Category Archives: Dance Studio

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

The Children of Theater Street- The way students were chosen for the Kirov (1977

4 Comments

(thank you Charlotte for reminding me of this!)

I can remember watching this as a young aspiring ballerina in Philadelphia. I was sort of an obsession, because it was the epitome of what becoming a dancer was, and because my father constantly threatened to ship me off to Russia! It brings back a lot of memories, ah sweet nostalgia…
First of all the film is introduced by the last, great and elegant Princess Grace, that was enough for me right there, but later as the this first clip progresses (around 7:00) the very specific and scientific methods of determining the which children possess the “ideal” body I find fascinating. That coupled with (and remember this was in the ’70’s) I find it interesting that the children are assessed in their underwear, some of the girls topless, and they actually shot them full on. Now the children are between 7-12 but it just shows you haw times have changed, in the way things are done and the way we view them. I the time I viewed this as a child I thought nothing of those scenes, now in 2010 I feel a bit strange watching the children being pushed pulled and prodded in of a table of women and men alike.
They were measured and weighed as well . It’s so interesting, in the other clip there are some great class work and training clips. enjoy this blast from the past. I wonder what happened to the children in the movie, how many actually made it through the training and how many actually danced for the Kirov?

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

Dancing can be Dangerous!!!

I spent half my life in a pointe shoe, I have had my share of bloddy blisters and corn nibblet toes, but who knew that ballroom dancing could jack up a gals feet like this! Wendy girl, I guess I don’t have to wonder “Howwwyooooudoooowin'” because these picture tell the story. I feel your pain. All I can say is that after you finish that Rumba, Quick Step or Jive, I hope that is was in the words of that overly exposed movie Black Swan, that “It was perfect!!” you get all 10’s from me for the effort and the agony that is a part of the beauty that becomes dance!!

Wendy tweeted her battle wounds from Dancing with the scars I mean Stars!!!

wendy williams' dancin' feet


But she looks FAB!!!

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

Milano’s Academy for the Arts- MUSIC ARTS SHOW- MAS

Just recently I had the pleasure of visiting Music Arts Show in Milano Italy. It is an Academy of the Arts which offers both dance and theatre arts training with classes in Ballet, Pointe, Cunningham and release techniques, hip-hop, as well as voice, drama and on camera Television training. There are two programs in the Academy one that is primarily concert dance based, and the other which is more of a musical theater, television, video commercial track. They also offer open classes making it the “Step on Broadway” or “Broadway Dance Center” of Milan.

I had the opportunity of not only teaching contemporary classes in the program but sat on the Jury of their Dance Machine competition, after which some of the students of the program performed in both hip hop and contemporary. I was highly impressed with not only their level of training bu their professionalism and stage presence. That having been said what impressed me most was the joy and love of the arts, and for learning, their openness and willingness to embrace a new style and their patience with my broken Italian was endearing. Thus I was compelled to share my experience by interviewing Antonella Bruno the Director of the Program at MAS, Music Arts Show.

Here is Part 1 of our interview. Learn some interesting facts like in Italy if you are under the age of 18 you are not allowed to work professionally. How does that effect young dancers and performers there?

Dance Studio

See & Say 6: Ratmansky, Wheeldon, Stroman @ NYCB, Part I

For a few years now Dance Magazine Editor in Chief Wendy Perron and I have had dance dates. One evening she suggested that we do a sort of video commentary on what we had seen. I came up with the name See and Say because we would “see” something and then “say” what we thought about it. It has been a while since we have done one, but here is our latest on New York City Ballet.


Check out the new See and Say with Dance Magazine Editor in Chief Wendy Perron here This is part one

Part 2 you can find here

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

My (Double) Life as a Black Swan

1 Comment

Courtesy of Sarah Lane

Sarah Lane on the set of “Black Swan” covered with tracking marks that allow filmmakers to digitally capture her dancing and replace her image with that of actress Natalie Portman.

Sarah Lane, an acclaimed dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, served as Natalie Portman’s dance double in the movie “Black Swan.” Shortly before the movie was released on DVD this week, a controversy was kicked up about who actually performed the bulk of the ballet in the film, which tells the story of a dancer who loses her mind but finds her true artistic self. Director Darren Aronofsky claims that Portman, who won an Oscar for her role, performed 75% of the on-screen dancing in the movie, while Lane says Portman performed only about 5%. The Wall Street Journal asked Portman and Lane to write essays about their experiences on “Black Swan.” Portman, through a representative, declined. (You can read the director’s defense of Portman here.) Here’s Lane’s take on “Black Swan,” screen credit, and her love of ballet. Lane is currently in Moscow

I’m not trying to instigate conflict here.

