Autumn Ballet Intensive 2016:
Serenade & Paquita
Date: 24th October 8pm-10pm, 25th, 26th and 28th October 7:30pm-9:30pm
29th October 10am-2pm, note no course on 27th October!
Level: advanced beginner to advanced
Address: The Place, 16 Flaxman Terrace, London WC1H 9AT
Cost: £170/ £150 if paid by 23rd September 2016.
You can pay using the BOOK NOW button, in cash, by cheque, use PayM, online transfer or PayPal.
Unfortunately, I cannot offer reductions if you have to miss a session. By making a payment you agree to the
UPDATED terms & conditions.
Programme*: 30 min warm up at the barre | 90 min study of choreography and performance skills (2 hrs 30 min Saturday ), 1-hour deep stretching (Saturday)
Running for the third year, the Autumn Intensive 2016 introduces you to two very different pieces of the ballet repertoire.
The beginner level students will be working on the beginning of George Balanchine's Serenade, which was the first piece he choreographed in America. It was premiered in 1934 by students of the school of American Ballet and by the American Ballet in 1935.
Tchaikovsky's beautiful music sets the melancholy mood. Read more about the history of Serenade.
Quite the opposite in character is Paquita, intended for the more advanced students. We will be practising the part of the eight corps de ballet dancers. Originally, Paquita was a complete two acts ballet but nowadays it is mainly the Grand Pas that you see performed by ballet companies. If Serenade was the first piece Balanchine created in America, Paquita was Marius Petipa's first work staged in Russia in 1847 for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. Read more about the history of Paquita.
In contrast to Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Ludwig Minkus' score is energetic, uplifting, and 'catchy'. I remember how much we preferred rehearsing and dancing Paquita to Chopiniana (Les Sylphides) as 14 and 15 years old ballet students.
Paquita rehearsal, State Ballet School Berlin, 1990
As always, the more you make yourself familiar with the steps of the piece(s) of your choice, the more you are going to benefit from the Intensive. Once you booked your place and I received your payment, I am going to send you the password for videos of the parts of the choreographies, in real tempo, in slow motion and filmed from the back (Paquita only), that we are going to study. You can also download and print the written scripts of the movements, find the PDF files below.
We will start each day with a warm-up at the barre before rehearsing the ballet pieces. On Wednesday and on Saturday, we are going to film the results of our work for you to have a record of your improvements.
On Saturday, we are going to complete the Autumn Intensive with an hour long deep stretching routine.
You can attend wearing pointe shoes or regular ballet slippers.
Payments must be done in full, no reductions can be made should you have to miss part of the course.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your participation, please do not hesitate to contact me.