Linda Maybarduk Alguire has posted..."For those of you who have not heard yet, the ballet world has lost Rudi van Dantzig. Quite simply, I loved and admired him so much that my husband and I asked him to be the godfather for our boys, Michael and Cameron..."
Such a big loss to the world of dance. Lives on in spirit with us...
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Disordered Eating, Hypoglycemia, And Self Esteem Problems
While discussing the issues in ballet training with students, my ear is perked up all the time, when I hear comments, phrases, and brush-offs, concerning eating, body image, and obvious self esteem problems.
Certainly I am not going to address this with someone unless they ask for that. Recently, my radar on this subject really started to beep, due a conversation I had with a non-dancer, but aspiring performer, in another field. This person is talented, pushed forward by all her teachers, and yet cannot accept the “well done's” from teachers or peers, because – she just can't.
The lack of self-esteem in this person stupefies me. A person who won the number one state award for a Shakespeare scene? Give me a break! That's like winning the ballet competition for Blue Bird or Swan Lake pas de deux.
Disorder eating can be most broadly defined as, the behavior that achieves emotional reward by controlling what you eat. This does not necessarily mean anorexia or bulimia, but may refer to a habit of self criticism or self approval in regards to what type of food you eat, how many calories you eat, and this does not only apply to dancers.
It may involve an extreme situation like a teenager who insists on being a vegan, in which I have personally witnessed the result causing stress fractures in this dancer who still thought that she was going to be able to get stronger on pointe and have a professional career in ballet, while she looked at her x-rays.
Recently I took a look at hypoglycemia and its symptoms. Now this is tricky. Symptoms are almost unique to the individual. But the dominating symptoms, according to what I have read, are:
***sadness
***self criticism
***hopelessness
***feelings of absolutely NO SELF-WORTH
***periodic complete failure of energy, dizziness, mental confusion
***thoughts of suicide, though not enough energy to think further than that
Hypoglycemia is...drum roll...too low blood sugar!
It is caused by a nutritional deficiency of protein, or just lack of food.
Hypoglycemia does not mean you are diabetic, or almost diabetic. More concisely called Reactive Hypoglycemia, this is a condition that results from a poor diet, or not eating often enough for whatever reason. Or eating too many carbohydrates with not enough protein.
The most common recommendation for hypoglycemics, is to eat some protein every two hours.
Also, I would like to mention the rule of nutritionists, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why? Proteins set your brain chemicals for the day. Skip those, and your brain chemicals will not be properly functioning until the next day IF you happen to eat protein for breakfast.
Dance parents reading this – how many times in a week does your dancing daughter or dancing son run out of the house without breakfast because they slept late?
And what are they going to eat when they get to the food dispensers at their public school? Or hang in until they get to the school cafeteria for lunch? This is a miserable situation for a non-athlete student, not to mention a ballet dancer or any other athlete.
And later when they run off to their ballet academy? Are you one of those ballet parents who have to suffer hearing “I'm not that good”...”I'm not good enough”... and worse? While the ballet teacher is telling you your child should be aiming higher – auditioning for professional summer intensives?
Confused yet? Let me give you a break. Read this thread!
Personally, I believe that hypoglycemia is a result of:
***nutritional ignorance
***modern fast-food, frozen food products
***lack of time to prepare fresh food showing your kids what REAL FOOD IS
***sugar addiction (nutritional ignorance)
***ignorance about the lack of need for grains, and the quality of most (GMO) grains
And, sadly much more I cannot cover here. BUT please, if your dancing child or anyone in your family has any energy or depression issues – but not severe enough to consult your physician (who probably will not have any nutritional education) or therapist, please investigate hypoglycemia. It is an insidious condition - but can be reversed with a good diet!
It is not that difficult. I would love to never hear from again, a ballet dancer, or any other kind of performing artist, who feels morose, depressed, sad, or hopeless about their talent or potential, when they have no idea where all this negativity comes from. And they skip meals, eat nutrition-free snacks, and have low blood sugar...
I would love to never hear from again, a sad, depressed ballet parent, whose amazing talented child is failing, sinking, not even treading water, suffering from body image problems, or self esteem problems, and contemplating quitting ballet, or even suicide.
I've seen it. Fellow students and teachers who attempted and achieved suicide. Or were off-loaded from the school because they were a liability. Yet, some recovered and achieved greatness.
