Kate_N

Indeed - as we see in the work of many contemporary choreographers, where they use both male & female athleticism, grace, and flexibility.

I had a female ballet teacher who loved allegro - she was tiny, but could jump! She taught us all the male jumps. But we could never jump as high as our male peers, even (drat it!) those with less ballet training than us. This is because there are fundamental physiological differences between male and female bodies starting from puberty when the male body’s much higher production of testosterone enables the bone, muscle, and lung/ heart development which form the stronger musculature and bigger capacity of heart and lungs in male bodies. this doesn’t mean that female bodies at elite levels don’t have high capacities, strength etc. But there are fundamental physiological differences which enable some of the spectacular differences in the romantic & classical ballet repertoire. More contemporary work - especially post-WWII - makes use of the extraordinary capacities of both male and female bodies in elite dance.

Thanks for this, Alison. I understood that face masks protect others from the wearer, rather than the wearer herself. Of course, if we all wore Face masks, then we’d all protect each other. My family in Germany wear them out in public - the German practice is for everyone to wear something in any public enclosed space (eg shops). We get so little secure or coherent guidance here - just look at the problems over school provision.

And as I understand it, from teacher friends, they are very busy also managing the children of key workers, checking in on the welfare of those children at home, and preparing and feeding back on work from children at home. I can quite see how they can’t add in live lessons as well. To compare the demands on teachers in our schools with private dance teachers is verging on unfair. I think schools and teachers are managing under extraordinary conditions, and dealing also with sometimes contradictory, and certainly unpredictable government advice, as well as hugely restricted budgets.

I think there are a number of explanations in this thread about the difference between providing full-time online education for classes of 30+ pupils, for 6 hours per day 5 days a week. Some of those children will e unmotivated, will not have a quiet place for participation, nor even their own computer. And many many more reasons. At my university we were given a day's notice of the university closing - around 16-17th of March. A week later the whole country was in lockdown. Next week I'm being allowed, for the first time, to go back to my office for 30 minutes to pick up anything else I might need. Although I'm not permitted to take my big fast two monitor computer set up. I've not been given headset, or upgraded laptop, or office chair ... So there are real and multiple issues. Compared with dance teachers teaching maybe 15 at most in a class of children who want to be there, for maybe 2 -4 hours, three or 4 times a week.

Tell me about it! I'm considering teaching outside in September/October. I can't be sure about my safety if I teach indoors - I'm a shade over 60 & asthmatic - I'm at risk in a way my 20 year old students are not. But teaching online is really frustrating & difficult.

Viv, yes, your post makes sense - but I think the oversplit is a consequence (a by-product) of the training rather than a goal in itself. I suppose that was the point I was trying to make. What an interesting discussion!

Oh that's really useful & points out the artistry in all of this @Dance*is*life I should think that trying to learn to show the difference in feel & look of those two different kinds of grand jetes is more important than split or oversplit.

Experts such as @Pas de Quatre can confirm, but in some national systems, isn't there a difference in name to distinguish between the grande jeté that starts with a grand battement, and a grand jeté that starts with a developpé? I seem to recall that the Vaganova system and the French system both distinguish between these by name ...

As @Jan McNulty says, it is possible. But why would you want to do it? There is an extraordinary repertoire of male dancers' steps - huge virtuoso jumps, amazing turns - men tend to do a lot more pirouettes from second, for example, and tours en lair - lots of stuff to learn to do well, rather than pointe work done badly. And it can damage your feet - for women & men - if you'e not taught correctly, and in the right kind of shoes.

Hello @olver3501 As others have said, splits are not really necessary for ballet - they should come through your training, not as a training aim or goal. You say you 'train at home' - have you ever been to a ballet class? Ballet isn't something you can really train at by yourself, unless you've had many years of expert teaching. And even then, professional dancers do class 6 days a week, in company with their peers, and class led by ballet masters/mistresses who keep a sharp eye out for dancers' technique. All dancers have things they need to keep working on throughout their lives. It's hard in pandemic conditions, but as soon as things restart, you need to get to a good class, and develop your technique by a watchful teacher guiding you. Don't worry about the splits. Flexibility in ballet is important for how you are able to use it, not as an end in itself.

Indeed. If I said what I think about UK government competence re COVID-19, I'd be booted off this message board! My university's legal people are already considering what we'll need to do to keep people safe, despite UK government advice.

Yes, yes, this. I am coping by taking it a day at a time, a decision at a time. There are things I would like to sort out & decisions I would like to make, but I can't make some decisions because they are reliant on other people/institutions making decisions. In a departmental meeting, we started to discuss how we would teach in person, and our Departmental health & safety guru basically said: "We have to be guided by the government guidance." (There are things I could say about that, but I'd be banned for life from Ballet.Co!)

