Back to class and gushing

[Laschwen]

I made back into class yeaterday, bum toe and all. I found I wasn't the only one who broke a toe during the off season this year. We had 4 students in class and 2 of us were gimpy. That really threw the teacher.

Class was great anyway. It was good to get moving again; even if kind of flat footed.

 

The really cool thing was a new student. She is 20 and never had a dance class before.

With so few in class the teacher had more time for her than he might usually and took advantage. I couldn't believe how cooperative her body was. It took every correction and held it. She doesn't know the language or much of what is what at all, but was so teachable. She is blessed with a body that has the facility and I know that is a big advantage. I am just not used to seeing someone do so well on a first day; shoeless and all. I just bet the teacher went home and gushed to his wife about the new student with such wonderful potential.

 

I just love being in adult Ballet. I am so glad to see people coming in whether they danced as kids or not. I hope our other true beginners start back to class soon. It could lead to more classes offered per week.

[Claude_Catastrophique]

Such people like the girl you described can be very inspiring. When I meet such people, I automatically try to copy them, I try to be "teachable" as they are.

It is lovely when you have a body that does the thing you want to do. Maybe she is a wasted talent for professional dancer? Anyway, I hope she enjoys classes.

 

Adult classes are really lovely but sometimes also annoying. My adult class is full of chatting women but we could do such nice things and sometimes just waste time with chatting.

[appleblossom]

last year i took a couple of adult classes, there was a girl there who i thought mustve danced for years and only just returned to ballet as an adult, when we got talking i learned she had only started for the very first time 4 months before (at the age of 23). I was amazed, some of her work was better than mine, and really tough things like developpes and pirouettes. I think because she loved it so much she put so much more in.

 

it was an inspiration.

[jimpickles]

Inspiration - but sometimes in my case despair.

 

I'm feeling it strongly at the moment - in one of my classes (adult) there is a little girl of about 11 - the most beautiful dancer - thin, a bit gangly - but VERY strong - places her body beautifully and expressively every time and exactly where she wants it. Moves in such a wonderful way in everything, and picks up all the fast combinations immediately.

 

Faced with such natural talent, it rubs in again how not only was the door closed on me long ago, but was never opened - even a chink - in the first place. So I just have to grit my teeth and bear it, as a mature age guy who is only doing it for personal enjoyment, whereas she may well become a professional.

 

But still, seeing her does rub it in rather.

 

Jim.

[Laschwen]

My adult class is full of chatting women but we could do such nice things and sometimes just waste time with chatting.

 

 

 

 

 

Chatting Women We barely get each others names....Chatting During Class???

 

Meanwhile our new beginner came back with brand new slippers and a regular leo and tights. She was confronted with our other teacher...the brutal one. Oh she is sweet but you really really work in her class. I think she did just fine.

Our male newbie from last year was back too. He mentioned a real beginner class he took over the summer and said to me: They actually tell you what is what over there....yeah we are not doing beginning work in our class. I was glad he came back. He also stunned me by commenting that he thought I'd really learned a lot since he last saw me in maybe March. I think our mini intensive in May-June did more than I thought. How about that?

 

 

Laschwen

[ami1436]

Claude, where in Switzerland are you? PM me if you wish - I have a friend who had a class there that he *Loved*, although it was beginners - maybe the teacher teaches elsewhere?

[Laschwen]

who is only doing it for personal enjoyment, whereas she may well become a professional.

 

But still, seeing her does rub it in rather.

 

Jim.

 

 

 

Well, I guess there is the unfortunate comparison kind of day for me sometimes too. I don't usually get that way unless I find myself standing at the end of the barre faced with the perpindicular mirror. I don't see figure flaws like one might expect, I see that pesky crooked (and pitiful if I turn one leg in to even things up) turnout and just want to crawl in a hole.

I guess that door was never open for me either but at that age I hated the idea of dancing in front of anybody. It was all for my own edification when I was a little kid and again now. I had my days performing, with just a tiny bit of ballet over the years, somewhere in between after getting over the shyness a bit.

