PrimaSoft Ribbon

If you have ever struggled with baggy ribbons, this is a perfect solution! This ribbon has the look and size of any standard pointe shoe ribbon, but is made from a soft stretchy, elastic material.  It looks a little different up close, but will match most pointe shoe colors and look the same on stage or in class. No more tendon trauma… not too loose or too tight, but just right.

Pointe shoes are not the most comfortable shoes on the planet, as previously discussed here. Back in my day, we stuffed the tips of our shoes with lamb’s wool or paper towels, depending on what was handy. But now they make puffy little pillows to cushion your feet- a thin layer of gel material inside two pieces of fabric creates a comfortable pouch. Just imagine!

Dancers get thirsty so having water on hand is a must. But keeping those water bottles clean can be a challenge. The answer? Clean Bottle: The Square. Unscrew the bottom (and the top) of this reusable water bottle for no-fuss washing and quick drying. Flat sides mean it won’t roll away if it falls. Stainless steel; holds a whopping 20 ounces. It doesn’t get easier– or more perfect for dancers.

Pretty ballet skirts that actually stay in place once you put them on. This one by Bloch has a cute petal decoration and an elastic waist.

Leotards with style and fun details. This one by Ainsliewear has a flirty dot-lace panel on the back. It’s been declared “hot”by my husband.

When your world feels like it is spinning off its axis, dance.

Whether you feel six feet tall or two feet small, dance.

If you are happy or if you are sad, dance.

If you are hurting or if you are mad, dance.

When joy flows through every vein in your limbs, dance.

When vision is cloudy or crystal clear, dance.

Live. Eat. Breathe.

DANCE

Let this carry you through all of your days, a rock-solid practice you can count on.

For those times when you just can’t make it to St. Petersburg for opening night at the Marinsky Theater or you’re double booked for top-notch Canadian choreography and your budget doesn’t allow for cloning yourself there is an option: dance on film. While some might call it second best it beats missing out entirely, plus you can watch it in the comfort of your own home.

FIlms are always better with snacks. Make sure to break out the popcorn. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, garlic powder and spices. Dig in.

1. Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. Disregard the somewhat odd title of this movie because I promise this film will be well worth your while. The story follows a widowed man whose life turns upside down when he embarks on a journey to find a dying man’s long lost love… hint: dance is the catalyst of change.The stellar cast includes John Goodman, Robert Carlysle and Marisa Tomei.

2. Mao’s Last Dancer. Based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao’s cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

3. Ballerina. French filmmaker Bertrand Norman follows the careers of five Russian ballerinas in their career path from the acclaimed Vaganova Academy to the stage of the famed Kirov Ballet. Using magnificent perormance footage, as well as behind the scenes shots and candid interviews, Bertrand gives audiences am insider glimpse of the extreme discipline and dedication demanded of ballerinas.

Happy viewing! I leave you with a quote from Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School:

Dance is a very powerful drug Mr. Keane. If embraced judiciously, it can exorcise demons, access deep seated emotions and color your life in joyous shades of brilliant magenta that you never knew existed. But, one must shoulder its challenges with intrepid countenance if one is ever to reap its rewards.

The world has recently been blessed with several truly great dance films. Being a visual person I love nothing better than to feel swept away by a captivating film (or photo). Since time does not permit attending every performance I’d like to see, watching dance on screen keeps my options open and gives me the chance to see things I might not otherwise be exposed to.  Here are a few of my favorites; if you haven’t seen them yet you should!

1. First Position. Follow a handful of dancers through their trial by fire during the Prix de Lausanne, one of the most prestigious dance competitions in the world. Many dancers who participate in the Prix de Lausanne are later offered apprenticeships or company contracts. Michaela DePrince, one of the dancers featured in First Position, has since gone on to become the youngest member of American Ballet Theater.

2. Pina. German choreographer Pina Bausch was a sensation in her time and this film is a stunning tribute. Every aspect from sets and costumes to soundtrack and choreography echoes the colorful and ethereal world that she created. Directed by Wim Wenders, Pina was nominated for an Oscar and won several European awards for Best Documentary.

