Dance at Home with Me!

Hello beautiful dancers!

As promised in my newsletter, I'll be posting on my blog some of my YouTube "pandemic" videos from 2020-2021 when I was doing daily live classes from my living room. Remember those days? Thankfully they feel very long ago!

This one is from June 14, 2020:

Beginner Ballet

Enjoy! And keep on dancing! 

I'll post more in the coming days while I am out of town.

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

When Ballet Attacks: Get Big!

Beautiful dancers, when I started this blog post, I was searching Google for a picture of a person surviving a bear attack by making themselves big. Let me tell you, that was not a good phrase to search. I was rewarded with lots of photos of bears being very mean and scary and lots of photos of people who had survived the attacks but had been bloodied and disfigured in the process.

So this will have to do:

Courtesy YouTube

FYI this image is TOTALLY WRONG! If you encounter a brown or Grizzly bear, you are supposed to lie down and play dead; if you encounter a black bear, you are supposed to make yourself big. Here's more about bear safety. (#1: talk to it??? Really???)

Thank you for coming to my TED talk about bears.

Now back to ballet...

Imagine if you will, ballet is your bear. It looks cuddly and you think it must be soft and cozy to curl up with, especially from a distance where you can see the sun catch its sleek coat and admire its graceful lope along the park path. 

"Ah," you think. "I would like to walk alongside this bear and get into bear adventures with it."

But you get closer and you see it's got teeth - really big ones - and its paws are the size of your head and if they get too close, they will swipe your face clean off your skull. Uh-oh! Run away!

For some people, this is how they approach ballet: as if it's a terribly mean bear and they are encroaching on its territory. Some bears, I mean ballet dancers and instructors, want you to feel this way about ballet. They want you to think you don't belong so run away or play dead but you can't join us on our bear, I mean ballet, adventures.

That's just B.S. (bear s***). You do belong. You just haven't learned the bear language yet.

Another FYI...it takes years to learn to speak the bear language. But that's okay. You're not in a rush, are you? You start slowly, studying the basics, then once you've got a handle on those, you progress and study further, maybe try a higher level or learn to perform. But how do you manage in the meantime? What do you do when the bear sneaks up on you and threatens you? You don't speak bear yet, so how do you handle this encounter?

In ballet terms, I mean you're taking class and you're faced with a step or correction you don't understand. What do you do, especially if you worry that the bear/ballet doesn't want you there?

1. Talk to the bear...ask the teacher for a more specific breakdown of the step (preferably at a time when it is convenient to do so or when questions are allowed to be asked). You might need a private lesson or two to feel comfortable attempting it in class.

2. Get to higher ground and be bigger than the bear...when we feel anxious about something, we naturally make ourselves physically smaller. We retreat (play dead, run away) instead of attacking it back. When you feel anxious in class, deliberately make your arms bigger and your upper body the focus of the movement. It helps regulate your breath and it keeps you lifted instead of collapsing. Use your demi-plie to help you get off the floor or travel farther and faster. Don't run away, take a breath, extend yourself beyond your immediate physical boundary.

While I hate the admonition to "fake it til you make it," it comes in handy here. Sometimes you need to act like you know what you're doing before you actually do.

3. Be bigger than the bear mentally...you came to the park to see bears. You're prepared. You want to go on bear adventures even if they are scary and you don't know how long you'll be hiking. But that's the joy of ballet: the adventure it takes you on. It's a lifelong adventure. It has its ups and downs. Some days you will nail a double pirouette with ease; some days you can hardly manage a wobbly balance. The bear doesn't show you how hard it is to be a bear - you discover that yourself. But you have every right to be there so give yourself permission to not get things correctly the first time - and be all right with it. If you have to grin and bear it (ha! see what I did there?), so be it. 

Happy dancing, everyone!

Basic ballet vs. Beginner ballet - what's the difference?

Beautiful dancers, every teacher has a different definition of their "beginner" level. For some instructors, beginner is what brand new students start with, learning the positions of the feet and how to stand at the barre, etc. For others, it's a class that lots of different dancers take, including advanced dancers, and students do everything from plies to pirouettes.

(And for the record, I believe ALL dancers can benefit from a beginner or even a basic level class, regardless of their experience. Sometimes we learned things wrong or not at all! And sometimes we just need to focus on the technique and not complex choreography.)

**If a class marked Beginner has a finite number of classes, then generally speaking it will be a class for brand new students.

