open class - etiquette for the centre

[LinMM]

I think there is a massive difference between other parts of the country and London where attending ballet classes is concerned.

 

If I was a teacher running a small class with maybe 4-8 attendees and run as a "general" ballet class then I would adapt the class into a couple of levels.....one to challenge the more advanced and one for the ones needing an easier level. It's not actually that hard for a teacher to do this with a smallish number of pupils.

 

However in London if faced with possibly up to 30 people at varying levels I would want to split more into those levels and not have them all in the same class! This would be to make for more satisfying teaching and hopefully for the students to get more out of the classes. The number of students in a class does make a difference.

 

I agree with mimi that doing a class "below" your dance level is great for getting to grips with the basic technique and I have at least one class a week which is at a more basic level.........because of the luxury of choice in my area.

I'm not sure where you are based Mimi but if its London area and you don't find a more beginners class soon I may be able to help!

 

Where spacing etc in class is concerned if I notice there is someone who is particularly bad at it I just make a mental note and make sure I avoid being in their space as much as is possible. It doesn't happen that often thank goodness and as I've said before I always avoid classes where there is absolutely no discipline applied by the teacher at all......who in the end is the one responsible for what is going on in the class and how it is organising itself(or not as the case may be)

[alison]

What is beautiful about ballet is there is never an "easy" class, whatever level it is.  In fact, the more experienced (both in chronologically and in substance) dancers take basics very seriously and do not have sort of  issues about not wanting to attend "lower" level classes. Beacuse in any class, there will always be something one will work on and try to be better than one is the day before.

 

I'm glad you said that: I'd very much like to do the occasional class at a level below my current "intermediate/advanced" (the only thing available near me), as I've always thought that going back to basics every now and then must be really good for your technique, and make sure you don't/haven't develop(ed) bad habits.

[Thecatsmother]

Sometimes what can appear less to an untrained eye is in fact more. Basic classes are of value to all dancers at different points in their dance career. If we are talking at adult level, there is no need for it to be a competition with others. It is more about enjoyment and achievable personal goals plus those magic moments where it is almost like time stops and you become one with the music/movement. It's almost like an altered state of consciousness but once experienced it is never forgotten.

[Michelle_Richer]

I guess I feel some agreement coming on and that cant be right (About the going back to basics class), at least 8 of us at ENB do two levels of class, for me one under pins the other. However as I do lots of different class, they are also at different level and also accommodate a wider range of movement taught that I would not experience from just a couple of classes. Also amongst my classes I have three teachers that regularly attend classes as dancers, so there is no surprise there.

 

LinMM

At our level 2 class at ENB which normally limits dancers to 28, did use the easy harder option tonight, I have never noticed it before. I can’t say I remember seeing it at level 3, I guess by that time you are expected to know what you are doing.

 

Mimi66

Remember the conversation we had about me navigating through dancers that had stopped, with my travelling turns. My level 3 ENB teacher gave an interesting demonstration tonight. She place a number of dancers together, they couldn’t have been much more than a foot apart in both dimensions (X and Y), and she navigated through them using chasse pas de buree’s to demonstrate looking where you are going. Girl after my own heart. If that’s not spatial awareness I don’t know what is. I can just here the cringes “do try this at home”.

 

Ref my last post

Unfortunately I didn’t quite give all the facts, the enchainement was part of our show sequence. The part I referred to was in-fact in error, I wasn’t sure so I did ask the question of my teacher “Should WE be doing ????? or ?????”, the response was “ Oh yes Michelle your right it should be ??????”, and that was the end of it. I wasn't and didn’t come over as a smart arse, but it would have been wrong of me to leave it and get it corrected later when that had been embedded as muscle memory in the other dancers. I guess that’s contrary to the thinking of many on this forum, especially where they have developed from a long term child-teacher relationship and perhaps that dependency is still there. For me, I have never had it so I guess its new thinking.

[mimi66]

[...]

 

When I had the opportunity to take a basic class I found it tiring but satisfying.  I make sure that when I attended such a class that I stood behind those who were at a beginning level - it was their class - I was a guest.  Unless the teacher asked me to demonstrate or otherwise stand in front - or lead a group - I stayed in the background.  I didn't want to distract the others or in any way have them feel intimidated.  I know that sounds posh - but there is a visible difference between someone who has danced ten - fifteen - whatever - years and those who have danced for a 2 or 3 years. 

 

I tried in every way to show them the respect their efforts deserve.

 

Yes, Anjuli, thank you for pointing out yet another important class manners.  It is so important to be aware of who is the target audience (as it were) of that particular class.  If one is not in one's usual level class, then one is a guest and should behave accordingly.

 

Generally people remember and observe this kind of common courtesy, which is lovely. 

