From Swan Lake to Hip Hop

Friday, March 5th, 2010 | All Posts by Quinn Wharton | No Comments

Local students at a San Francisco Ballet Community Matinee.

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind. While Swan Lake was the beginning of the season, Programs 2 and 3 were the real dancing kick-off for me, personally. Being onstage every night is something that I haven’t done since last year and it always takes a little time to get acclimated. The difference between schedules is huge in many aspects, from what you eat and when, to how you push your body during the day. It also takes time just to get used to putting on a performance face every night. During rehearsal periods, we aren’t expected to perform every day and even during final rehearsals, while you need to project, it doesn’t have to be all the time. So switching to being on stage is almost a meditative practice. You have to come into the theater every night and remove yourself from all the bad or good that happened that day. Throughout your routine: warm-up, makeup, and getting into costume, you free your mind from distractions and focus on the character you’re portraying that evening. Of course the characters/roles range, from high to low stress, but there is always that period where you clear your mind. If you don’t, you get onstage and it can take you halfway through the performance before you transition from your introverted self to your outward, performance persona. At least we know first-hand, the definition of a stage vs. street identity. I’m sure movie stars and famous personalities have a much harder time with this distinction.

All of these musings comes to bear on the recent matinee I performed in. The Community Matinees (CMATs as they are referred to here), are special performances presented twice a year, to local elementary school children. CMATs are part of the Ballet’s community outreach efforts and a great way to experience a different audience. The children are much more moved by base emotion; they don’t have the performance etiquette or “training” that adults do, so there are constant outbursts from them which makes the performance really gratifying and fun.SF Ballet recently received a grant to further our new media efforts and technological capabilities, and the company decided to put some of this towards outreach. The idea was to stream the CMAT performance live, to a number of the schools in the Bay Area, allowing the show to be broadcast to a larger age range, which meant making the performance content more educational and behind-the-scenes. It also gave us freedom to get creative from a filming stand point. I was asked to perform some hip hop for the beginning of the show as a catalyst, a way to draw the older kids in immediately and get them to keep an open mind about ballet. I trained in hip hop early in my life and have kept up with it throughout the years, but this was very different than the regular performing I do (or the company does). It was almost more like being asked to choreograph something.  I was given complete freedom as long as it got a stamp of approval in the end. I picked the music, choreographed the movement, chose my outfit, and dictated the lighting to an extent. It was such a freeing experience in a way. As a hip hop dancer, I relish the freedom of movement and I was glad not to have any boundaries. Ironically the hardest part was deciding what to wear since we usually have Wardrobe telling us what costume to put on, so the freedom of choice was almost overwhelming.

Tying back to the beginning, I realized very quickly that the mental process of this preparation was going to be very different. I was wearing regular clothes, opening the show without anything to feed off of, and my warm-up had to be completely different for what I was doing. That sort of variety really threw me off.  Standing in the middle of that giant Opera House stage five minutes before the curtain went up, my heart rate began to pick up and I kept wondering if there was anything else I could do to be more prepared. I could hear all of the children right on the other side of that curtain, talking to each other; I’m sure they expected to see tutus when the curtain went up.  Luckily for me, my instincts are pretty ingrained at this point. When the curtain came up and the pool of light was on me, my mind went pretty blank. I remember very little sound from the performance, even the music I had picked seemed faint. I just remember looking directly up into the spotlight as the music swelled and wondering if this is how Michael Jackson ever felt, and that it was completely worth it. It’s the rush of a thousand eyes on you alone and the feeling of total exhilaration as you let your body take over and do what it knows best. It’s like you stop thinking and processing, and just let physical memory take you from one movement to the next. My part was over before I knew it and luckily, it won’t be the last time I get this opportunity. The feedback was really positive after the show and I think it will be repeated for the other CMAT performances this year. Now I’ll be able to prepare more and hopefully enjoy it a bit more in the moment.

Tags: CMAT, Community Matinees, Program 2, Program 3, Quinn Wharton, Swan Lake

Pic of the Week

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | All Posts by Open Studio 455, Pic of the Week, SFB Scene | No Comments

Corps de Ballet dancers backstage in their costumes during a 2009 performance of Swan Lake. Swan Lake returns during the 2010 Season and runs now through January 31. (© Erik Tomasson)

Tags: Swan Lake

SFB Scene

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | All Posts by Open Studio 455, SFB Scene | No Comments

• Tonight is the kickoff of SF Ballet’s 2010 season with the Opening Night Gala: Silver Celebration. The evening’s festivities celebrate Helgi Tomasson’s 25^th years as Artistic Director and include an elegant cocktail reception and dinner in City Hall followed by the gala performance. Casting has been announced for tonight’s performance, and includes excerpts from a number of Tomasson’s acclaimed works. After the performance, a post-performance party in City Hall will feature three exclusive dance clubs, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. There’s still time to order tickets to both the performance and the post-performance party! Can’t wait until tonight’s performance? Check out the below highlight video from last year’s Gala.
• Just a few short days after the Gala celebration, Swan Lake will open on Saturday, January 23.  In case you haven’t seen it, the homepage of the website now features a video trailer of the production!  Click here to see a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the production.

