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

August newsletter is here!

 

August 2022 schedule - In-studio and online! Sunday (Inspire Dance Studio) 10AM-11:30AM - Intermediate ballet 11:30AM-1PM - Gentle Ballet **NOW 90 MINS** Tuesday (Live Arts LA)  7-8:30PM - Beg/Intermediate ballet Wednesday (Inspire) 6:30-8PM - Beginner ballet 8-9PM - Beginner Jazz **SUPER FUN** Thursday (Inspire) 7-8:30PM - Basic ballet Saturday (Inspire) 9:30-11AM - Beginner ballet 11AM-12PM - Pointe/pre-pointe **NEW TIME** SIGN UP FOR ALL CLASSES HERE New class: Gentle Ballet Sundays 11:30AM QUESTION: "What is Gentle Ballet and how does it differ from Basic Ballet (and btw, how does THAT differ from Beginner Ballet?" Gentle Ballet is intended for any level dancer who wants to take class in a slightly less traditional way. They might be brand new, recovering from an injury, or need modifications for the exercises. It will not include grand plies, pirouettes or big jumps; many exercises will be in parallel and/or facing the barre. Center work will include port de bras, traveling steps and short combinations. Basic Ballet is my most elementary technique class and is the foundation for more advanced vocabulary. It is structured as a typical class and includes barre, center, jumps and turns. It's designed for dancers with little to no experience in ballet. Beginner Ballet is the next level before Intermediate and includes more advanced vocabulary and more complex combinations than Basic. Dancers in this class are expected to know the basics at the barre and in center. (P.S. - I teach all 3 of these classes! Tell your friends!) TECHNIQUE TIP BLOG POST! In case you missed it: When Ballet Attacks - Get Big! Frequently we make ourselves smaller when faced with new steps or challenging combinations. This post talks about how and why to do the opposite! ***HEY! Have YOU tried Beginner Jazz yet? Each week we dance to great music, work up a sweat, and learn some new choreography (either original or a classic jazz piece). It's so much fun! Wednesdays at 8PM!***

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!

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

Hello beautiful dancers!

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

The Second Leg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And on...

Do you see where I'm going with this? 

**Focus on your second leg. 

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

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

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

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

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

Happy dancing!

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

 

The cast striking a silly pose

 

With my 3 cheeky bellhops!

3 Technique Tips to make your Ballet Better!

Happy Friday, beautiful dancers!

It's been a while since I've posted some handy-dandy technique tips so to make up for that, here are 3 that I think will help you:

1. When stacking your boxes, watch that middle one! It could sink!

When we talk about aligning the body for balance, we often use the imagery of stacking your head on your torso on your hips, don't we? Well, that's not exactly accurate. That picture assumes all 3 boxes are the same size and shape, right? But in truth, a more realistic image is that your middle box - your torso - is solid while the lower one - your hips - is open. If you're not careful, the center box could sink right into it.

What does it look like when your torso drops into your hips? If you are en releve, you will feel your heels drop closer to the floor, your knees might buckle, and your elbows will collapse (if they are over your head, you will see the circle flatten and if they are in first position in front of you, the elbows will be lower than the wrists). If you are flat, you might notice it's hard to shift your leg out to a tendu without pulling your hips back behind your heels, and you might feel your ribcage soften and your shoulders roll forward.

How do we fix this? Engage the core! (I imagine Captain Picard from the Starship Enterprise) 

Engage the core! Make it so! (Getty Images)

If you activate the muscles of the torso - back, sides, and abdominals - you will keep yourself pulled up and feel a lift out of your hips. Your middle box will be balanced over the lower box and you will find it much easier to hold a releve longer and to do things like chaine turns and so on.

2. Use your small muscles to find your turnout and your big ones to hold it!

Do you ever feel a soreness deep in your hips after class, like your hip sockets are inflamed and sensitive? More likely than not, you are overusing your deep external rotators (the Deep 6 muscles are: piriformis, obturator internus, obturator externus, gemellus inferior, gemellus superior, and the quadratus femoris). These muscles are used to move the hip joint by externally rotating the femur head. Many dancers not only use these muscles to rotate the bones but then they use them to hold the turnout, especially when they are at the barre or center, balancing on one leg.

