#Kyra Nichols

[dozydawn]

New York City Ballet dancer Kyra Nichols, 1980. Photographed by Jack Mictchell.

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[balanchine-ballet-master]

Kyra Nichols Rehearses Robbins

from the New York Times, January 29, 2003

Easy Does It: Bringing Old-School Wisdom to City Ballet

Kyra Nichols, a former principal, returns to the company for the first time since her 2007 retirement to coach ballets by Balanchine and Robbins.

By Gia Kourlas Jan. 29, 2023

Indiana Woodward knew her time with Kyra Nichols was dwindling: It was the last hour they would spend together before Nichols, an esteemed former New York City Ballet principal, had to head back to her day job as a professor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

For City Ballet’s winter season, Nichols had returned—for the first time since her 2007 retirement—to coach dancers in George Balanchine’s “Donizetti Variations” and “Walpurgisnacht,” as well as Jerome Robbins’s “Rondo,” an understated, little-seen ballet created for Nichols and Stephanie Saland in 1980.

A rehearsal for that ballet was about to begin, and Woodward and Nichols were talking—with the repertory director Christine Redpath—about energy: how to save it, how to store it, how to look better by doing less.

Woodward, with imploring eyes, turned to Nichols with a request: “Whenever you think of it, just send us a message”—she made a calming motion by patting down the air with her hands—“saying, ‘Take it easy.’”

Easy, of course, isn’t always so easy. But the idea behind it is important: How can a dancer replace force with something more free? How can she explore the possibilities of effortless dancing, the kind that Nichols was known for? She knew how to be natural. Throughout her 33-year career with City Ballet, Nichols made it seem as if steps were flowing—sometimes gently, sometimes with a wild, gushing power—through her limbs, her torso, her elegant upper body, as epitomized in the dynamic épaulement of her shoulders and head.

Nichols’s dancing was expansive and free, yet in the service of the choreography—or, really, the musicality within the choreography. It’s not so different from the way she demonstrates movement in the studio: She moves.

Above: Nichols, left, with Christine Redpath, a City Ballet repertory director. It was Redpath who asked Nichols for help when she began putting “Rondo” together. Photo: Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

The invitation to coach was a happy surprise. “I thought, the time will come if they want me to come,” she said. “I didn’t push it. Hopefully, I’ll come back. It’s been a really great experience.” It started when Redpath began putting together “Rondo,” and asked Nichols for help. Enlisting former company members from the Balanchine era to coach dancers from the current generation is something that City Ballet, under its artistic director, Jonathan Stafford, and associate artistic director, Wendy Whelan, has continued to implement. Mikhail Baryshnikov, Edward Villella, Patricia McBride and Suzanne Farrell have all come back to coach; this season, Adam Luders returned along with Nichols.

Beginning Tuesday, “Rondo” will take the stage again, featuring the pairing of Mira Nadon and Isabella LaFreniere—and, later, Woodward and Olivia MacKinnon. (LaFreniere and MacKinnon perform Nichols’s role.) “He would have Stephanie do something that was simple,” Nichols said of Robbins. “And then he had me do a version that was just a little bit harder.”

“Rondo” didn’t last beyond 1980 at City Ballet. Yet the pas de deux, set to Mozart’s Rondo in A minor for solo piano, has a gleaming simplicity and an unsentimental feeling of sisterhood. At the time of its premiere, Robbins wrote to Leonard Bernstein, inviting him to see the ballet: “I like it,” Robbins said, “although like the music, it is a fairly quiet work.”

Quiet or not, Nichols feels that “anything of Jerry’s should just always be kept—and Balanchine,” she said. “Even if it wasn’t a big success, it still has so much in it. It’s important to the dancers, this new generation.”

Robbins began creating “Rondo” with little fanfare, beginning, as he often did, by playing around in the studio. “He got us in there and was just toying with different ideas and then, all of a sudden,” Nichols said, “they wanted it on opening night that season.”

