Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education
Half of the students absolutely hated the Holga for different reasons, mostly because they felt they didn’t have any control over what they were doing. I disagreed. I felt I had more of a creative outlet without any boundaries and more control because I didn’t have to worry about the exposure.
To illustrate this, I ask my students to become aware of how their body feels as it works against gravity. I ask them to put their hands above their heads and then to be still. I remind them, “you are in charge of your body,” “your brain tells your body what to do,” and then we wait.
Are you a dance student that finds it difficult to slow down? Are you eager to try advanced or faster moves? Are you upset about your class placement? What’s wrong with you or what’s wrong with your teacher? Find out in this article.
Instead of actual snapshots I’m sharing some of the thoughts and impressions I picked up along the yellow brick road. I hope you’ll use, think about, or act upon these little nuggets from the Dance Teacher Summit. I had a great time collecting them for you.
Hannah is a young photographer and dancer who has been featured on the Dance Advantage Sunday Snapshot before. She has a knack for finding unique locations and using them to feature her favorite subject, dancers. “Dance is what I love to do so naturally, I am most inspired to photograph dancers,” she says. And in case you are doubting, yes, the boat really is named the Dancer.
Clearly this mom hadn’t ‘received’ the communication about recital tickets that we had been sending for two months leading up to the date. At the studio we had given verbal announcements, posted signs, printed memos and order forms were sent home, all of this, including when and where to pick up tickets, was posted on our website.
“I once took six months off from ballet when I was 14. My school commitments were growing and it was becoming seriously difficult to juggle everything. It reaffirmed for me, however, that ballet was my one love and out of everything what I should have been doing.”
According to Oliver Endahl, the photographer, the purpose of the Ballet Zaida photography project is to “educate and expose the public to ballet, as well as inspire the world through pictures.” A former ballet dancer himself, his work is definitely inspiring as well as inspired, featuring incredibly talented dancers in stunning locations. And there is just gallery after gallery of images – a visual feast.
Most of you have an idea about what it means to be a “Dolly Dinkle” (or Dolly Dingle) dance instructor or dance school. Weigh in with your definition of insufficient dance education.
Every jump in ballet is preceded by a counter-movement, namely, a plie, and this is exceedingly effective in getting more height out of a jump (try jumping from straight legs and see what happens), not to mention protecting the achilles tendon from injury. In fact, people have studied jump height and found that maximum vertical height in a jump is higher using a counter movement than not (3). So it makes sense that we bend our knees before jumping.
Pablo, our featured photographer, claims to be the worst dancer in the world. He has some friends, however, who dance in a local academy. One of them asked him to shoot this performance. He remembers feeling very surprised when the photographed dancer, Karina, began the show in her red shoes. Pablos spent the entire dance in pursuit of her feet, searching for the perfect balance. He shot at 800 ISO with a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 at 200 mm (400 mm for a 4/3 camera).
