New School Year, New Dance Year, New Attitude

Julian began school on Monday. This year he’s a sophomore. He seems to have a new attitude (Thank God!) about school, schoolwork and grades. In fact, one of his best friends and a fellow dancer told me yesterday that Julian is “a different person.” It seems he was angry at her for talking on the phone rather than doing homework. Last year, I guess he didn’t have a problem with that (which would explain his terrible grades). While she spoke on the phone, he put in his Ipod earphones so he couldn’t hear her her and worked. Yahoo!

Maybe the trip to New York University, which is where he says he wants to go to college (if he isn’t recruited by Rasta Thomas first — his dream job at the moment) actually did the trick. I kind of hoped that if he got excited about a program and saw what it was going to take to get into a good school he’d get his act together. I do have to say, however, that his sister did have terrible grades as a freshman as well and then did really well after that. They both probably should have been held back before starting school since they were summer babies, but…too late now. Anyway, I hope Julian’s new attitude continues.

He appears to have a new attitude and work ethic at dance as well–left over from American Ballet Theatre and Broadway Dance Center. Dance at Teen Dance Company, however, doesn’t officially start until after Labor Day. That said, Julian has been dancing just about every day. He had choreography sessions most of last week and last weekend. He has also attended all the ballet and contemporary drop in classes offered at TDC. Additionally, he went to a ballet class at Los Gatos Ballet yesterday and tonight he is back at Studio 10 for jazz.  He’s trying to stay in shape, plus he simply wants to dance.

We received an evaluation form from ABT, much to our surprise. Julian got mostly “very good” and “good” grades. (The only thing better would be an “excellent.”) He was impressed with the fact that they thought his adagio was “very good.” I thought it was funny that all his “excellent” marks were in the areas of “presentation” and “class etiquette and presentation.” Well, he does like to look good, but you can’t say, “It’s better to look good than to dance well,” when it comes to ballet. (That was supposed to be a play on, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.” If you have to explain the pun, I guess it doesn’t really work.) These areas included dress, grooming, attitude, motivation, effort, progress, attendance, and dress code.  Actually, I’m proud he scored so well in these areas, and overall, he didn’t get one “satisfactory” or “needs improvement,” so I was a proud dancer’s mom. And Julian felt pretty good about himself as well. I think he was particularly happy that in the comment’s box it said, “Good partnering skills, and that is important for a boy.” (He felt that was the most important thing he learned this summer.

So, now to put everything he learned to use this year — including that new work ethic and attitude — both in school and in the studio. I hope he manages to be successful in both places. That would avoid so many fights and issues. And it would make him feel great.

In the meantime, we are grappling (already and it isn’t even September) with which Nutcracker to do. I think I already mentioned that. We still haven’t decided. The professional one seems enticing, but with no choreography set and a “child” role, there’s no telling what Julian will be doing. Plus, it requires all that driving to San Francisco and giving up social time on Fridays (no football games and dances for Julian — and no Shabbat services for me). The other production, which Julian was in last year, offers him the chance to be the Nutcracker prince. The choreographer said she’ll give him solos and lots of dancing and partnering work…but that will all have to be set on him as well. It’s not been done that way before. Yet, it’s local and she works around his schedule. (No Friday rehearsals…whoo hoo!) It could be a mute point, though, if any of the tech rehearsal dates conflict with TDC 2nd Stage tech rehearsals in December. So…it’s all up in the air.

With that said, I’ll leave you all to ponder for me the pros and cons and possibilities. I have to go off and search out more photos of Julian dancing. We wrote dueling columns for an upcoming issue of Movmnt magazine (the issue is focused on the topic of  ”family”), and they needed photos of him dancing. I didn’t really have any good ones. (Bad mom, I know.) So, I’ve had to search some out. While extremely time consuming, I must say I came up with quite a few from both TDC’s 2nd Stage and Concert performances last year, Los Gatos Ballet’s Copellia production, and even ABT’s final summer intensive performance. (Now I also have to buy some!)

Hopefully, next week I’ll have time to post what will probably be just the first in a series of blogs based on my conversation with Denise Wall, mother of choreographer Travis Wall and dancer Danny Tidwell.  (That’s if I can get away from the photo search and column writing for Movmnt, and other miscellaneous projects, to get caught up on my editing work.)

