How much impact does ballet have on your life?

[svemaus]

Several actions today made me ask myself how much ballet influences my daily life

 

7.25 a.m.:

While waiting for the bus to take me to school, I catch myself trying to improve my turnout by standing in first position

 

9.40 – 11.15 a.m.:

maths class: probability calculus

Normally, I always think of an example to each maths task as I find it boring to just work with

numbers

“How likely is it, that two of five choreographers use a jeté 4 times in a 8 minute-long piece?”

 

11.40 a.m.:

Talking to my friends while letting my left foot glide from a casual fifth position to a clean fourth.

 

01.15 – 2.45 p.m.:

physical education: ballorobics (a mix of aerobics with ball exercises)

 

Making up a choreography that I have to demonstrate later on. While executing some steps I realize that I finished the last jump in a fifth position. :confused:

 

4 p.m.:

talking to my friend on the phone

trying to improve the pointing of my feet and to stretch my inner and outer thigh.

 

Please tell me I’m not the only one who happens to dance ballet outside of the class-room!

The thing is that I don’t even realize it as it happens automatically.

I would have never guessed that ballet has such a high impact even in my daily life,

 

Svenia

[Guest BBNButterscotch]

Oh ballet is totally a huge part of my life outside of class! During class, I usually sit and do ankle circles to strengthen my ankles for pointework. Or, if I'm standing around, I do releves and plies and stuff. And during my "Arts in Urban Life" class you will ALWAYS find me saying "Well, I'm a dancer, so for me..." as an example of something. Or when I'm really bored, i sketch pics of pointe shoes in my notebook.

 

So yeah, I'm ALWAYS thinking about ballet. Even when I'm at my ballroom dance lessons, when we have a little break I practice my ballet steps... HEE HEE.

 

I totally relate!!!!!!!!

 

Lauren

[Guest mic31]

I end up practising anything whenever I get a chance...my offices and vehicles all have ballet music in them. I have a barre at home...need I say more

[Jaana Heino]

Oh yes, it happens to me too. Balances in various positions in the elevator, relevés at the bus stop, calf stretches in the coffee room at work, etc.

 

Also, marking combinations from class, which constitutes of little hops and sidesteps and mumbling things like "sissone, chassé, pas de bourrée", when walking around at work. From swordsclasses I get this habit of marking tricky pair excercises with my hand looking a bit like an orchestra conductor and muttering things like "true edge, outside". People must consider me quite crazy.

[Guest dancerwannabe]

In keeping with Svemaus...

 

5 a.m. In the shower, I find myself stretching out my ever tight hamstrings and back as I cambre forward and back (without the arms, shower is too small)

 

6:30 sitting at work, have feet flexing and pointing underneath my desk. And I have one of those foot massage rollers so I roll my feet over those alot during the day.

 

8:30 all of the associates are on break, so I can stretch a bit with no fear of someone seeing me. so I have this bar surrounding a trash compactor that is a great ballet barre if you can believe that... I strech out my legs and do a couple of plies. On thing I notice.. Anything that comes close to barre height is an instant attraction for me.

 

Other times througout the day if I am lucky enough to find myself alone I find myself releveing and marking steps from class and trying to get a lock on my pirouette which is always escaping me. (The floor is pretty slick concrete)

 

gotta go work now.

[Guest luna]

8am

Getting dressed for work: hair in bun, since I go straight to the studio after work, and flat dress shoes instead of heels, since I have pointe class tonight (the calves can only take so much abuse in one day:)

 

10am

Climb the stairs from the classroom where I teach English literature on the 1st floor to my office on the 3rd floor. Every bit of leg toning helps!

 

12 noon

Use the last 20 minutes of my lunch break to plan some barre exercises for the ballet class I teach later on in the day.

 

2pm

Climb the three flights of stairs again.

 

4pm

Teach 8 youngsters how to execute attitude turns.

 

5pm

take pointe class with the company teens.

 

6:30 pm

take adult ballet class.

 

8pm

long soak in tub while reading the Discount Dance catalog and creating my wish list of dancewear!

 

11pm

go to sleep and do perfect pirouettes in my dreams!

[Guest pumukau]

9/11/01 Call from friend telling me to turn on my television interrupts an essay I'm trying to write on ballet and Japanese music. I watch the news for ten minutes, it registers that this might well be a nationwide attack. I go to my usual 9:00 am ballet class because it's where I want to be.

 

8/20/02 My daughter tells me she's asked a guy I consider completely unsuitable for her to marry her and he's accepted. I get studio time, a dancer her age, music, and a choreographer and begin work on a ballet to perform at the wedding.

