TECHNIQUE TIPS TO IMPROVE TURNS

 

Photo by Maharet Hughes

Turns and spins may look effortless on stage, but the components that go into them are many, and sooo much more than just moving through space.

When I first started dancing, turns seemed like an elusive, unreachable goal.  I knew nothing about the mechanics involved... and all too often, I found myself in classes where it wasn’t properly broken down, either. It seems that outside of beginning ballet classes, it’s just assumed that dancers already have the foundation technique or innate ability to execute a turn-or series of turns- and that’s simply not true!

 To begin with, clean well-executed turns of any kind all start with balance. 

Achieving and maintaining the center of gravity in the body is crucial to dance in general, and specifically for turning. This sense of stability activates three different parts of our physical bodies, and they must work together, constantly shifting and adjusting to make up the clean execution of turn technique.

 The first is our vestibular system, located in the inner ear. Without getting too scientific, it’s the primary place that controls our ability to move our bodies. The vestibular system sends messages to our brains about kinetics, or the ability to fuse movement with balance.  This is why people affected with inner ear problems or an ear infection often experience vertigo or dizziness.

The second is our motor control skills, which govern the interaction between our brains and our muscles, bones and tendons. The motor system sends cognitive information from the central nervous system to our musculoskeletal system, enabling us to perform every day movements and tasks…and to dance.

The third component is the ocular or visual system, which not only allows us to see, but registers depth perception and physical orientation. Of course, the eyes send info to our brains when we dance. It’s important to know that during a turn, unless you’re a crackerjack at spotting, your eyes won’t be fixed on a certain point, putting your equilibrium a little out of whack.

 All three of these  bodily systems work together as reflexes to aid our proprioception, or the sense of our physical body in space. A common example of the use of proprioception (or lack of it!)  is the field sobriety sobriety test where an offer commands a potential offender to close their eyes while standing on one foot and touching their nose? A sober person can usually do this easily, but someone who is impaired or intoxicated cannot.

Ok, so now that you’ve got a little background, let’s move on to some exercises that will get you turning like a champ.

Develop Your Proprioception

 In my classes, to demonstrate what proprioceptive orientation is, I ask my students to close their eyes, extend their arms, and stand on one foot for as long as they can.   Some can do it for an extended time naturally, while others start to sway and waver… while sober!  Proprioception works almost without any visual cues, it’s our body’s sense of “righting” itself. The good news is that by doing exercise better proprioception skills can be developed.

Improve Your Balance

 Check and see where your weight is by rising slowly up onto the balls of your feet and maintaining the position for as long as you can. Notice where the brunt of the weight is. If it’s on the outside of your foot, towards the small toe, that’s showing a weakness in your ankles. This position is not optimal for turning, and it could potentially injure you. A “classic” Dancer’s Sprain occurs when the foot rolls over onto the outside edge, during dancing or any type of day-to-day activity.

 Try this exercise to get your weight placed properly:

 With feet just under your hips, rise up slowly onto the balls of the foot, pressing your toes into the floor. Keep your weight over the middle of each foot, and a little towards the big toe. Hold this position for at least eight counts, and slowly lower down to the floor. If you need to, use a ballet barre, a chair or even a wall or doorframe to maintain stability.  Hold on as lightly as possible, trying to let your body do most of the work. Repeat at least four times, slow and steady.

  Another exercise is to stand with the feet hip width apart. Pick up one foot- not too far off the ground- while making sure the foot you’re standing on has equal weight distribution between the ball and the heel. Hold in place for at least thirty seconds, before switching to the other foot. Repeat.

Strengthen And Stabilize Problem Areas

  Even though we dance constantly, all of us are stronger in certain areas…and those areas over-compensate for where we are weaker. One of the most notoriously weak areas for many dancers (of all genres) is in the hip. My chiropractor taught me these strengthening and stabilizing the hips.

  The first is to strengthen the calves. Stand on a staircase and lightly hold the railing, stand on one step with the toes and ball of both feet on the stair itself. Raise both feet to releve’ position, hold for sixteen counts, then as slowly as possible, lower the feet so that the heels are pointing downwards, towards the next lower step.  Repeat at least four times. This will strengthen your calves and give a nice stretch to your hamstrings, too.

For he second exercise on the stairs, turn sideways to face the railing, holding it lightly, keeping the knees soft. Keep one foot on the step itself, and slowly lower the other foot towards the next step. If this is difficult, your hip is weak; you also might notice that one side is stronger than the other. Repeat the exercise on both sides at least four times initially, building slowly towards eight, then twelve repetitions.

