December 20, 2012

Beginner Ballet Tips: How Not to Get Kicked In Class (and other things you should know)

Barre and mirror

Grown-Ups at the Barre is one of the best resources out there for those looking to start ballet as an adult, and I’ve linked to their post before about balletiquette. They’ve got another great one up entitled: Lessons about Ballet Class: How to NOT get Kicked in Class. Often, spacing in adult beginner ballet classes tends to be a mess, and this post gives advice on what you  can do to help space yourself out (both at the barre and in the center) and ultimately reminds the reader that it is your responsibility to do your part to make sure you don’t get kicked (Rule #1). Some of my other favorite rules include:

5. I know you like your little piece of heaven (your own personal private claimed barre space) but be prepared to move if you have to… consider it a challenge to try a different place at the barre and in the studio.

I know I’m personally guilty of this one. I like my space at the barre. But if I get moved, or someone steals my space, I suck it up and accept the challenge. Continue Reading

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December 18, 2012

Beginner Ballet Tips: Improving Your Turnout

First position of the feet, turned out; intend...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In my ballet class, we’ve recently been working on improving our turnout, and I’m always looking for new stretches and exercises to help improve my turnout (in addition to working on stretching out my splits). Turnout in ballet refers to the outward rotation of the feet and hips.  One of my favorites is the frog stretch. Even though it looks a bit ridiculous, it stretches really well. NextDance.com describes the frog stretch as

 This is the popular stretch where you lay on your stomach with your knees bent, legs turned out, and feet pressed together. This stretches your inner thighs, which will help enable better turnout, especially in pliè.

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December 13, 2012

Some Quick Updates, Ballerina Profiles, and Barre Giveaway

First of all, now that my long semester of hell is finally over, I plan on putting some quality time into this project. As of 9 am this morning, I only have one more semester to go before I graduate.

In order to make this project better, I’ve put together another survey to try and get an idea of what most people want to see more of. I’ve already gotten a few responses, but if you haven’t filled it out yet, it will take you about 15 seconds and it would mean a lot to me. The survey is here.

As you may have noticed, the Resources page is up with a few of my favorite blog posts and entries you’ve sent in. Check out the page and feel free to send me more suggestions. I’ll be updating this section of the blog with more non-blog resources in the near future.

As usual, I’m always looking for more adult ballerinas to profile, so if I haven’t run one on you yet, check out the Contribute page and send me your e-mail address so I can feature you on the site. If you’d like to write your own post like Scott did in Advice for Men in Ballet, that’d be awesome too. Feel free to suggest any ballet instructors or professionals for interviews as well.

Lastly, the giveaway of the Real Food Barres ends tomorrow. I’m going to try to get in contact with everyone who may have not entered for each of their entries correctly (you need a new comment for each new entry, i.e. if you tweeted to enter you need a comment with a flavor AND a comment saying you tweeted).

English: .

English: . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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December 10, 2012

New Ballet Resources Page

English: A performance of The Nutcracker balle...

English: A performance of The Nutcracker ballet, 1981 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Over the holidays, I’m going to be putting together a page with all the great posts my fellow ballet bloggers have already written about. I’ve already got several in mind, but I wanted to give everyone a chance to submit the posts they have written or posts they’ve read by others that they think are great. I think this will be a really useful way for beginners to find all sorts of information about ballet quickly and easily.

 

So you can either leave the post in a comment, fill out the form below, or shoot me an e-mail at Adultballerinaproject@gmail.com.

 

Also, don’t forget to enter the giveaway here, and remember, for each of your entries to count, you must post a separate comment for each! (And you can enter, say, for liking the page, if you had already previously liked it before the contest began).

 

 

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December 7, 2012

Ballerina Profile: David Chapman

studio03This week’s adult ballerina profile is of David Chapman, who bravely started ballet at the age of 57 two years ago. Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!

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Adult Ballerina Project: Did you ever take lessons as a kid?

David Chapman: No–dance wasn’t on the agenda for anyone in my grammar school let alone boys, I played cricket and rugby.

 ABP: Why did you decide to take ballet as an adult?

DC: My wife and I always followed Strictly Come Dancing on the television and I’ve always danced “freestyle” with enthusiasm. We thought about taking ballroom lessons but I wanted a real challenge that involved athleticism, acting and dancing which I could do on my own and with others – ballet ticked all the boxes and we go together (my wife took ballet class ino her teens and so did our daughters).

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