Michelle_Richer

Hi Poeny I'm extremely reluctant to approach my GP or at least the one that gets allocated to me, I think he’s likely to regard my foot problem as self inflicted and I shouldn’t be wearing pointe shoes, there's no love lost between us. Its a thought if nothing else help to follow the path of a sample scraping for analysis via a medical podiatrist Its certainly something bear in mind. Hi DVDFan Your remarks makes a lot of sense as the two creams I’ve tried haven't been very effective, I had considered wearing sandles but with the wet winter weather it was a bit of a non starter. At least I can wear them around the house as I am doing now. Both with the Dakrarin and Canesten, I used to use socks that were 80% cotton but not the towelling type. Hi Anna C The antifungal powder / spray is certainly an idea I'm now checking out as I do have some Daktarin AKTIV spray powder that I have been using in my pointe shoes between sessions and also in the toe protectors to help prevent spreading the infection. As for do my pointe shoes have time to dry out between the two pointe classes, most probably as one is in morning and the other at 7.30pm that evening which is on-line. However that is an over simplification as the prep for my 7.30pm evening class is usually at least a couple of hours including running through the video of the previous weeks class, if at all possible I try and give my feet a 15 to 20 minute break with the pointe shoes off, just before the class. To be fair I have never found the shoes to be wet inside, but the toe protectors are. Hi LinMM Thanks for your observation of Daktarin powder too, as that's what I’m trying next, however I do have some Lamasil spray in my collection , but its very much a liquid. Thank you everyone for your remarks, they are well appreciated and given me alternative avenues to follow x.

At least some sense of normality is returning to my ballet plans and activities, I am back with Adrian my partner showcasing our rep again this year. At least I have had the opportunity to come up with what I believe is a realistic plan. Originally we were planning on wrapping two years work together based on pieces from the Ballet Le Corsaire and La Bayadere. As one of my prime objectives is to dance at least one piece en pointe, we have decided to limit the rep to Le Corsaire and the piece we have chosen to showcase en pointe is Pas de Esclave, the solos will remain in ballet flats as usual. To that end I have allocated an hour one-to-one of pointe work a week with only half an hour to the rep itself as we covered most of the rep last year, so theoretically it only needs refreshing. I guess in a way that is an over simplification of what we are trying to achieve en pointe, as I have already given my teacher the pointe work info for my Cecchetti Advanced 2 syllabus and as its not worlds away from what we are already doing, we will incorporate it into my training where appropriate. One of the changes I had to make in my studio to support pointe work is to incorporate a longer portable barre, as my 1.5m barre isn't long enough for some of the travelling barre combinations. In reality I have removed the 3m barre from the wall and fitted 3 portable supports, that is also more useful to the lady that come for a 2 hour elementary ballet session with me each week. The only real issues with my pointe work is the niggles of ingrowing toe nails, keeping them trimmed. Also an ongoing issue with athletes foot, or so I am told. That only effect the space between my pinky toe and the one next to it. A few months ago I had a medi pedi (Medical Pedicure), the lady that did it had trained as a dancer including ballet in her younger days and confirmed it was athletes foot and recommended I carry on treating it. I have for many months been treating it several times a day with Canesten between and around the toes the effected toes without any real degree of success (the skin between them is white). I have since switched to Daktarin Intensiv cream but no noticeable improvement yet. Over Christmas I deliberately refrained from doing any pointe work for 3 weeks, and yes that foot was pain free for a week or so and gradually came back. I have tried doing a 4 day break, but that is not enough to have any meaningful effect. The strange thing is as both of my pointe classes fall on the same day, after I have had my hour of one-to-one in the morning, later that evening a have a further half an hour on-line class. By the time that class comes round with a little bit of pre-class warmup, my little toe on the right foot becomes extremely sore and I sometimes think it might be better to skip that class occasionally, but as the numbers attending are low I would feel I was letting everyone down. However what is strange my right foot seams in some way to improve, perhaps its just numb, but I'm always able to complete the class with the feet at the end feeling better than when I started. Well that lasts until I take the pointe shoes off, and for a short while that toe hurts like hell. My dilemma is as I really want to be able work en pointe for up to 3 hours a day for around 6 days a week without too much discomfort. As at the moment the level of discomfort is not helping my confidence in doing the things I need to do like a series of Pose turns en-pointe, I know I have the capability to do them easily, but when the pain/discomfort is present in my right pivoting foot, psychologically my body wants to protect itself from possible injury and just wont let it GRRR. On the one hand I can increase the training to build up calluses and possibly reduce the discomfort in the long run or I guess go through different pointe shoes again, but my initial pointe shoe fitting was fine, it was my right foot that changed. If anyone has any ideas that may help I would be extremely grateful. Stopping pointe is not an option I'm already at least 18 months in and I know now if I stop, the mountain will be too high to climb to get back where I am now.

