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

[Kate_N]

I wonder if this thread has run its course? There are clear & forthright opinions expressed on all sides about the approach of one poster to her training, but it means that  useful information for all adult students has tended to get lost. If Michelle wants to record her ballet adventures, then maybe she could start a thread to do just that (or like Terpsichore - make a wonderful interesting blog!) and it's there for people to read, rather than mixing it in with other sorts of content for adult students more generally.

 

Anna C has kindly started a more general thread, which is probably best for the rest of us to ask questions or swap information & advice.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Kate_N

[Jan McNulty]

Here is the link to the general Adult Ballet thread:

 

http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/13569-adult-ballet-questions-answers-classes-and-info/

[Terpsichore]

........................ then maybe she could start a thread to do just that (or like Terpsichore - make a wonderful interesting blog!) ..........................

 

Thank you very much Kate_N for your flattering remarks about Terpsichore. I can't take credit for everything. We have had some great contributions from Mel Wong, Joanna Goodman, David Murley, Alison Winward, Janet McNulty, Gita Mistry and others and look forward to welcoming more.

 

But that's not the reason for my post. I just wanted to mention KNT Danceworks' wonderful adult ballet intensive on The Nutcracker which I attended at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester in the buildings of the Northern Ballet School yesterday. The workshop was taught by Jane Tucker who is one of my teachers at Northern Ballet Academy (an entirely different establishment connected to Northern Ballet) in Leeds. This was the fourth workshop that KNT has arranged and it was for me the most demanding but also the most enjoyable.

 

We learned three dances: part of the prince's solo from Act II, the Sugar Plum fairy (on demi pointe) and the party scene at Mr and Mrs Stahlbaum's just before Drosselmeyer shows up with his presents. The first two pieces were simplified for us but were still demanding. For instance, we had to do a tour en l'air from a standing start and then several more not to mention some arabesques, jetes and as many pirouettes as we could manage at the end. Sugar Plum was even more difficult as it required a lot of control and precision, Not even the party scene was a doddle.

 

What made yesterday so special was Jane's teaching - she pushes us to our limits but we responded to the best of our ability - and the genial company of my fellow participants - including,  in particular, some lovely young people from Liverpool.  Also, because the ballet is set at Christmas and is often performed at that time of the year, the intensive launched us into the Christmas spirit.

 

The Dancehouse lets out Northern Ballet School's studios to lots of different dance classes some of whom performed in  Move It! last week. There's African and Brazilian dancing, belly dancing, Chinese folk and classical, flamenco to mention just a few. In the studio next to ours, a group of kids of South Asian heritage were learning bharatnatyam yesterday. Their teacher explained that their course was part of the CAT (Centre for Advanced Training) programme which is great for young dancers of all cultures in our city.

 

Sadly we do not yet have our own resident professional classical company in Manchester. We do have a special link with English National as they performed their very first show at the Opera House and premiered Akram Khan's Giselle in our city, However, Birmingham Royal Ballet and ENB are frequent and welcome visitors and we get to see many other touring companies. Also, Northern Ballet School's performing company, Manchester City Ballet, presents a very good full length ballet just before Christmas. They are doing Coppelia in December and if it is anything like their Giselle and The Nutcracker I strongly recommend it.

Edited October 30, 2016 by terpsichore

[Michelle_Richer]

My dear friends

I think a little correction is required:
Firstly after reading through the comments and trying to understand where the DISRESPECT element towards teachers came from. There appear to be two separate origins :

First, the fact I referred to my roll with my group as Ballet Mistress. In simple terms the definition is : ballet mistress - a woman who directs and teaches and rehearses dancers for a ballet company, isn’t this what Glen Ballet an amateur company, all about. This in itself shows no disrespect towards any other professional dancer or ballet teacher.

 

The second: it seem when I said  Even these well qualified people are not immune from the occasional sloppy technique, they are human too. Then I gave 3 examples, unfortunately this got misinterpreted and was thrown back of good but elderly teachers that were not able to dance full-out, making me sound heartless. Firstly this was never intended as a derogatory remark, but to show that even the best (able bodied) teachers, are human and DO have bad days, but never the less I don’t put them on pedestals which appears to be the culture behind the remarks.

 

One of my first teachers was a lovely elderly lady that had a real hip problem, and as many of you have made the point, it didn’t stop her teaching in any meaningful way. I would never be critical about her technique so please do not cast me in that light as its extremely misleading.

 

I know this week, both LinMM and myself will be attending a 2 hour Ballet Masterclass with one of the Russian Ballet legends “Arkady Ivanenko” in Saint Petersburg, Arkady graduated from Leningrad State (Vaganova) Ballet Academy in 1963.He joined Kirov (Mariinsky) Ballet the same year and has performed there for 25 years. He is considered to be one of the unique principle character artists of all times as he has performed 95 parts through out his career! Arkady has also had roles in some theater-film productions such as "Firebird" by Boris Eifman (1977) and "Fouette" by Vladimir Vasiliev (1986). Although the years make have taken there toll, for me it still a great honour and privilege to take class with him.

