Corps de Ballet Confessional: JULIA ROWE, San Francisco Ballet

#corpsdeballetconfessional

JULIA ROWE, corps de ballet at San Francisco Ballet/ formerly a soloist at Oregon Ballet Theatre

Photo by Christopher Peddecord (click here to visit his website of stellar work)

I first met Julia Rowe at CPYB, and she was this tiny little thing…. Like she is this short petite girl from PA with a good heart. I saw her in class and knew she was good, probably close to technically perfect. I then saw her Sherry Moray’s Pandora’s Box… and I was like, “hmmm ok.” Then I saw her in like every role in Balanchine’s Nutcracker and was like, “Okay I see you…” Then one day in Alan Hineline’s Sleeping Beauty rehearsal, I was doing something frivolous and we were rehearsing away from the mirrors, so she was facing towards the back where I was sitting. And I noticed that she did these really beautiful, overly turned out ron de jambes, into a fait pas de bourre and they were the most beautiful steps of the ballet; well the entire sequence of steps. She had complete control over everything, and she had this gorgeous resistance in the fait that was gorgeous. My friend and I both leaned over at the same time and called it: PERFECTION. On top of that, she was dancing on shin splints. A prom and graduation later, Julia left to SFB and then landed a contract at OBT. She got promoted to soloist and things were going stellar. Small Facebook chats here and there are nice updates… Then she announced that she was leaving her soloist spot at OBT and heading back to SFB… Now at SFB, I get to follow her career closer and hear from her every now and then. But recently we got to catch up and she was willing to answer some great questions… So here it is… Life as Julia Rowe.

So, what is it like to be Julia Rowe? INSTAGRAM: @juliamrowe
Age: 26
Height: 5’1”
Training: Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School
Company: San Francisco Ballet, corps de ballet, 3rd Season (click here for official bio)
Previous Company: Oregon Ballet Theatre, soloist for two seasons, three in the corps

What did you have for breakfast? How do you drink your coffee?
JR: I had a green juice for breakfast, and I drink my coffee black.

What is it like being in the corps at SF?
JR: It’s quite challenging, actually. We do three full-length ballets per season and then about five mixed rep programs. We learn all of the ballets in the summer and fall, but we don’t get to perform until Nutcracker in December. Our regular season runs January-May, and during that time we are usually performing most nights of the week and rehearsing for the next program during the day. It can get quite intense, especially for the corps de ballet.

You left being a soloist at OBT for SFB, why?
JR: Because there was a change in direction of the company, and I was ready for something new in my career. I wanted a different sort of challenge. I wanted to know what it was like to dance every day on that huge Opera House stage, and be surrounded by so much diverse talent all the time. I wanted to know if there could be a place for me here.

When you were a student, and you dreamed of a being a pro– does your experience as a professional compare?
JR: It’s funny. Sometimes I wish I could go back to being a student. The kind of personal attention and corrections that you receive at that point in your training are really invaluable. Once you join a company, especially a big one, you are kind of on your own. There isn’t enough time for individual coaching for all 75 dancers, you know? That being said, you learn a lot about yourself when you have to be your own teacher, coach, mentor, and critic. This is especially true when you are in the corps and the emphasis is placed more on conformity than artistic expression. The beauty in corps work is precision and teamwork. Everyone all breathing together as a singular unit. It’s a different mentality.

Julia in 2008 rehearsing for SFB School Student Showcase doing Kitri’s Variation in the dream scene. Filmed by Dylan Ward.

What kind of pressure do you feel?
JR: Luckily, at SFB, it’s not unusual for corps dancers to get great opportunities dancing soloist and principal roles. Choreographers and others setting ballets generally have their pick of the entire company. Because there are so many of us, there tends to be a lot of pressure to “nail it” in front of a choreographer. There is also this sense that every rehearsal is an audition. The margin for error sometimes feels very small, which I know from experience tends to limit my ability to really make the movement my own. I love to work with choreographers who are OK with mistakes during the learning process(most are). It’s incredibly freeing to be given permission to be yourself in the studio and on stage.

In contrast, learning corps de ballet repertory is an exercise in attention to detail and precision. In a large company, you are expected to be able to quickly and thoroughly learn choreography. This can be tough, especially for new dancers. Luckily, there is a sense of community within the corps. We have all been there, and most of my coworkers were extremely kind and helpful when I was swamped with new information.