Words of Wisdom from Julian’s First Male Teacher and Mentor

When Julian first began dancing at the age of 3, we enrolled him in a jazz/tap/ballet combo class offered through the Batavia-IL park (or rec) department. It was okay, but not great. A year or so later, we enrolled him at Moves Dance Studio under the tutelage of Kim Farrah. There he thrived and really began his serious dance training.

The first year he attended classes at Moves, he danced with Kim. The second year, I think, he began taking some classes with Anthony Foster. Anthony was the first male dance teacher Julian had ever had, and he loved him. He especially loved the fact that Anthony had begun as a break dancer, although by this time he was an accomplished dancer in most areas, including ballet.

Julian took both hip hop/break dancing and ballet classes from Anthony. Eventually, I asked Anthony to work with him in private lessons. I already knew that Julian needed that type of male mentor to help him along. Anthony provided just that.

I can still remember the two of them at the bar in their black tights, black ballet shoes and tight white shirts. Anthony towered over Julian; Julian looked up to him with such respect and awe.

Both Anthony and Julian have come a long way since then. Julian is dancing in a pre-professional company and just returned from a summer at American Ballet Theatre’s New York intensive. Anthony is the artistic director for his own  pre-professional dance company, Soleunique, as well as the managing director for Moves Dance Studios pre-professional program. A choreographer, dancer and educator, Anthony’s all-encompassing and diverse training background includes authentic tutelage in the forms of classical ballet and classical jazz under direct descendants of George Balanchine and Gus Giordano. Supplemented by break dance and gymnastics in his early years, Anthony quickly made the transition from street to stage and a few notable small-screen appearances, such as on season 1 of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and in music videos for the artists Echo & Groove Jam. His stage credits include leads in the ballets, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Les Patineurs, and The Last Waltz as well as performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When not at his home base, Anthony travels the U.S. as a guest instructor and choreographer for professional companies, studios, dance conferences and conventions. He has had the honor of teaching on faculty for Columbia College Chicago, The College of DuPage, The Embracing the Dream dance conference, has been traveling the U.S. with The Deux and is now on faculty for Dance Masters of Wisconsin.

That said, I’m so pleased that when I asked Anthony to write a blog post for me, he accepted. (In fact, he wrote two! I’ll be posting the other one later.) I simply asked him to write about boys and dance. Here’s what he had to say:

Boys & Dance

By Anthony Foster

choreographer/dancer/educator

As most gentlemen do, I started serious dance at a later age—in my teens.  Fortunately for my teachers and for me, I had a history of competitive gymnastics under my belt. This provided a massive catalyst towards flexibility, though we used different and opposing muscle groups in the two activities. I also had many years of “street” and break dance behind me.

Even with these experiences, I found it a strange thing to move from one facet of dance to another.  When anyone (male or female) grows up dancing their own style without knowing a completely different world of dance exists out there—one full of steps, counts, vocabulary, and terminology—and then moves into a structured dance environment, it is a complete shock to the system. You go from knowing it all to knowing absolutely nothing!

Long before competitive dance television shows and when MTV actually showed music videos, my sister and I would sit in front of the T.V. and learn moves from shows like Dance Party USA, MTV’s The Grind, Soul Train, etc. We would constantly go out to teen dance clubs and school dances just to get our groove on. The dance steps we used had no structure or discipline; our dancing was so raw.

Thinking back to my first few dance classes, I have to relate a story about when my sister and I went to see the movie Step Up in the theater. In a scene where Channing Tatum experiences his first real rehearsal, he says, “What the hell is a pique?”  My sister and I must’ve been the only dancers in the audience at the time, because all the belly laughter was coming from our seats. I would have to admit that my experience in those first classes wasn’t much different from his.

Catching up to the much-younger and more-experienced females in every class was a challenge I took very seriously.  Never did I find it embarrassing. The dance studio was my “safe place” at a time when things in my youthful household were falling apart at the seams, making it easier to focus my attention on training.

As I learned about dance in general, I also discovered a few things about boys and dance. For males in the world of dance, it’s different than for women.  Everything about what we do in dance is different—from the way we stand, offer an arm and even walk across the room. There is nothing feminine about what boys or men do in dance.

