Opinions on partnering

[Guest Jazzabelle]

In my Pointe/Tech. class we have the most boys of any of the classes taken. Amazing.. three!! I was just curious as to what others my age thought of partnering. Do you like it?

 

My honest opinion.. I really like it. The boys seem to help us (females) in certain areas. Our teacher gives us a combination in partnering almost every class. Our boys are very fun... One is very quiet and I don't know much about him yet. Another is very outgoing and extremely helpful in partnering. He is a little taller than me (I'm about 5'4 1/2") and is usually my partner. Then there's the last boy. He's VERY tall, probably 6'5" at the age of 15. Fun to dance with!

 

Just curious and trying to get to know my way around the site.

[Mel Johnson]

Gee, sounds like you have one of the few studios where a girl can go to meet guys!

[DancingDuck]

I only took partnering this summer but I really enjoyed it! It's amazing how easy it can be! But I can't imagine how the boy dancers would feel having to pick up over 100 pounds! I can only lift like 15 with my trainer!

[Guest Jazzabelle]

Hehe! You kinda can! The tall one is -very- cute in my honest opinion.

 

Dancingduck- It is pretty easy, huh? They really end up helping you out a ton with stuff. I was really scared going into the first class when she told us that since we had some boys we'd be working with partnering. So far we haven't done any lifts, just basic combinations.

[Guest tdancer]

i find partnering to be very fun and, for obvios reason very usefull.

and also, its not really as hard as it may seem for guys to lift the girl, even if she is heavier than him. well at least in my opinion

[Guest ckdancegirl7]

I also only have three guys at my dance school who can do partnering (but, there are about fifteen boys between the ages of 5 and 12, but obviously they're too small to partener yet!). We used to have more guys here, but one left two years ago to attend SAB and now he's in the ABT studio company! Another very strong partner quit ballet because he was too busy and didn't enjoy it much any more. So now there is one college age partner, and older partner who is VERY strong, and a 13 year old boy who is just starting partnering. Even though we don't have the greatest diversity of partners, I'm really enjoying partnering! I've been doing it for a little over two years now. I think you're right...it can really help you in many ways, like improving strength and balance. It's also really fun, isn't it?? I especially like finger turns and pirhouettes...you can spin so many times!! I absolutely love to turn. Press lifts are also fun, but it's often hard to get the right timing and you have to jump ALOT! That's what makes it easier on the guys...jumping as much as you can. Well, good luck with your partnering!!

[BlackbirdBallerina]

partnering can be easy- if the guys knows what he's doing. I'm suer it goes the other way around too, the girls have to do a lot to help the guys, but if the guys really doesn't know how to hold you on your leg (assuming of course, you ever get off you leg- ) then there can be big problems.

[Guest Lovebird]

I like partnering, and am very easy to partner, I have done shoulder lifts and fish dives with boys who are several inches shorter than me( I am 5, 7 and a half)! there is a quote from Julie Kent, of ABT, that I really like, " Partnering to me feels like I am riding in a convertible in the back, and the wind blowing through my hair while the boy is driving."

[Guest dancergal]

For me it really depends on what my partner is like, whether we're good together or not, all that stuff. But generally I love partnering. Over the summer this one boy and I were particularly good together. Whenever we did anything it felt just right. But then again I've had to partner guys who are shorter than me (we had a few problems) or who don't know what they're doing. Then it's not so enjoyable.

[Dolphingirl]

I've only ever partnered one guy and he's shorter than me by a few inches. He's able to do things like promenades and even simple lifts that just go straight up, but he can only do more complicated things with smaller girls, and also I'm not really strong on pointe yet since my knee. But it was really cool to see all my friends do fish dives with him the other night. They were all really scared at first, since we've only been partnering for about 8 weeks, only half an hour at a time, but they all looked really good!It looked like so much fun...on the other hand, I'm rather afraid of being upside down, to the point where I can't do somersaults or hang upsidedown on monkey bars or anything. So partnering that involves being upside down, if I ever get there, is going to scare me!

[balletstar811]

Unfortunately, at my school only the professional division gets to have partnering . There are 4 boys that are old, strong, and tall enough to partner. Two of them always have lead roles in shows and are really great dancers... one of them is amazingly good-looking . So I have to wait until I get to level 6 to have partnering classes which is a bit upsetting. Oh well.

[Guest Lynx]

I love partnering, but I've only taken it two times. I really want to get better at it . So I want to go to a SI that offers partnering. Do SI let you do partnering only if you're in a certain level?

[Victoria Leigh]

Most SI programs reserve pas de deux classes for the advanced levels. There are a few who have it for intermediates, but I'm not sure which ones. Personally, I think it is better for the girls to be quite strong on pointe before they go into partnering work, and most boys at 14-15 are not strong enough yet either. They might be ready to learn some basic things, but not lifting of any kind. In our program only the top two levels have partnering.

[Guest Medora]

I had some partnering experience last year and I LOVED it! We did a ballet to Tchaikovsky's Theme and Variations and my partner danced with two other girls and me. It was wonderful! Although I didn't have any experience, he knew exactly what he was doing and he made it easy and completely fun. We really clicked I guess you could say and could do practically anything; the fish dives and press lifts where especially fun. I had this one lift where I jumped a sautechat (with him tossing me up) and at the height of the jump I broke into retire and arched back over his shoulder. Then from there he brought me down into a fish, and sadly I admit I have no idea how because I was upside down! It was a lot of fun though. After that we decided to learn the pas de trois of Corsaire as a pas de deux, which was even more fun, although I have to admit A LOT harder! So that took a lot of work, haha. The only thing we really stuggled with were pirouettes, or I guess more correctly I struggled with the pirouettes . I could do finger turns, some whip turns, but pirouettes, ah!! I couldn't hold my back for my life! But, I have to say he really helped me with my turns. He's gone now, is dancing his first year with a ballet company, but those were some of the best times of my life and it was wonderful.

[ConstanzaElisabeth]

I love partnering, especially now that i have a new partner! my teacher never realized that i had such difficulty in partnered stuff because my partner and i clashed, but then he got injured and i got the understudy who is such an excellent partner! he is a foot taller than me, but im used to taller guys. i am 5'1", and ive danced with guys 5'11" to 6'3", but on the rare occasion that i have to dance with a shorter guy, i have difficulty. in our pas de deux class, we usually have 3 guys, but sometimes we have had as many as 6. there are 8-10 girls in the class, a bit disproportionate, but its still fun. oh, and during teh week when parents are allowed to watch, we had one guy and ten girls, so norman(our teacher) recruited all of the parents who were watching to participate in "Practical Theory of Partnering: an interactive experience." fathers' and brothers' first attempts at pas de deux-amusing, at the very least...