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My Son Can Dance

One Mom's Musings About Boys in the Dance World

Three Days and Counting Until the End of the ABT Summer Intensive

July 21, 2009 by ninaamir Leave a Comment

The American Ballet Theatre summer intensive is winding to a close. The kids are rehearsing their numbers and getting ready to go up to LaGuardia High School, New York’s performing high school — the one the movie “Fame” was based upon — for a run through tomorrow. That’s where their final performance will be held on Friday. Two performances, and then it’s over.

I think Julian will be very sad, but he’s leaving with a really good friend or two and a much stronger and able dance body. In general, he’s become a better dancer.

Julian did get his foot “stuck” yesterday dancing in his jazz shoes for the first time. It hurt his ankle and the bottom of his foot. He tapped in the evening with Michelle Dorrance anyway, and he said it was better today. That’s his first injury since the heel jam…

In the meantime, he had a jazz lesson at Alvin Ailey with Sue Samuels, Jason Samuels Smith’s mother. He enjoyed that and plans to return this coming Saturday as well. He also had a private lesson with Jason later that same day.

OMG! Just the warm up was something to see! As Jason said, he threw everything at Julian. I’ve never seen a warm up like that one, but I suppose that’s the norm for someone as good as Jason. Julian kept up most of the time… And the rest of the hour wasn’t much easier. Jason simply assumed Julian would be able to do what ever he asked, no matter how hard. The final assessment: Julian has the ability to do it but has to work on clarity of sound. “Articulation” was the word Jason used and that Julian was asked to remember. What an opportunity that was! I took some videos, but I have to ask permission to put any of them on line…

Next week — our last — Julian will simply go from studio to studio to dance. He’ll do more than tap and ballet, taking hip hop, jazz, modern, contemporary (whatever he can find) every day. I figure we can afford about two classes a day (maybe three on some days) for the duration of our time here. We’ll not only go to Broadway Dance Center, but to Alvin Ailey, Steps on Broadway, and possibly also to Peridance Center, which is located in the same building as ABT at 890 Broadway. Of course, we are still hoping for that private with Denise Wall as well.

I must say that I’ve spent a lot in the last two weeks on Broadway shows and such. Three extra tickets to Billy Elliot cost a ton (to take my daughter), and Julian doesn’t want me to sell the other two we have. I just hope we see someone different this next time. We saw Kiril Kulish last time. (Anyone have inside info and know who is performing July 29?) We also saw Lion King, which we saw long ago but my daughter wanted to see for the costumes (she wants to be a costume designer), and West Side Story. What’s a trip to NYC for seven weeks, though, without seeing some theater?

Anyway, we are back on a budget. We do have tickets to see Pilobolus dance next week and are hoping to get discounted tickets to Stomp. Maybe we’ll try to see something at the Joyce Soho again, which is cheap, but Broadway is off limits to us at this point, and we are eating $1 pizza slices.

More soon…

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Filed Under: dance injuries, foot problems, summer dance programs, tap Tagged With: American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive, dancing in New York City, final performance, New York City dance studios

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