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Adult Ballet Student: Steve Ha

March 30, 2012 by 4dancers

As we continue with our focus on Adult Ballet this month, please welcome Steve Ha…

Steve Ha

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

I started dancing in my twenties—ancient by dancer standards—as a senior in college, just to pursue new creative outlets. Though various performing arts have played crucial roles throughout my life, dance was the final frontier, and I really just wanted to try it. I started with beginner’s jazz and modern classes and had fun with both, but my teachers often stressed the importance of ballet training so the subsequent quarter I enrolled in ballet. Everything about it made sense because not only did it touch upon my roots as a classically trained musician, it also gave me the opportunity to act and express myself without having to speak (or worse, sing) a single word. Ballet also elicited a strong desire to be disciplined about the practice and an eagerness to learn that I had never experienced as a student before.

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

I try to get in the studio two to three times a week. Although, when I was still attending university I took class almost every day and those were some of the happiest times of my life!

3.      What do you see as your biggest challenge as an adult ballet student? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, Adult Ballet Tagged With: adult ballet, adult ballet students, Ballet, dance critic, dancer, seattle dance, seattle dances, Sir Frederick Ashton, turnout, you dance funny

Adult Ballet Student: Johanna Aurava

March 20, 2012 by 4dancers

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

Johanna Aurava

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…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, Adult Ballet Tagged With: adult ballet, adult ballet students, advice, choreographers, dancers

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