York UK beginner

Hmm, thought I did. Maybe it 'fell off' when someone decided it didn't belong under "... general discussions" but, rather, "doing dance"? But could be mistaken. Thanks for reminding me about the reminders!

Probably not of huge interest to most, of course, but thought I'd close this off, in the short to medium term at least, by saying I've gone for the regular, conventional, sort of class rather than anything one-to-one etc. It seems its important to pick venue and classmates as well as type of class per se, and to tell you truth I've gone for the same teacher/class (Patricia Veale School of Dance, York) as when I briefly dabbled a year or more ago but this time, as I say, different people and building. Only been twice but looking forward to making it regular.

Just seen the replies, I thought this site generated email alerts. Anyhow, yes, looking back I see it was ambiguous. Died late 1980s or early 1990s.

Probably a thread for admins. here to delete in due course if draws a blank over a couple of weeks but I was just curious if a lady called Merle Ayres was known or more properly remembered (she died very late 80s or very early 90s, I forget the precise year) by anyone here? It might be she was 'nobody' in particular but, having lived next door to her in the 80s through to her death I was aware that she would fly off all over the world examinging ballet including eg. Argentina so it ocurred to me, albeit only now, that of course you don't get to do that ... as opposed to assessing primary school girls in a local village hall ... if you're not of some standing or expertise? Did I unwittingly live next door to someone famous?? RAD drew a blank, by the way, understandably through time ... and less understandably citing GDPR guff.

Having started to watch this on iPlayer following a recent broadcast on BBC4, as I recall, and been mesmerised at first, turning to confusion, boredom and 'not quite my thing' induced dissatisfaction, might I please ask more learned dancers and viewers, here, please: How - if possible to categorise - would you class this style of ballet? I obviously speak as a novice, very wet behind the ears beginner, but I'm principally curious or concerned - as to 'not quite my thingness' - about the to my mind very intrusive blending of what I'd term modern/street dance into ballet. It all seemed rather too much freeform expression rather than the crisper, age-old, elegant true ballet as a layman might think of it. Is that, therefore, a particular style of ballet, or just the way its heading in modern times? I think my confusion arose from not being primed with a purchased theatre programme or some other online synopsis such that I quickly got lost as to the characters and story. I think my boredom arose from, to my mind, the characters doing largely the same moves throughout ... just in different costumes. I read a book once which said ballet conveys either a mood, emotion or interprets music. No mention of conveying a 'story', in that book at least. It seems perhaps a story should present itself in the minds of the audience based on the underlying mood, emotion and music. For my naive untrained eye and ear I thought Victoria was too monotone (save for aforesaid costume changes) to give a sufficiently varied platform for any story to unfold. But I'll give it another go after reading some plot summaries above!

Two or three mentions of private lessons here, but I'm not really seeing any adverts or invitations for such in my Googling. Fact is, it seems to me, most ballet classes are taught by people who slot it in as a kind of labour of love after work or childcare, in hired facilities which makes you wonder if they even break even so them doing all that for just one person seems unlikely to me. So I don't know ... are private lessons best found by some kind of as yet undiscovered directory of such people??

Yes. Looked, albeit only online, at NB and as I recall session times + Leeds parking hassles & costs meant I continued my increasingly aimless internet searching! Have emailed 'Balletic', 'Yorkshire Ballet Institute' and also something called 'Adult Ballet Leeds' as three of my current optmistic enquiries.

Hello, a very late starter here, not even an adult 'returner', and about to turn 48, but I am coming at this from having spent many years as a keen adult recreational ice dancer albeit that was more ballroom-on-ice I suppose ... and the secret about ice skating is you just kinda stand there half the time whilst the ice moves underneath you, but don't tell anyone. Have attended four different adult classes - albeit sadly very briefly for one reason or another, mostly just either life getting in the way or the class being above my beginner level - in Peterborough/Cambridge/York but though one or two of those classes I would be half-interested in returning to, I feel what I'm truly looking for has yet to be found despite hours if not even months trawling the internet. It seems to me classes all follow the same format of exercises at the barre, then a move to the centre of the floor where little routines are done, and then off you all go home till the following week. The barre exercises I quite like, but the floor elements are just plain depressingly frustrating because they're so intricate and fast like a magician's slight of hand so, unless you somehow just instictively already know how to do it all, you're just left feeling like you're wasting your time and there's no point carrying on. Like you're left behind, it all started without you and nobody is going to tell you where you need go to learn what you need as a prerequisite for the class you're currently in. What I'm still hoping to find, to the point that it's elusiveness is making it an obsession to prove it must must surely be out there somewhere (and on top of that be within a 30 minute drive on a Monday or Wednesday daytime ...!!) is a class where there is some kind of structured tuition/course/programme to really focus on the basics and where all the centre floor routines are completely off the menu for some months or even a year or two until all the names and mechanics and the stretches and the stamina and everything of the 'ingredients' are second nature and done to a reasonable standard and you THEN have something to build up from. Any ideas please? In the unlikely event somone knows of something in the York / Leeds / Harrogate areas so much the better! Are there male ballet teachers, out of interest? Not fussed either way, but so much is of course women orientated it might be handy to know things from a male dancer's perspective.

Sounds a rather rare, formal, sort of class if they impose a 'uniform'. The only adult class I've seen (and indeed enjoyed first hand as my first venture into all this, yet sadly only for a few weeks before it became impractical to attend) that imposed a uniform was The Russian Ballet School in Cambridge, which was great for all the long established well known reasons of sense of belonging, focus and seriousness, raised the bar, so to speak, of what was expected of you. All very proper, it was. Yeah, I guess men can wear black tights to any old adult class, but with the norm being people just turning up in a spare t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms or the like, they'd feel pretty silly especially as a beginner you don't really earn the right to look the part on day one. Or at least that's how I feel abou it. Which is shame and a missed opportunity, all for want of a little bravery of the teacher to impose a uniform for adults just as they do for children. Where is your class, out of interest?