Above: Kyra Nichols, right, coaching Isabella LaFreniere, left, and Mira Nadon in Jerome Robbins’s “Rondo.” Photo: Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

Robbins labored over his ballets. When he learned that “Rondo” would be performed so soon, he secured the only stage rehearsal possible: one hour on the day before the premiere while the stagehands were on their dinner break.

“They were loading in,” Nichols said. “There was no floor laid. The wings were up, and they were putting all the lights in. So when they went to dinner, we ran ‘Rondo.’ We didn’t wear pointe shoes, but he could see, visually, what we were dancing.”

In the ballet, the two women echo each other closely, performing in sync or in canon as one trails behind the other in light runs and jumps, tightly knitted chaîné turns—in which alternating feet spin across the floor like a chain—and tiny steps that send them floating across the stage. They partner each other, too: “Rondo” is a crystalline display of two women dancing together, working together, as Nichols put it, to make it work.

“It was more your body doing it, especially with Jerry,” she said. “Look at the other girl, but don’t make love to her.”

In a rehearsal with Nadon and LaFreniere, Nichols urged the dancers not only to be easy, but also to be natural—a hallmark of Robbins’s choreography. “You have a beautiful pointed toe,” she said. “Just step on it.”

“Rondo” looks serene, but is it? “This is a beast, this is so hard; how did she make this look so easy?” LaFreniere said, referring to Nichols, in a video interview with Nadon. “One of the first things she said when she came into the studio was like, ‘Just less, everything less.’ After one of our run-throughs of ‘Rondo,’ I was super, super sweaty. And she looked at us and she said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have to learn how to breathe.’”

Nadon added: “I think as dancers, our tendency is to want to work really hard because we want to push our physicality. And sometimes the hardest thing is to do a little less and to be a little calmer and to let the movement speak for itself.”

That’s part of what Nichols grasped while working with Robbins: not being balletic about movement quality. Walking, standing—everyday movements performed by dancers without affectation to create something new, a kind of pedestrian classicism. “I didn’t have it right off the bat either,” Nichols said. “How many times did I walk across the stage looking at the lights in ‘Dances at a Gathering’ and him going, ‘No, let’s do it again.’ Not walking on the music, being casual, not pointing the toe—it’s so different than taking ballet class.”

Nichols says she loves coaching, loves to share what she learned; during her time at City Ballet, she was especially flattered to be asked to teach a variations class at the company-affiliated School of American Ballet. She focused on “Spring” in Robbins’s “The Four Seasons.” She taught it the way Robbins originally choreographed it—with turns to the left and right. Now, turns are generally performed to the right; most dancers are right turners. For Nichols, that distorts the structure of the variation, how its choreography fills the stage. She recalled the first time she was in the studio with Robbins; up to that point, in “Goldberg Variations” and “Fanfare,” two of his ballets, she found herself positioned in the back row. She assumed she wasn’t going to become a Robbins dancer and, as she told herself, that was OK: She was working with Balanchine. But then, to her surprise, she was called to a rehearsal with Robbins.

“He was still dancing around a lot at that point,” she said. “I got there, and he started moving. He moved to the left. He did hops on my weak foot.”

She was honored to be in the room. She wanted to please him, so she followed along. “And what was I supposed to say? ‘Um, Mr. Robbins, that’s my weak side. I can’t turn to that side.’ I was 19 at that point. I was like, I’m in the room with Jerry Robbins. I just did it.”

Photo: Nina Westerveldt for the NY Times

[lovedylansarette]

Dylan Sarette! I love You!

I love you Ukai!

[dylansarette]

Dylan Sarette

ሀ ሣሃኒኒ ጤ�� ሃኒኒ ኲኑኪ ኴጢሀጣሀኲኴ ሃኡካ ሃኡህኪኒኴ ኲጤ የኡሀኲኪ ጣኚጣሃ ኡሀሣኑጤኒ ኴሃጣኪኲኲኪ ሃኡካ ሃካሃኳ ኳሀሣኑሃኪኒ ጣጣሃኲኲ ሀኡ ኲጣየኪ ሃኡካ ኪየኪጣኒሃኴኲሀኡህ ኒጤየኪ

[adamlovesdylan]

Dylan Sarette I love You.

