Blog 48 Epilogue

 

On July 10, the students of La Bayadere received an unexpected and abrupt email from Lyda. We were stunned. 

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Dear students and parents,

 

From August on, I will no longer be working at La Bayadère. The board of the Almere Foundation for Dance Art has not been able to find a successor for me, which means that the lessons will no longer be available from September.

 

It has been a tough decision for me emotionally. I started La Bayadère 27 years ago and have always put my heart and soul into it. To end like this is not how I would like it to be, but after exploring all the possibilities, continuing is no longer an option.

 

I want to thank everyone very much for all the wonderful years together. The best thing about teaching is to see how students develop, not only in the field of ballet but also as human beings. I have watched you all grow, and you can be proud of what you have personally achieved.

 

In Almere, I know of no teacher who teaches the way I do. But feel free to do a trial lesson anywhere. You may be able to find someone you want to continue with ballet lessons.

 

If you prefer to be taught by me, that will remain possible. I want to continue teaching in Utrecht. Are you interested in the lessons in Utrecht? Send an email back before August 1. Then you will receive more information about this.

 

I wish everyone the very best and hope to see you again, is it not in Utrecht than anywhere else. Bye!

 

With kind regards,

Lyda

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I wrote to her:

 

Dear Lyda,

I find this shocking and will miss Bayadere terribly. 

But I understand this must have been very difficult for you to decide.

 

With loving kindness,

Bert

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How shocking that this real talented and dedicated woman had to decide to quit.

Was it the impact of Corona, no lessons, no income, was it the decline in students?

 

I decided to wait and stop for the moment with my ballet aspirations.

Utrecht is no option for me right now. But maybe soon things can change.

For now, this is the end of La Bayadere and my ballet lessons.  

Blog 47 The last blog

In my first blog, I wrote that I wanted to make you part of my journey and experiences and troubles in mastering some of the elementals of ballet. 

You walked with me this past year and were my partner on my traveling through this vast landscape that we call ballet.

Ballet has become a part of my life. A dream that has come true. A bit late, but whatever!

I'm making the next step in my professional life. I have a few new obligations in my job to meet and talked this over with my teacher Lyda. So after careful consideration, I've made some decisions. 

It's time now for me to rearrange a few things. Though my professional life as a manager puts a considerable claim on my free time, I succeeded up to now to continue to take part in 2 lessons a week and write a blog. 

I will continue my ballet lessons, but I will stop writing a blog. I need a clear mind.

So I can focus better on the new opportunity and use my spare hours for the dancing itself, instead of using them to write. 

I hope that I have inspired you, I wish and hope that my adventurous journey has inspired some of you to make that next step too. Maybe in ballet, or perhaps in realizing that other dream you have.

We are all capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. But then you have to hunt your dreams without fear. 

Courage will push you in new directions, it will allow you to accomplish new things, and become the source of constant personal growth and success.

Only the very few become a prima ballerina. For all the other practitioners' ballet has the capacity to be an art of life, that will keep them healthy, fulfilled, mentally, and physically. 

It's all there, you just have to grab it.

I also hope that the teachers that have read my blog understand how blissful and grateful it can be to teach ballet to older and elderly people. It is rewarding, I'm sure about that. But it requires a different mindset. I challenge you to try that new road!

I also encourage men to have the guts to enter that classroom, where you will discover that ballet is far more than only feminine. As a male dancer, you will find out that there is a vast array of necessities when you want to thrive as a dancer. Strength, tenacity, balance, musicality, and so much more. Very masculine indeed!

I know that people all over the world read my blog, from the US to Russia, Japan to South America, Australia, and the Middle and the Far East. And of course in Europe, from Finland to Italy. That's what Google Analytics tells me.  My blogs have been read thousands of times!

I'm so grateful for this acknowledgment of my personal journey by people all over the world.

Above all, I'm grateful for my teacher Lyda, who, without any constraint, opened her network for me, so people all over the world could read my weekly journal. 

Lyda, I pay homage to you, you are a terrific coach and a hell of a teacher in Russian Ballet. You introduced me to that beautiful classic art and opened doors for me. You are a wonderful person, and I hope to keep entering that door at Bayadère for as long as we live. My blogs are a tribute to you, and to ballet. It's a gift of life.

It is time to move on now. Thank you, all of you.

God bless you!

Blog 46

Next week Dutch children have a week off, enjoying Spring Vacation. So next week there will be no lessons at Bayadère. 

The Monday lesson was a kind of wrap up of the last 5 weeks. Lyda used minimal verbal instruction, and we managed to perform the exercise at the barre in 35 minutes.

In the center, we practiced the tendu marché; with every step backward, we had to turn our head in the opposite direction of the foot we were moving. So when we "marched" the left foot en tendu to the left, we had to simultaneously turn our head to the right.

That's what I call a tough job if you are not used to doing so in daily life. It's precisely this kind of moves that keep you developing new pathways in your neurological system; ballet is very useful to rejuvenate yourself.

After the practice of exercises like assemblé and glissade, 4 changements in combination with two emboités, we proceeded to the diagonal and did the pas the cheval.

Pas de cheval means horse's step. A rather peculiar exercise! The right foot of the working leg extends in pointe tendue devant, with a little hop on supporting leg the right leg bends and stretches (as if pawing the ground), weight is transferred to the right leg. At the same time, the left does a little développé derrière and paws the ground (the transfer of weight from one leg to the other occurs during the hop.) 

The second lesson this week was based on character dance, a stylized traditional folk or national dance, with the uses movements and music that have been adapted for the theater.

Character dance is part of the classical ballet repertoire. 

I must admit that I'm very fond of Russian tradition and music.

