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Limericks, heels, dynamics, class and more!


Ms Mary E is back with her next bubbly and bright blog for all ballet/ dance/theatre lovers!



Hello again, thrill-seekers in tights! 
I threw together a couple of limericks for you to start the week.

There was an old dancer in Ealing
Who had a peculiar feeling
With one leg on the barre
She pliΓ©d too far
And hit her head hard on the ceiling.

Or:

If you look up quite hard at the ceiling
Of St Peter’s dance studio in Ealing
There’s a tiny balloon
That deflated too soon
And got stuck there - it’s cute and appealing

The first is clearly ridiculous (as limericks generally are) but the second is true. Have a look next time you do class at St Peter’s. Floor barre would give you the best view.
Which limerick do you prefer? I need feedback from all you gorgeous dancers.
In fact, I had an idea that I might open a Ballet4life themed limerick competition!
Post your contributions in the comments section and let’s see what literary talent lies beneath your exquisite upper body nuance. If you don’t, I will just make up some more and feel lonely but don’t feel bad lol.
All images are copyright of Ballet4life and may not be reproduced with prior permission.
Ms Mary E is with fellow dancers on our Summer Dance Intensive. She is third from the left and her teacher Beatrice Ghezzi is first on the left.


I have been ill this week so just did one class on Thursday morning with the divine Miss Beatrice. It was just one of those low-grade viruses that saps all your energy and insists on a banging headache through the night. Too much inactivity can make things worse after a while so I decided to blast out the last vestiges of whatever it was with a good ballet class. Ballet class is a panacea, as we know. (I will tell you how I danced my way out of work-related anxiety another time).

It was a bright sunny morning in the studio and how lovely it was, as usual, to see so many familiar faces and hear the buzz of friendly chat as people warmed up at the barre. If, like me, you are hopeless with names, in a way it doesn’t really matter at ballet class. We understand that we are all there to dance and there is immediately a social bond. Shared experience is such a great way to make friends. Donna, our director and founder, knows everyone’s names. I don’t know how she does it. I remember when I turned up at my first ever B4L class and she made a point of greeting me warmly, asking my name and gently finding out a little of my dance background. That was really touching. I was drawn in.

Back to Beatrice on that bright sunny morning in the studio.
It is evident from the outset of all Beatrice’s classes that she has planned exactly what she wants to work on. The centre practice will echo her focus at the barre. So, the opportunity for development is there. For this reason, there is a palpable air of excitement in the studio before she looks up at the clock, walks forward and beams, “good morning”. I think It’s ok to say good morning back, by the way. I embarrassed myself by booming a solo reciprocal greeting that day. I was getting up off the floor and hadn’t quite strapped my consensual etiquette filters on.
Of course, there are the necessary demands of pliΓ©s, tendus, frappΓ©s, battements and so on but at every class, there is a fresh approach. New music perhaps. A different focus on what she is aiming for us to achieve or at least understand. Sometimes upper body movement, sometimes head direction or rigorous attention to placement to list a few. Beatrice often talks about dynamics. She totally gets the relationship between music and movement and the different feelings that movements can describe. Well of course. She’s a professional dancer! Her vocabulary for describing dynamics to us is extraordinary in its passion. Quite abstract sometimes .... “beamy”, “juicy”, “tack, tack”, even “ha ha!” Plucking words out of the air like little jewels. I love it. It’s inspiring. But I digress.

This week the focus was getting your heels down in pliΓ©s in fourth position. Solidly technical but if mastered gives scope for better artistry. I realised for the first time in 50 odd years that my back heel has never been properly planted in this way before! It makes a massive difference.



Ms Mary E in a Ballet4life class a few years ago, dancing with joy!


Note to self: Calm down. Everyone probably already knows this. Just because I get excited when I have these balletic revelatory experiences, doesn’t mean everyone else does. But did you?!

I have a friend who works at LAMDA and we often go to see the final year students’ productions together. The standard is impressively high. Every production I have seen there has been outstanding and the tickets are £15. Seriously you don’t need the West End if you can’t afford it. This time we saw “Little Shop of Horrors” The array of talents and skills necessary to perform a musical of this calibre are extremely demanding. These kids had all of them and some more.  It looked easy. It was thrilling. It was funny. It was slick and moving at the same time. Never missed a beat. Blistering raw talent.

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art ( LAMDA) is in Baron’s Court, in the place where the Royal Ballet School used to be. As we walked back to the tube station, we passed a row of extraordinary studios on the Talgarth Road, which were purpose-built for artists in the Victorian era. My friend told me that Nureyev and Fonteyn used to share a flat there when they were dancing together in London. Who would have known? I suppose even legends need to eat and sleep.

Tip of the week: Bring your Raybans to class at St Peter’s or pick your spot for centre practice carefully while this blazing s

Comments

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOL! Our Founder & Director Donna adores Ms Mary E's Limericks! Let's get the ball rolling and submit others! The "Best Limerick" as chosen by Ms Mary E earns its writer ONE FREE Ballet4life class!

    Here is Donna's:

    "There once was an old dancer from New York,
    who manged to give her ol’ bod’ some torque,
    she flew this way and that,
    energetically marking “steps of a cat,”
    and was dancing like the voice of Bjork!”

    Who is next? Don't be shy and please keep them appropriate for our dance blog! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ahhh I love these limericks! Excellent work Mary and Donna! Here's my two cents:

    When the world overwhelms you with stress
    or you feel like you've failed to impress,
    dance your worries away!
    With a battement jetΓ©,
    any burden will seem so much less!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. Ms Mary E Guest Blogger's reply: Oh my goodness I have been hugely distracted moving flats and ending up in theatres most evenings and haven’t checked to see who had been limericking. ( That’s officially a verb now).
      TWO entries!
      TWO!
      Punctuation online can be wide open to misinterpretation so to be clear, I am genuinely pleased.
      Thank you both.
      The competition is now closed and I have had to reach a decision. It has been hard and a very close call.
      But the winner of the Ballet4life limerick competition is........ drum roll.........
      HELEN!
      Donna. Please don’t be sad. If you find that you are overwhelmed by this then I suggest that you get yourself to a B4L class ASAP. It will sort you out in a jiffy.
      Helen your scansion is exemplary and the content I relate to very strongly. I’m sure most of us do.
      Congratulations!!! πŸ‘πŸΌπŸ‘πŸΌπŸ‘πŸΌπŸ‘πŸΌπŸ‘πŸΌ
      Donna, as director, the prize awarding is of course up to you. Will it be a red carpet event? ;)
      Let’s keep the B4L limericking (v. The act of limerick writing) going, lovely dancers, just because it’s fun.
      Thanks for reading and thanks especially to our two limerick artistes, Donna and Helen, for their fabulous contributions.

      Delete
  5. Rio Dance Studio is a multi award winning dance school, reflected by our high standard of teaching and dedication. We invite you to come and try a free trial class and see why we are different to other dance schools. Book a free class and come and see why we are a Multi Award Winning Dance Studio! We are proudly one of the longest running Best Dance School in Melbourne. We offer 1 hour classes not 45min sessions so compare and save money. No contracts, no joining fees, start whenever you like with or without a partner. Rio Dance Studio is proudly the only studio in Australia to win 3 ‘Outstanding Achievement’ Awards from the Australian Dancing Society and the ‘Business Promotion’ Award from Dance Sport Victoria making us the leading dance school in Australia. After 40+ years of business, Rio Dance Studio is not only one of the longest running dance schools in Australia but has earned the reputation of being this city’s leading social ballroom dance school.

    ReplyDelete

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