As it seems I am still addicted to the drug. Ballet simply seems so much more real than academics. Words on paper are fine, but when you are dancing you are in the moment... whether you like it or not. It is physical work, and that work seems so much more effective than simply scribbling out chicken scratches on paper. I have so much that I still want to write about, I will be doing a post on french twists soon, and possibly a post on stage makeup. Probably in a week or so once my schedule frees up a bit!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Surrounded by Swan Lake
Sorry that I have not posted in such a long time! I have been wanting to do a post about French twists, another about stage make-up and a billion other posts but ... obviously they will have to wait a little bit longer.
Yesterday however I took my first ballet class in three and a half months (it took a long time for me to feel ready to face a mirror again). However it really was not as bad as I expected. I did get a lot of cramps, and yes my extension and turnout were not quite what they used to be but surprisingly I am still very flexible and I can still turn!!! That was the most surprising thing for me. A month ago I decided to try doing a pirouette at home and promptly landed on the hardwood floor and have not even bothered trying since. However yesterday I managed to do triples and a couple of quads which really, really, really surprised me. They weren't all good but... not as scary as I thought they would be.
Back to Swan Lake, it seems that it has been following me everywhere. On a recent plane ride I watched Black Swan. I had been avoiding watching it but finally got up the nerve to watch it. It really was not as bad as I thought it would be... well with everything that I had heard I was prepared for something like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or something like that.
Then I went to see a friend perform a variation from Swan Lake at a local performance. I really enjoyed seeing that and it brought tears to my eyes. I did kind of feel like I was watching everything I had left behind me and it really sparked my desire to get a little bit more involved with the dance community again, i.e. take class.
Today I went by my old ballet school and upon looking in the doorway I saw my very talented and amazing friends doing Black Swan PDD. It is another one of my favourite Pas de Deuxs out there. I love Odile's character, and the music. The way that Odile commands the stage... <3
It is really interesting to watch different dancers performing this pdd as everyone brings a slightly different character to it.
If you watch these two videos you will see what I mean. They are both absolutely wonderful but different too.
Here is Marinella Nunez and Thiago Soares with the Royal Ballet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTQ1jGnekuc
And here is Polina Semoinova with Friedemann Vogel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q0z5nSiLUY&feature=related
They are two of my favorites! I also love Uliana Lopatkina in this Pas de Deux but I cannot find a full version of youtube. She has the longest, most beautiful arms in the world!
Yesterday however I took my first ballet class in three and a half months (it took a long time for me to feel ready to face a mirror again). However it really was not as bad as I expected. I did get a lot of cramps, and yes my extension and turnout were not quite what they used to be but surprisingly I am still very flexible and I can still turn!!! That was the most surprising thing for me. A month ago I decided to try doing a pirouette at home and promptly landed on the hardwood floor and have not even bothered trying since. However yesterday I managed to do triples and a couple of quads which really, really, really surprised me. They weren't all good but... not as scary as I thought they would be.
Back to Swan Lake, it seems that it has been following me everywhere. On a recent plane ride I watched Black Swan. I had been avoiding watching it but finally got up the nerve to watch it. It really was not as bad as I thought it would be... well with everything that I had heard I was prepared for something like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or something like that.
Then I went to see a friend perform a variation from Swan Lake at a local performance. I really enjoyed seeing that and it brought tears to my eyes. I did kind of feel like I was watching everything I had left behind me and it really sparked my desire to get a little bit more involved with the dance community again, i.e. take class.
Today I went by my old ballet school and upon looking in the doorway I saw my very talented and amazing friends doing Black Swan PDD. It is another one of my favourite Pas de Deuxs out there. I love Odile's character, and the music. The way that Odile commands the stage... <3
It is really interesting to watch different dancers performing this pdd as everyone brings a slightly different character to it.
If you watch these two videos you will see what I mean. They are both absolutely wonderful but different too.
Here is Marinella Nunez and Thiago Soares with the Royal Ballet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTQ1jGnekuc
And here is Polina Semoinova with Friedemann Vogel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q0z5nSiLUY&feature=related
They are two of my favorites! I also love Uliana Lopatkina in this Pas de Deux but I cannot find a full version of youtube. She has the longest, most beautiful arms in the world!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
How to Make the Perfect Bun
Ahhhhh! A bad bun day. It is so frustrating when your hair decides that it has a mind of it's own right as your are trying to do it for class. Don't you just hate it when there seem to be a million loose hairs flying out of your bun? Do you ever have days where your bun looks like a doorknob? Or days when your bun is completely lopsided?
