Michelle_Richer

Hi Fiz Just got back from my garage, they have estimated it at £200, a bit lower than I had anticipated, so Im thankful for that, but will have to limp it to Lincoln Ballet class tonight. The garage people have ask me to ring them at 1PM tomorrow to check if the bit is in, if so I can get it done without disturbing any of my other class. I particularly like tuesday dance fever class ( a combination of ballet and latin) as half the class including me have a social gathering at the end in the cafeteria for a chat, coffee and sometimes something to eat (they do gorgeous bacon rolls). All still doable in the timeframe.

I too have enjoyed reading this thread, particularly when I considering what happens with other dance types as I’m as still a relative newbie to ballet against many on here. In Salsa and related dance types there is a thing called female styling, I’ve attended many dance workshops on this, which does add a grace and flow to the ladies movement that is not generally that common amongst the masses of dancers ( a similar point made earlier in the thread, its not easy, same is true here). Movements are enhanced with what is commonly called hand decorations particularly the use of finger (pretty fingers), but this also applies to the whole body with hip and shoulder movement as well as belly rolls just to mention a few. I also use these when I’m dancing solo with salsa shines ( pre dance line-up) as it is inclined to set me apart from other dancers Getting back to Tomuchtallent point “dd loves lyrical is that she feels free to experiment with movement and also include things that she looks good doingdd loves lyrical is that she feels free to experiment with movement and also include things that she looks good doing” I think that’s fantastic to be free to experiment to find what works and what dosnt. I have had similar conversations with one of my ballet teachers. As ultimately I want to be able to solo free-style ballet movements on the fly, strait from the heart as an interpretation of the music. The reason I say this, I am a full on dancer ( not ballet yet), music certainly does stire my sole and I can already see and feel the possibilities, I know some may think this sacrolidge . Still at the same time I am still happy to do classical ballet, for me both can coexist in my mental Repertoire. One minor question I have to ask which may be a tiny bit off topic, In Port de Bras when brining the arms down from fifth through second, what is the name given to the hand inversion with the soft gentle floaty wave motion. This was given a name at the last class I did at the ROH, unfortunitly I didn’t note it down, every one I have asked including my teachers don’t know. One of my teachers training was in Cecchetti and that sort of motion if frowned upon as being too flownsy, it was also referred to as painting the walls with an over exagurated gesture. For me, I like it, I have always done it,and I think it represents styling.

I’m sure she will be, if not I will just have to bring her up to speed. Not a good weekend, I too have car trouble, had a clunking sound when I take up drive or decelerate last night on the way to a dance in Boston, bit worried about what it was, drove it carefully home afterwards. Waited for the rain to stop this morning and had a look at the steering, a rubber bush on the driver side has shattered. Called the garage that does the servicing for me, and actually found someone on service reception, told them what was wrong, but they still need to see it Monday, they don’t have the part so they have to order it, and they don’t have any spare loan cars free either. So the whole thing is a bit of a poop for Monday when I have ballet at Lincoln.

Taxi4ballet: I remember some years ago with a north easterly and high wind chill factor the temperature did actually fall to -20º that is the coldest I have ever know it and diesel was freezing in buses. This must have been 20 to 25 years ago. Fiz: Went and checked out my new dance school today at Sleaford before starting on Wednesday, I deliberately went unannounced to see things as they normally are. The place was empty apart from the girl on the reception desk. She was very obliging, she gave me a conducted tour round the three dance studios, all fitted with sprung floors, mirrors and barre’s, although the sighting of some of the barre’s were a little disappointing, but she did say they had portable barre’s too, I only see one and it was tiny. The building itself is only about 8 years old, has a small Cafeteria mainly for mums, and adequate changing rooms, it also has a small shop on site but only stocks ballet things for youngsters. So we will see what happen on Wednesday, unfortunately I will only get a couple of sessions in with them before the Christmas break as I am back down with EB at The Royal Opera House on the 12th December. Sleaford start back on the 2nd Jan so I will do both Wednesdays and Thursdays with them then. Fiz : New sprung floor is in my own studio now and its all back together, did my first full Ballet aerobic workout this morning after a break of nearly two weeks, and yes my performance has fallen back, although I have kept up the gym workouts. So I have now got to regain ground over the weekend, no rest for the wicked is there.

Awww Taxi4ballet, so you took the easy route then, I always used to carry a shovel and coal sifter, to dig my way through snow drifts, as well as wellies and a mini survival kit, just in case. With the flat fenland when you get an opening like a gate or a clearing between hedges, you get snow drifts, some quite large. Occasionally our village would get cut off, probably once in 10 years, but when it snows drifting is a problem, especially on the minor road, they are also least likely to get salted or cleared. Never seen any Yeti around the here in the fens though.

