Hello
there!
So,
it’s been ages since I’m not writing but I was expecting this to
happen because exam season was over us and today I can confirm that
I’m oficially over with every exam and school in general!
Today I
had my ballet exam, which was the very last one on our plan and I
must say that all my class and I did a pretty good job and I couldn’t
be more proud of every one of us.
Today,
to begin with final year of school themed posts, I’ll start by
explaining something that I mentioned before: the Bachelor Project.
My Bachelor Project was about Carmen Suite.
Here you have the wonderful Diana Vishneva.
So,
what is a Bachelor to begin with? A Bachelor is a degree you achieve
through university and it can be from four to six years depending on
the career you’ve chosen. In the Arts section, which is the one
dance is in, you can find several specialties: in music you find
several careers going from instrument based careers through direction
of orchestras, repetiteurs, singing and composing. In dance you have
the actual dancing career and you can also study pedagogy in order to
teach dance in any school (meaning private or state school).
I came
to Germany to get the Bachelor of Arts in Dance only because I really
wanted to perfect my technique in classical dance. And I think I did!
But the degree it’s not only dancing but it also has some
theoretical subjects you must pass in order to get your degree.
In the
past years I already did dance history, anatomy, dance medicine and
methodic (which is a subject that teaches how every ballet step
should be made and how it’s well written and combined with other
steps). This final year we had the Bachelor Project which we could
compare to a final thesis of a doctor when he graduates, just much
simpler and based on our profession.
The
work consisted of two parts: a written book and a recording. The
subject was a variation that we should choose on our own, work on it,
inform ourselves about it and record it.
On the
written book we needed to write about the ballet itself that this
variation was in. I personally chose the variation of Carmen Suite as
I really wanted to make something different and fun. The version I
was basing myself on was the one from the fabulous Diana Vishneva (I
know, quite high standards to repeat afterwards...) as I felt she was
one of the only interpreters that really got the Carmen’s sassy and
playful character.
That's a good extension, girl. ;)
So I
needed to write about the history of the ballet, the choreographer,
composer, dancer of the reference video and my experience. All in all
the written work was not very complicated. In fact it was actually
fun and I learned that a lot of inside fighting happened with Maya
Pliséstskaya and the Minister of Culture in Russia at the moment.
Apparently, cat fights were on even back in the days...
Anyway,
the «hard part» came on the recording day. I thought Carmen
wouldn’t be that much of a big deal because the variation has a lot
of turned in positions, flex feet and kind of free arm movement, but
oh man was I wrong!
This
variation enters into the category of neo-classical and that means
having a very specific movement that seems to be easy to catch but
once you get into it it’s when you realize you really need someone
to coach you.
Trying to get real sassy here...
I’m
not saying that this was Forsythe or David Dawson’s level because
we all know how now a days things can get really crazy and intricate
in choreography. (Just try to learn Marco Goecke on your own and see
how fun that can be haha) But, still, it had certain things that when
I rehearsed the variation I didn’t realized it was that different
to the original until I saw the video.
I’m
not disappointed with my job though! I think the project itself was
complicated on its own for everyone and on that day my friends and I
recorded together and I must say that it was very beautiful to see
everyone do a famous variation as beautiful as they did. The
challenge was in there and I think that everyone could do a pretty
good job with such little rehearsal (because we didn’t had a lot of
free time to rehearse).
Not as high as Vishneva but look,
everyone is special on their own way.
I also
got a great opportunity thanks to this project. I’ll be able to
perform it this summer in an open air performance back home! I’m
very excited to work more on it and to try and get that real Carmen
character. There’s work to do but I know that I’ll do my own
Carmen and hopefully the public enjoys it as much as I do when I
dance it.
I hope
you liked this shirt post and I promise that from now on I won’t
let myself have such a big break between post. Now I’m free of
commitment and summer is right here so, fun and exciting posts might
be coming up!
I hope
you have a lovely evening and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Love,
Muriel
0 Comments