Simply Adult Ballet: the progress of one adult dancer who took up ballet later in life

[TYR]

Better day; morning class was a struggle but came out with working piqué/coupé/jété. Rep 1 was only OK but we pushed forward with Rep 2....on this one you get to do the "tube poster" passé rélevé balance with opposite arms so I'm totally here for that.

 

I am enjoying the not-totally-classical turns, too.

 

Natalie Karpf is also as good as people say on here; maybe the intro class I should have taken when I started? Lots of ultra specific floor barre-y smarts. Might have resolved the mystery of why my right foot flexes when I jump out of 5th or 1st.

[TYR]

So we finished it. I don't feel anywhere near as battered as I usually do after intensive week; not sure if this is progress, if I didn't push hard enough, or if I'm going to be unable to get out of a chair on Monday, which has happened. Alternatively, I didn't do as much floorwork.

 

We showed two pieces from Rep 1, one from Rep 2. The first in R1 really went well to the extent that even my partner thinks it was good and she is my most unforgiving critic. The second, not so much...I missed a step I hit in every other pass (wot?) although I did get the jump and the tube poster bit and in general the whole thing was a bit slack.

 

R2 was cracking except for the final transition to the floor where you pull a wind-up turn (like you're allowed to?) and deliberately fall out of it at the end so you can crawl backwards really fast to the wings. Before that, though, there are four different turns in quick succession including a piqué en dehors, an attitude turn, an en dedans from 2nd, and a wind-up from 4th...oh, and a relévé balance in parallel wagging your leg around and a bunch of other stuff so I was pretty pleased with that.

 

//Namedropper section: Senri Kou from ENB led R1, Pedro Lapetra R2, Begona Cao showed up for R2 showing, I spotted Richard Alston outside the front of the studio but it wasn't my business to bother him was it? Also some celebrity stan said Osipova was up in studio six rehearsing but I had class so I didn't go gawping and selfie hunting.//

 

Other stuff: I just now this morning realised why the rep class barre always included a rond jété - there's one in the R2 variation but everyone did it slow in centre even though we kicked on barre and now I miss that fragment of lost time every pass so much. Also I think I'd be insufferable if I felt like this regularly.

[LinMM]

It's great to push yourself quite hard every so often ( just not every week Hee hee) it's surprising what you can do sometimes.

i just did a great week on the Chelsea Ballet Summer school and on the last day did three classes ( including some Rep from Coppelia) which is what I would normally do in one week!!

[TYR]

Oh, and I took class again today.

[Fiz]

Good for you, TYR!

[TYR]

If you remember this:

I'm back. Much better, apparently.

 

[Michelle_Richer]

Last week was the first week back after the summer break or in my case a couple of weeks break after our week at Ballet West ( most classes but not all).

 

It has been a good start as I have started my next piece for Ballet West for the summer of 2019, Le Corsaire’s scene containing the three Odalisques. I will be dancing the entire eight and a half minutes of choreography which consists of several solo’s duets and pas de trios which is normally shared between 3 dancers. Not only are some of the movements quite challenging, but the stamina I need to carry this off will be quite demanding too.

 

Four years ago I created a solo for one of my visits to Ballet West based on the first couple of minutes of choreography from the three Odalisques. One observation my teacher made was, the beginning was boring as nothing was happening over the long introduction, but that’s how it is in the ballet. Then we introduced a walk round then chassis into prep with the music and almost immediately followed into the active rep. With that in mind I have included Adrian as the Slave Master who through a fairly elaborate introduction, introduces me to our imaginary sheik, I guess what we have done is more akin to introducing Medora with the removal of her veil. At the moment it works extremely well with the music, but I guess it will still get a tweak or two before we regard it as finished. Just need to find Adrian a suitable Arabian costume now. The piece is likely to be a little longer as Adrian intervenes with introductions and reverence endings where possible, this has been particularly useful for Adrian as I have grounded him from actively dancing until after his shoulder tear operation. I’m must confess, I’m  really exited by this piece.

