A Full Lifestyle Shift: Creating Your Own Home Ballet Studio
Half living room, half ballet studio - this could be your future, too!
This is not another “How to set-up your home ballet space” or “what to get” article. I mean, actually it is, but that’s only one part of it.
More importantly, this article is about how dedicating part of your living space to ballet will make your home a better home and your life a better life. How it is a reflection of your deeper commitment to ballet. How it may also create friction and how it takes guts. And, last, how to tackle challenging house/apartment layouts (small space, low ceilings, not enough light) and turn them into great ballet learning environments - including product suggestions to start your research.
But before we dive into all of that, let’s take a step back and take a look at what brought us here in the first place.
Before this pandemic, most of you you were probably never considering to do much ballet training at home, even less so taking full classes. But now, this has taken a 180. Currently, doing ballet from home is a normal for most parts of the world. Not to everybody’s delight, and some have also chosen to take a step back until full return to the studio is possible.
I think the problem with the whole home ballet frustration is that it is often seen as “less good” than being in the studio. Less space, less atmosphere. And, for many, finding space to train at home competes with many other home space requirements and it’s all a bit makeshift and challenging to set up and maintain. Plus, shoebox situations in many urban areas ;-)
So in the following paragraphs, I will take you through a mindset shift. My goal with this article is that in the end, you will see your home as a unique ballet training space that can offers something BEYOND what a studio can offer. So instead of comparing your home training experience with your class experience in a studio, you will discover that both spaces are complimentary. And you will hopefully walk away with a thought process and ideas for how to turn your too small/too dark/too odd-shaped space into a ballet training environment that you love and that will make you want to train there.
Home ballet is not studio ballet (and it doesn’t have to be)
So this is an important first step: To really start thinking what kind of training you want and what will be possible in your home. I think in the beginning of the pandemic, many people were trying to replicate a studio experience at home - and that fell short, of course. I mean, yes, depending on your space you might be able to almost do a full class in your home, but most often, that is not really possible. So it’s good to start with an honest assessement:
How much space in my home am I able to give to my ballet training?
What kind of floor do I have?
Are there any limitations regarding ceiling heights or obstacles (furniture, light fixtures)?
These three question will mainly determine what you can do and what you should maybe better not attempt in your home ballet studio. For example, if you have concrete floors, you might want to make it a hard No for jumps. If you have just a tiny space, you probably should not expect to work on diagonals. I think it’s really important to get honest here: Instead of being frustrated about how you can’t properly do this and that - think about what you can do well in your space and focus on that. Maybe you have enough space to just do a good barre without any high legs (because there is too much around you). Maybe your situation won’t allow for any pirouette training safely, but you can practice lots of releves and passes and add a good amount of floor work. Your home can become the place in which you work on all the things that you never have time for when you take classes in a studio. This assessment then can help you to choose what kind of online classes/workshops/coachings you wil attend: Maybe it means only private coachings, or barre-only classes - instead of jumping on a famous company’s class and crash into your TV stand.
Home ballet is here to stay.
PSA: Doing ballet at home may have been triggered by Covid, but my prediction is that it will outlive Covid for good. There are so many benefits to training ballet at home that it would be foolish to give it up, even when we return to the studio forever. Here is what I mean:
It’s highly accesible. Remember the times when you skipped class just because you couldn’t get there in time? Like, because you got off work too late, you got stuck in a traffic jam, you didn’t have the time for a full class AND getting there and back, or you were simply too exhausted for the commute to the studio. With home ballet, it’s right there.
You can design your home ballet space any way you want to make it suit your needs and preferences.
You can use your own shower! :-)
You can work with any teacher you like. This is for me one of the biggest things: You are not limited to teachers in your proximity any more. Even when you have amazing teachers in your regular studio - now, you can connect to teachers with very unique profiles and teaching strengths no matter where in the world they are! This way, you are really taking charge of your own learning process and can support it with what you need in any given moment of your development.
You save money on renting studio space. I still think that taking privates - whether occasionally, or for certain periods of time - is one of the best ways to accelerate your ballet learning. But, you also know that taking private usually entails renting a studio - whether or not that’s included in your teacher’s fee. So working at home, either through Zoom or by having a teacher come over to your house outside of lockdowns, gives you a chance to afford more classes!
