What would be the logical first question one would ask when starting to cowrite an autobiography?
Maybe, "when were you born?"
Somehow I managed to bypass this obvious question in my conversations with Carol (though I did have the year she was born) and was therefore very surprised to get to her class tonight and hear whispers from the office people that today's her birthday!
Happy Birthday Carol S!
We sang to her before class started, but later she told me she hates birthdays and tried not to let anyone know when it was, haha. Too bad :)
What she does is amazing for her age, and I don't mean that to sound weird but...for all she's done in her life she could just sit all day and be retired and give in to life, but she still teaches enthusiastically and wears her leotard and tights and demonstrates combinations nearly full out.
I can only hope that I'll be as happy as her and still dancing 50 years from now.
Showing posts with label c.s. book project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label c.s. book project. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Straight from the Horse's Mouth
After some time apart due to scheduling conflicts on both ends, today Carol and I were back to work on her book.
We finished the bare bones outline of her full (amazing) life, ending today's conversation with where she is now. The next step is to fill in endless details and anecdotes once I pull all the information we have already together in some sort of cohesive fashion (a big task).
I thought I'd share a few more interesting quotes from her...I don't want to put too much on here at this point but I can't help but want to share her (potentially controversial) opinionated yet highly knowledgeable thoughts.
*"What’s happening in ballet in the schools now...I don’t think anybody recognizes talent anymore. That was the one thing. Mr. Balanchine could recognize talent, and everybody knew it. He could pick the person from a hundred people who was going to be able to be made into a ballerina. Sometimes I think he could just make anybody a ballerina. He zeroed in on who they were and what their personalities were like. He could use those personalities to make them into a soloist or a ballerina. He looked at the person, not just the technique. Now I feel the people that are noticed are the ones with the highest extension and the biggest instep or the most pirouettes, which really doesn’t count for much in the long run..."
*Here she's talking about Saratoga and how the company's summer season has been cut back.
"I spoke to a dentist up there that said, 'When I go to the ballet I want to see tutus and people in pink tights and toe shoes. I don’t want to see people rolling around the floor in the dark.' He had been trained by Balanchine as to what ballet was. The whole area had been trained. They were very fortunate to be trained that well. Now when they see things that aren’t as good they don’t want to go. You can blame it on the economy and anything you want, but they’re not being given what they want to see...You can't just be a good dancer. You have to be an interesting personality as well. That’s what Balanchine did: he developed you as a human being at the same time he developed you as a dancer and performer."
Oh there's so much more...
We finished the bare bones outline of her full (amazing) life, ending today's conversation with where she is now. The next step is to fill in endless details and anecdotes once I pull all the information we have already together in some sort of cohesive fashion (a big task).
I thought I'd share a few more interesting quotes from her...I don't want to put too much on here at this point but I can't help but want to share her (potentially controversial) opinionated yet highly knowledgeable thoughts.
*"What’s happening in ballet in the schools now...I don’t think anybody recognizes talent anymore. That was the one thing. Mr. Balanchine could recognize talent, and everybody knew it. He could pick the person from a hundred people who was going to be able to be made into a ballerina. Sometimes I think he could just make anybody a ballerina. He zeroed in on who they were and what their personalities were like. He could use those personalities to make them into a soloist or a ballerina. He looked at the person, not just the technique. Now I feel the people that are noticed are the ones with the highest extension and the biggest instep or the most pirouettes, which really doesn’t count for much in the long run..."
*Here she's talking about Saratoga and how the company's summer season has been cut back.
"I spoke to a dentist up there that said, 'When I go to the ballet I want to see tutus and people in pink tights and toe shoes. I don’t want to see people rolling around the floor in the dark.' He had been trained by Balanchine as to what ballet was. The whole area had been trained. They were very fortunate to be trained that well. Now when they see things that aren’t as good they don’t want to go. You can blame it on the economy and anything you want, but they’re not being given what they want to see...You can't just be a good dancer. You have to be an interesting personality as well. That’s what Balanchine did: he developed you as a human being at the same time he developed you as a dancer and performer."