 

The other significant thing that has happened this week as for the moment I’m injury free, I have started pointe work, or at least strengthening for pointe. Although this had been on the cards for some time, but something always got in the way, usually injuries as I have what one might call a self inflicted hazardous life style, still climbing roofs and trees. One of the recommendation from this years session at Ballet West “I should try Freed pointe shoes” as opposed to my old Bloch Serenades which I used for a short period some years ago. Needless to say I have been and had various pointe shoes tried during fitting and they finally selected Freed too.

Thursday morning my one-to-one coaching session is now been focused on pointe prep, I have come away with a daily work to list of pre-pointe exercises, however my coach has rained in the number of reps I was expecting to do. Sunday the 16^th  I will be attending The Alive Ballet Companies Pointe Worksop at The Place, however its likely I may still be on demi, although it would be nice to at least make a start on the barre work, but I’m in no hurry, as I really need to follow this though this time.

 

Although The Alive Ballet Company is not doing a Christmas performance this year as we are on an extended break until January 2019 when we get our Artistic Director back. I am starting rehearsal with BBT next Sunday, who have been asked to showcase as part of the London Performance Company’s Christmas show, really looking forward to it. I guess from January I will be performing with both companies.

 

Although my studio has become a place I can start to do ballet in now the excessive hot weather has gone. I have finally placed the order this week for Air Conditioning to be installed around end of October/ beginning of November. The electrics have been left to me. Unfortunately my qualified electrician friend is still convalescing after a back operation, so I will be left with the donkey work of digging trenches for the armoured cable and boring holes through walls, which is no problem after the studio build, anyway it helps keep my street cred of my catch phase alive “I’m a ballerina and can do anything “

 

 

[LinMM]

Well just watch you don't get a shoulder injury too Michelle with all that digging!!

See you next week.

[Michelle_Richer]

It seams ages since I last posted on this forum, its not that I’ve lost interest in ballet, I seam to have very little time now ballet has been stretched to 7 days a week, also what little time I have has been spent moving furniture and things around to accommodate Adrian and his possessions into my home. Although it was really nice but hard work with the major move this Friday, at least we had his son helping us. I guess I also learnt a new skill too and Adrian reminded me of my favourite catch phase “I’m a ballerina and could do anything”, I had to drive the Luton removal van we had hired and had to do quite a lot of reversing in narrow openings, something I wasn’t accustomed to.

 

I’m really sad that the Alive Ballet Company to which I was a dancer is unlikely to be reformed in the near future. Initially due to falling dancer numbers it was necessary to move out of the Danceworks largest studio in Central London to something more affordable, unfortunately some of our dancers were not happy to travel outside Central London for rehearsal even though a couple of years before we were based at CBAT near Holloway Road tube station. We did have the opportunity to keep rehearsals going with a sustainable studio at Finsbury Park, but that support and commitment from some of our dancers just wasn’t there, so it failed.

 

It seamed such a shame when most of us had leant quite a lot of chorography for our next show from Act 1 of Giselle, Act 2 from Swan lake and a Neo-classical piece too, which all went to down the drain.

As it was, everything was contained in the one day (Tuesdays) for me, Hair appointment at 9am, 10.30- 11.30am pre-rehearsal run thru at my local hall (before my studio), leave home for London 2pm, and return home just before 1am Wednesday morning, also with the time I was travelling by train in both direction, seats were always available, so I could do additional ballet study / documentation during the journey.

 

Now I’m with BBT, hair and pre-rehearsal takes place on Saturdays, rehearsal takes place on Sundays, but there are a couple of major drawbacks, firstly the trains are busy in both directions and often there is no seat. Also once I arrive in London at Kings Cross station, it still takes me another hour to get to the BBO studio’s at Battersea Reach, I just wish those Alive Ballet Company dancers who were reluctant to travel outside of Central London had this level of commitment.

