Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education
Four years ago, a young dancer, Melinda Marchiano was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. She’s transformed her confrontation with cancer into something beautiful, documenting her path through diagnosis, treatment, and recovery in a memoir, Grace: A Child’s Intimate Journey Through Cancer and Recovery, which she published in October, 2010. Melinda talks with DA about cancer, her book, and her future plans.
I love books and I love a good story. And sometimes the stories that are true can capture my imagination as much as any tale of fiction, particularly when the story belongs to a dancer. I haven’t read all of the biographies and autobiographies below (so this isn’t a review post) but they all come highly recommended by dancers like you!
The lobby of your studio is a great place for waiting dancers and families to learn a bit more about dance, its history, and its artists. Picture books are a great way to introduce your dancers and perhaps inspire them to learn more and dig deeper into the lives and legacies of important figures in dance.
If you are a family that has welcomed dance into your household and your hearts, you may have questions and concerns about the welfare, health, and happiness of your child as they pursue their training. Download this free e-book for parents from a trusted source for quality information.
A while back I did a post entitled Encouraging Boys to Dance. It had a good response and I was even asked to submit an edited version for the PTA (National Parent Teacher Association) website. It is my firm belief that boys should be encouraged to dance by dance teachers and parents in particular. After [...]
Too much tension in the musculature around the hip joint is often responsible for limiting the degree of turnout. Therefore, releasing that tension is key if you’d like to improve outward (and inward) rotation. Tight inward rotators inhibit outward rotation and visa versa. Dancers have varying methods which they use to accomplish release in the hips. Some use passive and lengthening stretches and others utilize props like balls to facilitate an opening within the joint.
Although we sometime use the word turnout as a noun or a position (i.e. “Your turnout could be better.”), it is more appropriately thought of as an action, a verb. Because outward rotation is not the body’s natural state, the work does not stop once the position or desired degree of rotation has been attained. Instead, outward rotation of the hips requires continual action within the body, even when the rotation is held in a position (like ballet 5th).
There is much I could write about Pilobolus, a dance company that’s been around for over 35 years. If you’ve been fortunate enough to see them live as I have, you probably understand their appeal and popularity with audiences. The company’s artistic directors and dancers have managed to create “a profoundly serious artistic enterprise that [...]
I’m sure that students reading this blog have used or heard the term battement before. If grand battement immediately comes to mind, I’m not surprised, as the word battement is commonly dropped from the name of other familiar terms. A mother, father, brothers, grandparents, uncles, all share a family name. In a similar way battement [...]
