An Event Not to Be Missed

Courtesy Blankenship Ballet

On March 31^st at 8:15 pm, I will be performing in the premiere of “Blankenship Cabaret Theatre.” The event, inspired by the famed Parisian Moulin Rouge, will feature a fine arts cabaret in the Blankenshio Ballet Grand Ballroom, located at the Alexandria Hotel in the ‘historic core’ of ‘Gallery Row,’ located at 501 South Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The event will feature over 23 world-class artists, actors, dancers, and musicians.

Every performer is accomplished if not luminous in their field,” says executive director Mark Blankenship. “It’s a rare treat to watch them perform live in an intimate venue. Our goal is to revitalize historic structures and foment cultural patrimony by creating and producing live performances of classical artists uniquely blended in a way that encourages the community to join together to convene an eclectic venue on an ongoing basis so as to amplify the exhibition of the arts in a way that endures.”

Maykel Solas and Junna Ige, Courtesy Ballet San Jose

The evening will open with artistic director and Cuban ballerina Bertha Suarez Blankenship performing the lead role in the ballet “Carmen.” Opera diva Shana Blake Hill will be singing music from “Carmen.” An assortment of other ballets and operas will be performed, including the historic “Pas de Quatre” and the ever-stunning “Diana and Actaeon.” The event will also include a performance of Madonna’s song “Future Lovers,” choreographed by guest choreographer David Person. The piece will feature most of the ballet dancers, many from the world-reknowned Ballet Nacionale de Cuba, including director Suarez as well as Ramon Moreno, Alejandro Boza, Patricia Perez, and Maykel Solas. It  will also be a piece that I will be performing in as well as Japanese ballerina Junna Ige, who dances professionally with Ballet San Jose, and Tatiana Piche, who just got back from spending a year and a half with Ballet Nacionale de Cuba. The evening will also feature vocalist and dancer Megalyn Echikunwoke performing “Castle on a Cloud” from the hit Broadway musical “Les Miserables,” accompanied by  acclaimed pianist Mark Robson, who will also be featured throughout the rest of the evening. Belly dancer Meliza and “The Jewels that Raq” will be performing as well as flamenco dancer Richard Chavez and Afro-Cuban Master Ramon Ramos Alayo. The event will feature gourmet cuisine from Bravo ‘Top Chef’ Ilan Hall of “The Gorbals” and a full bar.

Ramon Moreno and Patricia Perez, Courtesy Bayer Ballet

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. To purchase tickets, go to www.brownpapertickets.com/event/230403. Visit www.blankenshipcabarettheatre.com or call 1-86-MY-BALLET for more information. If you cannot make it to the event, starting in April, the Blankenship Theatre will perform on an ongoing weekly basis at Downtown LA’s Salvage Bar and Lounge. The company will return to the Alexandria with another grand performance in May 2012. Other performances and venues are yet to come as well. Here is a link of what to expect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-PfBitj0DU

Last weekend did not work for the filming. This weekend did not work either. The weather was either too rainy or too windy this past weekend to film. Saturday was Gizmorashka's second birthday. Poor Giz would have loved to have gone to the beach, but the weather had other other ideas.
Filmmaker Xi Guan said sand in the camera would be a bad thing. I agree with that, especially since a morsel of sand got in my camera once and it would not close properly. Fortunately, after I used canned air on it a few times, the problem was resolved.

Perhaps sometimes this week will work for filming. Guan will let me know. In the meantime, I decided to share these images (taken by Guan) from the filming. I am in the mask for all of the pictures but one, which is a cast and crew photo.

