Feel the Music and Fill it Completely

Hot on the heels (so to speak) of my previous post in which I mentioned the idea of fully filling up the music when dancing, I have stumbled on this short YouTube clip of Zakharova in class.

I can't help but wonder if 'this is a setup' (!). She takes her time to do each exercise movement but she's sandwiched between 2 others who are in a bit of a hurry and their juxtaposition kind of emphasizes that she is dancing to music vs. doing calisthenics (no offense meant to the others !).

The documentary that this clip came from looks like it might be interesting. It's in my queue :-)

A most beautiful Ballet Adagio (slow section)

I missed the big movie theater live simulcast of the Grand Re-Opening of the Bolshoi in Moscow because they had the nerve to schedule it in the middle of a work day (!).
Happily a video has sprung up on YouTube of an excerpt of a marvelous Adagio section from Swan Lake with Svetlana Zakharova as the 'White Swan'.
This is extremely 'luxurious' and beautiful dancing. I could not keep my eyes off of it.
To me it contains supreme expression of 2 things that I've managed to learn about dancing in the few years that I've been seriously involved in it so far.

I'm a rhythm junky. Since childhood I've been very fascinated by syncopation and emphasis on certain beats in a measure and what can be done with them. The backbeat (emphasis on 2 and 4) the foundation of much popular music and James Brown's invention of emphasis on 'the ONE' are still as fresh today as ever. So, what is now called 'Urban Dance' has always fascinated me. I learned that feeling 'in the streets' (not a dance studio) as a child.
So my first forays into dance as a middle-aged adult were, of course, HipHop where I could express the rhythm (it would always be the same scene coming into a class for the first time, the youngsters would have an attitude 'what's this old guy doing in OUR class'. Of course, once the music starts and the back-beat and the ONE beg to be set free, it usually is clear why I'm in the class.. it's to express the rhythm, and they usually respect that (the roots of that physical expression were planted in me as a kid, and I've never lost it).

There's more to dance than rhythm though and my first 'real' dance teacher Molly Kozma demonstrated to me very effectively a different kind of musicality, done during slow Adagio sections and that was a concept and feeling of 'filling up the entire space of the music'. 'Stretching it out' so to speak. It is a very beautiful feeling..
The above video of Svetlana Zhakarova shows her filling space and time in a way that I've never quite seen before. There are almost no stationary 'poses', there is just a continuous, sensuous 'unrolling' of feeling. It's inspiring.

Another lesson that has stuck with me is the idea of contrasts of expectation, that at certain times 'Less is more', that at the right time small movement can convey a whole lot more meaning than a big dramatic one. HipHop-Jazz teacher Christian Crawford effectively conveyed that concept into me. Right in the middle of some frenetic movements you could halt suddenly and take an entire beat to move only 1 finger and the small movement of that one finger carries a lot of weight because of the way that it has been staged !
In the video, I feel this at 7min 53 seconds during the movement after the pirouette (spin), the leg in the air moves from being bent towards the standing leg, outward. This movement is done very softly, almost like an afterthought. I've seen a number of others to this same part in the Ballet more forcefully, but to me, the way that it is done in this performance is striking and makes a big impression because of it's restraint... In this case it's playing with my expectations in another way. I've been conditioned to expect a more dramatic looking movement, the leg forcefully flung out and held, so when it is not, I take notice.. (the that it is done is also in tune with the overall feeling of 'continuity' of the section)

Marvelous stuff...

Pacific Northwest Ballet

At times over the last few days I questioned just what in the world I was doing. Voluntarily getting baked mid-day, ending the days with the body enveloped with fatigue. I am sure to be spending at least one day getting soaked with the approaching rain front. I could have just hopped a plane midday and arrived in Seattle fresh as a daisy in time for dinner. The All Wheeldon Program by Pacific Northwest Ballet this evening put all such doubts to rest. The dancing was superb, the choreography was innovative and beautiful. Now that I've been a Ballet hobbyist for a few years the genius and freshness of Wheeldon's work is very clear to me. What treat to have a complete program devoted to his work.

The weather forecast speaks of rain AND wind coming tomorrow. Rain I can handle, but rain AND wind I will pass on. The combination of the two makes for some very un-carefree riding. Add to that the other drivers on the road, dome of whom demonstrate no awareness of the increased hazard posed by such conditions and it's just not worth the risk. To me the confluence of these 3 conditions are one of the few times that riding a motorcycle sucks.

