June: tips, technique & travel!

Hello beautiful dancers!

Happy June to you all! It's made me so happy to see people coming back to class. Former students, new students! Old friends and new! It's not exactly pre-pandemic normal yet, but it's getting there.

This month I'm so excited to be bringing you a new tip for your pirouettes (we can all use more of those!), a new technique class (come on in!), and a reminder that I'm traveling this month (take a breather!)

First the tip!

Connect the shoulder to the knee that is pulled up in passe.  

Whether you are doing a pirouette en dehors or en dedans, you want to feel like there is a string attached from your shoulder to your knee so it doesn't move. This will help keep the shape of the passe as you rotate.

How to prepare for this:

1. Find your passe standing flat with a comfortable hip placement and arms in first position. 

2. Take note in your peripheral vision of where your shoulder is in relation to your knee. It should not be in front of or behind the position of the knee. If it is either of those things, adjust and then do #1 again.

When you turn:

1. Square yourself off, shoulders and hips, in your fourth position demi-plie, so no part of you is twisted.

2. As you start your turn, use your peripheral vision again to make sure the knee doesn't get ahead of the shoulder which means you are a) losing your turnout at the top of your leg b) collapsing your core or c) pinching your shoulder blades.

To finish the turn:

1. See yourself in the passe if you are turning in front of a mirror, with squared-off shoulders.

2. Roll down on the support leg as you simultaneously release the passe leg to the floor. 

Next the technique!

Beginning Thursday, July 1, I will be teaching a brand new class called Basic Ballet at Inspire Dance Studio from 7-8:30PM. This will be a class exploring the fundamentals of ballet and is suitable for dancers with no experience at all, as well as students who might have tried it as kids, more experienced dancers who took some time off during the pandemic or who had children or an injury, or anyone who wants to brush up on the things they never learned correctly!

There are so many reasons to take a basic class, even if you have lots of experience.

1. With time to focus on technique rather than choreography, you can build muscle memory that will later help you pick up choreography faster.

2. If you've been doing class online or via YouTube videos you haven't been getting corrections or personal guidance. This class can help you break newly-acquired bad habits.

3. Faster-paced classes rarely take the time for questions or to break down things we often take for granted like body positions, port de bras and epaulement, and movement quality.

Interested? Sign up here! Want to send info to a friend? Use this!

Finally some travel!

From June 15th through June 29th, I will be out of town and not teaching my classes, except for my final two YouTube Fridays, June 18th and 25th. When I return in July, hopefully I will see you in my new class! Looking for my complete schedule? Here you go!

 

Happy dancing! And relaxing!

Underarm Pirouettes

Technically they should be called "serratus anterior" pirouettes. The serratus muscles connect the first 8 ribs to the thorax (think of a serrated knife on either side of your rib cage under your armpits).

Illustration courtesy Wikipedia

We turn with so many parts of our bodies, such as:
--our feet, which push us up to releve and initiate momentum
--our calves, which hold us up in releve to sustain the turn
--our arms, which help give us lift and sustain momentum
--our hands, which help initiate the turn
--our backs, which can initiate the turn as well
--our necks, which keep our alignment from head to toe
--our eyes, which spot and keep us from getting dizzy
--our heads, which help keep our balance
--our torsos, which keep us balanced and lifted during the turn

That's a LOT of body parts! So which one is missing?

Kneecaps? Pull 'em up on the releve!

Chin? Don't let it dip or pull back on the spot!

Elbows? Keep them rounded!

Shoulders? Keep them down!

Derrieres? Engage those glutes but don't grip them!


Which leaves us with...the underarms! With so many other body parts to talk about, we forget about the underarms, the serratus anterior muscles, but they are so important for our turns. They need to be engaged like the back muscles, lifted like the torso, and feel connected to the arms before and during the turn.

How do we find these muscles? Next time you're at the barre, try to do one of the simpler exercises with both hands off the barre and the arms in second. In order to hold yourself in a turned-out position and prevent yourself from falling over while also working the gesture leg, you need to ground yourself in two places: the glutes of the standing leg and the underarm of the barre arm.

How do we know if they are engaged on the turn? You will feel a lift like you are a balloon filled with helium and you will turn as if you are floating. Conversely, if you are aiming for multiple pirouettes, you will feel the rotation like a washing machine, spinning in opposite directions as you reach the arms away from you and snap them back in.

Photo courtesy Daily Nothings, cc license

Something new to think about during turns! Happy dancing~

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~

Be bold...be big...be the bear

Beautiful dancers, if you go camping or hiking or if you live in the foothills of a mountain like my students in La Canada Flintridge, you've probably heard the advice about what to do if you are confronted by a bear.

