Reversing myself - and you!

Hello beautiful dancers!

How can it be March 2023 already? My last blog post was in September of 2022! Wasn't that last week?

Reader: So what brings you to Blogger now, Leigh? Why are you writing a post instead of sharing a photo of your cute dog on Instagram?

It can be only one thing: I have stuff to say!

(Or maybe that's FFUTS since I'm reversing everything. )

Recently I have been reversing center combinations in my beginner and intermediate classes. Even my basic classes will reverse the tendu combination. I hear a lot of moans and groans from dancers when I announce, "Now let's reverse it!"

But there are many reasons why it's good to reverse combinations. Let's discuss!

"Hurry, Diptych" courtesy Cobalt123, CC lic

1. It's good for your brain.

Seriously, this is the best reason. How many times do we perform a combination like glissade jete, jete, assemble? Oh you could do it in your sleep! But when you reverse it, doing the steps under (dessous) instead of over (dessus), your brain has to work a bit harder to get your feet to comply. It has to ask, "what is glissade? what is jete? what is assemble?"

2. It's good for our technique.

Admit it: there are things you do that are a bit messy. You don't always brush the floor when you jete; you don't close fifth cleanly on sissonne ferme. But when you reverse, you give your technique a check-up. In some cases, when steps are especially tricky, you have to break them down into their individual parts.

3. It's good for creating choreography.

If you choreograph, having the ability to reverse a step or combination gives you infinitely more possibilities to build dances.

4. It's good for picking up choreography.

If you perform, knowing how to reverse steps can help you break down and learn choreography you're given. A dancer who doesn't know it's possible to reverse a temps de cuisse sissonne will be scratching their head trying to figure out what they're doing!

5. It's a good challenge for all levels.

So you think only advanced dancers should be reversing combinations? Think again! Everyone should learn! In fact, I don't understand why we don't teach jete under when we teach jete over. It's kind of like dancing only from right to left, or vice versa. 

5A. It helps eliminate allegro anxiety.

Much like pirouette anxiety, many dancers suffer from allegro anxiety. They freeze when it comes to small jumps, fearful of speed and the many direction changes that are often in quick combos. But mastering how to reverse steps helps give them that much more control over what they are doing, more confidence that they can do the allegro. It feels so good when you can reverse a combination. Like you've unlocked a secret door.

Bonus: It's fun!

Happy dancing! !gnicnad yppaH

Your second leg: the easiest thing you can focus on to up your technique!

Hello beautiful dancers!

While watching students in a class that was not my own, I was struck by a common element that seemed to distinguish beginner dancers from experienced ones, messy technique from clean technique:

The Second Leg

No matter what the student was doing - a glissade, a pique turn, chaine turns, pas de chat - the second leg, that is, the leg that follows, was an afterthought or placed incorrectly. The first leg - the lead leg - was fine! In some instances, it was great! But the second leg...

...not so much. Some problems I saw:

In a glissade, the second leg is turned in and placed into fifth instead of extending to second with energy and the toes melting into the floor before the foot closes.

In a pique turn, the second leg steps across the lead leg instead of cutting under it.

In a series of chaine turns, the second leg both turns in and crosses over the lead leg instead of staying in tight first position. 

In a pas de chat, the second leg doesn't propel the body to the side but instead lifts in place by the knee and turns in.

There are many, many more examples I could use so okay, let's talk about some of them too:

In a pirouette en dehors, the second leg - the standing leg - doesn't push up to a full releve but spins in place on the ball of the foot.

In a grand jete developpe (or saut de chat), the second leg doesn't actively battement off the floor but drags behind.

In a grand jete en tournant (or tour jete), the second leg doesn't kick higher than the lead leg and gets turned in.

In a pique arabesque, the second leg doesn't maintain its rotation and gets turned in.

And on...

Do you see where I'm going with this? 

**Focus on your second leg. 

**Focus on the leg that you're not actively thinking about. 

We spend a lot of time thinking about stretching the leg fully for a pique, and we brush the leg very high for a grand jete, but we forget about the leg that follows - the Second Leg. Where is it? What is it doing? How does it need to be activated? Is it staying turned out?

All of these things should become second nature to you and when they do, then your technique will be clean. Remember, it's not about height in a jump, not about the number of turns you can do, not about the speed of your traveling turns...it's about proper placement of the feet and and maintaining rotation. 

And it's also about safety! If your second leg isn't working correctly, if you're overcrossing, you will spin out of control on turns and run into other dancers or off the stage. If you're not kicking that back leg on a jump or pushing for a pas de chat, you can land badly and hurt your knee or your hip.

