Michelle_Richer

Swan Lake Adult Repertoire Workshop 15th March 2015 St Marys School, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LY Students aged 18 and Above 2.30pm to 5pm (£36.25) Closing date Feb 23rd Don Quixote Adult Repertoire Workshop 17 May 2015 Fitzgraham Academy of Dance, Units 19 & 20, Forest Gate Industrial Park, Pewsham, Chippenham SN15 3RS Students aged 18 and Above 10.30am to 1pm (£36.25) Closing date April 27th Swan Lake Adult Repertoire Workshop 25th July 2015 Parish Hall, La Grande Route de St. Ouen, St. Ouen JE3 2HY Students aged 18 and Above 10.30am to 1pm (£36.25) Closing date June 29th For application form follow the link : http://www.rad.org.uk/documents/dance-school-docs/TrainingWorkshopApplicationFormFOREMAIL.doc Return the completed application form by the closing date by mail, fax or email to: Training Department Royal Academy of Dance 36 Battersea Square London SW11 3RA e: courses@rad.org.uk f: +44 (0)20 7924 3129

Hi Becky I think it’s difficult to establish if an absent dancer has a genuine reason or not, I think it’s even more difficult for the teacher to bar someone from that group when they have paid for the whole term. Even so with the best will in the world there will always be incidents when the odd dancer(s) will have to miss class, hopefully not too many at any one time that it disrupts the progress of the rehearsal. I found myself in that predicament the day before my City academy’s dress rehearsal when my car broke down miles from anywhere, whilst I was on my way to another rehearsal with LAB. As soon a the breakdown people got me home I was on the computer working out public transport routs and timing to get me to London that Friday morning for an 11am dress rehearsal at Sadlers. As I live out in a small village in South Lincolnshire about 100 miles from London. I did find a route, but it meant I had to catch the first bus in my village before 7am for the first leg of my journey. I did make it on time; in fact I was first there as it happened. Fortunately my car was repaired and back on the road for the Saturday (Show day) so I didn’t miss a thing, but at the time it was extremely worrying and frustrating. As for fitting ballet in, that’s simple I’m at that funny age where I don’t need to work anymore, I do still have occasional contact with my old company, in fact I’m with them next Tuesday at the Institute of Directors in London. As for family my partner died in 2005. So to be fair I have no ties other than my boyfriend “Adrian” for nearly a year now, who I have taught to dance basic salsa, we are now working on Bachata, then we have a bit of meringue and Kizomba to teach him. Part of that pact was he had to become my ballet scarecrow for partner work. I guess I’m being a bit ambitious as I have started him on what will be my version of the Nutcracker Grand Pas De Deux a he loves the music. I have given him a year for this one, as I intend us to dance it at this year’s next Salsa Christmas party run by our salsa group in Boston Lincs. Adrian stays with me most weekends but he does have to play second fiddle to ballet, that always takes priority.

I managed to check out another studio today, although its not quite as big as My Sleaford one, it definitely has potential, its fully equipped with the usual mirror, barres and sound system, it also had lots of natural light. What did impress me it was a nice wooden sprung floor which had similar slippyness to my local hall and the Sleaford studio both of which I’m using to get to grips with the Black Swan solo. That studio is booked for this Friday as they are on half term break next week. Hopefully the additional studio time will go someway to getting Black Swan sorted, however with next week being half term my rep coach is still providing me with a session but does not have to rush off to teach class afterwards, so I may extend the coaching period to 2 hours if it feels worthwhile. Thursday last week was frustration with the London Bus strike. I checked the tfl website before setting off, the 170 bus from Victoria to Battersea wasn’t on the list of busses running. Oh poo I though, I will have to travel to Clapham Junction and walk the rest to RAD, that I did. When I got to the street entrance of RAD I could see people waiting at the bus stops on both sides of the road, I walked over to a gentleman and ask him if the 170 is running, he said he thought so, with that the 170 bus came to his bus stop. Although the long route I had taken to get there was unnecessary, at least the journey home would be strait forward. My frustration didn’t end there, I still managed to arrive at least an hour early and as no one had the studio booked, I was able to do some practice, woopee that was great. However when the rest of the class turned up, about half were missing, there were only two of us from last week. It was especially difficult trying to dance in formation with so many dancers absent. My highlight of the week was taking my boyfriend down to my local hall on Sunday as I had booked it for an hour. He was my scarecrow for dancing some of the Nutcracker Grand PDD. Bless him he had never danced ballet before in his life, he managed to walk in time with the music bow and present, turn me then promenade me. We substituted the pirouette for a different type but only had time to check that out in isolation. We also checked out the feasibility of a fish dive, but I concluded he wasn’t strong enough to safely support my weight. For a ballet scarecrow he did do rather well. We looked at the repertoire and know we can cover over 3 minutes of it, the rest will be via substation.

