Michelle_Richer

Yes I think I will, I'm checking my calendar as I may be doing City Academy's Master class too, if they confirm the scenes being covered, But I am getting very busy with rep in Nov / dec, I must also allow for my Lincoln show which is a bit wobbly at the moment. I've ask City to Include Odette's Solo in the Swan Lake day too, it is quite doable.

At Northern Ballet last night we had twin barre’s, lower and upper, so I guess it caters for all. I’m relatively short 5ft 3in, but I always use the top barre, I even do pie’s with the supporting leg. I think the hardest thing I have done at the barre was to rotate round into arabesque with the back foot on the barre, that really requires good balance especially with nothing to hold on to. That was one of our exercises in the Peterborough class some time ago. I really don’t understand the fixation about safety, safety is your responsibility not your teachers. Generally the teacher in class will only tell you to go as far as you are comfortable with. If you are going to fall, she will not catch you, she can only advise you if it’s apparent that you are doing something that appears unsafe. As for door stretches, they are far more safer than at the barre as you are better supported, but as I said, If you cant get to 90 degrees you wont be able to utilise it. That type of stretch is common in Pineapple using the corridor at the side of the studios which is wider. I had a really wonderful day at Northern Ballet yesterday, the classes were good, I even learnt a new ballet term a “Boolouncie” which is Yorkshire French for balance. After our morning session I got invited out for a coffee again. We met up at the same coffee shop as last week but we had a student quartet playing classical music next to our table, it was really nice. There was myself and four other girls from the class, after coffee some when off to do another creative dance class, sounded like contemporary, leaving me and a Scottish girl. She was fantastic she gave me a conducted tour of Leeds city centre particularly the architecture which she had a thing about, we walked miles and I spent most of the afternoon with her. We finally ended up at a gallery of art and sculptures with a nice coffee shop, so coffee and cake was in order after burning all those calories off walking. After that we parted and I spent a little more time wandering around Leeds killing time till my next class, has a nice Italian meal and headed back to Northern. On the way back I met up with one of girls that did the creative class, she was so full of enthusiasm, she insisted I go there next time I come down for a full day, I don’t think she would take no for an answer. The girls at Northern ballet were really really nice. Similarly when I did the Intermediate / advanced class for the last time, it made me feel really sad, I thanked our pianist and my teacher Fi (for Fiona) and told her I would miss her, I was almost in tears. She knows I’m back at ENB next week but I will be re-joining her class next time I get a break at ENB. I chatted to some of the girls in that class about repertoire at Northern and basically they seldom do any, The girls suggested I raise it with the head of learning, which I have already done. Next week is the endurance trial of my ballet passion with Leeds and London in the same day covering 5 classes and a 500 mile round trip. I’m sure our safety conscious reads will have something to say about that.

Adult Repertoire Workshops These repertoire workshops offer participants the unique opportunity to explore a well-known ballet through dance, music and acting. Following a brief warm up, participants will learn choreography from a selected scene, gaining an insight into the way in which a corps de ballet dancer studies and rehearses. The workshop will also improve both technical and performance skills. Who can attend: Students aged 18+ who have recent ballet experience and have developed a good technique Don Quixote Date: Sunday 17 November Closing date: Monday 21 October Venue: Royal Academy of Dance headquarters, London Time: 10.30am – 1.00pm Fee: £35.00 Faculty: Darren Parish PDTD, DPBMN The Nutcracker Date: Sunday 8 December Closing date: Monday 18 November Venue: South East dance Studios, 39 Egerton Avenue, Hextable, Kent BR8 7LG Time: 3.15 – 5.45pm Fee: £38.00 (includes screening of The Nutcracker 6.00-8.00pm) Faculty: Matthew Paluch MA, PDTD (Dist.)

My doorframe width is 32 inches, just measured it.

