Michelle_Richer

Hi Peony Thanks for the reply, I must say you comment about possible reasoning why comments on certain ballet schools have become prohibited, that does make sense, thanks for that As regards the pointe shoe issue, I ordered the next size wider version yesterday, it was here in the post today. I could have had them fitted next Monday when I’m back in Sleaford, but I don’t think they are likely to find anything, also the shoes need to be partly broken in . I need to get the ribbons fitted on one these for my right foot in the next couple of days and then partially broken in and take it from there. There is a remote possibility that the little toe is broken on that foot from something that happened years ago. The studio is constantly evolving, the last addition is computer controlled studio lighting, the lighting itself is in place as is the laptop computer to control it, however I haven’t quite finished the software interfaces which will trigger from a cue in the music and change the lighting against various time intervals set in a script file. A separate script file is required for each piece of music. I guess I take the sprung floor for granted now, but the one thing I love the most is its air conditioning, it gorgeous giving it full availability whatever the weather. For the first year after we built it, it was far too hot in the summer, and freezing cold in the winter, now within half an hour its stabilised at 25degrees C On the down side the studio is starting to accumulate quite a lot of fitness equipment, which I guess I’m going to have to get some form of secure storage shed, that’s close to the studio out side door..

Dear The_Red_Shoes Thank you for your help with the definition of Pedagogy/Pedagogue. The definitions I quoted for Pedagogue came from (a) CollinsDictionary.com and (b) Dictoinary.Cambridge.Org. I see in my copy of the The Collins Oxford Dictionary Pedagogy is described as the “Science of Teaching”, so I guess we are all on the same page. However I did come across a very informative extract from an article of the Royal Ballet school which contrasts Content vs Pedagogy “There is more to a dance education than passing exams. Over the years, there have been an increasing number of teacher training courses available for private dance teachers focusing on content knowledge (the steps of classical ballet) rather than pedagogical knowledge (the science of teaching). Content knowledge courses, offered by many dance societies, often focus on assessment content and training exercises for a particular graded exam. The concern with such courses is the implication of a hierarchy of ‘what to teach’, over ‘how to teach’. Teachers can falsely presume that the syllabus content is a training programme. A narrow focus on syllabus settings will not develop diverse and skilled dancers. The exercises, steps and variations within a syllabus are the tools for an assessment-not the recipe for a dance training.” General 1 For me that make an awful lot of sense, from what has been said in previous post both relating to Repertoire workshops and the Silver Swans students, the focus is on the students picking up and remembering the dance steps etc when its demonstrated to them by the teacher, if they fail to or have difficulty, its perceived that its down to the student being unsuitable who is has failed. When I put my teaching/coaching hat on, when this happens, I see that as a failure in the methods I’ve used to deliver that task, the error has been mine. In my own Instructional Techniques training, the “demonstrate and copy” method was probably the most basic technique used, in fact we had a slang term to describe it “Sitting next to Nelly” to copy her in some basic task. For me one of the basic elements that’s grossly underused is study, hence my preference for video examples, it allows those that want to, to pre-study the work in advance and be properly prepared. In my case with the Swans their whole piece was fully documented with illustration of all significant pose’s prior to the work starting. Even then the following weeks work would be demonstrated so as it would not be unknown to them as additional reassurance. My take on this is simple, it needs to be enjoyable and efficient learning. Having said that, it’s no good telling me that some ballet teachers cover Pedagogy (Science of teaching) as part of their teacher training, if they don’t apply it. General 2 I still have no rep coach, which I’m starting to see the effect of; everything seems to be taking so much longer. My Adrian said some time ago that this would be his last year dancing PDD’s with me, fortunately I’ve persuaded him to do another two. A couple of weeks ago he found one of my Swiss balls in the studio and ask what it was for, so I gave him a couple of very basic exercises where he found balance quite difficult. Since then I have started doing an hour session each week for us both on basic PBT to get him started, especially as I want to see the range of his arm since his last injury, for that I’ve adapted part of the Cecchetti Advanced 2 Port de Bras for sitting on the ball. I’ve also bought both the Senior and Advanced PBT programs as a resource that I can cherry pick from. At least the range of his arms are looking promising for our La Bayadere PDD. I’m just hoping I’m ready to go en pointe for that one with a bit of a set back with a developing sore little toe on the right foot. Although I’m still on the barre, I’m doing about an hours warm-up and about 10 to 15 mins en pointe at the barre mainly for strengthening and straitening, that is coming along ok. I’m trying to do a session in the studio every day with no more than a days break between them. I’m using an American product called PerfectFit pointe shoe inserts, which is a self moulding system, it certainly does what is says on the tin although I have found I would have liked a little more of the two part moulding material for my Bloch Serenade pointe shoes. They certainly felt comfortable on both feet when I first moulded them, however when looking at the end process after the material had cured, the area between the little toe and the side of the box, the moulding material looks quite thin, however for the first few days my feet were fine . Now the left is absolutely fine, the right become sore the more I use it and it’s also difficult to determine just where it’s sore. I can stand full weight on the right foot without too much of a problem, it appears to aggravate it on slow rises at the demi level where the ball of the foot is flat, ¾ and full pointe no real problem. I’ve tried various silicon tubes over my little toe and the one next to it, but as the agitation has already been created its difficult to see any real improvement. I had a chat to one of the pointe shoe fitters at Starlite Direct on Friday, she has suggested my right foot may be wider than my left, I may well go down the option of using two width fittings as I can still get two pairs of shoes out of that combination. Moderators 1 I see the name of this thread has been changed with the addition of “the progress of one adult dancer who took up ballet later in life” even those I did specify on the first paragraph of the very first post that “I’m setting up this thread up for everyone concerned with adult ballet, all are welcome, dancers, teachers, physio’s everyone. I claim no ownership to it what so ever, however I will continue to report about my journey on it, I hope others will too.” Furthermore there was no notification of this. Firstly it was never intended to be just me as stated although I’m aware that I am the major contributor. Secondly I really hate the term “Later in Life”, as if I need to take it easy and just take gentle exercise, thank goodness my Cecchetti Advanced 2 teacher doesn’t see me that way, I just love the way she pushes me for even higher extensions etc, I guess Lisa Howell will help me with that one with one of her courses. It reminds me some years ago when I fell over doing a pirouette at ENB and the teacher said “Do be careful dear” Grrrrr, I hate those sort of expressions. I know the teacher also stopped me doing double turn pirouettes which I was really comfortable with, I allowed singles to become the norm, sadly it took me along time to regain doubles and it wasn’t until I changed teachers at ENB. I will never be held back like that again. In any case if I needed to take it easy, I would hardly have spent close on £50,000 developing my own ballet studio, for me its about making the overall learning process more efficient, it always there and available and better equipped that most. Moderators 2 I’m sorry but I cannot let this one pass without comment. I note that my previous post had been edited to remove the name of a ballet school I attend for a one-to-one intensive each year, I find it difficult to understand why? I understand the legal logic behind the thread that had been locked which featured that school, but I really don’t understand logic behind deigning its very existence as this raises no legal or controversial issues in my case what so ever, do explain.

