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

[LinMM]

In the end though I think the version with the fouetté is slightly harder and can more easily throw you off balance but good idea to learn both. I find en dedans pirouettes much harder in general

[Kate_N]

My teacher shows both, and I've learned both. Her reasoning for teaching the basic beginners in the class the version without the fouetté is that a single en dedans pirouette doesn't need much force. I find that's true -- in a single it's pretty easy to just sail around once.

 

But it emphasis the way there are several "right" ways to do things doesn't it?

 

I love talking to experienced performers who will talk about the various versions of choreography. And in class we're all working towards being ready to do whatever is asked of us by our teachers.

[drdance]

Hi everyone - I hope no-one minds my jumping on this thread but I would like to let you know that I am starting an adult ballet class in Warwick on Sept 7th. The class will be on Monday evenings, 6.30-7.30pm and will be £6 if paid termly, or £6.50 pay as you go. It'll start as a mixed ability class but I'm sure that before long there will be two classes as there are already 10 people signed up to take part. 

[Anna C]

Jump away :-) but as this thread is now pretty long, it may also be worth you starting a separate one with the tag "Adult Ballet" to ensure that lots of people see it.

[Kate_N]

I was wondering if we needed a new thread anyway? This one is very long.

[Terpsichore]

I notice that this will be my 500th post to this forum since I joined it in 2013. Goodness!

 

I can't think of any better way of marking this moment than reporting back on KNT's Adult Ballet Intensive based on Swan Lake which took place in Manchester between the 17 and 19 August. 

 

This was a great success. We had a first class teacher in Jane Tucker but I also have to commend and thank Karen Sant, the principal of KNT, who organized the workshop, her staff members who joined our class from time to time and encouraged us and also all the other participants who made me feel so welcome and put me at my ease. I don't mind admitting that I was a bag of nerves when I turned up to the Dancehouse on Monday morning because I couldn't see how I could possibly stay the course.

 

It was indeed very, very, very hard work with back to back warm-up, class, rehearsals and more rehearsals and cool-down from 10:00 to 16:45 for three consecutive days. I reminded myself that that is what dancers do every day and then they have to perform in a show (or sometimes two shows). I take my hat off to those folks.  

 

We learned four dances over the three days: the cygnets' pas de quatre, the Hungarian dance, Siegfried's solo and the entry of the swans. I can't pretend that I mastered more than a very little bit of each dance  Many of the steps were quite beyond my physical strength and ability. But at least I tried. I attended every single class, all the rehearsals and I took part in the end of workshop show.

 

I think I shall experience the full benefit of the course when I next see Swan Lake which in my case will be Birmingham Royal Ballet's this year and David Nixon's transatlantic version next year. I shall be looking out for all those changements, echappes and pas de chat which nearly made me trip up my companions in cygnets, the jumps and turns in the prince's solo which nearly killed me, the proud Magyars and the temps leves and chasses of the enchanted swans.

 

Despite all the physical rigours I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was a great experience and in my case literally a once in a lifetime opportunity for I don't think I will ever be able to do it again. It was well worth the £200 and the time off work. I do hope that Michelle enjoys Giselle as much as I enjoyed Swan Lake.

 

If anyone is interested I kept a diary over the three days of the course which I published in my blog,

Edited August 21, 2015 by terpsichore

[Jan McNulty]

Glad you had such an enjoyable and rewarding time Jane!  Thanks for reporting back.

[Kate_N]

Wonderful report, Terpsichore. Thank you for posting.

[Michelle_Richer]

Hi Kate_N

If I can just come back one a few comments you have made towards me:

 

Firstly “ I'm a bit puzzled about a desire to learn the exact repertoire before attending a workshop”, for me that’s logical to fully understand the objective and execute it as efficiently as one can.

 

Secondly “I've long been taught that, as a dancer, you need to be prepared to change the way you do things for a specific teacher or choreographer.” Although this is true, it is also quite inefficient. I know from experience of myself and fellow dancers, when we have spent weeks rehearsing a piece and the chorography gets changed, its far more difficult to replace that existing body memory that to learn something from scratch. But in reality it does happen and there are no easy answers.

