Gee!

Before I enrolled at the Turning Point School of Ballet, I naturally researched about the school and its staff. I found minimal information through the internet: Ms. Mylene Saldana used to dance with Ballet Philippines.

After enrolling and about two classes, I asked my classmates. They gave me a little more information about our instructor: She's been a professional dancer since the age of 14 and has trained extensively under various teachers and in various schools locally and abroad. Her mother was a ballerina also. Our school had a campus in Makati and in Cebu. She is also a staff member of other schools in Metro Manila and in Davao.

I was pretty impressed and awed by then. I had no specifics but, shucks, look at her! She's incredible!

Then I got this weird idea to google her again tonight, a sort of break from keeping up with the news about our national crisis. And I found an article published in March 2005. And I got a whole lot of specific information:

"MYLENE S. SALDANA

Mylene started dancing at the age of 6 under the guidance of her mother, Solita Sta. Maria Saldana. In 1987, she was offered a scholarship by the Cultural Center of the Philippines dance school in their summer workshop. Thereafter, she began to take up dancing in earnest. She enrolled at the Radaic School of Dancing (St. Theresa’s College, Q.C.) where she received rigorous training in classical ballet technique using the Royal Academy of Dancing (London) syllabus. There she received outstanding results from an international network of trained examiners. A year later, she was accepted as an apprentice by the Dance Theater Philippines (UP Diliman) and a company member the following year, dancing major roles in the company’s repertoire.

Mylene joined the Philippine Ballet Theater (Meralco Building, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City) in 1990 and became soloist from 1991-1992. While with the company, she was personally coached by Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and became a finalist in the 1991 3rd Asia Pacific Ballet Competition in Tokyo, Japan where she competed with 300 contestants all over Asia-Pacific.

In 1993, Mylene was a recipient of a scholarship from the Atlanta Ballet School (Georgia, USA). Due to her superb and spectacular performance, she was asked by the director of the Atlanta Ballet Company to be a part of their Educational Outreach Program. In the summer of the same year, she was once again awarded a scholarship from the Joffrey Ballet School (New York, USA) and had the privilege of working with the best teachers and choreographers around the world. She was also invited as guest artist with the Atlanta South Dance Company, Clayton Ballet Festival Company, Georgia Ballet and Agnes Scott University.

Mylene is a bonafide institutional member of the Association of Ballet Academies, Philippines (ABAP), a registered teacher of the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet (ACB), and attendee to the Philippine Ballet Syllabus Years I-VIII teacher’s seminar and an independent dance artist for Dance Forum, a contemporary dance company.

Mylene has a wide teaching and choreographing experience in renowned schools in Manila namely: Turning Point School of Ballet at Celebrity Club (Director), Makati Sports Club, Pink Toes Center for the Performing and Musical Arts Antipolo (Ballet Head) and Fairview, O.B. Montessori Center, St. Stephen College, Radaic School of Classical Ballet, Miriam College, Assumption College-San Lorenzo, Child’s Place, Multiple Intelligence International School and Brent International School. She is also a visiting teacher and choreographer at the Royeca Ballet School in General Santos City and Davao City."

Oh wow! That's my teacher?!

The Distant Threat =)

I’m trying to think of an excuse to wearing socks 24/7 inside our house when I go home. Mom is going to kill me when she sees my feet. Two nails are no longer attached to the nail bed by three-fourths of their area. I have three nails going black too. And the blisters. And the wounds. This was one of the reasons Mom didn’t want to pay for my ballet tuition. She said I’ll just ruin my feet. Well, I have. But I still think it’s worth it. I'm hoping that the weeks I don't attend ballet class (because of final exams and thesis papers) will give my feet time to heal. If two weeks isn't enough, I'll have to face Mom's wrath. She really likes my feet. She thinks they're very pretty. Is this a Mom thing or is it just my Mom?

Last night when classes were canceled, Fiona and me satisfied our deprivation by holding our own class here in the dorm. I taught her the barre exercises since I’ve memorized them and then some of the center exercises. She’s still not familiar with all the terms so it’s hard for her to catch up in class. She was satisfied at understanding and memorizing three barre exercises: Plié, Battement Tendu and Rond de Jambe. And she was looking forward to joining me when I practiced them over the week.

Imagine her dismay when Ms. Mylene announces that next weekend, she’s teaching us a whole new set of exercises. Flabbergasted is hardly the word.

Class was good. I’m getting really chummy with pirouettes on my right leg from fifth and fourth. My “lefties” still need cleaning up and I still can’t find my center when I do releve passes on my left leg. But just as I was beginning to love them instead of loath them, Ms Mylene challenges Marion, Dione, and me to work towards double pirouettes. Ballet class resembles a song in round robin. Except in this case, you begin one thing while you’re still in the middle of something else.

We also did training exercises for fouettés and chainés. Chainés turns to the left are hell. I’m not a left turner. I get lost in the middle of the floor. That or I start doing it to the right again. But that didn’t suck so much because no one’s a left turner in our class so we were all uniformly messy to look at. Ms. Mylene stopped the music and asked us, “What is happening? You’re all all over the place.” She made us do it twice before she gave up and told us to practice that for next class.

I still can’t go over on my left. So the pique arabesques on my left were another waterloo tonight. What am I going to do with this leg and foot?! Doing it on my right leg is fine. I could go on and on. Sigh. Splitting with my left leg in front is a piece of cake. Doing splits any other way seems impossible but, fine, patience Krissy and you'll get there.

You know that ugly feeling where you feel like you’re the worst student in the class? It’s nice to not feel that all the time now. There are lots of newbies in class. I’m evil, I know.

