Hello all–this is Nicole, media intern with Ballet Fantastique.  I’m here to do a little debriefing about Arabian Nights, my first performance experience with BFan.

On January 28th, Ballet Fantastique transported audiences to a mystical land in their premiere of Donna and Hannah Bontrager’s Arabian Nights. With the Hult Center house completely sold out well over a week before the show opened and a splashy front-page Register Guard cover story hyping the all-original production, BFan told six ancient tales full of fantasy and adventure through story, dance, and music.  The performance did not disappoint these high expectations–it was absolutely captivating.

But while the show went off without a hitch, it is only because of the hours that cast and crew spent rehearsing and preparing.  I wanted to do a little behind-the-scenes research into the process of making it all happen here, in my first BFan blog post.

Here’s just a taste of what I uncovered:

Ballet Fantastique wanted to take these famous historical tales and add their own twist to the story. As Hannah Bontrager noted, “The most difficult part was to know where to start with so much material, and trusting our instinct to use all new music instead of the traditional Scheherazade score by Rimsky-Korosokov. I’m really proud of the unique way we interpreted the ancient stories to [create] a completely original ballet!” Dancers pushed themselves to physical and emotionally exhausting limits when they practiced six days a week (and 13 days straight in the week before the show) for as many as six to eight hours a day.

As I also found out, Donna decided to challenge the BFan dancers to try new feats. One of the dancers, Ashley, commented on the relatively new experience of performing an incredibly difficult pas de deux: “One of the lifts that we worked on that was the scariest was pretty much a hand stand in the air, when I was suspended upside down into the air on Adam’s shoulders. Any lift is hard because you have to be really aggressive and can’t hesitate. I don’t have a lot of prior partnering experience, so for me it was about letting go and trusting my partner.”

It seems evident from the success of the show that all of the dancers were indeed able to let go and completely immerse themselves in their characters.  The dancers had the task of combining their roles as an actor and dancer in this, BFan’s first full-length dramatic ballet (heretofore, BFan’s full-length narrative works have all been romantic comedies). As Amelia, who danced the parts of the Queen in the Scheherazade frame narrative and the Wise Woman in the Tale of Princess Parizade, related: “I absolutely love meshing my dancing and acting skills. In fact, I believe that as a dancer, you must be able to act and get lost in the role that you are portraying. Being the queen was a blast because Iable to be dark and mischievous, yet regal, when I wouldn’t usually describe myself with any of those words.”

Put all of this innovation, hard work, gutsiness, and drama together with costumes to kill for, incredible technique, and stunning creativity—and you get an absolutely mesmerizing performance that transported us all away from a gray January Oregon night into the exotic world of Ballet Fantastique’s Arabian Nights.

Can’t wait for Cinderella: A Rock Opera Ballet this May!  I heard that Hannah and Donna are already working hard with musical collaborators Shelley and Cal.  More to come.  Hope you have your tickets before this one sells out! 

http://www.balletfantastique.org/company/events.php

Sincerely,

Nicole

We are so excited, nervous, and honored that we have just a few tickets left for this show–we’re almost sold out, and it’s still two weeks away.  (With the normal ticket-buying crowd in Eugene, folks are typically like me and wait until the last minute, but not so with this one.  We don’t know what’s going on, but we love it!!!)  In fact, since my job description usually includes Queen Marketer, I almost don’t know what to do with myself!  We’re only putting up 50 posters (norm: close to 200), sending out a handful of postcards (norm: 2,500 or more), and my sleepless nights and midnight lists are now comprised conspicuously of details related to our special outreach show for local schoolkids, tech schedules, and a million other things…that are NOT marketing.

But this expected attendance also means that we know our audience is as excited about this all-new ballet as we are, and the pressure’s on!  Arabian Nights ventures into dramatic new territory for Ballet Fantastique—literally.  Heretofore, we’ve made many forays into drama (our Red Violin series with violinist Matt Fuller, our “Love Lost” suite, St. Margaret’s Tears with Incendio, etc. etc.), but our full-length works have always been comedies.  I can say as a dancer, choreographer, and producer, that we’re living up to the season theme of DARING in challenging ourselves and our audience with a full-length dramatic work.  And we’re excited!

