Michelle_Richer

I live too far away to sensibly commute every day, it’s over 100miles and the first 25 has to be done by car. I will be coming down by car all the way, leaving it at the hotel and walking down to Lantern’s each morning. I have also booked the show at the Coliseum, but I don’t know how many will go; I hope I’m not on my own. I have also booked the Friday night at the hotel in case there is a celebration after our performance Friday evening, as I don’t want to drink and drive.

The Peterborough school doent start back until the 19th Grrrrr

Has everyone booked their hotel yet? I booked the Ibis closest to the Lantern's Theatre and they only had 3 rooms left.

Thanks you Fiz, I’ve been very emotional this morning over it, far more than I have ever been over Salsa, and that I’ve done for years. Did my body balance class that helped a bit. I did find an alternative in Peterborough which I have never been to before, I dropped them an email but no response, I tried to phone them but no answer, however the classes do not start until 4pm, so they may not be anyone there. They seem to do lots of classes for youngster throughout the week including Saturdays, so I hope they are ok. At least until my other friends have had a chance to re-establish a new school of there own.

Awful news tonight, had a phone call from my Monday ballet teacher, the dance school is now closed, bankrupt, her and her colleges are now finished, they were told Saturday. I feel really sad for what has happened to them, and sad at loosing both teacher and really good friend.

I find that so hard to believe, you have 15 times more experience that me, and I’m really looking forward to it, wouldn’t miss it for the world. Im far more worried about another situation where the opposite is true, about trying to fit in another on-stage performance 50 miles away between our show matinee in the afternoon and the evening performance. I don’t know if my ballet teacher at the AnglesTheatre will allow me to escape after my matinee performance but before the final curtain call at the end. The travel logistics may be incredibly tight other than a helicopter, but if it’s only just feasible, then I will go for it. I will check out the timing and my teacher’s attitude next week.

JCS: I have just booked the Pirouette Workshop in July.

Hi Lartiste Yes I hope they run more insights/workshops/summer schools etc, I did sent an email letter of thanks in and formal feedback of the general contents of the after class discussion. I haven’t heard anything back yet, but I will give it two or three weeks then a follow up email to keep it on the agenda. I’m all for making things happen.

Only two sessions this week, BRB ( two scenes from Aladin) which was quite fun and my show class at the Angles Theatre, at least now I think I have everything of the show sequences documented, I’ve a few omission and corrections to type up, then I think I have something I can practice all the way through off site, at least I can get that polished as I need to put it to bed other than group class rehearsals.and start to concentrate on Swan Lake Act II, the corp de ballet scenes. JSC: I note your link and I now have some serious thinking to do, as I think I can just squeeeeze in the Pirouette Workshop, and the Grand Allegro Workshop. I see these are held at ISTD2, my Swan Lake workshop teacher as part of City Academy also operates from there.

Yes, there is another thread running on LAB http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/topic/2615-london-amateur-ballet-summer-intensive-2013/ There are a few of us from BalletCo going, did you do the Swan Lake Workshop a couple of weeks ago at Sadlers Wells? PS and welcome from me too.

Yes it was nice to meet you too 2dancersmum, yes we did the Aladin thing too, it was good fun. A number of us have ask them to do more more as they have a very extensive repertoire, perhaps we may get a workshop on Coppelia, who knows, but I think they are genuinely interested. PS I also met a girl from same Workshop I did on Swan Lake a couple of weeks ago at Sadler's Wells, that was nice too. All in all a fantastic day.

http://www.chelsea-ballet.com/ Chelsea Ballet is a group of amateur dancers, of varying abilities, that meets once a week to rehearse for a number of major productions per year and a programme of smaller scale shows performed at residential homes and hospitals. Chelsea Ballet also organises a monthly Masterclass, they do a summer school too at Pineapple, see my threads on the forum. http://www.chelseaballet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=106 Adult morning classes in ballet and pilates.I have no further details http://www.everybodyballet.com/?page_id=4 Royal Opera House wednesday evening for Adult Beginners and Intermediate, expensive at £25.00 per class but about half a dozen of us do both. There are other ballet classes run at the ROH as I have often been asked which one, as my name is on the list at the stage door, otherwise you cannot get in. http://www.ballet.org.uk/classes/spring-term/ English National Ballet have classes from level 1 Beginners to Level 4 Advanced but thet are well sort after, you have to get in early once it hits the website. http://www.city-academy.com/ballet-classes City Academy, levels only up to improver 2 whatever that means, but they do run workshops and summer schools. Hope that helps

Thank goodness that this week is over with no Ballet classes, about half are back next week with the BRB workshop on Tuesday to look forward too. I did get to go to one of my old salsa groups on Wednesday evening, lots of new faces, I did enjoy that. Tonight’s (Friday) Salsa session turned out to be a bit of a damp quid, The new routines and dancing was fantastic as usual, but our host confirmed the date of the Skegness Festival, where we are to perform on stage, that date clashes with one of my ballet school show's at the Angles theatre, were we have two performance to do that day. That news really saddened me, as there is no way I can attend Skegness. I the summer we put on Salsa performances at a lots of town and country events, its fun, it helps promote our group and bring in new blood to keep an active and vibrant core of dancers.

