Ballet classes at URC in April; revised schedule

With Easter approaching the spring term comes to an end, with the last Saturday classes at URC tomorrow 28th March, the last Monday class on 30th, and a final Thursday morning class on 2nd April.  I will be going away at the end of April, but before that will be teaching a couple of further classes at intermediate/advanced level.  Delighted to report that Ségolène Tarte makes a welcome return to provide some continuing classes until my return early in May.  So not a full schedule for April after the Easter weekend, but certainly a possibility to keep up the work with classes offered as follows:

Thursday 9th April 10.00-11.30am Advanced (Susie)
Saturday 11th April 11.30am-1.00pm Intermediate/Advanced (Susie) please note, no adult beginners’ class.
Thursday 16th April 10.00-11.30am Advanced (Ségolène)
Saturday 18th April 10.00am-11.15am Adult Beginners, 11.30-1.00pm Intermediate/Advanced (Ségolène)
Thursday 23rd April 10.00-11.30am Advanced (Ségolène)
Saturday 25th April 10.00am-11.15am Adult Beginners, 11.30-1.00pm Intermediate/Advanced (Ségolène)
Thursday 30th April 10.00-11.30am Advanced (Ségolène)
Saturday 2nd May 10.00am-11.15am Adult Beginners, 11.30-1.00pm Intermediate/Advanced (Ségolène)

In the first week of May Monday 4th is a Bank Holiday; Thursday 7th is the General Election, and the Hall, in its customary incarnation as a polling station, will be unavailable to us.  So I will resume teaching as normal starting the summer term on Saturday 9th May; and all Monday classes will resume as normal on 11th May.  I will be posting a full schedule of summer term classes shortly.

If you missed the chance to work with Ségolène before, you can find out more about her here.  A great chance to explore her technical insights and fascinating stylistic influences over a series of classes, not to be missed.

If I don’t see you before, have a very Happy Easter!

Susie

 

Ségolène Tarte to teach Saturday ballet classes at URC 14th March 2015

This coming Saturday a family event takes me north, but I am delighted to confirm that ballet classes at URC will continue as usual under the guidance of dancer and academic Ségolène Tarte. Ségolène combines clarity and elegance with thoughtfulness in her own beautiful dancing; don’t miss this opportunity to learn from her and enjoy her personal and creative approach which draws on fascinating experience of French and Russian schooling in Europe.  See below for more information about her and her class.

Enjoy!

Susie

Ségolène Tarte

Ségolène Tarte studied ballet with Geneviève Guillée, of the Paris Opera Ballet, at the “conservatoire municipal du XVe – Frédéric Chopin” (Geneviève danced with the Paris Opera Ballet company for 20 years between 1954 and 1974, reaching the grade of “grand sujet” in 1961; she further sat as a jury at the Paris Opera Ballet company’s annual internal promotion contest in the 1980s, whilst teaching at the conservatoire). Ségolène pursued her ballet training in Berne (Switzerland) with Ivana Halamka (soloist at the Prague Chamber ballet, at ballet Karlsruhe, then ballet mistress at the Berne Statdttheater Ballet) and joined the semi-professional company City Ballett Halamka for 5 years where she danced a number of solos, whilst completing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. In parallel with pursuing her academic career, now working as a Digital Humanist in close collaboration with Classicists at the University of Oxford, Ségolène’s move to Oxford in 2008 has seen her debuts as a choreographer and as an improviser. She has shown her work at various venues in Oxford, including at the Pegasus Theatre and the Old Fire Station. She also obtained support from the Oxford Dance Forum in 2013 to further her choreographic explorations. She keeps taking regular ballet classes in Oxford, mainly with Susie Crow (Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet), for whom she occasionally teaches. Her current explorations are with the Avid for Ovid project, with Susie Crow, Marie-Louise Crawley, and Malcolm Atkins.

Drawing on her training in the French School of ballet and, to a lesser extent, in the Russian School, through her ballet classes, Ségolène strives to morph inner space, sculpt outer space, and connect these spaces with intention. Her favourite technical foci are: presentation and articulation of the feet and lower legs; fluidity and breath in the movements of the upper body; and precision and clarity in the orientation of the body in space.

You can read more about Ségolène on her personal website Dancing Convolutions here.