Wow Balleteacher I am impressed, that is a very long clip of Dreas Reyneke’s Dynamic Fifth, I have his DVD and it 98 minute long so I am surprised at the length of this clip and its contents are excellent if not a bit advance. Dreas also has another DVD in the series called “Turning Out Dancers – Advanced Pilates with Dreas Reyneke. I have both. Dreas Reyneke, a world class Pilates teacher, devised this series of advanced graduated exercises for classical and contemporary dancers, dance teachers, gymnasts, and athletes. They develop technique to protect against injury, and practised daily will develop core control, balance, and symmetry during movement, and will strengthen the joints and improve flexibility. The exercises are demonstrated by three dancers from the Royal Ballet: Tamara Rojo, Johannes Stepanek, and Edward Watson, and English National Ballet's Désirée Ballantyne. After some discussion in one of my classes I’m starting to look at Lisa Howell’s flexibility program as I can now accommodate a time slot for that on Tuesdays and Fridays, also many of the Less Mills Body Balance routines have a lot of similarity with steps in Lisa’s Program. Becky : You may also find Less Mills Body Balance classes in your area at a local gym. They are quite fun to do as you will be doing them with others, but not necessarily dancers as it a general fitness class based on a combination of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates. Our instructor generally teaches the same routine using different levels and you chose which is appropriate for you. All of this was discussed some time ago on this thread on post #604.

Hi Becky Have you considered a wobble board to improve your balance, Dance Direct have them, see the Link http://www.dancedirect.com/uk/Products/Accessories/WB1/ As for strengthening the core, check out this video “Core De Ballet” by Scottish ballet, I used to use it. At Lincoln we have started doing a barreless barre, that certainly helps but its no picnic.

This is essentially the email I received: I am writing to let you know that the Unite union has announced three 24-hour strikes on London bus services as follows: • Thursday 5 February • Friday 13 February • Monday 16 February If the strike this week goes ahead, buses across London will be significantly disrupted from around 04:00 on Thursday 5 February until Friday morning. Buses during the day on Friday should operate as normal. All other TfL services will operate as normal. Bus & Tram Pass season tickets will be accepted on Tube, DLR and London Overground services via reasonable routes. Please allow more time to complete your journey.

I’m in Battersea on Thursday at RAD, that’s going to be fun getting there with the bus strike on. I guess its tube to Clapham Junction and then walk if the weather is kind, as it will still be daylight. No LAB videos for our group on drop box as yet. Had a good day on Monday, at least my hall is available for Mondays for the next couple of months. As least I had room to dance the Black Swan through or to at least where the travelling turns started in the ABT version, as I’m replacing that section with something that’s less repetitive and has a much nicer ending, well at least I think so. My coach was pleased with the progress we made at Sleaford this week but I was a little disappointed with still being in think mode with some of it, especially the double lame duck with its finishing position (deep plie on the supporting leg with the other in a long tendu, the upper body rotated so as the opposite arm is in line and almost touching the tendu foot, the other arm forming a rising diagonal line). Looking in the mirror it looked awful and at one period I was going to drop it as un-doable, then my teacher said, it was producing a good line. Then I wished we had recorded the session. We haven’t yet set it to music as there will be the inevitable tweak to incorporate our changes to the chorography. If my left ankle is still in good shape next Monday I’m hoping I can hire my hall for an extra hour, which hopefully I can get the end section in place and the whole thing flowing more smoothly and get it set to music before my coaching session that afternoon. At our Lincoln class that evening we had for the third week running a barreless barre session, it looks like that's becoming a feature now, it certainly make the barre exercises much more challenging. Since we are no longer doing rehearsals we have commenced pointe work again after many months without. Oh and I have bought my boyfriend Adrian his first ballet slippers, whoopee. I have the hall booked for a hour next Sunday as he will become my scarecrow for a few rudimentary steps in the Nutcracker Grand PDD, at least he can now walk in a circle properly to promenade me. Wonderful more re-choreographing to do.

