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Started Ballet at 31! Meet Sterlin in the new Behind the Dancer video!

Thursday, March 12, 2020

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In this third episode of Behind the Dancer you get to meet Sterlin - a ballet beginner as of five years ago who is now directing an adult ballet performance group and has started a professional dance company and school!!

I am so fortunate to get to dance and perform with Sterlin at Oklahoma City Ballet's school and reap the benefits of him paving the way for dancers of all ages and levels to get to perform, as you guys have seen in my performance vlogs throughout 2019!

After sharing this video with Abby before it went live, she sent me the perfect takeaway of listening to Sterlin tell his story!

"The main message I think is so great about Sterlin's video is that, yes, maybe you can't start that late in life and go pro, but you can start really late in life and still have legit involvement in the art and in the community. That it's not about going down the same track as students that start young and go pro, but creating and forging new tracks for people also doing what you are doing. And that just because it hasn't been done yet or isn't done as a standard, doesn't mean there isn't room for something new." - Abby

 Enjoy the video and make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for more!

Jana
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Pointe Progress! New Ballet Week Vlog

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In my latest vlog I bring you along for rehearsals and ballet class where I've made some major progress with my mental blocks!

I've been gradually adding in pointe shoes to my Wednesday night Beginner/Intermediate ballet class and this week I did all of center class on pointe! I felt really proud of myself for getting through pique turns, pique arabesques, and even chaine turns without letting my mental blocks get the best of me!! I could not believe it! And then to finish class we did 8 releves to retire on each side, which I was scared of but just told myself to go for it and I actually felt in control for the most part!

I also bring you along for some rehearsals as we gear up for my first adult ballet collective performance of 2020! Stay tuned for an upcoming video where I share more about the performance and my summer intensive plans!

- Jana


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Review of the "Curvy Fit" Leotards from Discount Dance

Friday, May 24, 2019

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My fellow "curvy" ladies who dance, I know you join me in frustration with finding dancewear that provides enough coverage and support! Most dancewear brands cap at a size medium or large, and the few "plus size" options there are leave a lot to be desired aesthetically. Womp, womp.

I saw sometime last year that DiscountDance.com released a line of Curvy Fit leotards by the brand Natalie. I was hesitant to give them a try for some reason, but they're on clearance right now so I decided to give them a shot. I'm so glad I did, and wish I would have sooner!!

PROS:
  • FINALLY. More fabric. My boobs actually fit above the waist seam!
  • A substantial bust lining elastic provides more support.
  • A back scoop low enough to be pretty, but high enough to cover a bra strap.

CONS:
  • I don't like all the weird seam lines in the cap sleeve leo. I don't understand why it's like this - can't the sleeve just be seamless like non-curvy leotards?
  • I would like another fabric option that isn't quite as shiny


Overall, my thoughts are relief and excitement that I finally have options that I know will keep me covered and supported! I think this is a great first step to expanding what is traditionally considered dancewear. "Curvy" people want pretty options too!

Since these leotards are currently on clearance, I suggest ordering now before they're gone!



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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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Merry Christmas from Abby & Jana!

Monday, December 25, 2017

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Merry Christmas, everyone! It has been one busy month for us here at BBN! We made it through another Vlogmas series, this time with 12 videos!! Cannot believe we pulled that off amid our busy adult ballet lives! If you're not caught up or haven't seen what we've been up to since December 1, here is the Vlogmas 2017 playlist!


Christmas this year will be tough for both of us - Abby lost her mother this year and I lost my mother-in-law. I'm sure some of you are dealing with loss this holiday too and our hearts go out to you <3.
We'll be taking a break from videos through the New Year, but our goal for 2018 is to get back to more dance-centered videos like tips, tutorials, and classes. We look forward to doing that! 
We hope you all are doing well and get to spend Christmas or whatever you celebrate with people you love!
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Ballet Book Guide

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

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Abby shares this brilliant guide to some of her favorite educational and fun ballet books! There's something in here for everyone, so here's a breakdown of her thoughts she shares in this video!

by Eliza Gaynor Minden

This book is like a crash course for ballet! Good for the adult ballet beginner, it's a great reference with visuals. It goes over the elements of barre and center work and as well as basic terminology, dealing with dance injuries, and the history of ballet.


by Agrippina Vaganova

Not the easiest reading, but very good information about the Vaganova technique.


by Vera S. Kostrovitskaya

This book is essentially the entire syllabus for Vaganova training. It's a very good resource for teaching Vaganova or gaining a better understand of the Vaganova background.


