Adult Ballet – Page 3

Adult Ballet Student: Johanna Aurava

March 20, 2012 by 4dancers

Here’s our next Q&A with an adult ballet student…

1. How did you first get involved with ballet and what attracted you to it as an adult?

I saw Giselle when I was twelve years old and fell in love with ballet right there and then. But almost ten years passed before I took my first ballet class. A friend had wanted to try jazz dance, and asked me along for buddy support. A few months later my jazz teacher told me that there was a new adult beginner’s ballet class I could take. Up until then I did not even know adults could learn ballet! It was all very exciting, and still is. What I loved right away was the classical music, the structure of class, the concentration it required and the sheer beauty of ballet. There was so much to learn and to discover, about technique, steps and placement but also about the traditions of ballet, the culture and history.

2. How many classes are you currently taking per week?

Currently I take eight classes on five days of the week: five are ballet technique and three pointe classes. The amount varies from time to time, in my mid twenties I used to dance as much as 12 hours per week! These days I make sure quality comes before quantity, but three classes per week is my absolute minimum. I’m not getting any younger, and I just want to dance as much as I can!

3. What do you see as your biggest challenge as an adult ballet student?

Scheduling my classes around study and work used to be a big problem. I know this is a challenge for most adult students; how to fit work/study, family and ballet together. It’s not always possible to attend classes on a regular basis, and that can be very frustrating! But I’m very lucky, my current work schedule allows me to take as many classes as I want.

My biggest challenge right now is to be less demanding and critical of myself. I tend to focus too much on my flaws and faults, and forget how much I have already learned. The thing is, I chose ballet, but ballet did not choose me. I do not have an “ideal” dancer’s physique, and I’m not talking looks here, but anatomy. My turn-out is barely adequate and I have tight muscles and ligaments. You can’t change your skeletal structure, nor stretch your ligaments. In the beginning this did not bother me, but at my current intermediate-advanced level I’m much more aware of my limitations. I’m also not twenty-one anymore… [Read more…]

Adult Ballet Student: Anne Hilary Sanderson

March 18, 2012 by Ashley David

Today we have a lady who began taking ballet at 63! Here’s her story…

Anne in white, high resolution 1 — Anne Hilary Sanderson

1. How did you first get involved with ballet and what attracted you to it as an adult?

I have loved watching ballet all my life, being fired by enthusiasm by ‘The Red Shoes’ when I was 5 & seeing my first ballet on stage when I was 9. My mother could not afford ballet lessons for me when I was a child, although I would have loved to go. As an adult I saw whatever ballet productions came to my town or were on TV. The possibility of learning it as an adult did not occur to me (& may well not have existed until comparatively recent times), and while I was working at a demanding job, there would have been no time anyway.

Around 2007, having retired, I picked up a brochure of Norfolk Dance & found they held beginners’ ballet classes for adults. These were full at the time, but I enrolled for the following term & began ballet in Autumn 2007 & have never looked back. At first we could find only one elementary class a week, which we felt was not enough, and I wrote 3 letters to ‘Dancing Times’ (which were all published – & 1 was Letter of the Month) about the need to provide more facilities for adult learners, and commenting when these started to appear in Norwich, with more classes I could go to. Now Norwich has more dance classes than I have time to go to, & excellent teachers. Along the way I’ve tried out other types of dance to fill out my dance education: tap, contemporary, national of different countries, lyrical & jazz.

What attracted me to it? Beauty, grace, elegance, technique, magic & mystery, being another world, to a certain extent living out a dream. Also its keep-fit & weight-loss potential (I had to lose a lot of weight after a sedentary career & lost 4 stone, partly through ballet), & health investment for old age (suppleness, posture, stamina, increased energy). I’ve found the whole weight loss & ballet experience very rejuvenating & invigorating, & I’m certainly fitter than I was 10 & 20 years ago, probably longer. I began ballet at 63 & am now 68.

2. How many classes are you currently taking per week? [Read more…]

Adult Ballet Student: Acacia Warwick

March 16, 2012 by 4dancers

Welcome Acacia–our latest adult ballet student feature this month…and stay tuned as we feature more content on that theme throughout the month of March!

1. How did you first get involved with ballet and what attracted you to it as an adult?

When I was six years old I started taking ballet classes in a tiny studio over a pizza parlor on the corner of Sunset and Vine in Los Angeles. I loved dancing, but after a few years, it became clear that I would never have the body of a ballerina and ballet faded from my life. Fast forward thirty years later, I finished my treatments for breast cancer and started thinking about what I could do to get my strength back and ballet lept to mind. I always loved the grace and power of dancers and decided to try to bring some of that back into my life.

