Michelle_Richer

Hi Tulip That sounds a bit like a cop-out, on things like rise and balance the timing is left to the dancer, I’m one of the few that think that action is important to the point it is one integrated movement and should not be interpreted as separate commands. I would also make the point I’m a thinking dancer and not a passive participant, if I consider there are either benefits of acquiring balance or it’s artistically more pleasing without compromising the underlying technique, then I will go for it. In the past no teacher has found it necessary to corrected me for such actions. That doesn’t mean to say I don’t get corrections, as I most definitely do. As for professionals doing barre every day, well so do I.

Hi Mimi My raspberry leo at the weekend was shiny and definitely not pastel. As for white no problem for me shiny or not, it’s all a question of confidence, this gal goes where others fear to tread. I do like royal blue; I once did a performance with two girls in lovely royal blue tutu’s with just a little bit of white in the tully. I was flanked on either side by one of these girls in their royal blue, I was in my white sequinned Odette tutu from Sheila, it was a really beautiful combination, I wished a photo had been taken of it at the time.

Wow there was me thinking it was a hand rail, just somewhere to rest my spare hand. I honestly did know I had to grip the barre until my knuckles went white, I guess then with practice I might eventually be able to pull-up until neither foot touches the floor. I wonder how long I could balance like that?

A really good class at Lincoln tonight. Although the studio was the coldest I have know it, it seem to make the floor more slippy. Lincoln has always been my worst floor for pirouettes and tendu’s due to its stickiness. One of the girls mentioned it felt a lot better and as our teacher was sorting out a sequence in her head, I tried a quick pirouette, it took me one and three quarter turns, I could never get more than a turn out of that floor. Later that evening we were doing a short enchainement from corner to corner using en dehors pirouettes. I don’t know why but I just went for a double, it executed beautifully, but I didn’t have time to complete the arabesque properly that followed, when I got to the corner I told my teacher. She told me to leave the arabesque out and go for it on the other side. All doubles on both side went like a dream, not sure how many they were, but at least 6 on each side. The gods were certainly with me tonight on that one.

Hi Dancer Sugar Plum I’m so glad you put those reference times in, that was extremely helpful. If you go to those you will see it illustrates my point “In reality we are looking for a strait leg line to and including the bottom, but it will be off vertical to maintain the centre of balance, it’s physically impossible to be otherwise” exactly. In any case nothing untoward came out of this exercise for me in class, no correction etc, so I'm really not going to get excited about it. I take your point on the comment about using the barre to support doing a full port de bra whilst on releve. However for me, I must confess I frown on anything that is associated with balance that requires holding the barre. Only tonight we were doing rond de jambes at the barre which ended in a arabesque and then a penche. As soon as the movement changed to towards the arabesque my hand came off the barre, the rest of the exercise was completed self supporting, my teacher does not have a problem with that. The rest of the class continued to used the barre.

I don’t think I have experienced anything different in a romantic tutu, possibly because by the time I’m wearing one, it’s for dress rehearsal and so many things are different, consequently on stage with different floor geometry, lighting, possible changes to the performance piece, you senses are already heightened. By the second time through you have already accommodated most of those allowances. The only thing that sticks in my mind when wearing at tutu, the short circular pancake type (Not sure what its proper description is), it the position of the hands for bras bas, which are higher to avoid contact with the top of the circular skirt. But getting back to the commonality of the sea of black, I guess things are changing. I see a girl with a nice turquoise leotard, as per post #14 I was as good as my work, I went against the convention of black and was wearing a bright raspberry pick leo with burgundy chiffon skirt, just to be different. I did it because I could. The same reason I have ordered a Black Swan Tutu, absolutely nothing to do with the film, but to reflect my “Bad Girl” and defiant character. I have already identified the bold music and the fast and snappy, extremely challenging choreography for me, to go along with it. I now have two personal one-to-one tutors, to help me accomplish this. Sorry Mimi if that's digressing from your terms of reference being an “Open Class”

I spoke to RAD today (Monday 3rd), the Cinderella Workshop on the 15th is definitely on, we have enough dancers now, the 23rd at Edinburgh is having its closing date extended by a further week as there is insufficient numbers so far, keeping my fingers crossed.

