Michelle_Richer

Worked through the Le Corsaire corrections on Thursday in my local hall, mostly it went OK however there was a new frustrating issue that arose. The first part travels on the diagonal towards the down stage right corner and then from right to left across the front of the stage. My brain knows this but my body insists on travelling back on the diagonal from where it came. Even when concentrating the first movement for the change of direction was always back and then I would force a correction across the stage. I’m not convinced that issue is properly fixed yet. Oddly this never came up in the studio, but the hall is much larger and deeper, so I guess it’s just the change in geometry that is resulting in this issue. It will be interesting as to what will happen on Tuesday when I’m back in the studio at Shoreditch. I have spent a considerable amount of time today (Sunday) in my home studio cramming in the “Dance of the Snowflakes”(Nutcracker), ready for Tuesday to shake out indiscretions ready for company rehearsal on Thursday when I get know what position I am dancing. I have been out to two Salsa parties this weekend, although it no longer has the attraction it once had, what is disturbing, is that I’m loosing a lot of the repertoire I once had as its not regularly refreshed like it once was. That now has an implication on my ballet, especially as I’m now putting a lot of time and effort into ballet repertoire of various scenes from different ballets; this is also with the help of a profession coach which needless to say is expensive. For this training to be effective I need to keep it refreshed otherwise it will simple be lost as the body memory fades. My thought are to hire an additional a low cost local studio with a sprung floor, it need not have mirrors or barre, in-fact its better if it does not have a mirror as it more closely resemble a stage where visual feedback is not present. Again these are only thoughts at this stage, but each bit of repertoire would be performed to the appropriate music in turn with a few seconds gap between them, which I guess will appear like a mini performance of multiple scenes. I’m sure there will be sufficient time to run the sequence of scenes three or four times, with the last run being videoed for my own feedback. I have seen one such studio in Spalding, I called in on the off chance, and the floor I am told is a sprung floor, however it was being used at the time. The studio also doubles as a sports hall. I’m not sure if this is a positive or negative attribute, but the upstairs offices and café windows look directly down onto the studio floor below as they are in the same wall, so I guess one will always have spectators. I’m not sure if that’s encouraging to get it right or more likely to put you, but hey, that’s show business.

Hi Lin I'm not sure which Don Q you are referring too, LAB or City, but you are welcome to come to both as my guest, Ill check on Tuesday if City are having an Audience this time.

Oh that's a shame, but never mind, I guess I will see you next on the 29th June at ENB for our dress rehearsal. I may be performing at Northern the day before. I've emailed Northern with three possible options, I need to see their response, but it may only just be possible for me to do it. I know I will be pushing it, as the ballet hours are starting to stack up again. Tomorrow (Friday) I'm having a foot massage session with me beautician who used to be a sports masseur. She is going to give me some serious toe/metatarsal bending to increase my foot's flexibility range.

Back from my only real classes this week (ENB), even though I enjoyed the break it was good to be back and two really nice classes too with a lot of new faces. One little fly in the ointment: I have had an email from Northern Ballet, informing me that their adult ballet show piece is being performed on Saturday the 28t of June and not on the 5th of July a I was originally told. I could make that date as our LAB dress rehearsal is on the 29th. However Northern ballet's rehearsal class is on Tuesdays which conflicts with my one-to-one rep coaching prior to ENB which really makes it a no no. Unfortunately no matter how I squeeze things, I cannot fit it in, Oh poo! Rep class today was on Le Corsaire, I have a stack of corrections which I documented on the train home, we are only devoting 15 minutes on the next session to it before moving on to another piece from a completely different ballet.

Hi Lin I will be doing City's Don Q, as it may be useful familiarisation for the Spanish Dance from Act 1, as I think there is a good chance it will be one of LAB corps de ballet pieces. For the first time today, I have got a significant stretch to my right soleus muscle, that's taken several months.

Sorry Lin I don't I only sent an email reply to Nathalie tonight, who is organising the event asking her the same question, however they normally don't tell you until about a week or so before the event. I would suspect its either the Waltz of the Swans or the Entrance of the Swans, both from Act2, however it could be the dreaded Cygnets.

I assume that's B and B. I must sort something out this week while things are comparatively quiet, although I do have a full day of ballet tomorrow. I've just paid for another rep workshop for Swan Lake with RAD, and waiting conformation on dates for two other workshops on "Mid Summer Night Dream" and "Cinderella" with Northern.

