Dafna Djerassi

Thanks to Ballet Delart I could develop my placement, rotation and technique a lot. After years of training without understanding the functionality of turnout, I’m grateful for the care, attention to details and time spent with each and one of us. The creativity in methods for us to understand and feel what’s right and how it creates flow and ease.

What I expected the least is how nurturing and understanding the environment is, how much the team cares about our emotional and mental health. Thanks to that we all are connecting more to ourselves and dancing from our hearts, which made us grow artistically. We all have grown individually but we are also connecting to eachother on a deeper level, our collective feels like a family, loving, accepting and supporting to do our best. 

In addition I got here opportunities to grow artistically even outside of ballet. What I experienced here until now is indescribable in words, it’s different than anything there is currently in the ballet industry and I hope we expand and bring more light in this world.

After almost a year after starting my training in Ballet del´art I feel a big change in me not only in my training as a ballet dancer but also as artist and as a human. 

BDA has guide me to dance with focus into feeling and connect with my body. This connection has taught me to dance using all my body parts, move in space and have awareness of muscles. Thanks to the studio without a  mirror I learnt to listen to my body to fix parts without looking at them; and all this also helps to ease the mind and makes dance more enjoyable and bring me to the present. 

Under the teaching of BDA I have learnt so many technical details to help me keep growing without using extra force and tension. From how to point my feet, use the rotatin of the legs to how to connect with my partner dancing pas de deux. They guide me to perform to my best of my ability, give me a push when I need it, bring awareness when Im lost in thoughts and celebrating my improvements. 

Finally besides a dancer Im a human and the connecton they encurage in dance, they also encurage it our daily life. To connect to myself, know myself and grow this connection to others and everything that soround me. To keep the curiosity, never stop learning and specially they teach me the beauty in mistakes and the importance in trust, a subject that I keep working on.

I've learned many things since coming to Ballet Del'Art, not only I have I learned more in terms of ballet but I've also learned to connect to myself more; I've learned how to be "me". Being more connected to myself, learning how to feel and feel my body, I've improved so much in ballet and as a person. Personally I've felt that I improved so much in technique, functional and proper technique. Although I am still working on it and strive to improve even more. Specifically I've learned how to jump from the proper place, a way to jump to prevent more injuries. Compared to the technique I used to use before there is a huge contrast between what I've learned from here and it is much more functional. 

Besides ballet, Ballet Del'Art teaches us how to connect to ourselves; to be more in the heart. It was confusing for me at first but once I understood more I have never felt better, more down to earth. I finally feel like a "person" and not just a mind. These are teachings that I will never get from anywhere else and I will forever be grateful for everything Ballet Del'Art has taught me. I will treasure everything.

With Ballet del'Art I discovered what the true art and love are and that ballet is way more than just about steps. I worked on technique in a very unique way: on truly feeling the body and connecting, working on it as a full-body experience.

But not only that. It really feels like I just started living here - by connecting to my heart instead of being led by mind and distractive thoughts that only kept my focus from the dance away. Becoming part of Ballet del'Art was one of the best decisions on my journey. I discovered how real love and art taste like and I experienced life like never before.

The person I am today, was not the person who walked in the first day. Here at Ballet Del Art, I have found so much more than a place to dance. I’ve found more of my capabilities as a dancer and more of myself as a person, I’ve found a suppourt system and a family. It was the best decision to come here ! And I’m looking forward to continuing on with everything we are doing together. ❤

During this year I've become aware of the importance of being true to myself about how I work and live. This way I've been able to achieve more functional technique through better placement and alignment, as well as a better understanding of when dancing and other daily actions are done with a connection to our own soul and essence