Summer Plans: Company Women

The Company's on summer break from their rehearsals and performances here at Richmond Ballet, but it doesn't mean they've slowed down! Here's what the Company Women and Apprentices are up to this summer:

Cody Beaton hopped on the plane with some of her fellow Richmond Ballet dancers to Humboldt County, California, to perform as a guest artist in New World Ballet’s Cinderella. She also traveled to New York to throw a baby shower for her sister before coming back to RVA where she will take ballet classes with the School of Richmond Ballet until company rehearsals start up again on August 8^th!

Elena Bello spent the first part of her summer relaxing, spending time with her family in New Jersey, and attending Broadway plays in New York City. Now, she’s back in Richmond dancing in the School of Richmond Ballet’s 5-week Summer Intensive Program, along with her fellow SRB students, trainees, and apprentices.

Lauren Elizabeth’s summer started out with a trip home to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where many of her family and friends live. Soon after she returned to Richmond and moved into a new apartment! Now, Lauren is teaching ballet classes and taking class herself at Richmond Ballet while excitedly awaiting the start of her first season in the company!

Lauren Fagone is filling her days away from the rehearsal studio working on her condo, planting in her garden, hanging out around Richmond, drinking wine, and sewing new leotards to add to her high-quality collection of “Fagone-wear” (from which all the company ladies love to borrow). She is also taking trips to visit her niece, and she traveled to Humboldt County with several other Richmond Ballet dancers to take part in New World Ballet’s Cinderella.

Shira Lanyi had some minor toe surgery immediately following the end of the season, so the first item on her summer agenda was recovery and physical therapy so that she was ready to strap the pointe shoes back on as quickly as possible! Shira also traveled to California to serve as rehearsal assistant to Victor Temple, artistic director of Arcata’s New World Ballet, for the production of Cinderella. Shira got to visit family while she was in California as well. Following her time on the West Coast, Shira came back to Richmond where she was honored with the Alumni of the Year award from the Jewish Federation at the Chesed Award Dinner, before she headed to Israel to study Hebrew and take ballet class with Israel Ballet. Now, Shira is home in Richmond, where she is choreographing on students in the School of Richmond Ballet’s Summer Intensive workshop.

Maggie Small has a summer chock full of trips! First, she performed in San Angelo, Texas, with Thomas Garrett in Swan Lake. Continuing west, she joined the group performing Cinderella in the city of Arcata, and she also spent some time visiting her friend Lauren Breen (former Richmond Ballet company dancer) in Sacramento. Maggie is also spending more time in California, dancing for the second time as a part of the National Choreographer’s Initiative. On top of all that, Maggie is teaching ballet to students in Austin, Baltimore, and Harrisonburg. Whew!

Julie Smith has stayed mostly in the RVA area to intern in the development department at Richmond Ballet, while also taking a few courses with Regent University’s distance learning program and taking ballet classes in the School of Richmond Ballet. Julie has taken a few trips to Norris Lake in Tennessee to visit family and got to have some quality boating and swimming time!

Valerie Tellman started off her summer dancing the Blue Bird pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty in Williamsburg with fellow dancer David Neal before she joined the group in Humboldt County, California, for Cinderella. While out west, she spent some time visiting former Richmond Ballet dancers Lauren Breen and Christopher Nachtrab, who are both continuing their dancing careers in Sacramento. Valerie also traveled to Texas for her brother’s “honky-tonk wedding,” and made a trip to visit her sister and friends for a girls’ weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. The rest of her time is spent here in Richmond babysitting, teaching ballet classes, and taking ballet classes.

Cecile Tuzii is using all of her free time this summer working on designing and constructing tutus, as well as developing a new website for her budding tutu business. At the end of May, she and Igor went on vacation to Aruba for a week, and then they traveled to France (bon voyage!) for a few weeks in June to visit her family. Since their return, Cecile has been working some odd jobs, taking ballet class in addition to teaching in the School of Richmond Ballet Summer Intensive Program, and finally teaching for the last two last weeks of the summer in Harrisonburg and Norfolk before company rehearsals commence again in August!

