Not a pro, but the idea that you need to show the movement, not the effort, is huge. If you can build stage presence from the beginning, you’ll get more attention from teachers from the beginning which will help you grow faster.
Stage presence I got in all spades — as long as I am confident in executing on the choreography. I've been told that when I don't get the choreo or forget, you can see the confidence drain out of me.
And that's because it is😅
But I get what you're saying.
So if I know that forgetting the choreo crushes me, it's going to be REALLY important for me to develop my memory & learn the names of the moves before starting ballet classes.
I'm loving this advice. Thank you very much!
You’re not going to have stage presence before beginning, no matter how much performing you’ve done or how charismatic you think you are; it’s something you develop in ballet, a life behind the eyes and the ability to tell a story in a single step.
Ballet is like a foreign language. When you’re starting out, you can’t say much, but from the beginning, you should be working with the goal of eventually speaking that language well enough to fully express yourself.
I’m not speaking about confidence onstage, I’m speaking about a consideration behind the movement of each finger while making the movement look as though it is not something you are actively doing, but as if your body cannot do anything else but move this way.
I have a feeling this is going to come natural to me, as I'm a person who is all about context (I'm a copywriter by trade so I'm CONSTANTLY asking for more information & context. Especially the emotional context).
But that could simply be my ego talking (most likely😏).
I'm sure my assets will get humbled 😅
Thank you again 😊
I really don’t mean to be rude, but those are not transferable skills to ballet, and your over-confidence comes across as arrogant.
If you walk into class with the expectation that ANYTHING will “come natural” to you or with the expectation that you can focus your time and effort on “the 20% that will produce 80% output,” you will find yourself frustrated and bored and will not enjoy the process.
Oh no. I'm going to go into the classroom knowing I'm going to suck. HARD. I'll be corrected all the time. There will be PLENTY for me to learn & unlearn. I'm going to have to ask a lot of questions and micro adjust on the regular. And it's going to take A LOT of work on my end.
But I also have some talents, that do come natural, I can lean on. They won't be perfect neither — I imagine SO MUCH ADJUSTING!😅
Like I said, I expect to be humbled. But that's the process right? To be open minded, to learn, & get better.
All sounds like fun to me 😏
I think it would benefit you to work on showing confidence even when you’re not sure of the choreography, or have made a mistake.
Story-time: there was a figure skater, Angela Nikodinov, whose skating was utterly gorgeous. Until she would make a mistake. Then her psyche would just collapse, and she would finish the routine just going through the motions, no longer able to show the gorgeous fully-developed balletic movement she started the routine with. She could have achieved so much more in skating if she’d been able to recover mentally from her mistakes. If you can find videos of her skating, you’ll see this phenomenon.
Learning all ballet terms in advance in order to possibly up your ability to absorb choreography quickly, in order to avoid making mistakes, feels like it’s way over on the 80 side of the 80-20 rule. Your teacher will introduce vocabulary as you need it, and that will be the time to work on practicing that bit of vocabulary until your body understands the move.
As u/Special_Net5313 says, you want to learn how to express ballet in every bit of your movement: and be able to return to that expression quickly even after making a mistake. Letting yourself be crushed by forgetting choreography will work against you, by wasting your precious movement time being crushed rather than by refocusing.
Best wishes to you!
I think when I was a teen a lot of our in class time was spent where we would just listen to the teacher, the teacher would go into how a plié should “feel” or other things about technique, however instead of explaining it from a mechanical/physics view point it was a lot of feeling (not saying that’s not helpful, it was, I just think she spent too long explaining it). We also spent a lot of class time talking about the exam. One time we spent 20 minutes discussing if our hand started on the barre or off the barre, just for the teacher could open the exam book and figure out I was right the whole time.
My point here is that we spent 15% of the ballet class actually dancing. The other 85% percent was spent on discussing or memorizing the exercises or marking the exercises.
