Michelle_Richer

Yesterday turn out to be a very mixed day of Awful weather with thick for and wonderful ballet. The day started with me leaving home at 6.10am , a little earlier than normal with thick fog and very cold 1.5 degrees. My first session started at 9.30 which was a rep workshop with Northern Ballet on the stage at Leeds Grand Theatre. There we learnt the Wedding dance from act 1 of there production of Cleopatra. Needless to say the set for the ballet was still in place, but we only had a pianist rather than the orchestra that was present on the previous Saturday when I when to see Northern’s performance. We had 17 dancers at our workshop including me, as usual I already knew some of the dancers from one of the Northern class, but most were from away. It was a really enjoyable class and the dance has a lot of similarities to one I have been doing at another ballet school in Stamford from an Egyptian ballet. At 2.45 I caught the train back to London, then it was a really beautiful spring day. As always I arrived early at RAD’s HQ in Battersea for my LAB rehearsal which starts at 7.30pm with about 45mins of company class before our 1hour 15mins of rehearsal. As is mostly the case our first studio was free, so I was able to get my usual practice session in. One thing I am finding, trying to dance a sequence without music leaves it very empty, without expression and me very frustrated. In the studio next door is a RAD class with a pianist, even though the tempo of the music etc is wrong, it still to some extent brings my dance to life when I attempt to dance to it. I don’t known if others have found this. I think in future I will have to take a little MP3 place with earphones to give me the music. I know sometimes the other studio is empty, but if I hooked up to the audio system in our room whilst the other class was present, it would surely kill the opportunity for me to use that room prior to class in the future, so I will continue to practice as quiet as a mouse. Last night we were to start our work at the barre only to find some of the portable barres were missing. Tom our teacher went to the RAD class next door (Inter Foundation)as it appeared they had removed some. There teacher was at the other end of the barre as neither of our classes had got started then, this teacher, a lady smiled and said “hello” to me as if she knew me well, but I couldn’t place her. Then she told me she was my teacher at a Romeo and Juliet workshop at Cambridge a year or so ago, however I do remember her saying “I know I will be seeing you again”, but I don’t think it was in that context. LAB session it self when quite well, I’ve still a bit of tidying up to do with a couple of pieces I’m a bit week on and need to reinforce the muscle memory with some additional practice. Our enchainement ending is still in the melting pot and not quite complete yet. The final leg of the journey home from Peterborough through thick fog at 1am in places was quite frightening, especially where no cats eyes are present and the exit at rounder-bouts, where there is no white line to follow, but thankfully most have illuminated bollards. It was a case of judging the distance from a bollard to exit as you could not see the curb, it was really thick, and I was so please to finally get home.

Hi Lin Those pieces I have been working on this week: 1) Egyptian Ballet at Stamford but couldn’t actually attend this week although I had been working on it. 2) Sleeping Beauty prep for LAB intensive. Private tuition on going. 3) Angles Theatre Sequence choreographed by teacher. 4) Nutcracker and La Sylphides LAB 5) Cleopatra Northern Workshop 6) Swan Lake, City Academy workshop this weekend. 7) Le Corsaire, private tuition on going for my party piece. Superwoman or what?

Hi Katymac Sorry I missed you at Moveit, I only stayed about an hour and a half, I had nagging tooth ache and besides I only came to see what tutu’s and leo’s were available from the different suppliers. I did pop and see Sheila and I also met one of my friends that had a stand there from Covent Garden Market but didn’t meet anyone else I knew. Fortunately I escaped without buying anything, I did have a quick scan of Sheila’s tutu’s but I couldn’t differentiate which ones I have on order or not, anyway they can always wait until next Christmas, then I will have something to look forward too.

