Dead Swans

This past Saturday, I drove up to Hoosick Falls. My grands, Juliana and Madison, were performing in a recital put on by their dance school — Miss Olivia's British Ballet Organization.

Hoosick Falls is a small town in a rural area of New York, three hours north of the city, the Big Apple. It was the home of Grandma Moses, is the home to the conceptual artist Jenny Holzer and sculptor José De Creeft called Hoosick Falls home.

The joint may not be big BUT it fosters and attracts talent.

I was def psyched that the girls were taking ballet classes at Miss Olivia’s. I figured she must be some ex-ABT type who’d moved north to get away from all the city fuss and enjoy upstate’s intense bucolic beauty.

She may very well be — I can’t find any bio info for Olivia Sumerlin online (apart from a column about her having had a dance school and home in Troy, NY which had burned down in 2004) and all she notes, in the recital’s program, is that she’s “danced in 12 countries and won a gold medal.”

OK.

Being a great performer doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be a fabulous instructor. Being an effective teacher takes a different, ego eschewing set of skills.

So then, the recital was not what I expected. The wee girls were but one small part of the presentation. Half of the program was comprised of a condensed, Reader’s Digest-ish version of Swan Lake which featured her teenaged students.

And it was just awful. Why?

The girls’ legs were at all different angles and attitudes on their arabesques, jetés were galumphingly executed, posture was often poor and, generally, they moved as individuals not as a flock of graceful swans.

On the other hand, every last young dancer, from the five years olds to the 17 year olds, had the fluttering swan arm action down cold.

Now, to be clear, the girls on pointe all showed talent. Dancing as a group just didn’t feature their most accomplished moves. At all.

Yeah, I know “picky, picky, picky.” I guess what I was thinking was this — an amateur ballet recital should be about showing off the artistry, the skills and abilities that the students have learned and mastered. Ya know, you don't have a young piano student butchering Liszt's Hungarian Rhapdosy Number 12 when they'd do a lovely job of Moonlight Sonata. These were all lovely kids who, I imagine, wanted to look good up there in front of family and friends.

At certain points they did but, having them do an edited version of Swan Lake, was ill considered and overly ambitious. The second half of the program was comprised of short pieces for individuals and much smaller groupings which was far more effective.

Here’s Miss Olivia’s real talent — working the marks.

There were two costume changes each for the little girls and a minimum of five for the older ones. Each outfit cost $50 each (kaCHING!). I imagine she’s connected to the costumer and sees a tidy profit.

Photography wasn’t permitted. That’s understandable I suppose — a flash could be tremendously distracting to the performers. Did Miss Olivia provide her students with a show pic?  No but you could buy videos for 27 smackers. I suspect she’s getting a cut.

This was on top of the $48 recital fee which is in addition to the cost of classes. Sheesh!

Maybe it's time to find a new, more student focused ballet teacher. Or perhaps it's time for piano lessons.

By the by, Madison and Juliana were FABULOUS! (duh)