Inter-Foundation Class 1

Ok, so I’m back! You may or may not be wondering where I went. Well to be honest I didn’t really go anywhere, but last week the time my ballet class was supposed to be was changed temporarily from Wednesday night to Thursday night and because of work I was not able to go and then I found out that the Saturday class that I was supposed to go to starts 15 minuets after I started work! So no ballet for me last week and because I was feeling so depressed by that I didn’t update, instead I made cupcakes! They were raspberry with really thick butter cream icing and a whole raspberry on top! No wonder I gained weight during the holidays.

So anyway, I was able to go to class last night and there were 4 people in it! Which id a big steep up for me because so far I have only been doing private classes. So there was, besides me, two 12 year old girls (both of whom were extremely friendly, nice, and have WAY too much energy) and a 40 year old woman... who started ballet when she was 18! Whoooo! Another late starter! She was nice too but more of a wall flower then the others though.

Class was really good. We all got there early and had time to stretch and get to know each other before class started. It was kinda funny the 4 of us all just walked over the barre simultaneously and lifted our left legs onto it and started stretching without a word to each other. We also compared our splits at one point in the class and guess what... mine is better then one of the 12 year olds! Oh and while we were stretching found out that everyone else is already en pointe which sucks for me.

So class started out as normal with plies and simple things like that but 10 minuets into the barre we started doing things I have never heard of before. There were still some things that I kinda knew what they were but most of the things I had no clue. Oh and about half way through centre we were supposed to do a pirouette combination across the floor... the only problem with that was that I have never been taught to do a pirouette before, so instead of joining in with the others my teacher pulled me aside and started to teach me the basics of how to do a pirouette.

Class was supposed to only be an hour but the other girls wanted to do a pointe class straight after my class ended, my teacher invited me to stay and do the 30 minuet class in flats but because I had already organised a ride before class I had to go, but I did ask my teacher what her requirements for going en pointe were and although she didn’t tell me exactly what they were she said that at the end of the year she will assess me and see if I am ready for pointe!!!!!!! YAY!!!! I know she may say that I am not ready but still... it is something to look forward to.

I think that is all for today, class is on Wednesday next week so I will try to update in the later part of the week...

Until next time,
Bonnie_Rose

Ballet withdrawal and a new dance bag

Hi all, I was planning on waiting until I had my next class (which is next Wednesday) before I updated, but I am currently going through ballet withdrawal so much that I decided to buy a new ballet bag! I found it when I was out shopping with my mum, nanna, sister and aunt. It is not a dance brand like Bloch or capezio, it is actually a converse bag and was 25 dollars cheaper then all the dance bags that I have been looking at that are about the same in size and number of pockets.

So since then I have been trying to figure out what to put in it, I mean I already have the basics in it like my leo, tights ect. But what else should go in it? Oh and I am getting some legwarmers tomorrow yay! But I think that is all I have to say for now... sorry for the short post but I will tell you all about my first inter-foundation class next week, until then here is a picture of my new bag and the things I have in it... if can think of anything else that I should have in it please let me know!

Thanks,

Bonnie_Rose

Class 5

Hi all!

Ok, first off I would like to say sorry for mot updating last week. I hurt my hip and shoulder (still not too sure how I did it though) and I didn’t get to go to class and I was too devastated to write on here.  So on a brighter note, I did go to class last night and it was sooooo much fun. I had my old teacher again and it was ok, except for the fact that apparently the school is holding its concert next week and the end of term on Saturday and it was so busy in there that I didn’t even get into class until 20 minuets after my class was supposed to start and then (because my teacher is the owner) we kept getting interrupted but because of this she decided not to charge me for the lesson, thanks Judith!

Ok, so even though there were lots on interruptions and we stated late she still worked me really hard and by the end of the class I had defiantly worked up a sweat and she had a little surprise for me right at the end. I am moving up into inter-foundation next term! She said that she had used to class to see how far I had come and she liked the way I handled myself at the barre and how I took direction and corrections, I need to work a lot on my strength and flexibility over the holidays so that I am not embarrassingly behind but I am really looking forward to it. Oh, and she also mentioned in passing that the other teacher I had said that I picked things up quickly and remembered them. Yay I impressed the teacher! There is also another girl at the school that will be progressing to inter-foundation too and so we are going to be in a class of two! And she said that we are probably going to be doing 2 classes a week if we are both free at the same time! We both know that I am going to be behind the other girl and that it is going to push me but I love to be pushed (it is when I do my best work) and hopefully I will really improve in no time.

So I think that is all the news I have for this week, now I have to spend 2 weeks away from ballet class nooooooo...... I honestly don’t know if I will update between now and next term but if inspiration strikes I might upload some videos of a couple grade 3 exercises that I know but that is all for now.

Peace out,

Bonnie_Rose

P.S. anyone know any good exercises that I can use in the holidays to help strengthen the muscles in a develope and turnout?

Class 4, Grade 3 and Goals

So I had my 4th class last night, but because my usual teacher went into the hospital to have her knee re-done, I had class with one of the other ballet teachers at the studio instead.


When I first arrived my teacher was completely ready to go, usually when I get there my other teacher (because she is the owner of the studio) almost always has some problem to take care of, so I have time to stretch when I get there, but last night my new teacher was ready to go straight away so I can’t tell you how glad I was that I had warmed up and stretched before I left home.

When I told her what grade I was doing she seemed surprised and said that if I had started with her that she would have started me on at least grade 3. So instead of moving from grade 1 to grade 2 like I thought I was going to do, we stared on grade 3!

Oh My Merlin it was fun! A lot more work and a lot more complicated then grade 1 but it felt so good to by pushed. There were several new things that I learnt last night such as grand plie, attitude, grand battement, Développé and petite retire. There was probably more but I have forgotten ha ha ha. I think my favourite new exercise that I learnt was releve/echappe. We did them right at the end of class (we only did barre in class which I LOVED) and by that time I was exhausted! They were so fun though and I can still remember the combination! I will have to post another video soon to show you all.

Oh and my new teacher thinks that I have better turnout then her! Ha ha awesome! But she also told me that I really need to work on keeping my hips level and to not move them so much when doing some of the exercises. All in all it was a great class and I hope that I have this teacher again next week. Do you think it would be rude if I asked to have class with this new teacher every week?

Ok, so I have decided to set some goals for myself for while I am doing ballet. 1) Get on pointe – I know this seems like an obvious goal but it is something that I really want to do and I can only hope that my teacher will let me. 2) learn pas de deux – most people will be thinking ‘why?’ but I have always loved watching pas de deux and don’t care if I am not that good at it I just want to try, the only bad thing is that I don’t know if it is possible at my current studio. 3) Dance the tambourine variation from La Esmeralda – now this one I know will take forever to get to but I have been watching several different versions on youtube and have fallen in love with it, so even though it will take years, it’s on here.

These are all my long term goals. My short term goals are all like get stronger, get more flexible, loose weight, buy a ballet skirt (lol that last one should be done buy the end of the week but it is on here).

I didn’t realise until a girl on DDN brought it to my attention, that some people on here might not know how to leave a comment. To tell you the truth I didn’t either until I logged out and had a little play around. All you have to do is look in the column on the right hand side for archive section and click on the post that you want to comment on and the scroll down and you will see a comment box and away you go.

A big thankyou to all of you that have commented either here or on DDN, it lets me know that i am not just talking to myself and thank you for your kind words. Well that is all for now.

Until next time,

Bonnie_Rose

My first video on youtube!

Hello again to anyone that is reading my blog! Well because I didn’t have a class last Thursday because of work I decided that I would do a little video of some of the things that I have learnt so far and upload it onto youtube for you all to have a look at! I would love it if you could leave me a comment to tell me what you think, but please be kind, I have only had three classes ha ha ha.


Until next time,

Bonnie_Rose



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlIl56bP9OI

Class number three and buying my first leotard

So last night was class number three and let’s just say that I am still tired from it. I can tell that I am getting better at the barre and I hope that my coordination is getting better in the centre. Oh, and some other news, my teacher said that next time she is going to start incorporating some grade 2 into my classes! Yay! At least I know that I am not totally stuffing everything up.



Ha ha I also went out yesterday before class and bought my first leotard. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was expecting a horror scene with tiny leotards and mega wedgies but I found one in my size and in the colour that the studio wanted me to get and although it did feel a little odd it fit well and the colour looks nice with my skin.


I think that is all I have to say for today, except that I do not have a class next week because of work but I might still update if inspiration strikes me and I decide to write another post.

Until next time,

Bonnie_Rose

Class no. 2 and it had to be cut short!

Hi again, It’s me your (hopefully) favourite 19 year old beginner! I wish I could say that I am posting on here straight from getting home from my second lesson... but I’m not. I had my class last night after a 5 hour shift working on checkouts and I was just tooo tired and then I had university all day today and this was the first chance I got to tell you all how it went!


