Homesick for José's

I'm looking for a ballet class I love so much that I'll do anything to get there.  Something that can light my life.  I had classes like that in Cambridge, MA, but I'm in New York, and I haven't found the equivalent here.

I like a class that starts very slowly and works its way up so that you are exhausted by the end of barre.  Mary Thompson's class at José Mateo Ballet Theatre is that way.  It starts with an exercise facing the barre, then pliés, then infinitely slow tendus.  But the class overall is infinitely fast!  That's the beauty of it.  There's an opportunity to practice every move slowly at least once before doing it fast.  It's like the development of an embryo, starting with a single cell and developing into a fetus.  It starts simply and becomes complex, and it doesn't skip steps. You don't do a pirouette until you've done passé on flat and relevé passé without turning.  This thoroughness not only prepares you for what comes next but it wears you out and warms you up. By the end of barre, I'm sweaty and warm, ready to do a split.  Too tired to talk.  (Talking was always a mistake in Mary's class, anyway.)

When classes start with shrugging the shoulders, I worry.  Not having done modern dance, I fear "ballet for modern dancers."

In some classes I've taken around here, teachers basically go from pliés to fast dégagés to ronds de jambe.  There should be so many more tendus in there!  Tendus from first, tendus from fifth.  Then fondus and ronds de jambe en l'air for strength.  I don't like a barre without développés.  That's a workout.

Class at Peridance with Alexandre Proia may not have been ballet for modern dancers, but it was ballet for someone other than me.

This class was more about teaching style and choreography than teaching technique.  In my opinion, the barre was scanty.  Center was interesting and had its own merits.  The teacher made jazzy combinations and demonstrated them fully, which many teachers don't do. It was wonderful to watch. We had a great pianist, too, who played tunes close to my heart (Edith Piaf and Khatchaturian).

This is a former City Ballet dancer.  Have to respect him and his approach.  I agree with him that learning a long, complex combination is good for the brain and that expression is important.

I do live in a glass house, made even more fragile since school started and my dancing became more sporadic.

But I do know what kind of class I want, and Proia's was not it. I suppose the class would be better for people who take many classes and have already had a workout for the day, people who want to work on style.  Not a bread-and-butter class.