The 4th day and what a special day “it’s my birthday” and here is where I insert a nice uplifting piece of music to get everyone grabbing hairbrushes etc to sing. I have had quite a few birthdays at the summer school and they haven’t disappointed I mean no washing, no ironing, no dishes to wash and usually a cake and a few pressies, I even get to hear some live music courtesy of our wonderful pianists.

https://open.spotify.com/track/23OksreAzaswJBN5APV58U?si=cbd56906ae504d77

I did organise my own cake this year which I ordered on the first day from one of the best places in Andalo a scrumptious cheesecake, I know I will enjoy it. Back to the classes and it is always a pleasure going to see the lessons on the 4th and 5th day when you can see the improvement made by the students who have learnt the exercises and (almost) the dances and can begin to work on the performance quality.

Grade 2 was especially lovely to watch today, hopefully they will retain some of the precious corrections for when they start back to class in September even if its just a simple thing maybe about the music or keeping their little toes on the floor. Today Marzio was in a Nutcracker/Tchaikovsky mood sometimes challenging but memorable.

I also watched a little bit of Simone Donati’s contemporary who gives the girls a little homework task for the next day with a name of a choreographer which they have to research a couple of examples were Emanuel Gat and Maura Morales who after looking at her work Jenny one of our students guessed there would be some some sort of contact work in the lesson today and yes she was right, now not everyone likes this type of study but it is essential to the contemporary world and helps with confidence and builds trust.  I also learned it was his birthday the same day as mine as well as one of the people working in shop where I picked up the cake more reasons to celebrate.

A phrase of Simone’s that he likes to repeat is that you cannot go down any further than the floor  “Piu giu dal pavimento non si va”

https://youtu.be/wO90DDZmeVY?si=RGdfAftIm-TqKTwK

We had lovely afternoon spent at Lake Molveno picture postcard beauty, we did not stay very long so I would not let them swim much to their disappointment but they found other ways to enjoy the afternoon with frisbee, and photo shoots and hide and seek. or just wading in the water up to their shorts I laid back and thought of cheesecake !!!

At dinner the older girls surprised me with a key ring and the cake was delicious I shared it with what I thought was a mother and daughter on a table next  but it was actually a student and her chaperone a good friend of the family and a theatre teacher very nice a shame I waited till the 4th day to talk to her. After dinner we all went out as once a month in the summer they close the road off and have a street party with music and street performers, the shops stay open and there was even some candy floss, a fantastic end to my birthday. But I could see the younger two slowly fading and back to the hotel it was as soon as they hit the pillow they were out and I was not long behind.

Or what is commonly known as the “cursed day” beware of the 3rd day, and as if on cue at 6:30 in the morning I get a rat a tat tat on the door with the news that one of the older students has a fever even Constant our only boy seems to suffer from an unexpected stomach problem during breakfast !!! but that was soon resolved I won’t go into details.

The first lesson I observed was classical grade 3 with Meritxell who surprises me with trying to learn all the names of the younger children amazing !!! she does a great warm up in a circle with a galop and always insists on energy and strength so even from an early age they start to feel their core and posture, She gets them to lie on the floor and do the famous bridge or pelvic tilt from pilates, and work in couples one in frog and the other holding back the knees to build up resistance the same standing, once again feeling the right muscles to activate. These few exercises are repeated so it becomes routine for them even before the class starts.

Back to of my favourite phrases of the summer school is the “bistecca congelata”  she uses this image of the frozen beefsteak to feel the strength in their torso and therefore have control no jelly fish. She did exercises today for the steps that they have in group dances with Maria pia di Mauro which shows that the teachers communicate with each other to give maximum benefit for the week there was a bit of confusion although about the glissade in the dance, another sore point when teaching good job they only have two legs !! This time for the depth of the plie in the glissade she used the image of melting chocolate in the microwave not so it’s runny just soft, all this talk of food is making me hungry.

Walked quickly and decisively back to hotel to see how our student with the fever was doing I was surprised to see she had cleaned up the room and put some makeup on, the paracetamol obviously had worked but about an hour later she was asleep fully clothed, crossing fingers for tomorrow.

