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Plie for Advanced Students

I like to think of plie as the “A” in the “ballet “ABC”. In the regular alphabet, vowels, like “a” are interlaced with all the consonants to create a language. Plie also connects the “consonants” in the ballet vocabulary and thus is arguably its most important component.

Commonly translated as “to bend” it is a lot more than that. It also means to relax and exhale in the constant flow of movements. Plie also stands for the linear movement down and up, the gathering of force, the alignment of the inner, outer and middle joints in your upper body and legs. It encompasses all movements in the “soft and round” character as well as serving as preparation for everything else.

There is a difference between bending your knees and doing a plie or grand plie, and to actually use it. As simple as it sounds, plie is a fairly abstract concept that needs to be taken very seriously. It is an injury prevention tool and can be “life insurance” for complicated material, but only if you can capture its essence, use it and let it do what it needs to do. Plie, as a matter of fact, is a two way street: it can only do as much for you as you can do for it.

Turn Out

We cannot talk about plie without talking about turn out first. Turnout is not a facility, talent or position but an activity, which will ultimately determine the alignment of your joints in demi or grand plie. Turnout is primarily achieved through the flexing of your gluts or in plain english, squeezing your butt. Unless you do, you are not turning out. While flexibility does play into it, it is of no importance to the basic functioning of ballet technique as long as your joints are aligned appropriately to your degree of turn out.

Here are two ways to identify your natural turnout:

a) Stand in parallel position (6th)

Flex both feet at the same time, lifting your toes off the floor, keeping your knees straight (you can use the barre or not)

Rotate your legs outward by flexing your gluts

Lower your toes to the floor

Say hello to your “natural” 1st position! Not quite satisfied? Continue with the next exercise:

b) Stand in your “natural” 1st

Lift both heels “over your toes” (releve)

Rotate both heels backward, turning your legs in

Flex your gluts and let your heels rotate forward as much as they will go

Lower your heels, keeping your gluts fully engaged

Whatever 1st position you find yourself in, is the 1st position and degree of turn out, you should be working with. Obviously, the stronger your muscles get, your turnout will improve within the limitations of your anatomy. Together with your constant and accurate tendues, your legs will shape themselves to where you like them to be. This is the only injury free and reliable process to train and it is never too late to correct your technique, even if you are used to a different way of working. Especially in advanced levels, your training becomes more and more your own business and therefore also your own responsibility.

It will be entirely your choice to either work accurately with respect to your own anatomical composition or to force, fake, cheat, and feed the bad habits you may have or not. We are humans, bound to the laws of physics and we usually pay a hefty fine when we try to break them, mostly to professionals in the medical field.

Alignment of Inner, Outer and Middle Joints

What are inner, outer and middle joints?

Inner joints are joints that never or rarely move, namely shoulders and hips/pelves. I don’t think that the pelves is considered a joint, but sometimes, pelves makes more sense than hips, so I am putting them together for the sake of clarity in this article.

Outer joints are joints that initiate movements to the front, side or back, up or down, namely toes/ankles/heels and fingers/wrists. Again I am including heels and fingers for the same reason as I included the pelves.

Middle joints are joints that follow the movement initiated by the outer joints, namely knees, elbows.

Here is your accurate alignment:

Before you start to plie, any position in your feet will do:

Shoulders over hips/pelves

Hips/pelves over knees

Knees over heels/ankles

On your way down and up:

Shoulders over hips/pelves

Hips/pelves over heels

Knees over toes/ankles

Your arms:

In second position:

Ideally, your little fingers should be on the level of your hips and your elbows slightly in front of your hips/shoulders. This alignment should also be reflected in the arm on the barre.

In first position:

Nothing changes with exception of your fingers/wrists close below the elbow and almost meet right and left of your belly button. I can’t stress enough the importance of this alignment as it will either promote or hinder every single step in the vocabulary.

In third position:

At this stage, the shape of your arm(s) should stay exactly the same as it (they) proceed(s) upward. If you can see your fingertips without looking at them, they are in the right place.

Obviously this is very academic and later these positions will change somewhat according to style and visual appeal. However, the basis for a correct port de bras is the fact that your arms maintain the same shape, no matter where they are placed: de cote (to the side), anavant (in front of you), or en haute (above).

In some schools the arm positions are called fifth regardless of where they are. This illustrates that the shape of your arms never changes, like the steering wheel in a car. Which is exactly what they are. Eventually your first position will be shorter than your third to facilitate turning, but don’t loose sight of the fact that your arms never change shape. Even an allonge still maintains the same properties, with the addition of a rotated wrist.

Rule of thumb:

Shoulders down

Elbows up

Little fingers up (inward for round positions, outward for long positions)

Demi Plie in 1st, 4th and 5th Positions

On your way down:

Flex your gluts and hold on to your turn out as you bend your knees

Open your knees from your gluts, but keep your feet, ankles and chins relaxed, in other words, the tension stops below your knees.

Only if you relax can you find and feel the moment of your demi plie, where the length of your tendons will determine when to disengage your heels from the floor. It is exactly this “spring back” point that is so crucial together with the interplay between relaxation and tension in your legs for the correct dynamic and mechanical process, once demi plie is used as a preparation for other things.

On your way up:

Once you reach your “spring back” point, your heels need to push into the floor, regardless if they have moved or not, to initiate the assent to your starting position. Now your once relaxed lower legs take over and create a push upward.

You may notice a shift of activity in your gluts on your way up. While on your way down the upper part of your gluts were more active, now it is the lower part of your gluts that will respond more actively.

Demi Plie in 2nd Position

In 2nd position, there is no “spring back”, but it opens another chapter of demi plie all together:

How far do you go down before your demi plie becomes a grand plie?

In all other positions, grand plie begins when you disengage your heels from the floor, however in 2nd position they don’t. This is interesting because we are actually dealing with three levels of demi plie, depending on speed and function, similar to petit allegro (fast) medium allegro (moderate), and grand allegro (slow and high).

Demi plie by virtue of logic is half of your maximum ability to bend your knees (grand plie). It is the halfway point between straight legs and grand plie. This “maximum” demi plie is achieved by bending your knees as far as you can without compromising the alignment of your joints. This maximum demi plie also can be divided into the three stages of small, medium and large.

There is a difference between pirouettes and grand pirouettes, which will affect the size of your plie when you prepare for these turns/rotations or when you return to it (land) in executive turns/rotations like pique, fouette, a la second turns or pirouettes from 5th. It is important to understand that:

Plie = Force

Like driving a car, the more you accelerate, the faster you go. The deeper your plie, the larger the force you apply to the movement. The deeper the plie, the slower the movement and the bigger the position. Using your plie proportionate to the movement is absolutely necessary. Otherwise it would be like flooring the accelerator even though you are about 500 feet away from a red light or a stop sign. Or it would be like just letting the car roll without acceleration even though you are about to enter a freeway.

A good illustration for the different sizes of demi plie is comparing fondue and ballonne, because mechanically they are identical, but fondue requires a large or maximum demi plie on the standing leg while ballonne generally is short and sharp, requiring a small demi plie on the standing leg.

The actual size of these different demi plies depends on the individual anatomy of a dancer/student, not everybody has a gigantic demi plie in 1st, 4th, or 5th. Being aware of the different sizes within anatomical limitations, and being able to adjust the depth of a demi plie according to the speed and character of the movement together with the rhythm of the music is essential. Especially when things are very fast.

Exercise:

Pick a 1st, 4th, or 5th Position and any music you like in a 2/4 or 4/4 time signature that is moderate to slow in tempo.

1-and/2-and/3-and/4-and/

Bend your knees

5-and/6-and/7-and/8-and

Stretch your knees

1-and/2-and/

Bend your knees

3-and/4-and/

Stretch your knees

5-and/

Bend your knees

6-and/

Stretch your knees

7-and/

Bend and stretch your knees

8-and

Bend and stretch your knees

In this exercise we find four different speeds and therefore four different sizes of your demi plie for the sake of realizing what it means to adjust the depth according to the speed of the movement. This can help you to identify your own range, both slow, medium and fast.

Take off and Landing

In my teaching and coaching I have found that technique becomes less challenging and flows more organically when I ask my students/dancers to focus on the starting demi plie (preparation) and and the ending demi plie (landing) instead of putting all their attention toward the step that is placed in between.

One can argue that if the preparation is correct in all aspects and the landing is correct in all aspects, very little can go wrong between these two. Especially with intricate and complicated material, the calculated, intelligent and appropriate use of demi plies will determine success or failure.

How things work and how things look can be deceivingly different in ballet technique and while there are many styles, tastes and visual preferences, the basic functioning and mechanical process remains the same as long as you are human and walk upright on two legs on planet earth.

Fouette turns, or a la second turns, at least if you attempt more than four, will only work if:

Your plie is always the same size and speed

Your joint alignment is accurate in relation to the movement

Your plie always happens in the same place (even if the place itself is not what it should be.) Don’t tell anyone that I told you.

Because, once you get going, your starting plie and landing plie are one and the same, if they are not consistent and only deep enough to give you the force necessary instead of the force possible, you won’t be able to control the movement and the movement will take control of you.