What does it look like when you're gripping your rotators to hold your turnout? Well, you might not actually see it but you will certainly feel it after class! A teacher looking closely might notice that your derriere is tucked under you and your hips are tilted when you are doing an extension; they might also see that you are sinking into the support leg and your torso might be collapsed slightly. Or they might see nothing at all!

External rotators (Courtesy Wikipedia)

 How do we fix this? First of all, you need to access those Deep 6 to rotate the femur but to hold the rotation, use your big muscles: your glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings. Your gluteus maximus is the big muscle of your behind and the gluteus medius is just above at your lower back and protecting your hip bones. These muscles are the ones that will help stabilize you when you are balancing on one leg in the center during adagio and turns, while the quads and hamstrings will hold your turnout once you find it. The key is to not grip: gripping is the enemy of smooth turns and big jumps.

3. Take jazz class for isolations!

One of the things dancers, especially ballet dancers, are known for is control. We control every muscle, every ligament and bone. We tilt our head just so, and we use the pinky toe to spring off for a pirouette or jump. When we start to lose our balance, we do an internal spot-check of every. single. thing. affecting our bodies. It requires us to isolate different parts of our body, even the very smallest of them, to make micro-adjustments.

Yet, we never do isolations! Jazz class is where dancers do this, not ballet. In jazz, we spend lots of time doing series of body isolations: head, shoulders, rib cage and hips, primarily, but we also do head rolls, shoulder rolls, hip rolls, and so on. We connect hips and head in different ways than in ballet. Our arms might move en dehors over our heads when we do a balance rather than in middle third or we might swivel our hips before we do a pirouette. These small movements give jazz its sharpness, its rhythm, and its style.

Dogs doing head isolations (photo InterMountain Pet Hospital)

So why don't we do them in ballet class? You know, I don't know the answer to that other than: it has never been done like that. In most classes, a ballet warm-up might include gentle shoulder rolls and head circles to smoothly warm up the neck and back. We might also do some forced arch releves but that's the extent of it. But how valuable would it be to be able to move a shoulder back or forward during an arabesque or to shift the hip from side to side while balancing? 

My recommendation: get to a jazz class and start working on those isolations. Not only will isolation exercises help you access muscles in different ways, they will also get your head spot sharp for turns - you know we are always looking for ways to improve our turns!

Happy dancing, everyone!

My journey to jetes: from zero to grand in 7 months!

Beautiful dancers, like everyone during the pandemic, I was stuck at home in a small space with a slippery wood floor that had no give. Over the course of a couple of months, I brought in a portable barre, marley flooring, and some springy dance floor squares (which I liked so much I bought a second set to make the area bigger!). 

Also like you, no matter how I was able to modify my former dining area, I couldn't do anything big - no grand allegro at all and very limited petit allegro. I focused on maintaining strength in my quads and hamstrings as well as building core strength through sit-ups, pushups and planks. I also ended every class I taught over Zoom and YouTube with releves to keep calf and ankle strength up for all of us, including me!

Returning to my classes as a teacher (first outdoors on concrete last winter and then in-studio in the spring), I was cautious doing jumps. I didn't want to injure myself or my students! We began with very small jumps like sautes in first position, gentle glissades into jetes and assembles but no beats. For grand allegro, we did temps leves in passe and arabesque, some grand jetes and pas de chats and worked up to tour jete and sauts de chats.

I loved watching my students find their jumps again but for myself? Up until about a month ago, my progress followed my students except for sauts de chats. I wasn't quite at the point where I felt confident to really push myself off the floor and attempt a big jump. I worried that I would never be able to do grand allegro again, which was always something I enjoyed.

So how to get my jump back? Gradually and carefully, like all things. Here are some things that I did that might help you:

1. I added beats to my petit allegro which forced me to really push my body off the ground - something very important for big jumps, obviously.

