I think instructional videos can work well for some types of dance. After feeling like a complete idiot in Quenia Ribeiro's beginner Samba class at Alvin Ailey, I bought her video and am doing so much better learning on my own. It starts from basic and builds gradually to advanced, so you can go at your own pace, and only look at yourself in the mirror after you've practiced for a while without one and are ready to be faced with the sad reality that is your dancing... (no, just kidding :) But I do think looking at yourself in the mirror in those classes can be very daunting and counter-productive, especially for beginners...)

Anyway, Quenia's Samba DVD is perfect for self-learning. But I'd think ballet might be harder since the technique is so specific and potentially dangerous -- you really need a teacher at the beginning stages to make sure you're, for ex., turning out properly from the hip and not elsewhere, not jumping on straight knees, etc. -- ballet's hard to teach yourself, unfortunately. Of course, I don't know if you get much more from open adult classes where the teachers don't give that much instruction because everyone in the class has been there for years. They really should have beginner beginner BEGINNER classes -- where you start with learning the first five positions and do basic plies and tendus for an hour! Why don't they have those anywhere? Argh!

Hi Tonya,

I don't see using self-instruction videos for ballet independent of class instruction - just as a way to supplement the class. As you point out, you don't always receive as much direction as you would like.

Good luck with the Samba dancing!

Hi and thanks for the blogspot!

This is just a quickie, as I am on my way out, so I - or my brother will be back shortly -;)

As for the initial class and teaser - these are meant for experienced seniour students and professionals.

That said, our next release will be a 15 minutes fouette pirouette study, which is encoded as I write -;)

We also start shooting a "Ballet dictionary" next month, going in depth on single subjects.

The idea with the class is to give seniour students without access to daily classes the opportunity to train a multitude of classes with a multitude of teachers.

I am btw not the dance-pro in the production, but represent the production facility.

We partnered with the Grazer Oper for the first shoot, but will work with other companies and - hopefully - schools for the next.

Thanks for the feedback - it is a great help!

Sincerely
Gunleik Groven

.... ahh - and two more thing.

We will fit the DVD with a thorough teacher correction and also release a warm-up class to answer some more of your questions...

and:
I agree that the shop situation is not good! -;)

We worked with a partner on the shop untill two weeks before the release, but had to call it a day, as the shop was never finished.

The yahoo shop does not allow for bigger files than 14 mb, so we have to host the biger files ourself.
We're working to find a better solution for this. Actually all comerce is handled by Paypal as it is - both the Yahoo and our own downloads. We added the Yahoo one to get the shopping-cart.

Gunleik

Hi,
My name is Ingve Groven, and I am the teacher of the first Buy a Class classes.

The initial idea of Buy a Class is to offer an additional instrument for training to advanced and professional ballet dancers.

We are not intending to replace any teachers schools or others, on the contrary, we are working together with schools.

Ingve

hi,

After having a look at the sample plie and adagio exercises i will certainly be buying them. they are not intended for beginners. they are for experienced dancers (that understand the technique and terminology) that wish to be able to do class at home.

I personally would have to travel for hours where i live at the moment to do any suitable ballet classes, so this is perfect for me! I can use the videos to maintain my technique until I can resume classes when I move in a few months. They are also greatly inspiring watching such beautiful dancers demonstrate. I think this is a wonderful idea.

And this is exactly how an open ballet class is run. The teachers are not there to tell you what you are doing wrong. They demonstrate the exercise and then you dance it. I use it as an opportunity to concentrate on my technique and try and correct the problems I know I have!

Liz,

Much thanks for sharing your thoughts about these instructional videos.

I have a feeling that the biggest challenge for myself will be finding videos, especially for ballet, that break everything down into very easy-to-understand and digestible parts. I want absolutely nothing taken for granted and I'd like to learn ballet from the ground up.

Doug,

we are bringing out a "walk through the barre" in the next times.

This is a film where through film, pictures and audio comments you are taken through a detailed explanation of all steps being done in a regular ballet barre.

We have gotten the beautiful principal dancer with the Hamburg Ballet, Kusha Alexi, to be the example dancer for this film.

We hope to support young and less experienced dancers with this film in their desire to improve their ballet technique and knowledge.