Road Trip to the Suffolk Boutique!

Road Trip to the Suffolk Boutique!

Friday, May 17, 2019

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I've been saying for two months I need to get another pair of pointe shoes before I go to the artÉmotion Adult Ballet Summer Intensive, but I FINALLY did it this week! And made a fun road trip day out of it - vlog and all!

I needed another pair of Suffolk Stellars and my friend, Kristin, needed to try a variety of shoes since she has been having a really hard time finding a good pointe shoe for this phase of her dance life! We remembered the Suffolk Dance Boutique is only a 3 hour drive from us, so we decided to go there and make a day of it!

We discovered this store is gigantic and carries all kinds of brands (including Yumiko! What?!) and we both had success with our shoes!! They also had bins of discounted leotards for $10 so we both ended up with the same floral print leo but in different colors, haha :)

To make the most of our drive down, we then found a nearby park and did a little photoshoot of each other while we waited for rush hour traffic to die down!

It was a super fun day and has me extra excited for our upcoming Intensive! If you want to join me, here's a link with info (June 3-8 in Salt Lake City). If you do enroll, use code "CARSON35" for a tuition discount! :)

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Miami City Ballet Trip!

Miami City Ballet Trip!

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

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Last weekend I took a quick trip to the Miami area to see Miami City Ballet! My friend, Kristin, went with me and we soaked up ~72 hours of sunshine and palm trees. It was glorious!

We took a really early flight Saturday morning so we could spend the majority of our day in Miami before going up to West Palm Beach where the ballet performance was on Sunday. We grabbed lunch at a sushi place and then headed straight for the beach. It had been years since I'd been to a warm beach and I felt so nostalgic for my childhood summers with my grandparents in Florida!

Later on we headed in to Miami Beach to check out the sites and the architecture. We saw the Miami City Ballet building (sooo cool) and, unexpectedly, one the Seven Magic Mountains sculptures in a park across the street! After dinner we had some time to kill before our tour at the Museum of Ice Cream so we wandered into the Faena hotel. My gosh was this place cool! There was a neat gold dinosaur bone installation by the outdoor bar, and a nice view of the sunset we had to capture!

I've been seeing photos from the Museum of Ice Cream in my Instagram feed for awhile, so when the Miami location said it would be extending its stay, we jumped at the chance to see what this is all about! It's definitely not a museum, but just a fun place to take cute photos. If you can embrace it for what it is, it's a fun time!

We're not much for the club scene these days, so we headed up to West Palm Beach after the museum to get some rest at our adorable Airbnb! Sunday morning we enjoyed breakfast at a Swedish coffee house and quickly realized the vibe in West Palm was more our style compared to Miami lol. The coffee house was in a residential area a block away from the beach and we saw so many doggies being walked! We could have spent all morning greeting dogs and sipping on coffee :)

We decided we should see more of Palm Beach before the ballet, so we headed over to the Worth Ave shopping district and pretty much had it to ourselves since the shops weren't open yet. This was the most charming shopping area and I would for sure come back here to do a photo shoot or, you know, just pop into Jimmy Choo... :)

Now, THE BALLET! We saw Program Three which started with Balanchine's Theme & Variations, followed by a new Brian Brooks contemporary piece called One Line Drawn, and finishing with Robbins' The Concert! Basically this entire trip was planned around seeing The Concert because it has been one of my favorite ballets to watch clips of online! I had really been wanting to see it in its entirety, and a bonus if done so at a Balanchine company, so when I saw MCB was doing it, plans were made!

I had never seen Theme & Variations, but knowing it's a Balanchine ballet I knew I'd like it. And omg, did I like it. Pull up the Tchaikovsky music right now (fourth movement of Suite No. 3) and you can probably imagine all the crazy fast footwork as the music builds at the end!

The new contemporary piece was really cool - the lighting made me instantly wish I was photographing it, and the concept was really neat. The men and women were in the same costumes and the gender roles were mixed. At one point a women behind us whispered to her husband that she finally realized there were two men dancing together and not a man and a women. Pretty cool!

