Contributed by: Sarah
Hello, friends of baroque dance! As you may have heard, I have recently moved to Cologne, Germany for a few years. From this European vantage point, I will be searching for new Feulliet notations to reconstruct, paintings by Boucher to contemplate, as well as reading those treatises we all know and love. I am so happy that I will also continue to perform with the company on occasion, and I will be back in NYC to perform with the NYBDC in the fall performances at Florence Gould Hall.
However, first things first – one must take class!
I spent an hour or so on Monday digging through German dance websites to find a ballet class in Koeln. Happily, I met with success, and today I took my first class. The studio is called “Cologne Dance Center”, and the teacher this week was… absurdly… just like Jason Melms. In fact, I would say that he is Jason’s doppelganger! I often took Jason’s class in New York, and this amused and comforted me to no end. The class was a bit differnt in that it had taped music (not a piano in sight!), and there was no petite allegro. I don’t mind the canned music so much (although the frappe was set to “She’s a Grand Old Flag…), but I hope the lack of petite allegro is not part of some German trend. Overall, though, I enjoyed the class very much. Next week an Italian woman comes in to teach the morning ballet class, and I am excited to experience her style as well. The next stop on my German dance adventure is the Tanzarchiv, where I may find some of those Feulliet notations. I’ll keep you posted!