Hi MariaDance Firstly what are your needs and why do you think you need your home studio ? For me it was relatively strait forward, I was hiring around 10 studio hours a weeks associated with my own repertoire and rehearsal practice, all on top of the classes I was attending. Hiring was very costly, but more importantly availability was often a problem. Basically I needed sufficient floor space to run through the majority of my rep, my decision to design and build my own studio was taken several years before COVID. The floor-space was limited by the UK building regulations, after a chat with a nice gentleman in the local planning department my best option was to limit the floor space to no more than 30 Sqm, above that far more restriction apply as well as the need to inspect every stage of the build. Although at first my intention was to exceed it just a little but I had a length restriction because of my proximity to a river. The whole process from conception to the building completed was between 3 and 4 years. At that time we had never planned for on-line working so majority of that development took place after the beginning of the COVID pandemic. As a dance studio I have 30sqm of Harlequin Sprung floor, most of two sides have full length mirrors, a 3 metre and a 1.5m portable barre. 3 large Screen displays , Stereo audio system with 2 mixing desks, 4 laptops, 8 cameras including a tracking camera to follow the dancer, various mics, DVD player and video recorder, center overhead studio lighting and lighting both sides of the studio for wings, all remotely controlled. And of course we have full air conditioning too. We have since build a cabin outside to house the studios fitness equipment when its not in use. Just to finish things off, I have a ballerina statue just outside the entrance door. Hope that helps Michelle x

First full week back after COVID at least I’ve been able to do both of my pointe classes to dispense the fear of losing strength during classes missed. When I started to recover from the doldrums of COVID, I started to look at various styles of PDD promenades. Last Sunday Adrian started up his ballet sessions with me, our centre work was to try out various promenades with me en pointe, to be fair it was quite disappointing, particularly the single hand led promenades. Essentially Adrian hand was extremely floppy and I couldn’t adjust my centre of balance against it, then we tried the beginning promenade from the Grand Pas d Deux of the Nutcracker, that went like a dream and I could see Adrian's eye light up with success. We had at least one we could do without much trouble. Following that I started to look at PDDs from the two ballets Adrian and I are showcasing from, which is La Bayadere and Le Corsaire. I am really inspired by Bolshoi's Pas de Esclave from Le Corsaire, as most of the promenades are either two handed or uses support from the guys body, another unknown for me is the difference in dancing the normal traditional ballet movement which I am used to in ballet slippers, now with my pointe shoes. I guess one of the biggest difficulties to deal with is fear and self belief. Last week whilst in my own studio, I tried pose turns, I managed to get 3 off successfully before loosing my nerve. One of the biggest issues is the fear of sliding off pointe, I know when I'm doing pointe at the studio in Lincoln even at the barre I have to use rosin, as the floor is extremely slippery to pointe shoes. My own studio is less so, but at this weeks on-line class at the barre I had at least 2 minor slipps, thankfully without injury. Needless to say yesterday on my way back from pointe class at Lincoln, I called at the Starlite Direct store in Sleaford and bought some rosin for my own studio. The plan at the moment is to focus on,only doing one PDD en pointe as a mainly training exercise, with the others still in normal ballet slippers, which I believe is achievable. I know its not going to be easy, if it was I probably wouldn't be doing it, but both me and Adrian still have a lot to learn and experience on this road, and with the help of our lovely teacher and coach who has agreed to provide the necessary building blocks to help us on our way, I shall be eternally grateful.

Hi Angela You must just about be in the clear now and getting ready to resume your classes I guess to some extent I have the advantage of having my own studio, but to be fair my head-space as been elsewhere and ballet far from my mind. However I’m at day 3 and as my Adrian said things start to get better at day 3. At least I have lost the tightness of my chest and I can freely cough to clear the rubbish from my lungs and of course I feel more better in my self, so much so the pointe shoes will be back on tomorrow. If I feel up to it I will run through the video recording of last Thursdays on-line pointe class which of course I missed. I'm just hoping at the very latest I get my two negative responses by Day 7, Adrian is waiting for his second negative response in his Day 8 tomorrow. Hi Linda I love your comment “One of these days when Adrian comes south for a footie match you could come with him and we could meet up for a meal and a catch up. “ Adrian had already been check the rail route from Peterborough to Brighton and I did mention going with him for shopping and a possible catch up with you, so great minds think alike. However he is waiting to see what happens about televising the match, as that determines when the match starts which has an effect on our rail journey times. Date of the Brighton v Liverpool match is the 12th of March, so not very far away.

Hi Linda This is what the Track and Trace app states under “Testing and Self-isolation advice has changed” “If you have tested positive for COVID-19, you can end self-isolation after 5 full days, provided you get a negative rapid lateral flow test on day 5 and day 6 and you do not have a high temperature.” “If either test is positive , it is important to continue to self-isolate until you get 2 negative rapid lateral flow test a day apart, or you have completed 10full days of self isolation.” It doesn't qualify the 10 days any further, however it would seam logical to apply from para 1 “and you do not have a high temperature.”, to mean you no longer have any symptoms. However my own observation of myself and Adrian is that we really didn’t clearly display any symptoms. Neither of us had a high temperature as we checked for this several times. There didn’t appear to be any loss of taste or smell As for continuous couch, in pre day 0 and to some extent on day 0, I had a bit of a sore and irritable throat which I was trying clear by making a noise in my throat and of course swallowing and the occasional cough. I certainly wouldn't have described it as a continuous couch. Later during Day 1, although I wanted to couch to clear my lungs, it was too painful to do so. Day 2 Although things are still quite painful, the urge to cough seams somewhat diminished. My conclusion is that we haven't had any proper symptoms all the way through, the only common denominator with both of us, it went strait to our lungs and we were both very tied and lethargic. Adrian at the moment is at day 6, although he thought at 15 mins he was clear, by 30mins the “T” line was barely detectable, so he is still positive, but only just. Its also worth mentioning that there are two types of kits, the procedures are a little different between them, one does nose and throat with a longish swab, the other does just the nose with a shorter swab, but the processing procedures and timing are a little different. While I was in my hair salon last Wednesday I heard 2 ladies chatting with the stylist saying that they had both gone for 16 days before they got negative responses, I wasn't part of that conversation but my assumption was it was quite recent. I love your comment “Perhaps you can book a nice treat for yourselves when you’ve recovered” would you believe we have had to cancel 3 booking between us for last week. Adrian had booked to see Liverpool v Arsenal at the Emirates stadium, unfortunately he couldn’t get a refund for the ticket of around £100, although he did recover his train fair. I had booked for us both to see a show locally on Saturday evening, that has been credited, I had also booked to go with one of my friends on Sunday to see Ballet In Cinema Bolshoi Jewels, again that was refunded.

