Dance Teacher asked nine respected instructors to identify the most common technique mistakes they see when addressing a group of students for the first time. Here, they discuss the origins of these problems and offer their best solutions.

…crunching their toes.

Watmora Casey
Artistic Director, Faubourg School of Ballet
Hanover Park, IL

Teaches ballet

I always start by looking at the feet. I’ll have any group of new students sit on the floor and articulate through the feet to see how they are pointing. The one thing I always see is crunching of the toes instead of extending through to the point. And then when they go up on relevé, a lot of them grip their toes into the floor.

I use a doming exercise to strengthen the feet. With the foot flat on the ground, you press all the toes into the floor and draw up the arch, like you’re gripping something, but the toes remain flat. It creates a dome underneath the instep and trains the muscles to elongate the toes as they point. We teach this exercise, plus floor barre, starting with very young students.

Today’s generation of young dancers is much faster, smarter and more aggressive than when I was growing up. These young dancers accept concepts earlier, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to expedite their learning. For instance, if a student is presented with material that’s too advanced—whether it’s a technically challenging step or a difficult character role—the student focuses on the task at hand and all the basics go out the window. If a student can’t use her feet properly, the rest is moot. I recently attended the ABT teacher training program, and what I liked about it was its emphasis on progression-building. Give students plenty of time to absorb a concept, then you can move on.

For the first three years after my school was established, we didn’t perform. It was just technique building, and of course it was difficult with the parents. But I will never do anything halfway. We have ballet six days a week, and modern, jazz and hip hop one day a week. We try to instill a love of good technique early on. Classical ballet is the foundation of all dance, and it must be done every day so young dancers can develop that discipline of the body. From there, you can branch out and do whatever you want to do.

Judy Rice. Photo by Evan Sung

…not standing forward on their feet.

Judy Rice
Associate Professor of Dance, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

Teaches ballet

It’s amazing that some kids can do incredible things onstage, and yet, when I get them into a ballet class, I see how badly they’re standing and how unaware they are of their habits. They don’t want to stand forward on their feet. They open into first position, go back onto their heels and often pronate. I think it’s a natural inclination (especially when trying to force their turnout), but it makes it impossible for them to transfer their weight and to stand without gripping the barre. Plus they wind up sticking out their rib cage to counterbalance with their upper body. Where a less-experienced teacher might try to fix the rib cage, I go right down to the feet and work from the ground up.

I talk to dancers about the foot being a triangle: Your big toe joint and your baby toe joint are two points of the triangle, and the heel is the third point. There is some weight on your heel, but you need to distribute more weight between the two points at the ball of the foot. And I’ll assign homework. I’ll tell them to make sure they’re forward on their feet when they’re brushing their teeth, washing their hair and waiting for the bus. There’s a line I use with my kids at Michigan: “If you don’t make it a part of your life, it will never be a part of your technique.”

Photo by Leslee Crosland, courtesy of Andy Pellick

…overlooking transitions.

Andy Pellick
Faculty, New York City Dance Alliance
New York, NY

Teaches jazz and contemporary

The biggest problem I see is students practicing tricks. To get the attention of judges, they focus on being flashy because it’s really easy to look at the big, exciting moves. Because of this, transitions are being completely overlooked.

Kids struggle with pas de bourrée, and they don’t work through their feet and plié. Clean footwork goes far, especially since the judging table is at eye-level with the dancers’ feet.

Dancers focusing on tricks create landmarks in a dance. “Oh, I have this turn sequence coming up in 30 seconds.” But the in-between moments are what makes it a dance.

I try to remind the dancers that if they become professionals, they’ll rarely have to pull out the most advanced moves. Transitions separate dance from being a sport and an art. With advanced dancers, I create combinations that travel and eat up space, so they’re focused on really hauling and moving. For younger kids, I give them a story, so they focus on the feeling and are present in their timing. It’s not focusing on A and B, but how to get from one to the other.

Photo by Claudia Goetzelmann

…wobbly on their legs

Peff Modelski
Visceral Dance Center
Chicago, IL

Teaches classical ballet and Feldenkrais

I have many students who are wobbly on their legs, regardless of the discipline they specialize in. They don’t know how to stand properly or transfer weight efficiently and are constantly readjusting and losing their balance.

This stems from a lack in their early training: Some schools teach steps and sequences too quickly—often because kids need to learn them for recitals. So the students aren’t becoming strong in the basics first, such as learning how to transition between movements and feel the floor under their feet.

To help children learn about weight, I suggest you have them practice shifting their weight very slowly without moving their feet. Let them feel what it’s like to shift their weight so far that the other leg feels light enough to lift off the floor. Remember to speak slowly so that their nervous systems calm down and they can concentrate on feeling their weight transfer through their feet.

Another exercise is to have students watch a dog or cat walking. Notice their paws spreading a bit when they step forward and transfer their weight. Tell your students to imagine their toes spreading when they use their feet—whether they’re in shoes or barefoot. You can also have them wiggle their toes while they’re standing, or ask them to try taking just one toe off the floor at a time. There are many games like this that will help them strengthen their feet and improve stability.

Photo by Sabi Varga, courtesy of Boston Ballet School

…poorly aligned.

Tamar King

Newton Studio Principal, Boston Ballet School
Boston, MA
Teaches ballet

I think that students are exposed to too much material too early because teachers feel they have to entertain. As a result, I see a lot of students who have poor alignment—pronating from the hip to the knee to the ankle. Ballet isn’t natural to the physical structure and students need time to develop the strength and muscle groups that will help them work properly and safely.

Setting up the body correctly is a major priority for me, especially when students are growing. I’m very consistent with their barre and center work and use repetition a lot because coordination and strength are major factors at this level. I always start working in simple positions. Plié and tendu are the most important foundations to perfect.

Since it takes a lot of focus for a child to stand up straight and hold her rotation and core, I balance my class with movement, so they’re also really moving and addressing their love of dance.

Photo by Veronika Hellmer, courtesy of David Dorfman Dance

…looking down.

David Dorfman
Dance Department Chair, Connecticut College
New London, CT

Teaches modern dance and composition

I have a reaction when my students are looking down. It not only cuts off their vision, it also alters their presence and often changes their sense of alignment and balance.

It usually happens on the first move of a combination, and right before leaping. Dancers tend to be shy about their bodies, especially when learning in a social situation. And as they become more internally focused, their eyes drop.

In terms of looking down before jumping, my theory is that it’s a reflex tied to an unrealistic fear. It makes sense that if you were flying, you’d want to look at where you’re going to land, or where you came from. But let’s be honest, we’re not leaping that high. It’s not necessary to look down each time we leap.

To combat this, I take the constant, gentle prodding approach, with humor. I’ll say, “OK. Let’s look at the ground for a good 10 seconds. That is a black, marley surface, utterly uninteresting. Had enough? Let’s look up.” I’m not one to single people out or use punishment through humiliation, but in a loving way I’ll ask one student to leap, with the others watching. And then I’ll ask her to leap again, while looking at me. Everyone in class sees that transformation.

When you’re teaching kids—especially when they’re young—remind them to see everything in the room. Tell them to see the other students, to see their teachers, to see the pool they want to go to afterwards, or to see the sweat that’s coming off of them. And they can really see it. At that age they don’t shut off the rest of the world just to tendu.

Photo courtesy of Pierre Dulaine