Dancer Perspectives – Claudina Novelo
Behind the Scenes: Dancer Perspectives
An interview with student Claudina Novelo from Mexico about the upcoming show, Elusive Dreams: Sylphs, Swans, and Suitors at Symphony Space on May 25
Claudina Novelo
What pieces are you dancing?
I’m in Swan Lake Corps and a Scarf Dance Soloist.
Can you share anything about the character of either piece?
Well they’re really different – for Swan Lake you’re a swan and you’re supposed to be a bit sad because everyone in Swan Lake (the corps) is under a spell. All the poses are “looking down” and you can never really be watching what is going on onstage, which is little frustrating because you want to, but you have to be in your position, really focused. It’s hard to get the arms – the style of it – all the upper body work – but I love it. Swan Lake is my favorite of all ballets and it’s been quite hard because I previously danced the main role and I never did the corps actually. Now that I’m doing it, it’s really hard also! (laughs) You get really tired because you have to keep the lines and everything, but part of that is that it’s really long. From the beginning to the coda, you’re always on stage. So it’s really tiring because you never have a break to sit and shake your legs or go to the wings. You change poses in between variations, but it’s still quite challenging.
Scarf soloist is totally the opposite. You’ll never be looking at the floor – it’s all jumps and really energetic. It’s a little bit challenging with the scarf and the coordination of it, but it’s fun and I really like it. I never remembered seeing “scarf dance” from Bayadere – I never paid attention to it, and now that I’ve been rehearsing it, I was like “oh, this is a nice dance, it’s so much fun.” It’s good that I’m learning because I will watch it more and will appreciate the people that are doing it because it’s a hard piece and really tiring, even if it (the soloist section)is shorter than the corps work. It’s short, fast… I like it – it’s fun.
What do you find challenging or easy in both pieces?
For Swan Lake, one of the things you need is arabesque or attitude, the piques, holding stuff – everything behind you. I’m pretty strong in my back, so that’s not much of an issue. It’s my arms. They are not that flexible and my shoulders are tight so all of the port de bras have been a bit hard and the teachers are like “Claudina – shoulders – are up!” and I’m like “I’m trying!” (laughs) So that’s been challenging for Swan Lake, the upper body, but the legs have been easy.
For scarf dance soloists – what’s been hard is staying together with my partner,where two girls are doing it. It seems like it wouldn’t really matter much, but if you do a head different or an arm higher than the other – and also because you’re using a scarf – it makes it really obvious if you do something wrong or make a mistake. So that’s been the challenge with scarf dance – being together with my partner and having more stamina so that I’m not on the floor dying when we finish. The “Kitri” jumps in the soloist section are one of my favorite parts because you can let go of your technique a little bit and have fun. Then it goes straight into the coda, you don’t have a rest. You don’t have time to think, you have to go for it.
What part does the music play? Do you like the music in your piece?
For scarf dance, I like the music, it’s different. For Swan Lake, I love it. I could listen to it over and over again all day. I get goose bumps when I hear it- when I heard it one time with a live orchestra (a symphonic orchestra in Mexico) it was just so touching. Sometimes when you’re dancing, whatever you’re doing in the ballet, you don’t realize how beautiful it is, and when you sit down and put the music on – I could definitely cry from hearing it. It’s SO beautiful. The music especially of the Pas de Deux – that cello and violin kills me… oh, I love it so much!
What does performing mean to you?
Being on stage is like magic. You actually stop being a person on stage. You’re a character.– in this case – a swan or a witch doing La Sylphide. But you transform on stage and I think it’s really important to study the part you’re going to play because you can totally notice from the artist – even if you don’t know ballet at all. The audience can see when someone isn’t really energetic. They go to the ballet and it’s “so boring”. Even it you’re in a back corner or coming on to put a chair onstage – whatever you’re doing, you have to be happy (show emotion), be sensitive about it with the audience. You have to try – well, of course you’re dancing for them, but for me, something that I always try to do is be really expressive when on the stage. There are so many people that can turn and jump like crazy and you’ll see people like that everywhere. Ballet is not about that. Of course if you can turn and jump and have amazing higher legs, good for you. I’m not saying it’s wrong or that I don’t like it, of course I like it, I will applaud also, but when I see a dancer who is really powerful as an artist, that says so much to me. I prefer these kinds of dancers (more than the ones that I feel “okay, he can smile or she can smile, okay, she looks like a princess- but if she doesn’t have that essence onstage, it’s just doing poses) these are the kinds of people that I really like to watch and I enjoy so much. That’s why I love being here because I really love Gelsey, because that’s what she was. She was really amazing with her technique and she got better and better during the years and she was that kind of artist that you just have to look at her – even if she was just walking onstage.
What does it mean to you to be a part of GKA?
For me, okay well – a long time ago – this is going to sound really bad – I didn’t even know exactly who Gelsey Kirkland was. I didn’t exactly know how important she was, you know, and how her life was and everything she’d been through and how amazing she was. You know dancers, a lot of them read a lot – I like to read, and one of my friends was reading a book and I asked her when I saw a ballet photo on the cover “oh, what are you reading?” and she told me “it’s Gelsey Kirkland’s book” and I said “who?” And she said “Oh, this ABT principal ballerina who danced with Baryshnikov.” I said “Oh really?” She explained it to me and so I said can you lend me the book when you’re finished reading it? And then I read it (her first book) and was overwhelmed by all of the information and I couldn’t believe I had not known about her, as a ballerina. It took me quite awhile to get here, because I wasn’t here after I read the book and she hadn’t opened the school yet, but I remember after reading the book I came to New York to visit a friend and I went to Steps (on Broadway) to take a class and I saw her teaching there. I was like (gasps) – it was like, I don’t know, maybe seeing a singer or an actor or a superstar – so when I saw here I was really overwhelmed and now that I’m actually here I still can’t believe it. I get used to it – I see her everyday, of course, she teaches me, but the first day that I met her, I was shaking in the first class I was so nervous. And she’s really nice of course, but I was still nervous because it’s her. So I hope I never lose that – that importance of being here, and besides being in this school, learning all that she has. She has all of this knowledge and she actually lives for this, she loves this so much. Before they cast La Sylphide, our level was learning repertoire with her in rehearsal and she’s only doing the upper body and marking it and she asked us after demonstrating it “okay girls, you got it?” and I was like “no!” I wasn’t even learning – I was just watching! So sometimes it’s a little bit hard to focus when she’s doing something. I get lost watching.
I think whatever happens in my life, if I fit into a company or wherever I finish dancing, I think this would be one of the best experiences – to remember it – to say that I was at her school, took class with her, was in rehearsals with her and she coached me – I think I’m really lucky to have that. It’s just really lucky.
Written by, Rachel Wunder
See Claudina dance in the excerpts of La Sylphide that will be presented on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 7:30PM for the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet’s Spring Performance Elusive Dreams at Symphony Space. For tickets go to www.symphonyspace.org and for more information visit http://www.gelseykirklandballet.org/
Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet 