Serenade

Happy Election Day!  Have you gotten caught up in the whirlwind of all the election madness?  No matter your affiliation, today will be a busy and exciting day, so I wanted to provide a little respite and break from the election grind. So, take a look at this beautiful video of Balanchine's Serenade.  The lovely Ashley Bouder is interviewed, and this ballet just makes me breathe a little easier.  Enjoy!

Ballerina Halloween Characters

Halloween is just around the corner! Still looking for costume ideas?  Look no further...
I always love asking my students what they plan on being for Halloween.  After a myriad of responses that usually include: mermaids, ballerinas (duh), fairies, witches and Disney characters, I ask them what they think I should be.  They usually ponder for a moment or two, and provide me with a litany of creative responses.  My favorite this year has been a princess zombie.
So I got to thinking about Halloween characters and costumes that could be ballet and dance inspired.  "Ballerina" is a pretty general character to portray, why not spice it up a bit and get more specific if your budding ballerina (or maybe you) are interested in being a creature from the dance world for Halloween.  Here are some ideas for characters and costume ideas too.  Happy Spooking!

Medora from Le Corsaire
Medora is a spunky harem girl in the Ballet Le Corsaire, a la Jasmine from Aladdin.  Set to be sold to a Pasha, Medora and her friend Gulnare embark on a set of adventures with Conrad the pirate and his slave Ali in this ballet.  

Viktoria Tereshkina

I love the idea of a yellow tutu and leotard, sparkled up and with a floaty veil or scarf to give the costume an Arabian Nights kind of feel.  Or some baggy pants (you could use ribbons or hair ties to pull the pants in at the ankles and knees) and channel Princess Jasmine.

Coppelia from Coppelia
Click here for the full story on Coppelia.  She's a great option because not only is she a 'ballerina' but a doll as well.  A ballet dress with an apron, and some fun and funky make up will make an easy and cute doll look.

Jewels
Balanchine gave us this gem of a ballet and this is a great option if you have a ballerina on your hands who LOVES a specific color.  Emerald, Ruby and Diamond were the original variations, but think outside the box!  You could also go Lilac Fairy from Sleeping Beauty!

Ariadne from Errand Into The Maze
Wanting to go a little more trick rather than treat? Martha Graham's Errand Into the Maze explores the Greek tale of Ariadne and the Minotaur.  Here is a picture of the traditional costume used.  This could also be a great costume to use make up on, both the face and the body!

Miki Orihara

La Sonnambula
We can again thank Balanchine for another darker character in La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker).  Also an opera, this haunting character floats mystically through her story in a long white nightgown, hair down, with a single candle lighting her way.  It's not only a chilling costume option, but a chillingly beautiful ballet.

Wendy Wheelan

Ballet 101

In honor of our 101st blog (don't worry, this is my last celebratory number based blogs until 200... or so), I wanted to offer some information on ballet basics, Ballet 101, if you will.  For those of you who have little ones in ballet and you see all the prancing and spinning and emulating of 'ballerinas', this may shed some light on why we do the crazy things we do in ballet.  Even if you know all the basics, it can be fun to learn some new facts (which I've also included here, with the help of the site abridgeclub.com)

Ballet 101

Tutus: Tutus may seem like an odd thing.  Why on Earth would dancers don an itchy, fluffy skirt that reached to their ankles to dance in?  Good question.  It was actually to portray the ethereal and light otherwordly beings that the Romantic era dancers were playing.  In ballets like Les Sylphides, choreographers wanted dancers to seem like the were just skimming the floor (hence the development of pointe shoes as well) and convince audiences that they really were from another world.  As ballet plots and technique developed, tutus got shorter to show fancier footwork.  Starting with Balanchine, many choreographers ditched the tutus all together to focus the choreography and the dancers more on pure movement rather than costumes.

An example of the clean (and non-tutu) costumes Balanchine preferred

Turn Out: Rotating the legs outwards to resemble a duck is also a quality that many question about ballet.  What purpose does turn out serve?  Well, besides giving students something to work out (check out this great video from a previous blog), turnout allows dancers to move quicker than if they were working from a parallel position.  In the court of Louis the XIV, not only did men's fashions (in that day, men did the majority of theatre dancing) demand them to use turn out (their wide topped boots forced them to turn their legs out when they moved), but theaters in that day sat audiences only on one side, and dancers could really only move side to side, and were not allowed to turn their backs to the members of the audience.

Barre: A horizontal wooden hand rail that runs around the wall of a ballet studio.

Warm-up: Exercises taken at the barre (and sometimes centre on the floor) to stretch, lengthen and loosen the body and muscles and prepare them for the more intensive dancing in the centre including jumps and turns.

Positions of the feet: First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth.  These have been developed and changed over time.  Beginning students usually only work from First, Second and Third.  Fourth and Fifth positions require more control over the turnout muscles, spine and upper body.

Port de bras: Carriage of the arms that coordinate with the positions of the feet.  Positions of the feet and port de bras are the basis for all classical ballet exercises and much choreography.

Plie: An exercise in which, standing erect and with back straight, you move down and up with

 the bend of the knees.

Releve: A movement in which you rise up high on to the balls of your feet. 

Centre: a group of exercises similar to those at the barre but performed in the centre of the room without the support of the barre. 

Arabesque: A position in which you balance on one leg (or bent leg) with the other

stretched out behind you.

Allegro: An Italian musical term meaning quick and lively. In ballet, allegro steps are completed in fast tempo.

Petit Allegro: Small jumping and turning steps.

Grand Allegro: A combination of large traveling steps and jumps.

Curtsey: A movement by the female dancer where she places one foot behind the other and bends both knees that thanks the instructor at the end of a class, or an audience at the end of a performance.

Bow: A movement by the male dancer where he bends from the waist down that thanks the instructor at the end of a class, or an audience at the end of a performance.  Both curtseys and bows can also be referred to as a Reverence.