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Simply Adult Ballet: the progress of one adult dancer who took up ballet later in life


Michelle_Richer

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Since Adrian my boyfriend and PDD partner has started working again I have lost him to share in our joint PDD coaching sessions. It’s also meant I have lost my Friday run down before the weekend. Its almost like the old days, in order to accommodate some time for Adrian I have had to SWEEZE another two hours in on a Friday evening to keep the PDD work going, that five and a half hours of ballet every Friday now. Saving grace, Easter is coming. Not only that Sunday was also full day at Elmhurst which is always tiring with the long drive there and back.

 

However the journey there and back this time was quite pleasant as it was all in daylight and the sun shining for most of it. The highpoint of Sunday was the last class where for the second time we had some rep for the centre work and it looks as if we will have the same teacher next time and a little more rep too, just love it. But never the less I was dog tired when I finally arrive home later that evening.

 

At least with Adrian out of the ring during the week, it’s freed some time to get on with the solos for Ballet West. The Black Swan is just about done but I don’t like the musicality with my fouettes, however I have found a way around them involving just a bit more port de bra to soke up the excess time.

 

This week was the start to look at Sapphire, for this we took the ending first as it’s easy to separate out from the music. For this we looked at a menege of coupe grand jete enturnant, unfortunately there is enough music for 16, the intention now is to limit it to eight, and find for want of a better word, some pretty turns for a spectacular finish on the diagonal.

 

One of the issues I have with my left leg is slight movement in the knee joint, this was a problem with the fouettes at one time but most of it was down to poor technique. As I have not used this type of menege before I am finding my left (back) leg is week at pushing the Grand Jete up and over in comparison to my teacher, also a little bit of it may be psychological in trying to protect itself from injuries I have had in the past, so I guess I need some effective strengthening exercise, like loads and loads of plie’s and jumps.  

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Life just seams to get even more challenging, I was really looking forward to the Easter break as most of my ballet classes had shut down except for our Tuesday rehearsals at Dance Alive.

 

On the bright side the large tree stump left over from Storm Doris has now been removed at a cost of £900 (ouch) but it did take a digger and lorry with a crane to remove it. That has allowed us to start on the footings for my new studio extension.

 

The real down side is reliability and  availability of studio space.

Firstly now I’m down to 2 hours a week of PDD practice with Adrian for Ballet West, instead of 4, as continuity is essential. Because of Adrian’s work commitments we can only accommodate this on a Friday evening (5pm – 7pm). However anticipating good Friday may be a problem , I checked with our local shop/Post Office that held the keys to the Hall that they would be open and no special events was on at the hall, all was reported as ok. When we arrived for the key at 4.45pm, guess what, they were closed, they had closed early, oh poo.

 

Tuesday after Easter on the train to London I received an email from the Ballet School that I hire a studio for a couple of hours on the Monday, to tell me Monday availability had been withdrawn due to rescheduling of staff. However they did ask me to contact them as they would still like to accommodate me and to explore my options. Unfortunately as it stands Tues , Wed and Thurs morning that are available as one of there Admin staff are in, are not available to me. My Friday bookings are still OK with them, although I did look at the possibility of moving my Glen Ballet rep classes back to Thursday evenings, immediately after their Improver Ballet class, which would most probably help support their ballet class numbers, although there is studio availability for an hour after, I do need at least 1.5 hours. That would have reduced my Friday loading which at the moment is five and a half hours of ballet plus travelling between three separate locations, this leaves me well drained for the weekend and even worse with getting up at 4.30 am to get ready for a full day at Elmhurst one Sunday in four.

 

Thursday, normally 2 hour down my local hall which was booked, only to find Physio has done a full days booking, looks like a one off, but no one had informed me Grrrrr. I will be please when my studio extension is done.

 

Wednesdays going forward, I have deliberately pulled from my ballet /fitness schedule to concentrate on progressing the studio extention.

 

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Grrrr still problems with hall bookings, we have lost Fridays booking this week for Adrian’s PDD practice, I thought Oh well we can move it to Monday morning as that is usually free, although I cant normally use that time, but my normal classes are closed for the bank holiday, wrong, its booked. Each step forward we do, its almost one back for him to keep the 6 minutes of PDD in his body.

 

I have managed to find another studio for Monday afternoons since loosing Sleaford for that day. I’ve also joined their evening adult ballet class as a bit of a thank you. The teacher described it as RAD intermediate, so I’m bound to get into trouble when I dance the barre. At least Elmhurst have got used to my wafty port de bras, something I inherited from Tom my teacher at ENB, as he was very performance orientated, god I miss that guy, the best teacher I ever had.

 

Studio extension footings going well, my brother has agreed to do the brickwork and Adrian has volunteered move the road-stone ballast in place with a bucketed digger machine once the brickwork is done. 

 

At least Tuesday night at our Alive rehearsal we had a lot of happy bunnies when I took our new show tutu’s in for checking dancer’s sizes, everyone looked stunning.

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9 hours ago, Michelle_Richer said:

Grrrr still problems with hall bookings, we have lost Fridays booking this week for Adrian’s PDD practice, I thought Oh well we can move it to Monday morning as that is usually free, although I cant normally use that time, but my normal classes are closed for the bank holiday, wrong, its booked. Each step forward we do, its almost one back for him to keep the 6 minutes of PDD in his body.

