Michelle_Richer

Wow I wonder if that's anyone I know.

I just need to pick up the pieces and claim what I can from either party. I need to make up the time I have lost through being inactive. To that end I’ve already booked another time slot at our hall, Nicky’s slot, as she is on half term break. So I should get an hour of Giselle in, and an hour of Swan Lake, that will help make things up.

MMM it seems very unclear, the ticket were advanced purchase from Trainline.com, according to their website they are not responsible, the train operator is. At the bottom of the east coast form, it states you should go to who sold you the tickets. In any case I cannot even cancel my unused ticket for tomorrow from Glasgow to London through trainline.com as its an advanced booking.

What an awful day, not just the weather. I arrived at Peterborough Station full of cheer after having my hair done, about an hour or so before my train was due out for Edinburgh. When the train first appeared on the notice board it was running 3 minutes late (I only have 16mins for my connection to Glasgow), Just after that all trains were suspended on the East Coast main line. There had been a serious incident with the overhead power cables (I think a train had fowled some and they had come down). The station staff said it would be at least two hours and possibly all day before services were resumed back to normal. That certainly took the wind out of my sales, no Scottish ballet and £200 down and nothing to show for it. I phoned Scottish ballet from the station, my Travel Lodge Invoice did not have a phone number so I couldn’t cancel it until I got home, so that cant be recovered. Not a nice day, I wish I had stayed in bed.

I guess that's what I will do then, the 170 it is. I will have a trial run in daylight as I'm doing their Don Quixote rep workshop on the 17th Nov, assuming they get enough dancers. So I should shake out the bugs before nights in January.

Kings Cross, So I was hoping to do as much as possible on the underground, Google's suggested route up to South Kensington, is the one I use every week for ENB.

Google suggests Piccadilly line to South Kensington then a No 49 Bus at (D) then to (BE) and walk the rest. Clapham junction looks like another possible, then its a 15 minute walk to RAD. I assume the Imperial Wharf bridge does not have a foot bridge as that would be the shortest route.

Hi Lin If you get to Leeds you may want to check this one out: https://www.leedsgrandtheatre.com/Online/default.asp I may be doing a workshop there in December. I have booked LAB term 2 today to start in the new year on Thursdays at RAD headquarters, it does look a bit awkward to get to though. I would have preferred Saddler's but it would mean giving up one of my ballet schools that have public paying performances and that would never do, especially as I tend to nag them about what to put on, I couldn't just dump them, I'm not like that.

Hi Balleteacher An interesting framing of your question. Attending the large number of ballet classes that I do, gives me exposure to a large number of teachers with different abilities and styles. For me ballet is about both learning and enjoyment, but I would place learning as the priority. In that I would place the skill of the teacher in imparting that knowledge into my long term memory allowing me to take away and utilise those dance skills effectively elsewhere, at the head of my priority list, secondly but significantly enjoyment and finally the facilities. If I can give contrasting examples to illustrate this point.: On the one hand you may have a teacher that is a retired principal ballerina and cleverly show off her performing skill to the class as a enchainement to be performed across the room. Although it may have some enjoyment factor from simultaneously copying, by retaining only some bits in short term memory. Unless I can fully recall that later from long term memory the exercise has largely been wasted. I have often experienced something in my professional life which also illustrates the same point, especially from professional conferences. Often someone would say to me about the speaker “Wow wasn’t he good”, I would say “did you understand him”, reply “Well no, but I though he knew what he was talking about”. My point, pure entertainment with no learning. Something else I find a little irritating and slopping, is when a teacher illustrates an enchainement by walking across the room either talking the movement or partially doing an occasional movement. As that presentation was sloppy it almost imparts a sloppiness to me that my performance across the room doesn’t really matter, and that’s sad. Leaning is limited and I think the enjoyment factor suffers too, as we all like to do well or at least try too and it be recognised too. I would rather have an Arthritic teacher in a rundown studio, but who could clearly and effectively go through what she wanted to see from an enchainement, although her demonstration would be lacklustre against my first example, you knew she was doing her very best, furthermore you knew her heart was in teacher YOU, each and every one of you, but who had the ability to impart that knowledge so you could remember it, dance it, and recall it late. For me that teacher is priceless and so is the immense pleasure of learning and taking away. There are other aspects I look for from teachers, but I guess I would rate those as bonus points, as I like to regard the relationship as a partnership, its takes both of us to make a success of things. After class I’m always quizzing teachers on various aspects of ballet, often movement not covered in our class. Unfortunately the responses are mixed, some are extremely helpful others may be, “We don’t do this at this class or at this level”, not only is it unhelpful but I will do it anyway, with or without guidance. I know that not all teachers have the time to spend after class as they sometimes have other classes following, but those that do I often seek homework to help my progression. I always love a teacher that is prepared to go the extra mile, especially if I am working on my own choreography, occasionally one of my teachers and I to dance part of my choreography together, for me that is a very special moment. Irrespective of the type of teacher, I always thank them and the pianist at the end of class, that’s my style and for me that's important.

