Ballet's strong standing leg... could be a metaphor.

 I will start this post pointing out that there are a huge number of available resources online about ballet instruction. Sorting through them all might be daunting, and this blog is no substitute for the enterprising teachers and entrepreneurs who have created amazing content to be available online. Maybe reading my thoughts will point you towards looking up such resources available from master teachers like, Finis Jhung (https://finisjhung.com/) or Dance Masterclass (https://www.dance-masterclass.com/). These are just a couple of the better resources I have found online as I research my thoughts. And still, I advocate that nothing beats the chance to work with a teacher in a studio as you learn and practice ballet as a discipline, as an art, as emotional therapy, as physical exercise.

Ballet works hard to "give us a leg to stand on!" And when we watch dancers perform feats of amazing strength, balance, and coordination, it can feel completely beyond our imagined abilities. But beautiful dancers offer us images to hold in our minds as we envision what our bodies might feel like doing the same thing. Each ballet step starts with the most basic human mechanics of our bodies. And learning to place our awareness on bringing those mechanics together into action, is a primary goal of building solid basic technique. 

Me in Paul Taylor's "Dandelion Wine" from 2001. Photo: Lois Greenfield

Standing on one leg can sometimes be a challenge, whether you want to hop or just to balance as you put on a pair of pants one leg at a time without sitting down. How we distribute our weight on one leg often determines what our other leg can do as well as how our upper body and arms are used in relation to the "working" leg. 

Starting classes standing next to a "barre" for support allows us to build strength on our standing leg, while learning how to move our "active" leg and what that does to our upper body. The "barre" is our "partner" on whom we can lean or just gently hold onto as we find our balance, standing on one leg! And then we can enjoy, if only for a second, the sense of accomplishment that comes with a harmonious balance on the smallest point of contact with the ground. Repeatedly finding this balance or sustaining it for more than a moment or two, is where the work comes in to build strength and security in returning to that balance..

The Rose Adagio from "Sleeping Beauty" performed by Marianela Núñez with the Royal Ballet in London

The above clip is the very last minute of a five minute variation for Princess Aurora where she has had progressive phrases of steps (enchaînement) in which she demonstrates longer and longer sustained balances and turns on one leg.

Similarly, at the end of a long solo in Paul Taylor's "Dust" is another display of beautiful balance and control on one leg.

Paul Taylor's "Dust" peformed by Susan McGuire of Paul Taylor Dance Company, 1981.

Sometimes it is hard to imagine just how many years of practice and training it can take to achieve these short moments of artistic beauty. Life is often filled with working tirelessly to achieve balance with more moving parts than we can control. In those fleeting moments when everything does come into balance... 

Ballet Barre and human geometry

 As I have been teaching the Adult Beginner Ballet class each week at Taylor Dance West in NYC, I have been thinking about the many components that make learning ballet both complicated and beautiful in its intricacies. 

In many sport-like physical activities, the most efficient stroke/swing/punch/stride/etc. is often a beautiful and graceful motion to watch, and it is often a repeated activity with variances depending on the sport and the environment. 

In ballet we learn to execute a myriad of different actions to be used in different combinations which turns into the dynamic "choreography" (combining different actions into sequences) that we enjoy watching as an audience. But learning the actions (steps is the generic term I will use as we move forward) means first having them taught brokendown in their most basic form. As an example a plié (bend of the knees) will become part of a fondu when done standing on only one leg. That step, plié, will be used by teachers many, many times during a ballet class. The plié is used to take off for turning, jumping, and even just changing weight from one foot to the next! And yet it is a step unto itself.

For many dancers, a ballet "barre" often becomes ANY secure horizontal support on which a dancer can place their hand to start warming up their legs and body. But it is most often a horizontal wooden/metal/plastic pole that is either attached to a wall, or designed to stand independently in the center of the room. With the support of the barre, dancers get to work on having a secure "standing" leg, as the other becomes an "active" leg, while holding onto the barre and performing steps as well as practising the classic shapes associated with ballet!  Ultimately the intent of class is to move freely about the studio without needing to use a barre for balance or support whether standing on one or two feet.

1983 - me candidly showing my back "attitude" while resting on a railing by the Oakland docks in CA.

