Category Archives: balllet
Ballet Intensive, Days Five and Six: Sleep Dep and Crazy (Arms) Mode
Friday was interesting: I had no zip in conditioning and technique because I was running on three hours of sleep (did I write about this already?); variations went well because in those three hours I seriously only dreamed about Albrecht’s variation.
Today’s performance was okay — I think I should have gone a bit easier last night; as such, my jumps weren’t awesome.
Also, I kept sort of forgetting what to do with my arms and just kind of waving them around in more or less the directions they were supposed to go, more or less. Jeez.
I know this because there’s video. I’m annoyed with myself for forgetting to just carry my arms through the opening two steps of Albrecht’s variation. Also for doing the world’s worst tour jeté and tiniest tours, but I understand why those happened.
That said, there are some nice moments in both pieces (one is the double turn that goes to attitude on the second rotation), and I’ll try to take KvN’s advice from Cincinnati and focus on those things!
Edit: I’m thinking now about ballet goals for the rest of this year, so I’m going to write them down.
- STOP DOING THE CRAZY ARMS AS A DEFAULT.This is a big one. This happens in part because I don’t always mark the arms with any clarity when I’m just walking through things, and the arms decouple from the choreography, and if I’m tired, I lose them. This morning, I lost a really nice moment in Albrecht’s variation specifically because of this.
The first rule of performance is: AS YOU REHEARSE, SO SHALL YOU PERFORM.
So I need to stop rehearsing my arms incorrectly, duh.
~
- Nail down the double cabrioles, because seriously, it would be good to have those in my balletic toolkit, and I think I should be able to get them down.~
- Polish the frack out of Albrecht’s variation and get a good video posted. I should also do the other one. It would be less awesome with only one person, but maybe I could teach it to someone else?~
- Get ballet video more often. For me, video makes a really good tool for analyzing and correcting my movement patterns.This week I discovered that I can learn and memorize demanding choreography pretty quickly; video can help me figure out how to make it cleaner and better.
~
- Tune up the basics well enough that I continue to execute them correctly even when tired (I’m looking at you, tour jete and legs that opted not to stay particularly turned out during simple arabesque balances).~
- Triple turns on tap.
So there you have my ballet goals.
Oh, and also: my turnout muscles are tired for realz. I suspect they’ll be very happy to know that they’re getting a day off on Monday.
One last edit: I think I actually forgot to do the turn from fourth to second at the end of my solo and subbed in a regular turn from fourth, but it worked out anyway.
Ballet Intensive, Day 4: In Which I Forget To Eat
(And then can’t stay asleep, either.)
Yesterday, I ate an early lunch, dithered around for a while (in the process remembering why I don’t bother with shopping malls even as places to take a walk when it’s abominably humid out), then transferred myself over to the hotel (which, alas, does not have a pool after all).
I then arranged my stuff, watched some videos of Albrecht’s variation, wrote a post about it and forgot to post it (hence the after-class posting), collected my dance junk, and finally rolled downtown just in time to be an hour early for class.
You’ll notice that I don’t mention food any time after lunch. You can guess why.
As such, technique class was … um. Interesting.
Things started out well, but by the time we got around to turns, I was feeling bonky. Not, mind you, bonk*ers* — I’m pretty sure that’s a normal state of affairs for me.
Rather, I was having issues with turns because my legs just didn’t want to passé — not at all a normal state of affairs; normally snapping right up to passé is one of the things I actually do well (my challenge in turns is a tendency to throw my head back).
Basically, my legs just didn’t want to go — and there was something remarkably familiar about the sensation.
That’s when it hit me: I was bonking like a Cat 5 climbing Alp D’Huez. Basically, I was out of gas. (In other news, balancés while bonking are hilarious, as is pas de bourée — “drunk step,” indeed.)
Between technique and variations I ate a granola bar with enough free sugar to get things ticking over again. Unfortunately, it was one of the caffeinated ones that Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time (what could possibly go wrong?). As such, I’ve been sleeping in dribs and drabs, alternately dreaming that I’m not asleep (which is incredibly annoying) and dreaming about Albrecht’s variation, whereupon I wake myself up trying to jump.
In my sleep.
Whilst lying face down.
You guys, that is no kind of way to cabriole (especially not avant).
Anyway, Variations involved a whole lot of marking coupled to a few impressive cabrioles. In sum, after running the duo three times, I blew my booster rockets on the first phrase of Albrecht’s variation.
