Over the past few months at Marymount, I have noticed my major flaw in dance is lack of awareness, both mentally and physically. In general, I need to break the habit of simply executing the “correct” movement. Instead, I need actively think about what am I am doing and why I am doing it. For this assignment, I was directed to watch Melissa. Watching her allowed me to find new ways to think about applying different movement concepts to my body. Although my current goals are related to my last ones, these new goals are much broader and encompass more ideas.
My new goals for the rest of the semester are to enhance the articulation of my feet and be more present and energized in my dancing. My first goal about articulating my feet is a continuation of my goal from the last paper about rolling forward in my ankles. While I am still actively working on this goal, for the most part I have corrected my ankle alignment in my standing legs. However, my attention to my ankles in my standing leg has caused a lack of focus on my working leg.
I realized that I have not been holding my turnout in my working leg and fully articulating through my feet. I first noticed this during tendu. Professor Sutton pointed out that when I tendu my working leg doesn’t have have all five toes on the ground. I tend to primarily work through the instep of my foot, which makes my foot look turned in. It also means I’m not pushing through the ground with a proper force. Tendu is the base of the majority of ballet vocabulary. Therefore, if I am not correctly doing a tendu, it is affecting the rest of my class work.
Professor Eaton noticed that I’m not brushing through the ground enough during grand battement, which is making my battements look forced and jerky instead of smooth. This could be attributed to the incorrect articulation of my feet. Furthermore, Professor Sutton also corrected the articulation of my feet through releve. Similar to tendu, I was skipping the moments between flat and releve. Each movement in dance is just as much about the journey as it is the destination, so by not articulating my feet I am losing many of the fundamentals of my technique and performance.
Although I understand how to fix this, it is always good to use new information to discover a different way of approaching material. For this goal, I specifically focused on Melissa’s tendu. The first thing I noticed, unlike me she does not roll in at the ankles. So as I watched her tendu, I saw that she had all of her toes working through the floor. When I first thought about just having all five toes on the ground I found that it made me sickle. After class I asked Melissa about what she thought about during tendu and how to articulate properly.
She described her tendu and digging into the ground, like she had claws that were scooping up the dirt. This analogy makes a lot of sense to me, because it emphasizes that articulating through the floor is not a downward motion, but instead an outward motion that is stimulated by the pressure of my feet in the ground. She also suggested that I should think about the back of my leg wrapping forward to avoid sickling. I realized that while I’ve been applying that concept to avoid pronating in my standing legs, I have neglected to apply it to my working legs.
Melissa commented about how all of the thigh muscles wrap around each other, and in order to properly use our legs in turn out we need to work with the structure of our muscles instead of against them. After talking with Melissa, when I thought about the wrapping of my inner thighs during tendu I saw that my leg felt more properly in my turn out. Also, when I thought about digging down and out of the ground my tendu, degage, and battement had more energy. If I achieve this goal it should help me be more symmetrical, grounded and balanced in all of my dancing.
My second goal for this semester is to be more energized and full in my movement. Although this goal is more about my performance than technique, it is equally important. From the beginning of the semester I have received comments about my lack of energy and presence in my movement. However, I don’t think I truly realized how significant this problem is within my dancing. After midterm evaluations, I saw that this is something I need to focus on in all my classes, not just ballet. Professor Sutton particularly emphasizes this idea for me.
He especially corrects my port de bra, saying that I often add flowery hand gestures that make my dancing look weak and unfinished. Although I may be doing this because I think it looks pretty, without substantial energy behind my dancing it doesn’t add anything special to my movement. One day Professor Comendador asked me if I am moving skeletally or muscularly when I dance. Although I was thinking about moving muscularly, my thoughts were not translating to my body. I was still dancing without power and intention behind the motions.
In addition, Professor Eaton and Professor Comendador, often correct my posture. Professor Eaton has suggested that I don’t lift up all the way through my waist, which as a short dancer, only serves to further diminish my presence. I also tend to look at the floor when I dance, especially when I am insecure. Therefore, my goal needs to be to take up space and be more confident in my over all presence. Since Melissa is about the same height as me, watching her was especially helpful for this goal. My primary observation was that she doesn’t ever rush her movements. She uses the full counts of the phrase.
I noticed this right away during plie. Instead of cutting the movement short and waiting for the music, she continuously moves with and through the music, which exemplified Professor Comendador’s comments about embodying the music. Professor Sutton said the energy flow of our movement should be circular. When I think about this while dancing, I notice that my movement does not become static. Moreover, if I concentrate on my breathing being in a circular pulse in time with the music I find that I feel lifted and tall. Also, my arms and legs are just an extension of my center.
Therefore, if I focus more on how I feel in my core, it should translate to the rest of my body. I also noticed that Melissa doesn’t let her hands droop. She has energy all the way through her fingers. Professor Comendador talked about how to think of our limbs as cat whiskers. That we must be aware of how they are moving and what they feel like in order to execute our movements properly. That idea is especially relevant to my hands. I tend to be delicate with my wrists, which breaks the line of energy. However, I don’t want splay my fingers and hands and make them tense.
I found that the best way for me to think about having energy all the way through my port de bra and hands is to think about a laser beam coming from my middle finger. I want to achieve this goal because it will help me be more confident in my overall performance. Ultimately, I believe that reaching these goals will help me discover a deeper understanding of not only the technical elements of ballet, but also the performance of all dance styles. By observing Melissa, I was able to find new ways of thinking about the articulation of my feet and my energy in space.
The most important take away from my observations is the awareness of where my body is placed and how I feel in relation to the space around me. I can work towards these goals if I focus on the sensation of my muscles, such as wrapping my inner thighs, and the idea of taking up space in the air around me, such as with a continuous flow of port de bra. These goals will help me understand the connection of between the mental and physical aspects of dance and allow some of these small changes effect larger changes in my overall execution and confidence.
