A Cocoon, a Rhombus and a Flamingo

One of the most amazing things about teaching ballet is how it encourages students to tell you about other things they have learnt at school or at home in the context of dance. Dancers are really happy when they can relate movement to something else because it makes things much easier to visualise. I tend to use a lot of imagery in class such as "glissé height means there is enough room for a Malteser under your toe" or "demi bras is like you are holding two pizzas out in front of you" but sometimes the best imagery comes from my students themselves.

This week I was teaching demi plié in my class of 4-year-olds and I was describing the shape that they needed to make with their legs as a diamond. One of my students cried out "it is also like a rhombus". After congratulating the student I had to chuckle to myself...a rhombus?! Very clever indeed at just 4 years old!

Standing on one leg is something we have to do A LOT in ballet. This technique is learnt at a very young age through hopping and marching. The ballet march position requires the toes to lift up right to the side of the knee. We were working on marching in a class this week when one of my dancers said ‘marching is like a flamingo I saw at the safari park balancing on one leg’. I hadn't thought of it as a flamingo before but what a fab idea!

My week has been full of imagery but my absolute favourite has to been when a student told me that the wrap position that we do before a jump was "like a cocoon which turns into a beautiful butterfly". The pronunciation of cocoon was very cute but the best thing was the excitement as that little dancer remembered they had seen a cocoon at school. The fact she had related the wrapping of arms around the body, to a cocoon was very impressive!