Hi Lin I wish I had your memory. I remember many moons ago when I attended ballet class at Stamford and we did some really nice enchainments in the centre, I used to write those down. Fortunately I used to have lunch immediately after class in a café near by, that was an ideal time for me to write up what we had done. If I left it until the following day the clarity of that memory had become eroded and my notes a little sketchy. However I think the requirements for rep are more exacting, its not sufficient to just remember the basic steps, and of course the length of rep taught that evening can be quite long too. I find on some sequences I only remember part of what we have done, although like you I tend to remember by doing, sometimes something just doesn’t click. Then I find that a video helps from the fact you are not “doing”, then your mind is free to analyse and understand that piece of rep, then remarkably you think “why couldn’t I grasp it, its so easy peeze”, its just like magic. I know when doing rep one to one with my teacher and I will realise I have done something wrong with my head or arms, I will probably use a naughty word and indicate I got the head or arms wrong again, sometime my teacher will miss it as she is concentrating on my feet, its difficult to analyse everything all the time, but a video does record and display all of it. Similarly I cannot multitask with corrections being fired at me while I’m engaged performing various movements, that I find annoying and unhelpful. Last week before our LAB rehearsal I danced though what we had learnt in my local hall to make sure the timing was spot on with the music. I checked the sequence with the video and all seem well then suddenly the penny dropped, we had a bit of port de bra which took the arms to a tilted 5th and head too, this seemed unusual I guess that’s why I remembered it. Some of the previous choreography had been changed that week and I was unsure as to if it had been removed or not, however I had danced it through a number of times before realising this. After checking the video, yes it was still in and I had almost forgotten about it.

Hi Lin This last weeks LAB rehearsal we had quite a few missing which does upset positioning a little but it is still danceable. As you have missed a few weeks do you look at the drop box videos of previous weeks work to keep up to date when you are not there. Do you actually practice that work you have missed or rely on catching up when you get back. For me, I make use of the videos and allocate Thursday morning at my local hall for an hour rehearsal practice, for me its essential, especially early on when learning rep and its subject to change which ours has been. But then I’m working on multiple rep from different ballets. Hi CrystalBallet I think most if not all LAB dancers do other weekly classes during term time for polishing technique etc. Absent dancers on rehearsals is unfortunately a fact of life, its bound to happen fairly frequently as amateur dancer have other ever changing priorities associated with home and work. I think another aspect which is lost you should pull together as a team or company rather than a collection of individuals forming a class, I personally don’t this there is a strong cultural identity for this. However I do understand how critical this becomes when you get very close to performance day I know in one of the fitness classes I attend, just the way our instructor uses the term “team” when addressing the class, it almost as if you are very much a collective of “TEAM GB”, it certainly instils a feeling of belonging and wanting to do well as a group. My interest is in performing, it’s not unusual for me to be on rehearsal with three or four different groups at any one time. So additional general classes are out other than the two ENB classes I attend each week. For me as I haven’t had the vast years of ballet training that many of my fellow dancers have, I have to rely on regular practice and also one-to-one coaching sessions. So if I have to go the extra mile to keep up to date then I do, including gaining familiarity of the original rep that a particular school has created its choreography from..

Hi Lin You may want to consider one of LABs Summer Shorts if they run them again for this year. They are run over two consecutive weeks but only two hours a week and of course on the same day and time each week. Last year it was held at the Place. Last year we did Gamazatti variation from Le Corsaire / La Bayadere for one and the ABT version of the Black Swan solo, Both had the usual bar warm up for about half an hour and then strait into rep. Although it was a good representation of the original rep they did contain quite a lot of simplification which is understandable give the short time to work on it. I’ve had a couple of one-to-one’s on Black Swan to get my head around it again with my local coach at Sleaford in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately my local hall has not been available to work on this one until this week which I am really looking forward too. At least I have now decided on my version of the choreography which still uses about two thirds of ABT. Although I wanted to use the full double turn en dehors pirouette with a double attitude turn, I have decided to drop one of the attitude turns as I have seen several professionals use only one, also my pivoting leg is the one with the Achilles issue, and the momentary drop to flat foot for the fouette launch of the attitude turn does jars it a bit, several of those in practice and it gets quite sore, so I dare not push it too far. At least now I have room to dance the full choreography all the way through and tweak where necessary.

