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Focus360
Class #2
Tendu
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Dance Linguistics:
Tendu is most often taught as meaning “taut” (to hold tightly) or to stretch. |
Stretching is something we do almost constantly in dance in the physical sense, but stretching ourselves metaphorically is an entirely different story.
Often, in the strive for perfection or push for progress, we hold ourselves too tightly as people and performers.
The step of tendu (for those who don’t know) is simplistic in nature. It’s merely a stretch of the foot on the ground in any direction, so the toes never leave the floor.
In reality, however, the nuance of doing this “basic” step correctly is multifold. At any given time, a #dancer is thinking of how they must brush deeply into the floor, articulate their toes like individual thoughts, keep a natural rotation with their muscles and not a twist through the joints, lift up through their static standing leg without pronating or rollin in their foot... and onward and onward and onward.
With so much to remember and recount, it’s no wonder we hold ourselves so taught in #danceclass, often forgetting to even breathe.
Learning how to #stretch to ourselves while staying - like a tendu - firmly grounded into the floor is a dichotomous concept, but one that is still entirely possible.
How can we drag out every step and every possibility (like the #ASL sign learned by our Youth Company in class) without forgetting the humble position with which we began?
The simplest answer: #community
Whether the #dancestudio you represent, your performance company #Company360, or just the people who drive you to and from #dance and then support your dreams from an uncomfortable auditorium pew...
These are the roots that allow you to continue to stretch.
Never stop reaching. Never stop growing. But always, no matter the journey, remind yourself who helped you stretch in the first place.
Often, in the strive for perfection or push for progress, we hold ourselves too tightly as people and performers.
The step of tendu (for those who don’t know) is simplistic in nature. It’s merely a stretch of the foot on the ground in any direction, so the toes never leave the floor.
In reality, however, the nuance of doing this “basic” step correctly is multifold. At any given time, a #dancer is thinking of how they must brush deeply into the floor, articulate their toes like individual thoughts, keep a natural rotation with their muscles and not a twist through the joints, lift up through their static standing leg without pronating or rollin in their foot... and onward and onward and onward.
With so much to remember and recount, it’s no wonder we hold ourselves so taught in #danceclass, often forgetting to even breathe.
Learning how to #stretch to ourselves while staying - like a tendu - firmly grounded into the floor is a dichotomous concept, but one that is still entirely possible.
How can we drag out every step and every possibility (like the #ASL sign learned by our Youth Company in class) without forgetting the humble position with which we began?
The simplest answer: #community
Whether the #dancestudio you represent, your performance company #Company360, or just the people who drive you to and from #dance and then support your dreams from an uncomfortable auditorium pew...
These are the roots that allow you to continue to stretch.
Never stop reaching. Never stop growing. But always, no matter the journey, remind yourself who helped you stretch in the first place.
Dance Scholar Bonus
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"The Biomechanics of the Tendu in Closing to the Traditional Position"
Really want to tax your scholastic brain on your way to a deeper and even dizzying degree of what your body does and how? Check out this grad-degree work about the biomechanics of Tendu! click the image
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Weekly Challenge:
Staying Firmly Rooted
Make a list of at least 10 people that make up your dancer roots that help support you and make you a better dancer and person than you were the day before ... and go out of your way to thank each of those roots!
Staying Firmly Rooted
Make a list of at least 10 people that make up your dancer roots that help support you and make you a better dancer and person than you were the day before ... and go out of your way to thank each of those roots!
Class #1
Attitude
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Dance Linguistics: The word “attitude” is the same in French as it is in English.
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"It means exactly what we think it means: our point of view or outlook on life."
The word in sign language, as the Youth Company learned last week (and will continue to learn new words and signs weekly), has a sort of confidence about it. A movement that says “here I am”.
The word in sign language, as the Youth Company learned last week (and will continue to learn new words and signs weekly), has a sort of confidence about it. A movement that says “here I am”.
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Ironically, attitude in dance is nothing of the sort. It doesn’t say “here I am” or “look at my point of view”. To some, it could even be considered a transition step. A beautiful way to get from one place (passé for example) to another (full leg extension). In the moments that we take pause in attitude, and hold the position in of itself: we find a pose that feels like a happy medium at all times.
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Attitude can easily be forgotten in the world of dance, both in how we approach the step from one motion to the next, and in our outlook as dancers in the classroom.
The step shows us that no position is too small. No movement should go unfinished. In rushing from one to the next, we forget that the most sacred seconds are those between: the pause before the finish, the angle before the end.
The word (in any language) is the most important thing we can bring into the studio every week as dancers. Deciding to never throw away a transition or a millisecond, no matter how small it might seem. Deciding to focus on the journey as much, if not more than, the final result.
Without our attitudes - our transitions and pauses... Why dance?
Without a positive outlook of our bodies and ourselves... Why try?
Remembering that “attitude” is about the journey and not the finale is one of the most important gifts that dance gives us.
It’s not always about how high our leg gets or how quickly it arrives. In the end, it’s about how hard we work, how positive we stay along the way, and how much we care about the process of getting there, no matter how long it takes.
The step shows us that no position is too small. No movement should go unfinished. In rushing from one to the next, we forget that the most sacred seconds are those between: the pause before the finish, the angle before the end.
The word (in any language) is the most important thing we can bring into the studio every week as dancers. Deciding to never throw away a transition or a millisecond, no matter how small it might seem. Deciding to focus on the journey as much, if not more than, the final result.
Without our attitudes - our transitions and pauses... Why dance?
Without a positive outlook of our bodies and ourselves... Why try?
Remembering that “attitude” is about the journey and not the finale is one of the most important gifts that dance gives us.
It’s not always about how high our leg gets or how quickly it arrives. In the end, it’s about how hard we work, how positive we stay along the way, and how much we care about the process of getting there, no matter how long it takes.
Dance Scholar Bonus
click the image
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Check out this article from 1918 talking about a dancer's attitude toward music. Do you agree with our esteemed ancestor? Is music simply there for the rhythm? Should it guide the dance or should the dance guide itself? Is there a place for both schools of thought in dance?
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Weekly Challenge:
Create Your Own "Attitude Dance" For Us |
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