every WEDNESDAY
The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan October 12.1977
Learning a new step is awkward, unwilling feet must be trained
Their eyes flicker and forth from the instructor's feet to their own unsure images in the full-length mirrors. Their slippers rattle lightly across the polished floor as classical music carries the beat;
The faces of two dozen young women are arrested studies in tight-tight concentration, searching for a graftful image, searching for a graftful image.
A few women find it. Most don't. Ballet - I don’t have the fluid technique needed where dancers fly into summer-time dreams. Here, beginning ballerinas struggle for a while, make mistakes and laugh aloud at
But there is a tinge of prima ballerina "hauteine." The women have a pride in their developing skills, even those who are taking the class only for a release of the week's tensions. After eight hours, all but Ballerina struggles to learn the basics, where a beginner's form may progress from stumbling embarrassment to sophisticated flight.
"Ballet is total. Every part of you has a function," Kristin
Manley, instructor of one of the three Ballet I classes, said.
Out on the wooden floor the students, sheathed in leathers, try their plies and chasses and avoid two plastic sheets placed to catch the water dripping from the ceiling.
Some of the women twinkle-toe, most come close to the right technique and the rest make the best it all. Baller for the class is a constant battle of mind against body, where each muscle and organ is engaged in repetition to move elegantly into lines that make baller the lively art it is.
That takes a lot of self-discipline.
Always the shoulders must be above the hips, the knees must be bent at the right time and the toes must be pointed down when making a step.
"Frustration is having the mental capabilities and having your brain send out signals to about 10 parts of your body." Manley said.
Heidi Gknechc, Prairie Village junior, said, "It's frustering when you can't pick up things quickly. But I don't feel so much pressure in class because I know everyone else is beginning also."
The symphony again envelopes the room as the ballerinas stand sideways before the mirror, finger-tapping their hands to stretching the length of the room. Their faces go blank as their concentration on maintaining a venusian balance.
Slowly they lift a foot, place it forward and then behind the other ankle.
"For a beginner, it is such an effort and that's such a strain on you," Mansley said. "With the styles and techniques, it's unnatural to what we use in our lives, and that makes it harder to learn."
The ideal body of a dancer, male or female, has a nice foot arch, long legs and strong abdominal and back muscles, Manley said.
"In our classes you'll have a couple students who have the body that makes it a lot easier," she said. "With other students, they will be able to mentally approach a more cognitive manner."
The pursuit of that moment when it all fits together with woven into the mind another thread of the tale, another tapestry, of extreme vanity.
"In any kind of dance you have to be kind of narcissistic, Gutknecht said, grinning. "It's not that you're vain, but you have to make sure you're doing everything right."
And for that, each dancer of every shape and talent must remove the clutter of the ego.
"I know it it's a frustrating thing for a student to look at her body," Manley said. "And a dancer has to leave her ego out of the classroom or it doesn't work. When you know the students are interested in their bodies, then you start to realize the expressive things they can do."
A few students may have their eyes set on professional ballet and the big-city spotlight. Most, however, are the just fun.
Dance for me
Teaching classes of 40 students can be hectic for Willie Lenoir, Ballet I instructor. New students are eager, but Lenoir must spend hours sending his charges through previously forgotten steps.
Story by Leon Unruh Photos by Eli Reichman
A complicated dance calls for concentration, Kim Cochran, Gardner junior, discovers. Like most Ballet I students, Cochran does not plan to major in dance. She just enjoys it.
Heidi Gutknecht, Prairie Village junior, spends an average of six hours week practicing outside the allotted class time. The hours are sometimes lonely.