Hi Dancing Sugar Plum Welcome back to the thread. I'm extremely sorry but I cannot agree with some of the wording associated with your comment for the following reasons: “your weight should not go back behind you at all in a forward port de bras.” The body in that state roughly resembles an inverted “L” shaped structure as it goes down, for a L shaped structure to be in balance on the vertical column it must be tilted so there is equal weight on both sides, otherwise you would naturally fall forward. Of course we have feet at the bottom of our vertical column (Legs), if they are fully turned out at 180 then they are not helping us to place the weight forward, however if we were in sixth position which is seldom used and often considered as no turnout in first, then some of that weight can be placed forward and remain in balance. Consequently one could ague that the poorer the turnout, the less the bottom protrudes at the back. In reality we are looking for a strait leg line to and including the bottom, but it will be off vertical to maintain the centre of balance, it’s physically impossible to be otherwise. That centre of balance should go equally through the arches, in other words equally distributed between the heel and ball of the foot. The wall thing you referred to, we were doing using our partner at right angles, which worked just as well. Hi Billyelliot We were looking at our teachers stance not being totally vertical (not quite the same as poking your bottom out), that stance was quite correct for the reasons I have mentioned above. Hi Balleteacher My preference in checking anything associated with balance would be to let go of barre as that can distort what you are hoping to see. I very much like the style of my Bolshoi friends at the Scottish Ballet adult class, who do much of the barre work without actually holding the barre.

Hi Lin This gals been dancing, don't get much time for the forum, she's a doer rather than a talker. I guess I cant do black tomorrow then.

I guess its that auto correct, it should be, "When OUR teacher", the centre of balance always causes the bottom to be positioned further over to the back, yes it can and should be minimised but its impossible to have completely vertical legs going up and the bottom on the top so to speak. We both see the same thing from our teachers demonstration that her bottom was noticeably over but I will add not too far. That why we smiled.

I guess I'm getting a bit more selective in my old age. I'm already doing something like 3 rep workshops a month and handling scenes from around 6 different classical ballets a month with shows and LAB, so I'm really agonising if to do BRB or not. I have already exchanged emails as to what they are doing, so I'm not sure that I will get very much out of it.

Hi mimi Well I guess we go to different types of open classes, my consists of the smaller classes as well as a number from the large ballet companies like ENB, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. The theme still remains the same, at best about a third present in loe’s and skirts, the majority is in leggings and tops. As for white, I have warn white for Swan lake workshops and master classes as well as ENB. I wore white all week at the last LAB Intensive. I certainly have warn pink at ENB and other classes and I also remember warring red one Christmas. But usually like most it’s black. As with most adult performances it’s down to the financial constrains of most dancers where a good compromise and presentation comes from an appropriately coloured leotard and long romantic tutu. My classes now other than ENB are all performance based, that is, they do at least one on stage performance a year, some do much more. So consequently I have leos of all colours and a large variety of Tutu’s of different styles, from the short circular (Sticky out), to medium (not unlike the romantic tutu length to the full dress. They are there to match the character being portrayed rather than my own identity. As for Swan Lake, I've already done several scenes from act2, just love it. Needless to say I have the tutu and head dress for that one too. I particularly like Odette's solo, been there done that.

An interesting perspective, I guess it’s shared by most, I think all the adult classes I belong to, those of us that go as far as leotards with chiffon skirts are in a minority, personally I’m extremely comfortable in that type dress whatever the colour or style, for me it’s a bit like an appropriate ballet uniform. For public performances I have no problem with Tutu’s (Short or long) in fact try keeping me out of one if it’s deemed appropriate for that character roll. Often they are not allowed as they are seen as an obstacle financially for many adult dancers and I appreciate and respect that. But given the opportunity I will definitely be there in one of my many tutu in spite of not being a spring chicken, I guess a lot of that comes from being an active social dancer where scantly clad outfits are deemed very appropriate and basically I have never grown up.

I think you have answered your own question don't you?. Although I'm still wondering about BRB as its not a serious rep workshop. Shortly in addition to all my regular stuff I will have two rep coaches, just need to get the studios organised and booked.

Yes they are fast, I cant do them that fast in a circle, but just about manage on the diagonal. Doing them at half speed gives a reasonable compromise. Not sure how Rejane will treat them, they may not even be included. I need to go through that variation a few times before Saturday to make sure my ankles are up to it as it contains quite a lot of jumping type movements. As does the pas de deux, and the friends dance, so it should be quite challenging.