 

8/26/02 My mother is rushed to the hospital with chest pains. I know from her medical history that it's psychosomatic. I continue preparing for that night's performance. The next day she tells me about how exciting it was to be the center of attention at the hospital and I tell her how much I enjoyed dancing Bluebird variation for a full house.

 

9/27/02 I decide to look for a new writing job. I begin by asking what Balanchine would do. I redouble efforts to get tour en l'air right.

 

It wasn't so many generations ago that everyone knew how important it is to dance every day; how quickly mortals lose contact with the spirits if we don't.

[Guest beckster]

I don't think it impacts my life that much. Apart from logging on here about 20 times a day of course. Oh, and standing in preparatory position whenever I'm in the lift on my own. And the almost constant pointing and flexing of my feet while watching TV. Oh yes, and the port de bras when I'm lying in bed. And of course the breakfast-time rehearsals of combinations I've learnt. And then there's the free-movement dancing in the lab. Doesn't everyone do this?

[2 Left Feet]

Lets see:

 

Constantly on-line on dance web sites.

 

I know every adult class around, just in case my schedule allows me to sneak one in.

 

I am not shy at all about asking total strangers to donate to a ballet company I work with.

 

I have no problem stopping any work related conversation to talk about said same ballet company.

 

I nearly trip over my dance bag every morning since it lives by my night stand.

 

And on that night stand is whatever latest dance magazine or dancer biography I'm reading (Nothing to Hide by Robert La Fosse right now -- signed copy!!).

 

Oh, I did finally make a concession to my partner that I won't go to class on Sunday mornings anymore so we can spend more time together. But I usually spend each Sunday morning thinking, "Rigth about now they're doing tendus... Now they're in adage..."

[sheila]

Telling my husband that we can only spend X # of days in Italy because I have to save my vacation time for Workshop.

 

Having trained my husband to not plan any weekday evening events w/o my approval due to class.

 

Having trained the docs I work with that they cannot schedule any late procedures if it might cut into class time.

 

Always having my dance bag packed and ready in my car.

 

Keeping a photo of myself and LAGirl at my desk to remind me that dance not my career speaks of who I am!

[duckie9876]

Those were all so great (and true for me too!).

 

I have a home office, so I wear my brand new pointe shoes while I work to break them in and get them soft. Bourree to the bathroom, releves, eleves and balance in arabesque/attitude while waiting for my 50-page document to print out (hehehe).

 

Even my 3 yr old son knows passe, plie, releve, echappe & arabesque as well as 1st 2nd and 5th from watching ballet videos.

 

At the store -- tendus front from fifth (no arms of course)

 

In the shower -- passe balance, attitude balance, coupe releves

 

I use the bathroom counter & mirror to do pique to attitude and check out my arm & head positions.

 

I use the balcony railing as a barre because it's just the right height.

 

Tendus, degages & grand battement en croix while watching tv

 

Reading Ballet Alert messages at 3 am....

[Guest Antony]

How much impact does ballet have on my life? A lot more than I'd care to admit.

 

In fact, being able to get to decent adult classes more than once a week is one of the major considerations in my choice of workplace. And indeed, which part of the country I'm in.

 

Daft, isn't it?

 

I'd feel worse about it if I hadn't found out that one of my classmates is exactly the same.

 

A.

 

PS. Don't get me started on inappropriate places for practising steps. Beat this: in a lab, wearing a labcoat, elbow-length rubber gloves and safety glasses - working at bench covered in glassware, chemicals, biological reagents and high-voltage electronics. Great place to practise chassees and pirouettes, don't you think?

[Guest scuffite]

... rushing through my work day so that I can leave the office by 6.30 for my 8pm class .....

 

... scowling (and refusing, if I can!) when work comes in at 5pm and it is due that night ....

 

... when told that we would have to share rooms in 2003, the first thought that comes to mind is "damn! can't practice my releves and arabesques" ....

 

and guilty of all the others mentioned by other posters!

 

have to show my husband this thread ..... he thinks I have lost my mind. Maybe. But I am not alone!

[Guest Starling]

I'm definately guilty of all the inappropriate ballet practicing everyone has mentioned - what I find really funny, though, is how much all my friends and family go along with my ballet obsession!

 

Sept - Dec - I get my roomate involved in helping me stretch to improve my extention. I am also required to perform a mini-recital of what I learned that night in ballet class to all the people in my residence. One neighbour comments that though she has known dancers, she has never known someone "who dances all the time - even during casual conversation!"

 

Christmas - TONS of ballet-themed presents - not to mention yet another fab nutcracker for my collection (which I started 8 years ago after I saw one particular ballet)

 

Yesterday - I ask my friend for a suggestion of some relaxing bathtime music - and what does she suggest? "Why don't you put on some of your ballet music"!

 

Apparently I'm not hiding my love for ballet too well!

 

Starling