Nestled on the first floor of the Jericho Community Centre is Yuka Kodama Ballet Group’s headquarters, a well lived-into dance studio, with cupboards covered in pictures from previous classes and shows.
At the start of the general class I attended, there was that feeling of being the new kid at school. It was evident that everyone else knew each other rather well, and had probably been going to Yuka’s class for some time. It’s a testament to Yuka’s personality, and the energy fostered in her classes, that this feeling quickly dissipated as the class went on.
Yuka’s style of teaching is both technical and entertaining, mixing anecdotes about Nureyev’s sweat with St Giles’ Fair’s chocolate marshmallows to illustrate the ways in which we could improve our posture or our pliés. I particularly enjoyed the different types of poultry she described as being the stages of port de bras every dancer goes through, from gawky chicken to, hopefully, swan. The setting up of exercises was sometimes a bit too fast for my post-work brain to catch up to, but once we got going, I stopped caring about executing them perfectly, and just enjoyed the feeling of doing a proper barre after quite a hiatus.
Although the class was ‘open to most’, the level could be described as roughly intermediate, requiring at least a grade 5 or equivalent to be comfortable. The students in the class did fluctuate; from those who’d been evidently dancing for years to one student who’d started ballet in November. There was quite a spectrum of ages too, though the majority were young adults. I do think this is a class that would suit almost every type of dancer, as long as they’re armed with sufficient enthusiasm to launch themselves into it. I attended the class recovering from a sprained ankle and found it easy to modify the exercises where needed to cater to this.
The lovely thing about this class was that we all, at some point or another, went really wrong in our steps, whether it was the dastardly fast frappé exercise or getting confused between right and left in the grand allegro. And when we did go wrong, we laughed. I’ve been in some classes where you can barely breathe due to the pressure students put themselves under but it was nothing like that.
If you are of the opinion that you get the best out of people when they’re relaxed and happy, then this is the perfect ballet environment for you.