Helllooo private lesson :)

After much anticipation and excitement, I had my first private lesson (well..my first private in several years) last Saturday :) While the weather was less than stellar, the studio in Surry Hills was a decent size, and even though there was no barre (they owners are apparently looking to install one) much was learned in the hour lesson.

The lesson began with a warm up of some plies and tendus using a wall/window ledge as a faux-barre. Then my handy dandy list of things I wanted to work on was examined. One thing I've been working at in the last couple of months is my centre as it was brought to my attention that my back is straight to the point that I have a tendency to tilt back-this of course throws off my centre which affects..well..everything..pirouettes, maintaining good turnout etc. So my focus is on bringing my ribcage in and tilting forward slightly (without hunching/curving my back). Related to this is where the weight of the body is centred. I am used to thinking broadly as in "weight on the ball of the feet"; however, now it's more specific-i.e. the very centre of the foot (above the 2nd toe). So with all of this in mind, Andrea had me do rises in parallel and then in first and having me find my centre and once finding it-seeing how long I could maintain it. Afterwards, I then worked on finding it whilst rising just on my left leg and then my right. At first I kept losing my centre, but gradually it became a bit easier to stay centred. At one point I found my centre perfectly..it was this amazing feeling of being right in the middle of the middle..the strange thing was when this happened..I was sure that Andrea had placed a finger on my left shoulder to steady me ( I swear I could feel it) and then she spoke-from my right side..strange phenomenon, but a lesson too..maybe that's the key to maintaining your centre-imagining that there is someone lightly keeping you steady..:)

After this we worked on body positions and angles-I have a tendency to facing too far left or too far right in centre. Again, it's all about angles and for me, it's just a matter of a few degrees..even so, a few degrees can and does make a big difference. So I worked on doing tendus starting facing croise devant and then changing to efface devant moving only a few degrees. While doing this, head positions were worked on, as well as port de bras..I know the majority but there is always always room for improvement-for instance, I know now that I should elongate my port de bras even more..at one point when Andrea was making changes to my port de bras and head positions there was this glorious moment when I was in a perfect ecarte position..I was so shocked looking into the mirror that it was me..Andrea was delighted and kept saying "look how beautiful that is" and saying how I had lovely long arms..I kept giving her the credit though-after all she was the one who adjusted my head elongated my arms even more..ever time I said "well you did it" ( because she did) she said "well it was your head and arms"..it was so amazing though :) As a suggestion, Andrea said I should practice in a mirror at home (yes bathroom mirror! haha) and look at photos of ballerinas in that pose and try to imitate what they are doing..Thinking back, I wish I'd brought my camera to that lesson-I would have loved to have a photo of that perfect ecarte..ah well..i'll bring one to my next lesson-plus it's a great incentive to keep working on it..if I can do it a few times in a private..then the potential must be there :)

The last part of the lesson we worked on left-side pirouettes..I love pirouettes..from 4th position, en dehore, en dedans etc but my left side always feels awkward to me..I can always turn a single on both right and left and do doubles on my right side (on good days) but I want the doubles to happen on both sides and for them to constant..rather than depending on the day. Of course much of this depends on centre and since that is something that I've been playing around with lately that is why my doubles on my right are not always a guarantee. Anyway I figured breaking down the 4 things that are very important to a pirouette (spotting, plie, releve and arms) and perfecting them will enable me in my quest to do doubles every time..so we worked on my right and then left sides..so much of ballet is the little details...so again and again I did pirouettes focusing on the 4 key elements..and also my centre as my tendency to lean back a bit throws off my doubles as well..this repetitive work was excellent and amazingly I turned a perfect double ON MY LEFT SIDE! Yes that is right..I was perfectly centred (and could I ever feel it!) and honestly felt like I was high, high above the ground on a pedstal..it was so exciting and enthralling..and brilliant..and to have that happen on my left side (I think the last time I did a solid double on my left side was eons ago and definitely not anything like what I did in this case)..Andrea was delighted and described it as "sailing"..and it's true..it did feel like sailing..the memory alone makes me break out smiling..it was just this lovely tingly, flying feeling..:)

Sadly, after this wonderful experience the clock showed that our hour had passed :(..I really couldn't have asked for a better lesson..the amount of feedback I received was excellent and all the information and such taken from it was incredibly..well worth every cent..

