Dress Rehearsals

“Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays.”

-George Balanchine

Before a studio presents their choreography, or show on a stage either for a single performance, recital, competition or tour they will need to have a run through dress rehearsal. This process takes planning, an extensive amount of time to carry out.

Before anything can happen the dancers must first be taught the choreography. Then master the choreography by themselves, without reliance on others or questions over the moves. Once that is accomplished, the director should feel confident in putting the piece on stage.

To be sure a director can hold a private, casual show, for example my dance studio holds a run through of all the competition numbers about two or three weeks before competition, in our largest dance room. The room has no mirrors so it is a casual feel of what it will be like on stage. To add to the experience have parents sit in the front to spectate as audience members. Also to improve the routines in later weeks have faculty write down critiques for all the dancers and classes. In addition to the run through, remember to run it on a tight schedule, the dancer’s don’t need to be rushed necessarily, but they shouldn’t be lollygagging around for a long time either. The purpose is to dance so get moving and show off their dancing talents. Hopefully this helps to provide a smooth competition season.

As recital time comes near, book the performance hall the whole week before the weekend performance shows. Have dancers do full hair, makeup and costumes. Use music, lighting, props, curtains to demonstrate and have a feel for how the show will actually come out on the actual recital date. It is especially important to keep things moving this week, recital does not provide breaks, therefore the dancer’s need to know exactly how much time they have to prep for their next performance on the busy night. Watch the show with a careful eye, stay calm as the pressure will be stressful, just think about the outcome when you get to see the whole show top to bottom on the final day. It will feel incredible and accomplishing, and totally worth it.

For dance tours after competition and recital, you can prep by going to venues or dance for a charity, also use recital as a prep. Tours will usually hold majority veterans and a lot of talent that know how to deal with pain, stress and exhaustion.

Best of luck to all dancers, companies and directors on productive run through dress rehearsals that lead to seamless performances.

~Julia Brewer

On Another Level

“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”

― Martha Graham

Dancing like any other sport can be played at many different levels. Some dancers are just beginning, while others have a lot of experience, even so there are a large amount of dancers who have a lot of experience, however are not yet at a competitive performance level. With hard work, a great amount of dedication, and a fine attention to detail a dancer will thrive to the top and extend beyond their dreams to achieve successful outcomes in their dance career.

To begin, dance for the not so serious member, beginner or a very young child is considered to be recreational. Typically only one to a small selection of classes a week. Not as dedicated to becoming prestigious for the time being, but getting into the dance world to learn the fundamentals, have fun, or stay active.

We then jump to the advanced, competitive dancer. This dancer has a lot of experience, and applies knowledge to the production of a routine. They hold technique, passion, musicality, and fluidity. Dancers in this category can be seen as the hardest workers within a given company, they strive to become better and grown in the extremes year after year. Many reside to compete in local, regional, national and world wide dance tours, competitions and conventions. Not only are they involved in judging, they also give performances and book shows where they display their talents of dance on a bigger stage for a bigger audience. Others take their dancing careers from adolescence and share it in other ways by going to shows and performances to keep up with sport and art they so loved as they grew up.

It is a big jump to go from recreational classes to the competitive level, so of course you need to consider the in between middle ground area. There are some dancers who are caught in the late stages of recreation and the opening of life on the advanced level. Usually it’s the split of having the passion and desire to be a part of something bigger and better, but not having enough dance background to compete at that level. The most important part of these dancers is that they have the drive to become great dancers, they just need a greater focus on technical aspects of dance to progress. To improve skills it is recommended that the dancer gets more involved and participates in a variety of classes, especially ballet, technique, conditioning and possibly even private lessons to have that important one on one time with an instructor. As long as passion is there and the mindset of improvement stays positively on the dancer’s shoulders, I believe they will be able to become great dancers.