Just when I though things were going to get interesting with my pointe work. Last Sunday was supposed to be the beginning when Adrian and I started work on our PDD’s for our summer showcase, normally it would be something from the ballet we had chosen to study, for this year its La Bayadere. However I have chosen a different approach, to try out different PDD routines en pointe and just see what looks feasible in developing. My rep coach who is also one of my pointe-work teachers is also helping me with this by proving the building block so to speak to achieve this objective. The work with my point teacher was to start this week. Then BOOM Adrian was a little off colour Saturday, but by Sunday when we intended to experiment with a few ideas, he was quite poorly, he said to me he thought is may be COVID and needless to say we ran a Lateral Flow Test on him and sure enough it was positive, from that point everything changed as he went into self isolation. I tested and I was still negative, according to the rules I didn’t need to self isolate, however I felt I needed to isolate the best I could from Adrian so from that point we maintained social distancing and both wore masks were we were in the same room together other than for meals so we increased our distance apart. To be fair wearing a mask for very long period started to dig into my ear and became very painful. Once we had the positive response, we had to photograph the test result which in turn produced a code for the Track and Trace app on the phone, later we had a phone call from the track and trace people asking us to go back 7 days with names where possible, but address with postcodes complete with contact telephone numbers, that takes a lot head scratching to recall all that detail. For me it was about all the people I was likely to see during the week to come, I cancelled my Monday Pilates as every one there is unmasked, and with the cold weather ventilation may be an issue, the risk seamed to high. Everyone else I explained I wasn't required to isolate but I would keep them updated with my Lateral Flow Test result, every one was happy to continue subject to the result for that day being negative. By the end of Wednesday I was beginning to feel very tired, but I had been doing several hours of pointe practice in my studio, so that wasn't out of the ordinary, I also detected what felt like the beginnings of a saw throat, but again that wasn't unusual for me, so I took some Strepsils. Thursday I was up early as that was the day of my pointe classes, before I had any food or drink I took a Lateral Flow Test, for a start we thought I was clear, the valid processing period for the type of test we had was 15 to 30mins, at 15mins it looked clear however at 30mins the “T” line was barely visible but never the less there was something there. As a result I cancelled my classes for that day, however as intensity of the result was so vague, I thought it may have been wrongly interpreting it and it may have been a false positive, consequently I retook the test later in that day. This time the result was a clear positive although the intensity wasn't as high as the “C” line, therefore Thursday was my day 0 of self isolation, the only advantage I had if you can call it that, is Adrian and I no longer needed to wear a mask when we were in each others company. During the day I didn’t feel too bad other than an irritating throat but very tired. Day 1 (today) I first got up to go to the loo about 5am, initially I though I was much better until I tried to cough, and my whole ribcage just felt solid and hurt like hell. It seams that the congestion has loosened but I just cant get it up as its really painful, its just so annoying and debilitating. I finally got up around 8am, in my winter woollies to keep warm. After breakfast got a cushion and laid on the floor in front of the fire and half dozed, just punctuated with painful coughing, According to Adrian, things get better after day 3, Adrian at the moment is at day 5 but still positive, although the intensity of his red “T” line is somewhat diminished, we are hoping tomorrow will be his first negative response and hopefully Sunday is still negative so he can stop isolating. For the moment Adrian still has the couch but it doesn't trouble him. One of the rules I really don’t understand and are not comfortable with, if at day 10 your LFT result is still positive, you may now cease self isolation. Day 1 for me has been a really rough day as I'm trying to suppress the involuntary action of wanting to cough, as it really painful, just hoping that improves on day 2 and I can cough more freely to clear my lungs. I guess at the end of all this, it has the positive effect of increasing my antibodies for a while.