Unfortunately, in some cases, boys are products of an environment saturated with females, and the boys have little or no access to positive male role models as instructors.  As a result, some boys have a tendency to mimic the girls they see in class and often learn to have a strong, feminine presence in the studio or on stage. This is not the boys’ fault, as they are simply following the direction of their instructors.  Many male teachers have been discussing for years why male teachers are expected not only to make a male dancer look like a strong male but also (even more so) to ensure that female dancers are trained accordingly. Yet, most female teachers look at a boy and say, “Just do it like a boy.”

Similar to sports, dance is athletic and demanding.  Many of you probably have seen the tee shirts that state, “If dance were easy, they’d call it football.” Dancers, male and female, are some of the hardest-working individuals on the planet (right beside gymnasts).  This art form involves more than running fast, catching a ball and hitting the guy who has the ball as hard as you can.  It requires knowledge of your body, of your muscle groups and of how to move your body to get successful results.

Additionally, dance sees no gender, and we thank Mr. George Balanchine for deciding men are more than props for women in ballet.

It’s a fact that boys in dance are ridiculed, picked on and looked at as “sissies.”  I’ve been in my fair share of arguments and have come pretty damn close to fist fights over such labels.  In the end, I can laugh all the way to the bank when the guys who were making fun of me in high school are still punching their timecards at the warehouse while I get to work with great-looking, young females everyday! (Thanks, Mom!) I know this is not exactly every male dancers’ cup of tea, but hey…

Let me also mention, that there is a misconception that all males that dance are homosexual. What, ballet makes a boy gay?  If that is the case, you can forget everything you might know about the soft and pretty. Male dancers, in this day and age, are surprisingly strong!  Most can jump higher than an Olympic high-jumper, kick their legs harder than the worlds’ best soccer player, and lift weight comparable to body builders (in some cases).

My tips for boys,whether you’re just thinking about getting into dance, have recently begun or have been a veteran for years, are as follows:

• Stick with it.  You are the change we will see in this industry.

• Trust your body, and take risks.

• It’s an strange world to enter, but the rewards last forever.

• Do some research on the following strong, male dancers: Desmond Richardson, Rasta Thomas, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev, Nick Lazzarini, Danny Tidwell, Keith Clifton, Barry Youngblood, Gregg Russell, and Gregory Hines.

• Boys, you are loved and supported in this industry.

• Do not skip any steps and sign up for the proper level of class.  If you’re 15 years old and in ballet class with nine year old girls, so be it!  Your time will come.  Be patient and good things will follow.

• Even if you are starting late, like I did, you can become a great male dancer. Male dancers have the ability to catch up with their female counterparts quickly. But don’t forget you can’t succeed in the world of dance with less technique than the women have obtained during all their years of training. You’ll have to work really hard to obtain that level of technical proficiency.

OMG! Home 2 Weeks and No Time to Write!

I have to apologize to any faithful blog readers! I have been back from New York City from two whole weeks, and I have not had a minute to write a blog post. In fact, I should be working on a column for Movmnt magazine or editing for a client right now, but I figured I better right something soon or no one would bother continuing to read this blog!

Re-entry into normal life in California was a bit odd for Julian and I. We really found it quite odd to be back home after seven weeks in the city. That said, life was not normal. My stepson arrived just one and a half days after we got back, and Julian immediately went back to taking evening classes at Teen Dance Company.  Plus, we had to juggle my daughters internship schedule, which took her in the opposite direction to the University of California-Santa Cruz; TDC is in Mountain View in the valley. Between doing things with my stepson and reacclimating to driving every day and every which way, my work began to pile up. It was a bit crazy.

The first full weekend we were home, Julian received a text message from a fellow TDC company member asking if he was auditioning for Mark Froehringer’s Nutcracker in San Francisco. Well…we had thought about doing so, but it wasn’t on my radar…at all. In fact, I haven’t been using my daytimer at all. So, we jumped up and showered and drove like a bat out of hell into San Francisco.

Now, the woman who choreographed the Nutcracker Julian was in last year has already been emailing us as well. She’d like him back, although at 5′7″ or more, I think he’s a bit tall for Fritz. (She says he can do more this year; last year he also did the Russian dance.)

