The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Dancers innovate to stay in shape
Dancer Carrigan Macdonald considers herself lucky. The dancer from Halifax has a radiator to hang on to for balance while doing pliés during her daily teleconferenced ballet class. But extending her leg front or back can be problematic.
“The radiator is between the living room and the dining room, so (during the exercises) I’m either dodging the sofa or the dining room table,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald, 18, is a senior student in the professional program at École supérieure de ballet du Québec. The program shut down six weeks ago during the province-wide push to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six weeks without training is unheard of in the world of elite ballet training, so the teaching staff, headed by Beverley Aitchison, compiled an distance training program comprised of short video demonstrations and detailed, written descriptions and photos to cover strength and flexibility training from head to toe. And they did it in two weeks.
ESBQ’S professional program has 205 students eight to 21 years old. The distance training targets the students 11 years old and up. Teachers connect with the younger students via Zoom to customize the comprehensive program to suit each dancer’s particular needs.
The more senior students draw on the program as they see fit and take a daily technique class, via Zoom, with instructor José Manuel Carreno demonstrating in his kitchen, an accompanist playing the piano, two senior teachers observing and students hanging onto anything handy, from a makeshift barre made out of a broom handle to the back of a kitchen chair. The senior students also confer with a teacher regularly to discuss their training. Macdonald augments her daily ballet class by doing a fullbody Pilates workout.
A daily training schedule can last between 90 minutes and two hours.
“It keeps us connected and it keeps us in shape,” Macdonald said of the daily classes. “But we’re missing the artistry of a full class. That’s what inspires me.”
The timing of the closure is tough for graduating seniors. May and June are when they prepare for their juried, final performance in a theatre and then gear up to head out on the audition circuit in North America and Europe. The year-end performance has been cancelled and they won’t be graduating in June, let alone heading across closed borders to audition.
“Most likely they will stay with us to train, through to September,” ESBQ artistic director Anik Bissonnette said. An exact scenario is impossible to determine at this point, because Bissonnette is waiting for the government to give the green light to reopen.
The distance training program was compiled in record time because Bissonnette and the teaching staff were concerned that the younger dancers would attempt one of the many highly-advanced ballet classes being streamed online by major ballet companies around the world. Tackling a ballet class well beyond your level can lead to injuries or the development of bad technical habits.
The distance training keeps the dancers moving, but it’s not perfect. Important training gaps exist. They can’t do big jumps or movements that travel across the room. And the girls can’t train en pointe (in their toe shoes).
Bissonnette said the impact the pandemic has had on the ESBQ will be felt for a long time.
“We are expecting our enrolment to drop because we won’t have the same number of international students applying,” Bissonnette said. “But I will do everything in my power to keep the school operating. These dancers dream of having a professional career. I won’t let them down.”
Macdonald would like to one day audition for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal — a company she adores — and work on her own choreographies. The ultimate dream is to take her experience as a performer and choreographer back to her hometown of Halifax to enrich its dance scene.
“But right now we all feel in limbo,” she said. “We have no idea when we can resume.”
Bissonnette said a hygiene protocol is in place in anticipation of the school’s reopening. The studios are large enough to allow for distancing measures to be put in place and studios will be disinfected following every class.
“The good thing about dancers is that they are hyper disciplined,” Bissonnette said. “If you tell them to stand on the black tape, they will stand on the black tape. And stay there.”
... I will do everything in my power to keep the school operating. These dancers dream of having a professional career. I won’t let them down. Anik Bissonnette ESBQ Artistic Director