Michelle_Richer

Saturday was one of the most enjoyable rep workshops I’ve had with City Academy at Sadler. Three pieces was taken from the Nutcracker Dance of the Merliton, Men’s solo from near the Grand PDD, and ladies solo Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The choice of pieces was well suited to our small group of five as it consisted of three girls including me and two guys. The morning started with the usual barre and a bit of centre as warm-up, then we went into our first piece which was the Sugar Plum Fairy Solo, this was taught in phrases as our teacher alternated between the girls and guys solo. While she was teaching the guys we practiced the step we had learnt. On balance I think it would have been nicer if we had our own area or studio to have done that in, as we had a few near misses between the girls and guys dancing into each others space, mainly as the guys solo used most of the studio space. By the end of the morning the girls had learnt the first half of the Sugar Plum Fairy solo up to the end of the Temps de fieche section. After out lunch break I expected us to continue but after a short warm-up we started on Merliton. Our two most experienced male and female dancers were paired together and my group formed a pas de trois. Although this was the dance I had least interest in, it turned out to be quite fantastic, it had everything, partner dancing as a threesome, little bit of pas de deux with supported arabesques and promenading and also solo’s for each of us. When we leant the piece I was girl No one on the right of the guy, the other two girls started on the left as Girl No two. However the girl from the other group of two got promenaded on both sides. For the Solo’s I did the first solo while the other two girls did the second solo. The guys also had a solo in this piece too while we stood in preparation waiting for collection for the final part. Last thing that day we danced all we had learnt, Sugar plum was danced half way through although, however I did continue for the first two Arabesque retire combination of the next section before our teacher stopped the music, just couldn’t resist it. For Merlitons each group went separately so each girl got the chance of dancing their solo part on there own. It really was a fantastic Workshop and I do hope those pieces come round again although I'm creating my own version of Sugar Plum which is likely to be a combination of the Royal Ballet version which we learnt with City and the Tuzer Ballet clip from youtube which has some combinations I rather like.

Hi Terpsichore I’ve just been checking dates after the 6th which gives me the 9th and 16th to visit Northern. I will do the Intermediate/advanced class on the 9th too but I’m committed in the evening on the 16th, so that day will just be Annemarie’s classes. I’m also in Leeds with Northern at the Grand Theatre on the 18th for a rep workshop. I was hoping to pay a visit before that, but until I have our Sadler showpiece solid in my head and body, I’m using Tuesday mornings at my local hall for practice. I’m not sure if we have a half term break with City Academy but I will check with my teacher tomorrow as we are at Saddlers doing a Nutcracker workshop this Saturday. If we have a half term break and it doesn’t coincide with Northern’s I will be over earlier.

Hi Terpsichore When do Northern break up for Christmas, my Tuesdays will be free after our performance at Sadlers on the 6th December, at the moment I’m using my local hall for practice in the mornings prior to rehearsal each Tuesday evening with City Academy. I was with Northern Ballet yesterday (Thursday morning) at Norwich Theatre Royal doing a little bit of Rep from Cinderella , with LAB rehearsal in the evening, a really long day with only three and a half hours sleep from my ENB classes the day before. I met a new teacher from Northern’s learning department, a really nice young lady called Sam, who only stared a month ago. It was a really enjoyable workshop that was videoed by the Theatre Royal staff, so we will all receive a dvd in due course.

Hi Lin Ok about Nutcracker, that’s a shame but I guess you can’t hurry things. For me it’s a really awesome week. Tonight (Monday) we started our Coppelia rehearsal at Lincoln, it was fantastic I loved every minute of it. Tomorrow after a practice in my local hall its Snowflakes on the City Academy performance course, Wednesday my two classes at ENB, but what I hadn’t realised after getting home at 1am Thursday morning, I need to be on the road around 6.30am for a Cinderella Workshop at Norwich Theatre Royal followed by LAB rehearsal at RAD in Battersea that evening. Friday prep for Nutcracker especially the Sugar Plum Fairy solo, Saturday City Academy Nutcracker workshop 10.30am to 5.30pm. The following week doesn’t get much easier as I have the largest studio in GoDance Sleaford booked and I have three days booked in my local hall for rep practice. At least I’m dancing from the classics where my real passion is. I hope LAB is better this week as Tom was away last week and WK3 video wasn’t posted the previous week as reference, plus we also had a dancer absent which makes a big difference to such a small group. A second complication we have two pieces of music for the same scene and dance steps.