Make it permanent, even if you have to throw out the couch.
This might be the most controversial part of this article, but I am a strong believer in dedicating a part of your home PERMANENTLY to becoming your home ballet studio. Meaning, whatever was there before will be removed once and for all. You might say ‘But Patricia, I live in a studio apartment and then I would have to throw out my furniture!’ And I say - ‘Fine, do it!’ Or you might have to sit down with your family and explain to them that the TV has to go, upon which they might not talk to you for months. (Can be a good thing sometimes!) But I believe that there is an incredibly underrated (or even unknown to most) benefit in shifting from a purely SEDENTARY home to a MOVEMENT-friendly home. By that I mean: Usually, our homes are designed around sitting, lying and standing: We sit on our chairs for office work and eating; we sit on the couch for talking, reading, and socializing; we lie down in a bed; we stand or sit in the kitchen when preparing food; we stand at the bathroom sink; we sit in the tub (or stand in the shower). It’s all good, except all these static positions contribute to making us sick, hunched over, and unhappy, and who wants that in the long run? So what if instead, part of your home was designed to invite you to MOVE? You would probably move more, because there wouldn’t be that transition to another space outside of your home that’s usually necessary when you want to be active (like going to the gym, to the studio, out for a run or walk etc.). That transition is often what keeps people from moving more, and creates this artificial seperation between long times of sitting/standing/lying and the short times of actually moving. And moving A LOT, interdespersed throughout the day, is what the human body needs and what will keep it healthy and sexy until the end.
And this is why I also believe that setting up your ballet training space and leaving it there, even if it completely changes the look of your living room/bed room/kitchen or whatever, is so crucial. Because it makes a huge difference whether you have to set up everything whenever you want to train (getting the barre out, putting your floor up, moving mirrors etc), or whether it’s just standing there ready whenever you are. But also, and this is more important than we might think: It also shows to you and the world that you have stepped it up. That you are serious about your training goals and about wanting to become and well-trained dancer and you have created a professional physical space for it. Well hello!
Btw, there are really people who have thrown out their couches and most other furniture (even beds!) and have replaced it with floor-sitting and movement-friendly home/work equipment. If you are more interested in this, I recommend checking out Katy Bowman’s work and her article on this.
Btw 2, before any of you interior designers scream at the thought, a home with a permanent training space can actually look really nice - mostly because it creates some empty space, it involves large mirrors, and thus makes rooms actually look bigger and more airy. We will get more into that in the following sections. And for you semi-minimalists out there, this is a chance to have less stuff standing around!
Transition from living room with office space to living room with movement space in one of my previous spaces (in Munich). This was before I got my ballet barre and was originally set up for my pole dance endeavours. Pole dance was just a brief phase for me, but i actually left the pole up until I moved out because it is a great piece of equipment for strength training! Not pictured: Two large mirrors on the right side, leaning against the wall (just outside of the picture frame).
How to design your most amazing home ballet studio
So now that we got the assessment and benefits out of the way and established the will to make it permanent, here are the elements that you should consider when designing your own home ballet studio!
1 Amount of space
What many people don’t realize is that you actually don’t need much space to create your home ballet space. My core space, where I do my barre is about 2m x 1.80m, which really isn’t that much! For center work, I can squeeze out a bit more floor area, but then have to deal with strongly slanted ceilings. So if you can manage to find about 2m x 2m (and I know some people do with even less!), you have all you need. If you can get even a bit more, your training possibilites increase.
My core space is the space between the barre and the bannister.
2 Location within your home
This is something you really need to sit down for and think about. For me, a movement space fits organically within a living room. The way I have gone about it in my previous home of ten years, another home of two years, and my current place: I dedicate about half of the living room as a movement space. This is where I clear out all furniture, place my barre, store training equipment, and put up my mirrors. [This also means that I have to be smart about how I set up the actual living room that is now only half the size. The way I do it in my current place: Instead of a huge couch/chaise set-up, I have a very lean futon bed sofa, and two very cozy but also lean accent chair that replace your usual stuffy living room chairs. I also have a small bench that can be used either as a floor desk or as a seating unit. Instead of a TV, I use a projector and then simply connect Netflix & Co. to watch it on a wall (we will talk more about projectors later).]