A Dancer's Worst Nightmare

One of a dancer's worst nightmares is getting an injury. I once had an injury where it hurt to walk. Over a time period of a year and a half, I went to over thirty people, including chiropractors, acupuncturists, body workers, and physical therapists. I finally got better but most people didn't help me despite their reputation. An acupuncturist helped me to walk without pain, but I still couldn't lift my leg more than 45 degrees off the injured side. A physical therapist for San Francisco Ballet did painful body work on me, but I still could not lift my leg past 45 degrees. He seemed mystified why I couldn't lift my leg any higher without pain. When he was not working for a few weeks, my body really fell apart. I then went to the chiropractor for San Francisco Ballet. I was one of the few patients that he had not single-handedly healed. Although my body was in less pain, I still could not lift my leg higher without pain. The chiropractor then recommended a body worker. Within a month, I was back in the splits. I was so happy to be back to where I was. It was very hard for me.
Dancing is life for me. Not dancing is like not breathing to a truly passionate dancer. Without being able to breathe, you die.When you dance at a professional level, you really tend to know your body. You have to learn to live with the pain. In addition, you learn to recognize the difference between sore pain and injured pain. In the end, the show must go on in the professional world. Thus professional dancers do what they can to make all the magic happen.

That being said, I can really identify with the character in the film I worked on this past weekend. My character, Ms. Rabbit, was once a great dancer. "She was in a horrible accident," says filmmaker Xi Guan. The character is now bound to a wheelchair as well as a rabbit mask, that seems to add to her predicament. She sees a dancer dancing and is very sad. White is a theme throughout the film. Although the film starts out in a darkened corridor, the scene then moves to the beach where Ms. Rabbit pours milk for a reluctant toast with an imagined friend. When the milk she is pouring turns to black she is frightened. She stumbles out of her wheelchair and is tormented by demonic masked creatures. She tries to stand but keeps falling down. They throw flour at her. Frightened and sad, she is once again alone. She tries to fix herself with tool reminiscent of the movie "Child's Play." Her legs begin to bleed and she dies. Afterwards, her spirit is released and she dances along the beach, free from the wheelchair and the rabbit mask and back in her tutu.

In partial costume between shots in the cold room

A sunset Friday night while filming at Dockweiler Beach

In between shots with Giz

"I'm sorry to torture you," says filmmaker Guan.This filming was not the easiest thing for me, that's for sure. "You're great," she tells me. I tell her I am thrilled to be in her film. She is in the beginning of the masters program as USC's School of Cinematic Arts, (Univ. of Southern California) which is quite the place. I still have to finish the rest next weekend. Some scenes may need to be shot again at different angles. Perhaps I will wear more fake blood and get "sand burn" (like a floor burn but with the sand). Or maybe I'll be freezing cold at the beach like I was for part of the filming. Maybe my body will be sore like it is today. Perhaps I will be covered with more flour. I'm hoping I won't get any more sunburns. It all happens next weekend.

Gizmorashka

Here is a pic of Gizmorashka I took (Giz for short) of him at the beach. He also loves bananas and watching ballet as well as other forms of dance;)

Here is a picture of Cheburashka stuffed animals (Giz is named after the Russian Cartoon Cheburashka-courtesy of Ebay)

Chad Larsen-Part 1/5

*Note: In the following story, a bunch of names of people and places have been changed. To know the real names, please contact me personally.

I would like to take a moment to talk about a musician in the dance department at Oklahoma State University by the name of Chad Larsen. According to Matthew Sbolci, music director of  OSU’s dance department, Larsen is anything but the average dance musician. Most musicians can play for either ballet or modern, but Larsen, who has over 35 years of experience, can do both. “Chad is a musician with an incredible scope of musical styles and genres,” says Sbolci, “His technique at the keyboard or piano is impeccable. He is not only a wonderful improviser but also a great interpreter or the classical repertory.”

When Larsen was younger, he dreamed of having piano lessons, except for a maximum of 6-10 sporadic lessons scattered throughout his youth, Larsen* started his formal training at age 18 ½. The opportunity happened just by chance. Larsen’s friend, Reid Olmstead*, who later became a very accomplished pianist brought Larsen along to one of his piano lessons. Olmstead was lucky enough to study with world-renowned music teacher Richard Harling.* Harling carefully chose his students, who came from all over the world to study with him. His students tended to be both talented and accomplished. Therefore, Harling did not accept beginners.