2. I did lots of grands battements to work my quads and get my leg off the ground quickly.

3. I worked on my splits for hamstring flexibility.

4. I focused on developpe during adagio at the barre, especially en avant and holding fully extended for as long as possible.

5. I continued my planks every day to keep my core engaged so I could get extra lift on the jump.

No matter what you want to tackle, take it slowly, beautiful dancers. You don't want to injure yourself (believe me, hamstring injuries take forever to heal!). Enjoy the journey! Happy dancing!

 

Photo CC license

Will this be me in next week's classes? Hmmm....

What does "mark it" mean?

Beautiful dancers, there are a lot of things that make perfect sense to long-time students but are confusing to new students.

One of the most ubiquitous ones is "marking." Have you heard this in your classes?

"Let's mark this turn combination."

"Mark it on your own while I find music."

"I was just marking it!"

When you mark something, you do a mini-version of it as a way of figuring it out before you perform it. You might hear "mark it with music," in which case the teacher plays the music they want you to dance to and you follow along. You might trace the path the combination takes along the floor. You might practice the steps to make sure you know what they are. You might only work your arms instead of your legs and feet.

 

Practice the patterns on the floor

(Horse Ballet, courtesy NYPL)

Marking can mean different things to different dancers and in different scenarios. But what everyone agrees is that you don't dance it "full-out," that is, as if you were performing it. There are also many ways to mark:

 - with just your feet: you walk through the steps of the combination in a low-key way which can be helpful if you are in the center and the combination is long and travels a good deal (or doesn't!)

 - with just your arms: you gesture with your arms as if you were dancing the combination full-out which can be especially useful if you are doing adagio or reminding yourself about where to hold your arms during turns and leaps

 - with just your hands: the most common for barre exercises as well as easier center floor combinations

This last one is one of the most efficient ways to mark. Dancers use their hands like feet and map out the combination the teacher is giving them. You will see them move their hands in the air in front of them as if they are doing the steps with their feet. 

Marking with your hands is a great way to get the steps in your body. When you move your hands like feet, your brain picks up another way to access the movement. You're instructing it in a way that is separate from the rest of the body which will do the actual steps. It's extremely beneficial to help you learn choreography more quickly.

 

Don't just stand there!

(NYCB Rehearsal, courtesy NYPL)

From a teacher's point of view, when we ask students to mark a combination with or without music, we watch to see how they pick up the choreography. Are they walking through it? Using their arms mostly? Using their hands? What we don't want to see is a student simply standing there doing nothing. Marking is movement with the body not just the eyes! We want to see that you're getting it - or not. When we mark together as a group, a teacher can see if you missed something or if a step is confusing or if the music is too fast or slow. We also want you to hold off on questions until we do it together. Many times marking a combination will answer the questions you have.

Speaking of questions, got any burning ones to ask? Have you heard something in class or seen something done without explanation - and you want an explanation? Just ask! Happy dancing!

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~

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!

Shoulders forward & the importance of incidental activity

As we close out the year (good riddance, 2020!), I want to offer a final technique tip and an observation.

First the tip:

Keep your shoulders in front of your hips during pirouettes, penchees, promenades, jumps, and generally speaking, during pointe work.

What do I mean?

Grab a mirror and observe your alignment in profile when you stand up straight. Where are your shoulders in relation to your hips: behind your hips, centered over them, or in front of them? Most likely they are centered over them. If you have a tendency to slouch, your shoulders may be behind your hips.

When we rise onto demi-pointe or pointe, we often pull our shoulders back or allow them to droop; this includes turns and pushing off the floor for jumps. 

Now, still in profile, lift your ribcage up out of your waist and gently move your torso forward. Note that your hips are still over your heels and your pelvis is in a neutral position, nothing is tucked or gripped. This is where you want to be when you prepare for a pirouette or take an arabesque into a penchee or even when you push up off the ground for a jump.

What do I not mean?

Don't roll your shoulders or hike them up to your ears. Also, try not to hyperextend your lower back and avoid splaying the ribs.