 

Thirdly: “I think maybe, Michelle, that you're quite new to ballet & the theatre/performing arts more generally? I was literally brought up in the theatre, so it's interesting to see the responses of a newcomer to my world “. I guess that is true as I did not do ballet as a child or in my younger years, However I do think that also gives me the advantage of not having the same teacher child depenancy that may persist from childhood.

I think my mindset is probably quite different to your own, it does have quite a business bias and I do not not see that as a mutually exclusive attribute to the arts world. If Im going to class or rehearsal I want to know what I am going to get out of it and does it broadly meet my objectives. Especially as my objective are performance based even though there is no financial reward.

 

Much of my relationships with ballet teachers seems to be quite different to your own, in that Im talking about my repertoire coaches. Generally for the first session the major part of the time is spent in roll reversal. Im teaching and correcting the teacher until she is fully familiar with the rep, then we can get into detail and artistic interpretation, there is no lack of respect or embarresment by either party and the relationship developed out of that is extremely close. I have two different rep coaches I use every week and this works well with both, it wasn’t specifically planned that way but evolved and we are all compfortable with it.

 

 

Hi Terpsichore

The KNT Giselle workshop was OK, I enjoyed the series of pieces incorperating the “Dance of the Willis” from act 2. We also did Giselle’s solo from Act 1. which was somewhat simplified, that I did for the workshop but tried desperately not to take it in my long term memory. I will reburn the original Bolshoi / RB version into the body next week, it was one of the pieces I did at Ballet West. The three days at Ballet West went exceptionally well with a very strong bias on performance presentation. Just before I left Gillian asked if she could come and see me perform at the Bloomsbury next year if she can make it. Then I will really really have to clean my act up. I have already book a week of rep coaching with her for next year,

Edited August 23, 2015 by Michelle_Richer

[BalletRocks1]

Michelle, I understand that you like to know exactly what you're covering before you do an intensive/workshop so that you can "fully understand the objective and execute it as efficiently as one can" - but what I don't think you seem to understand (or maybe you do and just haven't mentioned it) is that this approach to these sort of things can cause issues. For example, if you're told before what repertoire we're covering and you attempt to learn some of it beforehand, then you might get to the intensive/workshop and find out that you're actually doing different choreography - this means that not only have you wasted your time learning it, but that you're more likely to make errors during the intensive/workshop as you're having to try and forget the choreography you've learned whilst also learning new choreography.

I have to say that I do agree with Kate_N where she has said "you need to be prepared to change the way you do things for a specific teacher or choreographer" - each teacher has their own preferences on how something should be done, and as the students in the situation we need to listen to them. It can be awkward to change the choreography last minute, everybody will agree with that, but as dancers we need to always be prepared for something like that to happen.

 

I am quite new to ballet and have dipped in and out of performing arts for most of my life (I did a fair bit of Irish dancing when I was younger, and dropped in and out of drama for years), so I understand where Kate_N is coming from - plain speaking is something to be careful about in this kind of environment. You will be recognised and respected for any knowledge and talent you have. Plain speaking and is likely to offend or upset some people. If you do have any comments or suggestions about how something should be done then you need to take these privately to the teacher - if they agree with your suggestions then good for you, and if not, well you'll just have to get on with it.

 

I have quite friendly relationships with all of my teachers, but I would never dream of teaching or correcting them - they have been training and performing nearly their whole lives and I highly doubt that I would know more than they do (unless they need to know anything about spreadsheets or The Sims - I've spent an awful lot of time on both!). I can't say I've ever met a dance teacher who was willing to be taught/corrected by a student, so the teachers/coaches you have referred to in your post must be the special exceptions.

 

I don't remember Jane simplifying anything from the Act 1 solo - can you specify how it was simplified/what it was simplified from? Your comment (regarding the choreography) about trying "desperately not to take it in my long term memory" and how you want to "reburn the original Bolshoi / RB version into the body" brings me back around to my point above about how as dancers, we need to always be prepared for something to change. You chose to spend your time (or some of it, anyway) learning a different version to what we were taught, and you needed to be prepared to learn something different at the intensive - and from what you have posted above, it doesn't sound like this was the case. If you're going to be performing a bit of Giselle at some point then it might be handy to know a couple of different versions just in case your teacher wants to change something.

 

I had a fantastic time at both the Swan Lake and Giselle intensives - they were a lot of fun (Jane is a great teacher) and everybody that I've spoken to is really glad that Karen organised them for us (I'm including myself here!) the classes were great, and the rehearsals were good too (I felt like the LAB ones were very stop/start).

