What I Learned from the ABT Summer Intensive Experience

Since I haven’t had a moment to even think about transcribing the tape of my interview with Denise Wall, I thought I’d try to at least write a post this week that would be useful to someone — that someone being parents and boys (and girls) going to a summer ballet intensive (American Ballet Theatre in particular) next year. So, here goes.

1. Housing may not be too important for the dancer, who is only there in the evening and on weekends, but for the parent who spends much of their time in there, it’s everything to the experience. Now, some parents just cut out every morning after dropping the child off and go shopping or to the theater or otherwise amuse themselves. For these people, maybe the apartment isn’t too big a deal. However, I spent everyday in the apartment working. I regretted skimping in this area. Next year, I will spend a bit more, if need be, to get a place with decent AC, a microwave, an well-outfitted kitchen, cable TV, high-speed Internet, and more space.

2. Be prepared for the weather. It was surprisingly cold in New York City the first two weeks. We needed jackets  then and umbrellas almost the whole time. Prepare for everything…

3.  Bring supplements and nutritional products to address the dancers’ needs for electrolytes and overuse injuries. Even those first few weeks, the days got hot in the afternoon, and Julian ended up with heat stroke. Yes, he got dehydrated despite the humidity in New York. (In dry climates, you are warned to watch for this, but in humid climates where you sweat a lot it’s just as easy to dehydrate.)

Be sure to have water bottles and packets of electrolytes or some type of sports drink, preferably with not much sugar added. (I had to give in and let Julian drink Gatorade, despite it’s high sugar content, because at least I knew he would drink lots of that during the day.)

There are supplement that help you avoid overuse injuries and inflammation in the body. Do your research or watch for an upcoming post (by moi) on these products and take lots and lots of them to help your body deal with the immense amount of physical stress placed upon it during the intensive. Also, ice anything that is sore or twisted; don’t use a bag of ice if the sore place fits in a bucket of ice water. Ice water is by far the better choice.

4. Use the program’s physical therapist for any and all soreness or injuries. It lessens the time the dancer is injured tremendously.

5. Be careful about how much walking and extra dancing you do outside of the intensive. Julian and I did 30 minutes of walking a day, to and from ABT. We also walked a lot on Saturdays and a little on Sundays. He took some tap classes on Saturdays and once during the week during the first four or five weeks, because tap didn’t strain his body in the same way as additional ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, or hip hop classes, thus possibly causing overuse injuries. We added in a little jazz  and hip hop the last two weeks when he was feeling strong, but never more than one class during the week and two on Saturday. Always take one day off; give your body a chance to rest.

We know some people who didn’t do this. The son ended up with an overuse injury at one point from walking everywhere all the time and dancing 7 days a week.

6. Allow your son to spend time with new friends. Don’t be surprised if they aren’t as good about keeping in touch afterwards as he thinks they will be or they say they will be. Prepare him…

7. have your son get a lot of sleep.

8. Get to the studio early, so your son has  time to change, stretch and generally prepare for class. At ABT NY, a line forms outside the building quite early, because the kids aren’t allowed inside until 8:30 a.m. on the dot. (Classes start at 9:00 a.m.) Those who like to get upstairs (They walk up three flights; they aren’t allowed to use the elevator.) and have lots of time to prepare, get there early…very early. However, if the kids show up “late” (8:45 or 8:50 a.m.), it’s clear sailing up the stairs with no line at all. It’s their choice. Wait in line. Don’t wait in line. They’ll still be on time for class if they can be changed and in the studio in 10 or 15 minutes.

9. Don’t expect to ever see the inside of an ABT studio except on parent-observation day.

10. Be prepared to allow your child to have some freedom, even if they are in New York City. Most of the kids like to go out to eat together — even the younger ones. I told Julian he had to have a buddy at all times, and the “buddy rule” seems to be an existing unspoken rule for most of the kids (especially those staying in the dorms without chaperones) — unless they live or around the city. He went out to lunch a lot, sometimes just joining others even when I had packed a lunch. He even rode the subway with the other kids up to their rehearsal for their final performance and back. However, he ended up walking back to Union Square by himself when his buddy dropped him off at a subway stop and continued on his way (by subway). I, of course, didn’t discover this until much later.

