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

[hopeforpointe]

Great post and glad you feel more confident! Josh is fab isn't he

[Michelle_Richer]

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.

 

 

Hi Balletdude

 

Promenades on demi-pointe is possible if you are selective on which type you use. I am re-choreographing the Nutcracker Grand Pas-de-deux to be performed at a Christmas dance party by me and my boyfriend Adrian. I might add Adrian is NOT a ballet dancer but is a very willing ballet scare crow,  however the beginning sequence with turning me through attitude and then promenading  me is now no problem to him, in fact the promenade support is now quite good. Single supported and double supported hands seem to work ok, however waist supported does not. His is inclined to drag me off balance as friction on demi-pointe seems to be very significant. However for the time being we haven’t had any PDD training as a couple, although I have danced parts of PDD’s at some workshops but not very much.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was at Ballet West in Scotland doing some one-to-one rep, my teacher did offer to do some PDD coaching as she knows my intentions, but I didn’t want to frighten Adrian off, although I do admire his courage for trying, however I will use one of my local rep coaches to help with some of the trickier stuff as Adrian knows them. I have also told my Ballet West teacher I WILL be bringing him back with me next year for some PDD coaching. Adrian met my teacher Gillian as I twisted his arm to accompany me one evening to Ballet West’s Adult ballet fitness class.

[Michelle_Richer]

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!!

Not at all.

 

I was shown great kindness last year and I will always remember when I left, Gillian walked me back to my car and said “I wish I could teach you to dance”, my eyes welled up and I knew I would be back.

 

Later that year I sounded them out about private tuition and then Rep coaching with a short description of what I was looking for, and yes they could do that.

 

Finally we arrived at a mutually convenient date and I sent in a detailed briefing of the choreography, including links it was derived from and the time interval of the various section that were included together with a description of my own created pieces .

Perhaps more importantly, a list if difficulties associated with each piece.

I also indicated what I would be bringing with me, eg my laptop will all the relevant music and video clips together with the appropriate costumes for the final polished versions.

 

At our first meeting we discussed the schedule and agree daily start at 10am with an hours class for warm-up, an hours rep coaching, then one hour practice on my own till 1pm.

I had a  2 hours lunch break as it was almost half an hour each way travelling giving me an hour with my boyfriend Adrian back at Oban.

The afternoon reconvened at 3pm with the second rep coaching session which was somewhat cleaned , this time in costume, at we end of that we summarised all the feedback corrections including my own. I continued for a further hour of practice on my own, finally leaving at 5pm.

In reality the morning class was about 45 minute, giving us a little longer with the rep. Much of what came out was audience presentation, tweaks of the hand and head position, she really knew her stuff, as she would say beautiful now look in the mirror, I would think “gosh”, I haven’t done much, but the results were amazing.

Some of the movement of port de bras was made much smaller than the original rep and I was told sometimes less is better, she was right, it can be made more delicate. I remember when I was doing Le Corsaire “Dance of the Three Odalisques” as a solo. The music intro is quite long as the pasha n that is moving about and the three odalisques are stood in preparation, Gillian thought that this was too long as the audience could get bored, so we added a little walk into prep. It took a few iterations to get the walk path and timing right, once into position and the arm raised, head following with the appropriate strum of the harp ( I think), there is also another short wait through a type of half strum of the harp, but that’s what Bolshoi and most other companies do. Again Gillian wasn’t happy with it, so we used it as a queue to turn the head to face the audience, then we were off arms came down and crossed, change of weight the off to the first Temps leve. After doing this a few times and getting the hang of timing into prep, I thought “MM”, I wonder if I can time it for a chassis thought into the arm raise inside that phase of music. I did and it worked beautifully well. 

 

On the last day after ballet class we started of Giselle’s solo from Act1, I was in my usual leo and wrap-round skirt, Gillian see me try to do some of the reps port de bras which is done with the skirt, she stopped me and said “Have you got a costume for this one”, I said “yes”, she replied “well put it on then”. Gillian was right, it does look silly trying to pick up a short skirt for the various pieces that require it, its part and parcel of the rep.

 

I can honestly say I learnt an awful lot those three days, it was magical, it was like an artist painting but now having the confidence to pain with much stronger brush strokes.

