October 2011
1 post
10/28/2011
Interview regarding theater week featuring Lauren Sekela, Brandywine Ballet dancer and blogger:
1.) We just witnessed the passing of theater week for the fall performances, meaning rehearsals moved out of the studio and onto the stage. How does your daily routine change once you move into the theater?
For me, theatre week is all about being organized! Driving to campus, taking classes all day,...
September 2011
4 posts
09/19/2011
At the end of every issue of Dance Magazine there is an article titled “Why I Dance.” As I am officially moved in to my new home at the University of Cincinnati, I have decided to write my own “Why I Dance” as my last blog for Brandywine. To put it simply, I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. My mom put me into my first ballet class at five years old, as happens...
09/07/2011
With labor day behind us and many people back in work and school, it is safe to say that summer has come to a close. We had a wonderful one here at Brandywine Ballet, beginning with our four week intensive, in which we welcomed Meredith Rainey, Fang-Ju Gant, Martha Chamberlain, Jonathan Stiles, and Tara Keating, each of whom shared their own style with us and brought a new energy to class. We...
08/28/11
This is one of my favorite youtube ballet finds. After studying at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, Polina Semionova became a principal at the Berlin Staatsoper Ballet when she was just 18 years old! Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYKwRoLPLVk
- Emma Yasick, Brandywine Ballet dancer & blogger
08/23/11
“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.”
-Agnes De Mille
- Emma Yasick, Brandywine Ballet dancer & blogger
August 2011
7 posts
08/22/2011
I have always been my harshest critic. As dancers, I feel like we all think the things that go wrong onstage are somehow magnified to the millionth degree in the eyes of the audience. After shows I often ask friends or family in the audience questions like, “did you see me slip when I was running?” or “did you notice that I did the wrong the head?” To my surprise, their...
08/19/2011
Despite the fact that all of the people I know know me as “the ballet dancer” and that I have no problem labeling myself as such, how much I am wired into ballet is even surprising to me sometimes. For example, my mom went to the library the other day. What did she bring home for me? No Twilight, no Harry Potter, but instead, three books about ballet (one of which, The Sugarless Plum,...
08/18/11
It has begun, rehearsals for Requiem start tonight! Here’s a picture of principal dancers Hannah Telthorster and Tim Early and a link to listen to Mozart’s Requiem Mass, the music for the ballet, to get everyone in the mood!
- Emma Yasick, Brandywine Ballet dancer & blogger
08/15/11
I’m currently reading “The Last Lecture,” the story of a Carnegie Mellon professor who in his last months of life decides to spread a message about truly living. While reading, I came across this paragraph:
“That lesson has stuck with me my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a bad place to...
08/12/11
I can’t believe it is already the middle of August! Since our performance at Rose Tree things have been pretty quiet. After a well deserved week off, open classes began this week and will continue until labor day when the fall schedule gets under way. As we move closer and closer to the start of school, we also move closer to the beginning of rehearsals for this year’s fall performance...
08/09/2011
As I searched discountdance.com today for leotards for the upcoming year I started thinking about how important leotards really are. Yes, they are required attire for class, but there’s a lot more to them than that. I am a firm believer that what leotard you are wearing affects how you dance. Just like with putting on a cute dress or a nice pair of jeans, a leotard that fits well makes you...
08/05/2011
“Common sense would tell parents never to send their children to a ballet school. Common sense would tell teenagers that there is a wider and happier world beyond the grueling strictures of daily barre and class. Common sense would tell the graduating student that there are infinitely superior ways of making money than joining a professional ballet company. Common sense would tell a young dancer...
July 2011
14 posts
07/30/2011
As they say in show biz, “the show must go on”, and last night, that it did. Other than adding a few pauses to the program to dry off the stage, the rain had little effect on our performance at Rosetree. Everyone pulled together after a long day of rehearsal and being in the heat to put on an absolutely beautiful show. Based on the simple fact that the rain didn’t scare anyone...
