Jun. 17, 2019 04:08PM EST
Nan Melville, courtesy Genn
Not so long ago, it seemed that ballet dancers were always encouraged to pull up away from the floor. Ideas evolved, and more recently it has become common to hear teachers saying "Push down to go up," and variations on that concept.
Charla Genn, a New York City–based coach and dance rehabilitation specialist who teaches company class for Dance Theatre of Harlem, American Ballet Theatre and Ballet Hispánico, says that this causes its own problems.
"Often when we tell dancers to go down, they physically push down, or think they have to plié more," she says. These are misconceptions that keep dancers from, among other things, jumping to their full potential.
To help dancers learn to efficiently use what she calls "Mother Marley," Genn has developed these clever techniques and teaching tools.
Stand Connected
<p>Before a dancer begins to move, Genn stresses the importance of standing correctly, without unnecessary gripping. "If you clench your hips, knees, ankles or toes, your tendons and ligaments won't function, and you can't move," she says.</p><p>She encourages dancers to feel with their fingers that the hip flexor stays soft, and uses the image of a duck's feet, wide and spread out on the floor, to help visualize release in the ankles and toes. Dancers should also avoid shoes that confine their feet too tightly and restrict movement, however good they may look—"the clench," as she calls it, can be imposed from outside, as well.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1OTE1Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDkzOTgwNH0.pU8EpKnxB-8MMdQS7j2mUR19NePVFKBRMP9upkxlsBM/img.jpg?width=980" id="30fea" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b3edb615b81a09bc9403c4383846d46f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Genn stands at the barre, wearing black pants, a black shirt and a pink sweater, and tendues front, arm raised in fifth position. Dancers at barres surrounding her do the same" data-width="4366" data-height="4016" />
Nan Melville, courtesy Genn
The Truth About Tendus
<p>"Down to go out" is another teacher phrase frequently applied to tendus and dégagés. But if you've ever watched a dancer struggle to move a foot that is digging down into the floor—it lurches out by inches, as the working knee bends and the heel pops up—you know that this doesn't always quite work.</p><p>Genn's idea, instead, might be phrased as "Turn out to go out." She teaches that the action of tendu begins at the tops of the legs, instead of with the feet. "Lift your abdomen up, and then rotate both thighs, deep in the hip joints, before initiating tendu." Genn often uses the word "flower" for the combined blooming action, up and open, of the lower abdomen and inner thighs. This shorthand is crucial to movement quality: Cueing multiple actions with one simple construct keeps dancers from getting bogged down in the details.</p><p>As for the articulation of the foot itself, Genn clarifies: "It's not pushing down. With the lift and the shift of the weight onto the supporting leg, there should be no pressure on the tendu leg. It's just the feeling of the heel gliding along the floor until it has to come off." Keeping the heel down helps prevent dancers from crunching their toes too soon instead of pointing them long at the very end of the tendu. Consciously engaging the adductor to bring the leg back in helps the toes relax early in the reversal of that process.</p><p>Genn tells younger students to imagine they are cleaning the floor with their feet. "What dancers don't understand is that using the feet this way, going through all the intrinsic muscles to point and come back—<em>that</em> is what gives you better feet."</p><div class="htl-ad"
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<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1OTE3Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MTcyNjkxOX0.kQKiBYfb8eXaRH0yCWbJIuPIaNze6Se-_Bx2PnoVPfk/img.jpg?width=980" id="6a1d6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="688a00d16a165b98c9e1e2115ca731a8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Genn sits on the barre at the front of the studio, smiling as five young women are in sous sous en pointe, with arms in fifth position" data-width="3600" data-height="2508" />
Nan Melville, courtesy Genn
The Schloop
<p>Genn has been known to create words for actions that have no official name in the ballet lexicon. Foremost among these is the<em> </em>"schloop": simultaneously a slide, a scoop and a peeling action of the foot. "From fifth position, when you're going to do a passé or a développé, your toe goes across the floor to where your heel was, and then up to the side of the knee," she says. "This action, this use of the floor, helps prevent the hip from lifting."</p><p>It also helps the dancer transfer their weight, from two legs to one and even in a relevé or pirouette, with less conscious effort. If a dancer is struggling with the schloop, Genn will place a ping-pong ball by their front heel as they stand in fifth position. When that foot schloops correctly, the toes will knock the ball out of the way as they point.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1OTE2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODYzNDU3OH0.5UKejFdAjNMWz7F1iqmkUe67FOd48fUfPh0upXUGGt0/img.jpg?width=980" id="ff061" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="13f918ee9c5ffa1ce8ee86a01584cb2d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Genn sits on the barre at the front of the studio smiling as dancers jump in second position, arms in fifth" data-width="3371" data-height="3600" />