So next time you're in class, take a moment to focus differently. Learn to love your Second Leg!

Happy dancing!

(And don't forget to sign up for Gentle Ballet on Sundays at 11:30AM AND get your tickets to the streaming event of Hotel at the End of the Universe on July 9 &10!)

 

The cast striking a silly pose

 

With my 3 cheeky bellhops!

Pirouette technique tip: Don't settle!

We should never "settle" for anything, whether it's a bad seat at the theater, a lukewarm cup of coffee, or a partner who lets us down (oh wow, way to lift our spirits, Leigh!).

When it comes to turning, we especially shouldn't settle:
- don't sit in your demi-plie
- don't sit back on your heels
- don't sink in your hips
- don't let your arms relax

If you settle yourself into your demi-plie, you lose the springiness, a feeling that should be like a coiled Slinky or one of those snake-in-a-can practical jokes.





If you sit back on your heels, you have a tremendous amount of weight to shift from two feet to one. Instead, feel as if you have just lowered yourself down from a releve, rolling through your demi-pointe - toe-ball-barely-heel - of each foot.

If you sink in your hips, especially into the back hip, you are throwing yourself off-balance before you have even begun the turn. Try to feel your ribcage lifting out of your pelvis, and be sure the torso is more over the front foot than the back foot.

 

If you let your arms relax and "settle" into a third position without any energy, they become decorative parts of your body rather than active participants in the turn. Always feel the energy flowing from the back through the arms into the hands and be sure to initiate the turn from the center of your back/shoulders.

By not settling into a position and instead being active in the demi-plie, you will feel lighter and you also won't have a moment of, "OhmygodnowImgoingtoturn!"

Anxiety, as we know, is a momentum killer.

Happy dancing~

Questions from students: Plateaus and proprioception

Plateaus

"I can't seem to get any better with these jumps/turns/choreography. Is this the best I'm going to be?"

My snarky reply: If you think you're done, you're done.

My teacherly reply: No. You aren't done until I say you're done and you'll never be done as long as you work hard.

The realistic reply is somewhere in between the two. Let's be honest about dancing: it's hard. And ballet is well, it's really hard. Whether you started as a kid and have danced for fifty years (ahem, milestone achieved!) or you started as an adult and have been studying for less than five years; whether you are or have been a professional at some point, or if you've never performed on stage ever in your life...we all ask ourselves the question: Is this the best I will be?

dance by antonella morrone, cc license

We all plateau at some point, whether it's in our personal life or our dance technique. Sometimes we won't even realize we're stuck until we've been there for a while.

That's when we need to make the extra push to get out of the rut. And a great way to do that is to consult your instructor or coach. But don't just come to them with a whiny complaint (oops, that was the snarky reply!), come armed with a specific issue so they can help you tackle it.

How to do that? Easy-peasy. With your phone's camera. Just set it up to record you doing something you're not happy with (it's not for public consumption and you can always delete it later) and make an appointment to talk to your instructor or coach. Show them the video of your turn or your jump or your port de bras and together you can figure out what is wrong.

Maybe you're not getting high enough in your releve and no matter how many times you try to apply a correction, you still aren't getting it.

Maybe you're not traveling far enough in your grand jete and you thinking you're using all the right muscles but you still barely move.

Maybe your arms look weak or stiff and you can't seem to find the fluidity in them.

There is always an answer. But you may not know what it is. You may have to, get ready for it, push harder.

Build more strength in your calves to hold your releve; build more core strength to jump higher; take more care and time in your port de bras.

You may need to add an extra class or two to push your technique or you might need a private session to tackle a very specific issue that can't be addressed in class. You might have to take a more challenging class - or conversely, a more basic class.

I don't believe you're done. I don't believe anyone is ever done. There is always a way around a problem if it can't be fixed head-on.

Proprioception

"Why is it so much harder to balance in the center but I can balance forever next to a barre?"

The phenomenon is called proprioception. (And don't bother to look up the Wikipedia definition; they call it a sixth sense when it's no such thing.)

Proprioception is the awareness of your body in space and in relation to other objects, fixed or moving. It is as important in dance class as it is when driving a car or walking down the sidewalk. Just as you find awareness of other people or objects without actually looking at them, so too do you "feel" other bodies in class. This awareness prevents us from crashing into other people (or cars!).

When you're in a ballet class, you are first aware of the presence of the barre next to you. You rarely look at it; you just feel it under your hand. You move your body forward and back, to and away from it; and you slide your hand down the barre as you work.

What you also do is find your balance. The barre is your invisible partner. This is why we try not to grab at the barre or grip it too tightly. You want to keep a nice loose grasp on it, as if you were holding onto another person for support. Think too about personal space with your barre: you don't want to crowd up against it or stand too far away from it.

Awareness of the barre beside you also gives you an object to balance against. Because it's not moving, it's easier to gauge your alignment to it, to maintain a parallel or perpendicular support. We feel it beside us and we can adjust accordingly.

Yay, balancing forever!

balance Yaletown Illuminate by m sew, cc license

But what happens when we get to center? We don't have the same stationary object to align ourselves against and thus it's harder to find our balance. We can still use our proprioceptors, though - we just need to find another object. That can be a mirror or another body (although be aware that they may be moving too) or, for the more advanced dancer, our own bodies. Find the center of your body and use your proprioception to notice the alignment of your arms and legs and head in relation to that center.

Generally speaking, we simply need to practice. When you're at the barre, close your eyes or take your hand off the barre. In the center, practice a balance on one foot flat before rising to demi-pointe.

Got a burning question? Shoot me an email. Happy dancing!

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.

Don't turn with your butt!

How's that for a headline? Grabs your attention, eh?

Today's Pirouette Tip comes courtesy of a number of my students of all skill levels. I noticed a tendency among them to initiate their en dehors pirouettes with their derrieres which results in:

--a sinking in the center of the body like a fallen souffle
--drooped arms and a collapsing of the pirouette's integrity
--a lowered heel so the turn becomes more like a spin
--"kneeing" the turn so the knee is in front of the body during the rotation instead of turned out to the side

There are 2 main reasons for this occurrence:

1. Pirouette anxiety which prevents you from taking the "leap of faith" required to fully stack your head, shoulders, torso, hips, etc. all the way over your leg.
2. Lack of strength in your glutes and core to hold the external rotation and press the floor up and away from you rather than in a circular motion.

Are you doing this? How do you know if you are?

Q. Are you falling out of your turn?
Q. Are you unable to complete more than one turn?
Q. Does your support knee bend during the turn?
Q. Is your passe knee in front of you instead of the side?
Q. Do you sink instead of float?

Honestly, a well-aligned pirouette is the best feeling in the world! You float, you're lifted, you feel...well, you just feel right. That's not very technical but for anyone who has completed even a single pirouette correctly, you know you have done it right.

So how do we stop doing this? A few tips:

1. Strengthen your core and glutes so they will keep you lifted during the entire turn. Exercises are found all over the web but they can include planks, sit-ups and push-ups, squats, etc.
2. Push the floor away with your entire foot when you start the turn.
3. Use the external rotation at the tops of your thighs in your 4th position to work like a screw going straight up.
4. DO NOT initiate the turn with your butt.
5. Leave the passe knee behind as you turn; feel it rotate as you press it back in opposition to the opposing shoulder, e.g. right knee & left shoulder.
6. RELAX...don't hold your breath before you start the turn. Exhale instead. Create a rhythm in your pirouette from plie to releve to plie.

Spiral action!

A consistent problem I see in my classes, among all levels of students, is a gripping of muscles and shortening of the line, whether it's legs or arms that are being "stunted."

A great visual image is to imagine your limbs spiraling away from the center of your body (from your shoulders if it's the arms and from your hips if it's the legs) all the way to your fingers and toes.

source: Martialbody.com

Try a developpe devant at the barre first before you come to the center. Bring the leg from 5th to coup de pied devant up to passe and extend the leg in front of you; feel the femur in the hip socket rotating as you develop the leg out and imagine the muscles rotating outward like stripes on an old-fashioned barber shop pole. Your leg should feel like it's lengthening and your muscles should not feel like they are gripping to hold the leg off the floor.

Now try the same thing when you come to the center. Really hold onto your center as you bring the leg up and out and away from you.

Your arms too can be spirals; it's a great image to keep in your mind especially when you are holding them in second position. Too often people simply open their arms to the sides of their bodies, not noticing that they are drooping at the elbows. Sometimes when I ask people to engage their backs, instead they merely lift with their shoulders. If you think of your arms twisting en dehors as they reach away from your body, you can keep all the muscles engaged, out to the very tips of your fingers.

Once you get the visuals of spirals in your mind, it's easy to see them in other parts of your body:
--the connection between opposing shoulder and hip
--attitude devant and derriere
--your head and neck connection as you tilt it in ecarte
--your knees as you jump in changement
--your back foot as you push off the floor for a pirouette

And so many others! Don't think lines. Think spirals! Happy dancing~

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~

Starry starry lines: Don't be a star(fish)

No, you're not a mermaid or a character from SpongeBob SquarePants, but you might be a starfish.

