Reflections in Sequins and Satin

Frankie Manning (1914–2009) staged and performed numbers across four continents, arranged choreography for seven films and opened for major musical acts like Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and Nat King Cole. He made the acquaintance of Queen Elizabeth and won the 1989 Tony Award for his choreography in the musical Black and Blue. His high-spirited dance style has produced fan-favorite swing routines on “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” (he even received a shout-out from “SYTYCD” judge Mary Murphy on Season 6)—but does his name ring a bell? Unless you love Lindy hop, it probably does not.

The man with the million-dollar smile who came of age during the Harlem Renaissance should be as familiar as Fred Astaire. But Manning was not driven by fame or money. He was a self-taught dancer enthralled with the Lindy Hop, a hyperkinetic swing dance that evolved at Harlem’s famed Savoy Ballroom during the 1920s and ’30s. His predecessors built Lindy hop from a ragout of social dances, like the black bottom, Charleston, mess around, blues, collegiate and breakaway, all popular when dance clubs and big bands ruled the night. But it was Manning who developed the style-defining air steps (lifts), synchronized routines, sharp angles and low-to-the-ground stance that transformed Lindy hop into a major American ballroom dance craze.

Harlem Beginnings

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Manning moved to Harlem with his mother when he was 3. As a child, he soaked up the dancing done by his mother and friends at house parties, and as a teenager, he discovered Lindy hop at New York City’s Alhambra Ballroom. Around 1933, Manning entered dance competition king Shorty Snowden’s territory—the Savoy Ballroom, ground zero for Lindy hop. (Snowden named the dance in reference to Charles “Lindy” Lindbergh’s 1927 solo “hop” across the Atlantic.) In the Harlem club, the best dancers burned up the floor in an area called “Kat’s Korner.” It was here where Manning’s dancing first gained attention, especially his unique Lindy hop. He projected his upper body forward like a plane taking off, and engaged his partner face to face and at arm’s length, thus giving greater space for improvisation. He danced so hard that the veins bulged across his skull, earning him the nickname Musclehead.

In 1935, Manning and then-partner Frieda Washington unveiled their now-famous aerial step, the “Over-the-Back”—an acrobatic move where one partner’s feet leave the ground completely. As Manning flipped Washington over his head, thrilling the huge crowd, a Savoy bouncer named Herbert “Whitey” White saw gold. Whitey organized Manning and other Lindy hoppers to perform as opening acts at major venues. Upon being contracted to perform for six months at the Cotton Club, Manning realized he had talent and quit his day job as a furrier to dance professionally.

During the next several years, the group toured the world, appearing at Paris’ Moulin Rouge, London’s Palladium, in Australia and New Zealand and at the World’s Fair in New York. Although Manning staged the group’s dances, it was Whitey’s name that identified the troupes—Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, Whyte’s Hopping Maniacs, Whitey Congeroo Dancers. Manning was also the uncredited brains behind the energetic dances in films, including Keep Punching (1939), Hellzapoppin’ (1941) and Killer Diller (1948).

On the Frontline

In 1943 Manning received his draft papers. To his dismay, his commanding officer never submitted Manning’s request for transfer to the Army’s Special Services section for (mostly white) entertainers and he couldn’t join. Manning fought in the South Pacific, earning the rank of sergeant and experiencing “worse prejudice than any other time in my life,” he wrote in his 2007 autobiographyFrankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop.

With the war’s end, Manning returned to dancing, expanding his Lindy routines to include comedy, tap, jazz and Latin steps. At first, the gigs were plentiful, but as public tastes in music changed in the mid 1950s, his style of entertainment fell out of favor and jobs became scarce. With wife Gloria Holloway and two young children at home, Manning hung up his dance shoes and became a clerk at the General Post Office in Manhattan.

A Renewed Spirit

Three decades later, a new generation of dancers became interested in swing, and in 1984, Manning received a phone call from world-renowned swing dancer Erin Stevens, looking for the famous Lindy hopper. Manning told her, “I don’t dance anymore, baby. I just work at the post office.” Stevens, however, persuaded him to improve her partnering skills. The experience led him to teach, which he continued doing for the rest of his life. His playful and encouraging teaching style—heavily based on demonstrations and singing syllables instead of counting phrases—became highly in-demand around the globe.

The swing revival also brought Manning to dance again—and this time he became famous. In 1989, “20/20” profiled him. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater credited his choreography in Opus McShann(1988). Spike Lee hired him to consult on and appear in Malcolm X (1992). The National Endowment for the Arts awarded him two fellowships (1994, 2000). The National Museum of Dance inducted him into its Hall of Fame (2006). And beginning in 1994, Manning’s birthday parties became swing dance extravaganzas, attended by people from all over the world.

Following a year of declining health, Manning died in 2009 at age 94 of complications from pneumonia. The international swing community memorialized him for months. As big bands swung, dancers bent their bodies forward, celebrating Manning’s long, full life by Lindy hopping all night long.

Tribute Video to Frankie Manning

By Rachel Rist

Science is now proving what generations of dance teachers have known instinctively: When the pressure hits, if you dance too much and aren’t able to let your body recover, trouble will ensue. Even in active individuals, overexertion can overload the mechanisms of adaptation, leading to feelings of constant fatigue and muscular weakness, increasingly frequent injuries and, inevitably, a negative impact on the ability to perform. In this condition, known as “burnout,” there is diminished physical performance for no apparent medical or other obvious reason.

Although anyone can suffer from burnout, athletes and dancers are particularly vulnerable. In preparing for a performance, for instance, there is usually a marked increase in physical activity. Given sufficient time, the body adapts very well. But sometimes, either with unusual choreography, a new director or teacher, or an increase in the sheer amount of rehearsal time needed, the body simply cannot cope with the new demands. Burnout can also be brought on as a result of a few days or weeks of fatigue or by long-term exhaustion, and is often triggered by psychological stress. It has been defined as a “physical, emotional and mental overload.”

You may know someone who has been “burnt out,” but what does that mean and how do you recognize the symptoms? For dance teachers in particular, it’s important to be aware of the warning signs and take appropriate action, for yourself and your students.

Factors Contributing to Burnout

Burnout is a complex condition with a range of symptoms and signs that vary from person to person. It often occurs in dancers during periods of increased commitments, either in class or onstage, and in individuals whose daily regimens produce an imbalance between physical activity and rest. Dancers most likely to reach the stage of burnout are highly motivated overachievers who set high standards for themselves. They often forget that taking the time to let their bodies recover can actually lead to improvement in their dancing.

Although no studies on the effect of burnout in children have been published yet, anecdotal evidence supports the notion that both health and physical performance may be affected if exercise is excessive during the tender pre-adolescent years. This isn’t a new idea; it was observed roughly 2,500 years ago by Aristotle, who wrote: “The disadvantages of excessive training in the early years are amply proved by the list of Olympic victors; only two or three of them won a prize both as boys and as men. The discipline to which they were subjected in childhood undermined their powers of endurance.” As adolescence is a period of rapid physical change, it’s particularly important that young students don’t overdo it.

External stressors such as family and personal relationships, issues at school or work and financial difficulties may further contribute to the development of this condition. Burnout can frequently be traced to a seemingly innocent personal event that becomes a trigger for more serious symptoms. Young professional dancers in their first year with a company are vulnerable, as they are often required to learn many roles as understudies, and are unable or unwilling to say no.

Fundamentally, the root of burnout in dance is that these artists are trained to cope with a workload without complaining, aware that there are others who would happily take their places. The rigorous self-discipline that trains the mind to ignore pain signals can add to the problem. Also, because many dancers do not complete an academic education beyond the age of 18, they lack access to sound nutritional and health advice.

Symptoms and Signs

The signs of burnout are often evident, but too often ignored. If your dancers report disrupted sleep patterns, with vivid or stressful dreams and night sweats, take notice. When the body does not feel rested and the mind is disturbed, trivial events become major stressors and the sense of humor suffers. Small things, such as a missing personal item, can cause great irritation and dramatic outbursts. You may observe that someone approaching burnout may appear very negative, and lose appetite as well as interest in normal daily events.

The physical manifestation of symptoms affects daily class; there is a loss of technical ability, combined with occasional loss of stamina. Other physical symptoms might include elevated blood pressure and heart rate, excessive sweating and an inability to recover optimally following intensive dancing. Injuries become increasingly likely. It is often at this stage that dancers seek outside help. Sometimes an overuse injury can be a symptom of burnout, so teachers and medical teams should remain vigilant.

Acute and Chronic Burnout

Burnout can be acute or chronic in nature. Acute burnout, which lasts less than one month, often occurs at the commencement of a new season, as dancers have been expected to learn and perfect several different types of choreography to prepare for performance. At this point, there is a lot of contrasting repertory to master in a short span of time. This type of burnout often results in muscle damage (and, therefore, muscle pain and stiffness), a common indicator that the work volume has exceeded a dancer’s capabilities. However, the effects of acute burnout quickly disappear when its causes are no longer present.

Chronic burnout is the result of accumulated imbalances between exercise and recovery over a period of weeks or months. When the condition is fully developed, additional signs (to those mentioned already) may appear, including menstrual irregularities or cessation of menstruation; increased allergies; longer healing time for even minor scratches; and susceptibility to infections, especially of the upper respiratory system.

There is no universal agreement as to why increased physical exercise seems to be linked to the reported incidence of infections in athletes. Some researchers suggest that the susceptibility to infections following periods of intensive exercise training may be due to lower plasma glutamine levels. Glutamine is responsible for the biosynthesis of the rapidly dividing cells of the immune system and for the provision of a substantial part of the energy required by this system. Commercially available glutamine supplements (sold at most pharmacies) may help combat chronic burnout.

Prevention and Treatment of Burnout

Can burnout be avoided? In simple terms, yes—with a change of culture and attitudes. Rehearsals should be scheduled so that dancers can recover between sessions and have time to absorb new movement into their bodies; tours should include rest days; choreographers need to plan the best use of the dancers’ time and try to use video feedback instead of more rehearsals; companies and schools must provide access to counselors; and dancers need to reexamine their lifestyles.

Dancers who supplement their training with a well-rounded fitness regimen can fortify the immune system and provide release for mental stress. Proper nutrition and good hydration are vital in maintaining good fuel for the body. Sufficient rest and sleep are also important and can be achieved with relaxation tapes or a massage before bed. It’s also necessary to have a support system outside the intense world of dance. Finally, the concept “no pain, no gain” should be played down, as there is little gain to be made by working through fatigue, illness or injury.

Once a case of burnout has been diagnosed and dealt with, there is danger of relapse at around three months. To avoid this, it is advisable that a reduced or controlled amount of dance-related stresses (classes, rehearsals, etc.) be maintained for up to four months. Dancers should never attempt to suddenly increase physical loads more than five percent per week.

Burnout is a debilitating syndrome in which performance and well-being can be affected for months. It can be exacerbated by feelings of helplessness in a work situation or by a teacher or director who is less than sympathetic. The dance community must recognize that burnout happens and that anyone can be vulnerable, including teachers and choreographers, who face the daily challenge of maintaining a heavy workload. Providing advice and guidelines on exercise loads, recovery times, nutrition or pharmacological intervention can help prevent the development of burnout in dance professionals of all levels.

Rachel Rist, MA, is president of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science. Yiannis Koutedakis, MA, PhD, is a professor in Applied Physiology at the Department of Sports and Exercise Science at Thessaly University in Greece.

Being deaf has not stopped Yola Rozynek (center) from dancing professionally or teaching dance at Gallaudet’s Model Secondary School for the Deaf. (Photo by Carlos Suanes)

“Great! Welcome!” It’s the first thing you should say if a deaf or hearing-impaired child wants to take dance classes.

That’s the advice of Marcia Freeman, a former dance teacher at Gallaudet University, the renowned liberal arts university for deaf and hearing-impaired students, in Washington, DC. “I think you need to be really welcoming even though you may have no background in teaching deaf children,” says Freeman, who instructed deaf youngsters at Gallaudet’s high school, Model Secondary School for the Deaf, and its Kendall Demonstration Elementary School for more than 25 years.

Freeman points out that 90 percent of deaf children have hearing parents, which makes some communication easier, especially outside the classroom. The first thing she suggests teachers do is invite the parents and the child to observe a class to determine if it is something the child is committed to doing. Even more than with hearing children, it’s important to get to know students with a hearing impairment, she adds, since there will be communication issues to work out. Most dance teachers don’t know American Sign Language (ASL), and it’s unlikely that the student would have a sign interpreter in an extracurricular dance class. (Most of them have learned to sign by the time they’re in preschool; some learn well before that. But it depends on their upbringing and parental preference.)

That said, there are some easy methods to communicate with students in the studio. “Deaf children are visual learners,” Freeman says.

