Zoomed out? 8 pointers to having a better class!

My current barre

Beautiful dancers, we have gotten so Zoomed out, haven't we? After 7 months of being in our home studios, it's beginning to feel more like a prison and less like a holiday. We probably thought it wouldn't last long and we could keep our family and roommates and pets out of our way for a little while - or maybe we didn't invest in materials or we thought we could just give up dance for a month or two. And now...eesh! Seven months and counting!

I know that it's been challenging to stay focused and be on top of our technique. For those of you who have had a hard time, I get it. I feel the same way sometimes. When I think about being in front of the camera, I feel so sad and a bit dispirited but then I start class, get into the groove, and pretty soon, I forget that it's Zoom (kind of!). 

Even though I've been in front of thousands of classes and I know just about every one of my students, I feel more pressure to "perform" when it's the Zoom camera. If you feel that way too, you're not alone!

So how can you make your Zoom class feel less like a work or school meeting and more like "your time"? Here are a few things I've learned or come to appreciate:

1. Put the camera where you want it. Oh sure, if you're a young pre-professional dancer, you want your teacher to see all the alignment issues for corrections but my adult dancers? Please do what you want. If you want me to see your face or your ear or your feet, that's fine with me.

2. A caveat to #1 - sometimes being a non-video participant or having multiple cameras attached will affect the reception for other students in class. You may need to turn off audio as well. Check with your teacher.

3. Always mute yourself unless you have a question. 

4. Download speed is important for a smooth class. Use whichever device has the fastest speed for downloading.

5. Hardwired internet is always stronger than wi-fi.

6. Consider marking your floor or marley with colored tape to remind you where your downstage, upstage and corners are.

7. Give yourself permission to have an off day or a bad pirouette.

8. Celebrate the wins! Maybe that's just showing up.

I too thought Zoom would be temporary which is why I only started teaching in July. I assumed it would be a transitional period and we would be hybrid classes in mid-July. Now it appears as if Zoom will not be going away. I understand if classes online are not for you and you're waiting for the studio to open. I do hope that will be very soon but even if I can do that for a couple of classes, most likely we will continue to be virtual for many reasons, but mostly safety. Your health is paramount!

There is always another day, another class. But if you have been waiting it out, hoping for things to turn around quickly (I'm with you!), I don't see that happening in the Los Angeles area. Ballet is here for you and I am here for you. Hope to Zoom with you soon!

Happy dancing~

Halloween in August with LPBC!

 In the summer doldrums and looking for something to do this month?

 Celebrate Halloween with us! 

Saturday, August 29th, at 4PM 

• Watch my short film, The Dead Shoes, a spooky hybrid of ballet and scares!
  
• Show off your Halloween costume in our contest! 
• Enjoy a super fun, very easy, Halloween-themed ballet class with me!

 

Best of all...it's all online so you can do it in the safety of your home (or office or backyard or porch...)

Just make a small donation to the company which is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) so your support is tax-deductible.

Click HERE to be taken to the Eventbrite listing where you can sign up and get your Zoom link.

Zoom classes begin July 1!

Hello beautiful dancers!

On Wed July 1, I will start teaching on Zoom so we can begin to transition back to classes. The Zoom schedule will be as follows:

Sunday 11AM-12:15PM Open level technique

Sunday 12:15-1:30PM Pointe

Monday 6:45-8PM Open level technique

Tuesday 6:45-8PM Open level technique

Wednesday 6:45-8PM Open level technique

Thursday 6:45-8PM Open level technique

Saturday 9:30-10:45AM Open level technique

Payment for classes: I will be converting ALL paper cards to e-cards. Each of you will receive credit for any remaining classes you have on your cards (e.g. 2 classes left on a 10-class card is worth $31). Please send me a photo of your card so I can give you proper credit. If I have your card, I will do it for you. The credit will be associated with your preferred email address so be sure to tell me which one you want to use; you can use your credit to purchase a class whenever you sign up for it. Your balance will adjust each time you purchase a class.

Each Zoom class is $15 and will be limited to 10 students. To attend a class, simply go to my class page on my website, select the class you want to attend and reserve your spot. You only need to fill in your name and email and pay for the class. A reminder and Zoom link will be emailed to you. When we return to in-studio classes, we will continue to do everything online and with reserved spots.

