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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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You have my total sympathy for your calf/foot injury Michelle as I been suffering in a similar manner. Its been nearly 4 weeks for me now and my leg feels normal again but I still have some spectacular bruises. I have been warned though that it takes 2-3 weeks after all pain and swelling is gone for the muscle to be fully healed and not susceptible to going again so do take extra care with your warm ups, even when you feel it is better. Timescales might be better for you as you do more exercise than me but I admit I am being cautious right now as not being able to even walk for a week was horrible

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It might be better to rest it this week at least Michelle. Depends whether it's a muscle or ligament injury in terms of recovery time some ligaments can take months rather than weeks. I'd be a little worried if it was swollen not to dance on it to,be on the safe side. It's not a weakness to be on the cautious side!

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I don’t want this to sound foolhardy but I have had some success. Firstly the swelling on my right leg increased the circumference by at least 1.5 inches compared to the left and it was as tight as drum, it just felt like a slab of lifeless meat. Monday just by chance on another group I belong to, I see a video on Calf Muscle Massage by Lisa Howard. That inspired me to try something, also as a precaution I didn’t attend my two classes at ENB as the impact of the grand allegro from them was sure to sustain additional injury. Monday I used a combination of hot and cold to reduce the swelling, it really didn’t have much effect, I also tried Ibuprofen tablets as an anti-inflammatory. After seeing Lisa’s video I tried massage oil but you can use any moisturiser, I then turned to using Ibuprofen gel. There was no real evidence on Tuesday morning that anything had changed, however I continued with the massage and ibuprofen tablets. It wasn’t until I got off the train at Kings Cross late Tuesday afternoon, that I realised I had a tiny bit more movement in the right leg, it wasn’t quite so tight. Also I had an almost involuntary urge to stretch it, I ended up doing an almost power walk trying to increase the range of that foot. This may sound silly but in a funny sort of way it was like it “hurts nice”.

 

Follow the Link to Lisa Howard video: http://www.theballetblog.com/portfolio/exercises-for-tight-calf-muscles/

 

 

I think I had always intended to go to Tuesday rehearsal, even if it was just to observe, however I did tell my teacher of my injury and I would probably avoid jumps.

 

We did our usual warm-up with a short barre and a bit of centre including jumps, and my feet felt reasonably fine but still a little stiff, they certainly were no problem running through the rep.

 

At one point us girls had a bit of a break while our two guys were coached by our teacher, I did a few forced plie to extend the range of my right foot, afterwards I thought about something I was strengthening my foot and ankle to do via my private Monday teacher, it was the snatch-up releve’s for pirouettes, when on the snatch-up the toes on demi-pointe replace where the heels were, In the past I have been a riser rather than a snatcher for launching pirouettes. I tried on my right (weakest foot), it was no problem I ran about 10 or 12 off without getting tired, the same with the left. It seems the strengthening exercises set by my Monday teacher have had a very positive effect.

 

Although thing have much improved and I have lost about half an inch of swelling, there is still some way to go before I am fully out of the woods, so I am still just a little bit cautious. Hopefully I will be fully fit by Sunday the 7th of Feb when I start RADs Adult Associate classes at Elmhurst.

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Oh no don't do that Moomin!! Have you got an injury or just finding it difficult to get to classes at the moment?

 

Even though I'm pretty careful and don't overdo things I seem to lurch from one injury to the other.

Just got over the knee injury and now the hip flexor is playing up!! I know this comes from a ski ing accident I had over 20 years ago now but it suddenly starts up again even though I can't think for the life of me what I did to bring it on again!

 

Luckily it doesn't affect centre work too much .....unless have got to do any sustained adage work......which luckily isn't too often for me.....so not such a nuisance or hindrance as the Achilles and knee injury but annoying nevertheless.

 

There are some days when I feel I should just play the old age card and give it all up but then I do a couple of lovely ENB workshops and think maybe next year!! You're far too young to give up yet Moomin!!

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Michelle I do really admire your perseverance. Do you ever feel like giving up, especially with the injuries? I must admit, due to many factors, I have been wondering whether I should just accept defeat and give up!

