It was the first onstage rehearsal for San Francisco Ballet’s new production of Don Quixote, and I was there as a BRAVO volunteer, assisting with the many children in the cast.

The wings were crowded with what appeared to be every dancer in the Company, the upper levels of the School, and student dancers as young as age 10.  I stood and absorbed the scene.

Dancers were all over the floor – stretching, chatting and joking.  Our contingent of Spanish-speaking men were in high spirits, carrying on a lively conversation in their language; beside them, another Company member sat on a stool, focused on forming characters in his Japanese language workbook.  The girls of the corps, wearing their character shoes, were practicing with their fans as they waited; the young men did the same with their tambourines.

I noticed the many props categorized and waiting for use: boxes of knives, baskets of fake foods, a table of wine bottles and pewter drinking mugs. Sancho Panza’s cow horn, a couple of guitars, and even a rolling pin were all laid out.

Onstage, the pianist started playing. It’s the opening scene and Sancho Panza is prepping Don Quixote for his adventures.  Behind the curtain backing the Prologue scene, the stage was set for Act I, with corps members and students relaxing and stretching, but ready to spring into their roles the moment before the curtain goes up.

Ballet masters frequently clapped hands to stop the music and action, working with Helgi Tomasson to get every detail and nuance just right.

Then I heard “clomp, clomp” on the wooden floor, and took a free moment to go visit two of the stars of Don Quixote.  If you’ve seen the ballet before, you’ll know who I’m referring to!  If not, I’ll just tell you that the shaggy one is named “Johnny Appleseed” and the white Arabian is named “Estimation.”

Enjoy the show!

Maria Kochetkova (copyright Erik Tomasson)

On Monday, April 30 I will be giving a talk at the Museum of Performance and Design on the great nineteenth century ballet comedic masterpiece, Don Quixote, this season’s firecracker closer at San Francisco Ballet. This ballet has it all – a romantic storyline, a deliciously exotic Spanish setting, and some of the most explosive virtuosic dancing in the classical canon.

In preparation for the talk I’ve been digging through the memoirs and diaries of Marius Petipa, the choreographer whose 1869 production, with additional alterations made in 1900 by Alexander Gorsky, is most closely related to contemporary versions. Petipa spent several years in Spain as first dancer at the King’s theater in Madrid, and his tales of those days might be likened to the “chivalric romances” that are Don Quixote’s downfall in the Cervantes novel.

In his memoirs, Petipa falls in with a group of street dancers at a bullfight and “audaciously invite[s] an attractive Spanish woman to dance” while students throw flowers, money, and capes at their feet; he also narrowly escapes a duel with a determined rival for a lady’s affections – allegedly shattering the jaw of “Marquis X” in the process. Having spent most of his career quite respectably employed as chief ballet master in the Imperial theaters in Russia, one certainly gets the sense that Petipa commemorated the spirit of his adventures in Spain in Don Quixote.

Come to the lecture for more Don Q lore, including Petipa’s story of how he found the horse to play Rocinante, the Don’s trusty (and totally worn-out) steed, but be sure to see SFB perform the ballet that defines youthful high jinks!

The lecture is at 7 pm on April 30, 2012 at the Museum of Performance and Design on the 4th Floor of the Veteran’s Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue (next to the War Memorial Opera House). Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members, and all proceeds go to benefit the Museum, which serves as the official archive for the San Francisco Ballet. Please see http://www.mpdsf.org/PAGES/EVENT/calendar.html for more information or call the Museum at 415-255-4800.