You should NOT be a starfish, no matter how cute they are.

Why? Because, unlike the crab (see previous post), a starfish does NOT have a firm center nor does it have any "lines" we would like to see in ballet.

Source: Wikipedia

 As an instructor, I see what I call The Starfish in 2 specific places:

1. Pique arabesque. This usually happens with new students who don't get all the way over their support leg and don't keep their back leg turned out and directly behind them. They throw themselves over their pique leg and fling both arms out to the sides in an attempt to balance. But what they forget is that the pique arabesque is not a pose but a movement. Balance is not static: you must continue to stretch your arms in opposition (or in whatever position the arms have been choreographed by the teacher) to your leg, which is constantly lifting and extending behind you.

Source: Ballet North, dancer - Kristin Smith

2. Grand jete developpe (or saut de chat). This often occurs when the hips are not facing en diagonale. Many new students throw themselves into a jete with the lead leg en avant (in front of) but the back leg in sort of a "seco-baseque"- not quite a la seconde, not quite arabesque. The hips end up sort of front too. The arms are tossed wildly in the air as if the dancer were throwing confetti at a parade as a means of lifting herself off the ground. Again, going back to the basics of the arabesque: extend the front and back legs directly from the center of the body with the back leg turned out. The arms should be reaching forward (typically) and not just up. The hips should be square to the corner of the room in the direction you're traveling.

Source: WikiHow

Ballet is all about lines and shapes. Be very clear and cognizant of the shapes you're creating, especially as you're traveling across the floor. Happy dancing~

Update for Summer Schedule

Hello beautiful dancers!

A couple of notes for summer...

1. Memorial Day weekend - ALL classes as usual throughout the long weekend.

2. Summer subbing - on Thursday mornings, June 1-July 20, I will be subbing for Carol Guidry at Studio A in Silverlake, 10:15-11:45AM. The class will be similar in level to my Tues/Thurs evening classes. Fee is $15, cash only. (No credit card/check/class cards for these classes.)

AND Congrats to all my students who performed on Sunday!

Would you like to perform with a lovely group of dancers? Save the Date for Nutcracker: 11/19!

A Trio of Tips for Thursday!

Not one but 3! No matter what level you are, I have a helpful dance tip for you!

1. Beginner:

Promenade - one of the biggest errors I see in students attempting promenade (which is a series of small heel lifts to turn in place and can be executed in arabesque, attitude, retire, etc.) is that they begin the movement with their hips, knees or shoulders. 

The very first thing you do to begin a promenade is to lift the heel. There should be no weight at the back of the foot during promenade or else you will find yourself rocking back and forth and eventually falling off your leg. Unless otherwise choreographed, you should keep a very straight support leg with knees pulled up by your quads and hamstrings. As you turn in place, do not allow the support leg to bend or the knee to go soft. Maintain the position you are turning in by lifting and lowering the heel by about 1/4" or 1/2" but not usually more than that.

2. Intermediate:

Pirouette arms - in my ongoing quest to dissect and diagnose pirouettes and to offer guidance to students who struggle, I would have to say the #1 problem I see is the arms are not held in front of the body for the entire turn. Whatever position you are taught (a classic first position, a higher first position, a portrait style low first position, crossed arms, etc.) you must keep them in front of you until you finish the turn and roll down.

Pirouette anxiety, whether you are working flat or en pointe, usually causes us to pull back with our upper body. We fear falling which often makes us collapse in our centers. Our shoulders slump or roll and our arms droop or get left behind during the turn. Some of us fling our arms open to second long before the turn is completed.

Instead, try to bring the arms very quickly to your first position as you push up to releve and hold them there! Don't let them open or drop until you have completed the turn and can see yourself in the mirror in retire before you open the arms and roll down. I can virtually guarantee you that your turns will improve if you do this.

3: Advanced:

Finishing the lines - some of the most beautiful things in ballet are the lines that are created on stage. For example, an arabesque does not need to be higher than ninety degrees to be gorgeous but it does need to be finished. Same with arms: they may swirl and swish through the air but when they are posed, they must be finished with fingers extended and elbows lifted. How many times have you been in the audience and gasped at the stunning lines of professional ballerinas? They know how to get very last inch out of their legs and arms.

You can too! But you must focus on arching the top and bottom of your foot, reaching through your back to the palms and fingers of your hands, lengthening the back of your neck and holding a strong core. When you practice these things at the barre (rather than simply flinging your arms and feet away from you), you will have beautiful lines in the center. Your movements will be complete and you will avoid that weird strobe effect that you see on stage. If you are in the corps, you absolutely must finish your lines or you will look out of sync with the other dancers.