So, during The Concert, I got really emotional! I kept thinking about how much my mom would enjoy seeing this ballet (it's about a piano concert and my mom's a pianist) and I think I was also just overwhelmed with the talent on stage and that I had made this trip happen that was just a faint idea around Christmas. Being on my period probably helped my highly emotional state haha, but nonetheless, I found myself tearing up from happiness. And laughter - this ballet is a humorous one! I want to get some ballet ladies together and learn The Mistake Waltz portion with the six female dancers!

After the ballet we were hit hard with the tired stick. The 5am flight the previous day and then losing an hour traveling east had caught up with us! We stopped at Subculture Coffee nearby to give us the caffeine boost we needed for the drive back down to Miami Beach. We drove along the coast, gawking at the incredibly beautiful homes, and then stopped in Ft. Lauderdale for dinner with a relative of Kristin's. I had a delicious margartia and mahi tacos!

We had booked another Airbnb in Miami that night, but long story short, we didn't feel safe staying there once we got there so we booked a hotel stay last minute. Shout out to the Hilton Miami Beach for being awesome and nice. We also learned that Airbnbs are illegal on Miami Beach??! So take note of that and book a hotel stay if you're going there!

The next morning we got up early to meet a corps dancer with Miami City Ballet for a photo shoot! I had done a call out on my Instagram and it worked out to meet with Alaina Andersen! My gosh was she beautiful! I love doing shoots when I travel because it's fun to meet new dancers and come up with ideas in new locations! I had never been to Miami, much less this location, or met this dancer and we shot some of my favorite stuff to date!

After the shoot Kristin and I grabbed brunch at Morgan's in Wynwood and then had 20 mintues to run around Wynwood Walls before I needed to take Kristin to the airport!

I had a couple hours to kill before my evening flight so I headed to the beach, called my mom, and walked along the water as we talked for an hour! :) My mom is actually living in Florida right now, but too far away to make it down to see me for a day. But, I will be back in Florida in a couple weeks to visit her, my step-dad, and my grandparents! My husband and my sister are also coming so I am really looking forward to the family time. It has been too long!

I hope you guys have enjoyed this lengthy travel blog post! I was going to vlog this trip, but just didn't have the energy for it once we got there and I didn't want to put pressure on myself to create if it wasn't coming naturally to me. Hence the huge collection of photos :)

Let me know if you'd like to hear more about "ballet tourism" -- traveling for ballet. It's a topic I'd love to write more about!

Jana

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Meet Up In Miami!

Meet Up In Miami!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

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Hello friends! Jana here. In a few weeks I am flying to Miami to see Miami City Ballet's Program Three performance! I am really excited for a short getaway for ballet, palm trees, and sunshine!!

I picked this performance because I have been wanting to see The Concert for so long! When I saw it was paired with a classic Balanchine piece, I knew I had to make this happen! :) Our friend, Kristin, jumped on board with me so we're making a mini vacation out of it!

I wanted to extend the invitation to our community of adult ballet friends in the area that might want to come to the ballet and meet up after! Here are the details:

Program Three, Miami City Ballet

Sunday March 4th, 2018 @ 1pm 

Kravis Center - West Palm Beach

If anyone is interested, send me an email to ballerinasbynight@gmail.com and we can coordinate details for a post-ballet get together!

I hope everyone is doing well! Below is a little vlog from Monday where I talk about our Miami trip at the end!

Jana

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New vlog! Hiking in Taos, New Mexico

New vlog! Hiking in Taos, New Mexico

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

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Happy Wednesday, everyone! We've got a fun little vlog for you on YouTube today. Last week I went to New Mexico with my husband for a short getaway after quitting my full-time job (more on that later!). One morning we did a 4 mile round-trip hike to Williams Lake in the Taos Ski Valley and I vlogged the journey there and back. And of course did some ballet posing along the way :) Enjoy!

