Kate_N

Munchkin, don't give up! Try to squeeze any sort of dance in however you can, even if it's not ballet, or it's not regular. Think of it as an hiatus, not giving up. I'd second recommendations for the NYCB Workout. Also do Pilates or yoga everyday - there are now lots of online resources. I really rate "Yoga with Adriene" which is free on YouTube, and I've heard very good things about Darcey Bussell's "Pilates for Life" DVD. Also maybe take this hiatus to work on your general fitness: I used a dance hiatus to teach myself to run, with the NHS (free) "Couch to 5k" app on my iPod. I can now run for 30-40 minutes without feeling like I'm going to die, and I cane back to dance stronger and very fit, which has meant that I've really learnt a lot about control & core stability etc. You could also look out for day long or weekend workshops, and if your general fitness is better, then you won't struggle with that aspect of getting back to dance. But don't think that you're leaving it for good: keep on moving, learn other movement skills, and when your life circumstances change, you'll be able to leap back in.

Yes, in my experience what Dance*is*life says is accurate, and ye, a surprise (not always pleasant) to actors, for example. Sometimes musicians' behaviour comes across as resistent & stubborn & counter-productive in the production, but I guess they got the (literally) pay off in terms of much higher fees.

Musicians have always been well-paid in relation to other performing arts. In my academic role, I remember organising a whole evening for a literary evening of 3 hours for which I was about to be paid the standard hourly rate for a guest lecturer. The musician performing for 30 minutes was paid twice what I received for organising the whole thing plus being there and hosting the event (3 hours + the organising run up meetings etc, plus preparation for my lectures over several weeks). I suspect that musicians are paid a lot more than dancers ...

Some years ago I did open class for a few days at Peridance in New York with a teacher who used something like bongo drums. I really liked the emphasis on rhythm, and it gave the class a different energy. On my more recent trips to New York it's just been piano at Steps and Peridance (the 2 studios I go to). Oh the luxury of live accompaniment! there are only a few places in the UK where open classes have live music.

I'm not going to be able to attend this p[articular workshop, but to be honest, I'm quite glad that there are workshops for adult dancers. Their needs for teaching, and ways of working are quite different from that of teenagers. And in my experience, when young teens/children are in adult classes, it can be a very different atmosphere - and not always one that helps adults. There are many many more opportunities for young dancers than for adults; it seems only fair to welcome the few opportunities developed specifically for adults.

But if you go back to pictures of dancers in the height of the era of Romantic ballet (1840s & 50s or so), or the height of the Classical period (late 19th century) you'll see other body types. Bodies are not fixed - they are constructed & constituted through the things we do. Historically, most men (non-dancers) had much bulkier more muscular calves than most men nowadays because they walked more. Similarly, women (say in the Regency era) had far less strong upper torsos - a combination of corsetry and lack of expectation of exertion - at least for middle classes and above. So yes, bodies change.

Oh this sounds great! Pity I'm the wrong end of the country ... Thanks for letting us know.

Er, no. Not if you know where to look!

Try googling university vacation accommodation. There are various halls of residence in the area which sometimes offer very good value although very basic accommodation during the university vacation.

I had a long post about this earlier today, and my web browser crashed & I lost it! I attend Ms Mittelmaier's Intermediate class when I'm working in London (which is usually over the weekend). I go to her Sunday morning class. There is a good mix of levels, although it's a pretty true Intermediate class, I'd say: you need to have a fair knowledge of steps & technique, and be prepared to be quite quick at picking up combinations. I'm at about the bottom of the middle group of ability I think - I can do everything but sometimes need a bit more time to pick up combinations in the centre, especially in petit allegro. But that's partly because the studio is more crowded than I'm used to, so not much room to mark. There are people who are struggling with the technique a lot more than I do, but they are encouraged and corrected, just as much as the dancers obviously in vocational training or with professional training. The main thing in my experience is that Ms Mittelmaier gives a really lovely dancey class. On Sunday, there is a live pianist who is fantastic (and quite a character, but very nice about letting me put my glasses on the piano for safety). The barre is carefully thought through as a preparation for combinations in the centre, and she gives lovely flowing combinations, involving arms & upper back at the barre, so we develop a more responsive ports de bras in the centre. So going by the Intermediate level, I'd say that the Beginner would be much slower & less complex, but equally flowing & well thought out. The thing about open classes in studios such as Danceworks is that you can't actually learn from scratch in them. I think you need to do a termly course, such as at Morley College, RAD, or ENB. But if you know the basics, then I think you'd be very well taught in Ms Mittelmaier's class. The Beginner's class where I KNOW anyone will be well taught and be given guidance on the basics as well, is Hannah Frost's class. I have become such a fan of her teaching: I do the Beginners' class whenever I'm in London, and it's tough, even if we don't do a lot in terms of complicated steps or combinations. She is *excellent* at corrections and getting your alignment right. She does hands on corrections. She positively welcomes new people in the class, and gives sound advice to them about going about 3 or 4 classes before making any sort of judgement - she warns them that ballet feels "weird" when you first do it. We also are encouraged to give new people doing their first ballet lesson a round of applause at the end, which is lovely I think. My alignment & hips and ports de bras are improving through her influence . She gives hands on corrections, and for me is very good at small adjustments that really help. While Renato Paroni is not teaching in London, she is my number 1 favourite London teacher - although I still find that Mr Paroni class eaves me the most turned out I have ever been!

The Oyster Card really is worth the purchase, even for a relatively short stay in London. You can move completely seamlessly between different forms of transport (Underground, bus, Docklands light rail) and you don't need to worry about finding the cheapest fare: the Oyster card will do that for you, and caps your daily expenditure, as others have said. I wish more UK cities had such an integrated method of payment. Birmingham, I'm looking at you, with your ridiculous "Cash & exact fare only" for the buses.

If the portable barres are there, and adjustable to the right height for varieties of children, then I think they should be used, for all the reasons other people have given.

Do you mean a physical barre fixed to the wall, or a portable barre? Or do you mean the exercises done at the barre? And what age are your DC? In my experience (but I'm not a teacher) very young children do a lot of stuff in the centre in baby ballet or pre-ballet. But from the age of 8 or 9, working at the barre with simple exercises would be standard. I suppose if the dance school is in a church hall or the like, then there aren't necessarily fixed barres or portable barres. And we all use chairs at home or in impromptu exercising in the office! So it sounds less than ideal. On the other hand, if my teacher decides we'll do a whole class in the centre, it is very good for my strength and for showing the areas where I really need to be thinking about better placement, rather than relying on the barre.

Sounds like the workshop was great fun & a real learning experience. I must try to get back to some of the ENB workshops: I did a few when I lived closer to London, and always enjoyed the challenge. Turning piqué pirouettes all around the circular stage of the Albert Hall, was a highlight - as was watching ENB Company class & seeing Ms Rojo turn amazing fouettés forever! (This was long before she took pver as Artistic Director). I love learning repertoire because it helps with that essential skill of learning to adapt & adjust small details at speed. That's what I really loved watching on World Ballet Day: the way that in rehearsals, after the dancers had learnt the basic choreography, they started to layer & embellish it with tiny subtle details. Part of the point of "muscle memory" is to train that ability to do slightly different variations of the same step. That's why I prefer 'open' to syllabus classes (although I understand why syllabus classes are excellent for learning). If you think about it, the tendu and the glissé are pretty much the same movement, but with a different emphasis & energy, so that in the glissé, the working toe just releases off the floor. And our brains/bodies learn the difference quite clearly. So maybe that's the next step in your learning the basics of ballet, Michelle, in these workshops: that you develop experience in making those small adjustments on the spot, and see "muscle memory" not as ONE thing repeated into your body, but learning a repertoire or range of movement possibilities?

If they're good teachers (and we know they are!) they will have picked up her being overwhelmed, and are backing off, allowing her time to process mentally, and then start to get them into her muscle memory - which, we all know, takes aaaaaages. And although it's not pleasant this is a good indication of professional life, where you don't always get the approval you seek. So you have to become resilient and find a sense of confidence in your own self-approval.

Reading between the lines (and forgive me if I'm wrong or overthinking) ... is this a cultural difference, and a difference in national training styles? For example, as I see it, the RBS takes a very "slow & steady" approach, and is also committed to maintaining & developing the perceived "national style" of British ballet as represented by the RB company. Has se only started there this term? So only a month or so there? There could be a teacherly policy of waiting and watching with a student who hasn't come through the junior school. Giving the pupil a bit of time to adjust, and also watching her to see what needs attention. Also, some people like to be big fish in small ponds, and others prefer to be small fish in big ponds. She may need time to adjust. Frankly, though, I'd be suspicious of being a "favoured" student: I've seen the "favoured" students in schools not succeed, whereas the quiet ones who've really had to work, gain from that, and do quite well!

