Reflections on the TWB Open House

I've been reflecting on the conversations I had at The Washington Ballet's Open House yesterday.

One of the questions I asked was whether there was a lot of competition between dancers in the company.  One responded that there was a fair bit between the women, but not as much between the men even though there were more male dancers in the company. Perhaps that's because there so many more women wanting to become professional dancers. I don't know.

I also had an interesting conversation with a woman who was one of the students in the classes I took at another school. They have only three levels of adult classes: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. She found the beginner class to be a bit too basic for her tastes, but the intermediate class was far too hard. She seemingly has accepted that she'll be in the beginner class as long as she takes classes at that school, and that it's just the way things are.

My reaction is far different. I would push myself into the intermediate class anyway and learn whatever bits and pieces I could until I could handle the whole class. In fact, I took their intermediate class once about a year ago to see just how much harder it was (barre was OK, but I sat out after the first half of center work). The only reason I'm not pushing myself into my current school's advanced beginner class is that I feel like there's so much to learn in my current classes.

Perhaps that's what the student meant last week when she said I was competitive. If so, then guilty as charged. I just don't want my fellow students to feel like I'm in competition with them.

Another thing I noticed during the Open House was what I focused on during the Giselle excerpt. When I watch ballet I've usually paid the most attention to the women. There are several reasons for this. One is that I'm wired to prefer the female form. Another is that most ballets give the women the best and most challenging parts, and I love to watch their pointe work.

The Giselle excerpt had some great dancing by some really talented women, and I really enjoyed their dancing. The more I learn the more readily I can identify the steps and challenges, and the more I appreciate how hard it is to make it look effortless. But when the men danced, I watched their technique. Where are their feet placed. Where is the weight distributed across their toes. How did they move to make their dancing powerful. I don't think I'd ever really paid attention to those details before.

One of the things I sometimes find myself doing during turns is allowing my weight to shift to the outside of my foot. Watching a woman do a turn wearing pointe shoes tells me nothing about how her weight is distributed, but I noticed that some of the men do the same thing at times. I'm not sure if that would be considered an error in technique or not, but it's reassuring that I'm not the only one who does it.

I was also reassured by the sight of one of the male dancers standing in the corner on demi-pointe practicing petit battments. Oh, how I hate those things!

Zombie Apocalypse Vampires

Also known as the "Wilis" from Giselle, according to the Washington Ballet's Artistic Director Septime Webre. That's how he described them to the young audience at today's open house. How better to help a group of 21st century kids relate to a 19th century ballet classic?

Not So Settled

You know that confident conviction that I was going to claw my way into the Advanced Beginner class? It lasted all of two days.

What does "competitive" mean?

Just before Sunday's class, a new student was looking for a place at the barres. She asked one of the other students, who replied, "You could stand at that barre, with Reece. He's competitive, but nice."

Huh?

What does it mean to be "competitive" in a beginner ballet class? We aren't competing for limited slots in a class or company. We aren't ranked with respect to each other, other than some people are more willing to stand in front during center work.

Maybe some might say I "compete" with myself. I'm more likely to kick myself for not trying or quitting than for trying and failing. I try to do things as best as I can at that moment, and I want to improve over time. I do compare myself against others in the class, but that's because I have no other points of reference. But I don't see myself as being in competition with anyone.

Does this make me "competitive" enough for someone to mention to another student? There's plenty of barre space, and if I'm in front of someone I'll move to avoid blocking their view of themselves in the mirror.

What does the peanut gallery think? Anyone? Bueller?

(Advanced) Ballet or Bust

The three-day break between Tuesday's and Saturday's B2 classes has bothered me for a while. The only other evening B2 class is Monday, and the Wednesday B1 class feels really slow to me. A Thursday evening class would be ideal, but the only class offered then is Advanced Beginner, taught by the same teacher as the Sunday morning and Monday evening B2 classes. With some hesitation I resolved this morning to ask this teacher if she thought I could handle her Thursday AB class.

Class went ok today. I feel comfortable with this Sunday AM B2 class. It's challenging enough that it demands focus, but the combinations are mostly simple enough that I have brain bandwidth to work on improving. The instructor is a former principal dancer with 20 years professional experience, and she's not hesitant to give individual feedback. At barre today, as we were about to do a circular port-de-bras in fifth, she stuck her fingers between my knees and said "Squeeze my fingers!" Stifling a laugh I tried and managed a bit better — limited turn-out means I don't have a very tight fifth — until I bent forward. I'm still not sure how to fix this problem, but oddly I feel pretty good about it: if she's correcting details like that it means I'm doing ok on more basic things. At the same time, the attention to detail appeals to the engineer side of my brain.

After class I asked the instructor about taking her Thursday night Advanced Beginner class. She said she said that was the easier of the two AB classes she taught, thought I could probably get though most it, and suggested it would be ok if I sat out those parts that I wasn't ready for. I thanked her, and started to say something about having been taking the Saturday AM B2 class for several months. She cut me off, exclaiming, "You've been taking her class? That's not a beginner class. I love her — I'm the one who hired her — but she doesn't know the meaning of the word 'Beginner'. You'll be fine in my Thursday night class." I guess that's settled.

I think I need a bumper sticker that reads "Ballet or Bust". But not in pink.