When I first started studying ballet, I was told to do frappe by striking the floor with the ball of my foot. One teacher said to imagine you are stomping on the face of someone you don't like.
This is wrong on so many levels.
Anyway, I did what I was told, and it hurt. So I tried to do it less violently. Then I thought, why am I doing this violently, at all? What am I actually trying to accomplish with this exercise?
I have the feeling that many teachers do not ask this question about the various ballet exercises. Frappe is one of them, as many teachers still teach it in this old, violent manner. What is frappe for? It is an isolation exercise, to work the quads and the hamstrings and, if you do flex/point, the calf muscles.Where in all that is the necessity of slamming one's foot into the floor? What does that accomplish? It momentarily stops the motion of your leg, it shakes your body, it shocks your ankle, knee, hip and back, AND, if you continually slam the ball of your foot into the floor, I'm gonna bet on the floor, 'cause the floor will win: You WILL break your foot.
I have seen it happen.
There is no reason to do frappe in this old way. If you lightly graze the floor with your toes, you can do frappes forever, and you will never injure yourself because of how you contact the floor. If you are in pointe shoes, and you do it the old way, it will sound like a gunshot. WHY?! No reason.
Further thoughts on frappe: If your entire body shakes as you SNAP your knee straight, you are doing it wrong. You have to do the movement as sharply and quickly as possible for 99% of the range of motion, then STRETCH the final 1%. You must NEVER snap any joint, ever! In addition, frappes are not even. It's not in-out-in-out; it's and-OUT, and-OUT, accent OUT. Last, but not least, when you are doing frappe to the front, don't forget to bring the knee back and maintain turnout; don't do the first one, and then leave your knee there, doing all remaining frappes turned in.
I have probably pissed off a lot of teachers who still believe in teaching frappe the old, violent way. I ask them all this: what's the point? You are making your students risk bruising the ball of their foot, getting stone bruises and worse.
How is that going to help? If you say, it will toughen them up, there are far, far better and safer ways.
See you in class.
My thoughts on ballet technique and dancing in general, gleaned from 18 years as a dancer, 14 as a professional, 8 with The Joffrey Ballet. I currently teach at South Bay Ballet, the Burbank Dance Academy, and at the California Dance Academy. I retain the rights to all my blog posts. You may share the blog, and quote me, as long as you credit me. If I have quoted someone, or shared a link, please credit where credit is due. Please feel free to comment. You may contact me at jerrykokich@yahoo.com
Digital Degas

Students from the Santa Clarita Ballet
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Ballet and Cross Training
Do you need to do other forms of exercise to be a good ballet dancer? Yes and no. Thanks for clarifying that, Jerry, that was a lot of help.
It's not an easy answer. Everything you need for classical ballet is in classical ballet; well almost. If you want to get really specific, ballet does not train your anterior calf muscles sufficiently, so you do need to do other stuff to completely train the lower leg. However, proper and thorough training, in class, will make you a good dancer. When I was with Joffrey, I danced, ran, biked, swam, worked out with weights- wow, where did all that energy go?- and felt it enhanced my dancing, but I came from a sport background, so it was natural for me to continue all those things.
In sports (yes, ballet is a sport, but let's just use "sports" to mean other than dance for right now), you have your sport-specific training, and then you have weight work in the gym, plyometrics, cardio, etc. Gone are the days when you just did your sport, and nothing else. It has been proven, time and again, that a complete athlete needs to do many things, as there is no one perfect exercise. When someone wants to get into better physical condition, they should do a variety of physical activity, not only for the body, but for the mind as well.
That being said (one says that when one is about to apparently contradict one's self), if you want to be great at any one thing, you have to concentrate on that one thing. The great cyclist, Eddy Merckx, 5 time winner of the Tour de France, was once asked, "Eddy; how do I become a great bike rider?" His answer: "Ride... a lot." This is true of anything. If you want to be a great painter, you paint. A great violinist, you play the violin, a great dancer, dance. It's not simply for the technical requirements that must be mastered, the craft part of any endeavor; it's what takes the good technician and makes him/her an artist. It's what makes a Michael Jordan, a Baryshnikov, a Picasso, a Beverly Sills, a Meryl Streep.