Yola Rozynek, a dance specialist at Gallaudet’s Model Secondary School for the Deaf, agrees. “I believe observation is one of the key components for deaf students,” says Rozynek, speaking via a voice relay telephone interpreter because she is deaf. “If you observe, you can take in the technical aspects and just the general dance itself.”

When preparing to instruct a deaf or hearing-impaired student for the first time, Freeman recommends research, research, research. “Today there’s tons of information on the web for general signing, plus lots of little books. Although I don’t think there are specific books for dance signs, a lot of teachers come up with their own dance signs. I certainly did. I never had anybody tell me what to do, but I did come up with simple hand signals.”

As challenging as it might be for some teachers to communicate with deaf students in dance classes, Mary Cowden Snyder of Medford Dance Arts Academy in Oregon has no problem with it. Snyder, who grew up with a deaf great-uncle in her household andlearned finger-spelling (her uncle didn’t know ASL), has developed techniques over the years that help not only her hearing-impaired students, but all her students.

“I make cards with the name of a step in French on one side and English on the other. I hold it next to my mouth when I talk so my [deaf] students can see my lips,” she explains. Snyder then folds the card and places it on the floor. She performs the step next to the card, thus reinforcing the vocabulary for everyone, whether deaf or hearing.

“For all children, they’ve never seen the word ‘plié’ before; it’s French and they have to be introduced in a way that’s useful for them,” Snyder says. “We have a wide variety of students with various special needs, so we try to make sure every child has a pleasant experience in dance class.” The best part, for Snyder, is that all her students learn the ballet vocabulary well and can build on combinations of steps, just as she had done with the tent cards in her classes.

Inculcating a sense of musicality is often the greatest challenge for teachers who have deaf students in their classes. Snyder finds that having the students clap the rhythm is helpful.

“Depending on their degree of hearing loss, some deaf students will be able to pick up on certain parts of the music,” says Freeman. “There’s a big range in how much a person hears, depending on the type of music. Piano in a ballet class is probably not going to do a whole lot unless there are a lot of bass chords.” Hip-hop and jazz, with their driving bass beats, often are easiest for hearing-impaired dancers to hear and feel. Freeman likes counting out combinations with her fingers, noting that most combinations won’t have really complex rhythms and time signatures unless the students are very advanced.

Rozynek, who danced professionally with Kol Demama, a now-defunct Israeli company of deaf and hearing dancers, says that sometimes a teacher can pair a hearing student with a deaf student, being sure that the hearing student is cognizant of the rhythm and musicality. “If the hearing student can lead the deaf student, the deaf student can maintain the eye contact and the hearing student [should] not have any expression. They just have to hear the sound and the deaf student can focus on personal expression and try to integrate it into the dance itself.” In this way, the deaf student can learn the steps, counts, and spacing and then add her own expression without being influenced by what the hearing student did.

While renowned New York ballet teacher Igal Perry has no specific training in teaching deaf students, over the years he has encountered some of them occasionally in his classes at his studio, Peridance Capezio Center. And he has choreographed works for deaf dancers. “I figured out in working with deaf people that, like hearing people, there are those who are musical. Not everybody is musical in nature—and that’s not just deaf people, but anybody. If people tend to be musical, they also can build a sense of timing just by repetition. Once you give them a starting point, they can actually hang onto phrases in good timing, sometimes even better than dancers who hear the music but ignore it.”

When teaching, for barre work Snyder always has an assistant demonstrate on the opposite end of the room so that all students—deaf or hearing—have someone to follow. Perry tries to be mindful of where he stands when he has a deaf student in class to ensure that she can always see him. He also avoids turning his back when explaining a step or combination.

According to Freeman, where the teacher stands is not so important since often she will move about the room to make corrections. More important is where she places the students, since a child who is placed in the front might feel like she’s being singled out. The visual aspect is key for deaf students, which means they need to see the entire body; being too close, especially for beginners, will not allow them to see the full body. A great spot, Freeman suggests, is the second row near the center, with one or two strong dancers in front.

Special care is required when giving in-class corrections to deaf students. “Corrections can’t happen for deaf children while they’re moving,” Freeman says. “They have to happen before or after. You let them do it and make the mistake, but don’t interrupt while in the middle of the combination. It takes a little bit more time, but you have to have the pause, the moment where you take the time to make that correction.”

When a deaf or hearing-impaired student inquires about classes, both Snyder and Freeman believe there should be no restrictions on genres, other than the prerequisites that all students must comply with. Let the student’s interest drive the choice of dance class. “If it’s not the parent pushing the kid to dance, the kid probably really wants to try something,” Freeman says. “They may have a friend [who dances] or might have seen something on television” that sparked the interest.

Freeman found that her hearing-impaired students liked tap dance, which was a surprise to her. “Whatever [residual] hearing there was, [tap] gave them another connection to sound,” she says. “If they were able to distinguish the different sounds, they could feel what it was like to contact the floor with different parts of the foot. And they could make some noise, be pretty loud. My beginning class always had a little tap and a little jazz with a healthy dose of modern and ballet.”

Freeman has taught or overseen teachers in a wide range of genres at MSSD. Popular culture often drives students’ interest, and today hip-hop remains very well liked at Gallaudet, but dance classes there also include ballet, modern, jazz, tap, belly dance, and African dance. Freeman has noticed that deaf students find the movement in African dance classes very accessible: “The way you carry your body and the way you move your arms and legs, there’s allowance for individuality right off the bat. It’s full of dynamic range and it’s freeing for the students.”

Freeman also finds that setting aside five minutes toward the end of class for improvisation is a wonderful way to get all students moving, and especially deaf students, who have been attuned to their surroundings and to following the teacher or demonstrator throughout the class. Improv allows them to feel how freeing dance can be.

Good teaching is good teaching, whether your students are hearing or deaf. “I think that even for the most talented hearing kid,” Freeman says, “it’s the coaching that goes on at the pre-professional level [that matters]. It’s that attention with the being, the living, breathing being, the soul if you will, the essence of the dance that really communicates. I’ve been in [situations] where there have been too many words and you need to get up and just do what you’re saying, and not keep saying it. It’s the extra time and effort involved when you’re doing it that pays off, because the deaf student is always a visual learner.”

Tips for Teaching Deaf or Hearing-Impaired Students

Forge emotional connections, especially with deaf and hearing-impaired students, suggests Marcia Freeman, a longtime dance teacher of deaf youngsters.
Use visual aids like flash cards, suggests Mary Cowden Snyder, a teaching veteran of more than 50 years.

Be mindful of where you stand, don’t speak with your back turned, and place deaf and hearing-impaired students where they can see your entire body, says ballet teacher and director Igal Perry.

Wait until a combination is finished to give corrections; don’t stop a deaf student who is dancing in midstream.

Learn or even invent some simple hand gestures to show common commands like stop, go, again, slower, faster, bigger, etc.

Hands-on corrections, particularly in highly technical forms like ballet and modern, can be helpful, but be sure that the student is comfortable being touched.

Don’t assume that because a child wears a hearing aid or has a cochlear implant that he or she hears everything perfectly. Usually there are vast differences in what and how they hear compared with a hearing person, no matter what a parent may tell you.

Patience, says Yola Rozynek, a deaf dance teacher, is necessary in working with deaf students, who may need more time and attention than other students.

At Right - Students from the Paris Opera Ballet School

In the dance world, some believe European dancers have an edge over their American counterparts, given the history, culture, and government systems of funding abroad.

American dancers possess grit, tenacity and a hunger that exceeds some European equivalents, yet the elusive artistic core lags or appears untapped. Europe provides a cultural banquet to nourish artistic growth. But does their approach to training incorporate more diversity that contributes to creative growth? If, so, can American dance schools fashion strategies based on this assumption? In creating an artist, are there lessons to be gleaned from Europe?

Historic Culture

European culture provides abundant settings and subsequent opportunities to partake in artistic experience. Looking back, as countries developed through kingdoms, the arts flourished as weapons to illustrate the opulence of individual royal residences. Long before our modern icons of expensive cars, technology and other indicators of wealth, the arts provided proof of wealth and status. Kingdoms encouraged the growth and necessity of the arts as aristocratic symbols which allowed art appreciation to trickle down and establish through respective environs. By spending huge sums of money, Kingdoms set precedents for governments to support the continuity of sustaining this way of life for future generations.

Art Experience

Walking Europe’s streets enriches cultural experience: monuments, museums, historical architecture, and works of art can stimulate and deepen aesthetic knowledge. This cultural heritage includes launching national schools to train artists. National dance schools blossomed and were established with curriculums that trained the artist through multiple approaches.

To a budding dancer, immersing oneself in a rich cultural experience can make all the difference. This is what’s typically missing in American training and can be seen as instrumental in cultivating artistic depth. Often, a lack of artistic interpretation in dance has made some think European dancers are more complete artists. Beyond this loaded and ripe setting which is conducive to artistic imagination,

Can European tradition and training methods inspire other regions to improve on developing their quality of artistry?

National ballet school models established by major European companies provide clues to strategies. Through conversations with those trained at these select academies, the diverse curriculums mandated as required study provide students and young artists with exposure to various art forms. This fosters creativity on many levels.

Ballet, at the core of many schools, provides a necessary foundation of line, alignment, discipline and control. Visionary founders and subsequent leaders also realized the value of introducing multiple art forms to create an awareness and opportunities as to how each diverse aspect can contribute to one’s performance. Classes in music, both in theory and practice, provide a unique grasp on fine nuances that can occur within dance choreography: shadings, lingering and stretching among other musical executions. Classes in theatre and mime work on the obvious: creating an honest character, true to oneself, and believable to the audience. Improvisational study and composition offer essential building blocks for future choreographers. Studies in modern, character, jazz and pas de deux help assemble versatility, key to the diversity required of dancers.

Dance history endows students with vital information — the why’s of what they’re sharing with an audience.

How can a dancer effectively portray Myrtha [in Giselle] without knowing Myrtha is a dead icy queen of dead maidens who died in heartbreak? How can a young Prince Siegfried honestly portray his character if he’s unaware the prince has just turned 21 and doesn’t want to accept adult responsibilities, leaving childhood behind? Given this information through historical study, perhaps he’d envision his own sense of impeding adulthood and call upon inner experience to fuel his performance.

Our Differences

Though America has its share of exceptional teachers and schools, the artistic product is emphasized over the artistic process. Many schools cite time as a crucial issue mandating this unfortunate circumstance. It’s unfair to compare the American private dance school model with national ballet schools established by European ballet companies with long histories and government funding.

What about the training curriculum established by schools associated with major American ballet companies?The major schools have the benefit of professional dancers-in-residence to provide exposure to professionalism, but what about the courses of study? Looking at classes offered by the major schools, study programs for students have limited diversity beyond ballet, modern and character dance (which provides some diversity beneficial for big story ballets that often incorporate this style with the context of the ballet.) The School of American Ballet offers music and ballroom classes, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet School offers a valuable history class, according to their websites. They join a few other places that understand the significance of augmented standard training. In general, the training focuses on physical aspects (yes, very important) but seems to neglects the merit of other studies that give artistic exposure.

Solutions

Is there a way to adapt a more European approach to giving students artistic exposure? Absolutely. The largest schools could add history courses to give students background and character information which they can use to fashion valid interpretation. Studies in music, art appreciation, mime, theatre, voice and others can be encouraged.

At smaller, private schools, which have produced some brilliant technicians, art exposure may be more limited, especially in smaller cities. Without the benefit of having a professional company to provide artistic stimulation, exposure can be challenging. Field trips to dance events, museums, orchestras and art openings might instill inspiration and begin the artistic awareness process. Teachers could offer short history lectures, or assign students to research ballets to learn their stories and characters including watching YouTube videos. Workshops in music, theater, mime and compositional approaches could support artistic growth and a sense and understanding of integrating artistic approaches towards one’s own presentation.

Traditional European approach to dance training creates dance artists and establishes training methods that embrace the arts. From this training, more seasoned and informed dancers can emerge. American schools can integrate these approaches to begin sculpting more complete artists.

From the perennial popularity of American Idol and Glee to newcomers like The Sing Off and Smash, popular culture is driving an increased interest in singing and dancing. And these days, some traditional dance studios—the domain of ballet, tap, and jazz—are adding a touch of Broadway.

These new classes and program tracks include Broadway-style jazz, acting, individual and group voice instruction, backstage experiences, and more. While some studio directors have simply added a few classes and will wait and see how they fare, others have completely shifted focus. Instead of traditional Nutcrackers and spring recitals, they’re rehearsing and performing full-fledged musicals—everything from Annie to High School Musical to A Christmas Carol.

One such director is Erin Mahoney-Du. A former dancer with The Washington and Suzanne Farrell Ballets who trained at Knecht Dance Academy in Levittown, Pennsylvania, and Princeton Ballet, she is beginning her first full season as program director of the school at American Dance Institute. The largely traditional dance academy in Rockville, Maryland, has a ballet program that caters to 175 students on the pre-professional track; this is the first year of its School of Dance Theatre.