Hi Lin Are you doing any of LAB’s Intensives this year? The LAB Spring Intensive 2015 Friday 10th - Sunday 12th April 2015 - Central School of Ballet First LAB Summer Intensive 2015 Monday 17th - Saturday 22nd August 2015 - Central School of Ballet with Saturday performance day at Lanterns Studio Theatre Second LAB Summer Intensive 2015 Monday 24th - Saturday 29th August 2015 - Central School of Ballet with Saturday performance day at Lanterns Studio Theatre Hi Becky My one-to-one tuition is every week but it doesn’t stop there, basically we have a long term training plan, to meet that I have to agree to work on my teachers feedback between sessions so we can maintain progress and keep to our training schedule, that's why I am always looking out for good studio space for practice. I checked out a new one last week and another on Monday evening this week.

Hi Becky I did Maggie’s Elementary Tuesday class at 3pm at Pineapple for about a year up to a year ago, it was no beginners class, it was generally accepted then as being intermediate level and was also similar in standard to my ENB level 3 at that time. I don’t know if it has changed since but I suspect not. I have known a few dancers shy away from the centre work and watch and in some instances leave during centre. I have only ever known one couple be turned away after barre work. If you are unsure, pay your £2 entry at reception, (Don’t know if it still is) and go and watch, the class through the studio door, its usually left open and you can see from there. I liked pineapple, not so much for the class, but reception used to let me borrow an unallocated studio for practice after class (free of charge), that I did most weeks before going on to English National Ballet in the evening. During that period I did do a couple of DanceWorks classes, they were considerably easier but were some what over crowded.

Hi Becky I have private tuition which I refer as coaching which for me is about polishing repertoire usually solo’s. In the past I have attended lots of different repertoire workshops and intensives on the classics, only after a short while one memory fades and you forget them. I have a list of about 15 solo’s I want to re-learn and polished for amateur performance. It’s my coach’s job to help me do that. For that I hire a dance studio’s at a convenient location, sometimes in London and sometimes locally. As for what made me have private lessons, simple I’m in control of the training requirement so I can ensure I come away with value for money (eg I have learnt that piece in detail and can take it forward for performance independently). That probably sounds awful but in reality the relationship is very much closer and you work together as a team, it really does work for me. At workshops etc when one learns rep, its often simplified which sometimes spoils it, you seldom get enough time to really burn that into memory, I tend to use it as a taster and fully explore it later, then looking at different artists interpretation of the same piece. It not unusual for me to create a hybrid version of a solo from two or more pieces, In that case to some extent I have to teach my teacher what we are doing to familiarise her, we usually mark my modified choreography together first, then she comes in with her wonderful helpful feedback which of cause include issues of technique especially if something is rushed when I’m dancing it. My teacher has a camera which has the ability to record high speed video which can be played back slowly and smoothly allowing indiscressions to be analysed closely, I find that particularly helpful. I always find videos helpful for self analysis because you can take time studying it, what I don’t find particularly helpful that often happens in general class, is feedback while you are still going through movements either in the centre or at the barre, I usually have to stop to listen and understand what is being said, otherwise my concentration would be lost. I don’t generally do what is termed as open classes, however I do attend two ballet classes a week with English National Ballet, both on the same night to be more cost effective, those are pay by term and have a grading structure which I have listed on another thread in Doing Dance. The only exceptions to that is I sometimes return to one of my old open classes during term break if they are still running, but that is as much about social contact as ballet. My mainstream classes are those that support on-stage performances from or inspired by the classics eg London Amateur Ballet, City Academy, Lincoln class, Northern Ballet. It also included one in Cambridgeshire but I have let that one go as it had no relationship to the classic. To support rehearsals I also hire my local village hall a number of time a week even though I have my own mini studio with sprung floor, mirrors, barres etc. I guess as time goes on I’m tending to put more of a business hat on and say what is the payback. If I see an intensive for say £300 and it on say Giselle, that’s not enough, I would need details of the scenes being taught and what artist version, essentially I need to know if I can take something away with me that I can use later in a solo performance roll, otherwise I would have to fall in love with a piece of corps de ballet choreography to justify doing it, but that’s my mind set.