Find Your Weight Placement For Turning

 Practice each turn in its most basic form; even if you think you’ve mastered it already.  This will help you with the “intention” of the turn, and burn it into your muscle memory. Do the turn in slow motion on flat feet, planting each foot firmly down onto the floor before taking the next step. Next, do the same thing, but with your eyes closed. After you’ve repeated these movements a few times, do the turn full speed and you should notice a marked improvement.

Engage Your Core While Turning

 While we perform or rehearse, we are in dance posture:  spine elongated, abs engaged, ribcage lifted, shoulders back and down. But sometimes in class or during solitary practice, we forget our posture because we are so focused on mastering technique. In order to execute a great turn, keeping dance posture is essential…and that includes keeping your core tightly engaged. This will provide you with far better bodylines, and provide an essential center of gravity.

Learn To Spot

 Spotting keeps the dancer’s eyes and heads oriented in a certain place to alleviate dizziness and to enhance control during turning.   The way it works is that a fixed focus for the eyes will help you to keep control and retain your balance. While the actual turn is happening, the dancer’s body will rotate at a certain speed… but the goal of spotting is to have the head actually get through the rotation a little more quickly, in order to control the direction of the turn or series of turns.

Spotting is simply the act of focusing on a certain spot while turning.  To practice spotting, pick a location on a wall or the studio mirror, and practice turning very slowly, beginning and ending each turn with your eyes on the place you’ve picked as your spotting point.

 If you practice these techniques, your turns should show a marked advancement in a fairly short time.

  Happy dancing!

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF DANCE CLASSES: APPROACHING LEARNING WITH INTENTION

The chorus at the London Palladium, 1950's

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 Most of us attend dance classes and workshops regularly, and many of us also teach them.  It goes without saying that for dancers, being a perpetual student- no matter what your level- expanding your horizons and pushing your physical boundaries is what it’s all about!  We take classes for a variety of reasons: to improve our technique, to learn a certain choreography or a new style, to hone aspects of a dance genre that we already perform, because we get a chance to study with a local or visiting master, or just because we need to move.

 Because dance presents a challenge that is mental as well as physical, we can never truly stop learning.  And of course, if you want to push yourself, you should take as many classes as possible.  But that’s not always the case.  Sometimes, entering the studio for class with a specific intention in mind will help you grow even more as a dancer. Taking classes to consciously improve on your weaker areas will ultimately make you a stronger dancer.

Sometimes I’ve spoken with dance instructors who are hesitant to take workshops alongside their students, for fear of looking bad.  While that might be a somewhat valid consideration, the main point is that nobody should feel bad about learning!  It’s also a terrific way to set a model for your students, showing them that there is no limit to improving themselves. This is especially true if they’re at that “advanced intermediate” stage where they think they know it all; you know, that little peak that occurs before they find out that there will never be enough hours…or years…or decades to learn everything?  Learning humility and being open to challenges are as much a part of dancing as the movements themselves!

The way I see it, there are many and varied reasons for taking classes, but if you define your purpose for going to a particular class, you’ll get a lot more out of it.

Here’s the way I break down my own needs and what I want to accomplish by taking certain classes:

Technique Maintenance And Improvement

 There are no boundaries for improving your technique- there’s always something new to learn. Longtime professionals and famous dancers take classes often, if not daily, for this reason alone. Just look at any ballet company-everyday classes are mandatory. Did Mikhail Baryshnikov and Suzanne Farrell ever skip a day at the barre? Probably not. Did Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire slack off on rehearsing cause they had better things to do? Doubtful. Though great dance technique is not strictly Use It Or Lose It, the more you actually use it, the better it will be!

No matter what level dancer you are, the experience of being in a class solely to hone your technique will make you a better dancer. While practicing or rehearsing on our own, we strive and sweat and get things done. But knowing that  in class, you are  performing under the watchful eye of an instructor is different- it pushes us to  focus and work a little harder…and to accept corrections or make little tweaks in execution that we might not have noticed on our own.

Learning And Inspiration

 Nothing gets a dancer’s brain synapses firing like learning a new style. We want it all, and we want it now! Many studies have proven that dancing of any kind helps to increase cognitive abilities in people of all ages…and most of them have shown that dancing was the only physical activity that actually staves off Alzheimer’s!

 Aside from that, learning a new type of dance or being inspired by another dancer’s interpretation is thrilling.  The movement differentiation that comes with studying a new dance form is a welcome challenge and is usually lots of fun.  If you’re used to soloing, try a partner dance like tango, swing or square dancing.  If you’re trained in classical ballet, test-drive some street dancing.

