Tag Archives: film

welcome to the house

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Running forward towards him, I push my sad body desperately through the air that separates us.  He is the only man I’ve ever seen up close, the love of my life.  I thrust my arms around his shoulders but my forearms continue to cross, until my elbows have passed and not the thinnest thread could snake into my grasp.  There’s no one there.  I am startled, alone, and heartbroken.  Martirio’s love is not only unrequited, but fulfilled by the arms of her younger sister, Adella, whose noose awaits her. A sadder fate than that of the Alba sisters is hard to fathom.

This week we’re on set with the brilliant Shaun Clarke and choreographer Viktor Plotnikov filming for his newest creation, The House of Bernarda Alba.  Sections of the ballet occurring outside the infamous house (or those inside our heads, like many of mine) will loom stage right as literal projections of our subconscious exposed on a hanging screen.  It’s all very new, to us and to Viktor, and the creation process has been peppered with discovery.  Things I have learned this week:

Acting is really fun.  The immediate feedback you get after an acting scene feels so different-and more satisfying, I think- than the kind you receive after running a classical variation.  Maybe because you are being asked to pull upon something deeper than your lower abdominals?

Holding one arm straight out in front of you, hands in fists, legs in a squat, is an excellent work out.

It’s hard to appear as if frightened by invisible ghosts around you without ever casting your eyes downward.  Who knew opening your eyes could be so difficult?

The first day’s process looks pretty cool in a time-lapse.

It’s also quite beautiful in this peaceful compilation of Day 2’s filming.

 

For tickets.

 

photos by Shaun Clarke.

big screen ballet

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The past two Sundays have ironically both involved a cinematic ballet experience of some kind, with a trek up to Cambridge to see Ballet 422 last weekend and a drive to East Greenwich yesterday for a screening of The Bolshoi’s Romeo & Juliet.  The two shows were vastly different, save their only similarities seated in the audience: a combination of bunheads and bald heads…my kinda crowd.

Following New York City Ballet corps member and resident choreographer, Justin Peck, Jody Lee Lipes’ Ballet 422 offers up an impressive array of balletic athleticism and choreographic innovation, wrought with a generous supply of stylish #BTS shots.  Mr. Peck, at the tender age of 25, exudes professionalism and creative depth beyond his years, and the entire company (especially featured principal, Tiler Peck) demonstrates a skill level and quickness of movement that only the NYCB can deliver.  Of course it suits that these inspired minds belong to NYCB, a company founded on choreographic liberation and the freedom to create entirely new movement.  An artistic peek into the modern world of ballet, the film provides a backstage guide to the choreographic, rehearsal, staging and performance process of a world premiere at the historic Koch theatre.  I truly enjoyed seeing the magnificent costume department and the care that goes into each garment, as well as the showcase of talented orchestral musicians and powerful NYCB dancers, but without any real narration or interviews to speak of, Magnolia Pictures may want to consider renaming the film Justin Peck Relaxes Face While Thinking.*

The Bolshoi’s R&J on the big screen could not have been more opposite; One of the world’s oldest companies performing one of literature’s oldest tragedies in ballet’s most traditionally classic choreographic style.  In three words, it. was. dramatic.  Of course, drama is to be expected from a famously grim love story in which so many crucial characters suffer an untimely death**, but there’s something about this particular rendition that seemed just a bit over the top to me.  Maybe it was Tybalt’s refusal to die without a lingering (re: dragging) “death dance” for the books, but that’s probably just my impatient millennial mind at work there.  Gorgeous in its classicism, but predictable by nature, this show separates the diehard traditionalists from those of us who chuckled when Lady Capulet practically dislocated her shoulder tossing herself onto her nephew’s dead body about fifteen times (Mom, I’m looking at you!).

So, have any of you seen either production?  What did you think?

*Spoiler Alert: Justin Peck’s “deep in thought” face comprises 90% of the film.

**Yet another spoiler, everyone dies.  Sorry for giving away the ending, guys.

photo via

on set at the columbus

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After smacking Alex in the chest with my forearm for the fifth time, an angry breath escaped through my lips.  It’s difficult to piqué in menège through a tiny gap between your partner and a giant camera, on toes that haven’t smelled pointe shoes in nearly 4 months.

Being a ballet dancer certainly creates some pretty interesting opportunities outside of the studio, especially when you’ve recently decided to say ‘yes’ to everything and you’re also fairly strapped for cash.  It turns out there’s a real market out there for bunheads in need of sporadic work.  This weekend’s odd job du jour had me filming a mock Gatorade commercial in a rather dingy- but potentially quite lovely- old theater on the West end of Providence called The Columbus.  The space is currently a live music venue, but this Sunday it played the role of “studio space” to Alex and I, as we demonstrated the underrated athleticism of ballet.

Boston-based Old Harbor Production Company reached out to FBP about hiring 2 dancers for a promotional project comparing a basketball practice to a ballet rehearsal.  The finished product will parallel a “day in the life” of the basketballer and the ballerina (myself), showcasing the surprising similarities between the two, both in endurance and elegance.  While I must say I felt a bit strange walking into the theater over and over with a big shiny lens in my face, and I will never be able to un-see my feet doing an entrechat quatre up close and in slow motion, downing a bottle of Gatorade dripping in spritzed-on sweat for the commercial’s climax was a bit of an iconic, surreal, PINCH ME moment and I won’t soon forget it.

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