Repertoire class

[Henrik]

Hi

In my class, we are 14 girls and me... only guy.. The thing is we are starting with repertoire-classes, and the teacher came asked me what to do:

Shall we learn male solos as well as female?

Shall I do the "female" stuff in a male way, or... Should we just learn partnering/dances with both boys and girls?

Would that be fair, since im the only guy, and 13 girls would not have a partner?

 

In the end, its her problem, shes the teacher, but she wanted my opinion... I dont know... Any suggestions??

[Mel Johnson]

If you've got an option and are to be taught regular classical repertoire, learn EVERYBODY'S part! I've found jobs because I know classics, and in one case was hired instead of a Big Name because I knew other people's parts instead of just my own.

[Hans]

You get a short break while she teaches a variation to the girls. Then they work on it while she teaches you a variation. Then you take turns--1st group of girls, 2nd group of girls, you, 2st group of girls, &c. This won't work in a short time period, though.

[Dick]

Hi Henrik,

 

I have little experience in repertoire classes - only took one semester from january to june - but being the only guy in my school, I have been somehow in a similar position as you are in, with only five girls in the class however. But before anything, I need to point out that in my school, repertoire classes are apart from regular classes. Is this the same for you?

 

So how do you keep 6 persons (or 14) busy in a one hour repertoire class?

 

First with a theme and a common goal: my teacher chose to set up two abstracts from Glazunov's Raymonda: the spanish dance and the asian dance, which is a pas de deux. The spanish dance involves a male solo with a corps de ballet; she therefore assigned four girls to the corps de ballet (or demi-solist?), and kept them busy using the method Hans is suggesting, alternating learning and rehearsal periods. I learned my solo the same way, alternating with the girls. We would put everything together at the end of the class.

 

For the pas de deux, I worked one on one with a single partner. Since this was our very first experience at it, we both had to learn pas de deux at the same time we learned the variation. This ended up drawing to much time from the class...the other girls started to get bored. My teacher therefore had no other choice than to open a second repertoire class for them; my partner and I kept on learning the pas de deux and our individual solos in the first class. We ended up putting everything together two nights before the summer recital, bumping into eachother at first, but with interesting results at the end.

 

As to your suggestion of learning partnering in the class, I think it would be great: partnering is fun. But how to do this with 13 girls giving everyone a fair oportunity is a puzzle I have no idea how to solve, especially if lifts are involved. I had to learn lifts in my pas de deux and my experience has been that you can do only so many in a night's work before ending up not being able to even lift a simple glass of water. So beware to set yourself realistic goals...

 

Hope this helps. And please report on your experience; might help. The repertoire class in which I'm involved this semester has 3 girls into it, all solists. They wont accept doing corps de ballet, and there are lifts in our parts...

 

Dick

[Henrik]

Thanks all!

We used all of youre advices, and seriously - the repertoire class is really fun. Mostly I learn one variation, and the girls another, and then show in groups. But we have also done some ppd's.