The Auburn Letter Performing Arts by Brittany F

March 2013

Issue 2

The Auburn Letter Performing Arts

Interview with the ballerinas of the National Ballet of Canada pg.6 Spectacle or Masterpiece? Expanding our Ideas About Performance Art pg. 12

The Photographic Trend

pg.14

The Auburn Letter is a publication allowing for the self expression of people from all walks of life through the visual arts, photography and all forms of writing.

Created by Brittany Friesen

Editor in Chief Brittany Friesen

Design Editor Charae Friesen Brittany Friesen

Contributing Authors Brittany Friesen, Milton Friesen, Nusreta Durek, Nourhan Hassan, Julia Kozlov, Claude Schneider, Tiffany Mosher, Nicole Whitmore, Jenna Savella, Krista Dowson, Garth von Buchholz

Contributing Photographers Claude Schneider, Julia Kozlov, Nusreta Durek, Garth von Buchholz, Charae Friesen, Sian Richards, Olivia Dudnik, Nicole Whitmore

To Contact The Auburn Letter: Email us at theauburnletter@gmail.com

The Auburn Letter Spring 2013

Letter from the editor

Beyond the Tutu: The Dancers of the National Ballet of Canada

Spectacle or Masterpiece

The Ballerina Project

GTA Ballerina Project

Victoria ballerina Project

Hamilton Ballerina Project

Vancouver Ballerina Project

Cambridge Ballerina Project

dancing and Singing in the Middle East

The Curtain Draws Photo By Charae Friesen

Photo Credits: Charae Friesen

Photo Credits: Olivia Dudnik

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR As a ballerina

of eleven years, I

recently tied up my pointe shoes for the last time.

until my feet were strong enough, but

and must receive a lecture on asking

finally three years ago, I journeyed to

before the music starts.

the National Balletâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shoe room for my first pair of pointe shoes. I was elated.

I have danced at a number of studios; each with their own style of ballet and teacher. My most recent place of dance was the Hamilton City Ballet, taught by the world renowned Max Rateovisan. Fellow dancers under his

For me pointe shoes represent a true ballerina and were all I had hoped they would be. Amid the blisters and toe tape, I enjoyed the unique experience of dancing on my tip toes, supported by the wooden box in the shoe.

tutelage have gone on to dance professionally, and many of the girls I danced with are well on their way. Over the years, I have been a puppy, Secret Garden girl, mummy, cowgirl, Slyphide, and a fairy from Sleeping Beauty. Pointe work has been a favorite of mine. My teachers forced me to wait

I will miss the routine of class; the familiar exercises and corrections given. The line of girls in black body suits and pink tights dancing, in what is sup-

I have been a part of many avenues of the performing arts and hold them to be extremely valuable. People are able to express their ideas and feelings through them in ways writing perhaps cannot. The richness and diversity that can be found in a theatre or circus school is beneficial to both the participants as well as the audiences. This issue is to explore the diversity of the performing arts and to celebrate our artists.

posed to be unity. The shared smiles when one of us is caught in the front line, unable to remember the exercise,

Brittany Friesen Chief Editor The Auburn Letter 4

Our third issue, Creatures, will be available

September 2013.

Visit our website for upcoming issues and submission guidelines!

theauburnletter.blogspot.ca The Auburn Letter 5

Beyond the Tutu

Interviews with the dancers of The National Ballet of Canada

Patrick Lavoie vPhoto by Sian Richards, courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada

Krista Dowson: Corps de Ballet

How do you feel ballet is best represented: through live performance, photography, painting or sculpture? Ballet is best represented through live performance where you can see, hear and feel the artists tell a story. My favourite place to see ballet is from the wings. It is a rare and special perspective.

When you retire, what will you miss most about being a professional ballerina? I imagine I will miss a lot of things when I retire. I love the thrill of hearing the orchestra tuning just before the curtain goes up and the anticipation of a performance beginning. I will miss being onstage in that sacred place. I will miss the people I dance with and feeling like I belong to a team.