- Jana

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First Week of Ballet Austin

First Week of Ballet Austin

Saturday, August 12, 2017

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I've talked in some of my recent videos about how my son is attending the Ballet Austin junior intensive this year. It's not his first intensive, but it is his first time at something associated with a professional company. We've worked as hard as we can to prepare him over the summer, even amid all the hardship associated with losing my Mom.

What I wasn't prepared for was the amount of dancing I would be able to do. As it turns out, I have been able to take class everyday in the morning. BUT, even better, is the fact that almost all of the classes have been full of Ballet Austin company members! So the level of the classes has been higher, and of course I have gorgeous dancers to watch each class. It's amazing how much more you push yourself when the level of dancers around you is higher. It's like something automatically clicks in your mind, and a step that I might be too chicken to try, I just naturally go for without thinking about it.

I have a huge amount of existential angst about how I quit dancing. I got to dance professionally with the Alabama Ballet when I was 17. I was very young and immature, and certain things about it were very difficult, but I loved the dancing. I loved being in the studio all day watching amazing dancers. I loved classes that pushed me to my absolute limits, and the fact that when you dance your body to the point of exhaustion, its intuition takes over and things start to work in a different way. I loved going into class in the morning and feeling like I was still somewhat warm from the day before. I didn't have to constantly start over. I didn't want to give that up, but I did. To go to college. I tried to dance in college, but it wasn't the same. I didn't make the progress I made dancing professionally, and it left me continually frustrated. I wanted to go back to my company, but by then I was entrenched in college as well. I quit dancing. I quit, not realizing the finality of that decision and how hard it would be to ever be back in that world.

I know in the eyes of the company members, I'm mostly invisible and insignificant. That's okay. I'm having the time of my LIFE. I feel like I have gotten a second chance. I feel like Cinderella at the ball. I know that as of today the clock struck midnight, because they will go into the big company studio next week, where I can only longingly look through the window and watch. I never took that experience for granted, but I definitely didn't know that stepping away was so forever and permanent.

I don't fully know what I'm doing right now. Why am I getting back in shape? What purpose is this going to fulfill? What good is a triple pirouette on pointe when I'm not preparing for stage? Honestly, I'm past caring. I don't have to know. I just want to go DO. I just want to dance.

One of the best things I have gotten to do is to get new pointe shoes. I haven't had a shoe that I like in a long time. I've been able to make certain shoes work, but I haven't been completely happy with them. So, I took the chance to go to a dance store here and try on a bunch of different brands and styles. I thought I would love Freeds, given everything I have heard about them, but they didn't work for my feet. Maybe if I could go to a Freed store that really had a lot of different makers I would find something, but the stock shoes and the makers I tried weren't a fit. I landed on Suffolk Spotlights. The box, platform, and shank are just right for what I need. When I'm up, I'm up, and I love the support so I can balance in turns. But the sole wasn't wobbly at all for adagio, and they were flexible enough to feel and (I think) look good in allegro.

Week 1 has been amazing! What will week 2 hold? Time will tell, and I'll keep you updated. It was very nice at the end of the day to be able to go get a grassfed burger, too! Ahh, Austin.

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Adult Dance Intensive Experience at Alonzo LINES!

Adult Dance Intensive Experience at Alonzo LINES!

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

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Oh dear readers, do we have a treat for you this week! Fellow adult dancer, Natalie, recently attended an amazing dance intensive for adults at Alonzo LINES Dance Center in San Francisco! She's written an incredibly inspiring post about her experience that will make you want to sign up immediately for next year's session (I know I want to!). Natalie, we are so excited you had this experience and wanted to share it with the community! Happy reading, friends!

