Ballet West Blog

Dancers work extremely hard and people say they do it for the applause.  Well that is true but the rehearsal process is an enormous part of the dancer’s life.  Dancers, Ballet Masters and Accompanists spend endless hours in the studio working on perfecting movement, gaining stamina and cultivating artistry.

The artists of BALLET WEST have a lot to be thankful for because Artistic Director Adam Sklute has invited three great Stars of the dance to be with us our very first week back from summer break!

In the course of this week the artists of BALLET WEST are working with New York City Ballet’s glorious Ballerina Maria Calegari on Balanchine’s 1976 CHACONNE,

America’s Margot Fonteyn, Janie Parker is teaching us Ben Stevenson’s 1969 THREE PRELUDES,

And Keith Roberts star of American Ballet Theatre and Broadway is teaching Twyla Tharp’s 1990 BRIEF FLING.

This is the time when we are very, very fortunate.  We get to go to work and all day long we glean invaluable information and grow leaps and bounds artistically because of these great artists of the dance.

Thank you Maria Calegari, Janie Parker and Keith Roberts for sharing your artistry with us. Above all thank you Adam Sklute for providing us this opportunity to work with some of ballet’s greatest legends. This is our biggest inspiration.

-Mark

What a week! Got a lot done! We learned all of “Ballet West For Children, The Sleeping Beauty”, we started a brand new work by Heather Gray who is a former Ballet West and Dutch National Ballet dancer. We had a fire drill (where Maggie Wright Tesch and Peter Christie proceeded to give notes on the sidewalk) and we started putting together our own repertoire.

-Mark

A day with the llamas
By Denise Bégué

Artistic Director Adam Sklute and I were invited to join long-time patrons Caty and Jerry White at their llama ranch “Pear Tree Llamas” in Midway, Utah on August 19th for an afternoon of fun and exercise. Caty and Jerry have 15 llamas that tour and show nationally, they are great competitors on the obstacle course. Adam and I were invited to work with three of their best competitors, Senor Pisac, Misty’s Mister and Girlfriend’s Taylor. Caty provided us with instruction on how to work with the llamas through the different obstacles, including the jumps. However, the llamas often had their own ideas. We are grateful to Caty and Jerry for their gracious invitation, we had a wonderful time. Truly, an enjoyable way to spend a beautiful day in Midway, Utah!

Caty White and Adam Sklute

Denise Bégué and Adam Sklute with llamas: Senor Pisac, Misty’s Mister and Girlfriend’s Taylor

Adam and Senor Pisac have a discussion about completing the jumps

Senor Pisac and Adam reach an impasse

Senor Pisac and Adam agree to disagree

Denise and Misty’s Mister show off their side-stepping skills

Denise and Misty’s Mister take a break

Girlfriend’s Taylor

Kissing Caty

The cast takes a final bow

Last Friday, the end of week 1 for BW2 started with a 9am headshot call. This was arranged by Melanie Gladding from Marketing/PR. The photographer is Jesse Coss. The new headshots will be up soon. In the mean time enjoy some photos of the session.

-Mark

Once the intense ballet season is over all dancers rest a bit and then make sure they get back to class in time to be ready for the new season. But Ballet West Soloist Kate Crews took class, practiced/taught yoga and went to Honduras (she climbed a mountain the previous summer!) Below are a few excerpts from her Honduras Diary:

“Kensey is a 2 year old girl at the refuge outside of Tagucigalpa, Honduras. Her mom is 16 and was abused. They came to the refuge for safety………We did check ups on the babies and worked with the moms to have positive futures with their babies…….We took care of the babies so the girls could have some time of their own. They very rarely have me time since most of them breast feed and have to take care of the babies on their own. All of the mothers at he refuge are under 18 years of age, the youngest being 13.”

“In the village of Los Pinos we worked at the school, helped with many donations, and taught the kids to brush their teeth, many of them for the first time.”