It rarely ends well when that happens.

When it comes to jumping, there are some things that I learned from teachers in (formerly) East Germany, who were highly scientific and analytical, and from colleges in France that were trained at the Paris Opera Ballet in the late 1980s and early 90s. Some of it may seem unconventional, unorthodox or even controversial, but I will mention it anyway because it has worked for me, my students and dancers alike.

Hardly anybody trains as it was common in the late 19th/early 20th centuries and demands on dancers by choreographers have evolved tremendously over time. I encourage you to be adventurous and try it, but it is your choice to adopt or ignore it.

Take off (German version):

bend your knees
point your toes
stretch your knees

Landing (French version):

toes make contact with the floor
knees bend
heels reach the floor

You may find that the sequence is different anytime we reach 2). Here is why:

Take off:

In delaying the stretching of your knees, your toes (that can move faster than any other part of your leg) will initiate the movement, following the “spring back”. By stretching your knees after your toes, your jump will gain in hight and you won’t ever have to worry about your feet being stretched or not in the air.

Landing:

By delaying your heels to make contact with the floor, you allow for a softer landing, allow for correct joint alignment and absolute control over your feet. It also increases the “spring back” for the next jump. You may know this process of “rolling through”.

If all of this is gibberish to you, try the following:

In any position of your choice, push your toes into the floor without plie and see how far you can “bounce” up and down. I call it the “energizer bunny” exercise. It feels weird but once you get the hang of it, it teaches you a lot about how powerful toes can be just by themselves.
In any position of your choice, releve, then plie on releve. Repeat the same process without changing that position, again “bouncing”. This not only may feel weird, it also looks weird, but remember, it’s just an exercise.
In any position of your choice, plie, stay in plie and bounce, this time always rolling through your feet when you land (delaying your heels). You should become aware of a strong “spring back” with this exercise.
Now, put it all together, just as I described earlier: delay your knees at take off and your heels at landing.

I am just returning to this article after teaching a class to some younger students here in town. It was a typical Monday: the kids were tired from school and it wasn’t easy to motivate them. Anyway, I did, and in the center, when it came to jumps, I decided to put them through the same steps, I just described above.

I did that, because these kids couldn't get off the ground to save their lives! Of course there where lots of giggles and some confusion even, but, believe it or not, by step 4) of the 13 girls there were 13 lightbulbs going off and a lot of “uh” and “ah” and “wow”. And the hight of their jumps increased dramatically with much less effort.

I was reaffirmed that this exercise works to convey an understanding of the mechanics for plie in relationship to all other technical and physical principles even to relatively young and tired ballet students in a fun and effective manner. Will they jump as well in their next class without me? Probably not. The body forgets fast, but they will remember the feeling of jumping effortlessly and recover their ability to do so with just a few reminders.

Grand Plie

We can’t leave this topic without a few words about grand plie. With some exceptions, grand plie is not much repeated, once barre is over. At times you’ll get one in an adagio, or if you are a guy and deal with Russian folk dance material you will find it a lot in “deep steps”.

If you are a girl and find yourself struggling with grand plie in pointe shoes in the center, it is an indicator that your understanding of plie in general is incomplete. I mentioned earlier the interplay between relaxation and tension of your muscles and by extension tendons in your legs during demi plie:

Open your knees from your gluts, but keep your feet, ankles and chins relaxed, in other words, the tension stops below your knees. Only if you relax can you find and feel the moment of your demi plie, where the length of your tendons will determine at which point to disengage your heels from the floor.

When you transition from your demi plie to your grand plie in 1st, 4th, or 5th, the lifting of your heels MUST be a result of the decreasing length in your achilles tendons as you increase the depth of your plie. It should NEVER be something you do, but always a reaction. If you lift your heels like in a releve, you will:

never find your true “spring back”
never learn how to relax your muscles on the way down
always hate grand plie in the center, especially wearing pointe shoes!

Try to visualize your heels being attached to your achilles tendons like rubber bands. If you pull the rubber bands upward, eventually your heels will have no other option but to disengage and follow the pull. That is what needs to happen in grand plies on your way down. You can only feel it if your feet, ankles, chins, and anything attached to them are relaxed instead of tense. Learning to relax is much more difficult than learning to apply force.

To avoid “wobbling” in your ankle when you are on one leg in the center on flat, in adagios, promenades or anything else that you can think of, you must learn to relax the top of your foot, right where your arch transitions to your ankle. The only vocabulary that can teach you the awareness of relaxing that particular and frequently neglected part of your foot is either demi or grand plie in 1st, 4th, or 5th.

A grand plie in 5th in the center with pointe shoes is your benchmark: If it works and even feels good, you are passing the test.

Once you reach the bottom of your grand plie, the motion reverses. Now, what was relaxed on the way down applies force initiated only by your heels at first. Not your knees or hips! In fact, your knees and hips should resist the motion as I described in an other article that talks about Equal Energy and Opposition. Your heels now pull the “rubber band” downward, which results in the motion upward.

Plie equals not only force, but also

Plie = Relax and Exhale

Ballet technique is highly symmetrical and functions within the constricts of a very rigid symmetrical system. The only approach to efficient training is to discipline yourself and your body to stay within this rigid framework without deviation. This is what makes ballet training challenging, but also very exiting. If you can find your place in this grid, the world of ballet technique will be yours.

Plie is the key to the door.

Plie for Advanced Students

Tendu for Advanced Students

By Alex Ossadnik

How to read this article:

This is not meant to be easy or entertaining reading. Because the subject is complex, intricate and multi-layered, this article is technical and tries to cover all the basics and all the details. If you have never thought of tendu as anything other than stretching your foot or pointing your toes, you’ll be in for a surprise.

Read it slowly and don’t hesitate to get up and try things out as you are forging ahead. This article includes some exercises that don’t require a ballet studio or even ballet shoes, you can do them wherever you are, from your bedroom to the check out line in a grocery store.

I am attempting to be precise and to the point in an understandable fashion, but you may have to stop, think and digest, and if so, please do. More of a study than a read, this is not about “read it and got it” but more about “read it and need to read it again”. You will never stop to practice tendu and you will never stop to need reminders about how it really works.

If you ever count the number of tendues and related movements that are part of your diet on a daily basis, you soon come to the conclusion that it is absolutely essential to execute them not just well, but nearly perfectly. “Faking” them or letting yourself get away with sloppiness just because it isn’t your day, will poison the well and impact all of your dancing.

Tendu is commonly translated as the stretching of the foot, however, that is not even scratching the surface. In the French language “je suis tendu” means “I am tense”, suggesting friction and nervous energy. While literate translations rarely make sense in technical terms, they do shed some light on their origins.

Of the three basic components in ballet technique, Plie (down and up), Releve (up and down), and Tendu (out and in), Tendu is arguably the most intricate as it not just addresses the shape of the foot, but also transitions between positions, toe/heel alignment and the “basic principle” of all movements “in and out” through brushing into the floor.

Brushing:

Tendu is the opening and closing of the working leg from and to a closed position (1st or 5th) to an open position (front, side or back) by applying downward energy. This means that the opening of the leg is not an action but the result of an action. The action is to push down with your working foot and pointing it into the floor, the result is the opening of your foot and consequently your leg. Just sticking your foot out to a given direction is not a tendu.

Most floors don't have the habit of giving away, so eventually the pushing down will result in the foot sliding to the desired position. This is important, because it is exactly this friction, this downward energy, which makes tendu and all related movements work in the long run.

Unless you push down in order to open your foot, you are not brushing and if you are not brushing your tendu, your tendu can do nothing for you. Remember that ballet training is an interactive process between the vocabulary teaching your body and you absorbing and applying what the vocabulary teaches.

Brushing literally means to push the floor away and is one of the most important principles in ballet technique. I remember the hard wood floors in the studios of my school: There were actual grooves, left by generations of students before me, brushing their feet into the wood and making these dents. Just try to imagine the amount of force it takes to actually dig into a wood floor with your feet!

To truly understand the “Basic Principle of Brushing” to open or close your working leg in a tendu from a closed to an open position, try this experiment:

Place a small towel or wash cloth under your working leg foot. When you open your foot to either front, side or back, make sure to move the fabric with your toes out and in without losing it in the process or bending your knees.

Pushing down as an initiation of the movement will leave your foot no other option than to either slide open or to lift up. Ballet vocabulary can be classified into different families with their own underlying principles. Tendu is the foundation of everything that brushes out and in from one position to another. Coupe, for example, is the foundation for everything that lifts from one position to another, applying the same downward energy.

Tendu means to transform downward energy into an outward movement. While it looks like you are moving your foot in and out, it actually doesn’t work that way. Ballet technique is deceiving, most steps look different than they work and if you try to only duplicate what they look like, you will miss ninety percent of what they are.

Toe/Heel Alignment:

Shaping the foot correctly is a basic component of ballet training and also a basic function of tendu. Remember that the three essential components of ballet technique (plie, releve, tendu) are also your tools to train correctly. They are the “ABC” of the ballet alphabet and unless you know how to spell, you won’t be able to write.