I do not believe that nutrition is superior to the human spirit. But I do believe that the aspirations of the human spirit are so much more easily achieved if we know about and support our bodies' needs, every day. This may take a little extra study.
This may take a lot of extra food preparation for ballet parents! If you're still reading this post, I bet you're O.K. with that.
Certainly I am not going to address this with someone unless they ask for that. Recently, my radar on this subject really started to beep, due a conversation I had with a non-dancer, but aspiring performer, in another field. This person is talented, pushed forward by all her teachers, and yet cannot accept the “well done's” from teachers or peers, because – she just can't.
The lack of self-esteem in this person stupefies me. A person who won the number one state award for a Shakespeare scene? Give me a break! That's like winning the ballet competition for Blue Bird or Swan Lake pas de deux.
Disorder eating can be most broadly defined as, the behavior that achieves emotional reward by controlling what you eat. This does not necessarily mean anorexia or bulimia, but may refer to a habit of self criticism or self approval in regards to what type of food you eat, how many calories you eat, and this does not only apply to dancers.
It may involve an extreme situation like a teenager who insists on being a vegan, in which I have personally witnessed the result causing stress fractures in this dancer who still thought that she was going to be able to get stronger on pointe and have a professional career in ballet, while she looked at her x-rays.
Recently I took a look at hypoglycemia and its symptoms. Now this is tricky. Symptoms are almost unique to the individual. But the dominating symptoms, according to what I have read, are:
***sadness
***self criticism
***hopelessness
***feelings of absolutely NO SELF-WORTH
***periodic complete failure of energy, dizziness, mental confusion
***thoughts of suicide, though not enough energy to think further than that
Hypoglycemia is...drum roll...too low blood sugar!
It is caused by a nutritional deficiency of protein, or just lack of food.
Hypoglycemia does not mean you are diabetic, or almost diabetic. More concisely called Reactive Hypoglycemia, this is a condition that results from a poor diet, or not eating often enough for whatever reason. Or eating too many carbohydrates with not enough protein.
The most common recommendation for hypoglycemics, is to eat some protein every two hours.
Also, I would like to mention the rule of nutritionists, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why? Proteins set your brain chemicals for the day. Skip those, and your brain chemicals will not be properly functioning until the next day IF you happen to eat protein for breakfast.
Dance parents reading this – how many times in a week does your dancing daughter or dancing son run out of the house without breakfast because they slept late?
And what are they going to eat when they get to the food dispensers at their public school? Or hang in until they get to the school cafeteria for lunch? This is a miserable situation for a non-athlete student, not to mention a ballet dancer or any other athlete.
And later when they run off to their ballet academy? Are you one of those ballet parents who have to suffer hearing “I'm not that good”...”I'm not good enough”... and worse? While the ballet teacher is telling you your child should be aiming higher – auditioning for professional summer intensives?
Confused yet? Let me give you a break. Read this thread!
Personally, I believe that hypoglycemia is a result of:
***nutritional ignorance
***modern fast-food, frozen food products
***lack of time to prepare fresh food showing your kids what REAL FOOD IS
***sugar addiction (nutritional ignorance)
***ignorance about the lack of need for grains, and the quality of most (GMO) grains
And, sadly much more I cannot cover here. BUT please, if your dancing child or anyone in your family has any energy or depression issues – but not severe enough to consult your physician (who probably will not have any nutritional education) or therapist, please investigate hypoglycemia. It is an insidious condition - but can be reversed with a good diet!
It is not that difficult. I would love to never hear from again, a ballet dancer, or any other kind of performing artist, who feels morose, depressed, sad, or hopeless about their talent or potential, when they have no idea where all this negativity comes from. And they skip meals, eat nutrition-free snacks, and have low blood sugar...
I would love to never hear from again, a sad, depressed ballet parent, whose amazing talented child is failing, sinking, not even treading water, suffering from body image problems, or self esteem problems, and contemplating quitting ballet, or even suicide.
I've seen it. Fellow students and teachers who attempted and achieved suicide. Or were off-loaded from the school because they were a liability. Yet, some recovered and achieved greatness.
I do not believe that nutrition is superior to the human spirit. But I do believe that the aspirations of the human spirit are so much more easily achieved if we know about and support our bodies' needs, every day. This may take a little extra study.
This may take a lot of extra food preparation for ballet parents! If you're still reading this post, I bet you're O.K. with that.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
National Ballet School of Canada Audition Tour
National Ballet School of Canada cross country audition tour details.