Hi Lin Wow fantastic, legs to die for. I assume you are in town on Wednesday with LAB, I’m in town with ENB if you want to meet up for a coffee somewhere near Kings Cross or Covent Garden, I assume you are at Sadlers Wednesday evening. Are you doing City Academy’s Nutcracker Workshop on Saturday, We are Doing the Sugar Plum Fairy variation and the dance of the Merlitons, the guys are doing the men’s Solo part next to the Grand PDD.

Today was a little sad when I left my Sleaford classes as I shall be back with my ENB classes next Wednesday when the new term starts. However I have taken the opportunity of hiring my Sleaford ballet schools largest studio on Mondays 3pm till 4pm from the 13th, that minimises my travelling as its on the way to my rehearsal at Lincoln later that evening. I will still continue to hire my local hall on Thursdays as that handy for my LAB rep practice, however for some reason our LAB classes video of last weeks work has not been made available yet, which is unusual and a little disappointing, especially as I’m already working on 3 separate shows and are trying to learn the Sugar Plum Fairy solo as I need that for my next City Academy workshop in less than two weeks.

I did 7 hours of Swan Lake with City Academy on Saturday at Saddler's Wells, unusually there were only 4 of us, 2 girls and 2 guys. That would have been ideal for a Pas de deux, the nearest we got was the mime scene, towards the end of “Entrance of Odette”, so there was some partner work to the end of that scene. We all did the ankle cracking Cygnet dance, us girls did Odette’s Solo, whist the guys did Prince Siegfried Solo from the Black Swan scene. In the guy solo the music was very powerful, I would just loved to dance that scene. Monday was my Lincoln class and finally we got to know what we are dancing for our show, it’s the “Waltz of Hours from Coppelia”. We start rehearsal next week. Tues was my City Academy performance course for our Christmas show. We have a new venue this week as our class is growing (19 dancers), we have now been relocated to Old Finsbury Town Hall, home of the Urdang Academy. Although the studio is bigger unfortunately we cannot get in earlier than 15 minutes to our start time, so no free practice studio for me. As I arrived early it did give me the chance of checking out 2 alternative routes from Kings Cross station. Route 1 via Angle on the underground came out at about 20mins, as did walking all the way from Kings Cross, however late at night I couldn’t help feeling that the Angle route may be a little safer. Our show sequence is 6 minutes long and we have already passed half way in 4 weeks of a 12 week course.

Thanks Janet I would have attended it even if it is for older dancers, as “Elite Syncopations” look gorgeous to dance, however after nagging my teacher to get going with our Lincoln Show, we start our first rehearsal of "Waltz of Hours" from Coppelia next Monday, so I cant miss that. Coupled with the fact I'm doing rehearsals for two other show groups, and also have to learn the Sugar Plum Fairy Variation from Nutcracker for my Next City Academy workshop in two weeks time. Only just finished 7 hours of Swan Lake this weekend, I'm sure my mind will soon explode. But thanks again for the posting it really does look very nice.

Managed to check out my Canvas ballet slipper on the sticky RAD floor last night, whilst they were considerably better than leather there was still some stickiness present. Last term we hardly used that studio for centre work, only barre work. Centre was in a much larger studio where we also carried out our rehearsals. That floor was absolutely fine for pirouettes. However working in the small studio for LAB does have its compensation's, we are a very tiny group, only 4 of us at the moment when everyone is present, but often only 3. During our company class prior to rehearsal the feedback and correction is fantastic, its almost one to one with such a tiny group. The rehearsal is also brilliant as it contains a lot of partner work with our male dancer. We are now 3 weeks in to this term and our routine is starting to look really nice, I'm really going to enjoy dancing that on the Bloomsbury stage at our next Gala performance. Next week I'm go in a tutu to allow our male dancer to get used to the additional spacing needed for my pancake skirt.

