Thursday 7 November 2013

Be a Smart Dancer: 10 Qualities of Smart Dancers


In workshops and at your classes, you often hear, “Be a smart dancer!”
Being a smart dancer will help you, your fellow dancers, the choreographer and the performance piece much stronger. Let’s break down what being a smart dancer includes.
ballerinasmarts
Photo: Greta Hodgkinson gets ready backstage before performing as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. Source: The Ballet Blog Tumblr

Being Spatially Aware

Being spatially aware means that you understand you’re dancing in a 3-dimensional world. Smart dancers know about body directions and how they relate to the space around you. Being spatially aware means you know not to stand too close to other dancers, how to use your space, how to travel upstage, downstage, stage right and stage left. It means you understand how a combination will travel so that you can properly set up, thus not running out of room before being able to finish the combination. Being spatially aware means you won’t run into other dancers while going across the floor, and it means you understand how to not be in the way of other dancers. Being spatially aware helps everyone.
Body Directions:
Croisé devant: Crossed and in front.
Croisé derrière: Crossed and in back.
Effacé devant: Open and in front.
Effacé derrière: Open and in back.
Ecarté devant: Separated and in front.
Ecarté derrière: Separated and in back.
À la quatrième devant/En face devant: To the fourth front.
À la quatrième derrière/En face derrière: To the fourth back.
À la seconde: To second.

Staying Focused

Smart dancers know how to make themselves focus and find their centers even on bad days. Through exhaustion and frustration, smart dancers can pull it together under pressure. They are ready for anything at any moment. If a choreographer needs you to perform a role because someone is injured, you have to be ready. You have to be able to push the chaos away and focus on the current space and time. Smart dancers know how to override stresses in order to get the job done.
space
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Understanding Patterns

Smart dancers know the importance of identifying patterns in combinations, in phrasing and in choreography. The faster you pick up on patterns, the easier it is to comprehend and memorize. Once your mind has absorbed the pattern, your body can embody the movement making it easier to mentally reverse the patterns or combinations. Understanding patterns helps with speed, coordination and reversing. It also helps with communicating and notating movement to other dancers. If you can identify which part of the pattern you’re discussing, it will help other dancers know where in time and space you are.

Understanding Music Theory

Smart dancers learn music theory. They understand the difference between rhythm, tempo, melody and timing. They understand different time signatures (or meters), and how that will effect the dance. They know how to count using numbers and letters to signify different accents and movements. (For example: 1-e-&-a, 2, 3-e-&-a, 4). Being able to read music helps a dancer understand and flesh out what a composer is trying to get across. The more you understand music and can hear rhythms inside of rhythms the more detailed your dancing will become.
Musical Terms to Know:
Rhythm: Regular re-occurrence of the accented beat.
Tempo: The rate of speed of the music.
Melody: A succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence; the tune.
Timing: Ability to put movements to the tempo of the music; counting.
music
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Observation: Picking Up On Details

What makes a smart dancer is being able to pick up on details without being told. A smart dancer knows what to look for and how to transfer the knowledge into their memory all at once. For example, being able to pick up what the arms, head, hands, body, legs, feet are all doing at what tempos in what directions and not missing a detail is a learned skill. Smart dancers watch with the intention to digest the information and commit it to memory.
watching
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Anticipation: Thinking Ahead

The ability to anticipate is an extremely useful tool for dancers. For example, in ballet class if you want to hold your arabesque a little longer, than you have to anticipate speeding up the transition move following it in order to stay within the phrasing of the music. Or perhaps there is a surprising shift of weight, you have to anticipate this happening so you are not late on the timing. The same goes with anticipating how a combination will travel. You have to think ahead so that you are not in the way. Anticipation also becomes useful when preparing for auditions and rehearsals. You never know what is going to happen or what you will be asked to do, so you have to prepare for everything.

Making Connections

Smart dancers know how to make connections. This can include making connections from class to class to cross-training, rehearsals and observing others. Smart dancers are always learning and they are always keeping an open mind about how to approach movement and training their bodies. Smart dancers also know the dance world is small, and they know how to interact with different people in order to stay successful. Making connections and understanding how their bodies work and how their field works is what keeps them on their toes.
IraqiDance
A ballet teacher instructs her students at the Iraqi Music and Ballet School in downtown Baghdad. Photo by: David Furst. Source

Self-awareness: Knowing Your Body & Emotions

Understanding your body and your mental and emotional status is not always easy, but smart dancers know themselves and their weaknesses. They know what muscle imbalances or structural challenges they are working with, and they know when they are having days where they are fighting muscle fatigue. Knowing how to take care of yourself is important. Understanding how to prevent injuries or care for injuries when they occur will get you back dancing faster. Understanding your emotions and how you deal with stress, long rehearsals or certain types of people will help you evaluate situations and how you function within them. Smart dancers listen to their bodies and they take the feedback seriously.

Understanding Different Techniques

Smart dancers are open to learning different techniques, and they also educate themselves on the different techniques. For example, Martha Graham’s technique offers different focuses and skills than Cunningham’s technique, and vice versa. Learning how to fuse the benefits of different techniques will make you a well-rounded dancer, and you’ll be more prepared for whatever choreographers or teachers throw at you.
barefeet
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Showing Respect

Smart dancers show respect without questioning. They take it upon themselves to learn their dance history and know the people who have shaped dance. They understand the responsibility that falls on their shoulders to dance and dance well; to train and train hard. Smart dancers learn where they’ve come from in order to anticipate where they’re going. Smart dancers respect the art, the studio space, their teachers, their fellow dancers and the creative process. They know how to provide constructive criticism without hurting someone or killing an idea. Smart dancers place their hope in each class and every day in order to protect the art we love so much.