Sorry for the big long post, but I feel it’s necessary to clarify many misconception contained in some of the comments. Firstly I must apologise if some of my comment appear disrespectful, that was not the intention. However I did become disillusioned with RAD as it felt to me with the way they used to operate by giving advanced info of the rep being taught and then some time later taking that away. Furthermore there was another change I experience with RAD which was deeply disappointing. Some years ago I joined RAD Adult Associates at Elmhurst, at first things were brilliant, although I only booked for body conditioning and Improvers 2 (Equivalent to Grades 6 to 8), I was offered absolute beginners free, if I booked for Improvers 1 (Grades 3 to 5), as I had time on my hands between classes it made perfect sense. The lady in charge of that region made the comment, this would help them with the beginners if they had more experienced dancer to follow, which was fine by me, about 6 of us joined the beginners. During class changeover breaks and lunch time, the Adult Associates used to share the common room with the teachers; it seamed a really nice close knit group. When I first started, I asked if I could use one of the studios during the lunch break to run through some of my own rep, they were extremely supportive, I even used the studio theatre one time when it wasn’t being used. The same lady was very supportive in getting me permission to join some of the CPD workshops, but sadly I never took that option up. This very conducive relationship that lasted for around 18 month to 2 years, then thing changed. Firstly I was asked to pay for the beginners class, which was no big issue in itself, as I was at Elmhurst all day, the 6 of us that helped the beginners dropped initially to two of us, then finally I was the only one from the higher classes. We were also stopped from using the common room for our breaks and told to use the studios for our lunch break, for me that was down right wrong to bring food and drink into a studio, especially wrong as RAD was guests at BRB’s training school, in any case I do not allow or do that with my own studio. The best I could do there was to go behind a screened area in our studio, where chairs and other bits were stored. For me the 100mile plus car journey to Elmhurst was spoilt, although I did continue to go for a further year to 18 months. Then there was another substantial change took place, both improver 1 and improver 2 classes were combined. The Adult Associates was effectively for mornings only with Body Conditioning, then a choice of either Absolute Beginners or Improvers, the afternoon was for a Rep Workshops. Although I had paid for the next term and enquired about the rep that was being taught, this was never fourth coming, before my first session of that term commenced I sustained a serious injury so that relationship with RAD ended on a very disappointing note. I think from various peoples comments I need to clear up several misconceptions; There seams to be some suggestion to my motives of asking about the rep to be taught and suggesting it contains a video clip of that rep, as it implies I need to go down a level to something that’s more appropriate to me. Firstly I ask about the rep as I am very discerning as to what I particularly want to develop, it must be of interest, in any case I’m usually working on a number of pieces at any one time, mostly towards my work with Gillian Barton, but other stuff to. For example over and above what I am working on for Gillian Barton, Ive booked : Swan Lake Day Retreat: RB Black Swan solo, and the mime scene Giselle Dublin Mini Retreat: RB Giselle solo Act 1 and Entrance of the willies Act 2 I see there is a London Ballet Masterclass on Le Corsaire (Grand Pas de Six), although it’s quite a pretty piece, I can’t use it at the moment, so consequently Im giving it a miss. The video clip as far as I’m concerned is an effective learning aid, it’s used extensively for other forms of dance, it’s always been used for rehearsals in all the amateur ballet companies I’ve belong to. The comments that reflect teachers adapt the level to fit the standard of attendees, that makes it totally unsuitable for me, not that I need to go down, but the opposite. This is why when I showcase rep on our last day with Gillian Barton, the rep as far as I am able is a combination of compatible phrases from different companies representing the best of the best, that why I have been using a private rep coach for the past 6 years, sadly I lost her at the end of November. If I were hesitant in any way in learning rep, I would hardly have the confidence to dance a different solo every other week in front of the teachers and lovely ladies of the Silver Swans, however I does allow me to be critical of the shortcoming of some of the professional companies too, non of us are perfect. Also I have been fortunate to have teachers like Sander Blommhaert ex Royal Ballet as our artistic director, teaching us rep that is seldom watered down with adaptation and in some instances enhanced which really works for me. I see in one of the comments, pointe work was mentioned, I have to concede this one. This is not an important one for me for solo’s, however from a conversation I had 2 weeks ago in Edinburgh with Gillian Barton, I’m planning on dancing a Pas de Deux this year with Adrian my partner en pointe, providing I’m sufficiently ready, but I still have a long way to go for that one as yet, but its just a matter of time. I raised the issue of short term memory loss as it was something that was spoken about very frequently in the changing room after the Silver Swans class, hence the reason I documented the teachers Swan Lake enchainment on my first week for the Swans, it was only them to help them. One term used in a couple of post that I’m not familiar with “pedagogue” so I looked it up: a) If you describe someone as a pedagogue, you mean that they like to teach people things in a firm way as if they know more than anyone else. b) A teacher who gives too much attention to formal rules and is not interesting. I cant help but liken this description to the old fashioned headmaster who would gives you a clip round the ear, or banishes you to the corner of the room with a dunces hat on, in sheer humiliation for minor issues like spelling something wrong or not singing in assembly but just moving your lips. That really doesn’t work for me. I have had a few good teacher, and some really poor ones too. The thing I’m always looking for in a good teacher is one with boundless enthusiasm and willingness to really want to help, the little things often make a big difference. I guess my most notable teacher were Tom Linecar-Boulton founder of LAB and my teacher at ENB, Sander Blommaert of my BBT performing group and Rejane Garcia founder of our Alive Ballet Company and teacher at City academy. For one-to-one rep the relationship is somewhat different, it becomes more of a close partnership, for me that was Emma my former twice a week rep coach and prep for pointe, the other is Gillian Barton for her endless support, invaluable feedback and encouragement over the years for my self and Adrian my partner. I also have a developing relationship with my Cecchetti Advanced 2 teacher now we have started an additional one-to-one sessions on unset work. My philosophy is simple; we are on this earth to help each other, whether we are formally qualified to do so or not, just listen to your own judgement.