I firmly believe young people should do everything, go everywhere, experience life to its fullest extent (without doing stupid crap like drugs or texting while riding a bike). If you want to be great at something, you have to prioritize. Great artists are constantly learning, and the only way you can learn about your art is to do it, a lot. It's the tiny, seemingly insignificant details that only surface when you explore and delved into the deepest parts of whatever you're doing. It's what happens when you've done a variation a thousand times and you find something new, when you throw that slider just a little differently because you've thrown in a million times and something tells you to do it this way, now.
I was lucky enough to study with the great Stanley Williams. His classes sometimes bordered on the simplistic; we would do the same simple exercises over and over and over. Often our grande allegros were ludicrously plain, even boring. He kept telling us that if we just kept doing these exercises, properly, our bodies would be able to do whatever we told them to, because we were training them in the right way for ballet. One day, after class, I was so frustrated by not doing all the different big jumps I wanted to do, I just went for a double saut de basque... and did it. I stopped and looked around. All the other guys were looking at me. I pointed to a friend, David Keary, and said, "You try it." He did and it worked. We hadn't practiced saut de basque in weeks and yet, we could do them better... That's when we realized that Stanley was a genius.
Ballet is in the training. Sure, do other things to keep yourself mentally sharp and to avoid burnout, but if you want to dance, dance. A friend of mine mused on why some dancers today were retiring earlier than dancers of bygone days. In my Father's day, dancers just danced, and many had very long careers and were healthy all their lives. Yes, technique has improved, and multi-sport athletes are amazing physical specimens, but maybe dancers should just dance, more.
So, Jerry, how do become a great dancer?
Dance... a lot.
Thanks, Eddy.
See you in class.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Taking care of yourself
I danced for 18 years and didn't have a knee injury. Oh, I had other various minor hurts, but never a knee injury, one of the most common in ballet.
I have students who are told by non-ballet people ("civilians" as Meredith Bayliss called them), that ballet is bad for your knees. No exercise, done properly, is dangerous; every physical activity, done improperly, is dangerous. As evidence, I present Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from typing. (If I've said any of this before, it's good to say it again).
Take care of yourself. Take care of yourself by being aware of what you're doing. Well, duh, Jerry, of course I'm aware. Well, duh, probably not. You have to be so in tune with your body to be a dancer (or any kind of athlete), you have to have a mind-body connection that allows you to know what's happening when you move, otherwise you risk injury.
You must also take care of yourself by keeping yourself in shape. Now, most of my students are in class every day, either ballet or some other form of dance, but some dancers I know do not take class on a regular basis.
WHAT?!?! Whenever I hear something like, "Oh, I haven't been in class in months.", I want to strangle the person who said it! Do you want to get injured? A teacher my Mother used to take class from would ask performers, "What show are you rotting in, now?" If you're in a show, you should still be in class on a regular basis. No, you're not keeping yourself in shape by doing the show, not real shape. You're doing the same thing, over and over, overusing some parts of your body and under-using others. You need the balance of class to keep you healthy. It would be like going to the gym and only working one side.
What's prompted this, Jerry? I'm glad you asked. I know this marvelously talented dancer who I did a show with several years ago. She was in her early 20's, then, and was amazing. The problem was, she had stopped taking class. She was choreographing stuff, doing shows, teaching (I think), but wasn't in class, wasn't taking care of herself. Apparently, now, she is going through some rough times, being injured. She isn't even 30, and her complaints sound like she's in her 60's. She said she woke up one morning, lifted her head and felt her neck go crunch! This is sad. I took class every day (with a day off every week) up until the day I retired at age 37. I couldn't imagine rehearsing or performing without taking class or warming up, thoroughly, yet I know many dancers who did it all the time. Many of them, younger than I, are in horrible shape because they didn't take care of themselves.
Take care of yourself. Take class. Get sleep. Eat a variety of food and a good amount. My God, this all sounds so simple to me, why is it so hard for other people to get?
Oy...
See you in class.
J
I have students who are told by non-ballet people ("civilians" as Meredith Bayliss called them), that ballet is bad for your knees. No exercise, done properly, is dangerous; every physical activity, done improperly, is dangerous. As evidence, I present Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from typing. (If I've said any of this before, it's good to say it again).
Take care of yourself. Take care of yourself by being aware of what you're doing. Well, duh, Jerry, of course I'm aware. Well, duh, probably not. You have to be so in tune with your body to be a dancer (or any kind of athlete), you have to have a mind-body connection that allows you to know what's happening when you move, otherwise you risk injury.