Its a good read Janet,thank you. I wonder what I will do when I become an older dancer, I guess I wont be doing City Academy 7 hour Swan Lake Workshops with the ankle cracking Cygnet dance, that we are doing this weekend. I hope I can do the splits when I’m 88, wow that’s incredible. I was at my local hall this morning which gave me the opportunity to check out the floor with other types of ballet slippers. Using brand new canvas slippers, pirouettes seemed a little easier but not as good as that floor generally is, after two pirouettes the soles were starting to get discoloured with deposits. I also tried new leather slippers, they appeared similar as the soles were very clean. When I tried my regular slippers they were a lot less slippery, they had an hours build up of Odette’s Solo practiced beforehand. Conclusion, it’s a rubbish floor since its been cleaned to make it less slippy for the sports users. I had another chat with one of my ballet schools at Sleaford tonight, it looks very likely now that I will be hiring one of their studios for an hour or two every week. I took the opportunity tonight after classes had finished to see if I could squeeze enough pose turns down the diagonal in their small studio to fit in with a piece I’m working on , it did which means it’s a little cheaper to hire than their largest one. I will get the opportunity to check out my canvas ballet slippers on the RAD sticky floor tomorrow night, I hope that improves things as I often get the opportunity to practice in their studios before our LAB rehearsals.

A really good night at Lincoln last night, we did more pointe work than normal this week. but still no news as to what scenes from Coppelia we are dancing for our Christmas show. However it wasn’t all good news this week, LAB have altered the dates of the Autumn Intensive which goes on open booking on Wednesday. Its now 25th and 26th of October at Central rather than 3 days at RBS, this time its on Manon. Sadly I have a prior engagement on the 26th so I'm going to miss this one, which is probably as well as I have a dozen solo’s to concentrate on and consolidate for the next few months. Only two more weeks to go before I re-join ENB and get back to normal, whatever normal is. I’m eager to get back to my local hall and the RAD studio we use, to check out my new canvas ballet slippers on these otherwise sticky floors.

Hi Petunia Thank you for your comment. I know floors vary enormously and also with temperature as I have experienced that with my own spring floor with a Harlequin vinyl overlay. As it’s in a large conservatory at the side of my house, when it gets hot in the summer it most definitely gets more slippy. I have managed to wash off most of the residue on my regular leather ballet slippers, but I must get some canvas ones and check them out. I have some satins and I could have tried them but wasn’t aware at the time the effect different shoes have. If I can solve the problem of pirouettes in my local hall it will save me a great deal on expense and convenience, otherwise I will have to book one of the studios in a ballet school I sometimes attend in Sleaford which is about 20miles from home, but if needs must.

Today has been really frustrating. I went down to my local hall to work on my Le Corsaire solo, particularly the pirouettes. Unusually the floor was extremely sticky, normally its quite slippy and a good floor for pirouettes. A single turn was as much as one could get out of it before the pivoting foot screeched to a halt with breaking friction, even pose turns were noisy. While I was there I noticed my pink ballet slipper bottoms appeared blacker than normal, I had some brand new slippers with me but the elastics were not sewn on yet, I tried them, although they were marginally better, the level of friction was still quite unacceptable. When I handed the hall keys back I queried the condition of the floor. Apparently there had been a complaint from some sports people that had hired it, as being too slippy and one person had actually slipped over, so consequently they had it cleaned, but it must have left a heavy residue behind. When I arrive at RAD tonight (Thurs) for our LAB class/rehearsal I found our studio was allocated until our class, so no free practice, oh poo. As I had about 45 minutes to kill I went into RADs lounge/waiting room and started sewing the elastics on my new ballet slippers. Tom our teacher came in, so I told him of my tales of woe. However later in class when we were doing pirouettes in the centre, although they were only singles, my foot kept screeching with friction, something I had complained about last week. In sheer frustration I said “I know if I dampen the soles of ballet slipper, I know that will make them less slippy, is there anything I can do to make them more slippy”, Tom suggested I go to canvas from leather if I’m dancing on Vinyl Floors like Harlequin, but Leather is fine with wood. He also suggested that I may knock out a pair of canvas slippers in a couple of weeks with my level activity. I wonder if anyone else has experienced similar things between incompatibilities of footwear to different dance floor types.

