Dance*is*life

Rather off topic. but I am intrigued by all the "pancaking" of pointe shoes as no-one I know here does this. Is it to make them look less shiny?

Thanks everybody for your replies. I think I'm just frustrated because they are really good girls - otherwise I wouldn't bother even applying for them. I took a few preliminary photos and they just didn't do them justice - to say the least.......... Oh well, not to worry, we'll keep trying until we manage something acceptable. I really think that they should leave the senior school SS applicants to struggle with the poses wearing pointe shoes and perhaps add a middle set for the inbetweeners. As I said the funny thing is that they both found the one pose on pointe the easiest to balance!

You can say that again - in the past I wasted a fortune printing photos that weren't any good! The point is that now there are no videos required, they choose from these photos, so I naturally want to get the best I can out of them. I just wondered if anyone had any tricks up their sleeve - like having someone hold their hand whilst they develope into position and then nip away out of camera range at the last second or whatever! Does anyone know if they are looking for something specific - apart from perfection that is?

I have thought of that, but they don't have them yet and won't need them for another year. Guess I'll just have to struggle on with them Thanks anyway!

But it says that they have to wear pointe shoes for the photos - that's the problem - they find it hard to balance in them rather than soft shoes. If they were all poses on pointe they might find that easier! Holding an extension to the 2nd wearing pointe shoes is so much harder........

I have two 12 year olds who want to apply for the RBS summer school. They will both be 13 by August, so according to the forms they need to do the more difficult audition poses in pointe shoes. They only started pointe last year in IF and are not yet at home enough in their pointe shoes to be able to balance easily - not to mention that holding the leg a la seconde en l'air with both legs turned out for long enough for me to catch them in the pose is nigh on impossible! Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the task easier??? They are both good girls - one of them won a prize at the RAD SS last year - but these poses are hard enough for the older students in pointe shoes - I do think they should be allowed to do them in soft shoes at this in-between age. They can both hold the pose in 4th en pointe with no problems - it's the arabesque and a la seconde that are the tough ones.

Yehhhhh! We agree

For some reason when I was 8 or 9 years old, I was Bluebeard's Eighth Wife! Totally unsuitable I would have thought, but I loved it. I remember I had an enormous silver key and I think I had to open the door at the end revealing all the previous dead wives, or something like that! Blood and doom and gloom for babies! I always loved demi-character dances and emoted for dear life. Wonderful grounding for my professional career as a character artist in later life.

I know that position only too well I'm afraid - believe me, they do that even in soft shoes! And what about when the foot is like that AND sickled?????? Aaaaaargh! I'm afraid I love the toe chasse and much prefer using it to the regular chasse! The RAD uses it a lot and I like the fact that after the temps leve petit developpe, the foot stays pointed and just the toes slide along the floor. To me it looks nicer. I also don't like the tombe into a lifted arabesque line after the sissone - I like the toes to remain on the floor.

Do you mean from the cou de pied into the chasse?

Anjuli, I am afraid I have to disagree with you - a temps leve is in fact a hop on one leg and therefore is perfectly acceptable to use before a chasse - for example as a petit develope with a temps leve into the chasse. What you are describing that you want to see, which is of course absolutely legitimate too, is a sissone ordinaire going into the chasse, but this is just another way of doing it. My pet hate is a series of pas de bourees which don't close into 5th at all. I get students who think that the extension to the side is the end of the pas de bouree, rather than the beginning, and they almost turn it into a coupe at the end. This is problematic because firstly it very often means that they don't know which foot is in front and which is back, whereas if they closed briefly in 5th before releasing the leg to the side, they would know. And secondly, pas de bouree is often followed by a step that starts from 5th, and if the student is used to finishing in an open position, it complicates matters.

But also I think that neo-classicism has done away somewhat with the superstar ballerina image. There are no Grand pas de deux in Balanchine's ballets for them to show off their "tricks" in the codas with the 32 fouettes etc. MacMillan, Cranko and Ashton have beautiful full length ballets with wonderfully dramatic and meaningful pas de deux, whowever they are not showy set pieces, but integral parts of the actual scenarios. Petipa was the choreographer who gave the ballerinas their chance to bask in the limelight, so that was probably what created the "assolutas".

Sorry Anjuli - senior moment!

I didn't watch the video - the stills were enough! My immediate reaction was Why on earth would she agree to do this???? And what was it all for?

Wasn't Anton Dolin a Danseur Noble??? And what about Alicia Markova?

