Summer Travels Day 5: Exeter, Torquay

Hi Guys,

This morning I had to check out of my hostel in Exeter and Yolanda was off to meet with a friend so I was on my own for the day. After checking out I just walked around the city for a while and decided to try this cute looking desert place, because it looked so appealing with their pink benches and American diner design. I settled for a piece of chocolate caramel cheese cake which was amazing. Their waffles and crepes look so good though, so I'm probably going to try one of those when I'm going to Bristol (if I have tkme because I have a photoshoot there) or in case I'm visiting Exeter again.

I was considering going on the City Wall Walking Tour but that would have taked 2 hours and I wouldn't have made my bus if I went.

I arrived in Torquay in the afternoon and was welcomed warmly by the owner of the hostel and met all the other helpers. There are quite a few Spanish people helping out, so I'm probably going to be speaking lots of Spanish, which is amazing because I really wanted to improve over the summer. I'm still pretty self-conscious about my Spanish but I guess I'll really have to get over myself...

The weather was a lot better than yesterday, it wasn't exactly warm but really sunny.

Summer Travels Day 4: Exeter

Hi Guys,
Today was a rainy day in Exeter but that didn't stop us. We went on 2 City Walking Tours and learned  a lot about Exeter and it's history. Now, I'm a history nerd anyway but it was really interesting to learn why the Cathedral is constructed the way it is. We also saw lots of ruins of old roman buildings and the city wall.
We were also introduced to Gandy Street, which apparently was J.K Rowlings inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books, because she attended University in Exeter!
In between the tours we went to a cute organic cafe called "Plant Cafe" which is located right next to the Cathedral. I had the vegan chocolate cake and it was absolutely mindblowing. The food also looked amazing but is on the expensive side, so we settled for cake.
Our new Australian friend had to leave around midday to catch his bus to Wales but we had lots of fun together.
In the evening we met a Swiss girl at our hostel and talked for hours while drinking tea.
Pictures are coming tonight when I have my tablet!
See you tomorrow!
Laulie

Summer Travels Day 3: Exeter

Hi Guys,

Today I finally got around to buy a travel adapter after I was smart enough to pack my US adapter instead of the UK one. Of course I could have gotten one in London but they were just ridiculously expensive.

After going shopping for a bit I met with Laura for a photoshoot, which was cut short by the rain unfortunately but I still had loads of fun and we have another very exciting photoshoot planned next month. The location was amazing and I think we got a couple of good shots, although my muscles were incredibly tight after not stretching or working out for almost a week.

I have been forcing myself to rest though because I haven't had any rest since Christmas. I will be back in the gym next week when I get to Torquay but for now, I'm letting my body regenerate and my injuries heal.
After the shoot, I went to see the Cathedral. It's been years since I've been there and last time I saw it, they were doing a lot of construction work and half the cathedral was scaffolded.

This afternoon I spent at the hostel, catching up on blogpost, studying because I really need to improve my Spanish and talking to some people.
For dinner we went to a restaurant by the Quay and took a long walk across town.

See you tomorrow!

Laulie

Sunmer Travels Day 2: London, Exeter

Hi Guys,
Nothing much happened today, my new friend Ellen and I ran some errands before walking around London aimlessly to pass the time before her flight and my bus.
At 3 I got on the bus to Exeter (after getting Starbucks :D), where I arrived at about 8. After checking into my hostel I went to get some groceries and had dinner.
Afterwards I watched history documentaries all afternoon with some people I met at the hostel.

Summer Travels Day 1: London

Hey Guys!
I arrived in London yesterday and stayed here for the night because my original destination is a 6 hour bus ride away and it was just less stressful this way. Plus I absolutely love London, so I definitely don't mind spending some time here!
The weather is so much better than in Germany, it did rain a little but nothing compared to the buckets it was raining in Berlin the last couple of days!
I mainly did some shopping of course. First off was Covent Garden and Whittards to taste some tea and hot chocolate, then I went to all the dance stores and baught a beautiful new leotard at the Bloch store. I could have baught so much more, especially at dancia but ehat can I say? I have an expensive taste and couldn't really justify buying leotards for like 50£ when I struggle closing my leotard drawer at home...
After that, I went to Yorica and tried their shakes for the first time. The girls at the store where all a little lost I think, thry put A LOT of ice cream in my shake and forgot to put in (free from) milk at first, it was pretty hillarious actually.
Next up was Oxford Street and Victoria's Secret. It was pretty easy not to buy anything there because it was really crowded and the prices where insane compared to their online prices.
After that I was pretty beat and went back to my hostel.
Today I'm off to Exeter, where I will be staying for three days before I go to Torquay to work there for a month and attend summer intensive.
See you soon!
Laulie