Even the Russian language is intriguing, with that beautiful Cyrillic alphabet.

I like the physical labor you have to put in to dance. And character dance has something swirling; what an intense experience! 

I invite you to give a comment on my blog. Or to contact me at the e-mail address: bert.jonker@movetoballet.com if you have a particular question or issue you want to share with me. I promise I won't bite!

And now it is time to relax! 

A week off. So no blog next week!

My next blog will be on March 1.

Blog 45

I missed one of the lessons again due to my work. Yep, that’s quite frustrating for my progress in ballet. And of course, for my focus. 

I am a grown-up person. I’ve obligations to attend to. And one of them is earning an income. Luckily, my job can be satisfying. But guarding the balance in my life with respect to working, performing sports and ballet, and spending time with family is necessary.  Sometimes, this is easier said than done. 

In earlier blogs, I wrote about a variety of exercises. Now it’s time to say a few things about the frappé, one of our custom exercises at the barre.   

We begin by standing in a wrapped cou the pied position, the heel of the working leg in front of the ankle of the supporting leg, then extend the working leg sharply en avant to 30 degrees without brushing or changing the shape of the foot. The frappé is a sharp movement and is performed dynamically. In the frappé, more time is spent in the final, outstretched pose of each frappé than in getting there. And then return the working leg in the same way. 

Of course, also à la seconde and derrière.

I always carefully look at Lyda while we perform the frappé, she is my role model. Up to now, I’m still taken by surprise with each frappé she makes. It’s a kind of quick reflex action. All the time, she seems to do a frappé exactly 1-speed millisecond earlier than I do. 

The frappé is also a terrific exercise to train the turn out of my upper thigh. Cause positioning my heel in front of the ankle of my supporting leg with the rest of my foot fully wrapped sur le cou the pied requires a considerable turn out of my upper thigh. And that isn’t easy.

We practice chainé in almost every lesson. We make a series of turns in the same direction on the diagonal. With our feet in demi-pointe.

I have to whip my head around quickly and focus on a specific spot in the classroom with each rotation of my body; otherwise, I will become dizzy. Yet, dizziness is my fate every time again. At the end of the diagonal, that is, if I succeed in maintaining a straight line, I sometimes have to grasp the barre or the wall to stop me from tumbling down. 

No need to drink any alcoholic beverages Lyda says, just do a chainé! 

Every now and then, Lyda wants us to do the chainé en relevé.  She slowly introduces more techniques to enhance our skills. 

As with all other movements in classical ballet, the challenge of turning is to make it look effortless. That’s what I call a real master challenge!

In a business meeting, I talked with my colleagues about my sports and ballet activities. And look at what happened. They became enthusiastic and asked me to organize a boxing clinic and ballet lesson somewhere in 2020. Would it surprise you if I say to you that the male colleagues want to box and the females want to experience a ballet lesson? I asked them to do both. Then I asked Lyda if she is prepared to give a ballet lesson, and she too reacted with lots of enthusiasm. A few days later, my daughter and her friend asked me when they can join in a trial lesson. And the same question came from my oldest son. 

Is something happening here?

Blog 44

It is so intriguing to discover how well Russian Ballet is thought through. I experienced this quite intense in this week’s classes. It gives me a strange sense of proudness that I’m taking part in this beautiful art!

Thursday, we practiced the cambré. Cambré means bent over. A movement curving the spine forward, sideways or backward. We did the backward one.

In a backbend, your fulcrum descends down the spine. It initially supports the weight of your head, then more and more of the torso, as the bending becomes more extreme. And then stay in balance! That bending backward is quite an exercise. I can hardly make a proper backward bend. My shoulders and upper back are stiff. But so is my spine. And of course, the muscles of my back need to be trained.

I discovered (again) that I’ve got some work to do. Lyda gave me a few exercises to practice at home. The exercise starts with you lying on your belly, prone, hands beneath the shoulders and the legs in a slight second position. Push off, gently raise your torso, arms loose from the floor, stretch them in front of you and hold this position, as high as your torso can get, 8 counts and then release slowly. Do this a few times. Then gradually raise your legs, turned out, and your feet pointed, hold it as high as you can for 8 counts, and slowly lower. Again a few times. The crescendo of this exercise is that you slowly lift both torso and legs, hold it for 8 counts, and slowly lower, do this say 3 times. 

We practiced the temps lié in the center, Lyda said this was the official version, but it is also the simplest version. For you know: I’m a beginner.

You start standing in the fifth position croisé, the right foot front. Then do a demi plié, both arms in the first position. Your right foot glides forward into croisé, your left foot remains in demi plié. Then shift your weight on to the right foot and point your left foot behind. Bring your left arm up and your right arm out to the side. Bring the left foot from behind into the 5th position en face in demi plié, shifting left arm into the first position, right arm remains in the second position. Slide the toe of the right foot to the side, leaving left in demi plié, shift weight on to outstretched right leg (opening left arm into the second position), with pointed toe slide left leg into the 5th position front in demi plié. Drop your arm into a preparatory position, and repeat the whole movement on the left foot.

Mind the transference of weight onto the front leg that is accompanied by an oppositional extension of the back leg (pointe tendue derrière croisé), the back foot pushes the weight onto the front foot. So exquisite and elegant.

We had some chit chat in the classroom about the Bolshoi Ballet Company. Lyda showed us some pictures of young ballerina’s training the cambré, or arabesque. The alignment of the head, torso, arms, legs, and feet gives it its artistic beauty. So perfectly aligned! And she told how the young students grasp every moment to train their flexibility. The boarding school has carpets all over the place, so students can do their stretches on the floor.

And it’s time to buy new black tights. Lyda advised me to try another brand so I can feel the difference in texture, and fit.