This is for LARGE lecture groups. None of us (I hope) would want 100/200/300 students packed into a lecture theatre, generally with poor air circulation (very rarely do universities have air-conditioned rooms - mine is pretty big & well off, and I think we have only one large lecture theatre with proper air circulation via air-conditioning). Small group teaching is still being discussed. At my place we are looking at ways of being able to do this. We REALLY want to teach in person, believe me. It's likely going to be mixed-modes, so that where we can teach with appropriate social distancing we will really try to do that online. We all need to recognise that there are likely to be quite a few staff who are in vulnerable categories; there will be some students also. This blog is really interesting & informative about calculating the risks. You can see how sitting in a lecture theatre for 50 minutes with several (maybe asymptomatic) carriers might be quite a high risk activity. Put that together with the fact that undergrads are still learning how to be adults about making choices and wearing the consequences ... https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

Well, we're still teaching! Just not in person. I am desperate to get back to in-person teaching - it's where the excitement happens (and online teaching is exhausting and frustrating) . But yes, health must be prioritised. We're trying to go step by step. I should say, though, that we are working on the assumption that students will be coming back to the campus in September.

Oh, and one of the things we're talking about re students & their accommodation is that we'll keep those groups of students working together as much as possible, as they'll form households for C-19 /social distancing purposes. That they'll all go into a kind of self-isolation at first, then after 2 weeks with no symptoms, will work together with social distancing. Although at a reasonably large university such as mine, not all students ive with others doing the same subjects, so the study/work group idea is only one of the many we're thinking about. I think ALL of us are going to have to think differently about our interactions with others: no more "soldiering on" if you have symptoms of any kind of cough/cold virus, for example.

I work in a university, and we are currently working on ways to have students back in September. In my department this poses specific problems around social distancing in the studio, which we're starting to think through. We are reliant on government advice (ha!) and policy (double ha!), particularly around testing. I'm thinking about how I run my physical sessions (dance for actors sort of stuff) without too much aerobic activity, and no touch. It can be done, but it will be different. We are also, however, having to think about mixed modes of teaching: both in person (which we ALL really want to be able to do) and online, both synchronously (ie everyone on line live at the same time) and asynchronous (pre-recorded lectures or "slow seminars" - a bit like a MB!, or blogs etc etc). Personally, I have quite a few concerns about getting into an enclosed space with a bunch of 18-22 year olds, when research on social attitudes re C-19 suggests that is the group least concerned about the virus (I stress this is broad research, not a dig at any individual young person). I would ideally like to be sure that anyone I interact with face to face is virus free, but until we have a coherent policy about Test, Track, Trace, this means I have to make an individual calculated risk about my own health. And I am on the edge of high risk categories in terms of age & underlying conditions. It's a gamble - we're all having to make these personal decisions, I know. But every year "Fresher's Flu" has me in bed for about a week, and bronchitic for up to 2 weeks after that ... So staff at higher ed institutions of all sorts have this to face as well as managing the whole influx of students from all over the country, bringing all those different germs! We are also talking about pay cuts to keep our jobs, inevitable redundancies, cancellation of research time (my publisher will love that one), ban on international travel, and teaching 4 terms across the year. My university refunded students rents for summer term, and the weeks of the Spring term affected by lockdown. We wonder how many higher education institutions will actually survive, particularly given the expected loss of considerable proportion of overseas students, whose fees subsidise those of our home students. It feelss like a slow-motion dystopian sci-fi film some days ...

Oh gosh, @drdance I hope you don't suffer too many side effects and long-term after effects. Good luck with your convalescence!

I've been doing his class when I can get away from work (yes a lot of us are still working from home!) - he is such a good teacher. The barre is very clean technique & basic, but with enough challenge whatever your level of achievement.

DanceXchange in Birmingham is streaming a variety of classes at around 6 to 6:30pm (British Summer Time) most evenings, via Instagram.

Whose class did you do, Alexander?

Yes, RuthE, you're right. I'm doing paid-for classes with Nina Thilas-Mohs via Zoom. But I've done her classes regularly (although not as frequently as I could wish) over the last few years, so I know her teaching style, and she knows what I need to work on. I think starting right now, with unfamiliar teachers, might be hard. And not necessarily productive.

As you've seen there are lots of options via streamed barres at the moment. BUT -- My advice would be that you don't start now, in following along classes where there is expert teaching, but no correction, because the teacher can't see you. Although you did ballet asa child, it's a whole different physical proposition as a 19/20 year old, almost adult. You need expert eyes on you, and expert correction so you don't fall into bad habits now at the start of beginning again. What I'd recommend is that you do lots of conditioning - get fit & strong via online fitness and Pilates classes, or yoga etc, or go outside running (use the Couch to 5k app to get started). That way, when we're out the other side (whatever sort of world we step back into) you're ready to go to live physical classes. Pointe work might come, but it might not. You need to be doing around 3 classes a week for strength, and have control over your turn out. I've seen some terrible adult pointe work - people who really shouldn't be on pointe for both physical safety and aesthetic reasons! There's enough to learn for at least 3 or 4 years in terms of learning the repertoire of steps and combinations, getting solid double pirouettes, and a good sense of control in the centre. To find classes, there are several threads - try searching the tag "adult ballet" In England, it's easier if you live within commuting distance from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle or Leeds; in Scotland, Edinburgh or Glasgow. It's harder outside the big cities, but the knowledge of Balletco members is astounding! Good luck, and let's hope we can all be physically together in our studios soon.

Sander Bloemmart is doing a lovely barre at 11am each day on Instagram. He teaches vocational students, but the barre itself is fairly simple and really clean technique.

Tiler Peck's online barre (find it on her Instagram stories @tiler.peck) was an homage to Mr Burmann, using some of his exercises.