Click the link for dates, locations and all about the follow ups if you get accepted!
Click the link for dates, locations and all about the follow ups if you get accepted!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Dance Pointe Shoes And Top Of Foot Pain
Training in dance pointe shoes, especially if you have started a bit before you are truly ready to get into pointe shoes, may show some weaknesses in your foot structure that you were unaware of before.
First however, if you experience top of foot pain, please see a health practitioner and make sure you do not have a stress fracture.
Top of foot pain can occur if your arch is flattening out. This puts pressure on the top of the foot, where the bones are now compressing together, called dorsal compression syndrome.
Growth spurts, weight gain and hormonal changes that affect ligaments may change the strength of your arch. Wearing flip-flops, unstructured shoes, and soft slippers at home, or bare feet, can aggravate this problem.
Unfortunately the familiar human growth and aging stages are completely thrown off due to the deterioration of food quality and food additives and contaminants. If you are working toward, or are dancing in pointe shoes, you need extra everything--proteins, vitamins, minerals and good pure water.
If you have ruled out a stress fracture for your top of foot pain, and if you are doing special pointe shoes exercises, and you still have foot pain, take a look at the footwear you have for home, daily use and other working out.
If you wear sneakers to school, make sure you have shoes with a good arch support and a well built heel that will not allow you to pronate, or roll inwards, flattening your arch.
At home, don't wear bare feet all the time. Get some slippers with an arch support, or flip-flops with an arch support.
Over the counter orthotics with some arch support are better than none, if custom-made orthotics are not an option for you.
A multi-vitamin, from food sources, including the B Complex and B6, can be added to your daily diet, unless you are allergic to some of these substances. Even allergies can be eliminated with correct used of N.A.E.T.
Soaking your feet with magnesium chloride or Epsom Salts absorbs magnesium into your body. This feeds and relaxes your muscles.
Icing painful feet decreases inflammation and pain.
There is much a dancer can do to diminish top of foot pain and get stronger for dance pointe shoes.
First however, if you experience top of foot pain, please see a health practitioner and make sure you do not have a stress fracture.
Top of foot pain can occur if your arch is flattening out. This puts pressure on the top of the foot, where the bones are now compressing together, called dorsal compression syndrome.
Growth spurts, weight gain and hormonal changes that affect ligaments may change the strength of your arch. Wearing flip-flops, unstructured shoes, and soft slippers at home, or bare feet, can aggravate this problem.
Unfortunately the familiar human growth and aging stages are completely thrown off due to the deterioration of food quality and food additives and contaminants. If you are working toward, or are dancing in pointe shoes, you need extra everything--proteins, vitamins, minerals and good pure water.
If you have ruled out a stress fracture for your top of foot pain, and if you are doing special pointe shoes exercises, and you still have foot pain, take a look at the footwear you have for home, daily use and other working out.
If you wear sneakers to school, make sure you have shoes with a good arch support and a well built heel that will not allow you to pronate, or roll inwards, flattening your arch.
At home, don't wear bare feet all the time. Get some slippers with an arch support, or flip-flops with an arch support.
Over the counter orthotics with some arch support are better than none, if custom-made orthotics are not an option for you.
A multi-vitamin, from food sources, including the B Complex and B6, can be added to your daily diet, unless you are allergic to some of these substances. Even allergies can be eliminated with correct used of N.A.E.T.
Soaking your feet with magnesium chloride or Epsom Salts absorbs magnesium into your body. This feeds and relaxes your muscles.
Icing painful feet decreases inflammation and pain.
There is much a dancer can do to diminish top of foot pain and get stronger for dance pointe shoes.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Breast Cancer Survivors Special Stretching Exercises
Miranda and I graduated together at The National Ballet School of Canada. I applaud her work in this area.
Watch her breast cancer survivor stretch and rehabilitation video.
Watch her breast cancer survivor stretch and rehabilitation video.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Alexander Grant Dies at 86 - Anna Kisselgoff article
FromThe New York Times:
"Alexander Grant, Dancer With Royal Ballet, Dies at 86
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: October 3, 2011
Alexander Grant, whose portrayal of childlike suitors, muddled husbands, English eccentrics, pirate chiefs and Shakespearean rustics made him one of British ballet’s most beloved stars, died on Friday in London. He was 86.
