Michelle_Richer

The Le Corsaire Workshop is on Wednesday the 30th of October at 18:00. Its held at The Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AQ. it cost £12.00 I have no idea what it will be like, I have never been on an ENB rep workshop before, it seems very cheap, but at the end of the day its all down to the teacher.

Another lesson learnt: At our dress rehearsal today each act followed on from the other with almost no break in the music. We listened to each of the acts going through in the dressing room allocated to the adults, the last but one music track was particularly long at 8 minutes, ours was the next longest at 5 minutes. I think that gave us a false sense of timing, as my entire group (12 dancers) were on there way down the back stairs to the stage, then horror, our track started to play. As you can imagine there was a mad dash, somehow we managed to enter the music with the appropriate movement even though we started a second or two late. I think the performance must have been OK as it didn’t attract any comment from our teacher. Later that afternoon I tried to review the performance from my own mind, but I honestly could not remember if we had included the positioning corrections from last Wednesday. Well I guess I can claim to be a bit of a newbie, but one of our girls has performed on that stage for the last 17 years, so what went wrong I’m not sure but the pervious music track may be much shorter than any of us had anticipate, but for whatever reason, it has now concentrated our minds. When I first arrived at the theatre we all did the finarly first, in fact a couple of times. At least that allowed me to be released a little earlier after my performance was done, as I had a RAD repertoire workshop that afternoon. When all the dancers arrived for our Romeo and Juliet Workshop we had 16 girls including me and one guy (our Romeo). As it was a gloriously hot day, I left my white leotard on from the theatre and used my white tie round skirt with it, that was nice and cool. After a short warm-up at the barre we went strait into our first dance piece “The dance of the knights”. For this half of the girls had to volunteer to take the guys roll, I didn’t volunteer for this one, as I had learnt this to best I could the ladies part of that dance from the video clip RAD had sent us. Unfortunately with the heavy clothing shown on the clip you could not see the footwork, which was something we had to learn in class. I was one of the two girls in front on the walk part of this dance piece, everything was going well, I had anticipated the next move and went into it. Then my teacher demonstrated it and it was completely different, that left me very puzzled. Finally she finished it off; she had cut a lot of the dance out. In away I was a little disappointed as I had learnt so much of it, apart from the footwork. But as she said, she also had to teach two more pieces, one for Romeo (our guy) and the other for all of us Juliet’s. The Juliet piece was really nice, I could remember it reasonably well until we come to dance it on the other foot, and then it’s really tricky. The workshop was really fantastic and a really nice and helpful teacher, I had a nice little chat with her after class too. The only fault with any of these classes, they are too short,(this one 2 hours), they are tasters to wet your appetite that really need a full blown follow-up course to complete the job.

Hi Lin Have you booked Franziska’s Rep Workshop yet?, I booked it this morning, I’ve also added two more “Swan Lake” in Birmingham by RAD as they have extended the closing date for me, and "Le Corsaire" at Oxford by ENB. I had another email from ENB as there are a few places left for a Masterclass on Petrushka, for Thursday. As its show week for me, that’s a complete no no.

Yes I bought a couple of pink ones by Revolution at that price a couple of months ago, different styles one with cap sleeves and the other strappy and they were both fine, fantastic value. My regular one's are black, and have a few of those as there is always some in the wash.

Hi Lin Are you going to do the Darcey solo then or both, I'm sticking to the Sleeping beauty one as I don’t think I will have time to prepare for both. I've just had a mailshot from RAD (today 27th) telling me about a Swan Lake Workshop in Birmingham with a closing date of the 24th Grrrrr. I've ask if they will extend it so I can book it, so that would make me three Swan Lakes, that would be fab. My you are shy, not in a leo yet. I was very self conscious at first so I went to local class amongst friends before I dare start a new class in their regulation uniform so to speak. I guess it was a similar experience with my hair in a bun. Now I almost live in a leo and its just become part of me. As for colours , mainly black but it depends where and when, at Christmas I went red, LAB SI its been stipulated white with romantic tutu skirt. I have various other colours too. I never ever go in leggings any more, just doesn't seem right, even if all the other girls do. However I do like Darcey's pink floaty dress, that is something I don't have. Hi Fiz Are you conducting the private lessons or are you both going as a duet?