 

Rehearsals at BBT are brilliant but quite fast moving, so far we have done the Pas de Trios from Raymonda and most of the Pas de Trios from La Bayadere, when everyone is there we have 4 guys in the company and at least 2 girls per guy, so an awful lot of partnering. The Christmas show with BBT is not now taking place but will go into the summer show some time in June. I ask if I could perform my Le Corsaire piece I have for Ballet West in the BBT show and our Artistic Director said yes, whoopee. Our Artistic Director is Sander Bloomhaert an ex Royal Ballet first soloist and a really nice guy and fantastic teacher. After rehearsal on Sunday evenings there is a stretch and tone class with some quite extreme partner stretching, just love it. However on Sunday we did a progressive splits type of stretch with our legs akimbo up the wall, where our teach went round to each of us in turn and adjusted the opening position by another half an inch or so, I think I counted about 4 iterations, before he closed our position. Although I have done this before I could feel it in the hamstring of my left leg, it didn’t hurt as such but a dull presents of something especially when moving into certain positions.

 

On the journey I was just a bit worried it might develop further as I had a UKA ballet exam the following morning. Although the exam wasn’t important to me, it arose as a couple of dancers from one of my local classes ask if they could sit some form of ballet exam, I guess the class would be rated as improver level. The reason I started to attend it in the first place was I used their studios at one time several times a week for my own practice and of course they let me run my rep group “Glen Ballet” there. That was about 18 months ago, and as a thank you I always attended their adult ballet class. I guess there was no way I could retain my street cred as a dancer if I didn’t take the exam with those of my class, however in reality for me it was quite different. Initially there were 6 other girls taking the exam as a group but 2 dropped. The four remaining did the exam together as a group; I guess they took confidence from each other. I did it on my own, but that was my preference, it also allowed me to approach my teacher about allowing me to change bits of her choreography, she was happy with that providing I kept the key movement for that grade, and of course she see me dance the finished version before she gave me her final ok.

 

I also ask her if I could perform it in a tutu as it had to be formal ballet wear, she oked that too, however one of our girls ask me if it sparkled because of the restrictions of wearing jewellery, that cast dought in my mind so I took 2 tutu’s on the day. My first choice was my Blue bird highly decorated professional tutu, the second another professional tutu by Just Ballet in White but quite plain other than some black decoration around the outer circumference of the skirt.

 

I think on the day most were probably in shock at me turning up in my Bluebird tutu, but for me it was just another performance. I was first to go in to see the examiner, I think she was just a little bit shocked too, but in a nice way. She said “Gosh just look at you”, “give us a twirl then” , I did a pirouette into a full down curtsy. She was really nice, but my favourite bit of the exam was the reverence which of course carries no marks, again I did my own thing as I really didn’t like the set piece, but that  was very much last minute, so I looked on you tube for inspiration but didn’t really find anything that stood out. Finally I remember a beautiful reverence from David Howard’s “Ballet Class for Beginners DVD”, but the music contained David’s commentary. I found a lovely piece of music from one of Craig Wingrove CD’s (Variation IV La Neige from The Seasons), however the music lasted a little longer that David Howard’s example which allowed me to do a Rond de Jambe into an elegant full down curtsy and on the rise open right arm acknowledging my examiner and then opening my left arm to my teacher, just loved it.

 

I even got to use the same version of Reverence at a different class the next day, this was at the Silver Swans at Bourne-to-Dance, in Bourne in Lincolnshire. This was another ballet school that I hired the studio for a couple of hours a week and then attended their ballet class as a little thank you. I stopped attending that school when I had my injury in the summer of 2017, so I contacted the school about going back about a month ago. Sadly adult ballet and adult tap has for this year been replace by exam classes for youngster, however I was offered Silver Swans, at first I was a bit reluctant to go as it really isn’t my thing, however its turned out to be quite fun. Needless to say I am a bit of a miss fit there as I am the only on in proper ballet gear and also an active ballet dancer. The class itself is quite large around 17 or 18. At the end of class this week we did a sort of basic reverence with two at a time coming down the centre of the room. The music sounded like the opening of Swan Lake Act2, it ran out before the last two ladies did there reverence, after they went I just couldn’t help myself, I just had to do my version, I started it off as the classes set piece, when I got to the from our teacher knew I was up to mischief and said “go for it girl”, I did my version of the reverence this time ending in open arm, my teacher opened her arms too and I got a wonderful applause from our Silver Swans, that was a lovely end to class that day.