His death was confirmed by Jean-Pierre Gasquet, his longtime companion. Mr. Grant had been ill for eight months after a hip operation left him hospitalized with infections and pneumonia.
Mr. Grant was especially acclaimed for his magnetic personality and vigorous demi-caractère style, particularly in Frederick Ashton’s works for the Royal Ballet.
Seeing Mr. Grant as the complete dancer, Clive Barnes, dance critic of The New York Times, reviewed him in Ashton’s Neapolitan Dance for “Swan Lake” in 1969 and proclaimed him “one of the few great, as opposed to merely magnificent, dancers of our time.”
Mr. Grant also played an influential role in international ballet. He served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1976 to 1983 and staged Ashton’s “Fille Mal Gardée” in many companies, including American Ballet Theater.
Mr. Grant himself is perhaps best remembered for the role he originated in “Fille” as Alain, the rich farmer’s son rejected by Lise, a rich widow’s daughter who marries her poor sweetheart.
More in love with his red umbrella than with Lise, Alain could be mistaken for a simpleton. But Mr. Grant made him a gentle childlike figure who had not experienced the world. The trick was to dance so well that Alain looked slightly clumsy but not too much so.
In another memorable role seen with the Royal in New York, he was Bottom in “The Dream,” Ashton’s version of Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Transformed into a donkey, Mr. Grant danced a virtuosic solo in toe shoes disguised as hooves.
Although many called Mr. Grant a character dancer, he was more of a classical dancer who used ballet technique in a demi-caractère style, which is less concerned with academic niceties.
In his early years, he showed off a swashbuckling bravura: his pirate chief in Ashton’s “Daphnis and Chloë” exploded into a frenzy of leaps after abducting Margot Fonteyn’s Chloë, wrapping her around his neck and throwing her to the floor.
Alexander Grant was born on Feb. 22, 1925, in Wellington, New Zealand, where his parents were in the hotel business.
Having studied dance since the age of 7, he was offered a ballet scholarship in London. He arrived there in February 1946 and was invited two months later into the Sadler’s Wells Theater Ballet, the recently formed junior troupe of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (which became the Royal Ballet in 1956). Short on male dancers in the postwar period, Ninette de Valois, founder of both troupes, invited him into the senior company in September of 1946.
Ashton, now considered Britain’s greatest choreographer but not yet internationally known, created a small role for Mr. Grant in 1946 in one of his lesser ballets, “Les Sirènes.”
It was Leonide Massine, then ballet’s most prominent choreographer, who brought the young dancer to public notice.
Invited as a guest choreographer by de Valois, Massine cast Mr. Grant in his revivals and two new works. Massine’s farce-like “Mam’zelle Angot” gave Mr. Grant a major success in the choreographer’s idiosyncratic comic style.
“I was given this role by Massine which typed me as that kind of dancer for the rest of my life, Mr. Grant said in later years. “I don’t regret it.” Nor did he regret never portraying a prince or count in 19th-century classics like “Swan Lake” or “Giselle.”
It was Mr. Grant’s ability to portray a character through dancing rather than mime that made him outstanding. Ashton recognized this quality and cast him as the Jester in his new “Cinderella” (1948).
During his 30 years as a dancer in the Royal Ballet (1946 to 1976) Mr. Grant appeared in 30 Ashton ballets, creating roles in 22 premieres. Occasionally he was thrust into Ashton neo-classical works like “Symphonic Variations” and he appeared in Michel Fokine’s “Petrouchka” and ballets by de Valois.
In the 1971 film “Tales of Beatrix Potter,” Mr. Grant danced on toe again as Pigling Bland and was also featured as Peter Rabbit.
In addition to Mr. Gasquet, his partner of 54 years, Mr. Grant is survived by his brother, Garry Grant, also a former dancer in the Royal Ballet.
Mr. Grant was seen as an inspiration to Ashton and even as a collaborator. The range he displayed in Ashton ballets alone was testimony to their joint creativity.
In “Enigma Variations,” a meditative Ashton masterpiece about the composer Edward Elgar and his friends, Mr. Grant’s terse expressiveness summed up an entire personality in a brief comic solo. For his final Ashton role, he offered a moving image of a lovelorn Russian husband in “A Month in the Country” (1976)."
"Alexander Grant, Dancer With Royal Ballet, Dies at 86
By ANNA KISSELGOFF
Published: October 3, 2011
Alexander Grant, whose portrayal of childlike suitors, muddled husbands, English eccentrics, pirate chiefs and Shakespearean rustics made him one of British ballet’s most beloved stars, died on Friday in London. He was 86.