07/28/2011
Our four weeks of hard work come to a close tomorrow with our performance at Rose Tree Park and I cannot believe it is already here. After an in-studio dress rehearsal tomorrow we head over to the park to stage everything and get ourselves ready for the show. Everything has come together beautifully and the audience is definitely in for a wonderful evening of dance!
- Emma Yasick, Brandywine...
07/27/2011
I recently rediscovered a book called “You Know You’re A Dancer When…”. Reading through it made me laugh because of how many of the statements I can actually relate to. I found myself saying “I do that, and that” and “that’s true” over and over again. Here’s a few of my favorites:
You know you’re a dancer...
07/27/2011
“The most essential thing in dance discipline is devotion, the steadfast and willing devotion to the labor that makes the class work not a gymnastic hour and a half, or at the lowest level, a daily drudgery, but a devotion that allows the classroom discipline to become moments of dancing too.”
-Merce Cunningham-
- Emma Yasick, Brandywine Ballet dancer & blogger
07/25/2011
Today we began learning an excerpt from BalletX’s Frequencies, choreographed by Matthew Neenan. The very first thing we do is run on in a straight line, and after watching us do this once, Tara Keating made a correction to relax and run more casually. When we ran in again it was certainly less upright and stiff, but still far from the run you would see from someone on the soccer field or on...
07/23/2011
In the midst of this heat wave (the heat index hit 122 today!) the idea of performing outside at Rosetree is a little daunting. I cannot help but think back on memories of the past few years of dress rehearsals in the middle of the day on that black stage. From gel toe pads melting inside people’s pointe shoes to wearing socks to avoid getting blisters and Steve Vaughn’s not so...
07/22/2011
In preparation for our fall fundraiser, a few of us had the privilege of doing a photoshoot yesterday. This was no ordinary shoot, however. We were not just posing with each other, but also with something much more interesting… food. With the help of Mary Bigham, the founder of West Chester Dish, we posed with both savory and sweet foods, everything from a huge hoagie to cookies and a giant...
07/19/2011
Not only is Jonathan Stiles an incredibly talented dancer but he is also the producing director of a wonderful benefit performance called “Shut Up & Dance” put on by Pennsylvania Ballet. The annual show raises money for the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance to feed patients with life threatening illnesses. “In 1993, dancers of Pennsylvania Ballet were...
07/18/2011
Anyone who saw All Mixed Up this spring got the opportunity to watch Pennsylvania Ballet’s Jonathan Stiles dance the lead in Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie. As we enter our third week of intensive it is so nice to welcome him back to Brandywine, this time not to dance but to teach. Feel free to look over this quick interview he did for PA Ballet’s facebook page for a little more...
07.15.2011
It’s Friday, which means Rosetree rehearsal day. Every Friday Nancy Page teaches the morning ballet class and runs a combined rehearsal for all the pieces we have learned so far during the summer intensive. The rehearsal gave me the opportunity to see the new choreography from last week for the first time, and I must say I loved it. Both the pieces, Fang-Ju Gant’s jazz and Meredith...
07.13.2011
Before summer ends I am usually asked by friends why I still have yet to get tan. After all, it’s summertime, which means time for laying by the pool for many people. For all of us at Brandywine however, summer typically means time to dance. Summer is the perfect opportunity for us to work on the things each of us as dancers struggle with, whether it’s perfecting pirouettes or figuring...
07.12.2011
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=EXQOW9ISa00&feature=player_embedded#at=100
While poking around the Pennsylvania Ballet website I came across this beautiful video of one of the company warm ups. It reminded me of our warm ups at the theater before dress rehearsals and performances that I have always loved. There is something so inspiring and exciting about being on stage under the lights and...
July 11, 2011
“Martha’s artistry and talent have been an invaluable gift to Pennsylvania Ballet throughout her entire career” -Pennsylvania Ballet’s artistic director, Roy Kaiser
As the second week of our Summer Intensive begins, we welcome Martha Chamberlain to Brandywine. Dancing since the age of five and training at our very own Dance Center, as well as at the School of American...