Having tidy hair not only makes you feel better in class but it shows your teachers that you are respectful of the art form. Making your hair look nice takes practise and experience, but there are a few tricks that I learnt along the way. Here I will walk you through the basic steps in achieving a perfect bun and a couple of different looks.
What you will need:
- Hair spray: the aerosol type works best for performances, but the spritzing kind is good for daily use, some people even get by by just using water if their hair does not have the tendency to fly away like mine does)
One last thing before we start, make sure that you have a good supply of hairnets and pins. Hairnets often get holes in them and hairpins have the tendency to disappear everywhere. You know you are a dancer when you leave a trail of hairpins wherever you go.
The hardest part is now over! Make sure that your ponytail is very secure and that there are no kinks in your hair or parts that you might have missed. Now onto the bun.
9. Flatten your bun by pushing it down and pulling it slightly counterclockwise. You can secure a hairnet around the bun at this point if you would like.
11. Check to make sure that your bun is uniform and then slide pins in at 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 & 11 o'clock. You may need more or less pins depending on how much hair you have!
Please remember that a bun without a hairnet is not the most secure type of bun. Try it out a couple of times before wearing it to class to make sure that it is not likely to start unravelling in petit allegro. Also I would recommend using a hairnet for performances e.t.c where you might be having to change your hairpieces a bunch of times. It is much less stressful!
Additionally some people prefer to make smaller buns because they make your head look smaller. The one necessity is that it is decently flat. It should not look like a doorknob sticking to your head =). For performances remember to hairspray, hairspray, hairspray! <3
Having tidy hair not only makes you feel better in class but it shows your teachers that you are respectful of the art form. Making your hair look nice takes practise and experience, but there are a few tricks that I learnt along the way. Here I will walk you through the basic steps in achieving a perfect bun and a couple of different looks.
What you will need:
- Hair spray: the aerosol type works best for performances, but the spritzing kind is good for daily use, some people even get by by just using water if their hair does not have the tendency to fly away like mine does)
- A normal hairbrush
- A smoothie hairbrush / a boar bristle hairbrush: these are absolutely essential if you want your hair to look super smooth
- Water
- Thick hair elastics, you want something that will give you maximum hold, some people like to double up their hair elastics
- U-shaped hair pins, these are best purchased through Bunheads. They come in a variety of sizes and colours. Pick the colour that best matches your own hair colour. If you have long, thick hair buy longer pins and if you have thin, or shorter hair pick shorter pins.
- Flat bobby pins, these can be purchased at any drugstore, pick ones that match your hair colour. You can bend your hair pins like this to make them wrap around the contour of your head better when you slide them in.
- Hair nets, I will teach you how to do your hair without a net, but they are essential for performances and nice to use if your hair does not like behaving. Once again Bunheads make the best hairnets as they are durable and the right size for buns. If you cannot buy Bunheads hairnets look around at you local drugstore, you do not want to buy the thick knitted hair nets made of wool. You want hairnets that will blend in with your hair.
-Patience!!!
High Bun, Straight Back
This type of bun is very common for all sorts of performances as it looks very uniform and is very simple.
1. I like to wet my hair before I begin because it gives me a little more control, a smoothing cream also helps.
2. Using your normal hairbrush gather all of your hair towards where you would like your bun to be.
3. Then using hairspray and your smoothie brush get rid of any kinks and smooth all of the hair back towards your pony tail. Do this by using a little bit of hairspray, brushing the hair back, using a little bit of hairspray brushing another section back e.t.c.
4. Secure with a hair elastic
5. Hair spray once again
6. Rebrush a little with the smoothie brush if needed
7. Flatten out the hair equally in a circle
8. Then starting at the bottom, pull the hair around clockwise, tucking in loosely as you go, when you get to the end, tuck the bottom part under.
9. Flatten your bun by pushing it down and pulling it slightly counterclockwise. You can secure a hairnet around the bun at this point if you would like.
10. Start sticking pins in at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. Slide the pins in flush with your head.
