by Aashaya Anand & Arpitha Bhat from En Avant Magazine September October 2022 The villains and antagonists we see in ballet represent our unfiltered emotions — rage, fury, envy and so on. Instead of suppressing these emotions, they embody them. They serve as more than just a means of conflict for the main character, often having more character than the ...
Curious about Vocational Ballet School?
from En Avant Magazine - July August 2022 Vocational ballet schools are quite unlike the regular schools that most of us attend. Whether they are day schools or boarding schools, the students there spend most of their days dancing. Ballet school students under 16 also learn regular subjects like math, languages and science. While they train in their art with ...
World Ballet Day – November 2, 2022
World Ballet Day was created in 2014 by several dance companies across the globe. It brings together dancers and dance enthusiasts in a great celebration of ballet. Company classes, rehearsals and interviews are live streamed for anyone to watch for free, with large companies such as the Australian Ballet, The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet taking the main stage ...
A Whole New World – Rukmini Vijayakumar
by Maya Haridas, Aradhana Kiran & Siddhie Pillai, as seen in En Avant July-August Feature photo by Soozana Pvan Rukmini Vijayakumar is a very well reputed dancer, choreographer and actor in regional films. She is the founder of the Raadha Kalpa Dance Company and the originator of the Raadha Kalpa Method, a system of training for classical Indian dance. She ...
Boys in Ballet
When we hear the word ballet, most of us think of girls in pink tutus and women dancing on their toes. Let's put a stop to that misconception now, and highlight one of the most important parts of classical ballet as an art - the male dancer. What would a pas de deux (partner dance, or 'step of two') be ...
The Beginnings of TLFCB
From En Avant Issue 3, March - April 2022 It is 1999, in a small village on the Kashmir - Pakistan border. A group of children are playing together when suddenly a strange, foreign woman with shiny golden hair steps out of a house and joins them. Bending and stretching, jumping and skipping, she teaches them movements that they have ...
Ballet on the Big Screen – The Secret Garden
by Aradhana Kiran, Maya Haridas and Siddhie Pillai Today we are looking at a ballet for our younger dancers - The Secret Garden by London Children's Ballet (LCB). A fun, joyous and beautiful adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic book of the same name. This ballet will be screened in the coming months for all students from Pre-Primary and above. ...
Prix de Lausanne Highlights
BY MAYA HARIDAS The finals of the 2022 edition of the Prix De Lausanne took place in Montreux, Switzerland on the 5th of February. If you were not able to catch the finals, or just want the results, here is a quick round up. What is the Prix? The Prix de Lausanne is an international dance competition held annually in ...
The Importance of a Constructive Learning Environment
As teachers, it is our responsibility to provide a positive learning environment for our students. A positive learning environment includes feeling a sense of belonging and trust in others. It is also about feeling encouraged to tackle challenges, take risks, and a place without distractions. In dance especially, it also includes a clear, undisturbed space for the students to move, ...
Classical Dance – Can I Learn More Than One Style?
When new students join us at the foundation, a question that often arises is whether learning another classical dance form, such as Bharatanatyam, Kathak or Odissi, will be helpful or a hindrance to learning classical ballet. Our answer is always that it can be helpful under the right circumstances. Let’s take a look at why with the help of professionals ...