DANCING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS.Byline: CRAIG SMITH For the rugby player, see . Craig Smith (born November 10, 1983 in Inglewood, California) is an American professional basketball player. After playing for Boston College from 2002-2006, he was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2006 NBA Draft. Peter Boal Peter Boal is currently serving as Artistic Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle, Washington. He was born in Bedford, New York, 1965, and began dancing with the School of American Ballet at age nine. Mr. is a busy man, and he was especially busy a few weeks ago. The American dancer-choreographer-artistic director was deep in rehearsals for Pacific Northwest Ballet's season-opening concerts at the end of September, with hardly time to get to the phone. When reached in Seattle, Boal fortunately proved he still has that important artistic ability to concentrate happily on whatever subject is at hand. In this case, it was a discussion about his company's two upcoming Lensic Performing Arts Center A performing arts center, often abbreviated PAC, is a multi-use performance space that can be adapted for use by various types of the performing arts, including dance, music and theatre. appearances. Set for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10 and 11, they feature works by New York City Ballet New York City Ballet, one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. masters George Balanchine Noun 1. George Balanchine - United States dancer and choreographer (born in Russia) noted for his abstract and formal works (1904-1983) Balanchine and Jerome Robbins Noun 1. Jerome Robbins - United States choreographer who brought human emotion to classical ballet and spirited reality to Broadway musicals (1918-1998) Robbins -- excerpts from Balanchine's Jewels, his complete ballet Agon, and Robbins' In the Night. On Oct. 9, Boal and Santa Fean Merrill Brockway, distinguished for his TV and film work with Balanchine and a director of PBS' Dance in America, participate in an evening of dialogue. Boal began studying ballet as a young boy, joined New York City Ballet in 1983, enjoyed a major 22-year career there, and became artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet The Pacific Northwest Ballet is a ballet company and based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. Founded in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera and named the Pacific Northwest Dance Association, it broke away from the Opera in 1977 and took its current name in 1978. a little more than three years ago. The moment our call ended, he was probably off like a rocket through the company's halls and studios, demonstrating the fleetness and hang time that made him such a beloved performer. Pasatiempo: How do you feel about coming to Santa Fe Santa Fe, city, Argentina Santa Fe, city (1991 pop. 341,000), capital of Santa Fe prov., NE Argentina, a river port near the Paraná, with which it is connected by canal. ? Peter Boal: We're excited to come there. I was there twice before. It was sort of the last run for Peter Boal and Company, and then I think I was there with Suzanne Farrell Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) one of the most noted ballerinas of the 20th century, and was an important dancer for the legendary choreographer George Balanchine. She was born Roberta Sue Ficker . I love the air there, the mountains, the architecture. I considered retiring there, but I just can't seem to retire. Pasa: Speaking of retirement, do you regret not dancing anymore? Boal: I do miss it, actually. I did it from when I was 9 nonstop till when I was 40. Did you know my final performance was at the Lensic? But I don't have time to miss it now. They keep me pretty busy running around here. Pasa: You entered New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. Ballet's company in 1983, the year Balanchine died. How much contact did you have with him? Boal: The truth is, my contact with Balanchine was minimal. It was in the school. By the time I was an apprentice, he was in the hospital. But I had a very nice sign [before then] when I was 16 years old. Mikhail Baryshnikov Noun 1. Mikhail Baryshnikov - Russian dancer and choreographer who migrated to the United States (born in 1948) Baryshnikov offered me a contract for American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre, one of the foremost international dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded in 1937 as the Mordkin Ballet and reorganized as the Ballet Theatre in 1940 under the direction of Lucia Chase and Rich Pleasant. . They called me into the office and told me that Mr. B. had turned down Mr. Baryshnikov's offer for me without asking me. Apparently he said, "No, he can't go to ABT ABT About ABT Abteilung (German: Department) ABT Abbott Laboratories (stock symbol) ABT American Ballet Theatre ABT Associação Brasileira de Telemarketing ABT Abort ABT Availability Based Tariff . I have plans for him." I did four years of children's roles in the school. I did the Prince in The Nutcracker several times. That has the one big solo, the section of pantomime where he tells what happened [with the Rat