Barre à Terre/Boris Kniaseff/Neon classical Ballet class

BARRE A TERRE / INTERMEDIATE BALLET with
Kim Amundsen

Where & When
Days: Saturdays
Time: 13:45 to 15:45
Venue:
Canada Water Studios, Vancouver House,Surre Quay road,LONDON SE16 7BW
Cost: £17
Students: £14
Laban students £10
Discount on offer for block sessions www.barreaterre.com

As an adult dancer why should you START to do Barre à Terre?

STRENGTHENS MUSCLES AND JOINTS – Using the floor system, barre a terre corrects placement, advances muscle strength & joint without the pressure of gravity.
TENSION RELEASED – A gentle and effective method that lengthens and strengthens muscle, releasing tension from neck and joints.
ALIGNMENT CORRECTED – It concentrates body alignment & improves the efficiency of muscles, allowing correction of bad structural habits.
REHABILITATES & PREVENTS INJURIES – It is an extremely safe, low impact programme traditionally adopted by professional ballet dancers during periods of injury
TONES ABDOMINAL, HIPS AND LEGS –Through a structured, progressive barre a terre programme, your body will naturally tone those important abdominal and hip areas

BARRE A TERRE CLASS, FOLLOWED BY BALLET COACHING (2 hours)
Come to the next Barre à Terre class and see why you should START a Barre à Terre programme. Classes consist of 60 mins of floor work, followed by 20 mins of traditional barre work and then you begin to APPLY all of those techniques and methods learnt in this Barre à Terre. Class concludes with 40 mins centre work. This programme is designed to help you use straight away what you have learnt and begin applying it in class.
Kim has been teaching adult ballet dancers for over 7 years and uses barre a terre in his professional teaching. Kim’s approach is to correct individual alignment during class, explaining why common mistakes occur and spends time to work through exercises for injuries or painful joints. He strongly recommends that if you are an adult dancer and that you want to improve your turn out, increase your flexibility and strengthen your core, then barre a terre is an important step in achieving that for both an amateur and professional dancer.

Could you describe the barre à Terre a little?
Where people get confused sometimes is that the barre à Terre is not meant to replace the normal class, but be added to it. Therefore the class is in three parts instead of two. If it were to done on its own it would merely be re-education. The technique was developed by combining Graham style floor exercises with the classical technique, but has become quite sophisticated, giving a complete workout of the classical repertoire of exercise, on the floor, focusing especially on placement. After that you continue with a normal barre and centre with enchainments and allegro.

I am teaching Boris Kniaseff based technique with influence of ballet moves. In this Barre a Terre, the exercises are almost in the same order as a normal ballet class.The technique gives you coordination with arms and legs. It sculpts your legs with fine muscle in a healthy way. It strengthens your core to re-establish the lower and the upper part of the body. Barre a Terre technique not only sculpt and refine the body, it is a holistic approach to center the mind and body.

Can you name some dancers who have passed through Barre à Terre classes?
Jaqueline Fynnaert: “it started with Zizi, but over the years I have had most of the etoiles – Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Manuel Legris, I have a lot of Canadian dancers, some from the Hamburg Ballet, lately Zenaida Yanovsky from The Royal Ballet and Evelyne Desutter”.

Useful tips
Wear socks, which make sliding the feet on the floor easier. Tights or yoga type pants are also helpful to protect the skin and allow for easier sliding on the floor.And Ballet shoes.

Kim Amundsen RAD PDTD

Kim Amundsen trained at the Oslo National Academy of Dance and Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung Ballett Akademie Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Munich. He has danced with several global recognised Ballet and contemporary Companies and productions includiding Bavarian State Ballet, Wayne Sleeps World of Classical Ballet, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance Company, Matthew Bournes Adventure In Motion Pictures Swan Lake (World Tour) Ballet Ireland, Moving Art A Nordic Dance Company, Wildfire, Oslo Danse Ensamble, Traveling by Molly Molloy, Les Ballet de Trockadero, Julius Cesar Opera Lille, Song of the City Akademie, Street Dance the Movie, Three Cities Dance, Speak Easy Secrets by Julia Gleich and many more.

In 2012 Mr Amundsen graduated from The Royal Academy of Dance, Professional Dancer’s teaching Diploma(PDTD).

As a dance teacher Kim has been teaching Ballet, Contemporary, and Barre a Terre technique (learned from Jaqueline Fynnaert in Paris) for Ballet and Contemporary Companies and Colleges across the UK and internationally. Such Companies and Organisations include: Moving Art A Nordic Dance Company, Matthew Bourne’s Adventure In Motion Pictures, Randon Dance Company, The Place, Murley Dance Company, Colin’s Performing Art, Master’s Performing Art, London Studio Centre, Dance East Academy, Pineaple Dance Studio, Oslo Danse Ensamble, GDT(Free daily classes for Professional Dancers, Norway), Baardar Performing Art Academy, Akademi, London Amateur Ballet, Lecture of Dance Trinity Laban (present), D&B School of Performing Arts (head of Ballet). Lecture at Kington Univercity( present)