(This image was made by Loadmaster (David R. Tribble) CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Please note the dancer's shoulder placement in the arabesque to the left.

(Ron Kroon / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Please note the placement of the shoulders in this grand jete to the right.

What will this do for you?

For one thing, it helps stabilize you, balancing your natural tendency to fall back as you go up. And for another it will help you engage your back muscles and keep you lifted and not sinking.

And now...an observation about the influence of the pandemic on our bodies (as if we didn't need to know about yet another negative effect!):

When incidental activity is diminished, our baseline of movement is affected. 

What do I mean by "incidental activity?" 

That's the walking from our cars to the grocery store, the running into the bank to deposit a check, the filling up of our gas tanks, the casual jostle walking among crowds at an event or in a school or a theater or on public transportation...all these things contribute to the baseline of our movement including balance. 

Remember before the pandemic when you used to walk around with a purse or shoulder bag or backpack? You would have to balance that on your shoulder and move it with you when you moved, from side to side or up and down. That's movement. That's balance. That's activity. When you're not doing that as frequently, you have far fewer chances to practice.

In your homes, it's a quick walk to the restroom or to get some water but at the dance studio, maybe it was down the hall. That's extra movement, extra walking you did.

In our Zoom environments, we sit to talk to people because if we stand, we are at waist level with our cameras; if we move around, our microphones won't pick up our voices and our auto focus gets blurry. But these are all things we used to do when we talked to people in real life.

What is the result? And how does that affect dancing?

One thing we lose is muscle tone: all that sitting doesn't give our quads and calves and hamstrings opportunities to strengthen, nor does our core engage as frequently. When we don't walk as much, we lose our stamina and get out of breath more quickly. And when we don't have to adjust around people, we don't have chances to find our balance.

For our dancing, this means we must take extra steps in class. Even if you were taking the same number of classes as you were before, likely you are not working as hard or have the ability to do things like jumps or allegro. Our balance might not be as good because we aren't calling upon it as often. 

What can we do?

In class, we can take the time to work on balance OFF the barre when we need to engage our cores and stabilize ourselves. We can build calf and ankle strength through extra exercises. We can also do small jumps in sneakers if we don't have the correct flooring.

Outside of class, we can walk a little bit more (an extra turn around the block with the dog), maybe carry something with us so we build some upper body strength and work on balance. Hiking or carefully navigating uneven surfaces can also help us balance.

Your developpe could be better...3 tips!

Just as with pirouettes, there are so many things we can be thinking about when we do développé.

And just as with pirouettes, we can't possibly think about all of them at the same time!

So here are 3 things to focus on when you work on your développé, one for each direction. If you can make them part of your muscle memory, you can free your mind to think about other things, like choreography or performance quality:

Devant

Gamzatti Variation Classical Ballet Solo by Harclade

This means "to the front."

Think about: lower belly (that triangle-shaped area underneath your belly button).

When we talk about "lifting" the lower belly, we mean trying to keep your pelvis upright, not tilted (don't spill your cup of water!). Often when we stretch the leg to the front, we collapse our centers and the lower belly tilts backward. To compensate for this, we grab onto the barre tightly. Instead, when you are working to the front, try to imagine your lower belly flat and the cup of water you are keeping there upright. As you stretch the foot away from your center, picture the heel rotating outward to spiral out and up, not down.

A là seconde

Aurora Ballet 20120504019 by Greg Gamble

This means "to the second position" which we commonly interpret as "side."

Think about: the side of your rib cage from under the armpit to the top of the waist.

You can apply this correction when you work to the side, thinking about the "barre" side of your body. As you stretch the leg out, try to think about the opposite side of your waist lengthening and providing a strong stable complementary base to the working leg. While you do want to extend the leg as high as it can go, you also don't want to allow it to pull you off your standing leg. If you can picture yourself growing taller on both sides of your body, you can evenly extend the leg to the side without collapsing toward the barre (or in the center, you will remain upright and not fall over).

Derrière

IMG 0224 by Dubna Fantazia

This means "to the back."