Hi Lin To be fare, If you are not at least at 90 degrees with raising your leg, I don’t think the door thing will work for you just yet. My best raise and hold on the left leg is 4ft 8 and the right leg 4 ft 2. I periodically measure these, but after I have done a workout. After my ballet class this afternoon at Stamford I went and had my hair done, the receptionist who knows I do ballet, said “I bet your cant get you leg up there”, pointing to the top of her counter, which was about bust height on me. So I just said “Like this”, my foot was above the counter and I just lowered it on to it, I just couldn’t resist doing that. Stamford class was good again today, our teacher is back after being off ill last week, so we got to do cabriole’s again, we were also taught how to do jete en tournant’s as most of us were doing the turn a bit like a rond de jambe action rather than a scissor action. Of course plenty of pirouettes too, Double Pirouette en dehors worked like a dream on either foot and I’m not sure why, as the left pivoting foot has always eluded me. These started working Thursday night at Peterborough, but it’s a very slipper floor there, and I’ve always been a little bit frighten of it, at first I thought it was a bit of a fluke due to its slippyness, so today was an even bigger surprise on a different floor. I must sort my spotting out with balance, so I can start to think about going for a triple. You say “We weren't learning the solo but just did the turns onto a bent knee with a different beginning and ending”, was that both turns swapping the pivoting leg, if so I'm impressed, I love that piece. Several of the Giselle performers only go to a bent knee, but I like to go all the way down. Before you go into that, do you do the grand pirouette’s, I've changed those, as the other examples are in attitude, I think that looks much nicer, so that’s what I do. Its an early morning start for me at 6.15am for Northern Ballet tomorrow then back home again at 1am Wednesday morning. My last evening class there for a while, it’s the big feasibility run next week with Leeds and London in the same day but only 5 classes and not six as I originally planned, that what I call passion for ballet.

Ouch, I wish I had a dance physio, I react to the same instructions from my various teachers, the same as everyone else in the class, however I do try and extend my limits, the only thing I have to be careful with is my back, I can go further physically than its safe to do so, but if I do, I suffer two or three weeks afterward. That's why I was surprised in the Pilates class at one of my summer schools when my teacher pushed me right down, fortunately that time I did not come to any harm.

Hi Taxi4ballet So, do you really have a significant point to make, if so then make it. Clearly we have different views and I was never seeking agreement or approval from anyone here just sharing my progressive journey in ballet.

.Hi Sheila Yes I agree with what you are saying about repertoire; however you have to remember on a scene like the Big Swans we would only get about an hour to a hour an hour and a half to learn it end to end. Without proper preparation I would never remember it, let alone be able to take it away and develop it for performance. A typical repertoire workshop generally coves 2 to 5 scenes and that’s a lot to remember on the day without preparation. Building it up bit by bit , week by week is ideal and that what we do at the Angles Theatre for our show, even so when we come to perform it on stage for the first time, spacial awareness is quite different, sometimes you have to alter direction to that you have rehearsed to accommodate theatre lighting and where audience is. I haven’t tried moving thru positions whiles holding my leg up. We certainly did the leg holding thing too (if you could do 180 degree) at the side, at the end of our barre work at Northern Ballet last week. Several of the girls there could, but they would be in their twenties.

Hi LinMM No I’m not joking, that goes into my morning routine now after splits and high kicks.

No Janet it not, I’m all for preparation. Usually there are small changes in choreography; in any case I never base it on one but a number to get the common trends. At the end of the day I’m looking for suitable choreography as performance pieces. So it’s not just a case of having fun and doing a class and then forgetting about it. It’s true some steps I have to break the muscle memory if it’s deeply embedded, but that’s the name of the game. For me its better to learn a piece prior to a class that has usually worked well with City Academy in the past, the last one was a bit unfortunate

Hi Sheila Why stop at 90? I told LinMM when she said she was on holiday, using the door, but she needed to lock it to stop it coming open. I think she was using it as an improvised barre. I told her she was using the door all wrong, it should be open. Place your back onto the door frame one side, raise one of your legs up the other side of the door frame until its strait, you can get a wonderful leg stretch with an extension well above your head. Ideally both legs should be strait.

Hi Taxi4ballet I think we have done the pointe thing to death don't you?

Hi Sheila I agree with the repetition, however I like having the video of the choreography before hand as reference, it allows you to become familiar with the movements, then in class its all about cleaning up the technique and not about memorising the sequence it self. I really don’t like a class where you go in cold and try to learn the sequence from scratch. That’s what happened this time with City Academy, our teacher had substituted Giselle’s first variation for Entrance of Giselle, as it turned out, that was because I had recruited one of the guys from ENB and our teacher obviously needed to include him. The second piece was Giselle’s friends dance, we did that but it was from a Cuban version, again far different from those that I had learnt (I used 4 which had great similarities). I’m now trying to get at least one “Giselle’s friends dance”, accepted for two of my public paying performances, they are with my respective teachers, in the melting pot for consideration. I really do hope at least one of them takes it up. I would love to join you and Winnie, but I’ve no way of squeeeezing it in, In any case I do want to come over sometime before Christmas as I need to order another couple of your professional tutu’s. What I am in desperate need of now is a repertoire coach, I’m hoping I will hear something on Wednesday if my Angles Theatre teacher has had chance to rationalise some of her classes. She has offered Tuesday’s but I’m at both Northern Ballet and ENB (double classes at both) so that is totally out, most other teachers apart from Lincoln shy away when you mention repertoire of the classics. However Rejane at City Academy has said she is able to help out with repertoire, so I always have that as a contingency.

