In flamenco, the hands and fingers play many different roles. Clapping, snapping, body percussion, slower movements that complement fast footwork, and even playing an instrument are all tools of the trade, says Xianix Barrera, a Bessie-nominated flamenco dancer and the founder of Xianix Barrera Flamenco Company. Flamenco dancers also use their hands and fingers to […]
Nearly all the movement a dancer does comes from the spine. And yet, “a lot of dance training can prioritize legs, or port de bras, without addressing where those things stem from,” says Bret Easterling, who teaches Gaga and contemporary at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Not only is the spine “the trunk […]
In a spacious upstairs room in his San Francisco home, ballet teacher Christopher Lam gently holds on to an ironing board as he pliés, tendus and dégagés in his socks on the wood floor. He is leading students in a virtual ballet class on Zoom in light of the San Francisco Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order […]
Q: I have an 8-year-old student who is coming along quite nicely in her technique, but I’ve noticed that one foot doesn’t point as well as the other. What’s up? A: Your student may have an os trigonum problem, where a tiny chip of bone from the talus is getting caught in the joint. Initially, […]
Betsy Brandt gets more than a few questions about what, exactly, she offers the choreographers she works with—the likes of Jennifer Monson and Sara Hook, to name a couple. “I help people make dances,” she says simply about her role as dance dramaturg. “Sometimes, it’s like being their composition teacher—except they know more than me, […]
Have you ever looked at a student’s posture and said: “Close your ribs” or “Don’t grip your glutes” or “Use your abdominals more”? While that pinpointed correction may or may not have achieved the desired results in the moment, such phrases naturally raise a bigger question: “But how?” Not all verbal cues are equal to […]
It’s the last class of the spring semester, and Paige Cunningham Caldarella isn’t letting any of her advanced contemporary students off the hook. After leading them through a familiar Merce Cunningham–style warm-up, full of bounces, twists and curves, she’s thrown a tricky five-count across-the-floor phrase and a surprisingly floor-heavy adagio at the dancers. Now, near […]
Irene Dowd’s third-year students at The Juilliard School sound more like they’re in medical school than a dance class, citing complex kinesiology terms and muscle names, like multifidus and iliocostalis. But instead of memorizing the vocabulary with index cards and textbooks, the students in Dowd’s anatomy/kinesiology class come ready to move. “Motor-learning specialists have found […]
When Laszlo Berdo teaches men’s class at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, he sees some dancers who turn very well, but only to one side. “I have guys who can do triples in à la seconde on the right, but they can’t do a double pirouette or a single à la seconde to the left,” he […]
Start with a good preparation. Plié in fourth, keeping the hips square and the back knee straight. Arms are in fourth. Texas Ballet Theater School associate director Kathryn Warakomsky encourages students to keep their heels down and use the whole foot on the floor, rather than rolling forward on the arches or letting the front […]