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Adult Ballet - questions, answers, classes and info


munchkin16

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Don't know if this goes here but anyway, I attempted the elementary ballet at danceworks again after last years disaster! Not sure I will be able to walk tomorrow as its been a week since i danced and I am definitely not used to 1 and a half hour classes. Anyway it was good, didn't really pick up the combinations as they were really fast but I learnt from her general corrections. I also need to invest in some canvas shoes, I may be making excuses but turns feel twice as hard in leather shoes that stick, I swear my pique turns are normally better!

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Don't know if this goes here but anyway, I attempted the elementary ballet at danceworks again after last years disaster! Not sure I will be able to walk tomorrow as its been a week since i danced and I am definitely not used to 1 and a half hour classes. Anyway it was good, didn't really pick up the combinations as they were really fast but I learnt from her general corrections. I also need to invest in some canvas shoes, I may be making excuses but turns feel twice as hard in leather shoes that stick, I swear my pique turns are normally better!

 

I am glad to hear that munchkin16! Glad you enjoyed the class.

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Well done Munchkin it takes some considerable courage to do these open classes if you are not used to them. Were you the youngest there? The opposite end to me.....I'm usually the oldest one!!

 

You may find if you were doing that class more often that the teacher has been following a theme for the centre combinations for a week or so which means others in the class will have seemed to have picked them up more quickly because they have been doing the class more often.

Also you get used to a certain teachers style.

 

Can you get to an additional intermediate class each week where you are? Intermediate class is usually 1 and 1/2 hours duration so if you could get two in a week you could build up a bit more stamina.

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Thank you LinMM, I was terrified when I went in! I think there were about 3 people a lot younger than me as I think they were regular students of Anna. One of them was tiny but very good, so it made me feel very inadequate.

 

I think it was the case, certainly with the barre, the warm up she didnt even demonstrate but they all knew it. I think if she slowed down the transitions and arms I could do most of it, I'm just not fast enough yet at learning things but it was good for my brain to have to think :) around here intermediate classes are still only an hour or if you are lucky 1 hour 15 minutes. I'm looking at another school to add a class but I'm just worried about the cost. Either way, I need some more unset work, I feel that syllabus classes teach you some of the theory, but they don't really teach you to 'dance'.

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It's my understanding that in the school holidays, Anna's full time students are asked/invited to do her classes at Danceworks. That may explain why the younger students already knew the warmup.

 

I expect her termtime classes have more adults. :-)

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I thought that was the case, but then most of the class knew it as well! I enjoyed it but probably would do even more at a lower level. I like to perform the combination and as it was so fast I couldn't even consider that, to be honest I didn't really hear the music I was concentrating so hard!

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Also at Danceworks is a good teacher called Franziska Rosenzweig. She teaches on Thursdays and Sundays.

Her classes are at different levels but will be at least marginally/lot easier than Anna's class depending which you do.

 

She also runs day workshops for adults every few months which either concentrate on particular aspects of technique(eg: pirouettes) or cover bits of repertoire.

If you go into Danceworks website you should find her there. She may be worth a try if you want a slightly easier open class.

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I would love to take one of those workshops but cost is an issue and also, I can't afford to go to London too often. I try to use my other trips as a way of getting a class, like yesterday, but it means the level I take has to fit with other timings, otherwise I would have gone to a beginners class! I will definitely bear that in mind next time I go up though, the sunday class sounds nice :)

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probablly a bit off tangent here, but I found this lovely video clip of young Miyako Yoshida (among others) in training at RBS.  The talented young things are slowly and carfully propared for serious partner works. (Please do not ever attempt this at home!)

 

The reason I am posting it here is to avoid expouser to younger members of the board.  We all know how some keen teenagers are... (I was one of those in my time, too)   I don't want give these well-meaning  (but still too impressionable for their own sake) teenagers any ideas to start DIY partnering training at home (or hired studio)!.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuWjE2L5MX0

 

Janet, I was thinking about making a new thread where we can share our Youtube finds on ballet.   Do you think it is a good idea?  I am not sure if it might creat some copyright issues for the board...

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I think we have to sometimes exercise caution with Youtube.  Where film clips are obviously official releases there is no problem at all; or if the publisher of the clip obviously owns it.  If it looks dubious we should not publish to be on the safe side.