When you brush your tendu, the correct alignment of your toes in relationship to your heel, and vice versa, will result in the correct shape of your foot and also train stability in your ankle for sustained balances in releve and, of course, on pointe.

Exercise:

From 1st position, brush your foot to 4th position, leading with your heel without lifting it from the floor.

Once in 4th position, the relationship between heel and toes should still be exactly the same as in 1st position.

Lift your heel to half pointe without letting your toes slide forward, instead focus on lifting your heel “over your toes”.

This will feel like you are “winging” your foot, which is pretty much what it is.

Stretch your toes fully, but keep them “under your heel” as much as possible.

Sometimes I tell my students to “curve their little toe toward the outside of their ankle”. What this does is training a muscle in the ankle that ultimately will dictate stability and correct alignment for pretty much everything to do with pointed toes and balances.

Reverse the process by lowering your toes to half pointe, maintaining the alignment with your heel.Lower your heel to flat and back to 4th position.

To maintain your toe/heel alignment, your toes need to strive backward, keeping them “under” your heel.

Close to 1st position by brushing your whole foot backward, leading with your toes.
Repeat to the side and to the back while constantly keeping your heels “over your toes” and your toes “under your heels”.

This exercise is nothing fancy, just a slow motion tendu, but here are the most important details in relation to toe/heel alignment:

When you open your foot to the front, your heel leads the movement while your toes resist the movement.

When you close your foot from the front, your toes lead the movement while your heels resist the movement.

When you open your foot to the back, your toes lead the movement while your heels resist the movement.

When you close your foot from the back, your heel leads the movement while your toes resist the movement.

When you open your foot to the side, your toes lead the movement striving backward (toward the outside of your ankle) while your heels resist the movement, striving forward.

When you close your foot, the same applies, toes lead, striving backward while your heel resists, striving forward.

If you follow this alignment, your heel will always face front, regardless of the direction of your foot and consequently your entire leg will follow. This is all about mechanics and predictable linear and symmetrical movement. About how to guide and use energy instead of energy guiding and using you with very unpredictable outcomes. If you can align the most outer parts of your body, your feet, in a predictable, consistent and unfailing way, you will take control of your technique.

With your feet, you will create a compass or GPS through the entire vocabulary by establishing your own front, side and back, how to get there and how to transition from one to the other in any movements that requires brushing or transition with a straight leg through multiple positions.. A fouette from efface front to first arabesque only functions if your foot can guide your leg predictably through the entire movement, as it is nothing else than a releve lent front, side and back without closing to 1st or 5th each time you reach one of these positions. A rond de jambe par terre en dehor’s is nothing else than a tendu that lasts through these three directions without closing. Just these two steps are a basis for a large part of the vocabulary and unless you trained your tendu and toe/heel alignment correctly, they will always be a hinderance to anything that follows.

Transitions Between Positions:

It may seem like nitpicking, but when it comes to tendu, you can’t be thorough enough! If you respect the following transitional positions for every direction of your tendues, you will at the same time solve some general weight distribution and placement issues, like “sitting” on your standing leg. If you are one of the many students who have trouble keeping their legs fully stretched in a tendu, this will be of value to you.

Remember that your weight will always be between your legs instead of on one or the other, because your axis is in the center of your body and not to the right or left of your center. These transitionary positions will serve as a reminder of correct placement, besides forcing you to brush and align your toes with your heel correctly:

Any tendu from 1st or 5th position to the front or back must pass through a 4th position before reaching its destination.

Any tendu from 1st position to the side must pass through a 2nd position before reaching its destination.

Any tendu from 5th position to the side must pass through a 1st position and a 2nd position before reaching its destination.

Don’t ever compromise or “fake” the execution of your tendues if you want to receive the full benefit of your training, no matter what the speed. The faster you brush and stretch your toes, the stronger the outward energy, eventually forcing your leg to lift when you open it. I see it all the time in my classes: students will lift their toes accidentally in certain tendu combinations, simply because the energy they apply gives their toes the impetus to do so.

Of course, tendu doesn’t lift off the ground, but once the energy is discovered by a student and the result of correct brushing and alignment, it is a fairly easy battle to use only as much as necessary.

Tendue is the basis for a very large part of the ballet vocabulary because there are only two ways to disengage your toes from the floor, either by brushing or by lifting. A tendu with both legs at the same time would result in an echappe in the pointe vocabulary, a dégagé with both legs at the same time results in the jump jete, a grand battement with both legs at the same time a sissonne. This only illustrates the importance of a very caring treatment of your tendues.

Where I trained, ballet technique and the training of students was a fairly scientific matter. Tendu was actually called Battement Tendu with a logical following of related basic material. Here is a progression of battement tendu, so you understand just how connected things are. Please note that depended on the syllabus, dégagé is referred to as jete and visa versa.

Battement Tendu - the leg is par terre
Battement Tendu Jete - the leg is below 45 degrees
Grand Battement Tendu Jete - the leg is above 90 degrees

Jete, in French, means to throw and describes the character and speed of the movement. I will often ask young students to throw an object across the room when we talk about jete (degage). Most of the time I will just look for anything that can't create damage to the room or the people in it and most of the time, the student will be very cautious and careful. Then, after making a disappointed face, I ask another student to do the same who will, obviously, throw it as hard as possible. Then I ask that same student to do the same with their toes in a jete (degage) and will almost every time get a nearly perfect jete (degage).

Anecdotally, dégagé in French means to move from one place to another. Lame Duck also has the name tour dégagé because it moves, chasse, if not a jump, can also be referred to as dégagé for the same reason. If you tell someone: “Degage!”, it is a not so nice way to say: “Get out of my way!” As I said earlier, literate translations don't make sense most of the time, but it is never a bad thing to know what things mean because there was in some point a reason to associate a step with a name.

Understanding the character and speed of a movement is essential to grasp its underlying physical and mechanical principle. Ballet vocabulary can be divided into movements that are soft and round and into movements that are sharp and linear. Most soft and round movements are based on lifting the leg trough coupe and passe, most sharp and linear movements are based on lifting a straight leg through brushing into the floor.

Think of all the steps you know that have tendu, jete (degage) or grand battement related or involved and it becomes clear how far reaching tendu is and how absolutely essential it is to comprehend it fully and execute it accurately every single time.

Here is a quintessential tendu combination for you to practice:

It starts similar to the previous exercise, starting from 1st position, arms in second, on the barre or in the center.

1 - and - / 2 - and - / 3 - and - / 4 - and - /

brush to 4th front / lift your heel to half pointe / point your toes / lower your toes to half pointe /

5 - and - / 6 - and - / 7 - and - / 8 - and - /

lower your heel to 4th / brush to 1st / brush to 4th / brush to 1st /

1 - and - / 2 - and - / 3 - and - /

brush to 4th front - lift your heel to half pointe / point your toes / lower your toes to half pointe /

4 - and - / 5 - and - / 6 - and - / 7 - and - /

lower your heel to 4th - brush to 1st / brush tendu front / brush to 1st / tendu front - close 1st /

8 - and - /

tendu front - close 1st /

Repeat en croix (front-side-back-side), as often as you like. Most importantly, make sure to focus on everything outlined above in respect to heel/toe alignment, transitionary positions and the brushing downward to open your tendu. Cross every “t” and dot every “i”, it’s incredibly important. Continue this exercise every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. During ballet class, keep working the same way, anytime you brush your foot anywhere. If you keep at it, I guarantee that you will conquer tendu in all of it’s intricacies. Your relationship to the floor and the energy you receive from it will immeasurably increase with literally every step.

Rotate your legs outward by flexing your gluts

Lower your toes to the floor

Say hello to your “natural” 1st position! Not quite satisfied? Continue with the next exercise:

b) Stand in your “natural” 1st

Lift both heels “over your toes” (releve)

Rotate both heels backward, turning your legs in

Flex your gluts and let your heels rotate forward as much as they will go

Lower your heels, keeping your gluts fully engaged

Alignment of Inner, Outer and Middle Joints

What are inner, outer and middle joints?

Middle joints are joints that follow the movement initiated by the outer joints, namely knees, elbows.

Here is your accurate alignment:

Before you start to plie, any position in your feet will do:

Shoulders over hips/pelves

Hips/pelves over knees

Knees over heels/ankles

On your way down and up:

Shoulders over hips/pelves

Hips/pelves over heels

Knees over toes/ankles

Your arms:

In second position:

Ideally, your little fingers should be on the level of your hips and your elbows slightly in front of your hips/shoulders. This alignment should also be reflected in the arm on the barre.

In first position:

In third position:

At this stage, the shape of your arm(s) should stay exactly the same as it (they) proceed(s) upward. If you can see your fingertips without looking at them, they are in the right place.

Rule of thumb:

Shoulders down

Elbows up

Little fingers up (inward for round positions, outward for long positions)

Demi Plie in 1st, 4th and 5th Positions

On your way down:

Flex your gluts and hold on to your turn out as you bend your knees

Open your knees from your gluts, but keep your feet, ankles and chins relaxed, in other words, the tension stops below your knees.

On your way up:

Demi Plie in 2nd Position

In 2nd position, there is no “spring back”, but it opens another chapter of demi plie all together:

How far do you go down before your demi plie becomes a grand plie?

