Hello my french project blog followers.
Today, is a very sad day.
As it is almost the end of classes it is also the end of so many things I love. Like ballet classes at the Ian Stewart.
I know I'll be able to continue on with them next semester but for the next 3 weeks as I wait for my exams to end in Victoria I will have no one to practice pointing and flexing my toes with. No one to show me how to do proper grand jettes and no one to catch me when I get too dizzy because I still can't spot my pique turns to save my life.
Yes, for the next 3 weeks I will have to do ballet alone.
Now you're wondering why I am posting about this here because true dance history majors know that ballet started in the Italian Renaissance but ballet to me is something inherently French. And there are different styles of ballet, the most commonly taught being French.
I think we can send out a big thank you to King Louis the 14th of France for this. He was a huge lover of ballet and it was because of him that Jean-Baptiste Lully became such a famous, and for a long time, the only, composer of music in the court.
Louis himself spent at least an hour every morning in a ballet lesson and the members of his court as well as the rest of France quickly made it part of their daily lives as well.
Though the ballet in Louis time may not have been as extreme and rigid as it it today it was still very difficult.
I mean if you ever have the chance to go look up the feet of a ballerina, DON'T! It's disgusting! Broken toes, ingrown toe nails, bleeding/blistered/bruised! SO GROSS!
This intensive ballet spun off into several other forms of dance. Contemporary and lyrical for example use many of the characteristics and fundamentals of ballet but are rooted more in natural and flowing movements, often impersonating trees or leaves in the wind.
On a side note if you ever have to go to a dance competition and have to sit through the lyrical section, be prepared for a lot of really emotional dance pieces set to the sappiest hit song at the time dance teachers can find.
This isn't even a song, it's just strange! (link)
My ballet class was not so intense of course. Most of us were new comers to the ballet scene so walking on point shoes and great graceful leaps will have to wait a few years. That of course does not mean it wasn't hard!
For my ballet class we learned a combination from the Beauty and the Beast ballet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znJQiVzN6E4
It's called the Bluebird (the first girl to dance in the video)
It was very hard! Especially since I have very poor balance on a regular basis! Doing all the kicks and turns had me resembling a goose flying in the wind. Not very graceful, hardly any control but some how I made it through and I had fun doing it.
(Our teacher assures us that next semesters variation for the Vikes presentation day will be easier.....I can hope!)
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