Blog 43 A fun lesson

I could only attend the Monday evening class this week. An unexpected meeting came up on Thursday that lasted through the evening, so regretfully I had to text Lyda that I could not come. So only one class this week. Is the glass then half empty or half full? Half-full I would say. Moreover, we had a fun and relaxed class on Monday.

We practiced the regular barre exercises plié, tendu, jeté, ronde jambe, developpé, fondu, and frappé, of course, accompanied by that beautiful piano music. I'm still surprised by the many possible variations in these movements. As Lyda puts it: "I can think up of an endless variety of movements, I'll be able to surprise you until you're 100 years old."

The fondu is an intriguing kind of exercise. To achieve the quality of "melting," both legs need to stretch and bend at the same rate. The right foot moves from the 5th position to sur le cou de pied, and the left foot simultaneously does a demi plié, its knee turned out. Then the right knee opens forward (en avant) with the toes pointed on the floor, the left one straightens out and extends in the knee joint simultaneously with the right one. The right foot returns to sur le cou de pied, and the movement is repeated à la seconde, en derrière. A very controlled movement, très lentement, where the working leg successively and smoothly unfolds as the supporting leg straightens. As if you move when standing in a swimming pool. The resistance of the water makes you move slower.

Yes, I've learned that a swimming pool provides a perfect playground for a ballet dancer. Mind you, when you want to practice the developpé the water helps you to maintain your balance and lift your leg. But it also provides the extra resistance if you want to train on strengthening your muscles.

One of the students, Marion, lent me the book "Winter seasons, a dancer's journal," written by Toni Bentley. Toni wrote this book at the age of 22, as a young ballerina and member of the corps de ballet of New York's City Ballet, during the time Balanchine was the choreographer. She did not perceive herself as a successful dancer. She knew she would never become a principal or soloist. That feeling that her career had stagnated led her to take a long, personal look within, and she began writing a journal covering the City Ballet's winter season between November 1980 and February 1981. She left the City Ballet, but returned later. This experience taught her that the dancer's life is ingrained in her character; it was impossible for her to leave. Though still in the corps she rediscovers the joy in her role. Her life is simpler now, her energy directed toward her dancing. It touches me that though she didn't accomplish the top, she knew to reconcile with herself and find joy in ballet again. Ballet can be very competitive if you want to become a professional dancer. There is a downside to ballet when you look at it from this perspective. But this doesn't interfere with my love for this beautiful art.

This week Lyda added a link on the Facebook site of La Bayadère to a story of an older woman, Michelle Herman, who started ballet at the age of 62. It's an inspiring story. As a kid, she took modern dance classes for five or six years. She discovered classical ballet now, she is older and is in love with it. I can wholeheartedly recommend you to read the testimony of her new passion. 

Blog 42

I have to pay special attention again on my placement cause this was the second time this month that Lyda had to correct me in my placement. The knee of my working leg is slightly bent.

I understand the importance of correct placement. It really uplifts your performance. So here is a rehearsal, to remind me of the elementary lessons learned, but apparently seeping away. A wake-up call!

In a correct stance the weight of my body has to be correctly centered over the feet, with the armpit and the hipbone vertically aligned, shoulders low, the ribs in and flat, thus controlling the lower back and stabilizing the vertical placement of the torso directly on top of my supporting legs. In the aplomb stance, the patella is in an uplifted position, and this is a result of the contraction of the quads. You need to develop your quads in ballet to lift up your legs. Strengthening your quads requires exercising over some period of time. And these exercises are, in fact, the regulars of each lesson, tendu, jeté and so on. The trick is to perform the exercises with contracted quads, keeping your patella uplifted, so you build up strength. 

And looking in the mirror, of course, I tried to correct myself. 

I also noticed that a proper placement helps when you have to keep balance standing on demi-pointe.

And this brought me back to another eye-opener. When in tendu, I seem to have my working leg a bit bent in de knee. It's hard work for me to stretch that knee. Until Lyda remarked that my working leg was not properly turned out. So when I focused on turning my leg more out, the bent knee simultaneously became a stretched knee. 

And again, I discover that it is not yet part of my system that in ballet, all movements are performed with the legs turned out. 

We practiced the pas de chat (step of the cat) extensively in the Monday lesson. 

When going to the right on the diagonal: right leg fifth position back: the right leg is lifted to high retiré (not touching the supporting knee) as the left leg pushes off the floor and is lifted to a high retiré. The landing occurs on the right leg with left leg closing in the fifth devant. We did this in a series to the same side. Lyda added a special nuance with respect to the starting position: the right leg in the 5th position in front, from then on, as mentioned above. 

And then the assemblé (to put together, assemble) at the barre: the jump from one foot onto two. There are times when the assemblé seems to be so easy, but this day it was not. There are times when body and mind don't seem to work together.

On Thursday, we had a real ballet workout lesson. I loved it. 

Blog 41 

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit "(Aristotle).

Happy New Year, everyone! Time to start up again and make those wishes and intentions come true that you made on New Year's Eve.

My first disappointment this year came in fast: no exam this year, though a few weeks ago this seemed so real. I was so looking forward to my next exam. Not enough pupils enrolled, so the business case is negative for Lyda. I understand this, and yet I longed for that sense of purpose, that discipline when preparing for that Grade 3 exam. To bad!

In the week before Xmas, Lyda dedicated a lesson to flexibility and stretching. This week she mentioned the positive effect of massaging your neck on your stretching ability. And she referred to Lisa Howell, an Australian physiotherapist. Lisa is a well-known therapist in the ballet dancing community, a beacon for dancers with dance injuries.

