Elenora Morris at the Prix de Lausanne – Day 4!

Today was wonderful!  After a good night’s sleep, I headed to the theater for 9:30 class.  Since the jury weren’t watching, we had a shortened ballet class that was all on flat.  It was nice to have a low pressure class, and the teacher was able to give us more feedback and corrections.  She focused a lot on arms and epaulment, and encouraged us to initiate our arms with our backs.  Polly and my mom got to observe class from the balcony, and it was fun to dance for them.

I had a quick snack then headed to contemporary class with the jury. We repeated the combinations we had learned the past two days, which was helpful because we could focus on performing and perfecting the steps. Since I felt comfortable in the choreography, I wasn’t worried about the jury. At the end of class, we learned and performed a longer enchaînement.  I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun!  The teacher, Mr. Rownes, is very thoughtful and creative and his choreography is truly a joy to dance.  

Finally, we had a quick lunch break and then prepared for classical coaching.  In numerical order, each of the Group B girls performed their variation in the raked studio, then received a few minutes of feedback.  My variation felt even better on the rake today.  M. Loudieres, our coach, was very sweet but also gave very helpful pointers.  Along with a few technical comments, she encouraged me to breathe throughout my variation and really focus on the music.  Tomorrow she will coach our variations on the stage one last time before we perform, so I look forward to applying her corrections!  Until then!

Check out Elenora in contemporary class about four minutes and twelve seconds into this video: