Marvelous Monday Middle

Marvelous Monday Middle

Dancers have a tendency to focus on the “big” or” important” steps: the poses, the pirouettes, the jumps. But often problems lie in the middle. By that I mean those supposedly inconsequential steps like glissade, chassé and the like.

These middle or in-between steps are often overlooked and thus performed poorly, making the whole series of steps work badly – mushy middle steps make for a mushy whole. Linking steps should be crystal clear and clean, and should (most often) travel – another often overlooked essential.

So on this Monday, clarify mushy middles.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Secret #7qqq:

“Focus on the steps in the middle.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.facebook.com/BalletLovePhotosVideos/videos/797521670343907/?hc_ref=ARS6alm0Z2rDNmw7Ti715uJeAJ0wtU8sHzp99DQHCqsvdlDvj7pHg14SSA-EGfaAVqQ&__xts__[0]=68.ARCBHsT7v1YzTymh3IJV5L0wN7yfQmbhWqdIkHqk29OBJFhcZJNSqBsnXb7nIwRKRE7kqBa1z4gPWwEyJROPuU0Ap1pR4z2bMQVpDw0wd-ES3JCllMz7jYj6VJui64lrbuVoDuQwVzlj&__tn__=FC-R

Quote of the Day:

“It's so difficult, isn't it? To see what's going on when you're in the absolute middle of something? It's only with hindsight we can see things for what they are.”
― S.J. Watson

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https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

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Sunday Stillness

Sunday Stillness

In today’s world of constant movement, change and electronic devices, it’s hard to remember what stillness is like, much less experience it. But it’s important to find some stillness in your life each day.

I don’t mean those few minutes before you fall heavily into sleep – but a deliberate few minutes each day to sit still or walk without a destination and think of nothing or whatever.

Think this isn’t important? Read this article: https://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-wiest/2014/11/the-importance-of-stillness-8-reasons-its-psychologically-imperative-to-make-time-to-do-absolutely-nothing/  It’s full of interesting tidbits.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Motivational Secret #244:

“Take time for stillness”.

Link of the Day:

https://www.facebook.com/natanael.agostinhojoaquinho/posts/10209886131292364

Quote of the Day:

“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realise that that is enough to be happy.
There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.”
― Charlotte Eriksson

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My latest books are coloring books! They are available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

Want to know more about me? Read my interview at Ballet Connections:

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Saturday Kissing Rituals

Saturday Kissing Rituals

There are many different rituals dancers employ to (hopefully) ensure a good performance, and often some form of kissing is involved. Here are a few I’ve seen over the years:

-         Kissing the fingers and putting the lipstick mark on center stage

-         Kissing particular fingers, in a particular order

-         Air kissing one’s partner

-         Kissing the floor backstage

-         Kissing the floor onstage

-         Air kissing to no one in particular

And of course there is the familiar kiss seen during a curtain call when the ballerina is presented with a bouquet:

-         Kissing a single rose and presenting it to one’s partner (usually a single rose is separated from the others to make it easier to do this)

But why and how kissing as a good luck ritual originated is a mystery. This article in the New York Times provides and interesting look at kissing in general.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/opinion/the-kiss-of-life.html

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Ritual #135:

“There are many theatrical kissing rituals.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEi2Bof88fw&t=26s

Quote of the Day:

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”
― Thomas Jefferson

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 Leave a comment about any instructions, ideas, or images that worked best for you!

My latest books are coloring books! They are available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

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Fun Friday Puzzles

Fun Friday Puzzles

Want to shake up the usual ballet class? Break out of the expected standard mold without sacrificing technique? Here you go.

For the center portion of the class, write down various ballet steps on small pieces of paper. One third of the papers have linking steps on them, like glissade or chassé; the other two-thirds have all the other steps, like turns or jumps or poses.

Divide the class into small groups and have each group randomly (without looking at the papers) select two or three linking steps and an equal amount of other steps. Now set them to work making up combinations with the steps they chose. They can’t add any other steps, but they can reverse steps and change directions, etc.

Students will soon discover that some things work better together than others, but the challenge is to find a way to put things together anyway.

