Michelle_Richer

Yes Lin that Taverner piece we danced to is nice, but for me is no where as moving as Gabriel Oboe that we danced in our last Alive Ballet Company show, that was a real emotional piece and really beautiful. To be honest I use that as a cool-down with my Glen Ballet group at the end of our session.

Interesting comments comparing Yoga Pilates to ballet. Although I don’t do them specifically, but a mix of those with various fitness and body conditioning classes.

The Less Mills Body Balance class I attend states it is based on a combination of Ti Che, Yoga and Pilates, however I do have a habit of balletfy them a bit, if there is such a word, the movement and coordination with the music in a dance like interpretation.

Another type fitness class I find quite rewarding is called “Progressing Ballet Technique”, it works well with music. I was first introduced to this as a taster at our last Body Conditioning class last term at RAD Associates at Elmhurst.

Just by chance I found a local class that teaches Progressing Ballet Technique when looking for another studio to hire, the basis of most of the exercises I have done uses the large 80cm ball. Here is an example follow the link

Toreador capes have arrived from Spain and it only Thursday, guys are just going to love this piece.

Well after the sadness of loosing Tom at ENB, well not quite yet, we have until the 19th, end of ENB’s term. I have no dought we will meet up for a final drink after class. Although he wont be a regular teacher for ENB any more, he did say he would on accessions he would be back to provide cover if needed. Unfortunately there are several dancers like myself who are not renewing our bookings with ENB.

For me at least, Ive decided to put the extra time and effort that this has freed up in to developing my Glen Ballet Group.

The  rest of the week has been brilliant:

firstly  I guess in the wake of not going to ENB each week, I thought I may loose track of a casual acquaintance, a smart gentleman that play the Titanic Theme on the harp in the pedestrian underpass from South Kensington Tube station on my way to ENB which is close to the Royal Albert Hall. He was there this week, so I stopped for my usual chat and this time we exchanged contact details as I really really want that music when he finally records it, for me it’s the best I have ever heard, so beautiful and moving, I just have to choreograph some ballet to it. The following day I received his request on Facebook, he also has his own website. Some of you may know of him, he was an accountant that gave it all up to follow his passion as a musician, he has on CD out already, but not the music he plays in the underpass. Apparently it is taken from the original piano music that the Titanic theme was developed from, it always gives me goose bumps when I hear it, it was just meant to be.

Secondly: I managed to get my extra half hour prime-time booking on Friday evenings for Glen Ballet at the studio we hire.

Thirdly: I collected my Russian visa from the visa centre without any hitch, for my trip with the Alive Ballet Company.

Fourthly: I managed to book flights today for our trip to Saint Petersburg in November.

Fifth: Icing on the cake, I’ve also managed to book tickets to see Kirov perform Giselle at the Mariinsky Theatre.

So at least for the moment I have a big smile on my face, I’m just hoping to finish the week off on a high when my Toreador capes come in from Spain before Friday, this is when my Glen Ballet guys starting their new piece from Don Q.

Hi Linda
Thanks for the info on Nina, that one I will bare in mind. I see Rambert have a level 2 class, I spoke to a lady there, and she said it was advanced but I’m not convinced. I see Crystal have an Intermediate class on a Mondays with an advanced on Wednesdays, but you need their approval to move up to advanced, needless to say several of those I dance with in the ENB Advanced class are doing Crystals advanced too. I even checked out Northern Ballet at Leeds, as I had it in my head their Intermediate/ advanced class was on Thursdays which I have done before, which if push came to shove I could accommodate. It turns out its on Tuesdays so that’s a non starter with the Alive Ballet rehearsals.

I will have a chat with Tom tomorrow but I’m not very hopeful.
 
As for other advanced classes at ENB, they are really a non-starters, again Tuesday is out with rehearsals. Wednesdays is also out, lets say conflicts of interest and leave it at that.

