Silverbelles of Sahuarita

06/03/2025

Hi, Silverbelles!
I sent this out as an email to many of you, but am not sure I have addresses for you all. There is important information in the email, so I am posting it here also.

Dear All,

Just to remind you ... class returns to 1 1/2 starting tomorrow night. This gives us more time to dance in the center, or work on ballet conditioning -- as makes sense in the timeline.

Also, we will introduce part of "A Chinese Tale". (Planned for July 30th) There are some very fun Qigong dance arms (and forms) that we plan to integrate into our Villager's ballet (this is the Corp de ballet dance part of "A Chinese Tale"). It will be a lot of fun to stretch our experience and enjoy the use of our ballet Port de Bras ("carriage of the arms") in another context.

Make sure you have snacked a little before class, and bring your water bottle. We plan to work a little harder than usual.

Quick sanity check ...
There are 4 sections in The Chinese Tale dance. (1-Villagers, 2- Princesses, 3- Shaolin Warriors, 4- Total Cast)

Note:
The Villagers, and total Cast segments (1 & 4) will be blocked and polished in class on performance night. (It is not too difficult, so a new class member will be able to do this with us, even if they have never seen it before.)

The Princesses will need to meet with me out of class to learn their segment. (A few Silverbelles have registered their request to be a Princess. If you want to ... you can be! Just let me know.)

The Shaolin Warriors will also need to meet with me out of class to learn their segment. (A few have signed up to be Warriors. If you want to, you can be ... just let me know.)

The class dance night will be July 30th. We'll work out costume stuff in plenty of time. (no worries)

Also, don't be afraid to be a warrior or princess. I will adapt the choreography to make sure everyone is successful. 🙂♥️👍

See you at the barre!

Your friend, ballet coach (and evil choreographer),😁🐉
Billie
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05/29/2025

Hi, Silverbelles.
For those of you who follow Julie from Broche Ballet, I wanted to share this video with you. Julie and some of her dancers took the opportunity to fly to Germany and participate in the Corp de Ballet in a performance of Swan Lake. She gives a very personal description of the experience --- and then shares part of the performance video. I love her courage and honesty ... and her enthusiasm for the Adult Ballet experience. Awesome.
This woman is amazing and wonderful.

Here is the link ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6S6hGkHCo

This is Julie. Her website (with lots of practice dance videos & helps) is ...
https://app.brocheballetonline.com/

05/10/2025

Hi, All.

I promised more information forthcoming. Here is how the construction of the dance looks ...

A CHINESE TALE

Section 1 - Villager's Working ... Daily Life (This is the easiest dance segment and will be taught the night of the performance so that any people new in class will be comfortable with this.)

Section 2- The Escaped Chinese Princesses ... Anyone who wants to dance in this segment needs to be prepared to learn this segment outside of class, over at my house. The complexity in this will vary based on who chooses to be a Princess, but there will be a little complex ballet-ified Chinese steps for those who want a challenge.. Princess parts will be designed around the capabilities of those who want to dance in this segment. Note: The Princesses won't dance in Section 1. They will come on stage at the end of Section 1. (They will also dance in Section 4)

Section 3 - The Shaolin Warrior Monks ... This dance segment will be learned outside of class and will look a little bit like dance modified Kung Fu-ish moves. The dancers for this section will have danced in Section 1 ... but will sneak out when the Princesses come in and modify their costumes just a little. All the poses in this section will be done safely ... so fear not! The warrior monks will dance in Section 4 also.

Section 4- The whole cast will dance together at the end. This dance segment will be a repeat of Section 1 with some stage position modifications to support the whole cast.

I am planning this dance for the end of July. (Probably last week) If you will not be in town and want to dance in this project, tell me when you will be out of town and I will try to adjust the schedule. If the planned time is OK, tell me that too.

Now for the fun ...

Do you want to be a villager, or a Princess, or a Shaolin Warrior Monk?

I have talked to some of you. Tell me what your heart desires. (The Villager part is easiest, the Princess part I will level adapt, the Shaolin Warrior Monks dance is medium difficult. There is 1 forward snap kick to balance that takes a little bit of leg strength and balance to achieve. It can be adapted if needed.)

