Now That's What I Call A Correction Volume 1

[TYR]

This is not a drill. Henriett at Central School this aft, talking about en dehors turns:

 

Imagine you have an eye growing in the back of your knee.

[Kate_N]

ooo weird. I will be doing that class this coming Sunday - a very odd image ... Usually, when that teacher takes that class, in my experience, she says very little & gives very few corrections. Maybe she talks more now!

[TYR]

She's just lately started to say more.

[trog]

Two from last nights class. Miss was offerring a hint for when you have the arms in fifth - don't wear a hat.

The other was when coming back from fondu, imagine pulling a cheese dipper out and all of those strings that hang off the bread. I think she meant that you don't rush the rise - all I know is, is that it made me hungry!

[Nicola H]

1 hour ago, trog said:

Two from last nights class. Miss was offerring a hint for when you have the arms in fifth - don't wear a hat.

The other was when coming back from fondu, imagine pulling a cheese dipper out and all of those strings that hang off the bread. I think she meant that you don't rush the rise - all I know is, is that it made me hungry!

well it is a fondue ! 

[Petalviolet]

From Tring watching week;

 

YOU ARE KEBAB MEAT.

 

(instruction not criticism)

[Balletmum55]

1 hour ago, Petalviolet said:

From Tring watching week;

 

YOU ARE KEBAB MEAT.

 

(instruction not criticism)

 

Ha ha ha that's a new one on me!  I'd have laughed!! Was it helpful instruction though? Struggling to think  ? 

[TYR]

Perhaps a "tail bone down and imagine your head is pulling straight up" straight spine thing?

[Petalviolet]

TYR you are right. Kebab back. It could become a thing?

 

Gloomy and reductive as it is I bet a lot of people on this forum (not just the dancers) can empathise with the Kebab in situ.

 

Badly reconstructed,

mechanically spinning,

not the freshest,

appreciated only by the few and the desperate.

 

 Neither I nor DD have ever had one so I think the reference was entirely wasted -pearls before swine as usual.

 

 I object to the whole process of slivered meat from a carcass lollipop that looks like it needs to be regularly licked up and down to maintain its form and function. 

[trog]

I've heard off and indeed been told to not let my feet be like dead kippers, but I've never heard of kebab back. Why a dead kipper? I thought that all kippers were dead.

[TYR]

Antonia Franceschi on cambré/backwards port de bras: "Eye to elbow!"

 

To unpack that a bit, the path of the hand should be straight up and down the centre line, the shoulders level at 90 degrees, and the eye line rotates outwards to track through your elbow. Try it; it works! (File under "install this app on your back/legs/wherever")

 

On the kebab subthread, the other week I was in a hurry to get some scran before Sunday class and I stopped at "E. Mono"''s kebab shop next to Finsbury Park station. Truly a revelation.

[MayKwok]

Could the kebab imagery work in pirouettes? Maybe?

 

 

[TYR]

I was practising a few round my living room earlier on and I could really taste the lamb in my Balanchine turns?

[FullContretemps]

Tried out a new class yesterday. 

 

"It's as if you're  putting it in a toaster, that bit of your body" (torso and derriere)...

 

"and you don't want to have to use a knife on it to get it out" 

 

Cue much laughter! It wasn't my correction but it may well help fix plies that other teachers keep working on with me. They'll certainly never be quite the same again! 

[Pas de Quatre]

Or - you don't want any bits to stick out and burn!

[annaliesey]

Recent one from EYB asking people to smile and perform more and "not look like axe murderers!" 

[FullContretemps]

Henrietta Branwell at Chelsea Ballet this morning: "If air can hold up a jumbo jet, it can hold you up too, if you use it."

[TYR]

Renato Paroni is baaack for a few days and in full GENIUS...OR MADMAN? mode.

 

"When I was 17 I was supposed to be a fast learner so they sent me to the school of medicine. In the first week they made us go to the institute where they put the dead bodies of the poor and watch while they did autopsies and I hated it. I did like five...and then I started ballet...anyway I look around here and I see a half a dozen autopsies. People opening themselves up from here [hand on paunch] and spilling their guts! Now we're going to repeat the exercise but without the surgery."

 

"....you know I was on a BUS today and I saw someone watching porno on a phone. I've nothing against that. Sex is a wonderful thing. But I wouldn't teach it in front of toddlers! When we go in centre I teach with the head but now I don't want the head or the port until we've got the legs right. So GET OFF THE PORNO BUS."

 

"....I believe you should go through a full psychiatric therapy before getting married. I did three times. Otherwise it's such a terrible shock for your husband. Also, don't get married because you're 45. Don't do it until you mean it. In relévé you've got to leave the barre in the end but don't do it until you've squeezed the very last cell in your bum up and forward. I see professionals flopping around all over the place [he pushes up to sous-sus, sticks his arse out, wobbles comically] - you know Matthew Bourne? People who've danced too long with him..."

