Butterfly performances were a great success and not only the audience but also the dancers loved it. We had a lot of characters, beautiful new costumes, new props and above all new challenges! It was fun, but after returning home late at night I felt extremely tired. However I am very happy now, I love the atmosphere at the shows, and the fact people want and come to see us. Ha! Who would have thought? It's a bit unreal for me, but so fantastic! It's a great feeling when so much of our time, training, working on the choreography, so many corrections and advices, many sacrifices suddenly turn into a spectacle. Thanks to our collective efforts, magic happens in front of the audience eyes. Each one of us is important and brings some value to the final form of the performance. It starts from the idea of a show, choreography, performance, costumes... even people closing curtains. Our efforts create the magic on the stage :) what a wonderful feeling to take part in it!


Butterfly (Le Papillon) was an extraordinary spectacle - it is uncommon, with unique choreographies. I think the audience liked it although nobody knew that ballet before. For me it is also a special spectacle, not only because of the role, beautiful costumes and scenography, but also because for the first time someone not from my family bothered to see me on stage. It is an extremely nice feeling when you receive flowers from your friends who wanted to come to Warsaw! Thank you! I still cannot believe that I am fulfilling my old timid dreams.


By the way an interesting coincidence happened - it turned out that three dancers had birthday the same day - I, N. and G. March 13. After the performances we celebrated birthdays with the cake and champagne. During the celebration one thought came to me as a striking truth - it's good to be kind. It's not deep or philosophical one, but true - you should be nice. Not only decent, which, as it turns out is a feature almost extinct, but above all benevolent; kind. It is true that good energy comes back to us and brings positive surprises and valuable relationships. It is perhaps a simple idea and looks like taken out of agricultural almanac, but guide yourself with it and you will not only feel at peace with yourself, but also you will receive good in return.
A long time ago Erasmus Desiderius wrote:

can any one love another that first hates himself? Is it likely any one should agree with a friend that is first fallen out with his own judgment? Or is it probable he should be any way pleasing to another, who is a perpetual plague and trouble to himself?

It's a beautiful and clever quote for consideration for all of us :)




BTW on the photo you can see gift from Natalie :)

Ok, here we go!

We all know how should our dream lesson look like (or maybe not? ;), but how bad one looks like? When should the red light flash before your eyes and warn you? What is the difference between a good ballet (or any other dance) class from the bad one? When we go to the first class  we rarely know what to expect, so it's easy to have a poor teacher and do not even know about it ... I went to many different classes with different teachers before, on some I learned more, on others nothing, even though they seemed interesting and I felt the free time was nicely spent. Therefore, I made some summary for you to avoid taking bad ballet lessons and waste your precious time :)

1. Pop instead of classical - if it happened once to break the conventional way, there's nothing to worry about.  But if your teacher regularly plays Beyonce instead of Rachmaninoff that's a sign  something is wrong. You are not in the ladies styling class, you are in ballet one, and you should learn to move in this style. Familiarity with the music is a part of the learning process and without it, it is hard to talk about the classical dance at all. This music will not only help you learn the movements, but also will make you aware of the tempo and sensitive to its nuances and thus you will dance in rhythm to the music rather than  only perform moves out of context.

2. Giving remarks/advices  - without them, you are not making any progress. If you feel ignored during class , change the teacher/studio or ask what you're doing wrong. Sometimes you have to get yourself noticed in such way to attract teachers attention.

3. Chillout approach - we all know that we are on the ballet class for adults but ... well still we want to make progress and move forward. You can not do that, if a teacher does not give you feedback and make sure your technique is correct and allows people eg. do jazz pirouettes instead of classical ones! If you feel that the atmosphere is so recreational, that you stand in one place, not making any progress at all, change the studio.

4. Lack of control - if people are talking in class, making other distractions and thus spoiling a lesson and the teacher does not remark  them  you are loosing time. A lot of time is wasted on chatting or complaining or jokes and it's fun and all, but you are paying money not to chat and chillout to develop some real skills. You pay for the time, so utilize it one hundred percent! If in the class there is much talking but no doing, immediately run away from there!

5. The teacher does not teach ballet / does not teach in accordance with the classical training - Well ... the first lesson can be hard to know whether a teacher is reliable. But you come to class because you want to learn the classical dance not eg. jazz. You should be cautious if someone teaches without a barre (?!), but with elements of jazz, or it looks like a mix of ballet with fitness. It's bad because you will learn bad habits that are worse to ged rid of than having none. In the end, Vaganowa invented the principles of classical dance for a reason, and they are taught in schools for many years ...

6. The teacher does not notice, that this  lesson is  for adults - two problems here: there are children in your class and teacher ignores all adults; or she is giving you too difficult combinations not adjusted to the group level. The latter applies to not only the moves but also excessive stretching, which can result in injury (!) Excessive turnout of feet made by force and everything "by force and quickly." is bad for your body. Quick results and rubber tendons are childrens attributes. Adults need to be given a little more time and be treated with care in order not to damage the joints and muscles. Your body is your temple take special care of it and it will reward you with many unexpectable surprises.


These are just a few examples of signs that immediately should  make you consider changing teacher or studio. Maybe you know other examples of badly conducted lessons?

Valentine's Day approaches. Shops dyed themselves in red, offering Love signs all over everything. But among these hearts and sweets is there anything for you? Do you want to get a teddy bear, chocolates and flowers once again? Maybe you want something more practical and... associated with your passion?  If ballet is your second love (or first!) you will LOVE those gift ideas I have prepeared for you:



1. Massage roller - every dancer's favourite! It's a little pricey, but you can find cheaper alternatives on the web.

2. Leg warmers - every dancer loves them! They are in so many colors and patterns! And are fairly cheap :)

3. Rubber band - helps strenghtening your foot muscles and deepening the arch, there are various degrees of stifness varying from easy soft flexible ones to pro hard ones.

4. Pointe covers - we all know pointe shoes like to get dirty ( ;) ) very quickly.Every dancer would appreciate such practical gift.

5. Balance board - improves your balance, ideal for every ballet-freak!

6. Ankle weights - if you want to lift that leg higher, you must have some strength!

7. Ballet slippers - every dancer gets through many pairs, you can never have too many shoes....

8. Ballet tights -  always useful, prefarably with a hole under the foot, to easily get to it when necessary.

Hope you like my Valentine's Day gift ideas for ballet dancers. Go ahead and show this post to your partners, maybe it will inspire them to buy something associated with your passion :)