If you know anything about ballet dancers, it’s that we continuously engage in the masochistic practice of watching the best of the best of the best.  YouTube and social media where our ballet friends across the country and the world share videos of these world-famous dancers makes it easy to find these folks, and one can’t help but be inspired.  And holy cow, I hit the jackpot this morning.  So, in the name of getting inspired by some dramatic performances by one of my personal current favorite dancers, Polina Semionova, here is some dramatic ballet you HAVE to see:

1. Polina in La Bayadere
2. Polina in Manon (this is for BFan ballerina Leanne Mizzoni–Manon’s one of her favorites and now you know why)
3. Polina is even expressive when you can’t see her face in this rehearsal video (this is something we need to remember as dancers).  We will not say anything about her coach, Mr. Malakhov’s, outfit. 

Oh my heavens, she just mesmerizes you.

In Arabian Nights, we will aspire to do the same.

To the dance,

Hannah

NOTE: We do still have student outreach matinee tickets available for the Thursday, January 26 at 10 am show, so please contact us if you’d like to come!

Add to these emotions that Wednesdays are our late night rehearsal night at the studio…

Aside: About Wednesday

Wednesday means that after we work our Normal Person jobs (which we almost universally love, but which do take a lot out of us), we forgo the after-work cocktails with friends or quickie fabulous 20-minute workout at the gym, and instead trek on down to our beautiful studio and get down to business for four hours.  Yes, this is a long time, but it’s never long enough to do what we need to do; Wednesday also means that instead of the regular five or six hours of studio time (including Ms. Donna’s Crazy Hard Class) we have on a normal rehearsal day, we have much less–and we’re tired to boot.  In short, we have a lot to get done in an impossibly short period of time, and we might not always be quite as chipper as we’d like to be whilst this rehearsal occurs. Let’s just say that Wednesday is the kind of day where you get home at 10 pm and you still haven’t decided what you might eat for dinner and you are berating yourself for not having done your dirty dishes that morning or having put away the leotards you just washed, and you decide to eat random things like carrots and pretzels because the thought of standing to cook is absolutely horrifying.  THEN–spoiler alert–if you’re Hannah, you also start freaking out in the midst of your exhaustion about the fact that you have so many things to talk to Donna about: the sets, the costumes, the guest dancers, the press release, yada yada, yada.  Should you sleep so that you can somehow do better tomorrow?  Should you get work done so that you CAN sleep (those middle-of-the-night stress demons can only be cured with iPhone notes about lists)?

And these Wednesday nights, my friends, it is even more important for the Ballerina to remember why she loves what she does.  And even though 15 reasons would be better than six, we’re going to keep it simple.  (This is early practice for what is to become a New Year’s resolution, I am sure.)

The Dancer Says: 6 Reasons I’m Not Ready to Retire Today, Wednesday Dec. 7, 2011

*In no particular order of importance

1) It moves me.  Let’s face it.  After working in service or sitting in a cubicle all day, it’s pretty awesome to whack your body into shape(s).  We’re challenging our brains and our bodies.  It’s pretty unique, and pretty awesome.

2) It keeps me clean. I would probably be one of those slackers who never does laundry (I don’t know WHY I hate it so much!), but it’s Improper to wear the same leotard more than once in a two-week span, so ballet literally gives me an incentive to keep my stuff/myself clean.

3) I get to hang out with some pretty amazing people.  I love these peops.  Instead of retreating into self-loathing related to my inability to maintain control of my to do list, I get to hang out and work hard with my awesomely talented mom, sister, and best friends.  We keep each other honest, and we do laugh a lot.

