Category Archives: Inspiration for ballet

Finding Your Balance and Letting Go

19 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in Ballet, Ballet Class, Be happy--dance, Believe you can dance, Better body control, Breathing to release tension, Encouragement, Holding on to Tension, how to balance in ballet, How to improve at ballet, Inspiration for ballet, Keep Dancing, life balance, Uncategorized, Unnecessary Tension

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Catching my balance for a moment has the easy satisfaction of catching a ball. It’s a suspension, a momentary win, an opportunity taken. It stems from a lengthened, fluid, effortful lift. It takes a quiet internal strength, but without tension or gripping. It also takes trust, letting go of control, and letting go of the barre! When my balance is on, it feels weightless, like a rising breath of air, and when it is off, it feels wobbly, uncertain, and totally frustrating.

I fight to maintain balance in the studio as well as in my busy New York life. Recently, I came home to Hawaii to visit a friend and help her welcome her new baby into the world. Letting go here is less about releasing my hand from the crutch of the barre, and more about melting into the landscape, life with a baby, and her milk-drunk cuddles. Yet in ballet class, I found my balance here in Hawaii was better than it has been. Maybe it was my friend Annie’s class, or maybe it helped to let go a little.

1. Set yourself up to succeed. While you are holding on to the barre, line everything up. Put your feet in sous-sus, in fifth position, in relevé, and start from the bottom up:
relax and lengthen your toes along the floor;

  • lift your heels in relevé as high as they will go;
  • make sure your legs are straight and long;
  • turn your legs out from deep in your hips, with your heels yearning forward,
  • pull your legs together like a baby snuggling, with no spaces between, or like a ziplock bag, zipping up all the way together with no holes;
  • relax your tailbone towards the floor, as you lift your lower belly up;
  • press your belly button to your spine as if wearing your skinny jeans;
  • calm your frontal ribcage, knit it together towards your hip bones and make space in your back ribs;
  • relax your shoulders down away from your ears and widen your collar bones;
  • lengthen your head toward the ceiling;
  • reach your arms up into fifth position – notice I didn’t say “place” – your arms also have a dynamic lifted energy. In a balance everything reaches up and out!

2. Before you let go of the barre lift more out of your hips by pushing down, reaching up and thinking happy thoughts of seeing friends, eating delicious pineapple or ahi poke, and Hawaiian trade winds. A balance is not total stillness, it has energy. Happy thoughts!

3. About wobbling – sometimes in letting go of the barre, there is some wobbling. A little wobbling is okay, focus on lifting and breathing. If I am wobbling badly, either I’m not fully lined up properly, not lifting in my core, or I’m hardening and gripping somewhere. I breathe and try again. Sometimes wobbling can be because of lack of sleep lack or food, or emotional distress. I refocus on pushing down, lifting up, and try again.

4. Breathing is not holding your breath-don’t forget to exhale too!

5. Your mind can play tricks on you with respect to other dancers in the room. Don’t be fooled. You are just as glorious and wonderful and have all the capacity they have. Yes, you can balance. Fight for it! Yes it is possible. Believing anything else is a cop out. Let others challenge and motivate you, and make you work harder, that is what dance friends are for! But your ultimate competition is you, your body and perhaps more importantly, your mind. Don’t give up on yourself, and don’t let yourself off the hook either. Go for it!

Now that I’m back in New York, mornings are no longer about burping the baby and her falling asleep on me to the music of mourning doves, a rustling brook, and the neighbors chickens. Letting go is about saying goodby to dear friends even as new exciting projects lure me back to the big city. But then again, it’s all about balance.

~Sarah

One of my projects is a fundraiser to raise money for Liberated Movement, the studio where I teach. You should come! It is going to be held on April 22, 5-8pm at Blender, located at 27 West 31st street at Madison Ave. Get your tickets here! 

Coming to New York? Come to my class! Tuesdays 7-8pm and Saturdays 12-1:30! 380 Broadway two blocks south of Canal street, buzzer #5. Only $10, yo!

