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Which Role Has Fulfilled You the Most?

By TurnedOutPointeOfView on Saturday, April 4, 2020

Photo: Selina Meier

Thank you for the question, andersen_annette

Oooh that’s a big question! So many roles have touched me. The lead ballerina in, Etudes, is very dear to me because it was my first Principal Part as a professional dancer. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to revisit the ballet every few years. I feel that Etudes represents my growth as a dancer and artist.

In Etudes. Photo: Costin Radu

The entire Balanchine repertoire means a lot to me because of my training at the School of American Ballet.  I spent four years in NYC admiring and learning Balanchine ballets, which became my foundation and core. Most recently, I trained with Merrill Ashley, for the premiere of Ballo Della Regina. Having the opportunity to learn from a living, Balanchine legend was a memory I’ll never forget. To be able to explore and dive into every step, every day for nearly five weeks was ballerina heaven. I learned so much from that experience that I consciously try to add to every role that I do moving forward.

Performing, Ballo Della Regina

As for full-length story ballets, Giselle is certainly a character I treasure. I felt, as many ballerinas must also, that I shared and understood many of the emotions of Giselle throughout the ballet. Falling in love, betrayal, heartbreak and finally forgiveness.

Giselle First Act with Jonathan Chmelensky.

The great challenge in Giselle was transforming from the mad scene in first act to finding the complete inner peace and calm to do the penches, center stage, alone with a spotlight in the second act. I believe that this ballet helped me discover new depths of my artistry that I’d never explored before. 

Giselle Second Act with Jonathan Chmelensky.

But I’ve never had more fun, than performing as Alice in Wheeldon’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Absolutely pure joy the entire way through! I love that production to pieces. It is magical! So much dancing! So many smiles to give to the audience!

Alice.

xoxo
-Hol

PS- You can currently stream Alice in your own living room, https://kglteater.dk/kgl/xtra/forestilling-alice-i-eventyrland?fbclid=IwAR2nAivcMEKzzwdCVdRrh3BZmrqgWT8h_SQVhfXO0JNFegsGKAKAIFDArzA

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Which Are Your Favorite Costumes?

By TurnedOutPointeOfView on Friday, January 17, 2020

Photo: With Ulrik Birkkjær. Diamonds

Thank you for the question, @elisabethbjornholst


Costumes!! So many beautiful costumes! We are so lucky at the Royal Danish Ballet to have a super talented costume department that makes THE most incredible costumes! I’m absolutely blown away by what I get to wear on stage. They are amazing!

I am 100% a tutu person. I love all tutu’s! To be extremely specific, my favorite costumes are the tutu’s that are considered to be “small”. For example, the tutu I wore for Theme & Variations or for Diamonds.

Photo: NYC Dance Project. Theme & Variations Tutu

The tutus used for more of the classical ballets such as Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty, or Raymonda are also very beautiful but they can be quite large! The smaller tutus just feel like they fit the best.

Photo: With Ulrik Birkkjær. Swan Queen (Odette) Tutu

Here are some of my favorite tutu’s!!

Diamonds Tutu
Photo: With Gregory Dean. Gamzatti Tutu.
Black Swan Tutu
Photo: With Jonathan Chmelensky. Princess Florine Tutu
Photo: With Sebastian Haynes. Coppelia Tutu
Photo: With Jon Axel. Sugar Plum Fairy Tutu.
Photo: With Jonathan Chmelensky
Raymonda Tutu.

My other favorite type of costume is a leotard with a flowy skirt. For example, Ballo Della Regina or T. Pas.

Photo: With Jonathan Chmelensky. Ballo Della Regina.

I’m a fan of dancing in a tight fitting costume that doesn’t get in my way. 😉 Here are some of my favorite flowy dresses.

Photo: With Marcin Kupinski. T. Pas
Photo: With Magnus Christoffersen. Schubert Pas De Deux
Dew Drop.
Teresina Second Act

Soon (April 2020!!) in Come Fly Away, I will get to wear the costume below and I’m positive that it will be going on my favorite costume list! I mean look at those sparkles!!

Kate Costume.

Xoxo,
-Hol

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Is It Hard To Be A Ballet Dancer?

By TurnedOutPointeOfView on Monday, January 13, 2020

Thank you for the question, @frederikke.schmidt

The quick answer is yes. Yes, it is hard work to be a ballet dancer! BUT if you love it, love it with your heart and soul, then it is worth every second of pain, every sacrifice, every drop of sweat and every tear.

Photo: Morten Eggert

As a ballet dancer, you don’t do it for the money. You don’t do it if you are lazy. And you don’t do it if you don’t have a passion for dance. It’s too hard.