Auditioning for Fulltime Ballet Schools in Germany

Hi guys!
I asked you for some ideas for blogpost ideas and a few people brought up they were interested in hearing about my audition expirience and the process here in Germany, so here we go.

First off, getting into a state-funded program here in Germany is extremely hard and very atractive for dancers from all over the world, simply because you only have to pay a very small tuition fee. Usually those are around 300€ per semester and include public transportation for the area of the university, so you are practically paying nothing at all. In Berlin for example, I would be paying more than those 300€ per semester if I had to buy tickets for public transport, because those are over 100€ per MONTH! So you see why studying at German universities is atractive for so many people.
To add to that, there are really not a lot of programs around. Those are the schools I can think of on top of my head:
1. Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin
2. John Cranko Schule Stuttgart
3. Folkwang Universität Essen
4. Palucca Universität Dresden
5. John Neumeier Schule Hamburg
6. HfMDK Frankfurt
7. MuHo Mannheim
8. Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
9. Hochschule für Musik und Theater München

All of those take in a maximum of probably 20 students per year, probably even less, so there are less than 200 spots in the entire country! To add to that, some of those school (e.g. Munich, Hamburg) only take in students age 18 or under, so I can't even audition for those anymore.
The audition process is simple: you register for the audition online, pay the audition fee and send your resume and paper application to the school via mail and usually get an invite within a couple of weeks via email.

Moving on to my experiences:
So far, I have auditioned for the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin and the HfMDK Frankfurt.
The audition for Berlin was very difficult for me, about half the people there were students at the school already, so they knew the teachers and received a lot more training over the past couple of years than I had. That also showed in all the combinations they gave us, those were very complex and fast.
The Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin starts their syllabus at the age of 10 (5th grade) and you can enter the school at any time if you have the required skill level. At the age of 16 (end of 10th grade) all the students have to audition for the bachelor program to continue studying there and when they graduate (13th grade), they complete high school and their university degree at the same time. This concept is amazing for the students but it makes it very hard for people who haven't had professional training beforehand to enter the bachelor program.
At the audition, we first had a ballet class, followed by modern, pointe and a solo presentation, which was either a classical variation, a modern piece or an improv.
The audition in Frankfurt was a lot shorter: we only did a ballet class, which was the first round. After that, they announced the people who went on into the second round, who would be learning some short choreographies. I didn't get past the first round, but only about 8 people out of the 60 people who were there did, and half of those were men.
The ballet class was a lot easier than in Berlin and I felt like I could keep up well.
I also auditioned for the Konservatorium Wien, which was very similar to Frankfurt, except I was injured and couldn't jump at all. Like I mentioned in my last post, I also wasn't familiar with many of the steps either, so that wasn't a great audition either but I know I can do a lot better now.

I still have an audition for Mannheim coming up in early September, which I am very excited about because even between now and my last audition, I feel like I have learned so much and I still have summer intensive coming up before that, so I hope it goes well.
I will keep you updated on that and if you have any questions or post ideas, please let me know!
See you soon!
Laulie

https://instagram.com/laulie.dancer

Training at multiple studios

Hi Guys!
So this is kind of exciting for me, I can't even remember when I wrote my last blogpost, it has been so long! So for my first post back, I decided to talk about a topic that is very important to me, as I feel like many people struggle with it. I certainly have!

