Please enter your email address to stay informed about the latest Ailey happenings and special offers. Dance Technique Classes. Ballet Designed for adults of all levels, this formal dance technique focuses on proper alignment, balance and flexibility by providing the foundation of classical ballet with renowned ballet instructors.
As dancers, we work tirelessly to hone our technique, ultimately striving for perfection—or as close to it as we can possibly get. This week, we asked IDA judges from across the country to discuss the values of technique classes, as well as tricks and tips for students and teachers to keep classes engaging and fresh, especially at the height of competition season.
The overwhelming majority of judges agree that taking technique classes regularly and in multiple styles of dance provides dancers with a solid foundation for safe, efficient, and clean movement. As judge and teacher Christina Young notes, we constantly hear the argument that ballet is the foundation of all dance. But what about other styles? Ballet training certainly allows dancers to hone their lines and learn how to articulate their feet and legs, but each genre of dance has its own valuable traits.
Tap technique requires dancers to release their ankles, bend their knees, and find looseness in their joints to relax. Jazz technique generally utilizes parallel positions which challenge the turned-out ballet preparation.
Contemporary takes all of these ideas, throws them in a blender, and explores the results! It is true, ballet can be the basis, but it is important to explore the different styles to challenge your body and truly gain an understanding of your own physicality.
With competition season growing near, the focus often shifts from training to choreography, but judges agree that this can be detrimental to young dancers for many reasons. Although competition and choreography are a huge part of the dance studio environment, it is important to maintain a structure that allows for consistency.
What are the 5 skills that you think are most important for your students to learn? To narrow down just 5 things I want my students take away from such a massive range of potential lessons was tricky at best. This post is about the top 5 movement or technique skills I try to instill in my students. Check out my lists of social-emotional and artistic skills for students to learn through dance!
My training and teaching experience is limited to ballet, modern dance, contemporary, improvisation, jazz a mix of authentic and concert styles , and creative dance.
However, my perspective is largely informed by my experience in Western concert dance styles. I believe that there are foundational elements of movement practice that are valuable for all students to master, regardless of their learning environment, age or skill level, or the genre of dance being studied.
Technique itself varies greatly depending on the dance genre being practiced. Teaching technique in a one size fits all way is detrimental to students. It is our job as educators to help them find their own technique within the form.
That being said, this list contains 5 fundament movement skills that I think help students find their own good technique within the genres being studied.
Each skill will be be presented and explained in different ways depending on the dance genre, and my expectations for their understanding, embodiment, and application of the skills will differ based on their age, genre, level, body and maturity. Overall, however, I believe that most good movement skills are applicable across a wide range of dance styles. When students master these essential skills, they better understand their bodies and how to adapt to the expectations of different dance genres and choreographers.
So, without further ado, I humbly present the top 5 technique and movement skills you should be teaching your students. Functional Alignment: To put it most simply, all dancers should be working toward an understanding of how their muscles, bones, and joints work together to properly align the body when standing still AND when moving through space on the low, mid, and high levels. Fluidity and Stability of the Spine : So much of dance technique and choreography, in almost every genre, involves articulation and manipulate of the spine — be it subtle as in the ballet epaultment or powerful as in jazz isolations and West African polyrhythms.
What separates a good dancer from a great one, for me, is often how the dancers find the balance between fluidity and stability in their spine. Can they execute a classic modern dance spiral, luscious ballet epaulment , a stellar contraction and hinge, well-defined rib cage isolations, and sinewy complex contemporary choreography?
Keep your eyes focused on one spot in the direction you are turning. As you execute the turn leave the head there until the last moment when you have to whip it around to complete the turn. Whip it into exactly the same spot you started the head in to keep you in a straight line. You should be in a high releve throughout the turn, pulled up through the hips and thighs with your hips always as your guide for placement. In using the arms please note they should come from the back — not be a separate unit.
One of the most important concepts on this turn is to reach way out onto a straight leg into releve. As you turn, the hips need to push to center yourself. Plie the left leg and carry the right leg to a la second en la air.
Push off the supporting leg and reach the right leg and hips way out into fourth position to the direction you are turning. You want to feel a big push up and out through your derriere. As this push happens the left leg comes into turn out passe while the left arm pulls in to the right into first as in chaine and makes one or more rotations to the right.
To finish the turn, bring the passe leg down behind into fifth position and begin the process again. Spot as you would a chaine. Pirouettes can be done from many different preparations and with the working leg in many different positions. This will be an example of an outside pirouette in passe. Preparation parallel first.
Tendu a la second with arms pushing to strong second. Carry the right leg back into a fourth position plie arms follow. Body should be straight up and down with the left leg into the ground and the right heel lifted. All at one time lift to releve on the left leg with the right leg pulling into a high passe turning the body one or more rotations to the right. Arms pull into first as in a chaine or pique. To finish the turn, end in plie parallel first.
The two biggest technical mistakes that beginning dancers make in a pirouette turn is they try and whip their arms to give them momentum. This will just pull the dancer off balance. All the arms need to do is pull together and with proper position and spotting and a lot of practice the single turns will turn into doubles and triples etc. The second mistake is when the left heel begins the turn before the right leg even leaves to come into passe. This makes the pirouette choppy and off balance.
All movement needs to happen simultaneously to make the turn work. Let your arms come from the back and spot as you would in the other turns. Practice hitting spots on specific counts and this will clean up the pirouette technique even more.
Once you master a passe pirouette, try it again with the working leg in coupe or cou de pied neck of the foot or even attitude. These are all pirouettes just in different positions.
Begin in fourth position plie, body front, and arms in third. As you spot to return to the front, plie then releve up again make sure to keep the right leg level and steady.
You may do singles or more before you take the plie again.
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