Ballerina Blues

Your child has enjoyed dance lessons all year, and all of a sudden they announce they want to quit! The excitement of Nutcracker lingered through part of January, but fizzled in February.  Dances have been set for the spring recital, but it feels so far away that dancers start to lose motivation.  First semester had a bit of review, but second semester feels like hard work as instructors teach new steps and challenge students.  Spring has arrived, and dancers are distracted.  They want to play outside with their friends, forgetting about their classmates at dance and the rapidly approaching recital.  Spring break has arrived. Just the break your dancer needs to refresh and get back on track.  Just a few more weeks to go. Performance day has arrived.  You congratulate your jubilant performer after the recital. Then your dancer shares her thoughts out loud, " I wonder what part I'll dance next year?"

While many dancers enjoy dancing all year, it is common for children between 6-12yrs to express a desire to quit their dance lessons between mid March and the start of April.  Young dancers are often enthralled with performing on stage, and easily forget that to perform well they need to practice.  To adults time flies by, but to a child a May recital seems an eternity.  As adults we can help young dancers learn small yet important life lessons.  Learning the importance of commitment and following through will produce many benefits throughout their lives.  For a dancer, the performance is often an amazing reward for their hard work during their weekly lessons.

Have you ever wondered why your dancers are so smart?

Many dance students are successful in school.  Here at Conservatory we have had two dancers graduate from their high schools as valedictorians.  A few of our dancers have also received substantial academic scholarships to Notre Dame, Purdue, and IU.  In addition, most of our dancers in middle school and high school are part of National Honor Society.  Many of us know of the the physical benefits of dance such as strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular; however, fewer of us realize that dance is also a work out for the brain.  With awareness of their bodies from the tips of their eyelashes to the tips of their toes, dancers use the "left brain" to understand how to move correctly.  Using expressive movement to  share musical and artistic inspiration targets the "right brain". During class and on stage dancers use the upper rear portion of the brain for spatial awareness.  The lower part of the brain is used to memorize class combinations and choreography for performances.  If your child studies dance, it should not surprise you that they are brilliant and excel at school.

Miss Lydia

My favorite step is either pas de chat or grand pas de chat developé (aka Italian pas de chat). In ballet 2, where pas de chat often makes an appearance in the class’s dance, it is thought of as a palindrome: plié, passé, passé, plié. With the two passés, you jump up. I feel like I’m flying when I do a pas de chat. Everything feels right because of the symmetry of the body’s movement.

An Italian pas de chat is just like a regular pas de chat, except the first leg up does a developé as the second leg is coming to a passé position. Sometimes, that first leg does a battement up instead of a developé, often changing the height and angle of the jump. I like doing the developé ones better because I like feeling so powerful.  Also I feel as though I am soaring through the air, which is always quite a nice feeling.

-Peyton

My name is Peyton and I will be posting for the next two weeks. I am a full company member and I have been dancing for five years, all with Conservatory of Dance. I enjoy ballet and modern classes, and I demonstrate for beginning jazz classes. I also volunteer at the Center for the Homeless with Miss Lydia. My favorite dance memory is performing the Nutcracker every year because I get to share the memories with my friends who are more like a family. The most memorable and unchanging part of Nutcracker is our nose-less Nutcracker doll named Timothy.

What Nutcracker means to you?

Of course anyone can watch the Modern Nutcracker and see a performance - they can see the artistry, the beauty, the meaning. Yet there is something in this particular performance that truly sets the Modern Nutcracker apart from any other show, and this is the spirit of the performers. Within the cast of the Nutcracker, you will find a group of devoted individuals that don’t view the Nutcracker as a show, but as an entire season, as a feeling, an experience. When the cast steps into the roles of Klara, or Sugar Plum, or just a person on the street those emotions and those feelings absorb the dancer and there is no experience that can equal it. The Modern Nutcracker is feeling the pain of the homeless, knowing the hate of the public, yet still believing in this magical hope where a little girl can be transported from a dismal cardboard box on the side of the street to a warm and inviting wonderland where the love of a mother and father is freely given. The Modern Nutcracker is more than a Christmas party, or girls in frilly dresses, it is our call to love our neighbors and to extend the welcoming hand of friendship to even those we cannot fully understand because “in the end, only kindness matters”.  

Hailey

Ever since we first performed the 'Contemporary Nutcracker' in 2008 the story of the homeless, unloved, helpless Klara touched my heart. We perform the Nutcracker when the holiday season is started and everybody is so busy with shopping and spending money. We need to remember the real spirit of Christmas Season: taking care of each other and seeing how important it is to have family and friends. Life means more than being popular and having the fanciest newest things. Let's think about friendship, kindness and more sensibility for the needs of everybody around us. This year I have been blessed with the honor of living the life of Klara by dancing her role in the Nutcracker. I'm practicing now already a couple of weeks and slowly combining my dancing personality with her emotional and magical changes in her life and surroundings. In this way, I am becoming Klara so I can best portray her and really make the audience believe that I am truly her living through the hardships and confusions of her homeless life, followed by spreading the powerful message everyone learns and understands in the end. We can change the world around us with little doings: a smile, a helping hand and more kindness. This year, I have been inspired to help out children living in the Center for the Homeless in a special way. My dancer friend Morgan and I are going to assist in teaching some of the children ballet and other forms of dance. We are also planning on teaching the kids a dance from the Nutcracker that they can perform with us when we come to the Center with the whole Company and perform excerpts of the production. My life is forever changed and I am thankful that I know I can make the lives of people better while doing what I love to do most, DANCE!


Julia

My first year dancing in the Nutcracker was the year I was playing a mouse.  I remember how much I enjoyed the lights shining on me and the feeling of  being onstage.  At that moment I was most mesmerized by the character of Klara.  I knew then that I wanted to play that role.  I wanted to see what it was like to have such an amazing lead role.  That is exactly what happened.

When I found out I was going to be playing the role of Klara, I couldn’t even describe how I was feeling; this was two years ago.  When I danced this part, I felt like it was just me.  I felt like I was alone in the auditorium.  When I dance this role I felt so free.  This was the  moment when I really decided I wanted to be a dancer.  Playing this role made me realize how much I love to dance and how much I love being onstage.

Dancing has definitely been both amazing and a struggle.  When Nutcracker season comes, school work definitely becomes a challenge.  However, I manage to complete everything and still enjoy the season.  Every Nutcracker season gets me excited.  Nutcracker has now become a part of me and everyone I dance with is like my second family.  Dancing is one thing I will never stop doing.  Something inside of me changes when I dance and I feel so strong and graceful.

Victoria