The human geometry I mention in the title of this post refers to how ballet uses a barre to help us determine the direction of our steps and shapes. If we stand at right angles to the barre with our left hand on the barre, then the barre indicates a straight line forward (en avant) and backwards (en arrière) and if we take our "active" right leg to the side (à la seconde) it moves perpendicular to the barre! So now we have "front" (devant), side" (de côté), and "back" derrière). It is easier for the dancer to turn 180 degrees and face the opposite direction at the barre and then the right will be the "standing" leg and the left will be the "active" leg.

The brain game of deciphering my description is precisely why it is ultimately better (and more fun) to come and take a class in person! What I am trying to describe is just that in ballet we often refer to "cardinal" directions like you might see on a compass if your body was in the center facing North, then South would be behind you, East would be to your right and West would be to your left.

These imaginary lines through our bodies help to determine the directions of our steps and the curves and opposing forces we use to create classical shapes like "attitude" and "arabesque". Geometry gives us a way to visualize the shapes we make in ballet as well as the patterns we create as we move around a studio or a stage.

Lynn Seymour in a gorgeous "attitude" pose for "Anastasia" (Kenneth MacMillan). Photo: Anthony Crickmay

Here are the clips this post inspired me to find and leave for you to ponder. I will also admit that I will consistently be finding clips of dances by Paul Taylor for comparison, as I proudly danced for him for fifteen years, and it is in the Taylor studios where I teach! Paul Taylor Dance Company is also my home base as the director of licensing, responsible for being sure the best of our alumni are staging Paul's dances on companies around the USA and the world.

Some of the ballet steps we learn early on are clearly seen in these amazing moments of choreography! And if you look at them in terms of geometry, the use of lines, and curves while engaging principles of balance and weight transfer are exemplified.

2020: "The Barre Project" (William Forsythe) clip with Tiler Peck, Lex Ishimoto, Roman Mejia.

1981: "Dust" (Paul Taylor) clip of Susan McGuire.

I try to provide as much information as I can about what these clips are from, and who is in them, so that you may try to research and see the full versions for yourself. Hopefully, if something isn't available on line, you might be encouraged to go see it performed live in a theater near you.

A Routine That Starts... Plié. Tendu. Rond de jambe.

 There is something very comforting (for me at least) to know a consistent order with which to approach a physical regimen. As adults we mostly understand the benefits of "warming up" for any physical activity, whether it is stretching before a jog in the neighborhood, limbering up before the first tee off on a golf course, or even just a light squat before running up and down subway stairs or hopping on a bicycle!

I had been dancing for years, before I questioned "why" my ballet classes always seemed to follow a certain order of exercises. Then as I navigated injury and recovery over a thirty-year dancing career, my body always responded well to returning to its warm up routine of a basic ballet barre and a few center exercises. This is not to say it is the only way to "warm up", and I followed an extensive regimen of conditioning and physical therapy. However, when I was ready to DANCE, my starting point was often the ballet classes I started with as a child, and finding how much I appreciated following a basic series of exercises that I literally did thousands of times in my career. The patterns of the steps have changed constantly, but the starting order: Plié. Tendu. Dégagé. Rond de jambe... easily gets me focused on dancing in my body!

My last day, of six months, teaching in INDIA in 2019!

Rough translations of this starting order might be something like: Bend. Stretch. Leave the floor. Circling of the leg. In ballet these terms do primarily address what our legs and feet are doing, but the oppositional use of our torsos, arms and head elevates these exercises into why dancing isn't just about footwork, but about being able to move our bodies in and through space! Ballet addresses "balance" in many different definitions, left and right, front and back, up and down, fluidity and strength, rise and fall, and so on...

Being guided to learn how the basics train our bodies for better control and attention to detail, can give us greater freedom and enjoyment in learning to dance BALLET, as well as many other forms of dance through the tools we learn in ballet.

In 2023 I was teaching for Eliot Smith Presents in Newcastle, England, not far from the first ballet school I trained at in England. (Video courtesy of Eliot Smith)

As I have taken to doing on this blog, I have a couple of examples of phrases from different dances in which you can easily identify Plié. Tendu. Rond de jambe. And let us add petit battement for variety!

Clip from "Etudes" by Harald Lander, performed by Paris Opera Ballet and filmed in 1981.

Clip from "Company B" by Paul Taylor, performed by Paul Taylor Dance Company in the Dance in America special "The Wrecker's Ball" from 1996.

