Newsletter 20 June 2018

NOTE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Hello, Dancers This Saturday, June 23, marks the first anniversary Don’t forget to make up any missed classes by end since AAAB acquired our own premises. Over the of this term, as they don’t carry over to next. The past year we have expanded greatly in so many Term 3 timetable will be posted on Movitae, ways: in class offerings, students, teachers, booking emailed to you, and pinned on the noticeboard by systems – and media coverage! When I drop in on June 23. Some classes are quite full so get in early your classes to progress, I’m delighted to see to reserve your place! how much you have all been improving. Cast your mind back to 6 or 12 months ago, then take a On July 21, we will be conducting a Balance and moment to acknowledge yourself for how much Pirouette Workshop. Many of you have already more you can do now. It’s important to give expressed an interest in attending in a quest to yourselves a pat on the back from time to time…. ‘nail’ your pirouettes or just find your ‘centre’ in preparation to turn. Adriana and I will present you The exams we are offering in September this with all the tips we have, and with Adriana’s year – Cecchetti and the new internal AAAB exams wonderful experience we will be sure to be – are a good way to track your progress and will pirouetting our way to the end of year Showcase! motivate you to aim higher, so do sign up on the clipboard in the kitchen. The AAAB internal exams I hope you are all pulling out your merinos as the will provide for mature age dancers with physical cold starts to bite! Enjoy the leg warmer pattern limitations, so now everyone will be able to shared by one of our Christchurch adult dancers participate! Please note the exam entries closing and make sure you keep your lower limbs warm dates and email me if you have any questions. before and during your work. For warming up after class, we’re including one of my favourite old Congratulations to our Dancer of the Month, curry recipes from my days in India. Veronika Chuda, from Tuesday Lyrical class, who has embraced this genre of dance at AAAB and has I head over to Melbourne July 5–8 for the annual really improved in leaps and bounds (literally!) as Cecchetti Conference and will attend the final of the she gives even the trickiest moves that Sophia can Lucy Saranova Dancers Award on the Friday night, come up with a go… Well done, Veronika! which I won as a young dancer myself many years ago! I will include a report in the next newsletter. We are approaching the last week of Term 2. We will go straight into Term 3 on Saturday, June 30. Until then: ‘If you dance with your heart, your body AAAB will now continue classes every week will follow’… LOVE IT! throughout the year, only breaking for three weeks at Christmas and one week at Easter. This gives you Happy dancing, everyone! the opportunity to take dance/barre classes most of the year to maintain your fitness and technique. Kathleen xxx Au revoir, chère Tharina!

We were all pleased to see our dear Tharina back in classes last week after a month-long trip to South America.

However, we are losing her for good to the call of overseas adventures next month! She and partner Luka will depart in August for Vietnam, to teach English for a year or two in the quest to eventually reach Europe and the opportunities they will find there.

We will be so sad to see Tharina leave! Her bubbly personality and energetic, ever positive encouraging attitude has been so greatly valued at AAAB – not to mention the serious butt burn we get from her BarreFit classes!

Tharina was the first permanent staff member to join AAAB in 2017 and has been invaluable to me in administrative matters, turning me from a ‘I have no idea what to do with this computer’ kind of person to being able to basically manage our new booking system, which wouldn’t be running at all without her … She is going to be sorely missed!

We wish Tharina all the very best in her Asian adventures and in the pursuit of her dream to, one day, ‘tread the boards’ in the West End. We look forward to some great stories while she is away, and we hope she will visit us when she pops home.

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Barre Talk, with Sophia Connors

What age did you start to dance, and where was it? I started dancing when I was 4 years old at Draper Academy of Dance in Pukekohe.

