Ballet Evolution

I didn't get to class Sunday. I wasn't feeling all that well (turns out I have tonsillitis). I may not get to class tomorrow night either, as I have a lot to get done before I run off to a conference next week.

That's not to say I didn't dance this weekend; Saturday a friend of mine and I went to a Victorian-themed party (in full Victorian attire) where there was a good bit of dancing. Despite feeling ungainly doing balancé in class, it did make waltzing rather easy to pick up.

My friend sent me an email earlier this evening containing a link to a YouTube video in which Ursula Hageli, ballet mistress for the Royal Opera House in the UK, describes the evolution of the basic ballet steps from the Baroque period to present day. My only complaint is that it's just too damned short!

Here's a link and the embedded video:

Enjoy!

LINES Dance Center video

In yesterday's posting I mentioned a video of an adult ballet company. It's quite good, produced by KQED TV in San Francisco, so I thought I'd link to it here. It runs almost 23 minutes, but it's worth watching. I don't seem to be able to embed the video, so here's the URL:

http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/trulyca/shorts/episode.jsp?essid=29515

A note to anyone thinking of taking classes and looking at this video to see what it's like. This instructor seems to scowl a lot, something none of the instructors I've met have done. Everyone I've taken class from has seemed happy to be there, as if this is an escape from the "real world". Which, for folks like me, it is. From the praises her students are singing, I'm guessing she's a lot more personable than the scowling taskmaster she sometimes appears to be in the video. Don't be put off by it.

One of the things that's had me scratching my head is a man who first appears at 04:14 into the video. He talks a bit about how he found his way into this class, which I'm sure rings true for many of the men who started dancing ballet as adults. He also talks about how he wanted to find a class where he could learn pointe, which men rarely do. At 04:46 we get a shot of him in pointe shoes doing a demi-plié, and again at 05:00 doing some tendus. I'm a bit surprised a teacher would put him on pointe at his level of skill and flexibility. We never see him en pointe (he does one rise to what looks like demi-pointe, though we can't see his feet) so maybe going en pointe is a future goal? It certainly doesn't look like he has enough ankle flexibility to get over the box yet.

Mind you, I don't have any problem with men doing pointe work. My concern is whether the instructor is allowing him to attempt something he may not be physically prepared to do yet, and might injure himself attempting. Maybe those with more experience can tell me whether my concerns are warranted.

Thinking about it more, I'm beginning to wonder if the video's director asked for shots of him in class wearing pointe shoes, even though he doesn't do so in class normally. In both shots of him in pointes he's also wearing leg warmers that are pulled down to cover everything behind the throat of the shoe, so there's no way of telling whether they properly fit him or if they're just stuck on his feet well enough to be filmed. Directors seem to have a very tenuous attachment to reality when it interferes with some fanciful image they have in mind -- many of the fire scenes in the movie Backdraft were filmed on an upside-down set because real fire refused to behave the way the director wanted it to, thus teaching millions of people that fire behaves in a way that it doesn't. But that's a different rant.

More chaînés success

Decided to go to class tonight too, despite being a bit stiff still from last night's class. After barre exercises we repeated the sequence in the center from two weeks ago. Once again I was able to do sequences of fast, tight chaînés turns, something I would have said I couldn't do only a few months ago. At least I can do them turning clockwise; counterclockwise I'm still a bit off but I can tell what I'm doing wrong and it'll fix itself with practice. But I no longer feel like a total dolt in the center.

Something else that contributed to the feeling of confidence was watching a video of an adult ballet company in San Francisco this afternoon. In that video were a number of men who took up dancing as adults. Some were really good, but some who had been taking class longer than I have looked... well, let's just say I feel graceful and capable by comparison. I'm not putting them down, mind you, but it gives me additional points of comparison.

Of course, Sunday will come around and my ego will get punctured and shrink back to normal size. But for the next couple of days I think I'll be feeling pretty good.

In search of consistency

An alternate title could be "Dancing Sardines", as there were 28 students this evening by my count, including 4 men. The instructor exclaimed, "I hope the fire marshal doesn't show up!", though I suspect the maximum occupancy for the room for life safety purposes is somewhat higher. On the other hand, the fire marshal isn't concerned with performing grand battements at the barre without kicking each other. I wish I'd dug out my phone and taken a picture.

Towards the end of class this evening, the instructor again had us do the special request pirouette practice. She also gave a proper teasing to the student who had requested it two weeks ago but failed to show up for it last week. I'm finding that most of the time I can do quarter- and half-turns en dehors with stability to either side, and full-turns about half the time. And by "stable" I mean finishing the turn, holding the passé relevé position for a moment, then come down in a controlled plié to fifth. The rest of the time, though, I'm unstable and fall out of it. I flip-flop between being excited that my first success wasn't a total fluke and being frustrated at not being able to do them consistently, though I suppose consistency will come with practice.

Sunday we did a combination that included a turn en dedans. What a disaster. I couldn't figure out what provides the impetus for the turn. I never did figure it out. If I find a free moment I'll dig out GWW and see if that explains it, or maybe one of my DVDs. For the moment, though, it's a mystery.

By special request

It snowed a little this evening. Not enough to do anything more than make the grass white and the streets wet, but in this town full of imports from warmer climes, that's all it takes. Thus class tonight wasn't crowded at all. I'd guess 10-12 women and 3 men.

Most of the sequences at the barre I picked up fairly easily, but one just confounded me. It wasn't technically difficult, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the sequence. It's frustrating when that happens.

After class last week, one of the class regulars asked the instructor if we could do the pirouette turn preparation sequence I previously mentioned here. The instructor said ok, and this evening she announced that we'd do it "by special request". I pointed out that the person who requested it wasn't present, which brought a laugh, but I'm happy to say we did it anyway. Here's what we did:

1. Start standing in fifth, right foot front, arms in first.
2. Tendu the right foot to the side, arms to second.
3. Draw the right foot in to fifth in demi-plié, leaving the weight on the left/back foot. Right arm comes to first, left arm remains extended in second.
4. Push off the ground and rise to passé relevé, left foot standing, right foot working. The left arm comes in to first.
5. Lower both feet to fifth, right foot in front.

The key seems to be that the rotation doesn't come from throwing your body around. This just destabilizes an otherwise simple balance. It comes from the working foot (in this example, the right) pushing against the ground before it rises in passé. Bringing in the opposite (left) arm helps, but isn't the primary mover.

We did quarter- and half-turns this evening. As before, my turns to the right were better than to the left, but those to the left weren't terrible. I think I could have done full turns to the right without too much difficulty, as I was stable enough to be holding the passé relevé for a brief but deliberate moment after the turn before returning to fifth.

Color me happy.