Hi JustBallet Wow that’s fantastic, the waltz sounds very much like the one we used for “the Waltz of the Swans” at LAB SI, I still get emotional when I hear it. As LinMM said we are doing that one again at ROH with City Academy. Tell me how do you do the Big Swan Dance as a class, do you take it in turns dancing as a duet or do you all dance together with half dancing the right hand duet part and the others the left hand duet part. Please don’t tell me you are stood at the side in a classic pose with your arms crossed. So how are those high leg developpe’s and jete's. I assume the practice tutu was the long romantic one, two of the girls at LAB SI, had rhinestone on the front of their white leotards with romantic tutu’s they looked absolutely gorgeous. I found some similar sticky on rhinestones when I visiting the indoor market at Leeds following my class at Northern Ballet. I assume you have a video clip of the RB choreography to get it in your head before class. I’ve just played the clip through a couple of times, awww I wish I could come, it sounds absolutely fabulous to be able to build it up week by week. .

Hi Taxi4ballet I think you have completely got the wrong end of the stick, the point I was making is, it’s unusual for someone of my years (retired) to contemplate going en pointe from scratch as I have never done it when I was younger. Finding a teacher that had that experience I would have thought quite rare, as I would have thought there are special considerations to apply to a more elderly student and especially if they have never gone en pointe before. I quite agree “that ANY teacher introducing pupils to pointe will know far more about it than any of their students”. However I am sure if I ask my dozen or so teachers, I will get twelve different views where their opinion range widely. I personally are only concerned with the two teachers that offer pointe work to adults. As for practicing at home; Building strength isn't going to happen with one half hour class a week. As it is, I will be putting that class on time share, so I will only see them on alternate weeks. If I am to make any significant progress its essential that I do regular pointe work, in my case that will be every other day. I'm prepared for that and my teacher has bought into that too. After Christmas I will start my second pointe class which is not available at the moment. You also have to remember that the both teachers concerned do know me very well and I hope trust me too, even though with my enthusiasm I can be a handful. I am already in too deep with ballet to put undue risk of injury due to inappropriate pointe work, so I wont be attempting pirouettes just yet, but joking aside, if I find I'm not progressing or I get a feeling that something in my body is giving cause for concern, then I will drop the pointe work. Preserving my ballet fitness has to be the priority.

Hi Spannerandpony I am aware that it is a public forum and also the wide range of ages of those reading this. Believe me I have held back on a lot of my comments. As to teaching adults en pointe I did qualify my statement “teaching someone of my years and who is also doing it from scratch”, which is somewhat different to teaching someone in their twenties and thirties from scratch or an older person who had done it before, which I guess is the more common. Either way it academic as I AM DOING IT WITH THE GUIDENCE OF MY TEACHER(S), but I will be the custodian of my safety, if it feels unsafe to continue then I will stop, but conversely I am prepared to go the distance if my body says so, I'm not half hearted about this or in a hurry.

Hi Balleteacher Thank you, I note your comments but in reality they are somewhat impractical as: ”asking a well qualified teacher who has substantial experience of putting adults on to pointe for professional advice”, I really don’t know anyone that would fill that criteria, not even the two teachers that will be teaching me en pointe. Whilst both have substantial experience teaching pointe work to teens, I'm not aware that they have as you say substantial experience in teaching someone of my years and who is also doing it from scratch. Such teachers would be extremely difficult to find if they ever existed at all. As for “It is probably best actually to ask all who teach you whether you are ready for pointe work as then you should get an all around picture”. I don’t believe that would be the case, as many would be influence by the policy of the schools not to teach pointe to member of adult classes especially someone of my years, god that makes me sound old. In any case I will actively listen to what my teachers have to say, but the final decision will always be mine. As I made clear in my previous post and you picked up on, I place great value on my feet, but even with the best guidance in the world there is no guarantee of freedom of injury, so clearly one has to balance the risk and listen to ones own body to take great care, which is exactly as I am doing. I note LinMM’s comment “but Personally I think you can do most of the ballet repertoire NOT on pointe and thoroughly enjoy that's just my view”, I would agree. However if I am able to dance en pointe then it will have been worthwhile. I have no wish to continually haul myself up the barre or hobble around en pointe in the centre, for me its about dancing and presentation whilst performing, that’s my driving force. If it turns out that I cannot develop sufficiently en pointe then I will simply abort it, a its not all the world, but that again will be my decision.

