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.

Pet peeve: don't lead with your chin

There are many ways of learning or performing a cambre forward, colloquially known as "port de bras." Cambre is more technically correct because cambre just means bend, which we can also do to the side and back.

Joy Recital by Trish Fawver, CC license

There are many ways to bend forward. Or not at all.

Too often I see dancers lead with their chins as they go toward the floor rather than turning their head to the side like they are peering under their arm. Chin-leading also can crop up in pirouettes (or its converse, chin pulling-back).

Here are my hints for a pleasing-to-the-eye and easy-on-the-body cambre:

Going forward (or en avant) -
1. As you begin the bend at the waist, keep the arm outstretched in second position so it extends away from the center of the body.
2. Turn your head toward your arm as if you are laying your cheek against a table, lining up the chin with the inside of the elbow.
3. Maintain the position of the head relative to the arm as you bend farther forward.
4. When you reach the lowest point you can go, you will be twisted so can see the side (or back) of the room.
5. At this point, gather the arm that was in second to what would be a fifth position if you were upright and feel as if you are connecting the top of your head with the palm of your hand. At this moment, you can turn your head so you face your ankles.
6. Then in one movement, reach your hand away from your body and pull yourself back to a standing position, maintaining the same head/arm alignment and space as you do so.
7. Once in an upright position, open the arm to second.

Happy dancing~