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~

Pirouette Tip! Using the Spiral

We're always looking for new ways to approach our turns and believe me, I know there are a million tips I can offer my students. Each element of a turn (alignment, momentum, and spotting) has multiple ways to be broken down.

Today I offer The Spiral as a visual image for you.

What it is: a circular, centrifugal motion that pulls you around and up, rather than simply around.

How to find it:
A) When you are in your deep demi-plie (it works best from a fourth position plie but can also be effective from a long lunge ), widen the tops of your legs as much as possible and hold the plie with the muscles below your derriere and inner thighs.
B) In the mirror, watch the space between the tops of your legs in your plie and keep it as wide and open as you can for as long as you can when you start the turn. Don't squeeze the space as you releve!

How to use it: Imagine your body spinning upward from the center, beginning with your demi-plie, all the way up to the tops of your legs, through your spine, the back of your neck and out the top of your head.

If you do this properly, you will be accessing and engaging muscles you don't think to use, namely the small muscles under your derriere and top of the inner thighs. You want to initiate the turn with these muscles, rather than with the quads and hamstrings (which you will of course engage during the turn and to sustain your balance).

Happy dancing!

Building a dancer's toolbox

When you want to repair a leaky faucet, you investigate the many places in the pipe that could be the problem.  You need a flashlight to search for the leak, and then a wrench to shut off the water and - if you're like me - a roll of duct tape to wrap around the pipe until you can get an expert in. A leaky faucet is frustrating but it's not the end of the world.  It's something to be repaired.

Now, when you want to fix a faulty pirouette, what do you do?  Do you think, "I'll just spin faster and hope for the best"? Do you give up and pout? Or do you look in your toolbox to begin the repairs?

A dancer's toolbox includes all those marvelous things your teachers have told you throughout your years of training: pull up your abdominals, lower your chin, stretch your arms, spring from your whole foot, etc.  At the time that you hear these corrections - either for yourself or someone else in class - you may not see how they apply to you.  But eventually, you may have to use them.

You build a toolbox so it isn't merely a stroke of luck that you perform something properly.  The goal of consistent class attendance is to be able to recreate steps properly - and build on them.  While we all have "good" and "bad" turn days or "good" or "bad" jump days, you should know what it feels like to do something right and then do it again. And if you can't do it again, you have to figure out why.

Say your turns are wobbly and you're having trouble getting up en pointe.  That's when you dig in and investigate. Remember: it's a problem to be solved, not an issue to be stressed over and upset about.

First grab your flashlight: what exactly is my problem?  Falling forward?  Not enough suspension? Landing too fast?

Next, search your toolbox: am I pulled up enough?  Am I spotting the floor?  Am I not using my plie?

And if all of that still doesn't solve the issue, call in an expert - your teacher. You might need to add a new tool to your box!

Happy dancing~