 

I have managed to find another studio for Monday afternoons since loosing Sleaford for that day. I’ve also joined their evening adult ballet class as a bit of a thank you. The teacher described it as RAD intermediate, so I’m bound to get into trouble when I dance the barre. At least Elmhurst have got used to my wafty port de bras, something I inherited from Tom my teacher at ENB, as he was very performance orientated, god I miss that guy, the best teacher I ever had.

 

Studio extension footings going well, my brother has agreed to do the brickwork and Adrian has volunteered move the road-stone ballast in place with a bucketed digger machine once the brickwork is done. 

 

At least Tuesday night at our Alive rehearsal we had a lot of happy bunnies when I took our new show tutu’s in for checking dancer’s sizes, everyone looked stunning.

Adrian's moving the ballast as well as partnering you? As the great Rugby League coach Maurice Bamford said, you need someone to carry the piano as well as someone to play it.

 

(I mentioned this in class the other day having just shoved the piano out of the way for centre. Talk about a culture clash...)

 

 

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That's not a culture clash, this is,  I was digging out the footing with a spade and barrowing the soil into the large crater left after the removal of my large tree trunk. I see Adrian chatting to one of my neighbours where this neighbour told Adrian what a good job he had done filling the hole. Adrian bless him took all the credit while I just smiled.

 

I have a frequently used catch phrase, "I can do anything, I'm a ballerina", then I show them some pickies of my performances on my phone, that really give me quite a giggle.  

 

Anyway Adrian will just love moving that ballast using big boy’s toys.

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  • 3 weeks later...

About 3 weeks ago I receive an email from RAD with an invitation to perform at New Street Station, Birmingham at their Pop-up Dance Floor Event on Sunday 9th July. This looked similar to the event we danced at last year to commemorate the Queens Birthday.  However this year mentioned solo's, duets and group pieces, I thought whoopee a chance to do a solo, best just check with RAD as I don't think anyone from my classes with the exception of only one girl would be happy to do a solo.

 I checked the feasibility of attending that event as the previous day and evening was my performances with the Alive Ballet Company in London, as it was, it was possible to stay overnight in London and catch an early morning train to Birmingham, do the solo, another session in the afternoon if required with a train back to Peterborough in the evening. As the next day I would be packing for the ProViva a la Dance Event with Vaganova in Finland.

 

I contacted RAD and the response came back that this event had only been sponsored for dancers under 18.

 

Later it was also revealed that our Artistic Director of the Alive Ballet Company could not attend the Finland event so sadly I had to cancel that. However I was advised by Pro Viva a la Dance people that they are organising another even in October and late December in Saint Petersburg Russia, I'm hoping we can make Saint Petersburg again.

 

 

Mayday bank holiday weekend no Studio hire for PDD practice with Adrian, also no availability on the Monday either, Grrrrr. The following Friday's PDD session with Adrian felt as if we had slipped back 3 weeks, also he was starting to have shoulder pains in one shoulder and we had to alter one of the two handed promenades from the Back Swan PDD to ease it. We also ran through the Russian Dance PDD to refresh his memory, that went reasonably well.

 

I attended the last session of RAD associates last weekend in Birmingham. Next term starts in September however the structure of the course has changed.

            First Session Body Conditioning

            Second session: a choice of Absolute Beginners or Improver's

            Afternoon Session: Repertoire but this can be booked separately.

 

The new Improver's session combines the old Improver 1 (RAD level 3-5) and Improver's 2 (RAD grades 6-8 and above)

 

Although I have booked up for Adult Associate for next term taking advantage of the Early Bird 10% discount, I have mixed feelings about the rep, as I absolutely hate rep that's watered down with simplicity.

For me I do rep one-to-one twice a week anyway, at one time when dancers retired to the staff room for lunch with RAD , I would use our studio to run through my own rep for practice during lunch break. Now we have lost the common room most people stay in the studio and it becomes somewhat difficult. I did try running through Sapphire from Jewels at BRB in bits and pieces, when I tried the ending phrase with Coupe Grand jete enturnant in a menege, after about 3 or 4 grand jete’s I had a group of dancers accidentally block my path, so I had to abort it. For me the facilities are not as good as they were.

 

The footing are finally done for my new studio extension, at least I will get a bit of a break before my brother starts on the brickwork on the 10th June as he is moving house. I think I need that break as just recently I have never felt so tired, so the break at the weekends will be very welcome indeed.

 

 

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I never thought I would say this, but I really enjoyed the Whitsun break from ballet. The week before Whitsun I had a very busy week and two evening I was down to only 4 hours sleep, this time I didn’t bounce back as expected, not only was I very tired but my legs in particular felt weak even when I had the opportunity to sleep I couldn’t manage more than 6 hours before I had to get up. With no real ballet until Thursday the 1st, apart from a couple of hours on Tuesday instead of my London rehearsal, I think I am pretty well back to normal.

 

However I have suspended my Glen Ballet group until September as the man of one of the couples is convalescing from surgery and another couple plan to be away in France for most of the summer, so it just made sense to close it for the time being.

 

However on the good side Adrian is able to remember all of the Black Swan PDD and at last we are starting to cleanse it.

 

My Sapphire Solo is done, as is my cut down version of Emeralds solo, however I’m not 100% happy with the sound editing of Emeralds, as I would really like to get the acoustic decay of the orchestra at my ending, rather than the abruptness which it present from the cut.