Hi Spanneandpony I think to some degree we are at cross purposes, firstly the examples from experience I had quoted was for adults, usually with a minimum age limit of 18 and those of course did ultimately have some professional help from the workshops we were on. I am also a little perplexed at an argument that suggest self trained youngsters doing pointe work but engaged in a career in ballet. That just doesn’t make sense. As for the examples you mentioned on Youtube, I haven’t seen them so I can’t comment but they do sound horrendous and I’m not suggesting one follows a course of action that permanently damages feet. I would have thought anyone that was serious about perusing ballet; professional orientated or not, would have placed considerable value of their feet. I know I do, and I do tend to push my boundaries, hence why I’m in class but never the less with a little pre-class preparation. I just could not image life now with permanently damaged feet; it would be extremely difficult for me to come to terms with.

I'm only going by what some of the girls said on the course. Yes I was surprised too that she allowed it in that way.

Hi Aurora I stand corrected, thank you. However I am going to play devils advocate with this one and suggest the view of dancers practicing at home is somewhat incomplete. Firstly I could argue that I fall into that category as a long while ago I bought my first Pointe shoes on-line (Sansha), needless to say, they didn’t fit. Eventually I went to the Dance Box (Part of Lincolnshire dance) and had some fitted (Bloch Serenade’s), although at that time I didn’t get very far with them as I had no real strength in my ankles. They remained unused for a very long period. After I left work and started to get serious about ballet, I guess this was about the time I first joined this forum, something happened to my feet. Both little toes appears to extend out a bit further than they used to, I don’t know if that was the result of wearing ballet slippers for long periods or not, but I found I could no longer wear the shoes I used to wear for work. They chafed my little toes something terrible, I couldn’t even get into my Pointe shoes any more, it was agony. Slowly but slowly me feet healed, but it took several month, probably up to 9 months. During the spring of this year I started considering Pointe, by this time I could get my feet into the shoes without any real problems, but I was in no hurry, two of my teachers said they were happy to teach me. However I enrolled on the Chelsea Ballet Summer School, which had a beginner’s Pointe class each day. I explained I was a complete beginner on en Pointe and it was suggested I do the first class, and then see how I got on before attempting the remaining ones. By the time the summer school came round my ankles were extremely sore mainly due to the number of hours I was putting in on ballet, I decided at that time not to go en Pointe. The ankle issue still persists to this day, but I just work through it. I believe it’s a combination of the amount of ballet I do, daily repetitions with resistance band and daily stretching with a foot stretcher. Once the ankle joint is warmed up, it’s perfectly flexible without any problem, but if it remains static while I’m asleep or on a long journey it becomes very stiff. So ballet activity certainly keeps it going. But coming back to the original argument, If I hadn’t tried my Pointe shoes and done a little strengthening exercising in them before class, I would never have found I needed the gelly toe support and most of the first Pointe lessen would have been wasted. As for girls trying to train themselves, ultimately they will end up with professional help. There is lots of evidence of this no matter how bad you think this is. Both myself and LinMM have seen girls attend Holistic Ballet’s workshops which has a pointe section, and go en pointe there, as they say for the first time. I personally think it’s inconceivable that a person, who initially goes en pointe unsupervised, will remain that way. Hi Spannerandponey and JustBallet Yes I realised how useful it would have been to have converters, I will definitely have to get some for pointe nights.

Hi Lin Thanks for the info on Natalia’s performance; I will definitely book that one, if only to see how the choreography to that first variation has changed, it’s really got me captivated. I’ve also added in to the melting pot for our performance at the Angles Theatre next year the Giselle Friend Dance so my teacher can review it. I started at the new pointe class tonight, there was only 4 of us, one girl that did pointe at our show in July, a lady who had last done pointe 20 year ago, but did not wear her pointe shoes and another girl that had not done pointe before and has no pointe shoes yet, and me of course. I had at least had my shoes on and done a little prancing and plie’s that afternoon in my own studio, it soon began apparent that my right little toe became sore and needed a gelly toe tubular support which I cut and fitted, the rest of my toes was covered with the gel out pouches. Only thing I hadn’t allowed for in class was, I was wearing my ballet tights and there was no access to my toes. Fortunately I had taken various bits and pieces with me including some scissors, so I cut a small hole near my little toe for the gelly toe and everything worked a treat. The class focused on strengthening exercises which made good sense, where I take exception to Lisa Howel’s video, is, I will continue to do strengthening exercises en pointe at home. It’s extremely inefficient not too, further more my teacher fully expects me too, and she knows my mind-set only too well. At the end of that half hour class my feet were very comfortable in my pointe shoes, and that did surprise me a bit. My teacher is still in the process of rationalising her schedule; I’m still hoping she can find a slot to fit my repertoire coaching in.