Hope these tips help you! Happy dancing~

Retire v. Passe

What are you talking about, Leigh?

When a dancer pulls the foot of her gesture leg up to the knee of her support leg, this can alternately be called retire or passe. The two look exactly the same but are, in fact, quite different.

Huh? What's the difference?

Think of retire as a position while passe is an action. Retire means to withdraw or "draw up." Passe means passing, as if you are passing through something.

Still doesn't mean anything to me. Why do I need to know this?

It's important to understand the difference so you know when to apply each to what you're doing. For instance, in an adagio, you might think of the gesture leg moving through passe as you develop it en avant. In this case, it is an active part of the movement, rather than a static pose. However, if you were performing a pique turn, you would bring the leg up to the position of retire and think of holding it in that position as you pirouette.

Speaking of pirouette...which am I using?

Both. Kind of. Simultaneously. First, regardless of your preparation for your pirouette en dehors, you take a demi-plie and spring up to your releve on the support leg. The gesture leg draws up to retire and you think of this as the shape in which you will be rotating. BUT! During the turn, you need to keep that gesture leg active so while it is in the retire position, it is actually passe in that the knee is continuing to press back (as you "open the door") and maintaining turnout at the top of the thigh. It does indeed "pass through" just before you finish the turn and roll down to your final pose.

 Anything else you want to say on this topic?

Yes! No matter which you word you use, be sure to keep the hip down, avoid sickling the foot of the gesture leg, and pull up the quads/kneecaps/hamstrings of the support leg. And one more thing...

...happy dancing~

Friday Favorites: Pirouette tips!

As many of you know, I love studying pirouettes and I'm fascinated by the science of turns.

The basics: Alignment, momentum, controlled landing.

The finer details: Spotting and arms.

The necessities: Strong ankles, strong core, strong back.

I was watching a group of my students turning this week and was surprised by the number of them that were hopping on their landing.

(NB: this is different from hopping during a turn. In that case, the most likely culprit is a bent knee or lack of spotting.)

Landing a pirouette is tricky stuff. I always tell my students not to wait until the last second to think about the finish. Many students do a single or double rotation and then suddenly slam on the brakes which, like traveling in a car or plane, usually results in a bumpy landing.

courtesy Chloe Smith, Creative Commons license

There are a couple of ways to approach the end of a pirouette:

1. Anticipate the finish by rolling down at the 3/4 mark, rather than waiting until a complete turn is made.

2. Complete the turn in the "up" position; that is, finish in retire on a high releve and then roll down to your fifth or fourth position.

In either case, it's crucial that you roll down through the foot and don't simply drop the weight.

From my observations, students hop down from pirouette because they lose their turnout which is typically a result of a change in their vertical alignment (that long straight pole from top of head through spine down to center of the support leg).

You change your vertical alignment when:

A. Your core collapses. Solution: hold your abdominals up and maintain a strong connection between ribs and hips.

B. Your pelvis tilts and doesn't recover. Solution: don't let your lower back hyperextend as you reach your passe leg to the floor. Stay pulled up the front of your body.

C. Your ankles roll. Solution: maintain a high releve and roll through your entire foot. Practice ankle strengthening exercises outside of class, including springing up and rolling down from a passe releve.

D. You don't bring your arms around with you in the turn. Solution: keep the shape of the arms throughout the entire turn and only open them when you want to finish the turn.

One last thing to consider: pirouettes, especially multiple pirouettes, are not rigid shapes rotating in space. Minor adjustments must be made during a turn, whether that means pulling in or opening the arms, pulling up the abdominals or engaging the knee and heel to stay in a high releve.

Happy turning, beautiful dancers~

Be Big!

My beautiful dancers, it's not easy looking in the mirror when you're in the studio. I mean, let's face it, when most people go to work out, they aren't surrounded by their reflections. Sure, they might catch a glimpse of themselves sweating behind a weight machine or in the locker room after a shower but if you go to yoga or out for a jog, you're not going to see your body reflected back a million times and from all angles.

I'm with you. Believe me. Fortunately I have perfected the art of looking in a mirror without actually seeing myself. I see you and I see movement but that's it. I focus on the ballet not the bodies.

Which is why it sometimes makes it hard to dance bigger. If we are feeling self-conscious for some reason (our hair looks bad, we forgot makeup, the shirt clings too much), we make ourselves physically smaller. We pull our arms in, often by the elbows, and our centers collapse. Chins droop to the chest, shoulders round forward and pretty soon there are no lines or shapes moving in the space but messy blobs.