by Rory Foster

A book intended for pedagogy training at the collegiate level, this includes information about class structures, musicality, and other elements related to teaching. This is a good read for adult dancers, even if you aren't interested in teaching, because as adults we can take in more information cognitively, and understanding the "whys" behind teaching can help us during class.


by Gretchen Ward Warren

Your basic visual ballet dictionary with just about every ballet step you could imagine! Great reference with beautiful pictures.


by Gayle Kassing and Danielle M. Jay

This book may be good for the adult dancer who has been dancing awhile and wants to understand further the elements of class and technique. There is information on planning classes, which can be beneficial if you want to give yourself class. 


by Jordan Matter

A fun coffee table book full of photos of dancers doing pedestrian things or in pedestrian situations. This makes a great gift!


by Jacqui Greene Haas

If you're interested in what muscles you're working when doing certain movements or want to know how to cross train better for dancing, this book is a great guide with great illustrations and explanations!


by ABT Medical Advisory Board

This is the ABT guide you can purchase without taking the National Teaching Certification Curriculum courses. It goes over anatomy, kinesiology, dance related injuries, turnout, pointe work, development in health, etc. This is a very good book if you are a teacher or a parent of a dancer.


by Cyril W. Beaumont and Stanislas Idzikowski

This book covers the theory and technique of Ceccehetti by taking you through all the different elements of ballet class.

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We hope there's something on this list that suits you (or might make a good gift for a dancer!). Let us know in the comments what your favorite ballet books are!


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Our Christmas Tree!

Thursday, December 7, 2017

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My son and I decorated our Christmas Tree together!

We wanted to share our decorating process with you. This year we opted to keep our Christmas area in a room we can shut off, to protect our fragile decorations from cats (especially our youngest). We keep our Christmas decorating fairly minimal and a lot of it is homemade, but we like the stories and memories that surround the ornaments.

Many of these ornaments were given to my son by his Spanish tutor, who we all loved greatly. She incorporated what they were into the lessons, and let my son keep them afterwards. Such a gift to have someone work with him with such love!

Other ornaments were made by my son for his Dad as Christmas presents, and we love to look back on what he made and what year it was. My son and his Dad share a love of Star Wars, so they are in charge of the Star Wars decorations for the tree, too!

Several were gifts from my son's first Christmas. He was such a loved child right from the beginning! Everyone was so excited for us, and his first Christmas was extra special. My favorite is the blue rattle with his name on it, given to us by my in-law's. It came in a wood box with his name put on it, and I absolutely love it.

The giant stocking was also from a dear friend who used it to wrap a present for our son. We will continue to hang the stocking for years to come.

I think what I love most is how such a humble little tree with it's few lights and my handmade stockings can bring my son SO much joy! It doesn't matter to him; Christmas is magical. I think we should remember this about dance as well. What we do is seen so differently through the eyes of children. We don't have to be the fanciest, but it is our uniqueness that can make us the most loved.

- Abby


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Fun Combos!

Sunday, December 3, 2017

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My metatarsals decided to cut me a break two weeks ago and I fully got to enjoy the combos in my Monday afternoon class! I made it through the entire class and only modified a few things (i'm talkin' to you, italian fouette). I'm still not holding balances as long as I would like, but they were an improvement this day compared to the previous week.

After I got home I did some light stretching to keep working on my damn left hamstring. It's SO tight. I need to do a penché comparison photo to show you just how bad it is! And then I put on my pointe shoes to do some relevés so I could work my calves a bit more without overdoing the pressure on the balls of my feet.


I've cut a small amount of the shank on these shoes to help me get all the way over the platforms. I had never done that before so I was cautious about cutting too much, but it did help some so I think I will go in and cut a bit more.

Then I headed over to our business (my husband owns & operates a micro brewery) to work on some product photos and to start decorating the taproom for Christmas!


I share all of this and more in a vlog-style video where you can also watch the center combos we did in class! Watch it here and give the video a "thumbs up" if you enjoy it!

Hope you all are having a great start to your December!

- Jana


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Gift Guide for Dancers! Holiday 2017

Friday, December 1, 2017

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Happy December! It's officially the holiday season and we are so excited for festive outings and cozy nights at home! It's also time to send that Christmas list out and start shopping for others, so we are back again this year with another Gift Guide for Dancers!

We are proud of ourselves for filming this one "together" and we hope you enjoy our little mash up :) Here are 10 things Abby and Jana are asking for or suggest asking for this Christmas 2017! 


1. Zum Chakra Shea Butter Bath Salts Gift Set 2. Zarely ballet tights 3. Your Choice Resistance Loop Bands 4. Cloud & Victory t-shirt 5. David Howard Ballet Class DVD's 6. Cantique Novel 7. Pure Wave Cordless Body Massager 8. Bosu Ball 9. Compression Socks 10. Local Ballet Tickets/Merch/Class Card

This Gift Guide video kicks off our Vlogmas series in December where we post two to three holiday/festive videos a week until Christmas! If you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel, do so here to follow along!