[mimi66]

Michelle, I am only writing this because a lot of people read this thread, including those who in their late teens or 20's who is thinking about starting or getting back to ballet, and I do not want them to get a wrong idea. I would not normally bother to tell you this otherwise.  Please do not see it as a personal attack.

 

Willingly encroaching other people's space, particularly from behind is a classic form of physical bullying.  You may call it "navigation", but in a open class setting, and particularly when marking and everyone in front of you stops, you shouldn't be overtaking those in front of you, full stop.

 

Your teacher's demonstration is to show the skill you need to acquire in a totally different context: when you are actually dancing (not a mark) and how to cope with an unexpected situation, for example the people in front fell down.

 

I may also add that surely when your teacher demonstrated her "navigation", surely those two peoople were static and not dancing? Even if they were, they were expecting someone to come from behind and that makes huge difference. 

 

As I wrote before, if you want to keep marking (as you do) then you should stand in the front line throughout that class. That way you get keep marking to your hearts content without taking over other people.

 

The most important spatial awareness in ballet is to be able to dance with other dancers in a given formation, keeping your assinged position in relation to the group, and keep safe distance.  No points for taking over people or zig-zagging.  It's ballet, not an obstacle race or a dog agility competition!  If you must, please do that at home only.

[mimi66]

...and that reminded me another etiquette.

 

when marking while other group is acutally dancing that enchainement, one should always take care to give enough space for those who is doing the dancing. Priority should always be given to those people who is having their turn.

 

In a crowded studio that probably means no marking at the back of the room. Actually the correct form is not to mark behind the group actually dancing, as it is distracting for teachers to see.

 

Also when going across the floor in small groups, do not mark in the area where you start your enchainement, as people need to see who is going and who is not, in order to form and space appropriately. Also one should not mark near the finishing area...obvious but not always observed.

 

I think the key is to always be aware where one is standing in relation to what is going on in the class and with others. Believe or not, this is a skill in itself which takes a few years to develope (though some people never seem to pick this up).

 

I would have thought this would be one area adult dancers would excell, given most of adults drive. But of couse, in order to be able to do this, I guess one has to be able to pick up enchainement on the spot (say about 80% of the time) and can reasonablly work out the left side on their own to be able to work out where one need to stand in relation to the whole class at a given time of the class, unless we are talking about beginners level which is the place to learn and master these skills.

 

Unforgivable are those who has (or should have) those skills but just don't care... but that's life and we grin and bear it. Mind you, just bear it, not forgiven!

[Anjuli_Bai]

If you are the dancer or part of a group of dancers coming down the diagonal (or downstage) and the preceding dancer/group has stopped - for whatever reason - I would not advise navigating around them - ever.  

 

They may have stoppped for a reason - not just memory loss - but perhaps something on the floor. Then  they may decide to walk off to the right or left - upstage or downstage.  This is like the car in front of you stops - you don't know why - but you navigate around it and then to your horror discover a dog in the road - a child - a wheelchair.  

 

The reason they stopped is not the issue - it's the fact that they stopped.  The way that is fixed is for the teacher to teach them that if they must stop dancing they still must keep moving to get out of the way.  

 

As Mimi66 says the teacher's demonstration of navigating is quite a different thing.  There was a time when I could do piqué tours en dedans sur la pointe in a figure 8 to the right and then without stopping switch to the left through a line of stationary dancers.  But that ability was NOT used to navigate through dancers who had for some reason stopped in the midst of an enchainment.

 

The impact of two (even slim female dancers) bodies can be quite devastating.

[alison]

I think the key is to always be aware where one is standing in relation to what is going on in the class and with others. Believe or not, this is a skill in itself which takes a few years to develope (though some people never seem to pick this up).

 

I was wondering during class today whether these nasty modern-day habits of "stroll and scroll", walking around with a phone clamped to your ear/earphones plugged in etc. are actually having an adverse effect on people's ability to do that in a dance class.  After all, I think most of us are aware of how much less aware many people are of the people surrounding them nowadays.

[Michelle_Richer]

Mimi66

 

Interesting points of view: Firstly when working for corner to corner it’s a herd response from the dancers, as everyone is in very small space marking the music with the teacher in front. But never the less there is some parallelism, but in many cases it develops a bit like a wedge in distribution. It’s unlikely every one stops exactly at the same time unless the music stops. So its not quite as clear cut as it would seem.

 

As for personal space to dance in, you give that up when you cease dancing. In that I’m not implying anyone is going to collide with you or push you out of the way, but if your not dancing its your priority to remove yourself from the dance area in a safe and orderly manner, that only common sense.

