Welcome to Cuesheet, a performance guide published by the Education Department of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC. This Cuesheet is designed to be used before and after the San Francisco Ballet and/or the Pacific Northwest Ballet Working Rehearsals. The first portion of this Cuesheet and the final page contain information and activities that apply to both ballet companies and working rehearsals. Information about the individual ballet companies is on pages 4-5 (SFB) and pages 6-7 (PNB). What s in Cuesheet? Quiet Please!, page 2 Basic Movements and Steps of Ballet, pages 2-3 San Francisco Ballet, pages 4-5 Pacific Northwest Ballet, pages 6-7 Activities and Resources, page 8
2 Quiet Please! The Role of the Audience at a Working Rehearsal It is unusual for an audience to attend a rehearsal. Most choreographers and artistic directors allow no observers in the rehearsal room or the theater during a rehearsal. The working rehearsal that you will attend allows you to observe the ballet dancers in a dress rehearsal. Prior to this rehearsal, the dancers worked in a dance studio with recorded music or piano accompaniment. The shift from studio to stage allows the dancers to acquaint themselves with the dimensions of the stage and to perform the ballets with the orchestra. Although each ballet s choreography is established, theater stages vary and dancers may need to adapt their dancing to different performance spaces. Orchestral adjustments, such as changes in tempo or volume, that enhance the merging of movement and music are also made during working rehearsals. Timothy Lynch of PNB As you watch the rehearsal, you may notice that some dancers move with energy and dynamics, while others walk or mark through the choreography. These dancers may have injuries or may be learning new placements in the choreography. Your role as an audience member at a working rehearsal is to remain quiet and attentive. Stay seated and still so that the dancers and other artists can concentrate on their work. Watch the dancers, listen to the orchestra, and observe how the dancing reflects or blends with the music. See if you recognize any of the ballet positions diagrammed on page 3 of this Cuesheet. Show your appreciation by applauding the dancers at the conclusion of a ballet. Enjoy this insider s glimpse of preparation for performance. Classical Ballet Training Preparation for becoming a ballet dancer requires extensive training in moving through the basic positions of the feet, arms, head and body. Study the illustrations on page 3 and try to imitate the body positions they depict.
Basic Movements and Steps of Ballet 3 Arms in 5th feet in 1st Arms in 2nd feet in 1st Try this pattern: Begin with arms in 5th feet in 1st Use continuous, flowing movement and move your arms from 5th to 2nd position, then from 2nd to 1st to 4th back to 5th Now try this sequence of arm movements to a piece of slow-tempo music. Try creating your own arm pattern using the various arm positions. Perform your arm pattern to recorded music. During the Working Rehearsal watch how the dancers move their arms and see if you can identify which arm positions they use. Try this pattern: Stand in 1st Move your right foot to 2nd, then to 3rd, to 4th, to 5th, and finish in 1st Duplicate these movements with the left foot. Try the accompanying arm positions with foot positions. Try dancing this sequence of movements to a recording of your favorite music. Arms in 1st feet in 1st Arms in 2nd feet in 2nd Arms in 3rd feet in 3rd Arms in 4th feet in 4th Elizabeth Loscavio and Yuri Possokhov of SFB Arms in 5th feet in 5th Illustrations courtesy of Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (3rd edition) by Gail Grant PHOTO BY MARTY SOHL
4 San Francisco Ballet The San Francisco Ballet (SFB), founded in 1933, is one of America s oldest ballet companies. SFB produced the nation s first full-length production of the ballet The Nutcracker. Helgi Tomasson, SFB Artistic Director since 1985, has moved the company into a new era of stagings of ballet classics, creations of new works from internationally renowned classical and modern choreographers, and touring. Under Tomasson s direction, SFB has become one of the largest, most important ballet companies in the United States. Artistic Director & Choreographer - Helgi Tomasson Born in Iceland in 1942, Helgi Tomasson received his ballet training in Iceland s capital city, Reykjavik, and in Copenhagen, Denmark. He won the Silver Medal at the First International Ballet Competition in Moscow. He has choreographed over twenty-five ballets, including full-length productions of ballet classics, as well as intricate and varied dances showcasing the unique qualities of individual SFB dancers. The San Francisco Ballet performs the following ballets during the working rehearsal: PHOTO BY RIGMOR MYDTSKOV Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes Originally choreographed by Mark Morris for Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1988, this ballet is what Morris terms musical visualization. In an interview with Dance Magazine, Morris explains, My structure comes from the structure of the music I use. In a way, the dancers become musical visualizations... The music, by Virgil Thomson, is based on familiar folk tunes. Morris s choreography is filled with surprising designs, combinations, and ideas, evident from the moment the first two dancers emerge on stage. This is an abstract ballet with an unconventional perspective: Every dancer is equal in position and dance ability to all. (An unusual attitude in ballet where hierarchy of dancers skills and reputations are the norm.)
San Francisco Ballet 5 Evelyn Cisneros and Benjamin Pierce in Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes The Dance House The loss of a friend to AIDS inspired David Bintley to create The Dance House. The ballet places a figure of death at center stage and surrounds him with dancers. Bintley leaves it to the audience to decide who these people are and how they relate to the central figure. Concerned that the audience will think the work is only about AIDS, Bintley comments, For a long time I ve been taken with the idea of the dance of death and the romantic idea of virtuosity and the diabolic... The piece could be about the death of anybody, expressed in terms of what we dancers do. The ballet is performed to Dmitri Shostakovich s Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, a piece that portrays a range of emotions, from desperation to happiness. Tuning Game This plotless ballet, choreographed by Helgi Tomasson, embraces and illuminates the music of John Corigliano s Oboe Concerto in contemporary ballet style. Tomasson chose the music because of the various and interesting ways the composer uses the oboe. I felt I could interpret how I heard the music without having to do a story. It gives me an opportunity to do different moods, different feelings. The music inspired Tomasson to choreograph in a different style: I realized right away that it would not look right if I used strictly classical steps. PHOTOS BY MARTY SOHL Helgi Tomasson choreographs Tuning Game with Yuri Possokhov and Elizabeth Loscavio.