Oh there's so much more...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Early Amusing Quotes
Okay, I really shouldn't start sharing stuff that will go into this book after only 2 days of working on it. But I simply can't resist.
I spent most of my Friday afternoon transcribing my first recorded conversation with Carol, which spanned from her childhood years to her first dance solo at age 7, to her brief time at SAB, and ending the discussion with her exciting apprenticeship with NYCB beginning in 1958. Wow!
Here are just a few of many amusing, intriguing, and exciting anecdotes she shared with me:
*Speaking of her first teacher in NYC (not at SAB): "She didn’t know how to teach young children and that’s what she had in her school. We never did anything like glissade assemble. We did 32 fouettes and chasse saut de basques and tour jetes. We used to get a silver dollar for doing six pirouettes on pointe. Even if we hoped around on pointe we’d get a silver dollar for doing six.
But she was strict, boy oh boy. We were afraid of her. She had a stick. Which was a good thing because that’s what ballet is. You are guilty until proven innocent in ballet. That was her attitude, and that was the attitude that I was conditioned to. And it was perfect for becoming a professional dancer. I liked it. I loved it. I was dancing my head off."
*Her audition for SAB: "I had an audition with Muriel Stewart. I did an arabesque on the right side and she fixed it. And it hurt. So then we did it on the left side and I looked for the place that it hurt and I figured that’s what she wanted. She said, 'Good.' I didn’t really know what she did, but it hurt. So I looked on the left side for that place. I was smart. I was clever. Savvy."
*"Part of wanting to be in NYCB was not just the dancing part. It was the idea of having a relationship with the people, the dancers. Getting to know these wonderful people that we saw on the stage, and getting to know this great genius, George Balanchine, and getting to work with him. It was not my idea to become a big star. I was just happy to be around those kinds of people, those kinds of mentalities and minds and professionals. It was show business."
Oh there's so many more fantastic quotes but I feel like I must save it all until I can work for the finished product...it's already rather time consuming but at least I'm enjoying the "work." Now if only I could get paid for this :)
I spent most of my Friday afternoon transcribing my first recorded conversation with Carol, which spanned from her childhood years to her first dance solo at age 7, to her brief time at SAB, and ending the discussion with her exciting apprenticeship with NYCB beginning in 1958. Wow!
Here are just a few of many amusing, intriguing, and exciting anecdotes she shared with me:
*Speaking of her first teacher in NYC (not at SAB): "She didn’t know how to teach young children and that’s what she had in her school. We never did anything like glissade assemble. We did 32 fouettes and chasse saut de basques and tour jetes. We used to get a silver dollar for doing six pirouettes on pointe. Even if we hoped around on pointe we’d get a silver dollar for doing six.
But she was strict, boy oh boy. We were afraid of her. She had a stick. Which was a good thing because that’s what ballet is. You are guilty until proven innocent in ballet. That was her attitude, and that was the attitude that I was conditioned to. And it was perfect for becoming a professional dancer. I liked it. I loved it. I was dancing my head off."
*Her audition for SAB: "I had an audition with Muriel Stewart. I did an arabesque on the right side and she fixed it. And it hurt. So then we did it on the left side and I looked for the place that it hurt and I figured that’s what she wanted. She said, 'Good.' I didn’t really know what she did, but it hurt. So I looked on the left side for that place. I was smart. I was clever. Savvy."
*"Part of wanting to be in NYCB was not just the dancing part. It was the idea of having a relationship with the people, the dancers. Getting to know these wonderful people that we saw on the stage, and getting to know this great genius, George Balanchine, and getting to work with him. It was not my idea to become a big star. I was just happy to be around those kinds of people, those kinds of mentalities and minds and professionals. It was show business."
Oh there's so many more fantastic quotes but I feel like I must save it all until I can work for the finished product...it's already rather time consuming but at least I'm enjoying the "work." Now if only I could get paid for this :)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Birthday: Balanchine and a Book
Today is the anniversary of George Balanchine's birthday.
And today a new project was born in my own life: a book project with a dancer who spent 20 years working with the legendary choreographer.
