"Forty-two
years ago, George Balanchine choreographed Emeralds for them,
and now here they are -- Violette Verdy and Mimi Paul -- in Seattle,
passing on the tailor-made movement to Pacific Northwest Ballet
dancers."
Lessons
from Legends
Violette Verdy and Mimi
Paul coach PNB dancers in Emeralds, the opening act to Balanchine's
masterpiece Jewels. By
Rosie Gaynor
They
watch with their bodies and with their memories and their hearts.
Forty-two
years ago, George Balanchine choreographed Emeralds for them, and
now here they are -- Violette Verdy and Mimi Paul -- in Seattle,
passing on the tailor-made movement to Pacific Northwest Ballet
dancers.
This endeavour marks the first time these
two ballet legends have coached Emeralds together. "And it
worked!" says Paul.
"It was good," agrees Verdy.
Indeed. A minute after slipping into
the studio, I notice one change already wrought: soloist Maria Chapman's
arms have taken on a beautifully rounded expressiveness. The coaches
watch from the front of the room, both with faces upturned: Verdy's
as though the dancing before her is a radiant, nourishing sun; Paul's
as though the dancing is explaining the
mysteries of the universe. Their bodies seem inhabited by the music;
you can read the shifts in direction and mood in the subtle movements
of their own torsos. Occasionally, a gorgeous arm extends to lead
a port de bras. They spring up to
coax a shoulder into place, and then stay standing, watching. These
two women are alert, "on," generous and completely connected
with the dancers they are coaching.
Neither one yells. Paul speaks privately,
almost in a whisper; Verdy calls out "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
and claps her hands with delight. Paul puts a hand up to her face,
cradling and tender, to show the angle of the head and the mood.
Verdy plays
with the fingertips of a dancer whose arabesque penchée dips
right in front of her -- more, more, all the way!
The dancers -- Maria Chapman, Carla Körbes,
Ariane Lallone, Louise Nadeau and Mara Vinson -- concentrate hard,
but then they nod and smile -- they understand. Only a small number
of the cues Verdy and Paul give relate to mechanics.
Since Pacific Northwest Ballet presented Emeralds in June 2006,
it's still relatively fresh for the company. Elyse Borne staged
it then, in a record 11 days, according to artistic director Peter
Boal. The dancers did well; the show received
praise from the local press and the New York Times.
"They were already good in general,"
says Verdy. So she and Paul sought
to help the dancers reach further beyond the technical -- to, as
Paul put it, "bring back the original idea and the atmosphere
of the piece, to try to impart the feel of the movement."
Verdy and Paul would know better than
anyone the original idea and atmosphere of Emeralds. After all,
their essence --who they are as dancers -- helped create this work.
Verdy, for whom Balanchine choreographed 13 roles, described the
process. "You were excited to discover how he saw you, how
he was using you, what he was giving you. It was a kind of discovery
of yourself through his eyes. But, at the same time, he was non-imposing.
Mr. B. used to say, 'Let's see what
we have.' Before telling you anything, he said, 'Show me what you've
got.'"
Paul, who actually got to choose
the music for one of her solos, appreciated "the bit
of freedom that I had to invent while dancing Emeralds. It
allowed some of my sense of creativity to weave through the
piece itself. To modulate a phrase musically or -- maybe there
was some invention step-wise too, because Balanchine was very
much like that in his work with us as dancers. He would talk
to us and then he'd say, 'Well, run here and do something.'
He had a wonderful trust in our imagination. He once said
ballerinas are dancers with an imagination."
Paul and Verdy have had to walk
a fine line at Pacific Northwest Ballet. One of their goals
for this extremely personal ballet was to not betray the text
(which is in part themselves) while simultaneously revealing
the five dancers they worked with. "That's what we want
for them," adds Verdy. "They should have that; they
should be seen with their identities."