3. Le Vent. This one only runs for a few minutes and is well worth the watch. Marina Kanno and Giacomo Bevilaqua from Staatsballett Berlin perform several jumps captured in slow motion at 1000 frames per second. Gorgeous… and the music is, too.

4. Lost in Motion. Guillaume Côté, a principal with the National Ballet of Canada put his own money and lots of fund-raising effort into creating this two-minute video.
 Côté wanted to portray a dancer in ‘the zone’ – to show what it really feels like to dance.
 “I wanted to get the tights off and I wanted to get the costumes off, and just show the sheer physicality of classical dance,” he said in an interview with CBC’s Metro Morning.
 The prolonged jumps were captured with a high-definition, high-speed Phantom camera. Let me know if you don’t agree that it is brilliantly awesome.

5. Pas de Deux. Galen Summer’s documentary shows New York City Ballet dancers Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette – from a perspective that is so up close and personal – the viewer feels like one of the dancers. For her part of a behind-the-scenes series for the New York City Ballet, Summer and her team figured out how to attach cameras to vests the dancers wore while performing the wedding pas de deux from Tschaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty.” You can watch Summer’s other NYC Ballet documentaries ‘Pointe Shoes,’  and “Tutu” here.

I’ll be back on Thursday with more great film picks. Happy viewing!

Diablo Ballet has distinguished themselves as a company that has embraced technology in order to reach a larger audience. They were hugely successful with their Twitter campaign, where a group of “textperts” tweeted live during a performance. However, they kept reaching and were able to connect with a global audience with the “Web Ballet” project, where fans were able to give their input to shape the ballet.

Oakland Ballet reminded ballet-goers to “think local” during a recent ad campaign that featured photographs of their dancers on location in local hot spots.

Oakland Ballet Company publicity photo: company dancers at Lake Merritt, Oakland, © David DeSilva

Several companies took it to the street for the 9th annual Dance Anywhere, a worldwide celebration of dance that happens simultaneously across the globe..  Avy K Productions, AXIS Dance Company and Bianca Cabrerra’s Blind Tiger Society were among the listed performers.

Avy K performed at YBCA, the Yerba Buena Center For the Arts.

AXIS Dance Company at the Oakland Museum of California.

Blind Tiger Society headed over to San Francisco’s Jessie Street Plaza.

Post:Ballet‘s fine art dance images showcase their modern aesthetic. Dancers are often photographed in little to no clothing with dramatic lighting to enhance the lines of their bodies. Many of their images are shot on location in natural settings. These photographs make a clear statement that the company has embraced the modern age.

The Bay Area is a mecca of dance and creativity. It’s always a treat to sample new and different fare.

There used to be this art gallery in town that had the most amazing wood floors. They were a deep, burnished mahogany color with a perfectly polished surface. Every time I went in a part of me itched to take off my shoes and dance on it barefoot. The smooth wood beckoned.

It was a tease.

I began to calculate ways to make my wish come true. My husband had a big birthday coming up – I could rent the space for the party, put together a great buffet and a killer dance mix and voila! It was the perfect plan.

Except somewhere shortly after I hatched my ingenious plan the gallery announced it was moving and closed its doors for good. My dream died. Who knew what would become of the delicious floor now? Maybe the new tenants would cover it with (*hugely audible gasp*) carpet.

The space sat vacant for months. The windows were papered over to keep prying eyes away from the secret goings-on inside.

One day as I was driving past I noticed a bright orange awning out front. I pulled over to get a better look and noticed a new logo on the window… it was a dancing figure. The new name of the business was “Move Me” studio.

Now the space is an incredible dance studio with gorgeous natural lighting. That delicious wood floor is danced on seven days a week. I go as often as I can.

How’s that for serendipity?

