NJH

TBR is worth it theres 3 reasons why TBR costs what it costs staffing ratio ( especially Leeds) although London is often less generously staffed than Leeds normally there's at least 3 members of team TBR present all day ( although i am aware of one London where it was just David and the pianist - as Georgina was on maty leave and none of the Leeds based people were available ) (Leeds usually 4 or 5 members of the team H + DPK , plus a selection of Gav / Kev / Nic G / Giuliano / Antoinette - although this January saw a DPK less retreat due to him being unwell - and two guest teachers for company class Pippa Moore on Saturday and Simon Kidd on Sunday ) you have a pro standard Pianist all day every day - ( 'company class' , rep relevant class, and rep - only falling back to recordings if the rep sessions split into boys and girls ) the overall package (food and drinks , plus the management processes)

as @Kate_N says in their reply immediately above , class with a good teacher at a modest level has it's own benefits, especially if the teacher knows you. I have known dancers be shocked both ways when attending class described as 'intermediate' , with those who have danced places which call a class ' intermediate ', that others might call an Improvers / Improvers + / Elementary class, and then have taken an Intermediate class by London / Awarding body standards ( quick paced barre with brief explanations lots of change of weight / inside leg / long combinations and forward - revrse and changed sides forward and reverse all just donewas one ), pointe normalised even if not expected/ required, multiple turns normalised, centre combinations described rather than demonstrated ... ) amnd equially the converse situation where someone goes to an 'intermediate' class and recieves a rather more basic class than one would expect in an Inter Class at say Danceworks / Pineapple /Central nights ...

that's the default path on Samsung devices (i'm a complete samsung fangirl had S2, S4, S6 and S9 - which has just updated itself this morning to Android 10 and 'one UI 2.0 ' - my mum, siblings and gf have samsungs ...

unless there is a particular reason not to show straps etc; a medium or high support sports bra ...

post Beeching the majorityof Lincon's train services to civilisation went to weither Nottingham or Sheffield , there was one early morning to London and one evening train back from London ( via Newark and the east coast mainline) , although thes was cut in the days of GNER ... it was brought back and then east midlands trains replaced a Lincoln -nottingham train in the morning with a train that ran Lincoln - castle - Nottigham and then down the midland main line Virgin east coast got mainline slots for 4 or 5 trains Lincoln to KX but didn't have the trains to do it - so started this trains under the wires at Newark as they had carriages to do it and could provide or hire in an electric loco to haul it - when the Azuma trains arrived they could start those trains from Lincoln - running on diesel into Newark NG, then connecting to the wires and running to Lonodon on electricity

LNER's increased service levels came in with the Azuma ( some of which can run on both diesel and from the wires - trains to lincoln needing to be the ones with that ability as the wires stop at Newark ) trains , with 5 trains each way from October 2019 ( the existing HST early morning to london and back to lincoln at 1906 off KGX + 4 Azuma operated services, the winter timetable saw another daytime train and weekend direct trains added ) https://www.visitlincoln.com/blog/new-lincoln-london-direct-azuma-trains-announced-by-lner as they ( virgin EC > LNER) didn't have the HST (intercity 125) availability to offer more services before the new Azuma stock came - they had mainline slots and started trains from Newark using Electric locos but that still meant a EMT/EMR train to Newark from lincoln and a trek across from Castle to NG there's still the one slightly circuitously routed service each way on EMR as well which goes via Nottingham and the Midland main line to St Pancras each morning

So Danca does seem to suit the tall, broad shouldered larger dancer @sophie_rebecca wrote a piece for her blog a while ago https://sophiedancer.co.uk/2016/12/09/adult-attire/ and there's also this post https://www.agirlreconstructed.com/2019/01/adult-ballet-attire-for-none-typical.html on agirlreconstructed.com which references Sophie's posting

so the 'promised' train I caught from Lincoln Central last Thursday was a myth ? a 'side effect' of this is the reinstatement of direct services Lincoln- Grantham

Danceworks it depends whose class you are taking i did Denzil Bailey's wednesday morning 'Inter' class a couple of weeks ago and there seemed to be plenty of pros in there given the pre-class chatter about who was doing the fixed term gigs with ENB for the in the round ( and Denzil did say he turned the class up to 11 ) fun one forthe side eye, crowd when Denzil greeted me warmly as he came in ..

lincoln is doing pretty well rail wise lately ... still a 2.5 to 3 hour trip to get to leeds by rail though

there simply isn't the number of Jobbing pro dancers / triple threat folx in 'Yorkshire' to support it ( plus also for the Leeds / Bradford crowd it's not that far / long to pop across to KNT ), i've no insight into the books of DW or Pineapple, but observation suggests that even Inter and General classes are populated with a significant number of performing arts pros ... I also think that both pineapple and DW make a far amount of money from studios being used for auditions / castings etc ... we have the situation in the Midlands and the North that there are patches of very good provision but it's still no where near the volumes that London is able to sustain especially at or above Intermediate / General Level

I would agree with assessment of Hannah's Central class

Northern does not have an 'Advanced' public class and their Intermediate if i recall correcrtly is not necessarily what what would expect from Inter in London or at KNT (Northern's public classes do not allow pointe work AT ALL - this appears to be a lay management decision as i have taken pointe class in the building under the aegis of another provider and have been taught pointe classes by AoNB teachers at other venues when not teaching on behalf of AoNB ) https://northernballet.com/academy/training-programmes/open-classes/adult-courses

