Get to the Pointe
It's amazing, and incredibly humbling to me that I'm frequently finding myself to be the most experienced dancer in my fundamentals and beginner classes these days. (One of the signs that have helped me decide to finally start dipping my toe into the intermediate class...)
I've always been the self-appointed Beginner Ballet Welcome Wagon, (which I'm sure my teachers roll their eyes over), but I felt it was so incredibly important at the beginner level. Experienced dancers have classes to compare their experience to. They can assess the teacher, the content, and the other students and make an educated decision on whether that class is what they're looking for.
On the other hand, when an adult walks in for that very first class, whether it is the first class ever or just with this studio or this teacher, that one class is one of the only data points you have to work off when deciding if you're going to come back next week. If I'm an adult beginner, maybe this class was discouragingly difficult, or maybe it was easier than I wanted so I'll decide that this isn't the class, the school, or even the sport for me. So I'll often approach new students after class to give the "spiel" in hopes they'll be able to find a comfortable home among the New Orleans Dance Academy adult beginners.
If you're curious, the spiel involves laying out that there are 2 beginner level classes and what they're good for (included Intermediate level below for the curious):
Get to the Pointe
Back in February and March I'd actually started very basic pointe balances in class, but have since been grounded for a month or two due to an injury. Unfortunately, you lose the foot strength fast, so I like to use my Thursday Fundamentals class as a great way to focus on strengthening my feet by doing battle with the paper mache blocks on my feet (aka: pointe shoes) without having to spare too much brain power on combinations.
The Thursday Fundamentals class has recently had an influx of a number of new students (YAYYY!!). I had pulled out my pointe shoes, intending to work in flat only on strengthening my feet. One of the new students cast an all-too-familiar envious gaze at my shoes and asked how long it took before I was able to earn my pair.
I don't know that it's a common aspiration among adult ballet dancers to make it to pointe. It's my personal observations that people who danced when they were younger generally did pointe and aren't necessarily interested in making it back, and that people who are incredibly new see it as something of a ridiculous, unobtainable goal, or they just aren't interested (which is totally fine!). And then there are the cohort of us who set our eyes on it and know that's what we're chasing.
Pointe is always incredibly personalized. Among the young dancers, your teacher has to recommend you for pointe once they feel you're ready. Among adult dancers, you should also seek the blessing of your teacher, and need to be pro-active about letting your teachers know that you're interested and need guidance. Let me repeat: TALK TO YOUR TEACHER. Ask questions about what it takes to reach pointe. How often should you be dancing, what technique or form issues should you be working on, what strengthening exercises can you be doing outside of class to help. And then your teacher also knows to keep an eye on you and help you adjust your path as you go along. As adults, our teachers are not our parents. If you walk in with a pair of pointe shoes to your first class, they're going to assume you know how to use them. It's up to us to know our limits and to seek help.
I got my first pair of pointe shoes a bit after the 2 year mark. In a story for another post, I ended up with shoes that just didn't work out for me and gave up for a while. I picked up a new pair of shoes at about the 3 year mark that worked way better, was doing well for a couple months, then was grounded due to some flexibility issues in my left foot that are putting pressure on a tendon in my big toe.
The point(e) is....patience. Set the goal and work toward it, but savor the journey. Savor the conversation with your body and the give an take. My ballet journey has been 3.5 years of one step forward and two steps back. Achieving something awesome, then having to back off due to injury. Over and over. It's frustrating. My body is not flexible and fast healing like the 15 year olds who have class before me. Muscle pulls, ankle tweaks, knee pains all take longer to heal than they used to, and if not properly cared for just lead to bigger issues later.
My pointe shoes are important to me. They live in my dance bag and go back and forth to class with me because I will use them again soon. But not until I know that I've worked up to the flexibility I need to do it right. The ability to continue dancing for another 3 years (hopefully en pointe!) without crippling foot pain is far more important to me.
As a society, we're really into instance gratification (I mean, who isn't?) but when it comes to eating right and exercise, you've got to slow down and celebrate every hard won inch. Set the goal, keep working, but don't get attached to when you think you SHOULD be able to do something. Work with your body, not against. Be grateful for progress and patient with setbacks, and before you know it you'll glance at yourself in the mirror one day and find that your leg is at 90, your arabesque is perfect, you landed a pirouette perfectly. And that surprise is such a sweet victory.
I've always been the self-appointed Beginner Ballet Welcome Wagon, (which I'm sure my teachers roll their eyes over), but I felt it was so incredibly important at the beginner level. Experienced dancers have classes to compare their experience to. They can assess the teacher, the content, and the other students and make an educated decision on whether that class is what they're looking for.