 

In addition to my rep coaching I attended Ballet West’s Adult Fitness class on the Tuesday evening, I persuaded Adrian my boyfriend to join me. Fortunately Gillian’s new husband Tony was there too, at least Adrian had a guy there too and they got on like a house on fire. During the class Gillian did ask him if he would dance the Grand Pas de deux with me, oh shock horror he didn’t say no, He said “you better ask Michelle”.

Gillian has offered to do some PDD coaching for us next year, even though Adrian is not a ballet dancer.  Although PDD with Adrian started off with him as my ballet scare crow, he has always wanted to do a just that little bit more and I’ve usually added something in. I think its time I started to introduce him to the barre with some basic barre movements and very basic sequences in the centre, as I’m sure he would never contemplate going to a regular ballet class. I can think of at least 3  more PDD’s I would like to re-choreograph for us.

 

When we finally said our good byes I felt quite emotional but I wasn’t ready for what came next when Gillian asked when our next LAB Gala is as she wants to come and see me perform if she can make it. Now if that hasn’t put the pressure on to sort my technique and performance skills out, I don’t know what will. I really do have to pull all the stops out now, there is know way I want to let this lady down . For me now Ballet West is my Ballet home.

 

 

Sadly its not all good news, I have lost “Kat” my Monday private rep coach and a very good friend who I have known for at least three years. She has now been offered a full time post with the University of Lincoln which she has accepted. The very best of luck to her.

[Michelle_Richer]

First week back after the summer break, although my Monday ENB classes have still been running. However it has seemed ages since my other regular classes and rehearsals as a weekly routine. 

 

Its been a bit of a strange week as the routine is somewhat different, sadly I have lost Kat my Monday private rep teacher, so I have an hours slot there to be filled.

 

Tuesday is back into rehearsal with a newly formed Amateur Ballet Company “Dance Alive London”, That was our first session at CABT , it’s a small group for our first Christmas performance, numbers are limited to 14 dancers, however we do have slots still for two more dancers. As this was a new venue for me I checked it out Monday night on my way to ENB. As I was early it gave me the opportunity to look round the ballet shops around Covent Garden as I was looking for something to form an overskirt for a romantic tutu in pale pink and also pale blue. No luck though.

 

Wednesday didn’t turn out quite as planned, its usually 2 fitness classes and one ballet class. I had done my morning “Less Mills Body Balance “ class as normal and went to Sleaford for my Ballet , followed by Stretch and Tone, at reception I paid for them both, but it wasn’t until I finished the Ballet class, I was told the Stretch and Tone class now follows Zumba which is now the next class. After some thought, I declined the Zumba class, as I’ve added quite a lot in for this term with between 5 and 6 days of ballet a week, I’m not really sure how my ankles with stand up from over-use. However I did enquire if a spare studio was available for hire during that slot, but unfortunately it was not, so I didn’t stay.

 

Thursday wasn’t much better, the schedule remained the same with recurring hire of my local hall for rep practice in the morning, followed by LAB rehearsal in the evening at RAD, except now the two groups that were formed for last season were now to be recombined again, as RAD studios are only available until 9pm, and not 9.30 as before. I was somewhat concerned that the group would now exceed 30. On Thursday there were only five girls including me and two guys. According to our teacher there should be 12 of us when the others turn up. Some have moved to other LAB classes on different days, but word on the grape vine is, that many have left. For me personally I prefer to work with a small group, however I am sad so many have left. I’m not sure as why this is other than Tom who was our regular teacher has stepped down somewhat and that post has been delegated. I wasn’t sure how I would get on with our new teacher but he seems quite OK.

 

Friday is no rest day, I have an hour private intensive rep with Emma one of my private coaches, and as I now have too many solo pieces to keep refreshed in an hour at another studio, I’ve had to extend my practice/refreshing booking to two hours. I cant help but think my solo reps is becoming a monster.

 

Sundays, when my local hall is not booked out to people like the local Hockey club, I’m able to book it for working with my boyfriend Adrian on a Pas De Deux. I have it booked for this weekend. As progress is a bit intermittent and I don’t have the space in my own studio for PDD work, together with the expense of studio hire. We have looked at modifying one of the surfaces out the back of my home which is currently slabbed. By replacing some of them with 9 x  600mm x 600mm large porcelain tiles, they are wonderfully slippy for promenades and pirouettes on demi pointe

[Moomin]

Crikey, be careful not to slip Michelle!

