Ballet Techniques Uncovered

I know that this is generally a blog about freelance work as a dancer, but every once in awhile I like to include some content that I feel is extremely valuable to my readers. And this post falls right in the realm of content that is fully appropriate (and helpful) for all of you who come here for valuable information on dance.

Students at the Vaganova Ballet Academy

Over the past few weeks, I have been working my ballet-toned rear-end off to create this immense resource for anybody that is curious about the art form of ballet. On my podcast, Pas de Chát: Talking Dance, on the Premier Dance Network, I researched and interviewed experts on 7 international training methodologies in ballet technique to provide accessible information explaining the background and execution of these methods. Our contributors include the Artistic Director of New York Theatre Ballet, Principal of Ballet West Academy, Faculty at the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre's JKO School, and Houston Ballet Academy, and more! Additionally, I have crossover-collaborated with Pirouettes from the Past host, Dr. Melissa Klapper, as a part of this episode series. On Dr. Klapper's channel, she talks about the history behind a few of the techniques mentioned.

So, if you are interested in learning about Vaganova, Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), Cecchetti, French (Paris Opera Ballet), Balanchine, Bournonville, or Cuban training methods, please feel free to click the links below and give these episodes a listen! Enjoy!

Ballet Techniques Uncovered (Part 1)
Ballet Techniques Uncovered (Part 2)
History of "Ballet Techniques" - Pirouettes from the Past

Memorable Moments

When you've been dancing for 10+ years, there are a vast number of moments that happen throughout your career that really stand out to you. Some of these moments are pivotal to your career moving forward, while sometimes they are the biggest setbacks. At other times, these moments can be downright funny. I've decided to move away from a freelance specific post this week and focus on dance careers as a whole. Here are a handful of moments throughout my career that have been more than your typical, run-of-the-mill experiences. Enjoy!

Promising - It took a while for me to really get noticed after I joined Pacific Northwest Ballet. The first few seasons I was typically pushed to the back or left to dance in the 2nd cast corps of many ballets. When the company brought in stagers to set William Forsythe's iconic One Flat Thing, Reproduced (click link for video), all of that changed. The company went through a series of workshops and auditions in order to be considered for this piece. At the end of those three days, my name went up to learn this piece in the 1st cast. This was the first time that I ever really got to do a leading role with the company. In the cast of 13, I was one of only 2 corps dancers that got to dance this piece the first time around. After I got noticed, Peter Boal told me that he had never considered me for roles like that until they had pointed me out. In the years to come, I found myself dancing multiple leading roles in the contemporary repertoire of the company.

The whole cast of "One Flat Thing, Repoduced"

Embarrassing - It is pretty hard to embarrass me. Accidentally pulling down my tights while taking off my warm-ups, falling in class, and having a blooper onstage have always been a good laugh instead of an embarrassing story. If I had to name one moment that would be the most embarrassing, it would be when I was dancing with Alaska Dance Theatre this past winter. I was performing a solo to Johnny Cash's Walk the Line in an open rehearsal for donors. The very last moments of this piece had to be perfectly timed as I performed a series of running jumps and rolls to the floor only to end on one knee with my right leg held in one hand while being strummed like a guitar with my other hand. As I got to the point where I strum my leg and roll backwards over my shoulder into the wing, I realized I was early. As I strummed my leg, I very loudly dropped the F bomb for the entire room to hear. As I rolled over my shoulder, my hands covered my mouth and I very sheepishly apologized to the audience as they all roared with laughter. Luckily, they saw the humor in my error.

Funniest - When I was dancing with Houston Ballet, we toured to Cleveland to perform Ben Stevenson's Cinderella. In one of the shows, we had a bit of a snafu during the ballroom scene. It was that beautiful moment when all becomes quiet and Cinderella's carriage pulls up to the ball. As the 4 corps dancers dressed as horses pulled the carriage across the raised platform, you could hear one of the stage crew members scream. At that point, the carriage started to tilt, a la Titanic, and fell backwards off the raised platform with Cinderella still inside. The driver, the doorman, and one of the horses flew backwards off the platform while the other 3 horses struggled to get the carriage back upright. Once a few stagehands dove behind the platform to push it back up, it was back on track to make Cinderella's entrance to the ball. If you thought it couldn't get any worse, as principal dancer Lauren Anderson, stepped out of the carriage, her cape snagged on the door as she bourree'd forward. She pulled as hard as possible and was thrust forward about 3 feet when it finally tore off. All of this happened as the music quiets and the corps de ballet turns upstage to watch her entrance. Let's just say that even with our backs to the audience, you could see our shoulders jiggling up and down with laughter.