In the afternoon, after our now ritual of sandwiches in the gazebo  lovely, some of us took the cabinovia up to 1400 meters above sea level to walk along the newly opened  path called Megabugs it was an escape from the heat and Constant our animal expert loved it with new facts to add to his already expansive knowledge of the animal kingdom , there were various stops all with an insect theme the butterfly , dragonfly , bee and ladybug just to name a few and each one had some games, My only complaint was the fact that to fully apreciate the caterpillar you needed to buy a small wooden marble to complete the course above our budget !!

Dinner as always was fabulous with Andrea’s favourite the desserts creme caramel , tiramisu , and strudel. just to name a few.

Happy Dancing Leighx

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 

 

 

This year after a years break For Dance Institute are heading to Andalo, Trentino Alto Adige for the Royal Academy of dance’s Italian summer school.
We left Ivrea aboard the bus that for the next 6 hours would take us to Andalo in the wonderful company of two other dance schools la Fenice ballet under the directorship of Filomena and Sonia and Studio danza Ieva principal – Anna Maria leva.
How was the bus trip you might ask ? Long yes !! Hot yes!!! Exciting not so much but the frequent facts about different animals by Constant one of our students kept us engaged especially when we found out mosquitos are the most deadliest insect in existence. All 7 students this year are new to the summer school experience which makes it all the more stimulating for us as teachers. We arrived at the hotel Stella Alpina to a warm welcome and being in a great central position we were able to spot almost immediately the groups of dance schools exploring and heading to the pala congresso to receive their welcome packs. It is like the baby ducks following their mother occasionally one might stray with the pull of the sights and sounds of the area but always waddle back to safety of the group.

All of our students have their lessons in the mornings which means the afternoon is free so it was all go in the morning breakfast being 1st thing on the list and the hotel Stella Alpina did not let us down with all the good things available even some surprising extras like a detox juice and juicer bacon and scrambled egg and some wonderful assortments of cakes and brioche.
The first class I went to watch today was grade 2 no boys unfortunately but a good group of 16 students , and the first teacher of the day for the classical class was Maria Pia di Mauro and the veritable authority on all things musical the pianist Marzio Vaccarini who is great at keeping the students and teachers on their toes with changes of rhythm and every now and then a tacit (deliberate pauses ) in the musical phrase. Then it was off to studio 9 to follow a class led by Lucia Perego another legend teaching at the summer school this year, a whole group of students new to her teaching and the wonderful way she leads them in a discovery of how they move in space and a personal journey not through technique but putting the voice and wings to the move, where does it start ? The pattern it makes and understanding how to move.
and just like that we are at the 3rd class of the morning a contemporary lesson with Simone Donati I only catched the tail end of the class but already he had the attention of all 27 students and the energy and passion of a teacher that wants to divide that passion with everybody he teaches.
They took only 5 minutes break and jumped straight into repertorio with Blanca Cortez learning a fire dance it will be interesting to see the result on stage on Saturday when intermediate get to perform in front of their fellow students.

 

I am going to end the blog here with some pics today but will continue tomorrow with another chapter of life in Andalo.

happy dancing  Leigh x

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLhmDc6I5DA/?igsh=aWdtejJyenRscXBx

Quest’anno causa lavoro alla scuola media l’entrata per la palestra è sopra davanti alla chiesa dove si entra per la scuola primaria Grazie

Se possibile potete stampare il modulo di iscrizione e mandare via mail : 4dancein@gmail.com Grazie

We start the season with some classes on the stage outdoors Ballet , Modern and contemporary and everyone is welcome to join in or just watch, Yvonne , Erica , Greta and leigh will be there to answer all your questions about the upcoming year.

Day 7 

An exciting day ahead with open classes for the grades and performances on stage for Intermediate and Intermediate foundation,  

With all the bags all packed and left at the hotel ready for the pick up later we first watched a small part of the class taken by Gerald Charles the Artistic Director of the RAD full of energy and as usual during the whole summer school accompanied by one of the talented group of pianists. You can never take for granted live piano music for class.

I watched the grade 2 presentation which was wonderfully taught by Blanca Cortes a younger teacher form Spain who definitely had her work cut out for her teaching a short choreography to the class it was always the last class of the afternoon for them so a couple of drooping eyelids and yawning went on during the week, but they came through in front of the parents and teachers watching to really shine. 

Erica watched grade 4 of which I will put a clip in here of both their performances. Then it was everybody converging once more to Pala Congressi for The vocational groups. It was moving and inspirational to see a blind girl in one of the dances she has also completed her intermediate ?? I think exam. You would not think that these students have only been learning the dances for a week   Clarissa and Beatrice performed as well cheered on by our younger students in the audience. 

