adult ballet – Page 2

Adult Ballet Student: Lorry Perez

March 26, 2012 by 4dancers

It’s time for our next Adult Ballet feature–say hello to Lorry Perez!

lorrychi3 — Adult Ballet Student Lorry Perez

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

I didn’t get much exposure to the arts when I was a kid. I got a job as an usher at the Music Center in Los Angeles in my teens because it was close to my home and the hourly pay was good. I was able to see wonderful productions and I really loved it, especially dance. But as much as I loved watching ballet, it seemed very distant. It didn’t seem like something that I could ever do.

Attending the ballet has always been a wonderful and even therapeutic event so about two years ago I decided that I would look into seeing if there was even such a thing as beginner classes for adults. To be honest it didn’t seem like a possibility because I would take a beginner class and they always assumed some prior knowledge, which I didn’t have. I didn’t even know how to stand at the barre and none of the teachers wanted to deal with my lack of knowledge or skill. It all was very discouraging.

I didn’t give up though and eventually I found a wonderful teacher who offered classes for adults with zero knowledge and zero background in dance. To be able to feel just a little bit of the magic of ballet – the music, the movement, the artistry – is such an amazing gift.

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

I take at least three classes per week, but I would go everyday if I could!

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

You know, when you are a kid, everything is possible. We are less self-conscious and just freer in our minds and with our bodies. But as adults, we bring all kinds of issues with us. I struggle with my body image, with overthinking, with fear of failure or ridicule; I bring a lot of junk with me to ballet class.

An incredible and unexpected by-product of ballet class is that I am learning how to deal with all of these things both in class and outside of class! For me the biggest challenge has not been physical but mental, addressing my issues and working through them so that I can embrace my beginners mind and take a more childlike approach that allows for happiness in learning this great art. Not to say that the physical part hasn’t been a challenge. None of this comes naturally to me, but arms and legs start to behave better when I worry less and open up more.

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

I loved ballet class from the very start, but what has given me the greatest joy is progressing to the point where I now have moments that I am able to dance inside the music. It’s not every step and not even every class, but there are moments when I can really feel how the music and the movement meet and become ballet and that is pure magic! I work really hard to improve in hopes of more of that!

5. Do you have any advice for other adult ballet students? [Read more…]

Adult Ballet Student: Jean Kyle

March 23, 2012 by 4dancers

summerschool — Fr L to R: me, Hayley, Tibor, Lynda, Natalie

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

I started ballet classes as a 9 year old (considered a late starter for a child, I guess!) because I was always dancing around the house whenever music was playing, and it took a few years for mum to convince my conservative dad to allow me to take up ballet. For many years, ballet was my greatest passion but I slowly lost my passion for it when I moved overseas for studies in my late teens, not finding the same type of support I had from the teachers I grew up with.

After I completed my RAD Intermediate level I hung up my ballet shoes, thinking that maybe ballet was too technical and that there was nothing more I would gain from it. I looked to other forms of dance such as Lyrical and Contemporary to continue fueling my passion for dance. While I enjoyed them, I noticed that many teachers seem to view adult dancers as seeking recreation only, rather than continuous improvement.

One year ago, when I turned 40, I was persuaded to join a ballet class ‘just for fun’. I thought I’d give it a go for a week or two – I didn’t expect to be hooked again before the first class was over. In a large part, it was because the teacher, Tibor, who taught that class paid a lot of attention to technique, pushed us to our individual limits, worked us very hard but also took time to acknowledge it when we did something well. In that short time, I was reminded of how addictive the quest for perfection and the thrill of achievement can be.

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

Although I started out with 1, then 2 classes a week, I have been taking 5 classes a week for more than 10 months now. I decided that to regain my strength and technique, I’d need at least 3 classes a week. The thing about ballet is that it’s so addictive – unlike the gym, I never have to talk myself into going to ballet classes. In fact, I count down the days and hours to each class. We work very hard from the moment we start our first exercise to the moment we do our reverence, but it’s never a chore.

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

Adult Ballet Student: Jennifer Pendleton

March 22, 2012 by 4dancers

We’d like to welcome our next adult ballet student…Jennifer Pendleton….

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

I actually began when I was fairly young, at 6, and danced through high school with a local ballet company. I didn’t have the right combination of talent and discipline to seriously consider pursuing a career, but despite myself took classes and performed regularly through college until, ironically, I moved to New York, was working in (modern) dance administration, and had a hard time reconciling going to ballet class when I wasn’t trying to get onstage. I gradually stopped going to classes until, about 10 years later and after living overseas and growing completely detached from any performing arts community, I moved to DC, and a friend convinced me to try a class here. It turns out this is a great area for adults, working at any level, to find a nice combination of training and community.

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

4-6

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

Making peace with where I am at my age and after so much time off (my yoga practice has helped a lot), and that fear – even in my 30s – about my joints and injuries that I didn’t have as a younger dancer. Some things I knew I wouldn’t get back, like the ‘hang time’ in my jumps. Others surprised me: even with open hips, my ‘fifth’ position looks more and more like third. And spotting is a chore for me now – I couldn’t seem to relearn it. For my first couple of months back in class, I was also surprised by how much I had to think about the combinations, although that quickly passed and I am back to focusing on simply dancing and technique.

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

I am in class simply for the joy of dancing and the challenge, and accomplishing whatever I can from one day to the next. I have had so many wonderful opportunities in my career and life in general, but simply reconnecting with something with that had always been such a big part of me, to the point I almost didn’t even realize it, has been such a pleasure. And for all the frustrations of an aging body, I am constantly amazed by what I can still do – and sometimes even better with the wisdom of experience and a different sense of discipline.

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

Whether you have had technical training in your youth or not, try to go regularly enough that you can make class about more than just learning the combinations. If you have made a choice to be in class, don’t be afraid – this is such a supportive community, so just do your best and dance!

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…]

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