Challenging - When I first moved to Philly and was dancing with a local contemporary ballet company, I danced a pas de deux choreographed by Amy Seiwert. This duet to Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah was essentially an emotionally wrought 8-minute lift-fest that ended with a deadly
dead-weight lift. Beyond the 6 shows that we performed in that one week, we also had two days of rehearsal and a dress rehearsal before we started the run. I couldn't believe I survived that week (I also danced in another piece on that program).

The beginning of that final lift - Chloe Felesina and myself dancing Amy Seiwert's "Not a Cry." (Photo: Alexander Izaliev)

Rewarding -Throughout my year at the School of American Ballet, I auditioned for 14 different ballet companies. While most students only auditioned for the companies that they really wanted to dance for, I was convinced that I had to audition everywhere to get a job. After spending 4 stressful months pushing my body and mind to the limit, I was able to choose my apprenticeship with Houston Ballet from 7 job offers.

Humbling - During my 3 years as a union representative at PNB, I had to handle a mix of legitimate complaints and selfish requests from dancers. But nothing was more humbling than watching the entire company come together to unanimously vote to freeze our salaries for one season to save 7 dancers jobs. My fellow rep and I put a lot of hard work into putting this deal together. I may have shed a few tears when we counted all of the votes and not one dancer chose their pay raise over their colleagues careers.

Daring - I was never really a dancer that got things easily. As a teenager, the director of my home dance studio constantly suggested that I go into what I was good at, jazz and modern dance. When I got into the Kirov Academy of Ballet, as Madame Vinogradova said, "It's slow year for boys." Halfway through that year, I was pulled aside and told that I should stop auditioning for ballet companies and focus on organizations like Momix. At the end of that season, I had solidified a Corps de Ballet contract with Colorado Ballet at the ripe age of 18. I had also been offered to attend the School of American Ballet summer intensive on a full scholarship, an invite that had not been presented to me the previous 3 times I had tried. Attending this school had been my dream since the age of 15 and inspired me to focus on ballet. I asked SAB if they were going to ask me to stay for the year and they told me they couldn't tell me until the 3rd week of the summer intensive. So, I signed my contract with Colorado Ballet and went to SAB for the summer. At the end of the first week of the intensive, Jock Soto pulled me aside and offered for me to stay for the year. After much deliberation, I decided that I couldn't turn my dream down. I called Colorado Ballet and told them I wasn't able to fulfill my contract and would spend another year training. One of the best decisions I ever made in my career.

Magical - While on tour with PNB to the Vail International Dance Festival, the company was rehearsing after warming up on the outdoor amphitheater where most performances take place. As two dancers began to dance the beautiful pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain, thunder started to lightly roll in. By the time that the pas de deux was finished it was raining everywhere but under the canopy of the amphitheater. It was such a mystical and beautiful moment that everybody present was completely entranced.

Being Puck-ish with Jessika Anspach

Gratifying - When I went to the School of American Ballet back in the summer of 2002, in typical fashion, New York City Ballet performed their final program of their spring season, Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream. While most male dancers dream of performing the lead role of Oberon, I instantly fell in love with the mischief and animation of Puck. My final season at PNB, I got to perform Puck right before I left the company. My debut in this role also happened on the night of PNB's Backstage Bash, my favorite event of the year. This occasion was a dance party thrown backstage after a performance. This event was put on by the young patrons/audience growing group that I was a liason for throughout my time with the company. To perform this role that inspired me as a student on such a special night with so many friends and supporters in the audience made this performance not only gratifying, but magical.

Biggest Mistake - The most common mistake that most dancers make is pretty much the same across the board. Whether involving a great opportunity in the form of a role, proving yourself in a new company, or fear of judgement, working through an injury and telling those around you that you are alright when you are not is a horrible idea. It's interesting how acting stoic through an injury is often considered heroic and selfless. But in the end, aside from making the injury worse, it could end your career. Or, even worse, put you through a lifetime of pain. I did this after a back injury during my first season dancing with a new company. Unfortunately, there were many other factors in my decision to dance through the pain. At a certain point, I realized that I couldn't continue dancing in such pain and took time off. Unfortunately, the company was not understanding of the situation.

