldehyde or treated with disdain (Kennedy Center orchestra, take note--Minkus's music is bad, but it sounds worse if you play it as if it's "Chopsticks"). The aforementioned ballet companies dance "La Bayadère" as if it's "Swan Lake" or "Sleeping Beauty" or "Giselle," and that is necessary if the audience is to take it seriously and stay until Act III.

To discuss this performance, please go here.

This topic may be a little premature given that classes will probably not start for most of us for another two weeks, but having recently come from an extremely productive, positive faculty meeting I am very excited about the new ballet school year. I still have some conferring to do with the other teachers, but I think that we are generally on the same page and poised to have our students excel. We have all agreed on the syllabus (it helps that most of us were trained at the same school) and we are to keep in close contact as some of us teach the same classes on different days to make sure everyone is progressing at the same rate. We have even agreed on such details as how the students should enter the classroom! It is a wonderful feeling to be part of such a group, and now that the foundations are in place, I am considering what (besides the steps) to teach and how to do it.

Things I would like them to learn include: how to spell ballet terms, basic music theory, knowledge of important people in ballet throughout history, and plots/characters of great ballets. I know I will have help from the other teachers in all of this.

But more than that, I am going to try to get my students excited about ballet. That may sound redundant--if they didn't like learning ballet, why would they be there? I believe they enjoy it, but the levels I teach are still fairly basic and the exercises can become monotonous. I don't have the opportunity to pepper the combinations with bits of variations, and my students only perform once, at the end of the year. In addition, they take several different types of dance and are usually involved in several other extracurricular activities as well, so making this ancient art form relevant and alive for them--even as they patiently execute my combinations--is a challenge.

It should help that my classes will be slightly larger this year. Small classes are wonderful for refining technique, but for the same reason they can also make it difficult to let go and "just dance," so even when, in an attempt to free my students from the confines of their endless battements tendus for a moment, I would have them chassé or otherwise move across the floor, they still maintained a rigidness, as if they were afraid of what I would criticize, and I was not able to bridge the gulf between "corrector" (as they saw me) and a benevolent person there merely to help them dance better (as I wished to come across). With a larger group, I am hoping it will be easier to form a rapport while still challenging them to work very hard. Their technique must be devoid of bad habits at this early stage, but it must also be alive, and perfect technique is of course useless without the enjoyment of dance and the desire to learn about all the elements that go into it--history, music, costumes, fantastic drama, and above all grace, elegance, harmony, and beauty.

Try teaching all that to the average thirteen year old who grew up in the suburbs and knows nothing of life outside middle school.

And yet, if they weren't already predisposed to the appreciation of grace and beauty, wouldn't they just take jazz? Something about this must speak to them already, and it is my job to draw that out and elaborate. Maybe once a month (I only see them once a week, although they have ballet with other teachers more often than that) I will end class fifteen minutes early to engage their minds in some way, either with a video, music, or a short lesson about an important figure in dance.

***

I came up with an idea to teach ballet terminology. At our first class, I'll give each student a folder, the kind that holds three-hole-punched notebook paper, and a list of basic ballet steps and their definitions. I will ask them to write down one combination we did in class that day in the car on the way home using the list as a guide. If they encounter a word they don't know how to spell that isn't on the list, they should sound it out as best they can, circle it, and at the end of the next class we will learn each word's spelling and its definition and add it to the list. By the end of the year, they should have a lot of terms, and by limiting it to one exercise, I shouldn't be taking up too much of their homework time/energy. The folders can also be used to hold information from the once-a-month lessons. Now all I need is a dry-erase board, some markers, and to be told that this is way too ambitious and unrealistic!

On Sunday, May 27, I returned to my hometown to watch the ballet school where I started dancing perform "Swan Lake" with guest artists Deanna Seay and Mikhail Ilyin (principal dancers with Miami City Ballet) as Odette and Prince Siegfried.

Both danced beautifully. Ilyin, trained at the Vaganova Academy, has clean lines, very fast, controlled pirouettes, a weightless jump with silent landings, and a grounded presence. Seay also has lovely lines, including a graceful arabesque, but most important to me was her exceptional port de bras. Each position was very clear and refined, but she moved between them softly, with a particularly "boneless" look at the end of Act II when she is turned back into a swan.

This may sound like a back-handed compliment, but I don't mean it that way: Seay's Odette was a pleasure to watch because she kept her interpretation simple. She danced the role as it is meant to be danced--she put the character first, and she proved Mel Johnson's statement true: that the most revolutionary thing a ballet company (or in this case, a dancer) could do would be to stage a plain-vanilla Swan Lake. She respected Petipa's and Ivanov's choreography, didn't flap when Odette is supposed to be human or during the Act III pas de deux, and she performed Odette's mime speech clearly. It was extremely satisfying to watch, and more people ought to follow her example.