Hi Moomin

 

Giving up just isn’t in my psyche, its not something I would do voluntarily. I remember when I first joined balletCo back in 2012, thinking that there was only so far I could go with my remaining life span. Well my horizons have moved and are far more fluid now, I do remember posting something to the effect that I had my own small ballet studio and it would not be worthwhile making it bigger by eating in to my capital. Well that seams to have gone out the window, I have a man pricing a 5 metre extension for me.

 

A common thing I hear from teachers and dancers alike, injuries are part of being a dancer, I certainly believe that, but never the less one has to take care and listen to ones own body and act accordingly.

 

I guess in the last couple of weeks there hasn’t been much time for recovery as its been ballet for 6 out of the 7 days, but whoopee I have a weekend off this weekend.

 

Wednesdays however is always a nice day for me, I regard it as pleasure rather than work as in Mon and Tues. Wednesday is a couple of fitness classes and a beginners ballet class with a group of really nice ladies which is real fun. Never the less its quite challenging because of its simplicity. I find it quite difficult doing barre exercises like a penguin, that is, with the arms just stuck out in second. Its almost second nature that my body wants to go into port de bras as I would at my ENB Intermediate and Advanced class. The class at one time was very small only two or three of us, now its swollen to around 8 or 9. This week I had there Lincoln teacher join us again as one of the dancers, I think she was Fiz’s teacher at one time. She shared the centre barre with me. Oh Woops she picked me up on my right supporting leg when we were doing Rond de jambes, so I said with my legs parallel, look at my legs, you could clearly see the swelling on the right foot, so we both swapped stories about crashing jete’s .

 

I did a stretch and tone class after that ballet class and achieved a first for me, we were doing box splits, but I have never been able to get my forearms flat on the floor, almost there last week, this week they were solidly down and I was quite chuffed.

 

I love that school as I hire a studio there every Friday for a couple of hours to run through my own repertoire, its always spotlessly clean and the heating on prior to my arrival, they really do look after me well.

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Today was the acid test for my injured right calf, although still slightly swollen, just over half an inch greater in circumference than the left, it held up well during the Grand Allegro at my two classes at ENB tonight (Monday), the total class endurance today was just under 5 hours, more if you count the additional pre-class studio time I got at ENB as the company was away.

 

Although its not quite fully healed, it much much improved. The only discomfort I have is on the full depth of a plie, and the height of a rise, however I can also feel it with stretched tendu to a la second. But otherwise it does not impede me to any real extent.

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More the latter LinMM! Juggling work and family and don't think dark, cold nights help the exhausted feeling! Luckily no injuries apart from sore toes from poonte! I will persevere I'm sure ???? sorry to hear you are injured again. When you have an injury I think you try and compensate and then something else often goes wrong???? I hope you can work through it, I'm sure you've got a fair few dancing years ahead!

Good for you Michelle and glad to hear the injury is healing, sounds nasty

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I think the calf muscle is just about healed after tonight’s classes at ENB. I must confess I was expecting trouble from the calf as I had very little rest over the weekend. I had done two sessions this morning (Monday) and was really tired. I had done two sessions on Sunday with RAD at Elmhurst, with a really lovely teacher. That was no problem, but the journey home was. I came off the beaten track to call and see my aunt at Loughborough who I hadn’t seen since my teens. Journey there was fine, but on the way back I had to rely on my sat-nav which took me down all the little country roads, combined with the fact it was dark and raining heavily, visibility was extremely poor. It was just an awful arduous journey.

 

Once I got going at ENB the tiredness disappeared, at the end of the two evening classes I felt absolutely brilliant, in particular, no problem with my left Achilles which is nearly always present to some degree, I just couldn’t believe it.

 

That was a little short lived. I took the most gentle route from ENB to Kings Cross via 10 bus from outside the Royal Albert Hall to Knightsbridge tube station (nearest underground without long walk). Then underground to Kings Cross in a standing/ moving position to avoid stiffness through Lactic acid build-up. However minor but annoying discomfort was present in that Achilles when I got off the tube, however by the time I reached King Cross concourse, the discomfort had gone. Some discomfort had also returned after my hour long train journey home, it is just so very annoying.

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[This seems like best place to put this, shout if I'm wrong!]

