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9 Reasons I’m a Thankful Dancer

As we approach Thanksgiving I am moved to recall past events or routine encounters in my daily life that make me grateful I’m a dancer. I’m sure that dancers everywhere appreciate the values that dance, and especially ballet, instill into them. I’m grateful that dance taught me to keep trying until I figure something out, to be on time (if not early) to any appointments, to be patient with myself and others, to notice the beauty of things all around us, to recognize classical compositions and composers, and to keep myself healthy and strong — to name but a few!

Dancer Dilemmas flowchart

Are you really a dancer?

What reasons make you thankful to be a dancer? Leave them in the comments!

Here are 9 of mine…

1. One time my dad and I got stuck on the way to ballet in a snow storm and kept frostbite at bay by putting lamb’s wool in our shoes.

2. In 9th grade I got upset over a boy and ate a whole bag of Reese’s cups without gaining a pound.

3. On final exam day I didn’t hear my alarm clock but wasn’t late because I could get dressed in 30 seconds flat.

4.  I’m thankful I can get whipped cream on my hot chocolate at Starbucks.

5.  I’m thankful I can hop up on the kitchen counter to reach something on the top shelf of my cupboard.

6. I’m thankful for the ability to jeté over puddles.

7. I’m thankful to walk into my closet and only have skinny clothes to choose from.

8. I’m thankful that no matter how bad a mood I’m in, hearing ballet music in public makes me smile.

9. I’m thankful I don’t have to clutter my  bonus room with gym equipment; I can just pull out a chair and do barre.

Here’s a bonus one that’s not so weird, but I’m thankful that I know how much work it takes to become really good at something worth doing.

Leave a comment telling us why you’re thankful for dance in your life!

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Awareness and Poise

 

  • If I don’t build up calluses on my toes then they will rub raw and bleed.
  • When I haven’t eaten all day I usually don’t have much strength or energy to jump in class.
  • Forcing turnout weakens my knees and ankles.
  • Rehearsing without properly warming up the muscles can lead to soreness and possible injury.
  • I have a hard time remembering the steps when I stay up too late the night before.

The list goes on and on of course, but this cause and effect gives us greater awareness about our own bodies and minds. I believe that knowing our limits (and that we do have them), being sensible about warming up, and eating a healthy diet among other things teaches us that this one body—the only one we will ever have—must be cared for if we want it to last.

Another thing dance gave me that has been applicable in other parts of my life is poise. Poise, to me, is much more than carrying oneself with assurance and grace. For me, it’s what happens before that outward manifestation. It involves calming the mind, putting away the worries of what could go wrong and bringing forth the positive thoughts about how you want to appear onstage. Once you quiet the mind and trust your body to remember the choreography, you step onstage and put faith in yourself. And believe it or not, you maintain faith in yourself until you’ve completed what you went out there to do. If you make a mistake, you must learn to train the mind to immediately forgive and forget, so as not to make a complete mess of what follows. Completing the dance to the end and not giving up somewhere in the middle is a good metaphor for whatever we undertake in our lives.

Learning the power of the mind, trusting in yourself, caring for and nourishing your body, and understanding that as humans we have physical limits and aren’t invincible—all of these are essential elements on the path to success and happiness, no matter what career you ultimately choose or what direction life takes you. And when life takes you down a path you weren’t expecting, these attributes will prove invaluable in dealing with whatever comes your way.

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Improve Your Balance

In ballet, balance is a key factor. There’s more to balancing than simply holding a pose, too. Every aspect of an adagio exercise requires tremendous balance and control, whether you are holding a pose for several counts or simply moving from one pose to the next. A pirouette is a balance while turning. The interesting part about balancing, to me, is not so much the physical strength it involves, but the discipline of the mind. Both pieces are important.

Yes, you must be strong. In order to hold a balance you have to be in command of the pose and have the necessary strength to maintain it. We know that balancing at retiré is a good preparation for pirouettes. If you want to do a triple pirouette with the foot at the knee, you must be able to at least balance in that position without turning for as long as it would take to rotate three times.

When we practice balancing at the barre it is helpful to remember that the position we’re balancing in is never static. We aren’t statues; we’re living, breathing beings. There must be life and breath involved. I once had a teacher who would say that from a single balanced position, the audience must never know whether we will run off the stage, move into yet another position, or even begin to turn. This is where it’s imperative that we can adapt to those minuscule changes in order to maintain our equilibrium. Even if we feel ourselves drifting off to the right, we are able to make adjustments that put us back on our center axis without completely losing the balance.

Turns at the barre was always one of my favorite things. It’s tricky at first because you have to learn how to avoid hitting the barre with your knee, but we would do half turns, full turns, fouetté turns, both en dehors and en dedans. It was a bit like working with a partner!

