Mostly, the imagination of many people about ballet is tutus, pointe and beautiful techniques performed on the stage. Rarely anybody understands that after such splendid moments, it takes lots of practice and patience to master this art of dance. To become a great ballet dancer, a few hours attending balletdance studio without trying your hardest is impossible. Correct practicing and time spending reasonably is what makes it.
Before the dance class
First and foremost, you need to choose a ballet dance school with good fame to participate in. When you have already joined the class, what do you think the very first thing you have to do? It’s warming up your body!
Stretch
As ballet dance requires a flexible body to afford many difficult techniques, you should stretch all muscles to help them loosen and strengthen thoroughly. It will avoid many pity accidents happened while practicing. Not only at the beginning of any dance class but also prior to a performance, should this step be done.
15 – 30 minutes is ideal to stretch your muscles fully. Also at the end of ballet dancing, stretching to “wind down” should be done.
Ballet slippers
Properly-fitted ballet slippers are a must to avoid numbness in the feet caused by cutting off blood flow. Basically, available now on the market, there are a lot of types and styles of ballet shoes. So, before picking up a good pair, let’s ask the salesman or your teacher for recommendation and advice.
Never choose slippers to grow into because while you pointe, the feet will be bended and look flat. Instead, choose the fit ones and tie the drawstring loose slightly. In case your pinkie is shorter than the drawstring, cut it off. Remember, it also doesn’t work with overly-tightening large shoes.
Worse, if you are unable to have ballet slippers, a pair of socks without the stickies on the bottom is still okay.
Clothes
Choose snug-fitting and comfortable ballet clothes and avoid wearing loose fitting or baggy clothes. Once you feel comfortable in suitable athletic clothes, you can form and move correctly in front of the mirror. Also, you can easily find out your own mistakes in any technique to correct them right then.
On the other hand, check if there is any dress code at your ballet school. Usually, there are some schools ask their students to wear the same thing while the others just don’t. Generally, the clothes they require are tight fitting to see whether your muscles are working correctly or not.
Space to train
Last but not least, an appropriate space is vital to train. Ballet is quite special. It just takes a few hours to learn the moves but on the opposite, taking a lifetime of practices the positing, the elegance as well as the timing.
From that point, ballet dance is always better when in a studio with an instructor to guide you how to dance properly and fix your mistakes. Besides, mirrors equipped in the studio are good to see your positioning whether it is correct or not, and the barre to train.
However, I don’t say practicing at home is impossible. Just ensure you have a large space with hard wood floor to moves comfortably and freely. Replace the barre by the back of a chair is creative. But, a large mirror is a must for checking your positioning.
Learn the barre basics
Barre work
Almost the basics of ballet and even the entire dance practice will be taught and studied at the barre. So, you should learn how to work with it. Never underestimate the power of a barre because even famous ballet dancers start their class at it. A barre helps you to build the strength, flexibility and agility. Skip this and you should say goodbye to your professional dancing career.
Learn the fundamental positions
Learning ballet dance require every ballet dancer to master the barre work. Furthermore, beginners will find it easier to balance with the help of the barre. If you practice at home, you can use the back of a long chair as a barre.
With your left hand on the barre or your body facing it, it is time you practice the basic and fundamental five starting position as well as the parallel position. Make sure you understand the mechanism and master these 6 positions before moving on. In all positions, you always need to maintain your balance with your firm feet, straight back and your head looking forward.
First Position: With this position, your feet should be wide open, your legs and heels need to be held together to form a 180 degree angle. Maintain your balance while you are holding like this.
Second Position: You should hold the angle of the feet but slightly move your feet apart so they are in a shoulder-long distance.
Third Position: In this position, move your dominant foot behind the other foot so that the heel of this foot is parallel with the other foot’s ankle strap.
Fourth Position: Form your third position, move your dominant foot backward and put more pressure to this leg to form the fourth position.
Fifth Position: To make the filth position, you need to move your other foot back toward your dominant foot. You will need to knee down slightly but your back and your shoulder need to remain straight.
Sixth Position: In the last position, you rotate your feet back so they are held together in parallel lines.
You should keep practicing these positions one by one and continuously until you can do them with smooth and fluent transitions.
Practicing More Advanced Moves
Moving on to the next stage, you would need to learn how to do plies, tendus and extensions.
Plies: Plies consists of 2 types namely grande plies and demi plies. The difference between two types is how far you dip down as a grande plié will require you to dip down much further. Beginners in ballet dance need to learn to do plies in the first and second positions. From this position, you need to bend your knees down to form a 90 degree angle of the thigh and the shin. Remember to keep your heels off the ground and stay balanced.
Tendus: This essential ballet dance move requires you to point and stretch your dominant foot forward. You will need to do this to all sides: front, back and sides along your body to form a tendu en cross. In this practice, you need to stand in the first and the fifth position.
Extensions: With this move, you need to stand very straight and remain a strict balance in the first and fifth position. Firstly, you need to lift one leg up maybe forwards or towards both sides while doing the tendus. Make sure that your back and your knees are straight. Secondly, you need to slowly lower your leg to the original position.
When you get better at the basic positions and postures as well as gaining a better balance, you can let go of the barre and practice without it.
Finally, you can go en pointe, meaning that you can balance yourself on your toes. This part is the hardest with many potentials of getting injury so you only should do so with the instruction from a professional instructor.
Overall, ballet dance will require a lot of time, effort and of course sweat and pain to pursuit and master. However, this elegant and sophisticated dance which can show out the beauty of art and the ballet dancer is worth all the cost.
I hope what with the guide above, you would be able to learn about the most basic and fundamental ballet dance moves before moving on to the next level of this challenging yet satisfying art.
From or Source: myunistyles.com