As always, you are welcome to join me for Adult Beginner Ballet on Tuesdays at 6:00pm here in NYC at Taylor Dance West, 307 West 38th Street, 9th floor. Thank you for dropping by!

How do you define "ballet"?

 The headline on this post does have a hint of irony for me. I might just as easily have written "It's ALL ballet to me". There are so many ways to define "ballet" and it occurs to me that if you were researching where to take an adult beginner ballet class, you might have a particular perspective on what "ballet" means to you!

2011 me performing for my Masters of Fine Arts degree. photo: Bruce Wong

While I might not be convincing most of the people who read this blog to come take an adult beginner ballet class with me, I do think this is a great chance to point you in the direction of why so many people will have a different definition of "ballet".

Different styles of ballet are defined by training methods, most of which evolved in service of the companies and productions in which the dancers would ultimately aspire to perform! And they all refer to this as "ballet" training. Some of the most well known teachers have their sytems of training closely associated with their names: August Bournonville, Enrico Cecchetti, Aggripina Vaganova, George Balanchine. In other instances we define the style of ballet with the companies or cities in which the training takes place, such as Paris Opera Ballet in Paris, or The Royal Ballet in London. 

Whatever the case, all systems are built to support creating a physical Art form defined by different aesthetics, while the basic principles of physical control and expression are in service of technical command to transfer weight, balance, turn, and jump in a lexicon of "steps" common to "ballet dancers" the world over.

Today, what you see ballet dancers doing on stage may hardly be recognizable as being rooted in a 16th century form of spectacle. Yet these "ballet dancers" may have been what inspired you to surf the web, and come across my blog. Here are a few clips of videos I have found online where many different styles and approaches to "ballet" have been addressed.

Starting with a short "history", this is taken from a Lucafilm produced documentary titled "Ballet: The Art of Dance". 

Bournonville is introduced by Nikolaj Hubbe in a documentary series hosted by Dame Darcy Bussell for the BBC. 

Anna Pavlova meets Enrico Cecchetti from a documentary and online series called "Ballet's Secret Code" which is a huge online resource all about the Cecchetti technique and system of training. 

And here is the intro from "Ballet with Isabella" who has a Youtube channel discussing all things ballet, and here she offers you her comparison of four major training styles from which she pulls her own online videos. 

If you live or are visiting NYC and would like to come take an Adult Beginner Ballet class with me, I can be found at Taylor Dance West studios (midtown Manhattan), Tuesdays at 6:00pm!

Until soon...

Transfer of weight - Temps lié, Chassé, Tombé, Pas.

 Moving one's body through space is a basic factor of dancing. How you do that often defines the kind of dancing you might be doing. Whatever the case, ballet addresses many of the transitions from one foot to the next by naming some of the most common ways to accomplish this.

Shifting our weight from one foot to the next with a little dip in our knees (Temps lié). Sliding our weight in a straight line forward/side/back/diagonally (Chassé). Falling from one foot to the next (Tombé). And a simple step (Pas) as you might take while walking.

As a teacher and coach, it is never boring to explore the many ways we can shift our weight, and to explore how that shift of weight turns into dynamic movement that underlies ballet and related dance forms.

Me with Amy Young in Paul Taylor's "Promethean Fire". Photo: Paul B. Goode

From my own online surfing adventures, I've set up a few clips of how the most basic shifts of weight becomes dancing, choosing various dances which were all choreographed to J.S. Bach's Cello suites!

This first clip is of the former New York City Ballet principal dancer, Damian Woetzel, in the opening phrase of "A Suite of Dances" by Jerome Robbins from a gala performance in 2008. 

The second clip is of two former Taylor dancers, Eran Bugge and Jamie Rae Walker in "Junction" by Paul Taylor. 

The third clip is of dancers from Teatro alla Scala in "In dem Winden im Nichts" by Heinz Spoerli from a 2016 performance. 

If you live or are visiting New York City, you would always be welcome to join my open adult beginner ballet class at Taylor Dance West on W 38th Street in midtown!

Have a great weekend!

Imagine... and be a (ballet) dancer!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day 2025!

 I never really stopped taking ballet classes, in my head at least. LOL. But throughout my career and afterwards, I loved imagining what a step, a movement, a phrase of action would FEEL like. There weren't any mirrors in the studios where I first learned to dance, and once I joined Paul Taylor, I was dancing once again in studios without mirrors. This for me has always been a good thing. Knowing how movement, line, phrases FEEL, has always been so much more rewarding, in my opinion. 