I had another teacher who would come and stand next to us while we were balancing and make ridiculous movements like a chicken. Anything to make us lose our concentration and laugh. This part is what fascinates me more than the physical part. Being able to focus our thoughts on staying lifted out of the hips, breathing in and out, noticing change in the environment but sustaining our position within it—this takes a lot of practice and discipline. It’s important to stay with yourself and not worry about the person in front of you who may be doing a better or worse job of it than you.

Another point I’d like to make about balance is focusing the eyes. Just as we’re not trying to look like a stiff statue, we may find it easier at first to maintain our balance if we keep our eyes focused on an object, but it’s really good to practice moving your focus too. When I was teaching I would try to start out class with balances on two feet, then on one foot, then moving from one position to another (for example, from retiré to arabesque or attitude), or taking the arms from fifth en haut to an open V and turning the gaze away from the barre.

Key Points for Balancing:

  1. Lift out of the supporting hip. Let there be a circular energy: as your weight pushes down into the floor, lift the muscles above the kneecaps and through the thighs upward. Don’t “settle” into a balance.
  2. Keep the back wide and don’t let the shoulder blades creep towards each other.
  3. Think of lifting up and over, like your ribcage is resting on a little shelf.
  4. Focus at or above your line of sight so your chin doesn’t drop.
  5. Keep breathing and moving, adapting to minuscule changes in your body and the atmosphere.
  6. Strengthen and engage your core, the abdominal muscles.

Image file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author Danivalcarce

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Pirouettes en dehors and en dedans

3/4 or 4/4 Time Signature

1-2
Temps levé tombé pas de bourrée to 4th position en face, L foot front
3-4
Pirouette en dehors to 5th position croisé R foot front
5-6
Tendu L croisé devant, place 4th into preparation
7-8
Pirouette en dedans closing L foot front 5th croisé
1-2
Chassé croisé devant to relevé attitude derrière
3
Brush through 1st in plié, and relevé to effacé devant
4&a5
Tombé pas de bourrée to 5th position en face, L foot front
678
Single pirouette en dehors from 5th closing 5th front 3 times
1-16
Repeat all on other side

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Interview with Dance Coach Joey Dippel

Tom Morin, Co-Founder of Polish Your Passion an online-based training company from New York City that trains actors, singers, and dancers via Skype and FaceTime, sat down with Head Dance Coach, Joey Dippel, in NYC to discuss online training and college auditions for aspiring musical theatre performers.

Tom Morin/Polish Your Passion: Hi Joey! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Joey Dippel: I’m originally from San Jose, California and I got my B.F.A. in Musical Theatre at CCM. I’ve performed regionally as a professional musical theatre performer and dancer at the Bucks County Playhouse, Weston Playhouse, Pioneer Theatre Company, and the John W. Engeman Theater. I’ve choreographed for the Broadway Dreams Foundation, CCM, the Musical Theatre Factory in New York City, and I’ve been teaching musical theatre, tap, ballet, and jazz for about 11 years now

Tom Morin: What do you love about teaching?

Joey Dippel: I think the relationship between a student and a mentor is important. It’s unique. It’s personal. I still call upon my mentors that have guided me through my way, still to this day. I have students that I’ve known since they were six years old who come back when they are ready for their college preparation. I think it’s all about passing it on and it becomes a really inspiring bond.

Tom Morin: What do you like about online training for dance?

Joey Dippel: I love the accessibility that online training creates. No matter where I am or working across the country professionally, no matter where my students are, we have an online platform to connect and reach our goals. I love that it’s a safe space where I can work one-on-one with my students and really isolate what they want and need to work on, much more specifically than sometimes I can do when teaching a whole class.

Tom Morin: We’re gearing up for college audition season with our college preparatory program. It’s always an exciting and stressful time for our students. Can you tell us a little bit about what your college audition process was like?

Joey Dippel: I applied for mostly B.F.A. in Musical Theatre programs and conservatories, so my senior year consisted of a lot of traveling. I’m from the Bay Area, so I knocked out half of them at Unifieds in Los Angeles. The rest I had to travel to each campus because this was in a time before pre-screen auditions. I had a chart to keep me organized, so I could remember each college audition requirement. At the end of the day, I had three monologues and four songs ready to go at any time. Each dance audition was very different. I remember Elon and University of Michigan treated it more like a class, while CCM and Boston Conservatory gave it more of an audition atmosphere. The levels also varied, some were more focused on technique and some were more about performance. All I could really do was have fun, be prepared, and trust that I had been training hard.

Tom Morin: What do you think is harder/more stressful – auditioning for Broadway or the college audition process?