I know I have been a bit late coming back on the reply’s, various things have happed, but I guess the most significant for me is my new rep coach never came through after 6 weeks, which has left me swimming through treacle to make progress against my previous coach and priority has been with that and my Cecchetti classes. At least I have the half term break to give me a little breathing space although we have the recent storm damage to catch up on. From the tone of Anna C response, it feels like it has been perceived that I am stealing something away from this RAD school and its teachers. Nothing could be further from the truth, I have been associated with that school and the Mother and daughter teachers that run that school. I first met the a few years ago when I hired their studio for a couple of hours a week, as a thank you, I would add my support by attending there adult ballet class each week. I had incurred an injury while Adrian and I were building the foundations of my new studio, which brought my ballet to a very abrupt end for a while, in the case of this school, about 2 years. By this time I had my own studio, however the Alive Ballet Company that I performed with in London had finished, which freed of Tuesday’s our rehearsal day. I enquired about the old Adult classes, they had finished as they alternate Adult Ballet with one of the RAD graded classes during exam years, the other year which is their performance year two grades are combined, as the school only has a single studio. The only thing they could offer me was “The Silver Swans” on Tuesday morning, my first thought was, “this really isn’t me”. But I guess curiosity got the better of me. It turn out that they were a really lovely bunch of ladies, and I guess I was a bit of a misfit as I was still attending rehearsals for performance, and of course was the only one attending class in regular ballet attire. During my first class, they were learning a little rep to the opening music of Swan Lake choreographed by the teacher, several were struggling remembering the sequence, a couple mentioned this again in the changing room before leaving, so I asked if they would like me to write it down for them, this was only done to help and not steal anyone’s thunder. In any case I regard both teachers as very good friends of mine. Before I left I ask our teacher if it would be ok to bring my Odette and Black Swan tutu’s in complete with headdresses to show the ladies before class as I thought it would be of general interest, she was all for it, which I duly did the following week. A few weeks later, there were questions coming up regarding the meaning of different ballet terms, it was clear that many of the ladies were unfamiliar with them. I couldn’t let the situation pass without offering to help so I offered to bring in a copy of a Glossary of Ballet Terms and of course it was well received by the teacher and our ladies. A few weeks beyond that, again in the changing I was ask by a couple of the ladies if I would dance one of my performance pieces for them. Needless to say I took this request to the teacher and said if she agreed for me to do it, I would do it in the 15minute break between classes, I would be happy to dance it and in full costume. She thought it was a brilliant idea and said some to the effect, it would allow the ladies to see where the steps and exercises in there ballet class ultimately leads. I initially agreed to perform one piece a month for them, but that soon wasn’t enough for them and I was performing a different solo in costume for them every other week. Just one point of clarification “Dancing a solo for your classmates”, our teacher was always there, sometimes her daughter too. Lets make no mistake about it, these ladies became inspired by the solo’s I’ve been dancing for them for many months, I guess one of the early indicator, I was the only dancer during class in traditional class wear, first we had one change and then a few more followed. The lady that first came in traditional ballet wear ask if she could join me with something simple, after thinking about the pieces I had planned to show them, I allowed her to play the part of the Queen in the Variation of the Crystal Fairy, she simply sat through my solo and we exchanged mime gestures, she loved it. I wonder what Anne C would make of that so far, would she disallow it? Following that others asked if they could do something too. Finding something for one is not too taxing, but finding something for a small group is a whole new ball game and does require a good deal of planning. That is basically where it all started. It was always my intention of doing all that I did to fully support that school and its teachers and presenting our shared performance piece of our volunteers, as not everyone wanted to perform in a video showcase to the Silver Swans patron. Anna C your first paragraph on the face of sounds quite impressive, you mentioned the teachers have passed RAD intermediate, to be fair I’m not sure what that standard consists of or its relevance to a level appropriate to the Silver Swans. At the end of the day the teachers objective must be to impart their knowledge and dance skills efficiently in an enjoyable way, and not try to impress the students with how well qualified and clever the teachers are. My observation of RAD has been from many rep workshops I’ve attended around the country and including Edinburgh too. Originally we were given info of the dance we were to learn prior to attending the workshop, although sometimes this was changed. Later the only info was only the name of the ballet. For me I don’t know if it would be a piece I would normally chose to dance, I really don’t know what I’m paying for, also I’ve had no time to prepare for it, I also suspicious as to if the teacher has properly prepared for the class. That really doesn’t look like a professional delivery too me. If I can just contrast that to my most recent rep workshop at BBT with Sarah Lamb of the Royal Ballet, we were at least issued with the fact we would be learning Juliet’s Solo and a video clip of the rep. This was a two day event with the usual barre and centre for the morning and learning the rep in the afternoon. The last day finished where we had to perform this piece in front of Sarah in groups of no more than 3, the dancers standard in that workshop were high, certainly a few pre-professionals from Elmhurst, and a few from my performing group at BBT too. At least with being able to prepare, it gave me the confidence to go first and go on my own in front of Sarah and above all to really enjoy it. I will now contrast my teaching / coaching methods, firstly before the half term break at the end of class my teacher made the announcement that I had something to say to the ladies, I described what was proposed on a voluntary and the piece we would be dancing, The first week back the dancer had the documentation covering the rep including pictures of all significant poses, furthermore I would dance the next week piece to let them see what they would be doing, rather than worry about the unknown, I have never seen these types of training technique used by RAD to under pin the confidence of its dancers, which is especially important with growing short term memory loss of its Silver Swans dancers. As for Anna C statement “any licensed RAD classes know that the quality of teaching will be of a good standard”, specifically in the case of adult repertoire workshop I completely disagree, that culture simply isn’t there, the focus is on the teacher and how what the teacher wants to teach, rather than delivering a properly specified piece of rep. In the days when there were a little advance info on what RAD was to teach I distinctly remember signing up for Swan Lakes Big Swan dance only to find on the day we did Waltz of the Swans, a similar thing happened with one of Cinderella’s solos was substituted for something else and what I had prepared for was wasted. These days I positively discriminate against attended RAD rep workshops, as there are other ballet organisations that do deliver properly defined rep. As for RAD general classes I don’t have too much a problem with them as I have spent many happy hours as a RAD Adult Associate at Elmhurst. You also made the point that one needs a Level 4 ballet teaching qualification, even though on my previous posting I highlighted “I have no wish to be a BALLET TEACHER”, however that doesn’t mean I don’t have the skills to teach. Firstly I originally qualified as an instructor, then Chief instructor able to qualify Instructors for the appropriate industrial training board, then qualified as an Industrial Training Officer, again able to qualify other to the levels mentioned previously, then all the way up to Master Degree, so training has always been a large part of my career. The main part of my career was as head of a design department for a ground to air communications manufacturer, it was very much a safety critical industry. Everything we did had to be documented in precise detail, verified and approved and placed under strict configuration control, as a result I was also several review boards too. Hence my interest in the need to document rep in precise detail and use that as training aid for others. I note your craft skill level of as “RAD Intermediate or equivalent”, not sure how that fits in with the Silver Swans, so perhaps you can enlighten me how it fits into your grading structure. The only experience I have of RAD was from the adult associates which was from absolute beginners through to Grade 8. You make the point “anyone can refer to themselves as a “coach” yet take no responsibility for injury or accident during a “coaching” session”. I can’t help but feel that the real point you are trying to make is, I haven’t got a clue as to what I’m doing and the ladies are in immanent danger of injury from me. Firstly I use the word coach in the context that I am not teaching basic ballet steps, but a connected sequence of ballet movements that they already know. If I were to use te word teach you could also make the same argument. I guess I use the word coaching to reflect the majority of my own repertoire training which is carried out on a private one-to-one basis. The Ballet teacher does not tech me the rep, firstly the overhead on that for her to learn it prior to our session would be prohibitive expensive, secondly the rep itself is mostly a hybrid which I have created from a number of different versions. Practically at the beginning we swap rolls until she is familiar with what I am trying to perform, then she takes over by tidying up my technique, musicality and audience engagement. Similarly, it receive another level of polishing at Ballet West for its final showcasing there . Second part “yet take no responsibility for injury or accident” I really don’t know how you can make that assumption, in any case whatever provision was in place before their break why would one assume it would not continue to be in place, unless it was directly attributable to my gross negligence. Do you not think these teachers would have said no in the first place when I ask for there permission to run such an even, rather than let it run for a full half term and be very supportive too. In any case we all know accidents do happy even with the best practices in place and of course we always support each other in summoning the appropriate medical help, I would certainly never walk away from an injured dancer whether it was my responsibility or not and say not my problem. Just as an aside I do always carry Biofreeze and Ice-eeze instant cooling packs, mainly for myself but they are always available for anyone else that needs them. Some time ago I ran a ballet rep group of 7 dancers at a dance studio in Sleaford, for that I had a document in place that contained amongst other things a disclaimer which each of the dancers would have to sign signed to be part of that group, that did not mean if they hurt themselves I would walk away and take no responsibility, Adrian my partner was a trained first aider but that was all. The document also contained the Dancer’s Emergency Contact Details, A Medical Questionnaire including GP’s contact details. The only stipulation I had from that school was, I wouldn’t compete with them. Disclaimer are not uncommon in Amateur Performing Companies or Organisations running Rep Workshops, it doesn’t follow that where they are used, its dancers are at an elevated risk. Similarly having a Trained Ballet Teacher with Public Liability Insurance doesn’t necessarily guarantee safe practice. I wonder what provision were in place where a 6-year-old Chinese girl was left paralysed after dance teacher forced her into splits? There is one thing that is really puzzling me “It’s one thing dancing a solo for your classmates during the break”, it’s a bit more than class mates it’s the teachers too. I’m sure if I can dance a solo on my own in front of Sarah Lamb of the Royal Ballet, then I wont be too shy to dance solo’s in front of my teachers. The thing that is puzzling me most, if I’m not allowed to dance with the ladies in the break, should I really be allowed to dance on my own through fear of hurting myself, surly that must follow. Oh god what it is to be old, I hope I never get there. I know it may look as if I am constantly knocking RAD, both they are not the only ones I have issues with. As mentioned in previous post of mine, getting information out of the Faculty of Cecchetti at the ISTD for the release of the Advance 2 DVD’s has also been problematic. Yes we do have documentation covering the Syllabus but its cross referred between 4 different document which has its own level of ambiguity, I’ve managed to add into the mix Cecchetti Australia Inc’s video’s of that standard which are generally quite close, but never the less has some differences, plus with the help from some of this forum’s members I’ve added in the video’s from the Cecchetti Diploma but of course much more challenging. But alas I have finally go a useful contact inside the faculty that is willing to help with queries. For the loss of coaching/teaching these lovely ladies is no great loss for me, although I had bought a number of Romatic Tutus and material for more to be made, but its like most things, you don’t get anything out unless your prepared to put it in. I am sad for them , they are the real looser's. I have always been heavily engaged its part of my culture, I guess that why when I was with the Alive Ballet Company, I became Head of Costume, Music Editor and Production Manager, I was always there to help.