Nan Melville, courtesy Genn
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Getting Air
<p>A version of the schloop is very useful in certain jumps. "Jumping in first," Genn specifies, "you don't schloop. But in an assemblé or a jeté, the toe of the jumping foot goes to where your heel was, schloop!"</p><p><a target="_blank"></a>She gives a series of exercises designed to help dancers practice the schloop while connecting to the backs of their legs. Facing away from the barre, she begins with temps levés and petits jetés (like little emboîtés into coupé back, brushing or schlooping the bottom foot under into coupé while jumping onto the other foot) before proceeding to assemblés and jetés.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a>"Especially in this cell phone era, people want to lean forward," she points out, "and then everything is in the quad. If you think about the back of your leg, you're using your whole leg."</p><p>In runs, traveling jumps such as grands jetés, and piqué arabesques alike, dancers should feel the floor and the back foot working together to propel them up and forward. Paradoxically, this means that their weight must be firmly on that back foot before they take off from it. Genn tells them to imagine going over a puddle. This helps dancers keep their weight on the pushing-off foot, rather than allowing momentum to pull them forward too soon. "That's the natural reaction," she points out. "Nobody leans forward into the puddle!"</p>Individual Imagery
<p>Genn's personal approach extends to helping dancers create their own made-up words and portmanteaus for remembering a few corrections or actions at once. "It can help a dancer stay grounded," she says, "to find their own image of what the floor means to them, whether that's home base, a friend or a partner."</p>
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Alwin Courcy, courtesy Ballet des Amériques
Carole Alexis has been enduring the life-altering after-effects of COVID-19 since April 2020. For months on end, the Ballet des Amériques director struggled with fevers, tingling, dizziness and fatigue. Strange bruising showed up on her skin, along with the return of her (long dormant) asthma, plus word loss and stuttering.
"For three days I would experience relief from the fever—then, boom—it would come back worse than before," Alexis says. "I would go into a room and not know why I was there." Despite the remission of some symptoms, the fatigue and other debilitating side effects have endured to this day. Alexis is part of a tens-of-thousands-member club nobody wants to be part of—she is a COVID-19 long-hauler.
<p data-children-count="0">The state of Alexis' health changes from day to day, and in true dance-teacher fashion, she works through both the good and the terrible. "I tend to be strong because dance made me that way," she says. "It creates incredibly resilient people." This summer, as New York City began to ease restrictions, she pushed through her exhaustion and took her company to the docks in Long Island City, where they could take class outdoors. "We used natural barres under the beauty of the sky," Alexis says. "Without walls there were no limits, and the dancers were filled with emotion in their sneakers."</p>
<p data-children-count="0">These classes led to an outdoor show for the Ballet des Amériques company—equipped with masks and a socially distanced audience. Since Phase 4 reopening in July, her students are back in the studio in Westchester, New York, under strict COVID-19 guidelines. "We're very safe and protective of our students," she says. "We were, long before I got sick. I'm responsible for someone's child."</p><p data-children-count="0">Alexis says this commitment to follow the rules has stemmed, in part, from the lessons she's learned from ballet. "Dance has given me the spirit of discipline," she says. "Breaking the rules is not being creative, it's being insubordinate. We can all find creativity elsewhere."</p><p data-children-count="0">Here, Alexis shares how she's helping her students through the pandemic—physically and emotionally—and getting through it herself.</p>
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How she counteracts mask fatigue:
<p>"Our dancers can take short breaks during class. They can go outside on the sidewalk to breathe for a moment without their mask before coming back in. I'm very proud of them for adapting."</p><div class="htl-ad"
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Her go-to warm-up for teaching:
<p>"I first use a jump rope (also mandatory for my students), and follow with a full-body workout from the 7 Minute Workout app, preceding a barre au sol [floor barre] with injury-prevention exercises and dynamic stretching."</p>How she helps dancers manage their emotions during this time:
<p>"Dancers come into my office to let go of stress. We talk about their frustration with not hugging their friends, we talk about the election, whatever is on their minds. Sometimes in class we will stop and take 15 minutes to let them talk about how their families are doing and make jokes, then we go back to pliés. The young people are very worried. You can see it in their eyes. We have to give them hope, laughter and work."</p>Her favorite teaching attire:
<p>"I change my training clothes in accordance with the mood of my body. That said, I love teaching in the Gaynor Minden Women's Microtech warm-up dance pants in all available colors, with long-sleeve leotards. For shoes, I wear the Adult "Boost" dance sneaker in pink or black. Because I have long days of work, I often wear the Repetto Boots d'échauffement for a few exercises to relax my feet."</p><div class="htl-ad"