 

So, I'm scheduled to do my grade 1 ISTD Classical Ballet exam in May - I'm apparently seven years of age. Our teacher has sent me a video of the most appropriate boys set dance - "Collecting Conkers" -and I am crying with laughter. The curriculum notes include "swaggering" in the instructions and watching the boy in the video I'm thinking I may be best off with a pirate costume.

 

Now to figure out how to keep my face reasonably straight and dance it in a way that doesn't make me look like an over-the-top impression of Jack Sparrow.

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There's nothing wrong with Jack Sparrow ;)

 

Michelle, just catching up on your adventures! Having moved up to Wisbech from Essex, I am even more amazed at your journeys to London and further afield for classes :) Glad to hear your calf is healing, carry on flying the flag for us "older" dancers! 

Sx

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Colman it's entirely admirable of you to take your grade one exam!! Really well done!! Any adults taking ballet or music exams in the 30 ++++ age group are very brave.

 

And then after the conker dance onwards and upwards!!

 

You may get the sailors horn pipe for grade 2 which is great fun!!

 

Perhaps you could have a game of conkers with your son as preparation and watch his expression (usually rather purposeful with intent on winning at any cost when seven) and give the examiner a wink if a smile or two should escape!!

 

The adults who have taken exams down here in Brighton have always said how lovely the examiners were so I'm sure they will be very understanding and hopefully if you make them smile they will give you extra marks for "making their day"

 

When I did my grade one (RAD) and circa 1955 aged 8 I think I was trying to remember which dance we did back then. I'm sure we had to do a mime and I seem to remember doing Little Miss Moffitt. I'd probably do it better today though as I'm sure back then I wasn't afraid of spiders and now I am so could probably mime the fear a bit more realistically!!

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Michelle, just catching up on your adventures! Having moved up to Wisbech from Essex, I am even more amazed at your journeys to London and further afield for classes :) Glad to hear your calf is healing, carry on flying the flag for us "older" dancers! 

Sx

Hi Sheila

 

I was aware that you had moved up to Wisbech, I spoke to one of your girls a few months back at the old shop, you had moved but you hadn’t opened your new shop at that time. I see your shop was open now from another thread that you started. I must come over and see it in the next week or two as I have a little bit of breathing space at the weekends for a short while.

 

After having a couple of lovely classes with RAD last weekend, I have been in touch with them again to ask if I can join their remaining Adult Associate classes at Elmhurst. They have said yes. It just makes sense as its 106 miles by car each way, so it’s a case of just making a complete day of it.

 

I very nearly had a rehearsal trip to Edinburgh every week but that fell through.

 

I see you have joined a local ballet class, is that in Wisbech?, its not the one above the Angles Theatre is it?.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow I seem to be away for ages, things seems to go downhill from half term. This was to have been a week to at least get a bit of chilling out done, however I did get to see Just Ballets new shop and her fantastic range of tutu’s, to die for. Thursday was my blackest day with only three and a half hours sleep as I had a full days meeting in London starting early. Normally I can tolerate a couple of days a week with only fours, but three and half really took its toll.

 

The following week almost everything I was doing was going backwards, I am sure I was still suffering from inadequate sleep, the only upside was the beautiful new piece we were doing at rehearsal, it was to “Gabriel’s Obo”, the melody is really slow, the dance simple but so beautify,  it stirs up such feeling and passion, it made you want to cry as it was so emotional.

 

By the end of last week things turned around they became very very positive.

 

Firstly, at one of my rep coaching sessions we ran though our version of the “Entrance of Kitri “ from Don Q, which has been re-choreographed to remove the interaction between the corps de ballet, which lies between the two halves, thus making it more dancey and truly a solo.  The second half was also re-choreographed from Mariinsky as we needed a little more time to get into an assertive Spanish pose to punctuate the end, which really does say O’lay.

 

 

We started work on a second piece which I had been playing around with as there was something I didn’t like about it. It was Gulnare Solo from Le Corsaire. It had a couple of flick jete’s in it, I wasn’t even keen on them when done by professionals, so I decided they had to go.

