Ballet Corrections: Just One Person’s Preference?

Julian has been studying ballet since he was 3 years old. That means this boy has been in ballet tights for 11 years. For the last three years he was enrolled in an intensive program at Ballet San Jose School that required him to take three hours of ballet at a minimum six days a week. (Gotta give the boy some credit given that he didn’t want to be a professional ballet dancer but knew he needed the technique to be a good all around dancer…)

Now we have always felt that he received good training there, and we have recently had that confirmed by some other teachers. He took a master class with Augusta Moore from San Francisco’s ODC and she commented on his ballet technique (and general talent). Additionally, when he began dancing in the Nutcracker, the choreographer and director Marcie Ryken of Los Gatos Ballet also mentioned that he had good technique (and was talented…sorry…couldn’t resist).

So, why am I telling you all of this? I’m not just bragging. Every day when Julian goes to ballet class at Teen Dance Company, Mark Foehringer corrects his technique. It seems he doesn’t like some of the technique Julian learned at Ballet San Jose School, which is based on the Bournonville Technique, which comes out of Denmark. Indeed, the ballet mistress and school director, Lise LaCour, as well as the male teacher they hired last year, Peter Brandenhoff , both come out of the Bournonville school of ballet.  So, for three years he has primarily learned this style. Well, one year he had a lousy ballet teacher a few days a week (hired by the school), who taught a different style, and occasionally they have Ballet San Jose company members who teach class (always a thrill), but, in general, the Bournonville style was what he learned.

Now I noticed that Julian’s technique – how he held his head when he moved his arm a certain way, for example – was corrected by a Russian ballet teacher brought in for a master class as well. So, what does this mean? Julian said, “The Russian ballet dancers don’t do it that way. They hold their head another way.” Does this mean each country has its own ballet technique? Is one correct and one incorrect?

And Mark seems to want Julian to move his hands in a less flowing manner and in a way that Julian feels is stiffer. Does each ballet instructor have his or her own preference? There’s a difference between preference, which may come down to style, as opposed to technique. And if it actually is an issue of technique, is one technique simply right and another simply wrong?

As far as Julian is concerned, his technique is fine. (Well, not in ever situation, but the things that Mark constantly corrects – and gets angry at him for not fixing – he feels he is doing correctly.) In fact, he says he knows he is doing them correctly, because he’s doing them the way he was taught by Ms. LaCour and Mr. Brandenhoff, and they no longer corrected him on these particular issues. So there.

This presents a quandary. I know it’s important to be able to adapt your dance style to that of any teacher of choreographer, but should a dancer also adapt his or her technique? I might have to seek out a professional for the answer to this question…In the meantime, however, my son is left at the barre feeling very frustrated – and angry – that his teacher continues to correct him for something he is sure he is doing correctly, and his teacher continues to get angry and frustrated at him for not making the correction.  As you can imagine, this does not make him eager to go to ballet class three times a week for an hour and a half each time. And I bet Julian’s lack of compliance doesn’t make him Mark’s favorite ballet student.

What’s a Mom to Do When Her Dancin’ Boy Doesn’t Think?

I pulled up at my son’s school on Friday to pick him up and take him to dance just in time to see him jump up onto a fence with his right foot and land back on the ground with — your guessed it — his hurt left foot. I was livid. I wouldn’t talk to him for the first 15 minutes in the car. Then, when I finally did open my mouth I told him to quit dancing or at least go tell all his dance teachers to forget about having him in their recitals and ballets in May and June.

What was he thinking? He wasn’t thinking. He admitted it. And what was I thinking? Taking him to fancy sports doctors and all? Sometimes I think I’m crazy.

The good news is that at Ballet San Jose School the ballet mistress and school director, Lise LaCour, is concerned about Julian’s recovery process — and having him ready for the end of the year ballet and showcase. So, she has not only asked her best instructor and only male ballet teacher, Peter Brandenhoff, to keep an eye on Julian, and she has requested that Julian come for extra classes. The extra classes seemed like a pain in the patooty, and Julian isn’t too crazy about it. We were a bit worried about him overdoing it and getting hurt again, which would not be good, but we’ve seen the logic to Lise’s approach.

By attending extra classes last week to do only barre work, Julian has been strengthening muscles he will need to do the jumps and turns he can begin doing a little bit this week. This week, he will continue doing extra barre work while he starts across-the-floor exercises (one out of every three times the others do the exercises). Next week, he’ll increase the amount of across-the-floor work he does (every other time the others do the exercises) while continuing to do double the barre work. As the week progresses, if his foot feels fine he can even do a little extra across-the-floor work, meaning that he can do some of the exercises in the extra class as well. Little by little, he will get stronger without hurting himself (hopefully).

He is doing all of this in a jazz sneaker at this point, mind you, to protect that small bone and growth plate on the side of his foot. He will dance in that for four weeks before going back to his normal jazz and ballet shoes. For hip hop, he is wearing regular street shoes or sneakers.

The other part of this good news comes with the extra attention Julian is getting from Peter Brandenhoff. For years, I’ve been trying to explain to Julian that when he does barre work he has to do it as if it is an isometric exercise. I’ve shown him with my arm the difference between raising my arm with no resistance and with a lot of resistance, with the muscles loose and the muscles tight. Somehow, he never got the message. However, Peter spent some time with him last week as part of his recuperation and watched him do his barre work very carefully. First he simply corrected his technique. The, he showed him how tightly he had to hold his muscles with each move and even when holding a position. Julian came our of class dripping wet — for the first time! He’ll never be able to take ballet class again and be able to tell himself he’s working hard unless he works like that.

That made me as a mother the happiest! Yes, I want him back in shape so he won’t get hurt. Yes, I want him ready to perform in his end-of-the-year recital, ballet and showcase. More than that, I want him to improve and to excel, and the lesson he learned from Peter will help him accomplish that. He wants so badly to be a good dancer, and he spends so many hours at the ballet studio. Yet, he doesn’t seem to improve as much as he or I think he should. Now he should see that improvement come in leaps and bounds. At least I hope that’s what we’ll see.

Of course, he could again stop thinking and then he’ll either just forget what he’s been taught or get hurt again. That’s a boy for you.