Only snag in finding other variation to the same music, it tempo etc may not be the same as it may be tailored to that dancer. That was one of the problem I had in finding a clean recording of the Sleeping beauty solo piece. In the end I had to make do with the You Tube track. I'm glad we had access to the stage tonight for rehearsal, its a lot smaller than the studio. Not only do we need to consider the audience but the lighting too. Needless to say, lots of changes. On poor girl had a mental block, you could see the expression on her face "What am I doing here", she eventually picket up the thread. We did several practice runs and tweaks, I think we are virtually there, we have the dress rehearsal Sunday, I think that should go well with the extra access tonight of the stage. That's also my last ballet class this week until Sunday. Lot of head cramming of documentation on the train in the morning to prepare for tomorrows trustee meeting. On the train back lots of repertoire familiarisation cramming in order to prepare for Sundays RAD workshop on Romeo and Juliet at Cambridge, only two hours after my dress rehearsal.

Apart from leaning on the piano, do not obstruct the pianist view of the dancers. I did that once unknowingly and was politely asked to move by the pianist. “Always thank your teacher - as a class - and individually before leaving” that is a really nice gesture but I wonder how practical that is in a large class. It is something I do, but very really see others do it. I also thank the pianist too as it makes it very personal. Another one to add to the list When doing group exercises from corner to corner in group of 3 or 4 maintain a good separation distance, especially if it contains a series of travelling turns, jete en tournant’s or grand jete’s etc.

Hi Lin Yes I was hoping to do that one, and the “Conditioning for Dance” at DanceWorks while on break from ENB. But my thoughts were, as my knee is just about cleared up, and they are both one and a half hour sessions, I didn’t want to do anything to aggravate it, especially with the show all next week. Apart from that this is a very hectic week, it looks as if I will have to be up somewhere between 4am and 4.30am tomorrow to be at my old companies accountants house for 6.30 as we both have a trustee pension meeting in London at 9am. There is also loads of docs to go through on the train, just like old times. At my Grantham class we have a port de bras exercise with a pirouette in it done from both sides, its unusual but very nice. If you love waltzes then you should be with us doing the Waltz of the Swans at the LAB SI with us. I wasn’t aware we were doing Pas de deux in the August Workshop, just the solo pieces, if you have an interest in Pas de deux then I will drop you an email as I have something you might be interested in.

Very nice, love the bit about performing without rehearsals, we have been rehearsing since the end of Feb and we still have little slips, next week is full of performances with two on Saturday, I guess it should be OK then. Anyway well stated

That sounds like a good idea, so what did you have in mind?

Had two really good ballet classes today plus my body balance class. Left home at 10AM finally came home at 10pm with two small visits home of less than an hour each. I'm not doing the London Trip tomorrow as my knee seems to have cleared up, so I can now do fondu’s again. I just want to keep things OK for our show next week. It looks as if I have another show on the cards, this time in or around Lincoln for Christmas. It looks like being a joint one with other schools my teacher runs, I wonder where she got the inspiration from?