 Even if you’re studying a genre you’re already familiar with, seeing how another dancer-the one you’re learning from- moves will motivate you to look at your own technique in a whole new way. Often, breaking out of our own personal boxes and becoming an eager newbie once again will stimulate our creativity and encourage us to excel both in class and in our own familiar genre of dance.

Improving Retention And Sharpening Motor Skills

Some of us prefer choreography to improvisation or vice-versa, but for right now, that’s a moot point. Taking a choreography class (or learning a choreography for a show) is a terrific way to think on your feet, improve your cognitive abilities and aid your retention skills. For many of us, memorizing  choreographed sequences or intricate combinations is a bit of a downfall, but the good news is that with time and practice, you get better at it. This occurs because your brain is actually learning this process through repetition.  Once you’ve mastered this type of study- even unconsciously- it makes it much easier for your brain to apply this skill in the future.

 Another plus is that every time you learn a choreography that someone else has written, you’re opened up to a whole new way of seeing and hearing things. Even in a dance genre you’re quite familiar with, musicality  (and personal style) is a highly individual thing, there’s not any right or wrong. It’s stimulating to see that everyone hears the music-and interprets the phrases-differently. While you might think of hitting accents at a certain point in a musical composition, another dancer might slide right through them and save the dynamic rhythmic references for elsewhere.  At first this might be maddening, because we've learned to rely on own instincts, but ultimately it’s refreshing. When you become used to these little  “surprises” by working with a number of new choreographies, it opens up a world of new possibilities, by breaking down any conscious or unconscious preconceived notions you have about dancing. Even if you never plan on performing the piece you’re learning, it helps you to grow as an artist.

 Advancing Performance Abilities

 As I said before, everyone hears music differently, but they also feel, respond to and interpret it in their own individual ways. This can be an incredible learning experience for you, too. By witnessing someone else emoting to a composition, whether it’s a set gesture done as part of choreography or just a fleeting, genuine moment of emotion, it can be quite illuminating.

If you’re learning or enhancing an ethnic dance genre, such as belly dance, flamenco or samba, watching your instructor respond to the music itself- or lyrics that are sung in a foreign language-is invaluable. The classes you take to improve your performance skills don’t even have to be movement-oriented. I always recommend acting classes or workshops to my students, because they get you in tune with accessing your emotions and will help you to build confidence for your non-verbal performances in dance. 

Last but not least, the more familiar and comfortable you become with  your own dancing, the easier it will be to let the music move you and let your unique feelings shine through…and that is  the key to what makes a good dancer a great dancer.

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Photo and graphics by Maharet Hughes

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PRIVATE DANCER: THE BENEFITS OF PRIVATE INSTRUCTION

 Many dancers think private lessons are a luxury they can’t readily afford, but private instruction is almost always worth the extra cash.

When you have one-on-one time with a teacher, you’ll likely to find that you learn much more than you would in a group class. In group situations, there often isn’t enough time for individual attention- and this goes double for crowded workshops with sought-after teachers! The personal, tailored-to-you instruction of a private session will address both your weakest and strongest points, which is something that doesn’t always occur in a classroom situation.

Private lessons move along at your pace- not the group pace. This makes privates ideal for accelerated students.  Many classes and workshops, while not exactly being “dumbed down”, definitely cater to the average student, and while a superlative dancer will still get something out of the class, continued instruction on a common denominator level may not be challenging enough  let that student excel to the greatest  height of their potential. Students who need some remedial assistance will also benefit from privates for completely the opposite reason- the class they are in (perhaps the only one available to them) moves much too quickly, causing frustration or even making the student want to  throw in the towel and give up.

  Privates also address curriculum that may not be covered in group classes, honing specific aspects of the student’s repertoire, such as working on a choreography or competition preparation.  Every so often, I get requests from absolute beginners who want private lessons, but I almost always urge the baby dancer to try group classes first.   For a beginner, a group class situation isn’t only a technique-based learning experience, it also allows the newbie to see a range of talent amongst their peers, and gives access to the   mindset, culture and social aspects of serious dancing. In my opinion, private coaching is optimal when it focuses more upon improving existing technique, challenging the student to stretch her (or his) boundaries.

That being said, any way you’d like to learn is fine, and if you can afford private instruction from the start, then go for it!