We spend hours upon hours trying to push our bodies to the extreme. We have constant body pressure to look a certain way. Long days. A six day work week. (Sometimes seven days, like last week 😉 )Vacations always include an element to stay in shape. We are more in our leotards then in street clothes. We are at the theater more then we are at home. It can be difficult to make friends outside of the theater because of our demanding and weird schedule. Friday nights are not to party. Friday nights are to recover because you most likely have a show the next day.

The hardest part is to stay strong mentally. When you are working so hard physically, it wears you down and you know the saying, “Life Isn’t Fair…” well ain’t that the truth. Things will happen, out of your control that will hurt you, and they most likely will never be explained. You have to stay focused. You have to continue working. And that is wayyy easier said than done.

Photo: Ravn

You need to fall in love with the training. Fall in love with rehearsing and fall in love with performing. Then you no longer see the work as hard. You see it as a part of “you.” It is just what you do. The reward you get for dedicating your life and working so hard, is in my opinion, absolutely worth it. I love being a ballet dancer. And I love working hard to be a ballet dancer.

Xoxo
-Holly

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How Many Pairs Of Pointe Shoes Do You Go Through In A Week?

By TurnedOutPointeOfView on Monday, September 2, 2019

I would say on average, I go through two pairs of pointe shoes a week. Some weeks my schedule isn’t very heavy, so I might only use one pair. Other weeks are extremely busy and then I may even need three or four pairs of shoes! I will round up and say that for one season with the Royal Danish Ballet, I go through 100 pairs of pointe shoes!

I prefer to dance in softer shoes. New shoes are a bit of a nightmare for me. I like the toe to be hard but everything else worn in. Which is why I try to make my shoes last as long as possible.

Sometimes, you just get a bad pair of shoes. So sad. I can’t tell if something is wrong with the shoes until after, I have spent 2 hours sewing and prepping the shoes. I need to try them in class, in turns to know. The center point needs to be good. There is no time for a weird shoe that takes you out of your turns! If the shoe isn’t good… it doesn’t get worn and another pair of shoes needs to be sewn.

Photo: Sofie Mathiassen

Fortunately, this doesn’t happen too often. I have customized my shoes more and more over the years which has definitely helped. Little shout out to all the wonderful people working at Freed making all the pointe shoes! We literally couldn’t dance without you!

When the weather is HOT, for example like last week, I can kill a pair of shoes in a day. Heat definitely creates a quick death to pointe shoes. They become too mushy to dance in.

Sometimes, you get a miracle pair of shoes! That is the best! I’ve never been able to quite figure out what makes a miracle pair so good, but every once in a while, there will be a pair of shoes that doesn’t die with a perfect balance point. When I danced as Henriette in Raymonda in 2017, I used the same pair of shoes for all of my 12 performances. I love when that happens!

Alice In Wonderland last year, was the opposite to Raymonda. I went through a pair of shoes for every performance. Alice dances on stage for nearly three hours in the warm stage lights, so the shoes simply, had no chance for a long life.

Photo: Politiken

Even after I consider a pair of shoes dead, I will keep them in my dressing room for several months. The shoes become hard again which is great because then I can get a second life out of them! I can use them for rehearsals during the day or if they are really good, even a show!

So many pointe shoes! I love them though. Speaking of which, I need to go and sew.
xoxo
-Hol

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Do We Have To Pay For All Our Stage Makeup?

By TurnedOutPointeOfView on Monday, August 19, 2019

Thank You for the Question Gitte!

Well…. a little yes and a little no. The Royal Danish Ballet is sponsored by MAC make-up. We receive a 20% discount if we buy their products. Some years we are even given a little goodie bag filled with foundation, eye-shadows, eyeliner and lipsticks! Although, we can’t depend on it. We can be lucky and receive a goodie bag one year but not necessarily the next.

I am a big fan of BareMineral makeup so I end up buying almost all of my stage makeup (and everyday makeup) with them. My primer, my foundation, my lotion, my under eye concealer, my lip liner and my eye pencils. Bareminerals feels healthier on my skin and it isn’t as thick as MAC foundation which I prefer. If the foundation is too heavy then you’ll sweat like crazy under those stage lights!

BareMinerals

I am happy to use the free eye-shadows from MAC that came in a goodie bag a few years back. I’m not that fussy over what type of eye shadow I use, just the color. They work great! Luckily, eye shadows last a long time. The only color that I sometimes need to re-stock is the white.

MAC

I am also happy to use the free lipsticks from MAC. Over the years I have collected quite a variety of colors.