Ok so I guess the first thing I should tell you all about is that because of work my class had to be cut back from an hour to three quarters of an hour because I finished work when I was supposed to start my class but my lovely teacher let me cut back my class time a little instead of cancelling my class all together.

So after turning up a little late and rushing to get into my tights and shorts (I don’t yet have a leo I should be getting one during the week) and already being warmed up but not stretched because of time we headed over to the barre and did some preparation for turnout exercises, plies, positions of the feet, tendus, preparation for pirouettes and preparation for arabesques (I also think we did coups and releves) we moved onto centre... this is where I find my coordination goes out the window.

I was all good and fine when we did position of the arms and head bus as soon as I started to move across the floor oh boy! My brain and feet refused to work together! Classical walks were ok and I was pretty good at tendus in the centre and prances but as soon as we got to the polka I was lost! Ha ha ha I am still not to sure how to do it!

But all in all I had a really good class. I remembered most things from last time and I was not shaking as much when going up on demi on rises and I got to lean some new things and my teacher printed off some barre sequences for me to do over the next week that she thinks I am ok enough to be practicing without her with me. I was going to ask her if some time in the future when I have gained enough strength and technique if she would consider putting me en Pointe but I ran out of time... do you think I should ask her next week?

And now to ask your help... any one got any tips for me to lean out my legs? I find I have a little trouble getting them together or moving a little because of the thickness of my legs. Also any good tips for stretching out my calf muscles they seem to be tight and hard to stretch. It would be nice if you have some tips to strengthen them too.

Until next week!
Bonnie_Rose!

I just got out of my very first class!

Hi!

I am new to dance.net and as the title shows Ballet! Tonight was my very first class in ballet and I have to say that I LOVE it! I am 19 years old and over weight and I had so much fun tonight! I was in a private class (because where I live there are no adult beginner classes and I have never done ballet before and I didn’t want to dance with 7 year olds and scare all the little kiddies haha. I did a little barre and some turnout exercises and then we did a little on jumps in the centre and the one main thing I discovered is that I am like a baby elephant! I was all over the place! I almost fell flat on my face at one point. But my teacher was great and didn’t care about my size or my lack of skill or grace and I cant wait until I go back next week and try to dance some more!
Thanks for reading and I would love to hear from you!
Bonnie_rose
 
 
 
 

Well it the first day after my first ever ballet class (and my first post on here) and I am so thankful to the lovely people on here that have given me encouragement. Just to answer some of the questions and comments that have been said.
1) I am lucky to have private classes, although my bank account does not love it, so much money!
2) I am going to be going every Thursday night from next week onwards so I will probably put some updates on here for how I am going
3) My calves are killing me! lol they weren’t that bad when I got up this morning but when I walked to the bus stop I almost died hahaha
well I think that is all I have to say for now except for another big thanks and big hugs to all that replied I hope to hear from you all again soon!

Why I decided to start ballet

I know a lot of people that would think that I am at least a little mad for wanting to start ballet at the 19, let alone start up a blog about it. But I guess it is something that I have always wanted to do (ballet that is, I didn’t even think of doing a blog until one of my friends suggested it).


Ever since I was little I, like many other little girls dreamed of being a ballerina, standing up on a big stage in a tutu and on the tips of my toes and twirling around, but for me this dream never faded even when my mum told me that she could not afford to put me in ballet classes. I don’t know if my passion for dance ever went away completely but it faded a little as I started growing up and so many other things captured my attention, that is until I was 13.

In my first year of high school, it seamed like at least half of the girls in my year studied ballet and just like that I wanted to be like them and my passion for dance was reignited. But alas my family still could not afford for me to do classes and once again my dreams of dancing were once again put on the back burner.

It was not until I finished high school and started working my way towards a degree in art that I found my need to dance return. So at 17 with some money saved up I went in search of a studio that would take me. Little did I know that it would take me 2 years to find one. Where I live there is about 7 dance studios that offer ballet, but at the time no one was teaching adult/teen beginners and no one seemed to like the idea of me joining in with 7 year olds and at the time I could not afford private classes. My search did not stop in my local area, oh no, I looked everywhere and the only places I could find were an hours drive away and I don’t have a car!

So now, 2 years after I started the search for a studio, I have a job and make enough money for a 1 hour private class a week at my local studio which I started at 2 weeks ago. So you may be wondering why I am starting to blog about it? Well I am a member of a dance community called dance.net and after posting on there about my first 2 classes a friend of mine said that I should make it into a blog. So here it is!

I will post my original posts on here from dance.net and then, next week after my next class, I will be blogging either right after my class or the day after.

Until the next,
Bonnie_Rose