Conversation fragments #2
Growing a dancer
The following comments about training ballet professionals come from part of much longer conversation I had recently with Leila Kester, one of a handful of experts worldwide extending the range, strength and health of top level ballet and contemporary dancers through very specialized understanding and teaching of Pilates. Leila has her own studio and works at the Dutch National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet Academy, and Netherlands Dance Theater.
Inputs
We are programming the ones we teach, in large part through our choice of language.
‘Pull up’
‘Pull in’
We use the same language for seven-year-olds and 37-year-olds.
How are we explaining what we are saying?
What do those words actually mean for each person who hears them?
Responses
Dancers respond to those words they hear over many years with an accumulation of what different teachers have said, and with personal interpretation of what they think a teacher meant.
How does a dancer tweak all that to something that actually means something for themselves?
Limits
Dance education happens between seven and 18.
There’s not enough time to learn all the complexity of ballet technique, and to understand your body and to understand yourself as a person within all that.
Choices
I'm sure we could do more than just teaching the steps.
I'm sure we can do more than what we're doing now.
Outcomes
After school, you're not finished growing.
It's nice to think of it like that because then you allow for Hey, I have a job. I haven't arrived. I'm just taking my next step.
Maturity
When I work with professionals I see sometimes really successful dancers going, Oh, my God, I never felt turned out like that.
I think that probably you could not have had that feeling at an earlier age. The body is too complex.
I think it takes a career to understand what it is you do.
Here is a wonderful retrospective, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow, of the amazing Carmen de Lavallade’s career. Lots of video clips!