Not my best day, though Mr. J remarked that I have the musicality down, and that first cabriole-assemblé-Sissone might actually have been worth it, because it was sufficiently high and light that it rather startled me.
The rest, however, was a bunch of flaily marking, though at least I was marking the right things at the right times.
Fortunately, I don’t have to go anywhere today until 11:30, when I’m wandering back to Louisville to collect Denis, so I can basically continue to attempt cabrioles in my sleep until 11 if push comes to shove.
Tonight will be our final full evening, and C and I promised that we would finally show the ladies our variations, so it should be fun. We’ll either knock their socks off or kill ourselves trying (or both — after all, dying at the end whilst surrounded by ghostly ladies is totally valid, and they are doing “Kingdom of the Shades,” which is at least kinda-sorta ghostly, though I think the Shades probably have a better deal than the Wilis).
Still going to try to hit at least one double cabriole, preferably in the second cabriole-assemblé-Sissone in that first phrase, because I think that makes more sense. The Wilis are like, “Dance!” and you’re like, “But it’s the middle of the night and I don’t see any champagne!” and then they’re like, “NO, SRSLY, DANCE!!!” And you’re like, “Dear G-d, my legs, what are they doing?”
Sorry, Albrecht — apparently, guilty get have way too much rhythm (but you’re still never gonna dance again, not if Mertha has her way).
Just Falling Down Dead Is An Option
I had forgotten that the variation we’re doing is from act 2 of Giselle, with the Wilis trying to dance Albrecht into his grave, which he may or may not richly deserve depending on whether we read him as a soulless playboy toying with the heart of an innocent country lass or the star-crossed youth torn between True Love and social obligation.
…So if all else fails, just falling down dead at the end is totally an option, I guess.
Basically, this is what I'm doing — but without the ninja.
BTW, this video (no pressure, it’s just that Baryshnikov guy) has the ending I’m currently doing, only mine doesn’t have, like, quite as many turns o_O’
Guess I’ll keep working on it?
Ballet Intensive, Day 3
Last night, conditioning class was tough —Ms. A2 opened with a gentle warm-up that lulled us all into complacency, then whipped out the most-demanding Pilates workout I’ve done to date.
I spent the brief break before technique class pacing the studio to keep my muscles warm; between that and the flexibility work we did in conditioning, I had increasingly awesome turnout throughout barre and good extensions. I’ve been remembering to stretch my piriformis, which has been helping with my splits.
Double turns were reliably on tap for turns and terre-a-terre (a lovely waltzy thing with sweeping ronds) and I had good entrechats during petit allegro, although I had to battle muscle memory to keep from doing a similar combination we do frequently at home.
I might overturn my ruling about triple turns tonight, because I’d like to tune them up for variations, if I can.
After the second break, we ran Albrecht a bunch of times, then revisited our duo, then returned to Albrecht. We’re now really polishing both. I substituted contretemps where I’d just been stepping over myself in one passage and added double turns where they fit, though if we perform the duo, I probably won’t do them unless C does. We are, after all, supposed to be mirroring of one-another, not show-boating!
Albrecht-wise, since I now have the opening pose-step-chassée-cabriole-assemblée-Sissone sequence down, I’ll see tonight if I can work double cabs in. I’m still not 100% sure I can even do them reliably, but it would be awesome to be able to pull them out on Saturday.
I should also figure out how I want to finish Albrecht’s variation — there are some options. Right now I’m doing a turn from fourth to second to the knee (which I think I should finish effacé but with my shoulders opened back to stage left, since that would leave me facing our imaginary Giselle, for whom I’m theoretically doing this entire dance?).
I plan to watch some versions of the variation on YouTube and collect some ideas.
Mr. J got my arms sorted on a part of Albrecht’s variation about which I’d somehow confused myself and improved my tour-to-the-knee (a definite in the duo and an option for Albrecht), which I’d been doing awkwardly — tour, land on two feet, rond de jambe to knee. He demonstrated it and I realized that it’s cleaner if you pick up the leg that will be in back before you land the tour.
I also want to see if I can swing a double tour before I go home — I had a respectable 1.5 last night, which is progress, although not incredibly useful.