Hi Lin unfortunately that's the way they operate, one day I must go in early and get them organised as they really do loose opportunities. I have ask them for publicity material but there is not much coming my way, in the past I have got it displayed in Pineapple and Danceworks as well as local ballet schools. About a week before the event you will get your conformation together with what scenes we are doing, sometimes with a youtube clip as a rough guide.

Things are already hotting up, went to my ballet class at the Angles theatre for the first time since my ankle problem at Christmas and found they have already started rehearsal for our summer show, so lots of catching up to do. Never the less tonight went quite well, I guess by next week I will be up to speed.

Ankles seem to be holding up wonderfully well after both classes at ENB last night and in spite all the walking I did in pursuit of dance studios for hire yesterday afternoon, only downside was the awful weather. One interesting thing we did last night was to make sure our bottoms didn’t stick out as we did a full forward bend port de bras down, we even pair up with a partner who stood sideways on to your back, to check if you were poking your bottom out. As far as I could see, it was a bit of an illusion, the legs must remain absolutely strait and the less the turn out in first the better as it allows the centre of balance to come forward a bit. When out teacher demonstrated, one of the girls looked at me, I returned to look and smiled and said “I’m saying nothing”. The legs to the bottom always go back but if the legs are strait the illusion is, it appears very much minimised. I even checked this in the next class with a different teacher. Looking for a second dance studio to hire, this one is local as I have found another possible private rep coach.

Back to full time this week. Body balance today was hard work, we had a different teacher as our regular one has gone skiing. Some of the other girls moaned too, so I guess it’s not just my drop in fitness while recovering from injury, which is what I first suspected, but I was quite tired at the end of class. Stamford ballet class was fantastic, they we doing a wonderful enchainement that had been cribbed from the grade 5’s performance piece. My only downside is, I have missed two weeks of building the sequence, but the teacher has said she will video it for me. I gather there is still quite a bit to go, but we did spend a lot of the centre time on it, and I loved it. Lincoln was good too, lots of turns and pirouettes, I was just about scraping doubles out of that sticky floor, I don’t think its quite as bad as it used to be, but it’s a long way short of most floors. I was reluctant to put in any more power as I had banged my head going over whilst doing a string of double pirouettes at the weekend, they were very fast (as was the music) with both the preparation, and close very unusual. Its ENB tomorrow plus inspecting my short list of dance studios for hire.

This gals in, just received the letter of conformation.

Hi Lin They seldom have too many dancers so there wont be any problem getting your booking accepted. Anyway I'm not best please with the way RAD operate, they loose lots of opportunities by poor promotion of their Adult Rep Workshops. I ask them along time ago to send me flyers for all of those rep courses so I could get them displayed at Pineapple and Danceworks as well as my local classes and ballet shops. They only sent me the Cinderella one when it was far too late.

Hi Sheila I think you require a little therapy to get you over performance nerves and join Linda and my self at the Royal Ballet School for LAB’s Spring Intensive. Just had a look at your site, if ever you do a tutu dress similar to the one displayed on “The New York City’s Professional Training Program” flyer, it matches well with Giselle for Giselle’s first variation in act 3. Lin Have you ever considered a romantic tutu, it just the bottom part which is quite long and flattering, you have seen my Lincoln pictures, that is the type I’m wearing, then a leo of your choice to match. I need to get a London dance studio booked for February, for some one-to-one rep coaching, have spent most of the morning emailing lots of studio’s, I found one yesterday that sounds brilliant but there is a possible timing issue, need to get things sorted Monday before I go to my first class at 10am, no rest for the wicked .