11. Realize that this is the best experience your young male dancer may have had up to this point in their career. Being in a room with other phenomenally good young male dancers brings out the best in them — or it did in Julian. It makes them work hard. It allows them to work together. It gives them a chance to learn from each other and to teach each other. It allows their abilities to improve faster than they ever have before.  They get a chance to compare their work ethic to that of other boys their age and at their level. Plus, they get more opportunities to practice (or learn) partnering than ever before.

If you, as a parent, are wondering if you should spend the money (and the time) sending your son to a summer intensive (and chaperoning him), they answer is “yes.” Take a second mortgage on your house if need be. I think the experience was life changing for Julian. I wouldn’t change a thing about going (except the apartment we rented  and tearing my ACL when I twisted my knee on the stairs to that apartment). And we’ll go again next summer if they’ll have us…even if I have to borrow the money or charge the whole thing.

12. Take a little extra time if you are in New York to allow your son to take classes at the other amazing studios, like Alvin Ailey, Steps on Broadway (although we didn’t make it there…) and Broadway Dance Center. Going to Broadway Dance Center for a full five days was a superb experience for Julian. He had taken classes there once or twice a week the whole time he was at ABT, but being there every day for 5-7 hours with all those amazing dancers and teachers also pushed him to his physical limits and changed his perspective on his own dancing ability and goals. In fact, every class he takes now seems easy since then (one negative). He misses the challenge of those classes and instructors, and the energy of being in a room packed full of people hungry for dance.  So, stay longer, and take advantage of all that New York has to offer. Your son won’t regret it. It’s a superb investment.

13. Have fun. Splurge. Go to some shows. Stay out late. You never know if you’ll have the opportunity again to live and play in the city that never sleeps. So, don’t sleep your time away. contribute to its name.

14. Enjoy your time with your son. I think being in New York with Julian changed our relationship immensely. We are closer now, and we understand each other better. We get along better. A bonding happened in that little studio apartment, as well as at the shows and on the subways and at the dance classes, that never would have happened had we just stayed at home or had he gone off to Jewish camp. So, make the most of being your son’s chaperone. In fact, don’t be his chaperone. Be his mom…be his friend.

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!

Last Day in New York City

As I write, Julian is enjoying the last 30 minutes of his last class at Broadway Dance Center, an old-school hip hop class. He’s taken so many great classes the week, I can’t begin to even write about them — at least not right now. I’m too exhausted! I can’t imagine how he isn’t tired, but then again American Ballet Theatre’s intensive put him into some superb shape.

He danced for three hours on Monday, five on Tuesday and six on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. He’s taken tap, hip hop, jazz and contemporary classes. No ballet…enough of that after six weeks, but he was super happy to find some turns in his contemporary classes. We’ve been very happy with the instruction at BDC. I’ll write more when I get home about the particular teachers he enjoyed. And he and I were both happy to have him complimented in all his contemporary and jazz classes. It seems his classical ballet training is paying off.

So, tomorrow we get back on a plane and head home. Back to normal life, whatever that is.

I’ll elaborate a bit more on our experience when I’m back on home ground. Right now, I’m going to watch Julian do some hip hop, something he rarely gets to do in California.

[By the way, thanks for all the great comments I've received since in NY!]

ABT Summer Intensive Ends with Awesome Performance

The six weeks of American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive ended with a bang! The final performance was awesome with the advanced students, in particular, offering up some really amazing and pretty professional-looking dancing.

In particular, the violet level choreographed one number themselves (with the help of their instructor), and it was a stand out by far! There was another number featuring choreography by Twyla Tharp, and one or two others that were totally memorable. The upper level ballet pieces were all beautifully danced, as were the intermediate pieces as well.

Julian’s first piece, Fakir, was well danced, too, but, as he said, he didn’t really get to show off the ballet technique he learned during the summer. His second piece, E.J., set to several Elton John songs, was phenomenal. The dancing was good as was the choreography, and I thought Julian looked good…but I am his mother.

I never did get to talk to any of the boys about their experiences at ABT or as young male dancers. I really wanted to talk to them about the latter, but it seems most of them haven’t had the struggles Julian has had with teasing and such. That’s an interesting subject in and of itself. It seems that the majority of the boys Julian encountered either are home schooled or in performing arts schools; thus, they avoid the majority of the issues that most boys who choose to dance come across, such as being called weird or gay and being ostracized. These boys are choosing to be educated alternatively — either outside of normal school systems or within a school system where they are accepted as “normal,” because they aren’t the only boys dancing or interested in the arts.