(Image via Gutenberg.org)

]]> http://www.sfballetblog.org/2012/04/youthful-high-jinks-and-don-q-lore/feed/ 0 http://www.sfballetblog.org/2012/04/youthful-high-jinks-and-don-q-lore/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sfballetblog/content/feed/~3/RON2LUQtNXA/ http://www.sfballetblog.org/2012/04/backstage-with-sfbs-staff-photographer/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:13:51 +0000 Erik Tomasson http://www.sfballetblog.org/?p=4177

SF Ballet dancers in Robbins' Glass Pieces. © Erik Tomasson

© Erik Tomasson

e

Preparing for Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet (© Erik Tomasson)

SF Ballet in Robbins' Glass Pieces © Erik Tomasson

Clara Blanco backstage (© Erik Tomasson)

© Erik Tomasson

As the staff photographer for San Francisco Ballet, my job is to photograph the Company for advertising, press releases, brochures, and programs. Most of my time is spent in the rehearsal studios photographing the dancers and choreographers while ballet’s are being created. But during the Company’s season, I’m fortunate enough to be able to photograph the dancers on stage and backstage in the War Memorial Opera House. I find shooting backstage to be a very interesting part of my work and yet, at the same time, the most challenging. This is basically due to shooting in near darkness or directly into bright stage lights and trying to stay out of the way of dancers, crew, and moving sets.

Recently, I started focusing less on what was on stage and more on what was happening backstage. My camera of choice for photographing backstage is the Leica M9. It’s very small, lightweight, quiet, and doesn’t attract a lot of attention. I mainly use the Leica 50mm Summilux-M F/1.4 ASPH lens wide open due to the fact that it’s very dark backstage. This lens is one of my favorites in terms of sharpness, contrast, and its beautiful out-of-focus quality.

When I’m shooting the dancers on stage or during rehearsals, timing is the most important factor in getting the shot. Of course, timing is important in most types of photography. But in dance photography, the difference between a good and bad shot can literally be a fraction of a second. When photographing dance, you really have to be “on your toes” (sorry, I couldn’t resist.) There are other photographic variables that I’m thinking about but timing is key. When I’m shooting backstage, it’s more about looking for little ‘moments in time.’ I have a bit more time to stop and think about the shot, and how I want it to look in terms of focus and composition. It’s definitely not a lot of time but it feels like that compared to the fast shooting style of photographing on stage.

I also approach shooting backstage a little differently than on stage. On stage, I’m looking for a more polished, slick look, almost as if it looked like it was shot in a controlled studio setting. Backstage, I think of things in a more gritty, documentary- style. I’m still aware of things like lighting, separation of subject to the background, and composition but my main goal is to grab ‘the moment.’

Sasha DeSola © Erik Tomasson

Charlene Cohen © Erik Tomasson

© Erik Tomasson

Backstage during Nureyev's Raymonda Act III © Erik Tomasson

Every little step of the way has been a learning experience – from marketing, to booking the theater, dealing with the artists, soliciting silent auction donors, box office decisions, and so much more!  Now I understand why San Francisco Ballet has the staff that it does –  it can easily take an army to get a quality product up there on the stage.  A big thanks to the SFB staff who have helped us along the way, answering our questions, no matter how naive they might sound!  By kind of walking in their shoes, I truly have learned to appreciate everything the SFB staff does for the organization.  All of their work happens behind the scenes, and we the dancers just get to come out and take the glory.

For example, to promote our Get in Front Performance, we are printing posters and postcards to distribute throughout the city with a beautiful image of Frances Chung photographed by SFB’s very own Quinn Wharton.  We must have had 20 different versions of the poster and postcard, each version edited by our volunteer graphic designer and forwarded to us for review.

“Move this here, shift this there, take that name out, add this one in, don’t forget the Facebook and Twitter logos, etc.!”

Can you imagine this amount of work for all the various SFB materials?  Think about those huge banners hanging in front of the Opera House, you really don’t want to mess up when you’re printing something that size!  Of course, we pale in comparison to the streamlined professionals at SFB, but we are proud of what we are doing, and we are happy to do it.  I think the postcard turned out great. (see below)

Next up…everything else!

Tickets went on sale this week for the Get in Front Performance, I hope you can join us in our efforts to Get in Front of cancer by attending this event.  To purchase tickets, please visit www.getinfront.org.

Here's the front of some of our marketing collateral...

...and the back of our marketing collateral!

Mr. Lythgoe was scheduled to meet scholarship recipient (and Trainee) Max Cauthorn, followed by Level 5 student Natasha Sheehan who won the Angelina Ballerina scholarship.  The hallways were abuzz with anticipation—the Level 8 men were especially coiffed for the occasion, as I had told them Lythgoe would observe their class.