Ballet Intensive Day 2: Albrechts, Pluriel
Yesterday, after a conditioning class in which I one again reflected on my gratitude for the grueling classes I take at Suspend and a technique class in which I had less-than-great balances but oh-my-G-d extensions and a fantastic time in terre-a-terre and grand allegro, our men’s class of two nailed down the rest of our first variation.
Mr. J then asked if we’d like to learn something else, and C requested something slower with beats — and so we found ourselves learning Albrecht’s variation (a little simplified, but not terribly so) from Gisele.
I had to mark my way through for the most part, as my right leg was feeling a little strain-y and I didn’t want to risk aggravating it, but I think I’m going to enjoy it immensely. Anything that opens with a lyrical croisée presentation and leaps immediately into cabriole avant is essentially right up my alley.
Also means we get to do a zillion tours en l’air, which I almost never get to do at home since we only very rarely do men’s technique.
So I’m quite excited about that, and it looks like we might perform Albrecht’s variation individually instead of the first one together.
Other exciting developments are taking place at home in my absence, which is lovely, though evidently my cat is extremely confused about my absence and keeps sort of despairingly loafing about, waiting for me to return. Poor kitty!
Anyway, I think I’ll come home from this week a better and more polished dancer than I arrived, which is the whole point.
Tonight I’ll probably keep my leg wrapped just in case, though I’ll see how it feels.
Ballet Intensive Dispatch: Day 1
This week involves four hours of class in the evening, so I suspect I’ll mostly report in the morning.
Yesterday, after a great class with Ms. T of Advanced Class, I took B out for a celebratory lunch, then dithered around buying the things I had meant to buy already but forgot, then hopped into my trusty Subaru and drove to Lexington.
After a near-miraculous parking space appeared (in which I parallel-parked like a boss), I snagged a tiny salad at a nearby Panera*, crammed it into my face, and wandered back to ArtsPlace, where the Ballet makes its home.
A quick aside: under most circumstances, I wouldn’t recommend “tiny salad” as the ideal energy source for four hours of conditioning and dancing. I was still feeling fairly stuffed after my enormous lunch calzone, which I nearly finished.
As a fueling strategy for this particular schedule, “Huge lunch; light supper” works brilliantly. I think, though, that I will also bring a light snack to eat before rep tonight.
We’re a group of fifteen or twentyish, and I am not The Onliest Boy this time — there are two of us, both fairly well matched in terms of technique and ability, though quite different in build (C is much more Hallbergian than I, and also a head taller).
Class began with an hour of Pilates-based conditioning led by Ms. A1. I spent the hour reflecting on how grateful I am for the conditioning we do at Suspend, without which I might very well have silently wept through most of the hour in question.
After a brief break (and a small wrestling match with my dance belt — I wore the oldest one, which is now slightly too big, which in turn frankly boggles my mind), we proceeded to technique class with Mr. J.
He explained that he’d be giving a fairly basic class so he and Ms. A could get a sense of where we were as dancers.
He kept his word, but it was still a very good class — I enjoyed his barre, centre, and adagio combinations, felt good about turns and terre-a-terre, and the tempo of the petit allegro (simply: glissade – assemblé, glissade – assemblé, glissade – changement – changement -changement) was such that, instead of being an ongoing train wreck, I got to show off some beats here and there.
It was also such that I didn’t crash and burn when I discovered the inevitable slippery spot on the floor.
I enjoyed the heck out of our medium allegro — the famous sauté arabesque/sauté passé that I love so ridiculously – and added cabrioles because everything needs more cabrioles.
Grand allegro was equally pleasant, and for once my saut de chat was fully functional, if a bit Third Reich-ish about the arms at times. Of course, there was also pas de chat, which is, at the moment, the joy of my existence.
After another brief break, we divided by gender for variations/repertory. Mr. J gave the two of us a lively, vigorous dance based on Petipa, with just enough bravura to make it shine but not so much that we won’t be able to master it by Saturday. I’m enjoying it immensely, even though it took me the entire class period to get my head around the fact that I’m supposed to do my first turn more or less backwards.
It should make one heck of an interesting foil to the ladies’ piece — the famous entrance scene from “The Kingdom of the Shades.”
We got to see their piece (which was totally unfair to them, as we didn’t show them ours!) and I was quite impressed with how well they had it down, this being only the first night, and theirs being a much larger group with a much greater range of skill. The moments that always give me chills succeeded in doing exactly that. I can’t wait to see the final performance!
