{"id":10508,"date":"2015-03-27T13:13:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10508"},"modified":"2017-03-02T09:29:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T14:29:55","slug":"down-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/down-to-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Down To Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2015 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Anytime, anywhere. In an arts town like Portland, look over your shoulder and we\u2019ll be there.<\/h3>\n

A professional ballet dancer explains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kelsey Harrison<\/p>\n

\"Ballerinas-APR15\"<\/a>They\u2019re always surprised they hadn\u2019t caught it before. Afterward, they\u2019re apt to say they recognized a certain grace in our movements or poise in our posture\u2013or even the slightly turned-out feet that is a \u2018tell\u2019 for a ballerina, but initially we\u2019re viewed only through the context in which we\u2019re encountered. \u2018We\u2019 are the professional company dancers of Portland Ballet Company, and \u2018they\u2019 are our coworkers, clients, coeds, and the general public we meet\u2013stardust optional\u2013on a daily basis at our conventional jobs.<\/p>\n

The Area Under The Curve<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMath is undeniably linked to dance,\u201d says Erica Diesl. A stretch? After eight years tutoring students in all levels of math, Erica logically defends her hypothesis: \u201cDancers are constantly using geometry. We make shapes\u2013both with our bodies and in relation to the other dancers on stage. We merge with symmetry, lines, and angles. We memorize movement patterns and count music.\u201d Working at The Study Hall in Scarborough, Erica is often asked, \u2018Why do I have to learn this?\u2019 While she admits that graphing sine curves rarely resurfaces in adulthood, \u201cMath has a sneaky way of showing up in unexpected places, from the rhythm and patterns in music to the formations and lines on stage.\u201d It\u2019s this ability to relate subject matter on a personal level that resonates with the students she tutors; in turn, they align their excitement with their work. Few moments are more gratifying for Erica than leaping toward this change of heart. \u201cWhen one of my students got her first A of the year on a geometry exam, her mother cooked her a celebration dinner and brought me a helping. Watching my students gain confidence and succeed is the ultimate reward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daily Concoctions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether she\u2019s painting, choreographing, or mixing drinks, the outcome is always intended a work of art for Colleen Edwards. \u201cAs a dancer, that\u2019s what we do every day\u2013create something from nothing\u2013and I try to bring that experience to other branches of my life.\u201d Here at ground level, Edwards works at Vena\u2019s Fizz House, the Old Port soda bar and shop, where she\u2019s developed a close relationship with the shop\u2019s owner, Johanna Corman. Corman\u2019s enthusiasm for Colleen\u2019s ballet training has led her to seek her unique input on beverages. To promote Vena\u2019s and Portland Ballet Company\u2019s annual production of The Victorian Nutcracker<\/em> at the holidays, Colleen organized a successful fundraiser called Tonics and Tutus, creating drinks like Sugar Plum Fizz Fairy, Spanish Hot Chocolate, Arabian Coffee, and White Chocolate Peppermint Russian Fizz. Why not give their palates a twirl?<\/p>\n

Shake it up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Hayes loves to break the fourth wall and meet with audience members face-to-face. An assistant manager at Maine Squeeze Juice Caf\u00e9 in the Public Market House, she can sometimes be seen sporting Portland Ballet attire on the job. When another Market House vendor realized he\u2019d beheld her on stage at Merrill Auditorium in The Victorian Nutcracker<\/em>, \u201che thought it was nice to see me out of my element.\u201d Or is she in her element? She\u2019s absolutely in performance mode at the smoothie caf\u00e9, too, recognizing regulars and memorizing their orders the way she remembers choreography months after it\u2019s rehearsed. \u201cPeople are intrigued when they discover I dance. Customers who know always ask me how my \u2018dance life\u2019 is going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graceful Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a family of talented field hockey players,\u201d says Morgan Sanborn with a shrug. \u201cMy mother, her three sisters, and two of my cousins all played and coached.\u201d At Bonnie Eagle High in Standish\u2013mystical field-hockey terrain\u2013she balanced training in Portland School of Ballet\u2019s pre-professional CORPS program with playing on the varsity squad. After college, she joined Portland Ballet while keeping a leg in her sport by coaching for her alma mater. \u201cIn addition to helping players with flexibility and conditioning, my dancing has increased my ability to understand field positioning, angles, and strength in body positioning.\u201d More recently, her aunt, USM\u2019s head coach Bonny Brown-Denico, hired Morgan as an assistant coach for the women\u2019s team there, where she\u2019s been for two seasons. Last year, on a hiatus from Portland Ballet to dance with Teatrul Balet de Sibiu in Romania, Morgan was unfazed when a choreographer derisively remarked on her arm musculature. \u201cI took it as a compliment,\u201d she says. \u201cMy cross training in sports has always helped me with dance and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Polymath Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the creative process, you must be open to following the path that reveals itself,\u201d says Derek Clifford. Having danced on stages at the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center; having toured in Scotland, Germany, and Belgium; and having once held a job as a fishing guide in Alaska to support his artistic endeavors, Derek has embraced the road less traveled. Currently, the married father of four works in the operating room at Maine Medical Center as an orthopedic medical device manufacturer\u2019s sales rep. This position frequently places him in front of audiences for training and sales presentations as well as directly into hospital operatories mid-procedure, and that\u2019s when his performance experience kicks in. \u201cBeing in surgery is similar to performing.\u00a0 You need to be calm under pressure, and able to adapt instantly to the unexpected. You must have very keen awareness of your physical movements in the O.R. I find it akin to learning choreography.\u201d He\u2019s one of the few male dancers in the company: \u201cPeople with any connection to the arts are often interested and understand it is a legitimate, if difficult, profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

