Ballet

[MidnightJewel]

Does anyone here do ballet?

I have done ballet for about 12 years, and I love it, but have recently moved into a bit more of a modern style as my turnout and points arn't too good! I like the freedom of Jazz dancing but my style will always be very classical, I tried learning hip hop style dances a couple of times and got told i was too graceful! lol.

I don't know what i would do without dance...learning Ballet for so long has taught me so much!

 

[Godzgurl]

wow, u've taken ballet for a long time. i took ballet when i was really little and then two years of point but i was never great at it (plus i'm 5'2" so that made it a bit difficult). i love to dance though and i cant imagine not dancing. i take jazz and now hip hop and i love both. keep up w/ ur ballet!

 

[soldoutdancer4]

i took ballet for 10 yrs. but i had to stop bcuz my teacher wanted to start us en pointe! my dad said no cuz it wasn't natural to be on your toes and because i'm way past the age that most girls go en pointe. but i still take jazz tap and hip hop

 

[MidnightJewel]

Godzgurl, what does being 5'2" have to do with dancing en pointe? I have seen girls of all different heights dancing en pointe!

Soldout, that sucks that you couldn't dance en pointe, it is so amazing, i love the feeling (and luckily i don't get blisters from it lol). It's cool that you still take jazz tap and hip hop though!

 

[Ainuhina]

I did ballett for more than 11 years - but had to stopp cause I didn't have the time beside studying for my finals to attend training

I love it soooo much - and I really loved doing pointe

also did some Jazz and modern dance - liked that as well....but had the same problem as you had with Hip Hop to much of a ballettdancer to do hip hop properly...

 

[MidnightJewel]

lol yeah, i'm way to stiff for hip hop. i can kinda do it but it looks really strange....

I can't have ballet lessons anymore but i'm hoping to keep up my training myself, and i'm going to try and remember some of the jazz syllabus i just started learning. I could never give up dance altogether!

 

[Ainuhina]

me too I'm dancing at home now that I can't take lessons anylonger....

 

[MidnightJewel]

yeah, same here!

 

[icbeckyc]

my oldest has done ballet for the last 10 or 11 years. She loves it and enjoys modern and jazz as well. We tease her when she takes hiphop classes, she is too graceful. lol Noone has hands or pointed toes like her.

 

[bithiah2]

hip-hop and ballet are really not that far from each other. dance theater of harlem went to one of the schools and showed the kids the relationship between the two. it is all in how you interpret it. ballet is up, hip-hop dance is into the earth. the reason why people feel that they cannot do it is because they are trying to do ballet with upward energy when it is actually the same energy opposing itself. (you always lift up in dance but the focus is different).
it is the same as trying to play football the same way you play baseball, both use a ball, both games involve running, but the objective is different.
one of the best hip-hop dancers i know has some serious ballet training.
so, try it again! think DOWN, not UP!
blessings
bithiah2

 

[Ainuhina]

wel, the down wasn't the problem for me...it rather was the positioning of the feet I'm doing all stepps like this:

and that looks really weird

 

[BalletDancer]

I know this thread is rather old, but I just wanted to say hi to the other ballet dancers
I've been doing ballet for 3 years, I started with 5 hours a week, and now I'm doing 10. I love it so much and I've advanced very quickly yay!! I'd like to think my God given gift is to teach people, I've been working on my teaching skills at my studio and I've been developing them well. I want to go to college to get a BFA degree and become a dance teacher.
I also do modern and jazz, but I adore ballet.
I have my last Spring Gala performances May 4th and 5th and I'm currently working with super bad tendinitis in my right ankle and various other issues with that, but I'm praying it'll all be okay.

that's me

 

[B3li3v3r4ChRiSt]

I just started ballet, since I'm in dance class here in my school. I actually love it. It's so graceful and quiet. I love it.

x

 

[alexxxaaaX3]

I take pointe class. It's great for when I need some stress relief.

 

[Multi-Elis]

I have done 5 years. I have a tendonitis right now, so I can't dance. But what was so neat is that I really made a lot of progress just before I got the tendonitis.
It took 3 years to understand how the pelvis is supposed to be placed, and 2 more to actually do it most of the time.
What I apreciate is that with ballet I learned how to learn:
You just get really stuborn about trying to do something, and you keep doing it even though you look stuped, and one day it just clicks.
I hope I get over this tendonitis rather quickly, so that I can start again.
(I got tendonitis in a different type of dance class.)

 

[godslittledancer]

I've taken Ballet for 2 years when I wuz 7 and and then I quite and started back ^ last year and hope 2 continue this year.

 

[BalletDancer]

good luck!!

Multi-Elis, ahhh tendinits sucks! I have it too! My right ankle is the worst, but I have it in both my hips too. It's from ballet though. What are you doing for yours? I just registered for my first college classes and I'm dancing 5 days a week (not enough!!) because my tendinitis is too bad to do any more than that, and they're open classes not levels.

 

[Multi-Elis]

mine's in the iscio-abducter. (Back-inner part of the leg, where it connects with the bottom part of the pelvis) and I got it from doing "bounces" in a split position. Bounces is where you bounce up and down both to stretch and to build stregth. It's an old fashioned method that used to be used alot in Jazz. I was doing this in a so called 'contemporary' dance class with teachers who were brought up doing this and were too stuborn to listen to modern advice that is strongly against this. (Actually, the class resembles is dance style "neo-classical ballet" and not contemporary dance).
It's taking longer than usual to heal, and I had to completely stop dancing, I couldn't even take those ballet excercise classes on the floor.
The last time I had tendonitis was from point shoes that tilted wrong, and the time before that was achilis tendonitis from hiking. It took a long time to heal and I had to go back to the beginner classes and had to do the whole ballet class without ever going on tip toe. It worked out for good in the end: I got so bored in the beginner class doing everything so slowly that I had to pay attention to the music. And suddenly it 'clicked' and I learnt how to dance in beat to the music. And since then my dancing has greatly improved. I hope something good comes out of my new case of tendonitis.

I hope your tendonitis is getting better and that you are taking the appropriate mesures to heal from it. Don't hesitate to limit your movement while it heals, you won't regret it later. (Aka, not going on tip toe, or not streatching or what ever, or not doing a full developpé or whatever the case calls for)

Anyway, back to bounces: don't do them. When you streach, do it slowly and steadily as if you are doing a slow long dance and the movement continues beyond what you can actually reach.

 

[CTFPsalm139]

I took my first ballet class this summer. I'm taking it on through the year now, as well. Watching ballet is one thing - but actually doing it is amazing. It kind of gives me the feeling of accomplish-ment.

 

[BalletDancer]

Multi-Elis, aww that sucks! I was taught to never bounce in a stretch, pulsing is one thing but it shouldn't be intense like bouncing or shifting too much. I'm so sorry you were taught/advised another way. I hope you get healed up soon!

CTF, yay! ballet is amazing, I'm glad you got to experience it and are pursuing it now