We are our own worst critics is a sentiment I have often heard, and I know I often "resemble that comment!" So I always loved taking a class where the teacher helped me find the joy in learning and using the prescribed shapes and movements of ballet to form phrases driven by rhythms and melodies in the music. Many of the images offered to me were of likening the carriage of my body as though I was elegantly dressed and that my footwork was to sparkle like I had rhinestones on my shoes.

Photo(2023): Fabrice Herrault

Taking an adult beginning ballet class should be a fun endeavor, and I hope you will share with me what you imagine to be the outcome for you! It could be as simple as relying on me to get you to move after your workday sitting at a desk or in a workroom, or as complex as fulfilling a dream you might have had for most of your life. A beginner ballet class allows us to learn and use a well defined vocabulary of movements and shapes to create repeatable phrases to music, and to aspire to the greater complexity that knowledge gives us.

Building on the very basic idea of bending and stretching in various simple positions can be seen in so many of the classical variations we admire, and also in the use of those same movements as found in more contemporary works.

clip from YouTube: Akane Takeda of London's Royal Ballet from Kitri's variation (c. 2019)

clip: Paul Taylor in his solo variation from "Aureole" (c. 1962)

While my blog may not convince you to come and take a class with me, I hope to share my approach to how I have used ballet in my career dancing in both ballet and modern companies.

Until next time...

Ballet. Bending. Basics.

 I had the pleasure of teaching my inaugural Adult Beginner Ballet class at Taylor Dance West, with three lovely dancers who were a joy to get to know through their dancing! It is a class about basics, and even if you did once take ballet classes in the past, there are so many different styles and technical approaches. So my approach is to get back to the basics of why we even use the actions, shapes, and movements that are essential to ballet and many dance forms.

I started taking ballet lessons from a young age, and I have often marveled at how comforting the structure of starting at the "barre" (that horizontal support you see dancers holding on to in so many studio pictures) has always been for me. Maybe it harks back to holding a parent's or a friend's hand as you explore the world, and it makes you feel secure while learning a new way to approach moving, and getting to know your own body. It is also a big help when getting your body used to standing and balancing on one leg!

"2023 Eliot Smith presents Paul Taylor" - thanks at the end of class. photo: Eliot Smith

NOTE: Ballet terms are mostly in French, and I will try to provide a descriptive term in English in an effort to not have my readers or dancers in class have to use their universal translators!

"Pliés" or "knee bends" are often the way ballet classes begin, and it is the most basic of actions we take with our legs for almost everything we do to move in space and transition from one position to the other. When I teach modern classes, I end with giving "thanks" by having all the dancers kneel with me in gratitude for the time, space, musicians, and everyone in the room. In ballet class, we also end with a "reverence" or thankful gesture that would formally include a bending of the knees or body in some way.

Incorporating pliés and their varying uses throughout class explores the many ways that this simple bending of the knee(s) can propel our weight through space, whether it is to set us up to balance and turn, or to travel around the studio. And in class, you will often hear me remind you of how to use your plié in the myriad ways it helps us to dance.

The very last thing you hear Jacqueline Moreau say is, "Don't be afraid to fail the exercise". I love that sentiment.

When I speak of positions in ballet, there are five basic standing positions with your weight on both feet most often described. These positions are so fundamental to the many different styles of ballet, that many dancers take them for granted, but instantly recognize their use when walking into any ballet class. I have always loved this poster from around 1974 for New York City Ballet (NYCB). It was designed by Edward Gorey, who was a much lauded artist and illustrator, and who loved going to the ballet. Mr. Gorey also happened to love many of Paul Taylor's dances and had been spotted often at our performances at City Center through the years.

The common knowledge of ballet for followers of NYCB precluded the need to include the classifications that the positions of the feet on the floor are (from top to bottom):

First. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth.

I look forward to posting about once a week moving forward, and if you have any questions about my classes, please feel free to comment below.

Thank you for being here!

Why Ballet? Why begin as an adult?

Photo: Fabrice Herrault

It's Tuesday morning, and I am taking a moment at my desk to contemplate why any adult might want to take a "beginner" ballet class, and why am I a good person to teach such a class? This is not my first "go 'round" teaching adult beginners how to do ballet, in truth I have done it many times before. This is however my first time writing about it specifically. 

