Work vs Dance...and Jean Butler

Thursdays are usually full of dance.  I have 2.5 hours of ballet (one hour of which is all en pointe) and 1 hour of Irish.  Well, this afternoon I got a call from work telling me that there was a mandatory meeting tonight to discuss the upcoming Christmas Retail Madness.  I was bummed that I had to miss my Irish class, but there was free food, I got paid just to show up and listen, and I got to pick up my paycheck.  Luckily, I did get in some Irish practice between ballet and meeting in the form of...

Jean Butler's masterclass!

I got this DVD from Netfliix at the end of October, but I didn't get the chance to go through the whole thing until today.  Meh, it's been a combination of either forgetting about it, trying to go easy on my dodgy ankle, or being tired when I meant to get to it.  Today, I had no excuses!

There are still some special features I haven't gone through, but the "body" of the class goes: warm up, balance and foot strength drills (which I half assed because I was less than an hour out of pointe class and was all "no"), leg drills, soft shoe exercises, hard shoe exercises, core work, and cool down.  Obviously, I just sat and watched through the hard shoe parts, though for some of the super simple things that looked like they'd help foot strength and dexterity, I tried to keep up.  Of course, it was only later when I found out that there are special sequences of each sections, so you could choose a soft shoe only program, or hard shoe, if that's what you want, or you could put together your own mix.

Onto my opinions!

The good: A balanced program, each segment starts with a simpler exercise and then progresses so newbies like me can stick to the simple stuff and still keep up, the "glossary" feature breaks down movements slowly and with detailed description (again, good for newbies like me), the options for different programs or to put together your own.  And, also, I love Jean Butler!

The bad: It moves quickly from one thing to the next with little explanation of each new movement, so sometimes it was hard to keep up.  The glossary may make up for this, but I haven't looked through much of this.  Also, the dancers all wear wide-legged jazz pants which makes it tough to see alignment of the legs and feet.

The Verdict:  Would I buy it?  Maybe, but since getting a Netflix account a few years ago, DVDs really aren't something I'm interested in buying, so only if I had some extra cash.  If someone gave it to me, though, I would definitely use it!  I would recommend it to a beginner to intermediate dancer who wants drills to improve strength and technique, or maybe an advanced dancer who would like more motivation to practice basic drills.  I would not recommend it to someone with zero Irish dance experience, as even the best DVD is no substitute for a teacher who can answer questions and give corrections.  For those who have no Irish dance experience and just want it as an exercise option, I still wouldn't recommend it, as there's little a non-dancer could really keep up with.

I'd like to end with some personal praise of Jean Butler's dancing.  I was first introduced to her (and to ID) many years ago.  It was the 90s, I was a young child, and while my parents were out on a romantic trip my babysitter brought some educational and cultural PBS videos.  Small Gann just wanted to watch  the original Riverdance on a constant loop.  Fast forward a year, Small Gann's mother took her to see Riverdance when the touring show came to Atlanta; I don't think Jean was in that show, but I loved it, and it is still somewhat of an important point(e) to make.

Fast forward to October 2012, just after I took my first Irish class.  I was bored, my feet hurt, so I made myself a cocktail and found the original Riverdance show on YouTube.  There were two things I noticed.  One: Michael Flatley had the ugliest Billy Ray Cyrus mullet.  Two:  Jean Butler danced beautifully, really balletic and graceful even in hard shoes.

Jean Butler gets a closer look at The Mullet.

I don't mean "balletic" in the same way I used it to describe my Irish dance.  When I'm talking about myself, I'm meaning to say that my ballet technique and habits gets mushed in and screws me up.  Jean Butler is balletic in that she's light on her feet, and is conscious of using her body to make a long, expressive, beautiful line.  This wasn't really apparent during the drills that made up the body of the DVD, but for the special solo piece she put together, well, you could tell that it was all "her."  The piece was a very slow reel, and she really indulged in the chance to take long, strong, slow motions.  She moved with the precision and power of an Irish dancer, but the grace and line of a ballerina.  I was just thinking, "God, this is how I want to dance!"

Well, that's all for now.  Next time I'll be talking about my experience at Feis ATL.  As a spectator, that is.  I am FAR from being competition ready!