12. Touch up with a little bit of hairspray and secure any wispies with a flat pin or two.
Please remember that a bun without a hairnet is not the most secure type of bun. Try it out a couple of times before wearing it to class to make sure that it is not likely to start unravelling in petit allegro. Also I would recommend using a hairnet for performances e.t.c where you might be having to change your hairpieces a bunch of times. It is much less stressful!
Additionally some people prefer to make smaller buns because they make your head look smaller. The one necessity is that it is decently flat. It should not look like a doorknob sticking to your head =). For performances remember to hairspray, hairspray, hairspray! <3
*This post is dedicated to Ms. Melissa Johnston! Thank you for teaching me how to do my hair way back when we were both in PB*
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Improving your Feet
Since stopping dance I have been very aware of the fact that I have a huge amount of things that I have learnt in my days as a dancer sitting around in my head. Piles and piles of useful things that I realize that I may forget after a while. So my next couple of blog posts are going to be related to the little, extremely handy things... tricks of the trade I suppose. I have had a few people commenting and asking about improving general flexibility and their feet, so this post is dedicated to getting nicer feet.
When I first started my professional training I realized that my feet were something that I really needed to improve. If you don't have nice feet some teachers will barely even look at you! If you are lucky and happen to have very high arches then you may have a little bit more difficult with control and -sigh- making your pointe shoes last, but you probably will get more attention in class. Sad but true, you have to look to part if you want to play the part.
A lot of the things that make ones feet look beautiful are largely predetermined by ones genetics. There are some things that you will never be able to completely change, but you can improve your feet dramatically if you dedicate a lot time and work to them.
For my feet to improve as much as they did I stretched them about three times a day for 4 years, I cannot imagine how many hours I have spent working on my feet. It probably adds up to at least a week straight. I also did a lot of theraband exercises and took classes daily.
The most important aspect in improving your feet is not flexibility but surprisingly strength. Theraband exercises are the best! Especially if you buy the extra strong therabands, they are a lot more thick and opaque than the regular bun heads ones. I think the thickest ones are usually grey or black. They are also an excellent way to warm your feet up before class. If you do the excercises again in between class and putting your pointe shoes on, even better.
Everyone has their own routines depending on what parts of their feet they need to strengthen. Personally because my toes are quite weak and by ankles have a tendency to sickle I would do 32 full points rolling through my entire foot (make sure not to bunch in your toes) then 64 points just using my toes and then 32 winging exercises. I usually did this 1-3 times a day... they are great for those days when you have a billion rehearsals spaced throughout the day. If you have very high arches you might want to mainly concentrate on the full roll throughs and if you have really terrible feet you might want to repeat these exercises again. This website may be helpful if you are lost:
Another exercise for people with less than wonderful feet (this one comes from the Freed store in London) is to sit down with your feet flat on the floor. Slowly bunch your arches together while keeping the toes flat on the ground. You do not want to scrunch your toes at all, you want to feel like you are picking up a towel on the ground with the entire metatarsal area.... do not bunch your toes. It will take while but you should begin to feel your arches burning, that's a good thing! This exercise is great because you can literally do it anywhere, while you are doing homework, at school, on the bus. A lot of people who have difficulty getting over their shoes will see a great deal of improvement. In one set I would usually do about 400 reps... or just time it for ten minutes or so if you like.
Another thing that I would like to write about is stretching your feet.... Anyone who knows me know that I have always been absolutely obsessed with stretching my feet. I would not necessarily recommend it. It is kind of dangerous and I know that I have had a fair amount of tendinitis resulting from prolonged foot stretching, but it sometimes seems to do the trick although it also weakens your feet. If you want to stretch your feet I would recommend doing theraband exercises, point flexes, and releves after stretching your feet (and also make sure that they are fairly warm before hand).... hmmm so please be extremely careful when you are stretching your feet. If you are doing it with a partner, make sure that they are reliable and will not hurt you, that they understand if your foot is sickled and that they will apply firm, even pressure.
Here are a couple of different ways that you can stretch your feet:
-In your pointe shoes, probably one of the safer ways to stretch your feet. Kneel down, and put one foot up on pointe. Place your hand on the heel of your foot and apply gentle pressure to slowly push your foot over on pointe. The angle and pressure can be changed to stretch different areas of the foot. Note: make sure that your foot is NOT sickled and make sure that the floor is not slippery and your foot will not slip out underneath you.
