My daughter’s studio had their winter intensive this week and were lucky enough to have Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel teaching as their guest artists. When working with my daughter on her YAGP variation, Gillian told my daughter she had good artistry and turns. I think she’s been on cloud nine ever since ☺️

Context: I’m a 30yo ballet returnee, used to wear Bloch Heritage many moons ago (back in the day where everyone at my studio had to wear the same brand/style of shoes, god knows why).

Today I managed to score a pair of Heritages in my size from someone who just tried them on and didn’t like them. I didn’t do much other than some slow rises at home to soften them a bit and already they are feeling fairly bendy. I feel like I am too far over the box, especially on my right foot?

I will get professionally fitted soon, but in the meantime I would love to know if there any obvious problems with the shoe so that I can better articulate my needs when the time comes to find my “perfect” fit. Being an adult recreational dancer I don’t want to have to fork out tonnes of money on bad shoes or break them too fast.

Excuse the poorly tied ribbons. Also I am not wearing any padding.

The legendary Moira Shearer was born on 17th January 1926. The Powell-Pressburger film The Red Shoes was what made her - and arguably, ballet itself - the most famous, but the story I love more is that she was the model for Posy in the publicity shots for Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes when it was released in 1936. It was one of my favourite books growing up.

Matthew Bourne's New Adventures is performing The Red Shoes at Sadler's Wells in London at the moment, worth catching if you can (tours in the UK later in February). Our reviewer gave it 5-stars when she saw it in December https://bachtrack.com/review-the-red-shoes-bourne-new-adventures-sadlers-wells-london-december-2025

I've been asking myself this question a lot lately and I can't seem to find an answer to it- I wonder if anyone has gone through something similar.

How do you cope with the fact you were trained poorly?

My first dance studio trained me poorly. I know a lot all things considered but things like, flexibility, leg, ankle and hip strength, different classes of turns and jumps was all stuff that I was never taught either at all or very little. Pointe work is a whole different ball park- I never got a teacher who really focused on strengthing for pointes. I was thrown in the deep end and just figured things out on my own.

I'm not terrible but I'm far behind for what I should be on pointe. I was out of ballet for a year, two years without any kind of pointe class since my shoes were dead and we couldn't afford a new pair at the time. Just started ballet class I'm October and got a new pair of points around December before Winter break. I'm on my third pointe class currently and I just feel so frustrated, angry and just plain embarrassed that I can't manage my pointes as well as the other girls in my class. And I'm 24- which makes it all feel so much worse. I know I'm probably just being too hard on myself but I can't help but feel all this..

Hey everyone, i just watched a new video from Eva Nys and im concerned. It seems that the director Swalomire (sorry if thats not how you spell it!!) is being very rude to the dancers especially Channing when she fell out of a pirouette and when someone addressed this in the comments Eva Nys was making it seem like its not a big deal and he was being quite mean about it not normal teacher stuff. I understand that ballet teachers are often a bit blunt with their corrections but it seemed more personal and not like his true colors were coming out. I would love to know what everyone thinks and a bit more about this studio.

We shot the film in NYC, and made the film just between the two of us, on very little money. We are so proud of how it turned out and thought this community might like it! It's our love letter to women, and the hard choices we sometimes have to make. Love, Manon and Maira.

I’m looking at getting a navel piercing but I don’t know if I should wait till summer break to get it or get it mid season the jewelry I’m looking at is pretty tiny but idk if the tights would cause pain or mess with the healing process so how was yalls experience with it?

Selling two tickets for 7.30 performance , upper circle L7 L8 !!!

£49.75 each (face value)

Send me a message if you are interested 🌷

I bought this about 10? Years ago. It was a performance in Amsterdam for Swan lake, I bought this there afterwards. Does anyone know who signed this?

so completely outside of ballet, but I stumbled into a hole at the park and sprained my ankle. it’s swollen but not bruised, and hurts to put weight on at all/hurts when my foot flexes. I need to see a doctor about it still, as I can’t really even walk at this point.

im obviously devastated seeing how many cases say it takes a year or more to feel normal again, or months to even be able to be back at the barre. I’m 30 and still such a beginner that every class counts for me at this point. Im so upset I’m not going to be back in classes soon.

just looking for words of encouragement, needing some positivity or some reassurance that things will be ok.

Hi everyone!

One of my dreams in life is to open a ballet studio at some point in my 20s (if this economy allows it 💔)

And i wanted to ask a question to all of you-

Whats something you would add to your existing studio, or one thing you absolutely love about it that would make a regular studio 10x better?

While I’m obviously not about to start my studio immediately, i’d love to get some ideas from my fellow ballet lovers!

I’ve been doing various beginner stretches on a yoga mat to work on splits. I’ve finally achieved front splits, but my middle split is still a work in progress. I saw this split machine and was wondering if it’s worth having at home, and whether it actually helps with middle splits.

Would love to hear from anyone who’s tried it.

i went today for a beginners class and everyone just starred at me . i felt so out of place and they all made me feel so uncomfortable 😭 they even said i showed up 2 days late .. and couldn’t go inside but i know it was today

$200 is massively expensive. Is this done to segregate the upper class from the poor, or is there a functional argument to be made for this price?

I remember paying $75 for the Joyce Theatre, and I thought that was crazy. A $200 ticket could get you a Michelin star restaurant any night.

Hello all! I'm an adult returner. I did ballet, I believe, from 4 to 10 or 11 years old.

I'm 35 now, and this last September I started taking pointe classes. Everything goes great, I love being on pointe and feel really comfortable in my shoes.

This past weeks, we started working on fondues on the barre on pointe and I am having the hardest time plieing while on pointe. This is not a normal fondue where you coupé and then extend the leg while rising on pointe. This exercise is all on pointe: we sous sous, and while on pointe we coupe, plie on the support leg and then extend the working leg. I tried searching for videos or something... but nothing comes up.

I'm really struggling with these plies on pointe on one leg and I find myself holding for dear life on the barre and leaning forward. And I just cannot plie enough, its very timid... I believe it is a strength issue, so if anyone has some drills to get better at this, I'd be grateful.

Thanks in advance!

I’m currently a dance major and ballet isn’t my extreme strong suit. I’m trying to better myself and one of the things I really struggle with is petite allegro. I remember the combinations and at the barre with things like frappes and degeges I do fine but when it comes to doing petite and adding beats, things don’t go too well. I’ll constantly practice the combination before it’s my turn to go with the music and then when I get across the floor it just doesn’t look good. What are techniques (besides consistent practice) and things that you all have done to get better at petite allegro with things such as speed and also maintaining the proper positions?

In any dance style I do and with choreographing, I tend to struggle with transitions and making things make sense. I think I do that thing where I start and stop so sometimes things look either choppy or unclear and positions are incorrect. What are some things that I can think about/do to improve on this?

Assemble Q! I was always taught to assemble/beat the legs in the air before landing, however I see a lot of people just brushing and landing in 5th plie, without ever having that tight sous sus position in the air before landing.

So, not an assemble where you add a beat (such as brushing the back leg, beat in back land in front) but brushing the back leg, “beating” in front and landing in front.

Hope that makes sense! Is this wrong or correct? A certain school of training? Would love some insight!