Monday has been a good start to the week even though I do not have a booking at my local hall for practice. As a result I had had to switch my Pirouettes for Le Corsaire to the Black Swan variation from Swan Lake, that went better than I had anticipated, we got far more done than we planned. Two pieces I wanted to address was the seamless transfer of the en dehors pirouette into an attitude turn. and not a pirouette with an attitude landing as was taught at a workshop I did last summer. The other was a double turn lame duck. Both were successfully addressed by my rep coach. The pirouette to attitude turn was almost there until my left ankle started to get quite painful, it’s the one I have the Achilles issue with. I think the way forward with practicing with this one, is little and often to avoid injury. We hadn’t anticipated getting as far as the lame duck turn, but again when this had been taught at my workshop it was only as a single, although I had tried doing a double without any guidance, it wasn’t successful. Tuition from my coach made it incredibly simple just by keeping the turn tight and treating it a pirouette, and not a travelling turn. We repeated just that bit of the enchainement from the arabesques to the tendu, an number of times, at least some of the time I achieved the double turn into a tendu but we never got chance to add the arms in before we ran out of time.. As neither of these turns is travelling I can practice these in my own studio before next week’s session. Next week we will add the music which may not be straight forward as the choreography is a hybrid between two different artists but most is based on ABT. Tonight’s session at Lincoln was challenging again as we for the second time did a barreless barre, I think we all enjoyed it though . Shortly we will be back to doing pointe work for the last 15-20 minutes of class, that seems ages since we did any. Only one more week to go before I get my hall back for at least Feb and March, oh how I do miss that hall..

This week was my second week with the new regarded classes. My first thoughts were it was just a name change from level 2 to Intermediate and Level 3 to Advanced but in reality its quite different. Intermediate for the moment is very similar to the old level 2 I think because of the dancers coming up from the old level 1 and the need to provide catchup, but I can see that changing after a term or two. Advance is now made up of both the old level 3 and level 4’s. I know there was quite a push to persuade level 3 dancers to go up to level 4. Needless to say it is now a more challenging class. Both barre work and centre has some brain teaser additions and for once some new movements. However to a degree there are two standards that are taught, an easier option for those from level 3 and a harder option for those from level 4. During the first week you did not have a choice which I was a bit peeved at, however during this week, those from level 3 if they wish can try the harder option. At least now it’s more interesting and far more fun. There is al level above “Advanced” called “Advanced Pro”, but I have no knowledge of that one. Well its not all good news, ENB for me comes at a price, and that’s painful ankles. However I suspect it has very little to do with the classes but a combination of circumstances. I’ve done ENB combined with 3 other classes and ENB on its own and the effects are similar. On the run up to Christmas I suspended my ENB classes for three weeks as I didn’t want to place any unnecessary risks to my Christmas shows. I was fortunate in the week running up to Christmas I had no classes, however ENB were running a class the day before Christmas eve, I applied to join it and they let me, as many dancers would be absent that week. My two ENB classes was the only ones done during that week but the day after I could hardly walk on my left leg, the ankle was very tight and painful with no strength hardly at all. I rested it for 4 days and no significant improvement. In sheer desperation I went back to Alfredson Heel Drop procedures, each day for about 4 day I could see a significant improvement, it really did work. I’m still using it twice each and every day, it does not stop the effect each time I do my ENB classes, but it does seem the recovery period is getting shorter. What I am more interested in is the cause, which I suspect has something to do with the 20minute walk from ENB to South Kensington tube station followed by extended periods of sitting. What I did try this last week after class was at least 1 minutes of extreme stretch of the Achilles in the dressing room at ENB after class, then remain standing on the tube journey to Kings Cross, sadly that didn’t work. I may try bussing it from the Royal Albert Hall to Kings Cross to remove the long walk, or even the use of a resistance band to keep my left leg moving while travelling on the last part of my train journey home, it is a real puzzle.

Hi becky The ENB workshop I attended in Oxford is the only one I know of that has been held there, most ENB workshops take place at the London Coliseum. The Oxford workshop was one of the best I have attended, it was on Le Corsaire. We were taught parts from two scenes, the first I can’t remember other than it had quite a bit of Port de bras in it, the second scene was from the Three Odilesques, first we learnt it as a whole class as it was performed, then our teacher got us to dance it using opposite feet arms etc. Finally we danced it with only two girls on stage as a duet, one from each corner, it was awesome and I fell in love with that particular scene as now danced by Bolshoi. I know its always difficult taking workshops out in to the sticks so to speak, I've booked various workshops with RAD all over the country, only to find they fail to get enough dancers to make it worth while. However I did manage to do a Romeo and Juliet Workshop with RAD in Edinburgh. Most RAD Adult workshop are held at their HQ in Battersea. My problem tends not to be finding ballet classes and workshops, but finding available premises, it not just studios in London but availability of my local village hall for rep practice. Before Christmas there was no problem in booking mornings, I would book it 3 or 4 times a week at short notice, but I guess I got complacence. I only extended Thursdays to coincide with my LAB rehearsals, when I tried booking Mondays and Fridays it was already booked, however I have managed to get Mondays back for Feb and March. But Fridays looks as if I will have to book the same studio as I use on Mondays for one to one rep coaching in Sleaford and that’s 20 miles away.

