But back to the Gigue as we know it today: you run out to center stage, the conductor makes eye contact with you and beats one measure for nothing with her baton, two triplet beats of 6/8, and it begins simply enough with three poses on the one beat of each triplet. A second voice enters and you begin dancing to each beat. The third voice joins and the syncopation begins, one two one two one two one two three one, before you join back up to the swing of the triplets for a nice balancé step. Then before you know it, you’re flying around the stage in a vaudevillian, topsy-turvy step,
When we dancers learn roles, any part really, there are steps, musicality, patterns, formations, style, and often character to master. Last night, I had the opportunity to debut in the special role of the Gigue in George Balanchine’s Mozartiana, set to Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 4. A little bit of backstory: Balanchine choreographed this ballet in 1981, less than two years before he died. Many consider it to be his last masterpiece. Fascinatingly enough, Balanchine first choreographed a ballet to the Mozartiana music in 1933 for his short-lived company Les Ballets 1933, which seems to have only been performed for a few years following. (It had its American premiere in 1935, only a few months after Serenade.) This is especially fascinating to me, because that’s nearly fifty years! No tapes, no videos, no Vimeo. We know the Gigue originally had multiple dancers in it, but I’ve never seen any footage—if it exists—of any elements from this production. Was it completely different, or did certain things stick with him for most of his life? Balanchine was my age when he first choreographed to this music. He had really only just begun his choreographic career in America. Did he know what was in store for him? I can barely wonder what I’ll be doing in 50 years.
But back to the Gigue as we know it today: you run out to center stage, the conductor makes eye contact with you and beats one measure for nothing with her baton, two triplet beats of 6/8, and it begins simply enough with three poses on the one beat of each triplet. A second voice enters and you begin dancing to each beat. The third voice joins and the syncopation begins, one two one two one two one two three one, before you join back up to the swing of the triplets for a nice balancé step. Then before you know it, you’re flying around the stage in a vaudevillian, topsy-turvy step,
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I am pleased to welcome my NYCB colleague Troy Schumacher to Thoughts from the Paint. Troy works especially hard during the Nutcracker season and he has graciously taken the time to write about what it is like to dance the role of the lead Candy Cane. Enjoy! I think that one of the most fascinating things about being a dancer is the amount of preparation that goes into what we do. In many ways, preparation defines ballet itself. We spend years honing our technique in class and then maintaining our bodies outside of the studio. I wake up in the morning and do a quick abdominal exercise series and some basic stretches before I leave for work. That is the preparatory stretching to the preparatory stretching I do for 15-30 minutes before class. Then, I’m in class preparing my body for rehearsal, which is in itself a preparation for the performance. If you don’t like prep work, I wouldn’t recommend doing this!
I’m going on about this because it’s fresh in my mind. I’m about to go to the theater to perform the lead Candy Cane in an evening performance of the Nutcracker. It’s a great role but it is quite stressful at the same time. You must get through the hoop! On the other hand, performing it is loads of fun. But one small mistake and the hoop ends up not going where it’s supposed to |
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