I must add that one of the reasons many of the boys are home schooled has to do with their level of commitment to dance. They want to dance  more hours per day than they possibly could if they were in a typical school, such as the school Julian attends. Or they want to complete high school early so they can begin a professional career at an earlier age.

Julian has chosen not to do either; he was ostracized and teased for three years of middle school (longer really), and now that he feels he fits in and has friends, even though he still gets teased by some kids in his school, he doesn’t want to leave his new-found social life. He also wants to be a “normal” kid. That said, if he was offered the chance to dance in a company or in a show, he’d give it up in a second…with some regrets but without much hesitation.

I was at Broadway Dance Center and began speaking to the mother of a girl in Julian’s tap class. She was a teacher, as was her husband. She said the kids she has taught who were home schooled and then came to a public school lacked — well…how can I say this nicely? — social graces. They didn’t have the ability to get along or to solve some basic problems that occurred in social situations or in situations involving “authority figures.” She told me she believed having children complete “normal” middle and high school provided a much better life preparation. She felt children who come out of a typical school have necessary life skills that can’t be gained from home schooling.

As for schools for the arts, I think they are lovely. The kids who attend get to be with like minded children. They are nurtured and allowed to pursue their interests at a young age, and they get all that social education as well as the interaction with authority figures. However, this type of environment also fails to provide a real-life experience. Then when they get out into the world an are called “gay” or pushed around for being different, they may not know what to do.

Anyway, back to the subject of ABT: I was totally, totally, impressed with the boys, especially level blue and up. The higher level boys were something to behold!

Julian is sad that the program is over and plans, at this moment at least, to audition and come back next year. He’s made friends. He’s enjoyed himself. He’s improved immensely.

As a parent, I can say that the experience was well worth the money for him. For me…well, that’s another subject and story.

One more week in NYC. I’ll keep you posted if I can on our escapades at the New York Dance Studios. Tomorrow we aren’t doing much: one jazz class with Sue Samuels and then off to see Pilobolus. We pick up again on Monday late afternoon or evening after a trip to my see my mother once more before going home. (We travel there by bus on Sunday late morning.) More at that time.

One last note: I thought the people at ABT did a pretty superb job with the program and the performance overall. My only complaints as a parent: the fact that we were never allowed into the ABT “inner sanctum” until the last week (although I can understand that they might not want daily visits from parents), no activities for the group of attendees at all and no final group activity or anything. Not even a word at the end of the performance, which made it a little strange. I thought they should have at least come up when it was over and said something. (The directors did say something at the beginning.) But overall, well done, ABT.

Three Days and Counting Until the End of the ABT Summer Intensive

The American Ballet Theatre summer intensive is winding to a close. The kids are rehearsing their numbers and getting ready to go up to LaGuardia High School, New York’s performing high school — the one the movie “Fame” was based upon — for a run through tomorrow. That’s where their final performance will be held on Friday. Two performances, and then it’s over.

I think Julian will be very sad, but he’s leaving with a really good friend or two and a much stronger and able dance body. In general, he’s become a better dancer.

Julian did get his foot “stuck” yesterday dancing in his jazz shoes for the first time. It hurt his ankle and the bottom of his foot. He tapped in the evening with Michelle Dorrance anyway, and he said it was better today. That’s his first injury since the heel jam…

In the meantime, he had a jazz lesson at Alvin Ailey with Sue Samuels, Jason Samuels Smith’s mother. He enjoyed that and plans to return this coming Saturday as well. He also had a private lesson with Jason later that same day.

OMG! Just the warm up was something to see! As Jason said, he threw everything at Julian. I’ve never seen a warm up like that one, but I suppose that’s the norm for someone as good as Jason. Julian kept up most of the time… And the rest of the hour wasn’t much easier. Jason simply assumed Julian would be able to do what ever he asked, no matter how hard. The final assessment: Julian has the ability to do it but has to work on clarity of sound. “Articulation” was the word Jason used and that Julian was asked to remember. What an opportunity that was! I took some videos, but I have to ask permission to put any of them on line…

Next week — our last — Julian will simply go from studio to studio to dance. He’ll do more than tap and ballet, taking hip hop, jazz, modern, contemporary (whatever he can find) every day. I figure we can afford about two classes a day (maybe three on some days) for the duration of our time here. We’ll not only go to Broadway Dance Center, but to Alvin Ailey, Steps on Broadway, and possibly also to Peridance Center, which is located in the same building as ABT at 890 Broadway. Of course, we are still hoping for that private with Denise Wall as well.