 

There is so much more I could come back on but there simply isn't the time, as I need to leave shortly on my travels.

[LinMM]

I think it's all been said Michelle there's no reason for you come back on this topic you seemed to have explained yourself above quite well!!

See you later!

[Michelle_Richer]

Our Alive Ballet Company trip to the 47th World Congress in Dance Research on the first week in November was really fantastic apart from attending a Master-class from one of the former ballet legends and performing on a Russian stage too. We also got to see 5 different ballet performances between Saint Petersburg's main theatres of the Mariinsky 1, Mariinsky 2 and the Mikhailovski .

 

We also got to see the Boris Eifman Academy with it beautiful studios including the one with the pink floor, it was very soft and quite slippy and I did get a chance to try out some travelling turn on it, loved it. Although the Vaganova Academy was on the Congress itinerary to visit, it was withdrawn. However a small group of us did call at the Vaganova and we did at least get into reception there, but sadly we didn’t get any further, possibly as it was like a bank holiday there, it was “Russia Day”. The following day we did get to see the Museum of Theatre and Music just around the corner from Vaganova. There we got the chance to see the ballet section full of various costumes and ballet shoes of famous dancers from the past. We also saw Tchaikovsky's original piano score of the Nutcracker and his piano too. I finally arrived home at 11.30pm Sunday night .

 

Monday was ballet as usual, except Adrian my boyfriend was suffering from gout again, so he was grounded.

First session was Body Conditioning at 10am, I was well below pair, most of my energy had gone and I was really tired too, the trip had taken it out on me.

 

11am was my one-to-one rep coaching which was to be my PDD beginning of the Swan Lake Russian dance, however Adrian was unable to dance, so my teacher took his place and danced my choreography, between us we sorted out the musicality of the movements and Adrian videoed it as a guide, its now developed a little further but I need more attitude and confidence from Adrian yet, but its coming along. The only real issue I have with the Russian dance is the Fouettes at the end, as they quickly result in injury if I practice them for too long. However I have found a different version that has a simpler slower type of fouette movement at the end but unfortunately it doesn’t fit the fast tempo of the music.

 

My Glen Ballet group has just started its new piece Merliton’s Pas de Trios from Nutcracker. They didn’t quite get up to the promenades but I allowed them to try them in prep for this week.

 

I am awaiting a response from a theatre, for hiring so things are beginning to move with Glen Ballet.

 

Not many weeks now for my next performance with the Alive Ballet Company (10th Dec), in London this time.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Michelle_Richer

[Michelle_Richer]

Sadly for RAD Adult Associates at Elmhurst, the drop-in facility with ad-hock payments have been stopped. This was always an incentive for beginners to try a class as a taster, two of my group did do that. I’m not sure what triggered the change in policy, it’s certainly not the vast number of dancer, however it may be that the online payment system cant cope, as drop-ins usually paid on the day.

[Michelle_Richer]

Do you ever get the feeling you are swimming against the tide when everything you do seams to have unplanned obstacles in the way of progress.

 

Firstly while Adrian my PDD partners was practicing the Black Swan PDD he developed Gout and couldn’t dance for a while.

 

As we have quite a demanding schedule of solo and PDD to take up to Ballet West next year, I though I would press on with one of my solo’s The Russian Dance from Russian versions of Swan lake. This is similar to that which is danced by Anastasia Volochkova. However I removed the first just under a minute similar to a version of Mariinsky I have. However that did bug me a little to waist that music, then the penny dropped, why not create something for Adrian my PDD partner to dance to, to introduce me to the audience. Well that how it started, then Adrian bless him sustained another injury, but not through ballet but picking up a pen, he hurt his back. Now the momentum is going Im using my rep coach to dance the male part and the dance is developing into a full PDD, also as I want to utilise it as a PDD I’m trying to distance the choreography from the solo. We have even ripped the fouettes out of the end section and replaced it with a type of Cossack dance but to the fouette melody. Adrian has seen this and I know he is keen to start practicing it even though it will really stretch him, particularly the speed.
As for the solo, its almost done apart from tidying up the port de bras as I seem to switching it between Anastasia (Bolshoi) and Mariinsky styles and of course the fouettes at the end. Although I know I could edit the music to finish the solo early or use a gentler fouette routine, the dance certainly seam looses a bit of its impact, so Ive decided Anastasia’s fouettes has to stay, for me that means managing injury prevention when I attempt sustained fouettes which has been an on going problem.

 

I think I have a bit of an opportunity to take on a bit more managed risk after our Alive Ballet Christmas performance this weekend, as it been a pretty busy year.  I want to do this with the help of a physio to get down to the bottom of this issue.  The annoying part of it, there is no pain or discomfort while I am practicing fouettes as that occurs the next day and remains for a very long time, even months if the practice is sustained. I am sure there must be something wrong with my technique but my rep coach says not. I’ve been recommended a new physio by a dancing friend, but I think she is only a sports physio as I don’t now know of any specific physio that have experience with ballet in South Lincolnshire.

