[TOPIC] Ballet

The only experience with ballet I've had was wishing my mother had signed me up for lessons, but I had a ballerina friend for a while.

She was really talented at it, so it completely consumed her life. She had friends in school, but the people she hung out with outside of school were her ballet friends. She wasn't allowed to sleep over at friends' houses because it might affect her performance, and she had to eat really healthy foods, never junk. Unlike a lot of horror stories I've heard about anorexic ballerinas, she actually ate quite a bit- she had to to last through her daily classes. She was obviously still very thin, though. I remember she had the stomach flu once, which was a big deal because it was unhealthy for her to lose weight.

In high school, she was exempt from physical education class because of her ballet. Her sophomore year she moved to New York to live at the School of American Ballet. I think she takes online classes now to keep up with school and pursue ballet.

I took ballet for 12 years... And it consumed my life. When I was promoted to pointe (dancing on your tip-toes), at age 10, I had dance classes for 3 hours a day, from Mon-Thurs, and 6 hour practices on Saturdays. It requires a lot of sacrifice and A LOT of hard work. And high pain tolerance, lol. I was asked to audition for the San Fransisco Ballet Company at age 15, but my mum, who never supported my dancing (I WORKED at the studio, giving classes, cleaning, etc, in exchange for the classes) =[. I was promised a full-ride scholarship to long beach university if i stayed in dance, but, I moved to a foreign country with no ballet studios near-by when I was 16 =[ Now I'm taking dance classes at a local community college, but I have decided that I don't want to pursue it as a career anymore.

If you have ANY technical questions, I would gladly answer them. Just send me a message =]

Thanks for the replies - can anyone tell me what is particularly rewarding about dancing? What do you / would you miss about it?

I took ballet for a good while, never with an eye to being professional, but it did help me get through high school and college without going insane.

I haven't been dancing for a while now and I miss the feeling that it gave me. I loved working to master the steps and being able to do something that other people maybe couldn't do. I miss feeling light, being able to move in ways that made me all emotional. It was definitely something relaxing, even on tough days in class, I would come out of class having learned something and feeling more ready to deal with the day.

That's what I miss. Darn.. why did I ever stop?

"I opened the fire door to four lips, none of which were mine, kissing; tightened my belt around my hips, where your hands were missing." -Ani DiFranco, 'Fire Door'

These replies are all great, but I have one more specific question: What about my MC could be the particular reason for her not being able to go professional? Could she be too short/tall? Weak ankles? I see her as someone who did work hard at it, and for a while figured it would be her career, until something made her realise it wouldn't ever happen...

I danced for years, but I knew that I would never be able to go pro, no matter how hard I worked, because you have to have a very specific body type. Being too tall might be enough, but there is also pretty specific weight range that is pretty much on the low end... (I am always curvy, no matter how much I diet/exercise).

If you had weak ankles, you would probably figure out pretty quickly that you wouldn't be able to do pointe...have you considered injuries? An instructor I knew had to give up her ideas of a professional career because she had to get a knee replacement, just from years of stress on her joints.

-Audrey

Knees. If she has bad knees she won't be able to go professional. She might have weak knees, which means she could damage them. Or she might have something similar to what my cousin has, which stops her knees from turning out properly when she turns her feet/legs out. I don't know if the requirements for ballet are the same as what my cousin does, but she's got to nationals and then not placed because of the problems with her knees.

Thanks so much everyone - Another question though (last one for now, I think!): What is the route followed to become a professional ballerina? Are there different ways to achieve it?