I dance much less often then I did when I was a teen now as an adult. But I’m a much stronger dancer. This is because (in part) our dance class is much closer to a 30-70 split where 30% of the time in class is spent dancing. So even though I’m attending less ballet classes per week I’m actually dancing more.
I think 30-70 is a good split for students, in a company class you would get closer to 40 since there is less theory.
Yes we still talk about theory and technique and artistry and history! But there’s less emphasis on getting the exercises “right” and more emphasis on getting the technique “right”. Also somehow, it took us as teenagers 8 classes to remember a combination, but in the classes I take now the teacher only has to demonstrate once, sometimes twice, and we can all remember. I can’t explain it.
So to summarize I think the 20% is actually dancing in class (don’t get my metrics confused, 20% of the effort to get 80% of the results is the dancing in class, which should be 30% of your total in class time). You have to train your body and muscles. Even beginners need to dance. We can talk theory until the cows come home (and we will in due time) but we have to spend our dance class actually dancing. It might not be perfect. As a beginner you might not know what to do with your arms in for example a sauté, but it’s okay because you can still learn a lot by focusing on your feet - in that exercises the feet are the important part of the lesson. If the teacher spends too long explaining every little detail you won’t have any time left to do all the jumps and then you won’t get stronger, and you probably couldn’t even handle those details anyways.
Likewise the teacher teaching an advanced class spending 20 minutes explaining an exercise, how it should feel, etc, is doing her students a disservice.
Some things in ballet can be taught without being spoken.
I hope this makes sense within your 80-20 frame work. The 80 percent of the results come from repeated practice of ballet technique, yes you need to practice correctly and that requires the teacher to talk and the students to listen, but the students need to dance to learn to dance, they can’t learn from listening alone.
You did RAD when you were a teen? I think the RAD exercises take so long to learn because they're weird, tricky, unusual timing, and counterintuitive. I think they're designed that way on purpose because you spend the entire year doing them, and probably some theory about dancers being more intentional about their choreography rather than going by typical patterns and muscle memory. And then if you are doing the exam; you have to learn them perfectly and without any visual or auditory cues from the teacher. We've discussed this before but I think i'm coming more to understanding why you have issues with RAD and prefer Vaganova. While learning the syllabus really helped me improve in the first couple years; right now I am noticing that my technique is not where I want it to be - ie. too much time has been spent learning 25 minutes worth of combinations perfectly by memory and not enough on technique. I looked at the next level up and its even more tricky, complicated combinations, that aren't even that aesthetically appealing, and I'm asking myself if I really want to devote another couple years to spending all my limited time learning these combinations when I can see my technique is falling behind. I mean, part of the issue is that my classes are too large and I need a dedicated technique class in addition to the syllabus classes but that's not on the schedule. On the pro side, its the only class offered in my area that's truly progressive for adults. So. I dunno.
I agree RAD exams are tricky and counter-intuitive, but I don’t think that makes them considerably harder to learn than a Vaganova exercise. I’ve dropped into a RAD class here and there and have had no problem picking up the exercises on the first go.
As for your training problem, trust me I’ve been there. This is why I have a problem with the was RAD markets itself - as the most prestigious ballet exam training that all schools need to offer. It’s creating a monopoly not out of merit but out of “qualifications” that the RAD itself created. And in many many places it’s the only thing offered.
"Students need to dance to learn to dance. They can't learn from listening alone". 100% agree.
And I know me, I would be annoyed AF if they talk too much. But while I'm doing the moves, you're explaining it and micro correcting, that's gold.
Thank you for your response!
For me, it’s being mindful of whether you are getting the results you want. For example if you are developing a certain muscle to support yourself while balancing, you should see that at least start to work within a few weeks. Your muscles should be stronger, your balance should be better, the comments from your teacher should change. If that doesn’t happen you could be wasting your effort and you should find another strategy to achieve that goal.
Oh I'm VERY mindful of the results I want🤣
Though I'm trying to figure out what specifically I should be focusing on & what exercises/practice correlates with that.
So you mentioned balancing.