Lyda experimented in her classes with the neck massaging method to improve flexibility, and she concludes that it is effective with say 50% of the pupils. So she invited us to try this for ourselves. By the way: the massage can be easily done by yourself. 

As you know, by now I'm a bit rusty. So about a year ago, I bought Lisa Howell's Front Splits Flexibility Program. There are a few eye-openers in this course. One of them is about fascia. A fascia is a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles.

This fibrous connective tissue contains tightly packed bundles of collagen fibers that are oriented in a wavy pattern parallel to the direction of pull.

The fascia of each muscle links to that of many other muscles, so tension in one muscle group can be transferred to other muscle groups. So it is not the muscles themselves that interconnect, but the fascia. 

You can speak of a continuous fascial line: it extends from the muscles in the head and neck, through the upper back, lower back and pelvis, to the hamstrings and down into the calves and feet. 

Now you understand why massaging your muscles at the base of your skull can have a positive effect on all the other muscles down the back of your body even down into your legs. 

In my last blog I also mentioned the book "Relax into stretch" by Pavel Tsatsouline, a Russian sportsman. Worthwhile to read. A relaxed mindset is a key issue when we talk about flexibility. I immediately experience that relation when I have a busy day and have to run to be in my class on time.

I have to face it: stress causes tension of the muscles. And when in stress, it's not easy to start massaging your neck muscles. 

So time to form new habits…..

Please, let me awaken my 3 D's (drive, discipline, and determination) at times when I need them most!

On Sunday, I had a New Year's training in my boxing gym, culminating in a push-up competition. Primitive, raw stuff. I felt stiff the next day. Even my warm-up and flexibility exercises didn't work out well, so my first lesson of ballet started with a rigid body. 

But as soon as we started with the plié, accompanied by that beautiful piano music Lyda always provides for, I felt the relaxation unwinding my body. The delicate and sophisticated movements and music made me feel at ease, this was my moment of mindfulness. Ballet as a perfect antidote for living my busy and demanding life.

Blog 40 Xmas coming, holiday on the way

This week already the last lessons at Bayadère before the Xmas break. 2019 passed by like a whirlwind.

On January 6, lessons will start again, 2020 is impatiently waiting to make its entrance!

Monday evening I hurried tot Bayadère and came a bit too late. Lyda was giving a special lesson about stretching. Very interesting for a rusty person like me. Educational, because she explained to us the works of lengthening and contracting of the muscle fibers. And of course, after the information, she walked the talk. Not easy for me to perform the exercises she wanted us to do, because I came in late after a tough day at work, no chance to do my warming up. But heck, I gave it a try.

Passive stretching, active stretching, dynamic stretching, PNF stretching. Use Google and find out what it means. There are different opinions about what method of stretching is the best. The most practical solution to this riddle is to try and discover what method suits you best. 

In my opinion, it is not short muscles and connective tissues that make me tight; no, it is my nervous system. It's the muscle software that interdicts my muscles to slide out to their true full length. Muscle software is based on previous experiences like sitting all day or performing monotonous labor. I think my nervous system picked a fixed length for every one of my muscles in my lifetime and is thereby programmed to keep it that way. Whenever you reach too far compared to this self adapted standard, the stretch reflex kicks in and reins your muscles in. 

And things like fear and tension tighten the muscles up too, so they will resist lengthening. 

Lyda made us do a mixture of passive and active stretching. First passive, then bouncing, followed by passive. 

I want to deepen my knowledge of this stretching. One of the books I read right now is "Relax into stretch" by Pavel Tsatsouline, a Russian sportsman. He advocates PNF stretching: create flexibility through muscle tension.

I am astonished that in most of the ballet books that I've read, nothing is said about stretching. While so much flexibility is needed in doing the ballet exercises.

The Thursday lesson went on in a very relaxing atmosphere; we practiced jazz ballet and did joint mobility exercises. And after that a game, in two groups we pictured a few scenes of a fairy tale, the other group had then to guess which fairy tale we were depicting and vice versa.

During this vacation, I will not write a blog. It's time for some relaxation, visiting family, and reading books. I'll continue my daily exercises on flexibility and visit the gym to do my workouts. Oh, there is still so much that I want to know and to learn.

See you in January! Have a nice Holiday! My blessings to you!

I invite you to give a comment on my blog. Or to contact me at the e-mail address: bert.jonker@movetoballet.com if you have a particular question or issue you want to share with me.

Blog 39

A small class last Monday evening.

We took considerable effort to practice the chassé, in particular, the en avant type. The chassé is used as a traveling jumped step, one leg "chasing" the other. It can be done in all directions.

It is a single sliding movement of the front foot with the knee in demi plié along the floor. With a small jump, the back leg comes to join the front leg in the air, during the suspension the two legs are held close together, the landing occurs on the back leg, but the weight is quickly transferred to the front leg in wide 4th position. Then the movement is repeated. 

During the chassé, the body is held slightly in front of the line of gravity. That does not mean, in this case, that the torso is leaning forward; rather, it is an inner realignment of weight. 

Leaps like grand jeté are generally preceded either by a pas de bourrée couru or a chassé.

Lyda always talked about two feet coming together in the air. Until this evening, I supposed that the back foot then had to bump on the front foot, making a distinct clapping sound. And I usually hurt my feet a bit with this exercise. In this lesson, it was a kind of wake up call for me that it's not the feet that clap but the lower legs that collide and make that sound. The shinbone of the back leg touches the calf of the front leg.

In Thursday's class, Lyda gave us an outlook on our evolution as students. Lyda made us practice ballet exercises that we are expected to learn a year ahead of now. Of course, not simple. But promising. This makes me feel eager to go on.  