I've been dancing since I was two. (I'm seventeen. whoo)
erm... The route to being a professional ballerina is generally being born to be a professional ballerina.
I'm not trying to be difficult, it's just the truth. Most professional dancers have been studying dance hardcore, (and by hardcore I mean summer lessons, private lessons, camps, companies, etc.) since before preschool.
If you don't get started early, it gets more difficult to shape your body the way it has to be to be a ballerina.
I would say most pros have a dancer in the family that is invested in their study, but not all.
But yeah.
I mean, there are lucky ones, like Sabra from SYTYCD who was amazing after only daning like 5 years or something, but mostly it's a lifetime achievement thing.
:)

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Thanks Robotsgoboom - my FMC can definitely have been dancing hard all her life, but I really want to know what path leads to each next step, IYSWIM. So I suppose initially, she would have had lessons locally. Then, her talent having been recognised, she would have started travelling to the nearest city to study. I see her having auditioned for and won various child parts in semi- and professional companies as they performed in her city - is that realistic? And when she got older she thought about... what? Do dancers go to college? Or audition straight out of school for companies? And then how exactly do ballet companies work? Ah, these questions keep multiplying...

I can identify with your MC, when I was 17 I had to make the choice of going on in dance or doing something else.

I decided that I really didn't have enough drive to be on stage; because if you don't wake up every morning with a burning to DO, then you'll never get far.

I did, however, stumbled on to teaching ballet and found that I loved it. I've owned my own studio for five years.

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Bumping to see if I can get answers to this set of questions :)

I have been dancing since about age 4, as well as a figure skater from that age as well. I never considered going professional as a ballerina (ballet was actually my least favorite form of dance), but I definitely have some insight into the world of a dancer (or any other pursuit like it).

The other posters are very correct, being a professional dancer/skater/gymnast or pretty much anything requires a ridiculous amount of dedication and time and sometimes, as with ballet, requires a certain body type. You pretty much can't get around that...

One question that you asked previously was whether dancers went to college. I can't answer for everyone but most dancers I knew did go to college...for dance. This is not a pre requisite for getting into a company, however just like any other career choice, you can make a lot of contacts through college and also watch many dance companies perform that you wouldn't have seen otherwise. I went to Columbia College in Chicago (which is an art school) and took dance classes there, although my major was fiction writing. There were a lot of opportunities there to meet and audition for dance companies so it would make sense if your character either went to college for dance, or danced at a presitgious dance academy where she would also have access to those connections.

As to reasons why she wouldn't be accepted into a company? There are MILLIONS, and they aren't limited to just injuries. Think of how difficult it is to break into acting, or anything else where there is only an elite few with the skills, luck, talent and perserverence to make it "big". It is the same with dancing. She could be auditioning, and keep getting beat out by other girls, all of her dancer friends could make it into prestigious companies while she can't even get auditions.

I was always a good figure skater (still am, even in my late twenties I skate 3 times a week), but I knew pretty early on that I wasn't making it to the Olympics. I just didn't have the right combination of luck, talent, and motivation. This isn't to say that I didn't try to get as far as I could, but...

Ooh..just thought of another reason she would not make it...stage fright? I used to have a problem when I was younger with forgetting my program when I competed...due to nerves. It was horrible...and definitely stopped me from being the best I could be.

Hope this long winded response helped in some way!!

Nicole

I also agree about the body type. I took Ballet for exercise, but knew I was too short to do anything professional. There is a good autobiography by Gelsie Kirkland (sp?) and then look at Michael Barishnokov. If you are from America it is true it takes a lot of money and sacrafice. Kids normally start lessons when they are 2 or 3. Maybe the reason that dancer's children follow in their footsteps is the genetic qualities, as well as the family pressure.

I have about 13 years of dance training, and a lot of friends who went from the pre-professional portion of my company to professional companies across the country. As has been stated before, there are a lot of different routes.

1) After a lot of training, auditioning for an apprenticeship at a company. Every major dance company that I can think of has a group of apprentices. They are traditionally paid less and often assigned as understudies, which makes for those great dramatic moments (that do happen!) when a full member drops out and apprentice has to step in (and potentially wow).

