Your Ballet Class Updates & Special Feature
*** EXPERIENCE THE EDUCATION ***
REMINDER: FALL BACK Most of the United States reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November, including us here in New York!
Join us now! KAT'S CLASS UPDATES at The Alvin Ailey School , the Largest dance facility in the country!! "Majestic" studios in the "Glass Palace" specifically designed for dancers , sprung floors, state-of-the-art acoustics and climate controlled.
Now that the Tyler Dunne foundation http://tylerdunnefoundation.com Benefit performance is completed, we are back dancing ballet to our regular schedule:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
* 10:30 Beginners Class
* 12 noon pointe
* 6pm Intermediate level
* 7:30 Beginners class
Saturday
* 4:30- 6:pm open all levels
* 6:15 pointe
Thursday & Sunday
* Private lessons only
*Note all Kat's private lessons are also currently scheduled for Sundays all day and Thursdays after 3pm, at the Circular Power Studios conveniently located at 850 7th ave Suite 305.
Tuesday
Kat's day off, please don't ask, you know I'm a workaholic and need one day completely off. Thanks.
All classes are held on a drop-in basis. Class includes the ballet barre, center work, stretching and across the floor ballet combinations, intermixed with performance tips and personal adjustments, corrections and coaching. Whether you are seeking a career, or dancing for fun and fitness, ballet class is a great way to tone up, increase circulation and stay in shape. Kat uses a specific unique syllabus derived from a combination of the American, Italian, and Russian syllabi's and offers several quality levels of instruction in classical ballet for you!
ONGOING CLASS UPDATES
Kat's regular teaching schedule is here. Bookmark it so you don't forget. Click here to download a printable Ailey Extension Schedule!
***SPECIAL FEATURE***
Since we rarely, if ever, purposefully turn ourselves upside down, an aversion to inversions is natural. But it's a shame to let fear keep us from so many benefits and delights. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "He has not learned the lessons of life who does not every day surmount a fear." What better time to discard an old fear than every Friday in the Friday night adagio!
Psychologically, inversions allow us to see things from an alternate perspective. Physically, they stimulate the immune and endocrine systems, thereby invigorating and nourishing the brain and the organs. When done correctly, inversions also release tension in the neck and the spine and assist in your pursuit of more stretch and upper body strength.
It's essential to learn the correct setup and alignment.
Learning how to set your hand beside your foot is the first step, because it distributes weight in a straight line between upper body and the feet while protecting the neck. A healthy alignment for this stretch requires a strong opening of the armpits and a rolling of the shoulders back and toward each other to allow the neck to release properly.
Press your wrist down and try to take your foot off the floor.
This is done with the pelvis lifted off the floor, the feet on the barre, and the shoulders easy. While in this pose, you can check to see if you've developed the necessary strength in your shoulders, to allow you to hold your upper body up and out of a grand jete position.
Never strain in this pose. You should check your pose frequently to see that your head and neck are in the correct alignment and that your shoulders are lifting and widening properly.
The goal in this stretch in not necessarily attaining the the complete grand jete en the barre, but continually working on lifting your upper body up and out of your hips, allowing your legs to move effortlessly underneath. GOOD LUCK!Class Gossip: TMI and Honorable Mentions
Our first Hallowween was a huge blast at the Ailey School...we terroized other classes on the annual Halloween run and strutted our stuff for the judges. This year was very difficult to choose winners. The judges had a lot tutu choose from. The winners were Imani for her pas de boo character and her make up was very scary, Alice for her scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. Judges say she maintained her character for the entire class. Last the most desperate prize awarded to, o my Josh!! What were you?? Next year, judges promise to submit their Katagories in advance so we have none of that shameful display ever again. Honorable mentions were Paula as the head waiter, as always a lot of thought and effort into her costome; Bonnie I Dream of Jeannie, woohoo; Franco as Roddy; Vladimir in his 'FRO'; Claudia as the gunslinger; Dennis as Martha Graham, LOL; Jeannie as Kitty cat, nursie, gypsie, skater, bunny, bleeding Mylena & Mark; The new guy Jonathan as the Yellow Brick Road for Taylor's Dorothy and Yasmine's Tin Man; Toni was a scream, and many other wonderful presentations too numerous to mention all here. This was the best Halloween ever. Thanks for showing up and thanks to our judges--the most senior Sharon with Harvey, the honorable Ben and our lovely Rachel. Arthur hopes to have pictures posted soon....Frankie made a Halloween appearance at 6pm class his first at our new home...and lets lot forgit the one and only costume in morning class...woohoo Rebecca.