My pointe-work teacher had said she would have me in the centre by Christmas, initially I thought that target was quite ambitious . However as the end of term approached it seamed even more unlikely, mainly due to a flare up of athletes foot between my pinky toe and the toe next to it on the right foot, this was further aggravated with my new pointe shoes where I had gone for the hard shank version of my old shoes, mainly as the regular shanks weren't available at the time. The problem with the hard shank is, it occupies a little more space inside the shoe itself making it quite tight but only for the right foot. I did try swapping the shoes over, but I guess my right foot is slightly larger than my left. The week before my last week, things were so bad that I decided to do my pointe class in my Russian Rubins, they seams to be so much more comfortable, however the size of the block in contact with the floor seam to be smaller and both my teacher and I thought balance would be more difficult in the Rubins rather than the Blochs. Work facing the barre seamed similar and unremarkable, however working at right-angles to the barre with only one hand for support was really difficult, personally I felt I had lost a lot of strength, but I couldn’t explain it. My teacher also made the remark that the previous week I was an awful lot better. We were down to the last 5 minutes of class and I decided to see if I could squeeze my Bloch pointe shoes on, strangely enough they seamed to go on quite easily although the little toe was quite painful, single handed rises at right-angles to the barre was a breeze as was releve 5th . Then it dawned on me, The Bloch pointe shoes were partially broken in by exercising it them for several weeks, whilst the Rubins had rarely been warn. Grrrr I was really annoyed at my self as I had felt I had wasted that class. For the last week of term I partially rested the feet from point work for a couple of days prior to my class, in order to be able to work with the Bloch shoes even if they were somewhat uncomfortable. We did the usual barre both facing and at right-angles to it, then it was a case of my first exercise in the centre. This was a simple burree, at first I forgot everything I had been doing at the barre and was starting with a releve 5th until my teacher corrected me, needless to say I felt really stupid. Getting on to pointe wasn't a problem, that was quite easy, but coming down at the beginning was a bit like a crash landing, but that was soon fixed. Once it was mastered we added moving around and also adding Port de Bras to the exercise, I really loved it. We did try another routine containing a number of retires and a turning pique pas de buree, but by this time my right foot was extremely sore and it was end of class, so that routine was postponed for that week. The next day was my on-line pointe class, on my warm-up prior to the class it was obvious that my right foot would not be able to take it, so I postponed attending the class but still received the video recording to catch up. As we have had a two week Christmas break, I have utilized that time to treat and rest the affected foot, so I am ready to resume starting up again on pointe on Monday the 3rd Jan. I have also increased the shoe size for the right foot a half size bigger which seams more comfortable but only time will tell. Double Glazing Saga We finally got a couple of guy which knew what they were doing and installed both our Lounge French doors and the Dining room window as well as finishing off some of the work outstanding by the previous installers. However it still leaves our kitchen window to be done. At least we only have two rooms now cluttered up with furniture etc., my home gym and a small bedroom. Christmas this year was certainly memorable, not only from the double glazing saga but from a water leak too. The day before Christmas eve we had damp stains from a leak appear on our dining room sealing. At first we thought it was from our central heating system but later found it was a leaking seam in our hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard. Needless to say I had to drain it down and had no hot water over Christmas other than from the kettle or the shower, but needs must. We have a new cylinder on order for delivery 2nd week in January. Cant wait to get back to ballet in 2022 and get some mileage in the centre en pointe, as I soon want to develop PDD routines en pointe with Adrian my partner as soon as its practically possible.

I'm afraid I cant help you with recommendations for Adult Beginner Classes as my knowledge of those is not current. For me I started with a little local class in my village, but I guess the most significant for me was English National Ballet and RAD Adults Associates at Elmhurst, to be fair ENB was a stepping stone to get early access to the higher levels, as I was already a participant at beginner level I was in the system, so I would get access to priority booking before those outside of the system had access, but never the less I enjoyed the beginner classes there. RAD was somewhat different, initially I joined to only attend their Improvers 2 class ( equivalent to RAD grades 6 to 😎 and their Body Conditioning class. That meant I was hanging around for quite some time between the classes, so one of the admin ladies ask me if I would like to do the Improver 1 class and RAD would allow me to do the Absolute Beginner class for free. As that would help them to have more examples for the absolute beginners to follow, and of course I was happy to oblige. Needless to say I enjoyed that too. As for classes Pineapple, I have only ever done an Elementary class with someone called Maggie, and various other teachers when she has been away. That class was a fair bit up from beginner level, but it depends how ambitious you are and able to work outside your comfort zone. As for any tips, don’t be put off by others that are at a more advanced stage that you, be happy that your ballet is better today than it was yesterday, that real progress. When you start to move ahead, and see those that are just beginning, don’t resent them for holding the class back, but help them. It is especially helpful in the centre when you a doing a sequences in small groups, the last few to go through are often those stragglers that are struggling, do go with them so they can follow you, even if its your second time around. I often did this at ENB what ever the level. Above all listen to your body as you start gain confidence and push things. Remember ballet is not easy. Meetmeatthebarre I love you comment “I think what beginning "pointe work" means is vastly different between individuals.” For me I have two objectives: Firstly to be have the ability to dance PDD’s en pointe, particularly promenades and pirouettes as it not the same in ballet flats do to the amount of contact resistance. Secondly, I really want to complete the whole my Cecchetti Advance 2 syllabus “TEMPS DE POINTE” section, which of course is all pointe work. Finally although not planned, as I had no intention of dancing solo’s en pointe, as I'm happy to showcase them without. Practically I can see I will need to remain pointe-fit and to that end I can foresee the need to utilize my solo rep being done en pointe as a matter of necessity. LinMM If you find a good teacher they should be able to advise you when you are ready for pointe work. I'm not sure that applies in my case as most teacher would refuse to teach me pointe work, but non of them were displaying “Good Teacher” labels. However what I can say is that I have experienced teachers holding me back due to political correctness. A case in point was in doing pirouettes, I was doing double turns quite early at ENB, but my teacher stopped me, they had to be singles. I virtually lost the muscle memory of doubles and it took me along time to regain it through another teacher, A similar thing happened with cabrioles, we had two classes merge at ENB to become the advanced class, level 3 and level 4, I was in 3, level 3 had to do assembles and level 4 cabrioles in the same exercise, needless to say I did cabrioles and got told off. Some years earlier I had be doing cabrioles well enough to perform on stage . Update on the Double Glazing saga I note your comment “Sometimes it pays to shop around and get a few people in to view the job before you choose who gets the contract if you not in a hurry etc.” we did and the common theme running though most sales reps that called, would not actually give us a quotation unless we would place an actual order with them. The company we chose did provide the quotation, its a national company and manufacture too, its EYG, all looked good. The position at the moment is another installation team is coming out to us on Saturday the 18 of December, to be fair I have no confidence they will turn up which really leaves us in a real mess over the whole of the Christmas period, and especially as we originally planned the installation for mid October based on there 10week lead time. I guess you cant win them all.