2) Many dancers go to college after high school. They end up either at dance schools (Julliard, etc), or at schools known for their great dance programs (University of Arizona, NYU Tisch, Point Park, and a couple others). A lot of them don't stay for all four years to get a degree. Throughout all this time, they're constantly auditioning for apprenticeships in companies. The point of going to college is usually just to have somewhere to get consistent training while you're waiting for what happens next. Sometimes, the dance professors have their own companies and very good students will get siphoned off into them.

3) Depending on location, there are also those kids who grew up, say, in NY City, and have trained with NYCB since they were seven or something. Then, if they're good enough, they'll naturally be absorbed into apprenticeships and then into full members of the company - there are usually auditions involved, but they're usually told they'll get in beforehand.

I hope that answered the question.

As to how ballet companies work, I assume you're talking about the big ones - ABT, NYCB, SFB, Alonzo King, along that line. There are two big divisions in major dance companies - one deals with money, and the other deals with the actual production of art. The head of the company is the liaison between the two. The financial side is usually overseen by a board of donors. Sometimes they are former dancers who married something wealthy and got money (seriously, there is no money in dance), but usually they are simply patrons with a lot of extra money and time on their hands. They decide who gets paid what and do a lot of behind the scenes stuff that dancers know nothing about. For example, I've seen a lot of companies and I haven't a clue. They handle theater bookings, firings, that kind of stuff.

The other side - the dancing side - is headed by one or several "artistic directors." They are choreographers, and they rank pretty high on the scale - they also, with the consent of the board, decide which guest choreographers to bring in to set pieces and teach master classes. Below the artistic directors and the choreographers and guest choreographers are, of course, the dancers.

Professional ballet dancers never stop training. If you've ever taken a ballet class, you've had the same experience they have. They do their plies and their tendus and their degages - all the simple stuff - as much as anyone. Most professional dancers, when not on tour, will take at least one ballet class a day. These are often taught by choreographers, but in larger companies, there may be some teachers hired solely for this purpose.

Choreographers will often observe classes and decide from that which dancers they want in their pieces, or they may have decided from having seen previous performances of the company, or the artistic director may give them a group of dancers he or she thinks will work for the piece. However it happens, a choreographer looking to set a piece will end up in a studio with a number of dancers from the company. For a pas des deux or other small piece, there may be a larger than 1:1 ratio of understudies - for example, I've seen a soloist for a touring piece have three understudies. In larger pieces, the ratio will likely be less than 1:1, and understudies will end up learning multiple dancers' parts. The piece, once finished, will usually debut in the company's main theater, and then go on tour.

Professional dance companies usually have auditions once or twice a year. If they're big and have enough money, they'll have touring auditions - usually one in San Fransisco, one in New York, and one in Denver (sometimes also Atlanta and Chicago - they seem to think this covers everyone). Obviously, this would be different for companies outside the US, but I expect the similarities would outweigh the differences.

Personally, I can't really help with the Professional stuff- I'm 15, living in Denver, and just starting to try to figure this stuff out myself. But as for a few other things, I started ballet when I was 3, and I've been loving it ever since. I got my pointe shoes when I was 12, and I ended up switching studios about a year after. I'm currently attending Cleo Parker Robinson on scholarship, taking twelve hours of class a week, and considering joining the Company with Metropolitan Academy Of Dance after my run in The Nutcracker. I'm the Mouse King and a Handmaiden.

I've kept with dance for so long for the simple reason that I love it. There's a feeling when you dance, and you know all of the steps and you just move and flow and feel all of this energy and grace moving through you- and that's what I love. I love the art of it and the feeling of control over my body and my life that I normally don't have. Dancing is a culture onto its own.

And I would think that the easiest way to have her quit dancing would be and injury of some kind. Like someone said, the knees. You get those screwed up, and you're, well, screwed. :) Also, really bad asthma could be a big problem. I knew a girl who was the Sugar Plum Fairy with Aurora Dance Arts two years ago, and she would leap offstage and immediately fall to her knees, struggling for breath. In one rehearsal she passed out. It could get really bad.
Also, money and not enough support from her parents could be a problem. Depending on where she lives, classes can get really expensive, and all sorts of issues can arise.

