By Lisa Robinson, former Second Soloist, now YOU dance Artistic Educator/Administrator

September 1, 2010

After 12 years of performing with The National Ballet of Canada, I am now sharing the joy that came from performing with young audiences through YOU dance, the company’s celebrated outreach programme. During my time as a dancer, I was given the opportunity to work in the many different education programmes the National Ballet offers. One of my favourite experiences was teaching Kids Corps movement workshops, based on the ballets we were performing, to five to 12 year olds. I also went to schools across the GTA to host Dance About, the in-school lecture demonstrations. During this time, it became apparent to me that I LOVED teaching kids about dance. To see them embracing movement through dance and the thrill they were experiencing reminded me of my youth.

I had seen The Australian Ballet School’s touring company in my hometown of Mount Gambier, South Australia as a child and this inspired me to become a professional dancer. Now, I am in the fortunate position to work with the National Ballet’s YOU dance and to inspire the next generation with ballet and dance.

Check out the YOU dance website to watch new videos and see more images at http://www.youdancecanada.ca/

[Photos top to bottom: Lisa Robinson with Kids Corps, photo by Sharon Vanderlinde; Lisa instructing the Kids Corps members, photo by Adrienne Nevile; and Lisa backstage at her final performance of Onegin (June 2010).]

By Tomas Schramek

August 25, 2010

I have performed on many stages around the world during my 50 years as a professional dancer. This past May, I had the performance of my lifetime on a different stage.

My wife Susan invited me to join her on a trip to celebrate five years her being cancer free. This trip was different from any trips I have ever dreamed of. I spent a few months preparing and training for it. We flew to Kathmandu, Nepal. After a couple of days of sightseeing and negotiating historical sights, people and traffic we flew on a Twin Otter plane to our starting point in Lukla. Our small group of 15 met our 46 Sherpas, cooks, porters and 8 yaks. We got on the way on our 10 day trek to Mount Everest Base Camp. It was not a “walk in the park” since we were going to walk over 100 km and climb about 25,000 feet. For me everything was new since I have never done anything like this before. I don’t think I have had a knapsack on my back more then a dozen times in my life. I took it one step at a time, literally. We walked between six to nine hours a day. We had a couple of days off. That meant going on a 1,000 to 1,500 foot climb and back, just to let our bodies get used to the altitude. We had medical check-ups twice daily just to make we were retaining enough oxygen and all the rest of our bodily functions were in order.

The scenery was changing all the time as we were climbing higher and higher. We walked through some beautiful rhododendron forests in bloom (some were 20 to 30 feet high). When ever we took time to stop and look up (mostly we had to look where we were walking) the scenery was indescribably beautiful. Often we found ourselves surrounded by the tallest and most beautiful mountains of the world. It was a panorama of 360 degrees of monumental beauty.

During our trek, we stopped in some very picturesque villages, visited Sir Edmund Hillary’s schools in the village of Kumjung at 12,475 feet, visited Buddhist monasteries, talked to many ‘real’ mountain climbers on their way down from summiting the peak of Mount Everest and met some beautiful local Nepalese people.

We were spending some 6,000 to 10,000 calories a day and so eating and drinking water was of utmost importance. We drank about 3 liters of water daily and the cooks made sure our diet was loaded with carbs. I tolerated the altitude to about16,000 feet very well. Then it hit my stomach to the point that I couldn’t even think of food without feeling nauseated. That didn’t stop me from persevering. On day ten, we arrived at the Base Camp, all 15 of us. We were at 17,600 feet. We all hugged and cried from feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction and happiness. We were all in ecstasy. We made it! We had lunch there though I didn’t really feel like eating but I had to force myself. No champagne though, alcohol is not good at high altitude! After lunch we made our 3 to 4 hour trek down to Gorak Shep for the night. For the ten days on the way up, we had been extremely lucky with the weather. It was just gorgeous. The following morning we woke up for our trek down to find it had snowed all night. We could see no mountains or even 30 feet ahead of us. We walked nine hours in that weather and eventually changed into rain. The next morning, the sun was out again and the rest of our descent for four days was difficult but beautiful.

I am still on a cloud (so to speak). I feel energized; even at 66 years old I can do anything. This really was one of my greatest performances of my life and on a world stage.

Tomas Schramek will next appear onstage in Cinderella, November 11 to 20, 2010.

[Photos top to bottom: Tomas Schramek defying gravity (15,000 feet), village of Namche Bazar (11, 306 feet) and Tomas and wife, Susan at the Memorial to the fallen climbers at Khumbu Glacier (16,500 feet).]

On June 19th, I returned to the stage in Onegin as Prince Gremin. It has been six years since I stopped dancing so I hired a trainer and got into great shape by adding muscle and losing 20 pounds! I wanted to do Gremin with Nan [Yu] as I was her first Onegin and thought it would be poignant to return all these years later as her husband.