Make yourself big.

You won't ever be bigger than a bear, unless it's a baby in which case your instinct will probably be to hug it because it will be so cute. When that adult bear rears back on its hind legs and roars at you, it will take every ounce of courage you have not to run away.

cc lic Magnus Johansson

Instead, you stand your ground, rise up on your toes and flail your arms. You rawr! back at it and show it you're not scared. (Good luck with that, btw...)

By forcing yourself to be big and tall and wide, you are defying your own anxiety about being in a frightening situation.

Which brings me to ballet. 

For many dancers, coming off the security of a barre where you might be standing behind someone who knows the combinations better than you, where you are clutching something for support, where at least one foot is on the ground all the time, is frightening.

It's scary to move and turn and jump in the center and when we feel that anxiety, we tend to make ourselves smaller. Our legs don't extend as far as they might be able to; our arms collapse over our chest and waist; our heels barely leave the floor when we jump. Our fear makes us small. The result is pirouettes that spin rather than float, terre a terre jumps, and overall weak lines in an adagio.

In a classroom, we might get away with this by telling ourselves we're just tired or we don't know the combination well enough to do it properly, or in some cases, we might say the room is too crowded and there isn't enough space to be big.

Hmmm...I call BS on that last excuse. There's always room to make yourself bigger in a crowded class: stand in the back, angle yourself in a corner, move more conscientiously of your fellow dancers.

And for the other excuses? Defy your fear. Fight your instinct.

Make yourself big.

1. When you are feeling anxious about your jumps, push yourself higher off the ground (assuming you are properly warmed-up and working through your feet). Use your center to get off the ground and propel yourself up rather than out. By jumping higher, you will give yourself more time to roll through your feet on the landing, time to straighten your knees in the air, and time to execute the steps.

2. When you are anxious about your pirouette, push to a higher releve, hold your arms higher and farther away from your body, widen your back and open your lungs. By making yourself bigger and wider and rounder in a turn, you will float more and longer and you won't spin.

3. When you fear the slow extensions of an adagio, think about starting your developpe from the top of your thigh and unfolding outward. Use your arms to lengthen your body in the space. Pull your knees up and engage your "under-buns" to stabilize yourself during a pose or promenade.

In all instances, making yourself "bigger" than you are - taller, wider, rounder, higher, longer - will help you. It will also give you more confidence when you're not feeling so secure.

cc lic State Library of Queensland

 Happy dancing~

Pirouette tip: use that upper back torque!

Hello beautiful dancers!

Recently I've been watching my dancers do their pirouettes en dehors and have been noticing a common issue among those whose turns are not as successful as they would like, or those who can't complete multiple turns cleanly:

They don't articulate their upper backs.

Let me clarify the difference between "winding up" for a turn and "upper back articulation."

When a teacher tells you not to wind up before you turn, usually what that means is you are twisting your entire torso and arms at the waist before flinging them around. This completely throws off your center, doesn't engage your back muscles, and causes you to spin around rather than lift up.

On the other hand, upper back articulation is when you have a slight twist in the shoulders and top third of your torso, just around your scapulae. By pulling back at the scapula and allowing a torque under the shoulders, you are engaging the back muscles and also creating a spiral effect, much like the threads on a screw.

Dancer has slight torque in upper back - note scapula of left (closing) arm. Dance Australia photo credit

A dancer who isn't using their back is probably turning as a single unit, with no energy in their arms or force in their body. Remember, you need impetus to get you moving and momentum to keep you turning. All the releves and balance in the world won't result in multiple turns if you don't initiate from somewhere in your body.

No upper back torque: this is a single unit. Mom Ballet by Megan, cc license

Next time you are practicing your en dehors turns, try this:
--from your fourth position (or fifth or second), reach the gesture arm directly in front of you and the closing arm directly out to the side.
--pull back the scapula of the closing arm and feel the gesture arm stretch even farther away from your body. You should feel the shoulders twist toward that closing arm - but nothing else! Don't allow your torso or waist to twist. This is only in the upper back.
--when you release those arms for a turn, pull back from the scapula of the gesture arm and you should feel more force propel you as you pull the arms in. As long as you are pushing UP from the floor to a very high releve, you will achieve a pirouette rather than a spin.

Try it! And good luck! Happy dancing~

Holiday ballet! Special "Eve" classes to get you in a celebratory mood!