You must also take care of yourself by keeping yourself in shape. Now, most of my students are in class every day, either ballet or some other form of dance, but some dancers I know do not take class on a regular basis.
WHAT?!?! Whenever I hear something like, "Oh, I haven't been in class in months.", I want to strangle the person who said it! Do you want to get injured? A teacher my Mother used to take class from would ask performers, "What show are you rotting in, now?" If you're in a show, you should still be in class on a regular basis. No, you're not keeping yourself in shape by doing the show, not real shape. You're doing the same thing, over and over, overusing some parts of your body and under-using others. You need the balance of class to keep you healthy. It would be like going to the gym and only working one side.
What's prompted this, Jerry? I'm glad you asked. I know this marvelously talented dancer who I did a show with several years ago. She was in her early 20's, then, and was amazing. The problem was, she had stopped taking class. She was choreographing stuff, doing shows, teaching (I think), but wasn't in class, wasn't taking care of herself. Apparently, now, she is going through some rough times, being injured. She isn't even 30, and her complaints sound like she's in her 60's. She said she woke up one morning, lifted her head and felt her neck go crunch! This is sad. I took class every day (with a day off every week) up until the day I retired at age 37. I couldn't imagine rehearsing or performing without taking class or warming up, thoroughly, yet I know many dancers who did it all the time. Many of them, younger than I, are in horrible shape because they didn't take care of themselves.
Take care of yourself. Take class. Get sleep. Eat a variety of food and a good amount. My God, this all sounds so simple to me, why is it so hard for other people to get?
Oy...
See you in class.
J
Friday, February 4, 2011
Is Ballet Where We Thought It Would Be?
A young dancer asked me this question, recently. Wow, you could write a book answering it.
There are many retired dancers/teachers who say, with a dismissive air, that ballet was better when they were dancing. That's arrogant and insulting to dancers currently dancing. Ballet is better, no question. Technique has improved; all you have to do is look at pirouettes. Positions are cleaner and more turned out. You have more people doing more pirouettes, today. The level of technique is better than when I was dancing.
But, there are no true artists, the old ones say. Crap, I say. Of course there are true artists. There are dancers pushing the boundaries of not only technique, but art, as well. Ivan Vasiliev of the Bolshoi is technically astounding and he is growing as an artist every day. Some of the Russian ladies are getting a little carried away with flexibility, but they are also setting new standards, as are dancers in the Royal, ABT, everywhere. To say the past was better is simply not true.
It was different.
I love the Russians of the 60's and 70's. Their strength, their passion, their fire was AMAZING. Their technique was not as good as today's. Yuri Vladimirov was wild and passionate. Soloviev's jump was well-nigh unbelievable. Valery Panov will always be my favorite dancer, and was the reason I chose ballet over jazz and Broadway. But their technique was of their time. If they were dancing today, they would be even better because the training is better. Vasiliev is doing things no one even conceived of back then. Still Panov, Soloviev and the others were brilliant, jaw-dropping, wonderful, and I am not criticizing them in any way. I wish I could have danced like them. They would be stars today, but there are many more who are up there with them. Well, maybe not "up there" with Soloviev. Find him in "Le Corsiare" on youtube and you will simply not believe your eyes.
When I was studying, many teachers said you shouldn't drink water during class. They said it would go straight to your knees. What the hell did that mean? I knew, coming from a sports background, that dehydration was an athlete's worst enemy, and dance is a form of athletics. Gerald Arpino, my old boss and co-founder of The Joffrey Ballet, called us "Artistic Athletes". I was one of the first to embrace things like protein bars and drinks. I cross-trained, running, swimming and riding my bike while I was dancing.
Did I mention that during my 18 year career, I never had a knee injury?
The training, by encompassing more of the athletic world, has produced better dancers, and so, ballet is better. Do I think anything has been sacrificed? Higher legs over proper characterization? There have always been dancers (Or painters, or sculptors or singers, or what have you) who have been more interested in how many or how much, rather than how. Yes, we all know Margot Fonteyn never raised her leg above ninety degrees and she was an astounding artist, but the gold medal winner in the hundred meters in 1960 would be left in the dust by Usain Bolt.