 

The next thing to go wrong, my Wednesday ballet class is being moved and combined with a Thursday one as the attendance is quite low, I cant do Thursdays as that's my Progressing Ballet Technique class, fitness class with the big and small balls, and it the only one in the area. Sadly for Wednesdays I will loose my stretch and tone class too, so will need to find something for Wednesdays as I cant justify going to 3 one-to-one sessions a week.

 

As for swimming against the tide just to make matters worse on the way to our last rehearsal yesterday, some kind gentleman managed to run into the back of my car GRRRR at least he admitted liability for the accident in front of a policeman, and the car is a least no one was injured and the car still drivable, just an insurance job now but so inconvenient.

[LinMM]

It has been a hectic but enjoyable few months hasn't it with the Russia Trip and now the Alive Performance on Saturday and all the extra weekend rehearsals entailed.

I'm trying to persuade my long suffering partner that it's best for me to travel up on Friday night and not Saturday morning with the way Southern Rail is at the moment.......you just never know if the train you intend catching will be cancelled and often at the very last minute or the other annoying thing is a train with only four carriages when the previous train has been cancelled! So packed to the rafters.....the thought of standing all the way up to London with the really full on programme we have on Saturday is not appealing.

The thing is there is a good group on in Lewes on the Friday so do feel a bit mean but think the performance should have priority with all the travel probs.

 

I think it will be quite nice next term to have some time to really settle into improving technique and dance quality for a while and just concentrate on that. One does feel a bit freer to really put some effort in to this when not having to worry about possible injury with performances coming up!

[Michelle_Richer]

Hi LinMM

 

Well I’m glad the show is over now, not that I didn’t enjoy it, it was real fun, a really nice group of dancers too,  but the reports of severe delays on the Piccadilly line were quite worrying, not only for us dancers getting to the theatre for 10am but also for our guests getting to the evening performances too.  Thank goodness the Piccadilly line did not turn out to be a problem.

 

At least with the show out of the way, I can take a little bit more risk on board to sort my Russian Dance Fouettes out. I’ve managed to stack up nearly 3 hours of practice with them this week without any sign of discomfort or injury, the first hour was with my rep coach. As yet I can only get to 70% of speed with the music and the spotting is rubbish, I haven’t yet got that body memory where I don’t have to think, but I think its coming .

 

I really loved the review we did last night (Tues) of last years rehearsals and shows and particularly what we have to look forward too.
Can’t wait for the opportunity to do another overseas trip, I do hope it comes off.

Love the choice of ballet for our next show.

But the real icing on the cake for me is, for the next four to five weeks letting us work on our own material as either solos, or groups with coaching by our Artistic Director, for me that’s another trained pair of eyes on my Swan Lake Russian Dance solo, I really do have to pull the stops out on this one.

[TYR]

So, ABers, this is getting on my nerves. This was the second class showing this year, and the second time we've had no rehearsal to speak of in the hall or with other dancers we've performed with. Also, this time round we had a stage management disaster.

 

The first time out back in June we didn't get to rehearse in the hall at all. We got a brief spacing recce, but that was it. Also, we were told very late on that we'd be doing one of our variations with another class and we didn't get to rehearse with them. Upshot: not great, especially not the bit with the other class.

 

This time out we were promised more rehearsal but it didn't happen - apparently another user of the hall failed to get their stuff out of there - and up to the night, it was still open if we'd be doing the first variation once, or again with a second group (who we hadn't rehearsed with). We did get to do it once in the hall on the night.

 

So, when the music starts, are we doing it once or twice? We do it, file off, and walk around to the other side of the stage to line up, thinking we're joining up. Apparently the boss grabbed the last of three of us to say "stop!" but not where I could see. The music gets going...so I get to my original spacing, and off we go. This goes way better than the first time across, until close to the finish when it turns out OF COURSE we're not meant to go because the other group have some new choreography we don't. So I roll and push out of the floor onto one knee, prep for a turn from 4th as I spring up....and see a girl backward-roll by in front of me. Er what?

 

There's nothing to do but push on with the plan, because I have no idea what the end of the other lot's variation might be.

 

So that's a whole night thoroughly wrecked. And for the second time, it's because we've just not made the effort with admin more than anything else. Really? We didn't decide until the music played who was going across? Even though someone dropped a new variation on the other gang that basically decided that? We still didn't get any real rehearsal time?

 

I get the impression we need Michelle as stage manager. Or maybe I should bin this class and take modern somewhere else.

[Michelle_Richer]

Hi TYR

The important thing is, are lessons being learnt, is organisation and communication improving.

