jane

I must agree with Vagansmom about both Wild Swans by Jung Chang and I capture the castle. If your mother enjoys films (you mentioned her friends) perhaps she'd be interested in seeing the film of I Capture The Castle.It was a really beautiful adaptation of the book, and made lovley uplifting viewing. Also, Wild Swans is quite big so it might last a bit longer than some others. its frustrating when things end so fast! I wish your mother a speedy recovery, Grace.

Ballet alert has encouraged me and made me realise i could do things i hadnt the confidence to do Ballet alert has provided many hours of entertainment and consolation! Ballet alert is why i'm not in my room revising! So i'd better go or i'll be breaking the no homework/no ballet rule! Thankyou to the people who run the board-its a great idea!

Oooh! good idea! Well, I'd like my dancer not to be rake-thin- Its just not pretty, just slim in a more normal way. Plus expressive hands and arms. The dancer should have an expressive face, particularly eyes. Oh, and a graceful neck and way of carrying their head. Plus it's lovely to see a dancer smile!!

I was about thirty minutes early to one of my classes one day. As it happens, I was able to listen into the 'babies' class, of children aged 4-6 (this is a guess). Anyway, it sounded like they were having great fun and learning. They played at being dancing horses and farmers, discussing with the teacher how horses and farmers might dance. They sat around the piano and listened to music, and then made up stories that they could dance to it, and they did improvisation (something my class does at the end of every lesson). The teacher also keeps a stash of fairy wands and ribbons for use in these excercises. They skipped and galloped in time to the music. It was lovely to hear a group of little girls enjoying and learning about classical music, and how to dance with expression, and to recognize charecteristics of music that gave them different feelings.The studio is just a plain studio, and there were no tutus in sight, but dancing with ribbons to lovely music was evidently enough to transport these little girls into some sort of fairyland. It was heartwarming to hear these little children having such fun dancing, and enjoying learning so much!!

ilive2danz - I too learnt the extent of my love for ballet after giving it up and then picking it up again. I feel so proud of doing ballet, and of my tiny involvement in its world. Its such a rich and longheld, beautiful tradition that I want to imerse myself in it. Ballet has the ability to make me feel beautiful, because I am using my own body to make something lovely; it really is great for the self-esteem. I too feel that just listening to music isn't enough-I have to dance to it. I dont know why, but I just have to-I can't sit still!! Also, I love the fact that ballet is always a challenge, and you can just keep on improving. I think that I like this factor partly because in some lessons at school, I am perpetually bored, because there are not enough challenges. There are some classes that I can just do well in without really trying, so in a way it's less satisfying to suceed. However, in ballet I have never experienced this. I work for what I can do :sweating: . And when I can do it, it is an enourmous pleasure. Some of the other girls in my ballet class complain that it is all excercises, but, though it may sound silly, I love each excercise because to me it is a dance in itself. There is something that makes me want to dance. Even in the supermarket!! . Dancing makes me feel so happy . Sorry about me rambling on, people. I guess, what I am trying to say is that ballet makes me happy in a way nopthing else I know does. I love it!

I'm interested to see that a couple of people have said that they feel Darcy Bussel is over rated. As somebody who has seen very few ballets I was wondering why this is? I have never seen her dance, but have, until now, only ever heard her spoken of in revered tones!

My parents have been talking about taking me to see a ballet (yipee, at last!) They suggested Manon. I was just wondering what those who have seen it have thought of it, and what the story is about (if it has one), as I know nothing about this ballet.