I must say that I’ve spent a lot in the last two weeks on Broadway shows and such. Three extra tickets to Billy Elliot cost a ton (to take my daughter), and Julian doesn’t want me to sell the other two we have. I just hope we see someone different this next time. We saw Kiril Kulish last time. (Anyone have inside info and know who is performing July 29?) We also saw Lion King, which we saw long ago but my daughter wanted to see for the costumes (she wants to be a costume designer), and West Side Story. What’s a trip to NYC for seven weeks, though, without seeing some theater?

Anyway, we are back on a budget. We do have tickets to see Pilobolus dance next week and are hoping to get discounted tickets to Stomp. Maybe we’ll try to see something at the Joyce Soho again, which is cheap, but Broadway is off limits to us at this point, and we are eating $1 pizza slices.

More soon…

Week 5 of ABT Summer Intensive: Winding Down

OMG! We have less than a week and a half less until the American Ballet  Theatre’s summer intensive ends! Hard to believe…Julian is still having a blast, but I’m a bit homesick at this point, stressed about work and wishing we weren’t staying for an extra week. We are just doing way too much.

At ABT, Julian’s choreography classes are finishing up their numbers and preparing for the show. They have a rehearsal next Wednesday. Other than that, everything is the same as usual…and he still loves the partnering classes the most. He  learns more in those than in any other classes. Probably the biggest disappointment (other than the ballet performance piece) lies in the fact that the boys class doesn’t do a whole lot of “boy’s stuff.” It’s mostly technique and it totally depends on who teaches as to whether or not they do jumps or turns or the like.

In any case, he has learned a ton and improved. He has also made friends and had fun. His body is no longer sore, nor does his heel hurt. And he hasn’t gotten dehydrated again.

He took two tap classes at Broadway Dance Center with his old tap teacher from California and former Tap Dog Anthony LoCascio. You can see them tapping together here:

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He’s also been back to tap with Michelle  Dorrance, which he just loves despite the difficulty of the class, and last weekend he tapped with Avi Miller and Ofer Ben after buying a new pair of their Miller and Ben tap shoes. (He didn’t wear them to class, however, because I didn’t want him to get blisters!)

This weekend he has a tap lesson with Jason Samuels Smith! Whoo hoo! That’s an opportunity you don’t get every day. I wrote an article about one of his projects and interviewed him for my book on mentoring boys who want to be professional dancers…so…I had an in.

I went to NYCDA’s national convention to meet with Denise Wall, mom of Travis Wall and Danny Tidwell. I interviewed her for a blog post (that will show up here after we get home). I then went back with Julian, and we watched her company perform several of pieces choreographed by Travis and by Jason Parsons. Julian was quite inspired by the choreography.

We met four of her sons, including Danny Tidwell. We also met Jamie Goodwin, who is dancing with Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance…yes, they have one number with two girls. He also got to talk with two guys in Rasta’s company — nice young guys (18 and 19), who were thrilled to have the opportunity to dance with Rasta. Julian would be, too, but he said he wasn’t sure he’d be thrilled about giving up college to do so; one of the boys had completed just one semester when Rasta asked him to join. He plans on going back in 6-12 months. Last, but not least, we got to briefly meet and talk to choreographer Sonya, whose work can be seen on So You Think You Can Dance. That was a thrill as well.

Julian is supposed to have a private lesson with Denise Wall the last week we are in New York. We are really looking forward to that as well, and I hope it pans out.

And last night we saw West Side Story, our last big Broadway dance event. It was a bit of a let down. The acting wasn’t great; it lacked the passion of the movie and too much of it was in Spanish, leaving us non-Spanish speakers in the dark about what was being said. A little bit of the dance lacked spark, too, but overall the dancing was very good. We enjoyed Cody Green, however, who I’ve had my eye on for my book, and I was able to ask him to participate! He agreed, so I’ll be following with him later on.

My daughter comes in tonight to explore NYU, and then my sister arrives. I’ll try to get at least one post in before the end of the intensive, but no promises. I’m trying to work, too…and that has to come first at this point. Sorry.