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I had found it!  One day in March I was searching the internet and stumbled on a dance intensive for non-professional adult dancers…at Alonzo LINES Dance Center in San Francisco no less!   This opportunity arose at a select time in my life; I had recently lost my job and was busy alone trolling the internet and networking for the next career move.   Stumbling upon the advertisement for what would be a chance to embolden and practice my passion for dance left a light in me during the search process.  This chance to be connected to other dancers who danced most of their lives but didn’t choose it as a full-time profession excited me.  Dancers who love to dance and still need it to express themselves- and get in a good work out!  The decision to go was not an easy one. LINES is in San Francisco and I live on the East Coast (yes, I did try to find a similar dance intensive in NYC and couldn’t find anything!)   Also, LINES is mainly a ballet company and I am more of a jazz and modern/contemporary dancer.  However, I knew I could not pass this opportunity up.   Not only did I want to connect with other dancers but I also really liked how the intensive was made up of both technique classes AND composition classes, as well as a variety of electives- all types of classes that support, enrich, and challenge dancers besides “simple” technique.  Dance by nature is certainly athletic but it is also artistic.  Dancers of all ages need to be stretched in the creative process of dance.  How do we come up with the movement we are doing?  What other movement vocabulary can we pick up from other dance styles?  How can we strengthen our bodies in other ways besides our dance technique classes?

In June I made the cross-country voyage a day before the intensive started to explore Golden Gate Park and prepare for the intensive.  The next day (a Thursday) the intensive started at 5.  I was nervous.   The intensive was well-organized and the dancers were greeted with a folder containing a plethora of information and a water bottle.  To my surprise, I was joined by Bay Area and non-Bay Area dancers-a man from Baltimore, a woman from Jamaica, and even a woman from France- about 15 of us in all.  The first night we participated in a ballet class but we also had improv, a somatics class, and the first of four choreography and composition classes.  Day 1- check!  

On the second day we took another choreography class, as well as Alexander Technique, and we had a chance to explore an optional class.  I chose an Afro-Haitian class. The instructor did a great job of breaking down the moves we did across the floor (mainly in plié- yikes!).  She even brought several members of her family who watched, drummed, and in the case of the children, danced along! 

The weekend definitely tested me physically and mentally.  We met from 9-5 on both Saturday and Sunday.  We took ballet, modern, and composition each day, as well as repertory classes with current LINES dancers.  Some of the highlights of the weekend included a ballet class with Kathy Mata.  I was really looking to get back to basics with ballet and Kathy was an amazing teacher!  Her way of explaining plies, tendus, dégagés, etc was firm yet kind.  She wanted us to understand where the movement was coming from and was thus informative and supportive.  I encourage anyone in the Bay Area to check out her class and her adult ballet company (also for adult non-professional dancers!): http://kathymataballet.org/.  One of my favorite quotes from the weekend was from a choreography teacher who said that a spiral and opposition make everything more beautiful.  So true! Have you ever seen a more beautiful dancer than one whose head and arms reach spinning toward the heavens while feet are firmly planted in the ground?!  Another highlight was getting to spend time with Alonzo King, the founder of LINES Ballet!!  He had each of us perform improv one-by-one and, surprising all of us, prompted us with “fight the enemy”.  In the last part of his class we talked about doing versus being and discussed what sort of concepts we wanted the next generation to know about: humility, strength, and acceptance, to name a few.  By 5 o’clock on Sunday evening, I was exhausted but so glad I had made this trip!

I’m thankful for the staff at LINES for offering this intensive.  It’s not only important for adults to have a creative outlet, but it’s also important for adults to study with the vigor that we once had in our youth.  Just because we aren’t selling out crowds at Lincoln Center doesn’t mean we don’t strive to lift our leg higher, perform better, or find ways to express the pain or joy that comes with adult life.  On the flip side, I encourage adults to seek out opportunities to continue a childhood hobby or talent, especially dance.  Just because you aren’t professionally dancing doesn’t make the pursuit of your passion any less valid.  Seek out opportunities like this; see if you can teach at a local studio, find ways to volunteer to teach less fortunate children the magical power of dance.  