What kind of pressure do you put on yourself, when it comes to being or trying to be promoted?
JR: the more you think about it, the crazier you get

What kind of pressure do you put on yourself, when it comes to being or trying to be promoted? Honestly, I try not to think of it in terms of promotion. I try to recognize every opportunity I have to improve in some way. It is tough, though. We all have dreams, after all! It would be great to get to do more challenging roles, and to not have to suffer through standing in B-plus, but not everyone gets to that place. For me, it’s all about appreciating the moments when I do get to bust out and dancing them to my fullest ability. It makes swan corps way more bearable when you know that you are capable of so much more. Sometimes you just need to remind yourself.

Having outside projects can help, too. If you aren’t getting the artistic growth you want from your job, no one is stopping you from doing it on your own. I have met so many inspiring, creative people in San Francisco not just in dance, but other fields as well. Writers, fashion designers, musicians, visual artists, photographers, you name it. I have even met some incredibly inspiring doctors who take physical therapy and training to an artistic level.

_ET18787 — Julia Rowe and Elen Rose Hummel in Tomasson’s Caprice. (© Erik Tomasson) Accessed via blog.cpyb.org

What do you do in your spare time?
JR: I go to school, read, swim, hike, travel and help my boyfriend (@sashaarro on insta!) with his photography in my spare time. I do the LEAP program at St Mary’s for my undergraduate degree it’s a great program geared towards arts professionals. (click here for more information on the LEAP program)

What is in your dance bag?
JR: My dance bag is a mess. I have at least 6 pairs of shoes, three skirts, a pair of shorts, legwarmers, Advil, Voltaren gel, arnica cream, my Lululemon sweatpants, black Uniqlo heat tech shirt, a puffy vest (also Uniqlo) Click here to shop Uniqlo.

Favorite holiday?
JR: My favorite holiday is New Years because I get to spend it at home with my family. We do a delayed Christmas on New Years because I am still doing Nutcracker on actual Christmas.

Any advice to young women who get their corps de ballet contracts…
JR: Advice to young corps members: Remember what your teachers have told you. Really. Corrections and feedback won’t come as often as they did when you were in school. It’s up to you to figure out how you want to dance and to make it happen. Keep your eyes open. Use your coworkers as inspiration. Be respectful of the more senior members of the company, but don’t hide. You have accomplished something very special by becoming a professional ballet dancer. It’s a privilege to be able to do what you do. Make the most of it! Enjoy it!

Personal Note: Greatest part about this interview? It happened in sections- via at intermission during Swan Lake, her days off, and the Academy Awards…
Editor’s Note: Originally when published I credited Pandora’s Box to Alan Hineline, but it is choreographed by Sherry Moray.

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If you are a corps de ballet dancer, and would like to be interviewed for a Ballet Education’s Corps De Ballet Confessional, email me at aballeteducation@gmail.com
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The Corps de Ballet Confessional…

corps de ballet

You were the best one at your local school, and then you went to a professional school, and you basically kicked ass. Teachers fawned over you. You excelled in the curriculum, and you knew. You knew that one day you would get your company contract. You land your apprenticeship and then get your corps contract. Ten years later, you are standing on stage in B plus, on the side of the stage in a beautiful white tutu. Yup. All of that hard work, all of those hours, killing yourself over and over again. Learning every part, understudying every principal role, and finally… You wonder, “What was the point?” The greatest role you ever did was some random pas de trois in a matinee showing. You might have done Spanish or Chinese in the Nutcracker. If you are lucky you did Marzipan and Dew Drop for a matinee… So, what was the point?

Working in the corps makes life difficult. Every time a season is about to close you are questioning if you will have your contract renewed. Then you are questioning yourself at the beginning of the season, wondering who they have hired? Who is the next hot shot of talent coming up? You start to question yourself as an artist, and you feel completely unchallenged. You have danced the repertory twice and then some. You know every girl part in Nutcracker and have probably danced in every role. Yup, this is the life of a corps de ballet member. You start to think about your sixteen-year-old self, the person who wanted it so badly. Who anticipated the moment you got to step onto a stage. The person who excelled and wanted every moment of ballet… Where did that person go?

Life in the Corps de Ballet is hard, and they are probably the most under appreciated position in a ballet company…. So now… I am honoring the amazing talent in the corps de ballet of ballet companies. Without the corps there isn’t a flock of swans behind Odette, and there aren’t any Shades in Bayadere… It would just be Solar smoking some opium for giggles. lol. So, what is it like to have the job a million girls would kill for? Get ready for our #corpsdeballetconfessional series. A series of posts dedicated to the corps de ballet, mostly interviews with working ballet dancers.

If you are interested in being interviewed for these installments write me aballeteducation@gmail.com

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Check out this video from AOL originals narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker!