 

Marking as other groups go across the room I think is fairly common, but I have never seen it encroach on the active dancing area or the assembly point for the next group of dancers. Neither do I think it’s a distraction for the teacher or other dancers, but it is a valuable learning technique to reinforce the memory for the enchainement that they are about to perform. Marking in this way is almost done on the spot and occupies little space.

 

Your statement “one has to be able to pick up enchainement on the spot”, I think is invalid. Yes this is true if you only have one or two teachers and you have been with them some time. You will be familiar with there style, then you have few sequence blocks to link together, possibly 3 or 4. However someone who is not familiar with that teachers style may well have to remember and process 20 or 30 steps. In the real world we live between those two dynamics, the familiar and the fragmented. And of course how good the teachers instructional technique in presenting this enchainement also plays a major part.

 

 

Coming back to this popular term “Spatial Awareness”, I have never seen an issue with it in any of my classes. I know there has been a few comments of isolated incidence and I think that’s what they are. Spatial awareness come in to its own when you take a performance piece from the studio to the stage. The geometry is different and allowance has also to be made for lighting. Firstly when we took our performance piece from studio to the Angles Theatre stage, the stage was smaller and far less wide than our studio, so separation distance has to be scaled down. The entrance on stage was from the upstage right corner (wing), the enchainement segment we had for that was danced along the diagonal to the downstage left corner and back with 12 dancers going 2 by 2. This was fine in the studio, but on stage it took us back out of the lighted area and back towards the wings. We had to utilise an existing pas de buree to change direction by 90 degrees halfway through to then go towards downstage right corner and closer to the audience. After that we broke formation and reformed as two groups of 5 like a dice, on opposite side of the stage and a group of two in the middle. The two groups of 5 would mirror each other, one girl on dress rehearsal got completely disorientated during this change and she was no newbie. We had three other subsequence's to do with 3 or 4 dancers and a final sequence with all 12 dancer ending with our closing pose. A hell of a lot of spatial awareness was required as both the geometry and the sequences were changed at the last moment. I think every dancer during our week of performances did have a blank moment at least once, it just went with the territory and you coped.

 

As for the demonstrations of teacher skill navigating between stationary dancer that have been preposition is good. Navigating between moving dancers that have stopped dancing, and have no anticipation of the event demonstrates excellent skill in spatial awareness and motion. Why did I do it, because I can but never the less I don’t make it a habit, but I do think I aught to order a new red tutu for class just in case.

[mimi66]

I was wondering during class today whether these nasty modern-day habits of "stroll and scroll", walking around with a phone clamped to your ear/earphones plugged in etc. are actually having an adverse effect on people's ability to do that in a dance class.  After all, I think most of us are aware of how much less aware many people are of the people surrounding them nowadays.

 

alison,  Funny, I have just read something that said the same thing: how people walk right into each other nowadays.

 

I have also read somewhere that spatial awareness skill has a close relation to one' IQ.  Not sure whether it is true or not, but the thought of it makes me grinn (and make it a bit bearable) when someone walks right into me in a tube station yet again!

[straceydor]

I am pretty sure that spatial awareness skills are not closely linked to ones IQ. My non dancing son would be a dunce if so. His awareness is awful (he can't walk through a door without touching the sides) but he has an average IQ of 106 when it was checked

[mimi66]

Well, appearently younger students of Royal Ballet School have less coordination skills and less spatially aware compared to the previous generations (and I am sure their average IQ is about the same).  I can't recall who said this but it was in an interview with ex-head of Royal Ballet Lower school, I think.

 

Something to do with the life style changes, he said.

 

edited for typos

Edited November 28, 2013 by mimi66

[Ellie]

Well, appearently younger student of Royal Ballet School have less coordination skills and less spatially aware compared to the previous generations (and I am sure their average IQ is about the same).  I can't recall who said this but it was in a interview with ex-head of Royal Ballet Lower school, I think.

 

Something to do with the life style changes, he said.

I would agree. Children tend to use 'physical play'  less and less in these days of TV and Computers.They seem very aware of themselves, but not so much of others. I notice it in my students.

[LinMM]

I'm not a subscriber to the view that there is only one IQ level

I think there are intelligences for different areas but I'd be surprised if IQ in the general way has been mentioned would be related to spatial awareness!

 

It's like a lot of things it can depend on the circumstances.

In a dance class my spatial awareness is heightened to a degree but when I'm walking through doorways etc I'm quite likely to bash myself from time to time or walk into the ends of beds and so on......am often wondering where Ive got certain bruises from and then I remember....well mostly....oh yes I caught the edge of the table yesterday!! So there is that clumsiness there sometimes because my mind is somewhere else when doing things.

In a class I'm acutely aware of having to move through space so am a bit more present luckily!!