If you could dance any role, in any ballet what would you choose and why? Krista Dowson Photo by Sian Richards, courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada

The Stepsister in James Kudelka's Cinderella. I danced it once before and it is the most wonderful combination of technique, character, story telling, humour with beautiful costumes, sets and music. It would be nice to revisit a character I love so much as a more mature artist.

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Jenna Savella: Second Soloist

Having recently moved from the Corps de Ballet to First Soloist, what new challenges have you encountered? With being a second soloist comes greater responsibilities. There are new challenging roles to be worked on as well as maintaining and improving your corps roles.

What fashion trends have you found in the studio among your fellow dancers? The biggest fashion trend in the studio is that most of the women in the company are of now wearing leotards and skirts made by a few of our fellow dancers, two of which are establishing businesses. pretty, fancy by Krista Dowson and Ballerina Couture by Tina Pereira.

As a young dancer, what part of your technique did you find the most difficult, and how did you overcome it? Jenna Savella Photo by Sian Richards, courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada

When I was younger the biggest challenge for me was my lack of strength. That has improved because of company life, challenging repertoire, cross training, but time and experience has helped me the most.

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Tiffany Mosher, Photo by Sian Richards, courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada

Professional Ballerina at the National Ballet of Canada Tiffany Mosher lives a life of dance and pointe shoes. Performing for audiences at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto as a member of the Corps de Ballet, she allows us a glimpse into her journey and life as a ballerina...

Tiffany Mosher: Corps de Ballet

Describe a typical day for you. I get up at 8:15, shower, eat, make lunch and leave the house by 9. My fiancé drops me off at work at around 9:20 . I change at my spot in the dressing room while I gossip with the other girls in the company. I warm up a bit and start ballet class at 10:00. Class finishes at 11:15. I then have a 20 minute break to get ready for rehearsal. I normally have three, one hour rehearsals that differ from day to day, depending on what needs work. If I have a slot free, I try to go to the gym which is in the building. We have lunch from 2:30-3:30. Then I have another 3 hours of rehearsal. At 6:30 I get picked up by my fiancé and we go home to have dinner and relax. I typically go to bed a 11:30.

I’ve had a few great teachers and a few not so great ones. I often wish I could go back in time and help my younger self physically and mentally with the struggles that go along with training to become a professional dancer. In the end I feel that time has been my greatest teacher. Finally getting to a place where I can forget about my insecurities and train honestly without self judgement. It’s quite rewarding and much more enjoyable.

Photo by Sian Richards, courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada

Which dance teacher has impacted you the most?

Photo by Sian Richards, courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada

Performing in front of a large live audience is quite thrilling. The nerves, the adrenaline, the excitement of it all. I feel blessed to call this my job. However it wouldn’t be as fun without my colleagues to share it with. I’ve made amazing friends for life, and we’re bonded by this great experience that so few get to enjoy. I often think that when I retire I’ll miss performing, but perhaps more I’ll miss the daily comradery of life behind the stage; the dressing room, the rehearsal studio, being on stage with an empty auditorium. Its quite special and I try not to take it for granted.

Photo by Sian Richards, courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada

What has been the most rewarding part of your dance career?

Spectacle or Masterpiece? Expanding our Ideas About Performance Art By Milton Friesen

Most performance arts training programs do not include courses in motorcycle design or lectures on the physics of jumping a motorcycle across a river gorge. The canons of performance art don’t include references to Eval Kneival and we don’t generally think of him in artistic terms. Rather, we consider people who carry out such extreme acts stuntmen, daredevils, show-offs, sensationalists, and grandstanders who have less common sense than most and who are driven by fame and money, not aesthetics. I propose, however, that we widen our idea of the performing arts to include people like Evel Knieval and others like him. There is room for the performing arts to include a wider range of expressions, including those who walk tight ropes, set speed records, leap from high altitude balloons or swim impossible distances. My argument is simple. Performance art involves the challenging of established boundaries, the long development of specific skills, personal artistic vision and expression, and can include financial gain and fame as a result of those characteristics being applied. First, all great art contends with limits, whether those limits are in the medium of choice (making a block of marble look like flowing fabric), the skill of the artist, the tastes of others, the scope of the vision, or the resources available. Where these boundaries have been successfully challenged in pursuit of the good, the true and the beautiful, we find inspiring work and sometimes even a masterpiece. Remarkable performance art dares to engage with these limits, daring to overcome barriers in pursuit of a vision. Cirque de Soleil became highly successful through deeply creative mixing of dozens of performance art forms arranged in highly innovative audience experiences. Eval Knieval summoned his courage, drew on his motorcycle riding skill,