Happy Shopping and Happy Gifting!

Abby & Jana


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Feeling the Adult Ballet Love!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

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Oh, do I hope you take the time to watch this vlog! I attend my usual Monday afternoon class and then sit down with my fellow adult ballet friend, Theresa, to share the story of how a girl on YouTube helped her feel like she could come back to ballet, years after retiring from dancing. That girl had blonde hair and was named Jana, and it was over a year after coming back to ballet, making friends with a blonde girl named Jana, that Theresa put together I was the same girl on YouTube!

Abby and I get a lot of comments in this community about how we've helped them find the confidence to come back to or start ballet and it fills our hearts so full. To witness this in person, with someone I have felt "gets" me and my love for ballet is one of the greatest feelings ever.

It's stories like this that make us feel like our videos and social media posts sharing our dance lives is much greater than us. We hope you find your way to the barre or studio or stage if in your heart it's where you have to be!

Much love,
Jana


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Vlogmas 2017!

Sunday, November 19, 2017

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If you missed the fun announcement on YouTube, Ballerinas By Night is doing Vlogmas again this year! We will be sharing dancing footage, vlogs, and festive outings 2 to 3 times a week starting December 1st!

Make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel to get notifications of our new videos! We can't wait!

And if you can't wait until December 1, watch our 2016 Vlogmas here :)

 Abby & Jana
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Small Progress & Fall is Here!

Sunday, November 12, 2017

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My gosh, is there anything better feeling than having a good dance day??! As an adult (a currently injured adult), I find a good dance day seems to be more and more of a rare occasion.

In my video last week I updated you all on my injury and loss of my mother-in-law which caused me to take a break from ballet. As I'm easing back to class, I'm modifying and stopping when I feel I'm about to do too much. I'm happy to report that last Monday I was able to add in a tiny more to my class participation! I did some small jumps - did them very small and focused on articulating my feet through the floor. I did okay and it felt so good to keep moving!!

And then because I was feeling okay I thought, "why not put pointe shoes on?!" as one does when they are a crazy-ballet-loving grown woman. I did a few exercises at the barre and definitely felt the leg muscles soreness the next day - yesssss.

I vlogged this whole day so follow along with me as I geek out over fall weather and having a good dance day :)

- Jana

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I Took A Break: Injury, Loss

Sunday, November 5, 2017

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Hey everyone, Jana here.

I have been silent around Ballerinas By Night for the past month, and I'm sharing all about that today in my new vlog. You can watch it here. Though if you only have time for a written, condensed version, keep reading.

If you saw my sad Instagram post from last month where I shared how I was feeling distant from ballet you'll know I was already in a weird mental place with things. That following week I went to a class that was wonderful and I was feeling so good - I ended a combo across the floor with chaines turns and felt a stinging pain in my first metatarsal in my right foot. This happened to me last spring and I knew immediately that I had another stone bruise :( I stopped dancing immediately. I was mentally feeling okay about it at the moment, though, because I was so proud of how I had been doing in class.

Then two days later I was informed that my mother-in-law had passed instantly from a heart attack while she was at her second home in New Mexico with my father-in-law (you guys would have seen them in my Hiking in Taos vlog this summer). We went out there for a week to help with things and it was from that point I realized what a huge shift we were in for with the family dynamic.

So, I decided to put a hault on all things ballet. Clearly my body needed the break and my family needed me. It's been a rough time though and selfishly I worry quite a bit about getting back to full dancing strength even though there are more important things going on. Class helps me keep my sanity!

Right now I am going to one class a week, but only dancing until jumps, and I'm modifying what I need to keep the metatarsal pain at bay. I'm avoiding pirouettes and any releves that involve a quick change of direction as that tends to cause pain. I share quite a bit of class footage in the vlog of me trying to modify and get through the best I can!

Thank you guys, as always, for your support. And if you have any advice for me in losing an in-law and/or healing from a stone bruise/metatarsalgia, I'm all ears :)

- Jana


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Feeling Good, Out of Retirement!

Sunday, October 29, 2017

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Happy Sunday! We have a new video on YouTube today! Abby vlogs about how life is going currently, including pointe shoe woes and getting back into performance ready mode!

Follow Abby's Ballet Coaching page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Abby-Ballet-Dancer-Teacher-and-Coach-1296262443811222/ 

Follow Abby's professional page: 
https://abbyballetcoach.blogspot.com 

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Jana's Pointe Shoes Collection

Thursday, October 5, 2017

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About a month ago I shared my collection of ballet flats, so now it's time to give the pretty pointe shoes the spotlight!