Tags: Opening Night Gala, Swan Lake

Reflections on Shanghai

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | All Posts by Bruce Sansom, Perpetual Motion: SFB on Tour | No Comments

Half way through the tour, we’re now in Beijing and I’ve got a bit of time to sit and look back over our time in Shanghai.

Having arrived on Friday 18 September, the dancers were offered an optional class on Saturday that I taught. The crew were working to get the theatre ready for our stage rehearsals, and, with no studio available that day within the theatre, we took buses out to Yuan Yuan Tan’s former ballet school.

There’s always a slight sense of ‘spirit of adventure’ with optional classes. The dancers don’t have to be there, but probably want to shake out the cobwebs of the previous day’s air travel.  It’s the first chance for them to find out how their body has reacted to hours of sitting.

The studio was a good size, and with open windows all the way around, the conditions outside meant that inside it was also warm and slightly humid; the perfect conditions for muscles to relax and work well. We had the pleasure of an audience made up of some of the school’s staff and students. I reminded the SFB dancers that this wasn’t an exhibition class, but nevertheless, by the end our audience was enjoying the virtuosic pirouetting some of the company members put on, applauding loudly.

The next day (Sunday) we were working in the theatre’s studio. This proved to be smaller than the previous day’s and with a very solid floor. The studios back in the ballet building in San Francisco are state of the art, and it comes as a shock to the joints to be jumping on a floor that doesn’t have any ‘give’ at all.

The company always travels with it’s own sprung floor to cover the stage, so the sooner we can get on to the stage for class and rehearsals the better; but for the crew, setting everything for the mixed-repertory program (On a Theme of Paganini, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Distant Cries, Concerto Grosso and Within the Golden Hour) and Swan Lake was a huge task.  This meant the dancers weren’t able to get on to the stage until the next afternoon (morning class again in the small studio) for a Swan Lake placing and run-through.

Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith in Liang's Distant Cries (© Erik Tomasson)

The next day, class again in the studio while the crew changed over from Swan Lake to the mixed-repertory program. That afternoon’s rehearsal of the mixed-rep program was somewhat of a stop-start rehearsal as the company adjusted to the new space, a new orchestra, and spot lights that needed to be adjusted down in intensity. The stage itself—with our own blissfully well-sprung floor—was a great size with lots of depth to it; not unlike the WMOH, but it still takes time to adjust to new surroundings.

That evening’s performance went extremely well, with the company pulling out all the stops and everything together superbly. We had been forewarned that Chinese audiences weren’t used to mixed-repertory programs. To begin with they seemed reserved in their response, however, by the end of the evening they were very enthusiastic, and I had the feeling that they realized they could get involved with the quality of the dancing, even if there was no story.

Wednesday it was on to Swan Lake. Again, with the crew making the program changeover, company class was in the studio. In order to spare their joints, the dancers held back  from jumping too much until they could get down on to the stage before the stage rehearsals began.

San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson's Swan Lake in Shanghai (© Erik Tomasson)

Having just seen the new production of Helgi’s Swan Lake in San Francisco this last April, it was strange seeing the old production again, which I had danced with the company back in 1992.  The older style of sets and costumes (all designed by Jens Jacob Worsae) meant that, while the majority of the dancing/steps remained the same, the way the dancers as characters moved on stage needed to be adjusted slightly.  The rehearsal, barring a few tempi (easily adjusted) and spotlighting issues (on tour they always seem to be too bright and to be coming from a different angle), went well, as did the opening night.

While Yuan Yuan Tan had performed the previous night (Liang’s Distant Cries with Damian Smith), this was her ‘real’ opening night in her hometown with the company. The audience seemed to be extremely polite, or holding their breath, until the very end of the performance when you got a better sense that they were acknowledging her as an artist and as a local heroine. The company danced beautifully, especially the Swans in Act II, who danced as one creature, especially on their entrance into the lakeside scene.

Thursday—and finally class on stage, which was a luxury in being able to get everyone jumping, and jumping, and jumping! The early afternoon was spent in rehearsing a few changes of casts; pas de trois, cygnets, the Act III divertissement, etc. That evening’s performance of Swan Lake had Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan in the leads. The audience seemed more relaxed and prepared to respond more readily than the previous evening, and Vanessa and Davit gave, what was to me, a stunning performance of Act II. While their Act III was strong, they took themselves to a new height in Act II.

Friday—much the same as Thursday with class on stage and then a series of request rehearsals in the afternoon. That evening’s performance saw Yuan Yuan and her partner, Tiit Helimets, giving their second Swan Lake. They really took off in Act III and the audience responded more and more as the drama built up.

That was it!  Shanghai performances are over and now our thoughts are on moving on to Beijing and a whole new set of working conditions to get used to. The Saturday was a free day and, as I expect you’ve been able to read in some of the dancers’ blogs, they were making the most of getting out and enjoying what Shanghai had to offer.

I’ll do another update once we’ve completed our performances here in Beijing.

Tags: China Tour, Damian Smith, Davit Karapetyan, Swan Lake, Vanessa Zahorian, Yuan Yuan Tan