creative flair and engineering design ideas in pursuit of record-breaking feats of daring that inspired audiences. Frederic Chopin wrote and performed piano compositions that challenged accepted ideas about what a composer could do with a piano, changing the trajectory of music in the process. Second, there is an important relationship between the boundaries an artist contends with and their skill. If there is sufficient ability within a particular form, it is the skill of the artist that opens up new possibilities and resets the limits of what is possible, redrawing the range of what might be done. Learning to sing the notes of Adele’s Skyfall is not equivalent to her unique skills and abilities in performing the song. We might learn the notes easily enough without ever attaining that level of artistic performance. Powerful execution comes through peculiar levels of skill and sense, honed and developed over time. We accept that a ballerina must learn an arduous physical vocabulary to reach the boundaries of that art form, applying the greatest of skill to capture the hearts and minds of an adoring audience. The pursuit of an ideal, a possibility, drives those hours, days and long years of sacrifice. When Felix Baumgartener leaped from a balloon 39 kilometers above the earth, breaking the sound barrier in the process, he did so having attained a level of physical, emotional and mental training that pushed beyond the limits of what we thought humans are capable of. A myriad of technical, engineering, support, and physical training came together to make his record setting jump possible. Millions of us watched in wonder at the achievement and were inspired by it. Baumgartener’s skill level, though different than a dancer’s, was a prerequisite for a remarkable performance.

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Third, it is the application of deep skill aimed at the challenging of a boundary that orients us to new forms of artistic expression. A vision of what might be is essential to the most profound forms of performance art. Personal expression, that distinctive and self-absorbed quality that is present in great artists is an essential aspect of performance art. Boundaries can be challenged where skill meets creative imagination. David Copperfield took the art and craft of illusion to previously unimagined scales both in the scope of his art and the number of people for whom he performed. Here we find a boundary being significantly enlarged through highly skilled and complex labours that reflect deep personal expression. These types of acts, are indeed spectacles but that does not diminish their artistic features and esthetic dimensions. Michelangeloâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s David is a spectacle but it is no less a work of art for being so. Artists, whether in performing, painting, singing, dancing or creating illusions, are guided by a powerful inner instinct for how their skill might be employed in bringing to life something peculiar to them that was not there before. Finally, there is the matter of how commercial success relates to my argument for an extended sense of what qualifies as performance art. Artists who make significant amounts of money can be dismissed as sell-outs by those who have toiled without such rewards. Many artists pursue their craft regardless of commercial success, driven my motives other than money. It is, however, an error to assume that the reverse is true, that those who are successful financially have given up artistic vision. There are certainly enough examples of performers who have become financially successful by following established formulas rather than unique artistic vision or skill. This does not, however, mean that all wealthy performing artists have abandoned their aesthetic pursuits. During a recent Oprah interview, David Copperfield spoke openly about the endless pursuit of creative The Auburn Letter 13

vision he drives him on. He is a very wealthy man who has been significantly rewarded for his work and who has no need to work. Despite this, he continues to train, tour, create, and explore his craft. In fact, he represents a strong counterpoint to wealth as a sell-out for if that was his goal, he would have given up performing long ago, abandoning the ship that carried him to success once he had reached the destination. But he keeps at it, like an artist intent on somehow capturing the masterpiece that lies just out of reach and which is deeper than the accolades of the many. In conclusion, the performing arts are a rich, highly varied and constantly changing expression of our human desire to seek the good, the true and the beautiful. We have accepted categories of respected performing arts and these deserve our continued support and admiration. But we must also continue to explore how other forms of performance can enrich and challenges us. We need all kinds of performing arts. Some will be seen by millions, others by just a few. Some will follow accepted canons of inherited practice while others will venture ideas that have not been tried before. When we are open to emerging ideas about performance art that include the unusual we ensure that the richness of human aesthetic expression will carry on and surprise us with new vistas of beauty and wonder.

