(C&A) Ballet

BEFORE THE ACTIVITY:

Me as a kid, acting out the Nutcracker on Christmas day

Every since I was little, I have always dreamt of becoming a ballerina. As a child, I used to read ballet books, memorized the stories, drew the backgrouds for different ballets, fell asleep listening to Tchaikovsky music and even went to the New York City Ballet once with my grandmother to see the Nutcracker. One of my biggest inspirations for pursuing ballet was the Arabian dancer in this ballet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nRmRTBaypo I took ballet intensively for about 5 years and was even in the Nutcracker as an angel. I saw my dream coming true. However, at the Igor Yebra school, they asked me to come more days because they wanted to train me in a more advanced way but that was just not possible for me at the moment so I had to quit. Last year though, I found that I needed to get back to dancing so I signed up at Andoni Aresti in Leioa to start ballet again. It has been hard for me to see how much I lost from when I was little but even though becoming a professional ballerina is out of my reach, I still have to drive to become good at it. This year I will continue at the school I was at last year in the "Advanced Level" ballet class. I am nervous that my ack of confidence might get in the way from be doing my best but I am determined to try as hard as I can, attending class regularly and stretching and workingout at home.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

1. Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth.  I will try to grow in all the different part of dance and with the feedback that teachers give me, and be aware of what I am good at and what I should improve on.

2. Undertaken new challenges Ballet is a challenge for me because the rest of the dancers in the class have been dancing for a long time but the 5-year gap I have had of not doing ballet has made me one of the worst in the class. It will be a challenge to be confident amongst such talented people but if I want to improve, that is what I must do.

3. Worked collaboratively with others Even though dance is an activity that is very centered on the individual, teamwork is crucial when there are choreographies with partners. There are also times when, if the exercise if very difficult, we try to learn it in a group and teach each other what we know about how to do it.

4. Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities I will attend class regularly with no absences, and will be committed to stretching at home. If I do not do this, there is no way I will achieve my goal.

5. Considered the ethical implications of their actions Even though the dance studio is big and spacious, there are sometimes a lot of people. Dancers need to be aware of the people around them and respect each other’s space both at the barre and in the center. Also, when we do diagonals, we usually do them in small groups and take turns. Everyone’s turn should be respected so that everyone gets a fair number of trials.

6. Developed new skills I would like to improve my dance technique, memory and emotion.

My goal for this activity is to get better at the different areas of dance: flexibility, technique, memory and expression. By attending class regularly and stretching and working out at home, my body will become accustomed to the physical exercise ballet requires. I will also watch movies and videos of dancers to see how a dancer’s body moves to then try and replicate it in class. I will also listen to everything he teacher says and then try to apply it when I execute each exercise. I will also participate in every exercise as many times as I can in class, even when I am shy and think that I can’t do it because I know that challenging myself is the only to get better. I will also try to arrive early to class to have enough time to properly stretch and warm up. I will know that I have achieved my goals if by the end of the activity I feel that I have improved and am at a similar level to the rest of the class (as a consequence of not doing ballet for a long time, I have lost a lot and even though I know a lot of the theory the other dancers in my class know but in practice, I have to step up my game.) I would also like to aim to be in the performance at the end of the year and improve the grade I got last year (a 7/10) in the end of year exam.

DURING THE ACTIVITY
DAY 1: October 17th, 2014 (17:00-18:30)

Me before class

As one of my first ballet lessons this year, I have to say that today it went quite well. My teacher today was Tony, the teacher I have more frequently than the others. Because I take his class a lot, I feel very confident with his kinds of exercises since I have done them many times. This allows me to focus less on the memory development part of ballet and more on the technical sides and improve exercises that I am used to doing. This class, we put a lot of emphasis on listening to the music and trying to fit it perfectly with our feet, especially at the bar. I found this very usefull because later, when it comes to doing more emotive choreographies, emotion and feeling must be shown and accentuating your feet movement help convey meaning to the audience. We also had an exercise is the center on pirouettes that I also found usefull because it consisted in doing many consecutively. i was also able to see my improvement from last year because a year ago, I was hardly even able to do one without getting dizzy. My teacher also observed this and told me that I was doing "much better."