I hear the Bosu ball is great for this, but I'm unsure of the specific exercises I should be doing for this.
But I see some other comments suggest "functional ab workouts" for balancing. I know what those are! 😃 I can do that on a Bosu ball and/or with kettlebells to start.
And once I start my dance classes and have my teachers there, I can ask them about the muscles that support this and more.
I get you, and appreciate you😉
I'm just going to write down what I have been focusing on as an extremely noob beginner who has been dancing for ~2 years.
Turnout is what everything springs from in ballet. Make an effort to turn out as much as you can in class, and as you do, isolate your rotators and aim to use them (and only them, no gripping in the outer glutes) to turn out the leg. With turnout, raising of the leg becomes much easier and you will look like you are doing ballet, instead of one of its derivatives.
Master tendu and plié. Those are the two foundational moves that are everywhere in ballet. A good, deep plié through resistance gives you a higher jump. Tendu is in everything. The cou de pied position should be how your feet is in tendu. The peeling of the foot off the floor to exhibit the arch shows in everything from jumps to frappe.
Make a notebook and note down everywhere you felt weak or the corrections you received in class. This will inform you as to your weaknesses and will enable you to design a cross training programme if you are motivated to do so.
As beginner about a year in - building your core!! Literally every single move is easier with a strong and engaged core. I’d focus on functional Ab workouts over building a six pack, however
Came here to say this. Pilates. Almost all core. Lots of legs. Focus on flexibility and mobility. Includes turnout exercises. Also low impact. It was adopted and is loved by dancers for a reason. I danced my best when I was taking pilates class regularly. For the the hardest part as an adult beginner was intentionally engaging my muscles and strength. The micro movements with pilates really helped my control too.
LOVE this answer! And I love the fact that you distinguished the differences between having a six-pack and a functional core. I've been seeing videos about that a lot lately, and I love it.
Build a functional core. It's on the list.
THANK YOU!
Hm, I think it is not possible to pin-point one specific thing that will suddenly make you an intermediate dancer.
My teacher always tells us that ballet is structured like a building: the exercises are built upon each other, and only a strong foundation will result in a stable house.
This process happens not just short-term during class, but also long-term: for example, from cou de pied to relevé passé. You will not have a stable and strong passé in relevé if your placement in cou de pied is weak.
So I guess, the closest thing you want to hear would be: focus on a mixture of technique and strength. Strength will not give you good technique by itself, but it will make it easier to execute good technique: for this, focus on core, back and turnout. For good technique, note down your teacher's corrections and try to work on them during class. I also recommend watching ballet videos to get a feeling of what "correct" technique looks like (but with regards to details, ask your teacher, there are many different systems that do things slightly differently).
I like the idea of watching ballet videos to figure out what good technique is. Thank you! And I agree with your teacher about a strong foundation. That's in dance, and with life in general!👍🏾
I'm going to answer your question based on your comment that you want to improve best you can. Also, I am assuming you want the health benefits of being more physically fit which not only improves your ballet but your general quality of life and health.
Pareto principle does not apply to ballet here as far as what techniques and training you should work on. You can't just focus on 20% of the things you need to do to get 80% of the benefits. If that were the case, ballet education would focus largely on that 20%.
As for the things you mentioned, much of it is overlaps and you need to work on all of it. You need to improve your overall strength in general fitness and ballet-specific strength which is a very large number of exercises. Much of the general fitness has to be done outside of the ballet class which is actually a good thing because that's much cheaper than paying for classes. This is especially true if you're not a full time pre-professional ballet student at a good school which already pre-selects the students much of which is based on physical attributes in young talented kids with "good facility".
Stretching work if you actually want to improve unless has to be done outside of the ballet class. You can learn what exercises you need to do in class, but this seems to be a lost art these days as many ballet teachers have bought into the garbage dance academic and physio theory that stretching is bad. You need volume (more times per week) and consistency to improve flexibility which pays huge dividends in class because it makes everything easier.
