u/Ornery_Ad8540

Who has used catalogues for recital costumes before Covid? I took a few years off from teaching due to COVID, having kids, and moving. I remember beautiful ballet/lyrical costumes made from chiffon and crepe being the norm. Now 99% of the dresses are spandex or “power mesh”. What happened?! Do these materials flow and twirl as nicely as chiffon? I have been avoiding them the past few years by sticking to tulle costumes, but I need to change it up this year. Maybe I’m just a curmudgeonly old ballet teacher now… but back in my day we wore chiffon!

I am looking for recommendations on resources for male ballet instruction (books, videos, websites, social media, whatever). I have a teenage male student for the first time in an intermediate/advanced level ballet class and I want to be sure I am not neglecting traditional male steps/artistry. Note: it is not a partnering class and I don’t plan to cover partnering but I am still interested in resources for that as well.

I have some teenage students who have minimal ballet training. I want to recommend some videos of iconic/inspiring performances to them. What are your favorites? Links would be helpful.

I teach ballet at a competition dance studio, where ballet is not the focus. Very few of these students have ever performed choreography to classical music. I have chosen a relatively simple piece of music to count (Fauré’s Sicilienne), but even the students who know the choreography don’t seem to be listening to the music or dancing to the music. I want to try some things this week to help them connect more with this beautiful piece, so they have more graceful flow as opposed to robotically hitting the steps… and I’m just looking for as many ideas as I can find. TIA.