- Also in your pointe shoes you can hold onto the barre, rise up into first position and then plie while on pointe to push over your shoes.
- With a partner, sit down with one leg stretched out fully. Place a bootie/towel underneath your heel to make a little cushion. Have your partner kneel facing you, he should put his hands right on top of your arch. Slowly and gently have him apply pressure downwards. Make sure that you foot is not sickled. Stop when you feel a stretch, stay there for about 30 seconds. Then if possible go deeper into the stretch, be very careful when you do this. For some people it is a lot more painful that for others so listen to what your stretching buddy is saying! Do not overstretch your feet.
-Variations of this include having you partner stand on your feet, putting them underneath a couch, set of drawers, piano, door. These are not safe and I do not recommend them as you could seriously get hurt. If you do try, make sure that you do not do it for long as it will damage your feet. Also make sure that nothing will fall on you, and that you have a lot of cushioning around the foot. Tendinitis is not cool!
A dancers feet are some of his/her most important tools and they must be treated accordingly!!!!
Hmmm I think that is pretty much all I have to say about improving your feet. Theraband exercises are the best thing that you can do to improve your feet. They can get kind of boring so listen to some music while you do them and just do a certain exercise per song. I find that I get a lot more out of it if I work on each foot separately but to each his own! Also remember that while having nice feet will certainly help you in the dance world but, being able to control and express using your feet is a lot more important. A dancer with nice feet but no control looks terrible on stage.
Good luck, I hope that these tips help your feet improve!
When I first started my professional training I realized that my feet were something that I really needed to improve. If you don't have nice feet some teachers will barely even look at you! If you are lucky and happen to have very high arches then you may have a little bit more difficult with control and -sigh- making your pointe shoes last, but you probably will get more attention in class. Sad but true, you have to look to part if you want to play the part.
A lot of the things that make ones feet look beautiful are largely predetermined by ones genetics. There are some things that you will never be able to completely change, but you can improve your feet dramatically if you dedicate a lot time and work to them.
 |
| My foot in 2007 (I think), this is when I first decided that I needed to work on my feet. |
 |
| My foot in 2010... after years of hard work, they continued to improve afterwards but I stopped documenting their progress after this picture =) not perfect, but acceptable. |
For my feet to improve as much as they did I stretched them about three times a day for 4 years, I cannot imagine how many hours I have spent working on my feet. It probably adds up to at least a week straight. I also did a lot of theraband exercises and took classes daily.
The most important aspect in improving your feet is not flexibility but surprisingly strength. Theraband exercises are the best! Especially if you buy the extra strong therabands, they are a lot more thick and opaque than the regular bun heads ones. I think the thickest ones are usually grey or black. They are also an excellent way to warm your feet up before class. If you do the excercises again in between class and putting your pointe shoes on, even better.
Everyone has their own routines depending on what parts of their feet they need to strengthen. Personally because my toes are quite weak and by ankles have a tendency to sickle I would do 32 full points rolling through my entire foot (make sure not to bunch in your toes) then 64 points just using my toes and then 32 winging exercises. I usually did this 1-3 times a day... they are great for those days when you have a billion rehearsals spaced throughout the day. If you have very high arches you might want to mainly concentrate on the full roll throughs and if you have really terrible feet you might want to repeat these exercises again. This website may be helpful if you are lost:
Another exercise for people with less than wonderful feet (this one comes from the Freed store in London) is to sit down with your feet flat on the floor. Slowly bunch your arches together while keeping the toes flat on the ground. You do not want to scrunch your toes at all, you want to feel like you are picking up a towel on the ground with the entire metatarsal area.... do not bunch your toes. It will take while but you should begin to feel your arches burning, that's a good thing! This exercise is great because you can literally do it anywhere, while you are doing homework, at school, on the bus. A lot of people who have difficulty getting over their shoes will see a great deal of improvement. In one set I would usually do about 400 reps... or just time it for ten minutes or so if you like.