Believe in the Possibilities

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in Ballet, Ballet Adagio, Ballet choreography, Ballet Class, Ballet to pop music, Be happy--dance, Believe, Believe you can dance, Believing in your dreams, Believing in yourself, Dance, Dancing to remember lost loved ones, Dare to believe in your dreams, Encouragement, Going to ballet class, How to get better, How to improve at ballet, Inspiration for ballet, Motivation for Ballet

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Every dancer has an angel hovering overhead whispering ‘believe’!

Here we are at that magical time of year when gifts are exchanged with wishes of peace on earth and the hope of a better new year to come. What a difficult year it’s been and not just politically. I have geared too many ballet classes around the music of singers who have passed on – an adagio to Prince’s Sometimes in Snows in April stands out, one among several great musicians who are gone (David Bowie, George Michael). We’ve lost several amazing actors too – just on Monday I was watching Singing in the Rain with my mother and marveling at the lovely Debbie Reynolds. This year has also been a very difficult year for many of us personally as well.

Then recently at a friend’s suggestion, I read an amazing book called Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl in which he talks about his experiences surviving brutal Nazi concentration camps, how he survived, and why others did not. He explains how the torturous conditions became bearable only when one found meaning outside of oneself – when he could focus on his love for his wife, or work to recreate his manuscript that had been confiscated. Only then, by focusing on and reaching for something beyond himself, could he bear his own suffering. If you have never read this book, give yourself this gift! 

I found great solace and hope in his book, not just for my life, but for ballet as well. (Dance is life after all). As much as Ballet is about the body and the physical, and can be very difficult, it is also very much about the mind – what we perceive to be our limitations, versus what we imagine is possible. 

What I wish for us all in the new year is that we Believe. That we leave in 2016 the doubts, the “I’ll never get my leg high”, the “I’m not a jumper”, the “I’ll never be flexible”, letting all of that go. Instead, I wish for us to take hold of our dreams, like grasping the string of a giant magic red balloon. At first dangling, then embracing, and finally steering our dreams like we own them, and that they may be realized. That we greet each pirouette or pas de chat with a deep knowing that we are fully capable of the execution always focusing on the bigger picture even while we hone our skills more finely one at a time. It scares me to do this too – it feels safer to hang on to the familiar crutches of self-deprecation. But the adventures of 2017 are as yet unchartered territory. Dare yourself to believe it is all possible, and have a very Happy New Year. 

~Sarah

Feel free to ‘like’ or comment or share this post if you liked it. Join me for ballet on Tuesday, 7-8 pm. 380 Broadway, buzzer #5. $10. 

An Adagio for September

25 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by in Ballet Adagio, Ballet choreography, Ballet combinations, choreography, Dancing to remember lost loved ones, Inspiration for ballet

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Inspiration for dancing: My great grand-mother Blanche, center, with her two sisters, Corinne and Celestine wearing fabulous hats!

I was inspired to choreograph an adagio to the song Luray Women sung by female duo Clishmaclaver because of a conversation I had with my mother recently about the people who are still around and those who live on in our hearts and memories. I was making her laugh, telling her the story of my Dad’s first pun when he was a little boy. She laughed, but then she said, “Is he still around?” Not wanting to hurt her, I answered, “Well, he’s around in our hearts and memories.” She sighed, “So he’s not still around”. I had to admit she was correct. Then she asked, “Which of my people are no longer around?”

I was thinking of this conversation and all the people who are no longer around and I thought of this song. The lyrics make me think of my great grandmother, (center), and her two sisters. My mother loved telling me her grandmother’s stories. Their parents only had enough money to send three of their six children to college. They figured the three boys could always get work on a farm, so in the 1890s they sent their three daughters to college. My great grandmother became a teacher, got married and had one son. Her middle sister became a lawyer and her youngest sister was a drama teacher who came to New York. This dance is for all those who came before, and for sisters everywhere.

*                       *                     *

About the dance: I wanted to include walking in the adagio because walking can be so difficult to do naturally. Walk to the music, not a ballet walk with pointed feet, but a regular walk to the slow tempo of the music. Keep your walk fluid even though the tempo is slow. Make eye contact with the other dancers in the room, connecting to your center, to the floor, to the music, and to each other.

