Lovingly Alice

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Robb didn't make it as a professional dancer. Ultimately, her body was not built for the exacting requirements demanded of Balanchine's ballerinas, and she moved on to other things. Yet ballet had wrapped its pointe ribbons around her soul—she could leave ballet, but it would not leave her. Thus this book: Don't Think, Dear is part memoir of being a student, part dive into the history of Balanchine and all that surrounded him: the New York City Ballet, the School of American Ballet, the Balanchine technique (which enabled dancers to perform surprising new feats, but at a steep cost to their bodies), the way Balanchine demanded dangerous thinness and complete submission of his dancers. It’s about time we shine a big old spot light on all the brilliant pieces of work that happen every single day for children and families. It would be great to include multiple professions, Education, Law, Health and Police…please do also get involved! As you might guess from that last quote, the book does dive into the woke, feminist mindset so prevalent among those Robb’s age (she’s in her early 30s). We hear a lot about #metoo and how NYCB founder Balanchine and NYCB choreographer Peter Martins were abusive to dancers. Balanchine claimed to choose dancers “as you would choose horses.” The book’s title comes from a Balanchine quote to a dancer: “Don’t think, dear. Just do.” As the years go on, Robb feels “guilty about harboring affection for a system that clearly harmed women.” She is thrilled to attend a ballet and see a “gender nonconforming” dancer “(who uses they/them pronouns)” in a female role. She is ecstatic when, during covid, she sees dancers performing in masks.

Over her long life, Alice Austen took more than 8,000 photographs, turning her sensitive and daring lens toward the lives of immigrants, child laborers, New York “street types,” and people for whom Victorian culture had neither terms nor tenderness and whom we might call LGBT today. Alice Austen’s friend Maria Ward, who went by Violet, with partner, circa 1890. ( Alice Austen House archive.) She has mounted fifty pounds of photography equipment on her bicycle and is pedaling along the shore to the Staten Island ferry, headed for Manhattan. Photography is only a generation old and Alice Austen (March 17, 1866–June 9, 1952) is twenty-nine. She is about to take photographs of the proper technique for mounting, dismounting, riding, and carrying a bicycle for her friend Maria’s trailblazing manifesto-manual for cycling, inciting Victorian women to embrace the spoked engine of emancipation: “You are at all times independent. This absolute freedom of the cyclist can be known only to the initiated.” Illustration from Bicycling for Ladies based on Alice Austen’s photographs. Available as a print and as a face mask. Don't think, dear" is advice author Alice Robb got from her ballet teacher, and it sums up the ballet world quite well. Robb uses her own experiences, those of her classmates, and those of other public ballet figures to tell the story of this rigorous, pressure-filled world. Despite hard work, something as simple as the wrong body type can derail a once-promising young ballerina, like Alice's friend Emily. Those who do succeed will find themselves fighting through constant injury, like her friend Lily. The single-mindedness of the ballet world is almost impossible to contemplate as an outsider.

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I know how worried I can get when I leave my cats at home during a holiday, so I'd be sure to spend some quality time with yours, to keep them company and give them the attention they need. And I will happily send you updates and photos as often as you would like when you're away.

Cook A. (2012) Combating neglect using the principles of attachment theory. Children England Quarterly Journal, 51, pp. 8-9. I've read many, many ballet memoirs (though I'm no former dancer—I took one community class as a kid, then moved on to other activities—I just have arbitrary reading interests), but I am quite sure that Robb has read many, many more ballet memoirs than I have. If you too have read more than your fair share, you'll recognize some of the material Robb quotes from but also find yourself highlighting passages or folding down corners as you find new things to read. I admit that my knowledge of past generations of ballet dancers is not as sharp as it could be, and it was fascinating to read about Margot Fonteyn and Alicia Alonso in particular—the former, famed for her artistry but prepared to throw it all away for a toxic marriage; the latter, refusing to let increasing blindness keep her off the stage. I have worked within the field of child protection for 11 years, across local authority and residential settings. For the past seven years, I have worked independently for local authorities, completing parenting assessments and offering mentalization based parenting intervention.A key aspect of the ‘secure base’ element of the attachment relationship is for the child to have a sense that the parent enjoys spending time with them. If this is not the case then this is an important element to focus on during your interventions. Shortly after the opening, Alice suffered a stroke. By spring, she was dead. Gertrude survived her by a decade, living to ninety. The couple had expressly wished to be buried together — a wish Gertrude’s family bluntly refused in one final act of assault on their lifelong devotion. Alice and Gertrude, early 1900s. ( Alice Austen House archive.) Demonstrate good subject knowledge on key aspects of social work practice and develop knowledge of current issues in society and social policies impacting on social work. If Chloe Angyal's Turning Pointe was a bit too much modern history and not enough memoir for you, but you want something more contemplative than a standard ballet memoir—or if you're interested in hearing more stories that don't read like a litany of successful performances with the occasional worrying injury thrown in— Don't Think, Dear makes for a compelling middle ground of personal narrative and broader view. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to peruse Robb's bibliography...