 

For anybody that is interested, Karen has posted some pictures from the Giselle intensive on Facebook - the link to the page is here. I know Karen is hoping to be able to run some more intensives towards the end of the year (all depending on the availability of the studios and teachers), so keep your eye out for any information! We'd love to see you all there

[Kate_N]

It can be awkward to change the choreography last minute, everybody will agree with that, but as dancers we need to always be prepared for something like that to happen.

 

 

 

Yes, Ballet_Rocks! That's what I've always been told in class when different teachers ask for different ways of doing things. They say that that's hy we do open class, with each exercise set on the spot. 

 

And last year, in a regular repertoire class I attended, we learnt a couple of different ways of doing the same variation. We were learning all the fairies from Act I of Sleeping Beauty, and my teacher said that the way she learnt one of them was adjusted slightly for her as she could do umpteen turns to one side, but fewer to the other. So of course, on stage, the choreography is adjusted to show off the dancer.

 

And I remember learning a Kitri solo from Don Q, a big grand allegro piece, using music scored for Lucette Aldous of the Australian Ballet. She is tiny, and so the music was quite fast for grand allegro.

 

So I've learnt a couple of versions of quite well known solos, and also learnt how to make small adjustments as I go.

 

This is all about ballet as an art. And art, quite rightly, is never efficient! Neither is learning an art efficient -- we need to do lots of repetitions, and appear to 'waste' time noodling about, in order to pull it all together. Indeed, as a teacher in the performing arts (but not dance) I think there's a lot to be said for a rich mix of repetition, messing about, playing, and intense concentration.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Kate_N

[Jan McNulty]

I enjoyed looking at the photographs BR1; thanks for sharing the link.

[LinMM]

I think I would see it as just learning slightly different versions of a dance Michelle. Then you can do all the versions you have learned and no doubt may have a preference for one version but doesn't mean the others aren't valid

Of all the Arts ballet is probably the most ephemeral so not easy to pin down!!

 

This may or may not help but I know you are keen on salsa and go to salsa dances etc.

You've got the music and certain moves but you wouldn't keep doing EXACTLY the same dance all the time you can vary combinations and play with it quite consciously in the moment of doing.

 

Well ballet is obviously a little more complex than salsa but being a little more open minded towards choreography might help you to get even more out of workshops than you may currently do.

I have to say I really do admire your pioneering spirit with approaching schools like Ballet West.....and forging relationships there. It's pretty enterprising of you and takes a fair degree of courage.

Will look forward to hearing the inns and outs in September!!

[Anna C]

I enjoyed looking at the photographs BR1; thanks for sharing the link.

And me. Looked like a lovely workshop.

 

How does it work with adult workshops and what level you do? Does the teacher decide, or do the participants book themselves onto either Intermediate or Advanced?

[BalletRocks1]

With the adult workshops it's up to you which level you decide to do - although if you're not sure whether to go for beginners or advanced then you can always get in touch with info about how much dance you've done or how long you've been dancing for etc. and you'll be told which one is the best for you

 

The beginners intensive was like a reasonably tough beginners class - not so easy that we were all bored, and not so hard that nobody could keep up. Everybody who attended kept up well, and I know there was a wide range of experience in the class.

 

The advanced intensive was similar in that it was harder/faster than some of our usual advanced classes, but not so much that we couldn't keep up with it. Most people managed pretty well - there were a few of us who attended both the Swan Lake and Giselle intensives so by the end of the week our brains (and my legs) were failing us somewhat!! Haha

 

We're hoping that there will be another short intensive around Christmas time, so keep your eye out for any information! (I'll probably post something on here if it does go ahead). If you think you might want to come along and you have any particular dates or repertoire you'd prefer to do, then let me know and I can pass the info on (Karen is currently asking for some suggestions so she can try to plan something that people will want to do at a time when we can go!).

[Terpsichore]

.....................................

 

The beginners intensive was like a reasonably tough beginners class - not so easy that we were all bored, and not so hard that nobody could keep up. Everybody who attended kept up well, and I know there was a wide range of experience in the class.

 

......................................