Try it! It’s a fun way to challenge students and develop their sense of space and choreography.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Secret #21tt:

“Distribute papers with various steps written on them.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDa-_LzfJm0

Quote of the Day:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young

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My latest books are coloring books! They are available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

Want to know more about me? Read my interview at Ballet Connections:

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Throwback Thursday and Emma Jutau

Throwback Thursday and Emma Jutau

Emma Justau was a gymnast and trapeze performer during the late 1800s. She worked in many venues, including the infamous Koster and Bial’s Music Hall. On February 12, 1889, the New York Times reported that “Emma Jutau has proved a great favorite at Koster & Bial’s, and her wonderful trapeze acts and aerial flights were warmly commended by the audience last night…”

Koster and Bial’s Music Hall began in NYC on the northwest corner of 23^rd Street and Sixth Avenue, in an area known for its vice and bad behavior. Soon the theatre expanded into a 2100  seat vaudeville theater located next door at 115-117 West 23^rd Street. The history of this establishment https://experiencenomad.com/koster-and-bials-music-hall/  is fascinating, but I digress.

Emma Jutau married fellow gymnast George W. Brown and the book The Social Mirror: A Character Sketch of the Women of Pittsburg  states that Emma was born near Monongahela City and adds that “she is a handsome blonde of a remarkably fine figure”.

Part of Emma’s act is described in the ebook Fun by T. Moffat: “her principal feat is to descend from a great height at a rate of over sixty miles an hour, suspended by her teeth beneath a wire set at an angle of forty-five degrees”.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Dance History Factoid #145:

“Emma Jutau was a gymnast and trapeze artist in the late 1800s.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMHT2D8nvCI

Quote of the Day:

“All serious daring starts from within.”
― Eudora Welty, On Writing

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My latest books are coloring books! They are available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

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Wacky Wednesday Hard to Beat

Wacky Wednesday Hard to Beat

Yesterday I talked about the word entrechat and how the French definition means “between cat”. Today I’m focusing on how to improve these beats.

Those pesky beats! The feet always want to go around (front to back) instead of cleanly sideways. What to do? Here’s a good way to practice: jump from fifth to second, then come in and beat, then return to second. Keep doing this, landing back in second every time until it feels relatively comfortable.

Then make the second position smaller. Keep reducing the width of the second position until it becomes fifth – voila! Beats that goes side-to-side instead of front-to-back.

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Secret #15qqq:

“ Practice jumping from second position to improve beats.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMupHOUDyc

Quote of the Day:

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
― George Bernard Shaw

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My latest books are coloring books! They are available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

Want to know more about me? Read my interview at Ballet Connections:

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Terminology Tuesday Entrechat

Terminology Tuesday Entrechat

The French word entrechat literally means between cat. Hmmm. Did this word evolve as French ballet masters reworked or distorted the Italian word intrecciare (pronounced like intre-charay)? Intrecciare means “to interweave, interlace”. Maybe.

Gail Grant, in Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet defines “entrechat” (ahn-truh-SHAH) as meaning interweaving or braiding.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines entrechat as: “a leap in which a ballet dancer repeatedly crosses the legs and sometimes beats them together”.

From this source

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/entrechat

comes the word’s orgin:

“… from French, from earlier entrechase, changed by folk etymology from Italian (capriola) intrecciata, literally: entwined (caper), from intrecciare to interlace, from in-² + treccia tress.”

Therefore, the take-away from all this is that the literal French definiton of the word entrechat is different than the balletic term entrechat.

Isn’t this fun?!

From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets

Secret #30e:

“The French word “entrechat” literally means ‘between cat’.”

Link of the Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPeQKiJ5fs

Quote of the Day:

“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

                Help expand the knowledge base!

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My latest books are coloring books! They are available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Tree-Coloring-Debra-Rogers/dp/0980191947/

https://www.amazon.com/Frames-Borders-Backgrounds-Color-Rogers/dp/0980191955/

Want to know more about me? Read my interview at Ballet Connections:

http://www.balletconnections.com/?s=debrawebbrogers

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