Think about: working through back attitude.

I don't have eyes in the back of my head and I'm pretty sure you don't either. That's why it can be hard to stretch your leg to the back without crossing it over the heel of the standing leg or leaving it open (what we call "secabesque" when we are being silly). It's also quite easy to lose your rotation and wind up with a turned-in leg. As you develop the leg from passe, try to go through your back attitude before you completely stretch it out. This will keep your rotation and also ensure that you are not crossing it too much. It's a very 3-dimensional feeling to move through the space like this, rather than simply a straight line from the knee out.

~Happy dancing!~

Zoomed out? 8 pointers to having a better class!

My current barre

Beautiful dancers, we have gotten so Zoomed out, haven't we? After 7 months of being in our home studios, it's beginning to feel more like a prison and less like a holiday. We probably thought it wouldn't last long and we could keep our family and roommates and pets out of our way for a little while - or maybe we didn't invest in materials or we thought we could just give up dance for a month or two. And now...eesh! Seven months and counting!

I know that it's been challenging to stay focused and be on top of our technique. For those of you who have had a hard time, I get it. I feel the same way sometimes. When I think about being in front of the camera, I feel so sad and a bit dispirited but then I start class, get into the groove, and pretty soon, I forget that it's Zoom (kind of!). 

Even though I've been in front of thousands of classes and I know just about every one of my students, I feel more pressure to "perform" when it's the Zoom camera. If you feel that way too, you're not alone!

So how can you make your Zoom class feel less like a work or school meeting and more like "your time"? Here are a few things I've learned or come to appreciate:

1. Put the camera where you want it. Oh sure, if you're a young pre-professional dancer, you want your teacher to see all the alignment issues for corrections but my adult dancers? Please do what you want. If you want me to see your face or your ear or your feet, that's fine with me.

2. A caveat to #1 - sometimes being a non-video participant or having multiple cameras attached will affect the reception for other students in class. You may need to turn off audio as well. Check with your teacher.

3. Always mute yourself unless you have a question. 

4. Download speed is important for a smooth class. Use whichever device has the fastest speed for downloading.

5. Hardwired internet is always stronger than wi-fi.

6. Consider marking your floor or marley with colored tape to remind you where your downstage, upstage and corners are.

7. Give yourself permission to have an off day or a bad pirouette.

8. Celebrate the wins! Maybe that's just showing up.

I too thought Zoom would be temporary which is why I only started teaching in July. I assumed it would be a transitional period and we would be hybrid classes in mid-July. Now it appears as if Zoom will not be going away. I understand if classes online are not for you and you're waiting for the studio to open. I do hope that will be very soon but even if I can do that for a couple of classes, most likely we will continue to be virtual for many reasons, but mostly safety. Your health is paramount!

There is always another day, another class. But if you have been waiting it out, hoping for things to turn around quickly (I'm with you!), I don't see that happening in the Los Angeles area. Ballet is here for you and I am here for you. Hope to Zoom with you soon!

Happy dancing~

Meet Dr. Danelle Dickson, Dance PT and ballet dancer!

Hello beautiful dancers!

Did you miss our live Zoom chat with Dr. Danelle Dickson last Friday? Then you missed an amazing opportunity to get your PT/dance injury questions answered by the extraordinary Dr. Dee from Washington DC. She's a ballet dancer who treats professional dancers, young pre-professionals, and amateurs alike. Working from her home on the east coast, she graciously and generously took time from her day to talk to us.

Lucky for you, I recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube! Check out the video below and hear what Dr. Dee has to say about treatment of dance injuries, the necessity of cross-training, and why she thinks dancers need to be considered athletes. She also answered the specific questions from our chat group, each of whom had a different dance background and experience. It was a fascinating - and fast! - 90 minutes.

Dr. Dee also talked about her new cross-training program, Dansebridge, which is available in the link below. Dr. Dee believes dancers don't necessarily need more classes when they want to improve their technique. She thinks working different muscle groups and in different ways can be more beneficial. Personally I love that the sessions are only 30 minutes long because these days, concentrating for long times is not easy.

