Ballet - General

...Although this bugged me with ballet occasionally, I got over it and with both, practice makes perfect.

Most of you will know roughly what Ballet is about. Perhaps you went to lessons once a week and didn’t get very far but liked prancing around in pink tutus on stage in front of admiring parents. Are you one of those who went to lessons more often, who got hooked, and who spent a good many years looking after painful toes which ...
...time since that’s when irregular ballet goers usually, erm, go). You might see yourself described here, and then again you might not.

What about me? Well I fell into ballet accidentally – I was at gym training one day when my coach told us all that to make us more graceful, especially on beam and floor, we should have weekly dancing lessons. Handily for me, there was a dancing school directly above the gym, so along I ... more

Dancing is, in some ways, like ciao. Don’t see it? Well bear with me and all will become clear. I started dancing because I had to. I carried on because I liked the rewards (passing exams, winning medals in competitions). I still dance all the time, although I don’t go to lessons as such. Ciao? Well you could say I started because I had to. It’d be a lie, but you could say it. To be truthful, I found dooyoo on a day when I could not be bothered revising, I did the standard churning thing, and then came back a month or so later when I was all set up in Austria and wanted something to do during the day – after all fascinating as hyphen positioning in English is, you can’t talk about it all day every day without wanting to kill yourself.... I then signed up with Ciao as well, and since then I’ve been on both sites on and off. The main attraction was the money at first, but now, as with dancing, I’ve stuck with it because I like it more than for the rewards themselves. I’m not that bad at either but I’m also never going to be the best at them. Although this bugged me with ballet occasionally, I got over it and with both, practice makes perfect.

Most of you will know roughly what Ballet is about. Perhaps you went to lessons once a week and didn’t get very far but liked prancing around in pink tutus on stage in front of admiring parents. Are you one of those who went to lessons more often, who got hooked, and who spent a good many years looking after painful toes which were the result of pointe work? Maybe you never danced yourself but like it all the same, and go along to the local theatre whenever a new production comes to town. Alternatively, you may despise the thing, but be dragged along to one once a year by your partner / parents as it’s the “cultural” thing to do (no doubt to see the Nutcracker at Christmas time since that’s when irregular ballet goers usually, erm, go). You might see yourself described here, and then again you might not.

What about me? Well I fell into ballet accidentally – I was at gym training one day when my coach told us all that to make us more graceful, especially on beam and floor, we should have weekly dancing lessons. Handily for me, there was a dancing school directly above the gym, so along I went. There is a continuum of dancing schools, ranging from the utterly pretentious “let’s have all our little 3 year olds wearing tutus and full stage make up to lessons” to the more relaxed but just as demanding “wear what you want, it’s your feet and not your clothes we’re interested in”. The school I attended for almost 13 years or so was in between – we were expected to wear leotards (but never tights) until we were old enough to protest, at which point we were allowed into shorts and vest tops as long as we accompanied these with our regulation shoes. I did, however, go to ballet lessons in Germany a few years back, and the school I was at there was the King of OTT. It was a shame really, because although some of the dancers were good, the focus was always on their clothes, and how clean their shoes were, not on whether their bodies were correctly positioned.

* Who can do ballet? *

Anyone, regardless of age or sex. Most schools take kids from age 2 and a half, and more and more are now opening up to adults too. Ballet is hard work physically, but at the same time you can work at your own pace.

* What do I need? *

Depending on how, erm, up themselves the dancing school are, you may or may not be required to buy a specific uniform. Most adult classes to not demand this. If it’s a free for all, something loose (tracksuit bottoms / shorts and a t-shirt / vest top) are recommended. Shoes are advisable but not always required (although obviously pointe work without pointe shoes is painful and bad for your feet if not blinkin’ impossible).

* Any other point(e)s? *

Tie up your hair so it’s back from your face and pin it at the nape of your neck if possible. It’s a hard habit to break after 15 years or so of “gym and dancing hair”, an several years on, I’m sitting here at my desk writing this with my hair in a ponytail, despite the lack of apparent need. Also, don’t wear jewelry – you can scratch someone else with it, and if you’re silly enough to wear hoops, you may find yourself with torn, bloody ears by the end of the class.

* “Types” of Ballet *

Pointe work is self explanatory – wearing lovely satiny shoes that look so delicate on stage, you rip your toes to shreds as you dance across the room…. Seriously, they’re not that bad. Lambswool (from the foot health dept at Boots) helps, and you do get used to it. What my mother never got used to though was the price – they’re pretty expensive, especially if you go through pairs regularly as I did, because it’s unsafe to dance in them when they’ve gone too soft.

Adagio comes from the Italian “ad agio”, meaning at leisure. In ballet it refers to all the slow graceful movements such as pliés, développés, dégagés, rond de jambe en l'air, coupés, battements tendus, attitudes, arabesques and pirouettes. If you’ve never done ballet (or French…) chances are you’ll know only what pliés, arabesques and pirouettes are. Never mind. I’m not going to go into a detailed description now (although if you ever meet me you can ask me to demostrate :p ) – if you’re desperate to know, either borrow a book on the subject or get down to your local school to try it yourself.

Allegro, meaning lively, is a term applied to all bright and brisk movements. The majority of dances, both solo and group, are built on allegro whose movements include entrechats (nothing to do with cats), cabriole, assemblé and jeté. Lots of bouncing (and we all know by now how much I like bouncing, don’t we?). Most bon.

Naturally not all steps fit into one of these. I would say to refer to the other ops in this category, but since this is the first I’ll say look at any new ops if and when they do appear

* What’s with the French ? *

Ballet is French, or so some say (others say it’s Russian. Yet others claim it’s American, but then you can guess where the people claiming that come from). It originated over there many many years ago, and to keep it “mysterious” and “exotic”, many moves have retained their French names. With my exam board, we were even given vocab tests with our exams (I loved these, sad I know, but it’s true) and had little blue books from which to learn the terminology.

* Could it be a career? *

Sure if you’re good enough – want a list of famous dancers who specialised in Ballet? Ok, how about

Mikhail Baryshnikov
Deborah Bull
Darcey Bussell
Margot Fonteyn
Sylvie Guillem
Natalia Makarova
Rudolf Nureyev
Anna Pavlova
Sascha Radetsky
Galina Ulanova

* And if I’m not good enough? *

No matter how good you are, ballet can be fun. You can dance for the sake of dancing, or you can dance to get fit. You can dance for achievement (as with GCSEs and A Levels, there are numerous exam boards out there waiting to test you ability – like the RAD and IDTA) or dance as a social thing. Most of these applied to me. I’m not a sporty-sporty person – I like trampolining and gym and dancing but that’s about it – but I’m sure 5 or 6 dancing lessons a week, especially the ballet ones, were at least semi-good for me as a teenager. I liked ballet (and other forms of dancing). I loved the achievement – especially when IDTA started giving out plaques when you passed exams as well as certificates – a huge boost to my trophy shelves at home. And, I enjoyed the social aspect since none of my dancing friends went to my school (they were all, shock horror, comprehensive kids) and so I didn’t see them except in the studio.

* Useful websites *

www.idta.co.uk
www.cyberdance.org
www.ballet.co.uk
www.abt.org/library/dictionary/terms.html
 

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