I was so thrilled and high on happiness that I ended up skipping the bus and walking from Surry Hills to Wynyard in the rain whilst running through every last speck of detail from the lesson in my head and then when on the train home, jotting it down in my notebook to add to my Word file :)

I eagerly await my next lesson :):)

The allure of classical music...

One thing I really took from all my years of piano was an appreciation for music-more specifically, classical piano music. While I love singing along to Katy Perry like the next person, I do enjoy lying in bed, sitting on the train or working at my desk and listening to some good old classical music. Of course I also love dancing to it. Whether I'm in class warming up with plies & tendus or else dancing an exciting enchainement of glissades, jetes, tombes and jetes at the end of class, the music is always perfectly suited to the steps. Many times after class I'm left humming the remnants of the last tune played whilst attempting to walk "normally" in public-I do admit though, that sometimes I get carried away going through everything in my head and one of my legs will jerk out suddenly..wanting to execute a glissade or assemble in the middle of Hickson Rd :)

To control these cravings I've resorted to good old Youtube where I've found some old RAD *Royal Academy of Dance* music from grades 7 & 8 that I always enjoyed. This has worked thus far; however, I love the music played every Sunday so much that I finally asked my teacher where she gets her music from. To my delight, she offered to transfer the music onto a USB for me. I can't wait! So far, I've only found one ballet pianist through iTunes whose songs I hear in class. The artist is Aly Tejas and 3 of her tunes I hear quite frequently-her "Moods, Impressions & Reminiscences" is one we frequently do our first plies for and her "Tendu Plie 4/4" is of course one used often for tendus! Not wanting to drop heaps of money on music, I contented myself with purchasing just 3 songs (including those 2 above) from iTunes until I get the music on to my USB :) I can't wait! As aside from Aly Tejas, there's adaptions from Disney movies such as Mary Poppins (it is lots of fun doing grand battements to "chim chim cheree") and broadway productions such as "West Side Story". My absolute favourite of all songs is "I feel pretty" adapted for a ballet class. One Sunday at the end of July, Andrea came up with a very exciting enchainement for class-end to "I feel pretty"..the song and the sequence quickly fell into my long-term memory bank and so when I get the music off of Andrea I will be playing and dancing to "I Feel Pretty" till kingdom-come :P

The beauty of new pointe shoes :)

Last Thursday I finally purchased new pointe shoes-something that I meant to do back in July. I had the fitting 2 months ago, had the shoes put aside for 2 weeks and subsequently kept putting off the purchase. This was not done because I didn't want to get the shoes; rather I was ho humming about the cost. I won't lie, pointe shoes are expensive and since I like to spread out my dance costs, it seemed appropriate to wait awhile longer. Finally I made the purchase. I had to have another fitting done-about 45min of trying on at least 7 different styles of shoes and standing with my feet in parallel, then in first position, rising up on pointe etc. It was a very enjoyable experience. Initially I thought I would have the same style and size as my last pair (a 7 1/2 sonata); however, I ended up with a lovely '7' Amelie..which is surprisingly comfortable as far as pointe shoes go. I learned a lot of things about my feet at this fitting. I learned that I have "good strength and flexibility in them" (more strength will develop with pointe work), that my feet don't sickle (a very good thing!) and that my feet aren't as broad as I was always told but they are quite narrow at the back-which explained why I tried on so many shoes-I was having issues with the back part of the shoe beingt too loose on the heel and such. This may seem trivial and petty to most people but the thing with ballet, is that you spend a fair amount of time manipulating how your feet work and adjusting their appearance (i.e. making sure that they are pointed and not sickled) so I found these new revelations about my feet very interesting!


After having being successfully fitted for my shoes, I got toe pads and more ribbon for them. The cost came to a hefty $140.00. However, when I reminded myself that my last pair were purchased +6 years ago, along with the fact that I plan on doing pointe just once/week, it put the cost into perspective.

After lovingly taking my new shoes home and admiring the lovely new look and the colour of the satin (different from my first pair of Bloch shoes) I began the process of sewing ribbons on them. Obviously it had been awhile since I last sewed ribbons on pointe shoes and I think I did a neater job the first time. In the end though, I sewed all the ribbons on the shoes Saturday evening. I took them to class yesterday and Andrea, my teacher had a look at what I'd done and made a few suggestions as to adjustments (aka just a bit more sewing). Last night I then removed the elastics from my old shoes and sewed them onto my new ones. I then also cut the ribbons slightly as they were a bit too long. The end result? 2 lovely new shoes with freshly sewn on ribbons and elastics ready to be broken into on Tuesday :)