Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education
This photo is from rehearsal for Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre’s Contemporary Nutcracker as performed by Conservatory of Dance Studio Company. The girl in the photo is “Klara” and she is about to pick up the sword, illuminated, and kill the Mouse Queen in revenge of her dead Nutcracker.”
March is also Women’s History Month so this is a great opportunity to educate your students with a little history lesson. Introduce through books, film, photos, or words, dance visionaries and groundbreakers like Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Martha Graham, Maria Tallchief, Anna Pavlova, Janet Collins, Eleanor Powell… and so so so many others!
Begin with a very structured 4/4 song that does not have any strange segues or extra measures. Have all students beat their hands on their legs, clap or snap to the beat. Continue their time keeping, but have them now count out loud – “1..2..3..4″. Be sure you do not have them count “5..6..7..8″. This is a cardinal sin in the music world, as you’ll find out if you dance with live musicians! Explain to your students that each set of four counts is a measure, or a bar. I often use this with my elementary students who are learning addition and/or multiplication.
The exposure to postmodern principles and technique has so positively affected my experience with both commercial dance and concert dance that I would recommend that studios add it to their course roster. Young dancers who gain an early exposure to the world of post modern dance are only at an advantage in today’s competitive dance market. It will prepare them for careers as professional dancers or for success in a college dance department. The reality is that modern dance principles are gaining popularity throughout the dance world.
I was so wowed by this image when I saw it appear in the Sunday Snapshot pool. The distal reach of the dancer’s arms create a striking diagonal and, of course, the musculature of a dancer’s back is always an absorbing feature. I was very taken by the angular shape of the body and play of shadow and light, and I thought you would be too. About the Photographer: Dave Wood is a part-time photographer from Denver, Colorado. His primary focus is on black and white images of the nude human form.
I knew also that she was employed as a dance teacher in Scotland, doing a job very much the same yet also very different from that of many dance instructors. She will tell you more about this work in her own words but I feel it speaks to the affect dance and movement can have on the soul and on a group of people. Occasionally, I like to step away from the technical, instructional, business, and material side of dance to remind myself and those reading of the unifying and universal power of dance. As Camille will reiterate, I hope this reminder will encourage those of us who hold keys to find their own unique ways of unlocking this potential in dance.
Battements, as they are practiced at the barre and in centre, are the foundation of many other movements in ballet (jumps and travelling steps such as assemblé, tour jeté, grand jeté, and so many more) and in other dance forms. It is necessary to have a solid grasp on the simplest forms in order to perform the others correctly.
My son had some trouble with dehydration the first week. We live in California, and I didn’t really think that would be a problem since we were coming from a dry, hot climate. However, it was so hot and humid in New York that he sweated more than usual and didn’t drink enough. The kids need to have electrolyte packets and other sports drinks along with water to keep them hydrated.