Me performing Tharp's "Waterbaby Bagatelles" (Photo: Angela Sterling)

Horrifying - The first time that PNB performed Twyla Tharp's Waterbaby Bagatelles (I can be seen turning at :22 seconds in this link) was an interesting experience. This was my first introduction to Twyla's work. Waterbaby was a challenging piece that played with the idea that we were fish dancing in an aquarium. One of the most challenging lifts was for one of the principal couples. It was an overhead star lift that had the woman parallel to the floor with arms and legs in an X and the man only holding her waist above his head. After class, the dancers were practicing this lift when the female's body tilted forward and the male lost his grip. She slid through his hands over the back of his head and fell straight down belly flopping onto the floor. As she lay on the floor unconscious for about 20 seconds, everybody looked on in horror. Slowly she looked up, seeing all of the people staring at her and asked, "What happened?" Surprisingly, she stood up completely uninjured.

Least Shy - My final year dancing for PNB, we performed Jiri Kylian's Sechs Tanze. For the performances, I was 1st cast "Megastar" and 3rd cast in one of the trios. While being cast as a "Megastar" sounds like a rock star part, it didn't involve any dancing. I had to wheel a massive, old-style dress out in front of my body, only to have another dancer underneath it wheel the dress right offstage. The gimmick? I was wearing only a thong-ed dance belt with a fig leaf over my goodies. When asked if I had a problem with this, I said, "No. My only problem is that Im not dancing first cast." (of course spoken with a wink). They told me, I should run offstage sideways, as to avoid exposing my bare ass to the nearly 3,000-seat theatre. When my moment came on opening night, my dress rolled away, I did my job, and promptly turned forward to run to the wings, giving everybody a little taste of what they truly came for.

Shocking - One reason that I left PNB was because I felt that I needed to be surrounded by the most passionate artists around. Working for the same company for a long period of time can, at times, leave workers feeling apathetic and uninspired. When I left, I was on a mission to surround myself with passionate, driven artists. In my mind, I saw myself hanging out with the likes of Andy Warhol. My first summer project out of company work, I danced with a small modern company to recreate a classic work by a modern master. When we arrived in NYC to have a rehearsal with the 95-year old choreographer, we stepped not only into her studio, but her home. I asked one of the dancers where the bathroom was and he told me to go through the lobby, through the bedroom, and the bathroom would be there. I was utterly dumbfounded when I saw this elderly woman sleeping in a bed that was behind the front desk in the lobby. At this point, I realized that I had found exactly what I had been looking for. Passionate artists. And I also realized that it is important to find a healthy middle-ground.

Prideful - During my 7 seasons with PNB, I danced practically every role in The Nutcracker. The only role that alluded me was the Cavalier that danced with Clara in the snow scene and 2nd act grand pas de deux. I always dreamed that I would eventually be asked to dance that role with a live orchestra playing as I lead the company. Last year, I was asked to dance that role with Rochester City Ballet. To be brought in to dance this role for a professional company was a great honor. And to do it with a live orchestra made it all the better.

Staying in the loop

Once you stake a claim on your own little part of the dance world by becoming a freelancer, you will come to realize that, at times, you will feel more connected to the dance world than ever. On the flip-side, you will find that there are times when you feel more disconnected from dance-happenings than ever. I pass from extreme to extreme. Throwing my Contact event back in October gave me an opportunity to feel closely connected to many artists. But spending three months in Alaska, for instance, watching friend's Facebook and Twitter feeds filled with performance photos and merde wishes can make me feel that all of the excitement of the dance world is flying by thousands of miles from the epicenter of my career. I don't want to fall behind the mark. I don't want to walk into a conversation without an understanding of what is current. I don't want to stop expanding my experience as a dancer. So, I find ways to stay up-to-date on happenings in the dance world.

The art of dance is always evolving. Even when companies are putting masterful classics on their stages, the dancers who dance these works have different training, personalities, and styles that keep even the oldest of works fresh and exciting. One important aspect of the work a freelance dancer must commit to is keeping up with current happenings in their art. The dance world is wildly interconnected and people are more compelled to develop a relationship with you if they can relate to you through common bonds and interests. Dance is already a common bond, so it just needs to be cultivated. The other reason to stay up-to-date is because it improves your ability to market yourself and to search for work.

