Foundations

Please study Sara Mearns working with the extraordinary teacher, Lynn Charles. 

As you watch the first 20 seconds, can you see what is amiss? Even a dancer of outstanding achievement is susceptible to pitfalls of mechanical inefficiency. As I hope I have conveyed in class, if you press the floor away (and keep the toes unified with the shoe), the leg will follow to the destination. Or, as Finis often reminds, "the feet control the legs" not the other way around. 

In this way, the pointed foot is not simply a shape to be imitated. It is the lingering visual evidence of having thrust the floor away. 

The less discerning approach (moving the legs to lift the feet to a position) is visible in the dancing at the beginning of this video. Although Ms. Mearns' feet look impeccably shaped according to the ballet aesthetic, the lack of a crisp arrival quality and tardiness of intrinsic muscle firing made the exercise more exhausting than it needed to be. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Btg24sKlWfD/  

After feedback from her eagle-eyed coach, watch how Ms. Mearns changes her engagement and takes on a brilliant clarity. 

Update! 

Although I wrote this to my students in 2019, a beautiful follow-up interview has appeared online in 2023. Listen to where this collaboration led this inspiring dancer and teacher and the major changes that occurred. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYqEM6Iwc4/

In his 2018 book, Finis Jhung describes the conflict between his love of Madame Perey, his 'Imperial Russia personified' and 'magnificent' teacher, and his realization that his dancing ability was declining as he tried to contort his body to meet her demands. This period of his career seemed to be the start of his vehement adherence to the principle that dancing from the feet—and feeling the interaction with the floor—is far more important to technical achievement and well-being than creating textbook positions. 

This was 1960 yet these were not new ideas. Years before, Willam Christensen had taught Finis an intelligent way of moving that worked within the natural limitations of his body without ever demanding perfect fifth positions or using the easy-to-misinterpret cue pull up. 

The concept of dancing from the feet is often absent in the teaching I observe. I hear from students it is missing from the classes they have taken as well.  

• What barriers keep nuanced kinesthetic movement principles out of the classical ballet classroom? 
• Are some kinds of ideas especially susceptible to loss or distortion in the passing from one generation to the next? 

Perhaps there is something about naming bodily shapes that allows them to persist with less effort than muscular engagements identified by proprioception. I hope to hear your thoughts.

The account of dancing for Madame Perey begins on page 68. Although the book is out of print, it is available as an eBook through Amazon.

Below is the link to the video called Dance On (from 1986) with Billie Mahoney interviewing Maria Vegh. The first 21 minutes will let you hear discussion of the life and work of Joanna Kneeland (specifics start at 6:59).

Dance On: Maria Vegh
https://video.alexanderstreet.com/embed/maria-vegh

The rest of the video will give you information about Rebekah Harkness and the splendid Harkness House. Google Chalice of Life to see images of the piece by Salvador Dali described in the interview.

At the close of the video, Billie Mahoney describes the changes in the world in the prior decade, from 28:30 on. It includes:

"Our lives are short. And in this impersonal world of high technology and ever-increasing stress, why don't you take time out to enjoy dance, whether as a participant or as a spectator?"

If this was true then—in 1986—what does it say about our lives now?

To see the principles from technique class in action on the stage, watch closely this video of Sara Mearns, principal dancer at New York City Ballet, performing Balanchine's Walpurgisnacht. 

https://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/dance/100000004172433/excerpt-walpurgisnacht-ballet.html

(If you open in a computer browser you can watch in full-screen HD).

First, in 0:34-0:49 there are nine examples of Ms. Mearns reaching out of the supporting side wrist/arm/scapula to create counterbalance—either to sustain the equilibrium over the pointe shoe or locomote more efficiently in coordination with pressing the ground away with her toes. 

Then, at 0:50 Ms. Mearns begins a series of piqué turns. The first four alternate between en dedans turns attitude derrière and en dehors turns attitude devant, followed by two standard piqué turns, two "lame ducks" (sometimes called step-over turns), and one more piqué turn. In all nine turns, the principle of the leading arm and shoulder going back to turn the body is evident. 

This exquisite performance demonstrates the fundamentals we work on in class applied to dancing at the highest level. When turning (whether in pirouette or a simple facing change like battement tendu en tournant), let the leading arm start taking the spine around and don't lose the integrity of the supporting side.  

For beginners applying this to your work: instead of pushing the shoulder of the second side into the turn (which often spoils the balance by sending too much weight in one direction) reach out of the arm on the supporting side to make and maintain a muscular connection between the upper and lower body, as well as keep your weight off the heel. Once you've learned to pirouette with the arms in second position—like a birds wings energetically soaring—you can start moving the arms to other positions. 

Eventually, to increase speed for multiple turns one can practice pulling the arms in closer to the axis, which decreases the moment of inertia and increases velocity (as one goes down the other goes up to conserve angular momentum). This action, however, is a trick for increasing speed after you've already set a turn in motion, not the technique for starting the turn.