[LinMM]

You are brave to dance on Porcelain tiles Michelle!! Definitely keep off the pointe shoes though!

[LinMM]

It will be ice skating next I can see!

[Michelle_Richer]

Hi Lin
I could well be ice skating on the Porcelain tiles when it freezes over in the winter.

So you should never be surprised at any thing I do, case in point on my way to my ENB class on Monday I called in at RBS Covent Garden to try a book the Linden.

 

Anyway seriously, the large Porcelain tiles gives me a better slip coefficient for Pas de deux promenades and pirouettes for demi-pointe. I’m hoping it will increase the range of different movement we can incorporate in our PDD repertoire, or at least allow use to develop the technique more easily before applying them to a normal studio surface.

 

The other driver behind this is accessibility, as I can’t always hire my local hall on Sundays when my boyfriend Adrian is available. Also as Adrian is not a ballet dancer as such, it takes him longer to learn, and each missed week is inevitably a setback. My dilemma now is just how big an area I cover with these large 600mm x 600mm tiles. I can get away with a 3 x 3 matrix, however I can accommodate at least 6 x 7 matrix but that is significantly more expensive particularly the ground work.

 

I wouldn’t dream of using pointe shoes on porcelain, however it has crossed my mind to investigate using a smaller turning pad on the bottom of ballet slippers to improve the demi-pointe slip coefficient for use with normal studio floors.

 

 

 

Thanks Lin for giving me the heads up on the two LAB dates, the show is on the 12th of December, so I am double booked, but I’ve managed to resolve it but its a bit hairy. I’ve managed to get LAB to agree to move the opening back to 7.30pm and our act at the other venue is moved forward as that show starts at 5pm. It certainly has changed my part in the rep, as Im now sort of going solo centre stage, almost as a spare, as the other groupings come from either side and mirror each other. I guess that makes sense as I will be missing for the second show, as I will be with LAB.

 

Although I'm participating in shows for both groups, I still feel a bit awful that I have kinder let both sides down. As I can’t do the second show of the first group, I won’t get to do the after-show celebration drinks with my friends of that group which makes me feel like a bit of an outsider. The second group (LAB) I won’t get to do the warm-up or the stage positioning and prep, before going live. Timing on this one is going to be very tight as I have travel from CABT Holloway road to the Bloomsbury, do two costume changes and make-up, all with no more than a hour and a half.

I’m certainly checking out the timing of this route in the next couple of weeks or so, as that’s crucial.

[LinMM]

Have we been told the venue for LAB then? The performance in December I mean?

Edited September 20, 2015 by LinMM

[LinMM]

For the show in December I mean? Is it the Bloomsbury in December then?

[LinMM]

Sorry some weird posting probs with above!!

[Michelle_Richer]

I don't think it has been announced, but I ask Tom at my ENB class last Monday, and he confirmed that venue with me. I may well check the route out for timing this week. I also need to know what costumes we are wearing for the first piece. The show this time is only Giselle and our group has 4 scenes to learn before the show at Christmas.

[Kate_N]

Generally tagging on -- I was the lucky recipient of a free class pass at Danceworks, and used it yesterday to try out Christine Mittelmaier's Intermediate class. It was fun! Fast at the barre, but lovely lovely combinations with lots of port de bras and use of the back. I fear that I didn't do the choreography justice, but if I were able to get to Danceworks more regularly on Sunday mornings, I would learn so much in that class. Highly recommended. But not for beginners

[Michelle_Richer]

As my PDD sessions with Adrian has come to a bit of a holt due to the Hall being booked last Sunday for a party and this Sunday coming I’m doing a Le Corsaire workshop with Dance Alive London at Sadlers. So last Sunday we made a start on my outdoor Porcelain ballet floor for PDD development. It worked out far more expensive than I had anticipated, so we have broken it down to three phases. The first is a tiled section of 4.5 x 3 600mm tiles, we have prepared the ground and laid the screed. As I’m away at the workshop next Sunday, the foundation has a couple of weeks to dry and harden, then we will lay the tiles.