At the end was the presentation of the scholarships given by the faculty to reward the most promising or most improved students during the week. Unfortunately we did not receive any but we go away having spent a valuable week surrounded by great teachers and students from all over Italy.  And ………on a lighter note  Estelle’s wonderful English , Edoardo’s masterful card skills , Beatrice finally admitting her hair looks better behind her ears, Clarissa’s excellent job of meal planning , Erica’s hairdressing expertise, Francesca’s sleeping ability in the middle of two beds , Camilla gets a special mention for leaping, pirouetting and waltzing into a relatively new world for her having only started dancing recently 🥇.

And our 3 Grade 2’s for their first time experience at a Summer School hopefully with many more to come.

We left for our long trip home on the bus a bit of traffic but the snacks and card games kept us going. 

Until next year Andalo 

Che le chiappe siano con voi  

Day 5: 

After the rain last night, the morning began a bit grey and cloudy with threatening rain.

The plans for the morning went a bit haywire as I promised the girls from grade 4 that they could use their fast depleting budget (blame it on the dance shop) to go on the slides the type they use both in winter and summer in a big giant rubber donut. 

We did watch a morning class in studio 1 (named after Darcey Bussell. The president of the R.A.D) situated on the stage of the Pala congressi always extra motivation for the students to take their morning class on a stage.

Unfortunately the slides were closed due to the weather but he directed to us inside the ice rink , yes like I said there is everything in the Andalo family activity park , pool , ice rink , mini golf , tennis 

The students opted for the adventure park yes undercover using half the ice rink so for the next hour or so I tried my best to think about my posture and lengthen my cervical vertebrae while looking up. 

The afternoon was back to classes and observing the classes and actually seeing the pupils improve,  

The older intermediate girls had Michele Molfetta with a sunny and positive attitude . He gave a great tip for improving balance in retire passe therefore also pirouettes. 

From 5th position passé relevé devant and say your whole name while in passé first name and surname. 

Also he likes the word endehor much more than “turn out” just the way you say en…de…hor  suggests more of the opening and spiralling action needed for classical ballet more rounded over all. 

His favourite phrase though 

“Che le chiappe siano con voi” 

My favourite class of the day though was taught by Manfred Perego contemporary with the grade 4’s  he actually overheard my students before the class started playfully faking an injury for an excuse to not do the character class at the end of the day (not their favourite lesson).  

He took that on board and did an exercise at the begging of the lesson where they all had to incorporate an injury and improvise falling to the floor, faking an injury to maybe an elbow, knee hips or even the ears ,nose ???? Then travelling down the room with the same concept, 

He really built up the lesson each day with various tasks exercises so by the end of the week they were choreographing their own routine,  

Very entertaining

P.s  Their character lesson was without injury and even enjoyable. 

Day 6:

Big day for the Advanced students today as later on in the evening will be their time to shine on stage having all learnt excerpts during their repertoire lessons from the ballet Don Quixote music by Ludwig Minkus. 

Friday is also the day the students get their certificates and photos even signatures of their favourite teachers. 

In the morning the registered teachers that were present at the summer school and quite a few online were given the opportunity to listen to a talk by Tim Arthur who is the current CEO of the Royal Academy of Dance and if that was not special enough we got to listen to the talk at Refuge Dosson a short cable car ride to a stunning location. 

I enjoyed hearing about his story of how he became the CEO and some of his past positions including the turning around of the failing company Time Out  

As Global CEO of Time Out, he transformed a beloved heritage print title into one of the world’s most innovative media brands, expanding its reach exponentially around the globe.

It was very interesting to hear his ideas and he made the point that a company even if it is a charitable one like the RAD need the money to put back into the company to continue to survive and thrive.  

One of the future plans for the RAD is the pre school program Rainbows Adventures in dance which I believe we need to compete with many other pre school commercial programs out there. 

Me, Erica  and Sonia sadly left the little piece of mountain paradise but knew it would be a busy afternoon evening. 

So lets cut straight to the evening and the Gala performance with everybody putting in a bit of extra effort we had dinner early thanks to the staff at the hotel and we walked to the Pala Congressi luckily it was a nice evening. The show stared off with Don Quixote and our very own Edoardo performing he did a great job , he did have a slight advantage as he had performed it earlier in April as part of the project DEFT(Dance Exchange Friendship Theatre)  in Rimini at the beautiful  Teatro Amintore Galli. 