Hi LinMM The Ballet Exercise with the big ball thingy is called Progressing Ballet Technique, I think there is also a large franchise behind it. I used to attend PBT classes at one time until they were dropped do to lack of numbers. My former rep coach used to add in periodically those types of exercises in her Monday morning body conditioning class but would never call it PBT. Similarly my Wednesday body conditioning class run by my Cecchetti teacher uses the large Swiss balls in the same way. Ok about your comments about my escapades with RAD: The comment : ....I think it was because you were formalising it more: This wasn’t something that just happened or developed, it was planned. At the beginning of the half term before Christmas, I laid the plan out complete with full documentation of the Corps de ballet rep, a sample template of the Certificate of Achievement, at the end of the previous term I had discussed it too. For me this was always intended to be formal and presented as professionally as I could make it. The plan was 3 such sessions over the year, each resulting in a video showcase performance to be presented to their patron Anglia Rippon. The first which we were working on, was inspired by the Coda from Act2 of Swan lake, I would kick it off with Odettes solo (me). Costumes for my Swans, I was providing in he form of romantic tutu skirts and feathered head-dresses, they would provide white T shirts. The Summer piece was to be inspired by Don Q, with he Market place scene, followed by the Entrance of Kitri (me), then my lovely villages would dance an adapted Seguidilla (fan dance), I would close it with Kitri’s solo from Act 3. Costumes for this one is quite easy with colourful gypsy skirts and tops., I have a plentiful supply of fans and roses for their hair. Christmas piece was to be inspired by the Nutcracker, with my lovely ladies dancing an adapted version of Waltze of Flowers, Sugar Plum Fairy solo (me), Grand PDD if I could persuade my Adrian to partner me. All would dance an adapted version of the Finale. As for “If your teacher has let this go for so long now it could be because she saw the break as technically out of her supervision.” I really don’t think that applied and to be fare she was usually in the studio watching with the ladies who were not dancing (our audience), and I certainly remember here passing the comment to me, “they did really well didn’t they” As for “You will just have to go and get the Silver Swans qualification to teach Michelle!” “ No I have no wish to be a BALLET TEACHER”, I see coaching rep as being somewhat different. In any case if I were on a course with RAD being taught how to teach its likely to result in a big of clash of cultures, I’m talking now specifically about teaching rep. I have fallen out many times with RAD, particularly at Elmhurst when the only information they would release, was the name of a ballet for a rep workshop, for me that’s unacceptable, it seams totally unstructured and down to what that particular teacher feels like teaching on the day, the focus is on her, not her dancers who are paying for a service and represents extremely poor value. The thing that sets me apart from RADs style, I have the rep documented before we start coaching any rep, which includes pictures of all significant poses etc, every dancer has a copy, I always give the schools teacher a copy out of courtesy too Dancers will follow my demonstration which would be much the same as any other class. However before I close the session, I dance through the next week’s work so my dancers know what to expect, rather than being freighted of the unknown for the following week. Hi FlexyNexy Just coming back to your original question about what Adult Dancers wear, if I can take my Swans first of all. When I first joined them, it was either dark mostly black leggings or thick tights, but always ballet slippers, again I think at that time they were all black but I may be wrong, it was like being at Saint Trinians. As time as gone on and possibly because I wear traditional ballet class wear, several of the ladies have now wear colourful wrap round skirts and a few leotards too. No one has copied me yet with a tutu, as for about the past year, every other week, I have danced a solo in full costume during their break, but never at class. Basically go in ballet slippers, that’s a must and comfortable clothing and see what everyone else is wearing. Hi Meadowblythe Thank you for the link, sadly I see Saturday the 29thh Feb is affected when I have a Pointe-work workshop. I think my only solution is to drive down to Cockfosters then pickup the Piccadilly line into London Grrrrr, another early morning start

Murphy's law is a popular adage that states "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Or so it seams. 1) The day before Christmas ever our economy 7 supply to night storage heaters stopped working, its down to a faulty time switch which is part of the sealed tag electricity meter installation. I reported it to British Gas, our supplier, the day after boxing day, we cant have anyone out to fix it until the 10th Feb, I’ve also raised a complain email with them too. 2) Adrian my partner fell sick with a really nasty cold and hasn’t shaken it off and sadly wasn’t able to accompany me to ENB Le Corsaire performance at the Coliseum yesterday. 3) I ordered a DVD pointe course from Australia and tracked it back to the UK, found when it had arrived at my local Post Office sorting office that duty was due and could be paid on line, I called in that Saturday morning but was told it hadn’t been processed on their system yet, but I could pay the duty on-line. Needless to say I paid it that day on line expecting it to be delivered Monday morning. Monday morning the Postman bought a bill for the duty, I told him I had paid it, showed him the on-line receipt. He said I should be OK for me to collect it. At the sorting office they wouldn’t allow me to have as it had been put out for delivery the next day, however If I hadn’t paid the duty, but brought the card in to pay, and paid the duty to them then, they would have given it to me there and then Grrr. 4) A new year phone call from my Silver Swans teacher and dance school owner advised me someone from RAD had forbidden them to allow me to teach the Silver Swans rep, as I hadn’t been trained by RAD for Silver Swans, also I wouldn’t be covered by their insurance. To be fair that was a real shock, especially as the request to be included in my rep during their class brake came from the Silver Swans themselves. But never the less I have always seeked the permission of the teacher and discussed everything before hand with her and it had always been a really wonderful and supportive relationship . I guess it all started when I allowed one of the ladies to accompany me as the Queen in the Fairy of the Crystal Fountain Variation. The roll was largely passive but contained a lot of mime gestures between us through the choreography; I also took in a royal robe and crown for her costume. I think the thing she loved the most, was at the end of the piece, when I took her hand and we both took our curtseys together, I know she really loved it and it gave me such joy to see her pleasure. Since then I have had several of the ladies express an interest in doing something with me. At the end of the last half term before Christmas I approached the teacher about coaching volunteers from the Silver wan ladies during the break between the Ballet and Tap classes, she was very supportive and at the end of the class that day told all her dancers I had an announcement to make. I announced what I had proposed for volunteers after the half term break, I also indicated my method of coaching, and for those that attend rehearsal to the final video showcase there would be a “Certificate of Achievement” in recognition of voluntary participation etc. This would be signed by me as the “Choreographer and Repertoire Coach”, and not the teacher. As I explained to the ladies their teacher teaches the ballet steps and movements between them, I create the dance and how its to be performed, I know some will think I’m splitting hairs but that my perspective, I’m as careful as I can be without knowingly treading on anyone’s toes . By signing as “Choreographer and Repertoire Coach” I’ve also included on the signature line Member of the International Dance Council – CID and the crest of the International Dance Council, both of which are on the signature line which I am perfectly allowed to do under the membership rules. This last Tuesday I went in to say my “goodbyes”, I felt really awful that I had let the ladies down, however the ladies and their teachers have made me promise to come back periodically and do class with them and perform more of my solo’s for them as I have been doing over the past year or so. I think everyone of the ladies gave me a hug before I left, it was so sad and I felt quite choked. 5) Pointework: Although I have been strengthen for pointe since just after Ballet West in August with the help of my rep coach, I lost her at the end of November, however just before she left I took a foot stretcher in as I was getting frustrated with progress even though I had physio working on my feet and ankles too. What we did find using a foot stretcher with my old broken bloch point shoes, it did allow me to create a reasonable line without a huge amount of pain, afterwards I was starting to see some meaningful improvement. I was hoping by December I would at least be doing some relatively basic exercises on pointe but that wasn’t to be and I extended it to Christmas day. I think it was the day after boxing day that I first put my new Freed pointe shoes on, I had attached the ribbons with the help of my teacher/coach back in August when I was first had them fitted. I remember her advising I should walk around in them first and do basic rises well before attempting to physically break them in by hand. Well that hasn’t been that successful and quite uncomfortable even though I’m using gel pointe shoe pads. So I have invoked plan B, last Monday I bought some of my original Bloch Serenade pointe shoes, I didn’t even bother getting the fitted as I have had them before and my old ones fit like carpet slippers, they are really comfortable other than I have broken the backs on them. I checked before hand I had both tread and ribbons, collected them on Monday only to find the ribbons were too narrow, however I did find some of the original, just about enough to do one shoe. As I was I Sleaford on Friday for a fitness class, I would call in to the ballet store and get the ribbons then, which I did. In the mean time I have followed the pointe shoe preparation guide on the DVD by Lisa Howells and Vicky Attard, as far as I have gone is to locate the arch at the beginning of heal and start to massage the shank there, its much tougher than I expected, Lisa suggests massaging it in increments which is as far as I have got, already it’s a really nice and comfortable fit to stand on pointe, I’m still to do the softening for the semi-pointe break and sew the ribbons on, but that’s all work in progress. I’ve also booked a beginners pointework workshop with Franziska at Holistic Ballet at the end of February. 6) I have finally have a rep coach for the future but unfortunately for her first week she has had to cancel, oh poo I really wanted to get started on La Bayadere for our intensive week with Ballet West in August, I'm doing less there this year as I'm effectively on a war footing for dancing on pointe, as I’m throwing everything in to it, I even suggested at one time my physio use a steak tenderiser to bash my feet to soften them to increase the arch in his foot stretching. However most of rep for Ballet West will not be on pointe, only one PDD if all goes well. 7) Rail Disruption: Yesterday was another on-stage workshop at the Coliseum with English National Ballet learning a piece of rep from my favourite Ballet “Le Corsaire” and then I planned to seen the afternoon performance with Adrian my partner. Sadly Adrian was ill from a nasty cold and was too ill to make it. The day before I checked train times as it’s usually an early start for me. Oh shock the normal 50 minute train journey from Peterborough to Kings Cross was going to take 2 hours including a change at Ely, to do this I was up at 3am, if I hadn’t booked to see the performance I think I would have cancelled the workshop, but I made it and really enjoyed it. 8) When I arrived home Adrian had the presents of mid to check rail disruptions for the following weekend as I planned to be with Enavant Ballet doing a Pirouette Master-class. Things were even worse, the 50 minute trip was going to take around three and a half hours with 4 changes each way most with replacement buses, needless to say I cancelled the Pirouette Master-class. 9) So I think Mr Murphy has really had a hand in all these things going wrong and finally to top it all, I had a ballet mug with two pointe shoes on it and my name, I have had it since around 2013/14 and Adrian bless him broke it last week. Do you really have to be this tough to survive with Mr Murphy around in ballet?