Classes for the new term at ENB on Mondays are as follows:
1) Improvers, 7pm – 8.15pm
2) Intermediate, 7pm – 8.15pm with Lisa Probert
3) Absolute Beginners, 8.20pm – 9.35pm
4) Contemporary, 8.20pm – 9.35pm with New Movement Collective.
 
 
Hi Kate_N
Thank you for the info. The class with Adam Pudney certainly sounds interesting; timing could be somewhat difficult as Mondays start off very early for me with rising at 4am, then on the road at 5am to take Adrian back to his flat by 5.30am so he can start work at 6am. Its just after 6am when I return home. I leave home for my first class about 9.15am for 10am start to 11am, then one-to-one rep 11am to 12am and back home again by 1pm for a change and quick bite to eat. I usually leave home again at 2.30pm (tight timing) for Peterborough Station arriving a little after 3pm for the 3,29 train to King Cross, that arrives about 4.30. That give me enough time for a quick chat on the phone with Adrian, then tube to South Kensington for a coffee and quick snack at the RAH coffee shop before first class at ENB at 7pm, although I generally get to ENB just after 6pm in case a studio is available.

Although 4pm in London is just about doable if I don’t stop for drink/snack, I really am running with no contingency and wouldn’t want to do that in the long term. Never the less curiosity my get the better of my and I may try him anyway.

As for Central, its doable time wise, as the last class I leave at ENB is 9.35pm with train out of Kings Cross at 11.01pm, then home just before 1am. However I must say of what I have seen of Central it I’m not impressed, building wise that is.

As I’ve still got 3 weeks to with ENB I’m not making any quick decisions, I may not change my remaining schedule significantly until after Christmas, I need to think it out carefully.  In any case the money I am saving on Mondays will allow my to add in another one-to-one session each week, but at the moment I think I would rather put that effort into my own rep group Glen Ballet, especially as I have two more dancers joining us this week, that really does take up a lot of time.

Oh sorry Susan, you are quite right, the emails were from Sausan Cameron.

I was really looking forward to this full weeks break from ballet, well almost, I did do 6 sessions down my local hall on prep for next years rep.
However the week has certainly had its ups and downs.

Bank holiday Monday Adrian and I took the bikes out for the first time together this year, we cycled for about 10 miles stopped at a pub on the way and had an ice cream too, naughty but nice, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day, loved it. What could go wrong, well it did. When we got back I had this bright idea of taking one of the boat down the river on this gorgeous afternoon, only problem I couldn’t start the outboard engine as it had been stood for a long time. Adrian bless him is a non swimmer, so I sent to the garage to get a life jacket; he came back with it but laid it down on the landing stage. He decided the problem may be the boat needed balancing by adding his weight to the front; he tried to step on to it, not the centre line but the side. Needless to say the boat tipped over throwing me out and him into the water with no lifejacket. When he hit the water he was only a meter or two from the landing stage but the river shelve off quite rapidly to about 12feet deep with soft mud. He almost immediately went below the surface, all I could think about, I must get him and get his head above water. I don’t know how, but I located him in the murk and got him to the surface, it took a second or two to get his mouth above water as I had him on his back, what did surprise me he didn’t appear to struggle with me as I was expecting. Even more surprising was I have had no life saving training what so ever, and yet everything seem to go just right, I guess someone up there was looking after us. When I got him on dry land he was badly shaken and his legs badly bruised too, I was fine. Well until bed time, then I kept thinking, how will I tell his mum and his brother and sister how he died, it was my fault, I only got a couple of hours sleep that night.

Tuesday the high of the day was presenting my application to the Russian Visa Centre and it going through like a breeze when I had anticipated lots of errors. At least I would be home early. Wrong, I boarded the Edinburgh train with first stop at my station at Peterborough just before it was due to go out, then an announcement to say, “the east coast main line is close at Grantham as some power lines were down”, some passengers bound for Scotland were offered other routes via the west coast, I remained on that train for about an hour but it was clear it was going to take some considerable time. Eventually I jumped ship and went via Northern but it was after 4pm (end of off-peak time) , although my off-peak ticket was inspected, they didn’t query it. I stood nearly all the way back and I was extremely tired with so little sleep, so another horrible day.

