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!

A final update from Asheville...

SHOWTIME!! After many long, tiring weeks of rehearsal we were definitely ready and pumped up for performance week.

We arrived at the Diane Wortham Theatre last Tuesday morning, took class and then spaced and teched each piece so that we were ready for a dress rehearsal on Wednesday. The stage is quite hard and my shins definitely felt it by the end of the week (shin splints are a painful, but common muscle strain. For dancers this condition is often caused by the impact of dancing on hard surfaces).

The lighting and costumes for Clowns and Others were exactly how I imagined as we rehearsed...very colorful, full of personality, and quite fitting to each seperate clown and their character. It's all so much fun!

Heather's piece Second Line went very well. At the last minute, one of the other female dancers was injured, so I had to go in for her pas de deux! Luckily we found plenty of time to rehearse and I felt confident and excited dancing the part. My partner, Jon Uplegar from Nashville Ballet, was so strong in the partnering and he really supported me throughout the duet.

Rite of Spring turned out really amazing. The ballet contains quite possibly the most amazing female solo that I have ever seen. At the end of the ballet she dips her hair and body in white paint before becoming the chosen one to die. The ballet was very large and very much an ensemble piece and everyone really came together throughout the week to bring the piece up to it's dramatic potential.

The dancers I met here in Asheville are amazing, I really have met some life-long friends because we all became very close over these past weeks and through these shared experiences. I am excited to keep in touch with all of them!

Terpsicorps was such an incredible experience. I was challenged artistically, musically and physically. It was also wonderful to be involved with so many professionals who personally worked with Salvatore Aiello and get a first hand account about his ideals and views on movement. I am so excited to continue working on his choreography this fall at Richmond Ballet!

I've also enjoyed sharing this experience with all of you! I can't wait to bring you updates from Richmond soon, but for now I'm ready to enjoy some real summer vacation! :)

Smooches- Valerie

Rehearsal Rehearsal Rehearsal...

This week started off pretty swell (those two days off last weekend were definitely appreciated by the dancers and our bodies)!

Working on Clowns and Others has been hysterical…as Tim and Heather set each section I plan out which dancers from Richmond Ballet will fit each section best! Our Richmond audiences are going to LOVE this ballet- it’s really comical but has some really charming moments as well. The Prokofiev score is also quite beautiful…I think the Richmond Ballet dancers are a perfect fit. My personal favorite is the "Lions" section. It's all men and very very funny.

We also finally finished Rite of Spring which is awesome because it’s about 40 minutes long. Since we dance in a studio that has no air-conditioning, I’m sure everyone has probably lost at least 2 or 3 pounds in water weight while running this highly aggressive, dramatic, and modern piece. Rite of Spring has elements of cannibalism, sacrificial offerings, a sensual duet between the ‘Chosen One’ and the ‘Warrior’ and a fight scene between the ‘Chieftain’ and the ‘Warrior’. It’s really a fantastic ballet; if anyone ever gets the opportunity I would highly suggest going to see it.

On Tuesday night some of the dancers went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch some sports and unwind a bit. We convinced the manager to turn one of the TVs to So You Think You Can Dance, because I told him that if anyone claimed dance was not a sport, they could come speak to the tall blonde haha.

On Saturday the gallery building where we rehearse had a huge and very famous art walk drawing many tourists and visitors. Lucky for us, we had people coming in to watch us all day! We even had a bluegrass band right outside the window. We ran all 3 ballets that we had learned over the past 2 weeks.

One of the biggest surprises was that Susan Israel Massey (a School of Richmond Ballet faculty member and yearly participant in The Nutcracker and story ballets) showed up with her husband and daughter! Her daughter lives about 20 minutes outside of Asheville and when Susan heard I was here, they made the trip to come see me! It was such a great surprise, and I was able to introduce her to Heather, our director and to Tim, our ballet master. She watched our rehearsal of Second Line which I think she enjoyed very much.

After our busy day of performing and rehearsing for the arts walk visitors, some of us dancers wanted to blow off steam and decided to hit up a local Mexican restaurant, Papas and Beer. We were greeted with a mariachi band and had ourselves a great evening.

Until next time, kisses- Valerie

Second Line and a roadtrip back to RVA!

Today we continued learning Clowns and Others and Rite of Spring but also started the third ballet on the program, Second Line, choreographed by Terpsicorps director Heather Maloy. Her piece is based on the traditional New Orleans funeral processions that turn into parties and celebrations in the streets. Heather was inspired to choreograph this piece after Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding effort in New Orleans.

After the long rehearsal day, a few of us went to Barley’s Brewery where we celebrated the end of our second day with pool and dart games. This time together is special in so many ways because it allows us dancers a chance to relax and have fun, but also to begin the trusting process (which is so important in dancer relationships). It helps me to be comfortable dancing with a partner when we know how to connect with each other on all kinds of levels.

The rest of this week has been difficult (…as usual first weeks are). My brain is working overtime to remember all the choreography that we learn and my body hurts from the new movement that isn’t familiar to my muscles. My senses while partnering are being tested as well, as I work with people I’m still learning so much about.

On Thursday night some of us went to a restaurant called Sante. We were treated with cheese, crackers, fresh fruit and delicious wines.

Since we had Saturday and Sunday off, I decided to run back to Richmond to wish "bon voyage" to last year’s company members Lauren Breen, Justin McMillan, and Allison Dubsky before they move out of town. We had dinner at Mekong and then an evening of cocktails and dancing at New York Deli in Carytown.

Now, back to Asheville for more rehearsal! Until next time...

Smooches- Valerie