A very enjoyable first class with Jo on Friday, most exercises were barre based, lots of plie’s in first and second position which included pulses with the ankles on a rise, I certainly felt the effect of that in my quads the next day. The session also included a little bit of centre and floor based exercises including a few jumps towards the end. Although most exercises were derived from ballet a few were more traditional fitness stretch exercises too. I would certainly recommend it, and will be going again next week.

Declaration; I have no commercial interest in this venture but I will be attending the class . These sessions start on Friday 10th January between 10am and 11am, those that can do come and support it., its a drop in class for Fridays. To contact GoDance Studios Tel 01529 300930 An innovative fitness workout based on the principles of classical ballet. The class will strengthen and tone all the key muscle groups. Using the latest dance music. All levels welcome. Contact Jo on 07826374922.

Is this the WavePad Sound Editor by NCH, if so I have it, or at least an evaluation version which I have never used, although I think it came as a suit of programs from NCH. I know each time I boot up this laptop up, its asking me if I want to buy it, I guess the full version. I have just checked that it does in fact run, but I don’t know all the features that are excluded, but the full version does allow the import of some video files, the free one doesn’t

I think one crucial point is what is your source of your music, from an orchestral CD, or from a video clip of a ballet. For me the accenting of the music is likely to be quite different. The reason I ask I have tried to load video files into Audacity, admittedly mine is from an old version 2.1.2 and it didn’t appear to load any video files at all. Goldwave on the other hand does load both .WMV and .AVI files which extracts the audio which can then be saved to 15 different audio file types, I tend to use .MP3 mostly but have used both .WMA and .WAV. However I did find video files of .MP4 and FLV did not load with Goldwave. Hope this helps

Gold wave in its effects menu has a function called "Time Warp", and Time warp has 3 selectable options Rate Which does change pitch, Similarity that does not and FFT which also does not and but give best quality for music. Before selecting the effects menu, you would set the start and stop time in the music for the segment you wanted to modify

Goldwave is worth looking at, I used to do all the music editing at a previous Amateur Ballet Company and at one time its sister contemporary dance company too. Goldwave will certainly do all you’ve ask for, amongst other things it will allow you to change the tempo of a phrase for things like pirouettes which is sometimes very handy without cutting the music rendering the transition virtually undetectable. I found this particularly useful for the third Odalisques variation in Le Corsaire for its sequence of 5 pirouette / arabesque combinations.

Thank you SwanFlake, but in reality as time goes on I’m trying to do less in terms of classes, as that’s not really effective for my learning. I’m trying to leave sufficient time for analysis correction and preparation, rather than hoovering up all available classes, which I once did. I think my special thanks must go to Peony and the other members of the forum tat tried to point me in the direction of the Enrico Cecchetti Dipolma DVD. Unfortunately I’ve only just started to look at it. Its absolutely brilliant, there is so much commonality between that and Advanced 2, in many cases even the music is the same. Sadly I’ve only had time to look at the first 3 sections on the dvd, there is no Barre section on the dvd. These are 2 Port de Bras, Traditional centre practice, 3 Adage and 4 Centre Pirouettes. I guess the only significantly big difference is with the pirouettes which are 4 turns instead of doubles with Advanced 2. For me one of the things I like about the way this dvd has been put together, it less like a demonstration and more like a ballet class with a teacher Diane van Schoor. She corrects a small number of dancers, even though those dancers are all professional, 3 from the Royal Ballet and 4 from Birmingham royal ballet. The studios used in the pieces I’ve seen, look like those in the Royal Opera House as I recognise the Macmillan studio in some scenes. I would certainly like to do class with that teacher. As it is I will be starting my one-to-one Cecchetti on Wednesday the 8th of Jan, I know its not going to be easy by any means, as every little bodily movement will be scrutinised until it conforms to Mr Cecchetti methodology. Rehearsing the Swans is sorted for Tuesdays, at least I know where I’m going with that one. Finish the Swan Lake act2 Coda we started, Summer its extracts from Don Quixote as this will be an easy one to costume, then Nutcracker extracts for Christmas, assuming I can keep our ladies suitably inspired. Rep for Ballet West looks like Mondays now, although I was hoping for Fridays after attending a New Ballet Fit class close by, I’m now just waiting conformation with my new rep coach for Monday mornings. As regards classes for pointe, for the moment I'm going to wing it, I have the plan that me and my previous coach set up, plus I’ve ordered Lisa Howell’s beginners pointe DVD to help fill any gaps in the short term. However I know my Cecchetti teacher also teaches pointework and she is aware I will be calling on her in the near future.

Wow how things have changed, in the past I have always looked forward to the holiday break from a fairly intensive weekly schedule mainly of rep, for me it has felt the equivalent of work. I think now I have lost my rep coach together with the Christmas break compounded with a future which is a lot less certain, I’m foundering a bit. I have approached one person for coaching that I have felt a real connection with, but that has sadly fallen through, there are a couple of others but there are compromises which I don’t really want to make at least not at the moment. For the moment I’ve tried to keep busy with a few workshops over the Christmas period, and upgrading my studio. As the days go by, it seams very much like a series of Saturdays, it’s very uncanny. The tracking camera system was a bit of a challenge as it took much longer to sort out than I had anticipated; as a result I lost 4 days working around that. That in itself had an impact on my pointe prep program which I try and dedicate at least 5 days a week to (2 days at 3 hours, the remainder just over an hour) with no more that a single days break at any one time. I’m glad to say the tracking camera system is finally sorted out and fully functional. Its now on to the integrated lighting system, but that has come to a bit of a halt as the lamp assemblies I need to check out, are on back order. I guess the only thing that is keeping me going for the moment is the focus on pointe prep from the program that my rep coach and I developed, prior to her leaving. So for the moment I’m on my own, however I’m adding to the mix Lisa Howell’s Beginner pointe program as I already have a physio and a masseur as part of my team helping me with this initiative. Ultimately I know my Cecchetti teacher also teaches pointe and I will most likely will engage her on a one-to-one basis. After Christmas I must start to re-familiarise myself with the Cecchetti Advanced 2 Syllabus I was taught last term, especially as I will be doing one-to-one with my teacher next term and a second class with her on alternate weeks while I’m not rehearsing my Silver Swans. I contacted Catherine Hutchon Chair of the Cecchetti Society Classical Ballet Faculty at the ISTD for an update on the revised Advanced 2 Syllabus: It will be on the Cecchetti pages of the next issue of ISTD Dance magazine that is about to published. The Advanced 2 Technical notes and Manuscript are now available from the ISTD shop. The CD is due to be available in January, but the DVD is not ready yet and teachers will be notified when it is, so essentially no real help there. As suggested by my good friends on this forum, I’ve now invested in the Enrico Cecchetti Diploma DVD from the Royal Opera House shop, I think it was the only one they had, it’s a single DVD but the pack also contains a Blu-Ray disk too, quite expensive at £99.95, but hopefully it will be a good reference I can draw upon. Sadly I haven’t had a chance to look through it as yet. My BBT performance group sadly still has no teacher for the New Year. I do hope we still get to do a performance in June again. My one-to-one Intensive at Ballet West is already booked for August 2020 as is the accommodation in that part of the World for Arian and my self, at least that part of my schedule is still there.

Although it seams strange running up to Christmas without my rep coaching sessions, at least some things are coming together. When I arrived at the Silver Swans before their class, it seamed unlikely we would get enough dancers to proceed. At the end of the class I was fully expertly to have to call a halt to teaching our showcase piece, but miraculously we had 6 dancers. It probably sounds a bit crazy that I now have 2 columns of 3 dancers for my Coda Corps de Ballet. This week I danced their steps with them as a member of the corps, but with Odette’s gestures for their cues, they seam to get on much much better. That was my last week with other than the 10th which is their Christmas lunch, which of course I will attend. Cecchetti: I’ve finally got my teacher to agree to do weekly one-to-one with me, which releases me to attend the Swans every week while I’m conducting their rehearsal. Once we have this piece finished, I will return back to attending every other week and dance a solo for them as it has become expected. The next Swans piece I will launch around Easter. As for Cecchetti when I’m not with the Swans I will get both Cecchetti sessions in during that week. I’ve just started on phase 2 upgrade of my home studio to a mini performance recording space. My first acquisition is a PIXIO robot Cameraman, it’s a camera system that track a dancer wearing a tracking device. I haven’t yet selected the actual camera as apart from 4 K UHD and possibly auto zoom, but it must have external audio/mic input, as my audio is processed and comes from a mixing desk for special effect if needed. Backdrop and lighting is next.

