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 :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment