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.