 

If that turns out successful after a few months use, then phase 2 with add another 3 x 3 matrix of 600mm tiles to extend the side, followed later by phase 3 which is a further matrix across the front of 2 x 7 600mm tiles.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Michelle_Richer

[Michelle_Richer]

I have an apology to issue to LAB, its dancers and supporters, regarding the Christmas show venue. I GOT IT WRONG, it not the Bloomsbury as I had stated in post #1770 and #1774 of this thread. As the Bloomsbury are currently undergoing an ongoing program of Asbestos removal and general refurbishment until June 2016.

 

Our Christmas show venue has not been named as yet.

[munchkin16]

Haven't posted here in a while but thought I'd add my thoughts after trying an adult class at the London Russian Ballet School. I did the beginner level (one up from absolute beginner) and it was amazing! I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a slow technical class to work the basics.

 

The we were in was lovely but small although as we spent a lot of the time at the barre it wasn't an issue. The class was about 1 1/2 hours and we started with a long set gentle warm up. Then worked through plié and tendus facing the barre before turning to the side. Everything was done slowly and precisely but the teacher also highlighted the importance of eyelines and use of the head regularly.

 

The centre was simple and there wasn't much space to move but the combinations were cute with a polka step and balances.

 

I can definitely feel all my muscles have been working and engaged in the right way, hopefully building my strength again. The teacher was nice, corrected individually by physically moving arms ect and also have constant class corrections and reminders. Demonstrated and talked through each excercise but I was never bored, she was always pushing for perfect technique. Can't wait to go back next time I'm in London!

[Kate_N]

Munchkin, that sounds great! I'm glad you found a class you could get to with your busy schedule. And it sounds as though it's a studio where they take adult students seriously. Personally, I like to get away from the barre and move sometimes, but a class that takes the basics of technique seriously, and builds on them is a gem. You can add other kinds of classes that get you moving as you go on.

 

It's also great that it's a 90 minute class. this is standard, but so many small suburban studios offer only an hour, or even only 45 minutes. I don't think you get enough in that to learn consistently unless you do 3 or 4 a week, so can rotate elements of the centre eg focus on adage one day, allegro the next. My regular class in this little city is really well-taught, but only an hour. My teacher is very talented & manages to get a lot into that hour, and gets bare beginners dancing really well (I'm in awe of her ability to do this) But when I go to a longer more advanced class (about once every 3 or 4 weeks), I realise how much I'm losing skills - in petit allegro particularly. So you've really found a great studio! Good luck for the future

 

Michelle_Richler, you are taking a risk in performing in two events so close together! I hope they both know ... The theatre world is full of anecdotes about performers running between theatres. Those stories rarely end well, so I hope that real life has better endings for you!

[LinMM]

Michelle will PM you about the venue situation for Giselle.

 

I am so enjoying the classes and learning the choreography for this ....great fun last night particularly...cannot believe I at last have a chance to be a wili!! teacher is lovely and can be very funny ....always a plus in my view!!

However the venue still cannot be confirmed for the performance (which worries me a bit) but best discussed privately on this occasion I think.

[Kate_N]

Oh I do love the Wili choreography, although the "chugs" - arabesque something or others - across the stage are v v difficult - keeping the height absolutely level, and making it look easy and spirit-like (huh!) Have fun with it, LinMM, and just think of the lovely lengthening effect all that choreography will have on your body.

[Michelle_Richer]

 

Michelle_Richler, you are taking a risk in performing in two events so close together! I hope they both know ... The theatre world is full of anecdotes about performers running between theatres. Those stories rarely end well, so I hope that real life has better endings for you!

 

Kate_N  Life is a risk and ballet is in particular. As for do both organisations know, of course they do. Discussions took place with both well before this season started. Then the two dates were different one was on the 12th the other on the 19th, but for some reason one was moved so they new converge. Although I’m not comfortable with what I am doing, I WILL NOT DROP ONE IN FAVOUR OF THE OTHER, I have loyalties towards both sides. Now its down to logistics, can I physically get from on to the other in time, with the second venue unknown, I really don’t know until I can trial that route, which was to have been today.

 

 

LinMM may recall around last Christmas we both did an ENB Rep workshop at the London Coliseum, at the end Rep session, we all had coffee, then most went to watch the ENB dancer do company class. I didn’t, I had to get away smartish as I was performing on stage in Lincoln that evening.

