Nap time in studio 1.
Just kidding, it’s Firebird rehearsal.
I bet you all weren’t expecting to hear from me again… But lo and behold, here I am.
Much has been going on here at 818 SE 6th. We’re deep into rehearsals for our Stravinsky rep, and speaking for myself, it’s such a nice change from all the classical ballet we did in the first half of the season.
Two highlights for me this rep are getting to revisit one of my favorite roles, Katschei, and being a part of The Stravinsky Project.
I first learned Firebird as a student in the school when Yuri created it, so coming back to this ballet a 3rd time definitely has a homey feel to it. Although, look for some big changes, most notably the replacement of children spiders with adult male dancers. The inferno is even more action packed this time around.
I feel very fortunate to have been involved with the creation on The Stravinsky Project from the beginning of the choreographic process last June in Caldera. It’s been great to see collaboration take shape among the diverse group of choreographers. The piece started out with having each choreographer (or group of choreographers in the case of BodyVox’s Jamie and Ashley) create their own section with some space at the beginning and end for blending. But now I have seen people add blending into the mix of their existing sections as choreographic changes, or even adding entire sections of dance that they would have otherwise never made.
Yesterday was our first time with all the choreographers and musicians in the room and one of the choreographers made a suggestion about someone else’s section and I was really taken aback because that always seems like a boundary not to be crossed in the normal creation process, so even as a dancer this has been a growing experience in watching artists interact with each other in a new way. Very cool.
On a final note, I know my biggest hurdle to overcome in blogging is deciding what to write about, so if you have ANY questions please send them in. Who knows, it may inspire a great blog.
See you in the theater,
Steven
PS – Be sure to come to Dance Talks this Sunday at PNCA, most of the artists involved in The Stravinsky Project will be there and I’m sure it will be very interesting. More info is on the website here.
