Thankful...

...for so many things, especially:

Being a student of GKA
Being a part of the wonderful program this school offers!
Having the privilege of being taught by teachers and instructors who give so much of themselves to us students in daily classes
The amazing pianists of GKA who also give so much of their time and energy to provide us with inspiring music
My fellow classmates, for the inspiration they provide - their energy, focus, grace, beauty, support, and hard work
My family and friends for their support to me
My so far successful selling of 22 tickets for our December show - which has put me on the leaderboard for the most tickets sold! 
And... the beautiful day spent today with friends and family, a delicious Thanksgiving meal, and quality time relaxing and spending time with my family here at home! 

There is so much to be thankful for!  Please share your thoughts and comments below.  
Happy Thanksgiving, 
Bunhead

Don Quixote - Cups

Just some Mikhail Barishnikov insane super-human awesomeness for the week!

One month until the GKA winter performance!

It's November 16th - which means in exactly one month, on Friday, December 16th, the Gelsey Kirkland Academy will be performing at Symphony Space! So far, the ticket selling competition of only a couple of weeks has us to almost 200 tickets sold out of 780. Please help us keep this going! Spread the word, and get your ticket at http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/7222-gelsey-kirkland-academy-presents

Be sure to then forward your email ticket receipt to me so I can recieve credit for what tickets I sell.  (Students with the highest number of tickets sold are eligible for receiving the prize of up to 2 privates with Ms. Gelsey Kirkland!)  We're all very excited and working hard - hope to see you there!    
More to come, 
Bunhead

David Hallberg as Bolshoi Principal, plus Giselle video!

  From the New York Times:

November 9, 2011, 10:57 am

It’s Official: American Is Now a Bolshoi Dancer

By ELLEN BARRY

 

"Last Friday night, David Hallberg made his debut as a principal dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet, becoming the first American in history to do so.
A leading Russian newspaper critic praised his “surgically measured pirouettes” in the role of Prince Albrecht in “Giselle.” Another wrote that “the way he simply walked on stage differentiated him from a mere mortal,” and noted that the company has not had a “Nordic beauty” of his type since 1979, when Aleksandr Godunov defected while on tour with the Bolshoi in New York. What fault they found was with his acting; transports of emotion conveyed by his co-star, Natalia Osipova, were met with no more than “ideally harmonized and measured gestures and loyal glances,” one of the critics said.

For Mr. Hallberg himself, the debut meant he was allotted 12 hours of relaxation – and two beers – before launching into intensive preparations for “Sleeping Beauty,” which opens Nov. 18 on the Bolshoi’s historic stage and will be telecast globally on the 20th. He called it “one of the biggest performances of my career,” made more daunting by new choreography which he compared, in its opening sequence, to being blasted out of a cannon.
Mr. Hallberg is reflecting on his adjustment from the American Ballet Theater to the Bolshoi, and from New York to Moscow, in a series of conversations with the Moscow bureau chief of The New York Times, Ellen Barry. Here edited and condensed, is their latest chat.

Q.

What was the moment of highest tension for you in this performance of “Giselle”?

A.

I was going on for Act II and I lost my pirouette. I just kind of lost the feeling of being up on the leg and turning. We usually dance on a linoleum-type floor and this was a canvas floor, so it’s very slippery. So anyway I lost the feeling. And the director, Sergei Fillin, had seen it happen during the intermission. So he came up after two or three tries. He came up and said, before the preparation: “Just relax. No more emotion” — you know, in his broken English – “You don’t have to give emotion. You don’t have to emote. Just calm down, relax and just go for the pirouette calmly.” And it totally fixed it.

Q.

Did he hypnotize you?

A.

No, it just put me back into reality kind of. Sometimes when things aren’t working you get yourself into a stupor. You start to panic a little bit and then it just gets worse and worse. And he said, calm down, let it happen. In essence — he didn’t say this, but in essence — he’s saying you don’t have to conquer the world, just do a pirouette. You know, just go around three times.

Q.

So what did Sergei say to you afterwards?

A.

He said, ”Congratulations.” He said, ”Welcome to Bolshoi.” He said that even before the curtain went up. I’ll never forget at the gala on the 28th, he came into the reception, he said: “This is your theater now. This is your theater. Welcome to your theater.” And I said, “This isn’t my theater.”

Q.

That’s got to be a crazy feeling.

A.

It’s a crazy feeling.

Q.

You must be lonely sometimes.

A.

That’s a good question, but the answer is no. It’s been such an unbelievable juxtaposition between my life in New York and my life here now. In New York I have so many friends. I know the city so well. I’m the type of person that just packs in my schedule. I’m seeing things, seeing people, I’m going to things, going to performances, etc. But here, I have an apartment close to the Bolshoi. I go to rehearsal, I come back, the day winds down. I’m reading a great book on de Kooning.

Q.

You’re surrounded by people who came up through the Bolshoi. You have to notice a lot of little differences in training.

A.

I do. Honestly, I think the company does as well. I think my performance in “Giselle” was my proving ground. I needed to mark my territory. I felt dancers in the company curious and watching: How will he perform and how will he dance? They see me in class every day, but they were curious to see, you know, like how I dance. At least to my face I got a very positive response. Ballet dancers are very harsh critics of ballet dancers.

Q.

To their faces?

A.

No, but –

Q.

If you get something wrong they’re not going to miss it.

A.

No not at all.

Q.

Well how do you know what they’re saying to each other?

A.

You don’t.

Q.

Your first role on the historical stage is the prince in “Sleeping Beauty.” How do you feel about the role?

A.

Everyone says that I’m the princely character, or the princely type. You kind of are who you are. I try to push beyond that. You know, you can’t eat the same thing every day, even though you love it.

Q.

Is there a part of the performance that really gives you the opportunity to show off?

A.

Yes, and that’s when you’re not really dancing. Just standing there, being a prince.

Q.

Have you reviewed tapes of your first performance?

A.

That’s the beauty of YouTube. People take them with their phones and then post them on YouTube an hour later. I was on Twitter and then I saw that someone added a link, “Osipova Giselle.” And then I clicked on it."

 -       -         -
There's a lot of wonderful video popping up on YouTube now, straight from the Russian fans!  I wanted to share a clip from a performance at the Bolshoi this month:  Hallberg's first Bolshoi Giselle, with the stunning Natalia Osipova.  

Anaheim Ballet Special Guest: Maria Kochetkova

Quick update

I'm officially a New Yorker!!  (Yay!)  I'm living in Midtown as of the last day of October.  I really love it and am so grateful to finally be living in Manhattan.  I've been really busy and not blogging, I know, but this weekend I promise a full update of all that we've been doing.  BTW, tickets are on sale, so please head over to Symphony Space's website and check it out!  (Send me your reciept via email, as we students are competing among ourselves for who can sell the most tickets, and we're keeping track of it by reciepts from the tickets of our family and friends!)  More to come...
Bunhead