Class Review - Ballet North Halifax

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Ballet North, Charlotte Ingleson, The Dance Mil, Halifax, Thursday 31 May 2018 19:00 - 20:00 £8.00

As several of the dancers who turned up to the first class of Powerhouse Ballet last week train at Ballet North with Charlotte Ingleson every Thursday, Amelia Sierevogel and I paid them a visit last week.

Charlotte teaches at The Dance Mill in Whiterose Mill on Holdsworth Road in Halifax which is nearly 4 miles from the town centre.  That is no problem for those who come by car because there is a large visitors' car park just across the road from the mill but I am told that it is not so easy to reach by public transport.   Having said that, Google maps states that the 526 bus leaves Halifax bus station at 18:30 and arrives at the mill at 18:44 on Thursdays.

From what I could see, the Dance Mill is palatial.  There are several studios all with barres and well spring floors.  It has spacious changing facilities with showers as well as lavatories. A long corridor is lined with comfortable chairs and I spotted at least one common area at the entrance.

Charlotte's credentials are impressive.  She trained at English National Ballet School winning all sorts of awards and accolades and has performed important roles with major companies.  She has a very pleasant manner and sense of humour in class but she is also very thorough.  We packed a lot of exercises into 60 minutes.

After warming up we progressed through pliés, tendus and glissés fairly briskly.  She combined tendus with glissés with piqués and plenty of rises, retirés and turns at the barre.  We then proceeded through ronds de jambe, grands battements, fondus and développés before finishing with stretches  The centre exercises built on what we had practised at the barre with a delightful adagio followed by an allegro ending with turns.

Charlotte has her own way of preparing for pirouettes which seemed to work for me better than most despite my problems of coordination and remaining on demi long enough to complete a turn. We practised pirouettes from first to fourth.  Charlotte has a very similar exercise to Jane Tucker's chassé and three sets of pirouettes which worked better than in Huddersfield where I lost my balance and landed unceremoniously on the floor. We spent the last few minutes with warm up jumps - simple sautés in 1st and 2nd, changements and échappés and finished with some joyous grands jetés and pas de chat.

The class ended with a very thorough cool down.

The other members of the class were pleasant and welcoming. In addition to those I had met at Huddersfield there was a regular from Jane Tucker's class in Leeds who has expressed interest in Powerhouse Ballet.

Amelia and I compared notes on the drive back to Huddersfield. We were both impressed with Charlotte and we thoroughly enjoyed the class. I for one will certainly be back though perhaps not every week as I hope to resume regular Thursday classes in Leeds now that rehearsals for Move It! are over and visit Hype in Sheffield as often as possible. The 19:00  start suits me very well as I have had to miss more than a few classes in Leeds and Manchester owing to late running cons and pressing deadlines.  Halifax is slightly closer to Holmfirth than Leeds and the roads less congested.

Just as most Adult Ballet Classes are folding up for the Summer, here's one that's opening

Photo Huddersfield University~
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At a time of the year when many adult ballet classes are winding down for the summer, it is great to hear of one that is opening up. Today and for the next four Thursdays, Fiona Noonan will run an open adult class at Huddersfield University Sports Centre between 11:00 and 12:00.

Fiona is an excellent teacher. She trained at Queensland Ballet Academy in Brisbane which is the ballet school for Li Cunxin's company that made such a memorable impression on critics and audiences when it brought La Sylphide to London in 2015 (see A dream realized: the Queensland Ballet in London 12 Aug 2015). She then danced with a number of companies around the world before settling in the United Kingdom. She, therefore, brings two rare qualities to her teaching. A rigorous pursuit of excellence and an attention to detail which I have noticed in other Australian trained teachers such as Adam Pudney at Pineapple and more than a little stardust from the stage that some of my favourite teachers at Northern Ballet Academy and KNT also scatter.

I have attended Fiona's classes at The Base Studios and Team Hud in Huddersfield and at Hype Studios in Sheffield (see More than just Hype - Beginners and Improvers Classes in Sheffield 14 May 2014).  They are not easy.  She pushes her students to their limits and then some. But that is exactly what a ballet student needs whatever his or her age or natural ability. I have also learned some important lessons from her. "Ballet is a harsh mistress", I once heard her tell a promising young student " and she is wanting and waiting for you to fail."  Like most balletomanes, I had associated dance with tiaras and gravity defying leaps but the reality is graft, sweat, pain and on more than a few occasions physical danger. Something that requires will, determination and resilience even if you are just taking an adult ballet class. Transferable qualities, incidentally, if you are lucky enough to enjoy your job and have no plans to quit just because you have reached pensionable age.