ABT Summer Intensive Update and Info on Picking Ballet Classes

Half way through the fourth week of the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive and things are looking up. Julian’s foot isn’t hurting at all, although he plans to see the physical therapist on Thursday. He is drinking lots of things with electrolytes, so he isn’t dehydrated. He is no longer so muscle sore either. I have seen some kids limping out of the building, though, or wearing knee braces and such. He says everyone has some sort of ache or pain, but they are all just toughing it out.

Tap classes right now are the only extra  classes we’ve added into the mix. I’m a bit fearful of adding in much more ballet or even jazz; seems to me that it could be too much use of the same muscles. We are looking for Julian to possibly take a hip hop class sometime soon, and he will be taking Sue Samuels’ jazz class in the next few weeks. We made it to Michelle Dorrance’s tap class on Monday night, and Julian had a blast. Man, can that lady tap and teach! It was fast as all get out and Julian had to really work to keep up, but he had so much fun and learned a ton. I think he learned more in that one class than he has learned in any of the tap classes he’s had so far.

He’s really loving his “jazz” choreography piece at ABT, but I really think it’s more of a contemporary number. It’s set to four pieces of Elton John’s music. He doesn’t like his ballet choreography, because the boys really don’t do much and the choreography doesn’t even give them the opportunity to show off their classical ballet ability. He says they don’t get to “dance” much at all. That’s a shame…come all the way to New York to spend six weeks at ABT and then not even get to perform a good ballet piece for the performance.  Ah, well…he likes contemporary better anyway.

We saw Hair last night for Julian’s 15th birthday. It was a blast! What great, classic songs, great acting, superb singing, and tons of fun. Of course, there were a fair amount of swear words, references to drugs (and even a scene where they smoke pot), a brief scene in which they actors all strip off their clothes (but the lights are dim) and stand their naked, and more simulated sex acts than I can remember. I thought they looked like dogs in heat. Julian thought it was like a Viagra commercial gone bad — you know, like the caution about getting an erection that lasts more than four hours! Despite that, it was fun…and funny. We managed to get to the Olive Garden, his favorite restaurant, for three bowls of salad before hand, so, all in all, it was a great day.

Plus, he got to take a modern class with the violet level (two above his level) at ABT, and he went out to lunch with some friends. He got a bunch of money for his birthday to spend in NYC, so I think he had a pretty good birthday. I had fun, too!

I noticed a really nice article on the Boys and Ballet website about how to choose ballet classes for boys. It’s worth a read if your son is just starting out or you are looking to enroll your son in a more serious ballet program. It’s called, “How to Choose a Ballet School for Your Son” or “There are Special Considerations When Your Son has Ballet Dreams.” Search for it by one of those titles if you no longer find it on the first page of the site. (It’s written by C.A. Bates.)

The only thing I’d mention is that the author talks about ballet examinations. I’m no expert here, but Julian has never taken an examination. I believe these are required for certain types of ballet programs. He was in a Danish Bourneville program at Ballet San Jose School, and that did not require examinations.

The rest of the information is very good. I’d add, however, that the cost of a good and serious ballet program can get quite high, and not all schools offer boys great scholarships (although I think they should). Also, many of the programs I’ve encountered do not offer anything but ballet (she discusses programs that offer other styles of dance as well); they might have a modern class. We found that pursuing other dance disciplines was actually frowned upon by ballet schools in general. This seems odd when the trend in most classical ballet companies is towards inclusion of contemporary and modern choreography as well. Some are even branching out into more creative ventures, such as Ballet San Jose’s “Blue Suede Shoes,” a ballet written to the music of Elvis Presley.

I’ve been told over and over again in the last year that a male dancer who can do more than just ballet will find himself more of an asset to a ballet company — or any company for that matter — than a strict ballet dancer. While we were told that tap dancing and hip hop, as well as jazz, would not help his ballet training (and might actually hurt it), we are now being told to pursue all of these styles of dance if he wants to be more employable than the next man.

Now, would someone at ABT tell us that? I’m not so sure, but the male professional dancers I speak with do tell me that. Will you find that sort of well-rounded training in a ballet program? Not likely. If you find a serious ballet program offering all types dance, let me know!