Where do you think your love of dance comes from? My mum was a dancer and encouraged me and my sisters to dance, and I just fell in love can fully express myself when I do it. I love the with dancing as I became a teenager. kind of music you can use. The style can be more modern or abstract or more slow and Is there one particular dance style that you emotional, and you can really pour yourself feel your personality and/or body more into it. There are lots of possibilities and than any other? plenty of room to experiment. I also love lots I love contemporary/lyrical dance. It’s of jumps and turns and floor work and there is technical but very free and expressive, and I lots of opportunity for that too. How far have you taken your studies in I just put music on that I love and can’t help dance? but start dancing. I trained at Draper Academy of Dance in Pukekohe until I was 15, then I left home to What do you enjoy most about teaching? pursue my professional full-time training at I love connecting with the people and I love to the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching see other people getting enjoyment from Academy in Sydney. I also trained at Unitec in dancing as well. I especially love it when Auckland, majoring in contemporary dance, people accomplish dances or moves that they and then went to Dance World, aka Apo Art never thought would be possible for them to Academy, in Melbourne and trained in various do. And I really love choreographing dances. styles from ballet to commercial jazz, contemporary, musical Your most secret thought: theatre, tap, and hip hop. Without naming names, Recently I learnt and think of one of your AAAB performed zouk (Brazilian students, and tell us in a ballroom dancing). I also sentence or two what you trained and qualified as a would dearly love to tell yoga teacher in Byron Bay her, if you were free to say and recently graduated as a anything. personal trainer here in NZ. I don’t have anything in particular to tell anyone, as I How do you spend your usually say what I need to time when you’re not at the say… So, this is no secret, AAAB? but I really want to help I teach dance, yoga and give people understand how to personal training at different hold their posture correctly. studios. I also spend a lot of It makes a massive time studying. Basically, for difference and it’s the key to fun I go out dancing and dancing. spend time with friends and family. Can you name three things you are How disciplined are you about your own passionate about and say why? diet? I am passionate about dancing – duh! It’s just I just eat what I feel like eating and I eat a lot, my favourite thing to do and I feel so alive and apparently. Just ask Kathy! feel like my true self when I dance. How cheesy is that?! What do you do to look after your feet? I am passionate about health and fitness. Not much anymore. My feet are pretty tough Experience has taught me how important it is. from contemporary. When I was full-time I will never take it for granted again, and I dancing, especially doing pointe work, I used want to help other people be healthy and fit to sometimes soak my blisters in salt water, and happy. but feet just get tough after time. I am passionate about living life to the fullest.

On days when you don’t feel much like Complete this sentence. At heart, I’m just a… dancing, how do you motivate yourself? Free spirit

Knit wits: Leg warmers

Research from 2007 at Harvard Medical School’s Mind and Body Institute found knitting induces the body’s natural relaxation response and lowers the heart rate by an average of 11 beats per minute. Because of this, it found blood pressure drops when knitting.

What’s more, a 2012 study from the Mayo Clinic examined the effects of activities including knitting, quilting and playing games in 1,321 older people, nearly 200 of whom had mild cognitive impairment and were in the intermediate stage between normal ageing and dementia. The researchers found that those who engaged in crafting, computer activities, knitting and reading books were 30-50% less likely to have mild cognitive impairment than those who did not.

The review of studies also linked knitting to: • Reducing depression and anxiety • Distracting from chronic pain • Increasing a sense of wellbeing • Reducing loneliness and isolation • Increasing sense of usefulness and inclusion in society.

So, these leg warmers will do your mind, your body and your soul an awful lot of good.

This is a recipe you can follow or not-follow exactly, you can stripe or not-stripe, but since there is no shaping, you will need to do the rib in a substantial length or they’ll fall down.

You will need: 200 g of light DK (double knitting, or 8-ply) Shetland yarn – the equivalent of four 50g balls, in one Main Colour (pink) and 5 remnant Contrast Colours: CC1 blue 1 dark CC2 cream CC3 blue 2 light CC4 beige CC5 camel (At a rough estimate, this means maybe 1-1.5 balls of pink and the rest in mixed colours.) Approximate quantity: between 600-700 yds or more if you want longer legwarmers.

You will also need: • Circular needles 4mm and 4.5mm OR DPNs (double pointed needles) for knitting in the round OR straight needles for knitting flat and seaming. • A bodkin for sewing in the ends, or the seam if you’re knitting them flat, OR straight needles for knitting flat and seaming. (A bodkin is a thick, blunt needle with a large eye, used to drawing tape or cord through a hem.) TO KNIT THEM FLAT Cast on using 4mm needles 68 + 2 seaming stitches using a long tail cast-on method. Row 1: P1, *K2, P2* repeat until 1 stitch from end, P1 Row 2: K1, *P2, K2* repeat until 1 stitch from end, K1 Repeat these two rows 34 times, forming a 2×2 rib with one selvedge stitch for seaming.