**If a class marked Beginner is ongoing and students can drop in at their whim, then generally speaking it will be a more advanced or "complete" class.

My Beginner level is the latter of the two above types. Students are expected to be familiar with:

--plies

--positions of the feet and arms

--tendus, degages, grand battements

--ronds de jambes

--developpes

 --compound steps like pas de bourree and balance

--glissades, jetes, assembles, chassees

They don't need to be experts at it all! But having been exposed to these steps or concepts will make my Beginner class a lot easier for them because it's more like Beginner/Advanced Beginner.

After the pandemic, I realized that a lot of my more advanced students would probably need a Beginner class to ease them back into the studio so the Beginner class began to include far more advanced dancers than it would have pre-pandemic. 

But I still wanted a place for brand new students! So that's when I decided to start my Basic class. This is the class for learning all of the steps above and so much more:

--port de bras

--classroom conventions and etiquette

--holding the barre, moving the head, engaging the audience

It's a great class for someone who has no experience in ballet or dance, a dancer who has had an injury or lengthy time away from the studio and needs to move slowly and mindfully, or anyone who wants to refresh their muscle memory or learn proper terminology.

So why am I telling you this now? Because I have a super awesome  

Thursday night Basic class at 7PM  

(at Inspire Dance Studio)

and I will be opening a  

 Saturday morning Beginner class at 10AM 

(at Inspire starting August 7th & it will also be hybrid) 

HAPPY DANCING, EVERYONE!

Magnet fingers! Palm mirrors! Portrait elbows! Tips to make your port de bras smooth

Beautiful dancers, we can all learn from a Basic Ballet class, even if we are experienced. Sometimes we learned steps incorrectly or incompletely; sometimes we jumped over a level or two when we were younger. Arms and head positions in particular are frequently skipped - many instructors assume you already know what to do or that you will figure it out on your own. 

Those of us who have danced for many years have built muscle memory for heads and arms. We automatically move arms when we move legs and tilt the head at the right time without having to think about it too hard. It just happens! 

But how does it happen? And if you are new to ballet, can you make it happen automatically? 

Of course you can! You just need to spend some time doing it and understand why you're doing it. Remember, when we are young, we absorb what we see like sponges. As adults, our brains question things more and we often need to know the how and why of a movement in order to fully incorporate it into our memory.

Here are a few helpful hints that I have been using in my brand new Basic Ballet class. This class is great for newbies and oldbies as well. There is always something new to learn!

Magnet fingers

WHAT: Ever look at a dancer's hands and wonder how they get that shape? It's not quite "sticking the pinky out when you drink a cup of tea" but it's also not plastic Barbie hands. It's something in between.

HOW: Take your palms and place them together, fingers matching, and then peel your palms apart until just the tips of the fingers are touching.

Imagine that the pads of your fingers are magnets and try to pull them apart. You will end up with your middle fingers about an inch away from each other and curved slightly inward. Your other fingers will be at different angles too. 

WHY: This will shape your hands and fingers so they don't look like they are stuck together (like when the Queen of England waves!). 

Palm mirrors

WHAT: How do you move the head? When do you move the head? It feels weird!

HOW: Imagine that you have mirrors on your palms. When you open your arms from first to second at the barre, try to look at yourself in your palm mirrors. You will naturally tilt your head in order to do so. Practice this at the barre (yes even when the arms are en haut!) and it will start to feel natural to you so that when you are in the center, it will feel weird to not move your head.

WHY: Tilting the head when you move tells the audience where to look. If you stare at the mirror, this will translate to staring at the audience, which (unless used for dramatic effect) can be awkward. When you coordinate your head with your body movement, the audience will follow.

Portrait elbows

WHAT: Elbows are tricky. Experienced dancers, how many times have you heard the direction to "round your elbows"? You can't round your elbows! Your elbows aren't round - they are angular!

HOW: Instead think of an old-fashioned portrait or a cameo brooch. It's not round but not exactly oval. Take your arms en haut and place your head inside them like you're in the portrait. The arms (and elbows) will naturally curve to form that shape around you. 

Now lower them just like that to your first position and then en bas. The portrait shape should remain intact through the whole movement.

WHY: Holding your arms in this shape will keep them active and not simply decorative; engaging your muscles will make it easier to jump, turn and do slow sustained movement.