ABT Summer Intensive Half Over: Feeling Good and Wishing for More Time

Last week went off without a hitch — yes, even without Mom around to make sure Julian remained healthy. Of course, he was with a mom who makes sure her son goes to bed early and eats well and takes all his vitamins and supplements and such, so I knew Julian was in good hands.

The two boys only ended up going to tap class at Broadway Dance Center one night last week, and Julian loved the class he took. ABT actually had two late start days, which meant they only danced six hours, rather than seven, those days. And, on top of that, they had Friday off for the 4th of July. The boys were going to go to Steps on Broadway for a ballet class that day, but after walking six miles earlier in the day they were too tired! (I would have been, too…)

It seems that the third week of a summer dance intensive really is a turn-around week. The kids who have struggled the first two weeks start feeling better and getting used to the rigour of the schedule. Of  course, many of the kids who are at a ballet intensive like this one are home schooled and dance five or six hours a day already; they don’t find the intensive that much harder than what they already do. Many of the kids who are  in very intensive ballet programs at home also handle the program better than Julian has as well. His program at Teen Dance Company only requires that he dance three or three and a half hours a day four days a week. He usually throws in an extra couple of hours one day a week, and rehearsals add in extra hours on the weekends as well (which means he dances about 18 hours a week — sometimes more), but he isn’t dancing six or seven hours a day during the school year by any stretch of the imagination. That explains why he was so tired and sore the first week, and was still suffering from exhaustion the second week.

The physical therapist taped his foot last week, which helped that issue. She gave him stretches as well. He’ll see her again tomorrow. Thus, his foot is bothering him less. He drank a lot of water and fluids with electrolytes also. All in all, he seems to be doing better at this point.

Julian and I had a nice reunion when I picked him up on Friday…he even hugged me and told me he missed me. We went out for a nice Italian dinner, had Pinkberry yogurt and then came back and watched a two-week-old episode of So You Think You Can Dance on the computer (thanks to my mom, who sent us the recorded DVDs). We still have no television… (Julian bought the third book in the Eragon series yesterday, so I’m happy to say we will be spending some nights reading.)

We had a super Saturday: First, off to Broadway Dance Center, where Julian tapped with his old teacher and former (and current) Tap Dog Anthony LoCascio. Then we rushed off to the Metropolitan Opera House to see ABT perform in Sylvia. Then home and then out for a calzone and off to the West Side Highway to sit in “pens” on the highway itself and watch the fireworks over the Hudson River — along with about 2 million other people. The fireworks were awesome, but sitting there on the hard ground and having something wet get all over our towel and us was not so nice…nor was trying to get back by subway. That said, we had a really nice day and night.

Today, Monday, Julian was happy to get back to dance class at ABT and to see all his friends. He is very aware that the program is half over and time is running short. He wishes it would last longer, especially now that he is feeling good. He and three of the boys and one or two girls are the first in line each day (there about 45 minutes before they are allowed into the building to begin the trek up four flights of stairs — they aren’t allowed to take the elevator).

We are considering going to Michelle Dorrance’s tap class tonight. We hate to do a hard class early in the week, but we feel the pressure of our time here coming to an end. I wrote an article about Michelle and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Chloe Arnold for Dance Spirit magazine a while ago; they are all in Jason Samuels Smith’s “Charlie’s Angel’s” show. Jason considers these three female tappers the best out there…better even than some of the men. I’d love to have Julian tap with her and to meet her face to face. I’m trying to set up a private with her as well… She’s not on the road with Stomp anymore but performing right here in NYC — in fact just about five blocks away from where we are staying. So, I think Julian and I will go see the show, even though we’ve seen it before. (I wonder if she can get us good tickets…or get Julian backstage to meet the cast?)

Tomorrow is Julian’s 15th birthday! I got two for one tickets to Hair…yes, Hair. What a birthday present…full frontal nudity, references to drugs, profanity, and implied sexual acts. Ah, well, it’s all about the education, right? If he wants to be on Broadway one day, he’ll have to know that he, too, might have to get up in front of an audience baring it all (meaning sans dance belt). Even Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, bared all in his role in Equus. Plus, we have tickets to see Pilobolus, the Connecticut-based company that is known to perform at least half naked. So…call me a bad mom. Maybe I am. I’m probably not showing him anything he hasn’t seen before — or won’t see behind the scenes at a ballet or other dance production anyway (if not on the stage itself).