Hi Lin they are called Jelly Toes or Toe Socks http://www.dancedirect.com/uk/Products/Footwear/BH1025/Boots sell something similar. I used to have them on both little toes at first but now they are fine without, however I do use the all in one gel ouch pouches though http://www.dancedirect.com/uk/Products/Footwear/BH1055/. Hi Becky Just over a year ago I did a Rep workshop with ENB on Le Corsaire at the Old Fire Station in Oxford and I know at that time Ballet classes were being held there, so consequently I searched on that and found this document that may be of interest. http://www.oxford.gov.uk/Library/Documents/Arts%20and%20Culture/Dance%20Class%20Listings%20for%20Adults.pdf I think CrystalBallet is right when he says “I think us London-based folk forget how lucky we are!”. I didn’t realise how many studios there were in London until I started searching for one. I have a list containing approximately 60 studios within Zones 1 to 4. Admittedly my requirement is for peak time 7pm to 9pm on Tuesdays and at least 1600 square feet of studio space. As yet I haven't found the little gem I need, either its too small, not properly equipped, times I need not available etc. I did have one lovely offer but sadly was later withdrawn from the Royal Opera House. Last Wednesday I did a follow up visit at The Royal Ballet School, I'm still waiting on that one but will be followed up on Tuesday even if it to just rule it out. Its also worth pointing out that I am not London based, I live about a hundred miles from London but basically have to travel to where appropriate ballet is.

Hi Becky Where does the October date come from? This is what LAB have planned The LAB Weekend Intensives Saturday 7th - Sunday 8th February 2015 - Rambert School, Twickenham The LAB Spring Intensive 2015 Friday 10th - Sunday 12th April 2015 - Central School of Ballet The LAB Summer Intensives 2015 Monday 17th - Saturday 22nd August 2015 - Central School of Ballet with Saturday performance day at Lanterns Studio Theatre Monday 24th - Saturday 29th August 2015 - Central School of Ballet with Saturday performance day at Lanterns Studio Theatre

Hi Becky You go for the London Amateur Ballet Intensives you will enjoy them. Like Lin I too am a member of the LAB Company of dancers and I have also attended all but the last LAB Intensive. Firstly there are a couple of things that should help: Dancer Selection, on first arrival the dancers are divided into two main groups as its impossible to tell the standard of each we are just divided on Family/ Surname name. Later dancers are moved according to their ability but the scene we are dancing too remains the same but taught by different teachers. One will teach to a higher standard with the rep while the other will go at a slightly slower pace with some simplification. Secondly there is always someone making a video recording of the rehearsals, much of this appears in a LAB closed group area on facebook for you to share and see, so make sure you have the means with you to view it, that I find really helpful. You will go over the rep time and time again before your end of course performance for your friend and family to come and see. The end of course performance is formally recorded by LAB and is available to download after editing for a nominal fee. I think the last was about £3.00. This has been the case on the last two Summer Intensives I attended, however prior to this selection was on height, During the spring Intensive (Sleeping Beauty) the corps de ballet piece was virtually the same (3 groups) as we had over 70 dancers. We had three solo to do, but danced as a group, we each learnt all three(sort off) in the one session each, then selected which one to concentrate on during rehearsal and then perform that at the end of course performance (as a group again). Intensives with 70 dancers were considered too many, although I liked it, they are now around 35 – 40 dancers. One minor point, when it comes to the end of course performance you are expected to follow the dress code: some scenes are done in tutu’s usually classical practice tutu bottoms, other scenes in leos and wrap round skirts, there is advise on leo colour but that’s not mandatory, its just to match the character roll you are dancing eg (Don Quixote Red leo and black skirt). Hope that helps, so just go for it.