I will also continue teaching a free livestream class on Fridays at 11AM on YouTube. If you have any questions, just let me know!As with everything during this pandemic, we need to be flexible!

Thank you all so much for your support and willingness to try new things in new ways!

I've been home for 2 months - now what? Student Edition!

"It's just for a week. Or two. That's it. A couple of weeks."

"They'll fly by! It will be April before we know it and then we'll be back in the studio and dancing with our friends."

And then it was April and we realized, uh-oh, this is going to be much longer than 2 weeks...

Courtesy Denise Krebs, CC Lic

As dancers, we discovered the joy of connecting with other dancers around the world, of taking classes with French teachers and Russian ballerinas, of trying hip-hop and contemporary and Zumba and yoga. Look at all these classes online! Look at all the dancers in their kitchens! Look at all the--

Oops! Look out for the lamp! And the dog!

It was fun for a month or so as we adjusted to a new way of training at home. We built our home studios and we set aside quiet time for ourselves (if we could) and closed the door (if we could) and tried to put our minds back into the studio while our bodies were stuffed into a corner of a living room or perched on the chair in the kitchen nook.

And then reality set in. Oh we thought we were in a new reality but this was the real reality. The reality that we weren't with our friends and our teachers; we weren't getting corrections like we were used to getting; we weren't really training.

We were just...trying really really hard to not kick the dog or smack our hand on the lamp. (I personally have done both many times.)

This way back to reality by Jennifer, cc lic

So right around the 2 month mark, true frustration has set in. Enough of the experimentation with all things new and different! Give us the same old stuff!

We might be in this place for a while longer, depending on where you live. You might go back to your work place but the dance studio will still be closed, which means you're in your home studio for a bit longer. Okay...let's be honest about what you can work on at home. Here is some advice I have for you, as both the teacher who wants to see you mentally healthy and physically able to get back to the regular class and the student who is also stuck at home.

First of all, focus on one thing at a time. Consider each class in your home as an opportunity to work on a step or an arm or a head, etc. You won't have this chance again in the future, unless you do private lessons.

Some things you could focus on:

1. Balance - practice flat or releve, with foot in cou de pied or retire or attitude

2. Stability - practice promenade in any position; developpe; shifting from fourth position to retire as in a pirouette en dehors

3. Port de bras - practice moving through the space and feeling the 3-dimensionality of your hand and fingers tracing the arc in the air

4. Epaulement - practice tilting the head, opening the chest, lifting the sternum and collarbones, rotating the shoulder

5. Calf strength - releves on one leg with the barre and without, use your Theraband with releves in first position

Second, use the rewind button - a lot. If you're not doing a live class, go ahead and hit the back button on a particularly challenging step or a complex combination. Watch it over and over again, study the teacher, and copy it as best you can. When will you ever be able to do that in real life?

Hint: learn new vocabulary by watching a more advanced class and studying the steps and hearing the words.

Third, spend this time to work on muscle memory. Most likely you don't have a kitchen with mirrors so you are doing this on your own. Take this time to feel the movement and get it into your body.

Hint: if you have a small portable mirror, place it somewhere that you can see to check a correct position and then feel what that looks like in your body.

Fourth, practice choreography. This sounds impossible, I know. You're at home with very little room and no mirrors. How can you possibly practice choreography? I would argue this is the perfect time to do it. We rely so much on mirrors and other people that sometimes we don't even pay attention, let alone learn the choreography. So why not use this opportunity to focus on picking things up?

How do you do that? The number one thing to know about learning choreography is that it's different for every person. When I was studying pedagogy in college, the most valuable thing I learned was about how people learn. Some dancers need music, some need to see the combination. Some need the names of the steps or the counts. Do you know how you learn best? Well, why not find out now!

Some hints:

1. Repetition

2. Break a combination up into small chunks

3. Say the names of the steps

4. Count out the music

5. Listen to the music

6. Video yourself doing the combination and then watch it!

Fifth, cross-train.

~Do you have a pool? Swimming builds shoulder and back muscles and increases stamina.

~Do you enjoy walking or running? Put on your sneakers and walk or jog a few times a week for cardio benefits and leg strength.

~Is your town open to hiking? Enjoy nature while you're climbing a hill.

~Yoga and Pilates mat classes are also online and a great way to work in parallel and build core muscles.

~Lift weights if you have them or use objects that can simulate weights.

~Ride a bike, stationary or an actual bike.

