by Carolyn M - Intermediate: dance/fitness
Dokoudovsky New York Conservatory of Dance
CLASS LEVEL:BEGINNING/INTERMEDIATE
“Prepare, and one!” With this, the piano player began and we started each exercise at the barre (plies, tendus, frappes, bat mas, etc). The old studio with ornate wooden architecture and high ceilings made me feel like I was taking ballet class in the forties. The respect the instructor demanded for ballet (i.e., beginning and finishing each exercise with the proper form) was refreshing in contrast to other styles of dance where technique, form, reverence, and propriety are diminishing.[...]
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by Carolyn M - Intermediate: dance/fitness
Brooklyn Ballet
CLASS LEVEL: BEGINNING MODERN
The class began with center combinations that taught the differences between ballet and modern. The instructor, a recently retired member of David Parson’s Dance Company, choreographed combinations that required the students to alternate between precise ballet positions to relaxed modern moves (i.e., passé transitioned into full contracted collapse). She made the students pair up and hold onto each other’s wrists while doing a combination of tendus and lunges in order to show the authentic interaction that is allowed in modern dance.
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