 

The beginning of Gulnare Solo to ENB, with a lot of Mariinsky and Bolshoi blended in. After trying various options with my coach we went back to look a replacing the flick jete with turning cabrials from Mariinsky. This was a movement I wasn’t familiar with, and I found it quite difficult. Getting into the first turning cabrial seemed reasonably ok, but a second was connected by what looked like a flick to retire for what was to be the pivoting foot, a little bit like a lame duck. Eventually I cracked it, but it still needs tidying. We have taken every thing after the promenade, through the turning cabrials to the two jete en turnants , except we complete three. The final ending is to be that of ENB which I think is quite awesome with pose, double pose, fouette, fouette, all repeated three time and travelling on the diagonal. At the moment the ending is beyond me, however the last run-through at my coaching session as everything else went well, I just went for it, and managed to get at least one pose, double pose, fouette, fouette set of steps executed. For me that was a significant move forward.

 

 

Something out of the blue: Two ladies from one of my classes have asked if I can take them through some basic rep from one of the classics. I have asked one of the teachers at that school if they have any objection to me hiring one of their studios for this purpose, as I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes, she was ok with it, I have ask her to check with the principle as I don’t want to sour our relationship as they really look after me with my own studio hire.

 

 

Finally got a quotation back for my studio extension, at the moment the pricing looks feasible although a little expensive, however I’m still waiting for the drawings so I can apply for planning permission, until then its only a may be. If its on there will be lots to do so I will have to seriously pull back on the amount of ballet I do,other than performance rehearsals and of course my annual one week of one-to-one rep coaching at Ballet West.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fantastic, the owner of one of my ballet schools has Ok’ed my use of her school to run my repertoire group. There have been a couple of further developments, one of my ladies has ask if her husband can come along to do some partner work, oh gosh PDD already. I am also aware that they may be at least one more that would like to join us but is working when the studio is available. I casually mentioned I may be looking for an evening studio in the future to another local Ballet school, and that owner has offered me Thursday evenings if I want it, as its available at the moment, but that could change.

The group will meet weekly starting the first week after Easter.

 

Had a brilliant day at Elmhurst with RAD on Sunday after the awful trip there through freezing fog. I spent the whole day with them doing all 4 sessions; they also gave me permission to use the studio during the lunch break. I got to run through the entrance of Kitri from Don Q a few times; however I couldn’t get their audio system working with my tablet. I ask one of our teachers but she didn’t know as we used a pianist for all our sessions. Next time I will take a small sound system of my own in, especially as it may be a different studio next time.

 

Running a full day at Elmhurst into the next day with ENB has taken its toll on my legs Grrrrr . But never the less I think it was worth it tonight. It may be my imagination, but my grand jete’s seemed to be up for longer, my balance at the barre and in the centre with the leg in attitude derriere, seemed much more solid and stay up much longer than most. The only disappointing bit was when we were allowed to finish off our enchainement with our own choice of turns. I went for the ending of the Gulnare solo from Le Corsaire, which is a pose turn, double pose turn into a fouette. The choice of ending was presented in both the Advanced and Intermediate classes, my fouettes were awful, they came off balance; I think I was just rushing without my gesturing leg being turned out properly before whipping it in. I had only been working on that in the morning with my private coach but at ENB I just made a pigs ear of it, the other turns were fine. Guess its just practice, practice and more practice.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It seems my ballet diary is getting extremely full, it’s becoming difficult to manage, as I’ve already had to make compromises and switch some of my studio bookings.

 

We seem to be running behind with our summer show rehearsals in London, as our piece covering “Autumn” seems to have evolved into at least four pieces danced to four separate pieces music but chained together, I think we will certainly need some extra rehearsal days to catch up, still lots to do covering the other seasons.

 

Our RAD Associates group at Elmhurst have been asked to be part an event to celebrate The Patron’s Lunch and our Royal Patron’s 90th Birthday on the 12 June by putting on a ballet class demonstration at the New Street Station where Harlequin dance floors have agreed to provide and sponsor the floor for dancers to use. The adult class piece is likely to be approximately 30-45 minutes long and if there is the appetite; repeat the session late that day. I will certainly be up for that. Although it not a dress rehearsal as such, we also have to attend a practice run through session on that type of dance floor on the 8th of May.