I’m always in search of excellence. I did get advanced tickets but they had gone up from the day before, things were uncertain so I had to leave it to the last minute (Thursday), but hey ho, its still a lot less expensive than the full fare, and of course I use my rail card too. The only downside is, I only have 15minutes between trains at Edinburgh Waverly station, so I have downloaded a platform map of the station. Although I’m travelling light, which is unusual for me, as I was carrying five and a half stone of luggage during the last summer schools in London? But I will be taking my little DVD player and familiarising myself with the Swan Lake scenes which City Academy has selected for us. This way I make productive use of the time on the train, so I am fully prepped by the time we get to the Rep Workshop at ROH.

Try these links Click here to book for the 4.30 show - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/243465 Click here to book for the 7.30 show - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/243469

Yes but I will still be dancing with the teens.

Haven't seen that one, but funny you should say that, I'm with Scottish Ballet on Monday doing their intermediate class, as my regular ones for Monday are on half term break, Tuesday I'm strait down from Glasgow to London for my two classes for ENB then back home. A couple of light days I guess for me.

LAB Spring Intensive opens for Booking on the 11th of November, the performance will be something from a big corps de ballet section of Sleeping Beauty, cant wait. Hope to see you there Sheila.

Hi Lin That sounds fantastic. Giselle and various other solo variations will become potential performance pieces, but nothing actually planned for that one as yet. Don’t forget our City Academy’s Swan Lake at ROH has a friends and family performance on the 1 st December, I have two public paying performances at our Lincoln show on 6 and 7th December, then I hope you will be at the LAB Spring Intensive at RBS where we are doing something from Sleeping Beauty, large friends and family performance too. Don’t forget with these and the other workshops I’m doing all helps widen my horizons, I never stop and watch the grass grow or the paint dry, I already have my eye on a pianist, and she is very good a performer in her own right.

Hi Balleteacher Thank you for the video clip examples, very helpful. Hi Lin I know what you mean when you say the music makes you work harder, I strongly believe it gives you that extra bit of energy to push that extension, to pull up taller, what ever, it real, its pure magic and I love it. Had a good class this morning with my local teacher Nicky, we also have a new dancer too. I did my first after class session at the hall when Nicky had left, she seems quite cool with things. I made sure no one stayed behind to watch as I don’t want to appear to undermine Nicky in any way. For once I have everything together for Giselle’s variation, I have a lot sorted out, particularly orientation to the audience and keeping time with the music. Although I have run through the whole of it at least once this morning, I started refining it bit by bit with the odd tweak in choreography. Although the Travelling turns en manège was at the end, I did spend a littele while with them going in a clockwise direction (As per the choreography), basically I planned the room out to 9 points and spotted accordingly, as first I went for a too wider circle. Finally I ended with a twelve point circle and a little wider, after a few of those the dizzyness had very significantly diminished. Next week it a 16 point spotting circle and hopefully by the end of the session I will have substituted a couple of pose turns at the end for chaines landing in a curtsey, by which time the whole of the sequence should be complete, but will still need a bit of polishing over the next few weeks. Next week I’m hoping to start on Swan Lake as there are several options, dependant if we have a guy for that workshop. The hall is now a permanent fixture in my training plan, it being invoiced to me each month.

