BeaverElliot

Can this annoucement link be moved by a mod to the (proper) thread critiquing (and slightly bemoaning) how some schools are seeking international students perhaps possibly to the detriment of local children’s chances, where institutions are receiving state or public funding. Ballet at its upper most top level is transnational. Now with more youth competitions, the children’s ranks are also becoming increasingly transnational and global too, compared to, say, a generation or two previously? Also thanks to Youtube and other digital communications impacts. www.royalballetschool.org.uk/train/dancer-training/intensive-courses/japan-intensive/

Correction: I misused the word preponderance which I now see means 51% or more (i.e. a majority). I mistakenly believed that it meant an inclination or tendency towards or pre-disposition for some phenomenon of the other. Sorry for the foul up. My point was simply that despite the not rare participation and involvement of non-hetero humans, ballet outwardly for the most part tends to celebrate male-female split as a fixed duality. I guess it is what some in the audience crave. I cant see the point of asserting that males are better than females therefore. So the interviewee’s assertions might have been presented out of context. We just dont knoe at this point.

I was being facetious and agree with you 100%; so it was contrived simplicity on my part, yes. This thread is touching upon gender expression in classical dance. So maleness (however that is defined, presented and performed / executed / delivered / perceived / received) as in ‘men are ascendent’ (the thesis of interviewee according to the article author). Today we better understand that effeminancy can be performative or not (gender expressive), and is not directly correlated to gender identity and expression or to sexual preference. So the long held stereotypes, simplifications, and myths and misconceptions are gradually being debunked and dismantled. Billy Elliot (the plot and the characters) did some of this myth busting so it is now a part of our popular culture (thank goodness). Ballet has begun to dabble in androgynous works, and maybe even non-binary choreography, particularly in modern ballet. I have yet to hear of transgender ballet, but I there’s a lesbian queer company in the USA with a website. The traditional men vs women binary that is inherent to ballet is so limited and limiting I think, male vs female variations, roles snd expectations by audiences.

You have a point in that the concept of homosexuality only emerged relatively recently, in the last century or so. So there are no gay danseurs, teachers or choreographers in Russia. Alright. Stands to reason.

From what I can tell, until relatively recently (i.e., so, going back to since C Medici and Louis Quartorze) gender expression and presentation, manners and customs in ballet have always tended towards an almost stylized binary, hetero duality, with a few notable, more recent exceptions (e.g. Troks, MB’s Male Swans) and older Mother Ginger role in Nut; and despite the preponderance of (openly and otherwise) gay men both on and off stage... with some danseurs presenting more femininely while others less so and more stereotypically masculine projecting. To me, Billy Elliot (the movie) followed by the eponymous hit musical challenged and made short shrift of those age old, tedious, formulaic and (to me at least) tiresome clichés. The question for me then is: the best of >what?< in ballet, are male dance artists supposedly in the ascendency, according to the quoted interviewee’s estimation and perspective. Perhaps the interviewer-reporter could have done a more thorough job by qualifying the spoken account and digging into the underlying evidence base beneath the assertions of relative superiority claimed. Unless of course the piece was intentionally trying to be provocative, cheeky and sensational.

Red Shoes, that is an interesting account and sounds practical.

This all sounds very correct, proper and... byzantine. Can you imagine training doctors, pilots, paramedics and IT specialists using word-of-mouth in 2020? I got to visit the R.A.D. in Battersea last month. Their planned new digs look great!

These explanations have all been quite helpful and insightful. There seems to be a consensus of understanding of the accepted stream of development. What I find intriguing (maddening?) is that the RAD provides no parent-friendly guidance and so one has to either have a good teacher who is knowledgable in these matters (are they taught the streaming when they become RAD certificated teachers?), OR know knowledgable RAD ballet dance moms / post on a public forum in order to be able to learn the unwritten secrets of the trade. Why does it have to be such a mystery?! No, how should it work for Cecchetti?(!)