Wednesday, definitely no ballet, but never the less was somewhat devastating. I got the priority booking email through for next terms English National Ballet classes. First my teacher Tom Linecar Bolton is no longer teaching next term, also the advance class and the advanced pro classes have been replaced by other classes for Mondays, however the Intermediate class is still running. Tom has been the best teacher I have ever had, always so full of enthusiasm and eager to help, I will really miss him.

Its just not worthwhile travelling to London for the remaining Intermediate class as the others are either basic beginners or contemporary ballet. It just feels awful having to leave, almost like mourning a loss as I’ve been there for 3 or 4 years now, it’s almost like home and very familiar.

I’m really undecided as to where I go next, but I guess I’m going to have to move my days around that I can, but it will still impact on other classes that I take.

Sorry if it’s a bit of a moan.


 

Hi Susan

Welcome to the forum.

We did exchange a few emails towards the end of last year, I was the one that visits Ballet West as I know you pass through Taynuilt to visit your in-laws, I was there again only a couple of weeks ago doing rep with the wonderful Gillian.

What pieces are you guys working on this season?

This week I have a full weeks break from ballet and time to take stock of where we are going. However last week was lighter than normal as a couple of classes had started their summer break earlier.

The week before was the event I had been waiting for all year, my annual visit to Ballet West in Scotland. Which is effectively a weeks Intensive on my own repertoire created from some of the classics. This year Adrian my boyfriend and dance partner came along too as we were dancing the Le Corsaire PDD. I was a little worried as weather Adrian could cope with the coaching from our teacher “Gillian”, principal of Ballet West. She was extremely understanding, and simplified his entrance, as I had set it a little too challenging for him. Although he had helpful corrections he also got complements too and became quite relaxed in doing the PDD with me.

I know when I had a couple of mishaps, Adrian was in the right place at the right time and we were able to recover and finish the piece on time to the music, just as if nothing had happened. For Adrians lack of Ballet training I found that really impressive. The PDD was only performed on the first and last day of our visit so as not to aggravate his recovering shoulder injury.

The rest of the week I spent on my three solo’s, on balance it was probably not such a good idea to take three solo’s containing grand allegro as it is quite tiring and has a significant risk of injury; however this time I managed to escape that.

Although part of the final day was spent on the polished our PDD, we did have time to look at a couple of next year’s pieces and associated difficulties:

Firstly the Black Swan PDD and its first pirouette’s, as I wanted to keep that as close to Kirov version as I could as I positively don’t like the style of the RB version of pirouette. We tried a few options out, suitable for demi-point but that’s still in the melting pot.

Secondly we tried various combinations to fit in with the music of Arnold Schoenberg for our version of solo for Sapphire.

That week passed incredibly fast and it was extremely heart wrenching to say goodbye, but never the less we have a plan in place for next year which is likely to be far more challenging that this year.

This weekend Adrian and I had a really nice social meeting with the rest of our Glen Ballet group, that was to look at our next piece of rep going forward. I took a number of options on video-clip, but it was unanimously agreed to work on a short Don Quixote PDD, mainly because it keeps the guys fully occupied and besides they will really enjoy behaving as toreadors with their cape part of the dance. The group would also like to increase the length of the session too, to at least 90minutes for a full half hour of barre warm-up. I’m hoping studios may be available from the school we are using to cover this requirement but it is at prime time, even if we have to split between two studios.

It's sad for me too, tomorrow is our last day with the wonderful Gillian at Ballet West. One of the pieces we did today was Gamzatti,s solo from La Bayadere.

