Class Review - Hype Dance Open Adult Ballet Class

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Yesterday I attended the adult ballet open class at  Hype Dance Company in Sheffield.  Hype Dance is located at 60 Upper Allen St, Sheffield, S3 7GL which is a good deal more accessible than its previous premises in Earl Street (see More than just Hype - Beginners and Improvers Classes in Sheffield 14 May 2014 Terpsichore).

Hype Dance perform a lot of shows including the one in the video above which was danced on The Moor (a pedestrianized shopping area in Sheffield city centre) as part of Sheffield's "Frightnight" celebrations on 2 Nov 2014.  The piece was choreographed by Fiona Noonan, the teacher who had led me back to the barre after an absence of 45 years. The dancers include my contributor Mel Wong who is now in Hungary  (she is the one in the black tutu from Big Ballet) and Ian (the chap dressed as a pirate) whom I mention later in this article.  Hype's artistic director, Anna Olejnicki, has been very supportive of Powerhouse Ballet and two of its students have signed up for our company classes.  I had a lot of good news to report about Powerhouse and one of the reasons for my visit was to deliver that news in person.

Sadly I did not see Anna last night or my friends Wendy McDermott or Andrew Murray. However, I did see others including Ian who appeared in the film above.  The class was taken by a teacher called Ale (which I think is short for Alejandra) and she was very good.  Her style of teaching was different from the styles of any of my other instructors and it was very effective.  She had a class that varied in experience from a first timer to women in pointe shoes but she gave us exercises that we all enjoyed and from which we all benefited.

She started with pliés, of course, and you might think that there is only one way to do pliés but she gave them a flourish of her own with rises and balances between demi and full.  Similarly with tendus.  We had to think about what leg to use, to remember to plié, to transfer weight and turn round smartly to continue the exercise facing the other direction.  She paid a lot of attention to posture calling us from the barre to the centre more than once to check our positioning.  We did ronds de jambes and cloches before calling us to the centre for glissés.

To glissés she added relevés and passés and before we knew it and without any fuss pirouettes.   Remember we had a first timer in the class and this was only his 7th or 8th exercise ever in ballet and he turned beautifully.  Even I with all my problems with turns did not quite fall off the pons asinorum.  Ale showed us tombés and balancés  and created a little enchainement that ended with a pirouette from 4th which we practised from stage right and stage left.

All too soon the hour was up and it was time for cool down.  Ale's cool down was one of those most thorough I have known and took several minutes.  The only thing missing from the class was jumps.  Had it been a full 90 minute class I am sure we would have covered them. I would be very interested to see how Ale teaches them.

One of the few lessons that I remember from my first ballet classes at St Andrews 50 years ago is that every student should thank the accompanist for the music and the instructor for the class in addition to any clapping in the reverence. Sally, my very first teacher, was a stickler for ballet etiquette.  When I thanked Ale for the class she asked me whether she would see me the following week.  Sheffield is not the easiest place to reach from Holmfirth and I have classes in Manchester and Leeds so I can't make her class every week but yesterday will definitely not be the last time she sees me.