Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo Published by Random House Books for Young Readers on January 19th 2016
Pages: 368
Amazon||The Book Depository
Goodreads
A refreshingly original contemporary YA, unlike anything readers have seen before. Perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, John Corey Whaley, and Libba Bray.
She had a plan. It went south.
Harper is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal: becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won’t let anything—or anyone—get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are both drawn to.
Harper is a Scott. She’s related to Robert Falcon Scott, the explorer who died racing to the South Pole. So when Harper’s life takes an unexpected turn, she finagles (read: lies) her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station . . . in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting—apparently she has always been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her. Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow found a way into her heart.
i’m happy to be a part of UP TO THIS POINTE’s blog tour! thank you, random house, for providing me an eARC to read as well.
i adore ballet books – or even books that aren’t focused on ballet but have it briefly mentioned. books and ballet are two of my favorite things in life, so having them merge together as one is happiness. i love the paragraphs describing dance because to me, it’s something that one can’t reaaaaaally describe with words; you need to watch it – experience it – to fully comprehend. but somehow, these authors manage to capture the feeling and depiction of dancing, and every time i read it i smile and have the urge to turn on some tchaikovsky and do some pirouettes.
after some thinking, i decided to try to write about ballet and explain it. (i mean, jennifer longo did it – wonderfully, might i add – so i suppose i could try talking about ballet as well) 80% of ballet is done in class, but most people don’t understand why i need to go to class every day when i already know all the steps. ballet class is different from regular class; not only are you learning new steps and combinations, you’re perfecting them. so here’s me, walking you through what a typical ballet class would consist of. like the art form itself, ballet classes are very structured.
disclaimer: all gifs and photos used in this post belong to their respectful owners. (bless you, tumblr people with epic gif-making skills.)
pre-class: stretching & floor exercises
what most people don’t understand is that i need at least and hour of buffer time before class begins – excluding changing and twisting my hair into a bun. i stretch and bend myself in all sorts of directions, wrapped up in the weirdest warmups you can possibly imagine, and stretch and stretch and stretch. i can’t take a proper class without a proper warm-up. i massage all my muscles and do floor exercises to make sure i’m warm and ready. this is a crucial part of the “ballet class experience.”
barre
ballet starts at the barre. many dancers despise barre, but personally it’s my favorite part of class. it’s where you really work on your technique. in some ways, i find barre harder than centre. anyway, we start with a step most people know: plié, just bend your knees. seems simple enough… until you need to remember to turn out your legs, press your shoulders down, lift your hips, relax your fingers, stretch your arms, oh, and BREATHE. (and that’s only about 10% of the corrections to work on.) then we move onto battement tendus and jetés, which are still fairly simple. (but the simplest things are the most difficult; the worst part of dancing on stage is WALKING)
rond de jambes are the mid-point(e) of barre. combinations (what dancers call the sequence they’re dancing in class) can’t get very creative in tendus and pliés, but you can do so much more in rond de jambs. afterwards, we move onto more exciting things like frappé, fondu, adagio, grand battement, and more. by the end of barre, you’re well prepared to move onto the centre.
centre
centre usually starts with adagio, which is a slow (and torturous) sequence with lots of (slow) leg lifting. (we do it on the barre, and again in centre.) i suppose this is what most people imagine ballet is like. afterwards, some classes also do tendus or jetés in centre. it’s hard to explain or describe centre because every teacher does it a little differently or out of order. i’ll try to “teach” the more generic way. moving on…
PIROUETTES (or turning in general)! they’re my favorite favorite favorite part of class. i wait all of barre (and all of adagio) to get here. (you could probably tell i like twirling because TWIRLING pages) there are many different ways to incorporate turns, so there are usually multiple combinations, sometimes starting from the corner and going across the floor. turns are so fun because there are so many different ways you can turn. the possibilities for turning are endless because there’s an infinite amount of turns you can do. for other things, you can only lift your leg so high or perfect a step by so much but there are always more turns you can do.
after pirouettes, we move onto petit allegro or small jumps. usually, this is to warm up your body for big jumps so you don’t injure yourself later. petit allegro is also where you work on your footwork. you need to point your feet fast and have good agility. it can also be really fun and this is part of the class when you really start to feel like you’re DANCING as opposed to just ballet-ing, if that makes any sense.
then we have medium allegro which is exactly what it sounds like – medium jumps. and afterwards, grand allegro. grand allegro is when you can JUMP and feel like a free bird. but it’s also extremely tiring if done continuously because it’s basically the end of class and it’s like extreme cardio.
the last part of class is optional; most finish with grand allegro, but if your teacher is feeling pretty good then you’ll get the extra fun stuff. girls will typically do fouettés – a type of turn – and boys will generally do a la seconde turns or cool jumpy stuff.
about the author
Jennifer Longo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Acting from San Francisco State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing For Theatre from Humboldt State University. She is a two-time Irene Ryan Best Actor Award recipient and a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Best Full Length Script honoree for her play, FROZEN. After years of acting, playwriting, working as a literary assistant at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, then as an elementary school librarian, Jennifer told the occasional story at San Francisco’s Porch Light Storytelling Series and decided at last to face her fear of prose and actually write some. Her debut novel, SIX FEET OVER IT (Random House Books) received starred reviews from Kirkus and The Bulletin, and was selected as a VOYA Perfect Ten and an Indies Introduce New Voices title. Jen’s next novel, UP TO THIS POINTE (Random House Books) will publish January 19th, 2016. A California native and recent San Francisco transplant, Jennifer now lives with her husband and daughter on an island near Seattle, Washington and her every hour is consumed by writing, running marathons, taking her kid to ballet class eleven thousand times each week and reading every book she can get her hands on. // website + twitter
WOAH THIS IS SO COOL. I used to learn ballet when I was an itsy bitsy toddler but then I just seemed to lack the flexibility to even get past step 1 of stretching XD XD but this sounds like great fun (even though it must be a lot of hard work!) I admit pirouettes and fouettes interest me most because TWIRLINGGGGG. *calms down* It’s super interesting that ballet classes have such routine, I never knew that. Thanks for sharing!
