Meet Me @ the Barre!

[Deebs]

Depths to Plumb, Sugarplum
New York Times

[Disneyphile]

Today was my last class of the semester. My toe finally went higher than my waist when I kicked. I almost cried.

Another little success, and a nice closer to the semester for me.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Good job, DP!

Nutcracker may be cliche, but I like it anyway. I don't care. I don't mind working two of them a season. Love the music, love the costumes, love the production.

May not like the sets, but that's a different deal.

[Deebs]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

My toe finally went higher than my waist when I kicked. I almost cried.

So happy for you!

Originally Posted by alphabassettgrrl

Nutcracker may be cliche, but I like it anyway. I don't care. I don't mind working two of them a season. Love the music, love the costumes, love the production.

May not like the sets, but that's a different deal.

I love it for all of the above. I'm sorry the sets are a PITA for you though. It's tradition and I love it. I think it is good that ballet has this cash cow to count on each year. Where would ballet be without it?

[alphabassettgrrl]

We get local ballet schools, and while I don't know how much money they make, we make money, and they seem to make enough for whatever they're looking for, so it seems everybody comes out happy.

I think it's mostly that we know the sets and can anticipate it. Normally we don't know what we're getting, and we won't have to deal with it more than once at a time. Nutcracker, not only do we know what we're getting, but we know it's coming back. We joke about it.

[Deebs]

Not my style of dance, but I love this kid. For his age especially, there is such grace and subtlety to his movements. Plus I want to pinch his cute little cheeks.

[Morrigoon]

If I were a video producer, I'd SO be trying to hire that kid, LOL! I actually think he gives a better performance than the person behind him.

[lindyhop]

Conversation at my last (Balboa) dance class:

Instructor - Do you know your foot is going past your body on seven?
Me - It is? Oh, on seven? I was concentrating on five.

[Deebs]

Originally Posted by lindyhop

Conversation at my last (Balboa) dance class:

Instructor - Do you know your foot is going past your body on seven?
Me - It is? Oh, on seven? I was concentrating on five.

I love this! I like your instructor's method of correction (assuming your foot is not supposed to be going past your body on the count of seven) because it is specific but not overbearing. I always hated an instructor to lose temper and belt out "NO!! No, no, no, no, NO!" to an individual or the group. It does nothing but weaken confidence and create more confusion. Like, what exactly is the no about?

Your response is so cute, too. Have felt that way many times -- concentrating so hard on one little section, then maybe being a little too comfortable on the very next.

[lindyhop]

I've never had a dance instructor yell but then again I've only been taking social dance classes and people wouldn't come back if the instructors were rude. However the classes I've taken for the last year have been very specific about technique so I get excited if (1) I understand what they're teaching and (2) I'm able to correct the weird little tics I developed from another teacher. In this case I fixed the wrong thing at seven. Whew!