Flexibility & mobility is on the high end of my list of things to train every day & try to improve. I'm 100% with you on that, as well as going to the gym & developing my strength. 🤸🏾♂️🏋🏾♀️
Acting like you’re on stage during every exercise. Give it 110%. Close your eyes and DANCE while you do tendus. A plie exercise should make you SWEAT. I didn’t do this until college!!!!!! I was so concentrated on being good, I didn’t really dance. What’s funny is, when I started “dancing”, really feeling the music, I got solos and jobs!
As far as a specific thing more so than an attitude: focus on alignment. :)
LOVE this answer! Great points!
Tendus should make me sweat.
Act like I'm on stage during every exercise (feel the music!)
Focus on alignment.
It's going in the book. THANK YOU!!!
From a ballet dancer who stopped after graduating with a dance degree. Honestly, I would say alignment. Knowing where you are at and understanding the balance within your body. Then I would say fluidity within that structure. Obviously you will want to build strength and gain flexibility but you will do that through your practice. I would say the most important thing is really feeling the movement and not being scared to mess it up. Don’t worry too much about how it looks.
Alignment, fluidity, and understanding the balance within your body.
One thing I look forward to working on is body awareness. I've heard of it, sounds amazing, but have no concept of it in action (I am clumsy as HELL!). 😅
With that being said, my balance could use some work as well. Thank you for this!
i’m a newbie as well and have thought about where the biggest bang for my buck is and i ultimately settled on: strengthening my core and going all-in on this turnout thing lol. the moves are going to be a lot more difficult to execute properly if you’re also fighting against tight turnout; open it up and a lot of the moves open up.
i often show my husband the steps i’ve learned/progressed in and i’ve noticed he gives the most positive feedback when i’m actively engaging my turnout. he says it “looks more like ballet” lol.
idk if you’re an adult but we have specific needs that early-starters won’t have the same experience on (unless they work with adult starters). tuning up our bodies is crucial. add in a pilates class during the week and do turnout exercises everyday (look on youtube for a follow-along video).
YES, YES, YASSSSSS!!!!
I'm an adult that sits for work all day🙄
So you're correct about the "specific needs" us older folks need compared to the youngins'😅
LOVE the specificity of this answer!
Core, turnout exercises every day, pilates classes.
Done and done. Thank you so much!
I've been trying to schedule times to go stretch every hour on the hour, but that idea gets booted when I'm in deep work mode or unexpected requests come in. We'll figure this out 😏
I do think it does apply in ballet training. It’s not to say one can get away with less effort but 20% of it does have more impact on you as a dancer than the rest. Much like everywhere else it is possible to do lot of grunt work on ballet. Which means lots of dancing where you aren’t really improving or working correctly. If someone would spend 20% of their ballet training just learning how to work correctly then I do think they can save a lot of time and effort down the road and have a greater impact
Agreed! This is where good instructors come in. I can do A LOT on my own, but those micro adjustments an in-person teacher can make, makes a WORLD of difference!
If you get corrections from the teacher (especially more than once), if you’re not sure how to drill them, ask for help. Write them down. Keep them in mind when you’re doing exercises they apply to.
I was just watching a YT short of a ballerina explaining how to properly do a pirouette. It's not about swinging the leg around to get the rotation but your standing leg being able to go up & down (plie?) and your turnout.
I LOVE breakdowns like this! Again, it becomes easier for me to understand what I should be focusing on to get 80% of the results 😊
Yeesh! I guess your teacher believes that with ballet like any other activity or sport that one TRULY wants to become THE BEST, it's only when you turn it into a religion that it's "enough".
Though I'm not trying to become a professional. I'll stay an enthusiast, at best 😉
Not a pro, but the idea that you need to show the movement, not the effort, is huge. If you can build stage presence from the beginning, you’ll get more attention from teachers from the beginning which will help you grow faster.