It got me thinking that, where possible, the families we work with benefit from us sharing a little bit of ourselves with them. Softening in some way, especially when there could be a similarity that opens up the opportunity for connection. Alice — artist, athlete, banjo player, sailor, founder of the Staten Island Garden Club, the first woman to own a car in the borough — has come as close to absolute freedom as a woman of her era could come, transcending the narrow roadways of her time with her wheels, her lens, and her love. Alice Austen and her bicycle, circa 1897. ( Alice Austen House archive.) This video intervention relies on the parent and child spending time doing an activity together each week that is recorded and then we review this together. Aside from being a great tool to help mum connect to what her daughter is thinking and feeling and better understand her needs, it has the added bonus of shining a light on their connection, their smiles, their laughter…and honestly it can be nothing short of magic... and I am so grateful I get to do this work and see how positive it can be for families ✨ She is survived by a daughter, Sandra Loving of Galion; a son, Richard (Jessica) Loving of Marion; grandchildren, Garland (Nichole) Loving II, Renee (David Focht) Wilde, Clayton Rivers IV and Gerald Loving; great grandchildren, Alaya, Gabriel, Ava, Zach, Dave and Skye; a brother, Raymond (Dawn) Boyd of Steilacoom, WA; a sister, Frances Boyd-Martin of Mesa, AZ and 10 nieces and nephews.A loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother and sister, she started her career in data entry and processing at Marion General Hospital in 1971. She would continue for 39 years, retiring as a supervisor in 2010. I had a brilliant session this week with a mum whose children have been on the brink of removal by the local authority and they had exhausted their options of intervention. This question needs to be asked gently and sensitively. It is important to gain an understanding of how a parent’s love is experienced by the child, and this question alone can trigger a moment of reflection for the parent and connection with whether their child might feel loved by them. As well as informing assessments, asking questions like these, which prompt a parent to consider their child’s internal states, can help develop their capacity to mentalize with their child. You can also help parents to develop mentalization by modelling it yourself towards them.

Yesterday I had a call to introduce myself to a client who I am going to start working with during a 12 week video based mentalization intervention. Her relationship with her 7 year old daughter is at breaking point. Author Alice Robb attended the prestigious School of American Ballet for several years until she was dismissed at age 14. Alice loved ballet as a girl, “the hyperfeminine trappings of it all, the unapologetic girlishness.” Ballet became a huge part of her life, as she spent hours in classes and performing. When she realized, as a young teen, that she wasn’t being cast for roles she wanted, and was then dismissed from the school, she went through a loss of identity and a period of grieving for what had been a huge part of her life. In this book, she tells a bit about her experience. But most of the book focuses on experiences of her ballet friends, as well as experiences of famous ballerinas as learned through their books.

Cook, A. (2014) Exploring mechanisms of maltreatment in a family, in D. Shemmings and Y. Shemmings, (eds) Assessing Disorganized Attachment Behaviour in Children: An Evidenced Based Model for understanding and Supporting Families. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, pp. 67-76. I think finding some connection, however big or small, goes some way to reducing the power imbalance and we both need that. We are here together, with the same aims, doing this work together. My PhD research focused on exploring the influencing factors on the outcome of parent-child intervention and followed parents placed in either a residential or foster-care placement with their babies for 12 weeks. I identified distinct thematic differences between those who had a positive outcome and returned to the community with their babies and those that did not, and these themes became factors termed ‘change facilitators’ or ‘change inhibitors’. My study concluded that a focus on identifying ‘change facilitators’ and ‘change inhibitors’, at the family assessment stage could help to inform the types of interventions required. This approach may therefore provide families with an increased likelihood of making the desired improvements and remaining together. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch! You can just drop me a message. Looking forward to hear from you and your cats! :) Reflect on my learning activities and evidence what impact continuing professional development has on the quality of my practice.