OC, part deux!

The three weeks I spent at NCI went by so quickly; before I knew it, we were starting rehearsals in the theater. After many hours of working and rehearsing, one of the pieces I performed was done and rehearsed well and the other was finished just in time and partly well rehearsed. Part of the beauty of the NCI project is that the choreographers don't have to finish their work, and can even present completely unrelated segments of things they have worked on. Because we had finished the first piece so early, the choreographer had the time to work on some concepts that he hadn't tried on dancers before. Some worked and some didn't, but it was a great experience for both the dancers and choreographers to have the opportunity to experiment freely.

The show was on a Saturday evening at the Irvine Barclay Theater. In reality, the performance was more of a showing of the process of creating a work than a polished, formal show; each choreographer spoke before his or her piece was presented and could even speak between portions if they so wished. There was also an open discussion at the end of the performance moderated by Molly Lynch, the director of the project. I was so very excited to perform the new works, and it was great to reunite with Ted Keener, a former apprentice with Richmond Ballet, and to have Thomas Ragland here to share the experience with me.

Until next time,
Maggie















Maggie and Nevada Ballet Theater dancer Emily Tedesco in class at NCI

Greetings from the OC, California!

Greetings from the OC! We are at the half way point of National Choreographers Initiative (NCI) and I am happy to say that this summer in SoCal is looking to be just as amazing as my last.NCI is a summer program for choreographers to set new work as well as experiment, develop and practice the art of choreography. It is a workshop setting, which gives the choreographers the the opportunity to experiment and make changes as much as they would like...an opportunity they may not necessarily have when creating work for companies during a company season due to time restraints.

I am working with choreographers Viktor Kabaniaev and Peter Quanz who both are producing very interesting material. It is always a little nerve-racking to work with a new choreographer in the beginning, but even though both Viktor and Peter offer movement that is different from most of what I have experience in, the base is in ballet so it is easy to pick up and not too intimidating.

The NCI project provides a great outlet for dancers and choreographers to grow and develop by pursuing different directions than they might not normally in their regular seasons. I am looking forward to the performance, and thoroughly enjoying our days off at the beach. I've posted a video here, and if you are interested in seeing some more of what we have already worked on, go to the NCI Dance channel on youtube.com.

-Maggie

Hello from Maryland!

Hello from Owings Mill, Maryland! Tommy and I are here in the midst of teaching ballet for Young People's Summer Stock,which is an over night camp for kids, and since we are staying in the dorms as well, we are getting quite the camp experience that neither of us have ever had before!

Since Tommy and I both didn't go to a traditional away camp, or ballet intensives away from home (a rare finding among ballet professionals), we are getting a common childhood experience a little later in life. Differences from attending the local ballet intensive and staying at home include, enjoying very warm bunking accommodations (though thankfully not quite as rustic as I imagine other non-arts oriented camps might be) and eating on a schedule. We get to eat at the "caf" before, between and after classes.

We do have the luxury of being free once our classes are over to watch movies on Netflix Instant Queue and even to take the car and venture into whatever Maryland has to offer. The kids can't do that.

Our authority oriented roles include teaching a LOT and we moonlight as judges at the synchronized dancing contest at the camper luau on Sunday nights! This past Saturday was a very close contest, but we were able to discern the best group by their ability to incorporate the hula into their dance. In the classroom, the children are all very dedicated and eager to learn, which is what makes teaching really worth while. When they ask questions, we learn as well and are reminded of corrections that aren't necessarily at the forefront of our minds anymore. Having taught a similar schedule for a week at the Dance Institute in Austin, Texas prior to coming here, I feel I will be approaching my work at the National Choreographers Initiative with a fresh look at the basics of my technique. Tommy will also be teaching at DI later in July, so he too will be beginning the 2009-2010 season with his foundation anew.

I will let you know if anything super exciting happens and I will definitely get back to you when Thomas Ragland and I are situated at NCI!


-Maggie