Hi Anjuli Thank you for quotation me in post 45, however in the context of my meaning, this was to address my comments in post 19 parra 2 regarding cold pre-barre stretching, commonly seen in most ballet schools I attend. I also suggested possible examples in post 42: parra’s 4, 5, 6 and 7 which fell on stony ground, but never mind I'm still chasing that one with Finis Jhung and Lisa Howell, I have already has a response from Finis, still waiting on Lisa though and getting other opinions too. So reluctantly I think we should close that one. As for your comment "I think it takes both "wooliness" as well as precision to teach and learn. Certainly finding one's point of balance consistent with correct ballet technique (as opposed to balaning incorrectly -which is possible) is a precise thing. But dance is also an art form -it is also wooly. That's why we go to see various interpretations of Giselle. Ballet is a mixture of both - the precision of the corps de ballet in La Bayadere - the swooning heart break of Odette. When those attributes come together we are its willing audience. Most of us are somewhere on the graph twixt wooliness and precision - fewer of us at the edges. We are moved by both. A dancer is both - the precision once learned allows for the wooliness - the artistry, if you will. A diet of unwooly precision, for me, would be sterile." Now we are singing from the same song sheet, I totally agree. To dance was the reason I started ballet, not just to attend class and do barre work with a bit of centre practice with new friends. I know never the less its still essential for me to do work at the barre and in the centre etc, to improve my technique, but that’s the route to my objective of performing while I still have a few years left. That why I attend virtually every ballet repertoire workshop I can find and also choreograph some of my own work, I love to portray the characters, the moment and tell the story even if it is very challenging for me. However non of my classes teach ballet mime and generally most of my teachers are not familiar with when I have gone to them for help. I did find your posting some time ago from an Internet search, I also found a RAD DVD which wasn’t particularly helpful until I divided it up and catalogued up into clips. As for artistry: I just love the body language portrayed by the young Juliet in this clip from 1:50 to 2:40 (Juliet’s entrance to the ball)

Hi Balleteacher I’m sorry but I’m not sure what the scene is called in the ENB version, however I was thinking of its equivalent in the RB version. The Choreography is very very similar other than we have four dancers rather than a soloist as in the RB version. As for Cygnets they were fine, I never mentioned them, It was entrance of the swans (Act 2) again I’m using the description of the RB version, but never the less it’s clearly identifiable, that walk is difficult to do with the height of the petit jete’s in the RB version and again that is something my ENB teacher has helped me with. The Kirov ballet uses a less demanding petit jete height for the same walk. Aileen I don’t think the point's I raised would not have compromised moving position in that large circular stage. Don’t get me wrong I still think it was a very good performance but I wouldn’t rate it as outstanding. If it had been my first Swan Lake the I guess I would have found it outstanding as I had nothing to compare it too. I’m also down to see Bolshoi at the beginning of August, I wonder how they will compare.

