Beginning Partnering class

For some years I've advocated for more options for adult ballet dancers. I think many adult dancers reach the point where endless classes with no options to explore further becomes frustrating. I've tried to encourage the school where I regularly take classes to offer options such as beginner pointe and partnering have been met with disinterest. My suggestions to a neighboring school associated with a large professional ballet company seemed to be having some effect, and after a hiatus because of the pandemic they've started offering adult pointe classes and even adult recitals.

The small professional ballet company I dance with (as supporting cast, not pro) offers a series of "Master Classes" each season. This fall there were two: a regular ballet class with one of the pros teaching and a live accompanist, and a beginning partnering class. I opted-out of the regular ballet class, as I have class with this instructor and accompanist every Wednesday, but I was very interested in the beginning partnering class.

At the time I registered they had maybe six pairs already signed up. Although I was assured it would be okay if I showed up solo, I was quite concerned that I'd be there with a bunch of teenagers from the student company, and that would feel awkward. I asked a friend from my regular classes if she'd be interested in attending with me. She and I had been talking about doing some partner work for years (see A 30-second Pas de Deux) but nothing really had come of it to date. I explained what I'd been told about the class: that it would be just the basics, maybe promenades, and likely no lifts or other more advanced moves. She enthusiastically agreed. 

It's more than an hour drive for me, on two-lane roads with few alternate routes, so I always allow extra time. I arrived about 20 minutes early. When I walked into the studio I momentarily thought I'd walked into the end of a rehearsal for Nutcracker because so many of the pro company dancers were there. Then I realized they were there for the partnering class with their non-dancing husbands and boyfriends.

Max, one of the three male professional dancers in this company, started the class with the three rules for partnering. I had to step out to let my friend in the front door so I missed the first two rules, but the third rule was "Communicate with your partner."  (I'll have to ask him what the first two rules are at the next Nut rehearsal).

We started with a bit of instruction on hand placement: cupping the lowest ribs, with the fingers to her front and thumbs on her back. Then tried a simple balance exercise: The women rose to sous-sus, and the men leaned them off-balance and then brought them back to balance. It's something of a trust exercise for the women. We did this to the front, sides, and back. It gave us a feel for what it feels like when she's off-balance, and what it feels like when she's back on balance. After this it became clear we needed to separate into two groups or the pairs would bump into one another.

Next we tried développé front, then side, and finally rear into arabesque. I didn't expect this to require me to do much, but I was surprised that it did. As her leg moved forward, I needed to lean her backward a bit to compensate for the weight shift. A solo dancer naturally does this, but in partner work it falls to me to anticipate and assist. A similar shift sideways is required for développé to the side. For développé to arabesque a change in hand position is required: the hand on her standing side needs to move down from her ribs to her hip, otherwise it limits her motion. It also probably gives better control if her weight starts to drift too far forward.

Then we tried pirouettes. I guess I thought the woman initiated the turn and the man provided stabilization and extra energy during multiple turns, but for this class at least I initiated the turn too. The instruction was for her to assume a retiré position on (demi)pointe. I then moved my hand on her working side to her hip, and started her rotating by pulling on her hip while stabilizing her with my other hand. Once she started rotating I moved both hands to her lower ribs and kept her rotating and stable. Or tried to.

During this, the women were reminded that they needed to resist the urge to try to balance themselves, as the competing attempts often make things even worse.

Here we found ourselves at a bit of a disadvantage. All but a few of the women were wearing pointe shoes, and I'm told this makes it much easier to turn. My friend used to do pointe, but during the pandemic break she didn't keep up with the skill. That meant we were working against the resistance of the larger, softer, suede pad of her slipper. Our first attempt didn't get her all the way around, but after a bit of practice we managed several complete turns.

Next up were promenades. This looks easy, but requires the man to walk a circle while maintaining a constant distance from her pivot point. At the same time he has to hold his outstretched arm rigidly so she can use that to balance herself. Oh, and make it look effortless. This took more practice than I expected, and her feedback on what she needed me to do really made a difference.

I kinda expected the class to end at this point, but we still had half of the promised one hour class left. What's left?

Jumps and lifts. The women were told to do a deep demi-plié in fifth, then jump to changement or sauté. The men were to follow the plié and assist the jump, then lower her back down to a standing fifth. I've done this before, including a variant of it in Midsummer where we were facing, but it turns out there's more to this than I realized. When she's in front of me, I need to be as close to her as possible for best leverage. As she jumps she needs to arch her back, which brings her center of gravity closer to me. After several of these and got a passable result, the biggest problem being timing as my friend seemed to want to pause in the plié. Also, I suspect I should have started with my hands lower on her ribs or just below them where her waist tapers in, as they often slid up her sides to about even with her shoulder blades.

There's a reason male ballet dancers have well-developed upper bodies. It's been years since I've worked with weights, and it's clear I'd need to work on both strength and shoulder range of motion if I were to be given the chance to do any partner work on stage.

Next we did a combination on the diagonal. The women were to do a glissade followed by an arcing saut de chat; the men were to follow through the glissade and lift and carry her through the arc of the saut de chat. Again, figuring out the right time to do the lift is something that requires practice. Of several tries we managed it once; it wasn't pretty, but she was off the ground in the jump and I brought her down on her front foot. Here I suspect having her in soft slippers was an advantage, as I saw several of the pros landing with the appearance of skidding on ice.

The finale was a shoulder-sit. For the men, this approximates doing a weightlifting snatch from waist level: she pliés, jumps vertically, and sticks her butt out; as she does this he lifts her as high as he can, does a shallow plié to get his shoulder under her butt, then stands back up. Despite being told it was a "safe" lift, my friend and I both said no. I'm not a weightlifter, and my friend is maybe an inch shorter than I am. The reward for attempting this wasn't worth the risk to either of us. One father/daughter pair managed it to much applause, though.

I have to say that I haven't had that much fun in quite a while, and my friend really enjoyed it too. I'm told they will probably have another such class in the spring, which I'd really like. But what I'd like more is a proper, periodic, partnering class for adults. Not even a weekly class; maybe once a month? As long as it's often enough that the students could really learn the techniques, rather than it being great for a giggle.