Another Project On The Go: Alice In Wonderland Ballet

The beginning of the dream scene, where Alice has "had enough"
The end section of Alice in Wonderland where Alice is ending her adventure.

I am currently choreographing my first ever ballet for YEM Theatre School with around 40 children. You may remember my Alice in Wonderland posts from a while back, when I was in the research of ideas and themes and characters. Rehearsals are now well under way but still have a long way to go.

The music was my first starting point. So, iTunes was an absolute must to download music, but also Spotify to test it out and listen to it first. Of course being me, I didn't just look for classical music, I searched through a few themes and ideas to collect my final play list. I have incorporated tracks from Madonna, De Bussy, Hartly and Eurythmics so as you can tell; quite a diverse range. I integrated tracks to create my story line and cut the music accordingly. I now have a two act ballet of four minutes per act. From past shows ballet has always been the slow down for a fast paced show, but not this year I hope. Especially since this is the first ballet to include "street ballet"!

I took some photos of rehearsals in action (with permission) just to document the work taking place. I am working with five different classes. Each group meanders around the choreography I just hope it will work once all dancers are put together. Not only have I got the five ballet classes, but also three jazz groups to build up numbers (as we lost some students after the last unethical teacher).

Teaching Diary 19/02/10

Friday 19th February 2010

I have been teaching ballet now for five months and it's been hard but much better than dancing it myself. One of my older students recently suggested or rather requested a ballet technique class for in the half term, which I agreed might be beneficial for them. Though ballet and especially technique is not my forte; I always knew what I was supposed to be doing technique-wise, just my body would have a hard time doing it. With my limitations and injuries I decided to concentrate my career on musical theatre and dance styles I could do. So I organised this class through the school for which I already teach the ballet classes, but I would pay the hall hire and be paid from those who attended. This would be my first taste of running my own class.

I looked at a few different sources to help me create a lesson plan that focused purely on technique, strengthening and conditioning. My initial idea was to start with a floor barre, which I've known students have done at my college. I looked on youtube for any exercises, inspiration and ideas. I drew on relevant pilates and yoga exercises I knew that may be useful for a dancer's body. I followed this up by researching related websites. I recently purchased "Ballet For Dummies" on Amazon, and looked for "back to basics" ideas for adults. I chose more relaxing music so they would be able to concentrate on their bodies working rather than the exercise and timing. So I used iTunes to pick my playlist. Basically most of the girls I expected to attend I already teach ballet to, so I wanted to give them a completely different ballet class to what they are used to. As online social networking is the way forward I used Facebook to set up an event and to invite dancers to attend. I put all information on the site including cost, venue, what they need to bring and what they'll be doing during the class. I also added that it would only go ahead if I have enough people attending. Six people said they would attend.

The hardest part I found was the reliability of everyone. The class took place yesterday evening. I had five girls, four of which said they were coming originally, so two didn't attend). Both explained why. The Principal of the school said they should pay anyway, as in terms of expenses covered I made a loss. I haven't asked either to pay and won't do as I think I'll be clearer about attendance. This is all practise though for when I attempt to organise an Easter School in April. I hope this will be more successful. I'm going to send a facebook message out now to see who might be interested initially. We'll see how this goes.

This is one of the videos I watched to gather ideas to improve ballet technique.

References and Bibliography

Ballet For Dummies

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballet-Dummies-Scott-Speck/dp/0764525689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266691666&sr=8-1 available at Amazon.co.uk

Pilates Foundation

http://www.pilatesfoundation.com/newsite/what-is-pilates.php (date unknown) Uses of pilates (Online) (Accessed 15th February 2010)

Yoga

(Date unknown) http://yoga.about.com/ Uses (Online) (Accessed 15th February 2010)

The Finis Jhung Ballet Technique

(30th December 2009) Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPSKFJjbscU (Online) (Accessed 15th February 2010)

iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/

The Challenges of Choreography

You may have seen my gathered images for Alice in Wonderland, well I am pleased to say that the choreography is well under way. As this is first BALLET choreography I have done, I accepted early on it wouldn't be easy.

There's been a lot of problems within the ballet end of the school due to the teacher before me stealing students and leaving me; the new teacher with next to none - good luck creating a work-of-art ballet Lucy!

Never the less, I overcame that problem by borrowing other students from the school to bulk it up a bit (though the students don't know this yet!) The principals have agreed due to the circumstances and I am allowed to do so.

However this has somehow started something. School's tend to thrive with little ones learning music and dance, and occasionally stream into a few less in each class as the students get older. So the principals want the youngest (non-ballet) school members which are between the ages of 1 and 3 to be in much more.

Oh let's ask Lucy to put them in the ballet!!!.........

I'll keep you posted!