4) It gives me nice gams.  Supposedly, tights help keep varicose veins at bay.  Since we wear tights all the time, we are likely to keep our legs in good shape.  Right?!

5) See the rain, don’t feel the rain…  I will admit that even though ballet is Crazy Hard, I would really rather be dancing than running, for example, in mud and freezing rain.  Kudos to my marathonning and soccer-playing friends.  I am not among you.

6) I do what I love.  When it all comes down to it, even though this is so often a labor of love, I get to DO WHAT I LOVE.  How many millions of people do not have this privilege?  Yes, I’m tired, but I am also proud and happy of this little ballet company that’s becoming.

I guess I have a few more years left in me.  Good thing, since now it’s Thursday morning. 

Goodnight and thank you so much for your support,
Hannah

Here's how you do "mouse hands"

Well, folks, I’m writing at the studio. Wednesdays are our late-night rehearsals, and Ashley and Amelia are working away on what Artistic Director Donna calls “Puddle-Duck,” so I have a brief respite. It gets pretty hilarious sometimes when we step back and think about the fact that we’re scampering and holding tails and paws, and getting corrections like “scamper better into that line,” etc. We’re, like, creating a whole new vocabulary here! (i.e., “scamper” was NOT part of Incendio choreography!) Jemima Puddle Duck and the Foxy-Whiskered Fox is one of my personal favorites in the show; it’s actually so funny that I wish sometimes that the girls didn’t wear masks, since their faces are so hilarious.

Coming this December 2 and 4, Beatrix Potter: Tales for the Holidays is what we’re calling a “bonus concert” this season. This means that it’s not part of our regular concert season of three shows at the Hult Center–it’s an extra on top of these. As a chamber company, BFan doesn’t try to do a Nutcracker (plus Eugene Ballet already does a beautiful one of those here in our city)…but this is sort of our answer to the Nutcracker–a fun, holiday family ballet that may well become standard December fare for us BFanners + fans. Moreover, we’re excited to be producing the first-ever BFan shows at the stunningly-gorgeous and intimate Wildish in Springfield (the last time we were there was our guest appearance with the Oregon Mozart Players in 2008) and the lovely Florence Events theater in Florence later the same weekend. It’s our first-ever tour to Florence, and we’re stoked!

For those who don’t think they know Beatrix Potter, she was a much-beloved writer of children’s stories in the early part of the 20th century. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (danced by yours truly with great abandon and tan pointe shoes) was published in 1902, and after that came all sorts of cute characters that we’re bringing to life on stage.

Yours truly as Peter Rabbit

For a little more behind-the-scenes insight on what’s fun about this ballet, it’s honestly been a bit of a respite from the intensity of generating all-new choreography and a chance to just have fun and relax a bit. Of course, there are challenges (see list below), but it’s nice to recharge a little. We still get the excitement of the performance coming up (and the KIDS ARE SO EXCITED), but with a chance to recharge the choreographic engines. As a choreographer and not just a dancer, I needed this.