His death was confirmed by Jean-Pierre Gasquet, his longtime companion. Mr. Grant had been ill for eight months after a hip operation left him hospitalized with infections and pneumonia.
Mr. Grant was especially acclaimed for his magnetic personality and vigorous demi-caractère style, particularly in Frederick Ashton’s works for the Royal Ballet.
Seeing Mr. Grant as the complete dancer, Clive Barnes, dance critic of The New York Times, reviewed him in Ashton’s Neapolitan Dance for “Swan Lake” in 1969 and proclaimed him “one of the few great, as opposed to merely magnificent, dancers of our time.”
Mr. Grant also played an influential role in international ballet. He served as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1976 to 1983 and staged Ashton’s “Fille Mal Gardée” in many companies, including American Ballet Theater.
Mr. Grant himself is perhaps best remembered for the role he originated in “Fille” as Alain, the rich farmer’s son rejected by Lise, a rich widow’s daughter who marries her poor sweetheart.
More in love with his red umbrella than with Lise, Alain could be mistaken for a simpleton. But Mr. Grant made him a gentle childlike figure who had not experienced the world. The trick was to dance so well that Alain looked slightly clumsy but not too much so.
In another memorable role seen with the Royal in New York, he was Bottom in “The Dream,” Ashton’s version of Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Transformed into a donkey, Mr. Grant danced a virtuosic solo in toe shoes disguised as hooves.
Although many called Mr. Grant a character dancer, he was more of a classical dancer who used ballet technique in a demi-caractère style, which is less concerned with academic niceties.
In his early years, he showed off a swashbuckling bravura: his pirate chief in Ashton’s “Daphnis and Chloë” exploded into a frenzy of leaps after abducting Margot Fonteyn’s Chloë, wrapping her around his neck and throwing her to the floor.
Alexander Grant was born on Feb. 22, 1925, in Wellington, New Zealand, where his parents were in the hotel business.
Having studied dance since the age of 7, he was offered a ballet scholarship in London. He arrived there in February 1946 and was invited two months later into the Sadler’s Wells Theater Ballet, the recently formed junior troupe of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (which became the Royal Ballet in 1956). Short on male dancers in the postwar period, Ninette de Valois, founder of both troupes, invited him into the senior company in September of 1946.
Ashton, now considered Britain’s greatest choreographer but not yet internationally known, created a small role for Mr. Grant in 1946 in one of his lesser ballets, “Les Sirènes.”
It was Leonide Massine, then ballet’s most prominent choreographer, who brought the young dancer to public notice.
Invited as a guest choreographer by de Valois, Massine cast Mr. Grant in his revivals and two new works. Massine’s farce-like “Mam’zelle Angot” gave Mr. Grant a major success in the choreographer’s idiosyncratic comic style.
“I was given this role by Massine which typed me as that kind of dancer for the rest of my life, Mr. Grant said in later years. “I don’t regret it.” Nor did he regret never portraying a prince or count in 19th-century classics like “Swan Lake” or “Giselle.”
It was Mr. Grant’s ability to portray a character through dancing rather than mime that made him outstanding. Ashton recognized this quality and cast him as the Jester in his new “Cinderella” (1948).
During his 30 years as a dancer in the Royal Ballet (1946 to 1976) Mr. Grant appeared in 30 Ashton ballets, creating roles in 22 premieres. Occasionally he was thrust into Ashton neo-classical works like “Symphonic Variations” and he appeared in Michel Fokine’s “Petrouchka” and ballets by de Valois.
In the 1971 film “Tales of Beatrix Potter,” Mr. Grant danced on toe again as Pigling Bland and was also featured as Peter Rabbit.
In addition to Mr. Gasquet, his partner of 54 years, Mr. Grant is survived by his brother, Garry Grant, also a former dancer in the Royal Ballet.
Mr. Grant was seen as an inspiration to Ashton and even as a collaborator. The range he displayed in Ashton ballets alone was testimony to their joint creativity.
In “Enigma Variations,” a meditative Ashton masterpiece about the composer Edward Elgar and his friends, Mr. Grant’s terse expressiveness summed up an entire personality in a brief comic solo. For his final Ashton role, he offered a moving image of a lovelorn Russian husband in “A Month in the Country” (1976)."
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