Next was the professional performers and everybody had their favourites, Mine had to be the last pas de deux which was Spartacus performed by Lauretta Summerscales and Yonah Acosta and were great but especially the music which memory for me who remembers seeing the whole ballet by the Australian Ballet as a student. 

And a big shout out to the Bridge and their contemporary work choreography by Stefania Pigato who is also one of the faculty teachers of the summer school  https://stefaniapigato.com/

The dances we saw that night

https://www.instagram.com/laurretta.s/

Yonah Acosta was born in Havana, Cuba, and started dancing at the age of 10 at the National Ballet School Cuba. After his diploma he got engaged at the National Ballet in Havana. In 2011 he joined the English National Ballet where he was promoted to principal dancer in 2014. He won several international dance competitions and was partner of Tamara Rojo and Alina Cojocaru amongst others. In the season 2017/18 he joined the Bayerisches Staatsballett as a principal

Lauretta Summerscales and Yonah Acosta principals with the Bayerisches Staatsballet 

Ksenia Ovsiyanick and Alejandro Virelles principals with the Staats Ballett Berlin 

Rebecca Bianchi e Claudio Cocino principals of Teatro dell’opera di Roma 

It was a mixed program of contemporary and classic excerpts form famous ballet for example le corsaire  and the black swan pas de deux.

We walked back to the hotel and to bed and who knows if someone dreamt that night of one day being on a stage with a theatre full of people a beautiful tutu covered in crystals and embroidery a sparkling tiara sitting on a perfectly styled French roll…. but did a phone full of tik toks trample and obscure these images before they turned off the light. 🤔🩰

Day 3: 

Let me start by saying it was also my birthday on day 2 so I forget to mention the all important candle in the dessert and singalong at the end of dinner and thank you for my wonderful presents, necklace and my favourite pink fluffy ballerina pen which I loved using to take notes observing classes during the week. 

In the classes today the students were slightly more awake hopefully taking it all in from the first pile to last grand allegro, a big shout out today to our advanced foundation student Edoardo Benvenuto who had a double objective, to get through the 4 classes and take his Advanced Foundation exam he actually had to only get through the 3 as they brought forward the time of exam to 6pm he took it in his usual serious, conscientious and positive manner

He had Elaine holland as the examiner who is also teaching at the summer school and I must say one of my favourite to watch.  

Edoardo was happy but the (you can tell he is dancer ) came out in him saying afterwards it could have gone better especially the second half. 

Earlier the day I did watch the grade 2 ballet class and took a few notes on The best Christina Zatti sayings or phrases. 

• The foot from 3rd coming off the floor: imagine like its a big tongue licking the floor or even like taking a big lick of ice cream then of course the “what is your favourite flavour of ice cream” ?? Which just made my mouth water, but did wake me up from the afternoon post lunch eyelid sag. 
• “Tira la super punta” ….. stretch that super point must be her favourite which even made me want to suddenly extend and stretch my legs out in front of me while sitting on my chair. 
• Working in couples, also very good for the younger students to observe and learn at the same time  eg clapping when your partner lowers their arm in second.

Dinner was quiz time with the game of naming things beginning with a pre determined letter became ballet themed 

“Name a famous ballerina starting with letter M. Or name an allegro step starting with letter J “ 

Have I got you thinking ??? 

Day 4:

started with a wonderful trip to Lake Molveno only a 10 minute bus trip away and absolutely free transport for people staying in the hotels. 

We did not have much time to go on the electric boats pedal boats or walk around the lake – (11 km taking about 3 hours ) Instead with a wonderful grass area to practice the dance learnt the day before a paddle in the lake and a ball game here called “Schiaccia Sette” the morning passed by very quickly. 

Back to the hotel for Spaghetti Carbonara.   La vita è Bella ” life is truly beautiful.” 

My Afternoon was partly spent watching a repertorio class taught by Elaine Holland 

And she was teaching an extract from The Dream by Frederick Ashton in preparation for the performance on Saturday 

I love the music by Mendelssohn  and it is based on Shakespeares Midsummer nights dream, a story all about fairies and sprites who manipulate the humans.  You never know what will jump out at you in the Italian alps !!! 

The curse of the 4th day did set in if only briefly for a couple of students with muscle contractions and ankle pain luckily Erica with her much needed arnica cream came to the rescue. 

