Anyone Can Do Ballet!
If you haven’t already checked out the Ballerinas By Night Youtube Channel–do so now! They’ve got everything from how to improve low arches (video below) to practicing cambres and more.
Thanks Lisa for posting these in our Google+ group!
What’s your favorite ballet YouTube Channel?
Back in December and early January, my ballet class was working on choreography for the Spanish dance in the Nutracker, which was really fun. My instructor even brought in fans for the final classes we practiced it in the first few days of January.
Soon after that, we dove back into the basics for the yearly crowd of newcomers as the new year began. Surprisingly, it’s been really tough going through the class relatively slow (tough but good). The first weekend of those classes I made it to three classes in one weekend and was super sore. This weekend I found myself sick and barely made it through two classes.
This weekend I did make it to a pointe class, too, despite being sick. That was tough, especially since my last class in December was really tough and painful (I’m still not sure why).
I’m happy that in this weekend’s class I managed to keep my pointe shoes on for the entire class (and not have switched to flat slippers), but I know there’s still a lot of work left to be done there. I’ve tried to keep up with strengthening exercises everyday at home and trying to make it to every class that I can.
I’ve also had one of my coworkers join me for a class, and I’m looking forward to her joining me for more. I love bringing new people to class.
How’s your first half of January been? Please share updates in the comments–I love reading them!
Haven’t taken the reader survey yet? Check it out here.
Last year around this time I ran my first reader survey. I received a lot of great responses that were really helpful to me in figuring out what type of posts I should be writing. You can check out some of the results here.
This year’s survey has some of the same questions and some new ones as well, so I’d appreciate it if you could take the time to fill it out again.
Vince started taking ballet in February 2o13. He says that while ballet was always a passion of his, he wasn’t able to start as a kid. But now that he’s an adult, he says, “it doesn’t matter to me what people think cause ballet is something I love and wanted to dance!”
When did you start doing ballet as an adult?
I first started taking adult ballet in February, 2013. When I first started taking classes, I didn’t feel I was keeping up with the class, so I decided to take private lessons to help build up my technique and stayed with it. Since taking my classes, I have progressed to pointe, so I have come a long way since I first started, but still more to learn and experience as I go to class.
Did you ever take lessons as a kid?
No, I never went to lessons as a kid. I was too shy and as a kid, the boys would get ridiculed for taking ballet instead of doing sports, so it pushed me away from taking classes.
Why did you decide to take ballet as an adult?
I started taking ballet as an adult for a few reasons. First, ballet was always a passion of mine and wasn’t able to start as a kid. But now that I’m an adult, it doesn’t matter to me what people think cause ballet is something I love and wanted to dance! Another reason is because I was in a car accident, back in 2012, and wanted to get back into shape and the gym just wasn’t my style cause it is always the same repetition all the time and ballet you learn something new every time you go to class and it gives you a better appreciation for dance all around! But after class, it gives me more confidence and I feel better about myself cause I started a passion I love!
As you may have noticed, the forums are gone. I couldn’t get them to work correctly and they ended up created a lot of spam on ABP. However, we have quite the growing Facebook group going on at the moment. Just request access and then introduce yourself!
Also, I’d love to start hosting Twitter chats again! We held a few about a year and half ago. Let me know if you’re interested in the comments (and please leave your Twitter handle if I don’t already follow you!) I’d also like to get people to co-host and ask questions with me on a regular basis, so let me know if you’re interested in that as well.