 

In a two week period last year I performed in 9 show’s  together with the associated dress rehearsals. So doing two shows at different location I don't this is particularly arduous  no providing one is able to get between them in time. Perhaps Kate_N you can enlighten as to where you perceive a significant risk element comes from.

LinMM I know we are to do something with the “Dance of the Willis”, but we are still doing rep from Act1 and its very fast, almost akin to the Scottish Reel from La Sylphides that we did the year before, but it is a really nice happy piece. Our teacher mentioned we would be doing a partnered section to this rep, (oh goodie) but I guess we will have to borrow some guys from the other groups as we only have a couple.

 

Our new teacher was teaching the guys part this evening and he has a wonderfully effortless grand jete to die fore, I was really impressed.

[Kmare]

Hi all, anyone know of any Saturday classes in Birmingham, (adult, general/intermediate+, drop in). I know I did two different classes (one in the centre of Birmingham, professional studio, another outside somewhere in a church hall), but they were ages ago, and I can't seem to find anything on google. It'd be for this Saturday?

Many thanks

 

[LinMM]

Thank you Kate-N .....yes making it look spirit like is definitely a challenge!! Especially in my case! I'm now searching for my "inner" wili!! I think I can draw on a couple of memories of young men who I could have cause to wreak vengeance on from another life time ago it now seems! though if I did see them again today I'm more likely to laugh at myself than condemn them to death!!

 

Not so sure about the lengthening out of my body though! Even at my age one can always still dream on I suppose!!

 

I can see where Kate is coming from though Michelle!! There is SOME risk involved in being able to get from theatre to theatre as especially in London you just don't know what could suddenly happen with buses and tubes etc!

 

But you can only have a go and it might all work perfectly.

Even amateur dancers have to adapt all the time to the fact that suddenly someone in your group might not make the performance even on the day itself....through sudden injury or illness...as happened last July in fact. ...if something does go wrong I'm sure the other dancers in your group will cope!!

I probably wouldn't be able to sleep the night before if I had to do it though I'm such a ninny!

[youngatheart]

Kate_N  Life is a risk and ballet is in particular. As for do both organisations know, of course they do. Discussions took place with both well before this season started. Then the two dates were different one was on the 12th the other on the 19th, but for some reason one was moved so they new converge. Although I’m not comfortable with what I am doing, I WILL NOT DROP ONE IN FAVOUR OF THE OTHER, I have loyalties towards both sides. Now its down to logistics, can I physically get from on to the other in time, with the second venue unknown, I really don’t know until I can trial that route, which was to have been today.

 

 

Michelle,

 

What you are doing seems to me to be rather disloyal to both as you are not giving either one your total commitment by spreading yourself so thin. It seems that they are actually having to arrange their schedule just to accommodate you, including re-choreographing pieces because you will not be able to be in all the performances.

 

IMO it would have been far better for you have picked one and given it your 100% commitment.

[2dancersmum]

In fairness to Michelle, there was no clash when she took on and started rehearsals for both shows. It is not her fault that the date for one of shows was changed and she has done the right thing in my opinion by talking honestly and openly with both groups to try and get it sorted. It does obviously have a knock on effect for all the other dancers who are now starting earlier or finishing later but both parties did not need to accommodate her.

 

Is there a risk? Well yes obviously there is when you have an allotted amount of time to get from one theatre to another - especially if not walking distance. You do not have control of traffic, tubes (strikes?), the weather or even for that matter the actual running time at the theatre. Any performance can get delayed by technical hitches or even fire alarms -as has happened to my poor DD at different theatres on more than one occasion when she has found herself in costume stood outside in the cold. If it was me I think I would be the same as LinM - too worried to sleep the night before. Only time will tell if Michelle is making a good or bad decision but good luck to her.

[Kate_N]

Hi all, anyone know of any Saturday classes in Birmingham, (adult, general/intermediate+, drop in). I know I did two different classes (one in the centre of Birmingham, professional studio, another outside somewhere in a church hall), but they were ages ago, and I can't seem to find anything on google. It'd be for this Saturday?

Many thanks

 

I've taken the liberty of answering this on a separate thread, as these requests get lost in the blogging aspect of this thread!

 

Maybe we could separate these out, so there's are separate threads for talking about our daily dance lives, and asking about classes etc?