Got my conformation on Saturday. Now its finding a suitable hotel. July and August is expensive at the Covent Garden travel Lodge where I normally stay, Farringdon is considerably cheaper, especially if its a saver booking. Must check some more out.

Oh its not that bad, you don't do a solo on your own. you dance the solo steps but you do it as a group. Normally everyone does all of the solo's, then you choose one for the performance, but I guess you don't have to do it if you don't want. I've never danced a solo on my own for a performance, however I have done duet's and with two others. But I would really like too.

I don't know Don Q that well but I would think the Spanish dance at the beginning of act1 stands a good chance of becoming selected for our corps de ballet piece. Not sure about the solo's We did Swan Lake last year at Lantern Studio Theatre, that was Entrance of the Swans (Fully company)from Act 2. Waltz of the Swans with two separate groups again from Act2 I think Tom would like to start to pull stuff in from act 1, but we wont know until nearer the time. Personally for solo's I would like to see entrance of Odette which contains Odette's mime scene and Odette's solo's both from act2, which are bot fantastic pieces to dance.

Thanks for the info, my tutu room is my small spare bedroom, it already has three wardrobes in it, two are full of ballet gear. There really isn’t any room to lay them flat other than the bed. Goodness knows what I will do next Christmas when I order some more.

Looks as if I may have to add a Spanish Skirt to the list, if we are doing the Spanish dance from Act1 of Don Quixote. Done my first ballet session this week, it was at my local hall (No teacher) as prep for my professional coaching of Le Corsair on Tuesday.

That's it, I'm broke now, just paid for both Summer Intensives.

Hi Sheila Finally got round to checking all the tutu’s out, they fit perfectly and are really gorgeous. Only problem now is storage room, not sure if to leave them in their polythene bags stacked on their side on a wardrobe shelf, or to remove them and store them inverted in the wardrobe on a skirt type coat hanger, but that does take up more room.

Well done you, its nice when everything goes your way.

I’m just back from the LAB Spring Intensive which was fantastic, fortunately my legs have held up with three days of intensive ballet. I must confess every morning they have been stiff and a little worrying, however what has seem to work is to have a long soak in a hot bath to warm up the Achilles. On the morning of the performance day my left ankle started to really ache, barre was fantastic, best I have ever had, I loved it, the music seemed very appropriate for the exercises we were doing, I really did dance that barre. During centre when it came to jumps, I sat those out but resumed when we got back to glissard/assemble combinations. My legs did finally see me through the performance. Full detail of the LAB intensive are on the other thread. At least now my feet get a little rest, no more ballet until Friday when I hire my local hall, then back on Tuesday with private class in London followed by my two regular classes with ENB. Following week every thing back to normal.

