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My Son Can Dance

One Mom's Musings About Boys in the Dance World

Week 5 of ABT Summer Intensive: Winding Down

July 16, 2009 by ninaamir Leave a Comment

OMG! We have less than a week and a half less until the American Ballet  Theatre’s summer intensive ends! Hard to believe…Julian is still having a blast, but I’m a bit homesick at this point, stressed about work and wishing we weren’t staying for an extra week. We are just doing way too much.

At ABT, Julian’s choreography classes are finishing up their numbers and preparing for the show. They have a rehearsal next Wednesday. Other than that, everything is the same as usual…and he still loves the partnering classes the most. He  learns more in those than in any other classes. Probably the biggest disappointment (other than the ballet performance piece) lies in the fact that the boys class doesn’t do a whole lot of “boy’s stuff.” It’s mostly technique and it totally depends on who teaches as to whether or not they do jumps or turns or the like.

In any case, he has learned a ton and improved. He has also made friends and had fun. His body is no longer sore, nor does his heel hurt. And he hasn’t gotten dehydrated again.

He took two tap classes at Broadway Dance Center with his old tap teacher from California and former Tap Dog Anthony LoCascio. You can see them tapping together here:

[[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24lfDv5fsTo&hl=en&fs=1&]]
 

He’s also been back to tap with Michelle  Dorrance, which he just loves despite the difficulty of the class, and last weekend he tapped with Avi Miller and Ofer Ben after buying a new pair of their Miller and Ben tap shoes. (He didn’t wear them to class, however, because I didn’t want him to get blisters!)

This weekend he has a tap lesson with Jason Samuels Smith! Whoo hoo! That’s an opportunity you don’t get every day. I wrote an article about one of his projects and interviewed him for my book on mentoring boys who want to be professional dancers…so…I had an in.

I went to NYCDA’s national convention to meet with Denise Wall, mom of Travis Wall and Danny Tidwell. I interviewed her for a blog post (that will show up here after we get home). I then went back with Julian, and we watched her company perform several of pieces choreographed by Travis and by Jason Parsons. Julian was quite inspired by the choreography.

We met four of her sons, including Danny Tidwell. We also met Jamie Goodwin, who is dancing with Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance…yes, they have one number with two girls. He also got to talk with two guys in Rasta’s company — nice young guys (18 and 19), who were thrilled to have the opportunity to dance with Rasta. Julian would be, too, but he said he wasn’t sure he’d be thrilled about giving up college to do so; one of the boys had completed just one semester when Rasta asked him to join. He plans on going back in 6-12 months. Last, but not least, we got to briefly meet and talk to choreographer Sonya, whose work can be seen on So You Think You Can Dance. That was a thrill as well.

Julian is supposed to have a private lesson with Denise Wall the last week we are in New York. We are really looking forward to that as well, and I hope it pans out.

And last night we saw West Side Story, our last big Broadway dance event. It was a bit of a let down. The acting wasn’t great; it lacked the passion of the movie and too much of it was in Spanish, leaving us non-Spanish speakers in the dark about what was being said. A little bit of the dance lacked spark, too, but overall the dancing was very good. We enjoyed Cody Green, however, who I’ve had my eye on for my book, and I was able to ask him to participate! He agreed, so I’ll be following with him later on.

My daughter comes in tonight to explore NYU, and then my sister arrives. I’ll try to get at least one post in before the end of the intensive, but no promises. I’m trying to work, too…and that has to come first at this point. Sorry.

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Filed Under: rasta thomas, summer dance programs, tap, Uncategorized Tagged With: American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive, Anthony LoCascio, Cody Green, Danny Tidwell, Denise Wall, Jamie Goodwin, jason samuels smith, NYCDA, rasta thomas, West Side Story

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