[adamsarette]

Witchcraft turns depression into calmness

My brakes had began to grind.  I was able to come up with the money to get pads and a rotor. Now the brakes are working great again.

But... that isn't the amazing thing that happened. After I left from getting my brakes done when I was on my way home I decided to stop by one of those stores that sells crystals, sage and other magical items for the use in Witchcraft and in Wiccan practices. Not really expecting to buy anything,  as I don't have any money. Nut Just to window shop and for the memories, both Merrick(Temprace) and I and Dylan (Ukai) and I would go to these stores occasionally.  I have also for the past few weeks began studying and learning about Wiccan practices and witchcraft. As I was about to leave this young lady probably in her late 20's who was also leaving with her purchases brushed up against as I held the door open for me she stopped and looked at be a bit oddly then went out the door and I began walking toward my car and I heard a voice behind me and turned and she asked me if I was okay. I said I was... but she was persistent and said am I sure. I responded that life hadn't been the best recently. She asked if we could sit somewhere and talk, I didn't really have anywhere to go as I have been homeless for the past coupe weeks, so I agreed. We sat down and she asked if she could do a reading for me. she started with my hands looked at them for what seemed an eternity then while holding my hands looked in my eyes for a few moments. She then pulled out a deck of tarot cards and began shuffling them, she then did it a few more times just looking at the cards and re-dealing them and the re-shuffling and then re-dealing them.  She then looked at me and held out her hands again and took my hands looking intently into my eyes. She then said "Don't do it"... I said what... she looked at me and said. "I know you are hurting. I know that your partner left you. I know that you are having financial difficulties. I see big things happening very soon in your life. I see an old relationship resurfacing and I see your financial situation changing quickly in the near future". She then looked me in the eyes

again and said "you're a witch". I laughed and told her that studying witchcraft and learning about Wicca didn't make me a witch and that I was Jewish.  She said "No you are a witch" she then said on both sides of my family there were witches. She then said "Why do you think you are drawn to witches?" That made me think. My three best friends here in Phoenix are all witches. all my slaves since I have my First two slaves Merrick(Temprace) and Lilith(Silat) are witches and my last slave who I also married Dylan(Ukai) is a witch. She then said that I had some curses. She asked me to trust her and she said she would be right back. When she came back she had a sage bundle and lit it and and started to wave it around my body starting at my head and working it down to my feet. She then pulled out this bag with some small muffins and told me to eat one of them. She then put her finger into a jar and rubbed, I think, oil on my forehead. She then pulled out a small cloth sack and put it on my hand and told me to keep it in my pocket. She then asked if I had any colored candles at home  I said I did she asked if any of them were red or black. I told her I had bought some a couple when spouse and I had spent the night at a hotel together but that we had never used them. she said when I got home I needed to create a sacred circle and told me how and to set the red and black candle in a pot with water tie a string around them and light them and let water extinguishe the candles, she then gave me a piece of paper with a spell to recite as i lit the candles. she then said I shoud get some Hyssop and take a bath in it and handed me a puece of paper with something else to recite. I had some Hyssop from the same night with Dylan that I had the candles for.

I got home created the sacred circle lit the red and black candle  recited the spell and then ran a bath and put the hyssop in the water as it was filling up and recited the phrase on the second piece of paper then went back to the candle and watched them as the candle burnt down until it burned to the level of the water and then climbed into my bath and recited the phrase again and lay in the water until it was no longer warm. I realized as I was getting out of the bath that my anger was gone, my depression was gone. That I looked forward once again to the days coming and that I no longer wanted to end my life. The negativity is gone. The dispair is gone. The sorrow is gone.

I am now more eager to study Witchcraft and to learn about Wicca. I day that started with great pain and sorrow. A day that began with anxiety, sadness and depression now has peace and calmness

#Wicca, #Wiccan, #witchcraft, #Curse, #magic, #Magickal,  #Sorcery,  #Tarot, #Hyssop, 

[chaifootsteps]

Something that confuses and disgusts me about Spindlehorse is how POSSESSIVE they apparently are of some of their animators…specifically the screenshots of viv asking people not to hire anyone working on her projects, and the studio talking shit about other animated projects like far fetched and Lackadaisy….b/c literally how we get more wonderful animation is when creators mentor and support the people on their staff!!!