It's actually harder to dance when you make yourself inconspicuous!

When you avoid the mirror, you also have a tendency to put your body in the wrong alignment for poses and turns, etc. By not looking at yourself (or that direction), you cut off the correct epaulement. You are not truly croise or efface; you skip ecarte and peer over with your eyes rather than your head. And when you turn, you don't spot because you are afraid to look.

The cumulative effect of dancing inside the box for yourself is that you never truly dance. You never fully move and express yourself. The lovely lines we work so hard at the barre are lost when you come to center and that's a shame. The center is the time to put all of that work to good use! Show it off!

"For whom?" you ask.

Well, me! Show it off to me!

And to yourselves. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there in a combination. You may not have a goal of performing on stage but that doesn't mean you can't perform in class.

My TL:DR advice?

1. Stand up straight; pull up through your spine and all the way to the top of your head and bottom of your feet.
2. When arms are en haut, make sure they are truly over your head and not merely in front of your eyes.
3. Look in the mirror at the audience, not yourself. If that's frightening, think of it as "downstage."
4. Take up more room. Don't worry, you won't hit anyone else. Be bold and as tall as you can.
5. Dance fully. When it's your turn, don't mark it or hobble off stage if you make a mistake. Own it.
6. Smile to yourself. Enjoy the music and the movement and know that you're creating art with every step you take. No one else can dance exactly the way you do.

Happy dancing!

Nobody's Perfect! How to Take Corrections

Got a goal for the new year? I do! It's to perform consistent triple pirouettes. Maybe yours is to get on stage or to dance en pointe or to take an extra class each week. Whatever it is, you probably want to improve something about your dancing or technique. In order to do that, you'll probably need guidance.

No matter how experienced you are, there is always room to improve. Even professionals who have danced their entire lives have coaches, especially for specific roles they've been cast in. There is nuance and shading to a character, a little more oomph to eke out of an arabesque, or new ways of connecting with a partner.

George Balanchine giving a correction to a student.

But for many beginning dancers, corrections are often the kind of attention they think they don't want. They may not realize it's a good thing to be noticed when they're doing something wrong. So here are a few suggestions on how to take corrections when they are offered by a teacher:

1. Understand that a correction is a sign you have potential to improve. 
Talk to any teacher, whether it's dance or an academic subject, and they will tell you they spend more time with students they believe have the ability to improve. No one wants to give time and attention to a student who will ignore it.

2. Try to stay "in the moment" when you are receiving the correction.
If it's at the barre or center and the teacher has stopped the combination to address a correction on you, focus on the words she's saying rather than the message in your head ("Oh my god, everyone's looking at me!"). No one is judging you. In fact, they want to be in your place, getting the correction. And if you have an instructor who delivers corrections in a harsh tone, understand that your fellow dancers are all looking on with empathy.

3. If you are asked to repeat a step with the given correction, it's okay if you can't replicate it perfectly. 
Teachers want to see the correction on you to see if it works for you. If it doesn't work for you, then they will want to adjust the correction for you. If it will work but you haven't quite grasped it, they will keep an eye on that for future reference.

4. If you are being given a correction during class, that is not the time to argue or to question.
A correction is not an invitation to a dialogue. I give corrections three ways: 1) during a combination at the barre, I will make a personal adjustment on your body and then move on; 2) between combinations at the barre, I may use a student as an example to show a correction to everyone; and 3) during center, I may pull someone aside when they are between groups. In every one of those instances, my goal is to get the class moving again. I don't want to stop and have a discussion that will disrupt the flow. If you are given a correction during class that you just don't understand, it's okay to ask the teacher after class if she has time for clarification. If she doesn't, respect her time and ask if she could address the correction to the group next time in class.

5. After class, make a mental note of the correction you were given so you'll remember for next time.
Young children are encouraged to keep journals of corrections so they can see if they are given the same ones over and over again. The act of writing them down also helps to imprint them on their brains. You don't need to write them down, but it will definitely help you for next time if you take a moment to stop and recall what the teacher said to you.

6. Understand that a correction may take months or years to work for you.
There are corrections I can remember from a dozen years ago, from various teachers who saw something in me and offered guidance, but I wasn't in a place to take it in and apply it properly. You may hear a correction from a teacher today that you can't make work but in a month or three, you will suddenly have an "a-ha!" moment and realize what she meant.

