Go Team SF Ballet!

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Trio (Photo: Erik Tomasson)

I was able to go to see the San Francisco Ballet perform at Segerstrom Hall in Orange County last week. And they were, as always, FAN-TAS-TIC! The evening consisted of Trio, Raku, and Symphony in C. I could go on and on describing each step in frenchie detail, but honestly, I’ll spare you. Because the thing that SF Ballet really does beautifully, the thing that makes them so ridiculously wonderful isn’t the bits and pieces picked apart by critics; it’s the wholeness of the company. Don’t get me wrong, I love a great ballet star, an Etoile from on high that is sort of not-human in the best and most amazing way… but what never ceases to amaze me and always succeeds in delighting me about SF Ballet is the fact that they are a company – not a couple of stars and then, oh yeah, everyone else.

There are so many dancers who work very hard and are extremely talented but the sun just isn’t going to shine on them and the planets aren’t going to align for them. There are dancers out there who will see their name in the flyer handout in the program but never on the bigger than life banner hanging in front of the venue, dancers who will take their bows in the back row and be able to pass through the crowd at the stage door unnoticed. But in a company like SF Ballet, they are indeed appreciated!

Whenever I have the great pleasure of watching SF Ballet perform, I always do so with the feeling that they come to the audience as a whole. Where some dancers are a single morning star, SF Ballet is like a milky way, twinkling from each corner, brilliant each one. SF Ballet always makes you feel like they are happy to be there, they are thrilled to be dancing, they revel in the joy that is dance, and THAT is what makes a great evening at the ballet!

Barre Build

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So… despite the tragedy of center in my last class, I decided that I needed a barre at home. Why limit the hilarity of my attempts to dance to public displays of crazy when I could practice my completely laughable moves at home too!!! So Carboy & I hit the hardware store and came home with an armful of galvanized pipe and gas line.

What you see below is one 6-foot section of threaded galvanized pipe, two 3-foot sections of threaded gas line, four 6-inch threaded galvanized nipples, six elbows, and two Ts. Just make sure the diameters all match. We literally put the barre together in the aisle of the hardware store to ensure that all the sections fit. The lengths of the pipe also reflect a size that fits me and my space available for dancing in my dining room.

*Note: We discussed using PVC but decided that a small diameter would be too flexible and a large and more stiff diameter would be uncomfortable because I have small hands. We only used a mix of galvanized pipe and gas line because that was what was available in the sizes we needed at the Home Depot. The result is kinda cool looking because my barre is now silver and black in color.

This is actually super simple and once you have all the correct parts takes less than 20 minutes and all you need is a wrench to tighten up the attachments.

Okay, here goes… take four of the elbows and the four nipples and screw an elbow onto one end of each nipple. Like so…

Awesome. Take the 2 tees and screw a nipple into each side, like so…

Voila! These are the feet of the barre. Now to add the legs, take the 3ft (or whatever size works for your height) and screw them into the top of the T.

Easy peasy, almost done! Screw on the remaining elbows onto the 6ft length (or length of your choice) for the top or the actually barre part of the barre…

All that’s left is to screw the “barre” into the elbows on the legs and tighten up everything!

It’s a good idea to clean the whole thing because it’s bound to be dusty and/or a little greasy from the hardware store. But there you have it, your very own portable barre.

I have hardwood floors but if you don’t have a flooring that is conducive to dancing, may I suggest a trip to the remmant section of a flooring store, a nice little square of dancing floor can be had for super cheap!

Happy dancing!