Veronica Yellin is celebrating her Full moon first month birthday......congratz Vicky & Evan...Have you seen "The Gymnast" on DVD? Robert W's sister Drea is the leading lady, check it out here...One of humanity's earliest known ancestors, Lucy, is currently on her first-ever U.S. museum tour, but she's banned from the Smithsonian (a protest by museum officials, who say her remains are too fragile to travel)...Eriko is performing in West Side Story--11/3 thru 11/11 The Phoenix Red Bank Theatre, whatta great place please try and see her if you can...Marrianne says after expenses we made a few grand on Tyler Dunne benefit...wow thanks everybody for participating and attending. We will try and make it an annual event. Whatta very special thing we created together. Thank you, all. Woooo Hooooo!!
Book Review: 'Nureyev: The Life' and his offstage adventures.
A Synopsis of The Sleeping Beauty Ballet, for those students currently learning variations for the student showcase, tentatively scheduled for late February 08'. The Sleeping Beauty was Tchaikovsky's first famous ballet. His music was just as important as the dancing! The story of The Sleeping Beauty is a perfect match for ballet - royal celebrations in a magnificent castle, the battle of good and evil and the triumphant victory of everlasting love. What more could you ask for? The choreography was created by world renowned Marius Pepita who also choreographed The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. This classic ballet will be performed as long as the world turns.
Tony @ Circular Power: Tony trains Kat 4 times per week in preparation for this, yet another 'Nutcracker" season. Circular Power has a wonderful talented team of teachers working with several of your fellow classmates and other professional dancers and athletes. It's an excellent cross-training system for dancers & others as well.
Andros on Ballet: Addicted to dance. Mr A a dear friend, teacher and mentor to Kat for over 20++ years now. He has the answers to all those ballet questions you need tutu know. Weekly Tips: Pointe, Health and Shopping
Shopping Deals:
Make a difference with Broadway Cares. Awwwl is this the cutest baby wear?? ...Camisoles for $5 and more at Leo's.
Nutrition:
EATING RAW: The Benefits. Getting your nutrients. One study found that stove-cooked spinach lost 77% of its folate; another study found that broccoli lost up to 97% of its antioxidants when nuked in the microwave. Better digestion. Your body has to use its own metabolic enzymes to digest food that's cooked above the 116-degrees mark, which requires energy and can leave you feeling sluggish. Cooking your food at temps above 116 degrees depletes nutrients and uses more energy. Eating more raw foods boosts your health and saves energy. If 10,000 Dancers eat only raw foods for their next meal, we'll save almost enough energy to power two homes for a year.
RAW RESTAURANTS NY, search here....We Like It Raw - raw-foodie blog with tons of info and recipes.
Anatomy:
A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.
Stretch O' the Month
I promised a really easy one, here it is Corpse Pose. This pose is also called Mrtasana (pronounced mrit-TAHS-anna, mrta = death).
Pointe: Save the Date
Right after class on wednesday nite nov 7th, Rachel will give us all a little flexistretcher demonstration. Be there 9pm. Kat's Weekly Mailbag
Hi Kat, please let your students know that we are a no rosin studio. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but we do not allow rosin in any of our studios.Thank you, Y .