All The World\u2019s a Stage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ethereal and soft-spoken are not going to cut it. In ballet, maybe, but not in the restaurant business. A self-proclaimed introvert, Jennifer Jones feels \u201cperforming on stage is a breeze. I can\u2019t explain it, it\u2019s just the way it is. In real life, crowds make me horribly uncomfortable, and the idea of initiating conversation with a stranger sends me into a cold sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how is it she ended up tending bar at Rosie\u2019s Restaurant & Pub in the Old Port on Friday nights? In short, because much of dance involves acting. In the title role in Giselle<\/em>, for example, Jennifer segued from passionate love to maddening grief to gentle despair in a way that was both conceivable and compelling. Early in her career, she met a cook who taught her to parlay that skill in front of an audience into her work at the bar. From that moment on, \u201cEvery shift became a performance, and Jen-the-Sassy-Cocktail-Waitress became a character I could slip into with increasing ease. Years later, I still get sweaty palms [greeting strangers], but I slip into performance mode and off I go. Heck, sometimes I even enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Private Narratives<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what does each of these stories ultimately illustrate? Versatility. We\u2019re constantly reading reactions and adjusting. Adapting the strength and creativity ballet has taught us to any workplace without losing our composure may be our greatest asset.<\/p>\n

Recognizing this, other organizations have approached Portland Ballet to hire professional dancers. River Arts Center in Damariscotta has organized a gathering for artists to paint members of the company in a Degas-inspired modeling session. Maine State Music Theatre has run a series of commercials to advertise their past season featuring three PBC members. The environmental Bloom Association has produced an anti-deep-sea-trawling video that features our CORPS director.<\/p>\n

One day, ballet fan Guila Fakhoury approached the company with a unusual request, which is how I found myself at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel one July, performing at her wedding reception\u2026<\/p>\n

Fellow PBC members Amelia Bielen, Colleen Edwards, and Deborah Grammatic, and I needed to reassure the bride-to-be as much as ourselves about the wedding at which we\u2019d soon be entertaining. The bride had dreamed of a \u201cwhite tutus, classical music\u201d piece, as well as something \u201cmore upbeat and salsa-esque\u201d for the reception. None of us had ballroom training, as we explained at the meeting, but being a ballet dancer is a process of becoming\u2013and knowing your audience. We found red dresses in PBC\u2019s costume room, put on Michael Buble\u2019s \u201cSave The Last Dance For Me,\u201d and emulated the Spanish flair that crackles in ballet classics such as Paquita<\/em> and Don Quixote<\/em>\u2013to much laughter and applause.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by our joyful reception at Guila\u2019s wedding reception\u2013when PORTpera contacted Portland Ballet a few months later, looking for a high-stepping, chorus line dance piece to set the tone at their fundraiser gala\u2013I signed on without hesitation.<\/p>\n

Can-Can you guess the style they assigned us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2015
\nAnytime, anywhere. In an arts town like Portland, look over your shoulder and we\u2019ll be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,120],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-10508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-the-women-of-maine","tag-april-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10508"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12567,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10508\/revisions\/12567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}