The company I’m with has gone through it own teething problems so to speak, about a year ago the norm at rehearsals was about 50% attendance which was a nightmare for positioning and group work. Running right up to last summers performance the schedule was almost out of control, it was allowed to slip early on, as dancers didn’t know the weekly schedule only globally what pieces we would be doing for the show. The only way that could be pulled back was lots of weekend extra rehearsals, often on both days so at least most could at least do one of the weekend days, that also led to multiple changes in choreography in order I guess to make progress by simplifying. The downside of the extra rehearsals were the dancers had to fund the studio hire but the teachers provide there time FOC as acknowledgement that the slip was there responsibility. The out come of that was a set of rules  so lessons were learnt  and we moved on. Since then we’ve done our performance in Russia and the Christmas show and things are much calmer and somewhat better managed. A little bit of icing on the cake for me was a little bit of recognition in the show program, when one of my friends said I didn’t know you was on the Tech team as Sound Editor, although its something I have done for several teachers over the past few years, no one has acknowledge it in that way before, that really made my day.

 

I guess our dance company doesn’t have the issues of dancing with other groups that have rehearsed separately. Although it could potentially have been when I was with LAB , I don’t recall that as being an issue, and of course we had an interim rehearsal of all groups as well as the usual dress rehearsal.

However I do remember an annoyance creeping in when out Artistic Director stepped out from our group and had another teacher take his place. We were learning the Peasant dance from Giselle, a piece I loved, we were taught it all the way through by a really nice and easy to follow teacher, this was taught very closely to the Royal Dutch Ballets rep. We had been learning and practicing this for 3 or 4 weeks then we was given the bomb shell, we weren’t to dance the centre piece, it was given to another group dancing on pointe, then we were to come in after to finish the dance. The new piece was nothing like the original rep, for me it looked awful and spoilt the piece. For me that was all about communication, both the teacher and the dancers should have known how much of the rep we were expected to dance. As it was I continued to practice the full piece even though it wasn’t going to be used for the show.

 

Now I manage my own fledgling group "Glen Ballet" and also my own personal rep development with a one-to-one coach twice a week for final once a year presentation and polishing at Ballet West in Scotland.

 

I wish you luck which ever way you go, but think about it first, can lessons be learnt and the processes enhanced.

[Michelle_Richer]

The week run up to Christmas see all my ballet classes close, however I continued with my hall bookings all the way up to Friday. Thursday see the return of my boyfriend Adrian for our Pas de deux’s for Ballet West in the summer, although I was pleased to see him back, things really didn’t go very well.

 

First my Choreography had moved on a bit for the Russian dance PDD as with being danced with Emma my coach. Adrian had a video copy of what we had done to help him keep up to date. A few run throughs and he was starting to get familiar with the chorography again except the ending, which had a Cossack style dance replacing the fouettes of the solo version, as I wanted us to do that together. Although he could remember the steps he could not get anywhere near the timing of the music, we persisted on that piece alone for about an hour, finally I have to Choreograph that piece out and replace it with something simple to complement me doing the Cossack piece, possible him stamping his foot and clapping his hands in time with the counts before our ending pose. That we haven’t tried as yet.

 

Thursday was a two hour session, so we tried to re-run the Black Swan PDD as far as we had learnt it, baring in mind its been quite a while since we last danced it, to be honest we were both rubbish, we had forgotten so much, and I also hadn’t taken the documented choreography along with me, that we had to abort. I will re-run this on my own before our next session together, after studying the documentation as its created from a number of different companies.

 

Finally we tried re-familiarising an old PDD (Le Corsaire) that we danced at Ballet West last summer, again we seamed to have lost a lot of that one too.

 

At least with the Russian dance solo, the fouettes seam to be coming together bit by bit although the music is quite tricky. The turns itself starts with an assembly soutenu 2 counts, into a coupe fouette 2 counts, this is repeated 6 times (12 turns). What is awkward is that the first soutenu uses counts 7 and 8 from the previous 8 counts. When I first started with this piece I separated out the musical phases of the first 4 sets of 8 counts before the fouettes, but to make things simple, I would throw away the first two counts of the fouette section allowing me to start the soutenu on counts 3 and 4. That was ok for a while until I got more familiar with the music. The first two sets of 8 counts are easy to follow with a clear signature, however the second two are not but you just have to keep counting and believe in yourself, if you don’t and hesitate for conformation, you are already too late. I’m currently working at 80% of the full speed, I’m happy if I can get that at 100% consistent with musicality and spotting, however I’m hoping eventually I can get it at full speed. Finally my legs seam to be holding up this time without injury.

 

My ballet classes don’t start back until 9th of Jan, however I need to do some slightly different coaching with Adrian for our New Years Eve Salsa party.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Michelle_Richer

[Michelle_Richer]

Thank goodness back to ballet on Monday, at least I have managed to refill my sleep bank with a few extra hours over the holidays, but never the less I still carried on with the hall. However I did get one outing on the 30th with an ENB rep workshop on the Spanish Dance from Nutcracker on the Coliseum stage, one of the best ones I’ve had for a while from ENB, really enjoyed it. It was also nice to meet up with other Balletcoers, My old friend LinMM, Doormouse and Moomin.