Somewhere this week, Lyda sent me an email that she added a link on her Bayadère website to my blog. And she announced on Facebook and Instagram that one of her adult ballet beginners writes a blog about his ballet lessons. 

It's a privilege to write this blog and see it gain so much attention. I'm honored.

If practicing ballet is on your mind, and you have never had ballet lessons before, then this blog is for you. I hope my blog will help, stimulate, and encourage you, adult, to make that next move, that big step, to start with ballet lessons. 

Next week is last week with lessons this year. Christmas is nearing, and so are the holidays. 

Monday a stretching class, Thursday a walk-in class, with specials.

Remarkable how time flies. With the start of the New Year, we will prepare full swing for the ARBTA exams in April.

Blog 38 Exam in 2020

Lyda sent an email to inform us about a new series of exams next year; in my case, we are talking about a grade 3 exam.
I took exams in Classical Ballet at Grade level 2 in April 2018 at Bayadère, under the rules of the Association of Russian Ballet and Theatre Arts (ARBTA).
I still remember Gypsy Booth, my examiner. Later I learned that she is the president of the ARBTA. A distinct and remarkable, grey-haired, British lady, who travels across the countries to take exams. I admire this dedication to the Russian Ballet. It's people like her that keep up the high standards and thus protect the Russian legacy in ballet.

I'm looking forward to preparing for my next exam. It gives a sense of purpose, goals to achieve. In a disciplined way, I will learn new exercises and become more proficient in doing them. A healthy kind of stress to do the right thing!
In April 2018, part of my preparations was a pas de deux with Marion, following a choreography inspired by the Knights Dance of Romeo and Juliet. You have to know that I started my classical ballet training a half-year earlier at Bayadère. And felt totally immersed in this beautiful new world. So rich in culture and full of color! And still in awe with my terrific teacher and coach Lyda.
She teaches me that ballet is all about theatre, and that posture and appearance is everything. Look fierce; walk with dignity, she said. Accompanied by that dramatic music from Prokofiev.

The pas de deux was the supreme moment during my exam. First, there was the regular stuff, like doing plié and so on. I still have the script for the exercises.
Dancing in front of someone who is examining you, looking intensely at you, and writing things down while you move and dance can be quite intimidating. And there were only two of us, Marion and me, dancing in front of her. Especially when you are the only man, and to be more specific, the oldest person in the house. And yes, I felt vulnerable and modest, for grade 2 is the beginner's level. But Gypsy showed integrity and respect.
I felt a bit stressed at the start of the exam, but the minute I moved, I felt confident that I would make it. I may have thought in some of my weakest moment that I was actually making a fool of myself, an old man, chasing his outdated dreams. Still, I must confess that my self-esteem never left me in de classroom. Gypsy even clapped her hands after the exam. Chasing your dreams requires the courage to break through barriers. Mostly your own.

Well, that's all, folks. See you next week.

Please feel comfortable to give a comment on my blog. Or contact me on email 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.

Blog 37

A peculiar week. I only could go to class on Monday evening. On Thursday, I had to attend a happening at my work, one of my colleagues celebrated his 40th jubilee.

In the Monday lesson, Lyda talked about an article she had read about stretching in Dance Informa, Australian Edition (DanceInforma.com). A study at The Australian Ballet delivered some surprising results as to what works in stretching and what is actually damaging to the body and increasing the risk of injury. Muscles shouldn’t be passively stretched, that’s what the article says. I’m interested to know how Lisa Howell thinks about this. Maybe I’ll look into this another time.

Lyda started with a new series of exercises. One of them is développé. That means trembling muscles, perspiration running down my cheeks. I described this experience as “the walls of Jericho came tumbling down” in one of my earlier blogs, number 13.

To understand and practice the développé, I did some research. And I found some answers in the book “Ballet beyond tradition.” It is one of my favorite books about ballet, written by Anna Paskevska, former ballet teacher and scholar at the faculty of The Chicago Academy for the Arts and Columbia College. She died at the age of 69 in 2007. You can find more specifics on her on tallskinny.com. She manages to precisely describe and motivate the movements in ballet. She thinks, analyzes, and explains, using words and examples that fit precisely into my kind of thinking. In a way, I feel fond of her. But stop, that’s weird. I’m growing sentimental about a person I’ve never met before. 

She helps me to pierce this intriguing exercise, the développé.

You don’t contract the leg muscles, specifically the quads when lifting the leg. That leads to the overdevelopment of the quads. By that, you overlook the role of the hip flexors. You have to maintain an elongated spine and an aligned pelvis to facilitate access to the iliopsoas and to enable it to utilize its function of lifting the leg. In a développé, all the muscles of the leg that need to be used will be engaged when the starting position of the body is correct; the muscles of the torso and deep muscles of the hip joint will support the motion. The movement’s action depends on the direction of the extension. To the front, once the leg has been lifted to a high retiré, the inner thigh and foot lead the motion outward to the full extension. The iliopsoas muscles carry the weight of the leg. To the side, the thigh is lifted further upward from the retiré position before the leg begins to unfold. To the back, the thigh again leads the unfolding, and the pelvis tilts forward in response.

You have to train the inner muscular strength to make these controlled, intentional movements possible. And here is the tantalizing thing: it takes time, a lot of time. 

Four times to the front, 4 times to the side, 4 times to the back. I felt torn.

Blog 36 Pas de Deux

A very inspiring and exciting ballet week!

It was cold last Monday. In-class exercises went slow and stiff. So Lyda told us to do a few warming up exercises. And it helped. Body temperature rises, joints become more smooth, and the muscles more flexible. In an earlier blog, I wrote about the importance of warming up. Usually, at home, I prepare by doing a few routine stretches. And while waiting in the dressing room at Bayadère, I continue to do this. And at the end of November, that’s not a luxury.