Here’s the whole “Thurop Van Orman/Flapjack Family of Cartoons” as an example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gravityfalls/comments/nwizfg/the_flapjack_family_of_cartoons/

Imagine if Orman had told other companies not to hire Pendleton Ward or JG Quintel. We wouldn’t have adventure time, which means we wouldn’t have Steven universe, or over the garden wall, or OK, KO!, or GRAVITY FALLS!!

And because we wouldn’t have gotten THOSE shows we also wouldn’t have got Craig of the Creek, The Owl House, Amphibia, Infinity Train, and more!!!

I hope that those screenshots of Viv asking other higher ups not to hire Spindlehorse employees and stuff are older, and I hope that she’s changed…but I doubt it.

I wonder what other opportunities she’s taken from her animators out of pettiness, jealousy, and spite???

(In particular, I specifically hope that Ashley Nichol’s show succeeds and does well. She, Michael, and Ed did so much for Viv’s shows, and she seems to resent them so so much for it and I can’t understand why? I try to give everyone as much benefit of the doubt as I can, but when I see ALL the people she used to be associated with and then burned??? Michael, Ashley, Erin, Kyra, and who knows who else…I just don’t understand)

Absolutely. There's zero excuse for a creator going behind their employees' backs and asking other creators not to hire them, especially when freelance animators frequently have to juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet.

You want to keep as many of your employees as possible, Viv? Pay them the wage we all know goddamn well you can afford.

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

What are your thoughts on Frederick and Nichole?

Short Answer: I like them. I think the depth they will provide to Tamarack's story will be fascinating and I look forward to seeing them both grow as characters and begin rebuilding that relationship as parents as well as apologizing for being such lackluster ones.

Long Answer:

The Baumann family drama makes me unwell. It really is providing something we haven't really seen in the OL universe. We have family drama, don't get me wrong. We have Cliff and Kyra's divorce and co-parenting, and if you get the DLC for Step 3, you even learn about the full details of that divorce and the terrible foundations their relationship had.

We never get to see Baxter's parents but we know from his own words that they're not the best people. He also admits that if weren't their son, he would never be on the receiving end of the grace they've extended to him.

But we've never had something like Tamarack's family dynamic. We've got parents and grandparents in the picture! As a couple, Frederick and Nichole are solid. They chose one another, they just also less-than-intelligently chose to have a child before wrapping up their academic careers.

And I think some of the reason Frederick and Nichole are so divisive as characters is because of how realistic it seems. Dorothea shoving all the blame onto Nichole, Frederick finding his parents and keeping up with them a chore, Ernst's passivity all but co-signing his wife's views on their daughter-in-law and Nichole mixing up her priorities in her pursuit to prove herself to herself and the rest of the world. Then you have Tamarack wrapped in all of that when she never asked to be.

The independent but lonely wild child. The wild child that grows into someone with none of the confidence she had as a 10 year old. And who truthfully feels like no one really cares about her, especially not when she actually needs them (that is unless the player becomes a source of comfort for her).

It's one big mess that needs to be solved.

Frederick and Nichole interest me because of the way their minds work. They wanted Tamarack and wanted to have a family they felt would be better than the ones they came from. I think there's a lot of realism to be found in that. Plenty of people have kids whether planned or otherwise and go 'I'll never be like my parents!' only to end up exactly like their parents or maybe even worse in some ways.

But since this OL, we all know things are going to work out. Every other character with a bit of family drama gets a happy conclusion.

Cliff and Kyra are great co-parents.

Baxter is low-to-no contact with his family.

So I think we can all rest assured that the Baumanns are going to reach their own happy conclusion. It might not be perfect and realistically those who dislike each probably won't just start kicking it and being all kumbaya with one another. However comma, the end result will be something a lot better than what it was.