Now, I keep telling my students that dancing is so much more than how many pirouettes you can do, or how high your leg is, BUT you still have to be able to turn well and get your leg up to compete at today's high level (pardon the pun). Still, don't get carried away. I had a wonderful student who could develope her leg pretty much to her shoulder and kept trying to get it higher. I told her, it was high enough; she kept trying to push it. One day, she will realize it, hopefully before she injures her hips.
Along with that technique, you must have passion. You must bring an audience to its feet with your turns and jumps, but you must also bring them to tears with your characterizations. The great Igor Youskevitch, one of my teachers, could reduce an audience to a sobbing mess just by walking across the stage to lay flowers at Giselle's grave. My own Dad, Kazimir Kokich, could draw every eye to him, just by sauntering through a crowd of dancers to make a pass at some girl. Without that emotional content, without that inner flame, dance is reduced to mere physical tricks.
So, is ballet where we thought it would be? I'm not sure. I didn't really think about that when I was dancing. I was just happy to have a job doing what I loved. Dance, in general, is more popular than ever, with all the dance programs on TV. I didn't think that would happen. There isn't as much money for dance as there used to be. I did think that would happen, since I lived through the cuts in NEA funding in the 80's.
I do know that I have some outstanding students who are going to have fine careers. A few of them will be true artists and will contribute to dance as both performers and, later, teachers and directors. I'm happy to see a level of technique that makes me stand up and applaud, that makes me cry at the beauty and innocence, that warms my heart, because I know the art I dedicated my life to will never die, and flourishes today with a generation of talented, determined and wonderful artists.
Is ballet where it should be?
Yup.
See you in class.
There are many retired dancers/teachers who say, with a dismissive air, that ballet was better when they were dancing. That's arrogant and insulting to dancers currently dancing. Ballet is better, no question. Technique has improved; all you have to do is look at pirouettes. Positions are cleaner and more turned out. You have more people doing more pirouettes, today. The level of technique is better than when I was dancing.
But, there are no true artists, the old ones say. Crap, I say. Of course there are true artists. There are dancers pushing the boundaries of not only technique, but art, as well. Ivan Vasiliev of the Bolshoi is technically astounding and he is growing as an artist every day. Some of the Russian ladies are getting a little carried away with flexibility, but they are also setting new standards, as are dancers in the Royal, ABT, everywhere. To say the past was better is simply not true.
It was different.
I love the Russians of the 60's and 70's. Their strength, their passion, their fire was AMAZING. Their technique was not as good as today's. Yuri Vladimirov was wild and passionate. Soloviev's jump was well-nigh unbelievable. Valery Panov will always be my favorite dancer, and was the reason I chose ballet over jazz and Broadway. But their technique was of their time. If they were dancing today, they would be even better because the training is better. Vasiliev is doing things no one even conceived of back then. Still Panov, Soloviev and the others were brilliant, jaw-dropping, wonderful, and I am not criticizing them in any way. I wish I could have danced like them. They would be stars today, but there are many more who are up there with them. Well, maybe not "up there" with Soloviev. Find him in "Le Corsiare" on youtube and you will simply not believe your eyes.
When I was studying, many teachers said you shouldn't drink water during class. They said it would go straight to your knees. What the hell did that mean? I knew, coming from a sports background, that dehydration was an athlete's worst enemy, and dance is a form of athletics. Gerald Arpino, my old boss and co-founder of The Joffrey Ballet, called us "Artistic Athletes". I was one of the first to embrace things like protein bars and drinks. I cross-trained, running, swimming and riding my bike while I was dancing.
Did I mention that during my 18 year career, I never had a knee injury?
The training, by encompassing more of the athletic world, has produced better dancers, and so, ballet is better. Do I think anything has been sacrificed? Higher legs over proper characterization? There have always been dancers (Or painters, or sculptors or singers, or what have you) who have been more interested in how many or how much, rather than how. Yes, we all know Margot Fonteyn never raised her leg above ninety degrees and she was an astounding artist, but the gold medal winner in the hundred meters in 1960 would be left in the dust by Usain Bolt.
Now, I keep telling my students that dancing is so much more than how many pirouettes you can do, or how high your leg is, BUT you still have to be able to turn well and get your leg up to compete at today's high level (pardon the pun). Still, don't get carried away. I had a wonderful student who could develope her leg pretty much to her shoulder and kept trying to get it higher. I told her, it was high enough; she kept trying to push it. One day, she will realize it, hopefully before she injures her hips.
