The Ballet Bible

how to be better

i’m a new dancer and i am constantly reminded of how im not as good as everyone in my class’, so i woul like to know some ways on how i can make my exensions better, how i can get higher, and how i could get my extension better, also how i can get better arches?? please please help me!!

Can I still get into the School of American Ballet (SAB)?

Hi!

I am a 12 year old girl who will soon be en pointe. When I started ballet (at age 3), I did it for fun and never really thought of it professionally. However, I took some interest in a professional career about 2 years ago. My dream ballet company is NYCB and consequently I would like to go to SAB.

I have 2 questions concerning this. Firstly, I do four 1-hour classes a week at my dance school and practice for about 2 hours a day at home. Of these four classes, I do an intermediate one (RAD syllabus). Recently, I visited SAB’s site and browsed through everything. I know I have roughly the same technique as the girls i have seen, but I am still unsure and tentative as to whether I should apply to SAB. I’m not even en pointe yet, and the girls there went en pointe earlier! Is intermediate level good enough for SAB?
Apart from this, I would say I’m quite flexible (I’ve got my front splits down and my side splits about an inch from the ground, and I have warm up and stretch routines which I do each morning). I weigh about 102 lbs, and I am 5 6″ (is that too tall?), and I seem to have stopped growing (in terms of weight, height, shoe size etc.)
I used to aim for the Royal Ballet School but my teacher said they wanted high arches (I have what I call half arches, because my feet are not highly arched but they aren’t flat either) and their students went en pointe around 9 or 10. I know it seems silly, but the only school I would really like to go to is SAB.
Everyone must think I talk a lot because I’m sure this post is very long! In addition to all the problems I have, my teacher just resigned with very short notice to the school. Apart from the fact that we all miss her, it means the school now has to get a new teacher and they don’t know when they will get one. Our end of school year performance has been postponed as well. I have done pre-pointe work and would have probably been en pointe this week or the next. I have tons of book on pointework, so i was wondering if I should use these carefully to break my pointe shoes and do rises and releves?

Your help would be much appreciated!

What should I do?

I am sixteen and a Junior in High School. I took a beginning ballet class for a half a year when i was a freshman but i quit because the studio closed and i didnt know where to go. I have just started beginning ballet again at another studio and am taking an hour of jazz and an hour of ballet a week. I really love ballet and I want to do pointe someday. I exercise and stretch everyday at home to help build my muscle and get more flexible, but i dont think its enough to have only one hour of ballet a week. My studio doesnt offer anymore ballet classes to my age group during the week.

I am really serious and dedicated to progressing in ballet, should i find more classes at another studio? I dont know how to achieve my goal! Any advise?

We Had A Great Time at The Sydney Groove Dance Expo

Hi,

We’re back home now from the groove dance expo and we had a blast. It was great meeting all the other exhibitors and the multitudes of dancers, dance teachers and store owners that attented the event. We had lots of enquires from dance store owners who are interested in retailing the ballet bible in their stores and we also hooked up with Sandi and Sallyanne from Bloch who want to retail it in their 20+ stores across australia, so that is really exciting. If you live in australia you could be seeing the ballet bible in your local dance store very soon.

We met a few people that we have done promotions with over the last couple of years but have never actually met face to face so it was great to finally shake hands with Grant Davies from RGDANCE and Sean from Dancetrain magazine. There was also heaps of cool people there exhibiting that are doing really exciting things in the dance world.

We met:

Debra from Dance Informa Magazine - she has started an online magazine for dancers that lists competitions, auditions, and all the latest dance news. You can sign up for a free subscription on the site and get the magazine delivered to you through email.

Clint from dancelife.com.au - Clint has started a site for dancers that includes a forum, blog, classifieds, directory, and heaps of other stuff.

Sam and Fiona from dancestore.com.au - These guys are actually only a couple of suburbs away from us in brisbane so that was really weird, but cool. They retail dance shoes and dance wear online. They are really nice people, Sam drove down to the expo in a van with all their gear and he offered to drive our stuff back up to brisbane to save us the huge excess baggage fees the airline charges so that was really good.

Christine from tapatakoz - Christine has just put together her own syllabus for tap and she has manuals, cd’s, and dvd’s. She’s got 12 levels included in the syllabus and it looks really good. She just got it together in time for the expo and she did really well.

Gaynor Minden - I can’t remember the lady’s name (shame on me). She heads up the australian distributorship for gaynor minden. They had a booth just diagonal from us and we chatted quite a few times. She fitted me for some new pointe shoes and I ended up buying them. Their awesome pointe shoes.

StageGear - These guys have some of the best costumes around for dancers. They were the main sponsors of the event and had massive posters and banners on the main stage.

Sandi and Sallyanne from Bloch - The Bloch stand was the biggest and brightest stand at the expo. It was right in the middle and twice as big as everybody else. They had a whole team of people selling their latest pointe shoes, jazz shoes, and dancewear.

Here’s a picture of our booth at the expo:

We met quite a few people who told us they had ordered the product online and loved it, so that was really great to hear people’s stories. Almost everyone thought it was an american product and thought it was funny that they ordered a product in US dollars made by australians.

We also ran into Jennie and Tamara from JenSue Dancers Studio in Melbourne. As you may already know we have Tamara’s testimonial and picture plastered all over our site. I said to Jennie that it would be great to do a quick video with Tamara but I didn’t bring my video camera. Jennie then said “Well, I have mine” so we did a quick video on the spot which was awesome. As soon as Jennie sends it to me I’ll post it up on the site.