Like their pre-professional ballet peers, 25 or so students in the School of Dance Theatre also study ballet, but less intensively, and they add jazz, tap, modern dance, and Pilates to their schedules. In addition, Mahoney-Du’s most advanced ballet students must take tap, modern, jazz, and acting along with five or six days of ballet technique. This summer she’ll introduce group voice instruction and see how it goes from there.

While the Washington, DC, suburbs, where ADI is based, have a number of dedicated musical-theater schools and programs, Mahoney-Du says she didn’t initiate the new program due to the competition. “I did it mainly to amp up our curriculum,” she explains. “I wanted to give our students a more well-rounded curriculum. Not every student feels like a success in ballet; this gives them more options.”

As a student Mahoney-Du learned tap, jazz, modern, and “a little bit of hip-hop; I wasn’t very good,” she says. But she “felt like it helped inform my ballet, kind of like cross-training.” She notes how important studying rhythm and syncopation is for learning musicality. “I remember rehearsing with [The] Suzanne Farrell Ballet and [Farrell] would teach a step and it would have a rhythm to it. In my head I would think, ‘Oh, it’s ‘ba da ba dee, ba da’ instead of counting it out ‘1 and-a 2 and 3.’ ”

While it’s too soon to predict the growth of ADI’s School of Dance Theatre, Mahoney-Du has already noted a modest increase in the income stream. And she won’t rule out producing full-fledged children’s musicals in the future. Right now, she attributes the growing interest in programs other than ballet to the popularity of contemporary, jazz, and modern dance forms on TV and in movies.

“I think now since it’s becoming more accessible, more respected, people are more interested,” she says. “I was raised on movie musicals and I grew up respecting them. It’s part of our cultural history, and so I’m happy these kids are getting a taste of it.”

It’s taken Linda Mercer-Botelho a decade to build up her musical-theater program at On Stage Academy of Performing Arts in Fall River, Massachusetts. Begun as a traditional dance studio offering the big three—ballet, tap, and jazz—the school has developed two distinct tracks: dance and musical theater. Many of the school’s 150 students take classes in both disciplines and perform in the annual musical as well as the dance concert, but others choose to focus on one discipline.

For Mercer-Botelho, the first inkling of shifting interests came when she produced The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a ballet that included a narrator who sang while the dancers performed. “People just loved it, and I realized we needed to get more of this into the studio,” she says.

Her husband, Roger Botelho, is a music educator, so it was easy to begin offering instrumental music classes. Those grew into voice classes and, ultimately, the studio began producing full musicals, first as in-studio performances. As the students grew more skilled, she says, “we took it to the stage” at a nearby community college with a fully appointed theater.

At On Stage Academy, Mercer-Botelho points out, there are no end-of-year recitals. The musical-theater students (about three-fourths of the studio’s registrants) participate in a show each year; in the spring, the dance department does its own production, typically created by Mercer-Botelho and her team and including narrative elements. In December 2011, a musical version of AChristmas Carol featured not only the musical-theater students but also the dance students, in dance-only roles.

Mercer-Botelho has found that performing encourages her students to become more involved in classes. Ballet students sign up for voice, and music students might try tap, jazz, or even ballet in order to get better parts in these productions, which have includedAnnie, 101 Dalmatians, Into the Woods Junior, and other classics of the school circuit.

Still, she is careful to keep the classes focused on learning technique. “When you’re in a dance class it is a technique class. When you’re in a musical-theater class, you’re learning techniques of the stage [and] vocal techniques. And our rehearsals are separate,” she says, so that the children who choose not to participate in a performance aren’t shortchanged in their classes.

Not every student wants to or can perform in every show. And while On Stage Academy holds auditions for each musical, these are solely for casting roles; no child who auditions is turned away. In the end, Mercer-Botelho says, “Some children just want to do classes; some children just want to do dance performances; and some want to do every performance. [Offering options] leaves more open space for children to do what they would like to do.”

The music program includes both private voice lessons, which are 30 minutes, and group lessons (limited to five children in the youngest group). As the students grow and become more accomplished, Botelho offers a Glee-like group called Vocal Harmonizers. All music students learn music theory and how to read music; if they get to Vocal Harmonizers they also learn four-part harmony.

In the musical-theater program, students learn music theory, how to read music, vocal warm-ups, and the basics of working on a stage, including stage directions, projection, putting in emotion, and other aspects of performance. The studio has a small room used for music classes, and Botehlo offers voice classes in his office, which holds a piano. These classes serve the students well once they are cast in musicals, where rehearsal time is spent working on show specifics and not on teaching technique.

Mercer-Botelho has found a growing interest in the musical-theater program. Although a few of her students do it all—pointe, modern, musical theater, voice—“not all children want to dance,” she says. “But some want to sing and act, and they’ll come to us because they need to be able to move onstage.” In their musical-theater classes they get some movement, she notes, but they’re theater students, not competition dancers. “For that other clientele who doesn’t want to dance,” she says, “this is a great aspect of the business.”

Debbie Donaldson knows well the trials and triumphs of being a studio director. In 2002, struggling with burnout, she closed the doors of the dance school she’d started 18 years before. But Donaldson, also a registered nurse, couldn’t stay away from what she loved most: teaching and dancing. Her town, Gananoque, Ontario, she says, needed it as much as she did.

In 2004 Donaldson partnered with Jennifer Butchart to create Dreams In Motion with a new mission: teaching not only dance but also drama, music, and visual arts. They incorporated as a nonprofit and hope that the organization will endure beyond its founders’ lifespans. Today they have more than 300 students ages 3 to 65 in their classes, held in a converted church that’s bursting at its seams.

For the revamped studio, Donaldson and Butchart decided to include options like music and voice lessons. As they watched their students’ progress, they decided to showcase their talents in a musical. That Gananoque is a town of about 5,200 didn’t faze the pair; they felt they had a captive audience for both the classes and the shows. In fact, Donaldson says the adults saw what their children were doing and wanted to join in. So each fall Dreams In Motion produces one musical for children up to age 14 and another for high schoolers and adults—up to age 80, she says.

The studio features four separate tracks: dance, music, drama, and visual arts. Dance classes include creative movement and baby steps for the youngest clients, ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, belly dance, line dancing, ballroom, and mother-baby fitness. The visual art classes include Petite Picasso for 2- to 4-year-olds, drawing, face painting, cartooning, and watercolor and oil painting. The music track offers instrumental classes, vocal performance, rock band, and a recent addition, Show Choir, a Glee-like experience combining group singing and choreography. The drama track includes classes in musical theater and Shakespearian acting, among others.

Not all Dreams In Motion students take the track classes; some prefer to audition for the musicals and invest their time and money in performing. Donaldson explains: “We tried to do separate classes, like a musical-theater dance class, and suggested voice lessons. That didn’t work. The parents weren’t willing to do that cost-wise.” Instead, Donaldson hires a music director, choreographer, and director for each show and the children who are cast learn technique within the rehearsal process. Additionally, to cut costs even more, parents have the option of volunteering 25 hours at the studio to reduce the performance fee.

Housed in a one-time church, Dreams In Motion can set up an in-house theater that seats 200—both a cost-saving measure and, because of the familiar surroundings, a means of making performers (especially first-timers) more comfortable.

Even though the public schools have restored extracurricular programs including theater, Donaldson hasn’t seen a reduction in clientele. In fact, she sees her students trying out for more shows, at Dreams In Motion and at school, because they’ve gained skills and confidence. She is usually able to schedule rehearsals, which typically take place on Saturdays until tech week, so that they don’t conflict with school performances and rehearsals.

One of her major expenses is paying for rights and royalties in order to produce the musicals legally. Another is paying for directors. Finding talent can be a challenge; she advertises in surrounding areas and at the college in nearby Kingston to seek out the best teachers and directors. In the DC area, Mahoney-Du has it easier. In her search for teachers she received dozens of recommendations.

As for Mercer-Botelho, even though her husband is a music educator, she still hires other teachers to fill out her program and advises those interested in starting a musical-theater program to get involved in the local community theater or look to school systems that offer theater courses or extracurricular activities. “Within that group you’re going to find people who have degrees in musical theater and music education. Most people who are involved are great working with the kids,” she says, “but that’s an important aspect of it—finding people who work really well with children. Not everybody does.”

While not every studio owner is able or willing to offer musical theater, such programs can be a boon to schools by attracting students who are not necessarily interested in traditional dance classes. And Donaldson advises studio owners not to shy away from trying it. For students used to performing in a traditional dance recital, playing a role in a production with a story line can yield new rewards.

“When I started doing my shows and dance recitals as a complete show, I found out the kids really liked being something,” she says. “We do a few competitions, but I’m more into the performing. It’s more rewarding. Take a chance and try it.”

Dancers tend to think in physical terms when it comes to self-improvement, practicing more and eating less and trying to convert their bodies into ideal “dancing machines” through sheer will and perseverance. Often, the result is that dancer psychology gets very little attention; let alone respect. The expectation in the dance culture is that performers should “tough it out” not only physically but emotionally, despite pain, fear, and fatigue.

This macho approach to achieving dance excellence mirrors how things used to be done in sports. But no longer. Top-level professional and amateur athletes have long understood the importance of psychology’s role in attaining peak performance. And now many people in the dance community are adopting the sports-psychology model.

One is Elizabeth Sullivan, a former dancer with Boston Ballet and Cleveland/San Jose Ballet (now Ballet San Jose) and founder of Creative Compass, whose thesis for her MA in arts administration from Columbia University was on pre-professional dancer wellness programs. Sullivan, a certified health coach, now serves on Dance/USA’s Taskforce for Dancer Health. In 2010 she collaborated with psychologist Elisabeth Morray, PhD, who worked on the Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education’s Wellness Initiative, in designing a wellness curriculum.

In 2011 the two presented an overview of the Creative Compass program to Gelsey Kirkland, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. She embraced the idea, and a pilot program ran at Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York City for 16 weeks from January through May 2012.

Meeting weekly with students from all three levels for one hour each week, Sullivan introduced the concepts of self-talk, positive visualization, centering, relaxation methods, food preparation, balanced eating, goal setting, and positive coping mechanisms. The discussion-based classes offer students the opportunity to “address the ‘mind side’ of traditional performing arts training, which includes mental and emotional health, as well as techniques for performance success,” as described on the academy’s website, with a focus on self-identity, self-confidence, and the development of the dancer as a whole person.

Asked whether personal experience contributed to her decision to implement the wellness program, Kirkland says, “My experience as a student and as a professional have gradually formed my [thinking] on what training is best for students, both the ‘what’ and the ‘how.’ I would like to think my decisions were formed not as a reaction to the past but more from the increasing clarity of vision that comes with time.”

Paying attention to the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of the Academy’s students is crucial, Kirkland adds, with good communication being key to the health of the students and the school as a whole. “We get to know more about the students and their needs,” she says. “The students get some idea that some of their problems are common to other dancers and in fact to many human beings and do not feel as isolated."

Sullivan believes that addressing the psychological challenges of dancing is central to training emotionally robust, artistically confident dancers. And discussion-based classes are important, she says, giving dancers an “opportunity to express themselves verbally, something that traditional dance training has not offered.”

The emotional challenges associated with dancing—relentless practicing even when injured, competition against other highly motivated dancers, body image issues, and demanding teachers—are pervasive, from Moscow to Minnetonka.

“Most of us are well aware of the physical stresses of dance training, ranging from overuse injuries such as Achilles tendonitis to more debilitating ones like stress fractures,” Sullivan says. “Few of us, however, are as aware of the mental stresses that are just as prevalent in the lives of dancers."

Self-doubt and self-criticism are among the most common mental stresses dance students face. “The high standards set by the teachers, and indeed the art form itself, pale in comparison to the stress that most young dancers place on themselves to be perfect in form and technique,” Sullivan says.

Based on the responses of Kirkland Academy students, the program is making a difference. “The class taught me the importance of positive self-talk,” says student Esmae Gold. “With this knowledge, I’ve been able to change some of my old habits and become a happier and healthier dancer and person.”

“My favorite part about the wellness class is how we all get to share our thoughts and questions,” says student Eden Orion. “It’s comforting to know that your peers are thinking the same things as you.”

Kirkland says, “We have realized the great pain some dancers carry and that the support and knowledge of a professional such as Elizabeth are essential to them. She has eased our burden enormously. We look forward to developing this program so that it is an integral part of [the school’s] daily life.”

Geoff Greenwood, a UK-based performance psychology consultant, identifies five areas of stress associated with dance: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and technical. His performance psychology practice—which covers business, sports, performing artists, surgeons, and military commanders—focuses on overcoming these stresses to achieve success. The five elements listed below apply to all of these groups.