I’m much less stressed-out about rep here than I was in Cinci. First, it’s ballet, which is my “mother tongue,” so it’s simply easier to memorize. Second, it’s a shorter piece than we did, and I don’t think there will be as much adding of a whole new scene on the day before the performance!
I feel like we’ll have our piece not only learned, but well-polished, on Saturday.
Funny little sidebar: in class, I noticed that C was wearing white shoes and I was wearing black ones.
Does that make me the bad guy? 😀
Monday Class #1: Ballet Sans Adderall
So, I have discovered that, sans Adderall (which I neglected to take this morning), l I am not quite as good at picking up combinations, and less likely to fix myself on the second side.
We had a lovely terre-a-terre that began with two sets of waltz turns, and I kept skipping the second set, which then threw everything else off.
I feel that I should probably take my Adderall before I drive halfway across the state, perhaps. It might be helpful.
Skipped all the jumps this morning in an effort to be tuned up but not tired this evening.
À bientôt!
Dribs & Drabs
I’m mostly ready to go for the Lexington Ballet intensive, but still sort of managing the last bits of the to-do list.
Mr. Merkah approves of my dance bag:
Feline supervisor says the dance bag is okay to go!
…Though possibly less so now that it is one again crammed full of dance junk and waiting in my car.
(Of note: my dance bag is really a tool bag that I got on sale for $5 at a local hardware place. It has nifty inside pockets for essential dance things like shoes, VetWrap, a million bandages, a lacrosse ball, etc. Also makes it easy to spot in a lineup of properly dance-specific bags.)
This time I’ve remembered to pack bandages and cloth tape just in case I somehow wind up with a blister. I’ll be AirBnB-ing it the first three nights, then spending the last two at an inexpensive hotel with a pool (hope it has a hot tub!).
Today while I was demonstrating assemblé, Aerial A said, “Just like that, only without the beats.”
Didn’t realize that I had been doing assemblé battu, heh. It may have been an artifact of practicing cabrioles avant before class.
In other news, this picture about sums up how I feel right now:
Someone please get me a blanket?
After dinner, I am planning on a long soak in the tub followed by an early bedtime.
Tomorrow, we dance.
(And then we drive halfway across the state, and then we dance again.)
Saturday Class: Did That Really Just Happen?
We had a guest instructor, E, today; a dancer who is one of my longstanding favorites. He gave us a challenging class, and as a group I think we really rose to the occasion quite well*.
*Okay, except maybe for the part where I kept doing glissade-assemblé instead of glissade changée – glissade changée at the beginning of one combination (fixed it on the repeat).
And the other part where I did a single tour at the end of our medium allegro and forgot to change my feet because I don’t even know why; I did it right on the first side. No idea what was going on, there. #ThanksObama, I guess?)
His policy, it turns out, is to teach to the most advanced student in class and let everyone else catch up. I really like that approach; it forces me to work outside my comfort zone. The most advanced student in class today was one of the new guys from the company, and he was freaking beautiful, so the barre was pretty high indeed.
The end result of this was this amazing moment at the end of class in which B said to me, in the midst of a conversation, “…And your double attitude turn!”
And I replied, “Oh! I’m so glad that really happened. I was afraid I imagined it.”
Seriously, I really did wonder about it, because since when** do I have a double attitude turn?
**Apparently, since today (#ThanksObama for reals? :D)?
Our adagio involved attitude turns (which I lurve; attitude is my best balance, for whatever reason, followed by various arabesques, passé/retiré, and finally coupé), and I remember thinking, “Huh, that felt like a double,” and just going on because otherwise I would’ve been late and it was too pretty an enchaînement to mess up by being late.
Guessing I pretty much looked like this for the rest of the combination, though.
So apparently it felt like a double because it was a double***, and I suspect that happened because E had us all seriously tuned up and on our legs. He also demonstrated the arms really clearly when giving each combination, which helped immensely.
***Dangit, why couldn’t someone have been video-ing this?!
In other news, I was not a squid today even for a moment, which is still a bleeding miracle if you ask me, because our combinations were very, very dance-y. In short, they looked like something you’d see on stage with fancy tutus and stuff … so, in short, there were lots of arms. And heads. And épaulement all over the place. And “make sure the audience can see both your shoulders and both your hips!”
What does this guy think we are? Dancers?
Oh, right.
On the downside, my petit allegro is STILL FREAKING SLOW. Which I guess it will be for a while; it’s improving slowly. Which, I suppose, is how such things improve.