And with that, I’ll sign off for now. I have a ton of editing and writing work to do, which is making it possible right now for us to see these show! I need to get us tickets to West Side Story next…the only other big dance production other than Billy Elliot, which we see at the end of the month.

(Oh, Julian texted me last week to say he’d had his best day ever at ABT: great jazz class, super partnering class, and 20 minutes in the studio after class messing around with David Alvarez, aka Tony Award-winning “Billy Elliot” himself! Now the ABT summer intensive girls are texting Julian asking for introductions since he is David’s “friend.”)

More in a few days…

Two weeks down, four to go…

Julian is sad that the weeks are flying by. He’s completed two weeks already and has just four to go. However, they are definitely taking their toll on him. I’d recommend that everyone – girls and boys alike – really get in shape for a summer intensive like the American Ballet Theatre six-weeks in New York. It’s grueling, especially if you don’t normally dance seven hours a day (in humid, hot conditions). It also makes a difference if you don’t normally give 150 percent in your classes but you feel pushed to do so once at the intensive – both by the calibre of teachers and students.

After a day at home sleeping off a night of stomach upset, Julian went back to the intensive only to find himself sick again at the end of the day. He managed to throw up just once and then hobbled through watching the ABT performance of Swan Lake. We did, however, have to take taxis there and back. Once home, he suddenly got hungry and at the rest of the soup I’d made for him and then slept for 10 hours and woke up hungry.

While there we ran into a former Teen Dance Company artistic director, and a current master class teacher, professor at Buffalo State University in New York and choreographer for TDC (who will also be teaching at the upcoming TDC summer intensive), Carlos Jones, and he commented, “This is how you are supposed to feel.” This was after we asked him to come down to Julian’s seat at the Metropolitan Opera House to see Julian, who could not bring himself to move from the spot without feeling sick! (I guess that made us feel a bit better, although we haven’t heard of anyone else feeling this way. Of course, Julian is coming from a very dry climate – California – and Carlos said the humidity would be a tough climate change for him.)

I promised some more accurate information on the levels at ABT. They are from lowest to highest: yellow, red, blue, green, violet, aqua, indigo. Green and below are intermediate and everything from violet and above is advanced. The boys of all levels have men’s history and conditioning classes together. Otherwise, they are separated. So the intermediates, for instance, have partnering and men’s class together.

Julian is actually very satisfied with his level. He wanted to be in green but when he saw how good the boys in green were, he knew he was in the right level. Plus, the boys in green spend a fair amount of time with the boys in blue. In fact, Julian has friends in green, and they all seem to hang out together and help each other and teach each other things. Julian sometimes knows something a fellow green dancer doesn’t know and vice versa, so it works out well.

As for competition, I assume the boys all push to do better than the next, but at least at the intermediate level, the boys are friendly and nice and don’t seem to let competition get in the way of freindship.

Julian really adores his classes at ABT. In particular, he is getting a lot out of the partnering classes. This is the first chance he’s had to really work on ballet partnering. He hasn’t done much “guy stuff” in the men’s class, but he likes the camaraderie of being with all the boys. Technique classes are enjoyable also, and his choreography class, which is a jazz piece set to Elton John music, he says is awesome.

All in all, the classes, while tiring, are improving him already. He says he’s much better after just two weeks in New York.

As for his foot, which is better after one day off this week, the best I can do is to relate what chiropractor George Russell wrote to the physical therapist at ABT:

Julian appears to have a chronic sprain of the left anterior portion of the deltoid ligament of the ankle. It’s tender to the touch and hurts when he lands from jumps. the posterior part and the spring ligament appear fine. He’s pronated and in his barre work I coached him to even the two malleoli and get his weight a little more onto the heel, balanced inside to outside. I gave him a different foot exercise — lifting and spreading the toes, looking at the balanced malleoli and lifted arch in the mirror, and then letting the toes down without losing the alignment. He was doing doming over a tennis ball and resistance band work, which didn’t allow him to pay close attention to form and talar positioning.

Adjusting and icing the foot has helped, as it has in the past. Two days off will help as well. Julian does not plan to dance over the weekend. We had hopes of using the weekends for dance classes, but at least right now, he’s way too tired and needs the weekends to recover.

Tomorrow we go to see Marymount Manhattan and to find out about it’s dance program. We’ll get a tour from a TDC alumni.

