Something adult ballet students don’t talk about enough: you can usually rent the practice room.
I booked A Hall at my studio for an hour, and I want to make the case for it.
Why I needed to
I’m in repertoire class at the moment, and this piece has a lot of jumps.
Two problems:
I can’t practise at home. Jumping in an apartment means noise travelling to the floor below, and I’m not doing that to my neighbours.
There isn’t time in class. With 40 minutes of barre and the rest on repertoire, you get through the material — you don’t get to drill the bit you personally can’t do.
So the rental solves both at once.
What you get
The whole barre. Nobody waiting behind you, nobody to work around. You can do the same eight bars fourteen times.
The sound system. There’s a Marshall speaker, and I played every piece of music I wanted. This turns out to matter — practising a variation to a phone speaker is not the same as practising it in a room where the music fills the space.
No audience. Which, for the specific work of failing at something repeatedly, is the entire point.
Why I’d recommend it
If you’re in a repertoire run and there’s one section you keep botching, an hour alone with it is worth more than three classes.
In class you’re moving with the group and there’s no room to stop, isolate a step, and repeat it until your body understands. Alone, that’s all you do.
I also just enjoyed it. An empty studio, your own music, a barre you don’t have to share — it’s a very particular kind of good.
Practical notes
- Ask your studio whether they rent. Many do and simply never advertise it.
- Book a hall with a barre, not just an open floor, if you want to warm up properly.
- Bring your own music sorted in advance. You will waste the first ten minutes otherwise.
- Film yourself. You’re alone, there’s no one to be embarrassed in front of, and it’s the fastest correction you’ll get.
If you’ve been stuck on one passage for weeks — this is the thing to try.
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