So we have finally moved our product into the physical arena. Exciting things are to come. In fact, I recently found a site that lets me upload a cd to their servers and they ship it out anywhere in the world as a full packaged product. It is a US based site and the prices are in US dollars so sorry once again to my fellow australians but I checked and the postage cost to australia is only $7.50 anyway so it’s really no big deal. With the australian dollar being as it is at the moment, the money is about the same as well.

Here is the link to get The Complete Ballet Bible Package shipped to you on cd. It includes the four packages listed at ballet-bible.com including The 3 Simple Rules of a Prima Ballerina book, the Audio Terms and Definitions Software, the Video Demonstrations Software, and the 1-on-1 Lessons videos.

Click the picture below to get The Complete Ballet Bible Package shipped to you on cd for only $47 dollars.

The Ballet Bible will be at the Sydney Groove Dance Expo

Hi Everyone,

This year we are taking The Ballet Bible down to the sydney groove dance expo. We only made the decision to go down beginning of last week so it has been a mad rush during the week trying to organize production of the product onto cd, getting new artwork done, posters made, and eftpos facilities setup, but it all seems to be coming together now so we can relax a little.

We are hoping to meet some dance teachers, dance store owners etc. who would be interested in retailing The Ballet Bible as a physical product, so that’s exciting. If you are reading this and interested, just email me at anita @ balletinfo.com.

Also, If you are going to the groove dance expo come over to our booth and say “hi”. We’d love to meet you.

Thanks
Anita

Late starter -Can I ever be good?

Hi everyone,

Im looking to start ballet but Im a very late starter (just about to turn 19). Obviously I know theres no chance of being a professional, and I dont think Im cut out for the life anyway(performances stress me out!!), but I want to be good at ballet, not just mediocre. I have a musical background (piano and violin from 5 years old) and Ive always loved dance, but the terrible thing is that I was always too self conscious to take classes! Basically I felt like everyone else had been doing it for ages and I felt too fat!! Now I realize that Ive just got to go for it while I can, and I guess Im just asking if you think I could be good. Ive been doing pilates and yoga and also sheilas kellys s factor (look it up if you dont know what it is NB im not advertising!!) for a couple of years so Im quite strong like that, and I have excellent posture (people in the business have asked if Im a dancer because of the way I walk). Once I know the exercises I will practise every day without fail, the same as professionals do - I put my all into everything I do. I just couldnt bear it if I worked and worked with no hope of ever being any good, even if no one ever sees me dance. Anyone know what I mean?

Anyway, if you think its worth it, Ill buy the ballet bible and practise as much as I can while Im away travelling, and then start classes at university. I know other dance forms are easier to learn and you can start much later, but Ive tried several, for example bellydance, and they just dont seem to be expressive enough. Im not really emotional in public, but I watched romeo and juliet with tamara rojo and carlos acosta (the first ballet ive seen) and it moved me to tears! Since then Ive been addicted and its practically all I can think about! Please tell me what you think, and Im really sorry this got so long!!

Thanks so much!

Helena

Sneak Peek Preview of The Ballet Bible Package Version 3

If you didn’t already know, The Complete Ballet Bible Package has been taken offline awaiting the launch of the new and improved version. If you are not on my mailing list make sure you go here now. The Complete Ballet Bible Package

Thankyou to everyone who has emailed me saying how much you have enjoyed the previous version and how much it has changed your life and your dancing. I hope you find this release even better and I look forward to hearing from you again. Here is a letter I received just today. It’s people like this that make it all worthwhile.

Hi Anita,

I am 19 years old, from Melbourne Victoria. My mum purchased the Ballet Bible for me and WOW… It has changed my whole outlook on dance.
The 3 Simple Rules of a Prima Ballerina is outstanding and my favorite. 
Now when I am teaching the little ones, I have a better understanding of the technique and terminologies so I am teaching them correctly.
So it is not only helping me to become stronger, but the next generation of dancers as well.
Thankyou so much for writing such a wonderful tool. And I look forward to reading and learning more from your next issue.
Kind regards

Tamara Baird.
Jen*Sue Dancers
Melbourne.

Is the ballet bible for real or is it some scam?

It sounds good but i don’t know if it is a scam or not…

The Ballet Bible 2nd Edition Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak video from the soon to be released Ballet Bible Package showing an Attitude Ordinaire en l’air.

This is just one of the demo exercises that will be included in the software. I am getting close to releasing the new package. I should have a date for you soon.

Another Sneak Peak Ballet Video

Here is another sneak peak video from the soon to be released 2nd edition Ballet Bible Package. This one is a demonstration in allegro. This gives you an idea of some of the movements and combinations you will learn in the new package. In the actual product I break apart all of these movements and explain exactly how to perform everything step-by-step.

Here it is.

I know you are going to be thrilled with the new package. Over the last few days I have been sending a few of my previous customers a link to check out my recent draft of the new Ballet Bible Package and give me some feedback on what they think. Well, the response has been fantastic.

Here’s a comment I received from Grant Davies himself.

“Anita, your 2nd edition package is absolutely awesome. I just finished going through all the new chapters in The 3 Simple Rules of a Prima Ballerina and the 60+ new videos, and I can honestly say you have really outdone yourself this time. I had no idea you were putting so much more valuable information and resources into this new edition. As soon as it becomes available I will be recommending The Complete Ballet Bible Package to all my students. Thanks for putting together such a great product!”

Grant Davies - RGDANCE

If you haven’t yet joined the Priority Notification list then you need to hurry while there’s still time. Click Here To Join and be one of the first to know when the new package becomes available.

Thanks
Anita