 

You are generous in saying that everybody who attended kept up well. I don't mind admitting that I struggled but somehow managed to keep going.

 

I found it harder than any class I had ever taken before but you are right to say that it was not so far advanced that any of us was put off.

 

I certainly agree that none of us was bored. It was a great experience and if I were young enough and fit enough I would certainly do another of those intensives.

 

As for suggestions for another intensive, I have just seem La Bayadere for the first time at the Coliseum and was bowled over by it. There are some lovely bits of choreography that would be a joy to do. The descent of the shades with all those lovely arabesques 

 

 

 

 

and the drummers' divertissement.  Not very seasonal for Christmas I know but there will be so much Nutcracker at that time of the year which may be why Manchester City Ballet are doing Giselle for their Christmas show..

Edited August 25, 2015 by terpsichore

[Kate_N]

We're hoping that there will be another short intensive around Christmas time, so keep your eye out for any information! (I'll probably post something on here if it does go ahead).

 

 

 

Oh yes please, please keep us posted. I live deep in the West Country now, but "home" is Lancaster, and I could take a little dancing vacation in Manchester. I get very homesick for the north ... and when I lived there, there wasn't such an opportunity, apart from a couple of one-day workshops I did with Ludus Dance - we learnt the Big Swans from Swan Lake v. Petipa, and then the same piece of music with Matthew Bourne's choreography. That was really fun - mixing very classical choreography with Bourne's modern/contemporary take on it, and also learning steps choreographed for female dancers, then the same music in choreography made on male dancers.

 

I've had experience of having choreography made on me as part of a group of adult contemporary dancers in a studio I danced at 20 years ago. I love that mix of repetition, trying things out, and improvisation that results in what should eventually look smooth and rehearsed!

[BalletSarah777]

Hi everyone, just introducing myself, I am a KNT regular and was also at the Giselle Advanced Intensive (in the pics I'm the one in all black ) and have also been to the LAB summer intensive last year. I had such a great time and thought Jane was a fab teacher, I especially liked learning the Queen of the Willies variation though I was absolutely exhausted afterwards! I assume Jane modified the variation slightly as there was quite a mixture of levels of dancer in the group and I think Jane was trying to accommodate all of them. Anyway just wanted to say I can heartily recommend, if Karen puts one on, a Christmas intensive, I know I'll be there The thing that makes KNT such a special place is about everyone being so friendly and just having a laugh and an amazing time, Michele if you are after a company that offers less of this and more just a focus on"professional" style dancing workshops  it might not be the place for you. Anyway still taking a few days to recover but hopefully see some of you in class later this week! x

[Anna C]

Welcome to the forum, BalletSarah777. :-)

[Michelle_Richer]

Hi BalletSarah777, welcome to the forum from me too

 

Michele if you are after a company that offers less of this and more just a focus on"professional" style dancing workshops  it might not be the place for you. Anyway still taking a few days to recover but hopefully see some of you in class later this week! x

 

Yes I think you are right, I'm virtually on a continuous intensive anyway with two repertoire coaches to see every week. I know there was a girl called Alex that did LAB but I'm trying to picture you at the workshop.. .

Edited August 25, 2015 by Michelle_Richer

[BalletSarah777]

Well I was at the Don Q intensive last summer, though I have had facial surgery not so long ago so maybe that's why you didn't recognise me

[Fiz]

Welcome, Sarah! I love your name photo.

[LinMM]

Going back to Anna C's question re how do adult ballet workshops work I can only talk about the ones I've attended inLondon.

 

If the workshops says beginners or people with at least two years of ballet I know I'll cope so if I wanted to do it could safely turn up with no further enquiry.

If it said Intermediate/ advanced and didn't mention a reputable organisation like RAD as a yardstick then I would definitely contact the organiser and find out a bit more about their meaning of the terms before I would turn up.

It's hard for the teacher to decide as they don't see who is going to turn up until the day but I'm sure most people who don't know the teacher giving the course would contact them for advice.

Sometimes you may know the teacher as you may already attend one of their classes and in that scenario they would soon tell you if the workshop was suitable or not.

Once you have done a few then you can get an idea of which teachers you like working with and how they organise their workshops so it becomes easier to decide what suits you.

I can recommend Rejane Linford Garcia.....her next one is on Le Corsaire and on Sunday September 27th. She is very accommodating and will simplify for those who need it. She has a very relaxed approach but it's a long day so you work hard.