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Hi Kat, I just wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you for EVERYTHING you do/have done for me....Thanks for "torturing" me (I need it! More) and for your constant words of encouragement (I really appreciate it, especially after lots of DISCOURAGEMENT in the past...I was pretty much ignored at .....School thanks to my bad feet, etc...). It all means a lot and I just thought I owed you a big thank you for everything!! See you in class Friday :) T.
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Dear Kat, You are an inspiration and an awesome talent and those gorgeous legs of yours prove that we can keep it going on with dedication, perseverance and faith. It was wonderful sharing a dressing room with you and getting to know you a little, as well as being part of such a fabulous show for such a great cause. Godbless:-) S.
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Dear Kat,You were SO beautiful last night. I just wanted to write and say how lucky I feel that you are my teacher and how wonderful it was to watch you from the wings as you did your glorious pas de deux with Royce. Watching your performance was like taking a class--every correction and technique you teach was right there in direct application. It's so moving to feel that this is a living medium that you are dedicated to transmitting, one step and one word at a time, to hundreds of striving bodies, and to see it "embodied" on the stage by you was a true high point for me. I hope you are not too modest to put this fan letter into your newsletter, as I'm sure every student who watched you last night felt the same! Love and congratulations, -T.
You can catch up by reading last newsletter here in our archives. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Casting Call: Hot Auditions and Gigs Here
Book Your Flight and Pack Your Pointe Shoes: The Royal Danish Ballet will audition dancers on January 13 at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. To be considered for an audition slot, you must send your resume, head, and dance shot so it arrives no later than Dec. 18. It should be addressed to The Royal Danish Ballet, Att. Boriana Nielsen, P.O. Box 2185, DK-1017 Copenhagen K, Denmark or email bnie@kglteater.dk.
Calling All High Flyers: Noemie Lafrance is auditioning female and male aerialist dancers for "Rapture," a site-specific work to be performed next summer. The tryout will be Sunday, December 2nd, from 10am-2pm at Embody Language Studio in Brooklyn. Experience with aerial dance work is required. Send your resume and photo to info@sensproduction.org. They will contact you by email to confirm your appointment.
Paging Billy Elliot Dancers: Everyone's favorite ballet musical is coming to Broadway next year. They will be auditioning girls and boys with ballet and tap skills, ages 9-12, for the upcoming production in New York on November 3 & 4. For more information, please go to www.BeBilly.com.
Check audition notices here.World News: Dance Across the Globe
Dance Magazine honors these four dance artists for their stellar accomplishments. For a night of glitz, glamour and celebration on Nov. 5. at Florence Gould Hall in NYC. Performance highlights include The Paul Taylor Dance Company's famous and funny quartet from Cloven Kingdom, plus more surprises. Tickets are $50. 646-459-4814; or contact kmalone@dancemedia.com....Music Scene: On Monday, November 12th, the launch of Classical Action's new benefit recording, Flesh & Stone, songs of Jake Heggie, in Noe Valley, San Francisco....SAVE THE DATE: Dance from the Heart 2007 proves to be yet another spectacular evening of dance--bringing together the best companies and dancers from across the country. Companies performing include MOMIX, Atlanta Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Jason Samuels Smith, Keigwin+Company, Wendy Seyb, the cast of Broadway's The Lion King and more! Monday, December 10 at 7:30pm At Cedar Lake 547 West 26th St. Between 10th and 11th Avenues...Cuba's ballet legend Alonso slams U.S. embargo...Everybody's doing a ballet dance now...Irek Mukhamedov has taken over the direction of Greece's National Opera ballet...In Sight/Cinema & Arts: Passionate romance, in ballet form...Korea's prima ballerina Kim Ju-won will have her salary docked for one month as punishment for appearing nude in a fashion magazine...Pigeon droppings pelt ballet-goers - Lol!!!...Ballet is Harder Than Harry Potter...Miami City Ballet has received its largest donation, $1 million grant will help underwrite a new work from Twyla Tharp to a score by Elvis Costello....Army of Extras Gear-Up for 'War and Peace' at Met. The epic opera promises to be one of the Met's largest productions in its history, requiring 1,200 costumes, 52 soloists in 68 singing parts, 118 choristers, 41 ballet dancers, about 250 extras, a horse, a dog, a goat and four chickens...A Russian dancer who visited a community centre to improve her English is now teaching people ballet....Choreographer Bejart recovering from exhaustion For Men Only
Speaking of: Coupe jetes in a circle, and of the tendency to lean in towards the turn and calling that a barrel turn. Here's a clip of Joseph Phillips doing the Don Q variation and coda. What the young man does in the coda of this clip are called barrel turns. They differ from coupe jetes in that they are intentionally tilted (the more the better) and that the front leg swings horizontally instead of being brushed forward. He ends the barrel sequence with what is usually called a 540, where you take off like a barrel turn but land on the same foot you tookoff from. (submitted by Matt, TYVM!)
