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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Terrific Tuesday Timing






Terrific Tuesday Timing

Timing in ballet is a critical thing.  It involves not only a dancer’s musical ability, but also the skills to “manipulate” the music a tiny bit for the best dancing results.  Let me explain by using grand allegro as an example.

In any big jump, it is essential that the steps immediately preceding the jump be faster than the steps before.  (Remember the airplane on the runway?  http://balletwebb.blogspot.com/2013/12/mad-monday-airplanes-and-acceleration.html).   If the music is a steady oomp-pa-pa, oomp-pa-pa, this can cause the dancer to make each step even in timing – deadly for the success of a grand jeté!  Instead, a slight hesitation at the beginning and an acceleration of all the steps that follow is what will produce the best jump.  Counter-intuitive perhaps, but this works!  That being said, this musical manipulation is very subtle – at no time should a dancer be unmusical!

There are many other examples of timing that make ballet technique work beautifully, but I’ll leave those for another day.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Secret #7v:
“Correct timing in ballet makes many steps successful.”  

                Link of the Day:               

Quote of the Day:
“You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions.  Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources.  Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.”
-Gary Ryan Blair

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