Franziska Rosenzweig ....very well organised and planned and again will have usually two(sometimes three) groups of ability to cover the wide range of abilities which may be present. She will even let you swap groups for different things or if you've put yourself in the wrong group etc again very accommodating but very good on technical advice as well. For dedicated dancers I think....and although only 4-41/2 hours long with the intensity of these workshops it always feels longer.

The RAD ones are good .....if only I found their website easier to negotiate.....have missed a couple for finding out too late that they're on but very good value and about three hours usually.

ENB ....taught by a member of the company .....again very good value and a chance to dance on the Coli stage .....don't miss it!

Next ones are on December 29th and January 16 th and will be on Nutcracker and Corsaire( I've already booked!!) you also get to watch the company class afterwards.

All of the above could be attended by people with at least a year or two of ballet right up to Advanced level as you just fit in at your own level.

More Advanced dancers may like to try LAB intensives as again groups are graded so you can join a harder or easier group. But some work can be quite challenging and you can opt to do pointe work in these if you have the experience.

 

I do love what they do but alas cannot do the intensives these days as its too much dancing for me .......five or six days at a time

They do sometimes offer a shorter Autumn intensive of three days (which I may try sometime!)

Hope that gives some idea of how it all works.

[Anna C]

Thank you very much Lin; that's really helpful. My only experience of workshops is for teenage dancers and of course it's much easier, because if the levels are not age-dependent, they ask what exam level/equivalent the student is studying, last exam taken etc. Hence it's easier for the teacher to tailor the repertoire to the average level of the students.

 

It must be harder for organisers of Adult intensives to find the right level of technique, given that it seems mostly up to the students to decide which level to do. Hence some seemingly last minute alterations to the choreography, I suppose?

[LinMM]

Yes very much so as they just cannot predict exactly who will turn up.

 

For example if I saw a workshop which said Advance/professional level I wouldn't apply as I would expect they would be wanting to do choreography on that workshop suitable for more experienced dancers.

But just as in London in the general adult classes which although may be labelled advanced/professional there are always people who turn up who are not really at that level!!

 

Most of the workshops I attend are aimed at recreational dancers who just love doing ballet but they are not too high powered so to speak ....serious but fun ....and I'm really greatful that these workshop experiences are offered to us amateurs and the teachers are usually very quick to assess the situation and offer the best experience they can to people attending......and yes including last minute changes to choreography!

 

Actually I think some workshops that may have for beginners and upwards are not really strictly for absolute beginners! most would need at least a couple of years current experience if new to ballet as an adult or could work for someone who did ballet as a child and got at least to grade4/5 level so have some degree of step knowledge in the body somewhere!!

[Balletdude]

I thought I'd introduce myself, since I've been reading this post with interest over the last day or so. I'm another KNT regular, so much so the reception staff at Northern Ballet school know me by name, we joke that I'll probably get invited to staff dinners if I'm there any more.

I attended the Swan Lake intensive, but lack of funds and some personal issues, precluded me from coming to the Giselle one. As you are talking about planning for adult intensives (ie non professional/former dancers) I thought I'd way in with a quick point. As you can tell from my username and my picture if it will ever let me upload it.....grrrrrr, I'm a guy. Now all of a sudden something else has come into the mix, selecting choreography for both men and women, it would be a little unfair if they had selected for the choreography, all male variations and/or male heavy pieces (depending on the ballet obviously). If at the last moment, the male students had to drop out (like I had to reduce the amount I could do be cause of the problems mentioned above) then having a group of all girls learn a male variation, may be fun but I'm sure all of them would rather learn a female one instead, so last minute changes to the program would be acceptable in order for it to more enjoyable or suitable for the students. During the Swan Lake intensive we did Sigfried's variation from act 3, and this was left untouched and followed the original choreography of this (particular) version.

Some pieces in any adult intensive are going to have to be changed, and for reasons other than the students level of technical ability.

 

1. Not that is much of a change but doing a piece on demi-pointe in stead of full pointe. Not every adult student is able to go on pointe, even in the advanced classes some people just haven't got the correct anatomy for it (I'm an ICU and trauma orthopaedics nurse so I have experience of this, I've included this as non technical ability as it is not the students fault if their body says no to pointe work). Now if the teacher had decided to do a pas-de-deux, where the lady is on pointe and then the man promenades her around, this would be near impossible to achieve if they were on Demi pointe.