King]. Balanchine would usually just say, "Good." Or he might work on details about finger positions or [dramatic] impact. He would come to do our final rehearsals for school performances. Pasa: In the 25 years since his death, Balanchine's ballets have not only stayed in the repertoire but also grown in popularity. Why do these works have that staying power? Boal: My first response is that they're great! I wish I had a better response, but they're just classics. They're standards. You look at them; you draw something from them. I've seen Serenade serenade [Ital. sera=evening], term used to designate several types of musical composition. Opera and song literature yield numerous examples of the serenade sung or played by a lover at night beneath his beloved's window; outstanding is 200 times, and I think there are always new things that emerge. He had the eye; the eye was right. A corps dancer who worked with him for 20 years said, "I watch a Balanchine ballet, and there is nothing I wish would be different. I watch other choreographers This is a list of choreographers A
Pasa: How about transferring your own work from the studio to the stage? Was that hard? Boal: Many dancers are very reliant on the mirror. I was not one. I was fully aware of everything. I could feel it. I let the music be the guide more than eyes in the mirror. And I loved it. I loved class. I love classical ballet Noun 1. classical ballet - a style of ballet based on precise conventional steps performed with graceful and flowing movements ballet, concert dance - a theatrical representation of a story that is performed to music by trained dancers technique and feeling with the music. I attended class every day because I wanted to, not because I had to. At New York City Ballet, we were out on the stage a good 150 times a year. There wasn't an element of being frightened or nervous. That's where you lived, where you wanted to be. Pasa: So you constantly kept your body in tune, in time, with the music. Boal: There wasn't any other option! You know with music a lot of dancers get quite bent out of shape Bent Out of Shape is an LP issued by Rainbow in 1983. The first CD version to be released released featured several longer edits compared to the vinyl version. A remastered CD reissue was released in May 1999. when the tempo isn't what it's supposed to be. I loved it. I thought, How can I draw it out? or How can I match the movement to his [beat]? I loved being technically challenged with the orchestra. I would have been very unhappy to dance to recordings. Ballet and music are a case of the sum of two parts being greater than the two alone. Pasa: We think of the ballets, but Balanchine was a fine teacher as well. Boal: Yes. Balanchine was known as a choreographer, but there have been several books throughout the years about his teaching. He was very interested in refining the classical ballet technique to serve the music and choreography. He would experiment in company class. It wasn't cheating. It was finding ways to move with more clarity, more speed. His teaching has been blurred by his choreography. Pasa: So the idea was that the line was never obscured by excess motion? Boal: Right. Take the most basic step in ballet, the pas de bourrae, the three steps to the side. It used to be done in three counts, each leg rising, falling, rising, falling, rising, falling. Balanchine did it in one count. The legs stayed straight, and you could save two beats and move on. It made for brilliance and speed. The other thing I love about Balanchine's choreography, which I noticed from dancing so many ballets: he choreographed with respect to the dimensions of the stage. The line of the wings was respected, and each dancer's placing was exact; there's a geometry to the creation. It's very appealing and satisfying. If you needed to be on the quarter mark, you were there. The other person was on [the] quarter mark. Then you'd move to the eighth mark. Jerome Robbins was less definite. He just used to say, "I just want the whole mushel [bunch] to drift over here." Pasa: Balanchine's emphasis on clean movement really comes through in the nonstory ballets, I think. Certainly in Jewels, which you're doing excerpts from here. Boal: Yes. We're staging Symphony in C Symphony in C may refer to a number of symphonies written in the key of C Major:
Pasa: What do you plan to talk about with Merrill Brockway? Boal: I never know what I'm going to talk about! He's forcing me to bring some film clips of me dancing. I'm reluctant to do that, because I'm not immersed in it anymore. It's not about me dancing anymore; I'm working with my company. But I'll drag out the videos. details Peter Boal in conversation with Merrill Brockway 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9 Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden St. No charge, 988-1234mbers of Pacific Northwest Ballet perform works by George Balanchine & Jerome Robbins 7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Oct. 10 & 11 Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St. $20-$55, 988-1234 CAPTION(S): See pdf's for exact rendition, caption, graphics and photographer info. |
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