Hi Lin Follow the link for the Nutcracker Workshop: http://www.ballet.org.uk/whats-on/nutcracker-2014/centrestageseries-nutcracker-adultballetworkshop-13dec/ I attended City Academy’s Performance Course last night, it was a good session, 13 of the 16 dancers were present, I hope we get a better attendance in future weeks. We did about 45 minutes of general barre and centre, 5 to 10 minutes talking about the course and costume requirements etc, then it was straight on to rep. In that we learned two phrases and the opening, the opening was done in cannon on the diagonal from opposite down stage corners. We linked in phrase one but we did not get as far as phrase 2, I guess that’s for next week and more. I really enjoyed it although the sound system in our studio (41) left a lot to be desired. Was at my local hall this morning working on Odette’s Solo from Swan Lake act 2 as we will be covering that in the next City Academy workshop, I’ve also booked next Wednesday too for that piece. Went to Sleaford tonight for Ballet and their Stretch and Tone class, both were good, Fiz’s teacher joined us as one of the dancers, sometimes when our teacher Harriet is away she teaches us too. I also enquired about hiring their studios, as it looks as if I will be hiring one of them in the future, especially if I need a large studio with a sprung floor. Back to my hall tomorrow morning for my Le Corsaire solo, then LAB at night.

Nice class at Lincoln tonight, but still don’t know what we are performing for our Christmas show piece. However we do have a new date for the show,12 and 13th December, although I am doing an ENB Nutcracker Rep Workshop at the London Coliseum on the morning of the 13th, there is sufficient time for me to get to Lincoln to do the Saturday evening show. I start a new performance class tomorrow night (Tues) with City Academy, cant wait, I’m really exited.

Hi Lin Thursday turned out to be a very strange day, firstly I arrived at RAD an hour early in case our studio was available, it became vacant at 6pm (half an hour before class). I though good, I can give my solo pirouette a good run through, it was hopeless the floor was extremely sticky, you could execute a single turn and that was about it with the screech friction between your shoes and the floor. One strange observation I note was that there seemed to be more breaking friction between my left foot and the floor and less with the right. I took the ballet slippers off and couldn’t see any real difference between them. Pose turn were OK but did feel a little different. At 6.30 we had a pianist and one other dancer, a guy from my previous class but no teacher. Our teacher was held up in traffic until 7.00. The two of us did a short barre session before going into rep. At the end of the barre session a young lady turned up, a newbie we had not seen before and she was straight into rep. The beginning of a pas de trios, after a circular walk on to the stage, our guy was in front with a girl on each out stretched arm, each girl was on demi point with their inside legs in attitude, I was on the left side. after a coupe off to change legs we then did a temps leve / pas de chat x 2 for each girl on opposite diagonals. That was as much as we had been instructed to do, however our pianist carried on playing, so I pose turned back to our guy in the centre. A loud voice said “Michelle”, I though whoops “I’m in trouble”, our teacher said “Thank you, that fits nicely” and that was my contribution to rep that evening. As the music repeated itself so we repeated our sequence. That was as much as we got done. I am told next week we will be having more dancers joining our class. I was a little sad seeing a lot of my old class waiting outside to come in, but at least I was getting home in the same day this time and not at 1am as previously. I will be particularly saddened if other groups pick up my favourite scenes. As for the Italia Conti School, I will be there next Tuesday when I start the new City Academy performance course.