 

"Don't imitate anyone unless you want to end up like a Danceworks ballerina!" [even for RP's standards he was unusually catty last night]

 

[TYR]

Oh God. We're doing turns from 2nd. He complains about someone's arms being too straight. [Walks up to student. extends his arms straight ahead from the shoulders at 90 degrees, tries to kiss him] "You see? With the arms like this you can't kiss! I don't know who's teaching this! Is it the ****ing RAD?"

[Cara in NZ]

5 minutes ago, TYR said:

Oh God. We're doing turns from 2nd. He complains about someone's arms being too straight. [Walks up to student. extends his arms straight ahead from the shoulders at 90 degrees, tries to kiss him] "You see? With the arms like this you can't kiss! I don't know who's teaching this! Is it the ****ing RAD?"

 

Laughed SO HARD at this! We have a travelling ballet master staying with us who frequently talks about teaching a row of 'RAD robots' (including DD)

[TYR]

RP routinely has a down on the RAD. That said he was unusually bitchy this week - as well as RAD, Danceworks, and Sir Matthew Bourne, he also had a go at Boris Johnson, David Davis, and the entire Swedish nation.

[Kate_N]

oh is Renato back? I loooove his classes - might have to dash on Sunday to take the Sunday afternoon one - although I was there a fortnight ago, and  it was Antonia Francheschi standing in - who was a-may-zing. Wonderful teacher. 

 

But Renato's corrections are legendary. I remember him once going all round the class touching our necks or shoulders to see if we were sweating yet. We had to keep on  doing tendus until everyone was sweating. But he is a genius teacher - I always come out of his class having discovered more turnout.

[Kate_N]

5 hours ago, TYR said:

 

"Don't imitate anyone unless you want to end up like a Danceworks ballerina!" [even for RP's standards he was unusually catty last night]

 

 

He used to teach at Danceworks!   I always did his Sunday class there when I was in London.

 

But he's just come back from Germany - he may need to let off a little steam.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Kate_N

[TYR]

2 hours ago, Kate_N said:

oh is Renato back? I loooove his classes - might have to dash on Sunday to take the Sunday afternoon one - although I was there a fortnight ago, and  it was Antonia Francheschi standing in - who was a-may-zing. Wonderful teacher. 

 

But Renato's corrections are legendary. I remember him once going all round the class touching our necks or shoulders to see if we were sweating yet. We had to keep on  doing tendus until everyone was sweating. But he is a genius teacher - I always come out of his class having discovered more turnout.

 

He might be around another week I think, but I don't think he's leading on Sunday.

[Lily_883]

9 hours ago, TYR said:

Renato Paroni is baaack for a few days and in full GENIUS...OR MADMAN? mode.

 

Ha ha, genius or madman is right! Thanks for sharing these. I have fond memories of attending Renato's classes during a spell in London last year.

 

Random question: any idea what music he uses? I recall some Jamie Naruschen and another regularly played album that I was never able to identify. 

[Kate_N]

16 hours ago, TYR said:

 

He might be around another week I think, but I don't think he's leading on Sunday.

 

Oh, that's a pity. I really like his classes - the teaching, the corrections, and the rude jokes.

[TYR]

"Jumps just need more UUGH. It's the Jungian archetype of the animal. But turns....turns take time. Turns are an accomplishment of civilisation. And when they come the feeling...it's as if you conquered the man of your dreams and...left him at once."

 

Who else.

[trog]

Last night we were given a very British tip on maintaining turnout in developpe. When the leg is fully extended, balance a cup of tea on it. If the leg is not turned out, the tea will roll off the shin, which as Miss said, would be disastrous. With the leg fully turned out, the tea can sit safely on the flat bit of the side of your calf.

[TYR]

I've been given the exact same correction, but with champagne, by Nina Thilas-Mohs.

[Colman]

Varies between tea and champagne here, I think depending on how badly our teacher needs each.

[Kate_N]

For glissés, my regular teacher asks us to imagine we're wearing a white (flat) tutu with a full glass of wine balanced on each side. Our aim is to do glissés without spilling the wine. And like TYR, I've had a cocktail correction from Nina Thilas-Mohs.

[TYR]

Renato made a brief appearance! and comprehensively bust my chops as usual. (He's here for one more night tonight.)

 

"Your allongé should be banned in Germany"

 

"Margot Fonteyn is DEAD! In Balanchine technique an arabesque must always go UP....of course Balanchine is dead too, but...some people never really die."

 

"You know how those people in Battersea count to five? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. [doing tendus en croix] Barbarians! Civilised people count 1, 2, 4, 5 [does them again, closing the tendu a la seconde to the back in one count]...the number 3 does not exist here"

[Kate_N]

Oh no, I’ll miss him again! I’m working in Leeds, so will have to make do with beginners class at the Northern Ballet Academy (their  higher level classes are not drop in it seems). I do enjoy Renato’s teaching and his running commentary of slander and rude jokes is hilarious. 

 

Although i I suppose if you’re committed to RAD (Battersea) then you might be offended. But he is interesting  about the differences between British and American training. I really enjoy doing his or Nina’s classes for what I learn about American ballet training and the attack of Balanchine-style work. Whenever I do class in the US I’m usually picked out as a British dancer. But it’s good to learn all styles!

Edited February 22, 2018 by Kate_N