Ballerine

If you are a ba llet dancer in training and especially if you are already looking for companies to audition, it would help you a lot if before going all the way there, you could understand a little bit about the company and what they usually tend to look for in a dancer. To begin with there are HUGE differences in companies depending on what continent they are located. For example, there  are some commonalities that most European ballet companies do not share with American ballet companies. This is evident in company repertoire, but also in the way they work internally. Here I've chosen 5 different companies around the world to talk about. The Bolshoi Ballet It was founded in 1776 in Moscow They usually hire from the Vaganova Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 1900, Alexander Gorsky was able to give a new look to Petipa's ballets ( The swan lake - 1901 and La Fille Mal Gardee - 1903) and he created a new unique identity to the Bolshoi Ballet,

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how can we start a new ballet community, one that has dancers who want to support each other, totally free of judgment and prejudice of any kind. Helping people who are struggling or even dealing with health and mental issues. So to start showing everyone what this community is actually about I will be writing a little bit each week about some subjects that are important for us to start thinking about and trying to apply in our everyday life. To start this project, we will talk about celebrating each other's achievements and its importance in spite of sometimes being so hard. When you and all of your friends are doing an audition, maybe for a summer program, or a school full-time program or even a company audition it is difficult to accept and be happy for your friends if the outcome of this audition is not what you expected for yourself, especially if you work as hard as them and they got the offer.  However, it is important to

                              Firstly, what are those eating disorders that everyone is talking about? They are serious conditions related to persistent eating  behaviors that negatively impact your health, your emotions and your ability to function in important areas of life. The most known is Anorexia. However, there are plenty of them out there.  What can causes them? People with eating disorders may have psychological and emotional problems that contribute to the disorder. They may have low self-esteem, perfectionism, impulsive behavior and troubled relationships Some other triggers can be  media and societal pressures, mood disorders, the onset of puberty or even a diet gone awry.  For us dancers is usually the "perfectionism" factor that contributes the most for the ilness.  As  Dawn Smith-Theodore, a former professional dance  said in an interview for the Pointe magazine last year :  When I was 15 and my body started developing, I thought losing a few p

More than 75% of you dance class is not going to make it as professional dancer, and there are a couple of reasons for that. Don't worry sometimes is not because you are in a bad school or your teacher is not qualified. Even though, sometimes this is the case so pay attention ( later on we will do a post to help you find out if you are being well trained or if your school or your teacher is not giving you the best education you can have) most of the cases are something else and here it goes some of the reasons: Besides all the basics such as being unprepared, suffering a serious injury at the wrong moment in life and not having enough motivation or mental health to continue, there is a lot more to the process of becoming a professional ballet dancer that are not that well known. Not having that knowlege in some cases cost the dream of a dancer. The first problem we encounter is the lack of knowlege, which means that dancers after graduating don't know what to do, where

After some research and some coaching workshops I noticed that the most asked question by dancers lately is definetly how to stay motivated. Before we start it is important to remmember that when we are talking about real motivation it is completely normal to have ups and down. One week you are hitting the gym everyday, on top of your diet, doing all classes your school provides and still have energy to do some more dancing when you are at home but then the next week you find yourself lacking energy, loosing sight of your healthy eating, bored, tired and even thinking about giving up.  As the time past it gets even harder to get back to that motivated mindset. So what can we do to get past those "down" times ? The first thing we need is patience with our body, making sure we are having enough rest and free time to distract ourselves because the results will take time so you better get distracted and fill up that free time  Secondly, always remmeber how

Pink tights, leotards, small wrap around skirts are not always the most comfortable and practical thing to use however wearing the proper clothes for dance classes are more important than you may think  Firstly if you are dressed properly your teacher is able to see you and correct you. Ballet attire makes the lines and body placement much more visible and your instructor can help you to dance more safely. You may know that everybody has two bony knobs on the front of their hips, and two knobs behind above the glutes (right inside the dimples). The front ones are called the  Anterior Superior Iliac Spine  (or ASIS) and the back ones are called  Posterior Superior Iliac Spine  (PSIS). These bones are essential for a teacher to see if the hips are properly aligned. If these bones are not lined up correctly, there is a high chance that the student will end up over-tucking, forcing rotation, and hurting themselves. Teachers can't see the bones if the student is not wearing corre