April 2011
1 post
March 2011
1 post
03.21.2011
The ground has begun to thaw, when it has for so long been frozen in a wintery world of ice, snow, and freezing temperatures. Spring has begun to leap onto our horizons, twittering, warming and exploding with new beginings. Excitement runs through the air, as the clouds and gray succumb to the deep blue skies dispersed with puffy white cotton-ball clouds. Diaphanous clothing allows the glowing...
February 2011
3 posts
03.01.2011
If there was a costume that I could live in, wear every day through the mundane, drudgery of school and homework and writing papers and reading all twenty-eight books of my literature class, it would be the simple black dress that I have worn for numerous ballets. When I say that it’s simple, I very well mean it; a fitted leotard with some sort of spandex oriented, liturgical skirts over top. No...
02.10.2011
“Music speaks when words fail.” A wise friend of mine once said this when I had no words. And yet, as cliché and typical as it may sound, I find that it is true. There’s not a day that passes, in which I don’t listen to music purposefully, hear music, and or am affected by music. In the dance studio I’m blessed to hear amazing pieces of music, (Nancy Page’s Dracula music selections… Honestly,...
02.02.2011
This weekend we began working on George Balanchine’s Valse-Fantaisie. I found myself thinking about last year, when I also had the opportunity to perform Valse-Fantaisie. My life was full of high school, and those senior year shenanigans. I proudly told anyone who listened to me rant, that I had acquired and been treated with senioritis since my freshman year of high school… And it was...
January 2011
2 posts
01.24.2011
The audience converse in hushed voices, patiently awaiting the beginning of the ballet. As the interior lights dim and the audience sits on the edge of their seats, the excitement in the air becomes palpable. The curtains open revealing a stage lit up in a light blue.
I listen as the first notes of Tchaikovsky’s sweet music flow from the speakers. Slowly, I take a few steps forward, until I am at...
01.13.2011
I wake up, bones creaking and cracking. As my eyes open, I notice the eerie dim glow emanating from my window. Pulling the slats apart in my blinds, I note with glee that it’s snowing and evident by the white blanket covering my neighborhood, it has been for a while. And just as soon as that childhood glee at the sight of snow begins, it dims. I have to get to ballet at ten o’clock, and judging...
December 2010
6 posts
12.30.2010
We hope everyone has been enjoying their holidays! Thank you to Alexa Valentine for sharing her experience of The Nutcracker with us through the blog over the past few weeks. I would like to introduce our next blogger, Brandywine Ballet Theater and Certificate in Ballet candidate Chloe Montgomery! Ms. Montgomery joins the blog just as the coldest months are upon us. How does the ballet dancer...
11.20.2010
The Nutcracker has come to a close for the 2010 season. It has been an amazing few weeks for me. I can’t begin to describe how happy I have been these past few weeks. Being in the theater for rehearsals, warm ups, and performances - it was completely amazing. I forgot how much I missed performing. Although it’s true, I always have a few nerves before performing…. Nevertheless, the stage is where...
12.13.2010
Before the curtain goes up the company has a warm up on stage. This is the time we get our muscles warm and ready to dance. There’s something nice about warm up, though, that makes it important for me as a dancer because it’s the time when you can gather your thoughts and focus on the work ahead. No matter where you are in the day, working your muscles at the ballet barre always brings you into...
11.07.2010
If dance were easy they’d call it football. People so often forget that ballet is rigorous and difficult, both mentally and physically. This weekend was proof of that. Thomas Gant, who we have been rehearsing the Snow Pas de Deux with since last month, has suffered an injury to his back. Unfortunately, he will not be performing the Snow Pas, at least not this upcoming weekend. I was very much...
12.03.2010
Nutcracker is always a nostalgic time for me. Something significant has been missing during the past few holiday seasons that I haven’t danced in The Nutcracker. But being in these studios this time of year and hearing the Tchaikovsky music, I am instantly transported to a different time. I suppose it’s like that for most dancers, especially those who have gone on to dance with other companies...