Hope these tips will make your port de bras smooth and feel more organic. Happy dancing~

Getting back to the studio! A guide to safe dancing

Beautiful dancers, it's been quite a year (or more!). For most of you, it has been a year completely devoid of ballet. For others, it's been ballet class in your living room with a makeshift barre on the rare occasion you have some bandwidth after work and other responsibilities. For a few, it's ballet with a real barre in your home, possibly a scrap of marley or even a raised floor, graduating to outdoor classes on concrete.

No matter what your situation, you have not been dancing in the same way you did pre-pandemic (PP). And no matter what, you can't walk into the dance studio and expect to see/feel/move anything you saw before. 

I've been in your position too. I have been working in my home, teaching on Zoom and then on concrete outdoors. I have a regulation barre, some marley and a slightly cushioned mat but it's nothing like a sprung floor with a wall of mirrors and SPACE!

Recently I've been lucky to get to a few in-studio classes so I can confidently give you some helpful information about YOUR safe return.

1. Lower your expectations. 

Nope, lower than that...keep going. There you go. Did you do triple pirouettes PP? Great! Now, don't expect anything more than a single. In fact, pat yourself on the back if you can balance on demi-pointe without falling over.

 

2. Make friends with yourself. 

For a year we haven't been in a room filled with mirrors in shape-revealing clothes. We might not be happy with what we see because it won't look like us PP.  THAT IS OKAY!  Do not judge yourself. Be happy you are healthy and are in a dance studio. Look at yourself in the mirror and appreciate that your body is alive and strong enough to be in a class. Many - many - others are not. Be grateful to your body that it made it through a VERY difficult time.

3. New mantra: low and slow.

It will be very tempting to run around the studio. I know. I did it when I first walked in. Jumps should be very low, barely off the ground, and you should concentrate on rolling through your demi-pointe and springing up. Do the allegro half-speed for a while until you find your muscles and build back your strength.

4. Balance, balance, balance.

Prepare to spend a LOT of time finding your balance again. One of the most critical parts of balance is orienting our bodies in space. Think of it like being on a boat out at sea with no land to focus on. You feel woozy and nauseous because you aren't stabilized with a visual image. This is what has happened at home for a year. We need the barre, the mirror, and other people to stabilize ourselves. This takes time. Practice. And then some more.

5. Choreography uses muscles too.

And they might not be in the best shape right now. We joke about "pandemic brain" and being foggy and never knowing what day it is. When it comes to remembering combinations in class, our brains might not be quick to pick them up. Understand that this will also take practice. Don't worry if you have trouble with right and left. If you were on Zoom for a year, that was confusing.

6. Masks are not easy to dance in.

I wear 2 masks: a paper one under a cloth one and I pinch the nose to give me breathing room. The hardest part is turning because it changes my proprioception. A small price to pay for feeling safer than with just one. For now, masks are the rule in the studios where I teach and I personally don't mind them. I imagine that when I can finally take it off, I will be amazing! And so will you.

7. Take your time.

Everyone is different. We all had different pandemic experiences and we are recovering in vastly different ways. Some of us can't wait to do all the things. Some are still not ready to leave the home studio. All of this is fine. For now, I am doing some classes hybrid, some in-studio only, some online only. I would like to make it easy for everyone to return in their own way and at their own time. 

🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰

My class definition: Beginner Ballet

As we shift into fall and a new season of dance, I wanted to give people some more information about my classes, especially since I moved things a bit over the summer. It's important for all students to realize that class levels have different names for different teachers so what is "beginner" for one is "basic" for another, etc. These are my level distinctions and apply only to my classes.

(P.S. I am not italicizing all the French terminology because it would take too long and because there are also variances in terminology among the schools. That's an entirely different - and lengthy! - post for another day.)

Today I want to describe my Beginner Ballet.

Who is it for: anyone! If you had a semester of ballet in college, great! If you had years of it as a kid, that's great too. And if you've never stepped foot in a studio, welcome.

What will you learn:
At the barre, you will get the basics -
1. Demi-plies and grand plies in First, Second, Fourth and Fifth positions. (This combination does not change.)
2. Slow tendus from first position.(This combination does not change.)
3. Moderate tendus from fifth position.(This combination does not change.)
4. Degages from fifth position in a simple pattern.
5. Faster degages from first position facing the barre, also in a simple pattern but designed to change your weight frequently.
6. Ronds de jambes, typically slow and moderate tempo; low, easy developpes in a simple pattern.
7. Grands battements in a simple pattern in all directions.
You will also work on balances en releve in first and second position, balance in sousous, holding retire, port de bras and pique.