KNT in Manchester in well regarded , Karen certainly seems to have no problems in getting really good guest teachers - as well as being a damn good teacher herself - KNT's class descriptions do match those that if you are used to taking classes Danceworks /pineapple /Central you'll be familiar with the levels Hype in Sheffield has good Ballet and Contemporary classes for adults on a Monday ( my only gripe is that the classes are only an hour - but i am egualr and do pointe , InterBallet and 'Beginner' Contemporary on a regualt basis ) while Northern Ballet does have public classes which are bookable PAYG their offer is somewhat limited and I don't know how capitalised the I is on their Intermediate offering , especially if you are used to what. there are other good teachers and schools in West Yorks, however i'm not sure about PAYG options

exactly this if i were to wish to learn a solo for my own purposes, ( e.g. to perform as a solo in a show or to take to a competition that allows adult amateurs to compete ) i would be studying and practicing in my own time and working with a teacher / pro i knew and trusted to get it nailed and not relying on any rep workshops or retreats ( unless and until TBR ' a ballet in a week' happens - which has been mooted as an idea for H to explore given the number of award winning choreographers in 'tTam TBR') ... i suppose i maight draw inspiration from having done a piece at one of these sorts of events , but equally that same inspiration could come from seeing the piece performed by someone else live or on video ...

there's is Also @sophie_rebecca 's adult ballet map, which is generated from actual referrals as such https://sophiedancer.co.uk/adult-ballet-uk/

there are loads of full company classes on youtube and on companies' own websites usually from world Ballet day ... e.g. https://northernballet.com/digitaldance/films/live/company-class this is from Dec 2018 which explains why Hannah was on presenter duties rather than taking class ...

zinc oxide tape is great , although it sees mto have fallen out of favour and use in recent years hydrocolloid dressings are fabulous for blisters, especially those which have deroofed themselves ... the 'first aid' advice is never pop blisters, the reality may be somewhat different - but rememberign that popping or de-roofing/ debriding a blister is opening a portal for infections .

'Attack' can be about commitment to performing a particular step or phrase ... consider a simple pique arabesque if you will ... if you give it what many teachers and directors call attack you'll hit the 'picture moment ' ( which seems to be an RBS phrase ) and then you'll 'suspend' seemingly defying gravity ( especially if en pointe' ) , which gives a different quality to that you might get if the same step was performed with 'less attack' and the picture moment still happening but not with that 'suspend' or 'freeze' It is interesting that Derman is mentioned - as even in the 1970s choreographers like Macmillan were playing with extremes ( see Derman and Sleep in Elite syncopations for example ) - my understanding is that of the fairies generally lilace and Vine would be the taller more 'line' orientated dancers due to the variations vs petit allegro specialists dancing Canary ...

the cakeologist's cakes are fabulous and close to home for the Northern Ballet Family ...

Gav is a fabulous teacher when he teaches adults , i have no doubt he's equally as fab as a teacher for young people

DPK's 'teaching persona' is a bit of an act - the cap goes on ... It very interesting if you ever get to be in a class he is taking as a student ( it's happened to me - at Dancewroks - AIUI David was going to be providing holiday cover for the classes regualr teacher so took the class a few times toget calibrated to it;s feel ) still david , still a beautiful dancer but perhaps more the real him ...

this is very good advice , i'm not London based although i have managed to get to class with Hannah Frost a couple of times, one definite advantage to Hannah's Friday class at Central is that it tends to have sensible numbers in it rather than the 30-40 (or more) DPK tends to get in his 'Absoute beginners' on a thursday at Central ... Hannah seems to have a galaxy brain for people and faces ( and their dancing)

Mr Nixon has a particular type of female dancer he likes ...

"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. " yes, this is what a ballet class consists of - class is for learning and centre work is an integral part of class, this is where you start to dance , as you progress then you can bring the 'dance' back to the barre ... barre exercises are not robotic drills - others have suggested setting aside some time to watch some of the world ballet day coverage of company classes and when you do you'll notice that the barre phase of class is still 'danced' ... take a plie at the barre for the absolute beginner it's about turn out and weight placement - getting up and down without falling over or sticking your bum out , for the not an absolute beginner its about fluidity of that movement , for the improver to Intermediate ( or above) dancer it's all that plus dancing the exercise , the hands, the arms (arms and hands together being ' port de bras' ) the eyes / head , the neck plus throwing in rises/ releves , a turn to take the exercise straight round to the other side ... centre exercises are teaching points , I feel Messers Dunning and Kruger may be at play here, while some of the sports science stuff may be a little lacking combined with some over analysis , which is common in adult beginners and part of why teaching adults any thing is different to teaching kids. centre exercises can be like that - you need to take ownership of your own learning and ask those questions but those questions repeat and re-occur every time you start doing something new... it will take weeks , months or even years to master certain steps or techniques plenty of guys who teach, and they teach both men and women both 'male' and 'female' technique ... there aren't huge differences in techniques a few little tweaks here and there e.g what the 'english' styles tend to call 'classical pose' a masc presenting dancer 's legs with be slightly different - (the working leg is straighter and placed slightly differently to accomodate that) ... there is nothing that somewhere in the repetoire isn't done by both masculine and feminine presenting dancers - although if you take the purely classical works it may appear that there are some things which are guys only and some things which are girls only ...