 

It looks as if my Rep group is finally off the ground with a date for our first meeting, its going under the name of Glen Ballet SHG (Self Help Group), and has the blessing of one of my local ballet schools where we are hiring one of their studios. At the moment we are very small, three ladies including myself, and two guys, one of those guys is my boyfriend. Although we are very small group I’m re-choreographing “Waltz of the Swans” from Swan Lake as our first piece due to a relive small number of movements, its tempo and repetitive nature of its steps as our trial piece. The session has the same basic format: Warm-up, Barre, Centre practice mainly based on step type required for Rep. The rep itself is built up week by week taking as long as required as my dancers have never danced from the classics before and are a little apprehensive about their retention level. Finally ending with a stretch/cool-down and closed with a formal reverence.

 

Although I have another dancer who is keen to join us but can only do evenings, my boyfriend has suggested I do both as I have another studio available for Thursday evenings, but that on hold for the moment until we see how this pans out, particularly the infrastructure as that takes time.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Over 20 of us had a great day yesterday at KNT's Romeo and Juliet intensive for beginners at the Manchester Dancehouse in Oxford Road today. Both members of Team Terpsichore were there and there would have been a bigger contingent from Yorkshire had I mentioned it to my companions in Jane Tucker's Wednesday evening improvers' class sooner. A more advanced workshop on Romeo and Juliet is taking place today,

 

Like the Swan Lake intensive which I mentioned in this thread last Autumn the courses have been given by Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet Academy.

 

We started the day with floor exercises on pilates mats followed by a 90 minute class on the lines of Jane's Wednesday evening class in Leeds. One of the exercises was the Descent into the Kingdom of the Shades which is one of my favourites and which I would love to master. Then we learned a modified version of the Capulets and Montagues and Juliet's version.

At 16:00 we gave a show to one of our friends from the advanced class and one of our teachers who were extremely generous in their appreciation.

 

At the end of the day Jane gave us a cool down plus some tips on hot baths and cold showers and sent us on our way.

 

Altogether, a very good day. For those who are interested I have written a full account in my blog.

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Hi Terpsichore

 

I see some videos of your R and J Intensive at the Dancehouse, not sure which one it was, it certainly was an unusual version of dance of the knights (Capulets and Montagues), the dancing looked really nice, well done to everyone.

 

I sort have got a little bit of a rest over Easter, although I started back at ENB last week, but no recovery, in fact just the opposite.  Although I didn’t do any private sessions with my rep coach as she was ill two weeks before Easter, I carried on with the piece we had been practicing, the ending section Gulnare solo from Le Corsaire containing Fouettes. I think I over did it . The right knee (the gesturing leg) became extremely painful after a couple of days basically doing a hour and a half of intense practice. It became quite swollen. Although most of the swelling has gone down, I cannot yet get my gesturing leg to the knee (Retire), its about half way. The area behind the knee joint also feels swollen to the touch , I think its called the “Vastus intermedius” from my Concise Book of Muscles. Most ballet movement don’t bother it too much, but things like Fondu, Retire and especially kneeling down do.

 

On the positive side as I have had to lay off the fouettes for a bit, I did take the opportunity to start on our Le Corsaire PDD with Adrian my boy friend in prep for Ballet West. We have at least got Adrian familiar with the first 2.30minutes of 3.10. Only issue I had with the PDD was teaching the mans part on the kneel down just after the beginning, that was really painful.

 

I just hope my knee holds together this week as its going to be a very heavy 6 days of ballet this week with a full day at Elmhurst on Sunday. If not I guess its a visit to Tina my Physio.

Edited by Michelle_Richer
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  • 2 weeks later...

Last Sunday I visited Mel Wong (a member of this forum and contributor to this thread though I can't for the life of me remember her BalletcoForum name) in Budapest and attended class with her teacher, Imre Andrasi, who is a distinguished dancer and choreographer. The works that he has created is as long as your arm.

Class took place in a studio at an incubator of interesting dance companies some of which have websites which Mel has drawn to my attention.

 

The class was very much like one in Leeds or Manchester except that we did a lot more work on demi-pointe which Mel explained was a feature of Hungarian training that had been influenced heavily by the teachings of Agrippina Vaganova. It is intended to build up strength for pointe work and jumping.