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I think from the clip one gets the sense, not only how hard the boys work but also how brave the girls are.  I loved partnering but finding one's face suddenly very close to the floor in a fish dive is very disconcerting!!

 

I had one partner who was so tall that when he lifted me I got that elevator feeling in my stomach.  But he was also so strong that I knew if he had a hold of any part of me -- I would never be dropped.

 

An assumption is often made that the lightest girls/women are the easiest to lift - but that is not so.

 

A poor partner can make the greatest ballerina look like a beginner whilst a good partner can made an average female dancer look terrific.

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He is only 11 and just done his first term at vocational school - there will be partnering but probably not just yet .... He has come home weighing less than eve and not wanting to eat much so I have been talking about muscles and a healthy fat/lean body make up to encourage better duet as he has no need to be as slight as some if the girls are !....he has however done a lot if duet work in modern dance with several lifts , but none over the head !!

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Looks very precarious.....ALL of it to me (the lifts theme not the plies) .......though even they can be precarious when done in the centre......which I don't anymore unless in second......especially the "fish dive" one because of the level of movement in it. :(

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is some news about advanced classes in Chelmsford on the first Sunday of every month.    I have today become an associate member of Chelmsford Ballet  which was founded in 1947.. Doreen Wells and Christopher Marney are its patrons.

 

As you can see they are taught by people like Sandra Madgwick.  

 

I can't even dream of grade 6 and I live 200 miles from Chelmsford but these classes may be of interest to some of you in Essex, Suffolk and London.  

 

I am looking forward to their Nutcracker at the Civic Theatre in March.

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I am glad that my mention of Sandra Madgwick at Chelmsford Ballet was of interest Janet McNulty.   

 

Talking of Sandra Madgwick has reminded me of Birmingham Royal Ballet's Fille and in particular the clog dance.  The bloke I represented yesterday was a clog maker would you believe.

 

It is always a thrill to be taught by a leading dancer.   As a Friend of Northern Ballet you will know Christopher Hinton-Lewis.   Imagine how I felt when I actually attended his class.

Edited by terpsichore
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Two interesting titbits that I have come across on Facebook today which may be of interest to adult dance students in this forum:

It is good to know of another place in London for the days I can't get back to Leeds or Huddersfield for my usual classes. I will try out and review one of Rambert's classes one of these days.

 

Although Cardinali's article is directed to professional dancers there's plenty of good advice for folk like me who learn dance for fun. Indeed there is plenty of good advice for life in general.  i have mentioned it on my twitter stream because it would apply with at least equal force to folk who are starting their careers in my profession which actually shares more in common with dance than many might think.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have just taken the very first adult ballet class at the University of Huddersfield's swanky Student Central Buildings. Here is my review:

 

 

"Our local university is The Times Higher Education  University of the Year. The university's website notes:

 

'The award comes at an exciting time at the University with its new Student Central building due to open in early January. The new building will form a central hub, home to the Students’ Union and support services plus a state-of-the-art sports centre and gym which includes an eight court sports hall, two squash courts and two dance studios as well as a gym kitted out with Technogym Artis technology.'

 

I tried out one of the dance studios at 18:30 this evening when I attended the first adult ballet class given by Fiona Noonan. Fiona also teaches at The Base Studios in Huddersfield.
 
Today's class consisted of about 20, all women, most of whom were quite young. Although the class is open to the public I guess that at least half the pupils were undergraduates. For many of us it was our first lesson.  
 
We started with pliés, then tendus followed by glissés, ronds de jambe, fondus and développés at the barre and then some centre work which included chassés and posés pirouettes. Finally, we finished with stretches. 
 
This class was just what I needed. My confidence had taken a knock a week or two ago when I fell flat on my face trying to do posés pirouettes that I had not really mastered and I was starting to ask myself whether at age 65 I wasn't getting a little bit too old for this ballet malarkey. One day my body will say "no" and I think that is likely to happen sooner rather than later but until it does I am going to pack in as many classes as I can. The London Ballet Circle shared a poster on its Facebook page from Étude Ballet Boutique with the words "Money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you ballet classes which are kind of the same thing," Oh how true.
 
The class meets every Wednesday during term between 18:30 and 19:30 in the Student Central Building which is opposite Sainsburys. There is plenty of street parking at that time. For those using public transport the university is perhaps 5 minutes walk from the bus station and slightly further from the railway station. Classes cost £5 per hour."

 

Edited by terpsichore
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