DAY 2: October 24th, 2014 (17:00-18:30)

Off to ballet class after a hard week.

This week has been a very difficult week for me and it showed in ballet class. I had a mechanics physics sl test on wednesday and a mathematics hl test the next day which I hardly studied for because it was my birthday the previous day and had a family celebration. I was looking forward to a relaxing, not too difficult class to do well in and get my mind off of what was going on with my studies at the moment. Instead, Leire was our techer today, one of the most demanding teachers of the academy. One of the things my favorite this about the Andoni Aresti school of dance is that we change our teachers a lot so we learn new ways of doing things. Today however, I wasn't up for a very intense class. I found myself quite distracted the whole time, thinking more about how hard the exercises were than about how to do them. Still, I think that this could have answered the question I have had all day which is, "why did I do so bad on the two tests I had this week?" From this ballet class, I learned that the more you concentrate on why you can't do something, the worse it turns out. Again, this reminded me of a quote I learned at school, in business class: "whether you think you can or you can't, you're right."--Henry Ford. From now on, I will try to have a more positive outlook on the things I do, whether they be school-related or not, and this CAS activity helped me realize this.

NOVEMBER
This month I have seen myself progressing a lot in my classes. I took what I learned from last month and became more confident in myself and found that just confidence actually halped me do better when executing my steps somehow. A skill I have concentrated on developping this month has been my pirouettes. i have been analysing all the different aspects the turn consists in and trying to first execute them weel individually, and then combine them to do the perfect pirouette. I have also been watching videos like this one to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLTM_KP0Dsg From what I have learned, a pirouette consists in a good head turn to avoid getting dizzy, a good turn-out, the preparation with a not to obvious but later powerful plié, a good passé with one foot above the other knee and the heel pointing towards the front, and good arm and knee posture to help balance. After working on all these aspects both at home and in class I feel like I am now capable of carrying out a good pirouette. My next challenge is to learn to get enough impulse to do two in a row (without putting my foot on the ground) but still stay balanced.

DECEMBER
This month has not been the best for me because I feel like I haven't been all that inspired by the activity lately. This could be ebcause it's the end of the first trimester at school and a lot of things are going on at the same time. I feel myself getting physically tired and therefore not as capable of carrying out my ballet classes as well as I would like to because of the level of physical work recquired by this activity. However, by the end of the month, I got inspired again and this is because the third week, I was putting up the christmas tree at home. Even though this is a nice thing to do, it can also be tiring and tedious so therefore I thought I could put the TV on while I was doing it. in that moment, I had an ornament in my hand with a Nutckracker on it and I thought that I could watch that ballet. I took out the old tape (I had it on a VCR since I has a little kid) and watched it on the machine (which is not in its best conditions). While I was watching it, I realized that i could now name many of the steps the dancers were doing. This made me realize that despite the bad month I had had, I had grown in some areas (in this case, my knowledge of technical terms in ballet) and therefore motivated me to keep going.

JANUARY
This month I took a very important decision in this activity because I decided to take on more hours and participate in a choreography that the director of a school is preparing for the end of year show. It will require me to put in more hours  (about 2 every saturday) on top of my weekly classes on fridays. However, I really enjoy this activity and I think that this is a great opportunity for me. I think that it will be a way to close the cycle of dance. By this I mean that on fridays I work a lot on my technique but never really get to apply it in any context. By being part of putting together a choreography and then bringing it to the stage, the activity will become even more creative than it was before (as all choreographies have a theme, message or story and therefore I will have to transmit this through my movements) and also will increase my level of physical activity as I will do more execrise and more continuously. An upcoming challenge I foresee is to actually learn all the steps because in class, I have become to the exercises and at the end of the day, they are all quite similar though they vary sometimes. In this case, the movements and steps will not be 100% classical and therefore I will have to adapt to this. Because of this difficulty, I will not only have to show perseverrance and committment to the activity by attending every class, but I will also have to do this at home since I will take the time to practice at home.

