Dubbing these “Random Acts of Dance,” Randy describes the journey through Albuquerque’s city streets. “We started our Sunday morning at a Starbucks Coffee located at the Albuquerque Uptown mall to plan our day. We then took the photo shoot to a local park, and then ended up on Central Ave. (old Route 66) where the girls changed into jeans, and colorful pointe shoes to finish up the day.”
One With The Music: Accompanying Dancers Part Two
The studio I work at has three studios – one large and two small — as well as a small theatre space that seats about 100 people. The two smaller studios and the theatre space have an upright acoustic piano, and the larger studio has a baby grand piano. I actually prefer to play on the upright acoustic pianos as I find their tone more appealing – not to mention the fact that I can get more emotion out of these pianos!
See Spot Turn
The action of the head is important but do not forget the role of the eyes in spotting. It helps to spot something like a photograph, painting, or word and really SEE the SPOT on each TURN. If you are using your head properly but still getting dizzy, it is probably because your eyes are not focusing. You need to get the head around with enough zing (see above) to have time for this, though.
One With The Music: Accompanying Dancers Part One
The very first ballet class I played for was a big surprise, because I had no idea what to expect or what would be expected of me by either the teacher or the dancers. I walked into the studio and the first person I saw was the teacher (who seemed to me to be very old), holding a lit cigarette in one hand and a cane in the other!
Sunday Snapshot: Mr. Curiosity
“From my perspective as a dance photographer, it’s about capturing the passion in the moments during a routine that translates the music visually to the audience through dance. A picture is worth a thousand words.” Of the young man in the photo above, Rene adds, “Austin does a great job of transferring his passion visually in this shot.”
Melissa Hough On Competition, Rubies, and Being a “Newbie” at Houston Ballet
“When I became more serious about which direction I wanted to focus on, I auditioned for the year round program at Kirov Academy. I lived at the school for four years, while still taking my jazz, tap, lyrical classes and participating in competitions, and working on summer correspondence courses so I could graduate early. I also took some voice lessons, because for a long time I wanted to be on Broadway, but during my time at Kirov I decided I wanted to go for it- try to be a ballerina. My (Russian) teachers never thought I’d go very far in a ballet company. They felt I was more suited for contemporary, which at the time I was.”