Hi Lin Please will you to tell me where Natalia Osipova is performing, as she is the one in the clip I have been rehearsing. I’d love to see her performance of that ballet. Had a really nice day at Northern Ballet, I got invited out for a coffee with three ladies from the morning classes, we went to a café near the BBC in Leeds, it was a bit like Jerwood space as it had an art galley as part of it. I did the Intermediate/advanced class tonight, that was really good, however I was a bit stupid. We were doing quite a complex sequence across the room where we traversed it a couple on times in two’s, our teacher said we could do our own ending, so you can guess what I did. Yes I dropped those leg switching pirouettes in, however the music was quite fast and when I dropped into the curtsey, I went down quite hard, thank goodness it didn’t hurt anything, only my pride. That last class is a bit of a problem with train times, as it involves a change at Doncaster with quite a wait. My evening class ended at 8.15pm, it was just before 9pm when I got to the appropriate platform, but I did stop for a wee on the way. The journey on its own from Northern Ballet to the Station is 15mins with a brisk walk, but the extra time also involves changing after class etc. The train left at 9.20pm for Doncaster arriving there at 10.07pm, Doncaster to Peterborough was 10.42pm to 11.45pm, finally getting me home at 12.40am. Another couple of weeks and I will try the 500 mile round trip taking in 5 classes, but its likely I will put Northern Ballet on time share, that way I still have some access to Pineapple. OK about booking Swan Lake, I will see you there; I hope she includes Odette’s solo like she was originally, as that’s another one for my repertoire. I emailed a local teacher for rep work, but I haven’t yet had a reply, I’m beginning to take a dim view of these non responses, if they are uncomfortable with doing either adult work or repertoire, the least they can do is email back declining.

Rejane at City Academy has never included point work in her rep workshops that I have attended. She really is a fantastic teacher focused on making her classes enjoyable and usually applies the easy/harder options for the dances to choose for themselves. I'm trying to find out about a Cinderella rep workshop tomorrow at Northern Ballet as its going to be a very long day, leaving home a 6.30am and arriving back home just before 1am, and I'm not even including London in that one yet. Change of plan with my pointe-work, it starts this week, not next as the ROH class is fully booked and I cannot get in this week. Stand in Teacher at Stamford class today, very uneventful, no cabriole this week. Lincoln only 4 girls including me this week. Hope it gets back to normal soon as we need to start our rehearsal. It may even be the Giselle friends dance (Not the Cuban one taught by City), as I have popped that in the melting pot for review by my teacher.

Hi Janet I’m usually prepared for a few changes that why I don’t just stick with the choreography of just one. I know Rejane reasonably well as I have done a number of her workshops, but she caught me out this time. Im not too worried about the Giselle’s Friends dance; I’ve popped that in the melting pot for performance at our Lincoln show, its now with my teacher for review, all 3 versions of it with my comments as to how I would piece together the Choreography for all female dancers. The other piece Giselle First Variation of act one, is quite a difficult piece, I had a chat to Rejane about private tuition covering this one, and she is more than willing to help me out. For me that’s more cost effective than her courses as it dispenses with the general barre and centre work, in any case I will also alter the choreography to suit both my ability and artistic creativity. I will already know the sequence, it will be Rejane’s job to tidy up my technique and make sure I haven’t missed anything silly. As it’s my intention to take selected reps to a good amateur performing standard and ideally keep them there. I’m also looking locally for a good ballet repertoire coach, but when I mention repertoire, most teachers seem to shy away. Here is a clip of Rejane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQJcQg4q2vA&feature=player_embedded

Although this workshop was quite enjoyable it certainly wasn’t as planned. The friends dance was a simplified one from Cuba that our teacher had danced; so much of my prep was quite different. Also Giselle first variation that I had put so much effort in to was dropped completely, that was down to me, as I had recruited one of the guys from my ENB class and out teacher had to alter things to accommodate him, so I really did shoot myself in the foot, but that’s how the cookie crumbles. That was replaced with the entrance of Giselle, a very nice piece but I don’t think I will ever use it again. Our teacher asked for Ideas for a piece of rep for her master class at the Royal Opera House in November, I immediately suggested Giselle’s first variation but I haven’t booked that one yet. I’m also aware that she has a preference to teach something from Don Quixote