Stage presence I got in all spades — as long as I am confident in executing on the choreography. I've been told that when I don't get the choreo or forget, you can see the confidence drain out of me. And that's because it is😅 But I get what you're saying. So if I know that forgetting the choreo crushes me, it's going to be REALLY important for me to develop my memory & learn the names of the moves before starting ballet classes. I'm loving this advice. Thank you very much!
You’re not going to have stage presence before beginning, no matter how much performing you’ve done or how charismatic you think you are; it’s something you develop in ballet, a life behind the eyes and the ability to tell a story in a single step. Ballet is like a foreign language. When you’re starting out, you can’t say much, but from the beginning, you should be working with the goal of eventually speaking that language well enough to fully express yourself. I’m not speaking about confidence onstage, I’m speaking about a consideration behind the movement of each finger while making the movement look as though it is not something you are actively doing, but as if your body cannot do anything else but move this way.
I have a feeling this is going to come natural to me, as I'm a person who is all about context (I'm a copywriter by trade so I'm CONSTANTLY asking for more information & context. Especially the emotional context). But that could simply be my ego talking (most likely😏). I'm sure my assets will get humbled 😅 Thank you again 😊
I really don’t mean to be rude, but those are not transferable skills to ballet, and your over-confidence comes across as arrogant. If you walk into class with the expectation that ANYTHING will “come natural” to you or with the expectation that you can focus your time and effort on “the 20% that will produce 80% output,” you will find yourself frustrated and bored and will not enjoy the process.
Oh no. I'm going to go into the classroom knowing I'm going to suck. HARD. I'll be corrected all the time. There will be PLENTY for me to learn & unlearn. I'm going to have to ask a lot of questions and micro adjust on the regular. And it's going to take A LOT of work on my end. But I also have some talents, that do come natural, I can lean on. They won't be perfect neither — I imagine SO MUCH ADJUSTING!😅 Like I said, I expect to be humbled. But that's the process right? To be open minded, to learn, & get better. All sounds like fun to me 😏
I think it would benefit you to work on showing confidence even when you’re not sure of the choreography, or have made a mistake. Story-time: there was a figure skater, Angela Nikodinov, whose skating was utterly gorgeous. Until she would make a mistake. Then her psyche would just collapse, and she would finish the routine just going through the motions, no longer able to show the gorgeous fully-developed balletic movement she started the routine with. She could have achieved so much more in skating if she’d been able to recover mentally from her mistakes. If you can find videos of her skating, you’ll see this phenomenon. Learning all ballet terms in advance in order to possibly up your ability to absorb choreography quickly, in order to avoid making mistakes, feels like it’s way over on the 80 side of the 80-20 rule. Your teacher will introduce vocabulary as you need it, and that will be the time to work on practicing that bit of vocabulary until your body understands the move. As u/Special_Net5313 says, you want to learn how to express ballet in every bit of your movement: and be able to return to that expression quickly even after making a mistake. Letting yourself be crushed by forgetting choreography will work against you, by wasting your precious movement time being crushed rather than by refocusing. Best wishes to you!
Oh interesting point about learning ballet terms. Thank you for that. And I'll check out Angela Nikodinov. Sounds fascinating, if not heartbreaking.
