Blog 19, keeping balance in the daily struggle and visiting Swan Lake

I was in early to do my warming up exercises. And I did a few stretch exercises. I read somewhere that stretching eases the mind when you perform them patiently. Yes, it’s an excellent prelude to the ballet lesson, and creates a mindful state. How coincidental that Lyda started class and mentioned how the plié can calm the mind. 

I’m practicing ballet 1 ½ years by now. How funny to realize that things that seem so normal now weren’t that normal before! It took me almost a lifetime to start with ballet. And now I make the plié as if I did it all my life (Sorry Lyda, though I know it is still not the perfect plié, but to me it is). French words like soubresaut, changement des pieds, and echappé don’t dazzle me anymore, talking about Vaganova style or Kirov ballet gives satisfaction, reading about Nureyev and other great dancers is pleasant and inspiring.

This whole outburst of culture and refinement came straight into my life. And it satisfies a deeply felt need I could never relieve before. 

There’s a pile of books on my desk about ballet. I read and read. I stretch and stretch. I dance and dance, on Sunday mornings I even practice moves of ballet in an empty boxing gym. 

I will never become a top dancer, I know. But I don’t feel old. I feel young and full of energy and expectation to go on in this next phase of my life.

In my diaries I read about my earlier quest, to live a life that is an expression of who I am. And ballet is one of those pieces of the puzzle I found. 

And yes, there is also the boxing and cross fit (I wrote about that in my earlier blogs). Yesterday I went to my boxing gym and had a terrific workout. Hammering on the heavy bag is a mighty workout! And compared to ballet it may sound rude to box, but I guess it’s all about keeping balance. Daily life is no romance. It feels good to express the dualities in my life in sport and dancing.

Things are adding up. 

Next Wednesday the Swan Lake! My daughter surprised me with 2 tickets for this beautiful “ballet of ballets”, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, performed by the National Ballet in Amsterdam. 

Rudi van Dantzig’s choreography respects the surviving parts of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s original ballet of 1895, leaving the second act and several other famous scenes – including the spectacular ‘Black Swan pas de deux’ with its 32 fouetté turns – virtually unchanged. However, Van Dantzig’s choreography emphasizes on the story as a human struggle, interpreting the ballet’s premise of a young man who must acquire a bride but fails as a direct reflection of Tchaikovsky’s own life. 

Yep, the (daily) struggle of a fellow human, hammered into the shape of a beautiful piece of art, of music and classical ballet.

The ordinary becomes special. That’s what I call actual refinement. That’s art. I’m already enchanted.

Blog 18, about flexibility 

In the Monday lesson, Lyda talked about flexibility and stretching. One of the students said that in the past she could do to the split, but now alas, she lost that skill.

Lyda gave us a few tips on how to improve the flexibility you need for ballet and more specific to do a split. 

Stretching improves flexibility. Internet is full of information on the subject of stretching, good and bad stuff. You have to choose, and that’s not easy. Most sites leave out one crucial piece of info on stretching! And that’s: stretch only after a thorough warming up! 

I mention one of her suggestions.

Barre stretch: Start in the first position, you stand facing the barre, put your left hand on the barre. Lift your right leg onto the barre with your ankle resting on it, and your foot pointed. Lift your right hand to high fifth position and lean forward, but keep your back flat, onto the right leg. Hold for 30 seconds then repeat on the other side. And of course, both legs turned out.

Some people are more flexible than others. And look at me, as I age, I have a tendency to become tight and stiff.  So time and effort are needed if I want to improve my flexibility. 

Slack discipline implies slow progress or no progress at all.

I try to stretch 5 times a week; this usually takes half an hour. 

And it is a fact is: the more I stretch, the more flexible I become. 

But you get better and realize quicker results if you stretch 3 times a day: in the morning, forenoon and evening. That’s for the folks that have the time, opportunity and focus on doing so.

I really want to stress the importance of warming up again. And if you are stretching and you feel pain, listen to your body and don’t exaggerate! 

Blog 17, about The White Crow and a fresh start

Happy to be back! Vacation is over, lessons have started again.

In the vacation period, I went to the movie “ The White Crow,” with Lyda and fellow student Marion.

The movie pictures the early years of Rudolph Nureyev. It sketches his past life via flashbacks of his childhood and early manhood. As a young student in Leningrad, he is portrayed as a tempestuous person, and a significant part of the movie is about the period prior to the escape to the west in 1961 in Paris. He was 23 when he defected. 

I expected a lot more dance scenes and was a bit disappointed. Yet I learned a lot more about his early life. It also confronted me with his outspoken personality, a genius on the one hand, but a difficult person to deal or live with. 

Last Monday Marion loaned me a few books about Nureyev, among them the biography made by Julie Kavanagh. The movie is based on the first five chapters of her biography of Nureyev. 

It gives me a sense of excitement to read the book of Julie Kavanagh. But I must confess that I often feel excited on my journey into the world of ballet. It is such an adventure, this miraculous world of art and gifted dancers. It enriches my life. And of course, I am aware that there is a downside: the jealousy, the competition, and the gossip, scandals and so on. 

My aim is not to copy the lifestyle of the happy few, but to learn from their extraordinary craft and performance. I enjoy leading my own life. 

So now back to my basics. 

I felt stiff in the Monday lesson, but already on Tuesday, my body felt suppler than the day before. Just picking up the routine helps to feel good again.

As I wrote earlier, Lyda introduced the developpé a few weeks ago. Now she made a fresh start after this short vacation with the enveloppé. This step or movement can be considered the opposite of développé.

When you perform an enveloppé, you start with the working leg stretched to either the front (devant), side (à la seconde) or back (derrière).  The leg is then brought into either cou-de-pied or passé and then closed to the fifth position.

And of course, all in adagio! 

Because by performing these exercises in adagio you build up more strength than in allegro. Other words, that’s sweating. I hope that one-day things become a bit easier to do. 

Thanks for reading my blog. See you next week! 

Please feel free to give a comment on my blog. Or contact me on e-mail address: bert.jonker@movetoballet.com if you have a particular issue you want to share with me in my (or your!) adventurous journey into the world of classical ballet.