Let's begin!

Congratulations Pro Team!!! I'm very excited about this new year! So excited to see you guys so much this year!! We are gonna work our buns off!!

Just so you know, Sarah and I took a Ballet Pedagogy course over the summer (if you don't know what pedagogy is... it's teaching methods...) We created an 8 year curriculum and Sarah and I plan on putting each and every one of you through the curriculum... We are starting at Level 1. Which means for this next month (ish) our classes will be very simple... but that doesn't mean easy. I will be drilling technique and body concepts into you with plie's and tendus... once we get those technical concepts then we can move up the levels! So be prepared... know that I am waiting for a cue to move into the next level. If you feel we are moving too slowly... I encourage you to look at your dancing, because if we haven't moved on yet, it's because I'm not seeing what I need to see in order to move on!In other more blunt words, you're still doing it wrong! (Side note: if you feel like you are doing it correctly, or that you don't know what you are doing wrong... come ask me.. I'll tell you!)

Also along with this... I cannot express how important it is to go back to the basics!!! I took a beginning ballet class over the summer semester and came back so much stronger than I thought I would! Dance is a practice art form... you have to practice the same things over and over again to improve!! Note... you may get bored... but that just means your brain isn't working correctly because in ballet, there should be several things you need to think about in order to just stand correctly, let alone a tendu! If you find yourself getting bored... work harder, and invest your mind MORE into what you can do to improve that tendu!

Another note... Ballet is not fun. Well, not at least the "cruise-down-the-street-wich-yo-peeps" fun... it's more of the, "I'm-really-challenging-myself-and-it-will-eventually-pay-off" kind of fun. So don't compare them! Ballet is a discipline... which means that you have to discipline your body in order to reap the benefits! Discipline is a funny thing. It's hard... it's never what you "want" to do, but if you can control your body and mind into doing what you want it to do, the rewards of that will be so much deeper and meaningful than doing something only because it's "fun."

Also along the lines of discipline... Even if you don't plan on dancing for the rest of your life, discipline is something you can take with you to any area of your life... your schooling, your diets (which we will talk about in an upcoming blog), your habits, your careers... in every aspect of your life, if you can discipline yourself, you can do anything you want! 

With that in mind, we start the semester!! Please please please leave comments... I want to know people actually read these things and they are worth my time!! Love you all! See you soon!

Ellie

Video:
This is a very famous contemporary ballet choreographer right now... back in the day Petipa was a famous choreographer... today we have Nacho Duato and Jiri Kilyan... Anyway, this is not usually Nacho's or any other ballet choreographers style to choreograph to a pop song, so I'm actually still deciding whether or not I like it... Nonetheless, the choreography is amazing! Enjoy! And no... they aren't naked.. they are nude costumes... I know.. it's all the trend now a days i guess!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    * Update: I looked it up cause it was really bothering me... Nacho Duato didn't actually choreograph to Beyonce's Halo... This is a piece from Por Bos Muero, a piece he did and someone just matched it to her music... still pretty interesting how well it goes together... you know a lot of times, especially in modern areas, choreographers won't set movement to music until the night of the show and the dancers are just supposed to "feel" it.... would freak me out personally but it's still interesting to see what you get!                                                                                                                                      

Summer Ballet 2

Alright.. as we look at the center work... really try to see if the technique we've been working on (lengthening the leg line, using your rotation... and MOST OF ALL... Belly button to the spine!) sticks throughout center work. Check your chaine turns.... are you turning in at all? Is your belly button pulled in? Are your arms drooping or are they making a smooth circular shape??

Again, watch this with some things in mind... what are you doing that's good/bad... what are you doing you didn't know you were doing (good or bad).... and does anything I've been saying in class make more sense now?

Enjoy!

Summer Ballet 1

Try to watch yourself with a few things in mind... what do you do well... and what can you work on... were there things (good or bad) that you didn't know you were doing? Does anything I've been saying make more sense now?? Feel free to leave a comment!

Plies through Rond de jambes


Battement Frappe through Floor Barre