Julian will be staying with another dancer and his mom for five days next week while I’m at a conference. I pray he stays healthy while I’m away! I really hate going at this point, but I can’t get out of it now. Hopefully it will all go smoothly. I will instruct him to drink lots of Gatorade and to use the packets of electrolytes that I have purchased at Whole Foods as well as better tasting Emergen-C packets. He’ll get much more sleep at their place, and it’s air conditioned. So, hopefully he’ll be okay. They do go to Broadway Dance Center twice a week to tap, but I told him not to tap if he doesn’t feel up to it. He can just watch. Or he can take part of the class.

Ugh…my nervous, worried mother is setting in. Why did I ever think I could leave him here in the city without being a wreck? If he hadn’t gotten sick this week, I’d probably be fine with it, but now… Okay, positive, creative thinking: It will be just fine. He’ll be just fine. I’ll let you know when I get back in a week.

ABT Summer Intensive Takes Its Toll on My Boy

Okay, well, I guess the New York Times article I read about the boy who went to the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive and suffered from shin splints and such painted a correct picture…or we’ve just hit some bad luck and made some bad choices. Julian is a week and a half into the ABT summer intensive himself and on Monday he slightly injured his left foot and tonight he has an upset stomach.

The slightly injured foot definitely comes from overuse and his tendency to pronate. (Remember, boys, think about this!) The chiropractor here in New York, George Russell, is a former dancer, and after he watched Julian do a few things, like plie, he saw exactly how Julian was straining his foot. Of course, he also has jammed his heel with jumps. I’ve been taught to adjust the heel, and that is helping, as is icing.

As for mistakes…well…First, we went off to a tap class with Jared Grimes at Broadway Dance Center last night knowing that Julian’s foot was not 100 percent. Also, he’d just danced 7 hours. He took a tap class at Broadway Dance Center last week, but it was nowhere near as strenuous. So, we didn’t help the foot, nor did we help Julian’s general state of fatigue.

And he is fatigued, let me tell you. He’s better this week, but last Friday after his first full week was over, he couldn’t lift his arms and he could hardly walk up the subway steps. His shoulders were sore to the touch!

The, second mistake, Julian didn’t drink enough water today. The studios are extremely hot, he says, and after lunch he began to feel nautious. He didn’t tell me this, however, and came home to eat some things he shouldn’t have eaten. And then he ate his salad at dinner but nothing else — which didn’t really help, even though it was healthy. Needless to say, not long afterwards he began throwing up. I hope it is a simple case of heat stroke and he’ll feel better in the morning and won’t have to miss classes.

I guess we won’t be doing any dancing this weekend…I think we’ll take it easy and go see some dance instead.

We didn’t get tickets to the ABT performance last weekend, because it conflicted with a trip to see his grandmother, who lives an hour outside of Manhattan. He failed to get the student tickets for Swan Lake, which opened this week, but I might just buy some.

We did go see In The Heights last Friday. It was awesome if you like hip hop and rap music. The dancing was really tremendous. The best of the dancers, a really classic hip hopper, told Julian it was great he was attending ABT. He said, “I went to Ailey and it changed my life.”

We met one of the young Simba’s from The Lion King while at Broadway Dance Center last week. He was sweet and polite and humble. He thought Julian’s tapping was awesome; he had just finished taking a beginner tap class. We saw Kiril Kulish leaving the theater after a performance, although we haven’t yet seen Billy Elliott. And Julian met David Alvarez at ABT, where he is taking some of the summer intensive classes but not all. Julian refrained from talking to him about Billy Elliott, since everyone else was doing so.

All in all, with the exception of the hurt foot and the upset tummy, it’s been a pretty good almost-two-weeks for Julian. He loves the ABT program. He’s made some friends with the guys both in blue and green levels as well as in yellow. He enjoys all his classes. He loves the partnering class and the boys class. He enjoys the teachers. He’s enormously glad he came, and he’s learned a ton in less than two weeks.

It’s been pretty good for me too (as long as I leave out some some details, like stopped up sinks, no TV reception which prevents us from watching So You Think You Can Dance, and me falling down the stairs to the apartment and twisting my knee and ankle).

Next time: How Julian feels about his level, info on his classes, his relationship with the boys, and what exactly is wrong with his foot!