 

New year wasn’t the party I was hoping for, Adrian came down with a really nasty cold, so we didn’t go out, however during the first week of Jan I have managed to get him back to where we were with the Black Swan PDD before his injuries, but the Russian dance PDD still need a lot of cleansing via my coach. Essentially I need to teach her Adrian’s new chorography so she can dance Adrian’s part with me, while I get Adrian to video it for his reference and practice. We have done that before and it seems to work well.

 

The Russia Dance solo fouettes seem to have get neglected a bit, although I have run through them for about 10minutes on each of the sessions, but it does seem to take me a little while to get into those. I will certainly be running through those with my coach Monday morning, hopefully get them a bit more attractive.

 

Wednesday is going to be the acid test for me, as for the moment I don’t have a ballet class for that day since my class at Sleaford has combined with there Thursday class, however there may be one on the horizon.

 

One piece of good news, I now have copies of my Studio extension plans, I just need to cross my Architect palm with a lot of silver and he will submit them for planning approval. Guess that’s going to take a few more weeks. 

 

Tuesday back in London, as its after our last show we have about three weeks of master classes to improve focusing on technique, then something completely different that we have never done before, work on our own piece of ballet, which can be a group piece or a solo, it up to us and we get coached on it too. Needless to say my choice is my version of the Russian dance solo from some Russian versions of Swan Lake, that’s  a real bonus for me. We get three weeks to work on it and then do a “Sharing Evening” for friends and family to come and see us perform it in the studio. I’m really looking forward to that and hope I can make a good job of it, as it will eventually go up to Ballet West with me in the summer.

[Michelle_Richer]

January has been a very problematic month, especially with my car write off and buy back and getting it repaired to get in back on the road again, I’m pleased that’s over.

 

Adrian’s mum died so no PDD practice with him from several weeks back until after the funeral this week.

 

Hall booking becoming unreliable due to some Physio company booking for whole days. I’m still looking for good contingency locations.

 

 

Some of my own Glen Ballet group have been off with this nasty flue type bug that’s going around, so progress with that group is falling behind especially with the guys

 

 

On the bright side RAD Adult Associates Elmhurst has good numbers to continue but it looks as if we are alternating each month between Elmhurst and the BRB studio in Birmingham itself. One piece of positive news, RAD has said its ok for me to attend their CPD modules.

On the sadder side, according to Debbie White RAD’s Regional Manager – Northern England, Adult Associates at Northern ballet in Leeds didn’t have sufficient numbers to get it off the ground. I tried booking on the closing date but that facility had already been pulled.

 

 

My real highlight has been the lead up to Alive Ballet Company’s “Scratch Night”. The was a total of 3 weeks spent on creating and dancing a piece either as solo, PDD or group. Each dancer in the company could choose as I did to choreograph my and dance my own solo, or be part of a group. You didn’t need to dance, you where able if you wanted to attach yourself to a group and give feedback, I has someone with me the second week providing feedback. The Scratch Night was a sharing night with a friends and family audience. For that, each performing group had to produce a small synopsis of their piece, which would be incorporated into the Scratch night program which would be handed out to our audience. The other brief we had, the piece was supposed to be limited to 2 minute. Mine came out at 2min 20 seconds, but my teacher was happy with that. The second week was a full rehearsal, that went better than expected even though it was an unusual sized studio, the applause for each dancer extremely enthusiastic if even had an encore from a couple of our dancers.

 

Oh gosh I couldn’t let that encore pass, so for our final week I wanted to include, but hec would my teacher allow it.

 

Then performance day came, I was 7th on the list, only to be greeted by my teacher to say I’m sorry but you are second on the list in the program. Our first girl gave a beautiful performance on pointe to Hallelujah. With a nice reverence to the audience, then our teacher came across to the dance to take questions from the audience.

 

Oh poo I thought I’m going to have to say something of my encore piece after reverence. Well I did and she seemed comfortable with it.

 

The dance itself went reasonably well, after the enthusiastic applause, I think my reverence was a little rushed as I had programmed in to my music an applause for practice together with a 5 seconds of silence before my encore. The applause finished I took up prep centre stage and nothing happened, my teacher look across at me a little bewilder not knowing what to do, as I said don’t come across until I have finally finished. Bless her when she heard the applause on the track, she stopped it as she thought I had finished.

O’dear best plans of mice and men and ballerinas.

 

I did get to re-run the ending which was a short Cossack style dance to the fouette section of the Swan Lake Russian Dance, which does give it a powerful ending.

Next week we start on Paquita for our summer show.

 

 

 

All booked up for my rep intensive with Ballet West this summer again, hotel too. I do get to Gillian this weekend as I’m seeing their Swan Lake performance in Edinburgh and her son Jonathon is dancing the principle roll of Siegfried, the last time I see him, he partnered me in one of Ballet West’s body conditioning sessions with a teacher called Ben. I’m really looking forward to it, even if its very much a flying visit.

[Michelle_Richer]

In a couple of weeks I should hear if planning permission has been granted for my home studio expansion, if it does, then planning my time line will become extremely tight. Especially as the build of the foundation is down to Adrian and me, with a little expertise from my Brother. The structure itself is down to the suppliers of the large upvc conservator structure, then the finishing off of the sprung floor, lighting system and reinstallation of video and sound systems is down to us. It’s certainly going to take months to complete rather than weeks.

