Thursday Down and Up
Dancers are often admonished: “Control the leg going down”,
or simply “Control!”. When I ask my students how they control a descending leg,
I get lots of answers – most of them correct – that involve the working leg. No one ever mentions the critical
supporting side of the body.
To control the working leg when it is coming down (in grand
battement, for example), the supporting side of the body must provide an equal
and opposite energy by lifting upward at the same time the leg is descending.
Without this opposite “pull”, the force of the working leg, combined with
gravity, will cause the leg to come crashing down. And we all know there is no crashing in ballet.
So whenever the working leg is descending (going down), the supporting side of the body must be ascending (going up).
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Secret #7zz:
“When the working leg goes down, the supporting side goes up.”
Link of the Day:
Quote
of the Day:
““Climb up the
stairs cheerfully, climb down the stairs cheerfully! Let your mind is
unaffected by the ups and downs of life!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan
― Mehmet Murat ildan
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