Plie = Force

Exercise:

Pick a 1st, 4th, or 5th Position and any music you like in a 2/4 or 4/4 time signature that is moderate to slow in tempo.

1-and/2-and/3-and/4-and/

Bend your knees

5-and/6-and/7-and/8-and

Stretch your knees

1-and/2-and/

Bend your knees

3-and/4-and/

Stretch your knees

5-and/

Bend your knees

6-and/

Stretch your knees

7-and/

Bend and stretch your knees

8-and

Bend and stretch your knees

Take off and Landing

Fouette turns, or a la second turns, at least if you attempt more than four, will only work if:

Your plie is always the same size and speed

Your joint alignment is accurate in relation to the movement

Your plie always happens in the same place (even if the place itself is not what it should be.) Don’t tell anyone that I told you.

It rarely ends well when that happens.

Take off (German version):

bend your knees
point your toes
stretch your knees

Landing (French version):

toes make contact with the floor
knees bend
heels reach the floor

You may find that the sequence is different anytime we reach 2). Here is why:

Take off:

Landing:

If all of this is gibberish to you, try the following:

In any position of your choice, push your toes into the floor without plie and see how far you can “bounce” up and down. I call it the “energizer bunny” exercise. It feels weird but once you get the hang of it, it teaches you a lot about how powerful toes can be just by themselves.
In any position of your choice, releve, then plie on releve. Repeat the same process without changing that position, again “bouncing”. This not only may feel weird, it also looks weird, but remember, it’s just an exercise.
In any position of your choice, plie, stay in plie and bounce, this time always rolling through your feet when you land (delaying your heels). You should become aware of a strong “spring back” with this exercise.
Now, put it all together, just as I described earlier: delay your knees at take off and your heels at landing.

Grand Plie

never find your true “spring back”
never learn how to relax your muscles on the way down
always hate grand plie in the center, especially wearing pointe shoes!

A grand plie in 5th in the center with pointe shoes is your benchmark: If it works and even feels good, you are passing the test.

Plie equals not only force, but also

Plie = Relax and Exhale

Plie is the key to the door.

Tendu for Advanced Students

How to read this article:

Brushing:

To truly understand the “Basic Principle of Brushing” to open or close your working leg in a tendu from a closed to an open position, try this experiment:

Toe/Heel Alignment:

Exercise:

From 1st position, brush your foot to 4th position, leading with your heel without lifting it from the floor.

Once in 4th position, the relationship between heel and toes should still be exactly the same as in 1st position.

Lift your heel to half pointe without letting your toes slide forward, instead focus on lifting your heel “over your toes”.

This will feel like you are “winging” your foot, which is pretty much what it is.

Stretch your toes fully, but keep them “under your heel” as much as possible.

Reverse the process by lowering your toes to half pointe, maintaining the alignment with your heel.Lower your heel to flat and back to 4th position.

To maintain your toe/heel alignment, your toes need to strive backward, keeping them “under” your heel.

Close to 1st position by brushing your whole foot backward, leading with your toes.
Repeat to the side and to the back while constantly keeping your heels “over your toes” and your toes “under your heels”.

This exercise is nothing fancy, just a slow motion tendu, but here are the most important details in relation to toe/heel alignment:

When you open your foot to the front, your heel leads the movement while your toes resist the movement.

When you close your foot from the front, your toes lead the movement while your heels resist the movement.

When you open your foot to the back, your toes lead the movement while your heels resist the movement.

When you close your foot from the back, your heel leads the movement while your toes resist the movement.

When you open your foot to the side, your toes lead the movement striving backward (toward the outside of your ankle) while your heels resist the movement, striving forward.

When you close your foot, the same applies, toes lead, striving backward while your heel resists, striving forward.

Transitions Between Positions:

Any tendu from 1st or 5th position to the front or back must pass through a 4th position before reaching its destination.

Any tendu from 1st position to the side must pass through a 2nd position before reaching its destination.

Any tendu from 5th position to the side must pass through a 1st position and a 2nd position before reaching its destination.

Battement Tendu - the leg is par terre
Battement Tendu Jete - the leg is below 45 degrees
Grand Battement Tendu Jete - the leg is above 90 degrees

Here is a quintessential tendu combination for you to practice:

It starts similar to the previous exercise, starting from 1st position, arms in second, on the barre or in the center.

1 - and - / 2 - and - / 3 - and - / 4 - and - /

brush to 4th front / lift your heel to half pointe / point your toes / lower your toes to half pointe /

5 - and - / 6 - and - / 7 - and - / 8 - and - /

lower your heel to 4th / brush to 1st / brush to 4th / brush to 1st /

1 - and - / 2 - and - / 3 - and - /

brush to 4th front - lift your heel to half pointe / point your toes / lower your toes to half pointe /

4 - and - / 5 - and - / 6 - and - / 7 - and - /

lower your heel to 4th - brush to 1st / brush tendu front / brush to 1st / tendu front - close 1st /

8 - and - /

tendu front - close 1st /

Trusting Your Teacher And The Process Of Training

Corrections you hear the most and like the least are the most important corrections for you. The reason is simple: How you feel doing things is a world apart from how things work and look in reality. That is why many dancers have a difficult time watching video footage of themselves. The only person that can give you realistic feedback, advice and corrections is the professional working with you. This may be a hard pill to swallow, but there is no way around it. Where is the fun in that?

Taking a ballet class means to have fun at failing! It means to have fun at falling down and getting up again. It means to have fun meeting a challenge and inching your way up the evolutionary ladder of progress one baby step at the time. Ballet training is a long process that only ends when you decide to stop dancing. There is no difference between a ten year old student working on a tendu and a seasoned principal dancer working on theirs. The fact of the matter is, every day is different, every day is like starting from scratch, every day the challenge is the same. Any good meal starts with growing or raising the ingredients, not with already eating it.

Ballet is an incredibly complex body of movement vocabulary that can only be mastered with discipline and unfailing consistency. There are no shortcuts, you cant just google pirouettes, everything you do can only be a result of your own work. That is what makes ballet such a great thing! I cant think of many other disciplines that are such great character builders and life coaches than ballet. Despite all the technological advances that steal already a large part of the purpose from our lives, ballet training is still only acquired like it has been since the seventeen hundreds.

With very few exceptions, teachers spend their lives coming up with ways to make this complex and complicated art form accessible to their students. In most cases, its not a job but a vocation. While ballet technique is fairly scientific, the teaching of ballet technique is often very personal and personality driven. Trusting your teacher is the basis for learning. If you don't trust your teacher, you might as well not take the class. If you don't trust your doctor, why bother? But its more complicated than that: Even trust takes work sometimes and it begins by trusting yourself, by having realistic expectations and before anything, being able to enjoy every moment just by itself and for it self.

Any ballet class is teamwork, you have to put in at least the same amount of energy, focus and attention as the teacher does. But before anything, patience is key. Nothing happens overnight, nothing is instantaneous, because muscles that are usually not used have to be build over time. When a body grows and proportions change, so does its relationship with the ballet vocabulary. Arms, legs and torso feel and function differently and have to relearn everything they knew before.

It is like building a house: first a foundation has to be excavated and then poured. It needs to dry after that, before you can think of putting the walls up, then there are windows, doors and the roof. Only after all that can you think about furniture and decorations. Furniture and decorations in ballet terms are all the fun things that will eventually be the result of everything that came before. The only person that can guide you through this process is the professional in front of the class and your willingness and tenacity to follow through without compromise. Otherwise it would be like having somebody build you a house who has no idea what they are doing.

Many combinations on the barre and in the center are like medicine. You have to respect the dosage and follow the instructions, and yes, sometimes it doesn't taste too good.

The only time a teacher should not be trusted is when he or she promises overnight success, stardom, fame and fortune. Like with many things in life, when it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

Taking Class From Different Teachers

“A prophet is nothing in their own country” is something they say in Germany. It means that a prophet who teaches his own pupils will be listened to the least. The prophet’s pupils will pay polite and respectful attention, but most of what is said will go in one ear and out the other. I like to call it “habitual hearing”, when somebody hears without listening, because it has been said so much already. However, when the prophet leaves to another country, their words become a sensation and the pupils will be stunned by their wisdom, even though they have heard it already a million times from their own prophets.

There are no right or wrong corrections, there is only a right or wrong way to hear them, process and apply them. There is no right or wrong teaching method, there is only a learning method that works for the individual student or dancer. Teachers have their work cut out for them, because they are the prophets in their own country. Very often, corrections are counterintuitive, make no sense and if they do, get lost in translation between the brain and the body. Feet don’t have ears.

Changing the environment and taking class somewhere else occasionally can be beneficial and enlightening for a few reasons:

Your attention level is higher because everybody likes to make a good first impression. The studio is different, the people around you are different and, obviously, your teacher is different. You have to find a spot on the barre instead of just routinely taking your own, and you might just get there early to warm up a little more. Your whole state of mind is to absorb and learn instead of doing what you are used to.