Another thing that I would like to write about is stretching your feet.... Anyone who knows me know that I have always been absolutely obsessed with stretching my feet. I would not necessarily recommend it. It is kind of dangerous and I know that I have had a fair amount of tendinitis resulting from prolonged foot stretching, but it sometimes seems to do the trick although it also weakens your feet. If you want to stretch your feet I would recommend doing theraband exercises, point flexes, and releves after stretching your feet (and also make sure that they are fairly warm before hand).... hmmm so please be extremely careful when you are stretching your feet. If you are doing it with a partner, make sure that they are reliable and will not hurt you, that they understand if your foot is sickled and that they will apply firm, even pressure.
Here are a couple of different ways that you can stretch your feet:
-In your pointe shoes, probably one of the safer ways to stretch your feet. Kneel down, and put one foot up on pointe. Place your hand on the heel of your foot and apply gentle pressure to slowly push your foot over on pointe. The angle and pressure can be changed to stretch different areas of the foot. Note: make sure that your foot is NOT sickled and make sure that the floor is not slippery and your foot will not slip out underneath you.
- Also in your pointe shoes you can hold onto the barre, rise up into first position and then plie while on pointe to push over your shoes.
 |
| Alessandra Ferri stretching her feet... |
- With a partner, sit down with one leg stretched out fully. Place a bootie/towel underneath your heel to make a little cushion. Have your partner kneel facing you, he should put his hands right on top of your arch. Slowly and gently have him apply pressure downwards. Make sure that you foot is not sickled. Stop when you feel a stretch, stay there for about 30 seconds. Then if possible go deeper into the stretch, be very careful when you do this. For some people it is a lot more painful that for others so listen to what your stretching buddy is saying! Do not overstretch your feet.
-Variations of this include having you partner stand on your feet, putting them underneath a couch, set of drawers, piano, door. These are not safe and I do not recommend them as you could seriously get hurt. If you do try, make sure that you do not do it for long as it will damage your feet. Also make sure that nothing will fall on you, and that you have a lot of cushioning around the foot. Tendinitis is not cool!
A dancers feet are some of his/her most important tools and they must be treated accordingly!!!!
Hmmm I think that is pretty much all I have to say about improving your feet. Theraband exercises are the best thing that you can do to improve your feet. They can get kind of boring so listen to some music while you do them and just do a certain exercise per song. I find that I get a lot more out of it if I work on each foot separately but to each his own! Also remember that while having nice feet will certainly help you in the dance world but, being able to control and express using your feet is a lot more important. A dancer with nice feet but no control looks terrible on stage.
Good luck, I hope that these tips help your feet improve!
 |
| Svetlana Zakharova in Cinderella |
Monday, February 28, 2011
Even more Pointe Shoes
Alors, these are some pencil holders that I made during the summer. I will show you how to make them:
What you will need:
-Dead pointe shoes
-Extra hot glue gun
-Newspaper
-Wooden coasters
-Spray paint
-Decorations
1. Detach any ribbons, or elastics from the pair of pointe shoes you no longer need
2. Heat up your glue gun and attach the platform of the shoe to your coaster so that the shoe stands up nicely, this might take a couple of tries but I am sure you will figure it out.
3. Spray paint the pencil holder (do a couple of coats of paint)
4. Decorate the shoes according to your own style.
5. Use them to hold, pencils, cell phones, ipods, cameras, or simply use them as a decoration!
What you will need:
-Dead pointe shoes
-Extra hot glue gun
-Newspaper
-Wooden coasters
-Spray paint
-Decorations
1. Detach any ribbons, or elastics from the pair of pointe shoes you no longer need
2. Heat up your glue gun and attach the platform of the shoe to your coaster so that the shoe stands up nicely, this might take a couple of tries but I am sure you will figure it out.
3. Spray paint the pencil holder (do a couple of coats of paint)
4. Decorate the shoes according to your own style.
5. Use them to hold, pencils, cell phones, ipods, cameras, or simply use them as a decoration!
20 Pounds of Dead Pointe Shoes Continued
All right, so I have never managed to get these pictures up, but seen as I am taking some time off I figured I would show everyone what I created with their donated pointe shoes. Thank you so much to all my friends, I love you guys!
(These are Christmas wreaths that I sold during the holidays)
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
January
Well this month has been a month of interesting... dreams, disappointment, stress, excitement... you know a good mix of everything.
Anyways I have come down with an awful virus type thing and am not feeling so great. I hate being sick because it limits you so much!!!
Anyways I have come down with an awful virus type thing and am not feeling so great. I hate being sick because it limits you so much!!!
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