But as a dancer, it’s not all a piece of cake. Here are some of my favorite challenges:
–Keeping a straight face whilst rehearsing some silly stuff with our very community-visible windowfront here at City Center for Dance. Specifically: Wiggling my buns with squirrel paws (YES, they are different from mouse paws, believe it or not) as a Squirrel Cousin in the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin as people walk by. Don’t get me wrong–we LOVE our gorgeous new studio, but it does put us on display, and I have a feeling that some of our neighbors are very confused as they walk to the elevator… For example, one gentleman saw fit to wiggle back at us with his own paws the other day, and I have to divulge that rehearsal might have descended into giggles for a bit. We know that we must look pretty nuts. (Bad squirrel pun, sorry!)
–Acting without your face. It’s actually quite a challenge as a dancer–one we don’t often think about–to act with a mask on. So often as a dancer, you (I!) rely on your facial expressions to communicate drama or humor. In fact, I personally think it’s actually harder to pull off humor even than pathos or romance without your face showing. And, because we’re animals and wearing these awesome felted masks (which have a lot of personality, but aren’t dynamic and mobile, of course), we don’t get to use our faces to tell our stories. Add to this the fact that we’re telling a story and expecting a decent percentage of kiddos in attendance–we want them to “get it,” to be charmed, to be utterly Beatrix Pottered.
–Knowing that next week, it’s nose back to the grindstone. Like many of our professional colleagues in larger and more established companies across the US, for the first time, Ballet Fantastique company dancers will be challenged to work on two very different ballets simultaneously. Starting next week, we’ll be working on our all-original Arabian Nights while we also keep Beatrix up to par. As you might expect, Nights is gonna be very different than Beatrix, but simultaneously work/choreograph we must. Let’s just hope that Scheherazade doesn’t accidentally pop out of the wings with a fox tail.
–Logistics. Sigh: as always, my double-hatting gets a lot harder around performance time. And this time, I want to do a good job with things I don’t usually have to think about, including that we’re our own box office for the Wildish performance and being sure that the Florence community knows about our concert there. (Respectively, our norm is that the Hult Box Office manages things beautifully, and our team of interns and volunteers have publicity here in Eugene down to a science–but we’ve never done Florence before.) Let’s just say, I’m already waking up at 3am with random realizations and new ideas.

And so, to wrap it all up…has Hannah pulled it all together and is there a place to get these tickets, you might ask? YES! Here’s what you need to know.

TICKETS FOR WILDISH SHOW: $16 general admission or $10 youth (18 & under)
Three easy ways to order:
–Call 541-342-4622
–Order online
–Visit our local ticket outlets, Bambini or Kidstuff, during normal business hours to purchase your tickets through them (be sure to thank them for their support of Ballet Fantastique!)

TICKETS FOR THE FLORENCE SHOW: $16 adults and $12 youth (18 & under)
Available from the Florence Events Center, 541-997-1994. Tickets sold at the window from noon–4:30 pm daily or by phone with credit card.

Ok, now it’s back to my to do list!

Signing off,
Hannah

It was such a fun experience, and we took up almost an entire side row at the Hult Center‘s Soreng theater. We had a group of past dancers, non-dancers and even someone who had never been to a ballet before. Maddie (pictured below with executive director and company dancer, Hannah) said she had an amazing time and was so pleased that this was the first ballet she saw. “I also loved that the band played on stage with the dancers — they were awesome.”

“Incendio was the perfect mix of passionate music and exquisite dance; I was entranced by a show that was truly fantastique!” -Amanda Knutsen, Freshman at the UO

Ballet Fantastique has a great group ticket ticket discount, which was perfect for us since the college budget tends to get a little tight. We are already planning on getting a group together to go see Arabian Nights in January, especially since there will be a $6 “Mango Magic Carpet” cocktail special in the lobby during intermission!

–Maggie, BFan Intern

(There are also, of course, discussions over the benefits of white over black gloves, and talk of beautiful bejeweled corsets to come )

So, in the spirit of Incendio… here’s a tapas recipe!!

PATATAS BRAVAS:
Roasted potatoes complemented by a spicy red sauce
( Serves 8 )

From Martha Stewart's "Whole Living"

And don’t forget: Purchase your Incendio tickets early and receive a free tapas plate! Advance buyers receive a coupon for a free tapas plate at Red Agave.

To receive the coupon, you must purchase tickets before 10/20 in person at the Hult Center Box Office (you can also receive the coupon if you have your tickets mailed to you, e.g., as a season subscriber).

Krislyn, Hannah, Alanna and new Academy star Kelsey

Months upon months of planning and preparations finally added up to the night of our season-opening gala on the evening of October 8th.

Major highlights include:
*AMAZING DECOR! The former Cafe Maroc fit perfectly with the theme, and supplied more lanterns, rich colors, and stonework than we could have dreamed of! Thank you so much to Adam Bernstein for his incredible generosity.  Our record turnout of guests fit snugly with all eighteen tables filled to capacity.

