Today, I chat with Harmony, who recently achieved her goal of her first

pair of pointe shoes before her upcoming 50th birthday!

We talk about her absolute undying love of ballet, what it was like for her

to take her very first ballet class a little over a year ago, and why she

thinks anyone with dreams of ballet should just get started and hop in with

us!

Follow Harmony’s story on instagram @ballet_harmony.

Enjoy!

This podcast episode is a little different. Many of us are re-entering

lockdowns, again feeling separated from our communities, and maybe even

wondering what’s the point of it all. Looking ahead at a difficult winter,

wondering how we’ll make it through.

So, I wanted to take a moment, inspired by the season of giving thanks on

Thanksgiving, to share my story. The last time I shared my own story on the

podcast was episode 11 in June, right after I made the decision to close

the studios. Since then, I’ve spent the summer healing, growing, and

discovering. I have tried to write this story many times this summer. But

now I am ready. The story is ready. And I think the time is right.

This episode is not a glossy highlight reel of good things. It’s messy and

sad at times, but with what I think is an ending of optimism. I hope my

story will give you a sense of hope in this dark time. So come along for

this ride with me.

I am grateful for 2020 in all of its dumpster fire glory 🔥💩 For helping

me discover what truly matters, for helping me find my confidence, and for

seriously making me a stronger person. For helping me reach my goals: New

ideas, new experiences, and confidence.

Today, I chat with Tom who lives across the pond in the UK.

He’s always been fascinated with ballet, but only started dancing a few

years ago. Before that, he began his journey with mindfulness practice,

which helped pull him out of a dark time. That led him to yoga, and finally

now to ballet.

He now teaches both yoga and mindfulness, and enjoys ballet for the purity

of the movement, and strives to enjoy every step of the journey without

getting caught up into goals. The process and living in the moment is what

brings the joy.

Enjoy!

If you’ve been dancing for a while and wonder why your pirouettes aren’t working yet, or why your petite allegro isn’t getting quicker, or why your legs won’t stay turned out in the center or lift any higher, or why your port de bras still doesn’t look quite how you want, then this is the facet for you.

This facet of ballet is where we work to master movements within the ballet paradigm, which involves turned out legs, pointed ankles, long toes, stretched knees, elongated posture, and arm movements to extend our lines from our back and create gestures.

We build the mechanisms that make ballet look and work correctly. The depth of technique enables us to create the look of effortless elegance while secretly and invisibly working really hard to control the body. It enables us to use gravity & physics to our advantage to turn, leap, lift our legs up high, and more.

And it is what gives ballet the “look” of gracefulness, and the “je ne sais quoi” of floating across the stage.

This facet is the breadth of vocabulary in ballet and how we move our bodies from foot to foot across the floor and throughout space. Within this facet, we have 4 components: (1) Vocabulary - what the ballet steps are; (2) The grammar of how the steps fit together; (3) Picking combinations up quickly in class; (4) Memorizing an excerpt of choreography.

In this episode, we dive into each of these facets, how adults learn these things versus how kids learn them, and what the skills are that you can seek out in order to keep progressing in your dancing.

When we are training our bodies, we must also train our minds. In the journey to advancing in ballet, our mind needs to adapt and grow as much as our bodies, if not more.

Here’s the thing, without a positive and powerful mindset, we won’t be able to stick around long enough in our ballet journey to see real progress. Without an open mind, we won’t be able to experiment and try the new things that are needed to change habits and learn new patterns. And without a healthy relationship to our inner critic, we’ll just frustrate and torture ourselves until ballet isn’t fun anymore.

Let’s dive into how to have fun working on the details of technique, how to enjoy ballet, and how to keep coming back for long enough to actually make meaningful progress in your dancing.

Today on the show, we're going to lay out all of the different facets of your ballet training:

- Breadth, this is the dancing

- The depth, this is the technique

- The performing and storytelling

- Personal and body strength

Join Julie on this episode as we dig into the different facets of training an adult to learn ballet.

Today, let’s dive into how adults are currently taught ballet. We’ll talk about adult open programs, which are how many of us learn ballet, we’ll talk about what to even teach adults, and how to structure a program for busy adult lives.

A little preview of what to look forward to in the season, plus a strong message about the power of classical ballet to transform lives and why we should open it to more people.

Today, I’ll be giving you a sneak peek of season 2 of Broche Banter. Season 2 will be a little different format, and I’ll be directly addressing fears, anxieties, questions, and concerns that we heard from dancers in season 1. 

We’ll be focusing in on the question:

How good can you really get when you started ballet late? Can you learn pointe? Pirouettes? Get more flexible? Get your extensions? Perform? Learn ballets? Partner?

Is it too late for me to dance?