I took some classes from David Howard in Zurich, Switzerland, on my summer breaks as a young dancer in my first company, and things I had struggled with became suddenly crystal clear. Of course, he was a spectacular teacher who had a way to make combinations which literally allowed nothing else than success, but it wasn’t just that. It was also the fact that I had no idea what was coming next, every step seamed to be a surprise, almost an adventure, in a city hundreds of miles away in a different country, living in a rented tent in a campground because I couldn't afford a hotel. It was definitely not business as usual.

Taking a ballet class, in the ideal world, should always be an adventure. In and of itself, a ballet class is an adventure, but like with so many things, it’s all in your head. If things are there all the time without question, we loose the ability to recognize how truly unique, fulfilling and out of the ordinary they actually are.

Different teachers will say the same thing, make you do the same thing, correct the same weaknesses, but, because it is something else and different, these same things will also resonate differently and might just project you onto the next step on the ladder of progress.

Every student and dancer should take the opportunity to experience a different voice saying the same things. It is essential on the long journey of training. It is also essential to always remember who taught you until you were at a level to take a class somewhere else.

If a different teacher can help you understand and feel some things you have struggled with thus far, it is only because your regular teacher got you to a place where you are able to venture out, leave the nest and make that experience.

Another thing that can make a ballet class into an adventure is this:

No matter where you go, there is always somebody in the room who will be better than you or who you’d like to be. There is nothing shameful in that, in fact, admitting it to yourself and using it yo your advantage is probably the smartest step to take. No successful dancer ever became successful without learning from another successful dancer by assimilation.

Observing and trying to replicate how that person is doing things will not just make every class a special event, it will also accelerate your progress. Eyes are sometimes smarter and faster than the brain. Learning by assimilation is in my opinion the best way to understand corrections, because every correction always applies to everyone, even when it is not directed at you specifically.

Observing others allows you to see what the teacher actually meant. It is a translation of sorts, of something abstract into something comprehensible. The first time I really understood and made my peace with double saut de basque, was by watching ice skating on TV and having a lightbulb moment..

If you think it’s awkward to zoom in on somebody in the room, trust me, there is probably somebody else who is zooming in on you too. Which is another thing that puts the adventure back in class. You might be helping another student or dancer to discover something because of your work. Ballet class can only be as good as you make it for yourself and by extension for everybody else in the room.

Taking class from different teachers and with different people around you, with different better people to observe, and with different people watching you and possibly learning from you, is one of the best ways to progress. It is a reminder of what class is supposed to be, what it should be and what it is.

If you let it.

Taking class from different teachers in different places reminds you of everything that you may have forgotten or taken too much for granted at your own studio or school or company. The adventure is always there, just waiting for you to recognize it, to seize it, and make the best of it.

Striking the Balance of Strength and Grace for Men in Ballet

When I was a student, ballet training was strictly segregated between girls and boys. There were clear boundaries between male and female vocabulary, especially in the center: Male technique was mostly associated with movements that brush, releve lent instead of develope, grand jete instead of saut de chat. Men turned from 2nd position, women from 4th. Round arms for men, alonge lines for women, etc.

The difference between then, 1979 in communist East Germany, versus now, the end of 2016 in the US, couldn’t be bigger! Training has evolved to be mostly “unisex”, often men have to be just as “feminine” as women have to be “masculine”, depending on the tastes and needs of choreographers and artistic directors.

What might have survived from the “olden days” though are a few things that I like to point out. Ballet is still following largely a 19th century etiquette and in many instances we are Ladies and Gentlemen instead of gals and guys or chicks and dudes. To a certain extent, especially in the traditional repertory, there are still old fashioned rules of engagement and I for one am hopeful for these rules to survive forever:

Men are humble and modest

Men yield to women

Men are polite and under-stated

Men, even when featured, are always second fiddle to their partner

I am sure, one can come up with a view more, but I think, you get the essence of what I mean. Being polite, considerate and a “quiet source of trust and reliability” are values that extend far into the 21st century and, in an ideal world, also into your life.

Striking the balance between grace and strength, between masculinity and femininity is partially training related, but mostly personal choice and self discovery. Ballet class provides the valuable opportunity to see yourself and “face yourself” in the mirror, to discover your image and to shape it as you see fit. In the end, in a professional setting, you have to be able to accommodate your role, no matter if it is you or if you have to pretend to be somebody else. It’s always good to remember that the audience is more important than you.

Only few professions or hobbies are as character building as ballet in this respect. It’s a true opportunity to learn yourself, do battle with yourself and eventually to know who you truly are.

Because:

You are never good enough and there isn’t a trophy anytime you show up for class.

The only one rewarding you for a movement correctly done, is you, recognizing that a certain step or challenge is working.

There is always somebody better than you close by.

With every class, you start from scratch, every time you grow, it’s up the hill again until next time.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a professional or if you are in it for the fun of it, ballet training is a no nonsense and often frustrating process. No matter who your teacher is, the battle with yourself is only yours to fight. But doing something that is hard, challenging and often unrewarding, is the best life training you can get and it can put you ahead by years in comparison to others your age.

Tips for Boys Starting Partnering

Partnering can be very intimidating unless it is teamwork. While it is up to the teacher to set the tone, it is up to you to have the right attitude. Any kind of “macho pride”, inflated ego or over the top ambition to show off isn’t going to make a good first impression. As a matter of fact, it is almost a hundred percent guaranteed that you will make a total fool of yourself!

Feeling, moving and manipulating another human being is not a skill that is easily learned. It will take a bit of tolerance, patience and a few good laughs to become aquatinted with your partner, even if you know her or if you are friends. When you are a partner, it is up to you to make her life miserable or pleasant. And she will let you know!

One of the 19th century rules of engagement I did not mention earlier is that a partner’s job is to make the women look like a million dollars while literally disappearing behind her. To make her appear as if she floats and turns and flies all on her own and without assistance.

How to feel the center of your partner

If you have read other articles of mine, you will have read a lot about alignment. And guess what? It’s the same here! To be as close to “fail safe” as possible, your perfect relationship to your partner while standing behind her is as follows:

Your spine is aligned with her spine. In other words, if you are exactly behind her, and move exactly with her, you will always know where her center is and where it is going next. Your shoulders and hips should be aligned with her or at least as close to it as possible. Often, ideal hight is rare and once she goes on pointe, most likely the shoulder/hip alignment goes with her. If not, all the better!

You should never be further away from your partner than the length of your forearm. Your elbows should make contact with your waist or at least be very close to it when you partner her from behind. It sounds like a very restricted and uncomfortable setup, but it is the best way to learn how to partner correctly.

Generally, the perfect distance from a girl is always a perfect first, second or third arm position (if you are in front of her or on her side). Keeping your elbows close to your waist will prevent you from partnering with your whole arm (and ultimately your whole body when you loose control), instead of your wrists and fingers.

It is very similar to driving a bicycle, unless you can relax and stir only with your wrists and fingertips, your chances of running into a ditch or a fire hydrant are pretty good. Keeping your elbows close to your waist will also prevent them from sticking out on the sides, which is optically less attractive, makes her look like she has some extra appendixes and can actually be a hindrance to her movement.

Good, reliable and safe partnering will always happen between your thumbs and index fingers. Imagine to wear mittens, where your thumb is on one side and the rest of your fingers are on the other. This is very “old school” but also very good! I have no problem getting “the look”, even from professionals, when I tell them to keep their four fingers together at all times, because I know that once they try it, it solves a myriad of problems and eliminates some serious injury potential.

Basic Partnering Vocabulary, the Traps, Pitfalls and Misunderstandings

Dips

A dip is nothing more than leaning a girl to one side or another, regardless of her position.

Anytime you take charge of her body weight by taking her off her center, you MUST provide a counter weight. Even though it looks like it, you NEVER lean with her.

This is one of the most common misunderstandings in partnering technique! Leaning into a movement with your partner while having her entire body weight in your arms is a disaster waiting to happen and cause for muscle tares, lower back injuries and a myriad of other problems. Including, but not limited to falling over.

Basic sideways dip to your right, your partner en face in 5th position:

Wrap your arms around her waist, having her in a tight grip between your elbow, shoulder and chest.

The less you “squeeze her” against your upper body, the more you will strain your wrists and bicep. This is not the time to be careful or shy! If you loose your tight grip, she will slide or “roll” toward your wrists, making it almost impossible to sustain the movement and result in an awkward and very uncomfortable position.

Make sure to be in a stable 6th (parallel) position, your feet exactly in line with her feet.

Being stable on your feet is more important than anything else! Remember that your feet are now also her feet. If she is “on her legs” at this stage and you are stable, virtually nothing can go wrong.

Place your left foot on the left side of her 5th position.

I like to refer to that as the “door stop”, not a very glamorous term, but it says it. This will prevent her feet from sliding at the bottom of the dip, making a good return impossible.

Open your right foot to a parallel side lounge, maintaining your tight grip on her waist.

Make sure to step out in a straight line without changing the alignment of your feet. Clean partnering relies on a linear replacement of your feet (right vs left) in a measured, linear motion in relationship to her feet.

To provide a counter weight to your partner being in front of you, you must tilt your hips backward. In plain English: stick out your butt. This is absolutely essential to stabilize your lounge. You should AWAYS feel her weight with your legs instead of your arms for obvious reasons.

