Andalo 2025 day 2

Let’s start with what happened in the afternoon of the 1st day after a decadent lunch in hotel we had a few errands to run and the promise of playing in the park at the end, so that was all well and good even with a newly bought frisbee to play with but the threatening sky and rumbles of a storm put an end to our plans although in the mountains you can never tell exactly how far away the storm is it could be happening high up at 2000 meters above sea level and not arrive in the valley, but it did and we had to take shelter and wait till the rain was not quite so torrential.

Now to day 2 and for me it was up and out just before 7:30 to get some fresh rolls ready for lunch it is a shame that the hotels do not include lunch any more the morning was crisp and fresh because of the rain the night before but there was no time to stop and and sing aka sound of music, it did sound like the strudel was calling to me but I resisted its tune, instead it was back to the hotel to wake up the younger components of the group with the hope of pancakes for breakfast .

I admit to indulging in a second coffee this morning with my friend Sonia who yesterday attended the introductory course for the new Rambert syllabus in which we at For Dance Institute are lucky enough to have a certified teacher ,Erica del Maschio and even completed our first exams in April.

Onto the first lesson of the day classical class with Cristina Zatti who is always very clear in her explanations and musically so the students know exactly the exercise they have to perform and every exercise has its objective I liked the way she made sure they knew the positions in the centre ecarte, croisé , ouvert devant and derrière very precisely with the head and eye line.

A quick change of studios and grades and I am back to a world of pastels opposite to the black leotards of the older girls we are now have the pinks, mauve, sky blue and whites of grade 2 learning a choreography with Meritxell (pronounced always Mericell ) one of her favourite sayings or phrases is the frozen steak so they have strength and stability in their torso she got them to simply stand and tried to move them (with permission of course) and the same thing kneeling so they really had to think about their posture , they are learning a simple waltz with the image of a princess elegant and with poise . She worked a lot on the music today as well and even had them eating the music chewing then swallowing so the music is inside them. 

Last lesson of the morning another repertoire class with grade 3 and a different rhythm, an upbeat polka it kept me awake anyway lots of galops spring points and the light but not jumped glissade which I personally think is one of the harder steps to teach. Maria Pia even attempted a catena inglese a type of chain which takes the coordination and concentration of all the class improving the communication between students. I found myself thinking that the lessons today all had a connection to maths what with the music counts and patterns both in creative and choreography learning different sections of a dance part A part C etc even the older students with their 3D shape finding the perfect efface devant and not to mention the number of the room angle 5 wall 2

It was sandwiches in the gazebo for lunch then straight to the pool, I don’t know about the mountains calling me anymore it might just be my bed signing off from day 2 Andalo

Happy dancing Leigh