Sixth, read. That's right: read. There are a ton of great dance books out there, both fiction and non-fiction (contact me if you need some titles or visit Dance Advantage for my reviews). If you're just not feeling the love of ballet right now because it's just too darn hard to negotiate for space in your home or you're finding it hard to be motivated, you might enjoy reading something that will inspire you or comfort you or educate you. Learn new vocabulary or dance history; check out a memoir of a famous or not-so-famous dancer. Study up on the big ballets and their composers - or choreographers - or costume designers.

Don't despair. We'll get through this.

Whatever you do, know that you are not alone.

As with all social media, what we see may not be what is.

Other dancers may appear to be doing ALL THE THINGS but they're not.

Or maybe they are.

But what does that matter? You are you.

And we are dancers.

I've been home for a month - now what? Teacher Edition!

Beautiful dancers, we are moving into our fifth week of being locked down in our homes and it's definitely been taxing (tax deadline extended, by the way, yay!) on all of us, on our physical health and mental well-being.

I understand not everyone is able to work from home and as many people have noted, it is indeed a privilege to be able to work from your home. My gratitude and appreciation go out to the health care workers, grocery store employees, delivery people, and everyone else involved in a service industry deemed essential to the running of our country.

Dance teachers like me and many of my friends have had to scramble to put our businesses online in some form or another. We look at each other and try to follow the best path, cobbling together something that resembles our classes without being anything at all like them. How could they be? Each of us teaches in a different way and our personalities, our pet peeves and our quirks distinguish us from one another. We are not one-size-fits-all in real life; yet we can't truly be ourselves in the virtual world.

Blossom is my at-home assistant

We want our businesses to thrive, of course, but we also want our students to thrive. We are teachers because we love our students, we live for our students! We worry about them alone at home, not having someone to correct their errors or not taking class at all. I want my students to build on their technique with my guidance but how can I do that when I can't see them or gently prod them? One student emailed me that she missed my "stern gaze" but she also missed her fellow students' gazes. We all want to do well for our teachers but we want to perform well for our friends and fellow dancers.

Teaching virtually has been trial-and-error and sometimes fraught with anxiety! Had we all had time to prepare for online instruction, we would have invested in home studio equipment, microphones and cameras, a powerful internet connection. We would have researched the various platforms, tested them alone and with our students. We would have asked our students which platform suited them, which was easiest to use, what times to teach, and so on.

I know it's hard for you to train at home; it's lonely and hard to stay motivated! It's hard for us too. I miss seeing you dance across the floor to a combination I put together. I miss seeing you apply a correction I give you and the look of "Aha!" on your face.

Blossom loves ronds de jambes

Teaching from home, I've discovered, is not at all the same as teaching in a studio. For one thing, I have to watch my pace more. The usual benchmarks of a clock or simply seeing students' faces or fatigue would let me know when to move on, when to give more instruction, when to answer a question that hasn't been asked. I have to anticipate questions and problems. I have to do the exercises so I know where the problems could be since I can't see them on students' bodies.

However, I have to watch when I'm giving too much instruction and talking too much between exercises. Why? We're at home with a million distractions! There's my dog, Blossom, who barks at unusual times and sometimes wanders in when I'm doing ronds de jambe. There's my phone and my social media feeds; my kitchen which has coffee and snacks; and sometimes there's the pandemic itself which will consume my every waking thought until I can't focus on anything but the doom and gloom.

Whereas in the studio I might have another class coming in or a rehearsal to get to, at home I try to limit class to just an hour in order to keep it moving and engaging. I don't want you distracted either! And I certainly don't want you to feel the doom and gloom - for at least an hour!

Forget doom and gloom when Blossom's in the room!

And technology? Well, when it works, it's fantastic and a true gift to teachers and students alike. When it doesn't? Yeah...I'm a dancer not an IT expert. I get frustrated and upset and I just keep "turning it off and turning it back on" - over and over and over.

The fact is, like our current situation, teaching and taking ballet class online are fluid. We don't know what will happen tomorrow or the next day so have to take it as it comes and respond accordingly.

We dance now because we can.

We teach now because we can.

We fill our lives with joy when we can.

Stay safe and healthy! Happy dancing~

Shelter-in-place means dancing at home

One minute we were in the studio, rehearsing for our spring fundraiser, enjoying our pointe variation workshops and taking class together and the next...