In the center, you will get these basics -
1. A port de bras combination which will include arms in first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions, perhaps with chassee and temps lie, or even pas de bourree. Arabesques in 4 positions may also be included.
2. A simple tendu combination from fifth position that will introduce the positions of the body in the room, arm and leg coordination, weight shifts, and head movement.
3. Waltz steps, balances de cote, chassees, tombe pas de bourree, contretemps, pique arabesque, pique passe.
4. Breaking down soutenu turns, pique turns, and chainee turns. Everyone works at their own pace. Some dancers may take longer than others to perform turns.
5. Simple jumps in first, second and fifth positions.
6. Petit jetes, assembles and glissades - in combination or individually. These may also be approached at the barre. Note: all dancers have the option of working on jumps at the barre rather than in the center if they are not yet comfortable doing that.
7. A big jump across the floor which could include saute arabesque, saute battement en avant, grand jete, or saute passe.

Bonus:
This class is a great option if you are a more advanced dancer and want to work en pointe or if you are recovering from an injury and want a slower, more deliberate approach to technique.

Additional notes for new students:
Recognize that it's a difficult thing to start studying ballet but everyone in the class has been in your shoes at some point. As you gain more experience and move up in levels, you will be the newbie again - and again - and again. That's one of the great things about ballet: there is always something to learn!

Another wonderful thing about the discipline is that there is measurable progress: if you couldn't do a turn and then one day you can, you've progressed! But the measure may not be the same for you as it is for others. There are as many reasons for a student to start class as there are students! You might measure your progress outside of the studio, how it affects your stamina or overall health, while another student is using ballet to help them with a sport or the theater, etc.

Getting into the studio is a big deal. As an adult you have a lot of responsibilities and people you might care for or work for and it's not easy to simply say, "Gotta go to ballet!" Ballet is part of your personal self-care, however, and it's great for your physical and mental health, creative expression and community.

When you become a student in my beginner classes, you will find yourself surrounded by people who are like you in the most important way: they want to study ballet. You will discover that passion can lead to wonderful friendships.

Ballet Re-boots coming this week!

Monday, July 8th:

Beginner re-boot!

***For everyone who has taken my beginner class at Inspire Dance Studio, you know the level has been creeping up...and up...and up...because some long-time students wanted to gain more vocabularybut my advanced beginner classes at Dance Arts were too far to travel to. Now that Dance Arts is closed, the BEGINNER class can go back to what it was: an encouraging and supportive environment with very basic combinations and an emphasis on building technique. Whether you are brand new or want to clean things up, THIS is the class for YOU!

Days and Times: Monday & Wednesday 8-9:30PM, Saturday 9-10:10AM
Location: Inspire Dance Studio, 457 Foothill Blvd, La Canada Flintridge 91011

Tuesday, July 9th:

Advanced Beginner re-boot at Live Arts LA!

***With the move from Dance Arts, my ADVANCED BEGINNER class will slide into the slot between my Beginner and Intermediate levels. It will be great for dancers who want to challenge themselves and for those who would like to work en pointe. I am moving it to Live Arts Los Angeles, a 2000sf marley covered sprung floor studio in Glassell Park and I am looking forward to meeting new people from the area! NB: I'm trying to move this class to a later start time but have not been confirmed for that yet. Until then, it's at 7PM.

Day and Time: Tuesday, 7-8:30PM
Location: Live Arts LA, 4210 Panamint St, Los Angeles CA 90065

Thursday, July 11th:

Advanced Beginner re-boot at Inspire!

***As with my Tuesday class, this ADVANCED BEGINNER class is perfect for students who want more than a Beginner class but aren't quite ready for Intermediate. It's also in the studio where I teach my Monday/Wednesday/Saturday classes so if you're close by and used to that studio, you will love this too. NB: beginning in late August (or sooner) this class will likely move to a 7:15 or 7:30 start time due to some studio conflicts.

Day and Time: Thursday, 7-8:30PM
Location: Inspire Dance Studio, 457 Foothill Blvd, La Canada Flintridge 91011

 Got questions? Just ask!!

Holiday weekend classes & Fun teaser video!

Beautiful dancers in the LA area!