August 6, 2015

Redlands Dance Theatre

Redlands Dance Theatre is a non profit organization dedicated to the arts in the Inland Empire. Your contribution, no matter the size, provides Redlands Dance Theatre the means to further the arts in our community. Redlands Dance Theatre provides 8 full year round scholarships to Dancing Images Dance Center for under privileged children. The company provides exceptional performances for our community, and gives Inland Empire dancers a chance to grow and further their art form.

Unfortunately, employing ballet dancers does not come as an easy task. Redlands Dance Theatre goes through about 8 pairs of pointe shoes a week, running about $650. To finance our 2015-2016 season, Redlands Dance Theatre is looking to raise approximately $25,000 to support our dancers, students, performances, costuming, and other miscellaneous expenses.

www.RedlandsDanceTheatre.org

June 4, 2015

The Guide to Fierceness

OUR FIRST EVER DOWNLOADABLE E-BOOK: http://joom.ag/RuCp
Now available for $4.99 USD

April 10, 2015May 11, 2015

Ballet Vocabulary: Lesson 1

In the world of ballet, there are three languages. There is the language in which ballet was codified, French. Then there is the language in which interprets ballet, body language backed by emotion. And then there is a language that ballet dancers actually speak, a language of their own, and I’m not talking about French. So, here is the modern vocabulary list every ballet dancer/student should know (part one). These terms you will come across in class, gossiping among your fellow peers in ballet school, blogs like this one, or social media.

Mr. B (noun): AKA, George Balanchine, aka God (just kidding, not really)

The founder of New York City Ballet, and probably the most influential choreographer of the 20th century.

What would Mr. B do?

4 T’s (noun): AKA The Four Temperaments

Choreographed by George Balanchine in 1946 to music by Paul Hindemith.

Dancing 4T’s is really difficult if you aren’t trained Balanchine.

Buiscut (noun or adj):

Dancers with “bad” feet or feet that don’t point.

She has biscuit feet, she’ll never go en pointe.

A La Sebesque, secabesque (noun):

A non existent position in ballet that people with bad technique use. It is a combination of a la seconde, and arabesque.

You are doing a la sebesque dear, you aren’t in jazz class.

Bunhead (noun):

1. A dancer who is overly intense about ballet, to the point where it might be unhealthy.
Maureen is a bunhead, Eva is not.

Snatched (adj):

1. A dancer’s body in peak shape.
Her body is snatched, hence why she is rockin’ a unitard.

Whacked out (adj):
1. Ridiculously flexible
He is so whacked out… but only to the right.

AD (noun) aka Artistic Director:

1. The head of a ballet company.
She only got the part because she is sleeping with the AD.

Leo (noun) aka Leotard:

1. Appropriate ballet attire, made from mesh, nylon, spandex, lycra or another synthetic blend of fabric.
Who wears a white leo to an audition?

________ Hands (_____ (adj) + noun):

1. Spatula Hands: hands that look like spatulas.
2. Oven mitt hands: hands that are shaped like an oven mitt.
3. Hamburger Hands: hands that are shaped like one is holding a hamburger.
She is definitely not getting into SAB because of her spatula hands.

Claws (noun):

1. Hands that have gone through rigorous Balanchine training and are the anti Russian hand.
He has claws, you think he is from SAB?

Nut Season (noun):
1. The part of the season in which one must dance in the annual production of the Nutcracker in which they will be overworked, and over rehearsed. Dancers may cringe, or cry if they are at the mall shopping and the Tchaikovsky score is being played during the holidays. The time of the season in which every dancer wants to quit.
It is Nut Season, I want to die.

Pancaking (verb):
1. The application of a mattifier to match ones skin tone and remove the shine or pink color.
2. When a ballet dancer goes to iHop and dreams of ordering pancakes but orders a salad instead.
Gaynor Mindens should always be pancaked, that way it isn’t obvious you are wearing them.

Floor Barre (noun):

1. An awful, but healthy alternative to taking class. It is the combination of ballet, yoga and pilates.
I would rather do character than floor barre.

This is just part one, and as I compile list two, please feel free to email me for suggestions.

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015

BIG THINGS FOR A BALLET EDUCATION

So, I have decided to launch a few big things for a Ballet Education, and I hope they are helpful… But, unfortunately it will take a little bit of capitol. If you have enjoyed reading my blog, minus the grammar mistakes, you can now donate so I can pay an editor to go back through and edit everything. I just don’t have the time. Even now, I am using SIRI to update this blog while driving to an event in Los Angeles.