[Anna C]

I've taken the liberty of answering this on a separate thread, as these requests get lost in the blogging aspect of this thread!

 

Maybe we could separate these out, so there's are separate threads for talking about our daily dance lives, and asking about classes etc?

Gosh Kate, it's a good point but if you mean retrospectively, pity the poor Moderator who would have to read back through all 60 pages of this thread to separate questions from other posts! ;-)

 

I do "tag" all Adult Ballet threads with the appropriate tag though so if you click on "Adult Ballet" (below the thread title) you will find a list of relevant threads, including those looking for classes. I've tagged your new thread too, and thank you for starting a separate one for classes. Hopefully people looking for adult classes will post there. :-)

[Kate_N]

Oh I didn't mean going back through this thread! But maybe from now on posting requests & info about classes on a separate thread, so it doesn't get lost in the blog-like nature of a lot of this thread.

[LinMM]

Last thing from me on this subject .....but another factor in Michelle's dilemma is cost!! Both these courses are not cheap for the term and some of us paid up last July for this Autumn term. What do you do then? I suppose you could make a choice to do one and hope the other company will refund your money? LAB couldn't have foreseen the problem with the Bloomsbury Theatre and it is now going to take much longer than originally thought to put the asbestos problem right.....June 2016!

 

So a difficult choice especially if you enjoy both equally.

If I could have got my money refunded or tied over till the next term at least I'd probably have made the choice to do just the one performance.

But hope it goes well for Michelle and she manages to make both successfully.

I shouldn't think the changes in times of performances from this distance in time are a problem for anybody in either company as long as nearer the time everyone knows what time they have to turn up!!

[Michelle_Richer]

Interesting assumptions: firstly the commitment is less than 100%, I would suggest my attendance at rehearsals is significantly higher than most. Especially last year when we were often down to only 50% of the dancers present, and of course it has an effect on those of us that are there, particularly positioning a visual queues for group work.

 

As for cost, yes its significant when terms have to paid for in advance, but for me travel is a much larger investment as I have to travel around 100miles each way, for each and every rehearsal. Not only is that good deal more costly than most, it also require a good deal of time commitment too in terms of travel where I don’t get home until around midnight, in addition to that, I hire my local village hall for each rehearsal practice, so I think I have pretty well demonstrated my commitment, this isn’t something I’m playing at.

 

Another point that was made, one doesn’t have control of traffic etc. Good point, only this Thursday when I attended LAB rehearsal at RAD in Battersea. My train was an hour late, thank goodness the traffic in London was relatively light and the 170 bus journey from Victoria was quicker than usual and I just made it in time. The final leg of my journey on the way home is 25mile by car from Peterborough. Just outside Peterborough a deer ran in front of me, it couldn’t have been more than 4 feet away, that was a very near accident. There are no warning signs on this stretch of road and I have never seen wildlife there before in all the time I have been travelling down to London for Ballet (3 to 4 times a week).

 

What ever one does, there are always risks and sometimes one has to make tough decisions that you are not comfortable with, but so be it. It may not for the faint hearted, my it certainly is my choice.

[Terpsichore]

On Saturday I saw a film about a remarkable group of dancers from Australia aged 55 and over called "The Golds" and met some of their members.   If anyone is interested in them I have written a short article about them and the event which they attended in my blog.

[Kate_N]

Thanks for this blog, Terpsichore. Glad it was such a good experience!

[Michelle_Richer]

Last week started badly for me. I attended a Le Corsaire where we danced a couple of pieces I thought I knew reasonably well. The first was an extract of the Three Odalisques, the version we danced was from ENB,s production, but some time ago I had learnt Bolshoi’s, they seemed very similar, so I wasn’t too worried. I had practiced this against ENB’s music as the introduction as its dance, is different.

 

The main sticking point for me was the change in direction after the third Temps leve , both ENB and Bolshoi go into a fondu on the supporting leg. ENB did a quick back front back jump landing on  the front supporting leg, ready to step into the next Temps leve in the opposite direction. Our teacher anticipated that this may be a problem for some of the dancers and offered a simple changement solution, I also suggested the Bolshoi solution which is a pas de buree into a changement type step but only landing on one leg, that was thought to complicate matters so it was declined.

