March 26, 2014

“There’s a reason why we do the boring exercises.”

“There’s a reason why we do the boring exercises.”

One of the instructors says this in Dance Academy, demonstrating how simple quarter turns eventually adds up to multiple pirouettes and fouettes. I was reminded of the value of the “boring exercises” in my class last Monday.

Despite being pretty tired from the weekend and work, I decided to try out Philly Dance Fitness’s new Monday night beginner ballet class. The instructor has been with Philly Dance Fitness for a while, but she just started teaching a new ballet class. I’m always nervous about taking classes with new instructors (since I never know what to expect), but luckily the class was at least in a familiar studio.

It was a super back-to-basics class, which I feel like I really needed. Currently, I’m trying really hard to focus on not over-pronating, which can be really tough to do when we’re doing more difficult combinations. The simple combinations allowed me to really focus in on this (although wearing too tight ballet slippers made this a little tougher). In addition, it was a pretty small class (there was only about five of us), which was nice. My only qualm about the class was that it was so late (8 to 9:15pm).

Overall, it was really nice to focus on the basics and work on positioning my body properly and having better technique.

I’ll definitely be keeping this class in my rotation so that I can keep working on the basics and really focus on not over-pronating.

Have you taken a “back-to-basics” class lately?

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March 11, 2014

Taking Class in a New Ballet Studio

I’ve only taken ballet classes in a handful of different studios since I started ballet almost two years ago now.

Philly Dance Fitness recently started holding classes in a new studio in Center City Philadelphia. Once the studio was finally overhauled with new floors and wall barres, they started offering a Beginner II ballet class there (and they’ll offer another one in a couple of weeks).

I was super excited for my first class there, especially I wasn’t able to make it to the previous night’s ballet class because of work.  The new studio is also super close to where I live and I can walk to class in about 20 minutes.

Even though I was excited, I was still a little nervous. While not as nerve-wracking as attending a class at a new studio with a new instructor and new ballerinas, I was still nervous as to what the new studio would be like. When I first got there, I went to the wrong place (PDF classes are upstairs while there’s a store front downstairs). Luckily,  I was quickly directed to the right place.

I was a little bit late, so I had to quickly throw on my legwarmers and slippers, which helped to distract me from my nerves a little bit.

It was a little weird working off a wall barre (at the other studio, we have portable barres), especially since they were a bit higher than I was used to. A corner of the room was blocked off for storage, which made organizing ourselves in the room a little difficult. Other than that, things went relatively smoothly. I’m excited to keep taking classes there, as well as test out the beginner class on Mondays.

Here’s some photos from our first class:

Post by Philly Dance Fitness.
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August 5, 2013

Can you be TOO flexible as a ballet dancer?

OY VEY! I am so sorry that I’ve sort of “slacked off” on my stretching series. I’ve been sick for the past week and then I just sprained ankle on top of it. Apparently I can dance better than I can walk. 🙂 So while I’m taking a little hiatus from dance and intense stretching to let my body heal from the illness and injury, I figured I’d bring up a topic that seems to be controversial at the moment- can you become TOO flexible or overstretch when it comes to ballet?? I found an article about how the positions of ballet have changed over the years and how they require a different level of flexibility and it raises interesting questions about the pressure it puts on dancers to be crazy flexible. I’ll fess up… one of my guilty pleasures is following a ton of little ballet Instagrams that are likely run by 12 year old girls (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m “old” in comparison so it makes me feel a little silly haha). So my Instagram feed is overrun with pictures of girls doing tilts, oversplits, and various other insane in the membrane stretches.

One of the first pictures on google image search of "oversplits"

One of the first pictures on google image search of “oversplits”

Part of me is blown away at the awesomeness of the stretches. It’s really amazing to see what the human body is capable of when you stretch it out and push its limits. The other part of me is really curious as to the concerns and dangers associated with stretching to extremes. I am, of course, a huge advocate of stretching as I find it’s very important to keeping a healthy body as well as progressing in ballet. I am also very cautious and try to make sure to weigh the costs with the benefits before I do anything. For me, the biggest concern that I have with these extreme stretches are the dangers involved. Could you imagine if one of the chairs in the above pictures slipped out during the process of getting in this position?! Holy pain, Batman. Or when I see people stretching their arches by sticking their foot under a couch and forcing it down I can’t help but wonder how much potentially “unnecessary” strain they are putting on their joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles that could later lead to serious injury.

When trying to do research on the topic I found some really weird mixed messages. A lot of sources say that you can’t really be too flexible and that you should try and push and push until you can get further. A lot of other sources say that being overly flexible is neither necessary nor helpful in ballet because it actually makes you need to work harder to maintain the classic lines that make ballet seem graceful rather than looking contorted. Although I found a lot of opinions of parents of dancers, adult dancers, and teen dancers, there aren’t a whole lot of easily accessible resources based from more reliable “official” sources. So, because I am no expert and definitely cannot give you advice on the matter, I advise that you weight the pros and cons yourself before attempting any stretches of that magnitude and always recommend caution. But I figured it could be an interesting point of conversation. Do you feel that these extreme forms of stretching can help or hinder ballet? How do you feel about the ever increasing flexibility requirements of ballet and how it changes the way the lines of the body look?