*The pavilion tent at Cafe Maroc held a surprise: elaborate, uniquely Eugene music from Mood Area 52. Ballet Fantastique is a huge fan!  It’s a great event when not only Ballet Fantastique is dancing, but our guests are as well!

*The food and wine, of course! Pyrenees Vineyards and Wine Cellars provided such delicious adult beverages that they ran out of supplies before the night ended! And Chef Rich Balajadia of The Bridge Bar & Grill made the atmosphere edible through a selection of Mediterranean-inspired foods (hummus, sliced vegetables, rice pilaf) in his exclusive menu for the event.  MANY THANKS to Mike Hoover and The Bridge and to Pyrenees for their amazing support.

*The auctions united the audience and BFan team, with everyone anxiously waiting to hear the results of the silent basket bidding. Congratulations to everyone who won a luxury prize! Before this came a lively dessert auction; each dancer modeled the desserts with a box of cupcakes or a stack of chocolate bars before handing off the delectable treats to the lucky winner.

*Best of all was the INCENDIO preview…

Thanks to everyone who came!

(P.S.–Don’t forget about this awesome deal: Get your Incendio tickets early at the Hult and you’ll receive a coupon for a free tapas plate at Red Agave! Contact us for details!)

She’s the newest edition to the BFan company, and she’s traveled everywhere–well, to Costa Rica, Greece, and Germany, among other places–meet Alanna Fisher!

Freshly graduated from the University of Utah with a BFA in Dance, you’ll see her teaching our new Sparkling Stars class and, of course, performing in all of our shows.

Now for some Q&A!
Hometown: Willow Creek, CA

How did you get into ballet? My mom got me
started when I was five or six. I don’t know why, or even if it was something that I was interested in. Honestly, I don’t distinctly remember a time when I didn’t dance, although I didn’t start as young as some.

Most memorable ballet experience? When I got the e-mail from Hannah telling me that Ballet Fantastique wanted me to join their company.

Biggest ballet challenge? Having strength… Especially when doing any sort of jump.

Favorite way to spend a day off? In Salt Lake City, where I went to college, my friends and I would go to our favorite coffee shop or restaurant on days off. We’d also go see movies at the Dollar Theater a lot. Mostly I just like doing things that aren’t related to dance.

Advice for aspiring ballerinas? Work hard!

Welcome to the Ballet Fantastique company, Alanna! We’re thrilled to have you with us!

(I’ve also been exposed to a ton of new experiences, such as making donation request calls. Terrifying at first, but overcoming the fear of rejection along with getting positive responses does wonders to make the process easier )

In case you haven’t heard about the gala, or if you’re unsure of what to expect, here are some of the major highlights:
1. The gala opens our 2011-2012 season, so you can bet the entire BFan team will be there! The dancers will perform vignettes of the upcoming, giving attendees a taste of the original choreography and storylines to come.

2. Speaking of shows to come… the gala will immerse guests in an Arabian night! Bejeweled dancers, lush fabrics, and even some oriental rugs set the scene for an exotic getaway, in the spirit of January 2012′s Arabian Nights. Local Eugene band Mood Area 52 provides rich, mysterious sounds to draw listeners into an Arabian bazaar.

3. Prizes and silent auction goodies galore! A raffle, a silent basket auction, a live dessert auction… all those donation calls pay off when we give attendees the opportunity to purchase luxury items (or just a cupcake). Win a stay at the Oregon Coast, or maybe a deluxe spa treatment! Contributions support discounted tickets as well as scholarships for underprivileged kids to see future performances, as well as the dancers’ plane fare to perform in San Benedetto, Italy next summer!

4. Who could forget–the food! Executive Chef Rich Balajadia of the Bridge Bar and Grill prepares an exclusive menu (including some live cooking demonstrations), while Pyrenees Vineyards provides some of the best wine in the Northwest.