It takes great generosity to coach
a ballet in this way, according to Pacific Northwest Ballet
ballet master Otto Neubert. "They saw every individual
dancer as her own self," he says appreciatively, noting
that he never heard them give the same one comment about interpretation
to two different dancers. Lallone
adds, "You never got the feeling of 'I did it this way
so you have to emulate it.' I never heard Mimi say 'no' and
I don't think Violette said it either. They had such a light
approach; it was spiritually liberating."
This theme of freedom cropped up frequently
in an interview with the dancers. Freedom in the spacing: Lallone
speaks of the movement as being newly "limitless." Freedom
to explore expression: Nadeau speaks of how animated Verdy appeared
in the early tapes and of the freedom Verdy gave her to respond
to the lush Romanticism of the music. Freedom from the tyranny of
counts: "They told the dancers not to be afraid if it's not
exactly what you've been taught," says Neubert. "It was
more like improvisation; it should look like it's coming at the
moment."
How does that work, exactly? "The
steps are the same for everybody," says Körbes, "but
the timing is a little bit different. Violette didn't say, 'Oh,
you have to soutenu on the 3.' We go to the corner and we do it
in the moment. Maybe Louise
balances longer, maybe I balance shorter; most important is to have
the feeling of how it's supposed to be."
Emeralds is very much a ballet of feeling,
of atmosphere. Therein lies one of the difficulties of presenting
it well -- and of teaching it. Atmosphere, says Verdy with a laugh,
is like taste. "It is indescribable. But if it's there, you
know it. And if it's not there, you know it, too." "I
can't even describe it," adds Paul, moving her fingers as though
to touch the atmosphere of Emeralds. "It's in the music. It's
in the layers."
The two do have words to coax this atmosphere
into existence. Verdy, for example, speaks of "softness, lyricism,
longing, it is dignified, noble: French, but translated into Balanchine."
And she speaks of relationships, specifically, "the seeking,
the losing, the gaining, the wanting and yet the shyness, the fear."
And they have concrete instructions:
"We asked for more contrasts," says Verdy, "and to
be more daring about ritards and things like that." They also
talk about spacing and risks. Other concrete notes? "Mimi talked
a lot about using my eyes," says Chapman, "and following
my hands and looking at my arms. It was something I would have really
never done, actually look up with my head and with my eyes -- really
look up -- all the way. And also the breath. She loved the kind
of 'lift-and-up' feeling," says Chapman. "Almost every
time we had arms and head up, she wanted a sort of big breath."
"And fluidity," says Lallone. "Not sticking to one
step, but letting things go through in movement. There's no stopping
and starting. It's
really all one sentence."
"And at the beginning of the solo
for [Louise, Mara and me]," says Körbes, "Violette
really explained what our hands were supposed to be doing."
Nadeau adds, "She talked about caressing your face, actually
touching your cheek." Körbes continues, "I loved
that. In the beginning you don't really know what your hand is doing,
so you can do less head and just kind of watch. It's like, 'Oh!
I'm moving.' I loved when Violette said that, because it makes the
solo start on the right note."
PNB Principal Louise Nadeau on learning
Emeralds direct from the source, former Balanchine ballerinas Violette
Verdy and Mimi Paul.
(Source: Pacific Northwest Ballet's YouTube
channel.)
Verdy, known for her way with metaphors,
did not disappoint. One metaphor Neubert found particularly memorable
concerned the arms in Verdy's solo: "'It is like a slight breeze
moving through very delicate trees.' Of course," says
Neubert, "if the tempo is too fast it looks more like a hurricane."
Paul speaks with a precise poetry all
her own. When talking about the walking solo, she says: "It
seemed more like a meditation. There's this feeling of the girl,
of her wanting to explore but not quite doing it. I felt protected.
Frank Moncion was the original male and he had a rather strong,
dramatic presence."
"And this came to me later,"
says Paul. "In fact, when they're walking on the stage together,
it's really just a continuation of a walk that they've already taken.
So it's not so much an entrance and a beginning; it's a moment of
pause in the walk they've been taking." For
a recent staging in New York, Paul had the dancers start five steps
early in the wings.
