Imagine a door…
I bet the one you’re picturing is unique to you. It might have a beautiful wooden grain, vibrant paint colour, or intricate doorknob. Maybe it’s the sliding door at the grocery store.
Teaching ballet is full of imaginary doorways. Every cue I give in class is interpreted by each dancer’s unique brain and body.
Not all dancers respond the same to all cues. The instruction to stand tall could help one dancer find length and ease in their movement, while guiding another to hyperextend and exhaust their back.
Cueing: Using different instructions or ways of thinking to achieve a desired result.
Learning the cues that work like magic for most dancers, and customizing them to fit dancers’ needs, require education in teaching, not just dancing.
Is “heels down” the right cue for you?
Sometime around 2019 I realized that asking my students to think “heels down” was harming their petit allegro more than it helped. Yes, your heels should move downwards as you land, but this cue didn’t make it happen for these dancers. Instead, it caused them to tense their ankles, land hard, and lose their ballón.
Instead of hearing “heels down” over and over, many of my adult ballet students needed ballet conditioning for dynamic foot control and triple fold, and to embody the dynamic of ballón in their allegro. Getting a feel for the intention and style of your ballet steps is as much a part of technique as knowing which body parts should do what!
I phased out “heels down,” and talked about springiness instead. I gave relevés to coordinate takeoff and landing. The struggling sautés had liftoff.
Continuing my teaching education confirmed that thinking “heels down” is a mismatch for many ballet students, and gave me tools to facilitate happy, healthy allegro. The dancers I coach now have a totally different relationship with jumping.
I’m telling you this for two reasons:
- I want you to be kind to yourself when the going gets tough. Sometimes the cue you’ve been given is technically correct but doesn’t get the right result, or doesn’t match your learning style.
- I see dancers go further when they’re open-minded about how to approach a step. New doors can open when you’re brave enough to set aside a familiar cue, and try a new one on for size.
To open minds and doorways to better dancing,
Natasha