I have to admit, I love the process of pointe shoe fittings! It's like trying to solve a puzzle. I don't have overly complicated feet, but my longer second toe tends to be the biggest issue for me when finding a good fit. Here are the shoes I've worn in the past 12 years since coming back to ballet as an adult!

Freed Classic Pros - 1X, Cross Maker
Freed Classic Pros - No X, Anchor Maker

See them all in action with my thoughts on each in the video below!
- Jana

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Got My Ballet Attack Back!

Monday, September 4, 2017

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Abby vlogs about getting back to ballet class after having to evacuate from Hurricane Harvey, and has a very important realization about her ballet attack!

If you would like to contribute to hurricane relief efforts, please consider donating to the Texas Sealife Center, which has taken in additional sea turtles and wildlife affected by the storms. Monetary donations through Amazon are set up to be shipped directly to the TSC.
Texas Sealife Center
14220 S Padre Island Dr
Corpus Christi, TX, 78418
www.texassealifecenter.org/donations
PayPal: texassealifecenter@gmail.com


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Jana's Ballet Shoes Collection

Thursday, August 31, 2017

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Because there's no such thing as too many shoes, right?

I don't know what it is about ballet shoes, or any ballet attire for that matter, that makes it so hard for me to get rid of. I have no problem throwing away magazines from last month, street clothes I don't wear, or household items that never get used, but ballet shoes that I never wear? Well, we must keep those!! :)

I love trying new ballet shoes so I've acquired a small collection over the past five or so years (and a bonus old leather pair that has to be from at least nine years ago!). I had a fun time going through these and even wore a pair this week that I had completely forgotten about :)

So Danca SD16
Sansha "#1 Pro"
Watch the video below and give it a thumbs up if you too love ballet shoes. And you don't even have to ask - I'm definitely doing a pointe shoes collection video next!

- Jana



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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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June & July Corrections

Sunday, August 20, 2017

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It may be nearing the end of August, but nonetheless, June & July corrections are here! :) Areas discussed in the video are:

  • temps lié
  • staying lifted on the supporting leg
  • balances at the barre
  • balances a la seconde
  • movement from attitude to arabesque/developpe
  • grand battement a la seconde
  • promenade in retiré
  • pique arabesque
  • quick waltz turns

There are some good basic reminders in this batch of corrections, so I hope you find something useful to take to your next class! 

- Jana


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A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance

Sunday, August 6, 2017

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Losing my Mom has been a huge change in my life. We shared everything dance from the time I was 8 years old.


For many years, we shared classes and recitals. She taught me to sew my pointe shoe ribbons and elastic, made my costumes, and took me all over Alabama and the surrounding states to classes, workshops, auditions, etc. I always knew we had something special, but I didn't fully realize just how unique we were.




I watched my Mom get frustrated in class, pushing herself to do what the teenagers did. She was always pushing to become more flexible, and it was hard for her to pick up combinations quickly. But, she always fought for it and pushed through. She had amazing arms and épaulement - something I still wish I had gotten from her! My Dad was at every recital filming us; these were the days of VHS tape recorders. We would go home and spend the rest of the night watching our performances over and over. 



Seeing my Mom dance was my inspiration for wanting to teach adults. I grew up seeing the adult dancer from the inside out, so I understand the benefits and the struggles. It's beautiful.

But, the biggest thing to come out of this, for me, is a new-found fuel to my fire. I have allowed myself to be fed up and frustrated with myself and my body, and I thought I had thrown in the towel forever on my dancing. 

Then it hit me. Mom returned to dance when she was in her 40's. She danced for YEARS after that. She became capable of doing things she had never done in her youth. She attended teacher training seminars and became a ballet teacher - and a darn good one. None of this began for her until I was 8 and she was going back after almost two decades away from it. 

What am I so afraid of? WHAT is holding ME back?

Only one answer - me. 

In her last couple of months, Mom pointed me in certain directions and helped set me on a path. After her death, that path opened up even more. So here I am, dancing 6 days a week, and getting back into better shape than I have been since I was 18. I don't know what the future holds or what I'm doing it for, but I know I'm doing it for me and I'm taking care of myself in the process. I feel like I'm where I should be and where she would want me to be. I know if she were here I would be able to talk to her about it, but I also wouldn't want to dance as much because I would have wanted to spend more time with her. I feel like the baby bird still being pushed out of the nest by my Mom, and I know I will end up doing exactly what I should be doing - whatever that might be.

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