Last week really ended on a downer, towards the end of last week I started to develop mild tooth ache, naively I must have thought it would subside and go away. By Friday it was clear this was not going to happen, so I emailed my dentist as I didn’t think he worked Fridays to arrange for an Antibiotic prescription. Over the weekend it got much worse, however I still enjoyed Northern Ballet’s Cleopatra on Saturday, but I didn’t stay long at MOVIT on Sunday, When I finally got home I was absolutely shattered and had taken the maximum recommended painkillers and the ache was still there, it was awful. First thing Monday I rang my dentist as I was desperate to see him, unfortunately that meant I had to miss my class at Stamford where we had been working for several weeks on an Turkish dance from an Egyptian ballet scene, this was to be our last week. It also upset the booking on my local hall too, but I was able to pull that forward, at least I got some practice in for tomorrow(Tuesday) for my one-to-one rep coaching. At least I did get to see the dentist who X-rayed the offending tooth, although its not a permanent long term fix I have been prescribed antibiotics, its seems a little calmer now, after at least getting to my Lincoln class tonight with more pointe work which was really enjoyable. This week is going to be a very heavy week, so I really don’t need the distraction of nagging tooth ache, I just hope it hold off. In order to keep pace with the number of performance pieces I am learning, I have suspended my fitness classes for the moment and also my Social dancing for at least this week, I guess this is where it starts to get serious.

Classes at English National Ballet General Booking is now open for the Spring Term 2014 Term dates: Monday 7 April – Wednesday 25 June (excluding Bank Holidays: 21 April, 5 May and 26 May) For more information about the Classes and the different levels, please see www.ballet.org.uk/classes You will be asked to sign-in to the website or create a profile in order to complete your booking. Mondays (excluding Bank Holidays: 21 April, 5 May and 26 May) Youth Ballet (13-17), 7pm-8.15pm, Daniela Cardim – £45 BOOK NOW Level 3, 7pm-8.15pm – Tom Linecar-Boulton – £90 / £78.75 concession FULLY BOOKED Level 2, 8.20pm-9.35pm – Tom Linecar-Boulton – £90 / £78.75 concession BOOK NOW Level 4, 8.20pm-9.35pm – Laura Hussey – £90 / £78.75 concession BOOK NOW Tuesdays Absolute Beginners, 7pm-8.15pm – Sarah Golightly – £120 / £105 concession BOOK NOW Level 2, 7pm-8.15pm – Pippa Emanuel – £120 / £105 concession BOOK NOW Level 1, 8.20pm-9.35pm – Sarah Golightly – £120 / £105 concession BOOK NOW Level 3, 8.20pm-9.35pm – Laura Hussey – £120 / £105 concession FULLY BOOKED Wednesdays BalletFit, 7pm-8pm – Rhiann Keys – £120 / £105 concession BOOK NOW Level 2, 7pm-8.15pm – Laura Hussey – £120 / £105 concession FULLY BOOKED Level 3, 8.20pm-9.35pm – Laura Hussey – £120 / £105 concession BOOK NOW Level 1, 8.20pm-9.35pm – Sarah Golightly – £120 / £105 concession BOOK NOW Department of Learning English National Ballet Markova House, 39 Jay Mews, London, SW7 2ES T: 020 7581 1245 F: 020 7225 0827 W: www.ballet.org.uk

Hi Lin Have you ordered your tutu base for the LAB Spring Intensive yet? The same base is to be used for some of our scenes in the LAB Gala Performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre, the girls at LAB tonight were trying the prototype tutu on, they liked it, it looked quite stunning. I didn’t try it on as I already one of that is very similar.

Hi Katymac I will be there on Sunday, I was hoping to do Saturday and Leeds Grand Theatre too, but I screw-up the travel times and it simply isn’t feasible, so Sunday it is for Moveit. You will most probably see me there as we met last year.

I was very anxious when I started today as my weekly hair appointment had to be put back to 11.15am instead of the usual 9am as my hair stylist arranged to be in later. Also I was using a new studio for one to one repertoire tuition, so travel timing was a little unknown other than a rough estimate. As it was, I arrive 30 minutes ahead of schedule, enough time for a quick coffee in a café near to the studio. The rep session went extremely well with lots of corrections to work through before next week, its absolutely amazing of the detail I missed from a video clip of the scene to be danced, I spotted the odd one my teacher missed, but I missed loads, it really was worth while and I certainly feel we have accomplished something, it’s a fantastic arrangement. I did my two usual classes at ENB, at the level 3 class we certainly worked hard, at the end of the session at the barre my leo was soaking, it wasn’t just me, I think we all felt that way, but it was a really really good session, I think the best I have ever had there, in spite of being told off at the end of our enchainement for using double pirouettes when I was only supposed to be using singles, oh woops. However our teacher did make the comment that she needed to increase the standard to get more of us up into level 4, I think to let more of the level 2 dancers to move up to level 3 as spaces at level 3 are limited. She certainly pushed us tonight.