 

Diamonds I thought was going to be easy, but it’s turned out to be rather challenging. I didn’t realise just how beautiful the opening to Diamonds was, it grows on you, so trying to capture the artistry and musicality of that piece has turn out to be far more difficult than I had imagined, even my teacher/coach finds it so. Needless I’m having to alter it as I’m creating a solo from a corps de ballet piece which breaks into various grouping, so I have to pick out the most aesthetically pleasing choices that maintains flow and grace, also various pieces often have to be re-orientated to occupy the central stage area. As they say miracles just take a little longer. So it will be sometime yet before this one is finished.

 

Rubies: I have no clear idea on just yet, other than I will use some of the original music (Shortened) , and completely re-choreograph the dance to be traditionally classical but with fire.

 

 

 

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A question for my more learned dancing friends:

 

As I’m doing the OPENING to diamonds in the ballet JEWELS, I have an issue which I have had to cheat. What ques the dancers to start, as I’ve noticed on two separate videos by different ballet companies they have actually stepped into the balancé before the orchestra has started’

 

Initially I tried to dance with the music which meant I had to rush the first balancé (Forward) and it was rubbish. Now because I have the applause on the sound track I count up the three and land the balancé on three, but when Im dancing this at Ballet West they will be no applause to guide me.

 

I guess the question is , Do the dancers take their que from the conductor?

Or

Does the conductor take his que from the dancers?

 

In my version of Sapphire I had a similar issue with the music I chose, however I added a small introduction that enabled me to anticipate precisely where the choreography started.

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1 minute ago, Michelle_Richer said:

A question for my more learned dancing friends:

 

As I’m doing the OPENING to diamonds in the ballet JEWELS, I have an issue which I have had to cheat. What ques the dancers to start, as I’ve noticed on two separate videos by different ballet companies they have actually stepped into the balancé before the orchestra has started’

 

Initially I tried to dance with the music which meant I had to rush the first balancé (Forward) and it was rubbish. Now because I have the applause on the sound track I count up the three and land the balancé on three, but when Im dancing this at Ballet West they will be no applause to guide me.

 

I guess the question is , Do the dancers take their que from the conductor?

Or

Does the conductor take his que from the dancers?

 

In my version of Sapphire I had a similar issue with the music I chose, however I added a small introduction that enabled me to anticipate precisely where the choreography started.

 

At the RB, the dancers take their cue from the conductor.

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Ah, thank you, that makes sense. I know in class at ENB the pianist takes his ques/feedback from dancers doing travelling turns as I got into trouble one day when I blocked his vision.

 

I think for me its another music editing for an introductory que.

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Diamonds is just about done in terms of choreography, although I’m quite pleased with it, it has been troublesome getting it into the body, consequently it still need a degree of cleansing still.

 

Friday we start on the last Jewel “Rubies”, which is a major re-choreograph from contemporary to classical. I have found a piece of music from within that act that I may be able to use, but I think this one is going to be seriously challenging.

 

Adrians Russian Dance PDD is starting to show promise, however I have had to slow down the ending to 80% of it normal speed where I do a sort of Cossack dance while Adrian stamps his foot and claps his hands in time with the music before we both do a couple of turns out from the centre and into our final complementary pose to punctuate the music, that at least is beginning to work for Adrian.

 

The Black Swan PDD is a really big challenge for him, at least now he knows the full sequence, even though there's the odd hick-up on the way. The one thing I would like from Adrian more than technique as Adrian bless him is not a ballet dancer although he does try very very hard. Is the ability to display the feeling and passion of the character, case in point is where Siegfried and Odile break away, just before Odette makes a brief appearance.

 

I (Odile) , break away, go through a soutenu and do 3 full swan wing flaps before going towards the up-stage left corner to do 3 more.

Adrian (Siegfried) should abruptly break away from me and take his hand to his heart (feeling hurt emotionally), then the other hand to his forehead (feeling dejected “why?”), then slowly walks to wards down-stage right corner dragging his legs behind him. Instead it looks as if Siegfried develops a headache and is off for an aspirin or for a lyre-down. I do wish he could get a little bit more into character, but I don’t want to push him to the point he no longer enjoys dancing from the classics with me.

 

When we perform these pieces at our Summer Intensive at Ballet West, the last run-through of the day is usually done in costume. Adrian has a nice tunic for Siegfried provided by “Just Ballet”, but Adrian and the other two guys of our Glen Ballet Group always said “ I would never get them into tights”, however in the search for decent white legging, I came across what looked like white lycra leggings when I visited the “Dancing in the Street” store at Sleaford. I wasn’t sure if they would fit him as he is a big guy 6ft 3in and fairly well built, but hey presto, they did, further more he liked them. I really think he fancies himself as a ballet dancer after all, its growing on him. Ive since ordered him a black pair for the Russian dance. Incidentally the description of the product is “footless tights”, but I wont tell him that, at least no just yet.

 

The weekend was disappointing as my brother could not start the brickwork for the studio extention and it would have to slip a week. However it was probably a blessing in disguise, Adrian suggested it would be nice to go to our local town (SPALDING) park as there was a Brass Band playing there Sunday afternoon. We did, we took a picknick blanket to sit on, most other people had deck chairs, I laid back closed my eyes listening to a brass band from Lincoln, it sounded gorgeouse and I have never felt so relaxed for ages, my batteries certainly got a full recharge that day before the hustle and bustle of 5 sessions of ballet on the monday plus chasing tutu orders for the Alive Ballet company in London.