Olmstead was in the middle of his lesson with Larsen looking on. Suddenly, Olmstead decided to say something out of the blue. “Chad wants to take piano lessons,” said Olmstead. Harling thought for a moment and then ushered Larsen to the piano. “I was floored when he said that,” says Larsen. Harling asked him to play something. Larsen hesitated then declined, but Harling absolutely insisted. “He didn’t let me say no,” says Larsen, who then played a section of Samuel Barber’s “Excursions for the Piano,” a very difficult piece. Larsen thought he did a horrible job. “I don’t know what I was thinking, says Larsen of his music choice.

(Larsen(2nd from left)-with family in the 1970s-unknown photographer-courtesy Chad Larsen)

However, something about Larsen’s playing made Harling realize how talented Larsen was. Therefore, Harling made an exception, accepting Larsen as a beginning student. To make sure Larsen was really serious, Harling gave him Chopin’s Nocturne in B minor to play for his first piece. Larsen worked with Harling for a total of nine years.

Chad Larsen-Part 2/5

Even now, Larsen ultimately hears Harling’s voice over anyone he every studied with. “I miss him very much,” says Larsen of Harling, who passed away in 2001. http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/06/local/me-12044 After his passing, Harling had an annual concerto competition named after him http://westsidemusicfoundation.org/Robert%20Turner%20Piano%20Concerto%20Competition.htm

While completing his bachelors and his masters at California State University Northridge, which was known at the time for its excellent music program, Larsen saw a notice for a ballet pianist at Burt Reynolds Dance Studio. He was accepted for the position and has been playing for dance classes ever since. He has played for a great number of famous companies, teachers, and schools.

One of Larsen’s biggest fans is 92-year-old Yelena Morris, who, according to Larsen, looks thirty years younger. Larsen has played for her school in San Clemente, West Coast Ballet, which has its own treasure trove of graduates who have joined companies, such as the New York City Ballet, which Morris herself was a star of.

www.westcoastballet.com

Larsen also has played for other former stars of the New York City Ballet, such as sisters Christina and Pam Nichols, Miami City Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theatre, and Saratoga Ballet have also enjoyed Larsen’s music. In fact, Larsen nearly accepted a position as music director for Saratoga Ballet a few years ago.

Chad Larsen-Part 3/5

Larsen is currently at Oklahoma State University, West Coast Ballet, and Canyon Arts College. He also is frequently a guest pianist for special events such as a master class last summer with former Oklahoma Ballet Theatre ballerina Sally Billings.

According to Larsen, it is the quality of his playing that makes him really stand out, for which he credits Harling. Larsen says that he isn’t the typical dance musician pounding out a beat for ballet. Instead, he offers more quality to his playing. For example, Larsen says he does not simply play loud or soft notes on the piano. He also offers the dynamics in between these two extremes.

According to Larsen, typical accompaniment for modern dance class is usually chord progressions or beating on the drum. “I try to be artistic as if it was a performance,” says Larsen, “I don’t just pound out the rhythm. If they [the teachers] want that, I might as well pound a drum or something,” says Larsen. A modern dance musician usually plays either piano or percussion Originally, Larsen played piano when accompanying modern classes.

When Larsen was at  Los Feliz University as dance department music director, the teachers had really started getting into percussive electronic music. “If I’m going to do this, I’d better do it all,” says Larsen Therefore, Larsen began teaching himself percussion to accommodate them, first on a jimbe and then on an electronic drum machine when the task became too painful for his hands. The major difference was that Larsen played piano, electronic drums, and synthesizer all at one time for class. “I didn’t think of it as unusual at the time,” says Larsen, who now calls his approach to playing for modern classes a “dog and pony show.”