Thecatsmother

It's hard to describe exercises on the forum but getting a floor barre DVD or having a look at some of the exercises suggested on Lisa Howell's ballet blog might be a good starting point if you cannot get advice from a dance teacher or dance physio. Most teachers should be able to give you exercises to do at home. You mention it is harder in the centre so one thing you might want to focus upon is not relying too much on the barre as this will help with weight placement in the centre.

You can take pointe shoes outside and bang the base of the shoe upon concrete or a hard surface as this will help take the noise out of them. Recommend that if doing outside you wait for rain to stop so with a bit of luck you will be able to try it out in June☔️

Please do not feel you are taking up a place. The fact that you think that way would mean that you have huge awareness of other members of the class and this in itself makes for safe integration into a class even if you find it to be taxing. You can always stop towards the end if it gets too hard. So much can be learned from watching others in terms of aspiring to what you like and observing common faults which can often be seen better on someone else. As long as you work within your capacity, follow the teacher's lead and stop if you feel there is a risk to you or other dancers in doing say a turning step which you might go 'off piste' ????then you should be in a good and receptive position to learn and enjoy.

Based on what I know I would have to agree with Mimi. It's impossible to get a one size fits all open class and some may just want to go to experience this. I would say probably at least 3 years ballet experience as a rough guide but then there have been a few students whom I have taught with natural aptitude who have progressed much faster.

This is interesting to contrast with Paris Opera training.

I just love watching the Balanchine style. The speed of footwork is amazing. Be interesting to hear what other Balanchine dancers said re the speed versus accuracy debate.

I watched this on DVD over the weekend but was a little disappointed after the trailer hype.

Thought this might be of interest

I think Paul Lewis's class is likely to be a mix of ex professional dancers plus recreational dancers so it sounds like a bit of experience of classes would be needed if a similar population to his other classes. You could always email for more clarification.

Surely if the individuals involved actually had a true experience of the life and work hours of a professional dancer they would be likely to see a change in body shape purely down to the intensive physical demands of the career. This comment is not about size but purely the impact of the intense physical regime of a professional dancer.

So glad to hear that ballet is bringing you such joy Terpsichore ????

I can try and find out for you re this class and will report back.

I personally was not taught to swap shoes. I think it really depends on the dancer. Other things which need to be taken into account are the type of foot arch of the dancer and their stage in training. A shoe with a slightly lower vamp tends to suit dancers who can struggle to get a straight line through the foot when on pointe. The opposite is the case for the very mobile foot where a deeper vamp can be useful. I always had one foot that was more arched than the other so the back of one shoe would have been too soft if I had tried to swap them over. I guess everyone is different and is taught differently and it is just what works best.

My take is always never to judge a cake until it is fully baked so to speak. There are so many factors here and some kids who are amazing at 11 pale into insignificance as other dancers strengthen over the passage of time. This is an issue I have always had with dance festivals as it is often the shorter and easier to strengthen type bodies who will win when in the long term there are many with more difficult to train physiques who actually have the most potential. I have noticed Japanese dancers seem to a lot less fearful in terms of turning because they tend to start turning earlier. I think there is some merit in starting to get the sense of turning early when the fear factor is less present. By this I mean not pirouettes on pointe but just the general feel of turns so they become fun. Like a good wine, some dancers take longer to reach their peak than others but that does not make the ones who peak earlier better dancers. There are also dangers of picking up bad technical habits by starting on pointe too young as compensation tends to occur to make up for the lack of strength and experience.

Guaranteed to evoke interesting dreams:)

Sadly the store have conveniently deleted all but 30 secs of my accident from CCTV. The floor can be seen to be wet on this but given they deleted the 30 mins of store opening time before I fell that morning we cannot get an accurate account of whether the appropriate safety checks had been carried out although if they had released this and shown these had been put in place then it would have closed the case. It's a waiting game I am afraid and likely to drag on for another 18 months if I go through court processes. All I want to do is to be able to move, make up the loss of earnings and dance again. Baby steps...quite literally.

Make sure you put them on a radiator to dry out for a couple of days first before trying anything. Not typical practice but poor dancer was so scared of going back on pointe after an injury that she used shellac in her shoes and tried in a pool first. It apparently helped her to have the confidence to perform on pointe again. Not recommended for pointe shoes but the theory and rationale in this case was sound. You can do a lot of ballet and pointe strengthening (without shoes) in the pool. It is also brilliant for practicing small jumps and batterie.

Well I have just progressed to standing up demi plies and tendus, Fiz, so you can keep me company. Still too scared to try rising as have an unstable bone in my foot. Let's hope the muscles can hold it in place as really do not want metal pins. There is no doubt that going back to basics is very good for all of me if a little boring. I tend to do in front of TV as not ready to try a few exercises in class yet until I see how this goes. Maybe there is a documentary in it 'Injured Ballet'????. That would also stop people pursing a professional career without size being the issue!

Monica has a book about her training I believe in Perm. It's called 'the Irish Ballerina'. I know she has performed in Ireland post the book but it is I guess an interesting career move.

Is it because they think it's 'ballet'? I believe rambert also do a lot of education work. Where are you based? PM me?

Some of the learning depts of the major dance companies have good resources online for staff that can integrate other aspects of learning into the dance curriculum.

I would say shellac might help or pointe shoe glue as I know someone who was rehabbing from injury and wore hers in the swimming pool. She used the shellac pre getting them wet but worth a try. Depends where they are wet really and how wet:)

My sense is that the whole thing went off course by the choice of the title as that set the tone in the media before it started. There are plenty of other things they could have called it.

I know of no convention which says that red leotards are bad. It always depends where you are wearing it but if it's for recreational purposes then you can wear whatever colour you want. I think different people and body types lend themselves better to certain styles/colours of leotards. A trusted friend I am sure can always give feedback or I am sure most teachers would be able to advise on what cut of leotard suits body type. I reckon some of the dance shops would be good with this too as they know their stock and have seen it on dancers. Sheila may have some input in this area?

I agree taxi4ballet. Stereotypes will be reinforced but also I fear it will have a negative impact on the eating disorder population inside and outside dance. You only need to look at some of the horrendous thinspo dancer videos on you tube to see how the art of dance can be abused and I fear this although coming from another angle has really not been thought through in terms of the implications. I very much hope I am wrong...