 

One other issue that has come apparent today is the amount of work Adrian and I have left to do in preparation for our visit to Ballet West in August. Today was the first day back for Adrian after many weeks away from ballet. Neither of us has worked on the Black Swan PDD for several weeks and there is a huge amount we need to relearn. Some of it I can do on my own, to that end I now have booked another two hours a week at the hall in place of my Body Balance class at the local Gym, so I’m seriously considering dropping my subscription to that gym as its little used now. I also have to be mindful as to how much I place on Adrian’s shoulders as bless him, he it not and experienced dancer and I really don’t want to push him too far and I know he is feeling the pressure as I have had to drop two of the PDDs we had planned and at least 3 solos. Its certainly going to be tough times going ahead for Ballet West, Our Summer Show at Alive Ballet, and the studio extension all competing for time.

 

At least this weekend turn out really nice at Ballet West’s performance in Edinburgh on Saturday. I arrived early to get a chance to chat with Gillian before most of the audience arrived. Whist we were chatting a young lady came to the stand and said a very knowing “hello”, I did the same back but I must have had a very puzzled expression. The young lady said we did class together 3 years ago, “I’m Odette in Swan Lake today”, it was Natasha Watson and I didn’t recognise her. I also got to chat to a few more of the dancers between the two shows, including Uyu Hiromoto dancing the Black Swan. The choice of the two dancers for those parts was absolutely right, Natasha as Odette came over as gentle and vulnerable, whilst Uyu the Black Swan had real fire and attitude in the expression in her face and body language, one of the best Black Swan characters I’ve seen, what was even more remarkable, in the Black Swan PDD, the arabesque/ pirouette section which usually has one to one and a half turn supported pirouettes x 3, had clean doubles with next to no effort, it was awesome. I thought Uyu was a professional guest dancer, until she told me she was a Ballet West student. I actually got to see both performances. After the last show I went to the reception and chatted with a small group of their female dancers, they seem to be amazed that I was still dancing. I think most of the guys other than Jonathon Barton were guest dancers, I had a chat to one of them, he was from Ballet Cymru. I was only sorry Adrian couldn’t make it with me this time. It really was a fantastic performance to see.

[Michelle_Richer]

What a week that was:
1) Received my planning permission for the studio expansion 2 weeks early, really pleased about that.

2) Thursday Progressing Ballet Technique classes discontinued due to low number, I can say I was surprised, as 50% of the time it was a one to one, I’m sad to have lost that one.

3) Thursday Storm Doris hit while I was at the hall running through a two hour rep practice run only to find one of my large trees uprooted and broke our telephone line and in the process breaking part of our upvc cladding away from the house that supported the telephone line. Other damage included destroying 4 fence panels and dropping a really large branch from our willow tree into the river adjacent to my home. One comfort is that no one was hurt by the falling trees and non fell across the road adjacent, also my property remained secure, it could have been far worse.
 

4) Being in bit of a quandary as what to do, I phoned Adrian my boyfriend as I would normally pick him up for the weekend after my PBT class, but I had planned going via Just Ballet at Wisbech to order Adrian a couple of Ballet Tunics for our session in the summer at Ballet West. After a chat with him, it was decided to stick with the original plan, besides I thought going out in the wild weather would be a bit of an adventure.

5) It certainly was an adventure and quite dangerous too. The buffeting from the high winds combined with the impact of the draught from passing lorries going in the opposite direction was enough to release the bonnet of my car, thank goodness the safety catch that limits the opening held until I was able to stop, that was quite freighting. That happened twice and I had to keep my speed below 50mph. I was travelling along side of a field with agricultural workers in it, when I see the blue portable toilet take off and came tumbling across the field towards the road, it was clear it wasn’t going to stop and it could very well collide with me. Not far behind me was a lorry, so I couldn’t just slam my breaks on, I had to make a run for it with the foot hard down on the accelerator, it crossed the road just behind me and in front of the lorry and carried on across the field on the opposite side of the road. Few! that was close, only to find about another half mile down that road on a blind bend, some conifer trees had blow down, blocking the opposite side of the road, and traffic was crossing on my side with no prior warning, that was brakes hard on, thankfully there wasn’t an incident but it does shake you up a bit. I was really pleased when I finally arrived at “Just Ballet’s” new gorgeous shop at Wisbech. Needless to say from Wisbech up to see Adrian via Peterborough there were a lot more trees down but not across the road, a road closure to but not one that impeded me.

6) Friday due to my uprooted tree issue, sadly I had to cancelled my Glen Ballet Group session, but managed to squeeze Adrian's sessions in for prep for Ballet West..

 

[Lisa O`Brien]

As you say Michelle, phew; thank goodness you are alright.

[TYR]

Who's going to dance the new role of the Flying Portaloo? Lots of turning jumps - obviously a 70s bravura bloke's variation...