At a Pacific Northwest Ballet coaching
session open to the public, someone asked about the images Balanchine
had offered Paul and Verdy as they were creating Emeralds. "Not
too many," came the response, "it was all in the showing.
His example as he showed the step was stronger than an image."
This showing played a crucial role in Verdy and Paul's own coaching.
Non-verbal -- and sometimes nearly non-physical -- it highlighted
the ineffability of dance. They didn't do the
movement fully out, and yet they communicated something whole and
significant.
"It was very much in their
person," explains Lallone. "You could see by the
way they held their body," Körbes adds, and then
offers an example: "The way Violette would show lifting
the head up for the pas de deux: you just get it. Her eyes
would sparkle, and you knew that she loved doing this part,
and so you're like, 'Oh, okay, I get it.' They don't have
to show it full out; just the way they sparkle is enough to
make you understand."
"Mimi and Violette also connected
with all of us," continues Lallone. "We had this
very magical week with them. It was an instant connection."
"That connection," says Chapman, as the other dancers
nod, "was probably one of the most important parts of
the whole week."
Verdy and Paul left Seattle with
warm praise for their pupils and for what had been accomplished.
"All the dancers had moments that were just so really,
truly beautiful and so honest," says Paul. "They
have a much more acute realization of the space that they're
working in. It's more expansive than it was when we came."
Verdy agrees and adds that the dancers had also acquired a
certain confidence with the role.
I saw this confidence -- and the beauty
and honesty -- as the dancers took Emeralds to the stage in January.
Grace. Purity of movement. Atmosphere. They seemed to conduct the
music with their bodies. They danced with their memories and
with their hearts. <end>
The George Balanchine Foundation's
Video Archives has videotaped Violette Verdy and Mimi Paul coaching
Emeralds (in 2003 and 2008, respectively).
"'There's
a light, something in [Maureya Lebowitz] that wants to do
this very badly. And when you have that and it's coupled with
a very nice movement quality and a good solid technique, then
you have the makings of
a lovely artist.'"
-- Joysanne Sidimus, Balanchine répétiteur
Destined
for Stardom Royal
Winnipeg Ballet's Maureya Lebowitz is attracting critical
acclaim on the national stage. By Holly Harris
A
glittering new star is rising over prairie skies for Canada's
Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Charismatic corps de ballet member
Maureya Lebowitz, 18, has just performed the role of a lifetime,
portraying lead character Juliet in Dutch choreographer Rudi
van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet. She is the youngest
dancer to do so in the company's 69-year-old history, electrifying
audiences while drawing rave reviews that herald a dazzling
new ballerina on the horizon.
The petite dancer first joined the Royal
Winnipeg Ballet as an apprentice last year and was promoted
to the corps de ballet for the 2008-2009 season. Out of the
company's first three productions, she has performed lead
roles in two: Wendy in Jorden Morris' Peter Pan and,
most recently, Juliet, sharing the part with principal Vanessa
Lawson. She says she was surprised by the opportunity that
was handed to her by artistic director André Lewis,
but that only made her more determined to make the iconic
character her own.
"I wanted to prove to those who
have faith in me that I could do it," she says during
an interview, well aware that many eyes would be on her for
a role premiered by former Royal Winnipeg Ballet prima ballerina
Evelyn Hart. She believed her own relative inexperience would
be an asset when playing a character four years younger than
her, working intensively with her three coaches to develop
Juliet's emotionally complex layers while maintaining a sense
of "freshness."
One of her coaches, Royal Winnipeg Ballet
principal Tara Birtwhistle -- currently on a one-year leave
of absence -- agrees. "Although being so young, she has
a very moving stage presence and a natural technique,"
she says. "Maureya's Juliet comes from an innocent and
genuine place, she has no fear or preconceived ideas and there's
a beautiful 'rawness' to her Juliet.
Maureya already dances beyond her years.