7. Finally, no matter what your level, you can learn from every single correction that is given to another student.

And to those students who do not wish to receive corrections, it's okay to tell your teacher that in advance of class. For whatever reason, you may not wish to participate in class in that manner. Be polite and explain why and your teacher will understand. The worst thing for a teacher is to have her corrections ignored. That's when I stop giving them to a student. 

Happy dancing~

Technique Tip: Stack your pirouette with boxes of kittens!

When we talk about alignment for pirouettes, we often use the visual image of a long pole representing the spine. We don't want the spine to bend in the middle - that's our strong core that we need to maintain the proper shape that allows us to turn smoothly and quickly.

(A food analogy: don't be the cooked linguine noodle; be the dried one fresh out of the box. Hmm, am I hungry this morning?)

Don't be mushy!

Do be firm!

But there is another way to visualize our bodies for pirouettes: stacked boxes.

Imagine your body as 3 boxes on top of each other (head, torso and hips). You want to keep the boxes balanced evenly. If one is off the edge (e.g. your chin is pulled back or jutted far forward, your rib cage is sticking out, your pelvis is behind your heels, and so on), it will threaten to collapse when you take it en releve.

Remember: releve is a precarious place for your body to be. To be stable and steady, everything needs to be aligned properly.

Next time you work on pirouette, try to visualize your body as 3 boxes filled with kittens (why kittens? because they love boxes and because they move around a lot which makes them hard to control, much like your body!).

Kittens! In a box!

If you can keep the boxes steady - and the kittens inside them quiet and still - you will have an easier time balancing them. This visual image will help remind you to push UP to releve rather than forward because you sure don't want to toss those kittens from side to side!

During the turn, hold your arms steady (maybe you even think about wrapping your arms around your kittens!), and maintain the shape of the 3 boxes.

On the finish, roll down smoothly and evenly, and don't disrupt the kittens in the boxes. You don't want to finish abruptly and throw one of the boxes off the center. Kittens everywhere!

Happy dancing~

Week's end roundup: Halloween pics, Nutcracker shirts and a Technique Tip!

'Tis the holiday season! First up, Halloween! 

If you didn't make it to class, I hope you spent it trick-or-treating with the kids or being a good neighbor and handing out treats. Here are a few photos of what you might have missed on Monday night:

First of all, chocolate cookies shaped like cats!

Thanks, Martha Stewart!

Students in both classes dressed in costume!

My musical playlist!

And me, as Rosie the Riveter!

And in one month, we'll be performing Nutcracker!

Here is Bill Reiss's awesome design for the shirt to commemorate our Dec 4th shows at the Norris Theater in Palos Verdes, with Classical Ballet Theatre:

Want one for yourself? You can order in black or white, men's, women's and youth sizes here.

And finally, a technique tip to end your week: Get dirty!

That's right - don't be afraid to get your tights dirty (or your socks or your legs) when you:

--hold your leg in retire. Be sure to press the toe right into the knee and lock it in there. If you keep your toe separate from your knee, and it sort of hovers next to the leg instead, you end up hiking the hip instead of maintaining the natural turnout.
--perform pique turns in passe. Again, press the toe into the back of the knee and hold it there for a split second longer than you think. Don't be in a rush to get the foot back down to the ground.
--practice battu at the barre. You want to return the foot to the ankle each and every time you do frappe, rather than let it hover an inch or two above it. And in petit battements, keep the working foot that is in coup de pied very close to the support leg. Try not to circle front to back but instead, form a V-shaped action in the air.
--do rond de jambe en l'air in center or at barre. Your toe will quickly dab at the inner knee when you do this correctly. If you don't actually touch the support knee, that means you are circling the knee improperly, more like a can-can dancer, and that is physically bad for your knee joint.

When you do all of the above, you might end up with pink tights spotted with dirt from your shoes and that's okay. You might even end up with some light bruising if you're wearing pointe shoes or dance sneakers. That's less okay but not unusual! Just be sure to actually make contact when you're performing the above exercises or else you will be hiking your hip and engaging your quadriceps too much.

Happy dancing~

Technique Tip: Lengthening the Waist

I always know when a blog topic is brewing when I've been talking about a thing for a couple of weeks, especially when it's a correction I've used in several different levels of my classes.

The first time I told my beginner students to think about lengthening their waists was during a fast battement degage combination. I noticed that they had a tendency to lift the side of the hip when they performed fast degages in first position. When they did this, it resulted in a shortening of the waist on one side, sort of a side crunch. I asked them to look in the mirror and do the exercise so they could see for themselves if they were lifting the leg instead of brushing it against the floor.

"Ohhh!" they all said when they saw they were indeed shortening their waists. But when they concentrated on brushing the foot against the floor and visualizing l-e-n-g-t-h-e-n-i-n-g their waists, they began performing the degages properly.