From a mail drop following my Swan Lake Workshop, May be of interest to someone: Day Time StartDate End Date Duration Teacher Venue Wednesday 18:30-19:45 17-April-13 05-June-13 8 weeks Natasha Boyle Finsbury Town Hall Wednesday 19:50-21:05 17-April-13 05-June-13 8 weeks Natasha Boyle Finsbury Town Hall Monday 18:20-19:35 10-June-13 29-July-13 8 weeks Rejane Garcia ISTD2, EC1 Full details, additional course dates and booking here – Beginners Ballet Booking Page Alternatively, you may also be interested in the following courses: · Beginners Contemporary Dance · Beginners Tap · Beginners Jazz Don’t forget we still have our 10% double booking discount available when booking two different courses at the same time. To redeem this discount just enter the following discount code when booking via our website – 2ORMORE

I've signed it too. I wish my electricity was only £20 a week, my standing order for it is £156 a month.

Sorry, somehow it was a double copy and paste. I should have read it when I copied it on the forum. Silly me it had been a long day and no ballet too.

Hi Tabitha I googled the location of the school, its well to the North of Nottingham and well away from the train station, I think all in all it’s a non starter. Travel by road would be the only sensible solution and I would need an exceptionally good reason to bring this one in. Next year I will be thinking of changing the emphasis from general adult ballet tuition to selective private tuition, I already have one private session, that’s well focussed on my requirements and I’m well satisfied with it. I googled the location of the school, its well to the North of Nottingham and well away from the train station, I think all in all it’s a non starter. Travel by road would be the only sensible solution and I would need an exceptionally good reason to bring this one in. Next year I will be considering of changing the emphasis from general adult ballet tuition to selective private tuition, I already have one private session, that’s well focussed on my requirements and I’m well satisfied with it.

Hi Tabitha Unfortunately you didn’t answer my question regarding the possibility of access as a drop in dancer, that’s the way I operate with the Royal Opera House as I generally only go there once a month for their two classes, but that is curtailed at the moment as it conflicts with rehearsals for our show at the Angles Theatre which will be running all week in July. I may check him out, but it's not about his qualifications and performing experience which may be impressive, it's about “can he teach and transfer that knowledge”, “is he available after class for feedback discussion and help with various moves”, “Is he honest about areas of ballet which may no longer be familiar to him” and finally “will he permit videoing of his demonstrations where no other student is involved”. Mondays may be doable, however I will have to sacrifice one of my body balance classes and Friday is out completely as I have other commitments. The train from Grantham doesn’t help very much, but it may be available from Spalding which is even better. Whatever, there will be plenty of time for me to get to my Lincoln class as it doesn’t start until 8pm.

Hi Tabitha Thank you for the info, it is a bit further than I would normally want to travel as its about 60miles from me, but I will be travelling down to London once a week anyway and that’s over 100, and twice a week once a month, but its mainly rail. Most of my classes are between 20 and 40 miles from home so you can imagine how much I’m spending on fuel. I’m reluctant to take on another class at the moment as from April I’m up to 9 classes a week. I still need to leave time for my fitness classes which I have 4 of and my own early morning workouts too. However I do like the fact it’s in the daytime. Do you know if they allow drop in dancers to pop in on an irregular basis, in my case if its raining as I somehow have to fit in my half acre of garden and lawns around my home. Strange as it may seem normally Friday to Sunday is reserved for social dancing, Salsa and those dances that go along with it.

Just got the latest update from LAB Nearly 60 dancers taking part from all over the world. On the Wednesday evening there is a trip out to see Carlos Acosta’s show at the London Coliseum, dancers need to book their ticket now. The repertoire in the main is Swan lake and we have been given the "Waltz of the Swans" to base it on from this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilaaFb9XHfM However the gentlemen will have their own short piece in addition to Swan Lake, and will be working with James Streeter (English National Ballet). Ladies will have their own pointe piece (or demi pointe for those not yet on pointe like me).

I really enjoyed that workshop, we did 3 scenes from actII Entrance of Odette, Entrance of the swans and the Signet dance, some simplification on the original, but we only had three hours, it still taxed my memory though. City Acadamy are doing a 4 day workshop on Swan Lake Act II at the end of August, no details as yet. All being well I will be there too.