Another Sunny spring day today (Monday), but it didn’t stop that Monday morning feeling. A new relief teacher for our body balance class this morning, the routines were different and a few moans from the girls, I enjoyed it though. Had to catch up with the Stamford show sequence as I missed last week, it looks as if there is only one more week to go to complete it, a pity as it has been a real change for that class and a pleasure to dance. Lincoln was a good class, short and sweet as we have now incorporated Pointe work. It started with the new term last week which I missed when my car broke down, but I took my Pointe shoes in tonight and my feet were reasonably fine considering I haven’t had them on for several months now.

I will be popping in for a quick visit on Saturday and then off up to Leeds to see Northern Ballet's Cleopatra the same day, as I'm doing a workshop on that the following Thursday, no rest for the wicked.

Hi Lin Its Classic tutu's for all dances, I checked that out tonight at LAB, the one's they are offering are not that sticky out as you put it, but I haven't seen them. Never the less no one is going to get upset if you don't wear one, but I guess the majority will wear them. As for us that have our own full sequinned tutu's, they will check there suitability, so I guess they may not want us to wear them which I can understand for a corps de ballet piece and of course the solo's will look similar as we will be doing them in fairly large groups. I still don't know if I'm going to be allowed to perform both solo's at their end of intensive performance as we have 75 dancers performing, but LAB knows my wishes.

Today has been a really nice day, but I’m not sure why. I had an hour this morning in my village hall after the local ballet class had finished, I worked on three separate pieces of rep, the hall was still quite cold (15degrees) even though the sun was shining outside, it went reasonably well. Check out my new dance studio near Liverpool street station, its not bad, but not ideal for long term usage, I’ve booked and paid for it for the next two week to accommodate my one to one rep coaching. I arrived early (5.45) at RAD in Battersea, but a group had our studio booked until 7.30 for some sort of party (not dance), the gentleman on RAD reception said he would give me a call as soon as they had cleared the studio, that was about 6.45, so I did get a little practice time in before class. The LAB session was good, even though the end of our sequence was re-choreographed and is something that has to be relearned and polished. I don’t know why but I really really enjoyed tonight’s session. Something else that happened too, my pull along case seemed so much lighter although it still as full as it usually is, I think I must just be getting fitter, or its simply that spring is in the air, but it just seemed a really wonderful day.

My first class this week since my car is now fixed, rehearsal at the Angles Theatre, a few more tweaks to our show sequence, not sure when we are likely to finish it, as I know we have another one to do. Several girls absent this week, but a couple of new ones, not sure if they will be in the show or not. Tomorrow back to my practice hall to prepare for tomorrows LAB session and start work on one of the Spring Intensive solo's as that's creeping up fast. Also need to check out a new studio for hire before going on to RAD for my LAB sessions, with a bit of luck I will arrive early and get some free practice in.

Car was picked up this morning, I got a phone call at lunch time to say after checking everything the fault had cleared itself, however I still ask them to change the fuel pump as I rely heavily on it for getting to and from my multitude of ballet classes. Hopefully it will now be reliable but it will take a little time to regain confidence in it. Its all systems go for the Angles Theatre rehearsal tomorrow. Have arranged to see the new studio on Thursday before my LAB sessions, so pleased to be back to ballet.

The Tutu base's are quite expensive, I see the Just Ballet ones are £39.99 which I have, but then of course you will need a white leo. I came across some long ones at Starlite. fortunately I was able to try them on before I bought them, the style that was long I had to go down two sizes, unfortunately I would have to re-find that style name as I no longer have the old invoice, if that would help. If your really stuck for a white tutu base, then you can borrow mine if that will help, as I will be taking at least one full tutu if not two. I'm not sure what we are wearing for the friends dance, but will check Thursday.

