Professional Training Program

“Light As Air and Quick As Lightning”

Letter from Abigail Adams to her sister, Mary Smith Cranch. Paris, 20 February, 1785

“The first dance which I saw upon the Stage shoked me, the Dress’es and Beauty of the performers was enchanting, but no sooner did the Dance commence, than I felt my delicacy wounded, and I was ashamed to bee seen to look at them. Girls cloathd in the thinest Silk: and Gauze, with their peticoats short Springing two foot from the floor poising themselves in the air, with their feet flying, and as perfectly shewing their Garters and draws, as tho no peticoat had been worn, was a sight altogether new to me.”

“Their motions are as light as air and as quick as lightning. They balance themselves to astonishment. No description can equal the reality.”

“Shall I speak a Truth and say that repeatedly seeing these Dances has worn of that disgust which I first felt, and that I see them now with pleasure. … The art of dancing is carried to the highest degree of perfection that it is capable of; at the opera.”

July 2, 2021 | Categories: Cary Ballet Company, Cary Ballet Conservatory, Professional Training Program | Tags: Ballet, Paris | Leave a comment

Danseur

_IMG6284

Felipe Valentini

Professional Training Program at Cary Ballet Conservatory – 5 June 2021

June 8, 2021 | Categories: Cary Ballet Conservatory, Portraits, Professional Training Program | Leave a comment

Just One More

When a Dancer asks, my answer is always, yes!

_IMG6709_1

Dancer Isabelle Burke

Cary Ballet Conservatory – 5 June 2021

June 5, 2021 | Categories: Cary Ballet Conservatory, Portraits, Professional Training Program | Leave a comment

“Chasing The Bird”

Refreshing my Portfolio site, I let go and reached back in the memory bank for moments when you just know. My hunch is, it happens to dancers and musicians too. It’s practice and planning and work and sometimes it all becomes something more. Alchemy.

I’ve put maybe 700 or 800 K shutter actuation’s on 11 DSLR’s since 2007. My Lighting Class students make jokes about all the light gear I haul into class. The Sales Manager at Mole Richardson in Hollywood emails engineering drawings of obsolete accessories. There are replacement reflectors heading my way for the ones I used to modify theater ellipsoids. Also in transit is a 10″ Top Hat from eBay and some Gobos for the Mole Focal Spot. And there’s a triple riser wheeled Junior in the upstairs hall next to my old tripod with a new quick release assembly that came via Royal Mail (wore out the casting). “The Bird”, Charley Parker understood it: “You’ve got to learn your instrument.”

And I took some more of Bird’s advice: “Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”

My work has changed in the 3 years since I made this but it was five years after my Epiphany. This is a fresh edit from the Digital Negative from the part of the session that was all improv, real jazz. Portraits are always a collaboration and when there is mutual trust, man, you can wail.

WIP 097 Vessillo