Class Cancelled

Ugh! Our President declared a state of emergency, classes were suspended on all level of education, Mom wants me to get out of the capital, and ballet classes were canceled.

I spent the entire day, draped on my bed, doing stretches every now and then. And then I'd attend to fleeting academic modes that got me through just four pages of Nanparametric Stat.

I want ballet! =(

What gives?

My Achilles tendon hurts whenever I do exercises for my arches. Is it supposed to do that?

So far:

March: Concentrate on strengthening arches and calves for releves and improving core strength for turns and balance.

April: Concentrate on flexibility in hips and in lower back.

May: Work on frappes and nonexistent extensions.

June: Work on jumps. Should be able to do decent grand jete.

New Look for New Challenges Ahead

The other template, as lovely as it was, was getting rather tedious. So I hope you (my fictional reader) enjoy the new look. It needs tweaking I know but I'll have to do that later on.

Ms. Mylene has taken us from two days a week of center work in pointes to having all our classes in pointes from start to finish. Of course, we do warm-ups before slipping our toes shoes in so my arches aren't complaining all that much.

Barre work tunred out to be more difficult in pointe shoes. We have to releve to pointe instead of demipointe and all the battement frappe and degages are killing us all. WE're sweating and grunting like pigs. But we're all having great fun. The new reality of how weak your body is creates another challenge of trying to strengthen it until you can do even if just the barre exercises right.

Ms. Mylene spared us the horror of battement degage devant. We almost fell to her feet.

I never seem to strike the balance between my sides. My left leg and foot were stronger than my right side at the beginning. But now, my right leg is the one who can really sustain that pointe work and I have a wonderful arch that helps me during the center work with those pesky arabesques. It looks like I overshot the strengthening exercises on my right side so now it's stronger.

Meanwhile, the left side has compensated by being more flexible and supple. My left side used to be so stubborn during stretches. Looks like I overshot the stretching on this side.

Blisters were scraped open during the class. I forgot to bring my tape along and I was too shy to use my classmate's tape liberally. So now, I have three bandaged digits which give me hell in the shower. Never. Ever. Forget your toe tape!

Haha. I did a single, CLEAN! pirouette! With my right leg as the working leg of course. The sad thing was I couldn't repeat it. Durg! I have a nasty habit of whipping my foot back then front during the turn. It's like I'm excited to do foettes which is such a high ambition for one who can hardly perform a single turn. Pirouettes from fifth are hell. I like them from fourth.

We've graduated from Saturday Pointe Class to Friday AND Saturday Pointe Class. Geez, my Achilles tendon is killing me and I've successfully murdered two more nails. We tried nailing pirouettes on pointe but I landed on my butt after spinning half of the way. Butt sore but at least I got around by 180 degrees which shouldn't be so bad compared to not being able to releve and turn at all.

Oh did I mention the blisters? Yeah, I have five as of latest count. Where in the world are they coming from?! I'm taping all of my toes already and using a spacer. All this padding calls for serious experimentation. I'm thinking the bruised toenails and blisters are obvious signs that I haven't gotten the right "concoction" of padding yet. That or I really need new toe-pads.

I still love ballet.

Our 2006 Ballet Curriculum

Barre

Plié (Ecarté)

--- tendu to 2F/grand plié/side stretch to barre/side stretch away from barre/1A-2A-allongé+rise/tendu to 1F/2 demiplie/grand plié+rollover+rise/stretch forward/stretch back/tendu to 2F/swivel to effacé/plié on 4F/tendu back +stretch back/plié on 4th/tendu front+demiflex/stretch front+tendu front/close to 5th/2 demiplié/grand plie+rollover+rise/port de bras barre front side/port de bras barre back side

Tendu

--- 3 tendu heel, on third tendu point. do to front, side and back/demi plié+rollover+rise balance in bras bra

Battement Degagé

--- Start from 1F. degagé to 1F, degagé to front, degagé to 1F, degagé to back (2x)/degagé to front (4x)/degagé to back(3x)/degagé to 1F. Reverse./Plié+rollover+rise, balance in first.

Rond de Jambe

--- Start from fifth./Rond de jambe a terre en dehors 2x, plie on third/cloche to back, retiré passe to front(3x)/Rond de jambe en l'air (F-S-B), close back. Repeat reverse.

Battement Tendu

--- fifth. to front (3x), swivel, close fifth. fifth to front (3x), swivel, side, close back. fifth to back (3x), swivel, close fifth. fifth to back(3x), swivel. close back. to side (3x) swivel to barre, swivel back. close back. to side(3x), swivel away from barre, swivel back, close front.

Developpé

--- coup-de-pied, releve passe, developpe to side hold for five counts, close to fifth (4x) do to back and front, 4x each.

Battement Frappé

--- Front, Back, F, B, F, Side, B, F, B, F, B, S, F, B/do one set without demipointe making sure to strike floor then another set on demipointe.

Battement Fondu-Developpé

--- start on fifth, prep to demipointe/fondu>devant+demiflex+demipoint/ fondu>a la seconde+demiflex+demipoint/ fondu>derriere+demiflex+demipointe/close fifth, pas de bourre/inside leg to attitude as you swivel, ponche, recover to arabesque, close front. repeat.

Grand Battement

--- start in fifth. throw front, point, close, arms in fifth. cloche, arm to arabesque, close back. throw back, point, close. cloche, arm to fifth, close front. throw side+arm in second, point, close front. degage to side, fondu+arm to bras bra, throw side+releve, close fifth, full port-de-bras (F-Br-B-S) releve and full port-de-bras (S-B-Br-F)