Efficient Training

I started studying ballet the week I graduated from high school. Four years and ten months later, I was dancing for The Joffrey. I was not gifted in any way. I worked hard, and I found the most efficient ways to train. I did not adhere to one style or syllabus or curriculum; I found flaws in all of them. I picked the stuff that made sense to me, and that worked.

There are a lot of teachers/dancers who believe that one syllabus or curriculum is right and will teach you everything you need to know.

No.

Most syllabi teach you how to do specific steps. That's wrong. There are so many steps, classes would have to be hours long, and you'd have to remember way too much. There are actually very few specific things you really have to learn. It is far more important to train the body to function as a classical dancer, than to learn a specific step.

For example, there are only two shapes for your arm in classical ballet. Two. That's it. We're talking strict classical ballet, here, not Romantic, not choreography, just ballet. You have the curved shape, and the "straight" shape. The curved shape is virtually the same for fifth en bas, first, second, fifth en haut, etc. The "straight" shape (very slight bend at the elbow) is the same for any arabesque or elongee.

That's it. Two shapes.

Another example is relevé. We used to train on quarter pointe, with the heel just off the floor for turns. That's disappeared. Now, your foot is either flat on the floor, or full relevé, or en pointe. Three positions. Done.

See what I'm getting at?

Stanley Williams gave the simplest classes. Frustratingly simple, before we realized he was a genius. We didn't have complex grand allegro, which really pissed us off. He told us, "Boys, just do these exercises and everything will work." We didn't believe him. We didn't realize that by training the body to be a classical dancer, you'd be able to do any step you wanted. Sure we did exercises in all the required positions, but we didn't learn every individual step. We trained our muscles to hold our turnout, to point our feet, to use our core. We still didn't believe him.

Until one day.

After class, we were milling about the studio, frustrated that we hadn't been working on the big bravura steps we all wanted to do. I went to do a double saut de basque. We hadn't even done singles in class.

It worked.

I stopped, turned and saw everyone in the room was looking at me. I pointed to a friend. "You try it." It worked for him, too. We went around the room. Everyone could do doubles.

We realized Stanley was a genius.

He hadn't taught us to do double saut de basque.

He had taught us to be dancers.

If the syllabus or curriculum is teaching you to do individual steps, and not teaching you to be a dancer, it's wrong.

Stanley never said, "This is the Royal Danish syllabus." He just taught us ballet.

That's the way I teach.

See you in class.