Brilliant first day at Ballet West with our PDD today, some minor corrections before our final run on Friday. Adrian bless him has a day off tomorrow while I'm doing solo's, but we are both in tomorrow night for a body conditioning class with the locals, hopefully some we met last year.

Thanks Lin, but I guess middle of the day is not ideal for either day as we could be preforming ourselves at the Congress, don't we have some cultural visit on the Saturday

Unfortunately I don't have access to any of that project info while I'm away this week at Ballet West.

Lin, what day and where are the students of vaganova performing that week?

Things are really starting to get exciting, it’s Ballet West for me all next week.

I’ve ran through my solo’s for the last time today and I feel quite comfy with them, although I know I will get them corrected and enhanced at Ballet West. Just the PDD to go through tomorrow for the last time, I do hope Adrian is on form, we have a little tidying to do there but its minor.

Its been another mixed week with different teachers to keep us on our toes, ENB had the lovely Lisa Probert (Ex ENB Soloist) who I haven’t danced with since we ceased LAB rehearsals last year, some on here may have met her in LAB workshops and Intensives. She covered both of my ENB classes Monday night and it was quite fun.

Tuesday was the last of our 4 Dance Alive master classes, for that we had Amanda De Oliveira a former  American Ballet Theatre dancer as our teacher, she used new music too. There was one piece that caught my ear while we were doing centre practice, it was a tango, I thought I had recognised it, as I had danced to it in the past from an enchainment from one of David Howard DVD’s. It turns out she had done some training with David Howard. What a small world, At least I did get to chat with here over Balanchine's missing jewel (Sapphire), she was really nice, I hope we see her again.

The rest of the week has been a bit problematic, trying to understand and sort out the Russia Visa requirement for our trip to Saint Petersburg in November, just waiting for one doc now, then I think we have everything ready for visiting the Visa Centre in London to have my finger prints taken as biometric identification data.

Although I’m short of classes and studio space during the summer break, I am still able to do some classes every day of the week (Monday to Friday). ENB was really good last night, our regular teacher Tom is on Holiday in the Caribbean for a couple of weeks, and we had ENB’s James Streeter for both my intermediate and advance classes. I loved it, but he isn’t sure if he will be with us next week or not, I really do hope he is.

ENB have some taster classes coming up on the 18th of August.

These are one-off sessions where you can sample ENB Adult Classes programme, including ballet for Absolute Beginners, Improvers to Intermediate as well as BalletFit, before enrolling in the Autumn Term (3 Oct – 21 Dec 2016).

Follow the link  http://www.ballet.org.uk/classes/taster-classes/

Things are going to feel a bit strange for the next month as several of my classes will be on Summer break, ENB, and the Alive Ballet Company are still running, together with one of my local smaller classes.

Not only that but I have had to make some significant changes to my weekly schedule, mainly due to availability of studio space. However in the search for alternative studio space I came across a Ballet school near where my boyfriend lives that does Progressing Ballet Technique. Although no studios for hire, I did manage to try their last 3 Progressing Ballet Technique classes before the summer break. The last session I had with RAD’s Adult Associates at Elmhurst gave us an introduction to this by one of their body conditioning teachers, whilst its quite fun its also quite challenging, especially the routines using the large 80cm balls.

On the bright side its only 2 weeks to go before my one-2-one weeks Intensive at Ballet West in Scotland. I know I shouldn’t be considering making changes to the pieces we are taking up there this year, however I came across a beautiful piece of music for my Gamzatti variation from La Bayadere / Le Corsaire, although I thought it was slightly slower, on checking it , it is the same, but it does have quite a distinct rhyme in the background that sounds a little bit like a cha cha, for me that really brings out the musicality in the dance. I particularly like the travelling turn section of the single pose, double pose, chaine, chaine, repeated twice, they seem to just glide through on the music, its just beautiful. My original music has a more strict tempo. However the new piece has an awful beginning that cannot properly be anticipated, it almost as if the orchestra is taking its queue from the dancer as she does her introductory port de bras/ change of weight and hits 5th with left hand on the first strike of the orchestra. Although I can get quite close, I really don’t feel comfortable with it, so I have reluctantly reverted to my original. In its port de bras from standard prep, it has a raising right arm with the music (almost gliding), the music halts momentarily, that signals an immediate change of weight, and arms through first to left high , the arrival of the left high should co-inside with the next strike of the orchestra, open palm punctuates it. That works well for me, so on balance I’m sticking reluctantly to the original

Hi Katharina

Thank you so much for your suggestions, that has been really helpful.