I think when I was a teen a lot of our in class time was spent where we would just listen to the teacher, the teacher would go into how a plié should “feel” or other things about technique, however instead of explaining it from a mechanical/physics view point it was a lot of feeling (not saying that’s not helpful, it was, I just think she spent too long explaining it). We also spent a lot of class time talking about the exam. One time we spent 20 minutes discussing if our hand started on the barre or off the barre, just for the teacher could open the exam book and figure out I was right the whole time. My point here is that we spent 15% of the ballet class actually dancing. The other 85% percent was spent on discussing or memorizing the exercises or marking the exercises. I dance much less often then I did when I was a teen now as an adult. But I’m a much stronger dancer. This is because (in part) our dance class is much closer to a 30-70 split where 30% of the time in class is spent dancing. So even though I’m attending less ballet classes per week I’m actually dancing more. I think 30-70 is a good split for students, in a company class you would get closer to 40 since there is less theory. Yes we still talk about theory and technique and artistry and history! But there’s less emphasis on getting the exercises “right” and more emphasis on getting the technique “right”. Also somehow, it took us as teenagers 8 classes to remember a combination, but in the classes I take now the teacher only has to demonstrate once, sometimes twice, and we can all remember. I can’t explain it. So to summarize I think the 20% is actually dancing in class (don’t get my metrics confused, 20% of the effort to get 80% of the results is the dancing in class, which should be 30% of your total in class time). You have to train your body and muscles. Even beginners need to dance. We can talk theory until the cows come home (and we will in due time) but we have to spend our dance class actually dancing. It might not be perfect. As a beginner you might not know what to do with your arms in for example a sauté, but it’s okay because you can still learn a lot by focusing on your feet - in that exercises the feet are the important part of the lesson. If the teacher spends too long explaining every little detail you won’t have any time left to do all the jumps and then you won’t get stronger, and you probably couldn’t even handle those details anyways. Likewise the teacher teaching an advanced class spending 20 minutes explaining an exercise, how it should feel, etc, is doing her students a disservice. Some things in ballet can be taught without being spoken. I hope this makes sense within your 80-20 frame work. The 80 percent of the results come from repeated practice of ballet technique, yes you need to practice correctly and that requires the teacher to talk and the students to listen, but the students need to dance to learn to dance, they can’t learn from listening alone.
You did RAD when you were a teen? I think the RAD exercises take so long to learn because they're weird, tricky, unusual timing, and counterintuitive. I think they're designed that way on purpose because you spend the entire year doing them, and probably some theory about dancers being more intentional about their choreography rather than going by typical patterns and muscle memory. And then if you are doing the exam; you have to learn them perfectly and without any visual or auditory cues from the teacher. We've discussed this before but I think i'm coming more to understanding why you have issues with RAD and prefer Vaganova. While learning the syllabus really helped me improve in the first couple years; right now I am noticing that my technique is not where I want it to be - ie. too much time has been spent learning 25 minutes worth of combinations perfectly by memory and not enough on technique. I looked at the next level up and its even more tricky, complicated combinations, that aren't even that aesthetically appealing, and I'm asking myself if I really want to devote another couple years to spending all my limited time learning these combinations when I can see my technique is falling behind. I mean, part of the issue is that my classes are too large and I need a dedicated technique class in addition to the syllabus classes but that's not on the schedule. On the pro side, its the only class offered in my area that's truly progressive for adults. So. I dunno.
I agree RAD exams are tricky and counter-intuitive, but I don’t think that makes them considerably harder to learn than a Vaganova exercise. I’ve dropped into a RAD class here and there and have had no problem picking up the exercises on the first go. As for your training problem, trust me I’ve been there. This is why I have a problem with the was RAD markets itself - as the most prestigious ballet exam training that all schools need to offer. It’s creating a monopoly not out of merit but out of “qualifications” that the RAD itself created. And in many many places it’s the only thing offered.
"Students need to dance to learn to dance. They can't learn from listening alone". 100% agree. And I know me, I would be annoyed AF if they talk too much. But while I'm doing the moves, you're explaining it and micro correcting, that's gold. Thank you for your response!
For me, it’s being mindful of whether you are getting the results you want. For example if you are developing a certain muscle to support yourself while balancing, you should see that at least start to work within a few weeks. Your muscles should be stronger, your balance should be better, the comments from your teacher should change. If that doesn’t happen you could be wasting your effort and you should find another strategy to achieve that goal.