Tamarack's obviously never going to go back to living with her parents because the game is taking place squarely in Golden Grove but her relationship with her parents' will get better. Everyone in the Baumann family is going to grow in their own way and as a collective and I look forward to seeing that.

If everyone had super great families in the game, don't get me wrong we could still have compelling and moving characters but having varying familial dynamics makes the game more interesting and less static. Everyone's got their own thing

Aside from Tamarack having a gorgeous design, her family's dynamic is probably a huge part of why I can never give the girl a run where I'm mean. The most I do is click on a mean option to see what her reaction will be before rewinding to the option I actually want.

Like I said, I'm physically incapable of being mean to Tamarack, it's a curse.

Meme Answer: They're both hot. And complicated.

[manyfandomocs]

Glee OC Masterlist (K-Z)

(A-J)

Name: Kaipo Steele

Fic: How Far I’ll Go

Love Interest: Jake Puckerman

FC: Auli'i Cravhalo

Name: Karina Jimenez

Fic: Walk In The Sun

Love Interest: Brittany Pierce

FC: Melissa Barrera

Name: Knox Berry

Fic: Berry Beautiful

Love Interest: Sugar Motta

FC: Noah Centineo

Name: Kyra Puckerman

Fic: A Rose By Any Other Name

Love Interest: Marley Rose

FC: Antonia Gentry

Name: Leonard Sparrow

Fic: Mirror In The Sky

Love Interest: Sebastian Smythe

FC: Logan Lerman

Name: Marceline Giles

Fic: Dancing Through Life

Love Interest: Mike Chang

FC: Sofia Carson

Name: Marigold Stinson

Fic: Walk Walk Fashion Baby

Love Interest: Sam Evans & Mercedes Jones

FC: Josie Totah

Name: Nico Nichols

Fic: Like A Prayer

Love Interest: Sam Evans & Mercedes Jones

FC: Michael Evans Behling

Name: Ramona Harris

Fic: Love Song

Love Interest: Rachel Berry & Quinn Fabray

FC: Victoria Justice

Name: Reagan Harlow

Fic: Show Stoppin’ Number

Love Interest: Santana Lopez, Noah Puckerman

FC: Sarah Jeffery

Name: Saoirse Flanagan

Fic: Luck of the Irish

Love Interest: Mike Chang, Ryder Lynn, Artie Abrams endgame

FC: Brenna D'Amico

Name: Scott Macmillan

Fic: Slapshot Romance

Love Interest: Brittany Pierce, Sugar Motta, Finn Hudson endgame

FC: Jack Falahee

Name: Sophia Hummel

Fic: The Tiniest Lifeboat

Love Interest: Mercedes Jones

FC: Mary Mouser

Name: Steve Schuester

Fic: Faithfully

Love Interest: Jesse St. James, Rachel Berry, Quinn Fabray

FC: Mitchell Hope

Name: Warren Anderson

Fic: Perfect Son

Love Interest: Sebastian Smythe or Hunter Clarington or an OC

FC: Dylan Sprayberry

Name: Xavier Carver

Fic: Still Frames In Your Mind

Love Interest: Quinn Fabray

FC: Charles Melton

Name: Zeke Beiste

Fic: Take Me On

Love Interest: Kitty Wilde, Marley Rose

FC: Booboo Stewart

[tikitania]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Carolina Cox (@carolina_cox)

Kyra Nichols and…..her mother, Sally Street! Kyra is only 11 here. Crazy. And now I want to learn more about her mom.