The level 6 women were already arriving— Mr. Lythgoe would observe their class later in the morning.  They were busy applying an extra layer of makeup for the occasion, and one could hardly breathe at the far end of the 2^nd floor hallway due to the heavy mist of hairspray!

School Associate Director Lola de Avila, Trainee Principal Patrick Armand, and SF Ballet Executive Director Glenn McCoy were there to greet Mr. Lythgoe along with School staff and Dizzy Feet board member Danae Rees (who also work in the Center for Dance Education). 

As a So You Think You Can Dance!  fan, I was super excited to see Mr. Lythgoe in person.  He greeted everyone very warmly even though he must have been exhausted from being at LAX since the crack of dawn.  We chatted in the hallway for a bit, and then Lola escorted him to see Natasha as a guest student in the Level 6 class.  Of course, he was very impressed, and right away he commented on the fine training and work the ladies were doing.

Afterwards, we headed upstairs so that Mr. Lythgoe could see Max in action.  Because he didn’t have the opportunity to see him in class, we arranged for Max to perform a solo from Helgi Tomasson’s Con Brio—on the spot!  Of course, Max had prepared and performed the solo on previous Trainee performances, but he had not performed or rehearsed it recently.  The entourage, which included Max’s parents, watched in eager anticipation as Max performed beautifully.   Congratulations were showered on Max, and right then and there, Mr. Lythgoe invited Max to perform at Dorothy Chandler Theater in late July for the Dizzy Feet Foundation Gala!  How exciting!

We then convened in the School library where Max’s and Natasha’s families were anxiously awaiting the photo op and the opportunity to say “thank you” to Mr. Lythgoe for the generous scholarship support his foundation has provided for the two students. Several upper level School students were peeking in and a few had the opportunity to have their photo taken with Mr. Lythgoe.  (I did, too!)

Later that evening Mr. Lythgoe attended the SF Ballet performance of Program 6, along with Lola and Danae.  He got to see the School come full circle as over half of the Company have trained in the School.

So you think you can dance??  Yes we can!

Quinn Wharton and Sarah Van Patten in Tomasson's Romeo & Juliet (copyright Erik Tomasson)

As we hit mid stride in the season, a certain rhythm develops in our days. We spend most of them inside the theatre on a double cycle of sorts, so it goes in rotations. This idea of patterns and schedules reminded me of how similar what we do is to meditation, or an aesthetic Eastern lifestyle.

We begin our days with a meal, begin our warm up, take class, do our hair and makeup, put on our costumes, perform, and then go home for a nap to repeat it all again in the evening. All of these things become very regimented, to build you up to the right mental state to perform. The greatest performances are the ones where you lose yourself in the moments, as in meditation. You are completely at home in the instant, with only the feeling of your body in space. Not that it’s that way all the time, but it is the ideal.

You finish a show with little recollection of what just happened, just that it flowed from beginning to end without a hitch – like a physical stream of consciousness. The warm up and preparation is a honing of your patterns and mental state to get there. You learn what foods make you feel the best for movement 4 hours later. You know from what your body feels like in the morning how much of class you need to take, and what you should focus on to maximize your energy.

Most importantly, your personal warm up before the piece becomes incredibly tailored. Most people do this listening to music, something to clear your head or amp you up. You sit in the dark of backstage wearing your costume and makeup slowly going through the steps of barre that are ingrained in your body.

These repetitive steps are patterns to help clear your mind, breathing to help your focus, movement to get your joints released. You slowly go over the piece you are going to be dancing in your head, visualizing what you want to happen. Until finally, you have reached the end of the progression, you are sweating slightly, you have rehearsed the entire ballet in your head, the stage manager yells “places!”, and you walk out on stage.

Corps member Shannon Roberts in Prima

Last year I had the opportunity to star in a short film called Prima where I portrayed a young ballerina who copes with the abrupt end to her promising dance career. Alone in a studio, she recalls a life that has already passed. It was my first experience working on camera and also choreographing. I really connected with this role because it reminded me to enjoy every time I dance. Dancers constantly strive for perfection and sometimes it’s hard to remember to enjoy dancing when we get caught up in the stress of our job. My dancing career will someday be a memory and I want it to be full of wonderful memories!