Ballerina

Project The Auburn Letter 14

Ballet Emerges from the Studio The official Ballerina Project originated with the photographer Dane Shitagi. He has created a stunning portfolio with dancers from all over the United States. The photos were shot in places like Hawaii, New York, and Boston using many talented ballerinas. Many fellow dancers and photographers have been inspired and have created their own ballerina projects.

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GTA Ballerina Project

Dancer: Claudia Photographer: Nusreta Durek

I opened the Ballerina Project GTA, because I wanted to combine my art work with the art work of the GTA dancers. I want to show case the amazing things Ballerinas can do from Canada. So much of the original ballerina project is focused on to New York...and how could it not be...but I believe the GTA is pretty amazing as well, and I wanted to show that through my photography and the GTA dancers. I hope to be able to do many more Ballerina Project shoots.

www.ndurekphoto.com

Victoria Ballerina Project Photographer: Garth von Buchholz Dancers:

Bethany Le Corre and Ian Szkolak (top opposite page) Capri Aspe (bottom opposite page)

What ultimately drew me into photography was the arts, and dance in particular -- the desire to capture a moment of motion. I was a professional dance critic for more than 15 years, so even though I'm not a dancer myself, I have a deep appreciation and a fair knowledge of the artform. With all due respect to the U.S. ballerina project -- which I have greatly admired -- I like to consider the Victoria Ballerina Project an original, It's not another "ballerina project," it's a project about Victoria ballerinas. This was something that I felt just had to be created, and since no one else was doing it, I decided to take it on. I really wanted to see photos of professional dancers in locations around the greater Victoria region because I wanted to showcase dancers in Victoria as there are so many interesting and picturesque places in the "city of romance". The Victoria Ballerina Project is similar to the U.S. ballerina project in that is features images of dancers away from the stage, but it differs stylistically several ways: 1. It only features Victoria ballerinas -- I'm very location specific in that regard. The U.S. project is more widespread. 2. I mostly shoot in colour -- most of the U.S. project is black and white. 3. I rarely crop the photos in anything but high def style 16:9 size, so they are very wide but not panoramic. To me this gives an added emphasis to the environment around the ballerina. 4. It's fair to say that most of the U.S. project are set in gritty, urban scenes. Although we do that sometimes, too, many of our shots are in a more natural setting. This project brought with it many rewards; seeing how much the ballerinas enjoy the shoot and the photos from it. They worked so hard with me, sometimes for several hours in one shoot; finding real gems when I start looking at the photos and doing post-production work on them; and seeing how much people love to watch the dancers -- people on the street who might never usually go to a dance show, or people who see the photos and admire them even though they may not consider themselves fans of dance. I love the way it opens people up to the beauty of dance.

victoriaballerinaproject.com

Hamilton Ballerina Project Photographer: Charae Friesen Dancer: Brittany Friesen

I saw the original ballerina project for the first time on my Facebook feed. I saw a beautiful photograph of a dancer posing on the top of a mountain. The lines were stunning, the colors vivid, and the dancer exquisite. I quickly found their website and browsed through the many photographs, each equally stunning but with different moods created; some edgy, others more traditional. I loved the idea of taking the beautiful lines from the dance studio and turning that into a wonderful photograph capturing the essence of a dancers movement. I immediately wanted to create my own ballerina project and gathered my sister Charae, a skilled photographer. Over a series of different shoots, we were able to capture various parts of the beautiful Hamilton area and the graces of Ballet. Photo Credits: Charae Friesen

www.charaefriesen.carbonmade.com

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Photo Credits: Charae Friesen