Don't you just hate it when a wonderful week turns sourer . The week started off really well with my first pointe class, most of the exercises we had been doing facing the barre and been changed to sideways to the barre and supported by a single hand a few week ago. The week before we started doing Burree’s facing the barre, last week it was sideways to the barre, with this Thursdays class my teacher is taking me off the barre. Apart from the burrees I not sure what else she has in store for me, but I was over the moon with the thought of finally coming off the barre. That class was brought forward to a Tuesday as I needed to be at home on Thursday and Friday to give Double glassing fitters access to replace a number of our windows. Later in the afternoon following my pointe class was a session with one of my Physio guys doing hip release to help towards turnout and holding turnout on pointe, needless to say that coming along nicely. INCIDENT 1: It was dark as I was travelling home on the main A16 which was quite busy and I could see a blue flashing light in the distance behind me. It came up to the vehicle behind me which I think was a lorry, who flashed me to pull in, I see the entrance to a lay-by more or less as I was passing and made to turn in, unfortunately due to the glare of the on-coming lights I didn’t see the lay-by had a nasty concrete curb which I hit and damaged a Tyre, at least I was able to limp the last mile or so home. I had actually wrecked the tyre and its pressure sensor at a cost of just under £200, ouch that took a shine off things. INCIDENT 2: Next was our Double Glazing fitter which was allocated 2 days to replace 4 windows and a French door, Day 1 they were late and arrived at 2pm and had traveled over 80miles to us, looked at our job and decided to travel back home for an early start the following day. We were expecting them at first light around 8am, they arrived at 9.30am, partially fitted two windows, broke the glass in one of them, and left after three and a half hours work . In the mean time my studio is bunged up with furniture from our lounge to give them proper access, so I had to cancel my lady that does a couple of hours elementary ballet with me, although I did reluctantly manage to do Friday nights on-line pointe class. INCIDENT 3: Adrian and I was to attend Chelsea Ballet performance at Richmond as we do most years. I was really looking forward to it as I know several of the dancers as they have either danced with me at LAB or as part of the Alive Ballet Company, also know many of the audience too. We checked the trains on the night before, although we could get to Richmond from Peterborough ok, it was virtually impossible to get home at night, I think there was one train that changed at Hitchin and called at a lot of small stations on the way, not only would the journey be very long, it would have been excessively over crowded. Reluctantly we had to cancel and I was absolutely gutted and I guess no longer felt part of things any more. INCIDENT 4: Monday our Double Glazing fitters arrived just after 10am, did about half an hours work resealing one of the windows they had fitted, looked at existing French door then said to me “Its all to difficult, not just your job so I'm speaking to my boss to send another crew out”, I was gobsmacked and went to see Adrian to tell him what had happened, expecting them to come and tell us what their boss had said, by the time we had looked out the window they had gone. Although today someone has called to see us, we still don’t have a date for when a new crew is to finish out job, our fear is it may be after Christmas and we have 4 rooms stack up with furniture etc to provide access for the fitters and a very sparse living space (our lounge) until we can at least get the window finished off and the French doors fitted, that will at least release my studio. Just when you think it cant get any worse, it does

Check out this basic stage make up tutorial. Be careful with normal high street make up product as many come off (particularly foundation) under the heat of stage lighting and sweating during dancing, this may mark and stain costumes which can be expensive to clean, especially tutus. For stage make up I use Kroylan in Langley Court, Covent Garden, they used to be in Tavistock street before the lockdown, strangely enough I was in Kroylan this week. Kroylan do have a website.