Return to your 6th position, by closing your right foot toward your left foot in a straight line.

This will assure that you come back to your starting position and that your partner will return to her starting position as well, putting her back on her legs without needing any adjustments. This should happen in one step and without straining your back, arms or wrists. The only large muscles engaged should be your gluts and thighs, almost like closing a grand echappe.

Change your grip to the basic position (elbows by your waist, thumbs and index fingers around her waist, palms down). If you can’t feel her weight, she is well placed and you can safely let go of your partner.

Your basic partnering position is always the same and, because it is not the most natural way to use your hands, should be practiced a lot. If you want, wrap your four fingers with a bandage and do chores around the house.

A Fish is nothing but a form of a dip and everything applies. You will safe yourself and your partner a tremendous amount of pain and headaches if you adopt this basic concept. Partnering is not related to strength, but to momentum, physical law, and the knowledge of how to use them.

Balances and Promenades

I started with a dip, because you are in the driver’s seat, and as long as you know when and how to shift gears, it is pretty safe and simple fare. Balances, however, are a whole different animal, because it is about what not to do instead of what to do.

If you have read my article about balance, opposition and equal energy, you’ll be a step ahead. If you haven’t, you should read it before going on. One has to understand that partnering is not some disconnected activity while she is doing something else, but you are complimenting, supporting and sometimes manipulating her movement.

This implies that you are as solid and familiar with your partner’s movement as she is (hopefully). Great partners teach each other and correct each other because both have a thorough understanding of the task ahead, it’s technical intricacies and and a perfectly coordinated sequence.

When she is in a balance, her weight is completely neutralized, you will not be able to feel her. This can be an almost surreal and “freaky” situation, often resulting in being “over active” for the illusion of being in control. Just the tiniest push can throw your partner off, like just the tiniest wiggle can throw you off your own balance. The secret to partnered balances is to be there but not to be there.

Partnering from behind on her waist:

Basic hand position, just enough air between your thumbs and index fingers to let her breathe, but ready at no moments’s notice to safe her with the slightest adjustment of your fingertips.

One of the best ways to feel your partner’s balance is to push her off (gently) and bring her back on. Of course, you should always get a “clear” from the “captain of the ship”, her, beforehand.

Partnering from behind on her wrists (finger):

Regardless of her arm position, it is your job to make sure that her inner, middle, and outer joints are in perfect alignment. If this sounds Chinese to you, do some homework and read up on some previous articles. Sometimes it is helpful to be slightly further on the side of her second position or side arm, especially when there is a hight difference. You can partner on her hands, wrists, and elbows sometimes, as long as she is stable and safe.

Partnering in front of her and facing her, or on her side:

Most of the time, you will mirror her arm position and the palm of your hand will be her “barre”. Your most important job will be to maintain a stable position by keeping your palm up, your elbow up, your shoulder down and your chest up. When using the “Mirror Grip”, you should see the clear shape of an “S” in first position, a more elongated wave like shape in second position, a round arc in third position and a pointy gable in alonge (arabesque).

Promenades work exactly the same way, but with one difference: You are rotating the position. If you can do everything described above, there should be little to no problem promenading your partner. If you keep your “Mirror Grip” perfectly symmetrical, maintain your alignment (exactly square in front, sideways or behind your partner), replace one foot with the other walking around her standing leg in a perfectly round and even circle, nothing can go wrong. Another very common “trick” is to keep an eye on her standing leg foot, making sure it’s not wobbling or getting “out of whack”. Just one word of caution: Some waiters prefer to not look at a full tray of glasses to make sure they don’t spill.

Turns

Pirouettes from 4th Position:

Alignment is key again, if you want to eliminate a maximum of uncertainties and surprises, your shoulders and hips need to be aligned at all times exactly with the shoulders and hips of your partner. Your foot position should mirror her position as well, however, you want to be turned in and as stable on your feet as possible. Your distance should be only the length of your forearms, your elbows should be as close to your waist as possible. If you feel uneasy about her passe leg hitting you during the turn, tilt your hips backward to make room for her leg. Any other distance than the length of your forearm will result in unstable partnering.

Starting with the basic hand position, flip your palms facing her hip bones. For pirouettes to the right, place your right hand in front of her right hip and your left behind her left hip. Gently pull with your right and push with your left at exactly the same time to initiate the turn. Immediately after, flip both hands upward, palms down, to encase her waist between your thumbs and index fingers. Make sure to leave enough space between your hands and her waist to allow the turn to happen. Very often it will feel like she is leaning slightly toward your left hand (her standing side). To stop the turn, slightly adjust to tighten your grip, then give her a slight lift upward to facilitate the closing of her working (passe) leg.

There are many ways to partner turns, but I am restricting myself to this one because once you understand how it works, all other turns will be fairly easy to accomplish. Again, this is about teamwork and both, you and your partner, need to be 100% on the same page, knowing exactly what needs to happen when and who does what. Musicality and counts are essential to establish a predictable and consistent timing.

Lifts

I am only going to make a few general points. Once you understand them, any lift will feel the same and work similarly:

You don’t lift with your arms, but with your legs. The stretching of your knees from a plie together with your partner, followed by the immediate stretching of both elbows at the same time will provide enough momentum to place her in any position above your body and transfer her weight evenly between your shoulders, hips and knees. You don’t have to be a body builder to lift, you only need to understand and practice this very essential principle. The biggest mistakes you can make are to let your elbows get away from your body and to look up or after her. Your job is to provide an even up and down motion, exactly in line with your own body. Everything else falls into place.

Being a Nice Guy

Being a nice guy means that you always give her a slight lift when she comes down from pointe, no matter what. It’s a nice habit to have, it’s very “gentlemanly” and your partner will appreciate you. Always be polite, listen to her, make her feel like a million dollars, give her every ounce of respect and a sense of security, stability and reliability. Be a gentleman. It doesn’t matter if you know or like your partner. Dance is above life, a place to experience things that can’t be found anywhere else. A place to practice emotional generosity and fairness.

Even when things go wrong, as long as you have the right idea and the right relationship with your partner, anything can be fixed. She might even bring you chocolates and tea to your dressing room before going on with Grand Pas in Nutcracker somewhere down the road. It has happened many times to me, even with total strangers on these unavoidable guesting “gigs”. Being able to give somebody the best 10 minutes of their life, being almost like a married couple, utterly dependent on each other, trusting each other like the best of close friends. Just for 10 minutes. What a gift!

Right Side-Left Side? Good Side-Bad Side? Or is it?

To answer this question, lets begin with a little experiment: Where ever you are at the moment, take a few steps and find out which leg is your good walking leg and which is your bad walking leg.

It should become obvious in very little time that most likely there is no good or bad walking leg. You might even find it difficult to figure out on which leg you are when you are walking, because you never bothered with it. Walking is natural to us without thinking about it, but if we thought about it, we would come to the conclusion that both legs are evenly engaged. We would also come to the conclusion that our center and our weight are evenly distributed between our legs all the time.

Here is another experiment: Write your name on a piece of paper with the hand that you normally don’t use.

Unless you are one of the few, it’s not easy and pretty clumsy. The reason is simple: writing is a one handed activity and once your body decided which hand to use, the other hand was never trained to perform this task. Had you, from day one, written the same amount with the other hand, you’d be one of the very few that can mange regardless of which hand they use.

This brings us to an interesting choice when it comes to dancing and the training in ballet: Should we use our body as if we were walking or as if we were writing? To me it is pretty clear and as a matter of fact, “kinda-sorta” everybody already uses both sides by virtue of necessity and the bothersome reality that there won’t be a barre always to hold onto.

But there is an underlying principle and physical law that needs to be conscientiously understood and applied if the goal is to be an efficiently trained dancer: I like to call it The Principle of Equal Energy and Opposition.

Equal Energy: When you lift your right leg up in any direction, the energy in your left leg needs to go down to maintain the symmetry of your body. There really is no active and inactive leg, but equal forces that make the movement possible. If your right arm is in second position, the energy goes sideways and, according to this principle, the energy of your left arm goes the other way, even on the barre.

Opposition: If you brush a tendue to the side with your right foot, your left arm needs to actively “oppose” the movement by pushing to the opposite side as well. Imagine a theraband tied to your right ankle and your left wrist behind your back with a noticeable amount of tension. If you just move your right foot, your left arm will be pulled behind you by that movement unless you actively counter the sideways energy of your foot with energy in your hand/arm to keep it in place.

The basic foundation of ballet is to keep the center of the body evenly suspended between arms and legs. All movements are initiated by the most outer points (toes and fingers) traveling toward the center at an equal speed, also called Coordination. The center of the body never moves (with exception of tombe), which makes it a direct descendent of walking. Anybody who walks or jogs knows that the left arm works always in tandem with the right leg and visa versa. Ballet is just like that!

So is there a right side and a left side? Of course! Is there a good side and a bad side? Not really. There might, however, be a comfortable side and a not so comfortable side. That doesn't mean that one should be favored over the other. Unless you want to finish up dancing like writing your name with the wrong hand on a piece of paper.

