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Ballet, barre none

By Chloe Turner, age 13 | July 1, 2020

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DANCING TOGETHER, ONLINE Chloe Turner, an incoming eighth grader at Awty International School, has been taking ballet class over video conference.

With the stay-home orders, school and other activities have taken place via distance learning. My school moved to online classrooms within a day, keeping a schedule with our teachers and classmates all the way to the end of the school year. One of my after-school activities is ballet, which has all been taking place via Zoom! I even got my own ballet barre and floor, and my living room has become my miniature ballet studio. With our online classes, we have still enjoyed a live pianist playing beautiful music for us.

I have been dancing at Houston Ballet Academy since I was 4 years old. I am very passionate about ballet, and I think Houston Ballet Academy is amazing. I love my friends and teachers there, some of whom I have known since the beginning. We spend about four days a week together in ballet classes, and then more time if we are rehearsing for a performance like The Nutcracker or Spring Showcase.

Over the summer, we take part in an intensive training program that includes not just our daily ballet technique and pointe classes, but also body conditioning, modern dance, jazz, character and musical theater. I love the opportunity to take so many different classes. It's like going to dance camp. It will be via Zoom this year, but I'm still looking forward to it.

I love dancing myself, and I love attending dance performances. Lately, most dance viewing has been online, sparking my interest in the possibilities of how technology and the arts might become even more intertwined. My school's dance class assignment at the end of the term required us each to choreograph a section of a song. We filmed ourselves performing the full piece and then edited the collaboration into one final presentation. My Houston Ballet friends and I also did a similar video dance project. I look forward to more opportunities like this to bring a group performance together – even while distanced.

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