Episode 28: Annemarie Cabri

Former dancer and senior teaching artist for The National Ballet of Canada, Annemarie Cabri, joined The Adult Ballet Studio this month!

• Follow Annemarie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annemariecabri.dance/
• Learn more about Cabri Dance: https://www.cabridance.com/
• Subscribe to Annemarie’s Silver Swans newsletter: https://www.cabridance.com/past-newsletters
• Register for the Silver Swans Summer Session for 2025: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBzu3ZgagxeqR4JoDcdxCjlx2QZqQLVfgebpNdEUt_uRDWtA/viewform?pli=1

Additional thoughts from Annemarie, lightly edited for brevity:

I had a moment of ‘esprit d’escalier.’ This is a new-to-me French expression that means the things you think about after the fact. Elizabeth asked me what it is about ‘every day movement’ that inspires me to create dance?

Prior to this question, there was some talk about how we are meant to move and dance, and my fascination with our eight fundamental movement patterns babies sequence through in their first year of life. But what I realize now is that not only do these patterns set us up to be ready learners, and able to function at our highest potential, they also allow us to develop a lot of the attributes found in studying ballet.

As a dancer, I’ve been told that I observe and move through the world always from a dancer’s viewpoint. I am not a dancer only when on stage or in the studio. And here lies the connection perhaps to a life philosophy: to move gently in the world and give more than take. This is important to me that ballet is more than the steps or costume or story. Ballet movement, philosophy, and the music that coordinates with ballet includes deep emotions and physical expression. The feeling of ourselves in space and ability to imagine many different ways to move can be deadened as we age. How to simulate the exhilaration we feel and have known in a class when the participants can no longer run?

The last question posed by Elizabeth was how do I envision ballet in the future? I would like teachers to bring joy to the students, knowledge of the roots of each step, why they were created, and how we can bring quality of movement to feel and see the artistry that ballet was developed for. People were interested in, and understood, how feeling, seeing, and surrounding oneself in beauty, and things of beauty improved oneself. From inside and out, you could have your world stretched.

As for ballet on stage, it’s a big question. Ballet directors are coming together to ask these very serious questions from all around the world. The Dutch National Ballet started the conference ‘Positioning Ballet’ in 2017, and this month for the first time, the conference will be held at Canada’s National Ballet Company. How do we preserve the historic ballets with their gendered roles and story lines in today’s experience? How do we retain the physical history from the original choreographers as we get further and further away from anyone alive today to pass this knowledge on? 

I would like to see a variety of ballets on stage from the preserved ballet technique and style that was created in the older ballets to new works that take the ballet technique to a new plane. I would like to see the dancers on stage represent our world today. How this is done, I’m not quite sure, but I am hopeful there are creatives who will know how and have the desire to do so.

Music in this episode:

Waltz of the Flowers - Tchaikovsky

Barroom Ba