“Above is my sweet little Marina. She is washing her food dish after coming down the hill to the church to get some food and a bath. She and her sisters bathe once a week with buckets of water at the church and can get clean clothes and food there. They cannot be given any help beyond that as their father sells everything for drugs and their mother is mentally ill.”

“This is me at the public hospital with a newborn. We helped moms with their babies and showers after birth….They are wheeled into a room containing 25 cots on either side of the hospital with very few nurses….. They are dropped off and have little or no help…….Most moms are made to leave after 24 hours, no matter what type of birth.”

“This is me with children of Los Pinos after we fed the breakfast and had a great teeth brushing session.”

Welcome home Kate and Brava! You are an inspiration!

-Mark

Ashlee Christofferson -
Volunteers at Ballet West play a vital role in the success of our company. There are many volunteer opportunities available such as intermission receptions, boutique, poster handing, sugar plum parties, nutcracker auditions, and other special events. We have a fabulous group of volunteers that range from old to young, come from different backgrounds, and have a variety of different reasons why they chose Ballet West as a place to volunteer. In addition to truly enjoying their volunteer experiences there are other perks to volunteering. Many of the opportunities allow the volunteers to attend ballet performances for free with a guest and most recently was the Annual Ballet West Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast hosted by Lamb’s Grill Café that was held on August 12th. (Thank you Lamb’s!)

To learn more about volunteering at Ballet West please contact Ashlee Christofferson at 801.323.6917 or achristofferson@balletwest.org.

Ballet West Ambassador Christopher Renstrom forwarded me this artwork done by one of the youngest volunteers while at the breakfast.

-Mark

Welcome back returning BW2 Dancers: Sarah Blodgett from Hillsborough, CA, Jenna Herrera from Ontario, CA, Whitney Huell from Irmo, SC, and Alexander MacFarlan from Nashville, TN.

Welcome new BW2 Members: Dane Arbogast from Salt Lake City, UT, Lindsey Duerfeldt from Modesto, CA, Robert Goodman from Richmond, CA, Stephen King from Baltimore, MD, Kaleigh Schock from Chicago, IL and Adrian Michael Veloz from Santa Ana, CA.

Ballet West II, Day 1 - 08*09 Season.

Class: 10-11:30am, led by Maggie Wright-Tesch, former Ballet West Ballerina.

Sarah Blodgett with leg up!

11:30 - 11:45 - Break (Horsing around)

Company Member Thomas Mattingly and some BW2 Dancers horsing around.

11:45 - 1:15 - Ballet West for Children led by Peter Chrisite and Maggie Wright-Tesch.

Peter Christie teaches the class portion of Ballet West for Children - The Sleeping Beauty.

1:15 - 2:45 Maggie takes the ladies to Studio 4 for classical variations and mime from Sleeping Beauty for Ballet West For Children.

&

New Ballet West Dancer Thomas Mattingly works with the BW2 men in Studio 3 workshopping choreography for “Curtain Up”/”Innovations” consideration.

Thomas Mattingly trying out movement with 3 BW2 guys.

2:45 - 3:45 - Lunch Break.

Lunch Break

3:45 - 5:15 - BW2 works with company member Megan Furse in Studio 3 workshopping choreography for “Curtain Up”/”Innovations” consideration.

Megan Furse with Whitney Huell, Stephen King (back) and Sarah Blodgett and Alexander MacFarlan (front).

Jenna Herrera and Dane Arbogast

Stephen and Whitney try a lift for Megan.

5:15 - 6:45 - Pamela Robinson-Harris guides Company Dancer Jason Linsley as he workshops choreography for “Curtain Up”/”Innovations” consideration on BW2 Dancers.

6:45 - Work is done for the day. We return tomorrow to start over again.

-Mark

Adam Sklute, Pamela Robinson-Harris and I attended Thursday morning’s Ballet West Ambassadors meeting. We had a chance to witness part of their meeting and then we spoke a bit about what we do.

