Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

Mid-way through Ashton’s A Month in the Country, Natalia Petrovna (Lynn Seymour) and Beliaev (Anthony Dowell) dance passionately as they admit their forbidden love to the hauntingly beautiful music of Chopin. She is married, he is the tutor to her children. Her daughter, who loves Beliaev, happens upon them and calamity ensues. I saw them do this at the Met and can never forget their performances in this beautifully choreographed work by Frederick Ashton. Plus, Dowell would always flash his gorgeous smile when taking bows in front of the curtain. Ah, the glory days of ballet at the Met!

Seymour & Dowell in Month

Seymour in Month

Finis talks about the teachers who were most instrumental  in his career, beginning with Willam F. Christensen (Mr. C) at the University of Utah in 1955, followed by Madame Valentina Pereyaslavec, Robert Joffrey, Vera Volkova, Rosella Hightower, and David Howard at The Harkness Ballet in 1969.

1958 Franz in Mr. C’s Coppelia

1958 in class with Mr. C at the U of U

1958 Snow Pas by Mr. C

1959 Mr C Teaching

1959 Mr. C and his grads

1959 Mr. C

1960 Mme. Perey

1960 Mme. Perey’s book

1962 The Joffrey Ballet performs A FILLE MAL GARDEE in India

1964 Leon Fokine, Vera Volkova, George Skibine with The Harkness Ballet

1964 Vera Volkova coaches

1964 Vera Volkova

1968 David Howard and Harkness Company in Monte Carlo

1968 David teaches Harkness Ballet dancers at the Alcazar

1968 David teaches The Harkness Ballet in Monte Carlo

1968 David teaches the Harkness women

1968 Rosella coaches DTH

1968 Rosella in La Sylphide

1968 Rosella poses

1968 Rosella teaches the Harkness women

1969 David Howard & Ann Mercedes

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

Tiler Peck is one of my favorites. She dances with exquisite delicacy and is technically perfect. I just saw her perform as Louise in the NY Philharmonic version of “Carousel” and she was pure magic. I saw her Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and thought she was exceptionally lovely.

Tiler & Joaqui in Stars & Stripes

Tiler as The Sleeping Beauty

Tiler in Carillons

Finis talks about how dance has been the main motivating factor in his life since he was six years old. We’ve included some cartoons by Jules Feiffer, the renowned cartoonist whose famous dancer we think  was the first to say “To dance is to live.” The phrase pretty much describes Finis’s professional life as a teacher for 41 years—starting out with 4 students and eventually opening his own studio with sold-out classes and becoming the founder and artistic director of his own Chamber Ballet USA. He discusses how after a full day of teaching classes, he would return home, question his own teaching methods and then study famous dancers on video in an effort to learn what they did that made them so special so that he could become a better teacher. For Finis, ballet is a key to living a more fulfilling life.

1959 at the U of U dancing in Mr. C’s HAFFNER SYMPHONY

U of U 1959 – The Jewel Hunter in PARANDA

1962 my first job with Robert Joffrey in Aida at The Seattle World’s Fair with young Francesca Corkle

Feiffer a dance to autumn

Feiffer a dance to spring

Feiffer pas de chat

FJ at  Workshop with Broadway Legends Gwen Verdon and Peter Genarro

FJ teaches at a Conference in 2011

FJ teaches his adult babies at The Ailey Extension

FJ making Pirouette Class 2 with Sachiko Kanai. Assisted by Mayumi Omagari. Recorded & Edited by Katie Morgan

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

I love the Cirque du Soleil because they find extraordinarily talented performers who are always made up and dressed (or undressed) in the most interesting ways. I was hypnotized the first time I saw this couple. And what amazes me is that they don’t have bulky muscles.

1955: Finis leaves Hawaii for the first time and goes to the mainland to find out whether or not he can become a ballet dancer. Why & how Finis went to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City

1954 At the Dorothy Hellis Moots Studio in Honolulu

1954 Dancing with Carole Ota at The Dorothy Hellis Moots Dance Studio in Honolulu

1955 Finis & Friends at airport

1955 My first photo shoot with shrunken woolen tights

1955, Leaving for Utah

1956 My first Nutcracker Spanish

1956 My first starring role as the Prince in the King & I at the U of U

1956 U of U Romeo & Juliet dancer

1957 My second Nutcracker Spanish

1957 studio shot

1958  U of U jump

1958 my 3rd Nutcracker Spanish

1958 Performing the Snow pas de deux at the U of Utah

1958 studio shot

1959 U of U in Mr. C’s class

1959, graduating U of U with Mom

I’ve seen ‘em all, from Pavlova on film to Plisetskaya to Makarova and even the Trocks, but this one is out of this world. Here’s hoping he inspires hip-hoppers to apply their talents to classical music. His musicality and delicacy is exceptional – and that ending. . .

Today I reminisce about my Mother.

1. 1936, Bryson, Mom, Grafton, Finis

2. 1947, My Mom, Caroline Jhung

3. 1952, Finis & Mom at Manana Housing (we were very poor, living in an Army Housing “out in the country”)

4. 1958. My Mom working in Classified Advertising at The Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Next we talk about getting to The University of Utah

Hello,

This is a new blog series where I’ll give you a link to a YouTube performance I find inspiring and you tell me what you think. Do you like it? Why? If you don’t, why? Let’s compare notes!

Here’s Gelsey Kirkland dancing Giselle’s variation in Act 1. I saw her do this with Misha!

Here are photos of my parents, Walter & Caroline Jhung, and me with older brothers Grafton & Bryson.

1. Walter & Caroline, just married and  on the boat to Honolulu, 1932

2. Walter & Caroline are greeted at the dock by his parents, Woon Sur and Shin Sil Lee Jhung, 1932

3. Family portrait, Honolulu, 1938

4. The “haole” mother with her three Oriental boys, 1940

Next week we’ll present Part Four: My Mother