Return of the Scrooge... and a behind-the-scenes peek at the "new" Badisches Staatsballett Karlsruhe
“Bah... humbug!!” I groaned, as I tried doing my first plié in over four months. I was excited to return to Karlsruhe ballet to perform and teach one of my favourite roles, Scrooge, in Youri Vamos´s Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol.
Selfie I took during a tour to Basel, January 2019
“Bah... humbug!!” I groaned, as I tried doing my first plié in over four months. I was excited to return to Karlsruhe ballet to perform and teach one of my favourite roles, Scrooge, in Youri Vamos´s Nutcracker – A Christmas Carol. You would think that Scrooge is just an old man, but once he goes through his famous transformation, he becomes a wacky ball of energy that does tours, entrechat sixes, and the moon walk, all in his pajamas and slippers.
At least this Scrooge has been keeping fit after retiring from ballet in July this year. I run an average of 30km per week, and have even completed my first 10km race in under 47 minutes. I love running. It’s my preferred way to suffer. It’s also the time I use to think. And it doesn’t make my hips hurt the way ballet does.
But starting to do barre again in our living room, I realized that I have been neglecting an important part: flexibility. Thankfully “Yoga with Adriene” on Youtube helped me oil the joints again. And I’m sure I’ll continue this practice, as it’s excellent for keeping both mind and body flexible.
Starting rehearsals in Karlsruhe was therefore easier on my body than expected. I worked at Karlsruhe Ballet for 12 years. So, it was weird to return there and find a completely new and different company. Luckily, there were quite a few familiar faces and I was welcomed warmly by the whole company.
Bridget Breiner, who now leads the company as Artistic Director and Head Choreographer, said that I was more than welcome to take some photographs during the rehearsals. Yay! Below you can view some photos I took during a studio run-through of their production, “Seid Umschlungen” (Be embraced). It is the first production of this new chapter in the history of ballet in Karlsruhe.
The Land of Kimchi and Selfie Sticks
This was my last company tour as a dancer. I’ll surely miss doing these tours together with my wife, who said that she was not just jet-lagged this time, but also “food-lagged”. I love kimchi, bibimbap and Korean barbecue, but in the end nothing beats cooking at home.
This was my last company tour as a dancer. I’ll surely miss doing these tours together with my wife, who said that she was not just jet-lagged this time, but also “food-lagged”. I love kimchi, bibimbap and Korean barbecue, but in the end nothing beats cooking at home.
After our two performances of Carmina Burana in Daegu, my wife and I used our two free days to see a bit more of South Korea. We travelled to the nearby city of Gyeongju, which used to be the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla. Here we stayed at a lovely little traditional Hanok guesthouse. Nearly all of the Koreans we encountered were polite, hospitable and would go out of their way to help us with any query we had.
We visited the temple of Bulguksa and the Tombs of the rulers of Silla, which look like giant mounds, followed by the Gyeongju National Museum. The next day we headed to Seoul on the super-fast KTX train, where we hiked along the Seoul City Wall, followed by a stroll through the beautiful Bukchon Hanok Village.
South Korea is truly a technologically advanced country, with more selfie-sticks and tripods per capita than I have seen to date. Locals hire Hanboks (traditional Korean dresses) and have their photos taken in every direction. A tripod is the last thing that I would want to be lugging around with me.
I have always tried to travel as light as possible, this time with only one camera, one lens and a few batteries. Recently I acquired the Fujifilm Fujinon 16mm f1.4 R WR lens and wanted to use it to force myself to think “wider”. I find it much easier using a longer lens, as it creates more separation and isolates your subject more. So the wider angle of view demands of me to think more about composition and placement of my subject. I can also isolate my subject by getting really close and making it appear much larger than more distant objects. (Not very flattering for portraits)
This lens is on the wide end with an equivalent field of view of 24mm on a 35mm SLR. Although it is much bigger than the little 18mm lens I have, the picture quality is outstanding (it will literally make any pixel-peeper drool) and it can also focus as close as 15cm. I loved the experience of using this lens, and it turned out to be great for shoot-from-the-hip street photography.
Disclaimer: Neither Fujifilm, South- or North Korea paid me to write any of this.
To begin with…
I’ve kept a blog before, but after not posting for a long time, thinking that it stagnated and seemed uninteresting, I deleted everything. Now I wish some of it were recoverable. Not because I think it’s important information that went missing (I actually look back and think: “what an idiot I was/probably still am!”), but because it was a record of what I was learning.
Photo by Joy Dana
I’ve kept a blog before, but after not posting for a long time, thinking that it stagnated and seemed uninteresting, I deleted everything. Now I wish some of it were recoverable. Not because I think it’s important information that went missing (I actually look back and think: “what an idiot I was/probably still am!”), but because it was a record of what I was learning.
In the last few years I have become an avid reader. My parents always encouraged my siblings and I to read when we were young, even sometimes by rewarding us for each book we finished with fun presents like new LEGOs, but reading was strenuous and bored me. It was during the dawn of computer games, and 80’s TV was just so much more captivating than books.
Skip many years to where I’m the age of 25, and moved to Germany. Imagine getting on a plane with your entire life’s belongings fitted into your luggage with a limit of 30kg. It was a scary, but exhilarating move.
A new beginning. And an opportunity to learn a new language.
So I started reading German books, the free weekly newspapers, anything I could get a hold of. I immersed myself in the language. Alright, I am a nerd, that is to be noted, but there were few distractions around- no internet and no TV in my new apartment.
Don’t be fooled- I couldn’t understand everything I read. It was a slow and painful process in some ways. Afrikaans, my mother tongue, has similar vocabulary to German, so that did help a lot. Even if you just know a few words it is possible to work out where the main story is heading. It’s like a puzzle, and the more you read, the less you have to check the dictionary.
And then, a funny thing happened… I found books that I liked. And I read more and more, also in English.
There is so much reading material out there, so many fascinating books and stories waiting to be discovered. I really believe there is something for everyone, no matter your taste, you just have to find it.
When my wife and I started dating I took the opportunity to learn her mother tongue, Portuguese, using the same method in conjunction with Pimsleur CD courses. It was harder, because the vocabulary and grammar was nothing like the germanic languages I knew, but easier in the way that I already had learned a new language, and the process is similar. You learn the structure and then the pieces of the puzzle fit easier together.
Reading has opened new worlds for me.
One book that has really changed my outlook on life and how I think of myself is “Ego is the Enemy” by Ryan Holiday. Definitely worth a read and re-read.
If you are still reading this, thank you so much! Then I guess it was worth the risk of just putting what I want to say out there.
You have read my first blog post in which I hope will be a record of my learning experience. Especially this year, where I’m planning a new life transition: from hanging up my ballet shoes to taking on a new and exciting path…