I want us to just have a fun dance performance and a lot of good refreshments! We are creating memories.

When I know how this takes shape, we will talk about fun and inexpensive costume pieces.

Your friend and coach,
Billie

05/02/2025

Hi, Silverbelles. We are putting together plans for our July in-class dance performance/party.

The dance will be a stylized ballet/Chinese dance with an accompanying story.

Here is a description ...

AN ANCIENT CHINESE TALE (July 2025)

1. THE VILLAGERS DANCE (A Commoner’s Simple Dance) This is fusion of ballet and Tai Chi. As they dance, 3 Chinese Princesses come on stage. They are frightened, and fleeing something. They pantomime that they are fleeing a terrible warlord who plans to force them into marriage.

2. The 3 Princesses dance, solo & together. (This is 50/50 ballet and Chinese poses) They are sad and frightened and intermittently cling to each other.

3. A small group of Shaolin warriors come onto stage. The Princesses run and hide behind the villagers. The warriors dance. (Kung fu/ballet/qigong fusion) The head villager comes up and bows to the warriors. One of the warriors is family to the head villager. They embrace. The Princesses come out. The warriors show fealty to the princesses and dance around them.

4. The full group, villagers-Princesses-warriors dance together. They drop into a multi-level pose and the dance ends.

Class members can choose which group they would like to be part of. The part of the villagers is simple, low risk and will be learned in class on the day of the party.

Anyone who would like to dance as a "Princess" will need to commit to several practices to be held at my house. The same commitment is required by anyone who wants to dance with the warriors.

It is fun to look ahead.
See you at the barre,
Billie Q. (Instructor/Choreographer)

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04/19/2025

Hi, Silverbelles! (Rancho/Sonora Ballet Group)

I want to thank you, as a class, for stepping up and helping me transition back after my knee replacement. We were surprised and sad when Katherine McDonnell left us. It required me to come back from recovery a little earlier than I planned --- but you all stepped up and made it possible.

Last Wednesday in class, class members came to the teacher's barre and demonstrated during class exercises. Class members surrounded the new students so they had and experienced person on each side of them. Class members stepped up to place themselves in front to lead Center combinations. This freed me up to help with technique, and took pressure off my not-quite-healed-leg.

I have never seen a group of dancers pull together like this. WE ARE A TRUE COMMUNITY BALLET GROUP. You showed your compassion, your skill and willingness to come together to keep our ballet project going. BRAVO!!!!

03/11/2025

Hi, Silverbelles. I wanted to let you know that I am going in for a full-knee replacement surgery tomorrow. (March 12th) My orthopedist works with ballet dancers ... I am grateful for that. His estimate is that I will be back in service in 6 weeks. I will come back as soon as I can get "safely over the leg" (we all know what that means) on my left leg. I understand that the replaced knee will be capable, but will feel different. That means there will be a little bit of a learning curve on supporting our "in the center" dancing. Since we want to dance until we are 92 (or longer), this will be an interesting process. Keep me in your thoughts ... you will certainly be in mine.

I love you dancers. You are sweet, beautiful, talented and a lot of fun to work with!

God bless you all!
Billie Qualtrough

02/04/2025

I found very precious pictures in this group of memories. Check it out! This video is the record of the Carnival Dance. Enjoy!!

02/04/2025

This post is the video created from the snapshots captured during our performance of the Ethnic Dance. Enjoy!

02/04/2025

The Swan Maiden fun pics are in this video snapshot. Notice the fun variety in costumes. (Expecially the Swan glasses) The Silverbelles are NOT always serious.

02/04/2025

Silverbelles danced Still, Still, Still for their Christmas dance in 2022. This is a "slide show" type video of the lovely dancers.

02/04/2025

Here are the pics from our "Keep Your Hat On" performance at Rancho. Dancers ... you look fantastic. Enjoy!

02/04/2025

Here are the pictures from "Keep Your Hat On", as danced by the Sonora Silverbelles. Enjoy!!