[Michelle_Richer]

Phew, I’m really glad Half term is finally over and I can get back into some form of normality and actually know what day it is. Although it wasn’t organised that way, it was really useful for moving Adrian in, however on the down side I lost the studio for all practical purposes until today (Friday). Another downside of the move was, a beautiful base containing 3 ballerina figurines got accidentally damaged, one of them lost its head. Unfortunately we don’t know exactly when so its head was never found, sadly it was something I really treasured.

 

At least last Sunday the normal weekly schedule was restored with BBT rehearsal in London, however initially over half of the dancers were absent, so we couldn’t properly rehears the PDT we had be learning, especially as we had no guy’s. Instead we learnt a new solo, The first Shades variation from La Bayadere, not ever so difficult, but very fast.

 

Later that evening two of our guys arrive back from the Ballet Retreat, so we also ran through the Bayadere PDT and the PDT from Raymonda to keep it fresh in our bodies.  The icing on the cake for me was our stretch class which some of us attend after rehearsal, we did the partner assisted leg raises devant. This consists of your partner supporting your leg at 90 degree while you try and push down as hard and consistently as you can (contracting your muscles) this last for several seconds, then your partner list your foot as far as its comfortable for you, while you try and keep both the extended and supporting leg strait.  We repeat this procedure 3 times trying to take it progressively higher, my partner was lifting my leg for the third time and my teacher Sander came along and ask me if that was my good leg, to which I replied “yes”, he looked at my partner and said, I think Michelle could go a little high, and Sander helped my partner to get another inch. I’m really not sure what happened next, as the leg felt relaxed but strait, I took hold of the leg and pulled it even further in, it must have been another couple of inches. I have never ever had it that close to my face before. The right leg is another story its range devant isn’t quite so good and to be fair Im quite protective of it since my injury over a year ago. The right leg extended derrier and partner stretched in a similar fashion is seriously restricted in comparison to the left, also I can feel the numbness left after the injury in the side of my lower calf. The only thing that shows up in dance class after the injury to my right leg, is a developpe devant, especially if its done slowly, it ok until near to 90 degrees then it cramps and the thigh muscle appears to swell into a solid lump, I showed this to my local rep coach who is also one of my body conditioning teachers, she was a little shocked as not only could she feel it by touch, bit it was quite noticeable to the eye, and needless to say when its like that it hurts like hell. She offered to make arrangements to see a sports physio that she uses, but I have used similar physios before and I’m never really sure that their experience is appropriate. As its been well over a year now, its unlikely that this will fix itself naturally, for that reason I have now made an appointment with Liz Atha a chartered physiotherapist  that runs the specialist dance, sports and spinal clinic based within the new home of Northern Ballet in Leeds City Centre. Hopefully I should get some meaningful advise from her.

 

Although most things was back to normal this week, my Monday classes were still on half term break which included my one-to-one Le Corsaire rep, so we switched that to Thursday instead of strengthening for pointe. I guess next week it time to play catch-up. At least the studio is back, the electricians have been in today, Air Conditioning is being installed on the 16^th so everything is good to go, only a large mirror to take down and reinstall slightly lower when the Air-Con is in place.

[TYR]

Renato Paroni de Castro is BAAACK from his heart operation.

[Michelle_Richer]

Last Sunday’s BBT rehearsal and its stretch class that follows, I had a couple of very pleasant surprises for me. Firstly during rehearsal the guys were learning a piece from La Sylphides, I and some of the other girls were marking it at the back of the studio, to my surprise it had a couple of Cabriole’s derriere in it using both leg combinations. The last class I did those in must be at least 5years ago, possibly 6, on the odd occasion I have attempted them very unsuccessfully, but last Sunday night they just fell into place, which is really lucky for me as I know I will need these for the second part of the Le Corsaire Odalisques piece which contains three solo’s and the ending Pas de Trios. I just need to consolidate these now.

 

The second surprise was the front splits exercise in the stretch class. This consisted of standing with the legs in fourth open and squeezing a ball as hard as we could between our legs for approximately half a minute, then going down into front splits, for a similar period of time, this sequence was repeated 3 times. I did these three iterations with my right leg in front first, by the third iteration there was less than 2 inches between me and the floor, that is the lowest I have ever been by along way. However when I repeated the three iterations with my left leg in front, the gap was a little disappointing at about 4 inches.

