Associates

Last Sunday I had Ballet Theatre UK Associates- it was awesome, Clair Corruble from the Company taught class & solos :) we recapped the Swan Lake solo from last time- on demi pointe instead of pointe, to focus on the artistry and quality of the steps. It is a lovely solo :) I'm feeling confident about my audition for Ballet Theatre UK's full time school, which is in March :) Also, if you have Facebook, please like/share my page; https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=493742164035647&m_sess&viewtype=public

Associates

Yesterday at Ballet Theatre UK Associates, Clair Corruble, Principal with the company, taught class and solos. Her teaching style was very different to Tania's- in particular, she encouraged us to do a perfect single pirouette as opposed to the daring but messy attempts at triples or quadruples that Tania adores. Some of the steps, particularly the grand allegro, got very complex; starting upstage left, right foot devant; releve 5th, fie assemble, temps de fleche (a step i had never heard of!!) glissade en avant, saut de chat (i think- a grand jete with the back leg in attitude, landing in attitude en fondu??) heading back to upstage left, step into a jete entrelace, assemble en tournant, coupe chasse pas de bourree, glisade, jete! Then, sissone, sissone (now, what next? Her beautiful French accent got slightly confusing- Did she say 'passe'? or was it 'Vassi', which i vaugely remember reading is a similar step to a fie?)i ended up substituting in a third sissone, as i felt that the epaulement was wrong for a fie- surely i should've been facing en face instead of croise..... into an assemble battu! We began solos with a pointe warmup. in the centre, Clair set the same pirouette enchainement that we had done en demi pointe; temps lie en avant, release front foot, coupe tombe chasse pas de bourre en diagonal, releve to 4th, prep, pirouette, rotassion, en dedans pirouette, demi detournant, three quick pose turns into a fiesty little set of chaines! Easy enough on demi pointe, but on pointe....???!! We then learnt the Pas de Trois Variation 1 from Swan Lake. it was beautiful- even if I definitely wasn't!! So many repeated one-footed releves, then a diagonale of allegro which left me looking truly pathetic. To our horror, Clair asked us, at the end, to dance the whole solo, in pairs. That would've been fine, had the Artistic Director of the Company not then walked into the studio. I danced it- badly, exhaustedly. I have never felt so embarrassed in my whole life- I am pretty certain he was looking at me thinking, 'Ew. What is that?!' I felt like pleading that my pointework is normally quite strong, and the variation was far harder than anything I had ever tried en pointe- instead, I smiled sweetly at him, and determinedly resolved to myself that i would be a lot more perfect next time....

Christmas

Happy Christmas all!!! <3

Reverence

So at the end of class at Ballet Theatre UK, obviously we do a reverence together, but after class, I like to do a curtsey to the teacher by myself and say thank you. On Sunday, as everyone else was taking their shoes off, I went up to Tania, did a small reverence, and thanked her for the class. And she curtsied too!! Awww! that really made my day, because a reverence is a sign of respect- most teachers just nod and smile at me, but for her to curtsey back to me shows that she is respectful and thankful of my effort in class... :) <3

BTUK Associates

Last week at Associates we learnt the Swan Lake coda, it was so gorgeous!! but my toenails were really long because I didn't think we would be doing pointework, so my feet were agony!!! I had to keep reminding myself to look pretty because the audience don't care- or realise- if you're in pain!!! class was so fun, Tania got us to do triple pirouettes! and the other day, I was working on pirouettes- I got quadruples, and once.... five!! five pirouettes! Aaah :D

School

So I have to memorise a 3000 word essay for English at school? Don't they realise I already have several poems, a few monologues, Grade 6, intermediate & Advanced ballet syllabi, as well as several solos, dances and enchainements whirling round my head???? :P

Nutcracker

i saw Ballet Theatre UK's Nutcracker last night- it was phenomenal!!!! the choreography was amazing, it is such a unique style, and all the dancers were beautifully strong on pointe! The Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux was absolutely stunning- I don't know how the poor Sugar Plum managed to keep dancing though, the pas de deux looked exhausting!!!! All of the costumes were absolutely beautiful- so many sparkly tutus! :D <3