Last year in March, I auditioned for a fulltime ballet training program and you can't even believe how lost I felt! I didn't know half the steps they were asking for and just couldn't keep up because I just didn't know what I was doing! The reason for that was, that I just wasn't used to variety in class, at my studio we were given a set of combos at the beginning of the semester and kept working on those for the rest of the year. Of course, this works your technique and muscle memory very well but doesn't teach you to remember combinations quickly.
So at the beginning of the new semester, I decided taking one class a week with a different teacher, who had been recommended to me. She completely changed the way I was dancing, fixed my alignment and a bunch of other problems I didn't know I had. Since she is an experienced dancer and has been in the industry for over 30 years, she also gave me valuable advice for auditions, which went a lot better this year. Even though I didn't get into the school, I knew all the steps and what they were looking for and was able to keep up in class. Most importantly, I didn't feel like I was the worst dancer in the room.
Long story short, I liked training with that teacher so much that I eventually ended up taking class with her 4-5 times a week.
Another reason for me to pick up on classes at a different studio is that my school was only offering one ballet and one pointe class a week and I really wanted to focus on ballet, so that wasn't enough for me.
Those were my main reasons for going to a second studio but I also talked to a lot of people who said they went to a new studio additionally to pick up on other styles of dance or because they felt like they didn't get as many opportunities at their old studio.

Starting training in a new place can be a touchy subject, it certainly was for me just because I didn't know if I should tell my teachers or not. Now, I'm not a very sharing person to begin with and I guess it really depends on your relationship with your teacher but I decided against telling them as I suspected my teachers would not be happy.  Eventually it surfaced that I was training at another studio and I was right about their reaction.
I've heard of so many different experiences, some teachers really love it that the student is taking the initiative to get better outside of what the studio has to offer but unfortuanately there are also plenty of teachers who get very possessive over their students and 'punish' them for not being loyal to their studio.
Generally I think teachers should not get angry with students for taking up more classes. I talked to a lot of people about it and they all agreed a student should not be punished for taking more classes than the studio can offer.
As far as contradicting corrections go, there is no real advice I can give on that. Just because you are getting cotradicting corrections doesn't mean one of them is wrong, as there are many different approaches on certain technical things, so keep that in mind. I know it can be slightly confusing but still try to apply the corrections as well as you can and try to get as much out of a ballet class as you can.
In the end, you are working for yourself, to achieve your goals, not your teachers, so keep that in mind.
For me, training at 2 studios at the same time has broadened my horrizons and helped my technique immensely. I know that and I don't care about what others have to say about that because the comments I got feel very personal and impartial but when I look in the mirror, I see a completely new dancer. Of course I'm not perfect and I never claimed to be but I have gained a lot of understanding for ballet technique this year and have become more aware of placement.
Everybody I talked to about this topic absolutely agrees that different teachers notice different things, so you just get a larger variety of corrections, which often helps improving so much faster.
This year, my developpés have improved so much, as has my entire turning technique because I have been getting so many valuable corrections for improving that by my new teacher. Also, as strange as it sounds, I have finally learned to appreciate a simple tendu, as I have learned that there is so much to it and always room for improvement, even if it's only a tendu and supposed to be about the easiest step in ballet. As my tendus improved, so has my petit allegro because I have completely changed the way I use my feet and was forced to do a larger variety of steps a lot more often than before.
Before this year, I  couldn't do petit allegro at all, now I can at least get through it.
I don't want to talk down or criticize my old studio, I have always loved going to class there. I had my ups and downs, and there were things I enjoyed more than others. For instance, I always loved working on technique while show rehearsals have never been the most fun for me but ultimately, this led to performing expirience, which I am very grateful for and will certainly miss a lot, even though running dances over and over again can be quite boring, it is worth it in the end.
Still, sometimes a change in perpective and a fresh view on your technique is exactly what you need to improve and I'm glad I got to have that. Every teacher has their unique way of correcting and watches out for different things, so another teacher will probably give you other things to work on. That can be very helpful, especially when you feel like you're not improving as fast as you'd like to. For me, the key to turning were my shoulders, which were holding me back. Just because my teachers weren't correcting me on that, doesn't mean they are bad, it just means they want to work on something else first but I was frustrated because I really wanted to improve my turns.
 The point is: more corrections mean you can improve faster but one person can't watch for everything, so a second teacher might help you improve faster.
All in all, training at two studios has helped my technique a lot but ultimately I have decided to leave my old studio for a couple of personal reasons as well as scheduling problems.

If you have any questions about this topic, feel free to send me an email or dm me on instagram. Also leave me request to what to post next!

Have a good day,
Laulie


https://instagram.com/laulie.dancer