FEBRUARY 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th (17:00-18:30), 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th (11:00-13:00)
I have started the saturday rehearsals and one thing I have learned from it is the level of collaboration required to put something like this together. I really enjoy it but I get stressed out easily. The reason for this is because there are about 20 or 25 people participating in this choreography, which is a VERY high number. To make sure everyone knows where they have to be and make sure that we are doing what we are doing, we all have to be responsible of our part but we also have to work together to avoind something going wrong. For example, I have been given a part at the beginning of the dance where I have to come out with 5 other girls. Two of those move in the same direction as I do, and the other three in the opposite. The teacher, Andoni, taught us this piece of the choreography to all 6 of us but it was our job to figure out how to do this canon (where one group does the exact opposite (e.g. one is facing the mirror the other has their back turned towards it and vice versa)) since he had to go on to teach all the other small groups as well as supervise the entire production. We also needed to make sure we did it at the same pace and perfectly sincronized with the music as later, the groups would not be able to see each other. One thing I learned from this was that it's OK to make a mistake but only as long as everyone who is doing the same thing as you makes the same mistake so that the audience doesn't notice. In conclusion, it's easier just to do it correctly with a lot of practice.
Towards the end of the month, I felt myself getting better at this intense environment and didn't feel as overwhelmed by the bg group. Other than looking out for myself and my individual part, I also had to kind of learn what the people around me were doing so that I could make sure to get out of the way. Here, I was demosntrating that I am considering the ethical implications of my actions because for example, if I just take one step backwards when I shouldn't, I could get in someone's way and bruing down the whole flow of the dance or even cause someone injury. This lead me to have better communication skills with the people around me (especially this girl Nagore who is behind me and since I can't see her, I want to know exactly where she is at all times to avoid problems and therefore got me to talking to her more).

MARCH 2nd-15th (6th, 13th (17:00-18:30), 7th, 14th (11:00-13:00))
In my friday classes, we have a new teacher now. I was sad that Tony (our previous teacher) wasn't going to teach us as much now. I had gotten used to his kind of exercises and felt very comfortable in his class. However, now that Leire is teaching us I will have to adapt to her type of class. The good thing about this is that it will bring me out of my comfort zone and therefore help me develop new skills. An example of this is that Tony always corrected my arm posture so over the months I had improved on this a lot, but now Leire doesn't comment on that aspect too much but concentrated more on my knees. She sais that if I straighten them more, it will help me be more balanced during turns. I have tried it and it does indeed increase my stability. Therefore now, istead of just having good arm posture, I also have better control over my legs. This is the positive thing of aving various teachers; that somehow, some concertate more on one aspect and others on others. Whether it's because it's a pet peeve of theirs to see this aspect done incorrectly or they believe that that is the most important element at that moment because of the way they were educated of from their proffesional experience. You always gain something new from each teacher and therefore the more teachers you have, the more skills you will develop.

MARCH 16th-29th, 2015 (27th (17:00-18:30), 28th (11:00-13:00))
This first week, there was a long weekend so both school and my activities were cancelled. I was sad about this because I was looking forward to going but when I went back the next friday, on the 27th, I found that I had somehow improved. This is a pattern I have found in many of my activities. For example, with flute, if I practice everyday for a long time and then leave it for about 3-4 days, I feel like I do better. Same thing with school, when I am studying for a test, I don't like to study at all that same day because I feel like I get more nervous and then do worse. This shows me that the brain always appreciated a break from routine and the fact that this also happened in ballet taught me that it is beneficial to rest sometimes.
On the 28th, I went back to the saturday rehearsal. I had reviewed my steps the night before to make sure that I knew them. I didn't want to waste anyone's time later in class trying to learn them as this is a group effort and we all have to be on task so that we can maximise the little time we do have together.
I observed the choreography taking shape. Last month, it was just like a big mess to me and I didn't really understand where Andoni was trying to go with it but I feel like I actually see the direction it is going in now. I also feel like I am making the then foreign movements more "mine" now and I feel more confortable with them. This made me realized that I am capable of adapting to the non-traditional style of dance (as this is a neo-classical choreography) and I feel much better of myself about this. I have realized that I can be good at things tha I never thought I could even do, and that maybe I can translate this not only to dance but other things as well, whether that be school, another CAS activty or everyday-life in general.