Hi there ballet forum friends in London. I’ve not yet tired of life and have been here 3 days. Philipp Bolloev’s 3:30 pm class for men on Saturday (plus a 12-y.o. boy who was throwing away triples, naturally gifted) at Danceworks by Selfridges was terrific!!! Encore! More! Plus! We did a couple of cool male variations in the 60 minutes as there was no barre to speak of, just quick warm ups at the barre and centre. Looking to next try out > Central Nights > Ballet For You (mens class). > Friday Night Ballet Bite (of Ballet4Life) But I cannot make it to May’s Aspire SI as much as I would like to 😞 as I’ll be heading to Vienna to audition for a super role with the ABT (SwnLk) (That would be Vienna Virginia USA near Arlington just west of Wshntn DC.) If I’m successful then there’d be 3 performances @ Wolf Trap National Arts Cntr which is an outdoor amphitheatre sort of set up,

I think to generalize... do this, do that, don’t do such and such, less is more etc. might not be the best approach to assume since anxiety and its responses can be / are known to be so individualistic and situation-dependent. What might work well for one individual might not be so effective for another, right? And as young people become more experienced and grow and learn, so to do their responses and strategies evolve with growing maturity and youthful wisdom. Having said this, I’m all for providing enabling tools (a tool kit) and with facilitating insights and self-realizations and awareness, as well as giving support tailored to the child/adolescent. The piece about elite athletes is one tool: having and sticking to one’s own, personalized ritual. For that way, it doesn’t really matter what others are doing (as part of their own (formal or informal) preparatory, pre-‘performance’ rituals.). Isolating sound and sight (ear buds) is a recognized technique for intentionally getting INTO one’s preferred positive mental zone, as opposed to trying to figure out ways fight or combat away from negative vibes and avoiding anxious thoughts. These are two different techniques, one a pull, the other a push. Some stress, psychologists call eustress, is desirable in fact as it can enhance performance, There is a lot of research and understanding about the tools for taking jitters in stride, combatting negative self talk and internal voices and negative thoughts. There’s also techniques for countering and lessening the negative impacts on performance when one does flub momentarily yet has to get back up on the horse so to speak and to carry on right through to the end of the performance. Figure skaters fall in their routines be learn how to ‘recover’ when the stakes (medals) are high. The age and experience of the OP’s DS weren’t clear or obvious. But an adolescent obviously is in a different space than a younger performer. Since performance is exceedingly stressful by nature, it’s probably beneficial for intentional stress handling education to be integrated part and parcel with technical development, just like gymnastics and weight training are cross training and beneficial to danseur development. It can only get even more stressful with increasing advancement. Nutrition and hydration education is another piece of the puzzle. (Not news, this.)

I just learned the difference between cliques and claques; thanks! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claque

Perhaps, hmmmmm... why Yes! >> SPARTACUS << would be more in keeping with his outlook, actually right up ‘is alley so to speak, R.S. being in charge of prisoners et al ?(!) 😉

Great topic to post! Any tips for taking a class as an english/french but non-russian speaking ballet class taker? (In Paris, you never take a ‘ballet class’, you take a ‘danse classique’ class. What is the equivalent in Russian (in roman not cyrillic alphabets) does anybody know?) #Balletourism

Parents should (learn to) be highly suspect of questionable ‘selection’ methods and processes, yes?(!), what is a legitimate audition or not. It’s market economics (free enterprise transactions) you’re noticing at play: parents make demands on behalf of their kids; people (of varying ethics) oblige them and satisfy their needs by supplying the desired experience.(Where does fairness have to come into any of it?) Someone so-called seeking a professional career will injure themselves young; not a smart strategy. Maybe (hopefully) this gymnastification takeover you claim is taking place will be a passing fad. If paediatric or sports medicine practitioners identify an uptrend in dance injuries, then eventually studies will be made and recommendations implemented towards education and banning injurious practices, is another course that could ensue if the rising social costs (medical care) justify eliminating preventable injury. Or I suppose an injured dancer could sue their studio.

