February Newsletter!

 

February 2021 schedule All classes in session as scheduled (view here). Please sign up online here. Outdoor class at Inspire on Saturdays 12-1PM. Sign-up in advance; limited to 6.   Valentine's Day Easy Online Partnering Workshop! Sunday, February 14, 5-6PM PST - No ballet experience necessary for your partner. It will help if you know arabesque, attitude and sousous. Only $20 for you and your partner. Sign up here. BONUS CLASS! Add on a 30 minute Easy Basic Barre at 4:30PM PST - held right before the workshop, only $10 for you and your partner. See image to right for where to sign up on the page. Access to YouTube video archives Beginner/Intermediate with Pre-pointe playlist is available! Link will be valid from 1/1/21 through 6/30/21. New Friday playlist includes November & December 2020 videos and will be valid through 6/30/21. VISIT my website for more information!     LPBC News Company Member Spotlight! The newest video in our ongoing series on our YouTube channel, Company Spotlights created by Alexes Ciardi, is an interview with company member Gina Buccolo.  Click the photo to the right and be sure to subscribe to our channel to see more in the series! Did you get your 2020 Company t-shirt? Every purchase helps support the company plus you look super cool in it! Design is by company member and artist Bill Reiss. We will do a group order so get to our website and place your order before FEBRUARY 22! Below Megan and Laila show off the long sleeve shirt. Both say the cotton is soft and fits as expected (comfy but not too roomy). And below are Samantha in a short sleeve and Jen in a tank. All styles look great!

December class news, updates and fun links!

 

Outdoor class at Inspire! December 2020 schedule All classes in session as scheduled (view here) except Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. On Thursday 12/24 &Thursday 12/31, Open Level class will be held at 10AM rather than the evening. Fun music and community to celebrate the holidays! Please sign up for all Zoom classes in advance here.   Mark your calendar: Easy Basic Partnering workshop! Saturday, Dec 5th 5-6PM! A fun and easy workshop for you and your friend or family member. You need only know how to do first arabesque and attitude derriere. We will learn a short combo to wow your friends on Zoom. Sign up here!   Access to YouTube video archives The current Intermediate and Beginner playlists will expire 12/31/20. A new Beginner/Intermediate with Pre-pointe playlist will be offered instead (available from 1/1/21 through 6/30/21). The current Friday playlist will also expire 12/31/20; a new Friday video playlist will be offered that will include November & December 2020 through 6/30/21. Links will be on my website on 12/30/20.   Extra fun! Did someone say Outdoor Class? Julie Paige, the owner of Inspire Dance Studio, has set up two outdoor "studios" in her back parking lot. Weather permitting, I am offering Saturday open level class 12-1PM, limit 6 students. Masks must be worn and distance maintained. No walk-ins; you must sign up online. Because of Julie's Nutcracker performance, the next available time for class is Saturday,December 26. Fingers crossed our beautiful weather holds!   Psst...Are you on Instagram? Every Wednesday around 11:30AM, I do a 5-10 minute "Ballet Break". Join me for some gentle stretches, plies and tendus to get us up and away from our desks. And on Thursdays, I always do a bit of choreography!   LPBC News More fun links featuring the dancers of Leigh Purtill Ballet Company! Company Member Spotlights! Last month I shared a new feature from the company YouTube channel: Company Spotlights created by Alexes Ciardi. The newest one is an interview with company member Rae Aaselund, below.  Be sure to subscribe to our channel to see more in the series! Spotlight on Rae Aaselund And....the big project is a short film! Because we couldn't perform our annual "Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet," we produced a short version of it! Rehearsed over Zoom, we filmed outdoors in Griffith Park with a cast of 14 dancers in masks and socially-distanced. Filmed and edited by Rawl Paredes, we are so pleased to present this to you. Please click the image below and enjoy!

Two Tips for Tuesday!

Good morning, beautiful dancers! On this stunning 75 degree day, I'm feeling energized and ready to tackle technique!

Let's talk about 5th position and pirouettes, but not together. Ha!