Truthfully, my approach to teaching physical skills to adults is greatly influenced by decades of teaching adults of ALL abilities how to kayak on rivers, open water, and lakes. Teaching recreational sports to adults has long been studied by the skiing industry and applied across other physical sports. Two highlighted practices to consider when learning a new skill as an adult, is good guided instruction and consistent repetition.  And since it can be frustrating to be a beginner, it is important to have an interest in the chosen activity.

There are countless reasons to take up ballet as an adult, and below I offer one perspective and how one dancer chose to take up the challenge.

Without consulting Finis Jhung I am going to introduce him to you here. Today, Finis Jhung is a much sought out teach of adult beginner ballet students, and he is based in NYC. As a teacher, he became fascinated with teaching adult beginner ballet and has produced numerous videos and online streaming content to serve his students and the broader public. In 2018, Jhung released a pictorial autobiography that covers his stellar career as a professional ballet dancer, and the many others with whom he crossed paths both during and after his own performing career. Check him out https://finisjhung.com/

Screen capture

The foreward is written by a long time student of Jhung, Natalia Shulgina:

...I listen with an amused ear to my American rheumatologist's suggestion to "try ballet" for gaining musculoskeletal stability and strength.

... Yet, the idea - fallen on fertile ground of countless childhood hours spent mesmerized, watching black-and-white reruns of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, and Spartacus from the Kirov and Bolshoi - quickly gains the attention of my tired mind and a body aching for movement. I begin to contemplate the unthinkable: learning ballet, for the first time, at the age of 40.

Thus begins my journey into the world of the "adult ballerinas."

...Classes are most plentiful for children and teenagers. Lessons for adult learners with previous experience in ballet are second in availability. But instruction for "absolute beginner," adults with no previous experience in ballet, is extremely difficult to find.

(Ballet for Life: A Pictorial Memoir, Foreward, p. 14)

I have the utmost respect for ALL teachers, and I also respect that individually we can't suit the needs or interests of all students. We can hope to suit some of the dancers we teach all of the time (to paraphrase John Lydgate). :-)

I look forward to our first class together at Taylor Dance West, 307 W 38 Street, 9th floor, NYC.

Richard

Ballet & Paul Taylor

 I promise that I am not attempting to make this a daily ritual of posting. I AM trying to get the word out to anyone that might be interested in taking a ballet class aimed at helping you master the basics!

Paul Taylor took his first ballet class when he was already in college. It’s never too late to get started, or pick up a previously learned love of ballet. Here at the Taylor School you can also discover how Mr. Taylor’s late start might have helped him create such musical movement in his choreography.

Paul Taylor Dance Company in "Brandenburgs"
Lisa Viola, Richard Chen See, Amy Young, Parisa Khobdeh
photo: Lois Greenfield

Many of Taylor's dances take advantage of the technique and aesthetic lines most often learned in ballet classes and learning those basics is one way to imagine yourself dancing on stage with Taylor dancers or dancers from esteemed ballet companies like Sarasota Ballet!

Sarasota Ballet in "Brandenburgs"
Ricardo Graziano, Katelyn May, Danielle Brown, Ellen Overstreet
photo: Frank Atura

Class will be designed to Discover the joy of how dancers have used ballet to speak through movement, music and rhythm. Learn the movement vocabulary in small chunks of just a few movements at a time repeated in rhythm and simple musical phrases.

Ballet classes start with exercises “at the barre” where you will be guided through long established sequences to warm up your whole body while holding onto a stationary “barre” as you build physical articulation and prepare to balance and move around the room.

Moving to the center after the barre is where you will learn the essential ballet vocabulary to stand on one leg, maybe do a turn or two, transfer your weight in different ways, and use your body and arms to move in time with music.

The progression of each class will follow the understanding and abilities of the dancers in the room. We can learn to stand, and then walk, and then run, and then jump! And only when YOU are ready for that next step.

I look forward to helping you find your “inner dancer”!

A news article you might have missed!

 

That's me in the center with Kushu Dallas, the director of the School of Classical Ballet and Western Dance in Mumbai, India, from back in 2019. I spent six months in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Goa teaching ballet and American modern dance forms under the auspices of a Senior Fulbright Fellowship.

I have always loved teaching movement, and ballet has a unique approach and aesthetic appeal that allows it to take root in cultures where it is not commonly seen in live performance. In India, many contemporary dance forms that are rooted in both European and American dance traditions are referred to as "Western Dance" forms. Now while I have your attention...

