Kate_N

I'll be glued to my iPad from 7am to catch the Bolshoi class - particularly if Maestro Akimov is teaching. I have meetings from 11am tomorrow, so will miss the RB class unfortunately.

This query has just given me a wonderful excuse for watching a number of versions of Aurora's Act I solo - there's a lot of running in the set up. The version by Kathryn Morgan (on YouTube) has her commentary, and there's a lot of running to get to the set up for the solo. What I learnt about doing ballet runs is that the foot emphasis is forward and on the toes, and that turn out is less important here - if you do it too turned out, you'll look like a duck! I was taught it to be almost like a pas de bouree en avant or a triplet, with fast forwards movement. Doesn't stop me feeling like an elephant though!

I just wanted to share with you all what a wonderful day I had yesterday at my home studio's showcase. I wasn't dancing! (no-one should have to pay to see me dance ) although my adult ballet, street & jazz classes did all do a number. But I've done with performing, and much prefer being backstage. So I was the studio director's runner - bringing troupes of children up & down the stairs from their dressing rooms to the stage. Exhausting 3 hours, but so so worth it! It made me realise again that raising children in the theatre, involved in dance or am-dram or whatever, is such a wonderful way for children to learn. The right sort of discipline: self-discipline & perseverance to achieve ambitions. Looking after others & collaborating to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. That learning happens in all sorts of ways, and the everyone can participate in a beautiful art form of dance of all kinds. We all know this - I think it's such a shame that dance has the air of "elite" and only for "posh" people. Even down to the youngest child, the children were disciplined, attentive, polite, sweet and so so dedicated. It was a joy (although I did then go to bed at 8:30pm and not wake up until 7:30 this morning!) Anyway, just wanted to share with you all, my dance friends.

2 years back as an adult isn't very long, really! And pointe work is hard. It's when you realise the daily, life-long work that goes into a professionally trained female dancer's apparently "effortless" pointing of the foot! For anyone starting pointe (at whatever age), the issue is technique. Technique, technique, technique! And by that I also mean that technique is knowing how to use your strength. For me, I find it's about muscle memory - even if I'm not as strong now as, say (just for example) 6 months ago, if I've got my head around a movement, the muscle memory helps me next time. And the age/technique/strength relationship is important. I didn't go on pointe until I started the (old) Intermediate - which is Advanced Foundation now, I think? I was 14 (a late starter) and was at once very strong on pointe, compared with my sister, who was a couple of years younger and was the whole wobbly bent knees etc. In terms of age, we were both of the age when pointe work was "safe" but the difference in body type & strength showed. But there's nothing like a change in one's training (eg going on pointe) to reveal the areas where one needs to work on! It's like when one's teacher cheerily says - "We'll be doing the barre in the centre today!" or sets adage as developpés en croix. Good luck and patience!

ArucariaBallerina has given you the sequence of the steps in the choreography (well done! gold star!!! ) - what strikes me about the combination (or we might call it a solo or a divertissement) is the quality and character of Baryshnikov's dancing. Look at how he seems to "hang" in the air at the start of each big jump (grande allegro step) - those cabrioles at the start are spectacular: he just seems to float with no effort. This is something that Russian male ballet dancers are renowned for. So, as a reader (and my job is basically reading!) I'd be far more interested in someone trying to conjure up the qualities of the dancing than the names of the steps. What is it that Baryshnikov's makes you feel, and how do you communicate that to your readers? That's what I'm interested in - a creative writer helping me to feel - the atmosphere, the music, the effect of the extraordinary skill and grace of the dancer. Arucaria has given you the sequence of steps: if you wanted to see the steps individually, this American Ballet Theatre (ABT) video dictionary is really helpful: http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/ It's a really useful resource. If you want a book (maybe THE book) on steps & choreography, it's hard to go past Gretchen Ward Warren's book. It's beautifully illustrated with photos and drawings - photos of some very famous American dancers. https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Ballet-Technique-Gretchen-Warren/dp/0813009456 The useful thing about it is that it gives the alternate names from the Russian, Italian, and French systems of naming choreography and steps (there are slight differences, but no-one really worries about that). Also, Gail Grant's book is very good: https://www.bookdepository.com/Technical-Manual-Dictionary-Classical-Ballet-Gail-Grant/9780486218434 Good luck with your writing! Let us know how it goes.

Further! Did a better search in korrekt Deutsch: "erwachsene ballet wien österrreich" and found: http://www.dancearts.at/erwachsene http://www.meet2dance.com/fshowsch.shtml http://www.mamborama.at/wien/erwachsene/ballett.html http://dancebase-vienna.at/?page_id=82 http://www.miss.at/home/lifestyle/missentesten/4592036/Tryout-Wednesday_Ballett-fuer-Erwachsene https://www.meinbezirk.at/wiener-neustadt/freizeit/ballett-und-jazztanzstunden-fuer-kinder-jugendliche-und-erwachsene-d2014417.html Lots of ideas there.