6 Pacific Northwest Ballet Under the artistic guidance of Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) of Seattle, Washington has become one of the nation s most respected ballet companies. Each year the Company performs a series of repertory programs consisting of original works by Stowell, ballets by George Balanchine (staged by Russell), commissioned ballets by contemporary choreographers, and ballet and modern dance classics by master choreographers. Patricia Barker and Amy Rose in The Quilt George Balanchine was one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century and a co-founder of The School of American Ballet (SAB). His ballerinas were known for their long legs, ultra thinness, speed and flexibility. His dance works are abstract, plotless, musical visualizations that reflect the rhythm, phrasing, and texture of music. Artistic Directors - Kent Stowell and Francia Russell Kent Stowell and Francia Russell have been Artistic Directors of PNB since 1977. Stowell, PNB s principal choreographer, has choreographed full-length productions of ballet classics such as Swan Lake and Nutcracker, and created many innovative works including Quaternary, Delicate Balance and Carmina Burana (which you will see during the PNB working rehearsal). Kent Stowell PHOTO BY GEOFFREY BARIS PHOTO BY RICK DEAN Francia Russell Francia Russell is PNB s Artistic Director, PNB School Director, and Affiliate Professor of Dance at the University of Washington. She added the works of George Balanchine to the Company s repertory. You will see Balanchine s Four Temperaments during this working rehearsal.
Pacific Northwest Ballet 7 Pacific Northwest Ballet performs the following ballets during the Working Rehearsal: The Four Temperaments The Four Temperaments was choreographed by George Balanchine in 1946. The ballet and music are based on a medieval notion of physiology that a human being s disposition and health were dominated by one of four different temperaments melancholy (sad), sanguine (cheerful), phlegmatic (passive), and choleric (angry). The temperaments are used to mark sections of the ballet. This ballet is considered a modern ballet classic because it was the first ballet in which Balanchine presented his new aesthetic of dance a sparse classicism, featuring movement for its own sake, with little or no emotional association. Speed and kinetic impact were valued above emotion. This concept shocked the first audiences who experienced this ballet, but over the last half century it has become a standard aesthetic approach to choreography for both ballet and modern dance. Anne Derieux and Phillip Otto in The Four Temperaments Paul Gibson in Carmina Burana PHOTO BY WILLIAM WEST Carmina Burana In 1993 Kent Stowell choreographed this multi-media spectacle to Carl Orff s 1937 musical cantata by the same name. Uniting sets, costumes, orchestra, chorus, soloists, dancers, and choreography, Stowell created a piece of total theater that joins performers and audiences in a powerful communal experience. The lyrics (in Latin, French, and German) date from the Middle Ages and express (often irreverently) human themes that bridge centuries. A hymn to the goddess Fortuna (who was thought in the Middle Ages to control the ups and downs of human destiny) opens and closes Carmina Burana. Under the Wheel of Fortune (her symbol), the dancers portray the variety of human life. As ragged everymen, vibrant country folk, defiant outcasts, and elegant courtiers, they express the indestructible longing for love and happiness that unites us all. Dancers in flesh-colored unitards appear frequently through the ballet to suggest an ideal that lingers in our dreams and that we may even experience in rare moments of our lives.
8 Activities and Resources ACTIVITIES PNB Artistic Director Francia Russell in rehearsal Before The Performance Find some books about ballet in your school or community library. Look at the pictures and identify the dancers body, feet, and arm positions by referring to the illustrations on page 3 of this Cuesheet. Dance critics are writers who review ballet performances for newspapers. What are some words that critics might use to describe effective dance performances? What are some adjectives that describe styles of movement (i.e., rapid, fluid, smooth...)? List verbs or phrases a writer might use in place of dance or move. During the Performance As you watch the dancers, think of words you might use to describe what you are experiencing. After the Performance Describe in writing your impressions of the ballets, the dancers, and the working rehearsal. Look through The Washington Post or The Washington Times for reviews of the San Francisco Ballet or the Pacific Northwest Ballet performances at the Kennedy Center. Do your ideas about the dancing agree or differ from those of the dance critic? Note the words and phrases the critic uses in the written review. Discuss the difficulties involved in attempts to use words to express an artistic experience. PHOTO BY RICK DEAN James A. Johnson, Chairman Lawrence J. Wilker, President Derek E. Gordon, Vice President, Education San Francisco Ballet Pacific Northwest Ballet Working Rehearsal Cuesheet Editor: Rosalind Flynn. Writer: Nancy Diers Johnson. Design: Paul Dupree Communications. Cuesheet is funded in part through the support of the U.S. Department of Education, The Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. 1996 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Picture Books of Ballet Clarke, Mary & Clement Crisp. Ballet, an Illustrated History. New York: Universe Books, 1973. Fonteyn, Margot. The Magic of Dance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979. Care and Training of the Dancer s Body Barringer, Janice & Sarah Schlesinger. The Pointe Book, Shoes, Training & Technique. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, 1992. Dufort, Antony. Ballet Steps: Practice to Performance.New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1990. Hammond, Sandra N. Ballet Basics. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1993. RESOURCES Books about Dance History Cass, Joan. Dancing Through History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. Dunning, Jennifer. But First A School, The First Fifty Years of the School of American Ballet. New York: Viking, 1985. Gruen, John. People Who Dance, 22 Dancers Tell Their Own Stories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, 1988.