Where do I start?
So the MET season is over, and the stats are 24 shows over the period of 8 weeks in 11 different roles for me personally.
It was fun, tiring and enriching, but most importantly I felt the sensation of growth in various aspects, which is quintessential for being happy…or so I hear.
Currently we’re in LA performing Alexei Ratmansky’s ‘The Bright Stream’ at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I am performing this Saturday evening and then the following show on Sunday afternoon. After that we fly to Japan for a marathon of shows. My show of Basilio in Don Quixote on July 23rd will be recorded and then broadcasted on July 30th on national TV Channel NHK, so in case you’re in Japan at that time, tune in.
Anyway, enjoy the pictures! Cheers.
Oh and PS. I was filming an abbreviated version of ‘Les Bourgeois’ for the TV Show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ yesterday. It was a prerecording and the airing should take place either tonight or at some point in the near future. I’ll keep you up-to-date on my Twitter.
So, I’m sitting here on my terrace after midnight listening to Radiohead mixed with the usual hum of ACs of the surrounding apartment buildings. It’s a clear and hot night and for a change you can actually make out a couple of stars in the usually bland, light polluted, sky…but oh well that kind of sounds negative, which it isn’t. It’s NICE.
Anyway. Today we’re starting our third week of ‘the MET’ and so far it treated me quite nicely, to say the least. I did 9 shows in the first two weeks, including Basil in DonQ, which was intense, satifying but as always not perfect and two shows of Tudor’s Shadowplay. Let me elaborate on this one.
I’ll let Anthony Tudor and Anthony Dowell speak first. There is a wonderful clip on Youtube, (I suspect) a BBC documentary having been translated to German. You can barely make out what both of them are saying in English, but I’ll do a rough translation for you paraphrasing what is said in German:
January 1967, a new ballet. Shadowplay, music by Koechlin, choreography Anthony Tudor…(now the hero, a quest for Nirvana, the boy with the matted hair…) A. Dowell: When you start very young, you’re very flexible and think you can do anything. Suddenly after a couple of years comes a challenge (or a step) which you cannot master. You are absolutely stuck and are unable to do it. With that experience Shadowplay was a tremendous help for me since instead of concentrating on mastering the sequence of steps I could focus on the plot and what I was trying to project. A. Tudor: I said where do you think we should start? Would you prefer too enter from stage left or stage right? He said he didn’t care. I continued to ask him mentioning that he probably had some idea, but he didn’t care. I wanted to know if he wanted to to start downstage or upstage and he said he again didn’t care. Well I said, maybe you want to start in center or on the side…By that moment he thought I was a nut and became nervous… A Dowell: Then he said look up the tree, what kind of tree is it? I was literally shocked since I have never, in my imagination, visualized a tree, I just looked up… A Tudor: I said: ‘Tell me by your body! I want to know, if it is a little tree or a big tree or a [] shaped tree’ and we decided to continue the next day. On the next day on my way to work, at Earl Court, I saw a wondeerful mango tree in a showcase, the first I have ever seen in London. I bought it and brought it with me to the studio, but hid the tree. I encouraged Anthony to start with the tree right away that day. He told me there is none. At that moment I got out the mango tree and told him that the tree is here. He said: ‘What is it’? He most likely never saw a mango in his life before. His eyes opened with wonderment, he looked up the tree and it was perfect. A Dowell: Shadwoplay was the most important ballet for me and my development.
These are strong words coming from the creators of the piece and I can definitely relate to the fact that it is an experience and an experience which brought me further, not knowing where exactly further. After performing it for two times I was as much emotionally exhausted as I was enriched by the experience.
By the way, here is the mango tree Mr. Tudor was talking about:
Oh, and here are some pictures from my mid-show tweets and other behind-the-scene footage As always enjoy and cheers!
So here I am, sitting on my spot at the Metropolitan Opera after the tech rehearsal (a technical run-through in make-up and costumes) of tonight’s opening night gala and am writing this blog post. It’s my 3rd season with ABT, but the excitement doesn’t cease to put its mark on all of us every first day of every season. In order to be prepared (and be able to sleep in a little longer, haha) I went in yesterday on Sunday to prepare myself for the upcoming two months and lay out my things on my spot and place in the dressing room. It has become some sort of routine and tradition to do so, especially since the next two months we’ll spent a big part of our lifes in this building. Life is never boring in these two months and the ‘flow’ of this time is extremely enjoyable. ‘Flow’, ‘groove’ and ‘vibe’ are words whose definition is extremely vague. This time though it might give you a little bit of the ‘feeling’ what time here is like.