It seams that I have come to a bit of a cross roads with ballet, as I now need to change things somewhat. Firstly: I have lost the lady that has been both coaching my rep and also preparing me for pointe. Sadly for the time being she is leaving teaching dance at her school and taking up full time work outside of dance, never the less she is still carrying on looking after the admin there, her two remaining teachers are taking up the slack. God how I will miss her, we have been working together one-to-one twice a week for something like 6 years. However she has offered the possibility of doing the odd infrequent session at my studio, but I have said leave it until you have settled in as it would be a big ask on my part. The rep side for Ballet West, most is already there as we were not able to dance it this year through injury. As for pointe strengthening, it’s a case of carrying on with the same plan until the shoes go on, then I have a pretty good idea who will assist me with that. So I guess I will be looking for a one-to-one coach for only one day a week initially, I have a couple in mind, but the relationship between a teacher and coach is much different, so I hesitate just a bit in using one of my existing teachers. Secondly: Cecchetti isn’t going quite as well as it should, mainly because I miss alternate weeks. Although I see my Cecchetti teacher every week for body conditioning and try and quiz her on the session I’ve missed, sadly I was given the wrong info about the last session. Instead I was well prepped up on what I was expecting as it made sense against the flow we had through the Syllabus, other than the number of reps were a little different in the Australian video version. Grrrr on the next session I attended, it turned out that they had be doing something different. I know it would make more logical sense for me to attend that class every week, but to a degree my heart sometimes does tend to rule my head, even so I have asked my Cecchetti teacher if I can do a one-to-one with her every week. It just didn’t get the enthusiastic response I was expecting, but she didn’t say no. Thirdly: My conflict is the alternate weeks with the Silver Swans, although I learn absolutely nothing from the class, I have enjoyed immensely performing solo’s for them during their break between ballet and tap classes every week I go. I think my last piece for them was the Odalisques third solo. Just before the last half term break I canvassed opinion as who would like to join me in dance, as one of the ladies played the queen in the Fairy of the Crystal Fountain variation for me with various mime gestures passing between us during the dance, she loved it I was overwhelmed by the response, however it was short lived; when I went back to that class I had only 2 volunteers for my Corps de Ballet in a simplified version of the Coda of Act 2 Swan Lake. As I had everything prepared I decided to kick it off with my two dancers in the hope of inspiring some more. The teacher asked how many do I heed for the absolute minimum, I said 6, but I could probably just about make it work with 4 (Just hoping for more as potentially we have 17). The next session they manage 3 and I was fully prepared to abort it and sadly let that class go. Magically a fourth person appeared. We went though what I had scheduled for them in week 1 and 2, but progress is extremely slow. To help them I have fully documented their rep with pictures of all significant positions and poses. Not only do I dance it with them, I dance the next session for them as a preview so they know what to expect rather than apprehensive of the unknown. If I can successfully pull this together for a showcase for the school, then I really will need to attend every week to keep continuity with them. In that case I will have to persuade my Cecchetti teacher to do one-to-one sessions with me. However when I’m not conducting the Swans rehearsal, it’s my intention to drop back to every other week with them and carry on dancing my solos for inspiration. As for Cecchetti I would continue the one-to-one session but attend the other class on alternate weeks. Christmas: I guess I’ve finally succumbed to the idea of getting the Cecchetti Diploma DVD for my own Christmas present, after all if all that strict discipline get to much for me, I can always go back to ENB to regain my freedom of expression, as this is what it felt like as I enjoyed one of their on-stage workshops this weekend at Milton Keynes.

Interesting comments my lovely dancing friends. 1) Kate_N’s comment “it's about having a feel for the style and its nuances, as much as the strict adherence to a textbook.”, I couldn’t agree more, but when things feel intuitively unsound, I find it very difficult accept without proper verification, especially if my teacher is unsure too”, these are quite rear events so please don’t get hung up on my comments. For me now, I have two main video references, a full set of Advanced 2 video downloads from Cecchetti Ballet Australia Inc and the UK Advanced 1 DVD. The presentation by the dancers are somewhat different the Advanced 1 DVD seams very clinical and without emotion, almost boring to watch. Where as the Advanced 2 from Australia, the dancer at least smiles and appear to enjoy their dance including the barre. On the down side some of the Australian videos demonstrating double attitude and arabesque turns are somewhat insecure as they almost approximate a promenade. Even so I still have a few issues with both video sources about the absolute correctness of some movements within certain enchainements. 2) Several have made the comment, that queries should be made to the teacher, in simple terms I have. I’m also aware that my teacher has addressed queries through two other teachers, I have no idea how they fit into the faculty at the ISTD, qualifications or membership, however what I am aware of (from my teacher) that they are not teaching the Advanced 2 Syllabus until such time as the UK Advanced 2 DVD is released. That result for me in the short term is, I’m not likely to get my issues resolved fully, other than a consensus of what we three think. But it I think it must be clear by now that I am not one to wait. 3) What is really disappointing, is when I have raised issues with the Cecchetti Faculty, they have largely been ignored, to me that is down right rude and unacceptable, a simple reply to say “I’m sorry we can’t help you with that”, would have been better than nothing, otherwise one is waiting in anticipation unnecessarily. It begs the question “Is this part of the wider ballet culture that has evolved”, the reason I ask this, when I was with the Alive Ballet Company, it was a real issue getting email replies from studio’s and performance venues by my Artistic Director, so much so I took over the roll of production manager to make things happen, I had the time and the mindset, the strategy was simple; If I got no email reply with a couple of days, I would follow up with a phone call, that resolved most, if that was unsuccessful then I would visit the afternoon before my rehearsal. Although the strategy was simple it was still an awful lot of work with sometimes up to 60 venues to check out for availability and costs for two dance companies, as we had a Contemporary dance company too which also had to be catered for. To be fair I quite enjoyed it and took on the roll of Head of Costume and Music Editor too. It was a sad day when our Founder and Artistic Director emigrated with her family to Australia, however it looks like us dancers who were with Alive Ballet Company in London will be invited out as guest dancers in Australia towards the end of 2020, can’t wait. 4) As for LinMM comment on petit battement, my experience has been similar, but the wrapping leg has mostly been off the floor for a full foot supporting leg, I’ve been racking my brains as to who taught keeping the wrapping foot in contact with the floor, always remembered it as polishing the floor, and of course Cecchetti does, one of my very first correction. On releve the supporting foot for Cecchetti should be on ¾ pointe and the wrapping foot just off the ground (toes are inline with the arch of supporting foot). This is the same for both Traditional and Additional, but as Kate_N indicated arms are different, 5th en bas traditional and second additional, the only other difference in our barre exercise is 16 petit battements battus (Serre), have been added with a slow port de bras to additional. Initially traditional and additional start the first part of the exercises on full foot, similar with frappes. The only time I do petit battements on a full foot now, with the wrapping leg at cou-de-pied is on a balance board. I guess in some ways this has been one of the best classes I’ve attended for actually learning, both in terms feedback and then having to successfully repeat the movement with corrections correctly, everything is closely scrutinised but in a really nice way. The one thing I find annoying difficult to do, is Cecchetti very basic port de bras, Not the port de bras exercises themselves, they are quite nice and very pretty, love them. But it’s mainly that which is used in barre exercises. Whilst I know what is expected, my view is it just seams far too stiff and without feeling, even taking that on board, I really cant freeze my wrist action on breaths or opening to second Grrr, it almost involuntary. My teacher refers to it as being wafty, but to be fair I have suppressed my quite wafty flamboyant port de bras which I think originated from my days with ENB. I remember having a conversation with Sarah Lamb at a rep workshop on Juliet’s solo from act 1 about port de bras with the skirt, she very much frown on it , although its was used by Alessandra Ferri when she danced as Juliet, I really like it and incorporated in my version I took up to Ballet West this year. Similarly Natalia Osipova does a beautiful port de bras with her skirt in Giselles solo of act 1, again another one I incorporated. I guess that’s my other passion, dancing rep. Hence I can only attend my Cecchetti class once every two weeks, the other is at my local Silver Swans, at least there I get a captive audience to perform a different solo in costume each time I see them every two weeks. I just wish I could incorporate both every week.