I teach sometimes an Opposition Class and literally strap my students into therabands, it is an eye opening experience for all of them and changes their work in most cases for the better. If you try it and it works for you, send me a dollar.

Especially on the barre it is crucial to understand how right and left, working side and standing or supporting side, or better, working side and opposing side are connected and always work in tandem. I make it a point in my classes to change legs and sides frequently during combinations on the barre to avoid the “planting shock” once the class moves to the center.

Unless a student is fairly advanced and self-sufficient in understanding equal energy and opposition, the barre can be lethal and corrupt technique by training same arm/same leg coordination. Once the barre is gone, the student needs to learn opposite arm/leg coordination all over! Only if both sides of the body are equally active and engaged all the time on the barre and in the center, can progress be expected as a result of the training.

Of course, there always will be a side that you favor and a side that you don’t. But it’s especially the unfavored side that will teach you everything you do wrong on the favorite side. It’s that side that should become your favored to work on things! Why work on things that come easy? Smart dancers will treat their unfavored side as the “clean” side and their favorite side as their “dare” side.

Staying In Shape During The Summer

Especially during the summer month, staying in shape can become an issue when there are less classes to take. It can be scary or comforting, depending on which end of the spectrum you are. At Ballet Idaho, our dancers are faced with a brutal layoff between mid April and October, making a living takes often precedence over training. However, once the new season starts, they are back in action and onstage after less than four weeks.

Depending on your situation, off time can be bridged with summer intensives, but failing that, there are things to be aware of and things you should know if you are concerned about your body and your physical shape. Before I spill the beans about it, I do want to address one very important thing: Regardless of your seriousness about becoming a professional dancer or dancing just for fun, you can only be a complete human being and artist if you allow yourself to experience life at its fullest.

A long break provides you with the opportunity to catch up on everything that was on the back burner during the busy time of the year: Family, friends, love (if you are old enough), pets, books, movies, travel, nature, and just being a regular person. It is very easy to get into the ballet bubble and forget the world outside, but what makes you “you”, what gives you the ability to express yourself on stage, what takes your performance to the next level and makes you relate to an audience, all of that comes from your life experience.

Steps are only steps unless between the lines there is a deeper meaning that can speak to anyone, balletomane or pedestrian, making these steps into words, sentences, poems and stories. Time off is time to be used to live and to become a better human being.

Now, here are some “does” and “don’t’s” to stay in shape:

The human body is engineered to adapt, muscles grow or atrophy depending on the signals and commands you give them. Take the stairs instead of escalators or elevators, if and when you have the choice, go for your sneakers instead of the car. Hiking, biking, swimming, walking are all great things to stay active, just be aware that they favor muscles in your body that you don’t want to over develop.

To keep a healthy balance between “turn in muscles" (muscles you use outside of your ballet training) and “turn out muscles”, make sure to stretch them afterward or at least every other day. There is no need for a studio to give yourself some plies, tendues and releves occasionally. Most bedrooms are large enough to accommodate a moderate routine and trust me, tendues can feel great barefoot on some nice carpet. I used to practice balances while washing dishes, if you want to try it, please start with things that can’t break or shatter.

Your situation permitting, a gym can be a great place to take care of your body. If you are intimidated by that thought or worried to make a fool of yourself, be assured that people in a gym are only concerned with themselves and don't have the time to look at others or make fun of them. I have never had a reason to feel embarrassed in the last twenty years of working out almost daily.

Most gyms have the equipment to train every single muscle group in your body and also have the staff to help you learn how to use it safely. Especially for maintaining your inner thighs, hip abduction exercises are very helpful. Don’t get crazy though on the resistance level, a good rule of thumb is, if you can put in ten to twelve repetitions, three times (sets) with a one minute break between, the weight is appropriate for your body.

Low resistance (weight) and high repetitions (the number of times you do a certain thing in a row) will tone and strengthen your muscles. High resistance and low repetitions will make your muscles grow. Make sure to work out evenly, if for example, you work the front of your arm (bicep), make sure to work the back of your arm (tricep) as well. If you work your abdominals, make sure to follow it with some lower back exercises. Cardio is important too, you’ll find plenty of choices from treadmills to bikes, stair masters and more. But be intelligent! Let your body tell you when it is enough, you are not training for the Olympics.

If you are concerned about your weight, here are some pointers that are good advice anytime:

Food is energy. Energy that is not used will be stored by your body. Stored energy is fat.

Here is a very simple nutritional equation:

To maintain your body as is, use all the energy that you put inside you through food.

To loose weight, use more energy than you put inside you through food.

To gain weight, use less energy than you put inside you through food.

There is nothing wrong with cravings, sweets, etc., as long as you are aware of this equation. Also know that beverages are considered food. If you make your own food choices, and you want to eat healthy, avoid anything that originates from a box, a bag or any other container. The prettier the package, the more it is to be avoided.

Good food is an ingredient to be prepared, not something that has been already processed. Some exceptions are spices, herbs, canned tomatoes and canned tuna, pasta and rice. Frozen ingredients are fine as well. Cook your own meal, if you can. Learn how to cook if you have to.

Cooking is a basic survival skill and puts you in charge of energy intake and output. It is also much cheaper than buying already prepared foods. Water is cheaper than soda. Unless you have a problem with meats, the best meal plan I can think of is a different kind of meat or fish every other day and a vegetarian meal in between.

The task of staying in shape can teach you many things about yourself, your body, your dreams and aspirations. It also takes your mind off your dancing and allows your body to process subconsciously all the information it received during the year. It is good to take a break at times, step away, reflect and figure things out. There is no law that prohibits being just a normal kid sometimes, regardless of your age.

Leveling, Advancement, Bewilderment

This is the time when some schools hold placement classes to decide who will be in which level for the coming school year. Other schools may have already placed their students before the summer break, but be it as it may, this process can be stressful and even upsetting for students and parents. And everyone involved in the decision making.

It needs to be understood that leveling in a ballet environment is not like progressing from one grade to the next in public school. There, if you are told to repeat a grade, it’s not a good thing and the implication is that there is something wrong with you.

Ballet training, however, as I have mentioned in previous articles, is a process. It’s slow and thorough, and no student learns like another. Any caring teacher will insist on a student staying for another year in the same level, if she or he feels that it is more beneficial than moving up. It means that this particular student will be on “top” of the class, still having the benefit of a slower pace, instead of being on the “bottom” of the next level and either struggling with a faster pace or faking it.

Some decades back, this could create a social problem by separating “barre buddies” and friends, but it seems to me that in an age of 24/7 social media frenzy, staying in touch does not require to be in the same room at the same time. There is no “holding back” when it comes to the leveling of individual students, there is only caring and responsible decision making.

I know a large number of students that wish to have been “held back” when it counted, because advancing too fast gave them a “lifetime” of unnecessary struggles with their technique and it turned their enjoyment of dancing into a stressful “race to stay in the race”. I also know a lot of professional dancers that jump at every opportunity to take low level ballet classes to improve their technique and hear all those things that you might be tired of.

When I went to school, I had a ballet class for ninety minutes, six days per week, non stop for eight years with a few breaks in between. In that particular school, leveling wasn’t an issue: either you made it or you were out. Most American schools don't have that luxury, especially in the lower levels.

Any professional worth their salt will agree that it takes at least nine hours per week of intense training to lay the foundations and build on them. Remember, we have to grow, to shape and stretch muscles, we have to train new habits and coordination, build stamina and strength.

Nature moves at its own pace. Bodies grow and adapt at their own pace, and they don't care if you have homework, soccer, or whatever other important occupations besides ballet class. It is only logical that training takes longer under these circumstances. Unless you are enrolled in a communist “military academy” style boarding school like the one I studied at.

I once was very involved in a particular ballet school and insisted on each level lasting for two years for this very reason. When it became a “political” issue and the school decided to move everybody through the levels like through grades in a public school, I quit. The level of training diminished noticeably and so did the enrollment. Sometimes you just have to stick to your guns.

One decisive issue in the leveling of students of course, is the opportunity to begin training on pointe. I can’t think of any parent who wouldn't love to see their little girl twirl in shiny new pointe shoes and a pink tutu in the spot light.

Most girls can’t wait to be fitted in their first pair of pointe shoes.

Most girls who have been fitted it their first pair of pointe shoes and who have had their first few classes can’t wait to get out of them!

Parents discover soon that pointe shoes aren’t cheap, are not carried by Walmart, and make a dent in their family budget.

Reason suggests that delaying pointe training might not be such a bad thing. Why rush making an expensive after school activity even more expensive? So for all parents who can’t wait to see their little shining stars emerge from the primordial muck, rise and shine, and lift off above half pointe to full pointe, this is for you:

The growth plates in the feet of your daughters are not entirely stable and fused until a certain age. Putting them into the restriction of pointe shoes too early, with all the body weight baring down at the mere square inches of their camped toes, equals Japanese girls having their feet bound. Last time I checked, that was considered torture.

Pointe shoes can actually deform the feet of your child if training is started too early. Like atomic energy, it can be either beneficial or detrimental. Consider handing your child a running chain saw inside your house! Pointe shoes are a tool that needs to be carefully introduced and used only when it is in safe hands.

