Thread: Adult Ballet

I've been dancing oriental for I guess five years now, three of those intensely with regular private lessons and as many workshops as humanly possible, but recently I've been feeling the ache to really take my dance to another level. It needs another dimension, I think! I'm mainly looking for help with graceful arms, spins and turns. So, I've signed up for adult ballet classes, and I start tomorrow! I'm sure many of you in Bhuzland have done the same, and I was just wondering about your experiences with ballet? Have you found that its made a major difference to your dancing?

I love the strength it gave me... I felt so much more in control.

It was also humbling, going from being a pretty good dancer in your own little dance world to being basically an un-co beginner.

The biggest challenge for me was learning to run and jump... and look elegant and weightless doing it...

*ruuun ruuun ruuun run run halfstep quick leap, land loudly, halfstep run run and scamper off back to the end of the line*

I love ballet! I need to get my butt back into a class!

Originally Posted by Sarahamh

I've been dancing oriental for I guess five years now, three of those intensely with regular private lessons and as many workshops as humanly possible, but recently I've been feeling the ache to really take my dance to another level. It needs another dimension, I think! I'm mainly looking for help with graceful arms, spins and turns. So, I've signed up for adult ballet classes, and I start tomorrow! I'm sure many of you in Bhuzland have done the same, and I was just wondering about your experiences with ballet? Have you found that its made a major difference to your dancing?

I did ballet when I was younger and it made a difference to the way I danced as a bellydancer. I also did adult ballet lesson and found them much harder than I thought it would be. The physical parameters for ballet are very disciplined and not as organic as belly dance.

I tried one ballet class, and while it was a very interesting contrast to bellydance, it may not be for everybody: I found it harder esp. on the knees - during a plie, I heard a creak and felt sharp pain - that was the end of my ballet career. For those who have a bit troubled bones, it may be a good idea to keep that in mind.

I came from a Ballet background so of course I love ballet! I would talk with your intructor about what you want to get out of the class. Perhaps she can correct you most on what you want to get out of it?
Also I find that taking a modern dance class amy help as well, the freedom of movement in the the torso, drefying gravity, and surrendering to gravity are very useful cross over skills!

I found ballet to be great cross-training and luckily Nanda warned me about all the leaping or that would have been a big shock. Wouldn't have expected it in the first class!

It was exhilarating to be in a class where I knew almost nothing and working at a beginner level. However, the advertised beginner class was a mixed-level class and many of the students were far from beginner level. In some ways that's good because you have more examples to look at for the moves, but I would have preferred a true beginner class with more break down of the movements. Especially the leaping!! It was quite a large class so I felt bit awkward getting the instructor's attention, about asking basic questions and holding everyone up with my cluelessness. But overall it was a positive experience and made my legs in particular feel stronger.

I did ballet and jazz as a kid, but I decided to sign up for adult ballet again 1,5 years ago to help with posture, turns, balance and arm carriage. I feel it has helped tremendously so far, but some of these areas still need work for me.. So I'll be keeping it up for a while.

I've been thinking about doing the same, but I'm a little bit cowardly about it! I've never done any other dancing and I'm a kinesthetic dumb kid, so I know it'll be hard and probably embarrassing.

Let us know how the class is!

I want to sign up for adult ballet, but there are no classes in my area for beginners, only for children! Something intimidating about being out-flexed by an 8 year old. :P I know RI is different, so I'm looking forward to finally taking classes when I move back up there this summer. In the meantime, I'm looking at DVDs.

I would like to try ballet but I have to be honest when I say I am intimidated by the thought of walking in and seeing no one but thin people. I'm definitely not fat but I'm not thin by conventional standards, let alone ballet standards. Anyone else have this fear?

I just took my first ballet class this month. It was definitely interesting and I was really feeling it the next day. The turned out feet and jumping were my least favorite parts, I found the foot positions to be slightly uncomfortable for my knees. I went to an adult beginner class that said no experience was necessary but like Jilyan I found that many of the students had already been taking lessons for a while so there wasn't as much of a breakdown of the movements as I would have liked. At the end of the class the instructor said I did really well and asked what kind of dance training I had, I said only belly dance and she was surprised that belly dance had helped me out so much with the first class. I guess it just helps to already have an awareness of our bodies when we go in for extra training in other dance forms. I'm hoping it will improve on my dancing, mostly I was to have cleaner body lines, more graceful arms, better posture, and an understanding of dance terminology and I can already see that it will help those things. Belly dance is the only dance I had ever taken before trying this so it is definitely a learning experience.