Continue in 4.5mm needles and stitch (knit on RS, purl on WS) for stripe pattern. The stripe pattern is four rows of two Contrast Colours followed by four rows of MC pink: 4 rows of each colour: CC1 blue 1 CC2 cream MC pink CC3 blue 2 CC4 beige MC pink CC3 blue 2 CC5 camel MC pink

Knit this set of stripes twice, then knit 4 rows each: CC1 blue 1 CC2 cream MC pink CC3 blue 2 CC4 beige Or if you want to knit them longer, knit the upper section 3 times (or more to your fancy). Finish with 34 rows of 2×2 rib as above, and cast off. Seam using mattress stitch. It probably goes without saying, but knit two.

TO KNIT THEM IN THE ROUND Cast on 68 sts on 4mm needles and join to knit in the round. I use Harmony circular needles with wooden tips, but your favourite will be absolutely fine, or your beloved DPNS would also work well. Round 1: place marker to mark beginning of round K2, P2 to end Round 2: K2 P2 to end. Yes, it’s the same! Repeat this round until you have 34 of them, and then changes to larger needles and start the striping in K stitches throughout. Note that in circular knitting that as well as no seaming, there are no purls in stocking stitch! Finish with 34 rows of 2×2 rib as above, and cast off. You need to make two.

Lovely! ......

Kathleen Curwen-Walker’s Indian Lamb Curry

We have raided Kathy’s old cookbook from her days in India to bring you this delicious, warm-me- up recipe that’s perfect for a winter’s night.

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil • 1 brown onion, finely chopped • 1 long red chilli, chopped, • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped • 2 tsp ground coriander • 2 tsp cumin • 1 tsp turmeric • 1 kg lamb, cubed • 500g Pontiac or desiree potatoes peeled, diced • 400g can crushed tomatoes • 150g baby spinach • 400 g plain yoghurt • warm naan bread, to serve

1 Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, chilli, garlic, coriander, cumin and turmeric. Cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until onion is soft. Transfer to a plate.

2. Increase heat to high. Heat remaining oil in saucepan until hot. Add lamb and cook for 3 minutes or until browned. Add onion mixture and potatoes. Stir to .

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add yoghurt, one spoonful at a time, to lamb, stirring well after each addition. Add tomatoes. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to med-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until lamb is tender.

4. Remove from heat. Stir in spinach. Cover and allow to stand for 3 minutes or until spinach is just wilted. Taste and season with salt. Serve with warm naan bread and extra yoghurt, if desired. Note: We used a 1.7kg lamb leg and removed the bone to get 1kg lamb......

3 astonishing images from the world of dance

Misty Copeland, classical and contemporary , prodigy, and the third African-American female (and the first in two decades) for the American Ballet Theatre.

She is currently the only black dancer in the American Ballet Theatre and one of its youngest soloists.

She once said about negativity and obstacles:

‘I’m 5’2”, I started when I was 13, I’m Black – there’s so many things. But I made it happen.’

...... Mary Helen Bowers, most famous for training Natalie Portman for her award-winning role in Black Swan, danced through her entire pregnancy.

“Even in 2013, the image of a pregnant woman embracing her figure and really putting it out there can be scary to some people, but I don’t let that stand in my way and I don’t think other women should either,” she wrote.

Just so as you know for the next time you’re going to New York… Mary Bowers is the founder of Ballet Beautiful TM and currently offers exclusive one-on-one private lessons in her New York studio as well as online.

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Adam Cooper in the final scene of Billy Elliott, where Billy dances the lead in Swan Lake as his emotionally overwhelmed father his son's triumphant debut. Cooper was once asked if he suffers for his art. ‘Yes,’ he said. Ballet is one of the most unnatural things you can do to your body. You’re working on empty, day in, day out.’ You can watch the last few moments of the film on YouTube, but I bet you won’t stay dry-eyed… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=989pUycUqAg ......

True story

Many of us have admired – and envied – Tracie Byerley Choi’s elegance on the dance floor. Here she shares the back story, and it’s a tale of insecurity and obsession many of us can relate to.

I started ballet at the age of 4. By the age of 12, puppy fat, pimples and puberty no longer agreed with the world of ballet, so I begged my mother to let me quit. There were many fierce arguments, but eventually she gave in and I was free of it.

A year or so passed and I began to miss it. I had slimmed down and was aching to dance again. Needless to say, I had to convince my mother all over again that I was serious.

It was the right decision and I became completely immersed in the life of a ballet dancer. Each year exams got harder, but I scraped through somehow. The frustrating part was that my year off meant that I was constantly a little behind my peers, always struggling to catch up. The feeling has never left me ... a bit like unfinished business.

Before my eighteenth birthday, I said my goodbyes and couldn't wait to cut and dye my hair (like Adriana!) The focus changed to travel, working and searching for a rich man.