Physical: In addition to experiencing the all-too-common weight and body image problems that can lead to serious eating disorders or poor nutrition, dancers sometimes fail to pay attention to healthy sleep patterns. Add to that the combination of constant exercise and injury and the stage is set for an operatic set of problems.

Mental: Dancers, Greenwood points out, often ignore the mental components of dancing—things like attitude, goals, motivation, intensity, self-confidence, psychological preparation, concentration, emotional control, thought and visual control, mental toughness, and team dynamics and cohesion—until they get out of hand and get in the way.

Emotional: Feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and disappointment are inherent in dance. “Many dancers struggle with understanding and overcoming emotional aspects of their lives and profession when they arise,” Greenwood says. “Again they are not aware of the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and how to deal with them when they are not supporting their dance. Self-awareness and training in this area can help the performance and even enjoyment of their art.”

Spiritual: “When we talk about spiritual aspects of dance we mean the whole reason for being,” says Greenwood,describing dance as “a life choice all leading to a desired outcome that makes life worth living for the person.” Acknowledging the meaning of dance in our lives can make many of its difficulties seem much less daunting.

Technical: Although technique is essential, honing it is stressful. “All of the above may be irrelevant if the dancer has no technical ability or the desire to improve in all the technical aspects of their profession,” Greenwood says. He links self-awareness strategies and imagery work in the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual areas into technique-related timeframes: practice, performance, and post-competition. “The concept of deliberate practice is instilled into the dancers [by their teachers],” he adds, “because focusing on the effective areas saves learning time [and decreases] physical demands and burnout.”

Constructive Strategies for Teachers

Most teachers know that psychological wellness is central to improving a dancer’s physical performance, and they want to help their students become the best dancers and people they can be. But, short of hiring a sports psychologist, how can they do it?

“I think where teachers sometimes struggle is in how to support their dancers emotionally,” says Chantale Lussier. “I believe most dance teachers care deeply about their students’ physical and mental wellness.” A retired professional dancer and former studio owner, Lussier founded Elysian Insight, an Ontario-based performance consulting company that has worked with Manitoba’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and The School of Dance and Allegro Danceworks in Ottawa, as well as with athletes and other performing artists.

To help the dancers she works with, Lussier uses a two-pronged approach she calls “Quality Mental Recovery.” These are “strategies that will help dancers take a mental break from being at the dance studio, and even thinking and perhaps worrying about dance,” she explains. “I wholeheartedly believe that those who practice mental recovery return to the studio the next day or next week reinspired to enjoy their dancing.”

The first component of Lussier’s Quality Mental Recovery strategy is Quality Solitude, a time for dancers to take much-needed time alone. “All techniques of self-care should be considered, from a bath to reading a good book or napping, to prayer or mediation,” says Lussier. “For example, mindfulness-based practices of meditation and breathing techniques help to facilitate an awareness of the present moment. In doing so, dancers learn to notice all the thoughts and feelings that are on their minds and in their hearts and learn to return to the spacious, peaceful place that is now.”

By contrast, Quality Support means relying on others for help. “Sometimes the best thing we can do to mitigate the negative impact of stress is to get quality support—share and debrief our experiences with a trusted family member, partner, or friend,” says Lussier. “Other times, the best way to recover from stress is by taking time off from thinking about it. In such cases, perhaps a group of dancers who decide to hang out would all agree to no ‘shop talk’ and just enjoy laughing, sharing, and doing a pleasant non-dancing activity together.”

Quality Mental Recovery and the focused self-awareness Greenwood advocates are two ways dance teachers and studio owners can use psychology to help their students to cope better, and improve their physical performance—by teaching them to “get out of their own way.”

Sullivan points to outside resources that can support young performers and relieve physical and emotional stress.

“Teachers and schools don’t have to take on that responsibility themselves. They can develop supportive policies internally, and also encourage students to seek support from external resources.” She says initiatives like the wellness program require “a shift in the philosophy of dance education—an understanding that the traditional training model can benefit tremendously from supplemental teachings coming out of the fields of sport and performance psychology and holistic wellness.”

The bottom line: “Dancers tend to be perfectionists,” notes Dr. Kate Hays, performance psychologist and owner of The Performing Edge consultancy. “When they follow this tendency without considering their psychological needs, all sorts of things can and do go wrong for them. At the same time, dancers who tend to the entirety of their being—not just technique, but their state of mind and overall health—can actually move closer to achieving their goals.

“This is what dance teachers need to instruct their students in, and model through their own behaviors and attitudes,” Hays continues. “This may seem quite a stretch for those educated in the ‘tough it out’ tradition, but trust me: this approach is delivering results in sports, and it can do the same in dance at any and all levels.”

If you dreamed of being a Rockette rather than a ballerina, you're not alone. Many dance students start out taking ballet, but find that tap is their true calling. However, a tap career has its problems. Finding tap jobs isn’t always easy. There aren’t nearly as many big-name tap companies as there are ballet and modern troupes, which offer dancers yearly contracts and a sense of stability. Successful tappers will have passion and determination as well as discipline and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. If your heart is tied to tap, it is possible to make a living out of stomping, shuffling and time stepping. Here ar some tips from tap pros.

Keep Learning

If you want to make it big, get to class! A strong traditional tap vocabulary is a must. “I can do pullbacks, maxi fords, steps turning—everything down to original 42nd Street choreography,” says Mike Schulster, a teacher at NYC’s Broadway Dance Center and creator of the tap rock show Revolution. “Before I started doing rhythm tap, I learned show tap. Having that base is an important start for any style tapper.”

Once you’ve got a grip on your technical foundation, introduce yourself to new styles and teachers. “The more you take from different teachers, the more knowledgeable you are,” says Diana Brooks, assistant professor of dance at Oklahoma City University. “Take from everyone possible. You’ll be more employable.”

Network It Out

There aren’t a lot of tap auditions out there, so you have to think of social or class situations as opportunities to make connections. You may meet a future coworker at a party, jam, festival or in class.

Schulster started studying with Barbara Duffy at age 12. “Because I was ever-present and a hard worker, Barbara asked me to substitute teach for her when I was 18,” he says. “Now, I’ve done the same thing for a student of mine.”

And once you’ve nabbed a job, don’t think your work is done. You can continue to network on the job. Schulster met Irish dancer Joel Hanna while on tour with Fire of Dance. Their ideas were the genesis ofRevolution. And Danny Gardner, a member of the New York Tap Ensemble, says a friend he met doing White Christmas in Texas led him to working with Parallel Exit, a physical comedy and tap troupe. “Be friendly and maintain good relationships,” says Claudia Rahardjanoto, a teacher and member of Barbara Duffy & Company. “You never know who might recommend you for a job down the line.”

Jam Time

Jams are a central melting pot for tappers, a welcoming place where you can show off your chops, be challenged by peers and connect with the tap community. “There’s a host who invites people to dance as soloists or in duets/trios,” Schulster says. “At the end everyone takes turns dancing eight counts of their best stuff.” Use this time to carve out your own style. “You have to be proactive in the tap world, and jams are a great way to get out there,” Gardner says.

Break Out

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Create your own opportunity. “When I was coming up, there weren’t shows that had really advanced tapping in them,” Schulster says. “I wanted to put my own style into a piece that would showcase what I could do. That’s how Revolution started.” So slip on your shoes and start your own revolution!

Take it Outside of Tap

Adding skills like playing an instrument can help hone your musicality. “I’ve been playing piano since I was three and it’s been invaluable,” says Claudia Rahardjanoto, a member of Barbara Duffy & Company. “Understanding musical phrases and structures makes working with musicians so much easier.”

So…What Tap Jobs Are There?

As a tapper, you’re not limited to choosing between the Rockettes and a Broadway show. Here are a handful of other opportunities:

Performing at tap festivals. These are often one-night performance engagements, such as benefits, concerts and special events.
Touring tap companies (such as Revolution)
TV specials or films (tap twins Martin and Facundo Lombard used their unique tapping style to get booked as dancers in Step Up 3D!)
Industrials
Teaching at conventions
Create your own opportunities! Sisters Maud and Chloe Arnold developed their own company, Chloe & Maud Productions, which produces the D.C. Tap Festival, Chloe’s Tap Couture clothing line, their instructional and workout DVDs and several other ventures.

Make It Happen

You’ve laid the groundwork for a tap career—but how do you actually make money in the industry? Maud Arnold, tapper extraordinaire and former DS cover girl, works from 9:30 am until 1 am every day to keep her tap career on track. Here’s her advice:

Be visible. People have to see you in order to hire you. Go to classes, jams and every audition available.

Learn to teach tap. Being able to teach all ages and levels makes you employable when festivals and studios need to hire instructors.

Hit the streets. If you live in a major city, go to a park or subway station with your shoes and a tap board. You can make some money and practice at the same time.

Hire a manager. It’ll cost you money, but a manager will help find you jobs and get your name out.

Find what makes you unique. Think of an innovative way to present yourself. Magnify your differences.

At Right - Long, romantic style tutu which Marie Taglioni would have worn in La Sylphide or Giselle.

The credit - or blame - for creating pointe work goes to Marie Taglioni. She wasn't the first, but she was the pioneer who transformed toe dancing from mere trick to genuine artistry.

Marie Taglioni was born on April 23, 1804, in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was famed Italian choreographer Filippo Taglioni and her mother was dancer Sophie Karsten. Taglioni made her debut in La Réception d'une jeune nymphe à la cour de Terpsichore in June 1822 at the Hof Theater in Vienna. She made her Paris debut in 1827 and was the star of the Paris Opera for the next ten years. She also danced at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. Among her many fans was a young Princess Victoria. In addition to her wild success in the ballet world, she danced in two operas, Robert le Diable and Le Dieu et la Bayadère, becoming perhaps the first bayadère in ballet history.

With her weightless technique and uncanny ability to balance on her toes in darned, soft-toe ballet slippers, Marie Taglioni was the first to make gravity-defying pointe work popular among performers and audiences alike. However, it was her artistry, particularly in her signature role in La Sylphide, that inspired a devoted following and forever changed the art form of ballet. It is ironic that, through the years, dancers have become more and more technically advanced, but pay less attention to that artistic side that Marie embodied so well.

Taglioni created the title role in La Sylphide in 1832, in a part choreographed specifically for her by her father. La Sylphide tells the story of James, a young Scotsman, who is lured away from his love by a forest fairy. It was the first ballet that showcased dancing en pointe as graceful, not as an acrobatic stunt. The first toe shoes had no reinforcements so standing on pointe was incredibly difficult. Taglioni’s style was characterized by floating leaps and balance poses such as the arabesque. Taglioni’s role as the forest fairy catapulted her to fame. She became one of the most celebrated dancers of the Romantic Era.

Eugene Lami created her costume, which is now considered to be the standard romantic tutu. The ballerina wore a form-fitting bodice baring her neck and shoulders, a bell-shaped skirt in a light, white material that ended mid-calf and pink tights. The style was later reproduced in ballets such as Giselle (1841), choreographed by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli, and Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides (1909). The Romantic ballerina was meant to be an elusive, idealized creature: from her flowing white costume to the way in which she balanced delicately on her toes and fluttered across the stage, she was always just out of the hero’s reach.

Contributing to this image were Taglioni’s signature postures and port de bras, which have come to exemplify Romantic ballet. Many historians now believe that these movements and poses were originally created by her father to compensate for a deformity in her back, which could have been anything from a hunchback to a severe spinal curvature. Whatever the handicap, Taglioni became known for her ethereal style: curved arms overhead, framing her face, a forward body posture with the legs in fourth position on pointe and the shoulders slightly tilted in effacé, her forefinger under her chin. Glimpses of Taglioni dancing were captured in Alfred-Edouard Chalon’s romantic prints, which depict charming, coquettish poses and showcase the ballerina balancing on one unusually small foot.

The style of Taglioni and her contemporaries has been recreated in Keith Lester and Anton Dolin’s reconstruction of Perrot’s Pas de Quatre, based on one of Chalon’s lithographs and a historic performance by the four goddesses of Romantic ballet: Taglioni, Elssler, Fanny Cerrito and Lucille Grahn. Perrot originally created the divertissement to be presented before Queen Victoria in 1845.

Nadezhda Gracheva leads Taglioni's Pas de Quatre with Galina Stepanenko, Anna Antonicheva and Elena Andrienko. The Bolshoi Ballet 2008.

Taglioni’s personal life during her performing years was turbulent: In London in 1834, she married Compte Gilbert de Voisins, with whom she later had a son; a separation followed a year later. Additionally, Elssler’s arrival at the Opéra in 1834 created a rivalry for Taglioni’s position, and perhaps contributed to both Filippo and his daughter accepting annual contracts at the Russian Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1837. There they collaborated on a number of ballets that premiered in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre after their creation at the Maryinsky in Russia.

