Spirits of the Ballet in Giselle and La Sylphide

Ballet workshops for adults seem to have fallen by the wayside rather in England. But at the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich they are going strong. On a Saturday evening in February, Jeannette Andersen joined one such.

Half-an-hour before the workshop began, the 18 participants, one man and 17 women of various ages, slowly trickled into the big John Cranko studio in the Bayerisches Staatsballett’s rehearsal building. Spurred on by Jack Waldas, the teacher, each did their own warm-up.

We are here for Spirits of the Ballet in Giselle and La Sylphide, both currently in the repertoire of the Bayerisches Staatsballett, and one of a series of monthly workshops offered for grown-ups by the company in collaboration with the Münchener Volkshochschule (MVHS), an adult educational center. The requirements are practice clothes, no non-slip socks, no formal dance training.

Waldas started with letting us sit in a circle on the floor, while he put Romantic ballet into its historical context. What are the themes? What do the costumes look like? How do the movements differ from those of modern ballet?

For the first exercise, he turned the studio lights off and asked us to get our phones. With the lights on we placed them on our chests or heads and moved around to get a sense of direction. Then followed exercises combining tombé, pas de bourrée and port de bras. We practiced the soft, rounded arms and the slightly tilted upper bodies characteristic of the Romantic style.

At last, we created our own, modern Romantic ballet. The love of a couple is ruined because the man falls in love, not with a sylph, but an alien. They are torn apart by the earth police because relationships between humans and extra-terrestrials are prohibited. Besides, the alien does not want him to follow her to her realm because, there, he can only survive for one day. At last, the alien returns to her spaceship leaving the man devastated, lying on the ground.

It was wonderful to see, how the aliens, on demi-pointe, with their arms in a soft circle over their heads, swept in to bring their straying sister back to the spaceship while an excerpt from the familiar music to Giselle filled the space.

Before that, the earth police had separated the two, with a mix of deep pliés, aggressively thrusting clenched fists and movements reminiscent of those of the witch, Madge, in La Sylphide. But the most amazing thing was that everybody looked good, no matter what their previous dance training was.

The participants had very different reasons to attend the workshop. Alina with no previous dance training said, “I was curious, and I wanted to see the rehearsal studios of the Bayerisches Staatsballett, which you usually do not have access to. But I was also really scared, because I did not know if I could do it. But it was easy, and I am impressed by what we achieved in this short time.”

Markus, the only man, explained, “I am a hobby dancer and Jack is my teacher. Normally, in a ballet lesson, you do what the teacher says, but here we also have to be creative, which I find exceedingly difficult. It was inspiring and a lot of fun to dance in this big and beautiful studio.”

Twelve-year-old Ida, was there with her mother. An exception because it is a course for adults only. She explained, “I do gymnastics, but no dancing. I wanted to do this to get out of my comfort zone, because I am afraid to try new things. It was a lot of fun.”

The collaboration between the BSB and the MVHS dates back to 2002. It also includes workshops for kids and an array of other ballet related events giving audience members a chance to see what goes on behind the stage.

The grown-up workshops in their present format started after Covid in 2022, and Waldas took over the teaching in 2023. He says, “It took me a while to find the right approach. At the beginning I thought, I am a ballet teacher, so I give them a ballet warm-up. It was very stressful for the participants with little or no ballet training. Then I realised they can do a ballet class any time, so how can I make this course special. That is when we started doing these explanations and improvisations around the topic of the workshop and then creating a ballet together. I believe it gives the participants more tools, more sense of the style and feeling for the work, when they start creating themselves.”

There is no doubt his approach is a success. Every participant left with a smile on their face.

In April there will be a workshop based on the program Wings of Memory, which includes works by Jirí Kylián, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Pina Bausch. In May there is one focusing on John Neumeier’s Illusionen wie Schwanensee, and in July the Spirits of the Ballet in Giselle and La Sylphide will be given twice. Each workshop is sold out and has a waiting list, which says it all.