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How she coped during the initial difficult months of her illness:
<p>"I live across from the Empire State Building. It was lit red with the heartbeat of New York, and it put me in the consciousness of others suffering. I saw ambulances, one after another, on their way to the hospital. I broke thinking of all the people losing someone while I looked through my window. I thought about essential workers, all those incredible people. I thought about why dance isn't essential and the work we needed to do to make it such. Then I got a puppy, to focus on another life rather than staying wrapped in my own depression. It lifted my spirit. Thinking about your own problems never gets you through them."</p><div id="3c4af" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e35d75c7537929eaf572ac507e21d3c0"><blockquote class="instagram-media"
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The foods she can't live without:
<p>"I must have seafood and vegetables. It is in my DNA to love such things—my ancestors were always by the ocean."</p><div class="htl-ad"
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Recommended viewing:
<p>"I recommend dancers watch as many full-length ballets as possible, and avoid snippets of dance out of context. My ultimate recommendation is the film of <em>La Bayadère</em> by Rudolf Nureyev. The cast includes the most incredible étoiles: Isabelle Guérin, Élisabeth Platel, Laurent Hilaire, Jean-Marie Didière, who were once the students of the revolutionary Claude Bessy."</p>Her ideal day off:
<p>"I have three: one is to explore a new destination, town, forest or hiking trail; another is a lazy day at home; and the third, an important one that I miss due to the pandemic, is to go to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, where my soul feels renewed by the sermons and the music."</p>
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Annika Abel Photography, courtesy Griffith
When the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May catalyzed nationwide protests against systemic racism, the tap community resumed longstanding conversations about teaching a Black art form in the era of Black Lives Matter. As these dialogues unfolded on social media, veteran Dorrance Dance member Karida Griffith commented infrequently, finding it difficult to participate in a meaningful way.
"I had a hard time watching people have these conversations without historical context and knowledge," says Griffith, who now resides in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, after many years in New York City. "It was clear that there was so much information missing."
For example, she observed people discussing tap while demonstrating ignorance about Black culture. Or, posts that tried to impose upon tap the history or aesthetics of European dance forms.
<p data-children-count="0">Finally compelled to speak up, Griffith led a virtual seminar in June for the entire dance community entitled "Racism and the Dance World." Over a thousand people viewed her presentation, which was inspired in part by the mentorship of longtime family friend Dr. Joy DeGruy, an expert on institutionalized racism. Floored but encouraged by such a large turnout, Griffith quickly prepared a follow-up seminar, which also had a positive response.</p><p data-children-count="0">"Teachers kept reaching out to me and saying, How do I talk to my students about this? They don't care about anything but steps," she says.<br></p><p data-children-count="0">In response, Griffith designed a six-week professional-development program—Roots, Rhythm, Race & Dance, or R3 Dance—for teachers of any style seeking ways to introduce age-appropriate concepts about race and dance history to their students. The history of the art form, she points out, is the context in which we all teach and perform every day.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1NDY4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODE1OTE2OX0.ll-WnpEhDbNsRSLMrSxoBrFQU9xs9Yb70f39Jj8EDww/img.jpg?width=980" id="51096" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c37d8a40518eb8d2cba6ed1d02b57fe2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Griffith laughs, with eyes closed and fingers snapping to the side, as she demonstrates in front of a class of adults. A toddler is at her side, also in tap shoes" data-width="4184" data-height="2789" />
Annika Abel Photography, courtesy Griffith
<p>"The white hip-hop teacher asking why Black people are trolling them on Instagram happens against the same backdrop as Tamir Rice holding a pellet gun and not surviving a confrontation with police," she says. "We try to see them as separate things, but they're really not."</p><p>R3 Dance isn't the first program Griffith, a 43-year-old mother of two, created for teachers. Since 2018, she has run the Facebook group "Dance Studios on Tap!," a space for sharing struggles and successes in the classroom, teaching tips and ideas on growing studio tap programs.</p><p>She has also offered a 10-week, online teacher training program, "Tap Teachers' Lounge," since 2018. Through lecture-demonstrations, discussions, dance classes and workshop sessions, Griffith helps studio instructors increase student enrollment, engagement and success in their tap programs.<br></p><p>"I had started to feel what so many professionals know from experience," she says. "There are huge gaps in people's training, and teachers don't get the benefit of individualized, process-oriented feedback about their pedagogy, especially when it comes to tap dance."</p>
