Two Tips for Tuesday!

Good morning, beautiful dancers! On this stunning 75 degree day, I'm feeling energized and ready to tackle technique!

Let's talk about 5th position and pirouettes, but not together. Ha!

First of all, you're bouncing out of your 5th. I can't even see you but I know you are doing this, especially at the barre. Your fifth is a position of strength: it's where we start and end so many steps and it's where we form the base for jumps and turns. If you don't have a strong 5th position, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Sounds harsh, I know, but I want you to be aware of 5th as a home base and one you can rely on.

From the very first tendu exercises, take a split second to hold the fifth when you return the gesture leg to the start position and feel the legs squeeze together at the top of the thighs. This will help build strength and speed for petit allegro work later in the center and it will also build stability for developpe, etc. during adagio in the center.

Try to avoid "bouncing" out of the position, that is, swishing through it without actually finding 5th.

Second tip: imagine yourself pirouetting with an invisible partner. For ladies en pointe who have partnered before, you can imagine when a gentleman is standing behind you, you don't want to fall backward into him. You want to keep your hips and back and knees completely straight but your arms and rib cage slightly forward so he has room to assist you on a turn.

Now, even if you have never been partnered before and regardless of your gender, you can picture yourself being partnered by an invisible partner. That person is behind you so you don't want to collapse underneath yourself and fall into them. You want to stay completely held and strong in your core but also lift and lean slightly forward so your arms are balancing out your backside.

Courtesy Charles Askegard

Trust me, 99% of the time, we fall backward out of a turn, not forward. We are very rarely ever too far forward on our leg. It's in fact the opposite - we can't get OVER our legs enough or our knees buckle or soften and we collapse or our heels drop, etc.

And here's a favorite video of mine, from the inimitable Lisa Howell who is based in Australia, unfortunately, so I can't get to get to her workshops but I try to learn as much from her as I can through her online presence. She and I share the same philosophy about ballet and she approaches the biomechanics in the same way I do, although she focuses on kids and teens and I focus on adults.

This video is Lisa discussing how to perform a perfect tendu. I teach this and emphasize the same 3 things she does (core, standing leg turnout and foot articulation) in the same ways but she breaks it down very clearly and has a lovely young demonstrator. Enjoy (and thank you, Lisa!):

Technique talk! Three tips...plus one more!

Hello beautiful dancers!

I say a LOT of things in class, especially when I'm searching for just the right image to help a student grasp a concept that is elusive or otherwise challenging. Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes not. One visual image might help one student while it does nothing for another.

Here are a few that I think could be helpful to students but each didn't warrant an entire blog post.

1. Grab the floor with the pads of your toes
The image here is to help you with balance en releve. We think so much about pulling up in our quads and hamstrings, engaging our core muscles, and lifting our backs when we go up on demi-pointe, but we often neglect the toes themselves. You should be aiming to touch all ten of them on the floor (even if the baby toes don't make it all the way) and gripping the floor with the little pads under them. This will help keep you connected to the floor all the way through your feet in one long line.

2. Think of your 5th position like a pair of scissors
We sometimes forget the fifth position (or any position) begins not in our feet but at the tops of our legs. If you think of your legs like scissors, the sharpest point is not at the ends but where the blades connect near the handle, right? Right! That's what you're cutting with: the tops of your legs. Each time you recover from a demi-plie or perform a step like glissade, imagine that the inner thighs - the sharpest blades- are slicing the air.

3. Point your foot beyond your toes
How many times have you heard your teacher say, "Point your toes!" I can't believe how many times I have yelled it out, at no one in particular, "Point!" But really, what happens when someone screams that at you? Your toes probably curl up in your shoes or you sickle your foot. Instead, if you think about pointing beyond your foot, into the space past your foot, you will actually be stretching the entire leg/calf/ankle/arch/foot/toes, not just pointing your toes.

4.  Spot with your fingertips on pirouettes
This applies to pirouettes en dehors or en dedans that are performed with arms held in first position, either crossed or rounded. So many times we start a turn with our arms held properly but as we begin to move, we leave them behind or they crumple into a weak position at our waist or open up, etc. While I instruct students to "bring your arms with you" as they turn, I think another helpful approach is to imagine your fingertips are spotting as well. This will naturally bring the closed first position around as you turn.

Hope these tips help you! Try them and let me know! Happy dancing~

A "point"-ed pet peeve and a student's question

1. From me:

When you're driving your car, isn't it annoying when the driver in front of you puts his turn signal on long before he needs to turn? You become fixated on that signal because you don't know when or where you will have to slow down in order to accommodate him.

The same is true when you dance, when you pique or balance or even chassee. Some dancers flex their toes in anticipation of stepping up to the turn or out to the balance and what do we see? An ugly flexed turn signal.

I'm going now!  Nope, here I go. Yes, here it is, here is my pique arabesque!

This is a particular pet peeve of mine, as a teacher and as an audience member. There is the esthetic of it (awkward and ugly) and the technical aspect (your foot isn't pointed or straight). Always - always -always point your feet all the way down to your toes.  The aim is to melt the foot into the floor with every step and to roll through the demi-pointe softly. When you pique, stab those pointed toes into the floor and only bend them when you absolutely have to. It will look much better and the line will be complete.

2. From student:

 Why would a teacher tell me to work in 3rd position instead of 5th? Which is better? Does it matter?

Third position is kind of a midway point: the heel of the working leg sits at the arch of the standing leg, rather than the toe. It can be useful if you are brand new to ballet (although I never use it with my new students) or are injured, as the turnout is not as forced and the knees can fit more comfortably, if necessary.

However, it is really more of a transitional position, as we usually think of working through 3rd on the way from 2nd or 1st to 5th when we do tendu or degage. It can help students feel the tops of the legs closing more tightly.  I use it to emphasize a closure on glissade for instance, which can often be quite wide and loose for new students.

Is it better? No. It's useful but not better. For one thing, when you do not close your feet to 5th, you are not engaging your inner thighs so center work like allegro will not be as smooth or as quick as you'd like. By working in 5th at the barre, you are more likely to feel and engage the muscles you need to use to stabilize yourself in the center for adagio as well.

Does it matter? If you are injured, by all means, work in 3rd until you can comfortably tighten to 5th. Teachers who insist on 3rd are concerned with forced turnout and about the potential for rotating the knees too tightly and ultimately developing tendonitis or other knee pain. But if you work in your turnout and do not force it, you should be able to work in 5th rather than 3rd.