Lewis Wheeler (closed): Assesment Day!!!
Tuesday, Nov 11 2003, 02:51
Before I jump into bed with the drama of it all, I think I may have neglected to mention/gone into detail about having ballet classes with Pete (Sir Peter Royston to those in the know lol). Anyway they were a lot harder to get through than Sheena's ballet classes because if not every person in the room was working their arse off to get through the exercise then he'd keep us on it until we did. Now think about that in relation to fondu and développé exercises - you will get your legs beyond 90degrees you will!
He also gave us "set" classes which meant we did exactly the same exercises every lesson for the week with the point being that it really made your muscles work and improve - but Sheena (regular ballet teacher and all round fantastic person) doesn't approve of that kind of class because it does nothing for your mind and the dancer can't do anything more than those few exercises. I have a good memory for exercises so I'm inclined towards Sheena's side of the argument.
I started to almost enjoy the Graham stuff again when the exercises were made more complicated, for example in the "openings" we had port de bras and leg extensions to contend with, while shifting our hips and heads so it was a lot more interesting to do and dance. But then we stopped doing these complicated versions because we were rehearsing for our assesment class.
Dave and Sheena seemed to have very different approaches to this - Dave gave us a class which we'd been made to memorise the week beforehand except for one tondu exercise he made up on the day (heel up, toes off, toes down, heel down, repeat, tondu, tondu, high retiré, replace. Other side, do it again then twice in second(e)! soo complicated lol)
Whereas Sheena gave us an unknown class which was simpler than our usual classes and a travelling exercise which we pretended that we hadn't been rehearsing for three weeks (sissone fermé avant, sissone fermé avant, sissone ouvert avant, pas de bourré dessous, (petit?) passé retiré (I'm just chucking the acute accents in randomly btw because I've learnt how to make the computer do them with a keyboard shortcut) developpé posé with third arabesque, fondu, pas de bourré dessous, changement). Sheena's class was more simple than usual except for the rond de jambe exercise which could hardly have been more complicated with fondus, sutinues, tempo changes, rond de jambes en l'air and grande rond de jambes en l'air!) not to mention ports de bras!!!
Anyway I survived but I haven't sweated like that in ballet for a long time. Except I really should do....hmm reflection on practice needed here methinks!
Contemporary went well I thought - I pushed myself hard but tried not to stress through it because I know I can do it and if I relaxed a bit I wouldn't block myself. I made a couple of silly mistakes in the middle when my body would either not get the exercise or couldn't work out exactly what the difference/change is between four bouncing demi plies into four little sautés. But I was well hidden by the crowd so I don't think it would have counted against me much.
We had the tutorial feedback session the same day as the assesment! Now that's great organisation! Everything we are working on can apparently be split into 20 different categories and we got a mark out of five for each one. Categories include things like, strength, flexiblity, arms, turning, centre, fluidity, musicality, attack (something they are very big on here), upper body, legs, feet, epaulément, progress, etc. I got threes for flexibility, turning, fludity! and feet - some of which improved in the centre. Pete was surprised that I was better in the centre than at the barre and so was I! apparently it all comes together! I got a 5 for arms which I'm very proud of because last year I thought I looked like an ape with my arms in seconde!
And also I appeared very musical (5) which I was surprised at because I don't think I am and if the rhythm is complicated it takes me a long time to find it! I also counted the whole way through every exercise which probably swung it my way. Anyway the whole thing was marked out of 100 (which mathematicians will have worked out already unlike me! lol) and 75 and above is a distinction. I scored 77 wahey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was second(e) highest in the class, beaten only by the new girl Emma (my best friend ahh!) but she's done ballet for two years and can do pointe work. And she only got one point higher than me! It was quite depressing that the class was on a monday because I have rubbish turn out on mondays - not really a good excuse for a future pro but hey, I've still got time on my side! And I did have really bad turn out on the day - I reckon I could have got an extra point for turn out by friday! The two irritating marks were 3 for fluidity - they say I can be clonkey! I am completely blaming the teaching for this.
In Contemporary we never ever work on fluidity, in fact in one exercise Dave said that he wanted the arm not to move in a circular position but be place, by place, by place. And in Emma's tutorial they discussed that exercise and said she wasn't fluid. Our theory is that Pete said it wasn't fluid and should be and Dave conveniently forgot that he had set it that way. Last year I was always being cast as the soft fluid dancer (in release technique!!) and the way we are made to be exageratedly muscular in every exercise is why fluidity doesn't come into anything here. Grr grr grr. Hippocritical teachers!
Dave didn't go over my contemporary grades mark by mark but just went over my bad points and he said that while I'm the most flexible male in the class in another institution I would be bottom of the pile. He said I have to be as flexible as the girls (maybe he's projecting his own ambitions onto me) and surprisingly that my pelvis was "up" but I now I have to make it go more and more. Fair enough but he didn't say anything positive - including that I was "above average" but he didn't think I would be in the distinction category. Well without being completely big headed, if I haven't got a distinction in contemporary then no one else in the class will have one!
They also gave me a three for progress and Pete asked, quite nicely, if that surprised me? It didn't because I haven't been pushing myself as hard as I did last year but there isn't anywhere I can push myself - none of the material in class is challenging at all. The only thing I can direct my energy towards will be flexibility (more on this later, I have good news). He also contradicted himself slightly by saying that I was one of the people who was always ready for class and ready to go at the beginning of each exercise, not fiddling with clothes or anything and that I was working hard. So working hard and not progressing eh?
Good news about flexibility.....I went to Yoga today!!! and loved it! The bizarre thing is I don't feel like I'm an unflexible person - my first dance teacher tends to surprise me by saying positive things about my flexibility. I think the big problem I have here is never feeling warm enough to stretch and then panicking (literally panicking). But I love the safety of a yoga class with a qualified person to trust so I'm going to go three nights a week. Watch me!
Anyway someones chatting to me on msn so I've finished this off before I lose it all through malpractice!!
Lewis xxx
(feeling fairly good about life x
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