Floor covering for home practice

[Anjuli_Bai]

So perhaps before the holiday students could make a list of common corrections that they get personally, and that their teacher gives to a class - and when they're practicing at home they too can check themselves?

 

The phrase "checking myself" was used in the context of being in class - not being at home. If the teacher says to someone else "you are not spotting your turn" - I would then make sure that I, too, was spotting the turn. But even so, I would still need another eye - a teacher - to tell me if my spot was correct; fully focused, too fast, too slow, with a double take, head correctly held, etc. Though I was "checking myself" - I was doing it in a class with a teacher - not alone.

 

If you want to make a list of common corrections - one need only read a book on ballet technique and not go to class - or go less often. Treating every correction as if it was meant for me was in addition to those given personally to me, not instead of going to class.

[dancerbabe82]

From a teachers point of view, think it depends on the student - like everything. There's no one hard and fast rule here. With my younger children as they're coming up to exams I do extra exam classes but also encourage them to 'practice' at home between their weekly lessons (not just ballet but modern and tap too). They get a copy of the syllabus music on loan and I hope that they are rehearsing the settings so that they remember them, rather than self-training their technique, however I'd like to think there are those few who are diligent enough to remember some corrections from their last lesson! In terms of exam work home practice or rehearsal is vital - you can really see those who do it because they are much more confident and they know the exercises so can concentrate on making them look really good.

 

In my 10+ years of teaching I have NEVER seen a pupil come back after a break of 2-3 weeks looking worse. Occasionally some kids come back after being off for 6 weeks having slipped into an old habit, or have practiced something slightly wrong like pirouette position but within a lesson or 2 they're back to how they were.

 

Incidentally - I've also seen lots more kids come back having had a holiday with old habits. It's so frustrating as a teacher when you and a pupil spend so long work really hard on improving something like posture or placement in a particular position only to have them come back after the summer looking like they did 6 months ago :-(

[tomuchtallent]

I think it depends on the students age and ability and what they are practicing!

[taxi4ballet]

My dd aches and gets uncomfortable if she doesn't do at least some tendus and a few grand plies in 2nd every day. I'll hear her saying "Ahhh, that's better!"

 

She likens it to how stiff you feel when you get out of the car after a long journey and have to stretch your legs...

[drdance]

Dancerbabe - I had forgotten about that! AAAARRRRGGHH so frustrating when you (or like you say, your pupils) spend so much energy, time, focus etc working really hard on something and then they come back after a break and they're right back to square one. It feels like you've lost all that time, and now have to keep reminding the dancer again when they'd got it totally sorted before the holidays. It really does get quite frustrating when you see that - sort of regression!

[balletla]

My DD is doing stretching to improve flexibility and strengthening exercises to improve her core strength (abs pilates type exercises). Do you think that is OK to do every day of the holidays or do you think she should have complete rest?

[Fiz]

I am so busy at the moment I have down nothing - not even a couple of plies and I will shortly be having a minor operation for carpal tunnel syndrome and I do not want to fall back

[Anjuli_Bai]

My DD is doing stretching to improve flexibility and strengthening exercises to improve her core strength (abs pilates type exercises). Do you think that is OK to do every day of the holidays or do you think she should have complete rest?

 

What does she want to do? Is she doing this under supervision of a teacher? If one takes advantage of resting, it really doesn't take long to get back. Anything she does should be gentle and safe.

[drdance]

I think that doing exercises that children are familiar with from class is definitely needed to improve strength or flexibility, at any time (holidays or not) these sorts of things need to be done pretty much daily to get enough of a stimulus for the body to adapt to. But it's important that the kids know the correct technique for these exercises, and that they should be warmed up before doing them.

 

I make sure that kids use a journal to write down important things about the exercises that they want to do, to meet their goals. And involving the parents in the process is always helpful - parents want to know how to help their children to improve so I often explain to them that it would help if they could keep an eye on certain things (pointing them out as the child is doing the exercise).

 

If anyone wants to gain strength, flexibility, power etc it needs to be done frequently. If the dancer is merely wanting to 'keep in shape' - it comes back pretty quickly after a break so no-one should ever panic about having a break.

[taxi4ballet]

My dd only occasionally practices at home (and if she does, I have to leave the house because she hates me watching)!

 

What she does do though, is watch the syllabus dvd's and memorise the dances and enchainements by walking through them.

 

We have found that all the hard skin on her feet goes soft if she doesn't dance at all, even for a couple of weeks. She then gets sore feet when she starts again, particularly with modern and contemporary, which she does in bare feet.

 

Also, her posture is awful after a long break as she is naturally round-shouldered; her teacher then has to moan at her for weeks to sort her out!

[Balletgirlsplease]

My dd dance school doesnt close over the summer. Some do but some don't.