CrystalBallet

You are absolutely right Picturesinthefirelight - no reason why not! I've accepted a couple of 16-17 year olds onto the course and I'm interested to see how the whole thing goes....

Thats interesting Picturesinthefirelight.... I thought that was the case. I'll investigate more. However I am keen to keep it as adult based as possible, Kate_N is absolutely right - there are loads of kids ballet courses and classes and adults can feel a bit self-conscious being in a room full of kids. Michelle, I'm glad you think the price is about right, its very difficult to judge and its easy to make it too expensive and put people off. 1) The solo is the solo following big swans - you're right 2) Swans rep will be "entrance of the swans" and if there's time also "leaving the lake" and possibly even a bit of cygnets and big swans depending on height of participant. 3) a 30 minute Q&A is a big favourite of ours in fact its usually not enough time. In my experience the adults who are attending the course are so keen to know more about a dancer's life that the time flys by. The day is taught by BRB principal Jenna Roberts so I'm sure she'll be inundated...

Hi munchkin16, how are you doing? Have you found somewhere? I know you said Surrey but if you are ever in london in the evenings then please feel free to do a taster class with us for free. In fulham at ENBS we have Intermediate class on monday evenings at 19:30-21:00 taught by Helen Crawford (RB). She's a lovely teacher and very good with adults. In Farringdon we have our wednesday beginner class with Layla Harrison at Central School of Ballet at 19:45-20:45. Layla is fantastic and hugely popular (if you saw Phantom over the past 8 years you probably saw her perform "Meg"). Please feel free to email me on henry.stclair@crystalballet.com and come along for free to see how you like it.

Morning all, we've got our last two courses coming up in a couple of weeks. One in Birmingham concentrating on women's ballet tech and rep with BRB principal Jenna Roberts and one in London concentrating on Choreography with James Wilkie (RB), Sam Raine (RB) and a new creation (on you!) by Vanessa Fenton (ex-RB). Don't forget to use the offer code "COURSE10" for a 10% discount. London - http://crystalballet.com/index.php/event/crystal-ballet-choreographic-workshop.html Birmingham - http://crystalballet.com/index.php/event/crystal-ballet-birmingham-ladies-masterclass.html Enjoy!

Morning all, speaking of christmas we're about to launch our dreaded pre-christmas marketing drive (!). How about a membership to our ballet film subscription service? It costs £75 per year (payable monthly) and it gives the viewer the chance to watch everything we ever do however many times they like. We have original work featuring Alina Cojocaru, Steven McRae, Johan Kobborg, Sarah Lamb, Vadim Muntagirov and more. Interviews with Olivia Cowley and Will Tuckett and a series of how-to films with Yasmine Naghdi and Marcelino Sambe. There's a lot more to come..... Anyway, enough marketing. Take a look and see what you think! http://crystalballet.com/index.php/ Best

Morning all, I can confirm that at the moment we are adult-only I'm afraid. Its less to do with the CRB requirement for the teachers as they usually have one and we could easily organise one if they don't. Its actually because any under-18's would mean all of the other adult attendees would have to be CRB checked too which as I'm sure you can understand would be a logistical nightmare! We currently have a pre-christmas, end-of-term offer code that gives 10% off the price. Just put "COURSE10" into the code box at checkout: http://crystalballet.com/index.php/event/crystal-ballet-birmingham-ladies-masterclass.html Thank you!

Hello all, a few thoughts on your topic that I've been reading for the last few months Michelle: I think you're entitled to ask for details of courses and classes that you're going to attend. You're paying your money and you're paying for a service, I don't think its unreasonable to expect to have an idea of what you'll be doing when you get there. From my side I have to say that its very hard to be totally clear about whats going to happen on a course unless you know all participants very well. We recently ran a Swan Lake intensive that was a huge success (I think!) but I was only able to give a fairly accurate estimate of what we'd cover because I knew most of the participants already so I could gauge levels etc. There have been times when I've had to "wing it" a lot more in terms of what we're covering because of some surprise or another.... @Picturesinthefirelight that sound very much like me! Please let me know how you get on in Manchester Michelle, I'd be very interested to know. We're branching out in October to deliver a masterclass in Birmingham using BRB principals and the Hippodrome. This will be our first "licensing out" operation so I'm keen to see how it goes and what kind of market there is for adult dance north of Watford Gap.

Evening everyone, we run ballet classes at English National Ballet School in Fulham. A new offering from us is an absolute beginners class we're launchiung for this summer term. It takes place at 19:30-20:30 on friday eveings at the school on hortensia road. Class is taught by Henry St Clair, a professional dancer for years at English National Ballet Company, two companies in Germany and five years in the Royal Ballet Company. With five years ballet teaching experience, Henry has developed a wonderful easy style that suits adult dancers superbly. Feel free to come along for a free taster class! email henry.stclair@crystalballet.com for details and bookings.

