To the Ladies of the Lake.....

I just want to take a moment (a little longer this time) to applaud the women of the corps of ABT. I have watched three consecutive performances now of Act Two and it got better every time. For a ballet notorious for killing the girls bodies I noticed little if any fatigue as I stood peering out of the stage left wings.

Normally when fellow dancers watch in the wings you almost always catch at least one person whispering or giggling to themselves. Not that we are really misbehaving but there will be the occasional glance offstage or deep sigh trying to breath some life into these tired bodies of ours. The girls didn't have one eyeball out of place. As a male dancer I have never had to deal with a true test of corps stamina in the classical sense. There is nothing equal to "Swan Lake", "Giselle" or "La Bayadere". As much as the boys like to think that five minutes standing on the side of the stage during Vision Scene in "Raymonda" makes us understand the girls pain....let's be honest, it doesn't.

(Anne makes some Swan love to the Camera)

If it wasn't for the glistening sweat beading on the girls backs I wouldn't ever know that they were working their hardest. They jump with such ease and stay in lines like its second nature. Eyes darting back and forth checking forward and sideways fly under the radar with such swiftness that the audience would never know. It's almost like they emit a sort of silent call, an understanding, that helps them flock like birds in the sky. Standing observing tonight I just kept laughing at how much better the girls are at staying in lines than the guys. Even the simplest formations seem to give us problems. We have a lot to learn.

(Marian, who is celebrating a birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!), takes a minute to demonstrate a signature pose)

The minute they walk out onto the stage there is focus and intent even when just standing on the side. They are committed to the bigger picture and to doing whatever they can to make it better. During third act I struggle with standing in one place for 30 minutes and I'm allowed to move! I can let my arms go freely, turn my head, and I don't have to worry about any type of formation. Yet I still find my mind racing and panicking at moments. Finding the ability to be present at all times is such a struggle and its during the down moments on stage that I think everyone has the hardest time. We aren't trained at school how to stay connected when we aren't part of the action.

Some nights the dancing keeps my attention more than others. I will look around and just out of plain old fatigue the dancers lining the sides eyes will start to glaze over. That was not the case the other night with Gillian Murphy. It is such a rush to see people that you look up to developing before your eyes. Every choice she made the other night, whether it be in her phrasing or the focus of her eyes was so dead on. She took a different path with some of it than I had ever seen before and by catching me so off guard she really impressed me. To take something that everyone has seen hundreds of times and infuse it like it has just been choreographed happens so rarely. It was a great performance.

(A blurry Gillian Murphy guards her ladies)

From the first year corps members just getting their wings to the dancers who have been flapping them for years, these three shows were proof (I say that like we needed proof) of just how talented the women of ABT are.