Tiit Helimets and Molly Smolen Diary: End of the Season

July 16, 2007

End of the Season

Hi Everyone

It been a really long time and a lot of things have happened since I last wrote.

The next program in line was program 4.

In it I was part of "Chi Lin " choreographed by Helgi Tomasson. My part was the Tortoise.

It was hard to get back to doing modern choreography after " The Sleeping Beauty ", but we went right into rehearsals. To my surprise the music was hard to understand. It's basically a violin solo and with no counts. So I studied the music as much as I could and made it work. I had points where I would recognize the music and then I would know if I was too far ahead or needed to speed up. It also helped that Yuan Yuan Tan had done the part before so I would take my cues from her in the pas de deux. In the end it was really fun. In program 5 I danced " The Fifth Season" choreographed by Helgi Tomasson.

I got to danced with Yuan Yuan Tan in this ballet. It was a great experience and I thought that we brought drama to the pas de deux, which I had never experienced in the same pas de deux before. The next Program was 6 & 7.

In program 6, I danced in " Night " choreographed by Julia Adam, and Helgi Tomasson's "On Common Ground."

The two ballets are very different. Julia's " Night " is fairly modern with an interesting style and good story for the leading girl. It is very challenging for the partner but lots of fun. I really liked working with her; she is a great person and makes me laugh a lot. I think she is choreographing for us next season so I hope she uses me. Vanessa Zahorian and I were originally the second cast for the ballet but wound up being put on.... on opening night! It was nerve-wracking! My partner in it was Vanessa and I liked working with her because she worked with me overtime to make the role work. Thank you Vanessa!

"On Common Ground" was Helgi's new neoclassical ballet with challenging pas de deuxs and solos. The ballet has a two couples and a trio. Everyone has dancing in it but mostly with their own partner. I was partnered up with Sarah Van Patten and we had a really long duet which we made really dramatic together.

In the end it was really good experience.

The last on my list is program 8

Don Quixote

In it I danced Basilio, which I had never done before.

Now this was an interesting one . I was so happy to be able to have shot at it! I had seen it done a lot and there were a lot of different versions available. But I felt like kid in a supermarket in the candy aisle in front of a 100 different chocolate bars and being told, " Pick one quick, we have no time, quick!"

I would like to do it again and now that I know the choreography I could work on style and characterization and partnership . Overall it is a great ballet for the dancer and it certainly will keep you in shape, but you need guidance and coaching for it even if you are a established principal dancer, we all go back to square one if we are learning something new.

So maybe next time I'll enjoy it more.

On the last day of the season we had a farewell Gala for Muriel Maffre.

We danced together Balanchine's " Agon " Pas de deux, coached by Elyse Borne.

I liked that they let me dance with Muriel , because in the two years I have been here, we have danced together many times. We had very little time to put this together and I probably missed a lot of details in it.

So that's the end of my season in a nutshell.

I am glad to have time off now.

Enjoy the summer.

Posted by Tiit Helimets at July 16, 2007 06:07 PM