Received from mail drop on 5 Jan 2015 The Tenth Annual Chelsea Ballet Adult Summer School Chelsea Ballet – a well-established amateur ballet company – is pleased to announce that it will be running its tenth annual week-long summer school in London from Monday, 3rd – Saturday, 8th August 2015. The course is open to anyone over the age of 18 with an elementary and above standard of ballet who would like the chance to work on technique and performance quality in a friendly and supportive environment and receive correction and advice from the teaching staff. Please note that this school is not suitable for beginners. The Timetable will be: Time Duration Class Teacher Cost 10.00-11.00 1 hr Pilates Paola Manfredi £10 11.00-11.15 15 mins Break 11.15-12.45 1.5hrs Ballet: Elementary Michael Branwell £12 12.45-13.00 15 mins Break 13.00-14.00 1 hrs Pointe: Beginners -Elem H e nrietta Branwell £10 14.00-14.15 15 mins Break 14.15-15.45 1.5 hrs Ballet: Intermediate Richard Ramsey £12 15.45-16.00 15 mins Break 16.00 – 17.00 1 hr Pointe: Intermediate Bethany Ramsey £10 The school will be held at Pineapple Dance Studios, Covent Garden, London. We have not included an official lunch break so as to utilise the studio and include a fuller programme. Participants will have the option to sign up for as many or as few classes as they want – “Pic’n’Mix”. The fee for each class has been held at £9 (1hr) and £11 (1.5hr) for the last few years therefore we are increasing the fee by £1 for 2015. We will be arranging for a T-shirt to be available. Please let us know if you would like to order one. The cut-off date to order a T-shirt will be Monday, 20th July 2015. • Short sleeved: £10 (S/M/L) • Long sleeved: £12 (S/M/L) For further details, please contact Louise Hudson at chelseaballet@hotmail.com

Hi CrystalBallet I am impressed with the amount of Act 1 you have managed to packed in, thank you for the description. Act2 however still leaves me with unanswered questions: Swans and Von Rothbart doesn’t tell me very much. Von Rothbart appears towards the back end of “Entrance of Odette, however I guess there are logical breaks you can make to that enchainement, for example the beginning could be dropped off before the mime scene, but I cant help feeling its a bit awkward starting after the mime scene with the introduction of Von Rothbart, probably at the point where Prince Seigfried takes Odette’s arm and waist and they walk away together just before Von Rothbard appears. I can only assume Odette’s mime scene is not included as the Act 1 mime scene was specifically stated. Swans: I guess that’s the first part of Entrance of the swans, will that include the gorgeous waltz of the swans which logically goes into the PDD. General: I note from your first posting dancers are to do Pilates into ballet class Pilates: Are dancers to bring our own exercise mats? Ballet Class: I assume dancers will be using the Essex Studio at Zinc Arts, I note they do not have mirrors or ballet barre’s on site, is any provision being made for these or are dancers using chair backs as barre’s. Final Showcase: Is this to be split up into small groups as I note the stage area in the Essex studio with the rake seating in place is only 7m x 9m. Class Size and Composition: I note in your comment Zinc Arts have a 24 bed facility, can I assume some of these will be taken up by teachers, in reality Zinc Arts have 8 Single rooms and 16 twins. So how many male and female dancers are we expecting / accommodate on the course. Costumes: Having recognised photos of many of your dancers from your flicker site as dancers I have danced with at LAB Intensives and shows, there we generally dance in costume so to speak, eg romantic tutu’s or classical practice tutu’s which appropriate coloured leotards. So I expect a good deal of your dancers would have these, but I’m comfortable either way. If as you say it’s to be black for Act 1 and White for Act 2 Black and White what?, Leo’s and skirts, leggings? I guess I’m looking for some guidance here. Cost: I think that is an obvious one we are all thinking about. As for taking up the whole thread, please don’t worry about that, its is of great interest to us, but feel free if you want to raise the profile to start your own under “Doing Dance”

Hi Crystal Ballet Thank you for you response on your Swan Lake Residential School. For me I still not clear on aspects of your timetable and are inclined to draw some possible wrong conclusions, hence my questions. Re Act 1: Composition: The waltz which you start with, is that the same as would normally follow scene 8 (Arrival of the princess, Siegfried’s mother), Or are you taking it from part of scene 2 (Valse). Pas de trois, are you including first, second and third variations following it, if so will dancers have a choice of which of these to dance or simply dance them all. What if anything else is danced before the Queen and Prince’s mime (scene 8 I assume). Re Act 2 Composition: All that’s mentioned is Swans and Pas de Deux It’s difficult to understand where this starts, logically knowing the time constraints I would have expected scene 15 (Entrance of Odette) and I would have been disappointed if that did not include Odette’s mime, even though many recent version have dropped it. Followed by “Entrance of the Swans” including waltz of the swans into Odette and Siegfried’s Pas De Deux. I guess there is little much time for anything else. Unless you included the ankle cracker “Cygnets Dance” What does the term “Full call” mean as I haven’t come across that before Two questions remain outstanding from my previous post (#1438) to you: I’m very curious about one of the term you used “Stage Craft” perhaps you could explain what you mean by that? Does this mean dancers live on site if so what type of accommodation is it at Ongar in Essex. What is the dress code for the final showcase?

