Indianapolis City Ballet Q&As w/Master Teachers

As most everyone knows, the Indianapolis City Ballet organization is well on its way to rebuilding community interest in ballet through the presentation of Evening With The Stars gala performances and a series of extraordinary master classes that draw students from the tri-state area and beyond.

The outreach effort includes a Q&A session with each master teacher that is hosted by Jolinda Menendez. These sessions are videoed and subsequently added to the organization's Vimeo channel. Each interview gives an amazing look into the artist's background and career and includes insights relative to the ballet world of the type that one no longer reads in ballet fan magazines or newspaper coverage. One extraordinary interview that all students should watch is that of NYCB's Daniel Ulbricht from about a year ago. He is quite a motivating force.

Two videos more recently uploaded include Patrick Armand of the San Francisco Ballet School who offered that "because of all the social media, people are becoming stars without having done anything" – ain't it the truth – and Veronika Part who disclosed the lack of feedback from ABT's artistic staff and described how the directors walk by her without even seeing her. Veronika had performed in the gala the night before, taught a master class, gave this interview, and then gave another master class following it. Quite a weekend of work.

Click here for more info on the remaining Master Classes for the 2014-2015 season.

 

Comments

[J]

Interesting comment from Patrick Armand, considering SFB's social-media maven Maria Kochetkova, who, as she is always pointing out with supporting photographs, works unceasingly and is always tired, which has evolved into her dancing and stage quality becoming uninspired and athletically competent. (This is on my mind because I recently saw her in Nutcracker, and she was outshone across-the-board by other soloists and principals.) And quite an admission from Veronika Part stated above. - Thank you for another year's worth of outstanding and discerning commentary, Haglund. I'm looking forward to more in the New Year. All the best to you in the New Year!

[Haglund]

Happy New Year, J.

I've never understood the buzz around Maria Kochetkova. I now avoid all of her appearances with ABT and urge everyone I know to do the same. If she's putting out uninspired performances at SFB, I hope Helgi does not fire her - because you know where she would end up.

Best in the New Year to you. Hope you plan to see Ratmansky's new Sleeping Beauty in March and that you will give us a full report.

[Marta]

Hi Haglund,

Thank you for the link to the Part interview. It was excellent, and she's phenomenal! I wondered if you knew who chose the dancers for the Kennedy Center ceremony honoring Patricia McBride. Peck, Lovette, Angle etc., naturals, and Cirio was a welcome surprise --but Misty Copeland dancing Tchaikovsky PdD?

Best wishes for the new year. Thanks always for your astute and refreshing critiques.

Marta

[Haglund]

Hi, Marta.

Don't have any idea who chose the dancers for the KC Honors. Obviously, Misty wasn't chosen because of any connection to McBride or the Balanchine aesthetic.

Maybe it was just the camera work -- but from the way Misty was throwing the force into those sissonnes to pointe, it's no surprise that she has incurred multiple fractures in her tibia. The force reverberated all the way up to her jaw line.

[sm]

Thank you so much for the Vimeo links. The interviews were wonderful! I couldn't agree more with Patrick Armand's observations about social media ballet stars and the negative effect of ballet competitions. As for the Kennedy Center ceremony, I kept asking myself why why why is Misty Copeland even there? It made NO SENSE whatsoever!

[Haglund]

Hi sm. Aren't those Vimeo vids great? All I could think of while listening to Daniel Ulbricht was my oh my, he's going to be a wonderful AD some day.

[L]

Haglund,

I have been loving your blog since I came across it about a month ago.

I observed Daniel Ulbricht teach class that day in Indianapolis. I had observed many of the master classes offered by Indianapolis City Ballet and his class was by far the best. Just amazing and so motivating. I am so glad you found out about these videos!

[Haglund]

Hi "L". Thanks for reading H.H.

I see that Ulbricht and Angel Corella are scheduled to participate as teachers/coaches for the upcoming inaugural Indianapolis International Ballet Competition in June. Hopefully that will present an opportunity for more revealing interviews. Angel is quite the motivator, too!!