Taglioni gave her last performance in 1848, after a 26-year career in an age of accelerating European train travel that changed performers’ schedules forever. Her retirement was short-lived, however, due to mismanagement of her funds; she was forced to return to Paris in 1858. She became Inspectrice de la Danse at the Paris Opéra in 1859, and is credited with the inauguration of the institution’s examination system. In 1860, she choreographed Le Papillon for her protégé, Emma Livry, who died tragically when her costume caught fire after brushing against the stage’s gas lighting. After losing her fortune during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, Taglioni taught ballroom dancing in London. In 1880, she moved to Marseilles, where she lived with her son until her death in 1884.

At Right - Pointe Shoes via 1860

Although exciting to watch pointe virtuosity was limited. A dancer was not "over feet" as are today's dancers - her flimsy shoes did not permit it.The first pointe shoes used by ballerinas of the early nineteenth century were little more than soft ballet slippers which were heavily darned at the tip. Dancers posed for barely a second on pointe. Today's pointe technique, which consists of relevés, pirouettes, hops and sustained poses, was not possible until the advent of the modern pointe shoe. Modern pointe shoes are made of several layers of burlap and canvas, each formed and then dipped in glue. It is this hardened glue which give the shoe its stiffness. The final layer is satin.

The shoe is then held together by three soles, called shanks. The outside and middle shanks are made of leather, the inside of cardboard. The shanks, with the edges of the satin and canvas in between, are glued and then nailed together.

At Right - Pierina Legnani

Sturdier shoes allowed pointe dancing to reach the next level. The dancer who led the way was Pierina Legnani(1863-1923). Trained by Carlo Blasis at a Scala, Legnani made a sensational debut in Cinderella in 1893, performing an unheard of 32 fouettes on pointe. Soon intricate multiple turns, hops, and sustained balances on pointe were in every ballerina's vocabulary. Swan Lake had been a flop in 1877. With Petipa's choreography and Legnani in the lead, it was a smash in 1895.

In 1832, Taglioni married Comte Gilbert de Voisins in London. The couple had a son and daughter, but separated three years later. In 1837, Taglioni signed a three-year contract with the Imperial Ballet (known as the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet today) in St. Petersburg. Her last performance was in Russia was in 1842, after which a pair of her toe shoes were sold for 200 ruples. Legend has it, these shoes were cooked and eaten by a group of ballet fans.

Taglioni retired from dancing in 1847, but returned to dancing within a few years. According to rumors, she was forced to return to work because of bankruptcy. In 1854, she performed the Pas de Quatre with three of the Romantic Era ballerinas: Carlotta Grisi, Lucille Grahn, and Fanny Cerrito. From 1859-1870, she was the Inspectrice de la Danse at the Paris Opera and instituted a system of examinations. Taglioni choreographed her only ballet, Le Papillon, in 1860. The ballet was created for Taglioni’s student, Emma Livry, who is best known for dying in 1863 when her costume caught fire from a gas lamp that was used for stage lighting. Marie Taglioni died on April 22, 1884 in Marseilles, where she had been living with her son.

The work that Marie Taglioni began allowed dancers to make their characters more vivid. Odile turns those 32 fouettes because she is a wicked temptress hypnotizing Siegfried. Aurora sustains those balances in The Sleeping Beauty because she is a poised, regal princess.

Taglioni’s legacy touches every ballet student today, because the pointe work that was a novelty in the early 19th century is now an integral part of ballet training and a definitive component of both classical and contemporary choreography. Her innovations increased the technical skill necessary to perform ballet, while her expressive performances ensured that pointe work, once thought of as merely an acrobatic trick, would become a crucial storytelling element as well. Taglioni created a new standard of technique and artistry for ballet performers and audiences, and set the stage for today’s talented professionals.

Video of How Pointe Shoes Are Made

New York City Ballet "Pointe Shoes" from Galen Summer on Vimeo.

When Laszlo Berdo teaches men’s class at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, he sees some dancers who turn very well, but only to one side. “I have guys who can do triples in à la seconde on the right, but they can’t do a double pirouette or a single à la seconde to the left,” he says. “There’s an extreme difference.”

Whether it’s pirouettes, extension or strength, one-sidedness is an issue for all dancers. It can occur because of a body’s development, injury or training habits. But to become well-rounded and injury-resistant, dancers must even out their strength and flexibility. Students might hesitate making this correction; many dancers would rather concentrate on what they do best than to focus on their limitations. But if you can show them how to find balance, coordination and strength on their weak side, they’ll see their dancing improve.

Physical Limitations

Imbalances often start before students set foot in the studio: Most bodies are born with an unequal amount of strength and flexibility between their left and right sides. This causes joints and muscles to function and develop differently throughout dance training, which can throw off how positions, balances and movements feel. Fixing this problem often begins with a mind-over-matter approach—imagery can boost confidence in students when attempting to work on their weaker side. With pirouettes, for example, Berdo talks about axis points. He asks, “Are you turning around your spine or visualizing going up and through a hoop?” These ideas can help dancers develop a better sense of rotation.

Muscle memory also plays a big role. Berdo suggests having students perform the movement on their good side first. “I’ll make them take a mental note of what exactly it felt like,” he says, “then have them apply it to the other side. We start slow and keep going back and forth until they get it.” Take the time to find what part of the movement is uncoordinated.

For those who struggle with flexibility, particularly young children, Pascale Leroy of San Francisco Ballet School takes a light and playful approach. She tells them to “feel like a butterfly, and use your arms as wings” or to “kick a balloon,” so the troubled leg floats up without much weight. Staying relaxed can ease joint or muscle stiffness when working a side of the body that feels tighter.

Training Patterns

While most people are either right- or left-handed by nature, students may favor a side because of the way they’ve trained. A traditional ballet barre begins on the right side, which Leroy says can, over time, impact technique. “When students first learn an exercise, they learn it on the right, and by the time the left side comes along, they’re tired,” she says. She suggests starting class with the right hand on the barre. “It gives you great results, especially with the younger ones. As they get older, it gets harder to tackle the weaker side.”

Choreography for competition and performance is generally tailored to show off dancers’ best skills. While it’s important to ensure they look their best, this doesn’t give them the opportunity to try steps in another direction. Jaclyn Walsh, a guest teacher at Walker’s Gymnastics and Dance in Lowell, Massachusetts, notices that she instinctively designs choreography that favors one side over the other. “Most people, like me, are right-handed and tend to choreograph that way,” she says. Walsh combats this in her contemporary and modern classes by creating a long phrase and having her dancers reverse it, without her help. “It’s a mental battle to stay balanced and keep both sides up to par. Students need to have time with the material to engage their muscles and minds on the other side.”

Imbalanced choreography can also invite injury. Walsh sometimes comes across students with problems from overusing a muscle. “They might have a strong tilt on the right side and do it 10 times in three dances, over and over again,” she says. “All of a sudden they can’t do it anymore because they’ve overworked muscles on that side of their body.” Both she and Berdo agree that building strength and coordination through cross-training is essential to prevent these problems. It’s also vital in repairing injury so that one side doesn’t lag behind while the other improves—like an ankle sprain that can’t support the weight of jumping.

Even after working on imbalances, students may always have one side that feels a bit more comfortable than the other. Remind them that directors are looking for adaptable dancers who can tackle all choreographic challenges. They’ll be healthier and stronger in the long run—and there’s no downside to that.

The seeds of sweeping social change can be sown in the most unexpected of places. For women and African-Americans in post-World War I America, those planting grounds were the crowded, lively (and in some cases, desegregated) dance floors across the country. New Orleans had a huge influence with jazz and ragtime music was immensely popular. The Charleston was essentially a continuation of this musical tradition. It may seem naive to attribute such vast changes to the cultural landscape to a patterned series of dance steps, but the Charleston’s exuberant influence was an extraordinary one, and one worthy of a closer look.

Named after Charleston, South Carolina, the dance was popularized by a 1923 tune by pianist James P. Johnson. Featured in the Broadway smash, Runnin’ Wild, it soon became one of the most popular tunes of the decade. The dance itself has been called the first ‘truly American’ dance. Much like jazz music, the Charleston was created through a blend of influences – the syncopated, fast rhythms of Spanish music and the stifling closed-partner positions of earlier ballroom dances, combined with traditional ‘Negro’ dance steps. Furthered along by the invention of the phonograph and the embrace of radio and silent films, thousands of young Americans flocked to dance halls – dancing to a remarkably different beat than generations past. With a partner or without, with arms flailing and legs kicking to the up tempo beat, the Charleston was not a dance for the demure. Dancers were encouraged to add their own distinctive touches, their own ‘shine’ – and for two minorities, this new found freedom would set in motion a sea-change that was as unexpected then as it is lasting today.

For American women in the 1920′s, it was a time of rebellion and significant social change. The passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920 guaranteed women the right to vote, and the prim, proper and idealized image of the Gibson Girl was slowly being replaced with the more daring (and highly sexual) image of the Flapper. Due to the high casualties suffered during World War I – in which almost an entire generation of young men lost their lives – women had entered the work force, and relished the autonomy that earning their own paychecks allowed.

The Charleston became the ‘It’ dance for this newly independent group. Deemed ‘wildly sexual’ by conservative voices of the day, the dance matched the Flapper’s fast-paced lifestyle – even influencing popular fashions. Corsets – too restrictive for the free-flowing movements the dance required – were out, and higher hemlines and lower necklines were in. Short, ‘bob’ hair cuts and make-up completed the look – a stark contrast to the long-haired, strait-laced Gibson image. The new found sexuality of the Flapper – and the power it unleashed – would later be a strong catalyst for the 1960′s feminism movement.

The other minority to benefit from the dance’s prominence was the African-American population. Many historians credit the traditional dances practiced by African slaves as the true inspiration behind the Charleston, and for this group, it would be a positive first step into whites-dominated popular culture. Replacing the offensive Minstrel and Variety shows (in which blacks were often portrayed by white actors in ‘blackface’ ) crowds now poured into desegregated dance halls across the nation.

For many white Americans, these dance halls were their first observation of black culture – one in which the black dancers were not only performers, but stars – exhibiting gravity-defying aerial moves and earning roaring cheers from the onlookers. The Charleston would eventually become the impetus behind the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug, popular 1940′s dances set to swing music, which helped to further raise the visibility and prominence of African-American musicians.

The cultural landscape of 1920′s America was one of great, chaotic change. Casting aside European influences in the wake of World War I, struggling with unjust social and political ideologies, and flirting with a burgeoning freedom, the Charleston epitomized the period. An embrace of the individual spirit – releasing the dancer’s inner personality and creativity – but grounded in historical traditions. Where some may see only the shuffling of feet, still others will see that in a fundamental way the Charleston was not ‘just a dance’. The Charleston was a physical expression of progress.

Yes Sir, That's My Baby : Coon-Sanders Nighthawk Orchestra, Vocal by C.A.Coon, Victor 1925

When you’re dancing a difficult part, it seems that hands would be the last thing you need to worry about. But hands are an expressive part of the body that help a dancer convey emotion and complete breathtaking lines.

Training dancers to finish their lines demands constant attention. “The teacher has to physically have their hands on the students’ arms and wrists, so they feel the right shape. It’s about muscle memory,” says Warren Conover, assistant dean at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Conover says mitten hands stem from a lack of awareness. “Sometimes young students are only focused on what’s happening from the waist down,” he says. To bring attention to the problem, he makes students hold ballpoint pens in class. This keeps them aware of the issue at all times. “It gives their hands shape and changes the quality of their port de bras,” he says.

“The arms, including fingers and wrists, are the language of ballet,” says Lirena Branitski, school principal of Minnesota Dance Theatre and the Dance Institute. Learning variations is a great way to help students understand how integral the hands and fingers are in expressing storyline and emotion. Branitski suggests the fairy variations from The Sleeping Beauty prologue. The Lilac Fairy’s soft command with her sweeping hands, for example, is very different from the Finger Fairy’s sharply pointed index fingers and clenched fists or the Songbird Fairy’s fluttering, energized fingers.

Different methods of training teach different hand positions. For example, Balanchine ballerinas hold fingers separated,(see pic at right) with the thumb lifted. Imagine stretching your fingers over an apple. Vaganova dancers relax four fingers over a lifted pinky. The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) follows a similar model, but prefers a long line from the shoulder to the fingers, with no broken wrist. Cecchetti teachers prefer curved fingers in demi-seconde, as if you’re holding the edge of your tutu.

All of the styles agree on one point: The hands should be expressive. “Most students forget there’s something beyond the wrist,” Mazzo says. “Always think of your hands as alive.”

If you aren’t method-specific, relax your fingers and have the middle finger and thumb close together, as though you were holding a rose between them. This creates a lovely, soft shape that works for all roles at all times. Since the specific manner in which your fingers are held varies depending on which style of ballet you’re taking, be aware of the need to have a shape. If you aren't sure what your instructor wants, don't be afraid to ask after class.

