MayKwok

In my personal experience, what's helped my jumps: - weight placement and landing in a balanced body position (e.g. if you lose the neutral pelvis and stick the bum out, you've lost it before you started. In general you should have shoulder over hips over knees over toes but obviously also dependent on what type of jump it is) - resistance in the legs. Brace the landing by resistance against gravity in the glutes thighs and calves. This requires strength, and you can start thinking of them all the way through class starting from pliés. Resist down rather than let gravity take you down. - articulation through the feet. Landing toe ball heel together with both of the above will reduce landing noise, and also help cushion against the shock that will go through the body. - let the depth of the landing be the start of the next jump. Make it seamless. If you have a split second that you are sitting in the plie, you've lost the rebound that will help propel the next jump. - specific to the lightness, jumping on the way up also need articulation through the feet. Rolling through heel ball toe and pointing the leg (yes think pointe the leg, not just the feet!) all the way through will activate all the intrinsic muscles in the feet calves thighs glutes. I would ask the teacher for any specific exercises. Did the teacher just say what she needs to achieve without being specific as to what actually she needs to work on, and provide the how? I find Lisa Howell's site helpful. I've also just searched on YouTube and found a specific video from Kathryn Morgan on petit allegro which explains very clearly and demonstrated, highly recommend a watch. (she has tips on all sorts of steps, could easily watch for hours!) Hope this helps! S

Thanks LinMM. A week off work, a week of ballet all day every day with Henry St Clair, Vanessa Fenton and Olivia Cowley, all really fun and inspiring to work with. I did their Swan Lake last year. Apart from making sure the show is true to choroegraphical spirit they also want to make the dancers look good (i.e. willing to adapt steps to dancers' level). It's a good crowd of dancers as well. Really supportive. Can't wait.

The Crystal Ballet Giselle is going from 31st July to 7th Aug. Rehearsals at Union Theatre in Southwark. End of course performance is on 7th Aug at Greenwood Theatre at London Bridge. As far as I know there are still vacancies. Link here (Info correct as at time of posting. I have no commercial interest in Crystal Ballet... I'll be participating in this course!)

I've been working on getting higher extensions this year. I've gone to my teacher who's prescribed me targeted exercises. I do notice an improvement -- when I manage to do the exercises more frequently. I've tried some exercises off the Easy Flexibility website, and I have found them effective for me. This is what I do: 1. I warm up 2. I do a benchmark test (e,g, gently lower into splits and stop when I feel any stretch, note how far off the floor I am) 3. I follow the exercises and do all the stretches etc. 4. I do the benchmark test again and every time, I get noticeably lower to the floor. Then the next time I do the exercise, I see I'm back more to the level at step 2 above than 4. This tells me that I really need to be able to do this more than just once a week... but alas juggling family and work and class is difficult! I find that more than anything, you need time, motivation, and discipline to be able to do it for the long term, regularly. And also a realistic outlook -- expecting drastic improvement in a short space of time could cause frustration and get you demotivated, so be realistic as to how quickly it could improve. Although the stretching program works, my teacher has said that I am less "collapsed" in my ribcage when dancing in class, i.e. more pulled up. Personally I feel my improvement in extension is more due to increase in core strength and improvement in weight placement and alignment, than muscle flexibility. Hope this helps! S

Was Archie Sullivan the finalist from BBC Young Dancer? Anyone know where he's moving to?

Hey Kate, Just had a browse on the Place's website, are you looking at their summer term classes (link here)? Looks like their summer term for adults finish this Friday 8th July. Were you intending to attend those? I haven't taken their term classes there so don't know if they have something between now and their autumn term. Maybe worth checking if the classes will actually run! S

I have tried them on before in the Sansha store in Drury Lane Covent Garden.

My doctors actually encouraged me to take class while I was pregnant. They knew full well I was continuing to take class up to the late stages and were very supportive. They did advise to really listen to the body on allegro though. By that stage my feet had swollen to at least 1.5 sizes bigger and so was more difficult to articulate. (The sight of my cankles... Something I'll never forget!) And obviously the extra fluids in the body, especially in the legs, and general extra weight of carrying a baby, put extra stress on for jumps. From pre pregnancy to just before delivery I think I gained around 20kg. I was able to do small jumps holding on the barre, but anything bigger than that would alert to me exactly where my pelvic floor muscles are...! It took an enormous amount of self control to "be good" and not join in the fun.