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Photo Credits: Charae Friesen

Photo Credits: Julia Kozlov

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Vancouver Ballerina Project Photographer: Julia Kozlov Dancers: Kianna and Jason

Julia Kozlov is a Vancouver based photographer from Uzbekistan (former USSR). She has been capturing stories with her camera since the age of 15 and at the age of 18 started to build her client base. After finishing her criminology BA in December of 2012, Julia was discovered by lululemon athletica and currently works as their full-time brand and lifestyle photographer. Outside her photography work, Julia stays rooted to personal passions through ventures such as the Ballerina Project Vancouver which she started out of inspiration from the original project in New York. In the future she plans to use her criminology degree towards law school. She also is the CEO of a web agency called Profile Studio and has trained daily in the martial arts for the past 4 years.

www.ballerinaproject.juliakozlov.com

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Photo Credits: Claude Schneider

Cambridge Ballerina Project

Photo Credits: Claude Schneider

Cambridge Ballerina Project My passion for dance photography started because I was a social dancer and my interest in photography grew drastically when I bought a digital SLR. After several years of photographing the contemporary and ballet dance shows at Cambridge University, I got to know several of the best dancers, and invited them to do individual photo shoots. And through them, I discovered the original New York-based Ballerina Project, by Dane Shitagi, which has been the greatest source of inspiration for my Cambridge Ballerina Project.

Photographer: Claude Schneider Dancers:

Ana (previous page, bottom left) &

YiYi (opposite page)

I'm most drawn to the technique and lines of ballet for still photography. I recently undertook a video project as the culmination of 3 years of the Cambridge Ballerina Project, and recorded several ballerinas individually dancing while I played at 15 different street pianos that had been placed around Cambridge for a fortnight. It was hugely rewarding to feature alongside the dancers whom I had grown close to and photographed so often. My greatest motivation for photographing dancers is that I'm moved by visuals, especially female beauty, and strong lines formed by limbs, as well as curves of the female figure. It's almost a paradox that the two don't often go hand in hand; when a woman has a slender figure with few curves, that's when limbs look their longest, and lines look their best. Beautiful feet arches, and leg/back flexibility often yield the best photographs, not only for the awe-inspiring technique and difficulty of the stretches, but also because they produce the most striking lines. The Cambridge Ballerina Project is in a state of metamorphosis, as I have moved from Cambridge, and am currently collaborating with the myriad talented dancers in Vancouver.

www.claudeschneider.com/photography

Photo Credits Claude Schneider

Westdale Ballerina Project Photographer: Nicole Whitmore Dancer: Rebecca Whitmore (bottom and top) and Brittany Friesen (top)

I have always loved photography, from the first picture I took using a disposable camera when I was little, to the many pictures I take now using my digital SLR camera. Each shot is special to me. Photography is a way for me to express my artistic side. It allows me to see the beauty of the world and capture all the special moments. A lot of my favourite photos are black and white with a vintage appeal. The world is constantly changing and if you can preserve those images and moments, it is something quite extraordinary. When I heard that Brittany and my sister wanted to do a

Photo Credits: Nicole Whitmore

Ballerina Project photo shoot I was intrigued. I looked at some of the other Ballerina Project pictures and loved the idea and soon thereafter started thinking about how we were going to make our photos special. As we discussed where we were going to have the shoot a theme for the photos became quite evident â&#x20AC;&#x201C; autumn. The colours on the trees were spectacular and I wanted to capture that fall feeling, while keeping the focus of the project in mind, ballet. Ballet is another beautiful art form, the serenity and gracefulness a ballerina can create using their body is truly amazing. Overall the shoot was an afternoon well spent! This project allowed me to explore new topics as a photographer and express both my love of nature and ballet.