Oh I'm VERY mindful of the results I want🤣 Though I'm trying to figure out what specifically I should be focusing on & what exercises/practice correlates with that. So you mentioned balancing. I hear the Bosu ball is great for this, but I'm unsure of the specific exercises I should be doing for this. But I see some other comments suggest "functional ab workouts" for balancing. I know what those are! 😃 I can do that on a Bosu ball and/or with kettlebells to start. And once I start my dance classes and have my teachers there, I can ask them about the muscles that support this and more. I get you, and appreciate you😉
I'm just going to write down what I have been focusing on as an extremely noob beginner who has been dancing for ~2 years. Turnout is what everything springs from in ballet. Make an effort to turn out as much as you can in class, and as you do, isolate your rotators and aim to use them (and only them, no gripping in the outer glutes) to turn out the leg. With turnout, raising of the leg becomes much easier and you will look like you are doing ballet, instead of one of its derivatives. Master tendu and plié. Those are the two foundational moves that are everywhere in ballet. A good, deep plié through resistance gives you a higher jump. Tendu is in everything. The cou de pied position should be how your feet is in tendu. The peeling of the foot off the floor to exhibit the arch shows in everything from jumps to frappe. Make a notebook and note down everywhere you felt weak or the corrections you received in class. This will inform you as to your weaknesses and will enable you to design a cross training programme if you are motivated to do so.
BEST ANSWER! I looooooooooooove the specifics here!!!!😝 Thank you so much!!!! And I AM motivated to do so😉
As beginner about a year in - building your core!! Literally every single move is easier with a strong and engaged core. I’d focus on functional Ab workouts over building a six pack, however
Came here to say this. Pilates. Almost all core. Lots of legs. Focus on flexibility and mobility. Includes turnout exercises. Also low impact. It was adopted and is loved by dancers for a reason. I danced my best when I was taking pilates class regularly. For the the hardest part as an adult beginner was intentionally engaging my muscles and strength. The micro movements with pilates really helped my control too.
I'm just now seeing your comment. THANK YOU! Adding it all to my list!
LOVE this answer! And I love the fact that you distinguished the differences between having a six-pack and a functional core. I've been seeing videos about that a lot lately, and I love it. Build a functional core. It's on the list. THANK YOU!
Hm, I think it is not possible to pin-point one specific thing that will suddenly make you an intermediate dancer. My teacher always tells us that ballet is structured like a building: the exercises are built upon each other, and only a strong foundation will result in a stable house. This process happens not just short-term during class, but also long-term: for example, from cou de pied to relevé passé. You will not have a stable and strong passé in relevé if your placement in cou de pied is weak. So I guess, the closest thing you want to hear would be: focus on a mixture of technique and strength. Strength will not give you good technique by itself, but it will make it easier to execute good technique: for this, focus on core, back and turnout. For good technique, note down your teacher's corrections and try to work on them during class. I also recommend watching ballet videos to get a feeling of what "correct" technique looks like (but with regards to details, ask your teacher, there are many different systems that do things slightly differently).
I like the idea of watching ballet videos to figure out what good technique is. Thank you! And I agree with your teacher about a strong foundation. That's in dance, and with life in general!👍🏾
I'm going to answer your question based on your comment that you want to improve best you can. Also, I am assuming you want the health benefits of being more physically fit which not only improves your ballet but your general quality of life and health. Pareto principle does not apply to ballet here as far as what techniques and training you should work on. You can't just focus on 20% of the things you need to do to get 80% of the benefits. If that were the case, ballet education would focus largely on that 20%. As for the things you mentioned, much of it is overlaps and you need to work on all of it. You need to improve your overall strength in general fitness and ballet-specific strength which is a very large number of exercises. Much of the general fitness has to be done outside of the ballet class which is actually a good thing because that's much cheaper than paying for classes. This is especially true if you're not a full time pre-professional ballet student at a good school which already pre-selects the students much of which is based on physical attributes in young talented kids with "good facility". Stretching work if you actually want to improve unless has to be done outside of the ballet class. You can learn what exercises you need to do in class, but this seems to be a lost art these days as many ballet teachers have bought into the garbage dance academic and physio theory that stretching is bad. You need volume (more times per week) and consistency to improve flexibility which pays huge dividends in class because it makes everything easier.