Your hands should continue the line from your forearms, angled neither below nor above. Look in a mirror and place your arms in bras bas. Your wrists should continue the line from your forearms, angled neither below nor above. When you’re dancing — especially when any arabesque is used — make sure you aren’t letting your wrists flop and bend downwards.

When moving through your port de bras, let your wrists and hands trail just the slightest bit behind the rest of your arms. Pretend that you’re drawing your arms through water, and you’re leaving a soft, rippling trail from your wrists to your fingertips. This will help make your port de bras look smoother and leave a relaxed feeling in your hands that is vital when moving from position-to-position.

Hands are an important part of your dancing, so make sure not to forget about them. Practice making soft, beautiful hands throughout the day. This will make lovely fingers second nature in your dancing.

Is talent innate or something that can be learned? It's an argument that has been around for years.Watching Dancing with the Stars, I see contestants who learn the same dance steps, but who execute them in varying degrees. Some contestants seem to have an "it" factor from the beginning while others never seem to quite grasp the movements.

I believe that while you can certainly learn new steps, the natural talent or ability to dance cannot be taught. The same goes for singing, painting, or any talent that is called artistic.

I believe that skills are learned. By their very nature; ability or talent, is inborn. But talent and learned skills compliment each other.Without hard work, dedication and drive, talent remains dormant, never fully developed.

In the artistic sphere, skills are tools with which a person makes art. They are not art in themselves. Such skills might range from the ability to draw a recognizable face, through the ability to play the guitar, to the ability to string words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs or perform dance steps. The utilization of those skills, however, is where natural talent comes into play.

All humans have some degree of imagination, but not in equal measure. Some are content with playing a tune on a kazoo, while others compose a symphony. A person's share of imagination is not completely cast in stone; neglect can cause it to atrophy, while active use can cause it to grow somewhat. At the same time, it can only grow so far. Practice cannot make a Mozart out of an accountant, nor can disuse perform the opposite.

Talent is an internal ability. It is a drive that pushes the artist to create, and it is a vision that shows the artist what kind of an effect to seek. These two impulses exist together, rather than striking independently. Someone does not think, "I really feel like creating something, but I don't know what." When someone truly wishes to create, he/she wishes to create something in particular. Someone wants to write a short story or a poem; wishes to play a certain kind of song, or perhaps to compose one; or wants to portray a certain role or emotion through dance. One starts with a sense of something that one wants to express, and then looks for a medium with which to express it in a meaningful and satisfying manner.

Learned skills are not irrelevant, however. They are the techniques that permit the artist to take the ideas forming in the imagination and give them an independent existence. Without them, an artist is reduced to a daydreamer. Generally, an artist is more comfortable with some skills than with others, and chooses to emphasize them. At the same time, the idea forming in the imagination may demand one treatment instead of another. Sometimes an artist needs to learn an entirely new skill to give the proper form to a given idea.

As is always the case with tools, having a good selection at hand makes for the most satisfactory results in the long run. Perhaps a writer usually prefers to work in the medium of short stories, but once in a while develops an idea that demands a poetic treatment. This writer could take a class in poetry.Then again, perhaps a given idea requires a more radical shift; perhaps it needs to be conveyed musically, or in a drawing, rather than through writing. Many of the most creative people have cultivated more than one medium of creative expression for just this reason.

In short, the essential qualities that create art are intrinsic to the person, and not learned. Skills that can be learned, however, play an important role in the creation of art. The better the artist knows his skills, and the more options he has at his disposal, the more satisfactory the end result is likely to be. And this is the ultimate goal in any art form.

What do you think?

The traditional relationship between light and dance has tended to be one in which the choreographer has created the dance and the lighting designer has then 'lit the box' in which the work will be presented. In recent years however, the relationship between designer and choreographer has started to become much more of a creative dialogue where the lighting design is a major creative element in the choreographic process. There are now several high profile collaborative partnerships - Russell Maliphant and Michael Hulls, Lucy Carter and Wayne McGregor, Guy Hoare and Henri Oguike are perhaps the most well known examples at present.

When asked what makes a good lighting designer Michael Hulls's reply is'...The eyes of a painter, the hands of a sculpture and the soul of a poet.'It is clear from his description that Hulls believes that his role as a lighting designer is fundamentally creative and in the collaboration that he shares with Maliphant both artists acknowledge that the lighting often acts as a starting point for the choreographic process. Maliphant describes Hulls as an architect of space:'the space is always changing, opening up or closing down. It's like breathing' The result is a creative dialogue between light and movement where the dance and the light can't exist without one another.

Lucy Carter has worked regularly for a handful of top British dance makers including Charles Linehan and Shobana Jeyasingh and what each choreographer wants from her lighting varies dramatically. Like Hulls, she sees the process of lighting design as a creative one saying, 'I don't see the lighting as a technical thing...I ignore that side until I have my ideas and concepts.'

Finnish designer Mikki Kunttu has worked closely with the Swedish choreographer Tero Saarinen and both describe the relationship as an open dialogue. Discussing the body of work the pair have created Kunttu says, "We're doing our own thing...without any history or reference to anything else...Every time we start a new creation we start from nothing." Kunttu is modest about his own contribution to the final choreography stating that her lighting should not be too highly valued because,'by itself it's nothing'

The Importance of Lighting

Stage lighting sets cues, and helps paint the picture the creator envisioned. It carries out the dance as it were a dream and makes it a spectacle rather than mere movement. If used creatively, it can add to the success of the production. Lighting design is actually mapped out, depending on how complicated the production is.

Typically the stage is broken down into a number of areas when considering a lighting design. Lighting is something that is calculated and cued just as much as the dance itself. The timing and intensity of it is extremely important. Lighting not only sets the mood, but more importantly, the atmosphere of the entire production.

The artistic director of a production is in charge of explaining the lighting to the lighting director. A choreographer sometimes also commands the design; especially if they envisioned a particular set up when creating the dance. The lighting designer ultimately decides on the best set up, but is in high communication with the choreographer and/or artistic director of a production/number during lighting rehearsal.

The stage is equipped with a multitude of lights coming from several angles and set in several different sizes and films. A film is a color or texture that the light flows through. Films can create quite an atmosphere; from red light to a water effect. it can also block the light to appear in sectional flows. A light can make an actual set as well.

Lighting can create several different dramatic effects, such as shadowing, silhouette, blocked sectional lighting, overhead spotlight, bright heavy light or low-level lighting. There are many components to lighting the stage.

Generally, all stage lighting has to do with the lighting of the performer. Performers tend to work in areas, so they are mainly lit with spotlights. Spotlights are basically concentrated pools of light in one area. A spotlight can be moved around to follow the performer.
After lighting the performer, it may or may not be necessary to provide additional lighting to the surrounding stage. It depends on if there’s a set or not.
Backgrounds/backdrops should all be illuminated separately from the actor and from the set.

Lighting can get very complicated for a stage manager and an artistic director. The director is appointed a set amount of time with the lighting manager. Together, they work out all the possibilities and cues, then they rehearse these cues with the performers at dress rehearsal.

The dramatic emphasis that lighting gives, is important and necessary to every stage production. Lighting design should be studied by every choreographer. The more tools, the more success.

Hanya Holm in 1937

In 1931, a tiny German woman disembarked from an ocean liner onto a Manhattan pier to open a modern dance school based on principles of German expressionist dance. It was a risky move during the Great Depression, especially with America’s growing anti-immigrant sentiment. But the intrepid Hanya Holm would prove triumphant, becoming one of the most influential teachers of American modern dance.

Born Johanna Eckert in Worms, Germany, in 1893, Holm studied dance at the music-oriented Dalcroze Institute. While watching a 1920 performance by Mary Wigman, a student of Rudolf Von Laban. Holm found her calling. She spent the next decade performing with her. To them, dance was an expression of human emotion; it started from within and was not technically based. But Holm transformed the German expressionist principles of modern dance to fit her new life in America—the intensity of Wigman’s dances became freer and more abstract.

Holm was one of the first choreographers to bring her modern dance roots to Broadway, and in addition to her own studio in New York, she taught at The Juilliard School, Bennington College and Colorado College, and she inspired a future generation of artists, including Alwin Nikolais, Glen Tetley, Mary Anthony, Don Redlich and Valerie Bettis. Holm’s broad curriculum, offering more than just technical training, set the groundwork for what would later become the standard for college dance departments.

In 1931, Holm was invited to establish the Mary Wigman School in New York City. Holm led classes in composition, pedagogy, anatomy, improvisation and notation. But with Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the school’s stature suffered because of its association with Wigman, who lived in Nazi Germany. So in 1936, Holm and Wigman decided that it was best for Wigman to remove her name, and it became the Hanya Holm School of Dance.

Holm’s school in Manhattan garnered much attention, and in 1934 she was invited by Martha Hill to serve on the faculty of Bennington School of the Dance during its inaugural year, along with Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. Holm, however, taught differently than her peers. Instead of a codified warm-up to train dancers in her own movement style, Holm concentrated on the use of space, while emphasizing individual artistry. “You are your master and student,” Holm advised dancers. “You must search within your own body.”

After training her dancers for five years, she created the Hanya Holm Dance Company in 1936, and they toured the Midwest as well as performing in New York. Her satiric Metropolitan Daily(1938) became the first modern dance work to be televised in America. In 1939, she was honored byDance Magazine for her work Tragic Exodus, inspired by the plight of the Jews under Hitler. Though Holm folded her troupe in 1944, Don Redlich commissioned, from 1975 to 1985, five new works by his mentor for his company. Among them was Holm’s Jocose (1983), which entered Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project repertory in 1994.

It was at Bennington that Holm choreographed her landmark 1937 piece Trend, which won The New York Times award for best choreography. It was made for 33 dancers, and unlike Wigman’s emotional subjective works, Trend was a symbolic piece about social conformity and oppression. Students represented a Greek-style chorus, while six soloists, including Holm, symbolized individualism.

When World War II affected resources for Bennington’s summer program, Holm started her own summer school out west. From 1941 to 1983, she directed the Colorado College Dance Festival, a six-week summer program that had a curriculum similar to her NYC school that emphasized training the body and mind.

Technique classes began with floor exercises that Holm designed with physical therapist Joseph Pilates to help develop strength and flexibility, says Holm scholar Claudia Gitelman, who studied with her in Colorado. Yet Holm remained steadfast in her expressionistic principles. “If I see one more leg extension, I’ve had it,” Holm said in 1984. “There is security in a major leg extension. But it means nothing. The simplest thing is to shun the emotions and emphasize technique. But you become like a nice stove that doesn’t give any heat.”

Holm was one of the first modern dance choreographers to embrace Broadway. Though her own troupe of dancers folded for budgetary reasons in 1944, Holm continued creating work. She choreographed a section of Ballet Ballads, in 1948, and this musical’s acclaim brought her to the attention of more prominent Broadway producers. She worked on many theatrical productions, including Kiss Me, Kate (1948), My Fair Lady (1956) (which was nominated for a Tony Award for outstanding choreography) and Camelot (1960).

Holm drew upon her roots and used unconventional methods for musical theater, such as improvisation and collaboration with her performers. She also brought the use of Labanotation to her Broadway projects. In 1952 she made history by having her choreography in Kiss Me, Kate legally protected. Holm copyrighted her notated score with the Library of Congress, making it possible for future shows to be staged—with her permission—without her presence.

Holm died in New York City in 1992, one year shy of her 100th birthday. Though her work is not often performed today, her legacy exists in college dance departments across the country, where she not only laid the foundation for their curricula, but also championed the lecture demonstration. She received the 1978 Capezio Award, the 1984 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award and a 1990 Dance Magazine Award to commemorate her lifetime achievement.

"Wouldn't it be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady (1956), featuring Julie Andrews choreographed by Hanya Holm.

Students pose at Colorado State University

Headed to college as a dance major? College dance departments offer more than ballet and modern technique. The following are a sampling of the types of classes you’re likely to take as a dance major. “These courses are designed to broaden a student’s standard dance curriculum,” explains Bill DeYoung, Chair of University of Michigan’s dance department. The guide is compiled from interviews with former and current students and professors in the dance departments of California Institute of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College and University of Michigan.

Anatomy/Kinesiology

Just as committing choreography to muscle memory is necessary for rehearsal and performance, memorizing the body’s anatomy is important to dancers’ overall physical awareness. Anatomy/kinesiology is the study of the musculoskeletal structure, emphasizing the moving body. The class involves memorizing and drawing muscle and bone structures. Some courses, like SLC’s, offer movement practice such as Irene Dowd’s “Spirals” (a warm-up designed to mobilize all joints and major muscle groups) to apply and analyze movement anatomically. Former SLC student Pilar Maez valued this application method, “because it took all the information out of the book and made it relate to movement on our own bodies,” she says. Studying functional anatomy also helps dancers build body awareness, which can prevent injuries.