Originally Posted by jilyan

However, the advertised beginner class was a mixed-level class and many of the students were far from beginner level. In some ways that's good because you have more examples to look at for the moves, but I would have preferred a true beginner class with more break down of the movements. Especially the leaping!! It was quite a large class so I felt bit awkward getting the instructor's attention, about asking basic questions and holding everyone up with my cluelessness. But overall it was a positive experience and made my legs in particular feel stronger.

One of my students is taking an adult ballet class and reported the same thing about mixed levels in a class advertised as "beginning". I was pretty surprised, because there are so many underlying fundamentals related to safety and form in ballet, I can't imagine an environment where you're just supposed to catch on as best you can.

I really wanted to take a modern class, but I couldn't find an adult one for inexperienced dancers at a time when I could make it. I have been using this DVD from Cheeky Girls though, and I feel stronger every time I use it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of ballet teachers do not necessarily engage in anything like the breakdown we're used to. OK, my first ballet lesson would have been in 1972 or 1973, and the last one in 1978, but I was never ever taught anything about dance safety or anatomical fundamentals or "centering" or anything *at all* other than don't roll your feet, pull up and perhaps tuck your tailbone under (I say this because the phrase springs so readily to my mind that I think I have known it a long time). We learned by copying and being told what to do, and we would be individually adjusted at times.

One reason that beginner adult classes might in reality be mixed level *could* be quite simply that lots of adults who did ballet young would go to a beginner class if they wanted to do it again. I would. I actually studied ballet over a period of seven years but I was a bit remedial and never progressed beyond Grade 4, so no pointe work for me. And I wouldn't want to do pointe work now. Besides, I'm 44, I'm not going to be leaping about the place with much ease and I don't have anything like the leg flexibility I used to have.

Yeah I wondered whether the lack of breakdown was due to an assumption that the adult students would have done ballet as kids. I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to learn stuff like what all the number positions actually are for arms & legs.

Re the body size, the class I was in had around 30 people and they weren't all stick-thin! I do suspect though that at 38 I was possibly the oldest person in the class. The teacher was a lovely middle-aged lady, she was really very sweet and I did enjoy the classes very much and despite the lack of breakdown felt that I got a lot out it. But I did feel it was affecting my knees so when other demands on my time came up I let it go.

Hmm, when I took ballet, it was broken down ad infinitum, but now that I think about it, that took place in the "kid" classes... There was a lot less breaking down done in the adult classes I've taken, which did tend to be mixed levels (sometimes well worth the price of the class just to watch some of the dancers in them!). Perhaps many schools don't have a big enough population of adult dancers to break the adult classes into levels. If you're looking for more in depth instruction, it might not hurt to ask if there are any other adults taking the regular beginners class, perhaps you'll find it there.

Originally Posted by maranajla

I would like to try ballet but I have to be honest when I say I am intimidated by the thought of walking in and seeing no one but thin people. I'm definitely not fat but I'm not thin by conventional standards, let alone ballet standards. Anyone else have this fear?

Hey, I'm not thin by conventional standards either. You wanna go together sometime? I've been looking for ballet classes around this area.

[QUOTE=Sarahamh;333001Have you found that its made a major difference to your dancing?[/QUOTE]

YES! absolutely!

Ballet's fantastic! I did it for 15 years! It definitely has helped my bellydancing.

I would have to say that if a ballet teacher is not breaking down the movements then find another teacher. this is not usual. Most bellet teachers go into crazy detail about exactly how to place each bady part during a movement. (and that goes up to advanced level, not just beginners)

As for the foot positions hurting your knees, they should not! Turn out should come from the hip not the knee. You are perhaps trying to attain the turn out you are seeing around you (with more experienced dancers). Don't! Your foot positions will get better with increased flexability (just as belly dance movements gets richer with experience and increased flexablility). If the teacher insists on fabulous turn out for a beginner, find another teacher! To be honest, as I grew older, my fifth postion increasingly opened up. I was fortunate enough to have teachers who excepted this to save students knees, heck some even excepted a 3rd postion (a postion not commonly used). Of course ballet is not happening anymore for me after snapping my achilles tendon but the benifits are wonderful (I am thankful I had the 30 some years prior to the injury to get the benifits of weekly classes)

I do believe that the mixed level class is something that happens, having enough students to run a class is a big factor. Another factor is having those models in class is wonderful! Try not to think of your short comings as a beginner but the benefits of having a model to show what it COULD look like!

See, that's what disappointed me about my ballet class - I have no idea what you mean by fifth, third etc. Luckily I knew about the turn out from the hip thing - thanks to MED-list! Because the teacher never mentioned it and there were what looked to me like a lot of flattened arches in the class in amongst the obviously more practiced. My turn-out was very modest to protect my knees, but that did make those crossy-over leg poses very awkward. See I don't even know the name of what I'm talking about!! ..l;, I picked up a kiddie ballet book at the book exchange, will have to actually read it I guess ..l;,