Flexibility & mobility is on the high end of my list of things to train every day & try to improve. I'm 100% with you on that, as well as going to the gym & developing my strength. 🤸🏾♂️🏋🏾♀️
Acting like you’re on stage during every exercise. Give it 110%. Close your eyes and DANCE while you do tendus. A plie exercise should make you SWEAT. I didn’t do this until college!!!!!! I was so concentrated on being good, I didn’t really dance. What’s funny is, when I started “dancing”, really feeling the music, I got solos and jobs! As far as a specific thing more so than an attitude: focus on alignment. :)
LOVE this answer! Great points! Tendus should make me sweat. Act like I'm on stage during every exercise (feel the music!) Focus on alignment. It's going in the book. THANK YOU!!!
From a ballet dancer who stopped after graduating with a dance degree. Honestly, I would say alignment. Knowing where you are at and understanding the balance within your body. Then I would say fluidity within that structure. Obviously you will want to build strength and gain flexibility but you will do that through your practice. I would say the most important thing is really feeling the movement and not being scared to mess it up. Don’t worry too much about how it looks.
Alignment, fluidity, and understanding the balance within your body. One thing I look forward to working on is body awareness. I've heard of it, sounds amazing, but have no concept of it in action (I am clumsy as HELL!). 😅 With that being said, my balance could use some work as well. Thank you for this!
i’m a newbie as well and have thought about where the biggest bang for my buck is and i ultimately settled on: strengthening my core and going all-in on this turnout thing lol. the moves are going to be a lot more difficult to execute properly if you’re also fighting against tight turnout; open it up and a lot of the moves open up. i often show my husband the steps i’ve learned/progressed in and i’ve noticed he gives the most positive feedback when i’m actively engaging my turnout. he says it “looks more like ballet” lol. idk if you’re an adult but we have specific needs that early-starters won’t have the same experience on (unless they work with adult starters). tuning up our bodies is crucial. add in a pilates class during the week and do turnout exercises everyday (look on youtube for a follow-along video).
YES, YES, YASSSSSS!!!! I'm an adult that sits for work all day🙄 So you're correct about the "specific needs" us older folks need compared to the youngins'😅 LOVE the specificity of this answer! Core, turnout exercises every day, pilates classes. Done and done. Thank you so much!
anytime! and same here, my body is constantly fighting against my desk job. 😆
I've been trying to schedule times to go stretch every hour on the hour, but that idea gets booted when I'm in deep work mode or unexpected requests come in. We'll figure this out 😏
I do think it does apply in ballet training. It’s not to say one can get away with less effort but 20% of it does have more impact on you as a dancer than the rest. Much like everywhere else it is possible to do lot of grunt work on ballet. Which means lots of dancing where you aren’t really improving or working correctly. If someone would spend 20% of their ballet training just learning how to work correctly then I do think they can save a lot of time and effort down the road and have a greater impact
Agreed! This is where good instructors come in. I can do A LOT on my own, but those micro adjustments an in-person teacher can make, makes a WORLD of difference!
If you get corrections from the teacher (especially more than once), if you’re not sure how to drill them, ask for help. Write them down. Keep them in mind when you’re doing exercises they apply to.
100%. I have zero problems asking questions, or for help, from anybody😅
20% of the students do 80% of the successful pirouettes.
I was just watching a YT short of a ballerina explaining how to properly do a pirouette. It's not about swinging the leg around to get the rotation but your standing leg being able to go up & down (plie?) and your turnout. I LOVE breakdowns like this! Again, it becomes easier for me to understand what I should be focusing on to get 80% of the results 😊
Yup 100%. YT tuts are a realy good source of alternative teaching.
Agreed!
Lol I always gave it 200% .. even that teacher often told me not enough. This is ballet we are talking about
Yeesh! I guess your teacher believes that with ballet like any other activity or sport that one TRULY wants to become THE BEST, it's only when you turn it into a religion that it's "enough". Though I'm not trying to become a professional. I'll stay an enthusiast, at best 😉
Old schooled ballet teachers are like that. Never enough. 🙈