Hi Peony I didn’t mean that we did additional on one side of the barre and traditional on the other, however some times we do. Its teacher’s choice as how we do a particular exercise on both sides or not as with the direction. Doing a single exercise on one side and a different exercise on the other is more about time management and leaving sufficient time for exploring exercises that we haven’t yet covered as they are seldom strait forward. I guess its also worth pointing out our other dancer is a ballet teacher in her own right, in fact my first ballet teacher. Ok about your comment “There is a list of teachers with the final diploma somewhere”. I have contacted Sharon Orme coordinator of the faculty for Cecchetti at the ISTD for the contact details of one of their guru’s that would be able to help us with the interpretation/queries that we have with the Syllabus exercises, but as usual no response, what a surprise. I contacted the same office through email, text and phone, I even intended to visit them to get a response to when the UK DVD would become available, eventually it was kicked upstairs to Catherine Hutchon Chair of the Cecchetti Society Classical Ballet Faculty before I got a response, so I am by no means passive. I just wish they were as responsive and helpful as Cecchetti Ballet Australia Inc. Finally, I would be grateful if you would share the reference to your definition of Traditional and Additional, as requested in my previous post.

Hi Peony Many thanks for the definition of “Traditional” and “Additional” exercises as used in Cecchetti Ballet, I must bow to your extensive historical knowledge of Cecchetti. After seeing your posting I did do a search for your definition in both each of the Advanced 2 course documentation and also on line, unfortunately I could find anything, I wonder if you would please share your reference. As for the flic flac according to Gail Grants Technical “Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet” it came from the Russian School. Her mention of the contact with the floor she describes it as “brushing the ball of the foot along the floor passing through fifth position and finishing with the pointed toe crossed in front beyond sur le cou-de-pied” I cant help but think the length of time the foot is actually brushing the floor is quite variable if in fact it does actually touch, I definitely would never describe it as solid as a “CONTACT WITH THE FLOOR” the time in the clip below is extremely short but is very much in line with the young lady demonstration the advanced 2 exercise. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=723697021039921 The comment that I made about the Advanced 2 video “in the video example the gesturing foot actually just touches the floor about 2/3rds round, to give a little extra push to finish face front.”. After looking at this again in slow motion the dancer dances this exercise each side twice through, only the first time does her foot accidentally hit the ground which I would use your words as in “contact with the floor”. However what I have discovered, the following exercise which should be faster version of the one described, is danced somewhat differently although the caption of movement preceding the exercise is the same. My first thought was the UK and Australian versions may be different, however the Australian videos caption, doesn’t match what the dancers doing, but it does fit the music. Just some of the little inconsistencies we come across. Your comment “If you were to do the exam you have to know both versions and the examiner asks for which they want- it’s a huge syllabus! “ Firstly I agree whole heartedly, it is a huge syllabus. Secondly we are always dance both versions. Thirdly not only are we covering the whole syllabus we are covering the none exam exercises too, that is all combinations where the dancer has a choice in the exam, eg 2 from 4 different types of turns. Fourthly learning a combination in our small group (2 dancers) is quite a slow process as it has to be thorough. Mainly it’s a detailed study of the references from the associated documents which are quite detailed, so a bit of a debate follows and we walk it through; it really is a joint effort from all three of us, where a quality training video would help enormously. What we now have is extremely helpful but I guess non of us fully trust it to be exactly the same as the UK version, but it is a lot better than nothing Fifthly once we have learnt a combination we are expected to dance it from its description each time our teacher calls for it. There is no following the teacher at this level. With only 2 of us, our teacher gives lots of helpful corrections, you cant help but learn, however you know when she is displeased, thats when you get the same correction a second time, even a week or two later. For me I like it even better when I get the opportunity to do a one-to-one with her, usually when our other dancer is on holiday. There is one tiny thing that sets her apart from most other teacher which I think is a bit special, its when we part company at the end of class and we say our goodbyes. As I only attend that class every other week, I usually say “I will see you ???” and she will always reply “Oh yes please”, that really makes one feel special and valued.

Hi Linda I was like you, I had done the movement with the heal down thing hundreds of times before, but never knew its name or even if it had one. My problem with this movement was, it wasn’t being done like that, whilst I could make the first set in the barre sequence work with 2 counts per movement (4 count for twice through) the second set had three movements in 3 counts, that was just messy and felt wrong, when I queried it, there was a lot of uncertainty, and what was being done was a lift, which was a corruption of a Battement releve lent. In the second set of Battement releves, there should be only one tendu out, the heal drops are on each of the 3 counts only, however after the drop on count3 the foot lift of the floor in preparation for 16 battement degages (Battement Glisses in non Cecchetti), first one to derriere. It was just the name of that step that caused confusion, needless to day that step is only a small part of the overall exercise. One characteristic of their naming convention is to have a standard exercise which is the smaller one, followed by an additional, the additional means it has some additional movements embedded in it and slightly more complicated. My turning flick flack is my interpretation as it seams to make sense, for us it is a centre practice exercise, there are two version one slow and the other quick. Neither of us can get through both sides twice with the music, even the so called slow one is quite fast. Basically you just have to know it, it has to be in the body as there is no thinking time. Doing it without music and having a little thinking time is no problem. The fast one will be a real challenge. Most of the exercises in the Examination Specification are cross referenced in one of the three reference books I mention in my previous post, although they are generally very detailed, there is sometimes a little something missing, one that I’ve pickup a couple of times, is certain movement that are done on a releve (conventional ), it often doesn't state where you returned to flat supporting foot, for me that’s feels intuitive, however when I have queried it with my teacher, if it doesn’t say, you stay on releve, if we have a moan, her responses is you’re big girls now you can do it. Thank goodness we have the Australian videos, at least it sorts out those. One of the things I’ve found quite irritating at the barre, is the position of the arm away from the barre, in generic ballet classes its usually placed in second, but in Cecchetti it assumes fifth en bas, I feel a bit like a penguin in a strait jacket and quite often I forget initially until after the exercise has started and realise my arms drifted to second. However there is some really nice port de bra exercises in the Examination specification one of those I have adapted for use as part of my pointe strengthening which takes place on a balance board, with the gesturing leg at retire and the supporting leg flat. Most of our port de bra exercises incorporate grand battement with changing position, those I’ve obviously taken out. If noting else it really strengthens the supporting leg with nice music and beautiful movements, just love it.

Hi Peony Thank you for the link, yes I was aware of that DVD, I came across it when I did a Global search for Advanced 2 DVD’s, furthermore my rep coach also gave me that link to the ROH shop too. That DVD is quite expensive at £99, but then all of the Cecchetti DVD’s tend to be expensive at £55 from the ISTD shop. I chased the ISTD some time ago and finally got a response from Catherine Hutchon, Chair of Cecchetti Society Classical Ballet Faculty to indicate they were hoping for the end of this term for it to be released, I guess by Christmas. For me when I run up against an unfamiliar term, when its danced in terms of musicality it need to make sense, and one of those movements didn’t, it was a new term that had crept into Advanced 2 that wasn’t in Advanced 1, it was simply “Battement Releve”, it had been mis-interpreted as a variation of the Battement Releve Lent from the Russian School, and what was used for me simply didn’t fit the music properly and when queried, it seamed it was a new term to everyone. That said I hunted around for a you tube example on the internet, or description on an on-line ballet dictionary too, but nothing found. Eventually I did a global search of all major Cecchetti Establishments and the only one that had DVD’s or downloadable videos for Advanced 2 was Cecchetti Ballet Australia Inc, at first the UK wasn’t on their country list to export but they placed the UK on it for me. So at least I now have some idea of what to expect, but I am also aware there may well be minor differences too. “ our Battement Releve take place after the working leg is extended out to pointe tendu, the heal momentarily drops then returns back to pointe tendu. Strangely enough I sat in on Vienna Festivals Ballet pre-show warm-up and during their barre, Emily their ballet mistress said “releve” and then dancers heals went down, wow I thought Cecchetti training. Later I asked Emily about the Battement releves, she also commented it’s used in the Russian school too. Even at today’s class I have another query on the precise definition on one of the centre practice movements, even though we have the Australian video to help us. The words and what takes place don’t quite gel. The Exercise has turn and this is what it states “Execute two fouette type movements’ en tournant en dedans that is: Open right foot to second position, en l air, so that the pointe is raised 4 inches from the ground, and immediately sweep the foot across the ground and bring it sur le cou de pied devant. REPEAT the movement with the same foot and bring it sur le cou de pied derriere During these two fouette’s execute a pirouette dedans, returning to face 5” (Corner 5 in Cecchetti is in front / audience. Firstly it may just be a play on words “ Sweep the foot across the ground”, in the video the foot moves as the first part of a flick flack close to the floor, it doesn’t touch the floor. My impression is that this is actually a turning flick flack, however in the video there what I think is a bit of a cheat as on the turn with the gesturing leg at cou de pied when it should be going through changement from front to back , in the video example the gesturing foot actually just touches the floor about 2/3rds round, to give a little extra push to finish face front. At the moment we are waiting for the definitive UK version Advanced 2 DVD As for the Cecchetti Diploma DVD, I guess ultimately I will get it when I have done the Advanced 2 to death, however I am not following a qualification path as my passion is dancing repertoire from the classics