First of all, you're bouncing out of your 5th. I can't even see you but I know you are doing this, especially at the barre. Your fifth is a position of strength: it's where we start and end so many steps and it's where we form the base for jumps and turns. If you don't have a strong 5th position, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Sounds harsh, I know, but I want you to be aware of 5th as a home base and one you can rely on.

From the very first tendu exercises, take a split second to hold the fifth when you return the gesture leg to the start position and feel the legs squeeze together at the top of the thighs. This will help build strength and speed for petit allegro work later in the center and it will also build stability for developpe, etc. during adagio in the center.

Try to avoid "bouncing" out of the position, that is, swishing through it without actually finding 5th.

Second tip: imagine yourself pirouetting with an invisible partner. For ladies en pointe who have partnered before, you can imagine when a gentleman is standing behind you, you don't want to fall backward into him. You want to keep your hips and back and knees completely straight but your arms and rib cage slightly forward so he has room to assist you on a turn.

Now, even if you have never been partnered before and regardless of your gender, you can picture yourself being partnered by an invisible partner. That person is behind you so you don't want to collapse underneath yourself and fall into them. You want to stay completely held and strong in your core but also lift and lean slightly forward so your arms are balancing out your backside.

Courtesy Charles Askegard

Trust me, 99% of the time, we fall backward out of a turn, not forward. We are very rarely ever too far forward on our leg. It's in fact the opposite - we can't get OVER our legs enough or our knees buckle or soften and we collapse or our heels drop, etc.

And here's a favorite video of mine, from the inimitable Lisa Howell who is based in Australia, unfortunately, so I can't get to get to her workshops but I try to learn as much from her as I can through her online presence. She and I share the same philosophy about ballet and she approaches the biomechanics in the same way I do, although she focuses on kids and teens and I focus on adults.

This video is Lisa discussing how to perform a perfect tendu. I teach this and emphasize the same 3 things she does (core, standing leg turnout and foot articulation) in the same ways but she breaks it down very clearly and has a lovely young demonstrator. Enjoy (and thank you, Lisa!):

New workshops for June & July!

For my beautiful dancers in the Los Angeles, Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge areas (and for dancers who want to travel here or are visiting!) -

NEW WORKSHOPS!

Currently workshops will ONLY be held at Vonder Haar Center in La Canada on Saturdays from 11:30AM-12:30PM. The cost is $17/workshop and you can sign up for as many as you like in advance at my website.

Please note: All workshops are suitable for all levels of dancers and you do not need to be en pointe in order to participate in pointe, variations or partnering.

• June 4 - Contemporary ballet
• June 11 - Pointe
• June 18 - Stretch
• June 25 - Partnering
• July 2 - Contemporary ballet
• July 9 - Inside pirouette and pique turns
• July 16 - Pointe/variation
• July 23 - Partnering
• July 30 - Stretch

 And don't forget the final May workshop: Big jumps! Chainee coupe jete and chassee en tournant! Sign up at my website for that one too.

Quick glance info for the TLDR crowd:
Workshops
Vonder Haar Center for the Performing Arts, 437 Foothill Blvd, La Canada 91011
Saturdays, 11:30AM-12:30PM
$17/each

Happy dancing~

Technique tip: Your invisible partner and you

Whether you're dancing en pointe or flat, it's hard to stay lifted in the center during pirouette, releve and adagio combinations. It's especially hard during petit allegro combinations that require a lot of ballon. It can be helpful to imagine you have a partner behind you, holding your ribcage up out of your pelvis and preventing you from sinking into your hips.

Watch a female dancer being partnered during pirouettes:



(Tatum Shoptaugh being partnered at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy - thank you!)

Note how her male partner holds her above the waist under her ribcage and keeps her centered as she does multiple turns.  By holding her in this way, he prevents her from sitting in her hip so she remains suspended and lifted.  This is the feeling you want even without a partner.

And this is true for both men and women. Men, traditionally not partnered, can still gain a lot from the visual image of being held under the ribs, particularly when they are doing beats in allegro. 

Happy dancing~