That really does sound like poetic justice Fiz, sounds like him upstairs has got a favourable eye you after all. We too have problem with farm vehicle this time of year, I was coming home from Skegness hospital Tuesday night and must have met at least a dozen tractors towing all sorts of stuff and this was on both sides of the road. Some with poor lighting, others with the amber flashing light obscured from behind. I never see one farm vehicle pull over to let long streams of traffic by. There was awful fog here last night. I drove back from King Lynn (about 40 miles away) from a ballet performance, it was very think in places and a real problem where there is no white lines, there also doesn’t seem to be the cat’s eyes that used to be present years ago. Slightly related to your other posting. I had a strange email from Lincolnshire Dance yesterday, the people who run my Lincoln ballet class. The header said “Volunteering”, and then it went on to say they want to talk to me about a “Dance Buddy scheme” at my next ballet class. I wonder if anyone has come across such schemes?.

Wow Fiz that’s fantastic news, I will have a word with him upstairs too.

Went to ballet tonight, all newbie’s again, different girls from last week, however I did see our young man in the reception area, he’s helping out with some promotion and said he will be back in class next week. Again we had two young ladies in their earl twenties, one had to go early; I think she was a drama student from the local uni. Then we had a TOOW, she had done Ballet from a tot until she was 16, her mum was a ballet teacher, never the less she managed to get her arms wrong a couple of times (Meow! ). Mostly we reapeted what we had done last week. I just hope the class can keep going, and some of the absent dancers come back.

Who do we book with and send our £5.00 too?

Thanks Janet

So where is it being held Janet?

So where is this secret location then? and Ill check if Im free that weekend.

Sheila I think you can read my mind. Not so much Youtube, I have an intermediate / advanced DVD by David Howard, there is a gorgeous repetitive sequence using triple pirouettes, the prep which I have altered a bit with a coupé, then pas de bourrée, dropping in fourth as prep for triple pirouette, as you end with the opposite foot in front, everything is repeated on the opposite foot. This is done to a tango rhythm and really works for me. Firstly my teacher at my local class did a small session with me on this on Thursday after the rest of the class had gone, which I videoed as reference. Secondly my Lincoln teacher has started teaching us pirouettes (very basic) and is very interested in using tango rhythms as she has seen the sequence I want to dance, I have offered to take some tango music in. Never the less I will be downloading some of Finis Jhung youtube videos for my own collection, but removing the sales pitch where present. I have a 50 inch TV hooked up to a netbook in my dance studio, Im getting quite a collection of vidoes now. Just need to get my floor finished, Its now a sprung floor, I laid it in the last two day, but Harlequin Dance floors did not send the glue to glue the large floor panels together. The glue arrived by post this morning as I was typing this reply. Michelle x

Bad news, the weekend class I was looking at ( Feb 16 & 17th) and going to book this weekend has now been cancelled. There is one in August, but my dilemma is that it may conflict with UK summer school dates; also both the hotels and flight cost have doubled for this time of year. I will have to wait for the UK dates to come in before deciding if to book it or not. Thats a real dissapointment and left me really deflated.

Wow I’m so pleased for you Fiz, do you have a place in mind for Pointe work or a private teacher available.

Hi Fiz, what does TOOW mean. I’ve just come from my class this morning, the hall was cold, even my teacher Nicky didn’t were here leotard this morning, I did. Unfortunately no ballet next week as the hall is being used for elections, so Nicky is tacking an extra one on before the December break. The class this morning was quite uneventful only 5 including me. At least I had a good session after all the girls has gone, I often do another 10 -15 minutes on more advanced moves, at least Nicky breaks them down for me so I properly understand the basics that I have never covered before, and she lets me video them too which is extremely helpful, she’s an absolute treasure. How is your show prep going?

I’ve loads of things to keep me busy, my new sprung dance floor panels arrive today on a big pallet, must start that after ballet class Thursday morning. Had a really wonderful time at EB, about 25 dancers of a mixed age group, about 5 were newbie’s. It was a very informal fun class. It started with stretching but that went on for the best part of 30minutes, much longer than any normal warm-up, but it was useful, it was also very similar to Scottish ballet “Core de Ballet" vimeo.com/44250588 which I use every day as a cool down. The remaining time was spent mainly at the barre where time passed so very quickly, again it was very informal with no preparation steps as the music does its intro, I guess I’m being a bit old fashioned now, but that is tradition at my other classes. Similarly there was no reverence at the end, which always adds a bit of elegance, however as a tiny bit of centre practice we did do a few little jumps and some port de bras, the port de bras exercises were nice, as I always enjoy them. The atmosphere was very welcoming and relaxed, they really were a lovely bunch of dancers including our teacher “Klasis”. I will be going back for the odd day, but I suspect it will be their last week in December as I have other places to check out, and probable persuade them to go out for a chrismas celebratory drink/meal, I have planted te seed with Klaris.