However, this was not a stiff, slavish, "textbook" rendition of the ballet. Seay included small nuances that kept the dance alive, and she performed them so subtly that they fell into their proper place as nuances and were not blown out of proportion into anything more than what they were. For example, at the beginning of the Act II pas de deux, just after she sinks down onto one knee and bends forward, she didn't just lay there waiting to be picked up, and she didn't convulse the way some ballerinas do, making it obvious that I Am Not Just Laying Here. Instead, a tiny wave of energy pulsed through her, starting at the lower back and flowing with the music out through her fingertips. She barely moved, but it was extraordinary, conveying Odette's nervousness and hope all in that moment.

Later, at the end of the pas de deux, she did something I am thankful for: real petits battements serrés. So many dancers try and fail to make their battements so tiny that the foot appears to just vibrate against the supporting heel, and I have only seen that work once. Usually, they just end up being so small that no one can see them, and their effect is lost. Now, Seay didn't hack away at her supporting leg; it was still a small movement, but it was visible, and the foot was in exactly the right place--with the working arch covering the supporting heel.

Act III was a little bit problematic; the adagio went well (in fact the partnering was quite smooth throughout the performance) but Seay had some trouble with her pirouettes during the variation. Unfortunately, sometimes that just happens, especially when you are on an unfamiliar stage with taped-down marley and there isn't much you can do, but she got through it. I had thought that perhaps after that, she would not do the fouettés, or would maybe stop after sixteen or so, but although they did not go perfectly (there was some minor travelling) I have to hand it to her for sticking it out through all 32. That must have taken courage, and I was impressed!

* * *
Note: I have to run for the moment, but I will come back later and write about Ilyin.
* * *

Ilyin's Siegfried was also very well done, although in this production there was regrettably little for him to do, and I can relate to how challenging it is to try to create a character when all you are given to do is walk around a bit and stand there looking out into the audience. However, Ilyin made it work. He was refined without being feminine or light, and his gaze read all the way up to the balcony. One of the wonderful things about Vaganova Academy training is that the dancers are so used to mime that it flows from them conversationally, every gesture perfectly clear, but as effortless as speaking. This made the mime scene with the queen a pleasure to watch. Unfortunately he did not mime at the end of Act I when Siegfried goes off hunting, but his dancing made up for it. As I said before, tall jumps with silent landings, pirouettes that simply stopped on demi-pointe, and of course the famous Kirov port de bras and épaulement.

In Act II, we got more of the same quality. Crystal-clear mime with the hunters, and when he saw Odette (offstage) you knew it instantly. It's hard to describe, but instead of stretching out an arm and peering forward, he simply changed his whole body without (visibly) moving a muscle. Again, a tiny thing that read right up to the balcony.

In the pas de deux, Ilyin and Seay had good chemistry, and while he is a very little bit short for her, it was not a serious problem, and the partnering went quite smoothly, no choreographic changes necessary. One thing that struck me was that the pas de deux seemed to be performed all in one movement, and the scaled-back choreography for the corps helped create the impression that the pas de deux existed in its own world, seamless from beginning to end, especially the very end with the petits battements and pirouettes, into the lunge and final penché.

Act III was Ilyin's real shining moment. Here, the technical skill hinted at toward the end of Act I was on full display without being flashy or inappropriate. The only thing I regretted was that he was costumed all in black, and the stage was black, so it was difficult at times to see beats. During the coda, he covered the stage in about two grands jetés, so some choreographic finagling was necessary, but it worked well, and his double tour en l'air terminé en arabesque was stunning in its creamy smoothness. He reminded me a little of Herman Cornejo, but more regal and restrained. And anyone who complains about the way Russian men use their feet should watch Ilyin--his are impeccable.

Overall, it was an excellent afternoon (where else can you see MCB principal dancers for $9?) and Seay and Ilyin made it more than worth the trip. Hopefully they will return next year!

Students sometimes say:

"I don't have feet like Alessandra Ferri. Can I still be a professional?"

"My legs don't go as high as Sylvie Guillem's. Will any companies hire me?"

The answer, dear students, is no.

But not for the reasons you think.

The reason you won't be a professional is because you are too concerned how you look in photographs and not concerned enough about how you look in motion. Use your feet exquisitely, and no one will notice how they're shaped. Unfold your leg gracefully, and no one will pull out a protractor and count degrees. Make the audience laugh, weep, and sigh, and you will be loved and remembered for years instead of being relegated to a dusty textbook. Remember that Ferri is famous for her feet, but she is more famous for how she makes people feel, and Guillem does indeed have high extensions, but it's how she uses them that makes her great.

Above all, if your teacher does not tell you how to do this, find one who does!