About once or twice a year the theater will give all the girls a specific free lipstick so everyone has the same color for a certain production.

Examples of this would be:
–Spar Dame we were given a purple lipstick specifically for the third act.
–Alice In Wonderland the black cards were given a black lipstick.
– The Golden Cockerel we were given a plum lipstick.

We once received a free pair of false eye lashes in one of the MAC goodie bags, but other than that, we buy our own false eye lashes as well. I go through about 7 or 8 pairs of those a year! If I go back to the states in the summer I’ll just buy a bunch at once. I can almost always stumble across a buy two get one free kind of deal. 🙂

Napoli Team: Jonathan Chmelensky, Sorella Englund, Ryan Tomash (as Golfo) & Holly Dorger. (Me)

The only big exception is if you are playing a character such as Golfo from Napoli, or any of the animals from the Alice In Wonderland race scene. In order to become those characters it requires a makeup artist. The theater pays for all of that makeup. This also includes the white body makeup we use when dancing Swan lake.

Photo: Costin Radu

Overall we mostly pay for the makeup ourselves. Some take advantage of the MAC discount more than others. We are always happy to receive little gifts from time to time. 🙂
xoxo
-Hol

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Do You Really Feel The Effects Of Darning Your Pointe Shoes?

By TurnedOutPointeOfView on Friday, August 16, 2019

To darn or not to darn, that is the question. I started darning my pointe shoes back in 2012. (I think) I never, ever darned my shoes while I was at school. I trained at the School of American Ballet in New York City where it is an extremely uncommon thing to do. It never even crossed my mind.

Once I was in Denmark for a few years, I became curious about one of our principal ballerina’s that always darned her shoes. I asked her all the questions that you are probably asking yourself right now.

–Does it really help?
-Does it make your shoes last longer?
-Is it true that it can help your balance?
-How long does it really take?
–Is it really worth the effort?

She swore by it for herself and told me to just try it out. I tried it and never stopped. Now, I hate wearing a pair of pointe shoes that haven’t been darned.

Here are my answers to the questions above. I hope it helps you!

Does it really help?
Yes! I can feel so much more in my shoe. The darning makes it so it is more difficult to roll over the front of my pointe shoes. Meaning, that I can now feel where the end of the platform is on my shoe when I stand on pointe. I can easily feel when to hold back or maintain my position.

Does it make your shoes last longer?
Yes! It eliminates the possibility of your shoes going soft at the tip/ top part of the shoe towards the vamp. TIP: I add HotStuff or JetGlue to the top part of my darning. The glue keeps the thread from falling down. See below.

HotStuff/ JetGlue

Is it true it can help your balance?
Yes! Because you can feel more in your shoes, it allows you to feel the entire platform that you are standing on. You will learn to know exactly where to balance.

How long does it really take?
If I am fully concentrated and I have all my supplies, I can do both shoes in 45 minutes. Realistically, I’m darning my shoes while I watch something on TV. 🙂 That easily adds an additional 15 minutes. I say, it takes 1 hour per pair of pointe shoes.

Would you really say it’s worth the effort?
Yes! I really like it. The best combination is soft and darned shoes, in my opinion. That is ballerina heaven for me. I wouldn’t make the darning too big even though it can be tempting. Stray away from “bigger is better.” If the darning becomes too large it can be very noticeable from stage and not the most elegant.

Confession: Sometimes, I wish that I had never started because it is a big, time consuming effort. It is very, very possible to dance wonderfully without it.

WARNING: Darning is like the Pringles saying, “Once you pop, the fun don’t stop.” Except it would go, “Once you darn, you just can’t stop.”

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What Are Pointe Shoes Made Out Of?

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Ballet

What Are Pointe Shoes Made Out Of?

Awww the beautiful, little slipper that ballerinas wear. Think again! Pointe shoes, from afar look silky, smooth, and light. Up close, knock on the box and many people would guess that they must have metal inside of them. Ouch!

The outisde of the pointe shoe is made from satin, making a feminine, ballerina look. The box, (where the ballerina stands on her toes) is made up of densely packed layers of fabric with cardboard or paper, and lots of glue. The shank, (the inside part of the shoe, running along the bottom part of the dancers foot vertically giving support) is typically made out of layers of cardboard. The shank can be custom ordered and replaced with leather (my personal favorite), plastic, cardstock or even layers of hardened burlap with glue. The sole of the shoe (the backside of the pointe shoe) is made out of a thin layer of leather.

Satin, cardboard, leather, and glue is all there is to make up the shoes that allow ballerinas to create that infamous illusion of whimsical beauty.
xoxo
-Hol