Initial set-up at one of my previous places - the movement area is between the dining area and the living area; pic is taken from about where the couch is. When I later got my ballet barre, it would stand right before the mirrors.
Same space, but I expanded the movement area by moving the shelves more into the living area.
That said, you may be more comfortable setting up your studio in your bedroom or an open kitchen/dining area. Or maybe you have a guest room that you can convert (your guests probably won’t mind sleeping in a nice ballet studio). The point is to make a choice and then run with it. And let’s not forget: If it doesn’t work, it’s not set in stone.
3 Floor
That’s the first thing to take good care of once you have decided on a location. You will have to live with the floor you have there. The best thing is to get a square of a proper vinyl/marley dance floor, and the specs will depend on what you are working with: Do you need to cover a wooden floor, concrete, or even carpet? It can all be done. There are even sprung floor panels for home use, although this is usually an investment close to $1000. But if you can live without jumping, you can get regular marley mats for under $100.
I personally have always had wooden floors in my homes and have not purchased any marley to cover them up. Simply because I was happy enough with how the wooden floors worked for me. Yes, it’s slippery which limits particularly what I can do on pointe, but I’m fine with what I can do right now. I might change my mind and possibly get some marley in the future.
4 Barre
While chairs, kitchen counters and ironing boards might work well for a start, I personally think that a barre is the biggest step towards creating your home ballet studio. It just feels better, and it gives you more ways to train, like for example the ability to do barre stretches.
My first home ballet barre in my previous home in Munich.
Wall or free-standing barres? I would always go with free-standing barres, because it makes your studio more versatile. Sure, a wall-mounted barre might look like giving you more space, but it also gives you less flexibility. This might especially be important when you do Zoom classes or work with a mirror, and you can position your barre either facing the camera/mirror or perpendicular to it. You can even remove the barre completely for center work which might give you some extra space.
For those of you who are worried about not having enough space to store your free-standing barre: There are models that let you easily turn the feet parallel to the barre, so that you can just tuck your whole barre away very close to a wall. I got mine from Walmart Canada, but Amazon also has something very similar.
Not the prettiest of all barres, but…..
….you can nicely tuck away the legs and lean the whole thing against a wall.
5 Mirrors
I know, some claim that you should not be obsessed with mirrors, but I find that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Especially for technical work, it just helps when you can complement your interoception with visual feedback. And, similar to a barre, mirrors are what will definitely give your home ballet space the look & feel of a studio.
Now, you can spend huge budgets for mirrors….don’t. I recommend: IKEA. They have a large selection of very affordable and elegant-looking mirrors in different sizes. You can get two and just position them next to each other because one will probably be not enough, especially for center work. I recommend wall-mounted mirrors that you just lean against the wall - again, this gives you flexibility if you want to move your training space to another spot in your home at some point. Careful when you have small kids, you might want to mount onto the wall then. What I did in a previous home was that I secured the mirrors on the floor with a L-profile (you can get it at any hardware store and cut it to the proper length for your mirror(s)’ width) that I taped to the floor with double-sided tape.
6 Camera/screen placement
This can actually be a huge roadblock for students that take classes through Zoom: How to position the camera and screen so that you can see the teacher well, and that your teacher can see you well. This will also take some time to figure out, and you need to sit down and think it through. The important thing is that you want to avoid having to move your tech equipment during your class. There are several options:
If you work with a laptop/tablet/phone and integrated camera, this will be the most challenging. You need to position it far enough from you so that you can be fully on camera, at the same time you need to see your teacher demonstrating. This might mean that you need to step towards the screen while the teacher is demonstrating and then hope that you will remember the combination. Not ideal, but it might work as a first step.
Get a seperate webcam. This will allow you to place the camera in an ideal spot, and the screen close to you.
Work with a projector. This is my favorite option: Position your laptop with integrated camera so you can be seen well, and then connect it to a projector that will project your teacher on a wall. This will increase the size of the display and make your life so much easier. I will discuss this further in a seperate topic.