Important pieces of information to seek in your research include companies and their current programming, who is dancing where, and how companies are being perceived by the public. I find that I spend much of the summer scanning company websites to see which works they have chosen to put on during their coming season. It is always interesting to see trends and to analyze why they are happening. For instance, my first season as a professional with Houston Ballet, everybody was performing Balanchine works. If you weren't in the know, you could easily deduce that there was a reason that so many companies were performing his choreography. The reasoning? If Balanchine were still alive, it would have been his 100th birthday. This was the perfect reason to celebrate the choreographer and put his work on nearly every major and minor ballet company's stage. This season I have been quite intrigued by the multitude of companies that have restaged or premiered a new version of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (one of my favorite pieces of music EVER!). I am not

Freshly painted for Tetley's "Rite of Spring" with PNB

aware of the reasoning behind this trend and maybe it will show its' face in the years to come. But it is likely that one company performed this work last season and the company had great ticket sales. Perhaps, a combination of one director's love for this work and the hype of one company's good fortune in the past year or so caught the attention of directors across the country. Or in the case of current up-and-coming New York City Ballet choreographer and newly-promoted soloist, Justin Peck, who recently created a piece for NYCB to rave reviews. He had one successful piece with a handful of promising write-ups and now everybody wants a piece of the pie. Miami City Ballet has already tagged their name onto his fresh success and mentioned that he was working with the company on social media. A few days after posting, they mentioned that he was working on a collaboration with only two dancers from the company. Nonetheless, they wanted to ride on this young choreographer's coat tails. But this is the beginning of a trend and I would put money down that he will be working with multiple companies over the next few years.

My reasoning for constantly checking rosters of dancers hired by companies is three-quarters professional and one-quarter personal. As I mentioned earlier, the dance world is quite small. It is easy to lose touch with friends and former peers. It is not uncommon for dancers to transition between a handful of companies as their careers evolve. I like to keep up with the whereabouts of my friends and to see how successful they have become. But on the professional side of things, it is interesting and helpful to see what kind of dancers directors are looking to hire. Rosters are usually updated somewhere between August and October prior to season opening performances. Scouting out information on dancers, their training, and their experience can help me gauge where I am in my career, where I want to go, where I should seek out work, where I shouldn't waste energy, and much more. You can also see whether a company is entering a transitional period, which may mean that they are more likely to hire freelancers as they regroup. Aside from company websites, I feel it is important to check out features in Pointe Magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance International, and Dance Spirit to see which dancers are being pushed into the spotlight. It is not uncommon for me to perform a Youtube search on these dancers to see how they dance. If I am isolated for a handful of months on a freelancing gig, this is the perfect way to inspire myself. I can look for qualities that I appreciate and take them on as corrections or goals in my everyday class and rehearsals. As dancers, I feel that we are most inspired by other dancers. I don't know one professional that began dancing because they saw a choreographer working. They were inspired by a dancer, who happened to be compelling dancing the work of a choreographer.

Performing my own work - Philly Fringe Fest(Photo:Bill Hebert)

One of the biggest challenges for me throughout my career has been to put less focus on a review/opinion and worry more about how I felt during a performance. This can be a challenge because most dancers want to see their name with stars around it. This is also harder because I have become good friends with a few reviewers for major dance publications with whom I love having lively discussions about performances we have seen. All of that aside, I find it extremely important to see how an educated audience is perceiving the growth or decline of companies. Of course, any review I read is viewed with a grain of salt and with the understanding that it is one individual's (or their small circle's) opinion. But reading multiple reviews of companies and their dancers can give me important information pertaining to what is intriguing, current, off-kilter, compelling, and beyond. Also, the more interest there is in a rising company, the more likely they are to have a multitude of reviews. I know that a performance is being given great weight if New York reviewers are sent away from their hometown to review a company's performance.

Now that I have explained all of the reasons one should stay up-to-date on all things dance, what are the best ways to stay current. First and foremost, staying in touch with your dancing friends. I find a ton of information through phone calls, Facebook/Twitter feeds, and messaging back and forth. If you don't have many friends that are involved in the professional dance world, you can follow dancers that you look up to on Twitter. Beyond that, I regularly check company websites. As I stated above, dancer rosters are typically updated between August and October. Most companies make announcements for their upcoming seasons between March and May. Many also have a press section on their website, where recent reviews and press releases are listed. I frequent the links section of Ballettalk. Each day, this site's administrators post links to reviews and stories in publications about companies large and small. Reviews and features are also posted in Pointe magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance International, Dance Spirit, and other respectable publications. If you know exactly what you are looking for, go to Google and type directly into the search box.