 

Although Tuesday should seem the lightest day of the week with only 3 hours of ballet, I was able to chase Revolution Danceware for the latest update before meeting the girls before rehearsal, as I had felt I had let them down in procuing the companies tutus as promised, I was quite prepared at this point to travel Revolutions warehouse in Swindon (about a 140 miles from home) , to make sure we had them ready for our first planned dress rehearsal. I was told verbally over the phone that they had been dispatched, but there was no email dispatch conformation.

 

Not only did I have that to contend with, but also no response from a telephone studio booking enquiry with the Central School of Ballet, in London, so I had to visit them too.

 

I also made arrangements with one our girls (Alive Ballet) to visit Kroyland the stage make-up people of Covent Garden, as she had never been there before. I met her at the tube station at Covent Garden and said I just want to pop into RBS, she thought I was going the bank, then the penny dropped as we went through the door of the Royal Ballet School, I just wanted to touch base with them over possible bookings for next year., the receptionist there was most helpful.

 

Once we got to the Kroyland stage make-up shop in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, I presented our sales assistant with an A4 photo of the face template we were using for our show and ask her for her advise as to how best match it. Needless to say we were there some time trying different products for colour matching and blending. Once those were sorted out and my friend was paying for her purchases I had a wonder round, being nosy as usual. I found this metal case, a little bit bigger than a lap top case, that opened out to form a table with 4 long legs attached, with an illuminated mirror at the back and two non-illuminated mirror at the side. It also had lot of compartments to store make-up too. I ask the price, one assistant though it was around £200, another thought it wasn’t for sale. They checked on their website and it was over £600, oh poo not this week, but it was really nice.

 

 

Finally Wednesday the Tutu's for the show arrived at my home, I now have 16 tutu's to take off to rehearsal in my largest suitcase, they only just fit. At last I will be able to close these orders down. Phew! that was close, as the original delivery date was the day before our show.

 

 

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On 02 June 2017 at 16:00, bangorballetboy said:

 

At the RB, the dancers take their cue from the conductor.

 

Conducting for the ballet requires experience. The Swansea Ballet Russe mostly used to perform to recorded music. I saw one performance where they had a live orchestra and their leading lady came on stage and was standing there for what seemed an eternity before the orchestra started playing. After the show I asked her why and she said that in the matinee the orchestra started before her entrance and she was behind the music and had to leave steps out to get back in sync. For the evening, she wanted to make sure that she was dancing on the beat.

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I remember last year when I took Gamzatti’s variation to Ballet West and I had quite a search for music that covered the initial port de bras, as the original one I was going to base my dance on, did a change of weight and with left hand literally hitting fifth on the very commencement of the music (sharp blast). There was no way I could anticipate that. In my search there were several different version with some that had a nice pre-port de bras section, it was one of those that I chose.

 

A couple of years back, I took the Three Odalisques variation from Le Corsaire which I did as a solo, that has quite a pre-port de bas section, but not all companies us it. ENB for example the right arm is raised for a considerable length of time however Bolshoi raised the arm to what sounds like a raising strum of the harp, which makes it far more interesting. Not only did we incorporate that at Ballet West but during the pre-amble , but we managed a walk around into position too, followed by a chasse thru and a raise of the arm as an extension to the harp strum, that really made use of the music and I think was far more interesting to an audience.

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There is a famous saying that “only mad dogs and English men go out in the mid-day sun”, I think that should include “Ballerinas” too. At least this is what it felt like this weekend.

 

 

This was the weekend that my brother came down to do the brickwork on my studio extention and I was his labourer, that is I mixed and provided him with the mortar as he needed it, and kept him supplied with bricks and hollow blocks between mortar mixes. In all I moved cover 400 bricks and over 40 hollow blocks via a wheel barrow from the front of the property to the side where the studio is being extended. That weekend was really hot 30+ with very little shade, the work was really tiring and all you wanted to do was drink. I remember each time I took my marigolds off, water (sweat) would run out of them, and your fingers would look as if they had been soaking in the bath for hours. Although my nail varnish ended up in a bit of a mess, at least I didn’t break any nails..

 

Fortunately my brother completed his brickwork by Sunday lunchtime, it really is starting to take shape. He left soon after lunch, but I was mindful that this would be the last weekend I could work on the studio extention for three weeks as I have the next two Sundays on extra rehearsals in London , then the following Saturday our performance of Paquita.

 

In the afternoon I was admiring my brothers brickwork from our barbecue area that is adjacent to the extension, with steps leading down to a narrow piece of lawn dividing them. I dropped some slabs on that lawn and thought "mmm" that works and then started piling so similar brick to the brickwork around a stone birdbath feature when Adrian came along. He said “Wow that looks nice”, I wanted to stop and finish what I had started but I was so so tired, at least I did get to cut the slabs before Adrian said “come on, I think you’ve had enough”, after that we just tidied things up and went out for a meal, I was just too tired to prepare anything, I was absolutely bushed.

 

When we finally got home all I wanted to do was to go to bed, but I had still got prep to do for Monday,s full day of ballet (5 sessions) but namely music editing and prep for my version of Rubies from Jewels. All though I went through the motions my heart wasn’t really in it, all I needed was sleep, sleep, sleep.

 

Monday came and went, the development of Rubies choreography was disappointing, it just wasn’t working for me.