Hi Lartiste It’s a long time since I've seen you on this forum and welcome back, sorry to hear you’ve been in hospital and deprived of ballet. I agree with Lin’s comment when she says ENB workshops are good value, however I think its better to keep them in the same context as BRB and think of them as tasters, as they seldom finish a dance to a particular scene and will contain a lot of adapted choreography in it. Mostly only one dance is covered, but occasionally two. The downside of ENB workshops for me, is, you have no idea other than the name of the ballet as to what you will be dancing. RAD workshops: these are a little more expensive but still quite short, usually two dances from a particular ballet are taught. Mostly a week or two before workshop details of the rep are sent in the form of an email, mostly with a YouTube link to at least one piece of the choreography to be danced. Never the less teachers do sometimes change things, I’ve done Romeo and Juliet twice with RAD and both times we had “Dance of the knights” as our first piece and the same YouTube clip used as reference, but alas the second time (Edinburgh) the version was quite different. I attended the same Cinderella Workshop as Lin and the teacher dropped one of the pieces we were to have danced, admittedly at that workshop there was some confusion over the ending time. I was extremely disappointed as I had put time in learning that rep, as the other pieces being taught was what I would call fun pieces and not one that I particularly wanted to remember. Holistic Ballet (Franziska Rosenzweig), although Franziska only does a small number of repertoire based workshops each year, what she does teach is brilliant. She also publishes the youtube link on her website as reference, so you fully understand what's being taught, very little is simplified but she will remove a typical ending which ends in travelling turns etc in a circle on health and safety grounds. I can live with that as I can finish it off externally. I did Auroras Variation from Act 3 Sleeping Beauty, and the First Solo from the Pas De Trois variation in Act 1 of Swan Lake with her and they were extremely well taught. LAB Summer Shorts; These were 2 hour workshops spanning two weeks, 4 hours in total per workshop. LAB launched a total of six workshops 3 pointe and 3 open workshops. I did two of the three open workshops, these were The Black Swan variation from Swan Lake (ABT version) and Gamzatti variation from Le Corsaire, in these some simplification was inevitable. The Black Swan required a double en dehors pirouette seamless into a double attitude turn, there were two of these in the sequence, we were taught to use a single en dehors with an attitude finish, only one girls in week two attempted a double en dehors with an attitude finish. City Academy Workshops, Usually a day in duration (6 to 7 hours), a number of scenes taught from a specific ballet, scene info mostly available but not always. Taught quite close to the original choreography but cleverly simplified if some dancers need it, so they can dance along side the higher group with the same music. Intensives: I was hoping CystalBallet was going to provide us with some additional info on their Swan Lake residential workshop, unless you have approached them lartiste and can shed some light on this. BRB did run a taster class this year but I did not attend it, I've emailed Natasha Massie for details as to what is being covered in 2015, especially as many of the other BRB courses are using Coppelia as their topic, so I may attend it in 2015 not sure yet, so we may meet up again.

You are very welcome Crystal Ballet. I’m very curious about one of the term you used “Stage Craft” perhaps you could explain what you mean by that? I know a number of my friends from ENB and LAB are already with you and speak highly of your classes. I don’t see much useful information in you offering on you website thought. Even facebook it seem you have to be a friend to view it. However there was a bit more info on twitter. I see from Twitter you have plans coming together for a 5 day residential Easter course on Swan Lake Act 1 and 2. 1) Does this mean dancers live on site and perhaps the course extends in the evenings? 2) Do you have a skeleton time table for the course? 3) Has it been decided what scenes are being covered and against what artists version, As I have been caught out by this one many times. Do you actually give advance warning of the rep in the form of youtube clip for prep for the dancers, as that’s quite common with organisations like the Royal Academy of Dance, and City Academy and was also the case with LAB but sadly that seems to have disappeared with LAB.? Finally but not related, how do you get enough guys for a Pas De Deux weekend or do the girls have to share? or alternatively do you have to provide you own?

No problem, I clicked the link and the document opened “Application-form-Birmingham-Insight-Tasters-2015.pdf”, I then did a save as and placed it in an appropriate area. Went to it and its there.