Another week, and another Trocks blog coming your way! This time we’re catching up on the adventures of Paul Ghiselin, AKA Ida Nevasayneva. He’s here to give you all the latest gossip of his summer. Don’t forget the count down to the Trocks UK tour is increasing rapidly, so don’t miss out on a hot ticket!
Dear fans, friends and fellow balletomane,
As many of you may be aware Ida Nevasayneva has traveled the globe dancing within some of the world’s most prestigious theaters. Ida has been fortunate to share the stage with such notable dancers such as Maya Plisetskaya, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leanne Benjamin, Marcelo Gomez and so many more it’s impossible to mention them all. This year a great honor was bestowed onto Ida when acclaimed conductor, George Daugherty invited the ballerina to perform the Dying Swan with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Bugs Bunny at the Hollywood Bowl in California.
The Hollywood Bowl
The “Bowl” as it is called by people in the know has a great history in the U.S. as a place where all the big musical stars perform during their illustrious careers such as Judy Garland, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the like. Needless to say when Ida was asked, the ballerina was flabbergasted. Not only because of the compliment to be asked to perform in such an iconic venue but the stage itself is huge…I mean HUGE. You see, when a ballerina is delicately perched on the tip of the toes it takes a bit of time to traverse any stage. Ida has had experience doing this on other large stages, for example the Bolshoi stage is enormous as well. The Bowl however is like the Bolshoi times two and to get out to the center looked like it could take an hour to accomplish which is not conducive for a piece which is only four minutes long. Besides this could cause a great deal of stress and strain on the ankles and calves since it would be like bourre-ing across a football field. This had Ida literally shaking in those large size pointe shoes. There is also the fact that Ida has not been dancing too frequently over the past few years and this looked to be a daunting venture of monumental proportion.
The performance is called “Bugs Bunny and the Symphony”. It is a show where the symphony provides the music and sound effects that accompanies the Looney Tune cartoons made by Warner Brothers. This is their 25th season at the Bowl and the crowds came out in force. The performances on August 14 and 15 were a near sell out to nearly 30,000 people.
The L.A. Philharmonic played beautifully under the baton of Mr. Daugherty with projections of the cartoons displayed on massive screens around the great dome of the Bowl. Watching the classic Warner Brother cartoons was great fun as they are so familiar to most of us. Also invited was the voiceover artist, Bob Bergen who gave a marvelous rendition of “how to learn to talk like Porky Pig”. Ida was the only dancer in the show. Unfortunately Bugs and Ida never got a chance to really dance together.
Mr. Daugherty explained to the audience how Bugs Bunny was the first cross dressing ballerina/opera star on film back in the 1920’s/30’s. He further explained how he was so pleased to have Ballets Trockadero’s own Ida there to pay homage to the Bugs. Upon entering the stage the audience applauded energetically with anticipation of seeing Ida Nevasayneva dance the famous solo, Dying Swan. The performance was a sensation. To hear 14 thousand people laughing and applauding fills the air with joy.
To be sure this has to be one of Ida’s proudest moments. This brings me to the difficult task of informing everyone that Ida may not be able to attend the tour to London and the UK. Unfortunately, some pressing family matters back in Virginia will delay Ida’s(Paul’s) participation in the tour. It is with great hope that Ida will return when the time is good and bring more wonderful performances to the stage.
Ida sends the kindest of regards to everyone
x