Been there done that, its in the appropriate thread. My car is being picked up tomorrow (Tuesday), but they have ordered the fuel pump, but it does mean I will miss ENB and checking out my new studio, I will phone the studio tomorrow and see if I can rearrange to see it on Thursday before my LAB classes. Today has been really flat, no ballet and not really knowing when I can get back, so I hope I'm back on the road by the end of tomorrow, otherwise I will go mad. I received an email from RBS today to say they will only be taking bookings for their adult classes after 11am on the day. I guess that because I went in and see them the day before.

The Romeo and Juliet workshop in Edinburgh was unusually short for RAD with it only being two hours. The class consist of 8 girls including me, it started with the usual barre and a bit of centre to serve as a warm up before going into rep. The repertoire was published as “The dance of the Knight by Macmillan” and we were give a youtube clip as an example, however part of the dance scene was missing as the camera went on to Juliet and away from the dancers, however I filled that gap by studying the Royal Ballet version, but that gave me two slightly different positions for the ladies arms, so I learnt both I also though it prudent to learn the men’s steps too, as half of us would have to dance the male roll and I wasn’t sure which I would get allocated too.. When we started it was nothing like the choreography we learnt, it was from a 1950’s version but I forget the name. All of us learnt both rolls and only at the end did we do it as partners, I danced the guys roll this time. This repertoire wasn’t what I was looking fore as it was not planned against the clip or anything like, but it was still fun all the same and something new to learn. As we had a little time at the end we danced "Lady Capulet’s Grief" from the end of act3, although there was nothing dancey or balletic about it, it was very much about acting, to portray tragedy, hatred and grief, plus we also got to roll about on the floor. That was both interesting and fun. At the end we did our usual group photo as a memento. The school seem to think they will be doing more Adult Repertoire Workshops for RAD in the future, so I guess I will see them again and hopefully some of the same faces too.

I did the Romeo an Juliet Workshop in Edinburgh in spite of the loss of my car. Its just the frustration now of getting my car done. I have dropped the key over to the lady at the office of the garage that looks after my car, it’s also very close to where I live, its lunch time now and no one has been over yet. I really not very good at waiting as I just keep thinking of all my dancing plans that are now falling apart Grrr, I wish I had two cars. I guess not is ballet wearing my feet out, its also wearing my car out too. Ah well a bit of enforced rest and diet too as I didn’t get any shopping in on Saturday.

I will try as I have a lot riding on the Intensive. Looking at the Spring Intensive schedule its no clear if dancers are only expected to do one solo, those that want too, but Tom knows I really want to do both. I think the details of the tutu bottoms should be available on his shop part of the site on the 1st of March. I’m also not sure what he expects dancers to wear for the corps de ballet piece (Friend Dance) RB are in Tutu’s, but I don’t think he is expecting that, but I will check with him on Thursday. I may take my plain circular tutu bottom just in case, but for the solo’s it will be a full professional sequined white tutu for me, and of course with wings for the fairy variation. As for keeping fit, during March I only have two repertoire workshops “Swan Lake” and “Cleopatra”, but loads of practice and one to one coaching as well as my regular classes and rehearsals. Tuesday is my immediate worry as I need to be back at ENB plus I also have to check out my next studio for hire, otherwise I have to take a chance on it like the last one, and that one I wouldn’t have hired if I had seen it first.

Grrr the fuel pump on my car packed up this morning whilst I was in Spalding, my local town (Saturday), I have just had to arrange for a taxis from home to Peterborough train station for tomorrow as I’m in Edinburgh doing a Romeo and Juliet Workshop, that will now be the most expensive ballet session I have ever done. I just hope I can get it fixed on Monday as the knock on effect on my ballet commitments will be awful.