 

Tuesday, rehearsal day and finally I have all the remaining tutu for our dancers. I set off with a large suitcase carrying 16 tutu's, it was really heavy. Eager to avoid stairs on the underground I decided I would walk from Oxford Circus past Bond Street station to M and S for tea before rehearsal at Dance Works. However I made a major boo boo, instead of going to Oxford Circus on the Victoria line, I went to Piccadilly Circus on the Piccadilly Line. Not sure why, probably a combination of tiredness and the fact I used to go via the Piccadilly line to classes at ENB, and Victoria line to RAD. Anyway I walked it pulling my large suitcase from Piccadilly Circus via Regent Street and Oxford Street to class. At least I had a lot of happy ballerinas going home with their new tutu's.

 

During the next three weeks the focus is on our show, so work has basically stopped on the studio extention and also rep for Ballet West other than Adrians PDD practice as I dare not let that slip behind.

 

My next hurdle is Sundays rehearsal at the Place starting at 9am, which for me means getting up sometime between 2 and 2.30am as its a restricted train service between Peterborough and London for that time of the morning. I have to leave home around 4am for the 4.51am coach from Peterborough to Stevenage arrive at 7.29am, then depart Stevenage by rail at 7.39 for Kings Cross at 8.18am. The return journey is no problem.

 

 

 

 

 

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The early morning start on Sunday for rehearsal didn’t go quite as planned. Getting up at 2am did, however Adrian had decided to go home to his flat during the day while I was away, which meant we had to be on the road at 3.30am while it was still dark.

 

I arrived a little early at Peterborough Train Station for the replacement bus service to Stevenage. When I found the bus stop, there were quite a few revellers waiting for the bus, they had clearly been out on the town the night before. When we started to board the bus, there were a few high spirits and bad language from some of the young guys and one of the guys was asked to leave the bus by its driver, he refused and the police were called to remove him, it was very unpleasant.

 

Eventually we were all asked to get off the bus, there was another one that had drew up parallel with our bus and many of the passengers were boarding it. I looked at the time it was 5.10 we were already 20 minutes behind schedule, I was mindful I might miss my rail connection at Stevenage and be late for rehearsal. I ask the driver if we would make the Stevenage connection and he told me to board the bus I had just got off, with that others joined me on that bus.

 

Although it was a long bus journey, we made Stevenage on time, and rehearsal too. In fact I was the first of the dancers to arrive, only my Artistic Director arrived before me.

 

At rehearsal for the first time we really are starting to put the show together, at least we are learning were to come on especially were the music doesn't stop and we have to be in position for a seamless transfer from a previous group. I think that rehearsal went extremely well even though we didn’t get chance to cover everything. Dress rehearsal next Sunday.

 

Although the Studio extension has come to a bit of a hiatus, I’ve been able to do a little bit of re-planning. As we need a lot of road stone for ballast in the foundation, 14 x 1 ton bulk bags of it, firstly that is going to take up a lot of room on my property to store it temporarily. So rather than moving the contents via machine like a bucketed digger which will move several bucket loads per bag which will be very time consuming, I went today to see our local plant hire company to explore the options. Now we are getting a counterbalance forklift so we can move a complete 1 ton bag at a time, take it where it needs to be dropped, cut the bag to empty its contents directly were it need to be.

 

Delivery of the road stone will be planned for the week immediately after the show, and if the weather looks favourable the hire of the machinery will be the weekend after the show, so for the moment things are looking good.

 

Another development not planned for, since adding the additional slabs referred to on my last post. I have an area that would look absolutely fabulous with a white marble life size ballerina statue on it. I know Marble and Bronze statues of that type are likely to cost tens of thousands. Im looking for a material that looks similar, that one may find in somewhere like a garden centre, any ideas would be gratefully received.

 

 

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I think I may have had a lucky escape from injury today, one week before our summer show and the day before dress rehearsal.

 

I guess this all started Thursday evening after my ballet class at Sleaford, as the studio is not used for the last session 8pm to 9pm I've started booking it. As we are getting close the Alive Ballet’s Summer Show (Paquita for our classical group), I’ve started to use that time to practice for the show. As the studio is an upstairs studio the floor is quite springy and I’ve noticed I can get better elevation on cabrioles , so I must admit I’ve have been giving them some wellie so to speak, that has been fine. I have also noticed one of the assemblies that uses my worst foot combination is much much better with that floor too.

 

Friday I had my usual studio (downstairs) which I have been using for years, but I think the floor is only semi-spring as it does feel quite a bit harder. I did an hour practice Friday afternoon before the children classes started with mainly our pieces from Paquita but ending with a couple of run thru’s of the Black Swan solo for Ballet West in a few week time.

 

I’m not sure what the last thing was I was doing, but I put my left foot down, not even from a jump and something felt as if it went with a crunch at the bottom of my foot. Although there was some discomfort there, I carried on for a short while but holding back a bit as it was quite near the end of my booking.

 

After that I went home and didn’t really give my foot a second thought. At 5pm Adrian and I went to our local hall for his two hour PDD practice, however I had already decided as we both knew the sequence, we would do some deep cleansing, that is break it down into short phases, and check it against to source or the original choreography. It became apparent after an hour or so things were not right with my foot and the pain was getting progressively worse, probably aggravated by the halls hard floor, we continued walking and marking it for a further half an hour and then I had to call a holt to it, by this time I was really getting worried it may impact my performance the following week end and of course the dress rehearsal this Sunday.