12.03.2010
It’s December and officially Nutcracker season! Principal dancer Alexa Valentine has agreed to share her dance insight with us over the next couple of weeks, as we immerse ourselves in the great holiday tradition and festivities of The Nutcracker! Ms. Valentine is a former, long-time member of the Brandywine Ballet. She returns to the company this year to perform in the cherished role of...
November 2010
7 posts
11.29.2010
Final blog re: 2010’s Dracula performances from Nancy Page, Resident Choreographer
Imagine telling a story without saying a word. What a wonderful experience portraying passion, desire, undying love through dance.
After the sets, costumes, music and choreography are all all complete, what’s left is telling the story. Dracula (Tim Early) and Mina (Hannah Telthorster) had the ability...
11.19.2010
I hear (so often) voices in the hallway at the BBC….”One day I want to be Lucy!” Well, maybe you will, but along with the glory comes pain. Exact words from my mouth- “Tim, after you spin Jaime around as much as possible, slide her across the floor, bite her , and discard her.” Rob and Timothy(wonderful new-comers to Dracula this year), also had their part in...
Now I move on to three scenes that carry the ballet until the end.
1). Jonathan/Brides 2). Lucy/soon to be Vampires/Blue Girls and 3). Dracula/Mina/four friends.
Jonathan and the brides always took place in the castle. He meets his brides for first time in the bed scene. I, personally, have a soft spot for the music in this scene. I danced to it with two of my favorite partners ever- Tim...
11.10.2010
First entry of a few closing thoughts on Brandywine Ballet’s Dracula, from the choreographer Nancy Page herself…
Dracula is my first full-length ballet. I remember sitting at my computer and listening to music for hours and hours and hours. Many days later I came up with the score.
Next I needed a castle built and painted. WCU students created our fabulous castle.
Now, I have...
11.01.2010
To my entire cast of Dracula,
I sat in the production booth all week and watched your talents transform my work into a “gem.” Dracula’s beautiful and eerie sets, intriguing costumes, stunning music, great lighting and special effects are impressive, but nothing without all of you!
You had three nights to acclimate to a raked stage, get comfortable with all of your make-up and...
11.01.2010
Thank you to Dracula’s principal dancers Jaime Lennon, Thomas Gant, and Hannah Telthorster for their insightful blog entries over the last few weeks leading up to the performances. Now that our Dracula performances have concluded, A Season in the Life… will be undergoing some changes in preparation for The Nutcracker. In the meantime, Dracula choreographer Nancy Page has agreed to...
October 2010
14 posts
10.25.2010
Thanks to the Dracula principals for their wonderfully entertaining and insightful blogging over the past few weeks leading up to the performances!
Dracula was a great success! Thank you for all who attended and shared in the passion!
Thanks to the dancers for an inspiring performance!
Next up: The Nutcracker! Buy your tickets now at www.brandywineballet.com. Trust me, these ones go fast!
Stay...
10.22.2010
Dracula rehearsal got bloody last night! As I mentioned yesterday, the makeup artists Celeste and Joey did the principal’s makeup for the dress rehearsal. They did an amazing job! Along with the makeup they brought the fake blood and Dracula did not hold back from using as much as possible. Good thing it is washable! Photographer comes tonight to take pictures of the rehearsal and it is...
10.20.2010
Our first night in the theater was last night. We ran through the ballet in costume while the lighting designer made sure all cues and lights were good. The set of the castle looks great (and scarier than i remember it!), and everything came together very well on stage. A little tired this morning, but can’t wait to rehearse again tonight! The principals will have their makeup done tonight...
10.17.2010
So good to see those who came out to the BBC fundraiser tonight at Faunbrook B&B. It’s nice to see people supporting the company and our upcoming Dracula performances! I am so eager to perform next weekend. Our rehearsals this weekend went really well and I can’t wait to get on stage in the theater this week to rehearse. All the dancers have worked so hard and I hope the audience...