No I don't dance with a company ... well not a pro company ...
A recent article in Dance magazine that has been extensively shared around the adult recreational ballet world.
That article is written from a US American perspective and needs to be viewed through the lens of their Dance Industry. The UK is different and highly variable. There is provision for a serious but not pro dancer in the UK, but it's often "build your own programme" and outside London can include none trivial amounts of travel (by UK standards, some of the Aussie and more rural North American readers wouldn't raise an eyebrow over 'it's an 80 mile round trip to class'.) If you are in London it's a different kettle of fish, but given getting on for 1 in 6 of the UK population is in London ...
The high quality provision for none pros often seems to be despite the big companies rather than because of it. Some of this may seem semantic, especially about the the term Intermediate but some of the best classes I've taken outside of London have been in 'local' teachers who happen to be ex-pros or with the, sadly, still embryonic Powerhouse Ballet.
I'm not going to go on the attack here, but when like one Company;s community classes facet you have an 'Intermediate' class that directly bans pointe shoes (and I've taken pointe class with the teacher(s) elsewhere and taken a pointe class in the building with one of the companies principal dancers - but under the branding of an independent provider of activities for adults) one has to wonder at their commitment toward working age adult classes...
Or another intrinsically linked with a big company studio advertises a class as intermediate, when it's clearly an improvers class ...
Performing as an amateur (or it seems as a pro outside the big companies waving to some of my Chantry Dance friends and acquaintances) means being flexible and prepared to demonstrate the breadth of your dance skills and go outside your previous comfort zone e.g. the Gender Moves project , or subsequently starting to take a regular contemporary class with Lauren at Hype and taking up performing opportunities with contemporary as well as Ballet classes at Hype ...
I'm not going to dwell on Powerhouse ballet's successes or otherwise, needless to say I think it is a viable idea and deserves every chance of success but the execution and delivery has to be done well and reflect the will of the majority of the dancers involved in the company.
That article is written from a US American perspective and needs to be viewed through the lens of their Dance Industry. The UK is different and highly variable. There is provision for a serious but not pro dancer in the UK, but it's often "build your own programme" and outside London can include none trivial amounts of travel (by UK standards, some of the Aussie and more rural North American readers wouldn't raise an eyebrow over 'it's an 80 mile round trip to class'.) If you are in London it's a different kettle of fish, but given getting on for 1 in 6 of the UK population is in London ...
The high quality provision for none pros often seems to be despite the big companies rather than because of it. Some of this may seem semantic, especially about the the term Intermediate but some of the best classes I've taken outside of London have been in 'local' teachers who happen to be ex-pros or with the, sadly, still embryonic Powerhouse Ballet.
I'm not going to go on the attack here, but when like one Company;s community classes facet you have an 'Intermediate' class that directly bans pointe shoes (and I've taken pointe class with the teacher(s) elsewhere and taken a pointe class in the building with one of the companies principal dancers - but under the branding of an independent provider of activities for adults) one has to wonder at their commitment toward working age adult classes...
Or another intrinsically linked with a big company studio advertises a class as intermediate, when it's clearly an improvers class ...
Performing as an amateur (or it seems as a pro outside the big companies waving to some of my Chantry Dance friends and acquaintances) means being flexible and prepared to demonstrate the breadth of your dance skills and go outside your previous comfort zone e.g. the Gender Moves project , or subsequently starting to take a regular contemporary class with Lauren at Hype and taking up performing opportunities with contemporary as well as Ballet classes at Hype ...
I'm not going to dwell on Powerhouse ballet's successes or otherwise, needless to say I think it is a viable idea and deserves every chance of success but the execution and delivery has to be done well and reflect the will of the majority of the dancers involved in the company.
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