YES, there are classes AS USUAL over this Memorial Day weekend! Come take ballet with me!

Inspire Dance Studio

457 Foothill Blvd

La Canada CA 91011

Saturday, May 25: 

Beginner - 9AM

Intermediate - 10:10AM

Pointe - 11:35AM

Monday, May 27:

Intermediate - 6:30PM

Beginner - 8PM

Just for fun, here is a teaser video for my new ballet, Hotel at the End of the Universe, which will premiere on Saturday, June 29 at the Colony Theatre Company in Burbank, CA. If you're in the area (or plan to be!) I hope you'll see the show. Right now we have a discount on tickets! Until June 1, you can get 2 for $42 - a great savings over the regular price of $30/ticket. Visit Eventbrite to order yours!

Special thanks to Raul Paredes (@rawlofthedead) who shot and edited this awesome teaser!

ALL classes as usual through the holiday weekend!

Hello beautiful local dancers!

I will be laboring for you all weekend and through Monday as well (see what I did there? ha!) so please come on in to class:

Saturday 9/1 at Inspire Dance Studio

9AM Beginner ballet
10AM Intermediate ballet
11:30AM Pointe/pre-pointe


Monday 9/3 at Inspire Dance Studio

6:30PM Intermediate ballet
8PM Beginner ballet

Patricia Ho *not* in labor...yet!

See you in class! Happy dancing~

Stackables!

It sounds like a new snack, doesn't it?

Have some Stackables with your Lunchables!

Actually, I'm talking about creating a stackable alignment in your body as a way to "get over your leg."

When I talk to my beginner students, especially, about pique and releve, I often tell them they need to get over their legs. In other words, they need to get their torso over their hips and pull up so they can fully point their legs and feet and arrive at the highest releve possible. We never want to sink back into our knees or try to turn or balance on a low releve.

But for many dancers, it's hard to imagine how they get to that place. They end up leaving their hips and derrieres behind them and they never get the highest peak possible.

So add one more "stacking" item as you push yourself to arrive on your leg: your knee.

Think about getting your knee over the center part of your foot and your hips over your knee, stacking one on top of the other.

Courtesy Dance.Net

The above is en pointe, but the same holds true for working in demi-pointe. You will add one more item to the stack: your heel.

So in flat slippers, the stack is: HIPS over KNEE over HEEL over MIDDLE TOES.


When you feel the moment of arrival on the high releve, it feels like you're floating! You can balance forever (or at least it feels that way).

Hope this helps! Happy dancing~

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~

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~

Javelin your pique!

Yes, that's correct. I just used "javelin" as a verb!

Jessica Ennis, British track & field superstar

One of my biggest pet peeves as a ballet instructor is when students bend their knees as they pique to either a turn or a balance and no amount of my shouting, "Keep your knee straight!" seems to help.

Pique is a difficult concept to grasp. In our daily lives we always bend our knees when we walk or run or climb stairs, and certainly in ballet class, we are admonished to bend our knees during plies at the barre or when we jump in the center. But in order to pique properly, we need to keep our entire leg straight and to engage our hamstrings and quadriceps.

Let's use an example with pique arabesque. Here are the basics:

1. With your right leg in tendu devant (knee straight!), prepare with a fondu on the left leg.
2. Push off the left leg and arrive en releve with the right leg completely straight (toes pointed as the foot hits the floor; don't anticipate the releve by flexing the toes).
3. Pull up on the right side of the body so your torso doesn't pitch forward but remains upright.
4. Point the left foot and send the leg up into a long arabesque.
5. Finish with a failli through first position en releve and bend the right leg as the left leg swings through to tendu derriere croise.

Okay, that's simple enough. Except many, many dancers insist on bending the knee in step 2 and end up "climbing the stairs" to their balance en releve. How can we avoid this?

Let's go back to the javelin. I'm sure all of you can picture how a javelin thrower launches her javelin. She heaves it over her head and it arcs up through the air, landing with one end sticking straight into the ground.

In the example above, your right leg is the javelin and your left leg is Jessica Ennis. Launch your javelin in an arc so it goes up and out before landing in the ground. This will mean you place your toe (the sharp end of the javelin) into the ground a foot or more ahead of the rest of your body.

Think LAUNCH then ARRIVE. You launch your javelin and then the body arrives behind it.

Hope this helps! Happy dancing~

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~

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~

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~