A lot of people ask me what it takes to be a ballet dancer. Here’s what George Balanchine said about it:

“Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policemen, always alert, always tense. But I don’t agree with that because policemen don’t have to look beautiful at the same time.”

Mr. Balanchine was right. It isn’t easy to be a ballet dancer. These days ballet is in the spotlight, with films like Black Swan and TV shows like Bunheads and Breaking Pointe creating a national obsession. It is every little girl’s dream to become a ballerina. However, for most people, this dream will never come true. Why? Because ballet is one of the most demanding and competitive fields in existence. Only a small percentage of people have what it takes to make it.

Here are the three things that all dancers must have in order to succeed:

• internal characteristics

• external characteristics

• an action plan.

We’ll start with the most obvious first: the external. A dancer must have the proper physical build. Dancers are slender and swan-like, with long, lean limbs and perfect proportions. They can’t be too tall… or too short. Basically, they are perfect.

Holy flexibility!

There are other, not-so-obvious physical traits that ballet demands: flexibility (for those high kicks and gravity-defying leaps) turnout, or outward rotation of the hips, and supple, beautifully arched feet… every dancer knows how important it is to have “good feet”. The wrong kind of foot looks like an unsightly ham hock while the right kind of foot completes the line beautifully.

Equally important is what’s going on inside. Obviously there is a burning desire to dance… that is true for all dancers. The desire lights the fire, but there’s got to be a whole lot more than that to keep the flame burning against when the going gets tough. What keeps the flame alive is what I like to call the three D’s of dance: determination, dedication and discipline.

 Determination means that defeat is eliminated from your vocabulary. You know deep in your core that you will never give up. Trust me, all dancers come up against plenty of discouragement. Determination means you keep on going no matter what.

Dedication means commitment to a task or purpose… practice, practice, practice because it must be perfect, perfect, perfect… but dancers must take dedication to a much higher level than most people realize: in order to be a dancer, dance comes first, often to the exclusion of many other things. Most of the hours of your days are devoted to classes, rehearsals, strength building and even private coaching, if necessary. More importantly, dedication to ballet means sacrifice: sacrifice of time and sacrifice of activities like skiing and horseback riding, a few of the things list of Forbidden Things for dancers… it’s a pretty long list …

Discipline means applying yourself, training by regular instruction and exercise… or to bring about a state of order and control. Both are true for ballet dancers.

The final piece of success is an action plan. Once a dancer decides to pursue to a career (usually during the early teens) it’s time to map that plan. Of course, the plan can change over time and often does. First choose a professional ballet school. Many ballet companies run professional ballet schools to train up and coming generations of dancers. These schools accept students by audition only and the competition is fierce. Many dancers start by taking summer intensives at these professional schools. If all goes well, they are invited to stay on as a permanent student.

When a student reaches the advanced levels in a professional school (usually anywhere between 15-18 years old) it’s time for more decisions. Sometimes the parent ballet company will invite students to apprentice with the company. Apprenticeships last about a year and are stepping stones to becoming a full-fledged company member.

More often dancers attend open call auditions to get work. Make a list of the companies that interest you and find out when they are holding auditions. Most dancers have a love/hate relationship with auditions because they are nerve-wracking and crowded. But they also represent opportunity and you never know which one will pan out.

Some dancers call companies directly to see if they are hiring. If so, they can arrange to take class with the company as a sort of informal audition.

Either way, it all boils down to making choices. You aim, you shoot… and hopefully you’re hired. If not, you keep trying until it happens.

As you can see becoming a ballet dancer is not simple… or easy. But if a dancer has what it takes: the proper internal and external characteristics and an action plan, they have the best chance for success.

NYCB’s Kathryn Morgan. Notice what she says about success.

Years ago a boyfriend tried to get me interested in football by likening it to ballet. In the face of my blatant skepticism he insisted there were parallels: did I not notice the graceful, gazelle-like leaps before the tackles that ended in a tangle of limbs? Would I not admit the precision and grace with which players fled across the field for a touchdown? And what about the victory dance after a touchdown? That had to count for something, didn’t it? Needless to say, his arguments failed to sway my opinion and I never did develop a love for football (sorry guys) partly because it’s hard to swallow the salaries they get in comparison to the paltry pay of most dancers.

