Natalia Osipova, Maria Kotchekova, Polina Semionova in works by Karole Armitage, Jorma Elo and MORE!

Absolutely AMAZING! Last night a couple SPAA students and I attended a wonderful performance, The Bolshoi Ballet Project: Reflections, featuring graduates of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. The melding of contemporary work with strong classical dancers is always an exciting combination and I believe it showcased the relevance of classical technique within the contemporary arena quite nicely. Some of the choreography was not necessarily to my liking, but the beauty of classical ballet training still continued to shine through.

It really is vitally important that those working in ballet and dance, and students of ballet and dance, are given the opportunity to see professional dancers at an international level and we just don't get enough opportunities here in Southern California. Seeing live performances at a national/international level inspire and validate our daily class work, both as teachers and students. I  encourage those of you parenting dancers, both aspiring professionals and lovers of the art, to take the family to a live performance. There really is nothing like it.  YouTube and the internet has brought the dance world to our desks, but nothing beats live performance.

I have to thank Orange County Performing Arts Center (now Segerstrom Center for the Arts) for continually offering a varied and innovative Dance season in Southern California year after year.

From Nutcracker to American Girl and MORE!

With Nutcracker now more than a month behind us, the new year has taken off at full speed! With the American Girl Fashion Show in March at the Irwin M. Jacobs Qualcomm Hall, the dancers of Scripps Ballet Theatre and Scripps Performing Arts are changing gears from Tchaikovsky to Pugni's Pas de Quatre and Auber's Les Rendez-vous.  We're about two weeks into rehearsals, setting Pas de Quatre and working on several new works including an original Les Rendez-vous and a new contemporary solo to music by Yann Tiersen. The piece is inspired by the pull between what one knows in their heart and what it looks like on the outside. So far the choreography is a contrast between organic and quick, sharp movements and the music really drives you to keep moving. The variations of the Romantic ballet Pas de Quatre are definitely stretching the dancers and I don't think any one anticipated the difficulty of this piece (except for me of course). They're all approaching the work with great focus and gusto and I'm confident it will be beautiful by opening night and each dance will add their own touch to the interpretation of the stars of the Romantic Era: Lucile Grahn (Laura Xiao), Carlotta Grisi (Vivian Zhang), Fanny Cerrito (Alexandra Polaski), Marie Taglioni (Stephanie Cotton). The dancers are grasping the new material quickly and both the American Girl Fashion Show performance and Scripps Ballet Theatre performance in April will show the versatility and passion of these young, skilled dancers.

*Scripps Ballet Theatre is the youth ballet company in residence at the Scripps Performing Arts Academy