Anyway. Here the pictures from yesterday’s set-up.
Besides, tomorrow I’ll be ‘teching’ and on Wednesday at 2pm performing Basilio in Don Quixote with ABT for the first time. Here’s a sketch from the Designer (Santo) for the new costume for it …
Concerning the casting I’ve posted it on Facebook and Twitter, but once again, just in case:
First three weeks of casting for the MET: May 16: Gala, Bright Stream [finale]; May 18 2pm: Don Quixote, Basilio [NY debut]; May 19: Don Quixote, Lead Gypsy; May 21 8pm: Don Quixote, Lead Gypsy; May 24: Troika; May 25@2pm: Shadowplay [debut]; May 25@7.30pm: Troika; May 26: Shadowplay; May 28: Giselle, Peasant Pdd; June 1@2pm: Giselle, Peasant Pdd;
So, cheers as always and see you soon.
ps. another MET tradition. The irrestistible MET-chocolate-chip cookies from the MET cafeteria…
Damn. It has been almost 3 (!) months since my last post. Seems like a long time, and indeed a lot of things happened… We (ABT) premiered Alexei Ratmansky’s new Nutcracker at BAM in Brooklyn, rehearsed for two weeks, then premiered Ratmansky’s Bright Stream in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in the end of January, rehearsed for a week back in NY and then performed for a week at Sadler’s Wells in London (beginning of February). There I debuted in Balanchine’s Theme & Variations and had a company-debut in Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.
After London I took 10 days off visiting friends and family in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Essen, Munich and Vienna and after that stopped by in Kiev to get new costumes tailored. Now we are rehearsing Shadowplay, Coppelia, Don Q and creating a new ballet by Benjamin Millepied for our tour to the Bolshoi theater in Moscow in the end of March.
So here I am sitting on a Sunday night after having watched the Oscars with friends, writing this blog entry and editing the pictures from Taipei this summer. I don’t have much too say except that I’m doing well and trying to live my life as well as it gets. So many things are happening right now that I try to live day by day, moment by moment, task by task…so far, so good…
…damn, this all sounds so self-conscious…almost as much as the Oscars…but oh well.
Oh well. Hello everyone. It has again been almost a month since my last post.
I’m doing well, rehearsing full steam ahead, haha. Our own ABT’s all brand-new Nutcracker is about to premier in a couple of weeks. We are starting to tech it in NJPAC on two days this and the following week. I myself am dancing the Chinese dance (or tea or whatever you might call it, lol) together with Sarah Lane on Opening night (23rd) and a couple of other times and besides that have three shows of the Prince (traditionally called the Cavalier) on the 24th, 26th and 29th partnering Maria Riccetto. So if you are in NY please come and see me at the BAM!
Not only are we rehearsing Nutcracker though. At the same time as we are trying to redefine the traditional (or non-traditional) boundaries of this old-world (or new-world) classic we’re rehearsing Mr. Ratmasky’s ‘The Bright Stream’. A comical ballet touching the subject of the life at the Kolhozy in rural Soviet russia (wikipedia article on Kolhoz for whoever who has no idea what that means). Anyway, in that production I’m learning the ‘Accordionist’ and the ‘Ballet Dancer’ (for insiders: literally ouch concerning the latter one.)
So in two weeks we start performing Nutcracker. Then in two weeks of rehearsals follow, then we perform the Bright Stream at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC.
After DC we have one week of rehearsals and then go to London for a week of performing repertory works, where I’ll be debuting in the Lover in Antony Tudor’s ‘Jardin aux Lilas’ (or simply Lilac Garden) and…drum roll… the lead in Balanchine’s Theme & Variations.
So as you see there is a lot of work and rehearsals ahead of me. Nevertheless I’m excited and eager to get and keep going .
Oh and by the way I updated all of the aforementioned performances in my schedule, so feel to take a look!
Here are some (this time IMO rather uninspiring photographs) from my performance in Indianapolis this September. Enjoy.
As always enjoy and cheers!
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