Oh woops, I am really sorry Anjuli my post was never intended in a derogatory way so I must sincerely apologise for my clumsiness. I like others on the forum do regard you as the expert in this field and I gladly acknowledge that. So please please accept my sincere apology. Lin: I take you point about walking to class. I have a long walk about 15 minutes from South Kensington tube station to ENB, even when brisk; I can’t say I’m wiping the sweat of my brow. Also I usually arrive about an hour before hand mainly because I socialise with others there and it also give me the opportunity to chat with the teacher’s if they are there. The chat is both social and about stuff I’m working on, that generally is way outside the terms of reference of what is being taught in class, which has always been met with enthusiasm and lots of wonderful help, it often extends after class too. Lin I only have two classes that specifically do a warm-up prior to barre. It only lasts for 5 minutes or so. We all form a circle and use combinations of gallops, skips, trots, walks back leg flips below the knee (sorry cant remember the name), also arm swings and port de bras is added in too. The exercise is vigorous so you get well warmed up, arteries opened core and extremities gain flexibility. At the end of barre work, formal stretching take place using the barre, conducted by the teacher and not left to the student dancers do there own thing. Cool down stretching takes place on the floor at the end of class just before reverence, again under the guidance of the teacher. To me these classes appear to have the right structured approach, it just makes good sense. In terms of tangible movement/ benefit, as mentioned earlier, after warm-up and a splits stretch I know personally my leg extension height will increase by about six inches. I have never performed the same measurement assuming only doing normal barre work up to doing a grant battement or high developpé, perhaps there will be no difference but I suspect there is. I have come across something called a froggy stretch from my Body Balance classes, I think my have some merit in helping gain turnout. It’s like an inverted butterfly stretch, as a butterfly stretch is a well known turnout stretch but in this the legs are open. I know I can certainly feel it in the hips far more than that of a butterfly stretch. I know flexing and rotating the foot was mentioned which helps turn-out but I do question if the rotated position should be held for a period of seconds for it to be effective rather than there momentarily, which has been the case in all my classes. Arch stretching is something I have never seen taught in class, only by watching others doing there own thing, particularly some of the girls at the ROH classes. We are all told the importance of pointing our feet as BEGINNERS but not given the techniques necessary to get that almost perfect straight line which involve aching the foot as well as turnout. Almost all the movements we do involves our ankles, I am surprised that a repetition of relevé’s are not used to warm up the ankle joint as well as strengthen them as part of a pre class warm-up. To EVERYONE: I would just like to clarify my own position. I come from a professional background where it has been essential to quantify things with precision rather than use woolly terms in order to be efficient. That’s the mindset I bring with me, weather it fits this culture or not. Its never my intention to insult anyone here or make purposely derogatory remarks about them, however I do love to debate various topics with our members often taking opposing views, but that’s what life is all about, sharing knowledge and challenging ideas. I have always regarded the members of this forum as my friends as I have known several for quite a while now, almost like family in some ways. I guess families fall out too, mine does. As a BEGGINER I probably commit as many hours to ballet and related fitness (including travel) as one would do to a full time job, but I guess many here will always regard me as a BEGINNER, hey ho I can live with that. But never regard me as a 1 hour a week just to get me out of the house and then go back to my knitting. I can say I have never had a teacher say to me when I have approached them for advice on a movement or combination outside of what we were doing in class, “you cant do that your only a beginner”, on the contrary, they are usually full of enthusiasm to help and often we do the movement together after class. One teacher added my combination to the following weeks class, for work across the room, it was the Sissone / temps de fliéche combination from RB first variation in Swan Lake Act 1, however I did get a moan from the girls in spite of it being labelled as an Intermediate / advanced class (not my works but on their website). I also note the Temps de fliéche had been dropped in spite of the sissone remaining in the ENB version of Swan Lake, was it too hard for them? But what do I know I ONLY A BEGINNER.

I enjoyed the Saturday afternoon performance as all the decent seats we gone for the evening show when I accessed the website. In saying that, all in my box as we were in the grand tier, thought it was a fantastic show. However I personally have a few reservations, firstly the choreography to accommodate a circular stage was brilliant, however I thought there were a few essential ingredients missing , mainly the in the entrance of odette there was virtually nothing in the way of odette’s mime, something all swan lakes have previously had. It helps tell the storey, otherwise its just dancing. Act 1 first variation, the music started, I recognised it, I was sat on the edge of my seat, and then the performance fell flat. I know there were four rather than one performing to cover all angles of the audience, but when it came to the sissone / temps de fléiche combination, the sissonne was there but no temp de fléiche. The entrance of the swans looked like little walks rather that petti jeté, the Waltz of the swans did not have the high développé walk of the four centre swans. My thoughts at the end of the day, that the performance was not as technically challenging to the dancers as I had hoped, and for that I was a little disappointed as that is a ballet school that I belong.

I love the Giselle costumes too, but then I like all costumes and its appropriateness for a particular roll. Remember its the character you are depicting and not yourself. I’m quite comfortable with that. Today I was fortunate to see the ENB version of “Swan Lake” at the Royal Albert Hall”, were as the swans in the RB version was to wear the longer romantic tutus, ENB was the short stiff version, basically I have no real preference providing its appropriate. A strange opportunity is appearing from one of my Salsa groups, we are going on a boar trip dancing Salsa. I'm thinking I would like a spot to dance my own Ballet Choreography to the Titanic theme, especially if I have access to the front of the boat. I’m not sure if that will go down like a lead balloon but hay ho, I think most will be happy with it. Although I need something appropriate to wear, it has to work with salsa too; I have both a white and a pink circular skirt in my ballet wardrobe, with the appropriate top it should provide a good compromise. Hey Ho this gal is just got to dance.