This ABT health program... https://www.abt.org/training/teacher-training/national-training-curr/the-healthy-dancer/ has a book that can be ordered online... https://www.abt.org/explore/shop/#buyhealthydancer In both cases (RBS, ABT) a significant investment was committed to improving health and wellness outcomes for young dancers. The knowledge and expertise exists, but it isn’t distributed broadly (thus an information campaign is necessitated). There have been many books published about wellness for dancers, that are mainly geared to adults; but a few exist for juveniles too.

... which is why I suggested that an educational campaign might be worth looking into, glissade. For if not the parents looking out for the interests of their kids, then whom? This program applies to students. https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/train/dancer-training/healthy-dancer-programme/ An information program for DPs could be conceived.

I recently came across the RB’s program offering; would love to hear what people’s first hand impressions and experiences have been like from attending same... for how long has the program been offered; what level of dancers turn out (pun intended!); likes and dislikes, pros and cons, benefits, worthwhile? Would you recommend attending (why / why not)? (I did search to try to locate any earlier related threads but came up empty handed. Pls refer or redirect me to any relevant posts, thank you long time forumers!) http://london.eventful.com/events/dance-royal-ballet-/E0-001-117224417-4@2019050314

Anecdotal ‘evidence’ seems to suggest that acro tricks are on the rise, as is the frequency of hyperextension imagery. So we’re seeing and hearing about this a lot more lately, whatever this fad implies. Children being impressionable, adults (parents and teachers) need to be well informed and guide wisely, as with many aspects of online culture and physical training. Dance training and competing are not really regulated or policed for safety per se, whereas for youth sports training and competing, safety standards do apply, so far as I am aware. There may well be best practices, leading practices and good practices for dance safety (along with practical common sense, which sometimes isn’t so common), but adoption and adherence to same are purely voluntary, with no sanctions for non compliance, aren’t they? Are competitions generally business, profit-making ventures? Some people are receiving pay to organize them? Is it now time to consider instituting specific safety regulations for juvenile training and competition beyond what already occurs (e.g. RAD)? Establishing evidence-based standards; certifying and licensing teachers with mandatory safety education; auditing and whistle blowing? Financing the overhead (by all dance parent consumers) to cover the costs of administering such a scheme? Should dance parents be advocating for such reforms because of all the perceived harm, scattered, expressed concerns and any reported incidences? It’s the dance parents’ responsibility to be well informed consumers of education and recreation services for their DD/DS. Perhaps an educational campaign would be helpful. The more responsible parents would make the effort (or are already doing so) while the less responsible ones would continue to make poor decisions affecting their children. It’s the group of ‘undecideds’ in the ‘middle’ who might be persuaded to choose more wisely than not.

Reading the article, it seems that the judgement handed down was less about whether actions were ‘acceptable’ or otherwise; and more about whether suspension rather than termination was the more appropriate remedy for non acceptable texting.

Agreed that hypermobility is an uncommon trait (which has always been the case.) But who, exactly, are we saying is ‘encouraging’ unsafe practices to occur? Can we say who is driving up ‘untold damage’? Isn’t it up to adults to guide youngsters, and responsibly? Don’t parents and teachers monitor young dancers? When more crimes are being REPORTED more often (instead of going unreported) so that the number of reported crimes appears to be higher, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the RATE of crimes being committed is actually going up. It could just mean that we’re hearing about the phenomena more than before (i.e. the prevalence of our awareness has expanded). So there can be a fallacy of reasoning. With more people dancing today than ever before and also using social media, it’s inevitable that we will see more things being presented than in the past. It may well be that safety is in fact RISING as more awareness of the potential for injury becomes common knowledge in the dance community. Who is to say? Without study and analysis it is conjecture and speculation. Do we have any actual evidence that certain types of images appearing more often is directly causing (or is even correlated to) higher frequencies of unsafe activity to take place? Is there any way to substantiate the expressed concern that the occurrence of certain imagery is indeed leading to (or is necessarily bound to lead to) a degradation of the art form? Does art imitate or reflect life; or does life imitate or reflect art?

