25 lessons all dancers and dance teachers need to know more than ever.
Youtube is not the last word in dancers.
Abby Lee Miller is not the last word in dancers.
Surprisingly, SYTYCD is not the last word in dancers.
Dance is an art and it is a world that is forever changing. There are some things that are subjective and will be fought over. But these are things that every dancer needs to know — now, more than ever.
- Ballet will never not be relevant to competitive dancers. It doesn’t matter if your specialty is “sassy” jazz or weirdly visceral, internalized contemporary full of flexed feet and waving arms. If you have a strong ballet education, your dancing will be stronger.
- The “real world” of dance requires you to be ambidextrous. So you’d better train up on your jetés, pirouettes, battements and tricks on your “bad side,” because if you tell a casting director “That’s my bad side,” you’ll be laughed out of the room.
- Put your tights on. And have proper shoes. Tights make the body look longer and protect your legs and feet.
- No, an eight-year-old does not need washboard abs. A pre-pubescent child does not develop muscle the same way that an adult does, and the amount of exercise required to achieve such tone is usually not healthy for a small child.
- You can be as #shredded as you want and still get beaten by a chubby dancer. Fat, short or un-toned dancers can have just as strong of extensions, elevation and turning centres. Body fat does not stop a person from pointing their knees or straightening their feet. Deal with it.
- You need to own a bodysuit. Even if your studio lets you wear short shorts and a sports bra to ballet class, don’t expect to show up to a ballet audition wearing that.
- Learn to make a bun without a sock. And get it away from the very top of your head while you’re at it.
- “I’m not a turner”/”I’m not a jumper” = “I’m not fit for this job.” If you’re not a turner or you’re not a jumper, work on your turns or jumps. Period.
- Acro is important, but acro isn’t everything. Being able to do aerials, walkovers and some tumbling is great. But if you do it with proper technique you might as well not do it. Also, most professional dancers don’t need contortion training. Contortionists need contortion training (and a lot of it).
- Improv is complicated and requires improv training. You can’t just teach a dancer to “keep going” and “come up with the first thing that pops into your head.” There are improv exercises dancers should be learning. Just doing fouettes until the music runs out is not improv.
- Your a la secondes need to show a rond de jambe en l’air. You can’t just hold your leg out at 90 degrees to the side and “pump” your way around using the power of your supporting leg. A proper a la seconde is executed through both the power of your releve and the strength of your turnout.
- It’s “a la seconde,” not “alasicone.” As in “to second.” This is important for a dancer to know. Why? See #11.
- Flexibility without alignment is useless. If you have a “tilt” 180 degrees in the air but piked several feet forward there is literally nothing impressive about that.
- Actually, yes, we can see your lines if you cover your midriff. I know, right? I thought Molly Long said you have to be wearing lingerie to get the full effect of your lines!
- Contemporary dance and modern aren’t the same thing. Contemporary is an artistic interpretation of music through a mix of ballet and jazz-derived styles. Modern dance originated from the greats such as Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Jose Limon.
- Tap dance is no more of a niche than acro is. Tap teaches musicality, coordination and leg/ankle strength. It is not useless, and it is not something that only “certain dancers” have the capability of learning. Anyone can tap. Travis wall was a tapper.
- If you want to be well-rounded, you need hip-hop just as much as you need jazz. Hip-hop, again, teaches musicality, performing with different kinds of postures, muscle strength, isolation and performance.
- “Hip-hop” is somewhat of an umbrella. There are several different genres and styles. There is breaking/b-boying/tricking, krump, popping/animation, voguing/waaking and many other unique styles of hip-hop. Not every kind of hip-hop dancer can do the same things. Additionally there is a stark difference between East coast/West coast/smooth/girly/video hip-hop styles.
- For every hour of acro you take you should take at least two hours of ballet. What else is going to teach you to pull your pelvis forward and work your turnout?
- Turning boards don’t make a turner. All turning boards allow you to do is experience how your body feels on multiple turns and make adjustments to your body/muscles as you go. They’re useless if you don’t already have at least a triple. Plus, many teachers report students who use turning boards executing their turns on a lower relevé, since it teaches you to turn parallel on a flat foot.
- Rehearsal won’t improve your technique. Technique class will. You can sometimes pick apart individual skills in a routine that aren’t doing so hot, but for the most part those skills should be practiced in a concentrated technical environment over and over so a teacher can get close to the source of the problems.
- It’s better to learn a skill at 14 and have it perfected in a few months than it is to learn it at 8 and perform it sloppily in a competition. Older bodies have better turnout, more muscle control and better coordination. If you introduce skills gradually as a dancer grows up, you will have better results than piling everything on them at a young age.
- Your ten pirouettes don’t count if you fell out of them. Sorry.
- Neither do they if you wore a sock. Sorry.
- The answer is always back in class. Whether it’s a technical mishap, a flexibility issue or even stage fright, you can always find your way back to glory through class. A dedicated teacher will be there for you to guide you as a dancer — but they won’t be right next to you at every competition. Take some time away from the stage. Get to class. It’s good for you.
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