 

I tried to repeat this in my own studio, first the ball was different, it was one of Adrian’s old footballs, the surface was circled and hard, it seamed to stick into my thigh and was very uncomfortable, when I went down into front splits with the right leg in front, I was about 9 inches off the floor. I think the essential difference was, I wasn’t properly warmed up, as on Sunday the sweat was literally poring off me as the class is quite energetic. At least it has given me some insight as to what is possible.

 

Unfortunately my home studio is temporarily out of action as we have had to take a large mirror down from what was the house wall and disconnect the main supply that ran round it, to make way for the installation of the Air Conditioning next Friday (16^th) whoopee. That should be the last of the big spends on the studio.

[Jan McNulty]

Video featurette on mature Adult Ballet from Australia:

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-11-13/older-ladies-reap-the-benefits-of-ballet-video

[Michelle_Richer]

Finally last Friday I got the Air Conditioning installed, however returning the studio back to normal did take a little longer than anticipated with repositioning the mirror that had to be removed and fitting new uPVC cladding etc. However although it was unplanned I did get an additional day in the Sunday which is normally our ballet rehearsal in London, but it had unexpectedly been cancelled late last week, so that helped enormously. Now the studio is the warmest room in the house and a delight to use. Now I can do some real catching up of rep which seams to have slipped in recent months.

 

The real downside for me of loosing Sunday in London, is our stretch class that follows rehearsal, the previous week we did partner assisted extension to seconde, even in my injured leg the extension looked quite good. However I almost pushed it too far with my left (good leg), although it wasn’t a 180, it wasn’t that far off until something gave a little “eek” at the back of my knee, and my partner let go. I tried a few developpe’s immediately afterwards as my teacher was somewhat concerned that I may have injured it, but it was fine.  For the moment I’m being just a little bit gentle with that leg as it’s a little bit stiff and not all studio’s this time of year are particularly warm. At least with our London stretch class the sweat is usually pouring off us before we attempt such things, I just love it as it extends ones horizon of what is possible.

[Harwel]

Can anyone offer any ballet school recommendations in Lincoln for my friend who is a complete beginner but very keen to learn ballet?  He has been recently inspired by Matthew Bourne. My ds is going to give him a few private lessons in the holidays but he will need a class and am sure would love some of the adult workshops available when he knows a bit more. 

 

Many thanks in advance.  

[Fiz]

Go Dance or Streetbeat. They both have websites. I know of no workshops locally as friends who do them have to travel to London for them. 

Edited November 24, 2018 by Fiz
Extra information

[Harwel]

That’s great Fiz, thank you. I will pass that on. 

[Fiz]

My pleasure.

[meadowblythe]

Joanne Haylock always had a very good reputation - personally know of a boy going from there through to Upper School.  

[meadowblythe]

How old the is boy?  Having re-read the post, maybe older?  In which case second the Streetbeat recommendation.

[Harwel]

Thanks meadowblyth, yes it’s an adult and Jo would not be the correct teacher at all. 

[Nicola H]

Streetbeat currently don't have the teaching hours to offer an adult ballet class ...

[Fiz]

Really? My friend used to go there and there were two adult classes and a dedicated pointe class! What happened? 

[All4dancers]

I know Lilac Theatre do adult classes but not sure about ballet.  Might be worth looking on their website.

[Nicola H]

1 hour ago, Fiz said:

Really? My friend used to go there and there were two adult classes and a dedicated pointe class! What happened? 

yep 

marginal numbers ,  teacher availability , the usual sagas ...  plus  syllabus  changes in their   awarding body has seperated   the higher grades and VGEs   which compounded teacher availability  issues 

Picture in Lincoln does not look good  for adult classes at present , the only  explicit adult ballet class  i can see  is the pay  per (long) term one at Go . 

currently  travelling to Sheffield  (Hype)  or Nottingham ( Lady Bay)  for my  regular classes 

Edited November 25, 2018 by Nicola H

[Nicola H]

51 minutes ago, All4dancers said:

I know Lilac Theatre do adult classes but not sure about ballet.  Might be worth looking on their website.

appears  just to be an adult jazz  class  (  and for  more advanced dancers possibly the   technique + pointe class that precedes it - but   looking at their website  that;s designed as an enrichment class for  their  higher  grades / VGE  students ) 

[Michelle_Richer]

Although this is a long shot, you might try Kat Anderson-Hendy, I think now has dropped her former (Anderson) name, to Kat Hendy. Kat used to run Adult Ballet in Lincoln under the name “Classes with Kat”, that was around 2013/14, I used to attend them and for a short period after that used Kat as one-to-one at GoDance in Sleaford, as the venue was half way between each of us.

