Grier Cooper's Blog, page 10
September 18, 2014
Ballet Fiction Must-Haves
Dance is in the spotlight everywhere these days: you can catch a free performance on a streetcorner near you, watch a documentary, check out a behind-the-scenes episode of Sarah Jessica Parker’s city.ballet. or tune in to find out who wins the next round of So You Think You Can Dance. But aren’t we lucky–dance is also making a splash in fiction! Whether you’re a dancer, wanna-be dancer or a dance lover, you’re going to want to add some of these tasty titles to your library, and be sure to scr...
August 28, 2014
Death Brings Life to Life
© grier cooper, 2014
This week I lost one of my best friends. Julia had been in my life for twenty years. This is the first time I’ve had a friend die and felt the surge of feelings in the aftershock. On the one hand I miss my friend dearly—she was family to me—and yet I feel her all around me. In the days since her death we’ve had piles of friends come to visit, share stories and help support one another.We’ve talked about the w...
August 21, 2014
The One Habit You Can’t Live Without
I’ve noticed that my days work better when I begin with exercise. Maybe it’s a leftover habit from my time as a professional dancer (all those years of morning class) but there’s something about getting out there and getting my body moving that jump-starts my brain. An old boss once said he could always tell if I hadn’t gone to ballet class that day because there was a marked difference in my energy level.
photo by Ariel da Silva Parreira
These days I’m training for my first 5k (something I’d n...
August 14, 2014
Interview with Jhe Russell aka Rawzen
There are many facets to Jhe Russell. Throughout his professional dance career he appearedworldwide with a number of top dance companies, including the UK’s Northern Ballet, Bejart Ballet Lausanne,Boston Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Dance Theater of Harlem, Bucharest Opera and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Today he ismaking a name for himself as a Hip Hop recording artist and choreographer.
1. How did you get started in ballet?
When I was six I was fascinated by Super Man. I wanted to...
August 7, 2014
Book Giveaway: “the impossible knife of memory” by Laurie Halse Anderson
If you are reading this there’s a good chance you are an avid reader and therefore, often in search of good books. Few things excite me more than finding a really superb book, one that really speaks to me. In turn, I love sharing that information with others, either through word-of-mouth or sites like Goodreads. This week on the blog I’ve decided to take things to the next level and do my first ever book giveaway.
What we have up for grabs is the impossible knife of memory by...
July 31, 2014
Interview With Post:Ballet’s Robert Dekkers
I was lucky enough to catch Post:Ballet’s founder/choreographer Robert Dekkers as the company gears up for its fifth season performances August 7-9 at Yerba Buena Center For The Arts’ Lam Research Theatre in San Francisco.
Dekkers founded Post:Balletin 2009 with a vision to collaborate with multi-disciplinary artists in new and innovative ways. The company integrates modern aesthetics with classically based dance to present work that is deeply personal and relevant to both the artists and the...
Why School of American Ballet Summer Intensives Are Important
As the final week of SAB’s Summer Intensive approaches, every dancer wonders the same thing: will I be asked to stay on as a permanent student? While it’s an incredible experience spending the summer in New York City while studying with the top ballet faculty in the country, the invitation to stay on is what really matters. This marks a dancer as having enough promise to have a ballet career, perhaps one day with New York City Ballet.
SAB states that Peter Martins, Chairman of Faculty at SAB a...
July 10, 2014
What A Summer Intensive at the School of American Ballet Feels Like
While every day at the School of American Ballet held all the promise of my ballet future, I often felt one step behind, unsure of where I stood or whether I was even noticed. There were some days when the white walls of the studio felt like they were closing in on me. Other days it felt cavernous, full of so many other people I felt like I might be swallowed up. Every day I tried as hard as I could to be perfect.
Regardless of the cloud of uncertainty constantly hanging over my head, I loved...
July 3, 2014
The School of American Ballet Summer Intensive: Week 2
There was a lot to figure out in the early days of my first Summer Intensive at the School of American Ballet. Once I had figured out how to navigate my way through the Metro North train system and the busses of New York City there was a whole other system to figure out: the hierarchy of faculty and students. The faculty was different from what I was used to: not only were they difficult to understand (many of them were hand-picked from Russia by George Balanchine and spoke with heavy accents...
June 26, 2014
School of American Ballet’s Summer Intensive: Week 1
This week is the first week of one the most major events of the summer for young ballet dancers: the School of American Ballet’s Summer Intensive. From now through the end of July, during the five weeks of SAB‘s Summer Intensive, I will share the story of my experience there as it ended up drastically changing the course of my life.
My first ballet teacher took me to SAB to audition one February morning and I began my first Summer Intensive that June, a month after I turned thirteen. At the ti...