[Legseleven]

That must have been frightening, Michelle! Thank goodness the damage was to property, not people.

[LinMM]

Glad you are okay Michelle....sounded a bit hair raising!!

Wish I could post here a picture I took from my garden that day .....glorious sunshine ....so much for Doris down here where we do,normally get these high winds but I think had nearly blown itself out by the time it got down here ....I'll put my piccie on Facebook page. I was actually trying to take one of the snowdrops but because the garden is in its winter rest with various pots piled up all over the place I couldn't get a good enough picture..... except of the serene view of the sea that day!!

[sarahw]

Crumbs Michelle, take care!

Edited February 27, 2017 by sarahw

[Moomin]

Glad you're ok!

[Michelle_Richer]

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts.

 

When I first see the devastation my thoughts were, oh well no one was hurt and the house insurance would cover the damage.

 

When I finally read through the policy document there were so many disclaimer, I was beginning to think nothing was covered. Fencing was excluded as was trees, so I phone the Insurance policy help line expecting the policy to be worthless.

However much to my surprise, the fact that the tree had damaged my house in terms of ripping part of the upvc cladding off with the telephone line, at least the tree removal, telephone line repair cost and upvc cladding replacement were all covered, but not the fencing panels.

Neither was the large broken willow tree branch that landed in our river.

 

However the following day while Adrian and I were in the garden looking to see what could be done to remove the willow branch, a guy from the village popped in to see if he could help. He and his two brothers had log burners in their houses and they offered to come and cut up the tree in the photo and take all the logs away. They were my knights in shining armour, although it took them all weekend, they cleared that tree all but the stump and the twiggy branches, I thought how wonderful it was to have such helpful neighbours.

 

It also took Adrian and I all weekend to remove the willow branch from the river, as we had to cut it up bit by bit, then from one of my little boats, rope it and drag it to shore.

 

The only thing we were left with was a large bunch of twiggy branches, on the Tuesday Adrian was casually chatting to my Garage mechanic, and he said he would take the twigs as he uses almost anything for a pot bellied stove he keeps at a workshop he has for his stock cars. He is bringing a trailer round this weekend, but it will take several trailer loads to clear it.

 

I know I felt the fact I had been working muscles I don't normally use, as on Monday morning when I attended my first fitness class, which was really hard and I was as stiff as a board, the ballet classes that followed seemed ok.

 

With the loss of my Thursday Progressive Ballet Technique I went back to the Sleaford class I once did which was quite fun, however I want to take that opportunity to look around the area, there is a RAD school in Wisbech which I need to check out and also The Cambridge University Ballet Club which holds 2 classes a day over 6 days a week, but it takes as long to travel there by train as it does London, so that looks like a car journey.

 

My RAD Adult Associates sessions this Sunday, which is normally at Elmhurst, has been moved to the BRB studios in Thorpe Road Birmingham. Our body conditioning class has also been replaced this time with rep, we will be doing something with the Peasant Dance from Act1 of Giselle, and I’m really looking forward to that.

 

The sessions I’m really looking forward too if they come off are: the 6th annual international Pro Viva la Dance Master Class in Mikkeli Finland together with Vaganova Ballet Academy in July, but that’s by no means in the bag just yet.

[TYR]

So some of us (self, Kate_N, and I believe at least one other) did the ENB's workshop day on IN THE MIDDLE, SOMEWHAT ELEVATED on Sunday. This consisted of:

 

Me showing up uncharacteristically early! Which meant a side trip to the greasy sandwich bar in Kensington High St.

 

Hanging out at Markova House, with scary names' travelling cases piled in the corridors and an orchestra rehearsing in one of the other studios. One of the musos walked into the gents' (artists') changing room while I was in there and asked what I was doing. OK...dancing? This seemed to worry him somehow and he shot off.

 

One of those floor barre/pilates/yoga hybrid classes - first time I did one of those, just seemed like an extended modern class warmup.

 

A pretty thorough technique class with Lucy Lowndes: https://www.city-academy.com/tutor/lucy-lowndes Walking into the studio I remember overhearing her saying she expected us to be "kind of intermediate", which thoroughly scared me, but it wasn't that terrifying once it got going. There were a few people from LAB and LPC in class who definitely were pretty terrifying. A detail that sticks in my mind: piqué onto first arabesque, balance, and hop backwards holding the 1stA. I didn't know you could do that - or at least I didn't know I could do that!

 

Towards the end the orchestra (over our heads in the upper studio) got stuck into the Black Swan music; but stopped before we could get organised to dance any of it. Went out foraging (aka back to the greasy spoon - we had the canteen but they won't feed you) after an unscheduled extra 15 minutes in class. Rubbed a comical amount of Voltarol into sore left plantar.

 

Rep class in the afternoon was with Begona Cao: http://www.ballet.org.uk/the-company/dancers/begona-cao/ who performed the Forsythe piece on the 2015 tour, but who's taking this one off to have a baby! We learned the opening variation and then broke up into groups of five to restage it; IIRC two groups decided to do it roughly as the original, one brought the improv bit to the beginning and kind of converged on the original, and ours decided to remix it fairly thoroughly (this thanks to LPC guy who said his goal for the day was "F*ck Forsythe"). That went down...better than I expected?