The choreography for the first verse and chorus are written out below. For the second verse and chorus, reverse the dance to the other side. For the third verse, repeat the first side to the end of the verse, so the last thing is the soutenou turn on “roots entwined”.

About the Music: I love the song sung by female duo Clishmaclaver (Jennifer Culley and Brooke Parkhurst) on their album Roots Entwined. But I couldn’t find a sample of it or a link for where to buy it online. All I could find was this youtube of the song, which is also lovely, but just not the same. If any of you who are more internet savvvy than I find it, can you let me know in the comments below?

LURAY WOMEN Sung by Clishmaclaver, on their album Roots Entwined.

Tall as timber, Great Aunt Lizzie Wrapped in rugs against the cold Counts 1-8, walk 8 steps, ending in 5th position, Left foot front, croisé.

Looking out across the mountains Counts 1-2, plié pas de cheval front (L) foot; counts 3-4, posé up to sous-sus, legs together in fifth, 2nd arabesque arms, right arm forward.

To the valleys of my soul  Counts 5-6, balance as you bring arms to 5th, then towards the left, counts 7-8, step your front foot out to the left and tombé, arms continue the circle towards the floor, and you contract your upper body, head down, standing on your left, in plié facing front, en face, with your right foot tendu à la seconde, arms in a low second.

On the porch where Lizzie’s rocking  Counts 1-4, lift your right leg slowly to à la seconde. Don’t rush this, you have plenty of time. Lift your body, head and arms lift to a “v” towards the ceiling.

Great Grandma Nannie comes and stands  Count 5 Passé, arms to 5th. Counts 6-7  back attitude croisé, arms open to third position. Right arm is high (arm away from the audience, same arm high as leg that is back) Count 8, start the promenade to the right. (See below)

Underneath her plain white apron  Counts 1-4 promenade to rights. As you promenade, the back leg goes from back attitude through passé to front attitude. Arms go to fifth position.

Holds my future in her hands Counts 5-6 extend right foot to dévelopé croisé front in plié. Arms bend in towards stomach and extend to third arabesque. Count 7 Posé forward, arms stay in third arabesque, Count 8 Plié in fifth, back soutenou turn, arms do an inside port de bras.

Refrain:

Luray women, how you’re with me  Counts 1-2 step to the right (remember step to the back foot)  into plié, left foot tendu side, right arm stay extended side. It’s slow, continue stretching your arms out to the music, Counts 3-4 ronde de jambe your left foot to croisé front straightening standing leg. Right arm comes to fifth.

Soft as memory, strong as wood Counts 5-8. Plié and Port de bras forward and up over pointed (left) foot

In my face you are returning Counts 1-4 Brush left foot through first position to arabesque. Right arm comes to chest, palm facing out. Left arm extends out to back as if in arabesque, as if someone behind you is holding your hand, palm facing down, and begin to penché.

I hear you singing in my blood Counts 5-8 Penché down and up. Counts 7-8 Plié standing leg and touch left foot to the floor, arch back. Hand at chest sweeps up to a high arabesque arm, palm out (not in fifth). Pull up to sous-sus, pas de bourré fourth position, left foot front.

There are four extra counts here Inside pirouette to the left. Land in fifth position right foot front, arms open to second and float down to preparation.

Reverse all on the other side.

Verse 2
Now the years and all my memories
Flow like water by the bridge
I can see them in my mirror
Tall as trees along the ridge
Just like trees along the mountain
Through the years grown straight and tall
Till the place where they’ve been standing
Seems deserted when they fall

Refrain
Luray women, how you’re with me
Soft as memory, strong as wood
In my face you are returning
Hear you singing in my blood

Verse 3
If you lose the one that loves you
Make a life that’s all your own
Find a place no one can reach you
Turn your back and go back home
But if you find the one that loves you
If you love the one you find
Be like sisters on the mountain
Branches touching, roots entwined

-Sarah

Want to learn this dance? We’ll do it one last time in class this coming Tuesday. Ballet class 7-8pm on Tuesdays, 12-1:30 on Saturdays. 380 Broadway, Buzzer #5, Only  $10. Don’t be shy, anyone can dance.