When the film was complete, it was submitted to 2012 film festivals all over the country, competing with thousands of other short films in hopes that it would be accepted somewhere.

Last month the film’s director Miguel Calayan called me with exiting news. Prima had been asked to premiere at TriBeCa Film Festival in NYC this April! I had heard of this film festival before, but, since I am so removed from the film industry I had no idea of how truly exiting this news was.  We were one of 2,800 short films submitted and one of 60 accepted. Out of those 60 short films we will be one of 26 world premieres. I am so proud to be able to share this very special film with the world. I hope it will inspire others like it inspired me. Since it is a world premiere, TriBeCa has asked that we do not share the full film with anyone until it has been shown at their festival. But check out our trailer and more information about Prima here: www.primashortfilm.com.

Thursday, Apr 19, 6:00PM

PREMIERE – AMC Village 7 – theatre 01

66 Third Avenue @ 11th Street

New York, NY 10003

Thank you so much for all your support. I hope you will enjoy Prima!

Prima poster

A scene from Prima

In many ways the subject of Raymonda still resonates in the news today. Set against the background of the crusades, it concerns, (in fairytale form) the clash between Christian and Muslim cultures as represented by the two rivals, who engage in mortal combat for her hand.  Unsurprisingly, Jean de Brienne wins. The dances of Act III, which will you see danced by SF Ballet, celebrate  his victory and his marriage with Raymonda.

Although not as well known in the United States as Tchaikovsky ballets like Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, Raymonda has always held an important place in the Russian repertory. Ballet students grow up watching their elders perform it and (like Balanchine) are given small roles. The boys dream of someday embodying the noble crusader or the swashbuckling Saracen and the beautiful and proud Raymonda is a role coveted by would-be ballerinas. Rudolph Nureyev’s production (“after Petipa”) of which you will see Act III, helped to make the ballet better known to American and Australian audiences.

According to Balanchine, Glazunov was one of the most important ballet composers to emerge after Tchaikovsky; he learned well from the older composer how to write music for the special needs of an evening length dance drama. As you will hear, he can evoke moods and enhance dramatic action and also provide lyrical and foot-tapping music for dances that showcase the talents of the many dancers that made up the Mariinsky company in St. Petersburg and the San Francisco Ballet now.  Balanchine adored the music from Raymonda – and returned to it again and again in a series of ballets that he created for his own company, from Raymonda Variations, to the aptly named Cortège Hongrois.

As this last title suggests, Raymonda is also about the fascinating sounds and infectious rhythms of the Hungarian Gypsy music that inspired not only Glazunov, but composers all across Europe  in the nineteenth and early twentieth century including Tchaikovsky’s stamping “Czardas” in Swan Lake, Brahms’s “Hungarian Dances,” Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies” and Ravel’s fantasy for violin and orchestra, “Tzigane.”

References to Hungarian rhythms and dances abound in Raymonda’s most famous dance,  in  the finale of  Act III.  It begins as Raymonda, on point, weaves back and forth on the stage to a rhapsodic (seemingly improvised) riff  in which piano and plucked strings mimic the distinctive sounds of the cymbalom — a large Hungarian dulcimer. Raymonda’s proud almost preening posture (one arm angled behind the head, the other placed akimbo on her waist) as she punctuates her movement with sharp claps of her hands also reveals the deep Hungarian roots of the dance.  In her next appearance the music thrillingly builds in power and volume as the ballerina alternately raises each pointed foot up to the opposite knee at ever increasing speed.  And watch, too, for the exhilarating moments when the corps de ballet fill the stage swinging and skimming along in a balleticized czardas with angled arms framing their heads and torsos.  It is such infectious dance music that you may be tempted to try it at home with the music turned up and the curtains down.  Enjoy!

SF Ballet in Nureyev's Raymonda Act III (© Erik Tomasson).