 Here are a few sound reasons to invest in private sessions:

You’re preparing for a competition

You’re choreographing a professional piece for a theater show

You want to really enhance and/or define your own personal style

You need to learn or refine your technique in a dance genre that’s new to you

 You have a chance to study with a professional who does not live in your area

You-or your troupe-want to learn a specific choreography

The group classes you are attending are too far above or below your level of achievement

 You want to learn something that isn’t being taught in your regular group classes, such as emoting on stage, marketing, or a different style of dance

You cannot find group classes that have a good fit with your non-dance schedule

  It’s my belief that privates are beneficial – almost mandatory- for dancers who’d like to move their careers ahead, and for those who are professionals- or about to go pro.  So many things can be addressed!  And I also think that often, a private with a competent instructor is worth about three to five group classes….  But that’s just my two cents!

 If you are already a professional, the lessons can be counted as a tax write off; if you’re thinking of becoming a professional, the individual instruction will be invaluable to your career.

No matter what way you cut it, privates are worth every penny you spend on them!

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BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN: RETURNING TO DANCE AFTER TAKING A BREAK

Happy New Year!

Since many of us have taken a holiday break, I thought the first post of 2015 ought to be about getting back into the swing of things dance-wise. Sure, many dancers work during the holidays- and I am one of them- but still, all that un-structured downtime, studio holiday closures and…well, yeah… all those sweet treats we’ve indulged in do take their toll! You show up for class, rehearsal or a show and mentally, you’re rarin’ to go, but the next day you feel like you’ve been run over by a truck. Why? It’s because you’re a dancer living in a body that- even if it’s only been a few days- has gotten used to sitting at a table swathed in a cozy fleece onsie munching on leftovers and drinking booze!

Of course, this doesn’t only apply to the holidays… you could be getting over an injury, illness, or maybe you’ve had a surgery- or a child! In any case, bouncing back after being sidelined for a while     ( even a little while) might not be as easy as you thought it was going to be.

 Here are some ideas that might make the transition a little easier for you.

  Go Easy At First

  By that, I mean cut yourself some slack… but I don’t mean slacking off! Acknowledge the fact that you haven’t trained for a while and take things slowly.  Whether you’ve been gone for a few days or a few weeks or months, ease back into dancing.  Your brain thinks it can do what you were capable of, and your muscle memory probably does too- but your physical body might not exactly be down with that concept…yet.  Test the waters a little; you definitely don’t want to be so gung-ho that you injure yourself in the process of trying to prove yourself.

If you’ve been out because of an injury, make sure you’ve followed your doctor’s orders to the letter.  If you were prescribed physical therapy, make sure you’ve completed your course before you even think of returning to class or performing.

 Any medical restrictions that have been placed on your dancing due to injury are there for a reason, and that reason is to insure you are healthy enough to continue   your dance practice!

Prepare Yourself Physically…And Emotionally

Be sure to warm up completely- this should be your regular M.O. anyway, but many of us just kinda skip over this process, because it seems so tedious.

 It’s not.

Warming up is integral to being a healthy dancer, as is cooling down- especially after you’ve taken a break!  Maybe you need a longer warm up than you did previously. If so, go with it.  Remember, even a scant few days out of the game can make a big difference, so do some light cardio before stretching- your tight tendons and lazy, underworked muscles will thank you profusely!

Emotional preparation is in order right now too. That means accepting your situation- no guilt, no shame, no little inner voice cutting you down cause you can't shimmy or turn, gained a few pounds or don’t have the stamina to last as long as you did before you took some time off.  Now’s the time to be your own cheerleader, not your worst critic! You want to motivate- not denigrate- yourself  back to work.

 Remind yourself that it can often be frustrating as you return to peak condition, so be gentle on yourself emotionally. Whose the meanest boss in the world? You are. Fire that slave driver and have your own personal Human Resource Department hire a compassionate coach who can see your potential and help you get back into fighting shape in a positive way, ok?

Work Hard…But Work Safe

 When you return to your “regularly scheduled program”, do the absolute best that you can, but do it safely.  It’s always better to err on the side of caution than push your boundaries a little too far. Remind yourself that this situation will change soon. Allow your body to re-familiarize itself with your dance practice.  Remember, our muscles don’t listen to reason. If you over-do it, the only way they know how to protest is by shutting down…going into spasm, or (yikes) getting strained or torn.  Let them know whose boss, but baby them! Soon, they’ll once again be your obedient servants.

 Last but definitely not least, remind yourself that  your situation is temporary, it will pass…and you’ll be back to where you were sooner than you thought you’d be!

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