Here is one other thing: Remember that when you take class and do barre exercises, you might have to turn away from the camera for one side. Ideally, you would face the camera on the first side, so you can still see your teacher if you’re not sure about the combination. Even more ideally, you would face the camera on both sides - which is possible if you can position the barre in the middle of your studio space and switch from side to side. Or you have two barres - I use a barre and then the bannister on the other side - than you can just bounce between them.
Mirrors: Because of the low ceiling, I got two different IKEA mirrors. My camera (integrated in laptop is positioned angling slightly upward in order to cover as much space as possible.
7 Lighting
There is a lot to say about light, so I’ll try to keep it compact. Generally: The better your lighting situation, the easier it is for your teacher to see and give you helpful corrections. Number one rule: As always in life, the light should shine ON YOU - not come from behind you. I still see a lot otherwise :-) So if you have a window - face the window. If you have standing lights, these, too, should be in front of you, behind the camera.
Now depending on where you set up your studio space in your home, this might not always work. Meaning, you might get a window behind you that will mess up your camera. The only solution is to add light that is illuminating you from your front. This could be existing standing light that you have in your home - or you might get some photography/video-specific lighting. You can get pretty decent LED light rings for around $100 (I recently bought this one and very happy so far) that will make a major difference for your online ballet life.
8 Projector
A projector is probably one of the most underrated pieces of equipment in a home ballet studio set-up. It will vastly improve your experience of taking an online class. I think many people think that it’s expensive or that it’s complicated to run it. But prices for projectors have dropped SIGNIFICANTLY over the past decade. The one I have is about 12 years old (I bought it for a totally different purpose back then) and still runs fine (haven’t had to change the lamp once and it still has a lot of mileage). Back then I paid about $1000 for it, and you can get the current model (which is much better than mine!) for just under $400 now. I encourage you to do your own research, though, based on your specific needs (maybe your kids will use it for gaming?) You will additionally need a tripod (I have this one) or some other stand that you can mount it on (I kind of like this one but have not owned it myself) (if you want to improvise, you can just place it on a piece of furniture like a stool or something) and a long cable that connects it to your laptop. Long cable, because you want the projector and your computer to be as far as possible from each other, so that you can get a large projection. My projector is about 3.5m away from the wall it projects on, and the cable between the laptop and the projector covers a bit more than 5m. (My cable is from 25ft/approx 8m because you want extra length (so that it’s not in the way of anything), and it’s from HDMI (the port on the projector) to Display Port (on the laptop) - similar to this one. Depending on your device, you might also need an adaptor from Display Port to Mini Display Port, I have this one.) Unless you get a wireless (Wifi) projector - they seem to start a bit more expensive, but might be worth skipping the cable hustle.
As to what to project on - a white wall works great. If you do not have a white wall or if it is full of artwork, you might need a projector screen or white bed sheet or whatever you come up with.
I think in the end investing into a projector makes sense if you have use for it beyond online classes. I love mine for movie nights, to project pictures/artwork/etc during parties (once we can have them again), and to take it on the road if I have to do a presentation somewhere.
Keep it real
I hope this article was helpful and got your wheels turning! It is really important to remember that my suggestions are only a starting point for you. It is key that you don’t just blindly follow them but really take a hard look at the space you have available and what you want to do in it.
It is equally important to not rush any investments. Let your home studio grow as your online class experience helps you get clearer on what you need. Start with one thing that is most important to you, and then add other pieces with time. This will prevent you from spending lots of money on stuff that might not work for you in the end. If there was some sort of priority, here is how I would start it and proceed:
If you don’t have a wooden floor, I would get an approx 2m x 2m piece of marley
Next, consider a barre.
Next maybe one mirror.
After that, optimize your lighting.
Next, add another mirror if you need it.
Last, tackle and/or optimze your camera and/or projector equipment and set-up.
Even after that, you could consider optimizing your floor with sprung panels
The quality and equipment will grow with you and your training commitment and I find it key to let it happen organically (vs getting a bunch of stuff that you won’t use much). Keep playing and tweaking and enjoy what you’ll do with it!
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Do you currently train ballet at home or are you planning to? What do you find most challenging about it so far? What you would like to improve? Any ideas that this article helped spark for you? Feel free to share!