Joey Dippel: The absolute hardest thing about auditioning is remembering that you are enough. In New York, you could be the best dancer in the room, but not the right height, age, vocal type, ethnicity, look, etc. Nothing to do with talent or your skillset. With college auditions, each college prioritizes different things. Some programs are willing to work with beginning dancers, while other programs prefer more experience. Some colleges want “actors first,” while others may look at all three disciplines. None of these factors determines that one person isn’t good enough or not talented. It’s about timing. There are things out of your control and it’s not your job to dwell on them. It’s your job to be prepared for when that opportunity comes knocking at your door

Tom Morin: What’s one piece of advice that you would tell any young dancer who is about to go through the college audition process?

Joey Dippel: Never forget why you’re doing this. Something about performing and dancing satisfies you. When I walk into the room, I do this trick where I tell myself that for the next thirty minutes, hour, however long the dance call is, I am in the show (or for college auditions, I go to this school). If you believe it, they’ll believe it, and you’ll have so much more fun. You have enough stress being a senior in high school, take some of it off your back and be in the moment.

tommorin

 

Tom Morin is a NYC-based acting coach, Co-Founder of Polish Your Passion, and a professional actor/singer. He holds a B.A. in Theatre & Political Science from the College of the Holy Cross and a M.F.A. in Acting from Ohio University. He has been teaching for the past 9 years, advising and coaching students through the college audition process and beyond. He has appeared Off Broadway at the Pearl Theatre Company and New York Classical Theatre and regionally at Walnut Street Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Centenary Stage Company, Monomoy Theatre, and Great River Shakespeare Festival.

 

joeydippelJoey Dippel is a NYC-based dance teacher and choreographer, Dance Coach at Polish Your Passion, and a professional performer. He holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where he received the Lehman Engel Award for Achievement in Musical Theatre Dance. He has performed regionally with the Bucks Country Playhouse, the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport, Pioneer Theatre Company, Weston Playhouse, the Lincoln Theater in Napa Valley, and Marquee San Jose. He has assisted and danced for Otis Salid, Patti Wilcox, Lorin Latarro, Jeffry Denman, and Jacob Brent. As an independent choreographer, he has worked for the Broadway Dreams Foundation, CCM, the Musical Theatre Factory, the Kurt Weill Foundation, and Penguin Rep. He teaches and choreographs for the Children’s Musical Theatre of San Jose, Staten Island Academy, and his own donation-based dance class series called “Combo & a Cocktail.”

 

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Turnout

Ballet TurnoutTurnout: a word you will hear from your ballet teacher throughout class and throughout your dancing career. There are differing views on how to go about reaching your maximum turn out, and this can (or should) be a make or break it point when choosing a teacher. I would definitely steer clear of any teachers who demand perfect turnout. It is much safer to practice ballet with a teacher who has you work within your natural ability to turn your legs and feet outward, over time increasing your strength and flexibility to maximize your own degree of rotation in the hip.

Beware of forcing the feet into a perfect 180 degree angle in first or second position. If you must bend the knees to put your feet into a turned out position you are in for future knee, ankle, and/or hip injuries. The turnout should always be initiated at the hip. Stand with your feet together and parallel, pulling up out of the knees, and then slowly open the toes outward as far as you comfortably can without making any adjustments in the knees. This is your natural turnout. This is where you should work, and gradually your turnout will improve over time and with more training. Attaining good turnout is another reason most ballet dancers need to start when they are young and before the bones are ossified or hardened.

It’s important to learn how to work within your natural turnout. I try to teach younger students to imagine arrows shooting out of their toes when they are standing in first position, and to move their foot along this trajectory in tendu à la seconde rather than directly side. This will keep their hips in line and they can work on feeling the outward rotation of the inner thigh as they brush the floor with their foot on opening and closing. The same holds true when the leg is lifted en l’air as well. We should try not to sacrifice the “squaring off” of our hips and shoulders (both hips and both shoulders square to the front) in order to get the leg more directly side. It takes some time for dancers to learn exactly where “their” turnout is—where they as individuals should aim in order to keep the proper alignment.

The same is true when working front or back as well: work on your turnout but not at the expense of proper placement in the hips, shoulders, or ankles. A good teacher will know how to guide you into working on your turnout without hurting yourself or overdoing anything. Stretching exercises that utilize the power of gravity are most beneficial and least harmful. If you feel pain, you should lessen your turnout or stop. Ballet is not a natural thing for the human body, and I still think there’s something to be said for countries who screen their young for natural ability before allowing them to study ballet. In America, where many young girls take ballet at some point or another, it’s especially important to find a qualified instructor who will not cause any damage.

Therabands are very useful devices for aiding in stretching and strengthening your whole body. Many physical therapists employ them in rehabilitation after injury or surgery. Click here for information on how to use a theraband.

Any other teachers or dancers out there with comments about acquiring good turnout? Please leave a comment!