With love,
Harriet
Weekend Work
You know you love your job when you choose to do it even if it’s the weekend
Tag: A Dancers Lifestyle
Bangkok’s 18th International Festival
As you may have seen on my calendar, the company is heading on a trip. We will be travelling all the way to Bangkok, Thailand for a week and performing the beloved ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ at the Bangkok’s 18th International Festival of Dance and Music. We will be dancing Youri Vámos’s ‘Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol’, a ballet we premiered the first year I joined the company. It was actually the first premier I experienced as a professional dancer back in 2010.
Going on tour with the company is always very exciting. Since joining, I have travelled to Korea, Switzerland and Bangkok, loving my time performing in different places. Dancing somewhere new has such a different feeling to being comfortable at our home theatre. New dressing rooms, training on stage, different backstage crew. But it is a great chance to have fresh experiences and the performances always bring me something new.
As I will only be performing a small role, Frau Cratchit, I will use this chance to work alone and get my foot back to its healthy self. And even though I will be taking a step back I will still be packing all the things a ballerina needs on tour. Continue reading “Bangkok’s 18th International Festival”
Bringing Misia to the Stage
Today the new season officially starts with our first performance back on our big beautiful stage. The company will perform Das Kleine Schwarze/The Roit of Spring, a modern ballet by Terence Kohler portraying the lives and relationship of Coco Chanel and Igor Strawinsky. It is always great to return to stage and there is always such a good energy in the theatre.
Unfortunately this year I will not be part of this excitement due to an injury (post coming soon on this), which I am very sad about. Who wants to be off before it has even started? But I am realising, one must not dwell on things they can not change and in order to be part of the excitement I decided to share with you my wonderful experience of creating this production instead.
Last season, when the piece premiered I got the chance to work with Terence in creating the role of Misia Sert, Coco Chanel’s best friend. And oh how I loved becoming this lady. She was confident and sassy, and a socialite among the upper class. Her relationship with Coco was very passionate: insinuated by similar interests, a lethal wit, and drug usage. There was almost rivalry between the two and without Misia introducing Coco to the world of art and beauty, she would not have become the icon she did. Misia often gave Coco ideas for her production in fashion and perfume, telling Coco that fashion changes but perfume is forever: introducing Chanel No. 5. Continue reading “Bringing Misia to the Stage”
A Ballerina and Her Tool
‘Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she’ll conquer the world’ – Marilyn Monroe
With love,
Harriet
Theaterfest
Today we are dancing into the weekend with our annual ‘Theaterfest’. A day where the theatre comes to life and welcomes everybody back after the summer break. There is always yummy food and drinks outside in the sun and short presentations shown on stage from the ballet, opera and drama department to entice the guests into what is to come in the new season.
I always have so much fun on this day because we have the chance to see friends in the theatre and mingle with the guests who support us throughout the year. The atmosphere in the theatre is great.
On top of that we get to show our fans a ballet class on stage and then present a rehearsal or a snippet from the premier piece we have been working on, which is a good chance for them to see what goes on backstage.
With a performance in the evening it is a great way to start the season off with positive vibes and smiles from the guests and employees of the Staatstheater.
http://www.staatstheater.karlsruhe.de/programm/info/2376/
Have a lovely weekend!
With love,
Harriet
The Beginning is the Most Important Part of the Work
First week of work…check.
I am back to my normal routine of a ballet dancer, with morning warm up followed by ballet class and a day full of rehearsals. It has been a week of meeting new colleagues and learning new steps, laughing with friends and learning more steps. My muscles have ached and my toes have hurt, but I have to admit it was not as bad as it could have been, as most days the work load was manageable. Continue reading “The Beginning is the Most Important Part of the Work”
Home Away From Home
Back in my German hometown, Karlsruhe.
With love,
Harriet
Back in the Studio
First day back at work.
Feeling the muscles. Feeling the feet.
Loving every minute.
With love,
Harriet
Every End is a New Beginning
So today is the last day of my long summer holidays and the day before the ballet season starts again. I cannot believe that my holidays – six weeks in five countries – are already over. A daily routine will soon be here and I find myself in a studio instead of a beach.
However, the hardest part is not regaining the previous strength, the discipline, or the long and late hours of work. The most difficult part at the end of every summer is saying goodbye to my family. Continue reading “Every End is a New Beginning”
Dancing into the New Season with the School of Russian Ballet
With my summer holidays coming to an end, I had a lovely opportunity to finish it off on a dancing high. In a small studio, along with some young aspiring ballerinas and a wonderful teacher, I was back to ballet training and ready to work.
During the previous summer I spent a week here with my parents and manage to find a small dance school called The School of Russian Ballet, where they were nice enough to let me join in some classes. I was there once again this summer sharing the studio with the girls and their teacher, Regina Zarhina. Continue reading “Dancing into the New Season with the School of Russian Ballet”