Are you ready for the holidays? No? Then come to class with me this week and on Christmas Eve morning and New Year's Eve morning to boost your spirit!

All of my classes will happen as usual this week and next weekend. I will be out of town 12/25-12/30. Check out my calendar below for information on each specific class and as always, contact me if you have any questions.


Now for the fun stuff: holiday classes with super fun music and loads of great energy!

pc: State Library of Queensland "Seven Swans"

Monday, Christmas Eve, 12/24 Morning! 

Makes a great gift to yourself!

10-11:30AM

Open level

Inspire Dance Studio, 457 Foothill Blvd, La Canada CA 91011

 

pc: State Library of Queensland "Clowns"

Monday, New Year's Eve, 12/31 Morning! 

A perfect way to end 2018 and start 2019!

10-11:30AM

Open level

Inspire Dance Studio, 457 Foothill Blvd, La Canada CA 91011

 

 

AND DON'T FORGET!

Sunday, January 6, Pirouette Workshop, 1-3PM, Inspire Dance Studio

"Turn" your year around with this workshop to improve your pirouettes (see what I did there?)

Sign up at the link at the top of this blog on the left hand side. Limited to 15.

Saturday, January 12, Company Intent to Join, 9AM and 10AM, Inspire Dance Studio

Make your intentions known if you want to be in the Leigh Purtill Ballet Company this year.

We have lots of wonderful things planned but be sure to know what we do before you commit. Check out the website!

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.

My beach blog!

Okay, I'm not on a beach but I do wish I was! This post is beach-themed. I had a few thoughts I wanted to send out to everyone and they all seemed to fall into a beachy sort of thing so...

Courtesy Kathryn Greenhill, creative commons lic

My beachy thoughts on this Friday afternoon?

1. A pirouette tip: Grab your beach ball with your inner thighs! When you're in your fourth position, preparing for an en dehors turn, imagine your upper thighs are wrapping and squeezing a giant plastic beach ball. When you releve for the turn, don't let go! Keep the inner thigh muscles activated to hold onto the ball and give you a spiraling action as you go upward. Release the ball as you lower down to your finish, gradually letting the ball go.

Courtesy Valentina powers, creative commons lic

 2. A pet peeve tip: Stick your toes in the sand! One of my biggest pet peeves are toes that leave the floor during battements tendus or temps lie. You lose the opportunity to lengthen your legs and feet when you allow the toes to lift off the floor, even briefly. Instead imagine your toes are stuck in the sand on the beach and the waves are lapping at your ankles and when the waves recede, your toes are sucked into the wet sand.

Courtesy Hilton Resort

 3. A port de bras tip: Do the backstroke to get your shoulders moving! When we do cambre back or a grand circular port de bras, we are trying to articulate all parts of our back: the upper back, the middle and the lower. The upper back is the hardest because we are usually pretty tight in the muscles at the front of our chest and in our shoulders (we do a lot of work at our computers and phones and we sit in our cars for hours). But an articulate upper back is one of the most beautiful parts of our ballet lines. As you bend backwards, imagine yourself doing the backstroke in the water. You don't twist your whole upper body as you do this but rather, you keep the back steady and sweep the arm up and behind you.

Natalie Coughlin courtesy Kinney Turtle, creative commons lic

Happy summer dancing, everyone! Stay cool~

Screws and nails - dig deep into your toolbox!

As always, I am inspired by my students to write a blog post.

Last night, I was teaching my beginners an adagio in the center, which required them to shift from two feet (fifth position) to one (a developpe en avant). What frequently happens when we do this is we allow the knee of the support leg to get soft as we move the gesture leg through developpe. It's a common problem, kind of a "sympathy" bending when one leg bends because the other is too.

I often use the imagery of a barbershop pole to imitate the spiraling action of the leg in rotation but another way to look at it is

Screw vs Nail

Reach down into your toolbox (both your literal and figurative ones) and find a nail. It's got a nice sharp end and it's super straight, which are equally good images for a long spine and alignment of torso over feet. But it's smooth, right? It has no edges, nothing to grip.

Home Depot image

Now take out your screw. It's got grooves that grip whatever it's being drilled into, yes? Whether it's a Phillips head or a flat head, it will spiral into the wood or other material and the threads of the screw will hold it into place more firmly than a smooth nail.

Home Depot image

Your legs need to be screws, not nails. They need to be threaded and grooved so they rotate down into the floor and hold very solidly. This will make your knee far more stable than just a straight nail (leg) that tends to bend or become soft during developpe or pirouette, etc.

Now add that image to your dancer's toolbox! 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!):

Is that a grapefruit under your arm?