I was in Hungary to attend the première  of Sir Peter Wright's production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Hungarian National Ballet with members of the London Ballet Circle and I was lucky enough to be invited back stage to the first night party.

 

If anyone is interested in the class, dance in Hungary or the cast party I have written a short note about it in my blog. I will review the performance at great length in a future post.

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Wow you certainly get about Terpsichore, I was with Northern Ballet on Thursday at Norwich Theatre Royal doing a little bit of Northern Swan Lake rep with the lovely ladies of Norfolk .

 

This week has been a bit problematic with a possible knee over-use condition which I was in two minds to go and see my Physio.

 

Sunday the 17th was a full day at Elmhurst, this time I took my own portable sound system linked by Bluetooth which gave me the opportunity to do a few practice runs during the lunch break, of “The Entrance of Kitri” from Don Q. I was a little concerned about my right knee as it was a quite stiff, after the body conditioning class it felt somewhat better, however I was still concerned about the impact of next days 2 ENB classes.

 

The effect of the ENB classes was somewhat mystifying, especially as we had two fairly heavy grand allegro sessions in them, however on leaving the knee felt considerably better.

 

Things that aggravate the knee joint originally came from the repetitive rotation (whipping action) of knee joint during fouette's, and is made worse by sitting with the knees folded in when restricted by train seats, or anything that causes the knee to be folded at an acute angle.

 

It seems that certain types of exercise is very beneficial to relieving the discomfort of the knee joint and regain its flexibility, so if anyone has any particular exercises that can be incorporated in a cool-down at the end of ballet class, I would be extremely grateful.

Edited by Michelle_Richer
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In response to Michelle's post - Have you had either an X-ray or scan of our knee, that way your Physio would know what's going on? Have you considered gyrotonics? I've had knee issues in the past and once I'd had my knee X rayed and scanned I took the results to a dance Physio who gave me the correct exercises to do. Also I wasn't to use rotation or turnout for 6 weeks and rest which drove me up the wall at the time but was so worth it. Gyrotonics is absolutely brilliant and I would highly recommend it - it is used extensively by ballet companies both for injured dancers and in everyday use. It is tailored to your needs and is amazing and very addictive. Also have had thought about KT taping! Your Physio could do that? Anyway good luck and take good care of that knee!

Edited by esme
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Hi esme

No I haven’t had an X-Ray or Scan, for that matter as yet I have not seen my Physio. I guess in some ways I have listen to my body, but its telling me very conflicting things.

 

Firstly I know the route cause: overuse  through repetitive rotation of the knee in fouette practice and coaching.

The condition does not appear to have a permanence in nature, certain things improve it considerably but at the same time don’t seem to have any logic.

 

For the last three weeks my ENB classes which have a good deal of grand allegro in them, appear to improve it considerably, I would have expected the opposite.

 

I went to class very reluctantly as my knee wasn’t in particularly good shape, especially after the train journey to London . By the end of the first class (Advanced) it felt a lot better, after the second class (Intermediate) on the way out, going down the stairs always gives me a good indication of the state of my legs, they were fine, in fact, the best they have been for along time.

 

I’m not foolish enough to think I’m completely out of the woods, as the other day doing a fitness class one of the stretches which at first seemed quite painful, then went though a region which I can only described as it hurt nice, it seemed to release something. But another stretch was very uncomfortable.

 

For the time being, I’m being just a little bit cautious in holding back things like Fouettes and seeing how well the improvement continues. Besides my ballet commitment every day is quite heavy and quite difficult to work round.

 

I see what you mean by Gyrotonics being very addictive, cant squeeze on in my home gym thoe. I’m having enough trouble having my dance studio extended as I’m always short of studio time, was hoping to get a bit before class last night at ENB, but the company still had our studio right up to class time, we were watching them rehearsing part of the Black Swan solo, wish I could have joined then.

 

I guess access to this would be nice:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0uVH62QPXo

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Hi Michelle

 

Yes the Health Studio at RB looks amazing.  I'm lucky enough to have access to a similar studio near me where I do one-to-one gyrotonic sessions and also do gyrokinesis as well and it certainly does lengthen and strengthen - if you know what I mean! Both of these are great for injuries.  Floor Barre is another good thing too, if you've got time.