Oh, you might also an international adult dancer readership/advice at Ballet Talk for Dancers - there's a whole section devoted to Adult Ballet Students, and although it's US-based, there are quite a few Europeans amongst us on that forum!

It's really hard to tell over the internet what will be hardest for you! You obviously have more than usual skills /aptitude in kinesic skills. But doing the splits is not ballet, so I think what will be the challenge will be alignment, and strength to use your flexibility in the correct way. The main classes I get at my 'home" are beginners ("Back to Ballet") - I see dancers who are amazing in the street dance class which follows our ballet class - (I am pretty rubbish at street dance because ballet). They can do the splits etc, but their alignment for ballet, and ability to hold, use, and work their turn out is not as good as it should be, given their passive flexibility. And that's not because they're "bad" dancers - they're clearly talented - but it's about muscle memory (proprioception) and learning about the correct balletic use of that flexibility. So you should get yourself to a good beginners ballet class! Work slowly, and carefully. Don't focus on height of your extensions - work on getting your alignment right, finding & working your turnout - turn out is an action, not a position - work on your body feeling good and at home in turn out but don't aim for flat 180 degrees! Work within your body's capacities at first, and as you get used to the pattern of movements, start to see where you can push yourself. You can look at stuff on YouTube, but really YouTube is very hit & miss. There is no substitute for a safe, well-taught class given by a knowledgeable teacher. When you're in class, listen to ALL the corrections given to the class and to individuals. Check that you are taking on those corrections - I always learn a lot from corrections given to others. And if you can't see the difference between the Vaganova grades then you don't really understand the way that system works. However, why wouldf you understand? You've not been in a ballet class for over 10 years. If you wanted to say roughly where you are in the UK, I'm sure the knowledgeable members of this forum can recommend good ballet teachers for adults - I've started a couple of threads trying to collect that information. But as you're in Wien, I did a Google search "ballett wien osterreich" and found this: http://www.attitudeballet.at/?page_id=157 You might look at the Beginner class. And as for pointe work - for your own good health (you need your feet and ankles for a long long time!) don't push it. Most experienced ballet teachers say that you should be doing at least 3 x 90 minute classes per week regularly, you should have very secure single pirouettes and confident double pirouettes on demi-pointe, be confident in relèvé, and have a thorough understanding of your own alignment in the centre, as well as good thorough understanding of petit allegro (petit allegro in pointe shoes is a beast!). You need to be strong for pointe work, but "ballet strong" which is a different thing - again, it's to do with proprioception. Good luck! My advice can probably be summarised by: Go to a Beginners Ballet class. Regularly. And fall in love with the art.

I think your teacher might suggest safe effective exercises to do, after a thorough warm up. For an "inflexible adult" you might think about what you want to achieve in terms of flexibility. Is it basic stuff - like feeling comfortable in a forwards port de bras (maybe being able to sweep the floor with your working arm, with straight legs)? If you're really inflexible, I'd be working on foot flexibility (my toes are getting stiffer & stiffer with age, and that has more impact than being able to do the splits, in my experience), torso flexibility - back, forwards and laterally, and opening up the hips (if you're an office worker, the long hours sitting aren't great for hip flexor flexibility). Flexibility for ballet needs to be usable - not much use being able to do the splits on the floor, if you don't have the core strength and alignment to do a grand battement correctly to hip or waist height. It's always a combination of strength, flexibility, and muscle memory (proprioception).

Yes, that was an OK class - I liked some of the combinations across the floor when we really got moving. Sorry I had to dash for my train after, so didn't have time to say hello properly!

I'd say it's about core strength and alignment. That's what holds you up, on pointe, demi, or flat. Yes, leg strength is necessary, but working on alignment and core in tandem is important.

Good luck - the wait is always nerve-wracking!

I've often tread in this forum how much dancers (and their parents) would like feedback, and that it is not unreasonable to expect to receive feedback. So maybe this is an attempt to answer that sort of request?