Along with that technique, you must have passion. You must bring an audience to its feet with your turns and jumps, but you must also bring them to tears with your characterizations. The great Igor Youskevitch, one of my teachers, could reduce an audience to a sobbing mess just by walking across the stage to lay flowers at Giselle's grave. My own Dad, Kazimir Kokich, could draw every eye to him, just by sauntering through a crowd of dancers to make a pass at some girl. Without that emotional content, without that inner flame, dance is reduced to mere physical tricks.
So, is ballet where we thought it would be? I'm not sure. I didn't really think about that when I was dancing. I was just happy to have a job doing what I loved. Dance, in general, is more popular than ever, with all the dance programs on TV. I didn't think that would happen. There isn't as much money for dance as there used to be. I did think that would happen, since I lived through the cuts in NEA funding in the 80's.
I do know that I have some outstanding students who are going to have fine careers. A few of them will be true artists and will contribute to dance as both performers and, later, teachers and directors. I'm happy to see a level of technique that makes me stand up and applaud, that makes me cry at the beauty and innocence, that warms my heart, because I know the art I dedicated my life to will never die, and flourishes today with a generation of talented, determined and wonderful artists.
Is ballet where it should be?
Yup.
See you in class.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
How do you know when you're doing too much?
One of my students asked me this today. She takes a lot of classes and teaches and choreographs, and today was sore and tired, which prompted the question. In sailing, the answer to "When should you reef the sails?" is "The first time you think of it."
When your body starts to ache, to hurt, when it's telling you not simply to rest, but to stop, NOW, perhaps that is when you have reached the "too much" point. When injuries that should heal quickly, don't, when you can't remember the last time you didn't feel tired, when you start to question your love of the art, all these are red flags that say "too much".
Side note: this is a great site. Thanks, Gloria, for recommending it:
http://www.med.nyu.edu/hjd/harkness/patients/injuries/
One way to prevent injuries, is to do everything as correctly as possible, but the quest for perfection in dance can be deadly. We can always be better, and we should strive to be the best we can be, but there is the Law of Diminishing Returns. More is not better. Yes, you need to take a good amount of classes, not simply to work on your technique, but to increase your strength and stamina. One of the flaws in ballet class is the shortness of the exercises. The longest thing you're going to do in class is an adagio, or a long fondue combination that will last for 2 minutes, maybe. When you start performing, you quickly realize that "Waltz of The Flowers", or the Entrance of the Shades in "La Bayadere", or "Les Patineurs" are all a hell of a lot longer than 2 minutes, so you need some kind of stamina base so you don't die in your first rehearsals.
That being said, you can take too many classes. Not only physical fatigue sets in, but mental fatigue as well, and that takes a lot longer to recover from. If you're physically tired, a good night's sleep and you're good to go (remember to take that one day off a week). If you're emotionally exhausted, that can linger for weeks, and is downright dangerous, not only in dancing, but driving a car, or just walking down the street. If you do the exercises thoroughly, two classes a day is plenty. If you have the drive and energy to do more, by all means, go for it, but learn to listen to your body. It's going to give you the answer to
How do you know when it's too much?
Or. maybe it's time to reef the sails.
See you in class.
When your body starts to ache, to hurt, when it's telling you not simply to rest, but to stop, NOW, perhaps that is when you have reached the "too much" point. When injuries that should heal quickly, don't, when you can't remember the last time you didn't feel tired, when you start to question your love of the art, all these are red flags that say "too much".
Side note: this is a great site. Thanks, Gloria, for recommending it:
http://www.med.nyu.edu/hjd/harkness/patients/injuries/
One way to prevent injuries, is to do everything as correctly as possible, but the quest for perfection in dance can be deadly. We can always be better, and we should strive to be the best we can be, but there is the Law of Diminishing Returns. More is not better. Yes, you need to take a good amount of classes, not simply to work on your technique, but to increase your strength and stamina. One of the flaws in ballet class is the shortness of the exercises. The longest thing you're going to do in class is an adagio, or a long fondue combination that will last for 2 minutes, maybe. When you start performing, you quickly realize that "Waltz of The Flowers", or the Entrance of the Shades in "La Bayadere", or "Les Patineurs" are all a hell of a lot longer than 2 minutes, so you need some kind of stamina base so you don't die in your first rehearsals.