Don't you just like it when a plan comes together, sadly things don’t quite happy that way as you would expect. For weeks my pointe work has seamed to have plateaued out, even though my Lincoln teacher thought I would be off the barre by Christmas. Bless her she had created a hand written weekly schedule for me, so at least I had something to work towards. By this time my pointe shoes were starting to get a bit tatty although they were still comfortable, I had enquired about availability of replacements Bloch Hannahs, which were out of stock at the time. My pointe teacher ask what other shoes had I, so the following week I took along both Freed and Russian Rubins. I had the Russian Rubins fitted at the same time as my Bloch Hannahs. At the end of class my teacher ask me to try them on and do a releve fifth with the right foot in front, which had always been awkward for me. Her remark was something like “My god you feet are completely different”. The only issue I had, I could feel a bit of discomfort of the little toe of the right foot which had plagued me in the past, so we didn’t develop that option further at the time. I was notified that Block Hannahs had become available but only the hard shank version, and not the regulars that I had previously. I talked things over with my teacher but the result was a bit indeterminate, in the end I ordered them. Then things took a bit of a dive, as per my previous posting the number of my on-line pointe class were falling, only 3 of us that week, the following week we were down to two with lots of feedback as you can imagine. I'm really on tender hooks that it will only be me. That following week I receive an email from my on-line teacher giving me a new link for the last class of the month, where sadly I will be away, so I notify her. I got a reply to acknowledge my absent week, but it also advises me that my current weeks class has moved to Wednesday and not Thursday (normally its Friday). Wednesday came, I went through my 2 to 3 hours of prep including running through the previous weeks class recordings. One of the last things I did was a releve fifth with the right leg in front, it was rubbish and I was really downhearted and felt so unprepared for class that evening. I ran up the zoom link, which indicated the class was on Thursday, I doubled checked it was the only link I has for that week, and my teachers email definitely said Wednesday including the date. Whilst I was psyched up to do the class it gave me some breathing space to think. The following morning was my pointe class at Lincoln, I said we are going to attempt to do something with a little bit of risk, I told my teacher what had happened the previous night, and I wanted to run through the whole of our class in the Russian Rubins with just an additional gel toe piece over the offending little toe. Even I couldn’t believe the transformation it made, everything was so much easier and although the little toe was sore, it was still quite tolerable. However I wasn't sure if it could take the faster pace of my on-line class, but I had to find out. Firstly to my delight we had at least 5 in the on-line class that evening, however I did warn my teacher I was using new shoes that had not been broken in, and I was breaking them in by using them. She did mention Lisa Howel has a good video of how to break shoes in, which of course I do have, and did use with my old shoes. The class that evening was the best pointe class I have ever had, just loved it, I remember the combination we did towards the end of the class. It went something like releve retire passe front to back then enchappe all repeated 3 time, releve retire passe front to back the pas de burree, then repeat sequence on the other side. We did the whole of it 2 or 3 times through. For me this felt like a real break through and I couldn’t sleep that evening for thinking about it. In the mean time my new Bloch Hannah had arrived, I spent the weekend sewing the elastic and ribbons on. The following week was spent test driving those pointe shoes which felt quite different with both classes completed in them. Needless to say both classes went well, but the new Bloch Hannah’s seam to have less room in them due to the extra thickness of the shank. The platform of the shoe is noticeably wider than the Russian Rubins. On balance we have decided to train on the Bloch shoes to utilize the wider platform to develop balance off the barre and then to change to the Russian Rubins which appears to present a much slimmer and aesthetically pleasing profile than the Bloch shoes. The Russian Rubins also appear to have what looks like a suede covering over the platform rather than the usual satin, they are just so much prettier I'm now well ahead of what my Lincoln teacher set on her weekly schedule and can now see the possibility of me being off the barre by Christmas. As we are ahead, I am also adding in some of the Cecchetti Advanced 2 barre work into the pointe work to keep things interesting.

Hi Linda When I first see your comment about meeting up in December, my thoughts turned to our on-stage workshops at the Coliseum with ENB, as we have met up many many times to do those in the past and its really not Christmas without them. I even had a look on their website and tried an old email address of Learning@Ballet.org.uk which bounced as invalid, then the penny dropped that we will be meeting up for Chelsea Ballet’s performance, it will be good to see you there. At least that will be a bit of normality for us, providing we remain out of lock-down, but who knows. Sadly I’ve had formal notification from ROH, here is an extract “Whilst keeping a close eye on COVID infection rates the ROH are still not ready to allow large numbers of visitors in the Back of House areas so we're sorry to say we can’t resume our wonderful classes there until further notice.” Oh poo no Tutu’s for the pre Christmas classes. However I'm am back in London on Tuesday the 23rd November at ROH for the Royal Ballets Nutcracker performance with my new student as she has not been to a real live ballet performance before. I personally would have preferred Swan Lake but we are having to wait until March for that one. We are making a bit of a day of it together on the 23rd as it must be the best part of a couple of years since I was last in London, with shopping and a nice pre-theatre meal, you can guess where. Sadly she missed her ballet session with me this week as she had been working at an exhibition in Spain during the week and one of her colleges tested positive on his return, hers was negative with a lateral flow test but has to do a PCR test 3 days after, so we postponed things to be on the safe side. I know a couple of Adrian's customers have come down with COVID so there is still a lot of it about. Only one pointe class this week, as my on-line teacher is running an intensive this week, but my Lincoln one was quite good, as her plans for me are quite ambitious, I’ve asked her to put together weekly schedule of what we will be covering each week, so I can at least be proactive and work ahead of her to be familiar with what we are about to do.

I guess this has been the shortest half term I have ever done (3 weeks) as my extended summer break was between two holidays and a lot of house renovation, sadly that not quite finished as we have had a long delay in getting some new double glazing fitted, scheduled now for early December. I knew things we going to be different with the retirement of my Cecchetti teacher, so I reduced my studies from two days a week, to one day as that release a day before my Lincoln one-to-one rep coaching. However as I wanted to get on top of my pointe work, I switched the rep coaching to a second pointe work class. That pointe class is much different to my on-line class, as it seams a lot slower with the first 10 to 15 minutes with exercises in normal ballet slippers, but that said after 3 week it all beginning to make sense. I must confess I was somewhat surprised when that teacher said I would be on pointe in the centre by Christmas. Although at this moment in time that target seams quite ambitious, but never the less I'm going for it with at least two hours a day dedicated to pointe work, even though I have robbed a couple of hour from my Tuesday Cecchetti studies until Christmas. There have been another couple of other driving forces, My on-line pointe class numbers are falling, this last week we were down to only three of us, I will be sad to it finish unless we get new participants in. Monday was to be my London day with a couple of classes at the Royal Opera House, these were due to start on the 6th of September, but didn’t, it was later posted that they would resume towards the end of October, I contacted Bennet my teacher to see what the current position was, the ROH studios have not yet been released for our classes. So I have utilised the time for extra pointe practice. Although I had managed to keep with a least one body conditioning class each day of the week (Monday to Friday), sadly two have just finished, Tuesday evening Pilates in my local village has ceased because our teacher has moved away from the area, Wednesday was my on-line mobility and stretch class from Karis Scarlette which also has just finished, she has been running it from Brazil for the last few months since she moved out there, for me it was a really good class as she is also a fan like myself of PNF stretching. Something I really got into a few years ago with Sander Blommaert . In the past, Saturday was my pointe class day, which allowed me a good run up prior to the class giving me around 3 hours of pointe practice including the class. Recently that's changed to Friday nights, although the release of Saturdays is very welcome, its made Fridays very busy. After a catch up with an old friend, I was asked if I could put some basic ballet exercises together for her. That has now developed into a 2 hour elementary ballet session that I run for her every Friday evening, and she loves it. Its fully documented for her including Barre, Centre, Stretch and Reverence. Friday mornings for me is also on-line Ballet Fit class .but I do have a two week break for half term. Traditionally I have always used Sunday mornings for my PDD work with Adrian, however I have suspended it for the time being until the New year when we start on La Bayadere, as we have a boat to get read for its next Safety Certificate ( like a 4 year boat MOT) which expires in February, and we are in the process of changing the propulsion system to electric which has completely different set of regulations to comply too. However we have committed to producing something ballet related for our local community hub this autumn/winter. Our proposal is a ballet in-site evening, covering a little bit of history, a demonstration of ballet mime with commentary from the mime scene from the entrance of Odette, as Adrian and I are both familiar with it, and of course various other extract from ballets as well as a display of tutu’s from most leading rolls which I have.

