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and plie and stretch and I’ll try not to use the “f” word . . .

Posted by Candice on September 15, 2008 at 7:31 pm

With my first York ballet class in the morning last night was like Christmas Eve for me. Okay, well maybe I just read some Anne and went to bed, but either way I was excited (though for the record I did hang my “stockings” and bodysuit so I wouldn’t make a racket getting them in the morning).

When looking at my options for technique classes at York there was tons to choose from. Ballet, Jazz, Modern, and several different types of World Dance. Although jazz is probably my best technique and modern my favourite to have fun with, I decided that I couldn’t part with the comfort of ballet.

What? The comfort of ballet? Apparently yeah, I’ve found some sort of creepy comfort in it. I’ve taken ballet for years, but I’ve recently begun to see it in a new light and I really want to explore that here in these next two years. It was actually scary to think about being away from it. I will try to get to open classes in other disciplines when I can though as well as working with other graduate students in their movement studies.

For the longest time ballet, for me (and I think for most young dancers), was a negative physical and mental challenge. I could never be good enough and no amount of hard work would make me good at ballet. I used to use this idea to make myself work harder and it eventually ended up with a real disintegration within my physical and mental ballet practice. This lead to both physical and mental tension - an inevitable path to injury (or the worst thing ever for a dancer).

However, as of late my ideas about dance, and ballet in particular, have begun to change. Now that I am pursuing dance as a career (though in a different way than I ever imagined) a lot of the pressure is off. I’m also older and have to respect that if I want to have a long career in anything, especially physical practice, I’m going to have to stay healthy. This has lead to an exploration of many prevention and healing strategies including integrated movement and looking at the actual anatomy and physics of the body in different movement techniques. Through this lens I have been able to use ballet as a location to cultivate this practice. Ballet is now a place where I can learn about and develop my body. This makes the body a positive thing, and while I could get into a huge scholarly rant about “the body,” essentially the point is that ballet has become a way to learn about and cultivate my body as opposed letting it be controlled and despised through the power structures of ballet. This is where the “f” word (ie feminism for those unfamiliar with it’s ‘recent’ taboo) enters my ideological framework.

Which leads me to, ballet at York. I decided to approach the class with a strong work ethic but determined not to compare myself to the 17 year old former competition dancers with. I would get what I could from the classes and learn from the other students without using value judgments. I talked with several professors here to determine which class to take and eventually I settled on Ballet 2205 with Claire Wootten. Claire has a similar ballet ideology to mine and, get this, teaches using feminist pedagogy (though she admitted that she makes a conscious effort not to use the “f” word in class)! I’m fascinated by this approach and am going to journal about my experiences in her class throughout the semester so that I have a good record of her pedagogy and my reactions. More about her and the class can be found on her website.
So, I’m looking forward to my morning ballet classes and will keep everyone up to date on how they progress! I’m also interested in how others perceive ballet and perceive my take on it so e-mail me (don’t use the grenfell account b/c it may expire soon) and we’ll start a fun discussion!

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