We had an interesting and motivating extra changement exercise. While in the center, Lyda asked us to take off our shoes and put one of them a few inches in front and the other a few inches at the back of our feet. Then she challenged us to do the changement 32 times on our bare feet, remaining in the confines of the shoes. This gives an extra dimension to the changement, and maybe you think I’m exaggerating a bit, but I love these kinds of exercises.

The Thursday lesson was one of a kind. Only Marion and I were in class, the rest of the students didn’t show up for various reasons. So Lyda decided to offer us an alternative lesson. With as she said, hard work for the calves and in the second half of the lesson a few basic techniques for the pas de deux. We eagerly chose for this special lesson.

First a half-hour of exercising the calves: plié to relevé on two feet, then on the right foot, then two feet and left foot then two feet, countless times in series from 8 to 16 movements.
Then from standing to the relevé, the same order of using the feet as mentioned before. And again in series of 8 to 16 movements. They were making fun out of me, fantasizing about the horrible calve cramps and stiffness I would get this weekend.
Well, to be honest, yesterday, Friday, I felt a bit of stiffness in my upper calves. But today that’s already gone. And I made a long run this morning, so I’m doing fine ladies.

Then it was time for the pas de deux. Marion put her hard blocked pointe shoes on. These are satin shoes with stiffened, reinforced toes, the tips of which are squared off to provide a small platform on which the dancer is able to balance.
I learned that it can be harmful to the Achilles tendon to tie the pointe ribbons at the back of the ankle. There is a small indentation just in back of the inside anklebone where the knot can be hidden under the ribbon; in this spot it is both comfortable and invisible Marion told me.
Only advanced dancers are advised to dance on pointe shoes.

The goal of the pas de deux was for her do to some pointe work, with me holding her in different positions.
We practiced some basic techniques. Marion stood in front of me, in plié in the 4th position, I behind her back, in the second position, a bit in plié, with my hands on her waist. Then she springs upward, straightening the knees, simultaneously drawing the toes across into a straight line front to back, aligned with the center of the body. And of course, me acting along with her to achieve harmony of movement. So my partner was sur la pointe, in balance, and now my task was to shift her to the right and to the left, her feet remaining on pointe on the floor. That’s when gravity comes in, and holding and supporting her becomes my task. With safety first! The aim was to develop mutual trust. But also to feel the effect of movement. I actively became aware of spatial dimensions and shifting weight in working together. And correct body positioning in relation to my partner. For me, it was a great way to make my next step into ballet. Marion uttered directions to me when on pointe. I felt honored to exercise these basics with her. Later on, we practiced the arabesque, Marion, in this position, while I rotated her. Thanks, Marion, for your trust! And Lyda for this opportunity to do some more advanced work.
It was a great lesson!

Blog 35 Jumps

Maybe a bit of a stupid confession, but I really thought pliés were meant for creating lenient muscles. To stretch and become more flexible. 

During lessons, though, I heard Lyda say quite regularly that many of the exercises we were doing were actual preparations for a wide range of jumps. So that’s not the point. I could have known.

But only after 1 ½ year has it become clear to me that a demi plié is a starting point for a jump. 

Well, let me look up what Agrippina Vaganova teaches about the elementals of jumping in ballet.

In a correct demi plié, the heels are not lifted from the floor. The main factor of the imparting force at the moment of leaving the floor is the heel. That is why it is essential to pay special attention to the correctness of the demi plié. 

The legs must be forcefully extended in the knees, arches, and toes at the moment of the jump. And after the jump, the feet must touch the floor first with the toe, then softly with the heel, and then lowered into demi plié.

When in jump, Lyda told us to “stay” in the air, hovering, so to speak. I learned that the word balloon is used to describe this.  Hovering in the air, you stay in a pose or position. 

For the development of the jump ending on both feet, the changement de pieds is the appropriate exercise. Every lesson we practice this elementary exercise. We stand in the 5th position, right foot front, in demi plié, push off from the floor, jump up, extending the toes and arching the feet. Then coming down, we change the feet; the left foot will be in the front.

The bigger the jump, the deeper de demi plié. And the arms must remain relaxed, from the shoulder to the hands, slightly curved.

I love the jumps. They ask every inch of you to remain composed yet energetic and are quite exhausting. I feel content after this explosion of force and would want to do this more often.

But that is my general remark on a lot of the exercises we perform. I would like to do them more often, in higher numbers. 

I was a member of two gyms, and the more spacious gym was the gym I departed from. Paying for two gyms and ballet amounts to quite a sum of money, so I had to make choices. I chose to keep the gym where I had the best lessons, and that was the smaller one. And of course, ballet is number one of my choices. 

But now I miss the spacious one, for that was the place where I could exercise my ballet moves and jumps. And that gym was open every day of the week. So now, I feel a bit incomplete. I can’t do my exercises the way I want on Saturdays and Sundays.

I know that I have to exercise more.

Blog 34

Lyda picked up a piece of chalk end drew the rectangle again on the floor. This time to introduce the effacé position. We already practiced en face, de dos, en profil, and croisé direction in the previous lesson. When standing in the croisé direction you can be in the croisé or the effacé position. The fundamental characteristic of croisé is the crossing of the legs. The effacé, in contrast, is with the legs open. It’s all about looking at the mirror to understand how the position looks.

Lyda made a game out of it, she uttered the name of the diverse positions, and we made the moves. To get accustomed to the positions. “En face croisé, de dos, en face effacé,” and so on. This went on for a few minutes.

