In a previous blog about “a place to go before you go where
you are going”, I mentioned the fact that dancers must always think one step
ahead. In a glissade, for example, the
dancer is not thinking about the glissade. Instead she is thinking about the assemblé or
the jeté or whatever step is coming immediately after.
This is only possible because of muscle memory. The steps have become so automatic that it is
now possible to think ahead and use that instant to perfect each upcoming step. Sound confusing? It can be.
When a beginning dancer starts to move in the center, the steps usually
appear stilted or robotic. This is
because the muscle memory for each step has yet to be established, and each
step is being thought about as it is executed, instead of one step earlier.
This “thinking one step ahead” is, in part, what allows the
movements to flow together, so an untrained audience member cannot tell where
one step ends and another begins.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Secret #7h:
“Always think one step
ahead.”
Link of the Day:
Quote
of the Day:
“Never look back unless you are planning
to go that way.”
-Henry David Thoreau
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