 

My hope was, rest overnight the issue will have righted itself the following morning, it didn’t, it was as bad the following morning. However during the day out shopping and arranging building supplies, its managed to improve considerably, there is only a minor presence left. However I think it would be prudent to avoid jumps in my normal classes before the show, but otherwise I’m rearing to go and looking forward to tomorrows dress rehearsal and our summer show next weekend.

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I would definitely hold back on the jumps this week as you don't want to jeopardise six months or more of hard work towards this show. The foot is probably a warning that it's been overworked recently!!! Take it easy especially if it's on the same side that's been giving you some twinges recently. 

Im completely neurotic before a show and usually only do the rehearsals for it and no other classes the week before.....even if I haven't any problems. This week for example I've an extra Pilates class instead of ballet and a massage on Friday!! 

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Hi Linda

 

I’ve pulled everything back this week, although I did my body conditioning class this morning and my one-to-one rep session; however I have cancelled Fridays one-to-one. Fortunately the studio I hire for a couple of hours on a Monday afternoon is not available this week as they are doing RAD exams, lucky I guess. I phoned them this afternoon to tell them I wouldn’t be at class tonight. I know when we finished rehearsal on Sunday I was starting to limp a bit.

 

Strangely, resting doesn’t appear to help at all, but what appears to be effective is walking, firstly when it gets troublesome, if I walk on it, I can only describe it at hurting nice, the pain seams to ease it, then it allows me to fully articulate the weight through that foot and the discomfort largely disappears with only a minor presence left.

 

I must confess it’s not unlike the effect of overuse I experience about 3 to 4 years ago when I was clocking up something like 7 hours of ballet a day, now it’s somewhat less at 4 to 5 hours a day.

 

 

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I managed to do something similar to my foot a little while ago. As if I'd displaced something small in the foot. It would hurt once it had been rested but walking would stretch it out and make it much happier. Of course this was during end-of-year show rehearsal time! I ended up marking through when I really needed to be dancing full out, but there you go.

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I’ve eased back somewhat this week, although I did four hours of ballet yesterday, my foot seams to be holding up well. I’ve a couple of hours tonight with Adrian , deep cleansing our Black Swan PDD, but I wont be going full out, not until our show is out of the way tomorrow.

 

I’ve warned Emma my rep coach that I may not be in on Monday, but on balance I think I will be OK, as I’ve a lot of catching up to do for my pieces for Ballet West.

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On show day my foot/legs were trouble free inspite of a near miss with Adrian on the Friday evening. Although we were deep cleansing the Black swan PDD with mostly walking and marking it. There is a piece just beyond where Odette or her ghost appears where Odile burees back and does a penche kiss to the kneeling Seigfried, then turns and does a step step jete enturnant to a full down pigeon pose ( Like spits with back leg folded under her body) , well my leg wouldn’t fully fold and I went down quite hard as this had never been a problem before, I yelped and rolled over, it was really painful, but thankfully there was no lasting damage.

 

As we were basically marking through with attention to detail rater than dancing full out, I guess I wasn’t properly warmed up.

 

 

Sadly though we lost two of our female dancers due to injury for our show, one on the previous rehearsal night, the other during rehearsal before the show.

On the brighter side our Artistic Director had a surprise in store for us all. We had a professional male Cuban dancer joining us to open the show.

 

He did barre with us as one of the dancers, at the end when we were all doing our own stretches I had a little chat with him.

 

During the Tech run, most of us were watching him, I see him do a grand jete with flexed feet, I thought “What on earth is that”, it looked awful, other pieces he didn’t fully execute them but go into a strange pose and wave his finger near his mouth, clearly he had a cheeky sense of humer.

 

When it came to the dress run, his minute or so of a Don Quixote variation was awesome with his triple beating cabriole and grand jete's that form a rotating mid-air splits, it certainly had a huge wow factor for us mear mortals to follow. The idea of a professional guest dancer was brilliant and the whole day was fantastic but tiring by the time we finally got home in the early hours.

 

Monday for me was full on 5 sessions to catch up with my pieces for Ballet West, as I had neglected much of Jewels for the last 3 weeks or so with constant focus on Paquita for our show.

 

Only one session on Tuesday as there was no rehearsal this week, however London was still on with a review of the show and the last six months of rehearsal at the Actor Centre in Covent Garden, something we do after each and every show. Then a meal together in a restaurant around Covent Garden, this time organised by our LinMM, well done Lin.

 

In all the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks I forgot to check my time-line when booking the last two ENB workshops which were open for booking on Monday.

 

ENB Nutcracker Workshop on the Coliseum stage 29th December

 

ENB La Sylphides, full day Ballet Intensive at Markover House 14 January, sadly Im at Elmhurst on that day with Giselle, so have had to cancel ENB, I just hope they are able to do a refund.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Michelle_Richer
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Have just booked the Nutcracker workshop!! Still making up my mind about the other two. It's trying to get anywhere by 10am on a Sunday especially in the autumn/winter as they are always working on some bit of the Brighton line in this period!! 

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Gradually some of my regular class are closing down for the summer break, at least the Alive Ballet Company is not. For some it may be a bit of a rest bite, for me it’s a little more time to devote to my 4m studio extension.

 

Everything was going to plan until I returned home from ballet Friday tea time. I had ordered a forklift to carry the 12 one ton bags of aggregate (road stone hard core). The fork lift was there, the delivery driver was about to go until he see me arrive, Adrian came out and said, its no good, he showed me the lawn, it had been badly chewed up with big furrow left in it where the wheels have gone. Apparently the driver got the fork lift stuck on the lawn where there was bit of an incline, they had to winch it out from his lorry, we couldn’t have done that. Thank goodness the driver did it when demonstrating to Adrian.