All dancers are on a different level, each having their own strengths and weaknesses, but the beautiful thing about dance is that it is a constant improvement. Week after week skills become better mastered, and new fundamentals learned. Passions drive harder and levels become apparent. To be on the top level you must share both the common love of dance as well as a strong background in all fields of dance. To achieve greater levels you must show a lot of dedication and commitment, it is progressive and improvement will be obvious overtime. Work hard, stay positive and be passionate if dance becomes the most important aspect of your life.

~Julia Brewer

Dance Dictionary: Arabesque

“May You Always Dance Lightly With Life.”

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Arabesque: [a-ra-BESK]

The name Arabesque originates from a form of Moorish ornament of Arabic culture. Arabesque is a ballet pose that is learned from the start of an early dance career. Young children generally learn to arabesque by turning out a straightened supporting leg, and pointing that back ankle, while holding light, dainty arms.

The position is most typically held by the body in profile, meaning you face the side, or at an angle to the audience. Coming with a rule of thumb that the dancer is supported by one leg, with the other elevated behind themselves, aligning the hips, the leg in the air at a ninety degree angle to an obtuse. Note also that the dancer’s shoulders should remain relaxed and held back, and squared to the direction that is being faced. There are many ways in which you can hold your carriage, for example the dancer can be straight, in plie, or on releve while in an arabesque position. Dances also can conclude arabesque hops, or pique arabesques to add more levels to just an upper, lower or midway supporting leg. Arms in performing an arabesque should reach and extend outward, it should be light and dainty, to show the fluidity in a different, difficult arabesque combinations.

The forms of arabesque are varied to infinity. The Cecchetti method uses five principal arabesques; the Russian School (Vaganova), four; and the French School, two. Arabesques are generally used to end a floor combination, both in the slow movements of adagio and brisk, quicker motions through allegro. 

Source:http://www.learntodance.com/online-ballet-dance-lessons/

~Julia Brewer

Body Prep on Competition Day

“Dance is a life, every day. Don't miss it. You're in bodies, you can move... Where is your joy?”

-Mary Anthony

Competition season is here. With that comes long weekends from morning tonight. Sometimes dances are rushed back to back, and others are hours apart stretching across three days. Competitions are crowded, cold, stressful and hectic. Sometimes it can be difficult to stay focused on yourself and your body throughout the whole day or weekend. It becomes a necessity, yet a struggle to stay stretched, energized and prepared. There is a part of you that wants to see every dance being performed on stage, another that wants to hang with your dance friends and enjoy team bonding and another that is on a go go go mission to be stretched and ready to dance at any second, even though you are probably dancing around aimlessly throughout the whole weekend at the convention center. Preparation of the body is important and can be reached in a variety of ways.

To be prepared on competition day you want to be ready and warmed up. At the beginning of a long competition day treat your body kindly. Don’t be snacking on unnecessary junk. Stay hydrated and just drink water. You will also need fuel to keep you going throughout the day. I suggest natural sugars found in fruits like apples, berries, oranges and bananas. Throughout the day snacking is okay, but you want to be sure that you don’t go nuts and keep it healthy with a lot of hydrates. There is no reason to feel bloated or tired on a day that is a constant go. It will help if you let your food be a source of energy.

Another way to get your body ready to go for a long day of competing is to do a warm up and cool down. It really helps in getting you energized and warmed up for all the dances you have, also do it before any stretching because it will help loosen your muscles and spark blood flow for a deeper stretch in the future. Start by doing some low impact exercises that will boost your pulse for around ten minutes like; jumping jacks, squats, heel raises, leg swings, swimmers. Once you begin to sweat you should begin to slow it down and begin to cool down, taking deep breaths while also completing deep body movement to keep your blood pumping.

After the light cool down you should begin to stretch. Keep the stretching light. Overstretching can believe it or not hinder your flexibility, you bod is not used to that deep of a stretch and that makes the muscles the go tighter than usual. Instead hold stretched in a normal rotation for less than thirty second intervals. Focus on body strength on the competition day. To achieve the body strength you should concentrate your stretching on dynamic stretching such as yoga and walking lunges. After that give your attention to plies, abs and feet exercises. Results should show in your leg and core strength and flexibility for sure.

