sara mearns swan lake

Principal dancers Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns take us behind the scenes of their rehearsal process for the iconic role of the Swan Queen - and talk about why Peter Martins' choreography of the final act gives them goosebumps every time. As productions go, this version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet is not the prettiest feather in the flock. Ms. Mearns may look like a swan queen when she’s dancing — there is the fluid ease with which her arms unfurl from her supple back — but swathed in black street clothes, she could be a model for the designer Rick Owens: leather pants, layers of scarves, silver chains everywhere. Generally, dancers join City Ballet to dance the works of Balanchine. I would not have minded two more debuts this season: Indiana Woodward — who hasn’t danced enough of late — and Mira Nadon, the arresting corps de ballet member. “I think it was a way of telling me to stop. Photo by Paul Kolnik. In “Swan Lake,” Sara Mearns takes on the dual role of Odette/Odile, and there are three other premieres this season from company members. Sara Mearns is a force. Even though I was crying after the show, he was happy. Principal dancers Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns take us behind the scenes of their rehearsal process for the iconic role of the Swan Queen - and talk about why Peter… Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns on Peter Martins' SWAN LAKE on Vimeo This was bravery and beauty in a Swan Queen for the ages. Ms. Mearns has grown up with the ballet. Does the world need this two-act “Swan Lake”? At New York City Ballet, Swans Use Grit to Find Glory, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/arts/dance/city-ballet-swan-lake.html. “But I did not want to go back home.”. Last week brought the return of this reigning City Ballet principal, whose interpretation of Odette/Odile is now indelible. It was a performance of surprising intensity, edged with danger. “I remember after the curtain came down that Merrill Ashley came back and had tears in her eyes,” Ms. Mearns said recently at a cafe near Lincoln Center. Swan Lake act 1 & 2, New York City Ballet. They put her on the map of the New York City Ballet. What were they looking for? But it isn’t entirely a case of a dancer returning to the role that made her famous. Poor Ulbricht, now clad in green, looked like a … In person she comes across as the opposite of a waif — full blooded and alive — and dances pretty much in the same luscious way. After two years at the school, she was named an apprentice with City Ballet and joined the company in 2004; in rather swift progression, she was named a soloist in 2006 and a principal in 2008. Sara Mearns, 24, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet. You go out there — as many City Ballet dancers refer to the stage — and get it done. I hope that’s what people get when they come and see me — that it’s not about tricks. That production, by Kevin McKenzie, has its problems, too. Not for the audience necessarily, but for the dancers — specifically those cast in that most renowned of ballerina roles, Odette/Odile? Ms. Mearns is the rarest of artists: What other dancer has conquered Odette/Odile and, with wildness and precision, the work of the modern choreographer Merce Cunningham? Angle lead me back to much of what moved me in the ballet decades ago. by Leigh Witchel. There’s something interesting at play: The surprise of watching a dancer overcome her fears and insecurities about what “Swan Lake” means in the classical repertory to hold a stage and to embody a character all the while dancing — in that City Ballet way — as herself. Jared Angle and I have done the George Balanchine, one-act Swan Lake all year, which is the white act, so we don’t really have to rehearse that yet. “I told myself, ‘There is no choice,’ ” she said in her husky voice. “ ‘I have to be back for this.’ ”. “I put pictures up on the wall in my new apartment of me dancing when I was so in shape and so in my groove,” she said. Siegfried, who pledged his love to Odette’s wicked doppelgänger, Odile, has to live with his mistake. It worked out. I can still see former swans like Monique Meunier, Jenifer Ringer and the incandescent Miranda Weese, who at just an hour’s notice for a PBS “Live From Lincoln Center” broadcast in 1999, stepped in for an injured Darci Kistler. Later that year, she was promoted to the rank of soloist, and to principal dancer two years later. Sara Mearns: We started Swan Lake. Sara Mearns in rehearsal on her own and with the dancer Jared Angle, below. It’s about the performance and what I transform into.”, While Ms. Mearns’s injury, which affected her lower back, was never officially diagnosed, she called it a blessing in disguise. The jester in orange and green decorated with a third-grader’s squiggles; the man’s shiny purple skirt and open black vest for the Russian variation; and the mismatched greens of the Villager women? Principal Dancers Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns discuss the highlights and challenges of performing both the white and black swan in Peter Martins’ Swan Lake, … It woke me up.”, During her recuperation she filled her time with physical therapy and moved to an apartment close to Lincoln Center, where she found herself learning how to live on her own. We open three weeks from today. It’s about how you move. Be in this world with me.”, Ms. Mearns added that performing such a strenuous role so early in her career taught her about the importance of devotion to her craft. “I had never done that before,” she said. Last week was Sara Mearns week for me (well, for many New York ballet fans, I suspect). (Ms. Ashley, who is a guest teacher with the company, had coached her in the role.) When Odette, the princess transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer, appears at the lakeside, you feel her pain. Lauren Lovette made her debut as Odette-Odile in “Swan Lake” last week. Act III likewise has good dancing badly framed. Mr. Gordon, so alive throughout the entire ballet, possessed a vulnerability that connected beautifully with the crystalline performance of his partner, Tiler Peck. Wang Ramirez Creation’s Diary – Episode 3: Choreography for Dummies Honji Wang and Sebastien Ramirez explain to us what is choreography. Real birds? On Tuesday night, she made her debut as the Siren in NYCB’s Prodigal Son. And Peter was happy. I feel like it’s my swan. Non-narrative dances, most of them by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, are its oxygen; happily we breathe them in. It’s so wrong that it’s going to be right. Principal dancers Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns take us behind the scenes of their rehearsal process for the iconic role of the Swan Queen. His partner, Ashley Bouder, was more conventionally dazzling as Odile — her technique is still a thing to wonder at — while her Odette was serene and steely: more bird than princess. In Mr. Martins’s emotionally penetrating ending — on a stage, lit to perfection as a glimmering lake — Odette parts ways with an inconsolable Siegfried in floor-skimming backward steps, disappearing through paths of swans that close in on her. Sara Mearns as Odette-Odile and Jared Angle as Prince Siegfried ignored not only “Black Swan” but also most of the mannerisms encrusted upon “Swan Lake” by recent generations of interpreters. “People sometimes make fun of me for rehearsing a lot, but I feel like when I go out there, I know what it’s going to feel like — that I’m prepared for anything,” she said. In the end, after a double suicide Prince Siegfried and Odette rise above the stage in a glowing sun that looks, in Ballet Theater fashion, like something out of a Disney cartoon. Sara Mearns Soars in New York City Ballet's Bumpy Swan Lake By Carla Escoda, 23 September 2015 For what seems like an eternity but is in reality only about 40 minutes, the first act of Peter Martins ’ Swan Lake limps and sputters along to the gorgeous Tchaikovsky score – like a Bugatti running on the wrong kind of fuel. It’s like: Come and see me dance. As a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, Ms. Mearns has performed featured roles in beloved ballets such as Symphony in C, and Jewels (Emeralds and Diamonds), Serenade, Mozartiana, Walpurgisnacht Ballet, amongst countless others. Probably not. Sara Mearns and Guillaume Côté in 'Swan Lake', New York City Ballet, David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, Feb. 14, 2020. As for Peter Walker and Harrison Ball? “I still can’t believe I did that,” she said. She was nominated for a Princess Grace Award and received the Mae L. Wien Awards that year. This past weekend, the big day finally arrived, and Mearns married Broadway and television choreographer Joshua Bergasse in a dreamy beach ceremony in North Carolina. She became a member of the corps de ballet the following year. A holdover from the days of the company’s former ballet master in chief, Peter Martins, who choreographed it in 1996 and introduced it to City Ballet in 1999, it’s rushed yet ponderous. Sara Mearns has been New York City Ballet’s reigning Swan Queen since her breakout performance in 2006, when she was only nineteen years old and a member the corps de ballet. THE words “swan” and “lake” mean a lot of things to a lot of ballerinas, but for Sara Mearns, the words have a special significance. At the age of 13, Ms. Mearns trained with Patricia McBride at Dance Place, the School of North Carolina Dance Theatre, in Charlotte. Be a dazzling little swan. In that moment, you could see not only the ballerina in her — determination winning out over disappointment — but also the choreographer, which she is. “Now I feel like this is me out there. This season performing opposite Guillaume Côté, a guest dancer from the National Ballet of Canada — from his mime to his partnering, he was a class act — Ms. Mearns embodied Odette especially to her barest essence. It’s about confidence, determination and, yes, artistry. Sara Mearns and guest artist Guillaume Côté in “Swan Lake.” Photograph by Erin Baiano. You’re on the short side? A wise move — only the most virtuosic dancers could make it through that prickly footwork alive — though the production felt as long as it ever did. I was focused on … Sara Mearns: Growing up, Swan Lake was my favorite ballet and that 1975 performance was done at our theatre. Now if we could only have a “subway Swan Lake” with Sara Mearns and David Hallberg… one can dream, right? This season she elevated it to a place somehow both deeper and more natural as she cut through the excess — even her own lavishness — to show more power and delicacy. Joseph Gordon and Tiler Peck in “Swan Lake.”, Peter Martins, who choreographed it in 1996 and introduced it to City Ballet in 1999. Her skin is so pale it seems translucent, yet Ms. Mearns’s beauty isn’t ethereal. For me that’s a huge connection. On Sunday when, as Odile, Ms. Lovette whipped off as many fouetté turns as she could manage before falling out, she made a dazzling change in real time: She switched to piqué turns. What does a swan look like? “Swan Lake” isn’t so much in their wheelhouse. Episode 10: The lead role of Odette/Odile in the classic ballet Swan Lake is such a demanding role that it requires three different dancers to share it. It is determination in real time. It’s a way to see a mind and a body at work. But the company’s dancers might. “Before, I had never been alone onstage before, and that was scary,” she said. It was musical. Sara Mearns in “Swan Lake” in 2011. (He did choreograph a one-act version.) It just feels like if you put everything you can into one role, it’s going to translate to the audience. Sara Mearns, who was recently sidelined with a back injury for six months, is determined to return to New York City Ballet’s reprisal of “Swan Lake.” But I’ve started to wonder: While it certainly sells tickets, drawing hordes of girls dressed to the nines, does having a full-length “Swan Lake” at City Ballet serve another purpose? Mr. Furlan — noble, fluid and musically sensitive — is a find. But then there are times — like last week — when the company hauls out its two-act “Swan Lake,” which wrapped up performances on Sunday at the David H. Koch Theater. He said, ‘Everybody falls.’ ” She shook her head in dismay: “I think everybody’s going to say, ‘Oh, that was a little too much.’ But I don’t care about falling. “I did go for it. At City Ballet, there are no rules. Sara Mearns Was Gorgeous in Swan Lake, But Overall Production Was Lacking. Neither were secure enough in the virtuosic passages; Mr. Ball was particularly melodramatic in his acting. Sara Mearns as Odette. dal terzo atto de "il lago dei cigni",teatro dell'opera,Roma She attended the School of American Ballet for several summers; at the end of the fourth session, in 2001, Ms. Mearns asked her teachers if she could stay on for the year. In 2006, when she was just 19, she was plucked from the corps de ballet to dance Odette/Odile. In 2006, at age 19 and while she was still in the corps, she was chosen to dance Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. NYCB’s Swan Lake with Sara Mearns Posted on September 18, 2013 by rinatutu Swan Lake is the quintessential ballet to me – it’s funny because stylistically it’s actually less classical than say, Sleeping Beauty, but it is just so beautiful that I love it and will always love it. Also returning to the role is Sara Mearns, who will dance with guest artist Guillaume Côté; as she says of the treasured tale of ill-fated love, “A ballerina needs to be able to be vulnerable, passionate, dramatic, and be able to let herself go as much as possible.” Sara Mearns as the lead in “Swan Lake” in 2006. In 2006 Ms. Mearns was a 19-year-old member of the corps de ballet when she was chosen to perform the lead in Peter Martins’s “Swan Lake.” She was shocked, she said, even though Ann Brodie, her first ballet teacher in South Carolina, always told her that she looked like a swan. SARA MEARNS is one of today’s most internationally celebrated dancers in classical ballet. More convincing was Mr. Ball’s partner, Lauren Lovette, also making her debut this season. She was nominated for a She lives the role so deeply, it’s chilling. “I would think: Am I going to be able to dance like that again? NYCB’s Swan Lake with Sara Mearns Posted on September 18, 2013 by rinatutu Swan Lake is the quintessential ballet to me – it’s funny because stylistically it’s actually less classical than say, Sleeping Beauty, but it is just so beautiful that I love it and will always love it. Tonya February 14, 2011 February 14, 2011. Inside the Repertory Ashley Bouder and Sara Mearns on Peter Martins' SWAN LAKE. It still feels modern, maybe even more so now given today’s sexual politics, which makes sense: At City Ballet, “Swan Lake” is also the story of modern women — the dancers who play Odette/Odile — escaping into a dream world. For her forthcoming performances in “Swan Lake” Ms. Mearns reflected on the many roles she has performed since that auspicious debut. She’s no longer prone to dewiness; she’s fully present onstage. The role has layers to explore, and the results aren’t always pretty, but it’s continually gratifying to see a dancer rise to the occasion. "There’s something interesting at play: The surprise of watching a dancer overcome her fears and insecurities about what “Swan Lake” means in the classical repertory to hold a stage and to embody a character all the while dancing — in that City Ballet way — as herself. That’s pretty much the way Ms. Mearns, who began dancing at 3 in jazz, ballet and tap under the guidance of Ms. Brodie, has approached her career. I was mainly interested in how she portrayed the character. The experience of watching “Swan Lake” at City Ballet is different than at American Ballet Theater, where it’s part of the tradition. Her interpretation of Odette/Odile is now indelible, our critic says. It’s not me trying to be somebody else. In November, to her chagrin, she did fall twice, as Dewdrop in the opening-night performance of “The Nutcracker.”, “I had so much energy,” she said, laughing. But over the years, I’ve witnessed varied and striking performances — including this season — by dancers of differing body types, looks and technical depth. Honji Wang talks about her fascination with Swan Lake ballerinas and her admiration for Sara Mearns. At times, the sets and costumes by Per Kirkeby make you want to crawl under your seat. It was her first time dancing the ballet with Damian Woetzel. In 2003, Mearns became an apprentice with New York City Ballet. Like Mr. Ball, Mr. Walker dashed around the stage with his head tilted up. It’s all about going for it as yourself. That’s what really matters — so they don’t just come away with, ‘Oh, that was nice.’ ”, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/arts/dance/31sara.html. Sara Mearns should be televised in the role and broadcast all over the world. Yet there was something bewitching about her resolve. Ms. Brodie, who died in 1999, encouraged her to seek training in New York. Ms. Mearns and Mr. If you follow New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns on Instagram, you'll have noticed that for the past several months, her feed has included wedding prep pics in addition to her usual performance posts and cross-training clips.

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