 

The driver got out of his cab and came over to me and said “what you need is a dumper truck; we have one in the yard”, I was under the impression that the forklift could go back and be replaced by a dumper truck, wrong we needed both, as illustrated in the picture.

 

Although we hired the equipment for the week end, we actually moved the 12 tons of aggregate in half a day, furthermore I had underestimated how much we needed based on one cubic metre per ton, checking at the builder merchant it looks closer to 0.75 cubic metres per ton, in reality I think it’s a bit less than that, as we have added another 4 tons (me by hand), and it probably need another 3 or 4 tons before compacting.

 

Adrian.jpg.0237ccad36e19b9699c25990f0b08159.jpg

 

 

At least Adrian got to play with his Big Boys Toys. For me my catch Phase is still alive and well “I’m a ballerina, I can do anything”. I must say when I went into ballet I never dreamed I would be doing this, what next I wonder, a theatre perhaps.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Michelle_Richer
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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh the start of summer, as most of my regular ballet classes have broken up after the summer term until September, time to slow down and relax, whoopee I thought as my studio extension has come to a bit of an hiatus until this weekend when my brother finishes off the brickwork. Then we are pretty well grounded until the mortar dries out and fully strengthens coupled with the fact that next weekend Adrian and I travel up to Ballet West.

 

However we did have a good weekend starting with a trip to London , Adrian and I attended Chelsea Ballets 50th Anniversary celebration, it was really enjoyable with lots of lovely dancing friends including our own balletcoer LinMM. It really was a wonderful evening until we arrived back at Peterborough in the early hours, we were greeted by heavy torrential rain, it never stopped which made driving the 25 miles home very unpleasant, when we got up in the morning it had stopped.

 

Sunday we were to take my sister and her friend to Heckington country show, its one of the largest events of its kind in our county. Adrian wasn’t very keen on going, so I text one of my ballet teacher that I knew was there, she text back to say "bring willies".

 

I persuaded him to go, picked up the other two and arrived at one of the fields allocated as the event car park, there was still plenty of space left, however to get to where other vehicles had parked, it meant we had to cross an area which was very much like a mud bog, needless to say we got stuck twice crossing it, but there was lots of event helpers around to give us a push and a few tractors too. Although trudging through mud wasn’t very pleasant and a bit smelly at times, I think we all enjoyed the day, but I didn’t get to see our local ballet classes to perform, not sure if they were cancelled.

Adrian bless him was starting to fret about how to get across the mud bog we came through. About 4pm we decided it was time to go, on the way back to the car we see 2 vehicles stuck crossing the mud bog. I happened to see the odd vehicle going round the outside perimeter of the field and said to Adrian that’s worth a try. A guy in a 4 wheel drive land rover type of vehicle, said, "I wouldn’t if I were you, there is a large mud bog in the corner you will never get though". Well we did, it was a case of finding as many grassy islands that lined up between the mud and using those to gain sufficient momentum to carry through the muddy regions, the final piece of mud up to the exit gate was quite long but we got there, a bit like rally cross and quite exiting.

 

Monday: back to ballet, as my private hire of studios is largly unaffected, but just to be sure I emailed the school in advance to confirm, and a reply came back someone would be there at 1.30pm on Monday to let me in, oh poo I waited until 2pm but still no one arrive. On the good side I was sat in the sunshine just outside the schools main entrance popping my Jewels documentation into its appropriate plastic folders with the folder of the Jewels choreography, that I will need for Ballet West next week.

 

Tues is Rehearsal day but it seams to be extending to include another activity, finding and visiting prospective studios and theatres for the company I dance for and our sister company too.

 

As I am a member of the International Dance Council CID-UNESCO, as many of our Ballet Company are, which was required for our trip to the 47 World Congress in Dance Research last November in Saint Petersburg. I now get mail drops of upcoming events. I received one on Saturday which I can only describe as disturbing, not because its nasty in any way, but because its causing a certain amount of heart ache, it was this list and dates of Forthcoming congresses

 

Lviv, Ukraine, 25-27 August 2017

Hallandale Beach, Florida, USA, 15-19 November 2017

St. Petersburg, Russia, 25-29 April 2018

Mumbai, India, 12-16 December 2018

 

What caught my eye was Florida, this is something I just have to do, but there are so many things against it. Firstly my studio extension will only just been completed and my financial resources will be low.

 

Its unlikely I will have had time to prepare properly for what I am proposing to do, its not enough for me to just attend the presentation of scientific / research papers, attend various dance class. The important piece for me is the few minutes in evening of the final day which is allocated to what I can only describe as the Grand Gala Performance from dances and dancers from all over the world, and little old me wants to dance my solo classical ballet piece without any dance company to support me. It’s daunting, I’m not even sure I’m psychologically ready, but its well and truly on my got too do list. There is a real turmoil going on inside me as my head says “Wait until it come round again” (typically 18 months to 2 years) and my heart says “do it now while you can” Grrrrrrr, this is a hard one, I guess it would have been a little easier if it had been next year, however Im hoping we will be dancing with the Vagonova people in Saint Petersburg next year together with many of my dancing friends of the Alive Ballet Company again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This was to have been the short week as level 1 brickwork of the studio extension is completed,.

 598bac8e4ade3_ExtendedLevel1a.jpg.87c595a4caefebd17baae15de3f1634c.jpg

 

We now have to wait for its drying out strengthening before we can implement to compacting of the ballast for the next level, our break for Ballet West will be more than adequate for that.

 

This week is one final push at cleaning before Ballet West next week and I’m already tempted to change some of the choreography, particularly my Jewels; Emeralds solo. My edit of the music is just a little too abrupt for the finish, but if I extend it, it also spoils it as it runs into the next phase. At the weekend in a moment of inspiration or madness I decided to run the music without the edit and dance it from the heart as I hadn’t danced it or learnt beyond that point before and in any case it has some of my own choreography in it. It was amazing what came out of it and the length of it, but it didn’t have an ending. I’ve since looked at it and found a better closure point, but it will need some further work. Oh poo have I really got time or do it and trade off some of the things that need a little more polishing.

 

Tuesday my London day turned out to be a bit of a challenge, I had two Theatre venues to visit with my Artistic Director prior to our rehearsal. Tuesday is a fairly tight day anyway with my weekly hair appointment first thing followed by a pre-rehearsal practice session at my local hall, that had to be brought forward half an hour, instead of leaving home at 2pm for London, I left just before 12 midday, with a first appointment at 2.45pm, just made it, we manage to get good constructive meetings at both theatres before going to rehearsal. The previous week I had been contacting a number of small theatres and studio theatres for our Christmas show as the one we had planned on was no longer available. Sadly neither the Linden Studio Theatre in the Royal Ballet School or the Clore Studio Theatre in the Royal Opera House were available on the dates we requested, oh poo I would have preferred one of those.

 

Almost ready to start packing for Ballet West , the costumes are ready, most of the jewellery for jewels as I got the last two tiaras today, only head ache is sticking black feather to a tiara for Black Swan, having tried several different types of adhesive, if all else fails I will try sticking the feathers in my bun. It’s a fairly standard tiara with the centre stone removed, I’m replacing that with a black stone which I have ordered and are collecting on Friday, just in time as we are bound for Scotland early Saturday morning.  

 

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I have to say Michelle I would personally feel a little uncomfortable having our show at ANY studio in the ROH!! Especially the Linden and Clore!!

 

I"m not putting our group down but we are amateur dancers after all ....however enthusiastic and serious we may be about our performances!! 

Somehow having a workshop there is different to using as a performance venue. So have to say am rather glad they cannot accommodate us on this occasion!! 

Its a shame we didn't get the Westminster Kingsway booked as I thought that was pretty ideal for us with a generous stage size and a good location to get to for the audience. 

I think as there are more groups performing now shows will have to be booked much more in advance but the ROH?....a little too hallowed an environment for me!! 

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This is for MODERATORS!

i have been unable to use the forum in the normal way from my contacts list this morning.

Have tried various ways to try to get back in and in the end managed to do it via Google and went straight to Doing Dance from there.

I saw the above post which wouldn't go this morning has now gone but am going to leave the Forum to see if can get back in in the usual way or whether I get to this strange blue page which looks like advertising for website setups 

 

The other day after the software update I had no probs re putting in username and password etc so,not sure why this morning after initially accessing it suddenly "went weird" 

Otherwise I will need to check whether the IPAD memory is wearing out quicker than mine!! 

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For the attention of MODERATORS AGAIN!

 

i just saw that others have been having problems this morning in the Test  section but when I tried to post from there what my experiences had been it said you can no longer post from their AS THE PROBLEM IS SORTED!!

Unfortunately NOT for me!!

As soon as I leave the Forum and try to access in the usual way from my contacts list it goes straight to this strange blue page which just doesn't get me to the forum

I have accessed again now only via Google and looking down the topic lists for a way in ....THIS IS NOT NORMAL FOR ME! 

So I think there is still a problem and the Test site has been closed prematurely

Sorry to write all this here but where else can I post it from? 

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FOR THE ATTENTION OF DOING DANCE USERS:

 

There has been a problem with the board all day and the Moderators are having problems accessing the site.  There is a topic in the Problems/Queries/Feedback section, which is where you should put any messages please.

 

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7 hours ago, LinMM said:

I have to say Michelle I would personally feel a little uncomfortable having our show at ANY studio in the ROH!! Especially the Linden and Clore!! 

I think as there are more groups performing now shows will have to be booked much more in advance but the ROH?....a little too hallowed an environment for me!! 

 

Hi Linda

 

Just one point of correction, the Linden is not in ROH as you mentioned, it’s across the road in the Royal Ballet School, I think you have it confused with the Linbury, I've also asked for a budgetary price on that too, although that will be definitely out of our reach unless we can put a lot of bums on seats. 

Do forgive me, but I am positively trying to secure the Linden for our next summer show, but it depends on RBS associates bookings over the summer.

 

As for ROH, I did speak to them about our Ballet Boot-Camp Intensive and I did eventually get a positive response back from them, although it was expensive. However they were too late with the quotation, and in the meantime I had already secured a studio for it at Sadlers.

 

I guess you wont want do Russia next year with the “model students of Vaganova” or contribute to the Gala performance if we get the opportunity, that will be an awful shame and I will miss the fun we had last year.

 

I’ve decided to give the Florida World Congress on Dance Research a miss this November but I will attend and perform on my own at the next one, Adrian has agreed to go with me, but its unlikely he will dance, that is in no way associated with our group. I guess I don’t know my place in this Ballet Culture, but heck I love this new passion that's driving me.

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