I read this article from The Guardian (UK) lifestyles edition, and I got very excited about this writer's perspective on what returning to ballet class has done for her. The link I saved no longer works, so I am copying the article below, fully acknowledging that this is taken from The Guardian!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/feb/03/the-one-change-that-worked-i-took-up-ballet-and-learned-to-live-in-the-moment

The one change that worked: I took up ballet – and learned to live in the moment

Working long days as a corporate lawyer, I needed an exercise regime to get me out of my head. Reviving a childhood passion helped me reconnect with my body

Eloise Skinner

Mon 3 Feb 2025 10.00 GMT

My earliest memories of ballet will be familiar to many childhood dancers: ribbons, shoe fittings, hairspray (lots of it). I attended my first class at about four years old and continued off and on until my early teens, when I started to focus on other activities and on studying for exams. Since I was never planning to become a professional dancer, I didn’t consider that ballet would become an important part of my adult life. But today, at 32, it is one of my most meaningful passions – and I am so grateful to have rediscovered it.

That happened in my early 20s, when I was a corporate lawyer in London. The job involved a lot of late nights and desk work. I was looking for a fitness class that would get me out of my head and back into my body and I stumbled across a beginner ballet class. There, I was amazed to find that I remembered some of the patterns – the position of the spine, the arm movements (port de bras) – and the French terminology. But what struck me most was how good it felt to move with a group of dancers, to adopt the discipline of the ballet technique and see myself improve – if only by a small amount – by the end of the class.

Equipped with my renewed love of ballet, I quickly discovered the huge variety of adult classes on offer. Professional dance schools such as Central School of Ballet offer adult classes (for “fun, fitness and wellbeing”) and there is a wide range available for all levels at private dance studios. Throwing myself into ballet provided me with a way to de-stress from work, reconnect with my body and centre myself in the moment (try worrying about your emails when you are focusing on a perfect tendu or plié).

I quickly filled up my schedule, taking private lessons and courses and moving into pointe classes – revisiting those shoe fittings after a break of almost 10 years.

I have always had a love of fitness and movement – I am now a yoga and pilates instructor, even teaching at the studio where I took that first adult ballet class – but ballet offers something different. Many commentators have wrangled over whether ballet is a sport or an art, but it can encompass both: creativity and athleticism; expression and physical technique. Ballet has a unique ability to make you feel like a seamless part of a group and a solo performer; to feel light and effortless one moment and to feel the intense pain of pointe work the next.

More than any other fitness activity, ballet brings me back to the present – something I appreciate now in a way that my childhood self may have missed.

What is this?

 Hello World!

Welcome to my new adventure in midtown New York City where I will be teaching a class that I think of as "Ballet Basics for Beginners". This does NOT mean you have to be a beginner to join in. Throughout my life as a professional dancer, a kayaking coach, an office manager, etc. I have often loved taking a "beginner" ballet class to focus on the joy of moving to music, while working on balance, coordination and having space to jump and twirl.

My name is Richard Chen See, and I took my first ballet class at the age of seven in Kingston, Jamaica, where I grew up. Separately one might think of Kingston NY, or Jamaica in Queens, but I am talking about the island in the West Indies. I went on to train professionally in ballet in England, apprenticing at Northern Ballet Theatre for my first professional job... "long, long ago, and very far away". Eventually I would dance for Paul Taylor in his company after stints with various dance and musical theater productions as well as with the Californian companies Oakland Ballet Company and ODC Dance Company. 

Today, I am the director of licensing for Paul Taylor's choreographic works, but this does not mean I haven't had other careers or jobs. I have been an executive assistant in sales management for The North Face (outdoor clothing company), and a kayaking coach/guide for Sea Trek in Sausalito, CA as well as Manhattan Kayak Company right here in NYC. I have taught different disciplines of dance and fitness for most of my life, but ballet has often been an anchor for me, as it is the first physical language I learned, and one whose basic principals have always served me well in other physical disciplines.

As I look around the myriad offices, workspaces, businesses in midtown Manhattan. I can imagine that a lot of people might like to take a rudimentary ballet class and experience some of the joy that thrills us seeing Paul Taylor dancers, Broadway dancers, ALL dancers exhibiting in performance spaces all over the city, and online!