On the other hand, I seem to have regained my petit battement, possibly through sheer intimidation.
Thursday! Class with Company B
A quick note on Company B’s nickname: it says nothing about his ability has a dancer. He’s good; very, very good, in fact. It just so happens that he dances for the company and his name begins with B, and I know too many people whose names begin with B, and it amuses me to think of him having his very own boogie-woogie bugle boy, so voilà — “Company B” he is, until I come up with something better.
Moving right along!
Tonight I decided to skip out on acro and sub in an extra ballet class in the interest of being well tuned-up for next week’s intensive.
Company B teaches a very basic class on Thursday evenings, and although he was worried that B and I would probably be bored out of our skulls, I am firmly of the opinion that as long as the instruction is good, no class is too simple.
In short, the basics are the foundations of technique, and everyone can always stand to improve them. That’s the great thing about ballet (okay, also the terrible thing) — since perfection is essentially impossible, you can work on everything forever.
As such, I was quite happy to work on pretty basic material, because it gave me time to really fastidiously apply all the updates I’ve been working on installing, so to speak — tight at the upper thighs in sous-sus; working the outer limits of my turnout consistently; really getting the knees back in frappé avant; doing stupid things with my arms as rarely as possible; using my épaulement; actually looking at the audience (or, in this case, the mirror). The idea was to use this time to refine my technique.
I’d like to say I acquitted myself quite nicely, in fact. Company B gave me a couple of notes on my épaulement that I applied with success. You guys, it is really nice to experience unequivocal success in ballet.
I also finally managed to de-tangle my waltz turns. I think maybe I’ve been doing them right for a while, but I didn’t understand the difference between the right version and the wrong version. Possibly I was putting the brush in the wrong spot, before?
Anyway, Company B was introducing the waltz turn tonight, so he explained them very thoroughly, à la Mr. Beastmode’s explanation of balancé. This got my legs sufficiently de-tangled that I could think about making my arms do nice things, which was great.
We had some nice combinations — simple, but musical, like:
From B+ with Working Leg Back –
Step through – Chasse
Pas de Bourree to Fifth
En Dehors Pirouette*
Fourth allongé
Repeat first phrase two more times
Pivot/detourne to Fourth
Soutenu turn
Soutenu turn straight into sous-sus
Sous-sus balance (with expressive arms, because seriously, it’s not that hard)
*The girl who went with in the front of the first group me had doubles as well, so we both tossed them in. I didn’t try for triples because that just seemed like show-boating, which is just obnoxious in a beginners’ class.
I kept wanting to put in an en dedans turn from fourth after the pivot, since that’s basically a defining trait of Louisville Ballet’s choreography and we do it allllla taimz in class, but I managed not to do that and not to wind up behind the music in my efforts to prevent it. I did wind up pointing to the wrong corner at one point, so I just sort of added a rond de jambe into the first soutenu and basically acted like nothing happened 😛
Company B seemed quite happy with my interpretation and musicality and particularly seemed pleased with my execution of the balance from a performance aspect. I was, in turn, quite happy about that, since he’s one of the instructors who’s aware of my goals concerning dance.
After class he said he was glad to have us in class, hoped we weren’t completely bored (we weren’t!), and mentioned that it was good for the rest of the students to have people in class who could show them how things were supposed to look 😀
That felt like a nice vote of confidence, especially coming from a danseur who I admire immensely. Seriously, the first time he came to Saturday class with us, my insides were all like:
Shamelessly stolen … erm, borrowed … from JazzWax.com.
Meanwhile, my outsides were all like:
The fact that this picture was just out there on the internets and also already a meme just makes me go, “LOLwut?” Nonetheless, seems apropos.
Since then, though, I have discovered that, in addition to being a really fabulously amazing dancer (seriously, this was the guy whose pas de deux I described as “a masterclass in partnering”) and disgustingly good-looking, Company B is also a really lovely, sweet, humble human being.
Doesn’t hurt, either, that he’s one of those dancers who love dancing and he really seems to enjoy helping other dancers learn how to dance better.
So that was tonight’s class. We closed with a little saute-arabesque/saute-passe combination, which I enjoyed immensely. I doubt I will ever, ever tire of that combination, even though it’s really simple.
So, there you have it. I will definitely hit up Company B’s class again any time my schedule allows for it.
G’night, everybody.
danseur ignoble 