Lin and Michelle ( and any other LAB'ers) do you mind if I butt in here? I think what Tom's doing with LAB is great, the more adult ballet the better as far as I'm concerned! I try not to offer any rep classes that run through a term as I see this exact problem quite often Lin - you miss one or two classes and you've been left behind or they work hard to catch everyone up and then those who are there every week spend a portion of class hanging around. Is that what happens? I'm keen to make sure that we offer clases and courses that function well.... We concentrate on weekly technique classes then offer short courses that concentrate on rep. Any thoughts gratefully received!

This is such an important topic and I'm glad someone had the courage to ask! I trained at the Rbs and spent time at ENB, Royal Ballet and a smallish company in Germany. I earned the following: ENB 1995-1997 £16,000 pa Germany 1997-2004 £13,000 pa RB 2004-2009 started on £31,000 as recognition of years of professional experience. Left on £42,000 after being promoted to First Artist 5th Year. The salary levels of the Royal are the best in Britain and some of the best in the world. They are: Artist - £26,500 First Artist - £30,500 Soloist - £44,000 First Soloist - £52,000 Principal - £65,000 for the first year then negotaiable year on year depending on roles and shows etc. Those are salaries not including overtime and each year theres a small incremental rise to recognise years of service. Whats interesting is that in the US the basic monthly salary is often good but they run on seasonal contracts. This means that you'll get a contract for nine months then you'll be laid off for 3 months before being rehired. This means that as its not treated as a "full-time" contract getting finance for a house etc is incredibly difficult and companies get away without proper pension provisions. Basically, if you're very talented and hard working and reasonably lucky you'll do quite well. But you retire around 40 years old and you need another career for 25 years! Hope that helps.

It is a little tricky when you're based somewhere that has limited options. I think us London-based folk forget how lucky we are!

Hi Becky, welcome to one of the most annoying issues about open class! Often the studio is small and the teacher will try to get as many people in as possible so that they can cover costs and make a bit of money at the same time - fair enough. But when that happens it means people are squished. I would recommend actually going right to the front. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but there's a lot of space at the front there, people generally hang back a good 10 feet. You say that you're timid so this might prove difficult for you but try it for an exercise that you're really comfortable with. Don't forget that if you're just marking the exercise at the back you're really not getting what you've paid for...... Which studio were you in?

Last term that one was incredibly popular, we had Alex Campbell (Royal Ballet) teaching tap, Mara Galeazzi (ex RB principal) teaching stage craft among others......

Hi Tulip, You are more than welcome to try one of the classes to see whether they suit you (level-wise). Then if you're keen on staying we ask for a terms classes to be booked. As we are all adults we understand that things come up so we allow a couple of classes to be unbooked and unpaid for. For example you might like the Monday class but you're doing something on two of the Mondays during term so you book and pay for 10 out of 12. The weekend and daily courses are book able on an ad hoc basis. Henry

Afternoon all. I've posted in another topic but I thought I was taking over so I thought I'd start my own! We've just entered our second term of providing adult ballet classes and courses in London. We currently have the following available: Elementary - Intermediate Ballet: Monday 19:30-21:00 at English National Ballet School taught by Laura Carter (Royal Ballet soloist) (£10) Intermediate - Advanced Ballet: Wednesday 19:30-21:00 at English National Ballet School taught by Deirdre Chapman (ex Royal Ballet Soloist) (£10) Ladies day: full day of ladies repertoire, solos, ballet class, preparation for pointe and pointe work at ISTD studios, Old Street. (taught by Royal Ballet dancers) (£67.50) Dance weekend: two full days of ballet, contemporary, tap, jazz and stagecraft taught by Royal Ballet dancers held at ISTD studios or Laban centre in Greenwhich (£135) Pas de Deux weekend: two full days studying pas de deux technique and a pas de deux from the classical repertoire. Taught by Henry St Clair (ex Royal Ballet & ENB) at ISTD studios or Laban centre. (£135) please contact me for more info henry.stclair@crystalballet.com Thanks!

Hi Michelle, in reply to your questions: we'll be slightly reorganising Act 2 so that we get an entrance of the Swans with an appearance by Rothbart (that may change!), Swan waltz which leads as you say quite nicely into the PDD. Our Pilates class will be floor and resistance band based and all equipment will be provided. The studio at Zinc doesn't have barres and mirrors but we'll be providing barres (no back of chairs!) but probably not mirrors. I don't find them helpful as they help to mask what the cast know and don't know. This is sometimes only revealed at the final demonstration and I want to avoid that.... we'll only role the seating out half way so theres plenty of space to dance in. We certainly won't split into groups as we want the "performance" to flow as a the full ballet would. The residential block is 24 beds and we're offering 20 rooms to guests with 4 taken by teachers and staff. However, I already have word from a couple of people that they're keen to share so I think we could accommodate 25. So far we have 14 people signed up with a 70/30 split in favour of female. Making or sourcing costume is often a cause of great stress and doesn't add enough to the final demonstration to make me think its worthwhile. I'm more interested in the colours as that will give the illusion of consistency and clarity in the difference between Acts 1 and 2. You're right, cost is all important! The total cost including four nights full board stay and all tuition is £650.