 

On a more fun note, I also decided to do the ABC survey Kristen posted to tell you a little more about myself after the jump 🙂

Continue Reading

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July 2, 2013

How to Build 10 Foot PVC Ballet Barres

This article comes from Kelly on how to make full-sized PVC ballet barres, great for a studio or at home.

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This is the instructions/ measurements for ours that I made for Pulse Dance Studio in Bedford:

Barre measurements:
59.5″ cross bars (x2)
9.25″ spacer (x3)
27″ (adult) 16.25″ (baby) legs (x3)
10.75″ feet (x6)
(4) 90 deg. cross fitting
(3) 90 deg. tee fitting
(8) 90 deg. elbow fitting
(28) 8×3/4 screws
(1) can of PVC glue
1 1/4 in PVC pipe was used when we made these (it was the heavier kind from Lowes)
Cut PVC carefully to make everything even. I used a table miter saw. Dry fit and mark. Glue top elbow, spacer, and tee together (we didn’t glue to leg so we could swap out legs if we needed more tall ones or more short ones) glue feet. Dry fit bars and legs and drill holes straight through fitting and bar for screws so they can be disassembled if needed. Put in screws, you’re done!
Makes one ten foot double barre out of PVC 🙂
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June 12, 2013

Guest Post: Finding the Right Studio

Caysie face pictureUnfortunately over the week I seem to have developed a bit of a chest cold that prevented me from going to dance (among other things). What’s with this summer cold business?? Anywho, I was hoping to post a nice tutorial blog with photos of a DIY stand alone barre that I made before I started feeling unwell but because I am not up to setting up to do the pics for that post, it will have to wait until next week. Why even tell you, you ask? Perhaps then maybe you’ll be motivated to check back because that DIY barre is a life saver for a busy lady like myself who just wants a 20 minute tendu sesh here and there. Now that I’ve dangled that like a carrot in front of your face (mwahaha), I’ll get on to my post for this week which is a bit inspired by the lovely Queen Michelle at Kingdom of Style, but a more beginner focused version.

I’m currently in the process of switching studios because the one I currently go to is so far away. I figured that since finding a studio/class and going to the first class is a huge hurdle for a lot of adults who want to begin ballet but haven’t yet I’d write about that process. I’ll address some of the most important concerns I first had myself.

1. I’m going to look like an idiot. Ok. So this fear of mine really was the absolute biggest I had that stopped me from starting up a class.  It’s hard to start something if you have little to no experience with it. You can be nervous that people will laugh at you or that you’ll be the center of attention cause you can seem to EVER get into first position. I have tested the waters with a few classes and can tell you, from personal experience, that this is 95% of the time not the case. Adult beginner classes are just that- BEGINNER. Even if you don’t know a plié from a piqué, it’s unlikely that anyone will judge you for it. You’re there to learn and build these skills just like everyone else. From my experience it’s just been an hour of laughing and commiserating because no one is perfect! We all have our “looking silly” moments, and you know what… it’s ok that it’s funny because it’s fun!

2. I have no idea what studio is the best fit. This one has the easiest solution: try them all! Many studios offer the first class for free or allow you to come watch for free. If you’re concerned with fit of the style of class and the instructor, it’s always a very good idea to check it out. Sometimes you’ll love it, sometimes you won’t but HEY! it was a free ballet class and that never sucks!

3. I’m nervous about the other people in the class being WAY better than me, judging me, or being cliquey. This one is a little similar to the first but not quite the same. This was a big concern for me for my first few classes. I’d arrive early, sitting in the lobby stretching and no one would talk to me. It was a weird feeling to be on the outside. I’d look around and see some women in their 40’s talking about their daughters’ recitals and having a hard time stretching. Then I’d see a 16 year old who could not possibly be in my class (just look at her with her perfect ballet bun in the front splits reading a school book!). Then I see a 60 year old woman with her leg stretched over her head in the corner. I am like absolutely none of these ladies. How on earth do I belong here?! Let me tell you how we ALL belong here- we love ballet. After class begins each time, any sort of social barrier gets left at the door and we all have a great time focusing on our technique, stretching together, and joking around. Moral of this story is: you may meet some friends at ballet, but if you don’t that is OK too. You’re there for dance and in the end that is what will unite you!

4. I don’t have time! This is something that I still struggle with when it comes to ballet. I find myself tempted after a busy week and when I know that I have lots of homework to skip ballet (whether at home, using a video, or in a studio). We’re all busy but it’s really important to make time to take care of your mind and body and ballet is great for me to do both. I fought myself for hours last week whether or not I was going to go to class. I was grumpy the whole way there. But about 10 minutes into class, I forgot about being busy and just enjoyed moving. So, if ballet is for you then make time! Even if its just 30 minutes at home or an hour of class a week. On occasion if I’m particularly busy or if I’m traveling, I just squeeze in a 15 min Ballet Beautiful workout along with some stretching.

Hopefully that covers some of the fears some of you may be having about starting a ballet class or about being in one. If there are any other things you can think of, I’d love to hear them in the comments and we can talk about them as well! I’d also love to hear any ideas about what you’d like to hear about from the beginner perspective, I’m open to it all! Again I apologize for the lack luster post due to my being sick, but I promise I’ll make it up to you with that DIY barre post when I’m better.

Filed Under: Ballet, Ballet Class, Info, Outside Class Tagged With: , , , 3 Comments