Day 5:
After the rain last night, the morning began a bit grey and cloudy with threatening rain.
The plans for the morning went a bit haywire as I promised the girls from grade 4 that they could use their fast depleting budget (blame it on the dance shop) to go on the slides the type they use both in winter and summer in a big giant rubber donut.
We did watch a morning class in studio 1 (named after Darcey Bussell. The president of the R.A.D) situated on the stage of the Pala congressi always extra motivation for the students to take their morning class on a stage.
Unfortunately the slides were closed due to the weather but he directed to us inside the ice rink , yes like I said there is everything in the Andalo family activity park , pool , ice rink , mini golf , tennis
The students opted for the adventure park yes undercover using half the ice rink so for the next hour or so I tried my best to think about my posture and lengthen my cervical vertebrae while looking up.
The afternoon was back to classes and observing the classes and actually seeing the pupils improve,
The older intermediate girls had Michele Molfetta with a sunny and positive attitude . He gave a great tip for improving balance in retire passe therefore also pirouettes.
From 5th position passé relevé devant and say your whole name while in passé first name and surname.
Also he likes the word endehor much more than “turn out” just the way you say en…de…hor suggests more of the opening and spiralling action needed for classical ballet more rounded over all.
His favourite phrase though
“Che le chiappe siano con voi”
My favourite class of the day though was taught by Manfred Perego contemporary with the grade 4’s he actually overheard my students before the class started playfully faking an injury for an excuse to not do the character class at the end of the day (not their favourite lesson).
He took that on board and did an exercise at the begging of the lesson where they all had to incorporate an injury and improvise falling to the floor, faking an injury to maybe an elbow, knee hips or even the ears ,nose ???? Then travelling down the room with the same concept,
He really built up the lesson each day with various tasks exercises so by the end of the week they were choreographing their own routine,
Very entertaining
P.s Their character lesson was without injury and even enjoyable.
Day 6:
Big day for the Advanced students today as later on in the evening will be their time to shine on stage having all learnt excerpts during their repertoire lessons from the ballet Don Quixote music by Ludwig Minkus.
Friday is also the day the students get their certificates and photos even signatures of their favourite teachers.
In the morning the registered teachers that were present at the summer school and quite a few online were given the opportunity to listen to a talk by Tim Arthur who is the current CEO of the Royal Academy of Dance and if that was not special enough we got to listen to the talk at Refuge Dosson a short cable car ride to a stunning location.
I enjoyed hearing about his story of how he became the CEO and some of his past positions including the turning around of the failing company Time Out
As Global CEO of Time Out, he transformed a beloved heritage print title into one of the world’s most innovative media brands, expanding its reach exponentially around the globe.
It was very interesting to hear his ideas and he made the point that a company even if it is a charitable one like the RAD need the money to put back into the company to continue to survive and thrive.
One of the future plans for the RAD is the pre school program Rainbows Adventures in dance which I believe we need to compete with many other pre school commercial programs out there.
Me, Erica and Sonia sadly left the little piece of mountain paradise but knew it would be a busy afternoon evening.
So lets cut straight to the evening and the Gala performance with everybody putting in a bit of extra effort we had dinner early thanks to the staff at the hotel and we walked to the Pala Congressi luckily it was a nice evening. The show stared off with Don Quixote and our very own Edoardo performing he did a great job , he did have a slight advantage as he had performed it earlier in April as part of the project DEFT(Dance Exchange Friendship Theatre) in Rimini at the beautiful Teatro Amintore Galli.
Next was the professional performers and everybody had their favourites, Mine had to be the last pas de deux which was Spartacus performed by Lauretta Summerscales and Yonah Acosta and were great but especially the music which memory for me who remembers seeing the whole ballet by the Australian Ballet as a student.
And a big shout out to the Bridge and their contemporary work choreography by Stefania Pigato who is also one of the faculty teachers of the summer school https://stefaniapigato.com/
The dances we saw that night
https://www.instagram.com/laurretta.s/
Yonah Acosta was born in Havana, Cuba, and started dancing at the age of 10 at the National Ballet School Cuba. After his diploma he got engaged at the National Ballet in Havana. In 2011 he joined the English National Ballet where he was promoted to principal dancer in 2014. He won several international dance competitions and was partner of Tamara Rojo and Alina Cojocaru amongst others. In the season 2017/18 he joined the Bayerisches Staatsballett as a principal
Lauretta Summerscales and Yonah Acosta principals with the Bayerisches Staatsballet
Ksenia Ovsiyanick and Alejandro Virelles principals with the Staats Ballett Berlin
Rebecca Bianchi e Claudio Cocino principals of Teatro dell’opera di Roma
It was a mixed program of contemporary and classic excerpts form famous ballet for example le corsaire and the black swan pas de deux.
We walked back to the hotel and to bed and who knows if someone dreamt that night of one day being on a stage with a theatre full of people a beautiful tutu covered in crystals and embroidery a sparkling tiara sitting on a perfectly styled French roll…. but did a phone full of tik toks trample and obscure these images before they turned off the light. 🤔🩰
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