Thank you "Picturesinthefirelight", a full call is exactly that. For example over a week you may rehearse "the parents dance", "the party children", "doll solos", "battle". But at some point you'll have to do a Nutcracker Act 1 Full Call. In answer to your questions Michelle, Swan Lake is very long with lots of sections and would be very difficult to learn with adults over 4 days so I've chosen a few major parts to concentrate on. The order will go something like this: Act 1 * Entrance of peasants. * Pas de Trois * Prince and Queen mime * Grand Waltz * Prince solo * Polonaise into exit Act 2 * Swans & Von Rothbart * Prince and White Swan Grand Pas de Deux * Cygnets (ankle-crackers!) As you've pointed out there is a lot more that we could do but I don't want to ask of much of everyone over a short time period. In summer we'll do a more concerted intensive for 9 days that will culminate in two shows at a theatre. In that course we'll do a more extended interpretation. We're not concentrating on costumes this time. For our purposes that will be the least important aspect of the "production". I'll ask that everyone wears black for Act 1 and white for Act 2. The residential block that we'll be staying in is owned by Zinc Arts in Ongar where we'll be rehearsing etc. it's a 24 bed facility that offers 4 start hotel style accommodation with laundry and all meals on site. No need to leave! I don't want to take this whole thread up with just our course though (maybe I'll start another one!). Feel free to email me on henry.stclair@crystalballet.com for more info on anything that we're offering.

Afternoon all, Sorry I left my early message hanging, I posted then promptly went to Spain for Christmas! In answer to your question Michelle, we have the following available: Monday class taught by Laura Carter at ENBS Wednesday class taught by Deirdre Chapman at ENBS Ladies day 11 january Mens day 10 january Dance weekend 31 January, 1 February Pas De Deux weekend 21&22 March Then from 2-6 April a fully residential Easter Course in Ongar, Essex. The program follows roughly the following lines but of course this plan is subject to change depending on the daily needs! Friday 3rd April The fun begins! 10:15 - 11:45 Pilates into ballet class 12:00 - 13:00 Act 1 waltz men only. 12:00 - 13:00 Act 2 Swans planning women only. 13:15 - 14:00 Act 1 queen and prince mime. 13:15 - 14:00 Act 2 Swans women only. 14:00 - 15:00 Lunch 15:00 - 16:30 Act 1 full call planning all concerned. 16:45 - 18:00 Act 2 full call planning all concerned. 18:30 a well earned dinner! Optional evening activity: theatre converts to a cinema and we watch Swan Lake. Saturday 4th April 10:15 - 11:45 Pilates into ballet class 12:00 - 13:00 Act 1 waltz ladies only 12:00 - 13:00 pas de trois planning 13:15 - 14:00 pas de trois full out 13:15 - 14:00 Von Rothbart planning 14:00 - 15:00 lunch 15:00 - 16:30 Act 1 full call 16:30 - 18:00 Act 2 full call 18:30 dinner Free evening! Sunday 5th April 10:15 - 11:45 Pilates into ballet class 12:00 - 13:00 Act 1 Waltz full call men and women 12:00 - 13:00 Von Rothbart planning 13:00 - 14:00 Act 1 Waltz into Pas de trois 14:00 - 15:00 lunch 15:00 - 16:30 Act 1 full call 16:30 - 18:00 Act 2 full call 18:30 Easter Dinner! Monday 6th April 10:15 - 11:45 Pilates into ballet class 12:00 - 12:45 Act 1 Waltz into pas de trois into queen and prince mime 12:45 - 13:30 Act 2 pas de deux 13:30 - 14:00 Act 2 swans 14:00 - 15:00 lunch 15:00 - 16:00 Acts 1&2 talk through and final touches 16:30 - 17:30 final showcase! 17:45 Champagne!! 18:30/19:00 transport to Epping station. Hopefully that's not an information overload but whets some appetites. Our aim is to provide some adult ballet experiences without having professional dancers guest and get the plum roles.....

Michelle, thank you for setting up this topic. We're a film company predominantly but we branched out into adult ballet classes in September of this year. We've done one term and we're setting up the spring term at the moment. If anyone is interested in doing adult ballet class (and I guess by the topic of this thread people are!) then please go to www.crystalballet.com where we've got some info about how the past term progressed and what we're doing from January. We basically offer two classes per week and three weekend courses per term. The weekend courses offer men and ladies repertoire days, "dance" weekend featuring Pilates, tap, contemporary and stage craft and a very popular adult Pas De Deux weekend. I look forward to seeing loads more people this coming term!