Friday, July 31, 2015

ABT NYC Summer Intensive 2015- Week 5 by Robbie Downey


Week Five - Summer Intensive Update

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On Monday we had Mrs. Brown for class.  It was nice because she went easy. We also had her for pointe. I went out and got lunch at Pret a few blocks away. It was really good. After lunch we had a run through of the whole show in studio one. All of the teachers would be watching us, so most of us were a little nervous. I thought it went fine! We had a lot of time to spare so me and my friends were practicing fouettes and whip turns. Since I wasn't in the second show at all we would just watch the second cast in front.

Here are some pics we took in the studio.




Tuesday I woke up and my foot left felt like a brick. I couldn't really point it. Once I got to the studio and warmed it up a bit it felt a tiny bit better. It hurt to point and go on releve mainly. I did barre and it was a bit of a struggle. For class we had Melissa Bowman. I told her before center and asked her if I could take it easy. She said of course. I sat down for jumps and iced. Before we went to lunch we got in line to get our ABT t-shirt. This year they are red.

After lunch we had rep and we were in the GG-4 studio again. Before we started we talked with Gabby for a bit. She loves to tell us some of her hilarious performance stories. She is so funny. She let some girls do it on flat, but I told her about my foot anyway and marked through the piece for the performance Friday.

You can read the press release HERE for the ABT Summer Intensive 2015 Final Performance

At the end of the day we had Pilates combined with the Green level. 

After class Tuesday I went to Dough Donuts with some of my friends.

Soooooo good. The Nutella one is also great! 

Wednesday my mom came into town! She took a red-eye flight the night before. I met her over by ABT and we headed to class together. It was parent observation day so she watched my technique class.


The first picture my mom took when she walked up. Me with Spencer. Spencer sold a ton of Merde Shirts. Thank you Spencer! 

Class was with Kate Lydon. I told her about my foot and took it easy with releve. It felt way better than yesterday! I did most of jumps but took it easy with grande allegro. I tried on my pointe shoe and that's what hurt the most. I ended up sitting out of pointe. :(

With Kate Lydon in class. 




Me with Kate after the performance Friday

After lunch was variations with Olga Dvorvenko. She taught us a variation from Paquita. I did it on flat and mainly marked the legs. I sat out and iced for the last 20 minuets. Our last class of the day was rep and I could do it more full out than before. She let us run it once each cast and then let us go. Before we left our counselor gave us some information about the next day at the theater. 

On Thursday we were originally supposed to have class with Charles Askegard but it was changed to Mrs. Dvorvenko. I told her about my foot and didn't really do releve. I wanted to make sure it was okay for the performance. She gave us a nice warm up class before heading to the theater. We all had to head over to the theater with our level wearing our red ABT shirts. We compared it to 5 year olds heading to a museum in preschool. It was actually so funny because once we were at the subway station we saw a bunch of little kids with matching  t-shirts heading somewhere.




We got to the theater and went straight to the audience. We had spacing on stage first. For this we could wear warm ups. After spacing we headed upstairs to eat and then we could go to our dressing room. I then put on my stage makeup and got ready for dress rehearsal.

This was my first time really doing pointe since Monday. My foot was feeling fine!! Dress rehearsal was a little rough. Some spacing issues mainly. Since I was only in first cast, me and some of my other friends went to watch the second cast rehearsal.

My Friends with Gabby.

Friday morning we had to be to the studios at 9am. I ended up meeting Jordan and Emily at Pret and got some breakfast and something for lunch later. We ended up being able to go into the studios earlier. (Around 8:20) .

We had a quick 1 hour warm up class with Gabby Brown. She let us wear warm ups. MY FOOT FELT GREAT!  I could jump and it was amazing. I had been icing it and using arnica and trying to stay off of it as much as possible. We then all headed to the theater in a group again. 


Once I was at the theater I put on my stage makeup and warmed up a bit for the performance. I thought the piece went well! Better than dress rehearsal. We weren't allowed to watch the rest of the show and had to stay back stage for the second show no matter what. I hung out with some friends back stage. Kevin McKenzie, the Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre, watched the first show! But I didn't find out until after. Also, all of the teachers were in the audience.






Some photos after the show with a lot of my friends and dancers from other levels. 







With Harriet 
With Judy at Grishko picking up my sister's pointe shoes.


My mom and I ran some errands after the show. We stopped by Grishko to get my sister's pointe shoes and Judy bought a Merde shirt =) (You can buy it here www.balletfreak.com) She is so nice and a great fitter. If you wear Grishko definitely go see her when you are in NY!

Saturday I went with my mom to Gaynor Minden and then went home to rest after saying goodbye. She left that night and I am here until the 9th. I am at the Ellison Ballet Pas de Deux intensive ! Stay tuned because I'll be blogging about that too.

Thanks for reading about week five in the city at ABT. I had the best time and really enjoyed the entire 5 weeks. I met so many new people and had so many different teachers. It was a great experience with great training! 

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Love,

Robbie






1 comment:

  1. And what about your JKO year round audition? Who did get in? And did you meet Sage Humphries?

    ReplyDelete