A couple of week ago I performed my last of Odalisque solo’s (the one with all the Briese’s) for the ladies of my local Silver Swans. That is something I’ve been doing for a while now, even though I only attend them every other week, I do perform a solo in costume for them every time. Gradually more and more of the ladies have shown an interest in joining me for something simple. So that week I cleared it with their teacher and then asked them if they would like to join me as my Corps de ballet for a piece of Swan Lake. I had anticipated around 6 to 8, however I was asked by at least a couple that I thought would not want to be part of it, but asked if they could try it, wow that’s brilliant however it does set me another challenge, as when the piece is finished I would like it showcased on video for our patron with all our Ladies in Romantic tutu’s. I already have 4 and was anticipating buying 4 more low cost ones from my local ballet shop, however those are no longer available and the ones that are, are considerably more expensive. Needless to say I’m now designing a low cost romantic tutu kit, hopefully for them to sew, but I will buy and supply all the materials, potentially that could be up to 17 tutu’s. Although I know the majority of them would not be willing to wear a leotard, I guess if we can substitute that for a white T shirt which would be more acceptable to them. They will not need these until close to Christmas. The piece I will be teaching them is essentially the Coda from Act 2, as I will kick it off by dancing Odette’s solo which precedes it, they will dance a very simplified version of the corps coda, I will then come in with the Coda solo for Odette, then finish the group piece with all of us into our little finale for the final photo pose. Tuesdays for me is a day of extremes with one week of Silver Swans, with the following week of Cecchetti Advanced 2. Even the Advanced 2 isn’t strait forward, I’ve had several queries which I have raised with my teacher, she has two teaching colleagues that she has passed my queries too, their response has been, they will not teach this standard until the accompanying DVD is released. I have also emailed the faculty of Cecchetti at the ISTD but they simply don’t reply to my emails on technical queries. At the moment I am using 4 documents to unravel what is required by the syllabus: Advanced 2 Examination Specification A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing (Cecchetti Method) The Theory and Practice of Allegro in Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) The Theory and Practice of Advanced Allegro in Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) I am also using the full set of video downloads for Cecchetti Advanced 2 from Cecchetti Australia, although they look very similar, both me and my teacher are uncertain as to how well the exercises fit the UK standard. Although I miss alternate Tuesday for this class, I do see my teacher for a Body Conditioning class every Wednesday evening, I usually query what was taught on the weeks I miss which at least help me stay up to date. My other main activity of the week is preparation for pointe , as I’ve substituted one of my private rep coaching session for prep for pointe. I see there is another thread on that topic so there is little point in me posting here, although it’s likely to be quite different with an awful lot of homework.

Hi RuthE Like you I did both classes in one evening, the Intermediate followed by the Advanced, at the end of the evening there was a bit of a chat with a few of us and our teacher Kate, one of the guys mentioned a sticky floor but I didn’t experience it. Tendu’s were absolutely fine, I do recall going for a double in one of the pirouette exercises, it seam to almost stall towards the end of the second turn but I just put that down to me. I see a friend of mine manage a double OK. I know when I was at the old studios in South Kensington, there was a period when the smaller downstairs studio was extremely sticky and tendus were virtually impossible, you had to cheat them by virtually lifting the foot off the floor before moving it out. At the time the floor used to leave a blackish deposit on the bottom of your ballet slippers, I ended up complaining for several weeks. More recently both of my classes were in the large upstairs studio and that was always fine. In terms of the floor at the new building I would rate the slippyness, if there is such a word, as similar to my own studio which has a Harlequin sprung floor with Harlequin Cascade vinyl covering. At least 3 studios I use every week do have wood flooring, they are considerably slippier. I guess it’s what one is used too, I was perfectly happy with the new ENB floor and I have already spoken to LinMM about their floor and of course LinMM has sampled the floor in my studio too. I am also aware that temperature in my studio does have an effect on slippyness of the vinyl floor covering(less slippy as it gets colder), but I don’t think that would be an issue for ENB.

Last Wednesday the 2nd October was my first visit to he new English National Ballet Studios on London City Island. I was attending the Intermediate and Advanced taster classes. I guess for me it was mostly curiosity and to check out the convenience of travel and the surrounding area for café/restaurants. Travel for me via underground platform to platform Kings Cross to Canning Town via London Bridge was about half an hour. However I couldn’t find anywhere on City Island to eat but there were plenty of eating places within about 5 mins walk from Canning Town tube station. We were told to arrive about 15 minutes before class, I arrived about half an hour before, however the attendance sheets were already out, one for each class, that just required the attendees to tick them on the way in, and out again as they left. As I was booking in my teacher “Kate” arrived, I’ve known her many years mostly from ENB rep workshops on the stage of the London Coliseum, she recognized me immediately and we had a bit of a chat. After booking in, me and a few other girls had to wait until 6.45pm before they would let us into the public changing rooms. The female public changing room was on the ground floor and were tiny with lockers present on the wall. I had a pull along case, it was far to big to go in, so I decided to take it in to our studio as I would have done with the old studios in Markova House, another girl had the same problem. I think in the end almost everyone had taken their things into the studio and we all placed them near the piano so they were well clear of the ballet barres. Our studio the Linden was on the second floor. A friend had posted some picture of the ENB studios the week before, the walls looked as if it was corrugated metal in a large industrial building, how wrong I was, the wall material was both soft and warm to the touch, it was in full length floor to ceiling strips, I guess they were acoustic panels. The studio was very large, almost square in shape with mirrors on 2 walls and absolutely gorgeous. There were ballet barres on three of the walls. The wall without a ballet barre was mirrored, but there was a portable barre too. Both classes were well attended but there were far more at the Intermediate class. For me it felt like I was coming home as I knew several dancers in both classes, even though it’s been 3 years since I last attended them. They are still of a good standard and I thoroughly enjoyed them, even though I will not be enrolling for this term. The visit to ENB had its highs as mentioned above, but I re-experienced some of the lows I had experienced 3 years ago that involved the travel arrangements. Firstly when I arrived at Peterborough railway station, the car park was full and I had to use the over-spill car park. I really don’t like that park when I’m arriving back after midnight, it’s a long walk down a narrow ally with crisscross high wire fencing on both sides, there is a single camera that I could see at one end, its quite a walk and I cant help feel just a bit vulnerable. When I was doing rehearsal in London on Sundays there was always 400+ spaces available in the main car park, but I guess most are taken up by commuters in the week. The second issue is one I had already forgotten about, the build up of Lactic Acid in ones legs after nearly 3 hours of fairly active ballet and then sat on the train for the journey home. In London to Kings Cross I was fine, but immediately I got off the train at Peterborough my lower legs and ankles were stiff and quite painful, it all came flooding back as to what happened before. My solution then was a combination of things; firstly my classes in the end were the opposite way round, advanced first followed by intermediate, the intermediate felt like a bit of a cool-down as it was considerably easier. I also avoided the long walk back from ENB to South Kensington tube station and caught the No 10 bus from just outside the Royal Albert Hall to Knightsbridge tube station, then Piccadilly line to Kings Cross.

Hi LinMM Just a thought, I wont be staying to watch Company Class, after the workshop, I will probably have a quick coffee and chat with our dancing friends in the break and then leave to catch up with Adrian, as he will probably be bored being left on his own. He is only there to see Le Corsaire especially as he has danced some of the rep with me. I’m also doing the ENB Le Corsaire workshop at Milton Keynes too, it will be interesting to see if they are teaching the same piece of rep at the Coliseum.