Hello beautiful dancers!

Lately I've been unhappy with my students' armpits. 

It's not that they're smelly or gross - they're empty! 

Caveat: this is NOT my original imagery. A teacher friend of mine likes to tell her class to hold something under their arms when they are standing at the barre, to feel as if there is an object they are keeping pressed between their arm and their torso.

This week, I'm asking all of my students, regardless of their level or experience, to imagine they have grapefruits under their arms. This imagery serves several purposes:

1. It keeps space between the arm and torso.

2. It adds shape to the arms.

3. It activates the back muscles.

Beginning at the barre, try to picture the space under your arm as filled with an object like a grapefruit. As you move the arms through port de bras, continue to hold that object, even when the arms are above your head. However, be very careful that you don't squish the fruit under your arm. You must shape the armpit around the fruit and hold it in place.

HINT: When you do cambre, lifting your spine up and back, turn your head gently to the side and take a sniff of that grapefruit. That is where your head should be, rather than facing the ceiling.

When you come to the center, hold that grapefruit when you are doing pirouettes and that will help you engage your back muscles and keep your abdominal muscles active, which in turn will help you stay lifted. If you're really concentrating, think about this image when you do big jumps; keep those grapefruits under your arms even as you fly across the stage.

Take a look at Misty Copeland in this photo. Notice how there is shape to her underarms even as she holds her hands high above her head. The grapefruits are still in place!

Misty Copeland, courtesy American Masters

Don't lose your grapefruit! Or as the French say, Ne perdez pas votre pamplemousse!



Happy dancing~

Update: ScareLA, Tips from the Pirouette Workshop and Show Tickets!

Wow, it CAN'T be August already, can it? That means the "Sweet Sorrow" world premier is just 2 months away! Oh my goodness! But first there is ScareLA.

Last year, the horror convention was held in Pasadena. It was our first time there and we had a blast! And the audience loved us too, so the con asked us back for more. This time the convention will be in downtown LA. We'll be doing the dance again (always a bit different, of course!) and we'll also host a table and sell merchandise and show tickets. Want to see us?  Get tickets at our website, zombieballet.com and go to "Events." If you buy ScareLA tickets through that link, we'll get a small percentage too. Thank you!

And to tease you, this is what it looked like last year:

And if you want to get your tickets to the show in October, we've got those on-sale now at Eventbrite:

Buy Show Tickets

And finally, tips from the workshop on Sunday, which was loads of fun, even if most attendees did have sore legs the next day!

Pirouette Tip #1: wrap your arms in first position like you're holding something that doesn't want to be held.

Pirouette Tip #2: practice getting over your leg by springing to releve degage derriere from a 4th position demi-plie. The longer you can hold this position, the better and more stable your turn will be.

Happy dancing (and turning and ScareLA-ing)!

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~

How are those resolutions/goals coming?

Courtesy Jacques Kaufmann, creative commons license

Yes, it IS March. Yes, we ARE in the third month of 2017 already. How did this happen?

In my own defense, in January I was busy with forming my new ballet company, Leigh Purtill Ballet Company, a nonprofit amateur ballet company for adults which will be doing its first original production in October (more on that to come!).

In February, I was swamped with moving. After 17 years in the same apartment, my husband and dog and I had to move. We were absolutely excited to do this, but it was much easier said than done. Needless to say, shoving 17+ years of stuff into a moving truck and then emptying it out a few miles away was MUCH harder than we anticipated. We're still unpacking, still unsettled, but we are in a new place with new views and it's very exciting.

So here is March...it's a long month (thank goodness!) but it's filled with rehearsals for two shows with two casts, not to mention meetings associated with the company AND the shows - on top of my regular classes, workshops, and private lessons. I want to do everything all at once but it's definitely been a challenge.

One of the most wonderful results of the move has been discovering a new teacher(s). Last week, I was discussing my personal 2017 goal with one of them and it reminded me that I actually HAD a personal goal that I haven't had time to explore. She was very encouraging when I told her about it and that led to a discussion among her students about pirouettes and technique, etc. What a wonderful opportunity to talk shop with new people!

But...I still have to tackle my goal which is, as I mentioned 2 months ago, consistent triple pirouettes.

How about you? Have you had any success in pursuit of your 2017 goals? If not, don't give up yet! There's still nine months left in this year to meet them.

If anyone has ANY questions about how they can achieve their goals, if you need any advice, EMAIL me or POST in the comments below. I am happy to help when I can! And who knows, your questions might help someone else!

