Ballet4Life Talks Dance

Greetings all on this blustery gloomy, rainy, June Friday in London! I hope this finds you well and that you had an enjoyable week of dancing in our classes! We decided to shift gears here and reinvent ourselves in a broader way to allow for more comments, blogs, and interaction. We have developed ourselves from S & J Talk Ballet , to Ballet4Life Talks Dance! We certainly hope you enjoy reading many more new bloggers' thoughts, tips, and anecdotes! I'd like to start by saying a big thanks to Susan & Julia for their previous blogs. Happy dancing to all! Now I wish to talk about dance in schools. We were invited again to work with Nonesuch Orchestra  https://nonesuchorchestra.wordpress.com/ and the Belmont Primary School, W4  https://www.belmontprimaryschool.org.uk/  on a dance and music fusion project for their arts enrichment weeks. We had only one day to work with over 120 children to teach our choreography of four dance pieces, to rehearse, and th...

J of S & J talk ballet is back with her thoughts and feedback about our special Wednesday Workshops during March with our Founder & Director Donna Take it away J as in Julia! Wonderful Spring Workshop Donna Schoenherr, International Artist and Founder of Ballet4life is holding a special ballet workshop, in which clients, in small groups, are given an individual course of tuition each Wednesday from 12.35 - 1.15 until March 27th. This is being held at St. Peter's Hall, Bespoke Dance Studio, Southfield Road, W4 1BB in beautiful leafy Chiswick. Donna's selfless dedication and love for teaching ballet is well known and greatly appreciated by her many clients! Today we enjoyed a ballet feast studying the variety of walks, upper body movement and that tricky one, ( well definitely in my case),... PIROUETTES!  But all was positive, as Donna instilled a calm influence over us, and with a little perseverance, our self-confidence kicked in and we twirled so...

Busy bloggers! Here is Susan of S & J Talk Ballet with her latest thoughts Pointe Class It was good to restart Pointe Class for this term at Arts Ed and to welcome some new dancers to this class. We began our exercises in the centre and moved to the barre later. In the centre, we concentrated on undertaking the exercises on demi-pointe to develop our technique.  At the barre, we worked on pointe if we wanted to. Though there were new members the class is still quite small compared to the class beforehand, so there is plenty of room for more people to join this very fulfilling class. Pointe shoes are not a necessity as the class can be taken in flat shoes and is not painful as some might think due to the makeup of Pointe shoes today! Spectators are welcome if you want to have an idea of what the class is like before trying it. Ballet shoes I have a pair of leather split sole ballet shoes and a pair of canvas split sole shoes. The problem I am finding is that the ...

Happy February! Here is J as in Julia of S & J Talk Ballet New at St. Peter's Hall, exclusive studio, W4 A Happy New Year to all dancers out there! Director Donna is at present trialling two new exciting classes, which will hopefully be added to her already extensive Ballet4life portfolio! These are Yoga for dancers and Pilates for dancers. There are SO many possibilities to choose from in the exciting collection of classes at Ballet4life, that it puts me in mind of the variety of flavours found in a scrummy box of chocolates!! I took to the Yoga mat for the first time last Wednesday, along with ten others at our spacious Ballet4life studio, and must admit I was a little apprehensive at first, but Chihiro our teacher was very attentive to our needs, and realising I had a slight back injury, produced a yoga support for me to sit on. My favourite moves so far were Downward Dog and Resting Dog , the latter reminding me of a certain Swan Lak e pose!... ...

Happy 1st of February! Susan the S of S & J Talk Ballet is back with her interesting feedback on January  Pirouette   Workshop! Please have a read and feel free to add your comments. #balletforall #balletforadults #ballet4life #danceforall #danceforhealth #danceforhappiness Susan says I hope everyone has settled into the new term now that Christmas is a very distant memory. It has been lovely to share classes with people I have met before and meet new fellow dancers. Last Thursday was the first time that I had been able to attend the 11.30am Beginner Follow-On class and we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to be taught by Donna. It was a great class taken at a pleasant pace with a focus on technique all to the accompaniment of the excellent music. I know I am not the only one that found it very enjoyable. Thank you, Donna! Since the beginning of the term, there has been a 30-minute Pirouette Workshop run by our teacher Mark Kel...

Guest Blog with Donna Schoenherr- Founder & Director of Ballet4life-pioneers in adult dance tuition and performance January Joy! Happy New Year Everyone! With this new year, we also celebrate our 15th Anniversary! It is truly an amazing accomplishment and one that I am so very proud of. Thousands of adults dancers have studied, trained, and danced with us since our first class was held at the Rambert Dance Company's former Chiswick headquarters in January 2004! Photo from our popular Monday morning class at the former studios in Chiswick of the RDC Photo credit: Simone Ghera We have initiated ballet courses, workshops, master classes, and special outings. We have held annual performances with innovative and unique choreography created for our adult dancers. We have had classical ballet repertory workshops and also met and worked with a Rota of  International Teachers in Ballet, Contemporary, Feldenkreis, Character Dance...

Now S as in Susan of the duo S & J Talk Ballet ! Progress in Pointe Class! Another term of dance has flown past, time really does fly when you are enjoying yourself.  This term we have started all of Mark’s pointe classes with centre work beginning with gentle pliés and rises and progressing to échappées and bourrées. We all feel that this has helped us feel more confident when undertaking the barre exercises. During the latter part of the term, we have had the opportunity  (which we all took) to try some partnered exercises with Mark being our partner. We have also been trying to master pose turns on either demi-pointe or on pointe.  We have been focusing throughout the term on our alignment and keeping our carriage inline as we move. The members of the pointe class all agreed we have had a very productive term and we all feel that we have improved. We are grateful for Mark’s continued support and encouragement and individual help to enable u...