Hope some of this helps!

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I can't tell you a lot about the professional stuff, but in terms of reasons to stop that fit with what you said:
You said that you see here having gotten a buch of parts as a kid etc. Sometimes dancers that show a lot of promise at a young age will sort of level off. Things that are amazing when a ten year old can do them aren't as exciting by the time she's seventeen...
Also, like everyone else has said, body type can be really important. One girl at my studio was an incredible dancer, but she had sort of short legs, etc. She did several summer intensive camps with NYCB, and there were instructors there who took her aside and said to her something along the lines of 'look, you're really good, but you have to wrong kind of body to do this professionally.' She still got a lot of great parts at our studio, but she couldn't dance professionally.

My daughter is in ballet. She will be dancing for a company starting in Jan. She is only 11 and has been dancing for 6 months. It seems that she is talented in this!

Anyway, she had a performance and had to stand outside in line, ready to go on stage for 2 1/2 hours. The girls were not allowed to sit down so they didn't get their costumes dirty. It was 110 degrees that day. It was hard but my daughter still had a thrill from the whole thing.

A lot of girls are still clumsy and won't go very far in ballet. They don't focus or just can't do it. They try to mess around all through class time.

The classes are strict. They are locked out of the studio... if late the teacher decides to unlock the door. They are not allowed to talk, must have 'uniform' in perfect condition with a perfect bun. They must wear a pink bow with black hairnet, black leotard, pink tights, and pink shoes with the ribbons that cross and tie at the ankle. If the ribbon is not tied right, they get lectured. If a girl misses a class then they can't do the next performance.

The classes are hard. The girls have to do splits up against the wall... the teacher pushes them so their butts are touching the wall. They practice the same things over and over (each of her classes are an 1 1/2 hr straight) and a lot of the times my daughter is to sore to do anything afterwards. They have to be able to do the splits, jumps, and be up on their toes before they even take pointe class. They also have to learn some french. My daughters teacher is Hispanic so they speak spanish and french in her class.

There are cliques in ballet. The older 'better' girls hang out with each other. Your dancing ability has to be proven in order to be in with these girls. Once they pick you, they will always want to be partnered with you. Often, they tease the younger or not so good girls. The younger girls all look up to the older better ones. The older girls lead the others in the excercises and the teacher lets this happen. The little ones learn a lot from the older girls. The older girls get invited a lot more to parties and activities... even by the younger girls. It's like the older girls are some sort of famous person to the younger ones. By the way... my daughter is an older girl so I see this happening all the time. The teacher picks a class favorite. My daughter is that right now but won't be once she goes into company. Even the moms sit and visit with each other. They often become friends too and compare notes about the girls.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. If it's something I don't know, I'll ask my daughter.

I haven't been involved in ballet personally, but recently discovered a wonderful anime centered around ballet. it's called "Princess Tutu" and all the episodes are up on youtube (distracting me from writing, grr) it's got absolutely beautiful dances and music, you might look there for inspiration.

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2009 JulNoWriMo
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Ballet is key to all dance, except maybe hip hop.

I could go into a lot of details, just ask if you want specifics.

The rooms aren't like the ones in Step Up, more like Another Cinderella Story, without the double mirror. One wall is a mirror, one or two have bars that run their length or there are movable bars that can support themselves in the middle of the room.

Ballet classes require the same clothing - pink tights, pink shoes (bows/laces tucked in), a black leotard, sometimes they are allowed to wear tight black shorts. hair must be in a stiff, perfect bun at all times.

Sometimes teachers use actual music to get their students interested so don't feel limited to classical.

reasonable reasons to feel useless in dance: not being able to master a move for no apparent/solvable reason. loss of interest. injury. too busy/stressful

Serious ballerinas, especially those on pointe, are required to take a certain number of classes to maintain their technique.

hope that helps :)

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