Posts Tagged ‘Dwight Rhoden’

Fear of Injury Setting In

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Despite my focus on positive thinking and strong belief that our thoughts are creative, I’ve found myself falling into a fear of Julian injuring himself. After all, he’s doing more than he did last year and I’m confronted with dancers getting injured.

You need only watch Fox’s 2010So You Think You Can Dance to see contestants dropping like flies. First Alex Wong tore his Achilles tendon, then Ashley was hurt and left last week. This week Billy Bell hurt his knee and won’t be dancing. I haven’t heard yet if he’ll be back or not.

Plus, last Sunday Julian and I went to the Joyce Soho for a pleasant evening of watching a Brooklyn-based all-female hip hop crew, Decadancetheatre, perform, and in the last number on of the best dancer’s knees gave out on her. She went over to the side and began crying. (We could all hear her.) One of the dancers helped her off the stage, and she never returned. The crew completed the performance without her, including bows.

Luckily, the movement Dwight has been choreographing in Julian’s extra classes at Complexions three nights a week don’t involve big jumps or tricks. That makes me feel a bit better. Last weekend he didn’t dance at all.

However, last year he did only one class during the week, usually tap, which involved a totally different type of movement from ballet. And on the weekend he did hip hop and jazz and other non-ballet-related classes. This year, he seems to only want to do contemporary and ballet. That brings up my “stuff” again.

On a more positive note, Desmond Richardson was at the Complexions intensive class last night along with Dwight Rhoden and Julian had a great time. The previous two classes were very difficult and Julian had the impression that Dwight was less pleased with his performance. (Well, he is just 16 in an 18+profesional-level class I keep reminding him.) This class was a bit easier for him to get his body and mind around. He got all the choreography down without a problem even though everyone else had learned it the night before, and Desmond took him under his wing, offering him corrections after each run through.

I, personally, thought this was perfect…and wonderful…given that Desmond asked him to be in the class despite his age.  What an opportunity and honor–to have Desmond work with him in that way! And he’ll get to perform with the Level 3 class in the final show, which he’s excited about.

One more week left of the ABT intensive. Things are winding down but gearing up. I always feel like they get a bit out of control for me about now. There’ s not enough time to get my work done and handle Julian’s dance schedule. I’m exhausted and need a vacation.

I’m glad it was cooler today. I opened the windows! Whoo hoo! I was still hot, though.

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Posted in dance injuries, So Your Think You can Dance, summer dance programs | 1 Comment »

A Mouse in the House and the Start of the Complexions Summer Intensive

Friday, July 16th, 2010

I can’t believe the ABT summer intensive has just two weeks left. Time flies…in the heat and with a mouse under my bed.

Yes, I paid almost double this year for our apartment in the West Village, and we got a pull out couch, a desk for me to work at, a great kitchen,  a washer and drier, ants galore (flying ones, too), a fridge with a condensation problem (it leaks like crazy), and a mouse (only one?).

Sheesh. Don’t ever, ever get a garden apartment. I learned the hard way. Although I understand from the handy man that 10th floor apartments in the Village can have mice, too. And the girls in the New School dorms (1st floor) have mice, too.

Anyway, Julian is having a great time. His only complain really has been with the partnering class. It has not lived up to his expectations at all. Most of the boys are way too short, and this has meant that the green guys only partner with yellow, red and blue. They haven’t even partnered with green.

However, he is enjoying Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden’s Complexions intensive immensely. I’m waiting for him as I write; he’s taking his third class. He only comes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. On Monday he said it was hard, but he enjoyed it until the last 15 minutes when his brain shut down. On Wednesday, he said he had a bit of trouble getting the choreography. Desmond has been away in Italy, and Dwight has been there doing all the choreography. That actually won’t change, except that Desmond, rather than a company member, will be doing the demonstrating next week. Anyway, Dwight choreographs from point A to point B, but then decides to insert more choreography in between…like a lot more choreography. He may add numerous “inserts.” This was a bit difficult for Julian to get his mind around, I guess.

In addition, he choreographs quickly. In two hours, they do probably four times the amount of choreography Julian is used to doing…if not more…in that amount of time. But he is basically keeping up.

His dad and I told him he has nothing to lose. As the baby in the class—he’s 16 and a pre-professional and  everyone else is a 18+ and a professional (or pro level)—no one will be surprised if he just barely keeps up and if he does well, they’ll notice.

Dwight told them the class is set up just like a company choreography session. The company “gets” the choreography a bit faster; that’s the only difference. Wow. What a great experience.

We’ll see if Julian wants to do any dancing tomorrow. He might be too tired. Plus, it’s just beastly hot and humid here.

Into the home stretch. I have to say, with the mouse in the house…I’m getting a bit homesick. And I’m not getting much done work wise. Too many handymen and exterminators and cleaning people (they required me to get the apartment cleaned) to deal with today. And an insurance call about an accident my daughter had a while ago…And scheduling a wisdom tooth extraction for her as well. The things we do for our kids.

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Summer Intensive Week 3: It Gets Better From Here, Right?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Well, they say it get’s easier after the third week of a summer intensive. The first two weeks the kids are exhausted. They start to feel better during week three…stronger, less tired. Yet, that’s when the injuries start showing up as well. Overuse and stress injuries.

Tomorrow marks the end of week number three; three more to go. At our end, Julian says he’s feeling pretty good. His ankles are a bit tired, he has a blister from tonight’s “extra” tap class with Jason Samuels Smith, he’s been having some muscle cramps (I think he needed to drink more), but overall, he feels pretty good. That’s a far cry from last year when after two week she couldn’t lift his arms and wouldn’t let me touch his muscles because they hurt so badly. Even his sprained toe is healing up, although it is still swollen.

This is all good, since next Monday he starts doing something totally unplanned that I already mentioned. Our plan to follow last year’s model of one class during the week at Broadway Dance Center and then two or so on Saturday’s has fallen to the wayside. (Well…we may still do two on the weekend; we’ll have to see.) No more weeknight tap classes with the likes of Michelle Dorrance. (Actually, Julian says tap is no longer “his thing.” (Boo hoo!) He will now attempt to take two or three classes each week with Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden of Complexions.

After a bit of going back and forth with the people at Complexions, Julian has gotten the okay to attend the Division 3 summer intensive class on a drop in basis. The staff questioned whether or not Richardson really meant for a 16 year old to attend teh 18+ professional division class and waited until they could actually ask  him themselves. Once he told them he felt sure Julian could do it (which I think floored them as much as us), they called me and said he could do as many classes as he felt able to do on a cost/class basis. What an honor! How could Julian turn down the opportunity?

So, he’ll try to do this on the shorter days at ABT–Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  We’ll see how it goes. It might mean not dancing on Saturdays. Oh, well. He’ll just have a different experience this year and make up for lost time doing jazz, hip hop, tap, etc.,  that last week we are in NYC when we’ve left six full days for dance at Steps and Broadway Dance Center.

I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going…and think good thoughts of Julian staying healthy and strong. Last year we stayed away from extra classes that used the same types of movements he was doing all day at ABT while he was still in the intensive.

Oh, and if you live in the NYC area, remember to look for the Complexions intensive next summer as well.

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