There is enough conflict in the world as it is, and the whole point of ballet is to allow people to escape that for a few moments. For me and all of the incredibly inspirational dancers that I work with, this is our art. It’s what we love to do and it’s a huge part of who we are. We come in to the studio everyday because we have a vision of what we want to achieve and what we want to create. Perfection is unattainable and so we keep working on developing in each aspect of this multi-dimensional art form.

When I worked on “Black Swan,” I didn’t just do some steps, I tried to incorporate all of the still limited experience that I’ve suffered to attain. I knew that a lot of people in my field would see this movie and I felt very honored to represent it.

When we go on stage, we want to bring the audience with us to another world. Not a perfect world but a world where in brokenness there is beauty, in love you find freedom and through faith comes peace. We want people to feel something deeper.
continue after the jump

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

Sarah Lane’s Proof gone!! Black Swan Youtube FX vid Replaced!

1 Comment

ok so I go to my previous post and I see that the special effects video is “No longer Available” The one with the shots of ABT soloist Sarah Lane doing the very diagonal of turns that Milliepied said Natalie Portman did, and how they replaced her head. so I go and find what I think is the same video but when I watch it the three scenes that showed Lane doing the dancing (the diagonal in the studio, the diagonal on stage as the Black Swan) have been edited and no longer show the head replacement and fouetté turns in the living room scene has been omitted entirely. These people should just stop. it’s ridiculous… here is the bogus video

Man this sucks!!

but check this out these are the originals!! It’s getting ugly!

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

Black Swan’s Body Double Sarah Lane Speaks Out!


Uh-oh- Cat’s outta the bag. Let me preface the latter with this, we in the dance world were never dooped into believing that Natalie Portman trained and starved herself into Soloist level dancing in a year. However there are those for whom the Willing Suspension of Disbelief was in full effect while watching Black Swan and it allowed them to believe Portman when she said “I’m the Swan Queen!”.
So Sarah Lane opened her trap and told everyone what was clearly obvious from the start, and that is that she did the majority of the dancing in the film and producers are in a scramble in trying stop what they see as the tarnishing of Portman’s Oscar. Let me assure them, most people could careless, Really there are bigger issues in the world then whether ore not Natalie Portman can execute 32 fouettés like um let me seeee…..um JAPAN!!!
—————————————————————————————
The professional dancer who worked as Natalie Portman’s dance double for the Academy Award-nominated film, ‘Black Swan,’ is claiming she’s the victim of a “cover-up,” Entertainment Weekly reports. The ballerina told the magazine the film and its producers are misleading the public about how much dancing Portman actually did in the movie.

“Of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie,” says Sarah Lane, 27, an American Ballet Theatre soloist. “All the other shots are me.” Lane performed most of the film’s complicated dance sequences and allowed Portman’s face to be digitally grafted onto her body.

Here is the part that rings true to me – I could see this happening:

One of Lane’s most surprising admissions to EW: that ‘Black Swan’ producer Ari Handel asked her not to talk about her work to the press.

“They wanted to create this idea in people’s minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy or so gifted in dance and really worked so hard to make herself a ballerina in a year and a half for the movie, basically because of the Oscar,” Lane said.

“It is demeaning to the profession and not just to me. I’ve been doing this for 22 years…. Can you become a concert pianist in a year and a half, even if you’re a movie star?”
read the whole entry here

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

Stop the damned maddness :Millepied,Defends Her ‘Black Swan’ Dancing –


Check this crap out:
Natalie Portman won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a tortured dancer in “Black Swan,” but some have called her dancing integrity into question. Benjamin Millepied, Portman’s “Black Swan” dance partner and choreographer (not to mention her fiance and the father of her future child), swears that’s all nonsense.

Millepied is featured in a new Los Angeles Times article that focuses on both his career in dance and his relationship with Portman. The French-born former dance prodigy personally instructed Portman in her film dancing and even wrote her routine. The accusations are baseless, he says.

“It was so believable, it was fantastic, that beautiful movement quality,” he told the paper. “There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [Sarah Lane, her body double] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio. Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie.”
if you can stand it read more here
STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!!!! you just sound ridiculous.

Ok I know you’re in love, and getting married and having a baby, but damnit, stop this maddness, she already won the damned Oscar!!! Benjamin , and I don’t know him but I am speaking to him, we all know that she had a body double, we all know that ABT’s Sarah Lane was doing all the “real” dancing first because I don’t care how talented you are one year of intensive training is not getting that daning done I don’t care if you were one of the Children of Theater Street.

we also know because there is a special effect video out that shows how they replaced Sarah Lane’s head, with Portman’s in ther very diaganal and the fouettés- If Portman was that proficiant why use Sarah at all? shame on you

OMG!! they reedited the video that was on Youtube that had Sarah Lanes face being replaced!! The video was taken down and I went to replace it and this version was there, without the scenes!!!! this is ridiculous!!