Dance safety often involves attention to myriad minute and difficult details. This is not one of those. In dance, like in geometric proofs, there is given information that we must accept as true in order to be successful. Please treat this dance safety advice as a given:
You need to avoid falling off of the stage
#2. Appropriate attire does not always necessitate putting certain items on. It also means taking certain items off. For instance:
Don’t forget to take off your sweat pants
Young-and not so young-dancers often wonder what and who they can watch to learn from. Sports players can watch videos of games both excellent and poor, and learn lessons from both. Since dance is an art, however, the differences in videos are often artistic rather than technical. Differences in interpretation cannot be ranked, and every individual will have a different opinion of every dance and dancer. This means that there really is no overarching list of videos every dancer should watch. Except for the one I have compiled on this site.
Here is the first installment in the list of videos every aspiring dancer should watch:
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Peaceful Warrior
The Matrix
Airplane!
Equilibrium
Please comment and let myself and others know what you learned from each video.
These are dancebelts.
They suck.
Inspirational quotes from Mr B, as at least six people insist on calling him, abound. However, we are often left in the dark as to what a smooth operator Balanchine was outside of the studio. I want to change that, starting with todays probable quote:
Do you have any raisins? No? How about a date?
-George Balanchine, to Maria Tallchief
Balanchine with potential NYCB Miss Novembers
Collections of Richard Pryor quotes almost always omit this brief statement, which he probably said:
Ballet is really great.
-Richard Pryor
Improper use of turnout was never a laughing matter for Pryor
While extremely dramatic on stage, Baryshnikov was also emotionally driven offstage, and several quotes show that he was not afraid to express his powerful feelings. For instance, he probably said this:
I really, really hate you.
-Mikhail Baryshnikov, to dance belt
Fuckin’ dancebelts man
It is a common misconception that warming up before stretching is essential.
The reasoning for this is often that stretching can produce a dramatic change in the body, and it is best for the body to be as prepared as possible to receive this change. Hogwash. Think about the most dramatic change the body can undergo: surgery. Before surgery, does the doctor guide us through calisthenics? Is cardio performed before an operation? Of course not. For surgery, the most drastic change a body can experience, anesthesia is administered.
Anesthesia is used because for surgery to be successful, it is imperative that we are unaware of what is happening. The surgeon may be cutting away skin and splitting apart bone, but in the end we are put back together in better health than when we started out.
If we want similar success when stretching, we must be similarly unaware of what is happening. Anesthesia, therefore, is the goal for any serious stretcher, and the best way to anesthetize a muscle is to make it extraordinarily cold.
It is a well known fact that Sir Edmund Hillary perfected his splits on the summit of Everest
If geographically possible, try stretching outside in the snow. Investigate the possibility of using dry ice when stretching. Above all, experiment. Leave comments with your success stories below.
Watching a dancer who clearly enjoys jumping always makes me think one thing, which I believe famous male dancer Nijinsky, who could apparently jump over pianos, also thought while jumping:
Wheeeeee!
-Vaslav Nijinsky
Wheeee!
Directors of hugely famous ballet companies often have inspiring and effective corrections for students and professionals alike. Sometimes, though, you just have to say it like it is:
Please stop sucking
-Kevin McKenzie
Just stop