I did a bit of Latin, ballroom and other dance styles, but whenever I attended the ballet or watched it on TV, there inevitably would be a few quiet tears.

Over the years, I secretly continued to twirl around the kitchen in my pointe . The arrival of eBay and TradeMe (online shopping) meant I could get new pointes and other gear without having to endure the condescending looks by staff at The Ballet Barre. Times have changed – hey, they were scary back then!

Many times, I looked into returning to ballet as an adult student at various schools but, in every case, I knew I would be the rare old dumpty one at the back that I suspected would be a source of great laughter to others.

The moment it all changed was watching Seven Sharp. It was like they were talking directly to me through the TV. The rest is history.

As for the benefits of dancing at AAAB, well, it's a long list. Health and exercise, the friendships and social life, the music, the variety of classes at different times, the feeling of acceptance and belonging (various shapes, sizes, ages and cultures), plus addressing that unfinished business I spoke of earlier. Most importantly, it’s the ballet itself. The tutors are wonderful and carefully chosen. Even the ones that look disarmingly young and perfect are very kind, down to earth and, in my experience, can assess my fitness level and technical ability and tailor the class accordingly.

The AAAB is a safe and private place to let your inner ballerina be all she and he can be. Meet our Dancer of the Month:

VERONIKA CHUDA

Did you dance when you were a child? If so, at what age did you start, and what kind of dance was it? Why did you stop?

I’d never danced before I started classes at AAAB. I’ve always loved watching dancing or figure skating but never thought I could actually start as an adult. Watching any dance video or live performance makes me wish I could dance How did you hear about the AAAB? How long like that. It’s just amazing. ago did you join? How did you feel the first time you walked into the studio? I’m not very flexible and my feet are very flat which makes it harder to keep balance when One morning, I was thinking how cool it would dancing. But I’m working on it:) be to start the contemporary dance. I thought that maybe there might be schools for What three adjectives would you use to complete beginners, so I just googled it. I live describe your class? in Royal Oak, so it was perfect to find a Energising, flowy, skill-building (is it an dancing studio just at my doorstep. I started adjective? :)) last year before Christmas. I liked the studio immediately, it’s a cozy little place. I was What do you get from ballet that you welcomed by Kathy who already remembered couldn’t get in any other way? What’s the me by name and showed me around. magic of ballet?

Did you set yourself any goals when you It’s about balance, coordination of joined? movements, feeling the music and improvement. It’s very different from doing a No, not really. I just thought I would do it to class in the gym where you train your muscles enjoy myself. and fitness because when you’re dancing Which class did you start in? What class or you’re actually learning something new and classes are you doing now? see improvements. It’s gentler to your body and energises you. I did the beginner initiation course and then moved on to the contemporary dance. What difference (if any) has studying at the AAAB made to your life? What factors in your daily life away from ballet contribute to your coming along to It makes me happy to do something I enjoy. lessons? What discourages you or makes it I’m focusing on becoming more flexible and I difficult? exercise for my flat fleet.

What do your friends or other people in your I know I’ll feel much better after the class. family say about your study at the AAAB? Plus, I think of how much behind I would be with our dance and it always makes me go:) They all think it’s great and want a showcase:) Why do you think you were chosen as Outside classes, do you do other kinds of Dancer of the Month? exercise? A little encouragement from Kathy and I go to the outdoors whenever I can. I do lots Sophie. Thanks! of hiking, biking and skitouring in winter. During the week I go to the gym to do some What should every ballet dancer keep in cardio or body balance. their bag apart from ballet and a water bottle? Name 5 things. On days when you don’t feel like bothering, how do you encourage yourself to get along A hair band and hair clip are useful, plus a to class? t- and pants. I usually also have a little snack with me.

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KEEP IN MIND...

Saturday, June 23 Mid-Year Display, 12.30 – 2.00 pm Saturday, June 23 Bookings open for Term 3 classes Friday, June 29 Term 2 ends Saturday, June 30 Cecchetti exam entries close Saturday, June 30 Term 3 begins Saturday, 21 July Pirouette and Balance Workshop Saturday, 4 August Social Night (and Farewell for Tharina) ......

The Auckland Academy of Adult Ballet 1 Pearce St, Onehunga, Auckland 1061

Principal Kathleen Curwen-Walker Email [email protected] Website www.nzballet.co.nz Facebook @aucklandadultballet Instagram auckadultballet