I do love those moments of revelation.

Then I realized there were many other applications for the visualization of lengthening the waist. Here are a few of them with some handy tips!

For a helpful look, I include this photo. I have no idea where it originated but I found it on a blog called Bobby Pins and Lip Gloss:

(Cropped image from website)

1. Releve - whether you are rising en pointe or in flat slippers, on two feet or one, if you think about separating the ribs when you press down into the floor, you will find your balance easier to maintain.

2. Pirouettes - with the possible exception of turns in attitude, if you focus on keeping the shoulders down but lengthening and widening your waist, you will feel more lift in turn, as well as a more "floaty" feel.

3. Grand battements - each time you execute a big kick, especially devant and a la seconde, think about that strong core and how your sides are centered and long.

4. Adagio developpes - it's hard to hold yourself steady when you are moving slowly or when you don't have a barre to hold onto. Try to visualize your waist lengthening as you shift from two feet to one and bring the leg through passe and away from you to a full developpe. This will aid in balance.

5. Pas de chat - when we bring our legs up to meet in this jump, we often do the opposite: we bring the body down to the legs instead. If we concentrate on keeping the waist long and the ribs spaced evenly, it will be easier to stay aloft and allow for room under our hips to bring the legs up to passe.

Generally speaking, for jumps and turns, engaging your torso on the front, sides, and back will aid in ballon and suspension so if we keep the shoulders down but lengthen our waists and keep space between the ribs (no, of course you're not changing the position of the ribs in relation to each other because they are bones, but you are using this as a visualization), it will a lot easier to execute them.

Now get back to class and visualize! Maybe it will make you taller too! Happy dancing~

Leigh's Pointe Class Barre Exercises

NOTE: Do not attempt these exercises at home until you have performed them in class so you know the proper way to do them.

1. Ankle rolls to warm up the feet and ankles
Parallel - gently roll the R ankle in small circles, keeping the toes on the floor - 4 cts en dehors, 4 cts en dedans. Repeat with L foot. 2x on each side.
1st position - repeat above turned out, all the way up to the top of the hip, keeping toes on the floor and hip joint loose - 4 cts en dehors, 4 cts en dedans. Repeat with L foot. 2x on each side.

2. Tendu/flex
1st position - tendu devant with R foot, flex at ankle, rond to side en l'air, tendu close 1st. Repeat from side to back and back to side. Demi-plie and fully stretch. Repeat with L foot. Repeat starting from back.

3. Marches
Parallel - roll through feet (toe-through ball) 8 times, then step back to parallel lunge with R leg, flexing L ankle with heel on the floor, then return to parallel and push over the R arch. Repeat with L foot.
1st position - repeat above marches turned out. Cross the R leg back to a long 4th position lunge and then push over the arch in a wide second lunge. Repeat with L foot.

4. Coupe springs
1st position - spring R foot off floor as if in saute, without lifting top of thigh. 8x R, 8x L.
5th position - repeat in 5th - 8x devant no change, 8x changing. Repeat with L. Repeat en arriere R and L.

5. Eleves (straight knee releves)
Parallel - lift heels and roll up to full pointe in 8 cts, roll down in 8 cts. Roll up in 4 and down in 4 - repeat 2x. Roll up in 2 and down in 2 - repeat 4x. Roll up in 1 and down in 1 - repeat 8x.
1st position and 2nd position - repeat turned out and in shallow 2nd position.

6.Slow roll-ups
1st position - demi-plie 2 cts, roll to demi en pointe 2 cts, straighten knees to full pointe 2 cts, roll down with straight knees 2cts. Repeat 4x. Repeat in 2nd position 4x.

7. Releves
Parallel - demi-plie with heels into floor, press up to releve, 4 x, hold balance 4 cts, roll down 4cts. Repeat 4x. Repeat in 1st and 2nd positions.

8. Sousous breakdown
5th position - demi-plie, lift heels without fully forcing the arch or rising to full pointe, then using the toes, spring to a tight souous, both legs moving evenly to center. Hold sousous for 4cts and then evenly roll down to 5th position demi-plie. Repeat 4x. Repeat with L foot front 4x.

9. One-leg balance
Parallel - rise with straight knees to full pointe, lift R foot to parallel coupe, full down slowly on L foot to demi-plie, return R foot to parallel. Repeat with L foot. Repeat 4x.
1st position - repeat with turned out feet. Rise to full pointe, shift R foot to back of ankle and roll down on L foot. Repeat with L foot 4x. May also be repeated with foot at front of ankle.