I really like the idea that the area could be Vienna. I looked at "Variation for Orchestra OP 31" and most of the variations but unfortunately non are to my taste. However I did find in “11 Waltzes for String Orchestra” No 7 Kraftig, it a really lively piece, very nice and I do like it, but sadly the end is not well punctuated for dance.

Although I listened to a lot of Schonberg’s work, but needless to say, I did listen to several of Strauss’s Vienese waltzes too, and they would do very well, but with those I must confess I am drawn in the direction of Strauss’s Polkas.

Oh what interesting responses, firstly as stated this is inspired by, which means it is not exactly the same, but similar, so should avoid copy right issues. As for the names of each gem stone, I have used that in the context what I like or in other words what inspires me. Minor renaming of those sections is obviously no problem.

As for “Sapphire” as it appears to the best of my knowledge at the moment nothing has been created for it, I know I could literally use anything, such as “WAG THE DOG, HE LOVES TO TANGO”, but sorry that just isn’t me. That’s why my original question about “Sapphire”, was to establish some form of authenticity to work from.

I think it’s also worth pointing out this is not a commercial venture; also any supporting documentation  I create should carry the words “Inspire by” as I think morally I have an obligation to give credit to George Balanchine for that inspiration..

To be fair giving credit by using the "inspired by" term is not uncommon.

Not a good start to the week now all the rehearsals are over for a while.

Monday: I was looking forward to getting back to my ENB classes as I have missed four in trying to preserve my legs through lots of additional Sunday rehearsals . I got on the train at Peterborough as usual, firstly the train stopped at Hitchin then 3 other trains joined us stacked side by side. Then it was announced that there had been a fire in a signal box at Kings Cross and it had to be evacuated, late came an announcement to say the signal box was in operation again and we would soon be departing, the other trains did, then we slowly crawled out of the station and came to a halt again, this time there was something wrong with the train , another announcement “ A Thunderbirds Locomotive was coming out to rescue us, well it never came, later we crawled to Stevenage station where the train withdrew from service and we had to catch another one in. A 50minute journey took over three and a half hours. Needless to say I missed the first class but managed to do the second.

Tuesday; normally our rehearsal day except now our show is over, we have a series of four 2 hour master classes with guest teachers arranged for us. Our first was at the Place Nr Kings Cross, it was really hot that day, my car indicated 35.5 ºC on the way in, the studio was very hot too, but never the less I still enjoyed it. I even learnt a new step, a Russian pas de chat also know as a grand pas de chat, that was fun, some of our dancers preferred to stay with a standard pas de chat. At the end we had a nice stretching session, I was fine until we were sat down with our legs apart in second, and I came to drop down on to my elbows as I can when I’m warmed up, I could feel the tightness in my right leg since my last injury, so I didn’t push it, then I felt something give, that was not a nice feeling and I instantly released the stretch. At the moment other than the presents of the pull I don’t think its done any lasting damage, at least I hope not.

When I got back to Kings Cross for home, there were still quite a lot of disruption in the train service, my train had been cancelled, Grrr

Wednesday; My first class is a Fitness class, at just after 8am I got a telephone call from my instructor there to say no classes as the centre is closed. There had been a shooting on Tuesday and three were killed . I guess the Fitness centre at Spalding is now a crime scene.