Give me a break, though…summer’s not even over and we are thinking about a performance that happens in December. And for Julian, it’s another hard choice: Dance with friends or dance with a professional company. (He was asked to do some awesome partnering during the audition in San Francisco…) For my husband and I, it’s also a hard choice: an hour and a half drive to San Francisco every Friday and Sunday from mid-September until mid-December. (And I was all excited that my daughter is giving up swimming, which means we finally have Friday’s free, since TDC doesn’t have classes on Friday.)

Anyway…back to NYC. I promised to tell you about the great teachers Julian danced with there, in case you should happen to find yourself at Broadway Dance Center. Some of the ones he liked the best were guest teaches, however. By far, he enjoyed contemporary classes with Slam the most. Slam, otherwise known as Salim Gauwloos brings to his teaching and choreography not only his technical ballet training but also his experience as a dancer with Madonna. Yes, he was a big MTV star and her touring dance partner. Yet, he now choreographs for the likes of ABT and the Orlando Ballet. Julian took three classes with him, and loved his choreography and working with him. It didn’t hurt that Salim noticed him and commented on his technique, even using him to demonstrate in the second and third class. (Sorry…had to brag a bit.)

Staying in the contemporary vein, he really enjoyed a class with James Tabeek, who was in the 1st national tour of the Broadway show Wicked,  and appeared on Broadway in Taboo and Beauty and the Beast.

Julian took two jazz classes with BDC favorite and staple Sheila Barker. He adored her class and her. She came out and gave me a hug and a kiss just for being Julian’s mother! (By the way…I got a hug and a kiss from Slam as well, which I think I enjoyed more.) He worked super hard in her class and she corrected him a lot. I highly recommend her class to anyone wanting to take jazz. (By the way, I think I mentinoed that Julian took two Broadway jazz classes at Alvin Ailey with Sue Samuels, mother of tapper Jason Samuels Smith. They were fabulous as well, and I highly recommend her and a trip to Alvin Ailey if you can make it. However, she teaches beginner classes at BDC.)

On to hip hop, which Julian had the most fun taking at BDC. He tried several class, always looking for “old-school” hip hop rather than “MTV” hip hop. He loved classes with Bam and Leslie Feliciano and Kelly Peters. He also enjoyed one with Luam, although that wasn’t as old school as he enjoys. These classes were all packed…I mean packed. Luam’s class had 72 people in the studio at one time. (Again, he was sorry not to take Jared Grimes class, but he was away.)

I’ve already covered tap; check older posts for information on that. Julian really didn’t do any tap the last week — and no ballet. He had done those two art forms for six weeks. He stuck with contemporary, jazz and hip hop that final week in New York.  And he had a blast and got great feed back from almost all the teachers at BDC. He kept up in even the most advanced classes, and his newly-improved technique was noticed. So, overall, a success all the way around.

Plus, he returned home without injury. The heel issue healed up and never  came back.  He never had another bout of dehydration. Success.

This week he completed six hours of dance per day again. TDC had its annual summer dance intensive. He also took a master class at a local studio taught by Sonya Tayeh of So You Think You Can Dance fame. We had met her in New York City. He had his picture taken with her, and it’s now his Facebook profile photo. How cute is that?

The TDC intensive culminated on Friday with auditions for the company. Unfortunately, a few of last year’s members didn’t return, but we have some great new dancers who auditioned and made it into the company. The company is still a bit small, but we hope to gain a few more in the next few weeks or in December. (If you know any teens in the Bay Area – CA looking for a great studio that focuses on dance as an art form and on contemporary, modern and classical ballet, please send them to TDC for an audition. They can still join the company, although they might not be in all the peformance pieces this fall.) The kids also study tap, pilates and a little jazz and hip hop.

Julian is in the company again, and he made it into the first three pieces of choreography, so he is very happy. He will miss a few of his friends who didn’t return this year, but he actually has a few friends joining him from other studios that he knows. So, I hope it will be a great year for him.

Today he’s in the studio all day learning choreography fo ra modern piece. Tomorrow the same. This week, he will miss most of the tap festival in San Francisco to attend choreography sessions at TDC instead, but we might get a few classes in if he’s lucky. It had been our plan to attend most of the week.

Oh, and I’m waiting for MRI results on my twisted knee from that first weekend in NYC. So, think some positive thougths for me!

Okay…that gets you up to date. Off to a running start. I never even got a chance to catch my breath.

Next, a post not from me but form someone from Julians distant past…and then one from Denise Wall!