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<p>Griffith knew she could help fill in many of those gaps. She also suspected her resumé would appeal to a variety of tap teachers: Some might be impressed by her teaching credits at Pace University and Broadway Dance Center, while others would notice her experience with the Rockettes and Cirque du Soleil, or her connections to tap artists such as Chloe Arnold and Dormeshia.</p><p>Griffith also knew that many tap teachers are the sole tap instructors at their studios and have few opportunities to attend tap festivals or master classes. With her programs, they can learn exclusively online, without having to travel, while still teaching their weekly classes.</p><p>A key feature of the teacher training program is that participants submit video of exercises they've been working on and get feedback from Griffith. They're expected to implement that feedback and report back on their progress the following week. For Griffith, that accountability is a cornerstone of her pedagogy.<br></p><p>"Teaching is a practice—you have to put it on its feet, you have to do it," she says. "I want to give teachers the tools they need for their practice, and then talk about how that practice informs their preparation in the future, just like how you would teach anything else."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1NDY4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjkzNjQ5N30.K8DjsaCghQ8T6wwXLUoDm_87YxNf2Etg8m7-xgB-UIk/img.jpg?width=980" id="79a03" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="66530bafcecfc1623427f4f9794ecfd3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Griffith walks across the front of a studio, clapping her hands, as a large class of teen students practice a tap combination" data-width="4226" data-height="2817" />
Annika Abel Photography, courtesy Griffith
<p>Griffith takes a similar approach for R3 Dance, which last year included 180 participants from around the world working in public schools, private studios, universities and other settings, teaching both tap and social dance. Teachers might bring an anti-racist statement they're drafting for their studio, for example, or a lesson plan or proposed changes to a college syllabus.</p><p>Griffith also gives teachers the knowledge to confidently structure and lead conversations about race in the dance industry. Participants typically come with a range of comfort levels in discussing race, says Griffith, some just beginning to comprehend race as a factor in dance. Others have read books and watched documentaries but don't know how to translate what they've learned into lessons. Some worry that starting difficult conversations with colleagues or students will get them fired or reprimanded.</p><p>But Griffith says she's been encouraged by the ways in which participants have reflected on everything from their costuming and choreography to their social media presence and hiring practices as a result of the program.<br></p><p>"It's been really inspiring to see more teachers taking this part of history with the gravity that it deserves—not in a way that makes them cry, but that makes them get to work," she says.</p>
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<p>For instance, Maygan Wurzer, founder and director of All That Dance in Seattle, Washington, found her studio's diversity and inclusion program enhanced after attending R3 Dance with two of her colleagues. This includes a living document where all 19 instructors share materials that they're using to diversify their curriculum, such as lessons on tap and modern dancers of color, and asking teen students to research the history of race in various dance genres and present their findings.</p><p>These changes address a common problem that Griffith notices: Teachers give lessons on certain styles, steps or artists without providing sufficient historical context. For example, it's important to know who Fred Astaire and the Nicholas Brothers were, but it's equally vital to understand how racism contributed to the former having a more prominent place in the annals of dance history.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1NDY3My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NzQyMTA4NX0.1-MBJRiNIzuOy3isfMs1o1Fkgt2j1KyImubpVrqG1Dc/img.png?width=980" id="ac8bf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1fcb10172530c0904814a5bb248ae852" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Griffith stands next to a large screen with a powerpoint presentation showing the name "Bill Bojangles Robinson" with some photos. She holds a microphone and speaks to a large group of students who sit on the ground" data-width="1697" data-height="1422" />
Annika Abel Photography, courtesy Griffith
<p>"Topics like privilege and cultural appropriation need the same kind of thought and vision as teaching technique," she explains. "You have to layer those conversations, just like you wouldn't teach fouetté turns to a level-one student."<br></p><p>For educators who have finished one or both of her programs, Griffith is scheduling regular meetings to discuss further implementation strategies and lead additional workshopping sessions.<br></p><p>"As educators, we're excavators who bring out what we can in our students," she says. "But sometimes our tools get dull, and we need to keep sharpening them."</p><p>Ultimately, Griffith says that this work has been empowering not just for her students but also for her.</p><p>"Dance teachers are completely fine with being uncomfortable and taking feedback," she says. "I found an energy to do this work because there are so many people who are willing to do it with me."</p>
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