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Dancing and Singing in the Middle East By Nourhan Hassan Mainstream dancing and singing have become competitive sports worldwide, performed to try and out due one another. However, in Middle Eastern countries dancing and singing simply provides forms of art and entertainment. Most of the Middle Eastern countries are Islamic and so some are not very open with dancing and singing because Islam does not promote these activities. Some of the other countries though, love to enjoy themselves through singing and dancing but only when the genders have been separated. Only then is dancing and singing permitted by culture, tradition and religion. In the Middle East, dancing and singing are means of celebration; the two go hand in hand in parties, engagements and especially weddings. It is how the people express their uttermost joy and happiness. Dancing has been around for centuries but it became very popular in the 1900s when many celebrity dancers were discovered, many of which from Egypt. Dancing in the Middle East can have genres just like in the western countries where there is hip hop, pop, rock, ballet to name a few. In the Middle East the most traditional dances are the Raqs Sharqi: oriental dancing, the Raqs Baladi: dance of the country better known as belly dancing, and the Ghawazt, the dance of the desert which is most common in Egypt. These forms of dancing are mainly performed by women of the Middle East. This is largely due to their culture where dancing is considered to be only appropriate to women. Belly dancing as mentioned is very popThe Auburn Letter 29

ular and the common Western perception of Middle Eastern dance. Belly dancing is a very fit form of dance. Its core idea focuses on having the dancer move their hips and body in a flowing manner to the music. It can be very challenging but it is known to be a good form of exercise around the world. In Middle Eastern countries the young girls learn how to dance from watching television and their older relatives. However, since belly dancing has become increasingly popular, classes have become available. In these classes the instructors give information step by step on important dance steps. Style is very important in belly dancing. Every girl and woman has her own style of moving to the music and the ability for a girl to use moves learned in class and to add her own artistry of movement creates a true belly dancer. The uniform for a belly dancer in the 1800s was a jalabya which is a type of dress and the belly dance hip scarf, adorned with coins to provide a jingle when the dancer moves their hips. Over time it has become a much more revealing costume that is composed of a skirt and a decorated bra. This form of costume helps to show how the dancer moves. Regardless of dress, belly dancing can be done in any type of clothing, and is simply a fun way of self expression. The other form of entertainment, singing has changed very much over the years in the Middle East, especially in comparison to dance. Singing in the early 1900s was valued. It was important to all countries in the Middle East. The songs were then pure and well

composed, they were mostly classics and the lyrics were written as poetry. The purity was defined in the lyrics, where it was about love, hope and nationality. These were the type of songs that were strongly promoted in the media. This music was so pure that one could listen to only the instrumental and still feel all of the emotions that one could feel through lyrics. The instruments were mostly the 3oud which is a guitar like instrument, the Qanoun, a string instrument created in the 10th century and percussion instruments like the Tablah. There were notable singers like Abd El Halim, Sabah, and Farid ElAtresh in the music industry. That was a time of prosperity and happiness in the Middle East. Unfortunately, over the years, singing has become trashy. The main themes have become centered on feminine looks and love. The use of too much slang has destroyed the value of the songs. The songs all sound the same. What is valued about singing now is not the quality but the quantity of money it brings in when recorded. It is sad to see how singing has deteriorated over the years. Nonetheless both forms of entertainment are valued, well-loved and practiced in the Middle East. The Middle East has gained world renown when it gave rise to many great artists in the past, and perhaps history will repeat and bring back the prosperity and quality to singing, and continue to foster the art form of dance.

The Curtain Draws

Photo Permission of Stephanie Croft

By Brittany Friesen

Excitedly they find their seats, Soft whispers heard all around, A wall of velvet, ruby red, Hiding all those behind, The violin she warms her voice, The cello follows suit, Not long â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;till it begins. Applause for the one coming out, The maestro takes a bow, A sudden hush befalls them all, The lights give into black, The oboe starts and sings her song, Soon joined with harmonies, A moment â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;till it begins. With bated breath all watch in awe, The folds of red ascend, One dream like figure clad in white, Leaps out onto the stage, With grace she tells a tale of old, Not uttering a sound, Alas, it now begins.

7.40 CND

theauburnletter.blogspot.ca Cover Photo Credit: Charae Friesen