On the bright side Adrian my boyfriend made his debut by performing our Le Corsaire PDD with me in front of my Glen Ballet group, apart from one little slip of the hands in a promenade it went really well for him. Our Glen ballet group congratulating him on his performance, I think that has done wonders for his confidence, especially as we are taking this PDD up to Ballet West for polishing in a few weeks time.

For those that were enquiring about the LAB Summer Intensive,  I spoke with Tom (LAB Artistic Director)  last night as promised, he confirmed that this will not be going ahead this year.

The ROH website describes JEWELS as:

Each of the three movements draws on a different stone for its inspiration and a different composer for its sound. The French Romantic music of Fauré provides the impetus for the lyricism of ‘Emeralds’. The fire of ‘Rubies’ comes from Stravinsky and the jazz-age energy of New York. Grandeur and elegance complete the ballet in ‘Diamonds’, with the splendour of Imperial Russia and Tchaikovsky’s opulent Third Symphony. Each section salutes a different era in classical ballet’s history as well as a distinct period in Balanchine’s own life. Through it all, Balanchine displays his genius for combining music with visionary choreography.

Its my intention to create my own version, as I said inspired by Jewels, ideally as a solo for all  four piece. These wont actually be required in earnest until next year, but may be part of the rep I take up to Ballet West for polishing, having said that I already have the costumes for these pieces.

I already have my rep for Ballet West this August, but I do like to plan ahead.

These are my thoughts:

For Emeralds I do like the female solo to the Sicilian.

Rubies, I really don’t like it, as it is, however I will still try and retain a shortened version of the music and the fire and energy of the dance, but I fancy I will loose the jazz/ contemporary style  and turn it to more classical allegro, but nothing is cast in concrete yet.

Diamond: I really do love the opening waltz, although I do find it quite repetitive and boring after a while and will make a good candidate for shortening into a solo.

Sapphire: well there is the question, what era/ area should it represent and indeed what music. I guess English or Scottish may be an idea.

Do any of our members here know a little bit about George Balanchine’s original creation of the Ballet “Jewels” as I would like to create something inspired Jewels but including the long lost “Sapphire”, which I understand was his intention together with pearls, but I don’t know how far that evolved.

Sapphire was to be a fourth act of Jewels using the music of Arnold Schoenberg, does anyone have any idea what that music was or what city Sapphire was supposed to represent?

I did ask Lisa and got a very simple reply “Tom organises LAB stuff”, so nothing given away there. I will see Tom on Monday the 18th, as I’m with Ballet Cymru this coming Monday, so I will ask Tom when I see him, but I strongly suspect LinMM is right, it may well not happen.

Here is another London Adult Ballet Intensive run by Kim Amundsen, one time one of my LAB Teachers.

Dear dance friends I'm doing a Dance Summer Intensive at The Place for two days on the 23rd and 24th of July. Live music with amazing Simone Sistarelli. 60min Barre a Terre ,60min neon classic ballet class and 2 hours Choreographic workshop. I would appreciate if you could share this message around to other dance friends so as many as possible get the chance to join. Many thanks in advance. Kim Amundsen xxx

#balletdancer #dancer #Fitness #BarreaTerre #balletclass #contemorarydance #jazzdancer #amateurs #Intermediate #recovery #corestrenght #maledancer #femaledancer #professional #strength #ballet #neoclassicalballet #floorbarre

https://www.facebook.com/events/910715679075109/?ti=cl

I see Karen of KNT Danceworks is also putting on another Summer Intensive on Giselle, this time in Liverpool on 29th to 31st July.

I was asked to post this on the forum as I am one of the Alive Ballet Company dancers, however I have no commercial interest in the company, I hope that's ok, as I think this is a wonderful opportunity for an amateur dancer.

ALIVE BALLET COMPANY and ALIVE CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY are looking for new dancers (Adult amateur) to join next term. We will be rehearsing from September with shows in November in St Petersburg, Russia and December in London. Trial session will take place in August. Please get in touch for more information. info@dancealive.london.