July 2013 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Barre Basics
A good way to make sure your students are properly aligned at the beginning of any barre exercise is to have them demi-plié in first or fifth. Make sure their shoulders are over their hips and their...
View ArticleAugust 2013 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | A+ Arabesques
In arabesque, often dancers do not place their working leg behind them in a closed position, and then they try to correct it. Ample time should be given at the barre for students to feel cross-body...
View ArticleSeptember 2013 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Fine-Tuning Performances
During performances the audience looks at the dancers’ faces first, and then moves on to the choreography and technique. To encourage students to explore facial expressiveness without feeling...
View ArticleOctober 2013 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Upper Body Awareness
I tell my students that the most important “real estate” for dancers is the area of the body that encompasses the neck line, the head, and the arms. It is what the audience looks at first and what the...
View ArticleNovember 2013 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Super Stretches
To passively stretch the hamstrings, I give a parallel fourth-position hamstring stretch at the beginning of class. While holding onto the barre with one hand, and with the other arm in fifth, students...
View ArticleDecember 2013 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Better Balance
When on relevé using one or two feet, the weight should be equally balanced between all toes and the ball of the foot. Remind your students to think of spreading out their toes in their shoes, because...
View ArticleJanuary 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Airborne
The most basic rule in ballet is that whenever the foot leaves the floor it must point immediately and completely. The dancer peels the foot off the floor starting from the heel, then the ball, and...
View ArticleFebruary 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Rules of Ballet
Classical ballet is different from other forms of dance in three fundamental ways. Feet must point as soon as they leave the floor (see “2 Tips for Ballet Teachers: Airborne,” January 2014)....
View ArticleMarch-April 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Prepping for Partnering
In partnering, the male student’s primary responsibility is to make sure his partner looks her best at all times. Often the boys/men are too concerned about how they look as they pose behind the girl,...
View ArticleMay-June 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Polished Pirouettes
When broken down to its simplest form, a pirouette is a quick passé with a relevé and a spot—period. It doesn’t matter how many spots are done. Doing fewer pirouettes with a proper classical ballet...
View ArticleJuly 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Preparing for Big Jumps
To achieve grand allegro jumps such as grand jeté, tour jeté, assemblé devant, fouetté, and cabriole fouetté, students must be able to do a strong, square, and properly placed 90-degree sauté in grand...
View ArticleAugust 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Tackling Tours
Tours are one of the most important steps for male ballet dancers to master. The most important tip is to practice tours every day. Here are some other tips for perfecting them. Continue reading
View ArticleSeptember 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Cambré Devant and Dèrriere
Cambré devant, done between barre exercises, stretches fatigued muscles. The muscles most in need of a break are the gluteus maximus. Cambré derrière is a stretch of the back, not a compression of the...
View ArticleOctober 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Flexed Feet
A flexed foot is rarely used in ballet technique (one exception is frappé, depending on which style you teach), but is extremely important for any student to be aware of, for many reasons. One of the...
View ArticleNovember 2014 |2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Souped-Up Sauts de Basque
One of the biggest problems when learning a saut de basque is that students tend to do a rond de jambe with the working leg instead of brushing it through à la seconde and maintaining it on the same...
View ArticleDecember 2014 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Shoulder Sits
For a right shoulder sit, start with the female standing in fifth position in front of the male, whose hands are low on her waist; the female assemblés as a preparation. Continue reading
View ArticleJanuary 2015 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Diagonals and Pirouettes
We teach beginning dancers to face the corners of the room squarely when in effacé and croisé. As dancers become more advanced, they will need to adjust to facing along a flatter diagonal. Continue...
View ArticleFebruary 2015 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Glissades in Petit Allegro
Glissades are common connecting steps for jumps and therefore important for students to master. There are two major types: 1) glissades in petit allegro, which close in fifth position, and 2) glissades...
View ArticleMarch-April 2015 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Finger Turns
For successful finger turns, it’s important for the female partner to ronde de jambe her working leg a full 90 degrees, from devant to à la seconde, before pulling it back into a turned-out passé. As...
View ArticleMay-June 2015 | 2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Controlling Pirouettes
When a student’s upper body is not active in a pirouette, the turn itself begins to suffer. It’s not only important to maintain a turned-out passé, high relevé, and strong spot; a dancer’s torso (the...
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