 

Anyway what with having flown back from San Francisco the day before and having a splitting pain in my left foot on every relévé I was pretty pleased to make it through the whole thing without breaking down or humiliating myself too badly, especially after Kathy Mata totally bust my chops in class on the Thursday night.

[Michelle_Richer]

Hi TYR

I think your other one may have been LinMM as I think she was going.

 

I did ENB Swan Lake masterclass at Markova House about a year ago, they do seam to follow the same type of format which I’m not too keen on, as the rep time gets watered down a bit.

 

I must confess I do miss their upper studio as I spent somewhere between 3 and 4 years attending my two Monday classes with them and of course if the company was on tour I would get some additional time in the studio for practice before class, I loved that, it was like home. I left a few months ago when Tom my teacher left and the advance class was dropped. As part of LAB sometimes we would use ENB’s upper studio for dress rehearsal.

 

I don’t know the two pieces which featured in your rep, I tend to stick to the main classics,  however I was with Northern Ballet on Thursday learning a bit of rep from their new production of Casanova.

 

All the time I was with ENB I never heard the Orchestra play in one of the studio’s, although rehearsals often ran right up to class time. If it did they would usually allow us to go into the studio and watch just before our class time. I did see them rehearsing the Black Swan solo the last time they were to perform “Swan Lake in the Round”.

 

I wonder what piece of Black Swan music was being played by their Orchestra while you were there.

 

Adrian my boyfriend and I are taking the Black Swan PDD up to Ballet West in August. It has seemed to take forever to learn, mainly as we have picked it up so many times due to Adrian’s injuries and medical issues etc, however this week for the first time we danced it all the way through, warts and all. Hopefully it will just need polishing now.

[LinMM]

The orchestra upstairs that day was rehearsing for the Russian Icons Gala that evening.

 

The Black Swan was danced by Muntagirov and a Russian dancer Konovalova later that evening at the Coliseum and very good it was too!!

I could also hear Spectre de la Rose being rehearsed and Sleeping Beauty final pas deux as well.

[TYR]

LinMM, I think I might have asked you if you were Kate_N...anyway, which group were you in?

[LinMM]

I was wearing the floaty yellow ballet skirt thingy but otherwise all in black.

 

Difficult to say which group in order for you to identify as not sure we stood out for anything but were one of those who had to repeat when the extra Friends and Family arrived!!

Not in that very good group who looked to have a couple of ex vocational students in....the young man in particular looked very professional a very good dancer.

I loved the workshop though found the Forsythe choreography needs a bit more than an hour to really get into the style!! I had been hoping to work on the van Manen piece mainly because I love the music for that.

 

Later that day after attending the Russian Icons Gala I bumped into Tamara Rojo and Isaac Hernandez ( who had just done some fab knock your socks off dancing) waiting for a taxi. When I told them had done this workshop they were quite interested and wanted to know what I thought of the Forsythe!!! Well I told them it was a difficult style but the workshop was fun. I wanted to tell them how good Begona Cao was too but their taxi came along at that point and I was completely knackered....a very long but lovely day.

[Moomin]

You mean you didn't get an autograph for me?!

[LinMM]

Well I had waited for ages to say hello to CeliB's son so could have got ALL the stars autographs!! But settled for Davide Dato's in the end...... just wish I had been 40 years younger!! He is an Italian dancer and in the Roberto Bolle mould!! Magnifique is probably the best word to describe him!!

 

TYR I can account for quite a lot of the men on that course....meaning I recognise them as performers with other amateur dance companies and a couple from other ENB workshops.

Did you attend the Nutcracker one at the Coli?

[TYR]

No, I didn't do the 'Cracker workshop. I was in the group with the young guy (Bharat? he is damn impressive, especially when you've got to chase him around the studio. "F*ck Forsythe" was his idea), though, so that's officially made my week.

 

Your lot were really tight, though. I'd have liked to do both - do the extra time to really get the variation down, and have a go at re-casting it.

[Michelle_Richer]

There’s a couple of repertoire workshops coming up at RAD Battersea.

The first is on the 21 may 10.15am, for Giselle, follow link:

https://www.rad.org.uk/events/giselle-adult-repertoire-workshop

 

The second is on 22 July 11.30am for Swan Lake, follow link:

https://www.rad.org.uk/events/swan-lake-adult-repertoire-workshop

 

There is also something else being promoted called “Discovering Repertoire”, a classical ballet performance programme, is an innovative new concept from the Royal Academy of Dance.

 

The programme focuses on well-known classical ballet repertoire, meaning students will learn and dance choreography they have seen on stage, set to music they know and love. The variations studied are taken from ballets including Coppélia, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake.

 

I spoke to Susie Partridge of RAD about this, they do not have a launch date as yet, its expected to be sometime in 2018.