Three Things about city.ballet. Episode 2

 

The second installment of the AOL docu-series city.ballet.—which you can watch here on Dance Magazine—introduces us to a few apprentices of New York City Ballet: Silas Farley, Claire Von Enk and Ashley Hod. (You might remember Hod as an SAB student on DanceMedia’s webseries “Dance212.”) We learn that at the end of NYCB’s Saratoga Performing Arts Center season, Silas and Claire are up for company contracts.

 

Here’s one way that city.ballet. differs from “Breaking Pointe“: It took us all season to find out if Zach or Ian would get contracts to Ballet West. On city.ballet, we find out in a little over six minutes plus an extra Citi bank advertisement. (To be fair, the dancers’ fates aren’t announced until the first few seconds of the following episode, creating the greatest cliff-hanger ballet has ever seen.)

 

Three things on my mind after watching the “Apprentices” episode:

 

1. Someone get Claire a Pyrex glass liquid measuring cup for her Secret Santa present this year. Those cookies will taste better when that milk is measured properly.

 

2. Let us see them dance! Here’s one way that city.ballet. and “Breaking Pointe” are similar: We never see more than two seconds of any movement. I promise you, producers, we’re not going to get bored.

 

3. I’m fascinated by the multitude of in-studio styles. Leotards, tights, legwarmers, parkas—can’t get enough. And how do they all look so gorgeous in class? Maybe it’s just because cameras are rolling, but I can remember looking a mess in class: totally sweaty, exhausted and in pain. These dancers could be supermodels.