after dropping chanda at her modern dance class with ellen, i walked to manhattan youth ballet to observe morgana's ballet class. natalia was her first teacher for technique, and then deborah taught the pointe class. it was my first time seeing natalia teach. i had observed deborah two years ago (here and here). morgana first met natalia while dancing for mr. patrelle's nutcracker these past two years. she loves having her as a teacher. natalia is firm, yet gentle, and always encourages the girls to do their best while working correctly.this first movie shows natalia presenting a developé exercise at the bar.
. . a combination across the floor . .
. . and the adagio.one always ends technique class with an adagio. i think i found it dull when i was 12 (i always needed to be moving . . fast), but now it's my favorite part. no matter how few lessons you've had with ballet, the adagio allows you to reach gracefully out and bow and dream that ballerina dream.
and then it's time for pointe class with deborah . . 
and a final pointe combination across the floor: boureés. the beautiful piano playing you've been hearing is from school accompanist mira tsidulko. morgana loves having her play for the class. she inspires the girls to have fun with their dancing.
after class, morgana and i stopped at whole foods to get the remainder of the ingredients we needed for artichoke and pesto pizza with mozzarella and olives, oregano and a little lemon juice.
after class, morgana and i stopped at whole foods to get the remainder of the ingredients we needed for artichoke and pesto pizza with mozzarella and olives, oregano and a little lemon juice. 
I need to show this to Jonathan and Charlotte to see what they think! They know much more about this than I do of course. Welcome back! Good to "see" you again.
ReplyDeletehello eva! thank you. i'm starting to feel a little better, but we have many changes happening here. i hope jonathan and charlotte enjoy seeing the ballet class. i used to love my classes when i was their age. and their teacher seems wonderful. i liked the articles i read about her, and what she had to say about her dancing and teaching.
ReplyDeleteJonathan and Charlotte thought that it was a little bit more difficult than what they could do, at least the work on the barre. We were all impressed with the real piano music. What a difference! We were wondering if the girls are doing balancés after the sissonnes in the "combination across the floor" video. Could you help us out?
ReplyDeletehello eva, jonathan and charlotte. morgana says that they are doing balancés after the sissonnes. i re-uploaded the first three movies so that the images are more clear. haven't had a chance to do the last two. perhaps i can in the morning before you look at this again. best, dorina
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the explanations and movies.
ReplyDelete