So, we’re at the barre, Smirnoff’s working on getting his music cued up for the next exercise, Terrier raises her hand and says,
“I have a question! Why do we turn toward the barre when we switch sides? Isn’t that, like, the audience, over there?
(pointing across the room into the mirror)
So, when we turn to the barre aren’t we turning our backs to the audience?”
Smirnoff says, “Yes, yes, that’s the audience.” and goes back to fumbling with compact discs.
“But,” insists Terrier, “Why! Why do we do that? That’s bad, right? To turn our backs to the audience?”
Smirnoff, having wrestled the cd player into mostly submission, finally gives her his full attention and says, “You turn toward the barre, because the barre represents your partner. And your partner is more important that the audience.”
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh.
We had a similar question in class too this week. My teacher said “the barre is your partner, and hopefully he’s handsome”
BWAHAHAHAHHAHAA
I’ve found ballet barres to be far more solid, supportive, and always ready to be leaned on than any man I’ve ever dated. Too bad it’s not yet legal to marry inanimate objects.
@roriroars: I doubt you’ll ever be able to marry inanimate objects, but I know several women who speak as if they have intimate relationships with them. You’d think they’d come up with a romantic nickname like Fernando or Mikhail, rather than dull and boring Robert.
On the other hand… As a man who has just started stretches at the barre, I find it to be quite the pain in the rear. Kind of like some of the women I’ve dated. So maybe there’s a parallel after all!
Err…so you’re implying that we should NAME the barre? Can I name the barre different things on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday? You know…I don’t wanna commit. I like to keep my options open.
Ain’t nuthin gonna break my stride…nobody’s gonna slow me down…oh no…I got to keep on movin’…
hahahah
well… I got a friend who says is dating her own car. She names it (him) “Javier”
It’s funny that this came up here, as the Australian Ballet’s blog, “Behind Ballet” just addressed this.
The only other reason I knew that the barre represents a partner is because of this one open level ballet class I went to. There was a pro dancer in the class who the teacher had clearly trained, so she was very nit-picky with her. Anyway, I guess she would stand too close to the barre, so the instructor began talking about how the barre is where your partner would be, and you don’t want to stand on top of him or anything, as that wouldn’t be extremely functional for the most part.
Just thought I’d share!
LOL…one of my teachers says something like that as well: “The barre is your handsome partner’s arm…press on it lightly, don’t clutch at it in a death grip!”