In the Thursday lesson, Lyda put white tape on the floor of the studio, one stripe for each of us. And we started practicing the tendu, moving en avant, derrière, and à la seconde. Without the barre. These movements implicate holding the balance, and I liked this. Balance is a crucial dimension in ballet. So every day I practice at this, using common everyday movements. When I put my shoes on, I pick up a shoe from the floor, hold it in my hands, stand on one leg and elevate my other leg, putting the shoe on, first the left, then the right. Incorporate the ballet basis movements in your daily life is what Lyda advised us. That’s what I try to do. So when brushing my teeth, I do the demi plié, when picking something up from the floor I keep my legs straight and bend forward to pick the thing up.

We keep on moving up, I guess, doing more exercises in the center of the studio.

Lyda stimulates us to practice at home. Use the Santa Claus period of the year she exclaimed. Ask Santa for a few gifts, like a mirror, a short piece of stair railing, maybe you can hang a small length of stair railing on the wall, and voilà you have your own barre. And ask for tape to make a stripe on the floor.
The motto is: Build your own little ballet studio in one of your rooms at home. And practice. Every day.

We practiced the pas assemblé. It is one of the basic movements for the development of the jump. But it is fairly complicated too.
Stand in the 5th position, right foot front, demi plié, with a sliding movement draw the left leg to the side and with the toe of the extended foot reach the second position on the floor. Then with the right foot which has remained in plié push off the floor, extending the toes during the jump, left leg still in second position in the air, then both feet simultaneously, return to the 5th position in demi plié, left foot front. From this plié, the movement is repeated with the other leg.
The assemblé becomes a little bit more accepted in my system. But I have a long way ahead of me to make it a firm jump!

Blog 33

I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.

Pablo Picasso

Happily, I recovered from my flu. Now Lyda had a cold and was sniffing all the time. Must be autumn, with the sudden temperature rises and falls, rainy weather and stormy times. I hope I won’t become sick again after this fresh start of ballet lessons this week.

The first lesson was on Monday. The class was full, and I started at the back end of the barre. Modest and ready for the lesson.  After our first movements at the barre, we moved to the center. There Lyda explained the four ways a dancer can stand in front of the audience. She drew a square on the floor with a piece of chalk to indicate the degree of the turn of the body: en face, de dos, en profil, and en croix. Ballet is also theatre. The audience wants to see the dancer. It's important to be aware of this when you perform.

It was a peaceful lesson.

Thursday evening, I collected a few corrections in just a half of an hour. What was I doing wrong? Things went humpy dumpy that evening. Maybe her cold made her a bit grumpy?

Work on your plié, she said. At Bayadère, the Russian demi plié is practiced, but Lyda advised me to use the British demi plié at the barre. My demi plié is not deep enough. Bending the knees and at the same time, keeping the heels on the floor puts a lot of strain on my calves. That’s due to my boxing and running activity, I guess. But I already forgot what the difference is between the British and the Russian plié.

Another thing to work on is my battement jeté. The working leg opens to a height of 45 degrees, fully stretched, then returns to the closed position. It can be performed to the front, side, or back and usually begins in the 1st or 5th position. I act too slow, I have to speed up.

Do systematic repetitions of the same movement a high number of times in succession. That’s her advice.

Well, a frustrating lesson. Luckily I had a few laughs too.

We also practiced the pas de bourrée. As you may remember in an earlier blog, I wrote that the pas de bourrée causes me trouble. The pas de bourrée has several variations and can be done in all possible directions; it is a step in three counts, during the lesson, we exercised the basic form with a change of the feet. If you start with the right foot in front, you will end with the left foot in front. 

According to Lyda, she wanted us to do the pas de bourrée au dessous. And I think she uses a specific extra element in this movement as she incorporates a cou de pied starting position in this exercise. The working foot is flexed and wrapped around the ankle of the supporting leg with the heel in front and the foot winged derrière.

Blog 32

A week off at Bayadère, the children enjoy a vacation. This amounts to three weeks without ballet lessons. I’m glad things start up again next week.

It’s autumn in the Netherlands. Leaves, once green, turn trees into majestic colored symbols of the circle of life. Poetic, isn’t it? This magnificent climax of life, preparing for hibernation and a new start in spring. The colored leaves fall from the trees as the wind blows, they color the ground, leaving trees barren. Trees are monuments of an undefeated will to live, deeply rooted in the earth, touching (kissing) the blue sky. And in doing so, they transcend their struggle for existence in intrinsic beauty and embody fullness of life.

This expression of Mother Nature brings me to the poetry of dance and ballet in particular.

My ultimate goal and I am prepared to spend years of training to achieve this, is to be able to use my body as an expressive instrument. As an expression of my soul!

I’m struggling to master the movements and techniques to make sure that my body does not prevent my soul from expressing itself. And that’s the journey you read about in my blog. Some times romantic, most of the time realistic, and now and then pessimistic.

People marvel at the beauty of a classically trained dancer, so do I. But it’s not the technique that moves me, it’s the embodiment of that whisper of the soul that I seek.

I’ll finish this time with a short piece of poetry from D. H. Lawrence, a famous writer.

When the white feet of dancers beat across the stage

the sound is like the wings of birds at dawn, fluttering,

and when the feathery light bodies rise en pointe, spinning

like the wind across a lake, the sight is romance, uttering.

Blog 31

A short blog this time. I was still sick this week. Coughing and coughing, yes, how nasty this flu is.

I decided to put my focus on recovery and not to bother my fellow students with my flu. So, I skipped the lessons. 

I practice stretches and core exercises to maintain my flexibility and strength. But mind you, if you have problems with your back, don’t do these kinds of exercises without professional coaching.

One of them is the roll-up. The roll-up strengthens the abdominal muscles. 

