Weekend Edition, August 1 & 2, 2009
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The Chautauquan Daily
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Following their lead
Photos by Roger J. Coda
Apprentice dancers learn, train, perform with professionals
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by Christina Stavale Staff writer
thing someone else does and adapt it to yourself. You can’t help but improve.”
here is no handbook on how to become a professional dancer. That’s why Daniel Ulbricht, a former student in Chautauqua’s School of Dance and now a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, said it is beneficial for students to be surrounded by professionals while they are in Chautauqua. “You’re surrounded by people who do this for a living, and you’re inspired constantly,” he said. “You learn [how to be a professional] from really being around them — how they get ready for performances, how they warm up, just all the small things.” Ulbricht came to Chautauqua starting in 1997, and in his fourth year, he was named an apprentice. Apprentice dancers take classes with the North Carolina Dance Theatre, the company in residence, and many get the chance to perform onstage with the company in Amphitheater performances. “One of the most difficult transitions for dancers is from being a student to being a professional,” Artistic Director Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux said. “So I felt it was really important to give them a chance to perform with the company, to see the atmosphere of the company.” Ultimately, he said, it’s a bridge between being a student and being a professional. This year’s apprentice dancers, they said, are serious about their dreams to become professionals. They agree their experience in Chautauqua has given them a taste of what that life might be like. And though the program is demanding, they said they are inspired by the company members they work with and the world-renowned faculty they learn from. “You learn from each other,” said Lauren Lovette, a 17-year-old apprentice dancer. “You pick up some-
Learning the ropes
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Lovette said in being an apprentice to the company, she was at the bottom instead of the top. With that came adjustments. Brette Benedict, an 18-year-old apprentice, said instructors in company classes give fewer corrections and expect the dancers to fix their mistakes themselves. Bonnefoux said this adjustment is normal for apprentice dancers. It is not so much the difficulty of the steps, but the way the dancers are treated. “How do you react if you don’t get the attention of a teacher?” he asked. “Do you start to slack? Or do you do even more?” For Emily Kikta, a 16-year-old apprentice, she said the schedule makes her feel like a professional. In other summer programs, students might spend six weeks learning just one dance, preparing for only one performance. The apprentices have been learning multiple dances at once, and have been performing them at different times. “Our schedule here is definitely like a professional company,” she said. NCDT member Anna Gerberich spent a summer in Chautauqua as an apprentice before beginning her route to professional dance. She said her experience that summer prepared her for what she has been doing the past five years as a professional. She remembered learning the George Balanchine ballet “Who Cares?” as an apprentice. She later learned the same ballet as a professional and recalled her instructor Patricia McBride treated her the same way she did the first time. “I thought, ‘Wow they really treat you like a professional when they’re rehearsing you,’” Gerberich said. “And I think that’s great for them. And it was great for me, personally.” She said she also appreciated the artistic choices she was able to make on her own. Those artistic choices, or rather the
1. Apprentice Angelica Generosa practices a leap during class last week. 2. Apprentice dancers begin their days with class, normally with the professional company. (Left to right: Leigh Anne Albrechta, Kayleigh Gorham, Angelica Gererosa) 3. Gorham 4. Collages of professional dancers who have studied at Chautauqua line the walls of the Carnahan-Jackson Dance Studio. 5. Brette Benedict
“One of the most difficult transitions for dancers is from being a student to being a professional. So I felt it was really important to give them a chance to perform with the company, to see the atmosphere of the company.” Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Artistic Director
artistry of dance, are something Bonnefoux said are very important for dancers to develop as they mature. And it is something apprentice dancers can pick up as they train with the company. “You come here to work on performing because that’s how you move up in a company,” Benedict said. “The way you move up is if you stand out in a corner.” Gerberich said she noticed things as an apprentice that she now executes in performing. “Watching the professionals perform helped my performance quality more than anything,” she said. “[You notice] the way they tilt their head, little nuances that always performing with students, you never see. Being able to go to the professional shows, even standing in the corps behind them, and thinking, ‘Oh, look at the way they put their foot,’ stuff like that, really helped.”
The learning goes both ways
Gerberich recalled one time during her apprenticeship when she was nervous to talk to company member Alessandra Ball after a performance. Ball, on the other hand, remembered being nervous to talk to Gerberich. “We all were nervous to talk to her,” said Ball, who has been with the company for seven years, “because we were like, ‘This girl is stunning and has so much talent,’ and she was so mature for her age and carried herself so well.” Ball said she often learns from the apprentice students who are in class with her, as their “perfect” technique reminds her to be mindful of her own. “They’re in school right now, and their technique is just perfect,” she said. “I’ve been looking at them for lots of technical things because as a professional, if we’re doing lots of contemporary works, it’s easy to lose sight of technique.” Company member David Ingram said he thinks some of the apprentice dancers are better than he is. “Their technique is cleaner,” he said. “Their hunger and their drive is something that’s very aspiring to get back. Being that age and having the hunger, wanting to be a professional dancer, is something that’s very important.”
The writing on the walls
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Gerberich and Ulbricht are not the only students to come through Chautauqua’s doors who now have professional careers. The writing is on the walls of the Carnahan-Jackson Dance Studio that Chautauqua’s School of Dance breeds professional dancers. About five years ago, Mimi Eddleman,
founding co-president of the Chautauqua Dance Circle, began collecting photos of professional dancers who have studied at Chautauqua. She also asked them to provide a quote about their experience and began putting together collages that are now hung on the Verdy and McBride studios. There are currently eight collages, with five to 10 students pictured on each one. Both Gerberich and Ulbricht are pictured. Eddleman said she hoped these collages serve as an inspiration for the students. “It’s nice when they’re studying at the barre to see what people who have come through here have accomplished,” she said. It also gives them a goal to work for. “The dancers ask me, ‘If I’m in a company, am I going to be up there?’” Eddleman said. “It’s exciting, and it’s wonderful as an outsider looking in, to see where they’ll go.” Matthew Poppe, an 18-year-old apprentice, said he was surprised to see what kind of people came through Chautauqua. “It’s cool to see who came here,” he said. “There are some people whose names and faces that I recognize that I didn’t know came here.” And as they look around the studio at the faces of professionals, Ulbricht said he hopes dance students will come to realize why their training at Chautauqua is so beneficial to their careers. This past week, he had the opportunity to teach this year’s apprentices in the classes they take with the company. He will come back again to teach during Week Seven. “It’s so special for me to be on the other side,” he said. “You never know whose going to make it in that room, but you know there’s a percentage of them whose faces will be on that wall. It’s very special to see. You never know your impact on somebody at that point in time.”
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