2. Something else to consider is the sex of the instructor. In our case Jane was marvellous and there wasn't an issue. But some teachers may be uncomfortable or struggle teaching a part they haven't danced, or is intended for the opposite sex, e.g. A male dancer teaching a pointe work routine. Whilst all of them will know technically the steps, teaching it is a different matter. A lot of male variations include lots of jumps and tours, whilst the female dancer may be quite competent at teaching them, they would not come second nature to her. Most dance training would separate the boys from the girls, the girls would do pointe work while the boys did the more, for want of a better word, "masculine" steps.

 

If the intensive is run by a large enough company, with the resources to have x-number of teachers available, a full week to work on the pieces, without any changes, to the choreography. I hesitate to use the word simplify, because there is nothing simple about any of the steps in ballet. We have had men come to classes who obviously take part in sports and the gym, sweating when being shown how to do a pilé correctly.

I've got to say Karen and Jane and all involved with these did an amazing job at organising these intensives and they can only get better and better as more people hear of KNT in a positive light. KNT is an amazing place full of passionate dancers, (there's a reason we were featured in Marie Claire as one of the best places to dance in the country). The two things Karen doesn't have the luxury of are

1. Large numbers of admin staff to deal with students questions and concerns (unlike LAB etc)

2. Control over when the intensives can take place. The Dance house is a working ballet school, so intensives are reduced to outside term time or weekends. The dance house is also a theatre and cinema showcasing lots of talent from around the country and showing classic and indie films. So again intensives would have to work around these.

 

Right I've gone on far too long, hope you all have a fab day doing what ever your doing, and dance dance dance

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Balletdude and welcome to the Forum!

 

Thanks for giving us a male perspective on adult ballet intensives - definitely food for thought.  I do hope you will continue to post.

[LinMM]

When I was younger .......some 30 years or so ago now .....one of the best pointe teachers I ever had was a male teacher!! .....and I've not heard his advice bettered yet. But perhaps he was more unusual. Unfortunately I did not discover him until my feet were already a mess!

Today I do know a couple of excellent teachers of pointe work .....for adult beginners etc.....and they are female and ex professional ballet company performers so do have a lot of personal experience......and all teach on adult ballet workshops!

 

Alas I don't do pointe work these days and if you saw my feet in your Job capacity I'm sure you'd probably say no, no, no!

 

However I'm fascinated by this idea you mention of certain body types not being suitable to do pointe work in the first place. Could you say more about this?

With the simplifying of choreography on workshops .......it really does depend what is being offered. For example if there is an intention to learn one of Odettes solos from Swan Lake then this would have to be simplified for some( me included!) however if the intention was to learn perhaps the act one waltz of the princesses or the hunting scene dance or the Spanish dance then these may not need to be simplified a great deal......though not saying they are easy!

On one Giselle workshop I did we did a nice bit of acting and mime work from the first act where Albrecht is trying to persuade Giselle to sit next to him and she is all coy and wanting to go in the house and be nice and safe with mum!!

We had one boy on this workshop and eight girls!! And we each had a chance to dance this out with him! It didn't need simplifying because the choreography is easy there ...but still a joy to do....and he got lots of practice in!!

We also learned a corps dance of the village boys and girls.....not that difficult just needed a lot of puff ....but the teacher very cleverly adapted this ...on the spot ...to work for our one male!

[Balletdude]

When I was younger .......some 30 years or so ago now .....one of the best pointe teachers I ever had was a male teacher!! .....and I've not heard his advice bettered yet. But perhaps he was more unusual.

They are out there, didn't mean it to sound like they aren't, Finis Jhung, San Francisco Ballet and Hawkers Ballet of New York, does an excellent series on DVD, for those already on pointe with strengthening exercises etc. I think it's probably down to having the confidence to teach out side their comfort zone.

 

Alas I don't do pointe work these days and if you saw my feet in your Job capacity I'm sure you'd probably say no, no, no!

However I'm fascinated by this idea you mention of certain body types not being suitable to do pointe work in the first place. Could you say more about this?