Another good class at Peterborough tonight, 4 dancers + another ballet teacher joined us for the session, the place was deserted especially as the Children had already broken up, and normally it’s full of them and their mums. Almost finished now just got Saturday at Sadler’s Wells to go for the Swan Lake workshop, then I have a break for a few days, by about Wednesday I will be bored and need my ballet fix, Oh well!

Not a good week this week, it been hard going. Lincoln class was down to 4 again but it was quite enjoyable and we have managed to finish our sequence that’s been added too every week. New sequence next term. I arrived early as I always do, but no previous class and the studio door open. That gave me the opportunity to get my teacher to load up the music for my own choreographed sequence to the Titanic theme. I got one of the other students to video it for me with the mirror behind me. My teacher was quite complementary, I have only just played it back, and it is as bad as I thought it would be, but I haven’t given up ballet, at least not yet. I have an awful lot of stuff to work on, but that was the quality of feedback I needed. Also the orientation of some of the sequence needs changing too, I think that was a bit of a distraction at the time as I was trying to do it on the fly. As I only have a small studio at home, I think I must modularise the sequence to preserve the orientation to the audience, then it can be fully scaled for an intended performance or practice on a full size dance floor without too much bother of over-riding existing muscle memory. Another contributing factor, I was stone cold with no warm-up, but it was an opportunity, and I have learnt a lot. I guess wide angled video recording in my own studio is the next thing on the wish list. Wednesdays Rehearsal at the theatre was hard going without the use of video, I’ve documented about 40% of the sequence, but it now need changes as things keep changing a bit. I can see why my teacher didn’t formally document it, as it takes ages. She has a hard copy to check but I need to update this one first with correction then add some more from my own scribblings from last night. One of the girls last night started to record a commentary into her mobile phone, so you can imagine what that did for any port de bras, but it still it gave her something to work with. This really is a muddled way of going on and is quite alien to the way I work; needless to say I really don’t like it. This morning’s local class was very thin, only two of us. My balance was rubbish too, the hall was extremely cold, the other dancer left her scarf and gloves on all the way through class, and there I was in my leo and tights bruuuuuur . My only worry is, can this class survive as its been thin all this term.

Nope Even if every class contents was identical in every way (barre/centre/pirouettes/adage/allegro) I would still very much dought that one would sustain injury with 9 classes. Firstly the duration and repetitions of these movements will be are quite small per class, but combined into 9 classes it’s just like a series of different movements spread out over time. If they were the same there is a distinct risk of boredom. In reality my classes are quite different to each other, they give me fare better access to learning a much wider range of ballet movements and connecting steps, also I experience different teachers and their training methods. Although you have voiced concerns over 9 classes a week, I think if I added in the equivalent time and effort of ballet training I do in my own studio, it would at least double that figure. The only real area if concern I would have, is high repetition of allegro steps particularly those that contain sauté’s in some form or other. This can be a real problem if the floor is hard; one of my classes has such a floor. Even my own studio floor is quite hard and it’s a Harlequin sprung floor but not a patch on many of the professional floors I’ve danced on. They are a pleasure to dance on, especially the recovered energy you get from the floor after a saute. I do like Drdance’s closing statement:” More work does not equal more results!”, wow can I therefore infer the oppersite that “Less work does equals more results”, it would be nice if it did. Seriously the reason I ask the question in the first place is I believe in working smarter rather than harder, and I'm always concerned about the risk of injury, I've been there with Tai Kwon-Do, I really don’t want to go there with ballet. It would be sole destroying

Hi PetrovaFossil Welcome also I do have ankle weights which left over from my days of Tai Kwon-Do, yes I did try them at one stage but they were not effective, and also I don’t want to build big unsightly leg muscles. On the surface of it, it looks as if I will have to increase the number of reps, however as I work to a documented training plan, its time for me now to re-look at it, as many things have changed since I originally created it. I’ve added steps, removed others, added in external fitness classes some days too and consequently there is now a lot of time consuming duplication that can be removed. I do this type of training most if not every day. As for increasing the number of reps I’m always cautious, as I doubled reps once with my Tai Kwon-Do training and ripped a muscle in my shoulder, I couldn’t lift my arm for months. As from April I’m up to 9 ballet classes a week, so I really can’t risk such a debilitating injury to my leg, the thought is just horrifying. My first thoughts are to steadily increase reps of both walking and static lifts with particular emphasis on static lift but divide the reps between both ends of the day. However I will continue to research this as its important the new plan is more effective. Once done I will seek the views of two of my ballet teachers and a PE Instructor as I did with the original.