Yes, and this year, the camera really homed in on him in sissones in class and also some of the petit allegro. Then he was feature in a tap piece "Czardas". Not your ordinary tap piece! A highlight of yesterday. I got utterly no work done yesterday. But in class last night we did a couple of combinations from the NBoC class - what I loved about all the footage of morning class was the way that most of the barre was quite doable by a reasonably competent advanced beginner dancer - although obviously not to the standard we saw For me, the emphasis of the whole day was the importance of class, and what it gives to the artist. Its something that my students (some of them aspiring to work as artists in my area) could learn: a simple, determined and regular attention to the very basics of the craft. Wonderful! I also loved watching Wayne McGregor and David Dawson working with dancers on their new works, and Helgi Tomasson working on Act II of Giselle <swoon> But then I've always preferred training & rehearsal to performance, either as a performer or an audience. I was partly raised in the rehearsal room, and I love that flowing concentration of creating something from just bodies & words. Ahhhh, back to normal today.

Me too, Fiz! Wasn't the section just now with Wayne McGregor wonderful? I want another life, in which I start ballet training at 10 (rather than 12) and don't stop when I'm 15, and then become a professional, and work with choreographers like that!

Oh dear, I'm not getting much work done today! I love, love, love watching class. And it was utterly wonderful watching the Bolshoi ballet master - at 70 his ease, fluidity & musicality were almost more interesting than the dancers. Seeing Steven McRae's feet in the allegro (playing as I type) is a lesson in speed of light movement. It's such a privilege seeing the usually private time of company class. I'd be happy watching class all day and very sorry to miss the AB due to time differences. I remember seeing David McAllister when he was a student & very young dancer.

Thanks for this blog, Terpsichore. Glad it was such a good experience!

Oh I didn't mean going back through this thread! But maybe from now on posting requests & info about classes on a separate thread, so it doesn't get lost in the blog-like nature of a lot of this thread.

I've taken the liberty of answering this on a separate thread, as these requests get lost in the blogging aspect of this thread! Maybe we could separate these out, so there's are separate threads for talking about our daily dance lives, and asking about classes etc?

I've taken the liberty of starting a new thread to answer this post, as requests for ideas/info about classes is tending to get lost in the sort of blogging of our daily dance lives that's in the other Adult Dance thread. I wonder if the Mods could pin this thread, so the adult learner/dancers can easily find it when we're looking for classes? Anyway: Saturday morning in Birmingham - if you're relatively confident and not a beginner, there's nowhere else to go but Jane Rosier's class at Annette Nicholson's new facility near the Custard Factory in Digbeth. Actually there probably are lots of classes, but this is the best! It is listed as Intermediate+ but I always managed it, as an experienced but not rofessionally trained dancer. I used to attend these classes when I lived in Birmingham and they were held at the DanceXchange studios. I've not danced at the new studio, but it looks gorgeous. It's a very friendly crowd who go to the class (I miss our Saturday morning coffees afterwards) and <s Rosier or Ms Nicholson as teachers are wonderful. Just wonderful. Ms Rosier used to say that she gave us the same sort of class she'd give professional dancers, so it's challenging. But her classes are just a joy to dance, not those desperately difficult barre combinations which seem designed to trick you & trip you up. Her centre practice is just gorgeous, really big & dancey, with great enjoyment in covering space. And Jane is just so lovely. Here's the information: http://www.nicholsonschoolofdance.com/new-page/ I hope you have a lovely time!

As an educator, my view is that you should first of all seek out the best education for you, then look at how you're going to pay for it, rather than choose simply because something is cheaper. UK education is not expensive - it's tremendously good value for money amortised over a lifetime, if you choose the right programme for you. My US colleagues would confirm this (where bog standard degrees at rather unimpressive universities generally start at around $20k per year, before bed & board). Obviously how you pay for it comes into the equation, but choosing simply on low cost is a potentially bad value for money decision. Think of it as investing in your future, and the costs come into proportion & focus.

Oh I do love the Wili choreography, although the "chugs" - arabesque something or others - across the stage are v v difficult - keeping the height absolutely level, and making it look easy and spirit-like (huh!) Have fun with it, LinMM, and just think of the lovely lengthening effect all that choreography will have on your body.