georginaballet14

Hi there!

There aren’t “grades” in ballet classes that are equal across all schools, so a grade 1 in one school might be learning more beginner steps than a grade 1 at another.
But anyways, it sounds like you are at a beginning level so you probably want to think about combinations at the barre. These would include plies (bending at the knees), tendus (glide your foot on the floor into a point), degages (like a tendu, but lifted off the floor a little) and ronde jambes (circle movements with your leg).

BalletHub looks to have a pretty big ballet dictionary you can check out too: http://ballethub.com/ballet-terms-dictionary/

Good luck!! :)

Professionals often deal with this same issue every year. The Nutcracker is a huge money maker for many professional companies and its often thrown together in a matter of 2-3 weeks because so many people have done the ballet before and probably even the same part before.

Assuming you’re at a school, you have to try to look at why that may be the case. Do certain levels do certain divertissments? Are other students constantly repeating the same parts? If so, that may be a problem because students need, and should want, to be challenged to get better.

It never hurts to have a discussion with your teacher. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean going in to his or her office and complaining or crying. But if you try to have a conversation that has back and forth, it can be quite constructive. Sadly, some teachers/schools try to keep stress as low as possible and just find it easy to continually cast students year and year in the same parts. Hopefully this isn’t the case for you!

Its important to try to get to the position as quickly as possible and then maintain it as you turn. If you can usually do two or three pirouettes from fourth but can barely get around in fifth, you may be tensing your neck. Try relaxing your neck and imagine you’re doing the pirouette from fourth.

Acting can be a hard thing, especially on stage. Movements have to be bigger so people watching from the back of the theater can still see it. I like to experiment with doing things in the studio and watching myself in the mirror. It helps to see what your doing to make sure it makes sense!

I always wear hair nets on stage! In class I dont think its needed but definitely when you perform. With the lights, you can always see your fly away hairs and it does look professional.

You may want to try a different style shoe then. Every shoe is different and designed for different types of feet. Try visiting a local ballet shop or talk to your teacher about it. Its hard to purchase shoes online blindly without first trying them on.