That’s another wonderfully challenging LAB intensive over, which consisted of 75’s dancers where only 5 were guys. For most activities we were divided into three groups, where selection was simple alphabetic order. The weekend was challenging as I thought I was well prepared for the solo’s as I had already done two of them before, and one of them in performance with two other girls. However the versions we were taught were quite different, ouch! Our corps de ballet piece was the friends dance, as I knew it would get largely re-choreographed, I just stuck with the preparing myself for the basic general movement combinations, which I think paid off nicely. We learnt three solo’s with half an hour for each one. These consisted of the first and fourth fairy variations and Aurora’s variation from act3. The first fairy variation was the first one my group (Group c) did, I was horrified as there was little resemblance to the one I had previously learnt and had professional coaching to bring that up that standard as preparation. Next it was Aurora, at least the preparation position was the same, then our teacher started to demonstrate it, I was waiting for the breath with the arms, the plie and the rise into arabesque to the opposite corner. It didn’t, it went to a retire, then the leg flicking started which at least I recognised that, that part with swapping direction is repeated four time. Next comes the walks to the down stage right corner, where the steps go right left, right left and hesitate with the right lifted just behind the calf ready to step back into arabesque, oh no is wasn’t like that, two more steps forward then step on the right foot as the supporting leg for arabesque and hold for 1 count. Most of it was like this, a lot of similarities but a lot of subtle differences too. When I left that class there was so much floating around in my head between the two different versions, the only way at that time I could get through it was high speed copying and I wasn’t a happy bunny with that. Before leaving class I ask my teacher what particular ballet company was that version from, she suggested I look up Lauren Cuthbertson on Youtube. Finally we got the fourth Fair variation, that was completely new for me, although it looked quite nice our class did not finish the variation in the time allocated. Later that day Tom our Artistic Director said we were to choose only one of the variations for our performance piece and the following day’s solo session would be dedicated to cleaning up that piece. That evening (Saturday) around 60 of us went to the Royal Opera House to see Royal Ballets performance of sleeping beauty, alas the variation performed were identical to those being taught, which for me legitimised them as being very appropriate and it was my oversight to assume what I had previously learnt would be the same. After the ROH performance I went back to the Travel lodge and took my netbook into the dining area where free internet was available. I looked up the appropriate version of Aurora and ran the beginning over and over again even though the internet there was very slow. I was trying to cram every detail into memory for the following day. Our solo teach that day broke the sequence down into individual bits, and started with the first as ask if anyone was unsure, which I replied I wasn’t, so we went through it a couple of times, we did the same with the rest of it. Our teacher also suggested if there was any part anyone wasn’t sure about to just remain in preparation pose until the reached the next part they could dance, but I didn’t notice anyone that did that. During this period the ending was greatly modified for the travelling turns, so each of us got to do one of the first three as little sub groups and all of us the last one, there were other changes to for the ending but they were quite minor. By the time our performance came round, it was reasonably clear in my head and some of it had reprogrammed my muscle memory. At the performance we started with the friend dance, our group first. I and another girl led our group on stage before we assembled into position of two sets of 4 girls with hands linked similar to the Cygnets dance in Swan Lake and extending 3 deep, we were at the front. Aurora was the second act on, this time I was towards the back as I would end second row at the end of stage left. Both pieces seem to go off OK, I will know better when I have seen the video, that’s the feedback that matters, but it really was so enjoyable. I have now booked for the next two Summer Intensives.

Application in, waiting for invoice details.

I'm just back from the Spring Intensive, I should be booking both Summer Intensives tomorrow, but I still have no idea what we are doing for the first one.

Not at all Lin, the other girls are in their tutu bases with leo's. For me its just part of ballet as a performer it simply goes with the terretory.

Thanks Sheila Im at the Travel Lodge at Covent Garden, the firs day at LAB has been fantastic, we have been doing the friends dance as three seperate groups, at the end of the day each group had to perform it to the rest of the school. Our goup however contained the guys too. Im not sure how much more we have to do with this piece, but tomorrow we start on the solo's, I think in smaller groups, There was a general get togerher in one of the local bars after class, I left about 9pm, being one of t5he last, Hope my ankles are OK for tomorrow. PS cant wait to try those tutu's on. Im the only one here in a full tutu, its the odette one, no grumbles so far, it looks gorgeous as you would expect. If I cant dance at least I look good, ha ha ha,

Santa Claus came today in a TNT van and bought me a big box which contained 6 gorgeous tutu’s. Unfortunately with time pressing I simply haven’t had time to remove then from there cellophane packing, but they still look absolutely gorgeous, however they will have to wait until after the LAB Spring Intensive when I get back Although it was delayed I did manage to get another practice session in at the hall this afternoon. Hair done, all packed and ready to go now. Thank you Sheila for such prompt and fantastic service as always xx.

I like Giselle, but I’m not keen on the Cuban version we do with City, It’s a shame I cant make the RAD workshop but I have also suggested it to Tom at LAB, but ideally it needs to be when an Intensive occurs the same time a performance is showing in London. I’ve been down the hall this morning, ran through the two solo’s umpteen times for the weekend, the second half hour in my tutu, so no surprises there. I’m still curious as how we will finish Aurora solo in place of the circular travelling turns, I tried it on the diagonal and the hall is about 25m across there and only just enough room. I did get an unwelcome surprise when I went to our local post office to settle for my monthly hire of the hall, the price has increased Grrrr. I’m due to use the hall again tomorrow fortunately only my local ballet teacher has it booked, as my shipment of tutu is booked to arrive some time that morning. The organisers of the hall have said I can use it any time tomorrow after the ballet class, so hopefully I should get one last session in.

Hi Lin It was the one we all posed for at the end of Giselle at Sadler's, you were in the front with another girl on the floor, I was behind you in my raspberry leo. You looked absolutely fabulous.

Hi Polishrose Thank you for the link, I will pass it on to one of my teachers who is trying to source larger outfits for our next summer show. You must tell us how you got on at your class tonight, many of us have been there, so we do know what it like.