Legeleven comment about "competitive stretching" in very true and very real at almost every ballet class I attend. However there is little in the form of tangle exercises for adult ballet dancers, I guess I was hoping for better. Anjuli' response : Although I value her guidance, given sort of examples that occur in a normal intermediate barre sequence anyway, such as ankle rotation etc, port de bras, is not particularly helpful other than stating the obvious. It seems that I have to devise my own warm-up sequence as a roll model as there is little coming forward when its time to stand up and be counted.

Just picked this up from a mail shot if anyone is interested

Awww Fiz I know how you feel, my local class has dwindling numbers, this morning there was only two of us, fortunately all the regulars including me pay by the term, otherwise today’s taking wouldn’t even pay for the hall. It might be an idea to pop a card in your local supermarkets free adds notice boards. Lin I have lots of bulges and some in the wrong places, so do some of the girls I’m dancing with in our show, they enjoy it and so do I. Although I am dieting for weight loss, I don’t get hung up about my appearance, so if it’s appropriate to portray a character in a tutu, then I’m all for it, I guess I’m just a big show off. But isn’t that what performing are all about? Never the less I expect the tutu to be appropriate for the occasion and flattering too, it has to work with me, just the way I would regard a dress in different circumstances.

The cold split thing was me being really stupid; however stretching at the barre before a class starts is very common. I think a lot of it is probably peer pressure and almost a culture that has developed for no good reason. I think I was responding to others doing their stretches, thinking without fully engaging brain, “I can go one better”. That said, two things I do find helpful pre-class is relevés, especially if I’m queuing or waiting fore someone, anywhere, I just do them. I guess my feet and ankles are already warm from walking. The other is leg swings at the barre to warm-up the hips. For my local ballet class and my Body Balance classes I always do a pre-class workout including hot stretches. It may not be necessary for Body Balance but I know I am going to push my limits during the class to get more range of movement and bias the exercise’s towards ballet, so I see that as a sensible precaution. Most other classes I have a car journey of around 1 hour, and as I always arrive early with a good contingency in place, workout to class time would typically be around the two hour mark, so I think its effect negated.

My performance at rehearsal tonight was rubbish, we did 4 total run-throughs, two were fine, the other two I forgot bits and these were not the alterations from last week. One piece I forgot two steps, the other my arms were wrong. It was so so annoying as I had been practicing it all afternoon without any hitch. The only thing I was worried about was the alterations, so I went through those with my teacher before we started the rehearsal, I had remembered them correctly. I know its no consolation but several of the other girls had hiccups in their performances too. On the bright side, we now have our costumes and another little surprise, we have access to the stage next week (Wednesday) before our dress rehearsal on the following Sunday. Just had another reply from Franziska about her Repertoire Workshop, apparently there is no stage, and we are to use normal practice attire, I think I may pack a tutu just in case. I tried to match the music of the Sleeping Beauty clip to the various MP3 downloads of that piece from Amazon, but the tempo was different in all cases. That only leave me the sound tract on the video clip, for practice it’s adequate. However I want to add this to my own repertoire that I can perform at events, but the sound track is for that is far too noisy. Not sure how to get round that one apart from hiring my own orchestra.

Hi Balleteacher I am aware of Lisa, since I downloaded one of her reports I get regular newsletters from her, basically trying to promote her front splits fast program. The contents of which I am fully aware. I also have some interesting advanced Pilates DVD’s for dancers by Drease Reyneke which I picked up from the ROH shop. But none of them specifically covers cold stretching prior to commencement of class. However I have come across a couple of references that discourage it though, so what are your thoughts as an experienced teacher