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~

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~

See, Spot, Turn - Spotting Techniques for Pirouettes

HELLO, TURN TUESDAY!

 I confess to being a pirouette-aholic. I love to study pirouettes: how to make them better and stronger. I love watching good turners and examining the minute details of their alignment, momentum, and spotting. I do this "pirouette recon" so I can share the information with the students in my workshops. I want to give them more tools to fix their turns.

We all have good turn days and bad ones but instead of throwing up our hands and saying, "Oh well, the pirouette gods are not smiling upon me today," we should be asking ourselves the specifics of "Why?"

Why are we falling forward or back?

Why are we not completing a full rotation (or 2 or 10)?

Why are we getting dizzy?

In my most recent workshop, I tackled spotting, which is the bane of many dancers' existence, especially students who come to ballet later in life. Frankly it's easier to get dizzy when you're an adult, harder to just "go for it" and throw caution to the wind. Adults think about falling and are generally uncomfortable with being dizzy. Kids, on the other hand, have far less trouble with that! (See also, amusement park rides)

The 3 L's of Spotting: Loose, Look, Linger

1. Keep a LOOSE neck - in order to spot properly, your neck needs to be relaxed and not tense. Shoulder rolls and neck rolls definitely help to remind us that our heads do not sink directly into our shoulders. Try to keep your shoulders down and allow your neck to relax so it doesn't turn the head as one unit with the upper torso.

2. Actually LOOK at something - you need to truly see an object in order to spot it. Some dancers sort of glance in a direction without actually seeing something there which makes it harder to spot cleanly. This then throws off their turns as they lose their spots. Focus on a singular object (for some, it helps to spot close to them while for others, it helps to see something farther away) and don't lose sight of it.

3. Allow your spot to LINGER - once you see something, grab onto it and don't let go. Your chin needs to remain level in order for your spot to stay on an object. If you tilt your chin up or down, it's harder to remain fixed on an object because your head does not swivel on your neck smoothly. It needs to compensate and then it often comes "unglued."

In my recent research, I read a comment from a teacher that spotting is intended to trick the body into thinking that it's not moving because when it realizes that it's moving, it wants to do other things - like stop turning! I think that's when people tend to simply drop their heels or their arms. They realize they are moving so they do the first thing that seems natural, which is to stop.

If you want smooth pirouettes, aim high: keep your gaze at releve level, see an object, hold it with your gaze, allow the body to float around, and then quickly find the object again.

And relax...happy turning~

3 Technique Tips for Tuesday!

Last night I thought of 3 random tips I wanted to share with you. None of them warrants a full blog post but together they make 1! In no particular order:

1. Balance Tip: some of us live in earthquake country so we know what construction companies do to bolt down houses to their foundations to help make them resistant to the shaking of earthquakes. You know what also shakes? Your balance when you are en releve. If you find yourself unable to hold a balance, especially in first or second, you're probably not engaging your deep external rotator muscles (they are the very small muscles that rotate your thigh bone in its socket to create turnout from the top of the legs). They also might not be strong enough to hold your turnout which can also result in shaking or collapsing.

Instead of just thinking about your feet holding you in place, visualize the ball-and-socket joint in your leg as if it were bolting your house (body) to its foundation (floor). Once you can grab onto that and engage those muscles, your legs will feel much more stable and you will feel the energy moving in all directions, not merely your feet and ankles.

2. Pirouette Tip: we can never have enough of these! If you are having trouble with getting over your leg on your turn, if you fall backward or can't seem to keep your arms in front of you as you turn, try thinking of someone tapping the back of your shoulder when you go up into your retire position.

From any preparation, let's say left foot front in 4th position so that you will be turning en dehors to your right, imagine your teacher is about to give you a gentle shove on the left shoulder to get you moving. She would be pushing you just above the scapula. This has the effect of getting you over your leg, giving you another source of momentum and preventing you from lifting your shoulder on the turn. And it works! I tested it on myself. Ha!

3. Jump Tip: one of my biggest pet peeves for allegro work is when students don't roll through their feet on their jump landing, whether for grand or petit. Sometimes they land flat footed which shudders my spine just thinking about it. Other times, even if they think about rolling through a pointed foot, they neglect the ball of the foot so it's not nearly as smooth or connective as it could be.

Think about a 3 point landing with every jump: toe, ball, heel. Always. Toe, ball, heel. Toe, ball, heel. This will make you fondu rather than simply plie and bend the knees. It will be easier to use the demi-plie as you move from one step to the next and it will also be safer for your knees and spine.

Hope these tips help! Happy dancing~