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Amazing story of a 5yr old golf pro. Ballerina of the Month: Kaleria Fedicheva
Kaleria Fedicheva, 1936 - 1994 Mariinsky Ballet: here and here.
She was one of Kat's dearest beloved and extremly missed Coaches
People's Artist of the USSR in 1967. She graduated from the Kirov ballet (Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) school in 1955 and excelled in the nineteenth-century classics.
- Kaleria Fedicheva- Yurii Soloviev ( Ballet Kirov): here.
- One of the young ballerinas in the movie 'Children of Theatre street'
- I'm told also appearing as Canari qui chante Fairy (yellow) with the Kirov
- After the Kirov's tour of Paris, Nureyev (then dancing with Kaleria) defected.
- Andros on Kaleria
- Anna KISSELGOFF on KALERIA FEDICHEVA: A former star of the Kirov Ballet, training young dancers in this country since the late 70's,.....Miss Fedicheva has much to tell us about the background that nurtured her and her contemporaries - Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova.
Reviews:
- The Penitent Magdalene and Monody (for female voice, 1968) were embodied in dance by the legendary Kirov ballerina Kaleria Fedicheva.
- ...when the cast changed for the second night's performance, Ballerina Kaleria Fedicheva proved the better actress, and possibly the better dancer.
- .....Raymonda is among the most difficult roles in Russian ballet, and it was rendered with elegance, grace and precision in two successive New York performances by Irina Kolpakova and Kaleria Fedicheva.
- Nutcracker production.
- 101 Stories of the Great Ballets: The scene-by-scene stories of the most popular ballets, old and new (A Doubleday Dolphin Book) Excerpt - on Page 29 : " ... the Kirov Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, September 14, 1964 with Kaleria Fedicheva as Nikiya, and.....Sat. evening performance of the Kirov at the Old Met on Sept. 19, ...Shades from Bayadere _WOW_! Kaleria Fedicheva was the Nikiya, and I can still recall her chaine' diagonals!
- vintage pendant: here.
Fedicheva was a true artist and a legend.
Performance Corner: Catch Your Fellow Students and more
Diane Leslie Performing @ Feinstein's (at the Regency) 540 Park Ave, November 4th, 8:30 call now for reservations 212 339-4095.
EmmaNutcracker R Rated a full length modern ballet, starts November 29th and tickets sell out quick!!
Alvin Ailey @ City Center November 28 thru December 31.
Kat's appearing in Nutcracker Upstate, December 21 & 22 with Slawomir Wozniak
If you have performance info you wanna share with your fellow classmates, please send it to kat_wildish@yahoo.com. Fun Stuff: Take a Break and Enjoy
On Yahoo!, a thing that supposedly tells you how many calories you are burning in Ballet! I'm not sure how accurate it is but it's here: if you want it.
QUOTE of the Week: "Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike." - DAME MARGOT FONTEYN (1919-1992)
THIS MONTH IN DANCE HISTORY video 'Peg Leg' Bates | | |