Lockdown. Shelter-in-place. Safer-at-home. By now, most of us are working from home (or trying to!), navigating the new waters of being indoors most hours of the day (or trying to!). Those of you who typically drive to an office have had to set up a home office, including computer and videoconferencing and everything else necessary to communicate with your co-workers. Kids are home from school and parents are spending more time helping them do their coursework online.

To say this is unprecedented is truly an understatement. We were not prepared.

As dancers, we are not equipped to be immobile. We need to move.

Ballet is in our blood and our souls and our brains. 

We need to express ourselves creatively and in ways that are not simply aerobics or running (nothing wrong with either of those things but they fulfill different needs).

Some students who have been dancing for a while likely have a dedicated space at home that allows them to do some small exercises. Others need to move things around to give them the space for this so it takes a bit of work.

But there are others who are still very new to dance, or simply never thought to have a studio at home because they go to a beautiful one every day, who are standing by their kitchen sinks or grabbing onto a dining room chair. These are not bad options for the short-term but let's face facts: we are looking at long-term. As I write this on March 26, I expect that California will not go back to work for at least 2 months. That's another 7 or 8 weeks inside. No studio. No group classes. No teachers (like me!) to tell you what to do!

Home studio with furniture and Blossom

The past week has seen the dance community come together like never before, with all kinds of classes and workshops being offered across a multitude of platforms: from livestreamed barres on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook Live to Zoom classes in contemporary and hip-hop and modern to videos created by teachers in their empty studios; dancers and teachers have been reaching out to support one another and connect with their desperate and detached students.

In some ways, this is all awesome, isn't it? You can't get to your classes so your classes come to YOU. But...what do you do in your own home? You can't hold onto the counter for 2 months!

Build your own studio!

(When I say "build" I mean that as loosely or as literally as you want it to be.)

First choose the area you want to dance in.

**The best place is obviously one without carpeting, preferably a wooden floor with some give to it, rather than concrete.
**If you can find a space that doesn't have a slippery surface, that would be ideal.
**Make sure there isn't any furniture around or if there is, it can easily be moved out of the way.
**If you only have carpet or concrete, you can purchase a mat online that gives you a smoother surface with a bit of give. Here is a mat from Harlequin. But there are others!
**You may also need a table top on which to place your computer/laptop/tablet with an outlet nearby if you need one.
**If you can find a quiet space, one with a door that can close, that is also ideal. You will want to be able to hear the teacher and the music and it's more conducive to setting aside this area as "home studio."

You might want to leave some room for your pet to dance too!

Next the barre:

1. Order one online - either free-standing or wall-mounted. Keep in mind you will have to put the parts together. Be sure to measure your space properly so you can order the right size for your dance area and check your walls before you get a wall-mount.

Here is a free-standing one -

The Beam Store

And wall-mounted - 

VitaVibe

Both of the above businesses are independently owned but you can also order from Amazon if you prefer.

2. DIY - again free-standing or wall-mounted

YouTube metal barre free standing tutorial

Wall mounted barre DIY

There are LOTS of different options out there. Check Pinterest or search YouTube for videos. Some pieces you can have your local hardware store cut for you (in California they are essential businesses so you could call ahead and have them cut pipe for you if you need it and then pick it up for minimal contact).

Finally, set up an area for your computer/laptop/tablet.

**Place it at a height that can be easily adjusted as you move from one side to the other.
**If the class is interactive (i.e. your teacher can see you), put it somewhere that the camera will see you properly. Sometimes this is a low angle and far away so the teacher can see your feet.
**Always practice with your computer's webcam before your lesson so you don't waste time adjusting or missing a combination.

A guard pup is helpful while you're busy dancing.

A few reminders about taking class at home:
DO try to keep to a routine, whether it's the same day or time as your in-studio class or a new routine that fits with your new schedule; this will make it more likely you will continue your technique classes. 
DO use class to help your mental health and connect to others.
DON'T stress if you can't follow online easily: it takes a few tries to figure out how to follow someone on the screen.
DO take class at your current level and
DO watch more challenging classes prior to participating so you know what's coming next
DON'T jump unless your floor is sprung or raised
DON'T be tempted to do more pointe work than you are ready for without a teacher's guidance
DO take the opportunity to try new teachers and new dance styles!

Whatever you do, just keep moving!  Happy dancing and stay healthy!