I've been taking class with former NYCB soloist Carol Sumner on and off for almost a year now. A stickler for Balanchine's musicality and technicality, she not only gives a great class (that kills the inner thighs!) but provides a host of witticisms in her corrections and explanations coming from her incredible career experiences.
She's been a great inspiration to me personally - being a main contact in landing my first real ballet contract and supporting me by coming to see Radio City (picture of us backstage below).
Last month through the grapevine I heard she had been wanting to write a book of her experiences working with Balanchine and so on, and she soon approached me to see if I'd be interested.
YES! I said. She's so inspiring, and writing a book has long been one of my goals, and it seemed like the perfect blend of my dance and publishing careers to springboard off of. But I thought it was going to be one of those things that just sounds like a nice idea but never really comes to fruition.
Luckily, in the past few weeks since Radio City ended she has been eager to get us started. And today we met for our first discussion to include in her biography! What a fantastic, intriguing, insightful conversation. It was the first of many to come, I'm sure. She made me laugh, quoting things Balanchine said in her early years. As I read this article in the New Yorker this week it reminded me of her and many others I've learned from...Arlene Croce writes, "Balanchine's followers have taken to repeating his saayings as if they were 'The Golden Verses of Pythagoras' (which some of them may well be), invariably incorporating the Master's twitch, his twang, and his habit of starting sentences wth 'You know dear...'
I'm really excited to get working on this, even though it's a daunting task with no financial rewards anytime soon (like everything else right now...). We have no time frame yet and no solid plans for the finished project, but...I'm excited.
Once things get moving I may try to post audio clips of some of our conversations, just because it's so interesting.
It's fascinating to me to listen to people's stories and how they came to where they are, how they achieved their success and lived through their struggles. People are such wealthy resources.
(PS- I have so much blogging to catch up on...reviews of the movie "Ballerina", dvd "Center Stage Turn it Up," a rehearsal of Elisa Monte Dance at the Joyce, etc etc...)
And today a new project was born in my own life: a book project with a dancer who spent 20 years working with the legendary choreographer.
I've been taking class with former NYCB soloist Carol Sumner on and off for almost a year now. A stickler for Balanchine's musicality and technicality, she not only gives a great class (that kills the inner thighs!) but provides a host of witticisms in her corrections and explanations coming from her incredible career experiences.
She's been a great inspiration to me personally - being a main contact in landing my first real ballet contract and supporting me by coming to see Radio City (picture of us backstage below).
Last month through the grapevine I heard she had been wanting to write a book of her experiences working with Balanchine and so on, and she soon approached me to see if I'd be interested.
YES! I said. She's so inspiring, and writing a book has long been one of my goals, and it seemed like the perfect blend of my dance and publishing careers to springboard off of. But I thought it was going to be one of those things that just sounds like a nice idea but never really comes to fruition.
Luckily, in the past few weeks since Radio City ended she has been eager to get us started. And today we met for our first discussion to include in her biography! What a fantastic, intriguing, insightful conversation. It was the first of many to come, I'm sure. She made me laugh, quoting things Balanchine said in her early years. As I read this article in the New Yorker this week it reminded me of her and many others I've learned from...Arlene Croce writes, "Balanchine's followers have taken to repeating his saayings as if they were 'The Golden Verses of Pythagoras' (which some of them may well be), invariably incorporating the Master's twitch, his twang, and his habit of starting sentences wth 'You know dear...'
I'm really excited to get working on this, even though it's a daunting task with no financial rewards anytime soon (like everything else right now...). We have no time frame yet and no solid plans for the finished project, but...I'm excited.
Once things get moving I may try to post audio clips of some of our conversations, just because it's so interesting.
It's fascinating to me to listen to people's stories and how they came to where they are, how they achieved their success and lived through their struggles. People are such wealthy resources.
(PS- I have so much blogging to catch up on...reviews of the movie "Ballerina", dvd "Center Stage Turn it Up," a rehearsal of Elisa Monte Dance at the Joyce, etc etc...)
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