Dear Mimi66 You must think me extremely naïve, to assume being young automatically make you having a beautiful balletic extensions. However I would make a parallel point that even with 30years from my current age is not like to achieve hyper extension for 6 o'clock positions, there age does play a part and is an essential attribute as is proper and sustained training over a considerable period. fortunately I'm still gaining, but there will come a time I'm sure that my physical ability will diminish irrespective of further training. For the time being I will throw every once of effort I can in achieving my goals and certainly not be put off by negative comments to the contrary. I take Lin's point about risk of injury, I know every day I do ballet at the intensity I'm doing it at, the boundary between progress and injury is very fine line and occasionally I will stray over that boundary. I believe being a serious dancer that simply goes with the territory and one has to use ones best judgement as to how far one goes. In order to do RBS this week on top of my other ballet commitments, I dropped my classes at ENB, Wednesday night my legs really suffered by the time I got home, the only thing that restored them was the exercise detailed in Alfredson's Protocol, that MUST be done morning and night. If I hadn't I am sure I would not have been walking the following day, having been there before. I also take Lin's point that recovery take longer as you get older. For me, I believe 135 degrees for a slow sustained high developpe lift is achievable in the relative short term. I also think its necessary aesthetically for some of the repertoire I am doing, so I will most definitely pursue this. In any case doing rep is not just about copying steps, that’s why I have engaged a profession coach on a one to one basis. I have already attended two session with her, we have an agreed training plan in place, we are now scheduling another four sessions for March covering two more solo’s, this time at a different studio which I am to inspect next week. This gal never gives up, and definitely not one of a crowd. I may well have a bad girl black swan image, but I am most definitely my own person.

You point me in the direction of an effective training technique and I will provide the hard work. Its like searching for the holy grail, however I do find doing splits type stretches before hand does add another 6 inches to the extension, I think for the moment I would be happy with 135 degrees at devant and a la seconde, but I will accept anything derriere over 90, as my local teacher was always telling me off for going into a superman pose to get the extra height as I do not have the back bend flexibility to hold my posture. For the moment I am grounded as regards splits type stretches, as I pulled a muscle in my thigh just before Christmas in a cold body balance class in our local gym. My physio advised giving it 12 weeks to heal before resuming them. Although that muscle (Gracilis) now feels fine, I’m reluctant to push it prematurely in case of set backs, as I inadvertently hit it once during one of my LAB sessions at the barre.

Terpsichore Are you sure Northern are not on holiday this week as I think they are, please check.

I went to Paul’s class at RBS tonight and no one was turned away, they were still booking people in at the desk with no reservation when we all assembled at reception around 6.30pm, after about 10 minutes a lady showed us up to I think a top floor studio, most of us got changed there, then we were told we were not using that studio so we went to a much larger one only one level up. The class consisted of 35 dancers including two young guys. Most of the dancers we in their twenties, there was one older lady, quite a bit older than me I think, and that was it, the rest was very young and of cause with the young age came the flexibility and high extensions to die for. One girl was even on pointe which really enhanced her pirouettes. Barre was fairly standard but quite crampt During Adage/port de bras in the centre, the class was split in two, for mostly everything else it was self organising small groups of about 6 or 7. The standard of the dancers in general was also high. What was taught in class was technically no higher than ENB level 3 or Northern Intermediate/advanced class and possibly marginally higher than Pineapples elementary class, however what does set it apart is Paul’s method of teaching, he is quick and you have to listen carefully and you definitely need to know what you are doing, mostly he will talk you through an enchainement with gestures rather than a full on demonstration which we get at ENB, Pineapple , Northern etc, however he does do one demonstration as he marks it, but only one. When dancers come to perform that piece they are on there own, Paul is simply observing. I know when we did the adage enchainment early on, Paul went an stood with the dancers located towards the back of the room so they didn’t escape his attention. The small group exercises were more challenging, I loved the pirouette enchianement so I went with the first group, but for the others I let at least one group go ahead of me to give me an extra chance to memorise the enchainment. I think the worst one for me was the allegro with glissard and assemblies in it, I’m not sure how many glissard /assemeblie lives my feet have but I think they running a bit thin as I seem to have been doing them all week and my feet are really starting to get sore, so I really did hold back on them. For me I really did enjoy the class, I also met several girls I knew, one from City Academy, four from ENB and one from LAB, plus there were several faces that look familiar too. I would not hesitate in doing this class again when I’m on break from the Angles Theatre, it really was a fantastic night, I even got one of the girls to take a photo of me with Paul after the class. Although the class is open to drop in dancers, I was suggested that this could change, its under review, especially with the large take-up, last week only had 15 dancers. It was also suggested that they may launch other classes of different levels on other days of the week. But this particular class is definitely not for beginners.

oops