Thank you for the info, most interesting, however I would have thought that you would have known I don’t do “safely” and seek sanctuary in my comfort zone, I do challenging to push my boundaries. Pointework for me isn't something I would like to do, as I can dance solos well enough without. Pointework for me is an essential tool I need for dancing PDD’s, it not the same on flat especially for promenades or partner assisted pirouettes. I also intend to dance through the Cecchetti Advanced 2 pointe work exercises as part of the syllabus too. I think the photo illustrates my attitude and culture I follow. As for word Eleve, what distinguishes it for being a formal ballet term and not something that evolving from slang. This is from an article in the Pointe Magazine November 2018: "My biggest pet peeve is the use of the term élevé to describe a relevé without the use of the demi-plié. When I asked a former dancer from the Paris Opéra Ballet about this term, she looked at me with the most curious tilt of the head and asked, “How does élever pertain to ballet? I élève my glass for a toast, I can élève chickens,” which translates as “I raise my glass,” or I can “breed chickens,” “but there is no élevé movement in ballet.” The translation for élever is “to raise, bring up, breed or rear.” The reflexive verb se relever means “to raise oneself, to get up,” so when you do a relevé with straight knees, that’s just what you say". Even though Gail Grans “TECHNICAL MANUAL AND DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL BALLET” defines it as “Puple, student. The apprentice dancers at the Paris Opèra are known as les èlève’s” However I have a DVD called THE VIDEO DICTIONARY OF CLASSIC BALLET and has it defined under Pointe work 9.0 as 9.1 eleve / rise, which is as you have described

Why should there be expletives Linda ? While I was on holiday in Scotland I played a long-shot as I had been looking for a particular electric outboard motor for one of my boats from marine suppliers near me without any success. I checked the US website for agents in Scotland and found Ardfern Marine, which is about 30miles south of Oban, and not too far from where we were staying. I rang them, but also they didn’t have the one I wanted in stock, however the proprietor I spoke to thought he may be able to locate one for me, then I said I would need it by Friday as we are leaving for home on the early hours of Saturday morning. Adrian was worried we wouldn't get it in our car with him and all our luggage, especially mine, but with not tutus this year it was fine. I received a phone call from in on Wednesday afternoon that it had arrived at Ardfern, Adrian and I collected it on Friday afternoon. It weighs 17Kg so I can remove it from the boat when not in use. Similarly with the large batteries too (4 x 110AH), not sure on their weight, but they are difficult to lift on to my charging station bench, so we are constructing some steps to design that issue out. The weight of the engine approximates the weight of the Spinnaker bar I hold while doing 30 reps of pumping plies in second but on a permanent rise of high demi, good for the inner thighs, note no pointe shoes (yet). While I can I will

My you do have a good memory Peony, however as you can imagine I have since increased my horizon to higher things. While on my break I have repaired a split in our fibre glass facing you in the picture, sadly the company that supplied it has long gone out of business. One thing from ballet that became extremely useful was stepping on to a ladder from the flat roof using turnout, so the extended foot steps along the spell of the ladder, allowing the hand from the same side to hold onto the ladder before transferring the weight off the roof, very stable and very safe. Before ballet it was always a little bit frightening making that first step when I was stepping out on to the arch of my foot.

Hi People I must apologies for my absence from this thread, as I’ve been on Holiday in Scotland with my partner Adrian, Unfortunately we were not able to showcase our rep work there this year, but we did pop in and see Gillian our rep coach and very dear friend. I agree with everyone's comments as to the beautiful technique displayed by Romany Padjak, I think Peony sums it up well in her comment, I guess at the end of the day I'm only splitting hairs. As for the foot position in second, I guess I’ve just been looking at too too many enchappe’s in the Cygnets dance where the steepness of the foot is a little more pronounce, and of course as Anna_C indicates is achieved by “pulling upwards using her legs and core correctly” , personally I like to see the big toe more or less in line with the heel, but that's my personal preference. I love her comment “There is *so*much more to correct pointework than mobility at the front of the ankle”, do feel free my learned friend to enlighten me. Coming back to the original discussion on the thread, jumps without plies in pointe shoes, It seams according to Gail Grant’s “Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet”, that a Plie is not mentioned under Relevé, other than for the Cecchetti method, which also applies to the Russian method. However I came across the term “Elevé”, which seams to better describe our pointe work movement to launch the metatarsal strengthening jump, although our teacher does use the word relevé although she clearly demonstrates it without a plie. I guess Elevé is a slang term which is gathering momentum and may evolve into a proper description of this rising movement. For the moment I'm basically taking a break from Ballet other than my pointe work, as we have a lots of house catch up renovation work to do. However we will resume things in the last week of September when I start my new schedule, hopefully it will include another two pointe classes a week, one will replace my rep as we are virtually up to date for this year, also with the same teacher, we will restart rep again in January with pieces from La Bayadere for 2022.