Assuming that the studio is fine with more vibrant and less conservative hues and tones, it’s pretty easy to dye white dancewear a great many colours. It is pretty easy to sew leggings using a vast selection of colourful and patterned stretchy fabrics. (Youtube provides instruction on stretch sewing.) Patterns are pretty straight forward. B, N and G colours are stocked for reasons others don’t share. https://boysdancetoo.com/collections/mens-dancewear/products/microfiber-tight-with-mesh-insert-mens?variant=12561294458958 have a bit of colour choice for older dancers in some products but not for younger ones. Yumiko lets you choose from many colours I believe (custom order, not just the shown black). https://www.yumiko.com/us_en/men.html And ready to wear https://www.yumiko.com/us_en/men/ready-to-wear.html?colorfilter=14

Kids in sports and ballet, to go beyond recreation, nowadays have to start younger, train for longer, sacrifice more, and expend more resources than ever before in order to reach the upper echelon. They all need willing, supporting adults behind them, some of whom earn their livelihoods by catering to the market demand, in order to attain the highest levels. Facility has always been a critical factor in ballet success. Medical evidence gathered a generation from now will tell us whether fostering hypermobility was rational or not.

I think that practices in society can change and evolve over time, and technology will always be a significant enabling factor. At one time, nobody danced on point (abnormal or unconventional range of motion, hyperextension, new strength... relative to conventional thinking). Eventually point work was adopted as an aesthetic ideal (a social construct). Human performance limits vary over time. Poses concocted and contrived for a photoshoot are not the same as dancing. Still shots of a move or performance are merely isolated moments in time, so are not the same as dancing either. Fortunately video is equally as widely available. Poses have been painted and, with the invention of photography, documented for more than a century. I don’t see the point of blaming technological advancements. Soon we will have virtual reality and other cyber supplements to human experience that will surely have an impact on all art forms, not just ballet. Training and education in ballet must move with the times because digital imaging and social media are here to stay. New technology is introduced regularly; (the cost falls, see Moore’s Law). Teachers (and parents) play a critical role for helping ballet students to understand visual representation media in ballet appropriately, what it is and what it isn’t, what it means and what it doesn’t. How to interpret and judge. (Similarly, we teach our young how to be discriminating, savvy and discerning when reading written material.) Whether teachers and other influencers and mediators take up the responsibility for addressing this newly emergent necessity, a kind of literacy and capacity to judge correctly, remains to be seen. Instead of cursing the incoming, crashing tide (insidious technology is ruining ballet), maybe we could learn to ride a surfboard? Consumerism and free enterprise we are also stuck with (aka technology-enabled business models). It’s also about who has the power and control over our kids’ media.

Hearty thanks to all of you who have shared your thoughts! Having started late, my ballet pursuits are at the intermediate level. Several beginner pas2 classes I’ve found to be quite do-able. Because adult amateur ballet classes are largely female in participation, it’s extremely rare to be exposed to male technique, notwithstanding that the classic fundamentals are not gender differentiated in this very binary field. Consequently, cross training and self training (with the help of videos) are a couple of ways guys must resort to for developing their skills outside of attending conservatories and academies for the vocationally-focused. (Another type of training sought (that should have been included in my initial post) is balletic mime, i.e. gestures, body language, non-verbal communication / acting.) So while conventional adult drop-in classes are the norm, they’re not sufficient for learning the wider range of male role skills; supplemental learning is needed. There’s a rare drop-in class for pas2 that I’ve been able to find (in NYC, at Ballet Arts). For stage swordplay, I’ve taken some martial duelling / fencing training. Point work also is something I’ve exposed myself to in order to better understand the full gamut of classical dance. There’s some great suggestions offered; much appreciated!

As I will be heading over to the UK from America, I am curious to research about any places in greater London that... 1) run male technique classes for amateur adults 2) offer pas de deux training sessions 3) have good selections of dance wear for adult males (not online)