Blog Roundup: Ballet and Barre-Related Workouts

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Top image modified from original image by Quinn Dombrowski via Creative Commons

Hello Blogathon Day 1!

Given that I currently have a decent amount of free time on my hands, I’ve decided to participate in Freelance Success/WordCount Blogathon. As part of the blogathon, I’ll be posting every day in the month of June. I plan on keeping up with my normal blog activities (profiles, videos, how-tos, reviews) as well as some more blog-style posts.

I hope it’ll be a jump start to get me back into blogging. I hope that some of my fellow dance bloggers join me (you can sign up here!)

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Image via Flickr User Joyce Bettencourt

Off Balance (Ballet Theatre Chronicles Book 1) Review and Author Q&A

9705802You know a book is good when you manage to finish it in just a few days, and that’s exactly what I did with Terez Mertez Rose’s new book, Off Balance (Ballet Theatre Chronicles Book 1). You can enter to win a copy of the book ath the bottom of this post, too!

You may know Terez because she runs The Classical Girl and I interviewed her a little over a year ago as part of our profile series. You can also find her at http://www.terezrose.com, and on Twitter and Facebook.

Here’s a nice little summary of the book:

 Alice thinks she’s accepted the loss of her ballet career, injury having forced her to trade in pointe shoes onstage for spreadsheets upstairs. That is, until the day Alice’s boss asks her to befriend Lana, a pretty new company member he’s got his eye on. Lana represents all Alice has lost, not just as a ballet dancer, but as a motherless daughter. It’s pain she’s kept hidden, even from herself, as every good ballet dancer knows to do.

Lana, lonely and unmoored, desperately needs some help, and her mother, back home, vows eternal support. But when Lana begins to profit from Alice’s advice and help, her mother’s constant attention curdles into something more sinister.

Together, both women must embark on a journey of painful rediscoveries, not just about career opportunities won and lost, but the mothers they thought they knew.

OFF BALANCE takes the reader beyond the glitter of the stage to expose the sweat and struggle, amid the mandate to sustain the illusion at all cost.

I loved how the novel brings these two women together as they share the struggles, but also the joys, of the ballet world and I can’t wait to see what book 2 of the series has in store for this world Terez has created. I’d definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys ballet to pick up the book.

I also had the opportunity to ask Terez a few questions about why she wrote the book and what role her own ballet experience played in her writing it:

Why did you decide to write a novel?

My first novel, back in 2002, just sort of wrote itself. Which sounds simplistic, but really, there was a grand sense of something pouring out of me that absolutely had to be put down on paper, and it wouldn’t abate after 10,000 words (I’d thought I was writing a short story) or 30,000 words, or even 70,000 words. I showed up every day, every spare moment, and the story kept pouring out. A part of me was sitting back, incredulous, observing it all happen. Nothing prior to that time in my writing practice had prepared me for that. The second novel, too, came from that same urgent, muse-driven place, suffused with this manic need to get the story down on paper. I will never know where the impulse came from, after years of only writing nonfiction—indeed, having woefully failed at my attempts to produce fiction. I suppose it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, already committed to a daily writing practice, prepped for it to happen. I am now a firm believer in the adage that the story will come when it’s ready to be told. Or there’s a strong emotional need for it. The writer just has to be ready.

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The Big 1,000 Facebook Like Giveaway

giveaway Thank you to everyone who has supported this blog in some way, including liking the Facebook page and joining the Adult Ballerinas Facebook group. To thank everyone, I wanted to do a big giveaway. Thank you to the sponsors (who donated products to giveaway), including Terez Rose aka Classical Girl,  RubiaWear, and La Bella Boutique Leotards! Here’s what you can win (with the widget to enter each right below it!). We’ll provide more information about each one of the giveaway items in the upcoming week, but for now — start entering!

A Copy of Off Balance (Ballet Theatre Chronicles Book 1), a ballet novel by Terez Rose

9705802 This book is awesome (and I’ve got a review and Q&A coming up with Terez Rose soon, too!) If you win, you’ll have the choice between a hard copy of the book (if you live in the US) or a digital copy (if you’re in the US or elsewhere). a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Coupon Code for a Pair of RubiaWear Legwarmers

 

Seriously, I love these legwarmers, and they’re perfect for doing pointe work in a cold studio (especially if you’re feet tend to cramp up when they’re cold like mine!). Thanks to Ashley for supporting us! a Rafflecopter giveaway

$50 Gift Certificate to La Bella Leotards

Screenshot 2015-05-28 12.36.48 Thanks to Katie for providing this gift certificate to her leotard store on Etsy. I can’t wait to share with everyone my review of her leotards in the near future, too! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ballerina Profile: Ashley Daily

Ashley and DrueWhen did you start doing ballet as an adult?

I started taking ballet class just 2 months ago.

Did you ever take lessons as a kid?

I *think* I took ballet for a single class when I was around 5 years old. The only reason I have to suspect this happened is a single picture of me in a basic ballet leotard, tights and slippers. But I might also have been just “dressing up”. So, I honestly don’t know.

Why did you decide to take ballet as an adult?

This is such a great question! I wanted to try taking ballet when I was around 10-12 but my sister was trying out ballet and I didn’t want to encroach on her territory, so I did gymnastics instead. I am friends with a whole bunch of dancers and I’ve always admired their grace and poise. After having my third child, I desperately needed something to DO that would get me out of the house, away from my duties for just a moment and allow me to become the floaty-beautiful-perfect-ballerina-princess I have always wanted to try to be. I thought at first that I was too old. Surely, I thought, my time has come and gone. There certainly cannot be a class that will take me as I am: still fluffy from being pregnant, bad hips, endless ambition, no fear, and no experience. Yet, amazingly, a good dancer friend of mine pointed me in the right direction and I’ve absolutely loved every single minute of it!

Where do you take classes?

I take class in Lincoln Nebraska at Studio 2 under the very capable tutelage of Lindsay Fischer. It’s a small studio but the hard wood floors, exposed bricks and stone, and soaring ceilings give the studio such a unique character!

What is your favorite part about ballet?

My favorite part about Ballet is the finesse required. The solid determination to pursue a single movement to perfection. I love the discipline required. I am a classical pianist and I am amazed at the parallels between the two disciplines. Each finger has to be under control at all times, thought put into every note, knowing when, where and how to make the music your own while simultaneously belonging to everyone else. This lazer-focus on perfection appeals to me and so Ballet is a natural fit! The same principles apply: control, articulation, accentuation, dynamic, phrasing, performance. Attainable perfection! What a heady drug.

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