Hi Lin Yes I damaged it being stupid and jumping higher than I should at a Salsa Party (just showing off) and so I have reaped the consequences. I do understand long term injuries as I have been there before, both with my arm in my days of Tae Kwon-do and last summer hurting my back lifting a ride on lawn mower, the first took months to heal, the second several weeks. Plie’s are not the problem, as weight is distributed between both feet. However I do have to be careful with jumps, especially lots of them and particularly if they are on a hard floor which is the case with my dance fever class and local ballet class too. I did the dance fever one today with new Bloch split sole trainers, firstly I hated them, they felt far too hot, heavy and awkward, balance was also difficult at first. I guess I will just have to get used to them as they should cushion my feet better from impact through the thick shock absorbing soles. The worst one is fondu’s where all the weight is on one bent leg, if it’s straight it no problem, if it’s excessively bent its also ok. For a normal fondue bend its maximum aggravation, so I deliberately limit it for the moment to a token bend. It is improving all the time, as three weeks ago I had to suspend all ballet classes except my rehearsal and ENB. I think the last time my knee support was on, was last Wednesday, but I am aware that it’s not quite fully healed yet. As we are talking about prevention of injury to joints etc, this is one that has concerned me for some time. What is beneficial cold stretches as with most classes I attend do not do a warm-up prior to barre work, however two do. I always see student dancers stretching when they are stone cold. I remember one evening at ENB I was carried along with seeing this and without thinking I dropped down into front splits (showing off again), although I cant go all the way down , I can get quite low. I knew where the bottom should be and I went for it, immediately the pain hit the muscles in my leg, I though “how stupid”, it really hurt and I should have known better, fortunately no damage was done. I know if I don’t do hot stretching from my experience at home, I will be around six inches shorter on my high leg extension, basically because I try and measure everything. So I'm curious to see the answers on cold stretching.

Hi Lin I realised the bit about variations as soon as I see the title of the little girl doing Aurora’s variation. I’m now looking for the appropriate music track to download from Amazon. I have extracted and sectioned the professional video example; it’s already on my studio video system for practice. I now need the music in .mp3 form especially for practice in Pineapple. I see its in Studio 4 of the Place, do you know that location. I see she referrers to off-stage for those that want not to appear and be regarded as understudies. This suggests there is a stage area, do you know what its dimensions are, as I will need to get the travelling turns in. If I’m to perform on her stage then I really want to perform it in character, I know I cant do en pointe yet, but I really would like that part of the course done in my tutu, as dancing in a tutu is quite different to dancing in a leo and skirt. I know this will be extremely challenging for me, but hey I will thoroughly enjoy ever inch of the journey on the way.

DrDance I can certainly identify with your comment “Knees generally are an area of concern in adults”, especially as I have been suffering from knee problems recently and have had need of knee support. I have also noticed others at my fitness centre and at ENB, so its not unique to ballet. In my case it was down to jumping on a hard floor in ballroom shoes during a Salsa party. One of my teachers will not teach pirouette to senior adults through fear of dizziness causing them to fall and injure themselves. Similarly, no travelling turns across the room either. As regards Plie I'm not sure what you will make of this, this is part of my daily home gym workout prior to barre work in my studio. After 10-15 minute on the treadmill for warm-up, I do 50 reps of demi-plie in first with a pelvic floor exerciser to add resistance, then I go on to do 30 reps of Grand Plie in second on releve carrying an extra 20kg using a spinnaker bar. This I have been doing for lots of months now, recently with my knee problem I have scaled back the reps with the spinnaker bar as a precaution. I find dealing with combinations probably the most demanding. Today we danced a lovely sequence to really nice music, I really enjoyed it. I found I could remember most of it in class, and what I couldn't I copied. After class as usual I went to the little café almost next door for some lunch, while waiting I thought I would try and write down what I could remember of that sequence. I recalled 21 steps of a total of around 27-30. I think we danced this sequence twice from either direction. In the Salsa groups I belong too, we have a saying , that it takes 9 repetitions to create a muscle memory. It is taught dance a step or two at a time, then add a step or two and dance again. Sequences are built up that way. Many a times when we have had guest teachers and they have demonstrated the sequence to be taught before the teacher it. I have thought Awesome I will never remember all that, and step by step you do remember it and are able to dance it socially afterward. However unless you keep that memory refreshed it will fade very quickly, consequently I always video them. I also find my favourite Salsa sequences that go out of favour for a month or two even though I have danced them a lot do begin to fade. The video provides me with a wonderful long term backup of things I used to do and are easy to recall and dance again.