Hi Lin Thank you for the Clip, that’s quit a bit different to what I was taught with Pas de basque as prep. What I really don’t understand with your type of turn, the dancer remains at the same height or at least almost, where with my kind of travelling turn there is quite a marked difference as you fondu the supporting leg on the pas de basque part. I seemed to do a lot of allegro yesterday at both ENB and Pineapple, my legs and heels really took a pasting yesterday, especially with the 20 minute walk back to South Kensington station from ENB, then my right heel became extremely painful and I was worried it wouldn’t allow me to do pointe class tonight. When I got to pointe class it had been cancelled and ballet too, had a nice social chat with my teacher instead. She had emailed me but I had set off a little early to call and see my sister on the way. I really enjoyed pineapple yesterday, even my grand jete’s seemed a lot better as I often land a little too heavy, also my leg stretch mid flight seemed much improved too, not sure if that was a fluke on a good day or what. I did manage to get a studio to myself after class and went through various bits from Giselle. One thing I’m really stuck on, is the very last bit, the travelling turns around the room (in a circle), that is definitely something we have never done in class. I also note Franziska didn’t do the circle of travelling turns in her Sleeping Beauty (Aurora Variation) Workshop that we both attended. I tried all sorts to get the spotting right, at one point I used spotting on each of the brackets supporting the barre’s around the room, at one pointe I thought is was working but when I repeated it, I was dizzy , so concluded it was a flop. Doing them in a strait line on the diagonal is not a problem but I cannot work out what the difference is, I guess it is significantly trickier as no one in any of my adult classes teaches them. Having to find classes next week to cover half term breaks, where shall I look next?

Hi Lin Which turn should I use, a pose or a pique, I thought they were the same, especially as my dictionary of classical ballet says so, ha ha ha. I’m still a little unsure with your description of lame duck turns, I will check out Le Corsaire as I have a DVD of the Kirov Ballet version, Im still waiting to find out from ENB what scenes we are doing for the Le Corsaire Rep Workshop. We did extended barre at our Stamford class this afternoon, it was extremely aerobic, all of the girls were sweating buckets including our teacher, and it was a real workout. I have never worked so hard for a long time, I think it was compounded by the fact I had only just come from my Body balance class is Spalding. Finally got a proper date for our performance at Lincoln, we are performing on both the Friday 6/12 and Saturday 7/12 which is good as I wanted to do the RAD Nutcracker Rep Workshop on Sunday the 8th, but not much sleep that night as it’s a car journey down to Kent early Sunday morning. Our teacher has decided not to use “Giselle’s Friends Dance” for the show but use her own choreography, a little disappointing, but you cant win them all, its still in the melting pot at the Angles Theatre for consideration. At least my teacher has said I can video the sequence as soon as we start, so I should soon make short work of that.

That may technically be right, but that was not the way I was made to feel, so let leave it at that.

Yes I see it, but as I'm not welcome on that thread I keep off it. So what type of lame duck turns were you doing ? PS I wish my mum was still around, I don't know what she would make of me in a Tutu.

Battement Glisse and battement Jete do tend to get used interchangeably, another one is battement balance where we have highs and lows, we use this in my local class but no where else. Another one in Pose and Pique turns. Yes I wish they would standardise too.

Lin: Steady on, you need to save yourself for Swan Lake at the ROH, you have some Pose turns at the end of Odette’s solo to do. What type of lame duck turns were you doing, similar to the one Rejane showed us at the Giselle workshop. I prefer to start with a fondu on the supporting leg and a pas de basque with the gesturing leg, then into a type of soutenu which brings you back to the prep position again, I love them as travelling turns and with the fondu, the up and down is far more dramatic, but I think they look lovely and so do my Salsa friends when I get a chance to practice them on our wide open dance floor. I’m really looking forward to Thursday when I get the Hall to myself after our local ballet class. DavidW: That’s not a US UK thing; those terms are used over here and also Jete when done at the barre. At Lincoln we came up with the convention that a degagés was 2 inches from the floor or 20 degrees with the gesturing foot, a glissés was 3 to 4 inches or 45 degrees, we never accommodated a jete at the barre, but it is a term used at ENB and City Academy.

Hi Fiz I've drop a second link in, copy it into your URL address bar, it should run then. I also like the fact that they have included what Northern Ballet call a Pas de point (1.59 minutes), however our arm were in second, at ENB the front arm stretch was much longer almost to the foot but created a good line with the back arm, however the back foot remained on demi, it could not be grounded. but I guess that's different variations of the same move.

Hi Lin and Fiz You might find this clip interesting, the Grand Jete entournat is right at the end, I really love the technique of most of these moves as we have done many of them at ENB and Stamford, but they certainly do not look that good even from our teachers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKXAeQqf-lk http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PKXAeQqf-lk‎ Follow the link, not sure why its not displaying the video.

Yes Lin we were taught to do that as a scissor kick as you describe a couple of weeks ago but we didn't spend very long on it, but then our teacher was off, she is not there this week so we are doing Extended barre with another teacher who is also a class member at our class, she has newly qualified in this and has her own class on Thursdays which I cannot make. Extended barre is very aerobic.