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Choreographer's Diary

by Leigh Witchel

Day Day 24 - August 30, 1999.
18 days until the performance.

Chuck and I go through Aubade again. I've told Abraham to come in early to watch Chuck rehearse, "because he's the do-bee." Abraham doesn't get the
Romper Room reference, but comes early and watches attentively, which endears him to me. He's a hard worker, sweet and even-tempered. A good kid, even if
he calls me Dad. Chuck bumps the energy level of the run up a notch from when he did it on Friday, and still gets through the ballet, a good sign. It's interesting for me to work with a dancer like Chuck, on that technical level. The main difference seems to be not so much the level of his technique, but the reliability of it. Chuck pretty much does four turns at the same place in the ballet almost every time. He can do a double tour
landing in arabesque even if he didn't set himself up perfectly for it. I like watching Aubade, merely to see his technique exhibited in this way. Now that I've used Chuck as a "guest artist" it would be interesting to see what using a dancer like that was like in a more conceptual work. Or is using them as a "guest artist" really their most appropriate use? In Chuck's case,
I think he left ABT to go to NYCB primarily to be used as more than someone who gets trotted out to do multiple pirouettes and a manège.

Horizon continues, step by step, inch by inch. It's like pulling teeth, and the tension in the room is immense. I also have a head cold, which makes it even harder for me, I sound very curt, when I'm actually dizzy. We're moving way too slowly. Three and a half hours of rehearsal produces somewhere around three minutes of re-setting. A section that should have taken fifteen
minutes drags on for almost forty-five. I cut a run-through of Scherzo at the end of the day to steal time for Horizon and do my best to keep tempers
even.


Day 25