Thank you to the founders of Ballerinas by Night for building this community as well!

Side Notes:

For those of you in the DC area, the studio Joy of Motion has a particularly interesting program for adult trained dancers:

https://www.joyofmotion.org/dance-institute/leap-for-adults/

As I mentioned above I tried to look for a non-professional adult dance intensive in the NYC area but came up empty-handed!  If any Ballerinas by Night readers have ideas, please send them my way!

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If you'd like to connect with Natalie she can be reached either by email at nataliepankow@yahoo.com or on Facebook under Natalie Collet.

If you have an adult ballet or adult dance experience you'd like to share with the community, please send us an email at ballerinasbynight@gmail.com!

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NYC Ballet Vacation!

NYC Ballet Vacation!

Monday, June 5, 2017

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Last week I took a solo trip to New York City! I wanted to see ABT perform Whipped Cream and from there the entire trip snowballed into four days of all things ballet! P A R A D I S E . (And make sure to catch the vlog from this trip!)

I do have a good amount of family living in NYC, so I wasn't alone the entire trip. My cousin and my aunt accompanied me to The Met for Whipped Cream. They are both versed in the arts and ballet and they absolutely loved the show. Six thumbs up from us! :)

Gave the box seats a try - my first time at The Met!

The evening glow of Lincoln Center during intermission

My cousin and me!

Another big highlight of the trip was taking ballet class with Kat Wildish! I mentioned in my Ballet Bucket List video that I want to come to NYC to do one of her adult ballet performances sometime. A class was good enough for now though! I happened to take on International Tiara Day, so as we were warming up for class, Kat walked in with a box of tiaras telling everyone to come grab one! How fun is that??! She also took photos throughout class and sent me the ones she took of me. What a treat to have this memory captured!

For those who don't know, I am a professional photographer by day (day job & side biz). I'm currently putting all of my side business focus on shooting dancers, so I knew I had to line up shoots in New York. I ended up working with three wonderful ballet dancers - rain and shine!! :)

So, as you guys might know from videos and Instagram posts, I'm actually really loving the pointe shoes I'm currently in (Capezio Arias), but I have wanted to get fitted for Freeds for years, so I finally just made myself go do it! The Chacott store on 20th St. is beautiful and the staff was very helpful and kind. I only had about 30 minutes in the shop so I wasn't sure I would have time for a fitting, but I was in and out in exactly 30 minutes! I ended up in Classic Pros, no X, anchor maker.

On Thursday evening I held a Ballerinas By Night Meet Up! Our viewer/reader, Jessica, was able to make it so we met up at Rockefeller Center to see Jeff Koons' Seated Ballerina balloon sculpture. Because it was raining cats and dogs, we ventured a few blocks to a nice Italian restaurant where we scarfed down delicious pasta and talked about ballet life, adult life, professional life. It was such a great time and I am so thankful for this community of instant friends!! Thanks for a great time, Jessica!

After my final photo shoot on Friday I found myself with free time by myself to just wander! I stumbled upon a cool dance mural, had time to call my husband for the first time since I left, and then looked up showing times of Wendy Whelan's film Restless Creature. I popped down to the Film Forum to catch a late afternoon showing. I talk more about the film in the video from this trip, but to summarize - I was super emotional about this! The story just had me all over the place and I was crying like a baby in the theater. I haven't let my age be a boundary for my dancing, but seeing that at some point it will be no matter what I mentally tell myself was really hard for me to watch. Wendy has a very healthy outlook on it all though and the film was really well done.

I always get so inspired when I'm here and I love that there is so much ballet in New York that I can make an entire vacation out of it. Highly recommend doing this if you have the opportunity!! Thanks for reading and make sure to watch the video version of the trip linked below (the edit took me forever so pretty please hit the "like" button? :))! I will leave you with a few other random photos from the trip! - Jana. P.S. Huge thank you to my cousin, Nan, for taking so many photos & videos for me!!

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