Here is what I was thinking…

yes, I would like to publish a book…

COMING SOON... available via iPhone, iPad, Android, Desktop, Digital Download — COMING SOON…
available via iPhone, iPad, Android, Desktop, Digital Download

and yes… I want to release digital books of things that are important…

And I would like to redesign the site.

And I would like to be able to start a youtube channel with how to do real ballet techniques…

Sooooo, if you are interested please donate or email me aballeteducation@gmail.com

Thanks.

July 9, 2014

And the prize goes to…. Not you.

And the winner of this year’s (enter competition) goes to… (a name that is not yours)…

The Competition in ballet is stiff.

From a young age we develop a natural since of competition, call it… survival of the fittest. We naturally compare things, and ask why. The development is natural…. Now, apply it to ballet or any sport, and that “instinct” becomes crazy, psychotic, self-defeating, and neurotic trait…

So, you might be thinking this post is about ballet competitions, but it really isn’t. It is about rejection. Unfortunately, there are thousands of dancers each year competing for very few jobs. First off, if you didn’t get the job, didn’t make it through a round of auditions and got cut, or if you lost… If the first thing you think is, “She didn’t deserve it.” Or, “Why did she get it? She isn’t even that good.” You probably have no business being a ballet dancer, and you are probably an awful person.

So, where does this all begin… Oh yeah, the classroom. Remember when you were the best at your small school, and your teacher would say, “Little (insert your name) please demonstrate the combination.” Back then everyone would watch you, and you would still hang out. Little did you know they hated you, and probably called you teacher’s pet behind your back. Then, you end up a professional or pre professional school and you are the new kid, and probably one of the worst ones there. At this phase you are constantly comparing yourself to others. “Is my leg as high as hers? Am I turned out as much as she is.” And then you see that someone has ridiculous feet and you are like FML… Yup… Then you are constantly looking at yourself and others. You make lifelong friends at these prestigious schools, and then sometime during Junior/Senior year… You realize… We are all competing for the same jobs, and those lifelong friends are now in the same room auditioning as you. All of those comparisons you had in class became a reality and you are fighting…

Sometime later in life, you realize that it wasn’t about the competition with others, and you should have spent more time competing with yourself. Perfecting your craft, your body, and exploring your artistry. I look at the little prodigy Daniil Simkin who was trained privately his whole life, and it did him good. I wonder if more dancers were trained privately if they would be more successful? (insert comments below)

Now, you didn’t get the job, or you didn’t win the gold medal… now what? It is time re-evaluate what just happened. At a ballet competition, they are truly looking for the most potential a student has to offer. Potential being categorized as technique, facility, musicality. As an adult, and someone seeking a ballet job… No one really cares about how much potential you have… They care about where you are at in your artistic career and what you have to offer. This is all based on strength, consistency, artistry, and a solid technique. Now, if you have all those things, and you didn’t get the job… You need to look at what the director was looking for.

Unfortunately, a repertory season is planned prior, and so the director already knows how many dancers he needs and can afford for his company. (Give or take second company members, apprentices and top level trainees.) Most people forget during an audition that there are very few limited spaces, and if a director has one spot open, he/she probably knows exactly who they are looking for.

So, what can you do? Keep training until next season, throw in the towel and go to college, or you can restructure yourself as a dancer. I think the third is always the best option. It isn’t that I doubt your training, but if you consistently keep doing the same thing over and over, you aren’t going to grow as an artist, or change as a person, or refine much of anything. Restructuring yourself as a dancer means approaching your technique differently, changing your thought process at barre and center, figuring out new ways to hear music, and changing the quality of your dancing. These types of things makes a dancer better, versatile and adaptable. Teachers always ask for very specific things, and sometimes we don’t follow them, not on purpose, just because we have been doing it a different way our whole lives, and we miss that special nuance that might make or break your audition.

Also, I believe that if you want to dance, there is a place for you. Your dream might have been New York City Ballet, but maybe you didn’t have the right body type that Peter Martins was looking for that year. Then, maybe PNB, Miami and San Fran only were looking for boys. But most people don’t think of looking at regional companies, even if it is just for a season… like Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Nevada Ballet Theatre. Which, you just might be perfect for. You really never know. After a year at a smaller company, and restructure your dancing… you might just end up at San Fran or Houston. Or, you might end up loving the smaller company, and dance lead roles in two years, which at a bigger company you might never get to dance. Regardless, rejection is going to happen, but it is how you deal with it that makes you a stronger dancer. Whether you are a student and didn’t get into a school or summer program, if you are trying to get a job in a company, you competed and lost, or you are in a company and didn’t get cast for a role, the point is… it happens… Embrace it.