Body Therapy

Body therapy courses provide a comprehensive introduction to body conditioning practices such as Alexander technique, Pilates, Feldenkrais, yoga, massage therapy and Gyrotonic. These studies offer alternative ways of staying in shape, help with injury prevention and increase physical and mental awareness.

Basic principles of creating and structuring dance are taught in composition classes. Activities are designed to stimulate creativity and the creation of movement. Expect peer reviews and critiques of your work. The techniques learned here are building blocks for your future dance-making endeavors. Even when working as a professional dancer, this kind of training “gives you a leg up—you might even be able to help with the choreographer’s thought process,” says Katie Diamond, a CalArts graduate.

Contact Improvisation

Contact improvisation examines the principles of improvising movement when two or more bodies come into physical contact. Dancers discover ways of giving and taking each other’s weight and moving through positions. They also test personal comfort levels and develop spatial awareness. SLC’s contact professor Kathy Westwater stresses the importance of taking risks with this technique. As more modern, ballet and jazz choreographers explore their ideas through improvisation, and investigate unique kinds of lifts, dancers familiar with contact principles are becoming highly marketable.

Dance and Related Arts

Dance and related arts courses teach dancers how to collaborate with artists in other fields. The instructor will likely facilitate collaborations between your class and artists in another department, and may put forth a theme for you to work together on. Collaborating with many different artists requires an open mind, cooperation and problem-solving skills. The importance of this course goes beyond creating a performance piece. As former UM student Julie Blume says, “It is a lesson in teamwork, creativity, tolerance and compromise.”

Dance History

Most undergraduate dance history courses are general overviews of 20th-century dance performance predominantly in the U.S., which focus on the works of influential dancers and look at specific periods. You’ll watch videos and read articles to help develop your critical perception, and write reviews of live performances. Studying dance history while reviewing current works is designed to help you realize how yesterday’s dance has influenced what’s created today.

Lighting Design and Stagecraft

Lighting design and stagecraft courses explore both the theoretical and practical issues in designing lighting for dance. Interpreting the choreography, its mood, and its relationship to the music contribute to the development of a lighting concept that transports the audience in a way the choreographer intends. Basic color theory and the functions of theatrical equipment are standard topics. Organization, patience and interpersonal skills are needed to create cue sheets and communicate with other designers and choreographers. Participating in the technical aspect of the theater is usually a requirement for dance majors; a smart dancer knows as much about what’s happening onstage as behind the scenes.

Senior Career Seminar

Senior career seminars help prepare dancers for life after graduation. You may learn self-promotion (creating a resumé, for both dance and business, and what makes a headshot great), grant writing and cover letter procedures, NYC survival tips, information about prominent dance companies, audition techniques and ways to support yourself financially while pursuing a dance career.

Showings Class

Showings classes provide a safe space to share works-in-progress throughout the year. Composition class assignments and graduate thesis projects are treated equally. All work brought to the class is performed and discussed in a group. The course is a forum for the artist to experiment, receive feedback and learn to talk about his or her work.

Video Dance

Video dance courses focus on capturing and creating dance for the camera. Participants not only learn how to handle a camera and experiment with angles and settings to shoot dance effectively, but also create a video dance. These courses usually require a major time commitment, but students agree that it’s worth it, as dance and technology are becoming more intertwined—on the stage and for preservation.

Many athletes and dancers wrongly determine their self-worth by how successful they feel about their career. When an dancer performs well or feels successful, he or she feels good about him or herself. But the opposite is also true: despair and low self-esteem results when this person does not perform well or views him or herself as a failure. Self-esteem is a core issue because it affects every aspect of your life, not just dancing.

Society sends subtle signals that you must achieve in your career to feel worthy as a person and that is the trap that many athletes fall into. In addition, if you are perfectionist, it doesn’t help your self-esteem because you have such high expectations and are always so critical and hard on yourself. One day you have self-esteem and the next day it erodes due to what you think is a poor performance or practice. One dancer I know stated: “Even if I felt I had a flawless performance, if I did not get a good audience reaction or the reaction I was looking for, I feel like a failure.” This statement highlights how out of control one can feel about his or her success or failure in dance, and thus make negative judgments about one’s performance.

What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is the regard you hold for yourself. All of you have a concept of your person (self-concept). If you like your self-concept (who you think you are), then you have self-esteem. Self-confidence is different. Self-confidence is the belief in your ability to perform a task—it is not a judgment. You can have self-confidence, but not self-esteem, and vise versa. Optimally, you want both—high self-confidence in your abilities and self-regard.

Self-esteem should be based on who you are as a person instead of how well you can perform in dance or how high you go in a dance career. Think about this: if you take away the part of you who is a dancer, how would you describe yourself? What are your personal characteristics that describe you? This is what self-esteem should be based on. If you feel like you struggle with self-esteem, don't give up. Here are some ideas about raising self-esteem:

Switching Roles

When you are dancing, you are in the role of the ballerina, modern dancer, jazz dancer, ballroom, etc. You want to be into that role fully when practicing and performing, but when you leave the studio or stage, it’s time to switch roles into other parts of your life and let go of judgments. Don’t superimpose the role of a dancer (or how well you can perform) into other areas of your life.

True Friends

People who are your true friends and family members love you for who you are as a person. They don’t judge you based on your performance or change their view of you because of how well you can dance. If they do, they are not your true friends. They like you for who you are, not what you do.

Stop Any Comparisons

You do yourself harm by making comparisons to other dancers who you think are better or more talented than you. This only serves to hurt your self-esteem and confidence because you put others on a pedestal and criticize your faults. Everyone is unique. Think about how well you did compared to your last performance instead of making comparisons to others.

Accept Your Body Image

I know many dancers worry about their body not being the perfect type - too short, too tall, feeling too heavy or blah features. No one can be perfect or has the perfect body for ballet. Some people are born with more hand-eye coordination, stamina, or balance, but that’s what makes us unique. Accepting your body image is the first step to gaining self-esteem. Make the best of what you have by focusing on your strengths and capabilities as a dancer.

Balance in Life

If your life is dance, you are at greater risk for self-esteem problems because you have “all your eggs in one basket” and can’t separate the different roles in you life. Strive to find a balance in your life with your family, school, dance, friends, and other career aspirations. This will help take the pressure off your dance and allow your self-esteem to grow.

Be Your Own Best Coach

You are your own worst critic and your best friend wrapped into one. We are often harder on ourselves than we are on our best friends. What would you say to a best friend that is feeling down? Can you be at least that supportive of yourself? Always give yourself words of encouragement and reward after a performance or practice. Pretend you have the most positive coach on your shoulder giving words of encouragement.

Define Your Self-Concept Outside of Dance

A good exercise is to define who you are outside your dance career. Use only descriptions that apply to your personal characteristics that you bring to every aspect of your life. Make a list of these positive characteristics and review them every day. Do you like what you see? If so,great! Work on developing these traits further. Is there something you don’t like? Is so, work to change that aspect of you. With time, you can learn to develop both your dancing and your self-esteem.

UVU dance team performing on Dancing Wtth the Stars

Utah might as well be named the nation’s ballroom state. The region has a strong ballroom presence in many K–12 classrooms, has top training studios and is home to many of the nation’s competitions, along with their titleholders. But there’s something else stirring the state’s ballroom fire: Utah Valley University (UVU) is the only place in the country where undergraduate students can actually major in ballroom dance.

Senior Emily Darby starts her school day at 6:40 am, training and rehearsing until, at times, 10 pm. “In ballroom, there’s no golden road set, because it doesn’t have the presence that ballet and modern dance have,” she says. “It’s not enough to just love it. You have to work hard, have a sense of adventure and be willing to take risks.”

That’s exactly how UVU ballroom artist in residence Scott Asbell felt when he began writing the Movement Studies—Ballroom bachelor of science degree over 12 years ago. He battled the school for seven years before it approved the curriculum in 2006. “Ballet and modern dance were very smart to get involved in the academic world early on,” says Asbell. “Ballroom had been missing an academic rigor that will give it permanence and growth.”

Asbell credits Utah’s interest in ballroom to the state’s highly active Mormon culture, beginning with Brigham Young, a Latter-day Saints movement leader and settler. “When he brought the Mormon pioneers across the U.S., dancing was a big part of their lifestyle to keep them entertained,” he says. “Ballroom is something that allowed, and still allows, couples to date and enjoy an activity together.” (Young eventually founded neighboring UVU competitor Brigham Young University, which offers a dance BA with a ballroom concentration.)

In 2012, the UVU department of dance currently had 205 students—29 being ballroom majors. All students enter the department as pre-majors and after one year of core credits in various techniques and lectures, they audition for matriculation into specific programs. They are evaluated by faculty based on schoolwork, letter of intent and the skill level of the dance routines they present during review. Most ballroom majors are dancers from the region. Asbell explains that often, in the area of formation team dancing, prospective students from other parts of the country aren’t up to the level of ballroom technique that locals have been trained in.

Once a ballroom major, students are thrown into techniques of all dance disciplines, and seminars that reach beyond a basic dance education, including several liberal arts and science classes, courses in Laban and “current dance issues,” as well as ballroom-specific credits in pedagogy, marketing and costume design. A foundation in science and body education courses validates the bachelor of science status. (Many dance BA and BFA programs have a lighter academic course load and mirror a conservatory approach.) This was the only way the department was able to receive degree approval years back. “It was quite a controversy whether it should even be a degree,” says department chair Nichole Ortega. “The pioneers who put this program together were ahead of the curve.”

Majors and non majors can audition for the university’s four ballroom dance teams: bronze, silver, gold and touring. Gold and touring are competitive, and all teams perform in two department concerts a year. Participating dancers receive credit for these additional 14-hour rehearsal weeks, and students on any team are required to complete a minimum of three hours in technique class per week (though Asbell says that most push for six).

The teams give students several additional opportunities to edge their way into the international ballroom scene. Several students filmed work on High School Musical while at the program, and most recently, one team competed on “Dancing with the Stars” College Dance Championship and took home the Mirrorball Trophy. Most years, the touring troupe travels to England to participate in the Blackpool Dance Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious ballroom dance competitions. UVU has placed first in the amateur formation division four times.

Asbell plans to begin working on a formal study-abroad program in England, so students can spend up to eight weeks in the summer working with leading professionals in the country that founded many of ballroom’s styles. This program will culminate with the students participating in the Blackpool competition.

And it seems that UVU ballroom grads are achieving their goals. For those interested in pursuing graduate school, the program’s diverse training sets them up for an MFA in a more classical dance genre. Students who want to pursue medical school can use the BS aspect of the degree to their advantage because it qualifies as a premed foundation. Though graduates could continue to a professional competitive career, Asbell says most are interested in feeding back into the ballroom community: teaching at or opening up local studios, and directing competitive or recreational teams at other colleges.

Ortega says that ballroom majors are at the top of their class just as often as other students in the dance department: “These kids push themselves more than the average student because they want to be taken seriously.” Darby agrees. “I can’t focus on the fact that the dance community is not really accepting of ballroom,” she says. “Ballroom has the groundedness of modern, the isolations of jazz, the lines of ballet and so much partnering. I’m hoping that dancers will see this as a possibility to explore new territory.

By Lea Marshall

Imagine a group of your students surging through a sculpture garden, the sunlight glancing off their limbs. A breeze floats leaves across the grass, and the dancers roll and tumble after them.

And then, without warning, the irrigation system kicks on and sprinklers shoot water in all directions, flattening the leaves, soaking the dancers and drowning the choreographer in despair.

A similar situation did, in fact, happen to Diane Frank, a dance lecturer at Stanford University. It made her realize just how much she had to account for when preparing a performance in an alternative space—the irrigation schedule, for one thing.

While performances in a wide range of venues (or non-venues) can expose your students to significant challenges and hazards, they can also create unforgettable adventures. How can you prepare? By gathering as much information as possible, using it to prepare your students as thoroughly as possible and coming prepared for contingencies.

Step 1: Gather Information

Jana Belot, owner of the Gotta Dance studios in New Jersey, regularly takes large groups of students out for all types of performances. “We’ve performed on baseball fields and at bar mitzvahs, tea parties, fashion events, cancer walks—even Ellis Island,” she says. “Basically, anywhere there’s people.” Over the years she has learned that the more questions you can ask the event sponsor up front, the better your chances of success.

“Two years ago,” she says, “we hired a full-time project manager and event planner. And at that time we realized we needed a list of questions.” The three-page list ranges from the fairly obvious, “What will the floor be? What will we use for a sound system? Will the stage be marked?” to the more detailed, “What chaperones are needed?” and “Will we eat lunch on the bus?” And, she says, “One hundred percent of the time we preview the site and meet with the person in charge.”