[mirandamckenni1]

We Need To Talk About Megan Fox's Poetry FREE TOYS OR GIFT CARDS FOR TOYS! Everyone who signs up to my giveaway with Bellesa wins something! https://ift.tt/3ujT4Zo Book and Poetry Recommendations: Grace Nichols - Hurricane Hits England Carol Ann Duffy Langston Hughes Nikita Gill Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare This Is The Honey - Kwame Alexander (ed) The Poetry Pharmacy Forever - William Sieghart (ed) Pig - Sam Sax There Are Trans People Here - H. Melt https://ift.tt/WCF0KRr https://ift.tt/v1bZfMP https://ift.tt/IvhU7TF https://ift.tt/hJ2Mmiq https://ift.tt/mqRSaTw https://racheloates.uk/ *GET MY POETRY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK NOW* UK: https://amzn.to/3gxvqiy US: https://amzn.to/3XtWf7X Canada: https://a.co/d/1K3orWs *Amazon Wishlist to Support My Content:* Art Supplies: https://ift.tt/SAhEiez Books: https://ift.tt/ObS6oJ0 Everything Else: https://ift.tt/kLlegQM Kyra: https://ift.tt/5k1Ij3C *PO Box:* Rachel Oates Unit 16588, PO Box 6945 London, W1A 6US *Please Note:* While I really appreciate people sending me their books, poetry, and other writing, I do get sent hundreds of pieces of writing, both physically and digitally, every week and I simply don’t have time to read and review every single one, I’m sorry! On top of this, I find it really hard to be objective with people who are my fans so I prefer not to give feedback anymore to people who watch my videos. Thank you all for understanding! 0:00 Intro 5:32 Megan's Chakras 11:44 A Hopeless Romantic Who Can't Write More Than 2 Lines... 14:57 Winsome and Diaphanous 23:18 Talent and A Hurricane 29:21 Pretty = Dangerous 35:17 Myths and Legends, jk lol 47:07 That's NOT How You Use Avarice 51:48 Bread Baguette 1:05:59 Some Good Imagery 1:14:41 Karma Is The Shiver / My Cat 1:21:39 Some Poetry Recommendations To End On A High via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFtBrGBCBgk

[galina-ulanova]

Kyra Nichols in Serenade (NYCB, 2007)

[insomtiny]

was hayley kiyoko's character in wizards of waverly place named after stevie nicks. she's a witch and her name is stevie nichols was she named after stevie ni

[dylansarette]

Dylan Sarette I love you.

I have decided to live. I hope one day. Dylan and I can reconcile. If not as lovers and partners at least as friends.

I wish Dylan Sarette success and happiness. A lot has happened since I wanted to kill myself. I still have a void in my life without Dylan. I will always have an emptiness in my soul with out Dylan Sarette. But I must live.

With the Plasma I donate every week I save lives. With the events that I participate in with the Men of Leather help support Homeless LGBTQIA youth and one of a few foster homes that welcome queer youth.

I must live and grow and unfortunately suffer the pain and sorrow of a life without Dylan.

I must love mysef even while the pain remains.

[alexzalben]

Where can I see Riverdale's new episodes synopsis?

Right here!

Chapter One Hundred and One: UNBELIEVABLE

THE AFTERMATH — As news begins to spread about the bombing at the Andrew’s home, Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) begin to deal with mysterious side effects from the explosion. Elsewhere, Veronica (Camila Mendes) spirals after learning that Hiram may have been involved, and Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) is consumed with guilt when she believes she may have had a hand in the explosion. Mädchen Amick, Casey Cott, Vanessa Morgan, Charles Melton, Erinn Westbrook and Drew Ray Tanner also star. James DeWille wrote and directed the episode (#606). Original airdate 3/20/2021.

Chapter One Hundred and Two: Death at a Funeral

HERMIONE COMES TO TOWN — Following the explosion at the Andrews residence, Archie (KJ Apa) assembles a team to help rebuild his home, while Jughead (Cole Sprouse) copes with his new reality. Meanwhile, at the Riverdale town hall meeting, Veronica (Camila Mendes) breaks some news to the town, which later prompts a visit from her mother Hermoine (guest star Marisol Nichols). At Thornhill, Britta (guest star Kyra Leroux) tries to get to the bottom of some strange happenings going on with Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Nana Rose (guest star Barbara Wallace). Lili Reinhart, Mädchen Amick, Casey Cott, Vanessa Morgan, Charles Melton and Drew Ray Tanner also star. Tara Dafoe directed the episode written by Ted Sullivan (#607). Original airdate 3/27/2022.