Maybe it might help (of course, it might not ) to give you a perspective from the assessor's point of view? Caveat: it's not ballet, but anyway ... Part of my university teaching requires me to assess student performances (in choreography, performance, dance, acting). Obviously, we see their shows and presentations, and they want us to say something immediately. We can't tell them our grading decisions - we have a pretty long & thorough process of discussion before we settle marks. So we say something encouraging, but a bit bland - we can't say what we really think re strengths and weaknesses, because that is in the written feedback (our students get about a page of written commentary). It's tricky - obviously, straight after a nerve-wracking performance, on which marks are based, you can't immediately go into the weaknesses; but nor can you praise in the "Dahling, you were fabulous" style, in response to obvious student nerves & excitement to make them feel better. Because the marks may in fact be much lower than the praise, and students remember (and resent). And overall, whereas a student (I'm talking undergraduates here) may well take a 55% on an essay (which maybe they wrote over the weekend quite quickly) and detailed critique of how next time they can improve their essay, as an OK response (or even, as one said to me "Fair cop, I didn't spend a lot of time), if they're performing arts students, then their performances are very close to their self-image and self-esteem as people - in the way an essay is not. To give a student 55% for a performance cuts much much deeper - they are far less objective about their performances, becaue they're inexperienced & still learning. It's as if we're saying that they're mediocre people, because their performance was mediocre (which a 55% at university indicates - OK but lots of room to improve). So it's really tricky! Hence the comments from the auditioners may be because they're aware that dancers appreciate feedback. But that the feedback, and the decision to offer a place or not, are different things. I hope that makes sense?

Welcome! There are several adult students here of varying experience. I've just come back from my first class after a 4 week summer break, and my main advice is to take it slowly. Even if you are of an advanced standard (I'm somewhere between intermediate & advanced), your return to dance meeds to go slowly. That way you can work on building strength slowly, and also, try to work on errors & difficulties with technique you may have had before. I always think that returning after a break is an opportunity to return with cleaner technique. Starting again, and simply - not doing to many fussy or fancy things at first, but going for good spinal alignment, steady level hips, neutral pelvis, relaxed shoulders, neck & head. Not thinking too much about leg height but thinking about the action of the foot along the floor. Can you do some conditioning outside of class? Walking, swimming, Pilates, running, weights in the gym - these all build strength and help you get to know the mechanics of your body. In terms of pointe work, I think you'd need to have been doing regular classes - 3 or 4 per week, for at least 2 years, to develop the body strength and control of your alignment - you need to be really confident about pirouettes on demi-pointe, for example, before attempting them on pointe. And you'd need to have good control of your hips and legs, as well as a supple and relaxed upper body to look ok on pointe. I really hate seeing adults going on pointe when they can't control their movements - seeing relevés with bent knees, shoulders hitched up in pirouettes on pointe, & so on - it's damaging for your feet and not good for your technique.

It's because we've come to confuse learning with exam results achieved. Tail wags dog at the moment, sadly.

I was just browsing in Primark - have a look at their sports wear section - I saw some lovely soft seamless high waisted capri leggings. Really soft - you could cut the leg off where you wanted it to end.

You could ask if she could recommend anyone else? Or try Julie Felix, who is an acknowledged master teacher. RB Upper School students go to her in the holidays & the son of a Birmingham friend went to her during rehab from an injury.

What about finding tights that you like, then cut them off at the height/leg length of your choice?

Could you buy one a carpet protector? I bought mine at ikea. It's a sheet of hard plastic that goes on the floor of my study under my wheeled office chair. It would be big enough for tendus.

When I lived in Birmingham, ballet friends of mine used to do semi-private classes, coaching & Pilates with Julie Felix. I've done DanceXchange classes with her at an Advanced level, and she is amazing! I found her a wee bit scary to be honest, and I never received corrections from her so I was probably not up to her standard, but I learned a lot from her. And my friends really enjoyed their coaching with her. I think if you googled her name, you'll find her contact details. You could also ask Annette Nicolson - another wonderful wonderful teacher. (There's not too much I miss about living in Birmingham, except the wonderful adult ballet options).

I'm not sure - but you can use to try out music, and then maybe use the details to order via somewhere like Amazon or a specialist music retailer?

I agree about being careful about pulling hair too tight. Like most long-haired people, I expect I'm not alone in wanting my hair to feel secure. Before I did my own hair, my mother plaited it etc and I'm sure I drove her mad with my "Tighter" commands But I know my scalp feels quite sore if I've had my hair pulled up & tightly pulled up for even a day. And over-tight pulling back of hair can lead to hair loos through the pulling action. Maybe your DD should experiment with trying slightly looser or softer styles, which still feel secure, as Cara suggests.

Could you subscribe to the paid version of Spotify? I don't know about copyright though ...

I use a really soft wax - Palmer's Soft Formula shaping wax. It's much softer on the hair than gel or spray and smells delicious. It's hard to find though. I get it on line or sometimes in cosmetics shops aimed at black British people. Palmers (of The Cocoa Butter body cream) do a much stiffer wax for very curly hair. I have waist length hair, dead straight but with wispy bits, blonde and a lot of it. Palmers wax keeps my hair in place and makes the ends of my hair soft and the rest of my hair shiny. It holds really well, too. And I'm sure on a desert island, it'd be a great hand cream too! My my ballet teacher told me she used to use Nivea to slick back and hold hair without damaging it!