Hi Terpsichore I will have to try to phone Northern, I did get a reply from our teacher and she said she would ask someone called Emma to get in touch with me regarding what I needed to do to purchase that DVD. I haven’t had a response from anyone called Emma. You amaze me with your TV. I very rarely watch TV usually about an hour a week if that, yet I have TVs in the Lounge, Dining Room, Kitchen, Bed room, Study, Gym and my Dance studio. I thought I had sustained an injury during my Bodybalance class Wednesday morning. We were laid on our mats doing leg extensions, and then I felt something go in my right upper leg, a bit like a twang. I gave a yelp and brought the leg down, however I finished the class with a much lower extension. When leaving the class I was surprised I could still work normally. Later that evening I did a Stretch and Tone class, although I could still feel some discomfort in the leg, it was not bothering me. It seems on this occasion I have got away with it providing I am careful with it.

Hi Terpsichore I think that must be a first for me to called a “notable Absentee”. I will usually only pop over to do class at Northern if my Tuesday classes are on break. ENB breaks are generally different to most other schools so gives scope to find alternatives during these periods. However this week was my last week at ENB for Tuesdays, as next week I start a performance course with City Academy. Leaving my class mates and one of the teachers at ENB was quite sad, however I’m restarting with ENB on Wednesdays with one of my teachers from Tuesdays. I tried to persuade Northern to do a Christmas Show, but I’m told the general consensus from the ladies was “once a year was quite enough”. Did you manage to get a DVD of our last show, if so, where can it be ordered from.

Hi Fiz I agree with what you are saying but at the same time you only need to put just sufficient energy into that pirouette to complete the desired number of turns. I realised when I dropped in the plie and I was getting ready for the push, it just wasn’t there, I was along way off form, I just didn’t feel right. That was a real downer as I had been waiting all week for this. I know when things are right, when I can just complete the desired number of turns and statically hold the releve / retire in the final position for several seconds after completing the pirouette. Whilst I cant do that every time as I mainly wobble off balance but I have now had several times when I have and it feels like pure magic, every thing is in the right place. I think for yesterday I just have to be satisfied I made some progress and hope to pick the pace next week. Once I’m at least happy with the consistency of the pirouettes on each and every run-though of the set of 5. Then I need to develop them further for one of the black swan variations. This was from a Workshop I did quite recently where we only used a single turn pirouette ending in attitude . I want to at least take it to 2 turn pirouette followed by 2 full attitude turns without bringing the gesturing leg down between them, then I will feel I’m getting somewhere.

Hi Fiz I though it was, Elle has been my teacher a Sleaford for a couple of times otherwise she dances with rest of us if Harriet is teaching. I like both of them, however I only pop in on breaks from my other Wednesday classes, after October its likely to be Christmas before I see them again. OK about your Cardio Barre, it sounds a bit like Extend Barre which we did sometimes at Stamford. I also did a little bit of Floor Barre at one of the LAB intensives, that’s quite hard work particularly on the abs. When I’m at Sleaford I usually do Stretch and tone after the ballet class, but in the morning of both Mondays and Wednesdays I also do Body Balance at Spalding which is a combination of Tai Chi, Pilates and Yoga, so I guess I’m mad too. Today hasn’t been a good day. I was down my local hall this morning as I have a recurring hire for ballet practice every Thursday morning. I’m currently working on a solo from Le Corsaire, although I have learnt the sequence before the pirouettes were only done as singles. Last week I was starting to make some progress with doubles as the pirouettes are a bit tricky at least I found they have been. They are launched from fourth which is not unusual however the turn is terminated by stepping the gesturing leg in font on demi-pointe, the pivoting leg goes behind into arabesque en le air and hold for one count before swishing the arabesque leg through to become the pivoting leg for the next pirouette. This week I just had no energy, everything up to the pirouettes seemed OK but once I dropped into 4th prep my body just didn’t seem to have the energy to provide the push for the gesturing leg. I tried three or four time to run the sequence with the music but it always failed at that point. In the end, off went the music I was almost in tears I was along way from where I expected to be. So it was full concentration on the pirouette arabesque combinations only. It took 15 minutes to get to where I was the pervious week, however in the next 15 minutes, in possibly 10 tries or aborted tries I did manage to complete the set of 5 three times, something I had never been able to do before. I even managed a complete the full run-through of the sequence to music when set at 80% of its normal speed. After that the pirouettes just went downhill, I think I was just too tired, but I did concentrate on the rest of the sequence, when I finished I was exhausted. Later I went up town to do some shopping and my legs just felt like jelly, although the results were disappointing at least I had made some progress and I hadn’t wasted my time at the hall. I think its just been a bit of a bad week as I cant put it down to anything specific.