BUT… lately I have noticed an interesting phenomenon–ballet and sports have been teaming up to create some fun ad campaigns, and they’re creating quite a buzz. My old dance alma mater, Miami City Ballet teamed up with local basketball team,  Miami HEAT, for a photo campaign celebrating MCB’s 25th anniversary. The juxtaposition of tiny ballerinas to towering, lanky basketball guys was hilarious… and memorable.

Dwyane Wade from Miami Heat and Patricia Delgado Miami City Ballet

However, MCB is not playing favorites– when it comes to sports all are welcome. Former NY Mets slugger Mike Piazza joins the team of tutus in Miami City Ballet School’s upcoming show on May 3rd; he’ll play ‘The Gangster’ in ‘Slaughter on Tenth Avenue’ (Piazza’s 6-year-old daughter, a student at the Miami City Ballet school, encouraged him to try out for the part).

Mike Piazza

I imagine dancers and athletes alike have had a lot of fun with this stuff and perhaps they have something to learn from one another. Many athletes have turned to ballet to help them improve their flexibility and coordination. Now if we dancers could only get them to return the favor and give us some help in negotiating killer 6-figure salaries…

Behind-the scenes video from Miami City Ballet/Miami HEAT photo shoot:

Every dancer hits a proverbial wall from time to time. (non-dancers do too). This recently happened to me and I’ve had an ongoing internal dialogue about what to do about it ever since. It isn’t easy or comfortable to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep trying after a failed attempt… plus ignore those nasty inner critics that insist you’d be better off if you packed it all in and went home to do something nice and safe. Like basket weaving.

Feeling bad about things like an audition gone wrong or a job offer that fell through is understandable. You might also be tempted to allow yourself to fall into the dumps or have a pity party. We’ve all been there. But how do you climb back out of that hole?

I randomly came across this sign the other day and it summed the issue up perfectly. Happiness and success are an inside job. Whether your goal is to dance with New York City Ballet or twirl fire-laden hoops on Brooklyn rooftops, ultimate success begins with unwavering (aside from the occasional blip of the blues) passion and belief about what you are doing. Everything else is peripheral. The more you keep your focus on what you are doing and your vision of where you want to go with it, the more likely you are to get there.

This is not to say that there won’t be human moments–disappointments and fears–but there is always the option to rise above these and keep going no matter what.

There’s a saying in the writing business that the difference between published and unpublished writers is persistence. Those who don’t give up– who let their attitude determine their altitude– are the ones who take flight.

How high will you fly?

I have been thinking about how precise ballet is, right down to the position of the fingers. The head is tilted and the arms are placed just so; the feet are presented daintily. Every dancer is practicing to be precise with each movement, which takes a lot of hours and effort. Now with hindsight, decades after I chose to pursue a different career, I’ve realized that ballet is the gift that keeps giving–because that same drive to achieve precision continues to inform everything I do.

One of my dance friends says it’s always easy to pick a dancer out in a crowd. Dancers learn how to fully inhabit their bodies in a way that most people don’t. All those hours of dedicated practice learning to control every last piece of the body (including those fingertips, of course!) translates into grace for life.

While I’m grateful to have an understanding of how to move well and how to maintain fitness, precision is the thing that really pays off. I don’t think I could be a writer without it (at least not a very good one). There’s no one to tell me what to write, when to write it or if it should be burned immediately. Any amount of precision comes from within and nowhere else. This isn’t always easy. Without my years in ballet I don’t think I’d be nearly as productive or as exacting today.

So let this be a moment of gratitude to all of the teachers who have helped develop these gifts, especially the School of American Ballet‘s Mr. Richard Rapp, who taught me the proper way to hold my fingers–the final punctuation mark that completes a ballet dancer’s line.

Just like dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s.

look at those fingers!