2. How many classes are you currently taking per week?

I usually take two classes a week. I’m limited since very few classes are offered here in Peoria, and since I’m back in cancer treatment I can’t always get to class.

3. What do you see as your biggest challenge as an adult ballet student?

The mirror. No, wait, the slim little ballerinas running around the studio. No, it’s the mental disconnect between what I think I can do and what my body can actually pull off. Or figuring out what a plus-sized ballet student can wear other than yoga pants and a t-shirt…

Actually, the biggest challenge was walking into the studio for my first class.

4. What brings you the greatest joy as an adult ballet student?

Getting to the point in class where nothing else matters, not the mirror or anything else. I leave every class feeling light, graceful and happy with what my body could do. I find myself getting up on my toes at home, waiting in line, even at work for days after a class.

5. Do you have any advice for other adult ballet students?

If you want to dance, dance. Adult classes are really adaptable for wherever you are when you start, and once you show up for the first one, it’s easy.

BIO: Acacia has been a beginning ballet student for one year and writes about her experiences at her blog The Melancholy Swan (melancholyswan.com.) She is also an art historian, seeker of tenure, lover of books, writer, melancholic, and is living with metastatic breast cancer.

Dance In The UK: Adult Ballet

March 15, 2012 by 4dancers

by Jessica Wilson

Jessica Wilson

Having seen a huge influx of dance and the performing arts in the media over the past few years – think Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for his next big hits, Dancing with the Stars, and Black Swan – the number of adults indulging in ballet classes has increased profoundly. A survey conducted by YouGov in 2011 in the prelude to the Dance Proms at the Royal Albert Hall found that just over 1 in 5 British adults have become interested in dancing as a result of shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and So You Think You Can Dance, not considering those throughout the rest of the world. It seems the ballet bug is here to stay, having turned a fad into a trend!

The appeal of ballet runs far and wide, and today seems to have taken on a more of a popular culture persona as more people are becoming aware of ballet and its benefits. Pirouetting against the stereotype, ballet does not have to be girly and strictly disciplined; there are a huge variety of ballet and dance class choices in the exercise world today, meaning that there is an option for everyone. No sooner had gym culture taken over our lives, dance cults began to make an appearance, such as Zumba, reinforcing the notion that engaging in physical activity does not have to involve a treadmill.

Not only does ballet engage and stimulate the mind, it also provides participants with an environment which is of alternative appeal. Tapping into your artistic side really does have its benefits, for adults as well as children!

The Royal Academy of Dance teachers of London have affectionately referred to this recent ballet trend as “Black Swan Syndrome” – despite such dark inferences throughout the film – considering the number of adults they have seen sign up for ballet classes in the wake of the blockbuster movie. Some may argue that the increasing commercialisation of dance may cause it to lose its intrinsic artistic value, yet if the combination of the media with promotion of dance is able to entice more adults to dance in such a profound way, something must be right! Indeed there has been a significant increase of dance-related films that have emerged over the past few years, in addition to screenings of dance performances in numerous cinemas, putting dance well and truly on the map. [Read more…]

Adult Ballet Student: Rebecca Jukes

March 13, 2012 by 4dancers

Today’s featured adult ballet student is from South London…

1. How did you first get involved with ballet and what attracted you to it as an adult?

Just over 4 years ago, I was going through a period of re-building my life, regaining control over who I was, and trying to fill an emptiness inside of me.

My therapist at the time suggested that I should think about finding an activity that would help me connect with myself and others, he listed off some options, and one of these was ballet. I initially scoffed at the idea knowing how uncoordinated and inelegant I was, coupled with being the owner of 2 left feet, besides, I had never shown an interest in ballet as a child, although in fairness the opportunity had never arisen to try a class back in my youth.

However his suggestion nagged away at me for a number of days, I had always admired and respected dancers, particularly ballet dancers; for their commitment, grace, beauty and ability, they were something to behold. Should I dare to actually venture into this world at my time of life? So I Googled for a local adult ballet class, and sure enough, up popped a studio close to me in Dulwich South London, which offered complete beginner classes, and I duly signed up.

Now I would admit that at the beginning of that very first class, I thought “what on earth am I doing here”, a 36 year old woman out of her depth and out of her comfort zone. But by the end of the class it was like someone had turned on a light switch, it was the most amazing hour of realization and discovery–ballet was the one thing that had been missing from my life. A spark had been ignited within my soul, and it has burned there ever since.

This spark has now grown into a fully raging inferno of burning desire and near obsession to become a better ballet dancer. The last four years have seen my interest steadily grow from one class a week, to two per week, and now up to the point of I would happily dance 8 days a week if such an extra day existed. [Read more…]

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