Homework for the Holidays

I have a love/hate relationship with December. End of the semester and no more student papers to grade, yay! Holiday festivities of all sorts, yay! The Nutcracker, yay! Socializing with friends and family, mostly. yay! Short, cold, days, meh! No ballet classes on offer around here for three weeks, boo!

What's a grownup bunhead to do?

Here I'm sharing with you the strategies that help get me through the ballet wasteland that is "Winter Break." This is unscientific, and just what has helped me, as a dancer living in a mature body, come back to class in the New Year full of energy and vim, rather than groaning and creaking. Well, there's always going to be some groaning and creaking.

1. Daily drills: even if you don't have space or the inclination to do an at-home barre, you can do some basic exercises daily, even while you are, for example, watching the holiday episodes of the Great British Baking show, or in some cases even while you do dishes from the Great Latke Blowout (our family tradition -- but you will probably find yourself with a sink full of dishes at some point). My daily list includes

• Calf raises and/or eleves in parallel (20x rest a bit, repeat 2x)
• Eleves in first position (ditto)
• Eleves in coupe (15x each side, rest a little, repeat 2x) NOTE: after this part of the series I spend some time stretching out my calves!!!
• Lunges with or without hand weights -- not great for doing in the kitchen, but certainly compatible with television. I do three sets of ten (that's both sides = 1 rep). If I'm feeling up to it, I do a port-de-bras from first to en haut with it.
• Side lunges (aka Sumo lunges), sometimes with a resistance band (15 each side times three)
• Clamshells with a band (15x each side, three sets)
• Mountain climbers (as many as I can do in 45 seconds, rest 14, repeat twice)
• Lie prone, resting forehead on ground. Raise opposite arm and leg, alternating, 15 reps 3 sets
• Lie supine, turned out. Do slow retire, developpe front, lower straight. 15 times each side, 3 sets.

I'm sure there are tons of other great exercises, but this little set keeps all the major muscle groups and joints moving and is surprisingly. effective at keeping your metabolism ticking along too; all the better for that extra slice of figgy pudding (I have no idea what figgy pudding is, btw).

2. Keep moving, keep stretching: during the winter of 2020, my spouse and I took long walks nearly. every day to combat the inertia of the lockdown (we live in a fairly low-density town, so risk of exposure to the virus out of doors was minimal). I was astounded at how effectively this kept me from getting the creaks, especially if when I came back inside to the warm coziness of my house, I took some time to stretch. So even if you can't get to ballet class, or the most you do is amble up and down the mall (this is a hypothetical mall, since the one mall in my. town was demolished about a year ago, and nobody cried any tears over it), once you're warm, take advantage of the situation, and do some stretching. Here's my standard routine post-winter-walk.

• Stretch up with hands over head, then fold from hips into a forward bend. Place hands on floor, ankles or shins, and slowly shift weight side to side, working the stretch up into the glutes.
• Step the right foot back into a high lunge. Unfold the upper body. You can support yourself with your hands on your thigh, or you can raise your arms overhead again, Hold this pose for a couple of breaths, until you feel your psoas softening up, and then you can drop into a low (runner's) lunge, hands on the floor. Again, hold the stretch for about 4-5 deep, relaxing breaths. 
• Now, shift through a "triangle" pose and (if it's comfortable for you), settle back on your folded right leg, extending your left in front of you with the foot flexed, toes pointing up. Fold forward over the leg if you need more stretch. Hold 4-5 breaths.
• Move through triangle pose back to your low lunge. Now, you can either let your left butt, thigh, and calf lie down flat on the floor in a turned out position aka "pigeon" or you can start to move into your splits.
• Repeat on the other side.
• After this sequence, I like to do a seated straddle stretch (my hip mobility is not such that I can do center splits unless I'm very, very warm, like hot yoga warm). I sit in a straddle, and then I go forward with a flat back. When you're doing this at first, it can be helpful to prop your butt up on some yoga blocks. I try to get my chest down to the floor, rather than my head. Then I walk my finger tips over to one side, then the other... this is an intense stretch for me. I always counter it with some butterfly sitting and a "cow's head" stretch (where you sit with your legs bent at the knee in front of you, one over the other).

NEVER STRETCH WHEN YOU ARE NOT WARMED UP

3. Take "online" class: it's definitely not the same as taking a class in a studio, but there are numerous options ranging from free, pre-recorded content to live zoom classes. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pre-recorded and free:

• My all-time favorite is this series from the Dutch Het Nationale Ballet (don't worry, it's in English)
• A close second is Kathryn Morgan's content. A big bonus is that she also has a ton of workouts and strength-building exercises, as well as some fun chatty content about life in the ballet world. As a former NYCB and Miami City Ballet principal and an expert teacher, Morgan is delightful to learn from. She also has more premium content behind a paywall, and you can take live online classes from her and her "friends" as well.
• The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) has a wonderful series for mature dancers ("silver swans") that is really appropriate for anyone wanting to drill down on their technique.
• Also geared towards adult learners, Broche Ballet is emerging as one of the big voices in the adult ballet community, and Julie's classes are fun and easy to follow, with great explanations of technique. Although a lot of her content is behind a subscription paywall, and again, as with Morgan, she offers live classes online as well as recorded classes.

This is a really short list. I also have enjoyed free classes and "challenges" by Claudia Dean, who has the most entertaining Australian accent, and Ballerinas by Night is a fun channel run by Jana, whom I met one summer at ArtEmotion, and who is very adult-focused in her teaching.

Live online classes and pay-to-view prerecorded material:

Most big studios now offer zoom options, but here are just a few favorites of mine:

• Joffrey Now (Joffrey School, New York)
• Alvin Ailey Extension (all genres)
• Mark Morris
• American Ballet Theater (adult specific classes)

4.  Reach out to your teacher and see if there are opportunities to do a couple of private or semi-private lessons over the break. Getting some one-on-one coaching shouldn't be a luxury just for pre-professional students. Anyone, at any age or level, can benefit from some personal attention. One winter, I did a couple sessions with one of my teachers that really helped solve a problem I was having with petite allegro (it had to do with not closing my fifths). I'm thinking this winter may be the time to tackle my mental anguish over pirouettes en dehors to the left en pointe (I took a bad fall a few years ago and I find that it comes back to haunt me). So, if you decide to invest in this, make sure you target some things you would like to work on and communicate those to your teacher.

Happy dancing (or sort of dancing)! Enjoy the break from routine.