 

It sounds as if you have your knee issues covered, ballet can be such a killer!  I've got hyperextended knees and suffer from time to time with injuries, and while sway backs look good, they can be a proverbial pain.  Anyway good luck with all your classes look after that knee!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Although the knee issue hasn’t completely gone away, I have found something that really helps, and that is moving up and down on a foam roller. It’s relatively easy to isolate the offending muscle and roll up and down on it. When finished I have substantially more flexibility restored. Now I need to investigate how to apply this properly. After all my appetite for dancing isn’t getting any less and I often wonder just how much more my body can take, its already doing more 6 day weeks of ballet that 5.

 

Progress with turns has been knocked back substantially, the local hall I have booked three time a week, has had its floor cleaned, its now useless, its lost all its slippyness and is very very sticky. I can even feel the additional traction with simple pose turns. I have mentioned this to the key holders at our local Post Office as something like this happened around Sept 2014 when the floor was treated with something deliberately to make it less slippy, it was months and months before the floor was suitable for turns again. Unless the floor is returned to its former glory I will be moving two of the sessions to a Ballet studio in Sleaford that I already hire 3 times a week.

 

Although Sleaford is some 20miles away, I can combine the two practice session before running my rep groups (Glen Ballet SHG) session. That way it doesn’t cost me any more for travel.

 

On the bright side, Adrian my boyfriend and ballet scare crow, has successfully danced all the way through my version of the Le Corsaire PDD, all 3.10 mins of it,, the last 30 seconds or so was particularly difficult for him. This is one of the pieces we are taking up to Ballet West in August, although it needs an awful lot of polishing, at least we now have something that works. I’ve already warned Emma my private rep coach that Adrian and I will be seeing her this Friday for help in polishing, she is also aware that Adrian is not a Ballet dancer as such but never the less I’m extremely proud of what he achieved last week.

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I must admit Michelle your Adrian deserves a medal and lots of whatever his tipple is for learning that pas deux!!

 

I cannot imagine getting my own partner getting roped in!

I think he would rather quietly finish me off with one of the many gardening tools from his collection and then stage a mysterious disappearance rather than be a "danseur noble"

 

Would he have done it for some charity for a chance to dance with La Guillem .......maybe!!

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Adrian bless him is not a natural dancer, it all began when he asked me to teach him Salsa, In exchange I suggested he helped me out by partnering me with certain ballet steps, he agreed, but that rapidly developed into the Nutcracker Grand PDD. Unfortunately that never got finished as Adrian sustained a shoulder injury, but not from ballet I must say, so that is put on hold for the moment.

 

I have re-choreographed The Le Corsaire PDD to avoid his poorly shoulder and remove all lifts, but never the less I’m quite pleased with what we have and after polishing I'm more than happy to take it up to Ballet West in August.

The only real issue I have is having a nice clean supported double turn pirouette on demi-pointe, that we are working on, but mainly me.

 

I have plenty more in the bag for Adrian providing he doesn’t through the towel in after Ballet West, but he has already met Gillian during my visit last year. My thoughts for his next piece is the Black Swan PDD.

 

He has already joined my Glen Ballet rep group, also next term I will try him out with the Beginner Associates class at Elmshurst.

 

I do agree Adrian does deserve a medal, I did get him his favourite tipple and a nice pub meal on our way back from Elmhurst on Sunday, it was an absolutely gorgeous day and we took the scenic root back, during the morning he was sunning himself on the grass outside Elmshurst while I was inside.

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That's lovely Michelle

 

It would be great to get him into a beginners class though perhaps he could be doing a class at the same time as you .....although on a day like last Sunday sunning oneself outside seems a very attractive option!

I did my Saturday ballet class as usual but it was very tempting to just jump off the bus and get out onto the beach on the way in!

 

Our lovely Saturday teacher is going to live in Berlin for a while from June so not sure exactly what will happen with that class but I will miss it a lot that's for sure.

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I've just thrown a lot of money at Dance Direct and emailed our own Sheila at Just Ballet about a ballet skirt plus Etsy has just emailed me about another which has been despatched and I need help because buying ballet wear is almost as addictive as buying books. Help me, Ballet Co!

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