That being said, you can take too many classes. Not only physical fatigue sets in, but mental fatigue as well, and that takes a lot longer to recover from. If you're physically tired, a good night's sleep and you're good to go (remember to take that one day off a week). If you're emotionally exhausted, that can linger for weeks, and is downright dangerous, not only in dancing, but driving a car, or just walking down the street. If you do the exercises thoroughly, two classes a day is plenty. If you have the drive and energy to do more, by all means, go for it, but learn to listen to your body. It's going to give you the answer to
How do you know when it's too much?
Or. maybe it's time to reef the sails.
See you in class.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Starting Over
I tell my students that, when coming back from a vacation or injury or any time away from ballet, they should take the opportunity to start over. I don't mean forget all you knew about dancing; I mean, use the "new" time for your body to really dance properly.
When we, as dancers, get into a class, or class/rehearsal rhythm, we start to develop habits in our training. Some of these are conscious, as in working on something we don't do as well as we would like, or avoiding something we know we should work on, but don't. Some are completely unconscious, such as favoring one side, doing pirouettes more to our preferred side, or rehearsing a part and not realizing that it's all on one leg.
Coming back from an injury, we tend to work very correctly, so we don't re-injure ourselves (or, at least, we should). Coming back from a vacation can be all sorts of things: you come back slowly, which is good, too slowly, which isn't so good, or too fast, which isn't good at all.
I was thinking about all this the other day, when I was missing my students (yes, I do think about you when you're not around), and I thought, why wait for the vacation, or injury, to "start over"? Why not make it a daily thing (starting over, not getting injured).
Ballet class is your entire career in a microcosm. You begin with small, simple movements, holding on to the barre (not so tight!). When the body is ready (warmed up- which you should be when you start class, but that's a subject for another blog), you move on to more complex/difficult stuff, then you move to the center, and on and on, to the grande allegro. Every class affords you the opportunity to "start over". Every class, you can "learn" your technique anew, but with the added benefit of all the things you already know. You can go through the corrections your teachers have given you about specific stuff before you do it, apply them, and teach yourself to dance all over again, every day.
Every time you step to the barre to start class should be fresh. Yes, there are the aches from yesterday's classes or rehearsals. Yes, you might still be rolling on your feet. Yes, school, life, etc. may be weighing you down. All that has to be taken into account, of course, but it doesn't have to stop you from doing what you're in class for in the first place, learning to dance better. You can do that by "starting over" every day.
Happy New Year, and see you in class.
When we, as dancers, get into a class, or class/rehearsal rhythm, we start to develop habits in our training. Some of these are conscious, as in working on something we don't do as well as we would like, or avoiding something we know we should work on, but don't. Some are completely unconscious, such as favoring one side, doing pirouettes more to our preferred side, or rehearsing a part and not realizing that it's all on one leg.
Coming back from an injury, we tend to work very correctly, so we don't re-injure ourselves (or, at least, we should). Coming back from a vacation can be all sorts of things: you come back slowly, which is good, too slowly, which isn't so good, or too fast, which isn't good at all.
I was thinking about all this the other day, when I was missing my students (yes, I do think about you when you're not around), and I thought, why wait for the vacation, or injury, to "start over"? Why not make it a daily thing (starting over, not getting injured).
Ballet class is your entire career in a microcosm. You begin with small, simple movements, holding on to the barre (not so tight!). When the body is ready (warmed up- which you should be when you start class, but that's a subject for another blog), you move on to more complex/difficult stuff, then you move to the center, and on and on, to the grande allegro. Every class affords you the opportunity to "start over". Every class, you can "learn" your technique anew, but with the added benefit of all the things you already know. You can go through the corrections your teachers have given you about specific stuff before you do it, apply them, and teach yourself to dance all over again, every day.
Every time you step to the barre to start class should be fresh. Yes, there are the aches from yesterday's classes or rehearsals. Yes, you might still be rolling on your feet. Yes, school, life, etc. may be weighing you down. All that has to be taken into account, of course, but it doesn't have to stop you from doing what you're in class for in the first place, learning to dance better. You can do that by "starting over" every day.
Happy New Year, and see you in class.
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