What does tin foil have to do with port de bras?

cc lic courtesy Pascal

Wrinkly tin foil...you know what that looks like, what it feels like.

Now imagine your bones and muscles are like that crinkled up aluminum. Your spine is out of place, the joints of your fingers need to be cracked, and the muscles of your back and stomach are knotted and tight.

You are made of tin foil.

But you can smooth out that crinkled up ball of foil, can't you? When you want to re-use it for a slice of cake you're sending home with a friend or to line a pan when you're cooking? You know what to do with that, don't you?

That's right: you take the side of your hand and you slide it across the wrinkles, over and over again until they are (mostly) gone.

If you can, as you cambre forward or back, think of a hand sliding across your spine, smoothing out the vertebrae and muscles. And as you extend your arms and sweep down and around in a circular port de bras, imagine the wrinkles along your skin and inside your bones get smoothed out all the way to your fingertips.

You're taller now, aren't you? And longer. And graceful. Your arms and upper body sweep around the space; in adagio, they make your movements more sinewy and organic; during turns, they connect for aerodynamic support; during jumps, they help lift and hold you off the ground.

Be smooth, my dancers, smooth like tin foil.