Dr. Danelle Dickson's Dansebridge

Thank you SO MUCH, Dr. Dee! We loved meeting you and enjoyed hearing everything you had to say about ballet, training, and treatment.

Easy fix: Raise Your Gaze!

Ever have a problem in class, whether it's turning or a balance on one leg, and you find yourself wishing there was one simple way to fix it? Something that didn't require hours in the gym working on your core or quads?

Well, there is!

(cue the dramatic music)

Raise your gaze!

cc lic Clare Black "black eyes"

Sometimes it's as easy as that to get your balance, to stay lifted in your pirouettes and get more height in your jumps.

Many of us tend to dance small in class, whether it's because we are focusing on learning or we're tired from a long day or we're anxious about something. That can often translate into a gaze that is cast downward or inward. Our shoulders might roll forward and our centers might collapse as well. All of this leads to a very heavy energy in your body which prevents you from feeling lifted in turns or supported in adagio or jumps.

But by simply --

lifting your gaze

opening your eyes a little wider

actually seeing something

--you can change your posture, alignment, and energy in one easy move - and you will see an immediate result.

I can nearly guarantee it.*

*Note: nearly. I mean, I'm 99% certain it will work for you but there's always a tiny chance it won't but really, what could it hurt to just try?

Happy dancing~

cc lic Ethereality Pictures "Generations of Perfection"

New class, Valentine's Day, and more in the February newsletter!

February 2020 schedule Classes are all on as usual throughout the entire month. Reminder: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday classes are at Inspire Dance Studio; Tuesday classes are at Live Arts LA. View my full schedule here (scroll to bottom of page). SPECIAL CLASS! This year, Valentine's Day falls on a Friday but I will be holding a "Bring-Your-Special-Friend/Partner/Significant Other" class on WEDNESDAY, FEB 12th! This class was SO much fun last year! Non-traditional music with a simple barre and floor work that anyone can do. If you have a friend who has always wanted to try ballet but was nervous, bring them to this one!   Special notes Starting tomorrow, February 2, (Groundhog Day AND Super Bowl Sunday!) I will be teaching a NEW CLASS on Sundays: Advanced Beginner Ballet (which is the same level as my Tuesday/Thursday classes) at Inspire Dance Studio. 11AM-12:30PM. ALSO: please contact me if you would like to see a 30 minute pointe class following. I will need to have a fairly consistent group in order to put it on the schedule.   Featured technique tip! Get your back engaged for better turns, stronger jumps and more! A Powerful Back More fun links: Many of you have already seen this article in Slate magazine but if you haven't, it's worth a read with your morning coffee. A woman writes about how much starting ballet at age 62 has affected her life. If you know anything about me and my personal philosophy about dance, you know how much I believe in ballet for our mental and physical health and our connection to others as we age.   LPBC News Did you feel all g-r-o-o-v-y when you saw that photo at the top of the newsletter? That's LPBC company members April McLeod, Omaira Galarza and Annett Bone in a piece I choreographed that they will be performing at NACHMO on Sunday, February 9 at the Broadwater Main Stage in Hollywood. Show tickets are just $12 in advance here. Annett will be performing in a second piece on Sunday and Jackie Nii, another returning company member, will perform in the Saturday show. Come see them and all the wonderful local dancers. Halloween in February? That's right! HauntX is a DIY Haunters convention at the Pomona Fairplex on February 22-23. Our company will have a booth to promote our shows in October and our fundraiser on April 18th. BONUS! Our zombies will be doing some flash mob performances throughout the weekend. Below...Introducing our 2020 Company Members! This year we have 47 talented dancers in the company and I could not be more thrilled to be working with them all. We've got shows, a fundraiser, and lots of cool community outreach planned for the season. (This photo is missing a few members: Rae Aaselund, Marla Bleavins, Patricia Ho, Stephanie Kuga, Linda Le Verne, Corey McCullough, Jackie Nii, Elizabeth Risha)