Hi Fiz I’m glad your back in ballet class at Lincoln, was that GoDance that you were with on Monday night, if so was Ellie your teacher as she joined us in class at Sleaford tonight. Our Sleaford class has been running all through the summer but only on a skeleton staff. Everyone is back now. Unfortunately I’m only with them until the beginning of October when ENB’s new term starts, as I'm switching ENB to Wednesdays.

This week has started off really awful, I have never felt so lethargic, I'm not sure if I over did it at the week end pruning Laurels in my garden, I did feel a bit stiff afterward but that wasn’t unusual. I forced myself to do “Body Balance class” on Monday but that didn’t improve things very much, I was also so dreadfully tired. I had an early night as I thought that would fix things for Tuesday but I was still very down, but never the less I went to ENB for my two classes. We worked really hard, my leo was soaking wet at the end of the second class but it gave me the therapy I needed, I left on top of the world. Again both of my regular teachers were on break, so it was new barre and centre routines, this time with a difference, we had freedom of expression in some of the routine in terms of body movement and port de bras, the theme was about adding dance quality. I really enjoyed that. One odd thing that happened, that I cannot explain, when I first arrived with the studio to myself, I tried double turn en dehors pirouette, I couldn’t fully complete the two turns. I know my own hall floor is far more slippery and I put it down to that. During work in the centre we had the choice of doing singles or doubles in our little enchainement. First time I did a single, second I went for a double and it was no problem and then I stuck with doubles, the only issue I had, I was behind with the music after two pirouettes against the rest in my group as they were doing singles. The only thing I could put it down too is the power of music, I have often thought that in other movements, that music make a massive difference .

Had two good classes at ENB on Tuesday, we had a new teacher cover both my classes as my regular teachers were on break. I had never met this teacher before but she was a bit of a stickler for timing with the music at the barre. The barre was a little different to what we were used to with our regular teacher so it was necessary to engage the brain a little more. Centre was particularly nice as we did a lot with pirouettes in both classes, routines we similar but different. At the end of class my teacher gave me a little help with part of one of the solo’s I’m learning which was fantastic. Next month will be a little sad for me as I leave the ENB Tuesday classes and the friends I have made there. As Tuesdays I will be starting a performance course with City academy. However I have switched ENB to Wednesdays for both level 2 and 3 classes, but I will get my regular level 3 teacher for both new classes. I attended a Beginners class at Sleaford tonight (Wednesday) as a fill-in for term break although many times reference was made to grade 7 but it still looked fairly basic but enjoyable. There were only three of us tonight, so plenty of room in the centre. The Stretch and Tone class that followed was as full as ever which I also attended with the same teacher. There was to be a class after that “Zumba” I think, but my teacher came back in and said it was a total no show, I guess its because its bank holiday week. It looks as if I may stay with the Sleaford class until 6 October when I restart with ENB, unless I can persuade ENB to transfer me for the last few weeks of September to Wednesdays.

Wow that's fantastic Skydancer very well done.

Good luck Skydancer