Hi terpsichore That’s an interesting mind-set you have. For me, I think if you are going to learn new movements that include balance like pirouettes and turns then its likely at some point or other you may loose your balance and fall over. The more complicated and demanding it is, the more its likely, it simply goes with the territory. Personally I cant stand a teacher which says “do be careful”, as I silently sense the word “DEAR”, meaning you really shouldn’t be doing that at your age, Grrr, that annoys me no end. I much prefer the type of class where if you fall over, you are expected to get yourself up and try again. I have to learn and practice a sequence which consists of a double en dehors pirouette launched from fourth, but stops with a step on to the gesturing leg in front (strait), so the pivoting leg extends in the air behind, pause, then swish through to the front and drops into fourth as preparation for the next pirouette. There are five of these to be done in line, one after the other. Whilst one done in isolation isn’t too challenging, but to do 5 seamless connected pirouettes in line is very challenging and I expect to end up on my bum more than once before I master it. Lin Did you ever do Pilate at the Chelsea Ballet Summer School as that was an option, when you do the LAB intensive its an integral part of the course. I do two classes of Body Balance every week which is a combination of Pilates, Yoga and Tai Chi, I’m also hoping to add at least one of my own which is based on a combination of a couple of advanced Pilates DVD for dancers. LAB was good last night, we’ve added some more on to the two reps we learnt last week, I love building it up in that way and getting a video for homework during the week, that really works for me and you can clearly see where you have gone wrong. I certainly picked up a direction issue that I was not aware off in class. There were four of us in formation going across the room which was fine, then the formation changed, I though somehow I was to remain in my original position, but in reality it changed so I was in a lead position closest to the audience before we changed position again. Transport to LAB at RAD HQ was a little challenging again, this time the Victoria Line was close, so I had to take the longer route of Piccadilly Line to South Kensington, the Circle line to Victoria. This time I only waited 5 minutes for the 170bus and 20minutes later I was at RAD HQ. Well I’m still walking, but my feet did take some pasting again last night, two more classes adding for next week too. I think the combination of correct heel drops followed by ice on the Achilles for ten minutes is showing real benefits of recovery. Lin I don’t think you will be expected to wear a sticky out tutu for LAB intensive, I’m sure it will be an option, but you know me, I’m just a show off. Do you perhaps have a long romantic tutu that can be used with a nice leo, otherwise I guess its St Trinians.

Two more classes added this week to gently scale up after injury. The first (Lincoln) went reasonable OK, the only thing that seem different was Pose turns, using the right leg as the pivoting leg everything thing seemed OK, but on the left it seemed odd, I still managed to spot and get to my destination, but the quality of the turn wasn’t there, it somehow seemed awkward, but it difficult to pin point just what. The second was ENB which was in fact two classes, level 2 and level 3. As usual I arrived early and someone let me in a little before time, so I got my extra half hour of practice in the studio. My circular travelling turns seem to have deteriorated, I tried them several times but seem to have lost it for the time being, not sure if its just lack of practice or attributable to my injury. Level 2 class went fine, even the travelling turns which were quite basic. I held back on everything that required an extension of my left leg especially grand batterments in a la seconde. By the time Level 3 came round I was feeling a bit more confident about the muscle that had been pulled in my left leg, not a twinge from it. So when it came to grand battements in a la seconde I hesitantly let it go above 90 in second, no twinge, but never the less I really dare not push it too, as at this stage that was brilliant. However as the night went on I did start to tire, especially after the jumps. The final thing we did was Glissard and assemblie travelling right, then left and repeating them. Travelling right was no problem, plenty of power in the left foot to launch the assemblie but in the other direction the right foot was much weaker and was seriously tired, and basically just got worse. I was really warn out at the end of that session and my heels were starting to get sore too. When I left ENB , it was cold, raining, and I hadn’t got the energy to hurry along to the tube station which is a good 20minutes away, thankfully I had my umbrella. By this time I was starting to get more than a little worried about my ankles, I know if I have problems the night before, the following morning is worst. One stop before my final stop at Peterborough I got the resistance band out and exercised both feet before the train came to a halt, that definitely helps. Once home, correct application of heel drop protocol followed by ice on the ankles for ten minutes seems to restore them somewhat. The following morning apart from being slightly stiff I’m still mobile and once I get moving things are fine. Today I engaged in a slightly different therapy, retail therapy. I visited Just Ballet in Southend-on-Sea to check out some tutu’s, my legs are much better since my purse is much lighter when I now.

Cinderella is the 15th Feb, I'm also doing Romeo and Juliet in Edinburgh on the 23rd Feb if its a flyer, with RADS Giselle on 29th June in Cambridge. Looks as if I will be down for BRB on April 15th but I'm still talking to them about that one.