Back to ballet - my rehabilitation experience

Today, I had my 3rd ballet lesson after a 10 week hiatus following my horrible ankle sprain this New Year. I'd forgotten how gratifying it was to end the week by working those muscles and stretching those limbs, and am so glad to be back at the barre.

There's some catching up to be done. My turns, which were never good, have gotten even worse on both sides; the ankle is still a bit iffy too and I don't quite dare to turn on it yet. My balancing is also slightly off and I think my core has gotten even weaker.

Apart from those, however, I have to admit that I'm pleasantly surprised by my current form. My back is actually more supple and stronger than it's ever been - my back bends are deeper and I'm holding my best ever attitude balance on demi-pointe. I think my developpes from fondue are as high as, if not slightly higher, than they used to be - which is also fantastic given that I've been away from the barre for so long.

I think I owe my form entirely to the yoga and exercises I did during my rehabilitation period. After the initial few weeks, I started doing some yoga and stretching exercises for at least 30min twice or three times a week, as well as simple barre work to maintain the muscle memory. I mainly practised the RAD Grade 8 barre work - purely because it wasn't difficult and I was familiar with it, which made it easier to focus on working the injured ankle while keeping the good ankle fit.

For yoga itself, I mainly did the two sun salutations - I think they were key to strengthening my back. I also did some half-moon poses, as well as full locust, and bow poses. The balancing stick pose was especially fun (and challenging) to do  as well. I fully admit that my yoga practice was very haphazard - I would probably benefit more from a class in terms of preventing injury and having a more holistic yoga experience, but I liked being able to do poses that targeted key areas as a dancer.

Once I was warm, I went on to stretching exercises - including side splits while lying on my back and penches with palms on the floor for support. I'm quite keen to keep up this yoga-stretching combination in between classes as they seem to have worked great so far, and hopefully motivate myself to throw in some thera-band exercises to push me further too!

On Ballet and Perfection

We had a farewell party for one of the bosses today, and the discussions reminded me of some thoughts which came to mind a while ago.

One of them is that although I'm more fascinated by Latin ballroom and salsa than I am by classical ballroom, the truth of the matter is that I'll probably be a better dancer of classical ballroom due to my ballet background.

While I'd long harboured the secret hope that I'll one day learn and get fairly good at the more sexy Latin dances and jazz, I think the summer masterclass in contemp/jazz had rid me of all delusions.

Things really are different when you're seeing a professional in action and trying to mimic the moves he does. Someone once said to me, using ballet as an example, that she doesn't know how to appreciate ballet as she has no background and doesn't know what it means or what it takes to execute the moves. And I totally agree. It seems like the more I learn the more I'm able to appreciate ballet greatness as well as identify what could be improved upon by the dancers on stage.

Also, it occurred to me that ballet leaves no room for anything that's not perfection. While Latin ballroom has competitions for dancers based on their standard (e.g. amateur competitions vs semi-pro ones), competitions in ballet are by age categories. That is of no consolation to learners of ballet though, as there are 13 year olds who can outdance those far older than them with their numerous fouettes en pointe.

While I may have reached major grade and only, on paper, have four grades left to pass, this means nothing when passing exams is just the tip of the iceberg. And really, without strong pointe technique, minimally 120 degree arabesques and at least 16 fouettes (and perfect triple pirouettes), you're nothing in the ballet world.

A long way to go in the strive towards inching closer to perfection.  

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Why is ballet so difficult?

I was asking myself this question last night, after watching the (poorly recorded) DVD recording of my ballet school’s recital, and it’s on my mind again after today’s ballet class.

It occurred to me that people can spend tens of years on ballet but still struggle with the moves, as evident from friends and the rest of us in my ballet class. One minimum criterion is to lift and sustain one’s leg at 90 degrees in any direction – ballerinas must attain at least 160 – 170 degrees – and that requires tremendous amount of core, back and leg strength, as well as balance.

Yet, for some other types of dance, one could enter competitions or perform on stage with just a couple of years of practise.

In contrast, I don’t think any ballet dancer will look passably nice without at least reaching  Grade 8 in ballet – and let’s not even talk about dancing en pointe. Competitions are out of the question for adult ballet dancers too, as these are judged by age group.

A bunch of us are practising for our RAD Grade 8 exam at the moment, we are putting lots of work into just executing the steps, and much greater effort will be required to perform the dances with the grace, style and impression of effortless-ness required. All the balance, control, lifting up from the waist, timing, musicality…

How did ballet evolve into such a difficult style of dance?