Ballet Squid Chronicles: Lucky
We’re going to visit my parents in Connecticut in January, and I’ve been looking around for a ballet class to squeeze in while we’re up there. I’ve been surprised to find few options — there are adult options at a number of schools, but most seem to offer only one or two classes a week (and so many happen to be on Thursday — is there something I don’t know about Thursday?).
There are a couple of notable exceptions — Hartford City Ballet, for example, offers five adult open technique classes (and a conditioning class, which is one offering I wish we had — we do have Pilates, though).
I’m reminded again how lucky we are to have access to Louisville Ballet School’s robust adult class offerings — nine ballet technique classes per week, not counting the 6-week Intro Pointe class that happens once in a while. I’m not even counting non-ballet offerings (tap; something called “fitness fusion,” which might be ballet conditioning masquerading as a general fitness class; and Pilates, which doesn’t appear to be on our Winter Break schedule).
It surprises me that LBS, a school attached to a small company in a small city in a part of the country where the arts are vibrant but always struggling, offers such a robust adult program in what is presumably a much smaller adult-ballet market than one would expect in the Northeast. Not that I’m complaining! I’m just surprised.
I think the topic of how to cobble together a reasonable class schedule sorted has been bandied around the adult ballet boards at Ballet Talk for Dancers quite a bit, but I guess I still hadn’t realized how challenging it can be.
Any thoughts out there on why things shake out the way they do? How do class offerings look in your necks of the woods, fellow dancers? Do you think LBS’ offerings are more typical or more atypical for a ballet school in a moderate-sized city?
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Update
The New Haven Ballet has a nice selection of Open Division classes, so I think I’m going to try to work their Friday morning class into our visit. I’d love to visit Yale’s Peabody Museum while we’re up there, so it works out nicely for me.
Posted on 2014/12/05, in balllet, life and tagged ballet class, Connecticut, travel plans. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
danseur ignoble 
Wow, looks like your school has robust offerings indeed! Lucky!
In the medium-sized (pop. ~300,000) city I call home, there are very few options. The studio I take wednesday evening class in offers 2 ballet classes – only 1 I can take, for now (the other is int/adv) – though their non-ballet offerings are plentiful and varied. Other studios I have called in the area mostly offer children’s classes and a mixed teen/adult class maybe once a week.
However, the Big City (about 75 minutes away from where I live, pop. in the millions) has plenty of offerings, if I am to go by the blog posts of a fellow blogger. Unfortunately, that is just too far of a drive for me and moving there is absolutely out of the question (I dislike the crowded and rushed vibe of the Big City.).
To be fair, I have only looked up independent studios; I’m sure school attached to companies have a few more options. That may be where I redirect my search, as I await my next semester…
Very interesting! I wonder if the Big City may be part of what’s going on with Connecticut — NYC is a not-unreasonable commute from much of the state (particularly the western and coastal portions), and from what I understand, there are all kinds of classes on all kinds of schedules there.
I’ll be interested in hearing how your ballet schedule shapes up! I’ve been really happy both with the class schedule and the level of instruction at Louisville Ballet, and would definitely recommend looking into classes with a professional company if they’re available to you. Interestingly, LBS has the most affordable tuition in our area, barring University of Louisville’s community ballet program, which is comparable (but which only has one class per week).