Ballet Basics 1

it's as rigorous as it is beautiful and it utilizes

your entire body while still looking effortless.

My name is Robin.

I'm 24 years old and I'm currently a ballet instructor.

I danced ballet personally from the ages of 9-18.

And these are my ballet shoes that I wear when

I am teaching ballet now.

Um they look small but they fit on my feet

like glove while still giving me a little bit of

support in the balls of my feet and my heels.

Okay. Uh huh.

Did you know that ballet turns out some of the

strongest of athletes rivaling the strength of some traditional athletes

such as swimmers.

The basics of ballet start in its position.

Its feet positions, its arm positions and it's ballet moves.

So here we have our basic feet positions.

We have our 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positions

and we have our arms which is called our court

abroad to match our feet positions.

We have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.

And together these um combined into your basic ballet technique.

And here we have some of our basic value moves

that you move throughout the transition from one move to

another with your play a DJ run jump and positive

balance. And this girl here is balancing very gracefully in

a plastic bag.

Someone can have excellent technique, but if they don't have

artistry then they might be very boring to watch on

stage artistry is embedded within your techniques such as head

placement with where your arms are going.

This girl is looking ever so slightly over her shoulder

and if she was looking just straightforward it might be

a little bit more boring of a post.

Yeah, timing is also essential to ballet dancers.

We learn how to count the music that we're dancing

to and if we uh it helps us to know

when to start dancing, went to stop dancing which parts

we can take longer on or which parts.

We need to speed up.

Many people think that ballet is rigid because of its

direct training, but um facial expressions are very important on

stage as well.

Um Since dancers don't talk on stage, facial expressions are

very important to be able to communicate with your audience.

Mhm. Combining technique and artistry comes with a lot of

strength. Many dancers will cross train in a gym or

on their own time to be able to gain strength

in even different body parts that they embody muscles that

they didn't know they had.

Um As is the stereotype, the mobility that ballet requires

dancers. Um To be able to use strength to say

hold their head their leg above their head.

Um For example, and that not only takes time muscle

but back and bum muscle as well.

Dancers who dance on pointe need to have strength not

only in their feet, but in their calves, thighs, hips,

back, core, just to name a little bit, but it

takes a lot of strength to be able to dance

on such a small area.

Ballet dancers, especially male ballet dancers need to also have

strength to be able to partner um a female partner

or any other partner.

Um And female dancers need to have the strength to

be able to hold themselves in a position above someone

else's head or and have the mental strength to be

able to trust somebody to hold them above their heads.

Ballet is as rigorous as it is beautiful.

The training of ballet dancers is with any sport extremely

rigorous. What many people do not see are the hours,

weeks and years of training that ballet Comes with until

it becomes 2nd nature for dancers.

It's so important to them to have a strong foundation

to build on.

So that's why it takes so many years for ballet

dancers to become professionals in the competitive dance world.

I hope the speech has given you a little bit

of insight into what it is to be about a

dancer and how dancers work for what they love.

Ballet Basics 1

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