Here are some links to competition videos and other performances I’ve been a part of. I go to a small ballet school in Joensuu, Finland. If you like what you see and think that it’s awesome that people regardless of age and skill level get quality ballet training, in an environment where everyone’s personality is celebrated and joy is regarded as the most important part of dancing, consider supporting Pieni balettistudio Relevé at SolidSport where you can pay to watch full ballets.
2022
Night by the River
Many of our school’s students performed at an annual festival in our city. I’m in a duo at 10:30 into the video. We managed to synch really well in the last rehearsal, so I was annoyed at my slight delays in the performance!
2021
Estradi show dance & ballet (video) contest
Here are some links to numbers I was in. More performances from our school can be found on the Youtube channel the videos are on.
Usually it’s only our representative groups that go to contests, but this year we couldn’t do a normal spring ballet with the whole school, so our teacher decided to enter the contest with all the groups that wanted to. It’s amazing to see again and again how people in our school have the will to dive head first into challenges. Many first time competitors were rewarded for their efforts in a lot of different categories. ♡
Covid certainly made this year hard on everyone, and for me it was possibly the worst I’ve had, physically speaking. In these performances I’m dealing with Tarlov cysts in my lower back, fatigue, and chronic pain, so… not fun. Even though the dances were. I was exhausted but really happy to get through them all, even though I was just barely hanging in there, which you can clearly see if you look at me. My legs were basically two well-cooked noodles.
Category: Ballet, Adults (under 30), Small groups
Placement: Won gold!
A depiction of dancers trying, and failing to get into ballet companies, and continuing to try. This was really fun, though I couldn’t keep up with the speed well due to my diminished reflexes.
Category: Ballet, Adults (under 30), Small groups
Placement: Didn’t place.
Doesn’t really have a story. It’s based on a bigger group dance we did some years ago. It looked more interesting with a lot of dancers, I don’t really feel like the choreography gets to shine here the same way.
Category: Ballet, Adults (under 30), Solos
Placement: Didn’t place.
My solo. I was thinking about a field nymph or some not entirely physical character as an inspiration. After managing to shoot it, I had to lie on the floor for the next 10 minutes, so I wouldn’t faint. I love the song and can’t help but be a little sad that I gave it my all and this year that didn’t amount to more than this.
2020
Not surprisingly, all the contests and performances were cancelled due to Covid. But we did some other things and had online classes in the worst times of the pandemic.
World Ballet Day
Our school did a livestream (in two parts). My class starts around 30 minutes to this one. I was starting to feel my back problems here…
Facing and surviving Covid
A somewhat funny video depicting hearing about Covid, switching to online classes, and what our school did during the first spring of the pandemic.
2019
A Christmas gig at the University of Eastern Finland
The hard thing about this dance is to make it look strong and elegant, not lazy. It’s fun to dance though, the rhythm is really nice, and I think the choreography is interesting.
Estradi show dance & ballet contest
This year was… an adventure. Not only was it my first time doing a solo in a contest, in the morning my ankle decided to randomly give out on the stairs. It’s dangerous business walking out of your door indeed. My ankle really did a full circle and for a moment I just sat there like… No. Way. But I was in all our rep group’s dances and I had my first solo, so I was going to dance no matter what. Adrenaline is the best painkiller. By the end, my ankle had swollen to almost twice its size, but it was worth it and honestly, I think my hypermobility protected me from permanent damage.
Here’s one of our performances.
Category: Ballet, Adults, Small Groups
Placement: Won gold!
The hardest part of this dance for me was to be flirty. I just feel awkward even trying, but I practised in front of a mirror a lot. On the other hand, it’s also really fun to do these less traditional dances, and this music always makes me smile. And I know people tend to find it fun to watch this type of dance, even if they’re not into ballet.
And here’s my solo as Glinda. (Originally made for our version of The Wizard of Oz.)
Category: Ballet, Adults (under 30), Solos
Placement: Silver, although there were actually just two people in my category. But hey, I still got a medal to take home. (Honestly, I think every adult hobbyist dancer would deserve a medal just for getting on the stage, and I will fight anyone who says adult ballet is a waste of time.)
You can see me stumble a few times, especially towards the end because of my ankle. Of course I had to hurt my right ankle, which is my strong one, so everything was rather right-sided in the choreography since I made it together with my teacher to suit me. But oh well, considering everything, it went alright.