After all of your performances you should leave time to continue stretching out your muscles, this is when you should stretch for longer intervals within your stretch rotation, helping flexibility and prepare for the next day of dancing, with that you should also stretch statically the night before your first day of competition. It will help in the overall of your dancing and will prevent injury from all the work you put on your body from an exhausting day of dance completion.

~Julia Brewer

Dance Dictionary: Air

“When you are ecstatic and in love, you feel buoyant, you feel life, you feel like you're dancing in the sky.”

-Margo Anand

Air [ahn lehr] In the air

In the air literally means that the dance movement is to be made in the air, and that the working leg will be raised to a horizontal position with the toe on an equal level to the hip. Air is very specific to feet movements at the barre, instead of simply doing the selected ballet, barre feet movement you can do it ahn lehr, developing your muscles to become stronger as the lower part of your body is performing in the air, especially difficult with the leg being completely straight and in line with solid technique.

~Julia Brewer

Source: http://www.learntodance.com/online-ballet-dance-lessons/

Stress Fractures

“People tend to look at dancers like we are these little jewels, little cardboard cut-outs, and yet we have blood and guts and go through Hell.”

-Susan Jaffe

Dancers encounter many different types of injuries within the body, just like any other athlete. Bones especially are placed under a great deal of stress on a dancer that can result in stress fractures. Stress fractures are small splits in the bone, they can appear in the feet and legs of any athlete when a lot of strain has been placed on the bones from high intensity workouts with little time to recover. The bone cells will replace themselves, however if the bone tissue is worn down to quickly without a healing period, the bones will split faster than they can be replaced, leaving small gaps in the bone itself.

Dancers with stress fracture injuries will most likely notice pain, swelling and sensitivity within a specific spot, typically in their legs or feet. Ignoring that pain is usually the result of further injury, because with more constant use on that given spot without rest the more serious and damaging the injury becomes. Stress fractures can be seen in X-ray scans, but sometimes it takes an MRI to really see the damage done.

A stress fracture injury can occur soddenly and overtime. It may result from a combination of not enough rest and overuse, a sudden increase in rehearsal time, coming back from a resting period without sufficient conditioning, and also the way in which dancers land specific tricks, jumps and leaps. Not all causes are a result from dancing itself, other key roles in getting a stress fracture in your bone is the dancer’s diet. A blend of abnormal menstrual cycles, eating disorders, and being underweight could be a reason a dancer is prone to stress fractures. Having a small body mass with a full load of dance can cause a lot of stress on a dancer’s bones, resulting in stress fractures.

An at home remedy for helping a stress fracture is to rest, ice, compress and elevate. Frequent icing, massaging and taking a suggestive amount of ibuprofen between several hours of intervals should show some improvement. With swelling, wrapping of the bone in addition to elevation would also be quite helpful to the dancer. Most importantly rest is very important in the process of stress fracture recovery.

If a stress fracture becomes relevant in a dancers life mid-season without a long period that could be used for resting they could try out a bone stimulator. It is able to send ultra sound wave pulses into the bone marrow, producing young bone cells and cartilage cells. They can be used at home and only take around thirty minutes a use. These bone stimulators help cut the time of recovery to work within a dancer’s busy schedule. Of course they should still use the at home remedies to speed up the process as well, in addition to consulting a doctor on what is the best solution  for individual dancer.

Although it is hard for a dancer to take time off and rest injuries between rehearsals, commitments, performances and conditioning it is extremely necessary and important to do so. To continue putting tension on the stress fracture, could lead to the longest resting period of all, retirement that is, from the art the dancer has perfected for so long. Dance could become a thing of the past if not treated immediately, so with that listen to your body and think about the costs in the long scheme of events.

~Julia Brewer

Disclaimer: These are all ideas by Nancy Wozny article on Boning Up in Dance Magazine’s October 2011 issue.