My newest book:
SAB Workshop 2008 in the works
Every once in a while I love rereading parts of Jennifer Dunning's book "But First a School" about SAB. It was published in 1985, but is now out-of-print, but not out-of-date: not much really changes at the school!
And so at this time of year, at SAB the students are very busy preparing for Workshop. The advanced students have been rehearsing Concerto Barocco with Suki Schorer and Fanfare with Susan Pilarre. This week they also started learning 2+3 Part Inventions with Elyse Borne and Katrina Killian. Many students are learning multiple parts in all three ballets (including my daughter) before casting is settled. Lydia is loving learning so many roles: we are constantly playing the music at home. (Bach is playing as Lydia has breakfast and I write here).
The young students in the children's division have started rehearsing Circus Polka with Garielle Whittle. They will be the first to perform, because in addition to Workshop, they will be part of the NYCB Spring Gala on April 29, celebrating Jerome Robbins. Then Workshop will be Saturday, May 31 (2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.) and Monday, June 2 (7:00 p.m.) - at Lincoln Center at the Juillard Theater (now called the Peter Jay Sharp Theater). Workshop is a big deal and very exciting and always sells out quickly. Luckily this year the students are doing quite a few additional performances: 2+3 Part Inventions, Circus Polka, and Fanfare during the NYCB spring season, and Concerto Barocco down in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center, June 6-8. They will perform along with students of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Paris Opera Ballet School and Royal Ballet School. This is all very exciting and as you can imagine, SAB is abuzz with activity! This being Lydia's 11th and final year at the school, she is very excited to be part of this all. I'm looking forward to going to lots of performances!
PS: The way the Workshop casting works is that there are two casts. Generally, first cast performs Saturday afternoon and Monday night, second cast performs Saturday night. I ordered my tickets for all three performances! I want to see everyone!
It is a shame that book has gone out of print. So many good ones do.
But, it's so exciting to think of Lydia doing all of those performances.
You must be such a proud mama.
It is all very exciting! I'm already feeling nervous, but luckily she's the
one who loves performing!