Photo above of Adam Sklute speaking to the Ballet West Ambassadors. (Sorry it’s blurry. Getting a new camera is on my to do list.)

Adam Sklute explained that “They are responsible for building a bridge between Ballet West and the Salt Lake City community. They develop fundraising events and they are essentially board members in training. Its a very generous and hard working group and they actually pay dues to be able to belong .”

To gather information about the Ballet West Ambassadors please go to ’support’ on this website.

-Mark

If you’d like a tour of the “Collaboration Station” follow me.

When one enters the Artistic Office he or she will pass Peter Christie’s area. As you already know Peter is the Academy Director and Director of Educational Programs. Almost every inch of his space is filled with work materials but he also has to keep some open space for meetings with teachers, parents, students and business associates. When the new space is complete Peter will have an actual office of his own.

Peter Christie

From Peter’s area one can walk south to the “Collaboration Station”. Today Principal Ballet Mistress Pamela Robinson-Harris and Company and Tour Manager Nick Mullikin spent the better part of the day putting together preliminary casting and day to day schedules for the first rehearsal period. Artistic Director Adam Sklute was in and out of this process because he has to give guidance and approval before any of it is released. Doing schedules is a huge puzzle because there are so many variables. In the first weeks of work for the 08-09 season which will begin with Ballet West II on August 11th, the Ballet West For Children show will have to be put together. Seven of the ten Ballet West II dancers will be new to the organization this season and might have never seen the show. The workshop phase of INNOVATIONS will begin. Six choreographers from Ballet West will given about four and a half hours with Ballet West II dancers to get approximately three mintues of choreography set. These six pieces will be shown at the Rose Wagner Theatre on Sept 8th as part of “Curtain Up”. Artistic Director Adam Sklute will then choose three peices which he thinks will make the best program for INNOVATIONS at the end of our season and those works will be expanded for the performances. Ballet West II will have a new work created for them to perform on the Gala Nov. 1. Pam and Nick will also fit in some time for me to stage another ballet for Ballet West II to be performed later in the season and if that is not enough some Nutcracker rehearsals will be scheduled too!

Pamela Robinson-Harris and Nick Mullikin

Other business attended to today included (and I am only giving you a small sampling) : a casting/costume consultation with wardrobe about Ballet West For Children, communication with Maggie Wright about Ballet West II schedules, email or phone conversations with Virginia Johnson, Evelyn Cisneros and Kirk Peterson about “The Tempest”, Maria Calegari about “Chaccone”, Georgina Parkinson about “Les Biches”, the Fokine Estate/Archive about “Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor”, and Keith Roberts about Twyla Tharp’s “Brief Fling”. If scheduling is not difficult enough with so many repetiteurs coming to stage so many new works, Nick and Pam had to decide how to get the most of our time - getting the right dancers into the most beneficial rehearsals and figuring fittings and photo calls in too! Thank God they’re really good at this!

At the southern most point of the Collaboration Station is the Artistic Director’s office. Though Adam Sklute has been with Ballet West for more than a year he is only now getting a chance to make his office his own. It’s still in progress so I hope he doesn’t mind the picture I am posting (from my iPhone).

Artistic Director Adam Sklute in conference with John A. Roake, Denise Begue, Melanie Gladding and Ashlee K, Christofferson.

-Mark

Downtown Salt Lake City is in for a major face-lift to be completed in 2011. The project named City Creek Center will encompass 20 acres right in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City

As you already know Ballet West’s home is the Capitol Theatre. Recently the space to the west of the Capitol was cleared to make room for our new headquarters. Our day to day operations are already based in the theatre building but five new studios will be added for the Company and Academy and our Costume Shop will join us at the Capitol. The lobby of the theatre will be expanded amongst other changes.

The Capitol Theatre Marquise

Western side of the Capitol.

The recently cleared space.

-Mark