Born in Malibu, California, Lebowitz moved at age four with
her parents, Beth and Gary, and older brother, Aaron, to the
small Midwest town of Darby, Montana, located in the idyllic
Bitterroot
Valley where her entrepreneurial father worked as a product
architect. Although her mother briefly danced herself when
she was young, Lebowitz laughs, "I'm just kind of out
of the blue!" when asked how she came to the art form.
She says it
was her love for rhythm and movement that first propelled
her toward a career in ballet, remembering dancing as a child
in grocery stores and on sandy beaches in Malibu. "It's
just that love of moving and having the music and expression
behind it. I think it's so beautiful," she enthuses.
After moving to Montana, Lebowitz began
regular after-school ballet classes with Paige Harlan, a former
graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Professional
Division, who studied in Winnipeg during the 1980s. Harlan
quickly recognized the young girl's passion for dance and
encouraged her to pursue professional training at the Royal
Winnipeg Ballet School.
Harlan recalls her
first impressions of the young girl. "She immediately
commanded your attention -- even at the age of four --
and she was able to do that all through her first years
of training," she says during a telephone interview
from Montana. "She was destined to be a superstar
from the moment she came into the studio." Harlan
says it was her former student's relentless drive for
"absolute perfection" and insatiable curiousity
about movement that always kept her one step ahead of
everyone else.
During her first Nutcracker production -- with
Aaron cast as the Nutcracker Prince -- Lebowitz, doubling
as a doll and a party girl, arrived at rehearsal one day
with
Clara's part entirely memorized. "She
knew her part even better than the real Clara!" laughs
Harlan. She was also performing difficult "tricks,"
such as 32 fouettés on pointe, at age 10 -- well ahead
of other students her age. "She was a serious little ballerina,"
Harlan says, "It just came second nature to her."
After first attending the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet Professional Division Summer Session -- which only
fuelled her passion and affirmed her desire to pursue ballet
training full time -- she entered the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
School in 2001, and was
awarded the prestigious Julia Arkos Memorial Award, the Arnold
Spohr Scholarship and the Prince Edward Award before graduating
with distinction in 2007.
She made her professional debut as Dieter
during the company's 2001 production of Nutcracker,
followed by the role of Young Clara in 2003. She says having
to portray a boy stretched her artistically, with the role
of Clara's younger brother particularly close to her heart.
"I had to dig deeper and use my creativity and imagination
to create that little character. It
opened up another window from the regular technical ballet
class that I was very excited to pursue later on," she
says. She knew immediately that this was the life for her.
"From the first jump I was hooked."
It was during this time when her precocious
gifts first caught Lewis' attention. He says what particularly
stood out for him was Lebowitz's intellectual ability to analyze
movement and make a strong connection between her mind and
body, describing her dancing as "organic." He says
she also possesses -- in spades -- that elusive, indefinable
"star" quality, not
just onstage but also in the rehearsal hall with artistry
that belies her young age.
Lebowitz brings the same energy and commitment
to each part, he adds, whether it's a lead role like Juliet,
or a smaller part such as Wendy's younger brother John Darling
that she also performed in Peter Pan. "There are
no small roles for her," he says emphatically, noting
that she is especially strong in creating interpretative roles
with lots of personality. "She really puts her heart
and soul into it."
Lebowitz had an opportunity to test her
mettle for the first time at the spring 2007 Youth America
Grand Prix competition held in New York City, chosen to represent
the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Professional Division by
principal Jacqueline Weber, director Arlene Minkhorst and
associate director Jorden Morris. Weber, also her coach, travelled
with the young artist, who admitted she found the experience
nerve-wracking.
She needn't have worried, placing as
a finalist against 300 other competitors for her performance
of Kitri's Variation from Don Quixote, Act III, the
Variation from Act III of La Fille Mal Gardée,
and a contemporary work, Tango for a Survivor, representing
the school, as Weber says, "beautifully with her talent,
genuineness and charm."