I find Anna C releve video quite interesting, particularly when the dancer is on pointe in 2nd position, it seams as if she has limited mobility in the Tibia -Talus joint and has taken that up by increasing the range (bend ) in the toes metatarsals, even on releve 5th I do detect slight curling (scrunching) inward of the toes. Although her movements are gorgeously beautifully with little or no effort, I have noticed with other dancers there is considerable more movement above the ankle on the Tibia – Talus joint, so consequently I've been focusing on increasing that mobility.

Hi Peony You have it absolutely right, I’m not jumping on to pointe, even though my teachers instruction were jump pointe close. Its simply a high speed rise with strait legs through demi and through full pointe into the air, then descending through full pointe and demi etc. resisting to some extent on the way down, providing a similar braking action via the metatarsal and ankle as to what you are normally used to with the legs going through a plie, even that if its done properly, you will still articulate some of the weight through the feet. Obviously using with strait legs the ankle and metatarsals need to be very much stronger to articulate braking force through them. That's why we have spent weeks and weeks going through rises at different speeds to produce sustained and controlled ascent as well as a resisting decent so we don’t incur injury on landing, I have also mentioned as part of this, its not just up and down, we have spent a lot of time going between full pointe and 80% pointe, and alternating between the two. As if that's not hard enough for us to alternate between these two levels, we also have to repeat the exercise in second position and also on one leg. When you think you have just about cracked it in most positions, the teacher insists you cross your hands holding the barre so you make more use of the power in your feet. Its tough but its very much about building strength, rather than looking pretty. The jump on strait legs in all 3 positions is just a natural progression, hope that makes it clear to everyone.

Wow and I thought I was the beginner here. What a lot of disbelief, when is a jump not a jump?, a hop perhaps as suggested by Peony. For me a hop suggests on one leg, not two. We are strongly and immediately corrected by our teacher if our legs / feet are not symmetrical on either the accent, decent or in the air, that is true of of any movement. Although this is a beginner pointe course, its been running now for almost a year, we started on day one with pointe shoes on. The jump is a natural progression from rises on strait legs for strength building. We have spent weeks, and weeks with various rises slowly up onto full pointe, down to 80% pointe (on the edge of the block) and back again in all position. Basically everything we do is based on building strength. The fast rise off the ground is a natural progression providing you have developed the strength to do so, and both feet are clear off the ground, I can still hear my teachers commands Jump, pointe, close and Linn is quite correct when you descend you do go through demi-pointe, in fact you resist to some extent all the way down, but maintaining those strait legs. Cumming back to bangorballetboy assumption that we were using the barre, that's quite correct, but our teacher discourages relying on the arms, by insisting we cross our arms over, it makes it much harder. We now do all our pointework exercises with the arms crossed. The jumping exercise I have described we have only been doing for the last couple of weeks.

Firstly in the jump I described you are airborne by an inch or 2, there is no plie on either the ascent or the decent, this is purely to increase the ankle and metatarsal strength, in our exercises we do for this in first position, second position which is a little harder and on one leg with the other at cou-de-pied which is really tough, first position can be done with a towel clenched between your thighs. Linn: As for the changement on pointe, that was probable down to me finishing off the music in one of our exercises by adding in a little conventional changement, I think that inspired our teacher to show us the changement with out coming off pointe during the landing, however it does involve clenching your toes which is normally very much frowned upon

Its probably not quite the correct term as you are launching the jump from flat feet, but just imagine you have a resistance band around your knees, it done purely for strengthening, just imagine it as a high speed rise on to pointe where with the momentum you leave the ground. We also do a lot of rises on to pointe and up and down between full pointe and ¾ pointe. As for jumping on pointe, we most certainly have done changements on full pointe (no flat feet at all), but of course the knees do bend in that instance.

Hi Esme I see my physio last Thursday and he is familiar with dry needle therapy, but he wouldn't use it to increase mobility as in my case, strangely enough they already have a shock-wave devise on order. I wont see him now until after my holidays at the end of September, but I will still need to keep the pointe strengthen up, jumps without plie’s including single foot, that's hard.

Hi Esme Thank you for that, that's really interesting, I have never come across dry needle work, reading up on it , it looks as if it may have merit and worth checking out. I'm with one of my Physio’s tomorrow, I will certainly ask him about it, he is a senior physio working between a number of clinics. As for the ShockWave, he doesn't do that nor do my other two guys, I also mentioned it to my Chiropractor and I know she doesn't either. However I do have a shock wave impact massager device which I haven't used yet, but once my holidays are out of the way, I can take on a more elevated risk running up to the Christmas break. If all else fails I can call on Liz Atha, senior physio within the Northern Ballet Building in Leeds for her advice.