APRIL 6th-19th, 2015 (10th, 17th (17:00-18:30), 11th, 18th (11:00-13:00)
These two weeks have been both good and bad for me at ballet. The first week was the week I got back from Easter vacation so my mind was not exactly on dancing. This affected my performance, and even though this had a negative concequence mostly on me on the friday, it had a negative effect on a lot more people on saturday. I kept messing up and doing steps out of time. This confused people who used me as a referenco for their part (for example someone know that they have to start when I stop and if I stop late, they start late and this just has a domino effect on the whole dance) This made me realize just how reasponsible each and everyone of us are in a group.
Because of this disastrous first week in april, I took the time to go over my part at home to avoid this happening again. The next week, I noticed myself improve a lot in this aspect.
The next week in April I went on a school trip to Orlando, FL, to the DECA International Career Development Conference which was a great educational opportunity but unfortunately, this meant I would have to miss some ballet classes as well as rehearsals. I was not as concerned about the friday classes since, as I said before, this only had a negative effect on me and I would have to live with it but I was worried about missing rehearsals for the choreography. However, I came up with a small solution for this. I asked Irune, Ibone and Leire, who are the three girls around me most of the time in the dance to keep me informed about what they were doing and if I had any new parts. Even though they couldn't teach me the new steps through chat, at least I would be aware of what to expect the next classes. This shows that I was committed to the activity even though I was not able to physically be there.

MAY (8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th (17:00-18:30), 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th (schedule varies))
This month, the friday classes went on as usual but the saturday rehearsals' schedule varied from week to week. This is because as we get closer to the big dates (the shows on June 20th and June 27th), Andoniis adapting the schedule to the needs of the show (one choreagraphy needs more looking over than another). This increased the level of responsibility we each had since every friday, I would have to check the bulleting posted in the main area of the school. One day I had to know what the saturday schedule would be and I coulnd't wait until friday to find out for personal reasons and I texted Leire, a friend who also does the same dance as me, to see if she new (which she did).
A challenge for me this month was that this one I had in the dance had a step which Andoni didn't like (four small rotations of the arms), so he decided to change it (to two large rotations of the arms). this change was harder to assimiliate than I expected it to be since I had been doing the dance almost reflexively and without thinking at that point. However, even though the rehearsal was challenging because of this modification, those of us who were affected by it took the time to go to another dance room in the school which was free and go over this part together as we knew that we would be responsible for executing this step perfectly the next week and to make sure that we all did it simultaneously, it was important that we do it together. Taking more time though sure did make us tired! We sweat a lot more than we usually do because of this extra time we put in.
Before we did this though, at the end of the big group rehearsal, Andoni talked to us collectively about how to better execute all our steps and make the choreography actually enjoyable for the audience to watch. He suggested considering our job as an actor's job. We all already understand the direction and theme the dance is going in (the big group in in the center where it's very dark and we are trying to eascape this big crowd and go to the light through dance). He said that when actors are given roles the best ones find something personal in their lives they can relate thoir role to. Therefre, I have been doing some reflecting on myself and seeing what that light could be for me, what the thing I want to achieve is. If I do this, I do believe I will dance better since I will be dancing for that personal cause. Here I developped a skill I never thought I would through dance; the skill of acting.
this month I have also had a point where as part of a group I had to consider the ethical implications of my actions. There was a part where Andoni had the aidea to do some risky things (have someone climb over others...) My job was to pick Irune up with the help of Itziar but in the end, the whole group decided not to do this one because of the high risk of someone getting hurt. Therefore, we came up a solution to create the same effect but without the risk of anyone getting injured.

JUNE

February, 2016
These past months we have had a different teacher than in the past. I find her very strict because she continuously corrects every detail she sees however, I find that changing teachers frequently although frustrating at times becaus eI have to get used to their way of teaching has been very useful in the long run to develop skills. With me, she has concentrated mostly on me pointing my toes more and lengthening my movements to benefit as much as possible from me being a tall dancer. Since Novemeber that she started with this I have found that I have indeed developed this skill because I learned that, after her explanations and demonstrations and my practice, that instead of thinking about scrunching my toes as I did before, it's more about thinking of trying to reach as far as possible with my feet by extending its length to the maximum. Having understood this concept and developped this skill, I now feel like I execute more precise steps when I am dancing, which is very rewarding after so much time of practice.