World-renowned Balanchine répétiteur
Joysanne Sidimus coached Lebowitz -- while still an apprentice
-- last season during the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's first all-Balanchine
evening in March 2008, for roles in The Four Temperaments
as
well as Serenade and Concerto Barocco. Sidimus
says during a telephone interview what struck her the most
about the passionate young dancer was her curiousity and quick
mind, always hungry for new challenges. "There's a light,
something in her that wants to do this very badly. And when
you have that and it's coupled with a very nice movement quality
and a good solid technique, then you have the makings of a
lovely artist," she says.
During the company's West Coast tour
later that spring, Lebowitz was also selected by Anna-Marie
Holmes and Lewis to perform the soloist role of Fairy of Diamonds
in The Sleeping Beauty, recounting how she learned
the entire choreography -- with no mirrors -- in only two
days before being thrust onstage for her Vancouver debut.
"It was wonderful," she says fearlessly, having
already performed as the Canari Fairy and Little Red Riding
Hood during the show's Winnipeg run.
She also created a significant buzz at
the Banff Summer Arts Festival 2007, performing as the first
violin in Balanchine's Concerto Barocco as well as
Brian Macdonald's rollicking Tam ti Delam. The capacity
audience -- including many alumni celebrating the 60th anniversary
of the Banff Centre's dance programmes -- couldn't take their
eyes off the radiant 16-year-old dancer, who set the festival
ablaze with her joyful interpretation and sparkling technique.
As she continues to grow as an
artist, Lebowitz is attracting critical acclaim on the
national stage. During the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's tour
of Peter Pan to Ottawa's National Arts Centre
in January 2009, critic Natasha Gauthier at the Ottawa
Citizen wrote of her portrayal of Wendy: "She
has it all: effortless, confident technique, exquisite
musicality, unforced acting and a special freshness
and charm all her own."
During the company's British Columbia
tour this spring, Vancouver weekly entertainment newspaper,
the Georgia Strait's Janet Smith stated: "As
for Wendy, American-born Maureya Lebowitz -- who's still,
unbelievably, in her teens -- hands in the kind of performance
that leaves you thinking you've seen the next big ballet
star ... [with] the kind of stage presence that makes
her the focus of every scene."
With the poised elegance reminiscent
of a young Margot Fonteyn and a natural sophistication
beyond her years, Lebowitz is capturing the hearts of
viewers everywhere she performs. Driven by her passion
for music, dance, travel and art, as well as the high
fashion she adores, she says she would like to eventually
perform in Europe, while quickly acknowledging the invaluable
role the Royal Winnipeg Ballet has played in her own
development as an artist. She pauses thoughtfully when
asked what the company has meant to
her."It's very special because not only is it where I started
the foundation of my training, but it has also inspired me to
continue to this professional level. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet
has given me
opportunities to perform and grow farther than I ever thought,"
she says."
The little girl who once danced on beaches
could only have imagined this life for herself, following
a path lit by renowned Royal Winnipeg Ballet luminaries that
include Christine Hennessey, Bonnie Wyckoff and her idol Evelyn
Hart. With a world of opportunity before her, Lebowitz embodies
the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's driving spirit of excellence while
establishing herself as its shining new star. "The Royal
Winnipeg Ballet shaped who I am today not only as an artist
but as a person. I am now being nurtured, challenged and allowed
to discover the dancer that I always hoped I would become,"
she says. "It's a dream come true." <end>
Choosing Charlotte: Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride
by Perry Tennenbaum
Departments
Dance Notes
Commentaries from Vancouver, the Prairies, Montreal, Toronto,
San Francisco, New York, Britain, France, Denmark, Norway, Russia
and Australia.
Reviews of James Kudelka and Royal Winnipeg Ballet (Vancouver);
National Ballet of Canada (Toronto); Oregon National Ballet (Oregon);
Boston Ballet (Boston); Houston Ballet (Houston) and Stuttgart
Ballet (Stuttgart).
Book Reviews
by Michael Crabb and Paul-James Dwyer
Film Reviews
by Paula Citron and Heidi Hagenlocher
