Ballet Zero is ARTIS’s course for adults who have never taken a ballet class. It combines two classes a week — Ballet Barre for absolute beginners on Saturday morning and Floor Barre on Thursday evening — in a group of at most eight, taught in English, German and Russian by a Vaganova Academy graduate. Nothing is assumed: you learn how to stand, how to hold the barre, the five positions and the first pliés and tendus before anything else.
You can try before you commit. Every class can be booked as a single class from €40 through our app, with no membership.
Your first class, minute by minute
- Arrive ten minutes early; the studio is at Rockhgasse 1, two minutes from U2 Schottentor.
- Wear leggings and a fitted top, plus socks; no shoes or leotard are needed for the first class.
- The class opens on the floor or facing the barre: posture, turnout from the hips, the position of the feet and hands.
- Then the basic vocabulary at the barre (plié, tendu, dégagé), slowly, with corrections by name.
- A short stretch to finish. Sixty minutes; most people are surprised how quickly it goes.
Why Ballet Zero pairs the barre with the floor
Half of the course happens on a mat. Floor Barre, a class with roots in the Knyazev method, takes the standing part of ballet away so that a beginner can feel what the muscles, the spine and the hips are meant to do without the difficulty of balancing. Beginners who train both classes learn correct alignment faster and with far less strain on knees and lower back.
What you will be able to do after a month
Stand and move in the five positions with the correct turnout; execute pliés, tendus and dégagés cleanly at the barre with both hands, then with one; hold a simple port de bras to the music; and understand the French words your teacher uses. From there the next level, Beginners+, moves the work into the centre of the room.
Nobody is too old, too stiff or too late
Our beginners’ groups are made of adults who decided to start — at 25, at 40, at 60. Flexibility is the result of practice, not an entry requirement; so is coordination.