Ballet West meets Gaming in FantasyCon!

McGrath in George Balanchine's 'Rubies' ©The George Balanchine Trust

Photographer: Beau Pearson Photography

I spotted this little piece of news via my Twitter feed and felt compelled to share it with dear Terpsichore readers since it does have a tenuous link with Jane's recent coverage of the Bounden game. I also though it quite an interesting collaboration and very in keeping with my own interest in bringing classical ballet to a wider audience...

Elizabeth McGrath, First Soloist with Ballet West, is bringing her 'immersive, creative and beautiful' dance apparel and performance company Red Pirouette to Salt Lake City's FantasyCon Convention this July.

In its own words, FantasyCon is

the first convention of its kind to open the world of fantasy to all and create an interactive, immersive experience that celebrates pop fantasy culture.

and aims to

bring together the world of fantasy to celebrate the Medieval Renaissance culture and fantasy genres in games, films, artwork, and literary works.

The piece that McGrath and her company (including talented Ballet West Soloist Sayaka Ohtaki, Demi-Soloist Katlyn Addison, Artists Zachary Prentice of Breaking Pointe fame and Kimberly Ballard and Second Company member Lucas Horns) will bring to the convention is entitled 'A Magical Misadventure'. It promises to be"an exciting tale of what can happen when sorcery falls into dangerous hands" and will feature music from popular international video games Elder Scrolls (even I've heard of that one!) and Castelvania. Performances of the piece will be given on July 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th and interested readers can find out more about it here.

Ballet West (not to be confused with our own Ballet West in Scotland) is based in Salt Lake City and is considered to be the premier ballet company in the Western region of the country. It was also the subject of a unique Reality TV series 'Breaking Pointe', which went behind the scenes of the company and brought ballet to the audience of the CW Network! As a dancer and dance fan I was naturally hooked on both seasons of the show and I have been keeping a close eye on what the dancers that I admired during the show have been up to since. It's encouraging to see that McGrath is  passionate about bringing the art form of ballet to a new audience, and hopefully this collaboration will be the start of many between different creative minds across the globe.


Readers who are familiar with 'Breaking Pointe' will also no doubt be as excited to find out about Soloist Allison DeBona's new project Art With Alli (https://twitter.com/artwithalli search #artwithalli) as I was. I will leave it to the lady herself to describe it, and I encourage you to read more on her blog Allison's Pointe of View:  

Over the next 12 months, I am going to challenge you.  Ask yourself questions you’ve never asked before and push your mind and body to places you’ve never taken it before.  The great part about it is, you will not be alone!  This month I want you to explore your motivation for dancing and your contribution to our art form.  How are you planning on moving an audience to tears or make them jump to their feet with applause?  What will make you stand out on stage so people can’t take their eyes off you?  

I've already contributed my thoughts to her forum, and I hope you will all join me and share yours! 

The Legal Ballerina

The Inns of Court the Royal Opera House are a few hundred yards apart but ballet dancers and barristers don't have a lot to do with each other even though (as I said in From Bar to Barre 30 March 2013) they have far more in common than one might think. There are, of course, notable exceptions like Professor Webley and Tracey Summerell who share my passion and profession but they are few and far between.

It may be different in the USA. A few weeks ago I found the blog of The Legal Ballerina, a personal injuries lawyer and dancer. She is married and, judging by the holiday snaps that she posted to her blog, she has two delightful children (see "Disney Vacation Part 2" 13 May 2014). The Legal Ballerina is about half my age but has been dancing for a little bit longer:

"I started ballet in November, 2011, after a friend asked me to join her in a class. I always wanted to try ballet, but I thought (like most people) I was too old. After a few months and a few bad lessons, I realized that if I really wanted to be good at dancing I had to approach it like any other venture – Practice, Practice, and MORE Practice."

She is so right about that. She adds:

"I want to SHOUT TO THE WORLD that, no matter what your age, you can achieve your dream of becoming a ballet dancer. All you need is to do is put in a little “can do” attitude and MAJOR elbow grease."

And it seems to work.  She writes about her sense of triumph at mastering a fouetté, double pirouette.("Fouetté, Double Pirouette… Really?!?!" 25 June 2014). We can almost feel a glow of satisfaction radiating from the other side of the Atlantic.  Legal Ballerina's blog is a joy to read. It's very funny but it does pass on some useful tips such as Allison DeBona's stretching video that appears in today's issue.

I don't know whether The Legal Ballerina has plans to visit London but if she does I should love to show her the Inns of Court and Covent Garden. Maybe we could take a class together at Pineapple or perhaps see a ballet at the House, Wells or Coliseum.