Elaine Holland phrases:

“Pizza….for you “  Arms in first (pizza) then extending into 1st arabesque (for you) 

Not forgetting to keep the elbows up for the Italian pizza! And  not like the English pizza with the elbows dropping !!! 

The second consecutive Storm arrived that night the rain came down as they say in England raining cats and dogs ??? 

I Convinced the students to play some card games etc the last two evenings we even ended up playing charades albeit the movies being mostly Disney one. 

Day 1 : This year we set off from Ivrea on a bus, 4 dance institute and 3 other dance schools 

Studio Danza Ieva, La Fenice Ballet A.S.D also a school from Cuneo.

No-one minded getting up early with bags already packed the day before (some bigger than  others ) .

Teachers nervously waiting and ticking off names as they appear and a big sigh of relief when everybody is on the bus chatting wildly about coming week 

About 5 hours later we arrived in Andalo a mountain village located at 1040m above sea level between the peaks of the Dolomites and the pine forests of Mount Paganella. The first time that we came to Andalo as the Summer school was previously held in Fondo (Also a mountain village in Trentino). The last half hour was the climb up the mountain with some unnerving close your eyes and breath type of hairpin bends with the driver trying to warn the cars coming down to slow down !!!!! Good luck with that in Italy. 

Here is the link to previous blog I wrote in the 2015 and 2016 

https://4danceitaly.wordpress.com/

The first thing that I noticed in Andalo was the wonderful curated buildings with beautiful painted details on the exterior walls and how very clean it was every day after it sort of remind me of a mini Disney land activities galore. 

We were warmly greeted by the staff at Hotel Andalo where we were staying  6 students and two teachers dividng 3 rooms there were also 2 families staying in a adjacent hotel and another family camping at Lake Molveno.  I was slightly jealous of the 3 students which had the room next to Erica (teacher) and I as it had a balcony and bigger beds !!

We quickly put our bags in our rooms and walked to the Pala Congressi about 10 mins away to watch the Finals of  the first RAD Italy competition lots of great opportunities for young dancers from day one. 

A lovely Dancer from Fabbrica Danza in Chieri 

“Clelia Prezzavento recieves the PRIMO PREMIO e borsa di studio (scolarship to the value of) valore di 1300 euro”  

Some much needed inspiration for the week. 

But the all important first meal was waiting for us at the hotel and the daily dinner entertainment provided by our effervescent sunny student Estelle, 

Day 2 : 

Breakfast was enjoyed even though we were all wondering who was making a bit too much noise in the corridors last night !! ? 

I met a lovely family that have the table next to us all the way from Puglia with a daughter also participating in the summer school the son taking full advantage of not having to eat what his mum made and ordered pasta with tomato every day !!!!! Like EVERYDAY he was living his dream.

We had the full tour this morning of Andalo Studios Etc with Sonia and Filomena having had the experience of last year, it was like one of those quick tours – to your left is studio 9 then go down here to the pool, ice rink , here we have the ……. Dance shop yes here is where the pause comes as the students eyes opened up as well as the parents wallets. Maybe we will just look today.  

Back for lunch, Andalo is great for your step count (13,000 completed in the first day ) much better of course than having to wait for the Navetta (small buses ) like in Fondo. 

There were some highlights and low lights with the food in the hotel and our gourmet taste tester, Clarissa would give her honest opinion all all the dishes. More of that later 

Everybody in our group had lessons in the afternoon here are some of the most popular comments by the students 

“Oh no I have no afternoon tea !!”

“I don’t understand” 

“I did like the Contemporary” 

“Live piano music is great”  …….. (Actually that was me)

“My pirouettes were good today “ 

“Love it here ……..what’s for dinner ?”

Of course the best one was when Estelle came running over to me saying she did not have her character shoes which she needed for the whole week !!! and very lucky to have Beatrice who actually brought her shoes all the way to Andalo even though she didn’t need them they were a bit small but she would just have to suffer for her passion this week, it turned out not to be entirely her fault that she did not have shoes but someone else had taken her shoes by mistake when we did a performance in the square just before leaving.

It was bed early today especially the smaller ones where even the teacher Christina Zatti said they were a bit sleepy and need to go to bed at 9:30pm

The jury is still out on favourite teachers etc as its only the first day.  

The lasagne at dinner was definitely a hit though.