Instead I'll have a nice relaxed day hanging in Seattle tomorrow :-)

Ballet and Martial Arts

I have been involved in Ballet training for almost 2 years now and have now come to a surprising realization of how similar it is to serious Martial Arts training on many levels. Perhaps because the desired use of the body (and mind) while within the possibilities of what is possible to do, requires constant training to progress or to just to simply maintain.

In martial arts training I have felt it. When trained up a special type of acuity becomes woven into you. Your body/mind is different and the manifestation of the training shows itself in surprising ways. Miss a few days training, or train for a few days 'without intent' and the ability is gone. You don't know that its gone until you realize that some things that used to happen spontaneously just don't seem to happen anymore. It just slipped away from you. Ballet dancers have a saying about training 'miss a day or 2 and you know it', 'miss more than than that and the audience knows it'.
I believe that this is because we train up specialized abilities, but 'everyday life' conspires to take it all away. As Sun Si-Quan, the author of the book pictured above mentioned within: 'Martial Artist s are different from other people. The way that we stand, walk and move is different'.

One thing special about Ballet training is the emphasis on training 'at the Barre'. These are the basic exercises that train up the special things that make Ballet what it is. These are the things that have the body do the things that are not done in normal life. In true martial arts (as opposed to pretend martial arts that don't train up any 'special' abilities) there is an emphasis on 'basic' or 'foundation' training. These are the special things that make Martial Arts what it is. There is a martial arts saying about basic training: 'If you just practice forms (kicking, punching routines and sparring) and don't practice the foundation, even if you practice into old age, you'll end up with nothing'. This is because without it you'll just be kicking and punching 'like a regular person'. Fast and accurate perhaps, but without that 'extra something' that only the specialized art can get you.

The Ballet Barre is the dancers 'foundation'. The training that yields the special flavor.

I'm of the impression that foundation training is often overlooked because it doesn't seem like the activity that one originally set out to do. Training at the Ballet Barre doesn't look like 'dancing'. As far as Martial Arts goes, I went through a period of 'floundering'. It was rather frustrating spending years of training and knowing that I was not really progressing. After about 8 years of this I finally stumbled on a teacher that had 'the secrets'. Progress was fast after that. A year of training was more than the entire decade that preceded it. The 'secret' was an emphasis on foundation training. His particular foundation consisted of standing still for an hour, every day at the beginning of class. Breathing, nothing but natural breathing. Standing around, not moving for an hour seems as far from doing 'Martial Art' as it's possible to do, but paradoxically my skill levels jumped up to the next level after investing in that practice. It was the beginning of being able to do things that 'regular people' can't do. As I mentioned earlier, skip a few days practice though and it's lost (!).

In Ballet as in Martial Arts, every moment spent training the 'foundation' must be with intent, start to finish. In mechanical terms, the mind is being trained to perform. What one does in training is what one will do when the heat is on. Habitually doing sloppy endings or 'not doing it for real' is how one will internalize the practice.

In more serious pursuits improper training can have deadly results. There is a famous incident in the annals of Law Enforcement which is known as 'The Newhall Massacre'. In this incident a group of law enforcement officers lost their lives in a shootout against armed fugitives. One fact that came out in the post event investigation was the finding of empty shell casings in the pockets of at least one of the slain officers. The presence of the casings was interpreted as the result of the repeated habit of emptying the revolver's spent cylinder casings and placing them in the pocket so as not to have to pick them up later. It was surmised that this ingrained habit learned from constant rehearsal at the shooting range became the way that they performed the task of shooting when under pressure. Further, the time taken to perform this action, rather than just dumping the spent casings straight to the ground may have cost them their lives !

Training is serious time. It is the time that we use to make ourselves what we want to be. Ballet and Martial Arts. :-)

No Kirov for me, sigh...

Got a great ticket to see the Kirov Ballet at Zellerbach tonight, but I don't fell well enough to go !
I'm going to call the box office to see about donating the ticket.
Major-ly bummed I was really looking forward to this and can't really afford to get a ticket for another night..
Someone tell me how good it was !