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  Feelings vs. technique??

Are techniques or feelings more important in dance? The question has been hunting western dance since the very beginning of the classical ballet!

In 1728, Paris hosted two famous ballerinas, Marie Camargo and Marie Sallé. Each of them had her "fan club", and there were lengthy discussions which one was the better dancer. Camargo was the technically brilliant, Sallé had the grace and personality.

Usually, the independent dance preaches that the expression of feelings is the core of the art. The dancer should be allowed to unfold his/her own feelings.

The tradition of classical ballet, however, claims that without strong technique, the feelings become pathetic or uninteresting.

After discussing the subject for more than 270 years, can we finally find a conclusion? At least this one: Dance is a religion. Everyone strongly believes in their own theories...

  How to "find" your brain

To me, realising how my brain worked during training, has been very important.

What I discovered, was that I was hardly thinking at all - my brain felt "blank" during dancing! No wonder I forgot corrections, or lost my consentration...

This experience made me realize that till you have worked out what kind of "cerebral type" you are, how your brain works, you will not learn anything during classes!

Some are "word-types". They need to describe things with words in order to do them correctly. Thus, thinking "inwards" or "outwards" while doing a pirouette, helps them learn much faster.

Some are able to visualize more automatically, and connect what they visualize to their own body. They feel the difference between left and right...

Feldenkrais and other techniques may help you connecting to your own body. Anyway, you need to concentrate on your thoughts, throwing away anything that does not belong in a dance class. You need a focus, not only on where your arms and legs, but also on where your brain goes!

When you use your brain more consciously, you'll make progress much, much faster.

Some useful corrections

Receiving a correction is the best thing that can happen to a dancer! It is the sign you are watched in the class (feeling ignored is terrible!), it may prevent injuries, and it is a message from the teacher that you were working so well that you need more things to focus on.

There are teachers who do not give a second correction if the last one is forgotten. Remembering is vital, concentration required. I sometimes need to write down corrections after class, at least recapitulate what the teacher has said.

I must admit that I do not follow all the corrections all the time, myself... But here they are, and every single one has been helpful once: (You have probably heard many of them before, if you have been dancing for some time.)

1. Pick one thing to concentrate upon through each class. Such focus makes the work easier and the progress faster.
2. Be happy for what you have achieved in each exercise! Particularly, if you've been concentrating successfully on one thing, never get depressed because something else went wrong. That means giving your body confusing messages.
3. Always feel where the head is. This will make pirouettes easier.
4. ... And, by the way, hardly anything is more important for the expression than where you look. If you usually are unaware of where your head is, chances are that you are watching someone else, instead of learning the excercise.
5. Watch yourself in the mirror, but never watch the things you are dissatisfied with about your body.
6. You are ALWAYS a dancer, ALWAYS practicing. Notice how you walk, stand, sit, lie. Learn from the different sensations of the body.
7. See a doctor FAST if you feel pains. Try to go to a doctor with some experience in dance medicine. The local GP does not have a clue to how a dancer's muscles and joints are used, and they tend to tell you to rest for three weeks (which, of course, no dancer would ever do...).
8. Technique is the art of being as relaxed as possible during training.
9. If you have lots of things to think about, try to make some image or metaphor of it. For instance, if you are supposed to hold your stomach while lifting your chest forwards and drawing your shoulderblades together, you might think of a banana with wings!
10. ...Be aware, though, that your body will remember the image even if you forget, so if your pirouettes suddenly are confused, it might be because your body is trying to be a banana with wings doing pirouettes. It might help, but if it doesn't, you need to remember the image to reprogram your body...
11. Make sure, in your daily stress and hard work, that you stick to everything that makes you feel the joy of the dance!