What do you mean?, I have been a full seven day aw week dancer for along time, doing sometimes more than one dance venue in the same night, but just was not ballet. Hower it is getting more difficult to organise time, only today I was asked if I would teach someone Salsa. Off soon to London to see if EB is and the ballet world are ready for me. ha ha ha.

Phoned new ballet class (Sleaford) tonight and its come up trumps, immediately after ballet on a Wednesday, the ballet teacher, teaches stretching and toning, I think I will combine those for a couple of weeks starting on 21 st Nov. If the teacher is as good as my other two (they are absolutely brilliant) then I will do a second ballet class on the Thursday with them. That will give me 4 ballet classes a week. One bonus is I don’t need to give up any of my other dance classes or social dances to accommodate this

Hi Angeline As you have been over there, perhaps you can fill in a few gaps for me. If I go it will literally be a flying visit, what I am looking for is: a gestimate or ball park figure for the taxis fare from JFK to one of the hotels close to his location. Estimated travelling time as this will be critical for my return journey back to the airport straight after finishing class on the Sunday. Is videoing the tutors demonstration of moves / position permitted ? One final point, he may be a disciplinarian but if it's uncalled for, or turns abusive, this girl has fire in her belly too. After all he is providing ME with a service, which I HAVE PAID FOR, that’s his obligation. I’m sorry but as paying a adult I just don’t buy the headmaster / pupil relationship. This as far as I am concerned is a knowledge transfer partnership which he has contracted to do, even if it’s via the medium of group participation. It takes both of us to sing from the same hymn sheet for things to work effectively, so to speak.

I know how you feel, just over a week ago I see a wonderful site, a small open boat went past in the river adjacent to my house with mum a small daughter in the front, dad stering the outboard motor in the back and a big white dulux dog sat so proudly in the middle looking forward, the really did bring a smile to my face. I thought it worthy of posting and after reading the recent posts I just sat and sobbed and could bring myself to do the post. This last weekend as been a bit of a doggie weekend for me: Firstly I had a card from my brothers Ex as we are still friends, telling me she had a new dog, a cavalier spaniel. I phoned her and made arrangement to pop in and see her (the new dog really), it was a Blenheim and very shy to start with, by the end of the evening its came and sat on my knee and went to sleep, she was gorgeous, her name is mille and is 3 years old. Sadly she was given away by her previous owners who no longer wanted her. Secondly on the Sunday night I gave one of our Salsa ladies a lift to a party, when I took her home she invited me in for coffee, unknown to me she had two well groomed white Scotty dogs, they were extremely friendly and both wanted to sit on my knee, it brought back memories of happy times. That lady now is joining one of the Ballet classes I go to, as she did ballet when she was a young girl.

Fabulus Ballet session tonight, only three students including me, all newbies, a young man of about 20 and a girl of about 22. and we acually started pirouettes tis week as a follow on from last sessions prep for pirouette, which we also repeated this week for the newbies. A really good night.

Isn’t it true when you live in a place, you take it for granted and basically don’t explore its potential as its on your door step. I used to live in the town of Boston, but never climbed Boston stump (St Batolph’s Church), only climbed it after we moved away. I live near the town of Spalding, but I never have attended its famous flower parade. For all the facilities and entertainment of a city, I still prefer the countryside, I live in the centre of a lovely little village but don’t have any close neighbours, I have 400ft of river frontage over looking a private park, a church opposite and those neighbours definitely can’t complain. Across the road at an angle we have a lovely pub called the mermaid, it has fabulous meals which I now cannot eat as I am dieting for ballet Grrrr. The property has twice been featured in the county magazine “Lincolnshire life”. I just love the tranquillity of being in the garden in summer, its enormously therapeutic, the only downside is, this time of year, the leaf fall seems to last forever. I cleared 20 bags of leaves two weeks ago, there is a similar quantity back on the ground again, hopefully by the end of this month most of it will have fallen. I will leave when they carry me out in a box, for me this really is home and where my roots and memories are.

Everybody Ballet www.everybodyballet.com/

Found another local adult ballet class in my area Sleaford (20 miles away), waiting for email reply, that should give me three classes a week, possibly four. Popping into an EB class at the Royal Opera House on wednesday as a drop in dancer, to see what they are up to.