It is easy to fall out of touch with happenings in the dance world. If you don't put in the work to stay up-to-date, you may get behind and fall out of the loop. I always tell people that freelancing is a lot of work. Aside from dancing, teaching, marketing myself, and writing this blog, I put forth great effort in keeping up with current events. Although I am genuinely curious about what is happening out there, the time spent researching these items is work. I consider it a part of my job to put in a great deal of time doing this research. And to be completely honest, it really pays off.

Breaking out of my niche

When a dancer spends a longer period of time with a company, they tend to get typecast. One dancer may be considered a Balanchine specialist, while other dancers may only get to perform classical roles. Very few dancers are offered the opportunity to expand their reach into every possible role and style that is in a company's repertoire. For this reason, I have found that very capable dancers start to believe that they are only valuable in the roles that their artistic director chooses to place them in. One of the best things about freelancing is that it can offer dancers the opportunity to grow in areas of their dancing that they may not be offered to explore in their current or previous company.

After dancing in a large neo-classical company for 7 years, I found that I started to view my dancing based on the niche that my artistic director had placed me in. My training was based deeply in the Vaganova method. This is what I was taught at home and at the Kirov Academy of Ballet, even though I spent my last year branching out of that style at the School of American Ballet. I also spent my teenage years as a competition kid, training in every style from ballet to jazz to tap. I had a very varied upbringing. The first few years in this large company, I wasnt offered many opportunities to dance outside of the corps. But once I finally started to dance leading and featured roles, I was often only cast to dance in contemporary pieces (which I LOVE to perform). As time passed by and these were the only pieces that I was cast in, I would sit down with my boss and request to learn a role like "Bluebird" or "Peasant Pas de Deux." Usually these requests were overlooked or I was given an answer like "your lines are just not classical enough for this role." I would often think to myself, "I have more classical training than a lot of dancers in this Balanchine company." Alas, I never really got to perform any leading roles when the classical ballets came around. By the time that I had left the company, I had sworn off dancing classical ballets and was convinced that if I were given a variation to perform, I would slaughter every ounce of the piece.

I feel that one of the downsides of dancing in a full-time company is that people start to believe what the person in power believes about each dancer. I remember when I first joined PNB, there was one newer dancer that was often overlooked and considered one of the weaker dancers in the company. I would watch this dancer in class and thought to myself, they are actually very talented. I didn't understand why they were viewed by others in this light. When the artistic leadership transitioned and our new director came in, he offered this dancer one leading role. Within months, this dancer was dancing leading roles often. Other dancers started to voice that this dancer was extremely talented and, before they suddenly left the company to pursue another passion, they were probably on the verge of being promoted to soloist.

I look at this example and I try to apply it to myself often. Although every dancer wishes that they could be in control of their feelings and their confidence, often your confidence is only based on one person, with one opinion, in one company. This is what happened with me. I believed I was a contemporary dancer that also excelled in Balanchine ballets, but was completely incapable in the classics. After I left the place that created this image, I wasn't willing to push myself outside of this identity.

Once I began to freelance, I found that I was being offered work to perform classical pas de deux as often as I was being offered work in the contemporary field. I was very reluctant to accept an offer to perform a classical pas de deux, even with students. I just didn't have the confidence, nor the want to re-explore the land of classical ballet. Finally, I was offered an opportunity to perform that I just couldn't refuse. Nonetheless, I showed up to rehearse for this gig reluctant and quite nervous that the director was going to be upset that I was not of a professional caliber as a classical dancer. Luckily, she was very kind to me and gave me the liberty to choose my own variation and to tweek the pas de deux to my needs. Now that I felt more comfortable with my environment, it was time for me to follow through with my job and perform as best as I could. You can see how it went below:

Getting the chance to dance a classical role after spending so many years being denied the opportunity was actually quite gratifying in the end. Performing a role like this as a guest artist with a school was a great platform to reestablish the fact that I CAN dance classical ballets. There was a little less pressure on me than there would be performing on the stage of an opera house. But I feel that dancers often put a similar amount of pressure on themselves to perform well in any setting. After having this experience and a few more performing classical dances, I am fully confident now that I am capable of performing these works. It is hard to break the emotional pattern of being placed in a niche, when everybody around you starts to believe that you belong there. Through freelance dancing opportunities, I am able to challenge specific boundaries that others have placed upon me and that I have placed upon myself.