Doing "Oh Johnny" in Company B. Photo © Leigh-Ann Esty
Eating green tea ice cream in Kyoto
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25th Anniversary Season
The exciting company premiere of Twyla Tharp’s Baker’s Dozen will be performed as part of Program II. We will follow principal dancer Jeanette Delgado on MCB Blog as she prepares for opening night in January.
Post by Principal Dancer Jeanette Delgado
Learning a ballet that is new to our repertory is always a very exciting process! It is a fresh opportunity to expand artistically without any preconceived ideas of how it is “supposed” to look. Elaine Kudo, Twyla Tharp repetiteur, was here in June working with us on Baker’s Dozen which will premiere during Program II. My sister Patricia and I both worked with Elaine when we spent summers at the ABT school so it’s always really nice to reconnect with her! She was a ballerina with ABT as well as a dancer for Twyla’s company, so she knows how to explain Twyla’s steps to ballet dancers. We have to almost undo some of our ballet technique in order to grasp the movement because it is very different from what we’re used to! It takes us a while and we came out of those rehearsals bruised and sore in strange places!
By now we have become more familiar to this style from all the Tharp ballets we’ve conquered; however, we’re used to dancing her more intense and powerful choreography and the feeling in Baker’s Dozen is very different. It’s a lot lighter and more playful but still has very grounded and dynamic movements. It’s definitely a challenge trying to be explosive and energetic but in a subtle and kind of nonchalant way! When it’s done right it is an awesome ballet!! Funny and playful and of course, like all the Tharp ballets, full of ENERGY!
Jeanette Delgado in Baker’s Dozen. Photo © 2009 Lois Greenfield.
Me and my dog Puck kayaking this past July in New York.
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary Season, we’d like to introduce you, our patrons and friends, to all the dancers in the company through the Meet the Dancers series. Every week you will meet a different member of the MCB troupe! Get ready to get on a personal level with the dancers — find out what their proudest moments are and what inspires them (among other fun facts).
We’re kicking off the series with Sara Esty! Sara is no stranger to MCB Blog. Most recently she has been blogging about the road to New York City Center. (Click here and here to read her posts.) We are very excited to follow along with Sara as she prepares and performs in City Center’s Fall for Dance festival at the end of this month! Stay tuned for more Sara updates.
For now…take it away Sara!
Dances at a Gathering. Photo by Leigh-Ann Esty
I'm the one on the right! On the left is my twin sister Leigh.
During the past month, Jane Bourne has been in the studios staging John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet. Jane teaches in a different way than our dancers are accustomed to…she teaches the ballet through choreology. Choreology (developed by Joan and Rudolf Benesh and also known as Benesh Movement Notation) is a system of dance notations. Choreologists like Jane use notations that have a five line stave that reads from left to right with bar lines to mark the passage of time (like in music). The five lines coincide with the head, shoulders, waist, knees and floor (from top to bottom) of the dancer. Other signs are used to notate the dimension and quality of the movement.
Jane studied dance notation at the Benesh Institute of Choreology. She has worked with ballet companies all over the world including The National Ballet of Canada, National Ballet of China, American Ballet Theater, Boston Ballet, and Houston Ballet, among many others.
These are some examples of dance notations. It really does look like sheet music!
En Garde: a French warning, “On [your] guard.” A term in fencing adopted from the French warning (according to Wikipedia.org). It’s also the first thing fight coach Christian Sordelet taught our male dancers when he arrived. Christian, a former Junior Olympic fencer, recently visited us in sunny Miami Beach to coach the fight scenes in Romeo and Juliet! It’s amazing what the dancers learned from him in just one week.
Christian talked to us about working with the dancers and why he grew up in a house full of swords and fake blood! Plus, Kris got a stage fencing lesson from him!
This is such an exciting moment to become a part of MCB. Many new dancers have joined the Company just in time to celebrate our 25th anniversary! Make sure you look for these new faces this season:
Reyneris Reyes, Principal Dancer
Emily Bromberg, Corps de Ballet
Adriana Piercy, Corps de Ballet
Alex Davison, Company Apprentice
Suzette Logue, Company Apprentice
Chase Swatosh, Company Apprentice
Andrei Chagas, School Apprentice
Joshua Brown, School Apprentice
Chloe Freytag, School Apprentice
Christina Spigner, School Apprentice
Kara White, School Apprentice
There are also some familiar faces who have returned to MCB:
Isanusi Garcia-Rodriguez, Principal Dancer
Yann Trividic, Principal Dancer
Suzanne Limbrunner, Corps de Ballet
Photo: Several new dancers gather for a photo op -- Back row: Chase Swatosh, Joshua Brown, Alex Davison, Renan Cerdeiro (not new, but he jumped in the photo!), Emily Bromberg, Chloe Freytag, Suzette Logue, Adriana Piercy; Front row: Andrei Chagas, Kara White, Christina Spigner
Twyla Tharp Repetiteur Elaine Kudo returned to MCB in June to stage the highly-anticipated company premiere Baker’s Dozen. Having worked with us last season on “The Golden Section” as well several other pieces in the past, Elaine is part of the MCB family and we are always happy to have her here. Baker’s Dozen differs from the high energy works you come to expect from Tharp. We chatted with Elaine about what we will see in this ballet.
Baker’s Dozen premieres in Program II. Tickets are on sale now.