A new DVD from the New York City Ballet gives a interesting insight into one of the world's top dance companies - and a chance to get fit while it takes you through your paces, writes Deirdre Mulrooney.
First, draw the curtains. Think of being spotted by the postman or your next-door neighbour wobbling in a compromising arabesque position, with one eye glued to your television screen.
"Plié and relevé and stretch to the left." Following the New York City Ballet Workout DVD, you are in direct connection with Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes via George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York City Ballet, and one of the most famous graduates of St Petersburg's Russian Imperial School of Ballet. Everybody's favourite defector Mikhail Baryshnikov first set foot on his compatriot's stage at NYCB when he arrived in the US. And the high calibre work continues with the likes of British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.
NYCB, one of the most brilliant ballet companies in North America, has developed this workout "for mere mortals". Beginning from the principle: "We all have the same instrument, whether some of us have shaped it into the body of a dancer or not", ballet master-in-chief, the Danish Peter Martins "kept thinking of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures that are part stone, part dancer. You want to be a sculptor of your muscles in order to achieve maximum muscle tone".
The NYCB workout requires a fairly clear space in your home. Martins talks you reassuringly through the workout, which was devised in consultation with New York Sports Clubs: ". . . Now let's do first position [it helps to have some basic ballet moves]. Open your feet and close your feet. We call this demi-plié, stretching the calf muscles and the Achilles' tendon.
"And we breathe. Now we relevé. All the way up on half-point. Way up stretch. Relevé . . . And tendue to the left. And second position grand plié. And repeat."
If flatmates, partners, and/or family members have the audacity to laugh at you, rise (your stretching limbs) above it. The laugh will be on the other side of their respective faces when you (as the first lady of Sex in the City, Sarah Jessica Parker promises in the introduction) have attained improved posture, enhanced muscle tone and greater flexibility. In the meantime, balancé: "Balancé with a second leg behind. And a leg in front. Now we add passé. Lift the heel. Now double tempo. And repeat . . ."
Suggesting that the world's greatest athlete might be a dancer, the accompanying booklet cites Dr James A. Nelson's 1970s study on which sports are the most difficult. Of 61 sports, he found that ballet was second only to football. "The muscles of a dancer are leaner and thinner than a professional athlete," it claims. "The workout strengthens without bulking." The proof is in the excruciatingly perfect physiques of the four featured NYCB dancers.
The NYCB workout is divided into an à la carte menu of 17 sections, of about four minutes each. There include arm-ups; stretches; floor-barres; little jumps; pliés; abdominals, and leg darts; dégagé; tendu; passé; arabesque raises; front attitude; grand battement front; and cool-down, or reverence. The exercises are interspersed with gems of wisdom such as: "notice how you have to use your stomach muscles to hold up your leg". A set menu of sports options provide three tailor-made workouts for footballers, skiers or players of racket sports.
As for music, which can help you forget muscular discomfort, NYCB offers a stereo or surround-sound choice between classical, and contemporary (a spatial, instrumental mix). Meanwhile, another new DVD - MTV's Yoga which offers an alternative fitness regime, comes with the choice of either an "upbeat soundtrack by DJ BT" or Zen-like silence (the sound of your own panting).
While NYCB acolytes can reap the benefits of a superbly produced DVD that maximises the potential of the format, MTV yoga groupies cannot. Crusading to demystify ballet, and the often-mythical ballet dancer, NYCB offers behind-the-scenes humorous out-takes, complete with technical crew; a Dance in the City slot on the NYC dance world; and Video Diaries, introducing us to the four dancers. We are invited to share their daily commutes, and to join them, fly-on-the-wall style in the rehearsal room, or going to Deanna McBrearty's apartment, or watching Taiwanese-American Edwaard Liang stuff his face with fillet-of-fish, double quarter-pounder, chicken nuggets, large fries and a cola - all in one sitting - at McDonalds, and rejoicing "I don't have to sit at an office desk all day".
Containing nothing as tricky as a shoulder stand, let alone a headstand, the MTV Yoga workout, which lasts about 40 minutes, and is based on Vinyasa yoga (similar to Power Yoga), is not exactly for yogis. No yogi myself, I found it quite good and thorough. It's definitely preferable to be familiar with the moves already. If you can follow the whole routine a few times a week you are doing well. As with NYCB workout, watch it through a few times before attempting to throw your own body into the equation.
In calling its booklet Flex in the City, and boasting that instructor Kristin McGee "has featured" on that show, MTV yoga has made itself look like NYCB Workout's poor relation. Sadly, its comparatively skimpy brochure is no competition for the wonderfully comprehensive NYCB booklet.
While the MTV Yoga DVD is essentially a home workout, NYCB offers us a glimpse into an entire culture, an aesthetic, an art form. It is an ingenuous exercise in audience development. It even offers us miscellaneous information that the shrewd viewer will be able to dine out on (when a container of yogurt just isn't enough). For example, did you know NYCB dancers use 12,000 pairs of toe shoes each year at the cost of more than $500,000? At the end of the day, however, no matter how good NYCB's and MTV yoga's surrogate instructors are, nothing beats a live teacher who can correct you and coax you into doing it right.