Source:  Ballet Shoes & Bobby Pins

Monday 4 November 2013

Going Through the Motions Improves Dance Performance

July 23, 2013 — Expert ballet dancers seem to glide effortlessly across the stage, but learning the steps is both physically and mentally demanding. New research suggests that dance marking -- loosely practicing a routine by "going through the motions" -- may improve the quality of dance performance by reducing the mental strain needed to perfect the movements.

The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that marking may alleviate the conflict between the cognitive and physical aspects of dance practice, allowing dancers to memorize and repeat steps more fluidly.

Researcher Edward Warburton, a former professional ballet dancer, and colleagues were interested in exploring the "thinking behind the doing of dance."

"It is widely assumed that the purpose of marking is to conserve energy," explains Warburton, professor of dance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But elite-level dance is not only physically demanding, it's cognitively demanding as well:

Learning and rehearsing a dance piece requires concentration on many aspects of the desired performance."

Marking essentially involves a run-through of the dance routine, but with a focus on the routine itself, rather than making the perfect movements.

"When marking, the dancer often does not leave the floor, and may even substitute hand gestures for movements," Warburton explains. "One common example is using a finger rotation to represent a turn while not actually turning the whole body."

To investigate how marking influences performance, the researchers asked a group of talented dance students to learn two routines: they were asked to practice one routine at performance speed and to practice the other one by marking.

The routines were relatively simple, designed to be learned quickly and to minimize mistakes. Yet differences emerged when the judges looked for quality of performance.

Across many of the different techniques and steps, the dancers were judged more highly on the routine that they had practiced with marking -- their movements on the marked routine appeared to be more seamless, their sequences more fluid.

The researchers surmise that practicing at performance speed didn't allow the dancers to memorize and consolidate the steps as a sequence, thus encumbering their performance.

"By reducing the demands on complex control of the body, marking may reduce the multi-layered cognitive load used when learning choreography," Warburton explains.

While marking is often thought of as a necessary evil -- allowing dancers a "break" from dancing full out -- the large effect sizes observed in the study suggest that it could make a noticeable difference in a dancer's performance:

"Marking could be strategically used by teachers and choreographers to enhance memory and integration of multiple aspects of a piece precisely at those times when dancers are working to master the most demanding material," says Warburton.

It's unclear whether these performance improvements would be seen for other types of dance, Warburton cautions, but it is possible that this area of research could extend to other kinds of activities, perhaps even language acquisition.

"Smaller scale movement systems with low energetic costs such as speech, sign language, and gestures may likewise accrue cognitive benefits, as might be the case in learning new multisyllabic vocabulary or working on one's accent in a foreign language."

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:
  1. E. C. Warburton, M. Wilson, M. Lynch, S. Cuykendall. The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction: Evidence From Dance Marking. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797613478824

Source: Science Daily

Sunday 20 October 2013

'Silver Swans' taking to the barre later in life for ballet lessons

By Emma Ailes, BBC Scotland

More pensioners are taking up ballet in a bid to stay fit and lead a healthier, longer life

More and more pensioners are taking up ballet, according to the Royal Academy of Dance. It is putting the phenomenon down to the popularity of TV programmes like Strictly Come Dancing.

In a locker room at Scottish Ballet, a group of dancers are lacing up their ballet shoes. Only one thing marks them out from the other dancers here.

These dancers are all in their 60s and 70s.

Today, they are rehearsing Swan Lake.

Among them is Alicia Steele. She danced when she was young. Now, nearly 80, she's back.

"I went to keep fit classes, but I found them a bit boring," she says.

"And I love the music with the piano. I just love it and it makes you feel a bit young again. It doesn't make you look young, but it makes you feel young inside."

There's been a 70% jump in the number of adult dancers signing up for classes in recent years, according to the Royal Academy of Dance.

Some, like Alicia, danced when they were young. Others are complete beginners.

Their oldest ballerina is 102.

'Amazing thing'

Preston Clare, teacher of the Scottish Ballet's Regenerate group, says he has been astonished by the change he has seen in his older pupils.

"The amazing thing with these ladies is they've grown," he says.

"They've stopped slouching now and it's just fantastic to see the difference in them.
"They're opening up completely and able to feel more confident in themselves."

The lessons at Scottish Ballet have proved so popular, they have added extra classes, and they still have a waiting list.

Ballet is good for muscles, balance and memory, but 68-year-old Alison Templeton says it is not just the physical challenge she comes for.

"A number of the ladies have lost husbands this year, including myself, and the support of the other ladies is just remarkable," she says.

"It does help, and it gives you a focus to go out in the week and do something."

Marlene Gillespie, 71, says she absolutely loves the experience. "I can't wait to come," she says. "I love the music. I love the exercise.

"We have good days, bad days, we've all been through different things. And I just think it's a wonderful way to exercise, especially for elderly people."

Renee Gillespie, 75, adds: "You know you can't really do what you're asked to do but you have great fun trying. And so it's good exercise, it's great fun and it's wonderfully sociable."

Ballet  
 
While some senior citizens are taking on the classics, Dr Anne Hogan, from the Royal Academy of Dance, says for others there is the more gentle option of armchair ballet.

"Dance is something that can be modified to all ages and all levels of experience," she says.

"In the programme recently, when we trained people to work with older learners, they went into situations in some of the care homes where you had people who had to be seated the entire class, but had a great dance class.

"There's lots of movement that can be adapted to people's needs."

Following the Genee, the world's biggest dance competition, held in Glasgow last month, the Royal Academy of Dance is holding a week of free ballet lessons across Scotland in January.
They hope it will get even more people spend their twilight years at the barre.

Source: BBC News