5. Tons of fun! This is a party, after all. Mingle with the entire BFan team–the dancers as well as the rest of us who help to make the magic happen–while having a glass of wine or a microbrew and indulging in exquisite art!

Last year's debut, Gatsby!

Tickets are already over 50% sold out! If you’re interested, go to the BFan events page to get yours (or pay $5 extra for tickets at the door). 7:30 pm on October 8th at the former Cafe Maroc in downtown Eugene! Fun, fabulous, and as always, fantastique! We’re all working incredibly hard to make this night a success

Thanks for reading!
–Intern Katie

Well, we’re about five weeks out from our Incendio performance (October 22-23 at the Hult), and in behind-the-scenes preparations, this means lots: press releases are going out, choreography is moving from the living-room-iPod-stage to the fully-fleshed out studio version, we’re fielding phone calls asking when single tickets go on sale (psst: you can get them now here!), and those of us in the company are bracing ourselves for the process of sewing a new pair of pointe shoes every week (we start going through them really fast with the number of hours we’re rehearsing right now).  Since BFan is known for our costumes, we know it won’t surprise our audience that costume preparations are also under way.  BUT we just tried something new in costume prep that was a little wild, even for us, so we decided to share this behind-the-scenes detail.

The costumes start out as a set of scribbled notes, magazine clippings, post-it notes, and fabric snippets. We organize a clear sheet for each dance, filled with these goodies!

Project 1: Magie Noire tutu for Leanne

Starring: BFan Artistic Director and lead costume designer Donna Marisa Bontrager and Costume Mistress Eryn MacNamara on a hot sunny day this September.

Supplies:

• RIT dye of your favorite color (we chose this gorgeous tangerine color; see slideshow above)
• Laundry detergent
• Salt
• Plastic swimming pool (we got ours on end-of-summer sale at Rite Aid for just $12!)
• Large kettles, for boiling water
• Stirring aid (we used an old wooden spoon, but note that you’re not going to ever be able to use it to cook again)
• Old spaghetti sauce jar, for batching dye (again, something you don’t plan to use again for food)
• Recommended: Bathtub, for washing tutu before dyeing process, and then rinsing it afterward.  Clothes you don’t mind turning new colors are also a good idea!
• Also recommended: A large plastic reusable shopping bag for transporting the wet, dyed tutu back to the bathtub.  TJ Maxx sells them for just $.99.

1. Wash the tutu you plan to dye.  (Ours is a beautiful professionally-made 10-layer tutu by Primadonna, and it’s been used on stage before.) We found a clean bathtub to be a great way to wash the tutu.  The tutu needs to be wet in order to be dyed, so don’t worry about giving it time to dry.
2. Meanwhile, start heating your hot water using those bit kettles on the stove. Gradually add them into your swimming pool (we got ours for $12 on end-of-summer sale at Rite Aid–it’s a kiddie pool just the perfect size for a tutu, and very lightweight; but it does look a little funny being stored in our costume room!). When the pool is full, add some detergent to it.  Even though it’s a bit counter-intuitive, this helps the dye absorb smoothly.  Tip: We placed our pool out on the patio on a hot summer day to keep the sitting water warm while we were heating more on the stove.
3. Meanwhile, mix your dye in the jar with a bit of hot water and the salt (this will help all of the dye to dissolve more manageably before you place it in the swimming pool).  Add the hot dyed water from your jar slowly into the hot water in your pool.
4. Slowly lower the wet tutu into the pool, upside-down.  Weight it down with one of your pots (can be filled with stones, if desired).  We found the best time for our tulle tutu was approximately 40 minutes; the tutu absorbed the dye beautifully!
5. Carefully fold the tutu insides together, and transport it to the bathtub (this is where that reusable shopping bag came in very handy!).
6. Rinse the tutu with progressively cooler water in the tub.
7. Hang tutu dry over bathtub with a skirt hanger.  Tip: It’s almost always best to hang your tutu upside down to preserve its perky shape.