Alignment is the single most frustrating thing about ballet. I have spent years trying to find the correct placement, and every time I think I have finally corrected something, I find something new I must work on. For example, when I was younger, I used to keep all of my weight back in my heels, to which my teachers told me that my weight should be in the ball of my foot. After being corrected at least a hundred times, I finally found my new placement, with my weight distributed across the ball of my foot, only to find out that now my weight is too far forward. The same thing happened with the placement of my back and shoulders-- i used to be arched all the time, and in an effort to correct this, I over-corrected, now with my shoulders hunched slightly forward and in front of my hips. Trying to find the balance and not over-correcting has always been a struggle for me.
Another thing that I am struggling with this year is not having mirrors. In many ways, I think that dancing with out mirrors can be beneficial. I think it helps with the performance quality, musicality, and artistry when I am not constantly staring in the mirror. However, when it comes to alignment, I miss the mirrors terribly. When trying to find the correct placement, I still have trouble feeling it-- I need to see it. I need to be looking in the mirror through out barre work, checking to make sure that my abs are pulled up, by rib cage is closed, my shoulders are over my hips etc. I know that I should be able to feel if I am in correct alignment or not, but I am still really struggling with this.
Amanda I totally relate to this! After coming to Ohio State I realized that my alignment was completely wrong! Ever since I have had to make constant adjustments and try to make my body remember what to do! Something that I just noticed this year was that I open my hip when I do anything to the derriere. Even though I have fixed it, now I feel like I am not turned out enough and have lost some of my extension. I feel that our alignment is always a constant state of learning and re-learning things that we know and somethings that we also may know but do not fully have embodied in our class work.
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ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with what you're saying about not having mirrors. I too feel like I need to be able to see and feel it on myself before I'm a hundred percent sure that I'm placed correctly. Sometimes, what you're feeling isn't the right sensation, but you wouldn't know it unless your teacher made a comment on it. With a big class like ours, we don't get feedback on every move, which is why having mirrors helps. I look forward to the day (or should I say year?) we get mirrors back!
I feel the pain in finding out that there is yet another concept I have to work on. I feel like every time i have a class, any class at all, I make some kind of discovery about the way my body is working or should be working, and I wish I could go back and take the class over. I feel like I discovered what correct core engagement was this summer, and that I had been "doing it all wrong" up until then. I have been working on it ever since, and I feel like last week I just started to figure out how it feels. I think part of the deal is just accepting the nature of the beast. Maybe it's like "you live and you learn." I don't think it's possible for anyone to be perfect, but hey, we all learn so much about ourselves when we try.
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