DISCOVER YOUR REAL POTENTIAL
Throughout November and December 2016, one of London’s best-loved department stores, Liberty, will dedicate their Christmas windows to The Nutcracker.
15 million pedestrians are expected to walk past London’s iconic shop located between Great Marlborough and Regent Street, during the busiest part of the retail season.
(via)
a-b. From passé, you rotate slight forward to an attitude position and lift your knee as high as it can go while your hips stay square. You have to seperate your femoral head while rotating it to get to this position. then you just have to extend the heel forward till your leg is fully extended.
c-e. I teach my students to start shifting their weight into their standing leg, and aligning the opposing hip. I tell them to use the full power of the backs of their leg to rotate forward, bring the leg even more slightly infront of their body allow the look of maximum turnout. Then bring the knee into the front of your armpit using your psoas, and pressing down through the student’s core to get the maximum stability and correct tension saving the hips. Then guiding through the heel, like the later part of a ron de jambe en l’iar. So instead of thinking of extension as a line, you have to think of it as a circular motion… like turnout… like everything in ballet. Use your hamstring to supply the support needed. But the higher your leg gets, the easier it should feel. It is simply physics, as the weight is now all shifted into your standing leg, freeing up your working leg.
f. Then, for those students who are hypermobile, and have mastered the ability to rotate the extension upwards, I let my students shift their weight even more into their standing leg, and then like a teetertotter shift their hips even more to get those last six inches of extension. Unfortunately, this puts a lot of pressure on the lower back, so you have to be strong and pretty advanced to achieve it.
(via)
1. Notebook
Though cell-phones these days can accommodate our random thoughts at any moment, you should still consider brining a good old-fashioned note pad with you to your SI. You are about to embark on a journey that is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and you want to make sure that you get the most out of it.
2. Your Favorite Leotards
This may seem like an obvious one, but you know the saying, “Dress for success”? Why wouldn’t this apply to ballet as well? When you feel good in class, your confidence is higher, you are able to work harder, and you are able to focus on what really matters, instead of how you feel. So throw that hair in a nice tight bun and flaunt your favorite color.
3. An Open Mind
You choose this summer intensive in order to try something different: something challenging. In order to take full advantage of your new environment, be open-minded! The teachers and students have so much to offer you, so embrace it.
4.Your Work Ethic
That work ethic that brought you to this point, don’t forget to pack it, and let your teachers see it. Contrary to what you may think, teachers in these programs aren’t drawn to the most talented dancer in the room, they are often drawn to those who prove potential by willing to work for it. You can do quadruple pirouettes for days, but if you don’t work hard to perfect the weaknesses in your technique, a teacher can only help so much.
5. Confidence
You are about to meet a lot of new people, who are likely good dancers. But remember, you got into this summer course too! They picked you! The school saw something in you that they want to nourish and expand on. You are walking into the studio on a level playing field.
(via)
Is it time for quotas? This was one of many questions discussed at a Dance Umbrella debate, part of the Big Dance 2016 events, at the beginning of this month.
The subject of gender inequality in choreography has been stirring up a lot of press in recent months. During a panel discussion in October last year, the Rambert Dance Company’s artistic director Mark Baldwin said,
I want Rambert to be a company which is diverse in its choices of choreographers. Programming work by women and choreographers of ethnic backgrounds plays a role. It is about embracing diversity.
The Rambert company certain plays its part with a large proportion of female dancemakers. Of course, you say, where are the female conductors? The cinema directors? True, but as Michael Cooper in the New York Times pointed out,
The dearth of female choreographers at major ballet companies is perhaps more startling, given the prominence of women in the rest of the ballet and dance fields — and the way pioneering female choreographers helped shape ballet during the 20th century.
Jennings, in The Observer, swiftly wrote off a ‘Dear Akram’ letter:
In saying that we should not have more female choreographers “for the sake of having more female choreographers”, you are choosing to disregard a gender imbalance so egregious, and of such long standing, that it shames the British dance establishment.
In the contemporary sphere, female choreographers are routinely passed over for commissions in favour of less experienced men. The more large-scale and high-profile the commission, the smaller the probability that it will be awarded to a woman.
In classical dance, female choreographers face even greater discouragement; no woman has been commissioned to choreograph a main-stage ballet at the Royal Opera House since the 1990s.
(via)
You can’t judge the success of your residency on the first (or even the last) night. If you’re used to playing a show at a local club and getting 300 people out, think about your residency as a chance to throw a revolving party where those fans can pick and choose when they want to attend. They won’t all be there at once.
There’s a lot to consider when it comes to picking the right venue for a residency.
First and foremost: do they host residencies? If not, can you convince the venue?
As a general rule, there’s no “right time” for a residency, but there’s definitely a right time for your particular fanbase.
Residencies are usually longer gigs: 2-3 hours. So you can’t just play the same 45-minute set every time. You can’t just play the same three-hour set every time either!
The best way to keep your residency dynamic is to highlight a different guest artist each night. Collaborate with them on at least a couple songs, or the whole set if possible. If your residency shows are long enough, you can even offer the guest their own set: opening, headlining, or sandwiched in between two of your sets.
After all the talk about variety this tip might seem contradictory, but what I mean is this: don’t throw your fans for such a loop that they feel alienated.
(via)