Creative Ballet Teaching

Technique and Artistry for the 21st Century Ballet Dancer

Cadence Whittier

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317209829
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Dance

How do teachers create a classroom environment that promotes collaborative and inquiry-based approaches to learning ballet? How do teachers impart the stylistic qualities of ballet while also supporting each dancer's artistic instincts and development of a personal style? How does ballet technique education develop the versatility and creativity needed in the contemporary dance environment?

Creative Ballet Teaching draws on the fields of Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis (L/BMA), dance pedagogy, and somatic education to explore these questions. Sample lesson plans, class exercises, movement explorations, and journal writing activities specifically designed for teachers bring these ideas into the studio and classroom. A complementary online manual, Creative Ballet Learning, provides students with tools for technical and artistic development, self-assessment, and reflection.

Offering a practical, exciting approach, Creative Ballet Teaching is a must-read for those teaching and learning ballet.

Part I

Rethinking creativity, community, and technique in the ballet classroom

Chapter 1

Drawing inspiration from creative movement

Teaching and planning from movement concepts

Creative Movement classes are offered in dance studios throughout the United States and in many countries. Many ballet dancers begin their training in these classes. My early dance experiences in Creative Movement classes sparked my interest in and love for dance. As a child, I remember moving with hula-hoops and scarves, dancing to varied music, making up stories, and pretending to be different creatures as I galloped and leapt through the space. Years later, when I began teaching Creative Movement classes, I learned how those early movement experiences helped me develop fundamental dance skills that underpinned my training in ballet.

Creative Movement teaching practices benefit students of varying skill levels, movement backgrounds, and ages, including those students studying classical ballet. In part, as dance educator Anne Green Gilbert notes, this is because “creative dance combines the mastery of movement with the artistry of expression,” and she argues: “it is this combination, rather than a separation of the two, that makes creative dance so powerful.”¹ When children “graduate” from Creative Movement classes, it is not uncommon for their dance training to become more codified and focused on learning specific steps and skills needed for studying a particular style of dance, such as ballet. Sometimes, as this happens, creativity and imaginative exploration become secondary goals. But these goals need not be in opposition to physical skill development. Integrating the two in dance training, even in pre-professional ballet training, establishes a well-rounded learning environment, one that supports the students’ development as technically skilled performing artists.

Imagination, sensory-rich movement explorations, conceptual learning, and skill-development are the hallmarks of Creative Movement classrooms. If the “lessons” learned in Creative Movement classes benefit young dancers just starting their training in dance, incorporating those “lessons” into ballet education will likely have similar benefits. In my experience, integrating a Creative Movement approach in ballet education promotes the development of intelligent, skillful, and expressive dancers.

The intent of Chapters 1 and 2 is to remember and reflect on Creative Movement teaching practices in order to reexamine and broaden the teaching approaches (and therefore the learning outcomes) used in upper-level ballet training. These chapters explore the following questions:

Let’s begin this exploration with the first lesson: Teaching from movement concepts.

Teaching from movement concepts

Hula-hoops are scattered along the floor like little circular islands in the space. Each island contains a dancer. The dancers are still, their bodies suspended in rounded and twisted shapes. I start the music: an urgent and boisterous song. The dancers explode from their stillness, leap from their islands, and move freely to the music through the space. Some run, some spin, many gallop and jump and skip. The music stops abruptly; dancers scatter to the hula-hoops, step inside them, and become rounded statues suspended in stillness. The music begins again; this time it is a slow and gentle song. The dancers glide softly into the space, leaving their circular islands behind. Some move through the space like floating feathers, others crawl quietly like sneaky kittens, and some delicately hop and tiptoe through the space. The music stops again; the dancers rush to their islands.

Creative Movement classes are exploratory landscapes designed to spark imagination, build movement literacy, and strengthen movement skills. In the above example, students learn how to stop and go, make rounded forms in their bodies, move with different movement dynamics, and travel through the space in different ways.

The Creative Movement curricula I grew up learning, and eventually teaching, was subdivided into larger movement categories—such as Body or Space or Energy—and our teachers taught us numerous movement concepts within these categories, such as rhythm, spatial pathways, and body actions. An exploration of these overarching movement categories and concepts developed our understanding of our bodies and of the basic elements of dance.

Table 1.1 presents a sample list of common movement categories, concepts, and skills I use when I teach Creative Movement classes. These are very similar to the categories and concepts I use when working with pre-professional ballet dancers. The primary difference is that the skills explored and vocabulary used are more specific to ballet technique.

As you read through Table 1.1, which concepts and skills would be useful to explore in your ballet classroom?

Table 1.1 Categories and movement concepts explored in creative movement classes

Movement category	Movement concept	Skills explored
BODY	Movements of the body	• Discover singular body parts and movements • Move body regions (right, left, upper, lower)
	Relationships	• Explore how parts of the body coordinate
	Mobile and stable	• Practice locomotive movements through space • Learn about posture, balance, and stillness
SHAPE	Shapes	• Explore different body shapes (round, linear, twisted, flat, big, small)
	Forming	• Practice how shapes grow and shrink, open and close
SPACE	Spatial pathways	• Travel along curved, straight, zigzag, and meandering pathways
	Levels	• Move in different spatial levels: high, medium, low
	Directions	• Move in different directions: up, down, right, left, forward, back
ENERGY	Time	• Perform movements at different speeds: fast, slow, medium, acceleration, and deceleration
	Weight	• Explore movements that are forceful or gentle, or limp and floppy
	Flow	• Explore movements that are controlled or uncontrolled, smooth or choppy
MUSICALITY	Rhythm	• Explore the rhythms of different dance steps • Learn how to move to different rhythms and musical meters

Through studying basic movement concepts, such as those listed in Table 1.1, students in Creative Movement classes learn that their bodies change shape, energy, rhythm, and spatial directions all of the time, and dancing allows them to explore the many ways they make those changes. This develops foundational movement skills as they begin their training in specific dance styles and techniques. In this way, a student’s dance skills develop in relationship to the movement concepts, and vice versa.²

Even though the skills and concepts listed in Table 1.1 reference those I often focus on in Creative Movement classes, all of them are applicable to ballet technique training. Let’s explore a few examples:

1. 1 BODY—relationships: Ballet students explore the relationship between their feet and the floor, or between the supporting and gesturing sides of the body, or between the head and the arms. The students then identify how these relationships support their execution of different movements performed in class, such as battement tendu, sauté, pirouette, grand battement.³ What type of body relationships do you ask your students to explore in class?

Figure 1.1 Explore the relationship between the head and arms

1. 2 SHAPE—forming: Ballet students explore how the balletic exercises follow rhythms of opening and closing in balletic steps and exercises. For example, my students often focus on the spreading and enclosing of the legs and arms in a port de bras, battement fondu developpé, or glissade. This helps them invest in the exercises and steps as movements instead of as static positions.⁴ How do you teach the kinetic quality of balletic steps in your classes?

Figure 1.2 Explore the movements of the arms

1. 3 SPACE—directions: Ballet students explore directional ballet vocabulary, such as, en arrière (backward), en avant (forward), en dedans (inward), en dehors (outward). They also explore the directionality of their torso and limbs in space: the forward and upward pull of the upper torso, head, and arm in first arabesque, the backward and downward reach of the leg in tendu derrière, or the side-to-side counter-pull of the supporting arm and gesturing leg in developpé à la seconde. Exploring directionality in class clarifies spatial intent and body alignment.⁵ How do you develop your students’ spatial awareness during technique class?

Figure 1.3 Explore counter pulls in the body

1. 4 ENERGY—force: Ballet students explore how use of force changes the intensity of a step. For example, executi...