 

Laschwen

[je danse dans ma tete]

You know who is like this as well, youngish with "natural talent" for ballet and a good ballet body and amazing technique and annoys the heck out of me for being so easy to learn and for looking so good in ballet class even though she's only been dancing for a year? striving for grace. (hi grace ) I met her 2 weeks ago because I went to visit my brother in her city and we ended up taking some open ballet classes together and discovered we were both on ballettalk. unfortunately we only had 2 classes together, she is fun to watch, so serious *imitates serious student grace* This girl is my inspiration now, I never thought you can get good at dance if you are an adult starter.

Edited August 18, 2006 by je danse dans ma tete

[ashatNYU]

Inspiration - but usually in my case despair.

 

But still, seeing her does rub it in rather.

 

Jim.

 

Thanks Jim for saying this. I am on your side of the fence, that seeing beautiful dancers (adult beginers or not) in class with me does not motivate me to work harder. Rather it frustrates me because I find that I am more inclined to watch them on the premise that ... I will never look that good doing it, so why even try.

[jimpickles]

AshatNYU - this time its despair, but often its inspiration. It can go both ways. Being with (adult) good dancers inspires me, and gives good models to copy naturally, so I think my style improves with just being around them. In general, I love being with better dancers (not that I'm often with worse ones, I should add!).

 

But in this case, she is so young, and so good, that it really does rub it in that the gap between our abilities is absolutely unbridgeable. I knew that of course, when I started, but this rubs it in all the time. Hey ho!

 

Jim.

[kasaba]

 

Thanks Jim for saying this. I am on your side of the fence, that seeing beautiful dancers (adult beginers or not) in class with me does not motivate me to work harder. Rather it frustrates me because I find that I am more inclined to watch them on the premise that ... I will never look that good doing it, so why even try.

 

Thank you for confessing to these feelings, I thought I was the only one. It's helpful to watch and emulate the grace of the young prodigies; but when they start grabbing their ankles and pulling them over their heads, I sometimes feel inadequate. I just have to keep remembering: that's MY problem, not theirs.

[Sanna Koulu]

The young prodigies are lovely to look at... as are the adult ones, for that matter.

 

The ones that make me feel old and cranky are the kind of unmotivated teenagers with ballet bodies, who aren't passionate about ballet and don't seem to care much about technique. Since they have the facility, like gorgeous feet and easy flexibility, they look rather good even when they are working sloppily. Seems like such a waste when they laze about and don't put that talent to use.

 

Of course, they often seem to quit before they progress much, but it seems a bit unfair that a fortunate accident of genetics gets them more attention and corrections than someone less talented but more willing to work at it

[jimpickles]

"A fortunate act of genetics"- but an incomplete one, since it didnt include the brain functions necessary.

 

Jim.

[citibob]

I think we need to differentiate here between "talent" and "easy body". There's a lot more to ballet talent than naturally gorgeous feet. Actually, the two are totally different in my experience.

 

Also, it's often a shame that people with easy bodies are given so much encouragement to pursue dance, even if they don't really want to. It can result in the situations described above. Eventually, these people will realize they're dancing because they were told they were "talented", not because they wanted to, and they will go do something else. But it's kind of a waste of everyone's time in the meantime.

 

I certainly know sloppy professional dancers with easy bodies --- people who seem a little bit happy-go-lucky and drift in and out. It's not my style, but I really don't hold anything against them. We get out of dance what we're seeking as we put ourselves into it. Watching others live their lives, for better or for worse, is part of the dance experience.

[Claude_Catastrophique]

Chatting Women We barely get each others names....Chatting During Class???

 

Unfortunately yes...my teacher is a teacher and most of the women in my class are also teachers (everyone is a primary teacher). Me and another poor girl are NOT teachers and since my group dances together since ages (can't really remember how many years but I am sure that is is more than 6 years) we know each other pretty good. And like every primary teacher they always have to rant how poor they are, how bad the parents are, what children disturbed the classes and so on. And sometimes they have to do it during class which makes me very, very angry. I go to this class to learn something, not to hear them chat. My suggestion to my teacher was, that we could go after the last class in each month to have a drink somewhere and then chat as long as we want to....well, everyone liked the idea but it just does not work (we have never been out for a drink since then)

 

Therefore I love my teeneage-class It is full of 14 years old who come to class to dance and not to chat.

 

Sorry for the OT.