So if you come to her class this morning you had better pack a towel with your leotard or sports kit because you can expect to sweat. If this is your first class you will be allowed to dance barefoot. However, if you plan to stay the course and invest in some shoes there is a dance shop in the Byrom Arcade called "Mr Frog Dancewear".

For those who do not know the campus, the Sports Centre is in a new building called "Student Central" where you will also find the students' shop and cafeteria. It is almost opposite Sainsbury's car park and there are two multi-storey car parks on the other side of Queensway. The Sports Centre is one floor down and you have to report at the front desk. I don't yet know how much Fiona will charge for her classes but it was £5 two years ago. Most other ballet schools in the North charge between £6 and £8. Well worth it for a fair dinkum touch of stardust, mate. Gooday.

My First Contemporary Dance Class

A dancer performing a contemporary
dance piece

Photo Wikipedia

I have enjoyed watching contemporary dance on stage for almost as long as I have enjoyed ballet but yesterday was the first time I took a full contemporary dance class. Even though I have to say that I woke up this morning as stiff as a board I enjoyed the experience tremendously and I look forward to my next class.

My teacher yesterday was Ailsa Baker who has already taught me some ballet (see So Proud of Manchester - KNT Danceworks Complete Beginners Class 29 Aug 2014). My only other experience of contemporary dance had been half an hour or so at Liverpool town hall on 8 Sept 2014 which was also with KNT (see It's not every Class that you can use Lord Canning's Eyes for Spotting 9 Sept 2014).

The class started off with pliés and balances as in ballet though we did not use the barre but then we had our first floor exercise. I had done quite a bit of that sort of work with Fiona Noonan in ballercise as well as some private lessons that she gave me a year or so ago so it was not a complete shock but I did find myself using muscles that had been left undisturbed for far too long.

After the exercises Ailsa taught us a routine which seemed to go step, step, step, arms in open fifth, a lunge to the right, step, step, step, arms up in open fifth again, a lunge to the left, step, step and then something like a rond de jambe and grand battement followed by a run back across the studio. We then rose on demi with our arms outstretched. Then something called step hop which was nothing like the temps levé that I had done in the Over 55 class in Leeds earlier in the day followed by run, run and leap on the other foot which was vaguely like a grand jeté, run, run and another step hop, run, run and a turn in the air, then run, run along the side of the studio with step hops and leaps back and finally a run to the centre. So far so good but then this poor old lady ran out of steam. The next move was a jump from a lunge to the floor followed by a roll to the knees, arms up a couple of times, then getting up, a couple of turns rather like chaînés, then another roll and up, a turn and yet another roll and run. It was those rolls which defeated me. Getting down was easy enough but springing up again was the killer.

We marked the routine a couple of times as a class first without and then with music.  Then we divided into groups. My group had lots of good dancers plus me and although I started off OK I am sorry to say that I let my group down by losing my balance after the third roll.  But nobody seemed to mind too much and I wasn't hurt.

I may be wrong but I think that these rolls are something that would improve with practice and the more times I take this class the better I shall become. It is definitely harder than ballet but I have never been one to duck a challenge. There was a time when I found ballet impossible whereas now it is only very, very, very, very difficult.

I really enjoyed that class. As I have said several times before, Ailsa is a great teacher who clearly loves to dance and extracts the last ounce of effort from her students by communicating to us her love of dance. I enjoy her ballet classes too for that same reason. I would love to do more with her but it is not easy for me to get to her classes as I usually take a class in Leeds on Thursday mornings.  "Nobody pays you to be a ballerina, Miss" my clerk never tires of reminding me (right now nobody is paying me much to be a barrister though I seem to be working every hour God sends) but after a gruelling day in court on Tuesday and after the disappointment of missing Fiona's Wednesday class after driving all the way to Huddersfield I felt justified in taking a second class yesterday. But, as I say, I woke up this morning stiff as the proverbial. Nemesis for Terpsichore perhaps?

Post Script

Just want to say that after the class my friend and I repaired to Panchos Burritos which is literally just round the corner from the Danchouse and Northern Ballet School. There we had two enormous burritos - one in the bowl and the other in a wrap plus a Fentimans mandarin and Seville orange jigger and a half litre of mineral water for £11.82. I had acquired a taste for Mexican food when I was a graduate student at UCLA in the early 1970s which was more or less the first time I saw contemporary dance. For many years Mexican food was almost impossible to find in this country and hardly worth eating when it was found. I am happy to say that Pancho cooks a mean burrito - as good as any I have consumed in Southern California. So - as jumping up and down and rolling about on the floor is bound to work up an appetite - Pancho's is the place to satisfy it.  That was another reason why yesterday was a very special evening.