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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
I've tried yoga a couple times in my life and I've never left feeling a strong desire to do it again. The first time the experience was a little too...organic for me? The male instructor was wearing short shorts and came over to compliment my flexibility (oh, the good ole days) and proceeded to stradle over my face to help me deepen the stretch. It was just a little too intense, lol.
The second time the room was super hot, which felt good for my muscles, but as you all know I am one of the sweatiest people on the planet so I was literally slipping all over my mat trying to hold a lunge. I got so frustrated, but didn't know at the time about a helpful accessory called the yoga towel.
But after a year of my body taking a beating from my corporate photo/video job, I've gotten to the point where all the massages in the world won't fix my tightness alone! It seems everyone I know that does yoga just feels really good all the time. I wanna feel good all the time!
So I went. My friend Michelle went as well so we could be newbies together. We took a calm Restore & Flow class because I want to start slowwww. Most of the class was spent focusing on breathing, which until then I thought I knew how to do... Wow, was I wrong! Lol. My heart is thanking me because I had no idea how much I was restricting my own breathing with tension!
Here more of my thoughts on the first class (I've been to a couple more since and will continue to update you!) and what I'd like to get out of yoga here!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