When I came onstage, I was overwhelmed by the applause. It was moving and made me a little nervous for Act III where the big pas de deux for Tatiana and Gremin takes place in the ballroom. I had always wanted to do this pas de deux as it is quite moving and is actually just as hard, or even harder than, the pas de deux with Tatiana and Onegin. In rehearsal I had to build back stamina but the hard work paid off. The pas de deux went very well and it was a night I will cherish forever.

As for returning to the stage in the future… never say never!

[Photo 1: Rex Harrington by Sian Richards. Photo 2: Onegin by Cylla von Tiedemann.]

After a very busy yet incredibly rewarding year of YOU dance shows and company performances as an Apprentice with The National Ballet of Canada, I am so grateful to be joining as a member of the Corps de Ballet for the 2010/11 season. I am particularly excited for the wide range of repertoire planned for this season and can’t wait to start rehearsals in August for Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, which I will be understudying. I’m also looking forward to start working with the new Apprentices on a Hip Hop piece I choreographed for YOU dance.

Ever since I was little, I remember hearing people talk, always quite favorably, of the National Ballet. So when I came here last August, I had built up this image of the company as an ideal place to be, solely in terms of my dance career. What I did not know then, was how close everyone in the company is with one another. They are truly like a huge family. The relationships that everyone has developed offstage are not only visible onstage but they make the dancing so much more meaningful for both the audience and the dancers. For me, what makes the National Ballet’s performances unique is that they are not focused on what the dancers can do but rather who they are. I am looking forward to becoming a part of this family next year and I can’t wait to start the new season!

Additional dancers who will be joining the company as members of the Corps de Ballet are: Adji Cissoko, Allynne Noelle, Joseph Steinauer, Ji Min Hong, Jaclyn Oakley and Giorgio Galli.

[Photo by: Sian Richards.]

While surrounded by the beautiful Rockies here in Banff where I am performing this summer at The Banff Centre as part of the Professional Dance Program, I can’t help but think back at what an extraordinary year this has been for me.

It’s just like reading a book where you are taken to new places and introduced to so many wonderful new characters. Whether I was a fairy giving the gift of a beautiful voice to Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, acting as the notes of music in 24 Preludes by Chopin at the 2010 Cultural Olympiad, an Italian Princess trying to win the heart of a Prince in Swan Lake or giving a little Puerto Rican/New York spice as Anita in West Side Story Suite, I loved every moment. But the icing on my wonderful cake had to be at the season closing party. I’ve never needed waterproof mascara more than at the moment I heard Karen Kain say that I was being promoted to Second Soloist. It was a dream come true. It’s a good thing I’ll be performing up in the mountains because I am still on “cloud nine.”

I couldn’t ask for a better year and for the next three weeks, I will be making even more amazing memories working here at Banff with Lindsay Fischer, Artistic Director of YOU dance/Ballet Master, Mandy-Jayne Richardson, Senior Ballet Mistress, and Jean-Yves Esquerre, Assistant to the Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet, who have been so wonderful helping me shape myself into the next level of dancer that I want to be. And now… on to Le Corsaire!

[Photo 1: Jordana Daumec by Sian Richards. Photo 2: Rockies by Jordana Daumec. Photo 3: The Nutcracker by Bruce Zinger.]

After months of rehearsal and countless hours of preparation, I made my debut in the title role of Onegin on Thursday, June 24. It was a special time for me. My mom, dad, and grandmother had come all the way up from South Carolina to see me perform.

The night before the show I must have had only 3 hours of sleep. I have to say that I was more excited than nervous, but sleepless none the less. I had butterflies in my stomach all day until I finally put my costume and makeup on. I looked at myself in the mirror and all of my nerves went away. I was ready to get this show on the road!

The performance itself was a journey on its own. After finishing the first act (which I must say is the most grueling act for Onegin with it’s adagio solo and high flying “mirror” pas de deux), Principal Dancer Jiří Jelinek walked up to me, gave me a high five, and with his Slovak accent jokingly said, “All right man! Now you can enjoy the rest of the ballet.” And enjoy it I did. All the way up until the final curtain call.

When the curtain finally came down, I broke down with it, relieved and exhausted – emotionally and physically. I felt like I had climbed to the top of Mount Everest and won the Super Bowl all at the same time. It is a feeling that is very hard to explain. It was also such an honor to share my debut with Heather Ogden, my Tatiana, Bridgett Zehr, who played Olga, and Brett van Sickle, who was Lensky. I could not have done it without them!

McGee Maddox is a Second Soloist at The National Ballet of Canada.

[Photo by Sian Richards.]