A BALLET BOOK IN YA! AFTER ALL THIS TIME! (I mean, there’s probably more than this one, but I haven’t come across a lovely ballet book since The Book of Proper Names by Amelie Nothomb, and I’m not sure that one is strictly-speaking YA.) If you have more recommendations on the topic and you haven’t done the post already – I vote for a Ballet Book Recommendations Post! I’d come and read it and fangirl and share it and make my TBR very, very tall and precariously-balanced.
I took Latin dance for 8 years and I competed on a state-wide level, and demanding though that was, whenever I see (or read about) ballet, I just think… WE HAD IT SO EASY. I’m half-convinced you have to be a descendant of a swan, an angel, or a snowflake to be a good ballerina.
– Lexie
Loved Loved Loved this post. Got great insight into ballet and helps me appreciate dancers more. I have learnt dance while at school (not ballet) so I know how much of effort and practise is needed even for a small performance. Love the post
I love that you’re a ballet dancer as well as a blogger. I personally wish my mom pushed me to take more ballet classes when I was younger, but I was six and a huge tomboy and didn’t appreciate it ;-; Now that I’m in theatre and I love the arts way more than I had anticipated, I cry at the missed opportunity to take up ballet. It’s not going to stop me. I’m planning on taking ballet classes to carry on to my resume, but I love how rigorous and disciplined ballet is. It’s such an art as well as a skill.
This is my new favorite post! I did ballet when I was little but then I stopped but I’ve just started beginner contemporary ballet classes and I’m utterly in love with it! We began learning pirouettes in this week’s class and it’s so fun (even though I have a LONG way to go to perfect even a single one). I’ve also been watching ballet videos and documentaries and the dancers’ strength and dedication just blows my mind. I can’t wait to read Up to this Pointe, it sounds so good!
WOW this is such a cool post! It’s so much fun to learn about what other people do to practice their activities! (This actually makes me really want to finish all of those synchronized swimming posts I’ve written up in the past…) Love this, and I’ll definitely be checking out the book!
This was so much fun to read and informative! I’ve said it before, but I’ve always loved how graceful ballerina’s are (and I envy that a little, because I’m way too stiff and clumsy ;p)
This post was so much fun! I don’t know much about dance, to be honest, but I love watching it so much. (PIROUETTES ARE MY FAV! They’re so beautiful to watch!) And now, I know at least the basics on how a dance class works, thanks to you. Not to mention this book looks SO interesting! I mean, ballet and Antarctica… I don’t even know how that’s supposed to work, but I’m intrigued by it.
I used to take ballet class when I was a young girl, but then my parents could no longer afford to pay for it and I had to stop going. It was fun while it lasted. I wish I would have stayed active as a dancer but now I can enjoy it from afar 🙂
This post was really interesting! I took one dance class when i was really little and failed quite horribly. It was basically like public embarrassment for me as I find dancing in front of other extremely shameful. Not to mention there is the fact that I have 0 coordination, this is not an exaggeration.
As someone completely oblivious to the parts of dance, I loved this post! I got to learn about ballet AND about you. Also – such a creative way to do a blog tour! LOVE THIS XAN <3
I really enjoyed this post! I’m so happy to see how you use your blog as an outlet for all of your interests, bookish or not. I did ballet for about a month when I was really little, but it wasn’t for me. I think ballet is so incredible in the way it combines grace, strength and artistry. Even though ballet isn’t for me, I’ve always wanted to learn ballroom dance, and I hope to take lessons some day!
I LOVED THIS POST OMG. I’m taking a ballet class at university right now and ahh I’m so glad I went back to dancing. As I was reading this post, I was like check, check, check! Looks like there’s a pretty standard way of getting through a ballet class. My favorite part of class is barre and petite allegro 🙂
As someone who knows nothing about ballet (but likes watching it because who doesn’t?), I really appreciate this walkthrough! So if I get it right, it’s basically one session where you all can practice and polish your moves?
I’ve always wanted to learn more about ballet – even try it! Love how fluid it all is – it astounds me that people can do that with their bodies! It’s really amazing 😀
this was so cool! i know very little about ballet but have so much admiration for ballet and ballet dancers as some of my friends do ballet as well. i did take ballet a longgg time ago when i was six and those classes weren’t as structured as your classes by far which obvs but still i was reading through this post and was pretty proud of the moves i do remember. like TENDUS and JETES and PLIES. anyway this was such an interesting post. you know i always love hearing about your ballet classes / bunhead adventures! 🙂
This was so great to read. I’ve always been interested in ballet though I really don’t know why. I’m as far from being a dancer myself as you can get but I just find ballet so fascinating to watch. I went to see Swan Lake when I was in St. Petersburg a few years ago and it was MAGICAL. I don’t think I will ever forget that. So it’s really cool to know what the dancers do to prepare for all the magic. 🙂
This is so interesting! It’s shocking how many years of hard work and dedication are put in to becoming good at ballet. Thanks for sharing this and fabulous post! <3
This was so cool! (I did three years of ballet when I was a kid and I like to think of myself as somewhat of an expert even though I haven’t done a smidge of ballet since I was 8 so I will graciously hand you that title). Do you have a mean teacher? My teacher was HORRIBLE. All she’d do was yell and I would run to the toilets and cry until I was forced to leave.