It's mainly going to come down to flexibility of the ankle. The straighter the line between the shin and top of the foot make it easier to go on to pointe. Pointe magazine did a brief article on it

 

http://pointemagazine.com/issues/aprilmay-2011/your-best-body-bad-feet

 

Not to say it can't be proved its just that at a pointe (see what I did there ) it becomes harder because of the bone plates as the above article mentions.

 

On theming working in othapedics taught me was the importance of landing in a plié.

This one patient jumped off a wall, and landed with he's legs straight. The resulting shockwave sent up his body cause two vertebrae in his back to shatter into 4 pieces. Now obviously we don't jump high enough for that to happen but you can imagine the damage it would do to our knees and shins and shins etc if we didn't cushion this blow.

 

With the simplifying of choreography on workshops .......it really does depend what is being offered. For example if there is an intention to learn one of Odettes solos from Swan Lake then this would have to be simplified for some( me included!) however if the intention was to learn perhaps the act one waltz of the princesses or the hunting scene dance or the Spanish dance then these may not need to be simplified a great deal......though not saying they are easy! !!

 

Totally agree it needs to be pitched at a level that is suitable for all, the terms beginner and advanced are very broad, so everyone gets enjoyment from the class. If the teacher sees during the classes before the rep class starts that all students have a certain level of technical ability then they can make adjustments to the level of choreography that they were going to teach, that ability to think on their feet and change and adapt is what turns a good teacher (or dancer) in to a great one in my opinion.

I think in the world of late starters adult ballet, (I know I do and a Lot of my friends agree), opportunities like these intensives offer us the opportunity to learn choreography, have a chance to perform for friends and family. Basically do what we wouldn't otherwise be able to do. I know some people may not think this is taking it seriously but for the majority of us I'm guessing we do it for that experience "to see for a few days what it's like to be a dancer" (blinking hard work!!!) "for a peep into that world we love so much before returning to our daily lives" (that reminds me of the ABBA song Nina pretty Ballerina, about a woman who goes to work every day then at the weekend dances ballet)

 

I'm rambling again, insomnia and the portability of my iPad are a bad combination, think I'll sign off for tonight, make myself a warm drink and try for sleep again.

 

Simon

[LinMM]

No not rambling at all very interesting! Great posts!

However I do understand the portable iPad problem! Just that one more look!! And before you know it it's 2am if you're not careful.

And coming into balletcoforum late at night is fatal!! You think you'll have a quick dip and then get drawn into some thread or other because you never know when you're going to find an interesting discussion going on!

[BalletRocks1]

I know somebody has mentioned earlier about RAD adult classes, but I can't find the post that mentions it!!

There will be some RAD adult associate classes running at Elmhurst, starting in September - once a month for four months. I'm definitely planning on going and I know a couple of people that are also interested

 

When I first contacted them about a month ago about the classes, I was told that not too many spaces had been taken up and that if not enough people applied for the classes they would be cancelled

 

I'd hate for the classes to be cancelled because of not enough interest, and it might be nice to meet some of you in person!

Here's the link to the Facebook post with all the info - https://www.facebook.com/RADMidlandsandEastEngland/photos/p.901610963260847/901610963260847/?type=1&theater.

[Jan McNulty]

Member Terpsichore has done a great post on her blog about trying to improve her ability to pirouette:

 

http://jelterps.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/a-pint-for-josh.html

[Terpsichore]

Member Terpsichore has done a great post on her blog about trying to improve her ability to pirouette:

 

http://jelterps.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/a-pint-for-josh.html

 

Thanks Janet.

 

I think there is a good chance that you were my 100,000th visitor this morning..

 

Blogger provides a meter showing the number of all time page views. This morning just before 06:00 the meter registered 99,999. A few minutes later I heard a ping and noticed that you had "liked" one of my articles on Facebook.   That article was in fact the one you commended above.   I refreshed the screen and the meter jumped to 100,004. There is therefore statistically a 1 in 5 chance that you were my 100,000th visitor but as I heard the ping while the meter showed 99,999 visitors I think that that 100,000th visitor was almost certainly you.

 

Just before my lesson with Josh a lady told me that my blog had inspired her to return to ballet after a gap of 2 years. If that is so then I am delighted.  I started the blog for personal reasons not expecting anybody to read it. If it brings people back to the barre that's a great bonus.