To begin, you lie on your back with your arms folded across your chest. The hips and knees are bent at 90 degrees angle. Slowly lift your torso while maintaining the elongation of the upper back and neck, to approximately 45 degrees, hold this position for 8 counts, and then slowly roll down. Then repeat this exercise 1 time with a slight twist to the left and repeat with a slight twist to the right. Try to breathe comfortably during this workout. After this first set, repeat 3 to 6 sets. After doing this, you are probably tired!

A few weeks ago, Lyda taught us a back-extension exercise to strengthen the low back muscles. These muscles aid in supporting the torso during dance movements like the arabesque. This exercise balances the effect of the roll-up.

The exercise starts with you lying on your belly, prone, hands beneath the shoulders and the legs in a slight second position. Push off, gently raise your torso, arms loose from the floor, stretch them in front of you and hold this position, as high as your torso can get, 8 counts and then release slowly. Do this 3 to six times. 

You can add a second part to this exercise: while staying with your torso on the floor, gradually raise your legs, hold for 8 counts and slowly release. And third, you can slowly lift both the torso and legs for 8 counts and lower slowly. 

The combination of the roll-up and the back extension is a powerful exercise to strengthen your core.

But now I’ve got the flu, even 3 sets are impossible. Where did my strength and stamina go?

Blog 30

Last Sunday, I became sick. Turned out that I got a cold, a severe cold. My throat started to become sore, runny nose, and a headache. I felt awful.

The only right place to be was in my bed. No ballet class this week. 

This is the first time in the 2 years that I couldn’t go to ballet class because of illness.

One of the side effects of being sick is that I have a lot of dreams, and often I have memory flashbacks of things I really have forgotten. One of the flashbacks is of a remark my osteopath once made.

A few years ago, my osteopath told me that ballet isn’t healthy because of the unnatural body movements/postures, like pointé and turn out. 

So after that flashback, I involuntarily thought about the turn out this week. 

Turn out is a typical aspect of ballet training. It’s adopted from fencing positions. The outward positioning of the feet, accompanied by the femoral rotation, provides more stability and allows more mobility when the legs are raised. 

You don’t use the buttocks muscles to rotate the legs outward, but the hip rotator muscles. You have to master the ability to use these specific muscles independently. And yet in the turn out position, you use your buttocks, to stabilize the body for the sake of the turn out itself. You should feel the tightening of your buttocks at the top of the back of your legs, just underneath the buttocks. 

The force for turn out of the legs must come from the hip down.

My natural turn out, especially when I started, is limited. In one of my earlier blogs, I mentioned that the force for the turn out should not come from the floor up. I remember learning that lesson well in the first year. 

So, in the beginning, I forced an extra turn out from my feet upwards to my knees.

And knew almost instantaneously this was a bad practice. You’ll get injured in your knee. The knee is a hinge, not a rotary joint. And when you try a plié in that awkward position, you know exactly what I mean.

So all the week, I visualized doing the turn out. And as I do that virtual turn out, I feel that pulling out sensation in my hip joint. My knees feel safe. Ok, and then I doze off again.

And yet I don't know whether my osteopath is right or wrong. But that doesn't matter too much to me this week.

Well, I don’t want to complain, but I’m still coughing and sneezing. And I hope that I’ll recover soon. But I don’t know yet if I am already up to the Monday lesson.

Blog 29

Usually, I write about the exercises at the barre or in the center. But the last part of the lesson is interesting too and generally very energetic.

This week we had a multitude of exercises on the diagonal, like the polonaise, waltz, chassé, pas de chat, pas de bourrée, glissade, and chainés. We even practiced a pas de cheval, can you imagine?

I like chainés. It’s a series of turns in the same direction on the diagonal. I start with my feet in the first position on demi-pointe. We start tapping our feet consecutively 4 times, left right left right, then making 1 revolution. The weight shifts from 1 foot to another with each half revolution, arms held in the first position. And tapping the feet 4 times again and so on. Some days I can perform the chainés without getting too dizzy, and then on other days, even one revolution is one too much. Essential is the way I turn my head. You can turn your head 180 degrees, from left to right. The trick is to choose a focal point and look at that point as long as possible. Then when your body is making a half revolution, quickly turn your head and look at the same point in the room. 

We performed the glissade at the diagonal. A glissade is a slide with the legs, in which one leg opens to a pointe tendue, the other leg on demi plié, then the weight is transferred to the first leg, the other pointing to pointe tendue, the movement ends by the second leg sliding into the 5th position. We practiced the en avant type of the glissade, where the front leg opens to the front, the other leg on demi plié, weight transferring onto the front leg which does a demi plié, the back leg extending pointe tendue. The back leg closes in the 5th in the back.

This was an exercise that I can grow fond of.

Another, the pas de bourrée, really causes me some trouble. That’s an exercise that I need to practice more often, I’m the master of disaster so to speak. I have to build it in my system, it’s not a reflex yet, I seem to miss an adequate neuro-muscular response to this one.  The pas de bourrée has several variations and can be done in all possible directions; it is a step in three counts, during the lesson, we exercised the basic form with a change of the feet. If you start with the right foot in front, you will end with the left foot in front. When I read the technical information on this exercise, I kind of get lost. Was it the au dessus, or was it the au dessous version we practiced? I simply forgot about it. 

I have discovered that in ballet, there are always two important considerations for the movements: the esthetic and the physical. They have to blend together, so to speak, to produce that lyrical effect while performing the movement. Think about the head position while you perform a glissade. The placement of your head helps to keep your body in equilibrium. In the meantime, you maintain expression on your face while you look in the direction of an audience. This transfers a message to your audience, hopefully lyrical. That also applies to the chainés.

Have a nice week!