 

Loosing the pas de buree was almost too much for my little brain, I just about coped with the changement on the first turn but the second, having to stop the automatic body memory of the pas de buree made me hesitate and even question what leg I was on, it was just awful. Even on the final video that was taken I did a double hop at that point Grrrr.

 

 

The second piece we learnt was Gulnare solo from the Pas de Esclave. This was to take place in the afternoon, however our teacher for the afternoon session arrived early, and when we were due to take the lunch break, she ask our pianist to play this piece.
Nina our teacher started to dance it through, I joined her and danced it through with her. I wasn’t sure how far she was going to go so I continued and really enjoyed it. We both stopped at the turns section. That was probably the best I did that day , after that it just went downhill. Only real issue I can remember was one of direction associate with going into attitude with the leg derriere, I had always remembered this from being taught with a very small turn no more than a quarter turn, which is detectable in ENB choreography.   We were demonstrated this with no turning action and it looked very clean, and I liked it. However without the turn it seemed to loose my queue and special awareness of which arm etc. Also the geometry of the studio seemed strange for this piece, although I’ve danced in that studio many times before.

 

My practice for this piece has always been in rectangular studios with the long side representing the audience. Not too sure what the situation was at Sadler’s, weather it was a square studio or if we were dancing on the narrow side. But that day I could not do anything right, to make matters worse I had taken and was dancing in a different tutu for each roll, I went away not feeling very good about myself and feeling a right pratt.

 

Once I got on the train for home that evening my throat started to gung up, I had a cold coming. The following Monday it was really taking hold, but fortunately I was on term break from ENB, however I still had my local hall booked through recurring bookings. Although I was feeling pretty rough, I went to do some of my pre-rehearsal prep, but I managed to find a little time to run through Gulnare’s solo, that was fine, so I started to re-choreograph the centre part of the ENB version to a combination of Bolshoi and Mariiski, it seem to work pretty well and help resort a bit of confidence that took quite a knock.

 

I got a further opportunity to dance through this piece when I arrived early at RAD and found our studio was free the hour before our class started. I went strait into my re-choreographed version , a hybrid of ENB, Bolshoi and Mariinsky danced to ENB music. I only had the music with me to dance to, but for some reason I always entered the turns section too early. I had spent nearly an hour on this piece enjoying its sequence but mystified about the end. It wasn’t until later, the penny dropped, I had left out the grand jete section and substituted the new jete enturnant which should now follow it.

 

It wasn’t  until Friday that I had a chance to run through the Odalisques and oddly with the Bolshoi version I found I was hesitating at the same point, when prior to the workshop I could dance through it with no problem. It took several repetitions until that issue was re-burnt into muscle memory.  Gulnare solo also came out fine this time.

 

Sadly my local hall was not available again this weekend for Pas de deux practice with my boyfriend Adrian. However the porcelain tiles have been laid and grouted on my new out door PDD floor ready for trying out next weekend. At least I will now be able to get Adrian up to speed with our PDD work and keep him there.

[Kate_N]

Sounds like the workshop was great fun & a real learning experience. I must try to get back to some of the ENB workshops: I did a few when I lived closer to London, and always enjoyed the challenge. Turning piqué pirouettes all around the circular stage of the Albert Hall, was a highlight - as was watching ENB Company class & seeing Ms Rojo turn amazing fouettés forever! (This was long before she took pver as Artistic Director).

 

I love learning repertoire because it helps with that essential skill of learning to adapt & adjust small details at speed. That's what I really loved watching on World Ballet Day: the way that in rehearsals, after the dancers had learnt the basic choreography, they started to layer & embellish it with tiny subtle details.

 

Part of the point of "muscle memory" is to train that ability to do slightly different variations of the same step. That's why I prefer 'open' to syllabus classes (although I understand why syllabus classes are excellent for learning). If you think about it, the tendu and the glissé are pretty much the same movement, but with a different emphasis & energy, so that in the glissé, the working toe just releases off the floor. And our brains/bodies learn the difference quite clearly.

 

So maybe that's the next step in your learning the basics of ballet, Michelle, in these workshops: that you develop experience in making those small adjustments on the spot, and see "muscle memory" not as ONE thing repeated into your body, but learning a repertoire or range of movement possibilities?

Edited October 5, 2015 by Kate_N