Night by the River
Another funny video to advertise our version of Les Sylphides we did at an annual festival “Night by the River” where our town’s cultural activities come together. We had a lot of people of different ages and from different groups to put our mini ballet together during the summer.
2018
Estradi show dance & ballet contest
This was my first year as officially part of the representative group, so it’s very memorable. Also, for once, I don’t think there was anything wrong with me. It was just pure joy to be there with everyone.
Category: Ballet, Novices, Small Groups
Placement: Bronze!
This dance is from our Alice in Wonderland ballet. I’ve always found it creative, and it’s interesting, because it feels very slow and static to dance, but it looks rather flowy and smooth from the audience.
Category: Ballet, Novices, Small Groups
Placement: Honourable mention
Also from Alice. Honestly, some dances are just agonizing to do because there’s a fine line between being totally stiff and holding yourself together just right to look light and effortless, and in some dances there seems to be a lot less room for even one wrong breath. This is one of them.
Category: Ballet, Novices, Small Groups
Placement: Didn’t place.
This was our prologue in Alice in Wonderland. A bunch of Alices foreshadowing what’s to come. This is one of my long time favourites to dance, because of the slightly gothic fairytale atmosphere. The judges didn’t think it was ballet enough, though.
Category: Ballet, Novices, Small Groups
Placement: Didn’t place.
Inspired by Handmaid’s Tale. I love the music, and dancing this always makes me feel so wistful. Whether this was appropriate for our age group (our youngest was 14 I think) was questioned, which I thought was quite hypocritical when it’s apparently no problem that children are made to do variations of adult roles all the time. At least this dance was actually about trying to be free, you know.
Alice in Wonderland Encore
Our teacher is known for ambitious ideas, like putting together our old ballet in a couple of weeks to celebrate the start of the school year. And performing it outside on a wooden stage and using tents as dressing rooms. It also happened to rain a lot during practise, but we did get a somewhat clear sky for the actual performance.
You can find me as one of the many Alices in the prologue, a competitive Mrs. Amanita, a part of a centipede, a forest flower, a table, a flamingo, and a croquet player.
2017
Estradi show dance and ballet contest
This was our school’s first time participating in Estradi. I was in an adult group at the time, and I was quite passionate about doing it, because adult hobbyists are often not taken seriously, and in a lot of schools they don’t even perform. It’s so sad. Dancing, like any hobby, should be something you do for yourself, and your age, skill level, or what shape you are, or even how much time you’re able to dedicate to dancing, doesn’t in any way relate to your ability to enjoy what you’re doing. Adults dance because they love it, and that joy deserves to be seen as much as anyone else’s. Besides, no matter what your situation is, you might surprise yourself with how much you can do.
It’s weird seeing myself in these because I had dyed my hair black at the time. 😀
Category: Ballet, Novices, Small Groups
Placement: Bronze!
We were supposed to be in the adult category of course, but guess what. We were the only adult group participating, so our category was cancelled, and suddenly we were competing with 16-19 year-olds. Let’s just say it was totally worth it. It’s been amazing to see how the number of adult participants has increased from this time.
Category: Ballet, Novices, Big Groups
Placement: Bronze!
This was our adults and teens combined. The dance was fun, but the masks were a pain… which is so funny to even think about, after experiencing dancing with another type of mask. This was a piece of cake compared to them.
I have to say this was kind of a big “Hah!” moment for me. I was so bummed about some of our adults feeling like we would be laughed out of the stage. I’m so happy everyone decided to just do it in the end, regardless! Because if the adults from our super inclusive school wouldn’t, then who would?
And then there was this junior group from Estonia there, laughing at our juniors because they didn’t dance on pointe. Well… our juniors got gold! Without pointe shoes. I was SO happy not only because it was their first time too, but also because you can win without putting others down, and I didn’t hear our juniors say one bad word about that other group, only about the laughing part.
Also, our actual novices got silver, so, nothing could’ve turned out better for us.
2016
Relevé Goes Retro
A show where a lot of choreographies that hadn’t been used in a while were revived. And something I had never imagined doing…
I don’t have much videos from my previous schools. I might be able to find some childhood clips at some point though. 😀
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