In the book and film of Mao's Last Dancer, Lee Cuxin wore heavy weights round his ankles and jumped with them up stairs and pretty much everywhere in order to improve the height of his jump, but then much of his training appeared to be tortuous to me - he had to slide down into splits and then come up reversely again using his leg muscles only!!!!!!!

Yes when I teach I wear a watch - even though there is a clock in the studio - however when I take class myself I remove my watch automatically - donkey's years of ballet discipline mean that even now I can't take class in anything but leotard, tights, overtights and ballet shoes with hair pulled up neatly. I do keep on my engagement and wedding ring (as someone said they're pretty much stuck on nowadays). Our students are not allowed dangly earrings or other types of jewellery. We went through a difficult patch when bits of cotton tied round their wrists for luck were "in". They were so aghast at the idea of taking them off that we left them to it (non dangerous after all), but we made them cut them off for exams and school performance. Some wise sparks then tied them round their ankles, so that they could hide them under tights and shoe ribbons! Sigh.............

Fantastic story - I do so love life's wonders!

How absolutely frustrating for you Michelle! I remember trying to get to a performance at Covent Garden from outer London and the train simply stopped outside one of the stations and stood there for 30 minutes and then proceeded to crawl the rest of the way. We arrived at Charing Cross with about 6 minutes to get to the matinee and had to run all the way over the cobblestones - not easy dressed smartly in heeled shoes. I would have given up, but my niece kept encouraging me - Come on Auntie, you can do it! We got there as they were closing the doors and just sat down in our seats as the curtain went up. It took me another 15 minutes to get my breathing normal again! Still at least we made it! By the way when I book rail tickets I have discovered that going through the actual rail company is cheaper than with the Trainline or Raileasy. I booked my train tickets to Manchester in November through Virgin itself - it was the same price, but they didn't charge commission or a fee for paying by visa. I believe that you can also take out insurance for a pound or so against cancellation or missed train. I don't know which company your trains were with, but it might be worthwhile checking out. I saved 7 pounds by booking with Virgin.

I agree that it is important to learn the French terminology. Not teaching the basic steps is like expecting someone to learn a language without first learning some vocabulary. I shall never forget a student who came to try out for our school (in the good old days when there was no competition in the town and we could hold auditions!). I set a very simple enchainement - glissades,jetes, assembles, pas de bourees that sort of thing - she hadn't a clue what they were. Having failed that test miserbly, she asked if she could show me a piece she'd prepared and proceeded to perform grand jete entrelace en tournement, fouettes (!) etc etc - you name the advanced step she stuck it in! We still didn't take her I'm afraid.........

Well personally, I feel that it is simply not fair to compare teachers who deal with vocational students to teachers who have to work with whoever turns up at their ballet school. It is actually the latter teachers who do the basic hard work building up a student with the limited resources and hours that are available to them, putting in many patient hours of nurturing in an attempt to give the best quality training they can to the odd talented child that appears by chance in their studio. Afterwards these students go on to vocational training with hours and hours of classes in amazing facilities with teachers who sometimes only have to "ice the cake" to make of them a dancer. I do not mean to belittle vocational school teachers in any way, because it takes great knowledge and perception to be able to look at a whole class of talented students and still find things to correct and improve. However, I just feel that it is not quite right to give all the credit to vocational and professional level teachers. I personally appreciated the attitude of the Principal of the vocational school where a male student of mine trained. She told me - of course you deserve our thanks and all the credit due to you as his teacher - without you he wouldn't have got to the level where we could accept him. A dancer is created from the input of many teachers along the way. Even those that teach him or her for a short time leave their mark. Modern, character and jazz teachers, summer school teachers, master classes with guest teachers all contribute to the finished "product". Some teachers are definitely better than others, but as has been said - what works for one may not work for another.

Anjuli - what I meant was that both a releve and a rise or eleve are movements, the first with a plie, the second without, that move up onto the demi or full pointe - neither term describes a static position. However, many teachers and students use the term releve for the actual state of being on demi or full pointe and not for the movement to get there. Do you get what I mean???? I know it's a bit of a convoluted explanation

Thank you everyone. I will pass on your suggestions to my niece and hope that something will work out for them.

I spend my life explaining to children that a pose temps leve in arabesque is not a sissone and is therefore NOT a jump from two feet, and then the Russians call it a sissone . I gather it's short for a longer term in Vaganova speak, but it never fails to irritate me! The other thing I hate is when my students ask if something is on a releve (meaning on demi-pointe) and I have to explain for the umpteenth time that a releve is a movement not a position.

It's funny the things we remember from our childhood - I have never forgotten this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, but it was written in 1913 so long before daylight saving hours were introduced....... In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people's feet Still going past me in the street. And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day?