And sorry for getting a bit off topic. My son (now nearly 17 months old) loves music, loves dancing around, loves turning and loves when I throw him in the air. I'll see in a few years if he fancies talking dance classes! (I went to see Manon when I was around 36 weeks pregnant. He stated proper kicking and dancing inside - during the act 2 brothel scene!)

I danced until I was 32 weeks pregnant. I generally have my weight too far back so my pirouettes actually felt more centred when I was heavily pregnant. I wished I had danced right up to my due date. Once I stopped class I felt much more lethargic and tired. I think class kept my energy levels up a lot. (It was a prepaid term of classes and at start of term I didn't know how I was going to cope so didn't pay up until I was due. Now I know!)

I had Bob Martin ones years ago and I put them into the washing machine. Unorthodox I know, but it made it much more comfortable and I went through exams with them with no issues.

Such wonderful news. Congratulations!

Johan has also posted this on twitter: https://twitter.com/KOBBORG/status/719151044207448064 ser Actions Following johan kobborg‏@KOBBORG Oh no. Downfall has started. This breaks my heart!

I second the vote for Just Ballet in either Wisbech or Southend. I didn't manage to visit the shops and Sheila actually did the fitting by mail order. It did involve a lot of back and forth sending of shoes, but we got there in the end. They have a good varied selection of brands and styles.

Sorry I just typed this out based on info from their news page which lists the productions, rather than a press release. They didn't refer to them as such. I had no idea where to put them and just put it there randomly.

Also had a quick look at each programme, and the number of matinees: Fille: 1 Thu schools matinee, 1 Fri, 1 Sat Anastasia: 2 Sat Nutcracker: 2 Mon, 2 Tue, 2 Wed (of which 1 is school), 2 Sat, 1 Sun Beauty: 1 Thu, 1 Fri, 3 Sat Woolf works: 3 Sat Mayerling: 1 Mon 2 Sat Wayne McG: No matinees New Charlotte Edmonds and Robert Binet: No matinees The Human Seasons / After the Rain / New Crystal Pite: 1 Tue schools matinee Jewels: 3 Sat The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude / Tarantella / Strapless / New Liam Scarlett: 1 Sat The Dream / Symphonic Variations / Marguerite and Armand: 1 Sat

A lot of Nutcrackers and Sleeping Beauties.... and their performance periods overlap one another! I'll be glad to see Anastasia (never seen before) and Mayerling.

At a quick glance: Full lengths: La Fille mal Gardee x 13 Anastasia x 10 Nutcracker x 27 Sleeping Beauty x 25 Woolf Works x 10 Mayerling x 10 Mixed bills: Chroma / New Wayne McGregor / Carbon Life x 6 New Charlotte Edmonds and Robert Binet x 5 (in the Clore) The Human Seasons / After the Rain / New Crystal Pite x 8 Jewels x 14 The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude / Tarantella / Strapless / New Liam Scarlett x 7 The Dream / Symphonic Variations / Marguerite and Armand x 6

Hot off the presses! http://www.roh.org.uk/news/ballet-and-dance-201617

Just to confirm, grishko do make vegan pointe shoes. I have a friend who's vegan and she wears special order grishko vegan shoes. Took an awful long time to get to the UK, but it's what's important to her so worth the wait.

Yes. I watched it because I wanted to see e dancing, and I found I had to endure the story to do that. Won't spoil it for people with the story line, but there's good sizable chunks of Rubies towards the end of the series, and a new ballet. Interesting they aren't afraid to show the same solo done by the 2 female leads. Be warned, there's LOTS of explicit scenes, nudity and strong language!

There's more on the telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/11820161/In-pictures-Extreme-Ballerina-Agathe-Petrini-dances-through-Central-London.html

I find this odd. Most teachers I encounter would actually say, "I'm not a healthcare or medical professional. Get medical advice immediately and we will work together to address the problem." For me, hips don't only work during developpés. They work to keep the dancer standing. And in pliés. In tendus. In fact one needs a correctly functioning hip to be dancing at all. To put off investigating a hip problem rings alarm bells for me, especially in growing children. I think you were right to seek medical help. From what you were saying above I'd say it would give me grounds to start doubting the teacher as well.

Sballerina, I strongly urge you to go to one of their open days. What would you like to know?

Contemporary dance -- containing some of these moves? (Not an entirely serious video but I do find I think along these lines when I want Contemporary these days...)