On the other hand, when an adult walks in for that very first class, whether it is the first class ever or just with this studio or this teacher, that one class is one of the only data points you have to work off when deciding if you're going to come back next week. If I'm an adult beginner, maybe this class was discouragingly difficult, or maybe it was easier than I wanted so I'll decide that this isn't the class, the school, or even the sport for me. So I'll often approach new students after class to give the "spiel" in hopes they'll be able to find a comfortable home among the New Orleans Dance Academy adult beginners.
If you're curious, the spiel involves laying out that there are 2 beginner level classes and what they're good for (included Intermediate level below for the curious):
- Fundamentals covers proper placement, activating correct muscle groups, theory, strengthening, and developing muscle memory on your building block steps.
- Beginner/Intermediate is a full ballet class with a full barre and full center. Exercises are generally relatively simple so you can work on your technique, weight transfer, balance, and begin building combination muscle memory. Compared to an intermediate class, you generally spend a bit longer at the barre than center.
- Intermediate (as I'm learning within the last 2 weeks) is a full barre & full center. Compared to the beginner class, time at the barre seems to be shorter, leaving more time for exercises in the center. Exercises and combos are more complex under the assumption that you have a solid grasp of basic technique, weight transfer, balance, and a decent memory for combinations and can move in a wider variety of directions and paces.
I also generally like to give new students a bench mark to compare with by giving how long I've been with the class, and my rock bottom starting point. Maybe I'm also just a bit overly proud of myself and want to share, as well, but when I walked in on day 1, I had no clue how long it would take me to stop flailing around like a spaz, so I loved to talk to the other dancers and find out where they started and how long they've been working - and they were always happy to share with me.
Get to the Pointe
Back in February and March I'd actually started very basic pointe balances in class, but have since been grounded for a month or two due to an injury. Unfortunately, you lose the foot strength fast, so I like to use my Thursday Fundamentals class as a great way to focus on strengthening my feet by doing battle with the paper mache blocks on my feet (aka: pointe shoes) without having to spare too much brain power on combinations.
The Thursday Fundamentals class has recently had an influx of a number of new students (YAYYY!!). I had pulled out my pointe shoes, intending to work in flat only on strengthening my feet. One of the new students cast an all-too-familiar envious gaze at my shoes and asked how long it took before I was able to earn my pair.
I don't know that it's a common aspiration among adult ballet dancers to make it to pointe. It's my personal observations that people who danced when they were younger generally did pointe and aren't necessarily interested in making it back, and that people who are incredibly new see it as something of a ridiculous, unobtainable goal, or they just aren't interested (which is totally fine!). And then there are the cohort of us who set our eyes on it and know that's what we're chasing.
Pointe is always incredibly personalized. Among the young dancers, your teacher has to recommend you for pointe once they feel you're ready. Among adult dancers, you should also seek the blessing of your teacher, and need to be pro-active about letting your teachers know that you're interested and need guidance. Let me repeat: TALK TO YOUR TEACHER. Ask questions about what it takes to reach pointe. How often should you be dancing, what technique or form issues should you be working on, what strengthening exercises can you be doing outside of class to help. And then your teacher also knows to keep an eye on you and help you adjust your path as you go along. As adults, our teachers are not our parents. If you walk in with a pair of pointe shoes to your first class, they're going to assume you know how to use them. It's up to us to know our limits and to seek help.
I got my first pair of pointe shoes a bit after the 2 year mark. In a story for another post, I ended up with shoes that just didn't work out for me and gave up for a while. I picked up a new pair of shoes at about the 3 year mark that worked way better, was doing well for a couple months, then was grounded due to some flexibility issues in my left foot that are putting pressure on a tendon in my big toe.
The point(e) is....patience. Set the goal and work toward it, but savor the journey. Savor the conversation with your body and the give an take. My ballet journey has been 3.5 years of one step forward and two steps back. Achieving something awesome, then having to back off due to injury. Over and over. It's frustrating. My body is not flexible and fast healing like the 15 year olds who have class before me. Muscle pulls, ankle tweaks, knee pains all take longer to heal than they used to, and if not properly cared for just lead to bigger issues later.
My pointe shoes are important to me. They live in my dance bag and go back and forth to class with me because I will use them again soon. But not until I know that I've worked up to the flexibility I need to do it right. The ability to continue dancing for another 3 years (hopefully en pointe!) without crippling foot pain is far more important to me.
As a society, we're really into instance gratification (I mean, who isn't?) but when it comes to eating right and exercise, you've got to slow down and celebrate every hard won inch. Set the goal, keep working, but don't get attached to when you think you SHOULD be able to do something. Work with your body, not against. Be grateful for progress and patient with setbacks, and before you know it you'll glance at yourself in the mirror one day and find that your leg is at 90, your arabesque is perfect, you landed a pirouette perfectly. And that surprise is such a sweet victory.
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