Confidence is Key

As a dancer I have gained a lot of confidence. Like I said, I was a very quiet kid and dance was a great way to get my personality out there and shine. I do not, however, have a competitive nature as some think. I have won some and lost some and I'm perfectly okay. I enjoy dance because of the confidence in myself that I have gained. It shows when you dance whether you are comfortable adn confident. Keep your head up no matter if you stumble and fall. I have fallen or messed up more times than I can count, believe me. It makes it easier if you just get up and brush it off and know it happens to everyone. In a competition there are those girls who think they are the best and they may become intimidating, but if you have confidence in yourself it doesn't matter because the most confidence dancers are the ones that shine the brightest.

Tip Tap Shape

Tap is another form of dance. One of the most famous tap dancers is Fred Astaire. He is most famous for dancing and theatrics. It's a very particular type done with leather shoes with aluminum taps on the toe and heels. Tap is a rhythmic dance where the taps of the shoes make rhythms to go with the music. It take a special dancer to excel in tap. 

Image of Fred Astaire from http://banyuleperformingarts.com/

I took tap most of my life, but it was more of a side thing. I never really pursued it. Music with a good, solid beat is ideal for tap. I have seen some tap dances with no music at all, The dancer creates the beats and the rhythm with the taps. It's a very cool thing to see a nice, solid tap dance. The taps create a pattern. There are many steps involved in a tap dance basic and the more complicated ones. Here is an example from So You Think You Can Dance! The girl in the video, Gabby, actually won this most recent season.

Warming Up

With all other sports, dance requires the dancer to do a thorough warm up before beginning routines or class. Warm up usually starts with stretching. You have to do a series of stretches in order to get your muscles able to move with your body as you dance. If you do not stretch you  have the potential to tear a muscle by stretching it too fast without the proper warm up. Every muscle in the body is used during dance so the average class has almost an hour set aside to stretch and warm up. The warm up may include crunches or sit ups because the core of the body is worked extremely hard during dance. It may also include in place pirouettes and leaps across the floor. Basically, the class consists of the small parts of dance that come together to form the whole dance.

Life of Lyrical

Lyrical dance is my personal favorite! I have done many, many lyrical dances, small and large, groups. I have also done lyrical solos throughout my life that I have competed as well. I enjoy it because there is so much emotion involved whether it's a happy song or super sad song. I love the fluidity of the movement and the style of the dancing. I enjoy watching lyrical and seeing all the strength in the movement and all the different stories. Lyrical dancing does just that, it is meant to tell a story in some way whether the story be easy to understand or more encrypted like if the song has no words or something.

 It is called lyrical to go along with the word lyrics (if there are any) sometimes there are stories told by dancing to just a strong piece of music without words, but it still has a meaning or story. Most likely, though, there will be lyrics and the dancer uses the words to help feel the emotion and tell the story. I have been pretty shy throughout my life, but being on stage telling a story and feeling like people were listening was almost easier than talking. Usually slow songs with softer movements. Sometimes, however, there are songs with more beats and sharper movements considered lyrical beacuse of the movemnet quality.

Here is my all time favorite dance from So You Think You Can Dance! It was on season 2. Danced by Travis Wall and Heidi to the song Calling You. It's about a girl trying to giver her love in the form of a flower to a young man and he cannot accept it. It's a great use of story telling and sybolism I love it every time i watch so i want to share it with you! The Bench 

On Pointe

If your are advanced in ballet there is the option to go on pointe. Point is when the dancer advances from just flat ballet slippers to shoes that have a block at the toe in order for the dancer to balance on the toe of their shoe. I say it is an option because I, personally, did not do ballet much. I tried it when i was younger, but it wasn't for me so i remained on flat shoes throughout my dancing career. If you are a ballerina, per say, you will most likely go on pointe because ballet is what you decided to be the main focus of your dance life. I have many friends who went to a ballet school that are advanced on pointe and have been in shows and have participated in ballet productions on pointe. I love ballet, but my studio was more of a competitive lyrical or jazz studio. We did, however, take ballet twice a week in order to maintain the important aspects of dance that come from ballet.


Image from the American Ballet Theatre gallery
Choosing the right pointe shoes is a process. I have chosen pointe shoes only twice, but I have learned about the important aspects of picking the right shoes. Here are a couple of details put into looking for new pointe shoes.  They must be tight to your foot;although it is important to have wiggle room in the back near the heel to allow your foot the be comfortable. They should fit your toes comfortably and not squeeze them otherwise they will not allow gooddance quality. they must fit to your foot almost perfectly so many dancers spend almost hours in the dance store having someone experienced help them try on shoes because if your going to do a lot of pointe you do not want your feet to be in pain and possibly injure yourself. If you are curious to learn more about ballet shoes her is a video by the New York City Ballet

Ballet

Ballet is what all other forms of dance are based off of. It is the most important lesson to have as a dancer or if one aspires to be a great dancer. All of the other styles of dance are the same steps that you may learn in ballet. It makes up the execution of all other forms of dance. Ballet is a series of movements based on strength, poise, and technique. Ballet terms are in French, and it is a very good idea to also know them in English. A good ballet student is well educated on the terms of ballet. Here is a link to ballet terms and their translations as an example provided by the American Ballet Theatre

The ballet class begins with a warm up at barre. A barre is put into place to assist with balance as the dancer performs the warm up exercises such as plie (to bend), and tondu (to stretch). The ballet class normally has an hour of such exercises using the legs and arm movements, It is done mostly in place. When the barres are moved, the ballet terms are put together to form a combination in the center of the floor to form a small routine, Across the floor is also popular in ballet where the dancer uses movements in the combinations to move from one side of the floor to the other.

The ballet dancer typically wears pink tights and a black leotard to class sometimes paired with a skirt depending on the instructors preference. The goal is to have all the dancers look the same to make them dance in unison with one another. Ballet shoes can be leather or canvas and fit tight to the foot as they may stretch out with wear. I prefer canvas as they are cheaper and move better with the foot.

I, personally prefer other styles over ballet. I didn't do many ballet dances in my competitive time, but I took ballet classes twice a week and knew it was very important for me to improve as a dancer.  Here is an excellent ballet dance that inspired me as a dancer.  Ballet Dancers

Intro to Style

Dance is an art form. It has many different styles from ballroom to hip hop or street dancing. I, personally, do not have a background in ballroom unless you count partner dancing for choir shows in high school. I want to talk about the styles I am familiar with and then go into detail in upcoming posts. I have been doing ballet since I was five, and I have dabbled in a bit of hip hop. My personal favorites are jazz and lyrical. Every different style of dance requires different technical elements and have their own styles within them. Take jazz, for example. Slower jazz exists as well as hard hitting, faster jazz. There is soft, more beautiful, lyrical as well as lyrical that has more beats or possibly no music at all.

 I love to watch So You Think You Can Dance on TV so I'll continuously provide links to dances that I, personally, enjoy and may go along with the different styles of dance. Dance has different aspects of strength as well as endurance that is necessary to keep moving and pushing forward. Dance competitions exist all over the country that men and women attend to show off their style and possibly win a national title.