2 3 Sunday To-Do | Ballet Webb

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Sunday To-Do


Sunday To-Do

One of the most powerful tools dancers have is their brain. No surprise here. That’s true for “normal” humans as well. It is how we think about things that makes or breaks the outcome.

Dancers tend to be a rather pessimistic lot, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is the constant striving for an unattainable perfection, or perhaps naturally perfectionistic, pessimistic individuals gravitate to ballet. I don’t know. But I do know that changing one’s mindset is powerful – and necessary.

For example, when working on a particularly challenging step, beware of telling yourself what not to do: “Don’t bend the leg”; “don’t look at the floor”; “don’t take little steps”, etc.  Instead, each of these directives can be reworked: “Straighten the knee”; “Lift and focus upward”; “Take big steps”… you get the idea.

Practice telling yourself what to do and watch out for opposite thoughts. This is helpful for teachers , too. It is difficult, but not impossible, to remember that students should receive positive directives most of the time.

Thinking this way isn’t always easy, but like everything else in dance, practice makes permanent.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:

Motivational Secret #77:  
“Focus on what to do, instead of what not to do.”

                Link of the Day:

Quote of the Day:
““Instruction does much, but encouragement everything."

(Letter to A.F. Oeser, Nov. 9, 1768)”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Early and Miscellaneous Letters of J. W. Goethe: Including Letters to His Mother. With Notes and a Short Biography

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