 

I see Kat is Owner and Teacher at Elev8 Dance Academy and Principal of Hykeham School at Stagecoach Performing Arts Schools.

[Nicola H]

2 hours ago, Michelle_Richer said:

Although this is a long shot, you might try Kat Anderson-Hendy, I think now has dropped her former (Anderson) name, to Kat Hendy. Kat used to run Adult Ballet in Lincoln under the name “Classes with Kat”, that was around 2013/14, I used to attend them and for a short period after that used Kat as one-to-one at GoDance in Sleaford, as the venue was half way between each of us.

 

I see Kat is Owner and Teacher at Elev8 Dance Academy and Principal of Hykeham School at Stagecoach Performing Arts Schools.

Elev8 have a website and it does not appear  to offer adult classes  and  makes several  references to  3 -16 years old  ...  

 

Studio8   appears to have a full timetable of  fitness classes ... 

i've done  some pretty  extensive searching for classes  closer  than  Nottingham, Sheffield or  Sleaford ...   

with the  cessation of adult classes at Streetbeat  the only  adult class suitable for beginners  in Lincoln appears to be the pay per term  Thursday evening  class at Go ...   which i can't pass comment on  first hand ...

[Harwel]

Thanks for all your suggestions.  Seems slim pickings in Lincoln.  

[Fiz]

Afraid so.

[Nicola H]

11 hours ago, Harwel said:

Thanks for all your suggestions.  Seems slim pickings in Lincoln.  

and to complicate  things both the  Beginner classes that Lady Bay Ballet run ( west bridgford / lady Bay  area of Nottingham ) are  day time  ( Monday  and Friday lunchtimes) ,  although Hype's Beginner class in Sheffield is  Thursday evening.  I 'd heartily recommend  both Lady bay and Hype  as i take class with both on a regular basis

http://www.ladybayballet.com/ 

https://www.hypedance.org.uk/

i cannot comment on  either location for Go Dance (Lincoln or Sleaford) as i haven;t taken class  at  either ... 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Nicola H

[Jan McNulty]

David Kierce has got a new website:

 

https://www.beginneradultballet.com/

[Michelle_Richer]

On ‎29‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 23:24, Nicola H said:

I cannot comment on  either location for Go Dance (Lincoln or Sleaford) as i haven;t taken class  at  either ... 

 

Although I attend GoDance at Sleaford, Lincoln and Sleaford Ballet classes operate quite differently, so I took the opportunity of speaking to Lincoln.

 

Lincoln has two ballet classes:

Beginner/ beginner plus on Thursdays 8-8.50pm with approximately 8 dancers.

Intermediate on Tuesdays 7-7.50pm with approximately 18 dancers

No mention of pointe class and I didn’t ask, however they did mention a Cardio ballet barre fitness class at 3pm on Mondays.

 

Payment:

It possible to trial the first class and pay for that as a drop in for either the beginners or intermediate. Payment is otherwise monthly.

 

Sleaford differs in there is only one class, but there is talk of raising it to Intermediate after the Christmas break and starting a new beginners. The existing class is Thursdays 7-8.30pm, payment is half termly, although Adult ballet doesn’t usually have an half term break where the regular children’s classes do.

 

For those dancer who wish to follow a recognised award scheme, the UKA is offered as an option but it’s not in any way compulsory.

 

The two classes a Lincoln are taught by different teacher, neither of which I know.

 

Contact details;

GoDance

21 Carlton Mews

The Carlton Centre

Lincoln LN2 4FJ

 

Tel 01522 524875

 

Hope that helps