Joan Hope MacNaughton, who owns Leggz, Ltd., in Rockville Centre, New York, has also led students through an endless variety of performance situations. “There are a lot of variables that you have to take into consideration,” she says. “Most importantly, get your stage size and make sure that it’s going to work for you. If it won’t, don’t accept the job—because there’s nothing worse than putting on a bad show. Nobody cares whether or not it’s your fault; all they’re doing is looking at your performance and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, that studio was horrendous. Who were they? Let’s not ask them back again.’”

Step 2: Prepare Your Students

Frank created a course at Stanford titled Figure/Ground: Site-Specific Dance Performance in Outdoor Environments. “You have to let your students know what it means if you’re dancing on grass,” she says. “Then you have to build movement that can be danced on grass.” The students, she emphasizes, can only be as prepared as the teacher is. And location-appropriate choreography is important when it comes to your dancers’ safety, too. If you know they’ll be dancing on a hard surface like concrete, for example, limit the number of jumps to protect your students’ joints.

MacNaughton recommends taping out unconventional stage sizes on the studio floor for rehearsals, so that students learn how to fit their movements into small or unusually shaped spaces. If they’ll be performing on concrete, she takes them outside to rehearse on the sidewalk, so they can get accustomed to a surface with no give. If it’ll be a tennis court, she takes them to a local court to experience the total lack of slide.

Step 3: Prepare for Contingencies

Once you’ve asked the important questions and prepped your students, you’ll need to plan for the unexpected. Weather and dancing surfaces are two big concerns. MacNaughton always asks her dancers to bring several types of shoes, for example. If the stage turns out to be too slippery for tap shoes, she’ll put her tappers in sneakers. If it’s too risky for pointe, she’ll have them use ballet slippers. Belot follows her gut instincts: “If it’s sunny, do we add sunglasses? Sometimes that’s adorable, but sometimes it’s cheesy. Can we work with the weather? We do this Santa number in a parade, so one year we bought red hats, red scarves, red legwarmers that the students wore over their regular costume to stay warm.” Cute in a parade? Yes. Cute at a more serious event? Probably not.

Sometimes, you just have to know when to throw in the towel. MacNaughton tells the story of a performance on an outdoor stage, on a day with pouring rain. The stage was slippery, but her dancers gave it a shot for one number. “They were soaking wet,” she says. “They had white dance pants on; the dance pants turned black because the dye ran from the tops, which were black, onto the white bottoms. The dancers were troopers, but it was beyond what you could even realistically expect.” She pulled them out of the rest of the show.

But most often, your preparation and your students’ dedication will pay off in cheers and applause. As Frank puts it, “The value of doing site-specific work is that it places dance in situations that allow us to both see and think of dance differently. You’re fostering a fresh take on the world.”

Lea Marshall is producer/assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Dance and Choreography and co-founder of Ground Zero Dance.

Top 10 Questions to Ask Before You Go

From the list compiled by Jana Belot, owner of the Gotta Dance studios in New Jersey:

1. Have I previewed the site?
2. Have I met with the person in charge?
3. Have we purchased insurance for the event?
4. Do we have all permission slips and/or photo release forms signed
5. Do we have emergency phone numbers for all of the dancers?
6. What will the sound system be?
7. What will the floor be?
8. What shoes will the dancers be wearing?
9. What will the lighting system be?
10. Have I planned for inclement weather?

Since its inception in 1990, Dianne Rosso’s Dance for the Athlete program at Glen Burnie High School in Maryland has grown to 300 students a year, with waiting lists for the five classes each semester. “Every single sport the school offers has been represented,” says Rosso, who teaches students a mix of genres ranging from contemporary modern to Latin. “It’s the most popular course at our school. Our shows pull in more people than the homecoming football game . . . everyone loves to see the athletes involved

in dance.”

So why are athletes embracing dance? Many believe that dance fundamentals can enhance athletic performance by increasing agility, precision, flexibility and timing. Although this concept isn’t exactly new (Roni Mahler was hired in 1984 to teach a 12-week series of ballet classes to the Cleveland Browns NFL team), pop-culture trailblazers like Grease’s Danny Zuko and High School Musical’s Troy Bolton have inspired a new generation of athletes, proving it can be cool to explore their artistic sides. Add to that the victories of football legend Emmitt Smith, speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno and Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi on “Dancing with the Stars,” and it’s no wonder that greater numbers of athletes are hitting the dance floor.

Athletes can also benefit from dance’s rehabilitative and injury-preventive qualities. According to Shaw Bronner, who has treated athletes and is a physical therapist for The Ailey School and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, taking dance classes can actually accelerate an injured athlete’s recovery. “[They] often want to get back to the field prematurely, and dance allows them to work on certain skills that augment what they’re doing in traditional rehab,” she says.

By targeting jocks, your studio can diversify its customer base and attract an entirely new audience. Read on to find out how to make it a win-win situation for everyone.

Do Your Homework.

To develop or incorporate dance classes for athletes, it’s important to become familiar with the ins and outs of various sports. “People in the sport aren’t going to appreciate a dance teacher coming in and not focusing on what they’re doing on the field,” says Grace Maxwell, owner of Athletic Grace Dance Studio in El Segundo, California. “When marketing yourself to athletes, make sure you understand the physicality of each sport and know why it’s important for them to dance—from reducing injuries to building endurance.”

Rosso agrees that sports knowledge is a must: When preparing her Dance for the Athlete curriculum, she observed soccer, football and basketball practices. “I took notes on the drills and footwork each coach used, then went back to the studio and incorporated them into
the music.”

Relating to a sport also makes class instruction easier. Maxwell recalls one student who was able to nail a
troublesome swing dance turn after she likened the wrist rotation to a
martial arts movement, and basketball players who mastered the grapevine in hip-hop class when she compared it to one of their drills. “When I describe movement in a way that reflects their sport, it clicks much better with them,” she says.

Make Class Athlete-Friendly.

By making appropriate attire choices, a studio owner greatly increases his or her odds of endearing athletes to dance. Just ask Julian Littleford, a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company who now spends his days training athletes at his Del Mar, CA–based Pilates studio, JL Body Conditioning Inc. “Many athletes are nervous about going to class and would never dream of wearing tights and ballet shoes,” he says. “They’re going to feel more comfortable if both they and the instructor are in sweatpants and socks.”

The right music can also go a long way toward making athletes feel comfortable in class. Maxwell and Rosso recommend forgoing the classics for upbeat jazz or contemporary tunes, even when teaching ballet. “High school–aged students are not going to be as enthusiastic about dancing to classical music or learning strict ballet techniques,” Rosso cautions. “You’ll get more out of the students by using non-traditional ways to incorporate pliés and relevés, as well as putting those movements to music they can relate to.”

Maxwell agrees: “Shows like ‘DWTS’ are incredibly popular because they don’t use classical waltz music. I use tango or even cha-cha tunes in ballet class—it just keeps students more engaged.”

Tailor the Techniques.

Along with learning about specific sports and incorporating elements of them in class, it’s also crucial to understand how certain dance techniques can play into athletic performance. Stretching should be an integral part of any athlete-oriented dance class, as it’s often lacking in sports training. Try implementing some of the following ideas as well:

Rosso: “Although you might not get as technical as you would with advanced ballerinas, you can certainly do pas de bourrées, chassés, tendus, dégagés—[what] you’d teach beginners—without getting so much into terminology . . . it’s about the right approach.”

Maxwell: “In my Ballet for Skaters class, I incorporate ballet principles from a skating perspective. When we do ballet barre, we work in parallel position as well as turnout. When we get to center, we’ll change into dance sneakers and work on multi-rotational jumps.”

Littleford: “Forward and back port de bras will help with trunk movement and hamstrings. Any rond de jambe series, along with the grand battement series, will help with hip mobility. Tendus are very good as well because they sensitize the feet. As far as stretching, all abductor and hamstring stretches are major for any athlete.”

Although the jury is divided on whether to offer athlete-specific dance classes or integrate athletes into existing classes, all agree that dancers themselves are equally as athletic as those coming off the field or court. “I truly believe that dancers and athletes are one and the same,” says Littleford. "Many athletes say after taking dance class that it was the hardest thing they’ve ever done, and the results are quite astounding.”

"The best is the enemy of the good.” This profound statement by the French writer and philosopher Voltaire was a favorite saying of a great dance mentor and friend. It means, she said, that striving for perfection is not necessarily the path to improvement.

I have learned through personal experience that dancers are very hard on themselves. Sometimes in their attempt to become better dancers students overlook the amazing things they can already do. They bemoan what they see as their physical shortcomings and scrutinize every square inch of themselves with heavy judgment. I know that I have.

With ballet in particular, dancers get sucked into the myth that what they do has to be perfect to be any good. Many students walk away from ballet because of this misconception. Although they understand that it will help their overall dancing, they feel less than perfect in ballet and therefore give it up. My mentor would say that this narrow approach is like limiting oneself to just the colors of black and white, and when dancers consider their bodies or technique as either “perfect” or “bad”; the concept of “good” has been lost.

Educators need to reclaim what is good about dance students. They must encourage them to think beyond black and white and embrace all of the colors in their individual palette. I remember my dance teacher asking me, when I was very young, what color I would choose for a pas de chat. I said "Rose pink" very specifically because I loved the color pink and roses. I was so thrilled to “dance” that color into the pas de chat. My classmates chose other colors, and I felt like my rose pink pas de chat was special, something that was really my own. I now realize that Miss Janice had found a way to introduce me to the concept of an individual palette and the idea that there are many beautiful or “good” colors. Dancers can perform the same steps, but each has his/her own unique style that makes them special. And all can be good.

Another misconception is that ballet technique has to be perfected before you can start to address the more advanced concepts of performance quality. If ballet teachers constantly focus on their students’ technical weaknesses, the students’ love for the movement may vanish, along with their self-esteem, interest, and confidence. One cannot have perfect technique and then simply add on a layer of performance.
The process of learning ballet is a dynamic interplay between technique and performance. I believe that the more dance teachers focus on a student’s individual performance quality, the stronger his or her technique will get. Teachers who utilize more performance- or creative-based cues (rather than drilling technique) can empower a student in a ballet class.

My basic outlook on teaching dance is that performance should lead technique. I believe that ballet technique naturally gets stronger as we encourage students to “tell a story” with the movement, experiment with musicality, or add dynamic richness to each combination. Dancers' sense of musicality and individual artistry can be considered “muscles” that need adequate time to flex and stretch. As students recognize their ability to find their artistic voice within the confines of a ballet class, glorious things begin to happen in all areas of their dancing.

What does it mean to let performance lead technique? It is simply allowing the dancers the opportunity to invest in the overall artistic quality of a step or combination. For example, the eyes are a performance element that can enhance technique. As I direct students to look up at the head of the dancer in front of them, I see their spines naturally lengthen and the alignment of the upper back improve. Eyes are also an element of space. As the eyes look up and out and the spine lengthens, the limbs respond by reaching farther and the core engages (and eventually gets stronger) to support the limbs in space. The eyes can be considered a small detail, but that focus on such performance details strengthens the overall technique. Working with focus is something that dancers can feel they are good at, and it can bring enjoyment to the process of becoming a better dancer.

To enliven the concept of “good,” teachers must change the perspective of technique class. Rather than thinking of a typical technique class as being 90 minutes of “perfecting” certain steps, skills, or positions, the teacher can present the technique class as an inquiry. In a sense, the students could be encouraged to replace perfection with curiosity. How does it feel in your body? What helps to make the sequence feel “right” for you? What is good about the way the other students are performing the combination? What “story” are they telling?

Fostering a sense of curiosity or investigation sets up a class environment that supports a process rather than a goal. Teachers who have students on an ongoing basis want to foster a process-oriented environment rather than a goal-oriented one. Process-oriented thinking allows students to fall in love with consistently doing their best. It may also develop self-confidence and analytical and creative thinking skills.
A goal-oriented perspective sets up negative patterns. Dancers establish goals like “I need to get into a particular summer program,” or “I need to fix my pirouettes.” If their dancing falls short of the goal, they may feel that they are less than perfect and there is no point in trying anymore. They need to understand that pirouettes will improve over time as they continue to practice them in class. Investigation does not mean that students do not work hard on technique; it simply broadens the approach to improvement.

Teachers need to explore what will work for particular students or classes and develop exercises that generate curiosity and replace the “black-and-white” thinking of what is right and wrong in their dancing. The only thing that really needs to be “perfected” is the love of the process of becoming a better dancer. And even that ebbs and flows. Real success is having your students fall in love with the process and not fixate on the results. They will get very significant results as they keep investing in the process.

Color your classes with a rainbow of positive feedback. Be specific about what is good and why it is good. Have students articulate what felt good to them and what they see other dancers doing that they think is good. Have students “try on” the other colors they see. In doing so, they can expand both their color palette and their definition of what is good.

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Boosting Athletes' Performance With Dance

Different Strokes: Defining What is Good About Your Dancing