I have never met a dancer or former ballet student that complained about starting pointe training too late. However, I have met scores that complained about foot problems later in life because of bad training, too early advancement, and premature pointe training. Trusting your teacher to make this crucial decision is an absolute MUST. As a student or parent you are as qualified to choose the time of training as you are qualified to make any other decision above your head.

Some schools require a medical certificate before beginning pointe training. Others begin pointe training with shoes that have all restricting parts removed. Both approaches are smart, especially when business needs have to meet integrity. It is funny that when the famous Italian ballerina, Marie Taglioni, introduced pointe shoes in the eighteen hundreds, it was laughed off and dismissed as a cheap trick. Nobody in her time could have imagined what an issue it would become in the training of young dancers here and in ballet schools and studios around the world!

The Beat Goes On with AO Choreography

Mastering Balance from Barre to Center

What is a balance? A balance is a fall, not a static position but a delay in the transition from one position to the next. Balance is a movement “up” and “over”, an arc that happens between a “point A” and a “point B”. Even walking includes a balance, but it is way to fast to notice. Slow your walk down as much as you can and you will easily discover it.

Balance On The Barre And All The Things That Can Go Wrong With It

I touched on this earlier in my “Right Side/Left Side” article, talking about Opposition, Equal Energy and Placement. First however, we have to talk about barre work in general:

How to stand on the barre

It sounds like nothing but it is actually where most problems start. Lets remember that as human beings we are walking upright and with opposite leg/arm coordination. When we stand on the barre however, we are training same leg/arm coordination

Unless:

Your placement on the barre is correct

You are always aware of Opposition and Equal Energy

You use the barre correctly

I see it a hundred times per day; Plie/Releve/Passe, everybody is perfectly placed until they let go of the barre and bye bye balance. Why? Because the alignment of their standing side (barre side) and their upper body outer/middle/inner joints in relation to their working side is incorrect. Because there is too much weight on their standing (barre) side arm, because they fall into the trap of not working properly on the barre in the first place.

In my “Plie For Advanced Students” article, I am talking a lot about joint alignment. Because ballet technique works by using symmetry and gravitation and then manipulating them to create illusions. Maintaining symmetry is absolutely necessary. Joint alignment is symmetry.

Upper Outer Joints: Fingers/Wrists

Upper Middle Joints: Elbows

Upper Inner Joints: Shoulders

These joints MUST always maintain a symmetrical relationship, parallel or crosswise, depending on the position, between working side and standing (barre) side. When you place yourself on the barre, you should be able to achieve a perfect second position in your arms by simply taking your fingers off the barre. This will also determine your distance from the barre. Some dancers prefer the distance of a first position rather than a second position, but be aware that the closer you are to the barre, the greater the danger of working incorrectly without realizing it.

No matter what:

Your shoulders are always parallel to each other and on the same level

Your elbows are always parallel to each other and on the same level

Your fingers/wrists are always parallel to each other and on the same level

Depending on given arm positions, elbows and fingers/wrists, will be parallel to each other either in a straight line across your upper body (like in a first, second or third position) or a diagonal line (like if one arm is in first and the other in third), however, always evenly spaced slightly in front of your hips and shoulders.

If you want to do yourself a further favor, let only the last three fingers of your standing side hand touch the barre and keep your thumb, index and middle finger off. In doing that and in making sure that your outer and middle joints are always parallel to each other, you will automatically begin to work within the necessary symmetry, opposition and Equal Energy. It will keep your standing side active and especially your standing side arm when it is “not used”.

Now, when you let go of the barre for a passe balance it is only a matter of changing the position of your fingertips to align them with the fingertips of your working side.

The outer, middle and inner joints in both upper body and lower body are constantly connected and in constant communication. Whatever action happens in your working side, needs to be reflected, opposed and equalized in your standing side. This is particularly important for the movement of your outer and middle joints. Inner joints are generally not affected by the movement.

Imagine a rectangle that is evenly suspended in space held up be an elastic band on each corner, with equal tension. Now imagine that the right upper corner of this suspended rectangle is connected to the left lower corner and visa versa. If the tension in the elastic band of one corner changes, the symmetry of this rectangle will be affected, unless the tension changes equally in the opposing corner.

Think of the upper corners as your upper joints and the lower corners as your lower joints:

Fingers/Wrists = Toes/Ankles (Heels)

Elbows = Knees

Right Fingers/Wrists always move parallel and in opposition to Left Toes/Ankles (Heels)

Right Elbow always moves parallel and in opposition to Left Knee and visa versa

The energy above your belly button strives upward in opposition to your shoulders striving downward (“held up by your little fingers in first position).

The energy below your belly button strives downward in opposition to your lifted working leg toes and standing leg heel.

I can’t repeat it enough: To keep your “rectangle” evenly suspended in space, if the tension in the elastic band at one of the corners changes, the same tension needs to equalize that tension in the elastic band at the opposite corner. Because right side and left side always work in tandem, the tension in all four corners constantly adjusts and opposes the tension in the opposite corner. This is Equal Energy.

A balance is a fall. Equal energy allows you to control the speed of that fall from one position to another. A general safe and good rule of thumb is:

The direction of your fall is always toward your open foot. If there is no open foot, like in a passe for instance, the direction of the fall is always forward. Unless you give your fall/balance a direction, you are not in control of the motion. Not every balance with an open foot to the front, side or back has to necessarily fall onto that foot. You can also close in a 5th position, for example, at the moment of the fall by guiding your toes there.

Exercise:

Be in 6th (parallel) position, arms straight to the side
Keeping your joints in line, try to fall forward until you have to take a step
Repeat, turning out in a 1st Position

You might notice that in 1st Position, it takes longer to fall forward than in 6th.

You will also find that during this motion of falling or balancing, there is a point where you feel weightless and where your body seems neutralized like being suspended in a vacuum or like floating in space just like the suspended rectangle.

I call this moment the “Limbo Moment” and it can be a little weird or scary at first. If you see your balance as an arc, the Limbo Moment happens on top of that arc, in the space where the motion could go either way unless you give it direction to continue (on purpose or not).

The prolonging of this very moment is your balance and it happens almost everywhere, but especially in turns and jumps. If you ever heard about “ballon” and what it means in relation to jumps, it is the illusion of being suspended in the air, of “defying gravity”. In reality, it is nothing else than the Limbo Moment during a jump. The only way to create and control a Limbo Moment conscientiously is to work within the Principles of Opposition and Equal Energy.

The stronger the opposition, the slower the fall and the longer the balance. Standing side and working side are constantly connected through equal energy and there is no difference between working on the barre or in the center. Dance is not a static art form, we don’t have the power to erase gravity or physical law by sheer virtue of “talent”. Unless the two sides of your body are always equally engaged in a movement, your technique will always be a minefield instead of a tool.

It is this flow of energy that will help you to maintain proper turnout and alignment as you “suspend” your “rectangle”. Especially in a passe balance, it is this rotational force, this spiraling flow of energy connecting diagonally opposing joints in opposition, which creates the ability to sustain a balance actively.

Left Knee rotates outward and upward in opposition to your Right Elbow and Right Shoulder

Right Knee rotates outward and upward in opposition to your Left Elbow and Left Shoulder

Left Ankle rotates upward and backward in opposition to your Right Wrist

Right Ankle rotates upward and backward in opposition to your Left Wrist

Left Heel rotates forward and outward in opposition to your Right Little Finger

Right Heel rotates forward and outward in opposition to your Left Little Finger

Imagine yourself not only to be a suspended rectangle but a rectangle and an open book in the same time. The inside spine is your axis, the pages right and left of it are folded open and are the two sides of your body. Your working side and standing side are constantly rotating outward and away from each other, always with equal energy.

All of this happens at the same time, a flow of energy that “folds” the two sides of your your body outward, at the same time as stretching your center in opposite directions (down/up), in the same time as spiraling around your body. It is this structure, this cage of energy, which can suspend you in a very slow fall, past the ’Limbo Moment” toward your landing position.

If you allow yourself to forget about your standing side on the barre, everything you do on the barre will be more or less useless when you transition to the center. Like walking, as humans we function with opposite leg/arm coordination. On the barre, unless you discipline yourself, you will be training same leg/arm coordination.

If your barre work already includes correct placement, i.e. correct balance, you will not find it difficult to transition to the center. Because you are already “on your legs” and already in opposite coordination and using equal energy. Your center work will allow you to progress and refine, rather than struggling to retrain and correct the mistakes from the barre.

AO Choreography

In the works right now: "when things go wrong & how to fix them...." a self help guide for dancers

Articles published by ballethub.com

Plie for Advanced Students

Plie for Advanced Students

Tendu for Advanced Students

Trusting Your Teacher And The Process Of Training

Taking Class From Different Teachers

Striking the Balance of Strength and Grace for Men in Ballet

Right Side-Left Side? Good Side-Bad Side? Or is it?

Staying In Shape During The Summer

Leveling, Advancement, Bewilderment

The Beat Goes On with AO Choreography

Mastering Balance from Barre to Center