teaching ballet

The Mirror as a Training Tool in Dance Class

January 21, 2019 by 4dancers

*Students in dance class with mirrored wall. Photo by Lori Teague.*

I’m so glad to be able to share the following article from Sally Radell, MA, a longtime colleague in dance medicine, on the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Sally’s research for many years has been in looking at how using the mirror affects the dancer — we have posted information on this topic from her before on this site. Sally recently presented her latest research at the October 2018 IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine and Science) conference in Helskini. It was valuable information, and thought-provoking, to put it mildly! So here you go — take care and happy/safe dancing! – Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor

by Sally A. Radell, MFA, MA

The process of building ourselves as dancers is a long and arduous process. Years of technical training are required and certainly the more efficiently we train the more successful we are at building the technical skills needed for professional performance.

Dancers should not underestimate the importance of how they feel about their bodies in the studio and how this impacts the quality and effectiveness of their training. In fact, research has shown that a dancers’ psychological health and well-being can improve or impede their classroom or stage performance.

The Mirror in the Dance Studio

One classroom tool that has caused some concern in the technique class is the mirror. It is so familiar in the dance studio that many of us take it for granted. Teachers frequently use it as a classroom management tool to visually bring the class together when teaching new material. The teacher has an optimum vantage point when facing the mirror, demonstrating the material with the same physical facing as the students, and simultaneously viewing them as they learn it. This provides for ample correction opportunities and can be an efficient use of time when teaching short classes. However, NOT using the mirror in teaching generally requires the instructor to face the class directly and do a mirror image demonstration of the phrase material. This requires more concentration and focus for the teacher. Whether or not to use the mirror in the studio can be a complex problem for teachers.

Students tend to love having a mirror in the studio. It provides students immediate visual feedback and a constant stream of information on ones’ alignment and performance of a dance phrase. The mirror also provides students an opportunity to fix their hair, examine how they look in their new tights and inevitably compare their body to those of other dancers in the studio. The mirror is a potent tool with distraction powers that can be overwhelming and difficult to manage for most students.

One cannot help but ask the question — is the mirror a helpful or harmful tool in the dance studio, or perhaps a bit of both? Most of the literature on this topic comes from dance instructors and their use of the mirror in the classroom. Opinions vary. Some instructors feel it is a useful tool to check and correct ones’ line or the performance of a particular phrase. There have only been a few formal research studies, primarily focusing on ballet, which tend to discuss the disadvantages of mirror use.

*Dance students in mirrored classroom. Photo by Lori Teague.*

Disadvantages of Mirror Use in the Studio

Students may develop high levels of self-consciousness and self-criticism from starring at their images in the mirror.
There is a high temptation for students to compare their physical images to other dancers (or the teacher) in the room which can lead a dancer to feel badly about her body.
The use of a mirror can lead to a dancer feeling “disconnected” from her proprioceptive body awareness which is needed for efficient training. This can delay optimum development of a dancers’ technical skills.

New Mirror Research

Further research has recently been done which probes a bit deeper into mirror use with dancers of various skill levels and in different styles of dance. For example, a recent study was done comparing beginning and advanced ballet dancers. The beginning dancers reported using the mirror enthusiastically, while the advanced level dancers discussed the importance of limiting mirror use in class in favor of focusing on the physical sensations of the movement to stimulate technical growth. However, both levels of students felt worse about their bodies by the end of the semester. This suggests that training on how to use the mirror sparingly and efficiently does not help a dancer feel better about her body in class. Perhaps the mirror is just too potent a tool to be used effectively at any level of dance training?

Other recent research compares the impact of mirrors on the body image of modern and ballet dancers in both mirrored and non-mirrored classrooms. By the end of the semester both the modern and ballet students in the mirrored classroom felt worse about their bodies. However, the students in the modern and ballet non-mirrored classrooms felt better about their bodies by the end of the semester. Overall, perhaps these results suggest that the negative impact of the mirror on a dancers’ body image can transcend styles, at least between modern and ballet styles?

As research in the area of mirror impact on body image grows, evidence is mounting on the potency of the mirror and its capacity to harm a dancer’s body image beyond the confines of ballet. I strongly encourage dance teachers and students to reconsider their use of the mirror in the classroom and explore alternate methods of achieving what the mirror seemingly offers. Without a mirror in the classroom dancers can fully focus on their proprioceptive learning and the sensation of movement in their bodies. This will ultimately keep their focus fully “in their bodies” which is the most efficient route to feeling good about themselves and developing the optimum technical skills required for professional careers.

Note: This post is an update to the previous post we have on the site, also authored by Ms. Radell. View that post here.

Sally Radell, MFA, MA. Photo by Jon Rou.

Sally Radell is professor of dance at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a BA in dance from Scripps College in Claremont, California, an MA in dance from The Ohio State University, and an MFA in dance from Arizona State University. She came to Emory in 1987 to start a degree program in dance. The substantial growth of the program and success of this endeavor is one of her proudest professional accomplishments. Ms. Radell has been active as a choreographer, teacher, performer, administrator, dance critic, and somatic educator. Over the past twenty years she has conducted research on dancers, body image, and the mirror and has published in professional journals including Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, Research in Dance Education, and Perceptual and Motor Skills. Professor Radell has also presented nationally and internationally on this topic with different organizations including the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance and the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science. She is committed to the promotion of psychological wellness for dancers.

Interview: Matthew Powell Of “Find Your Fifth”

August 20, 2015 by Rachel Hellwig

Matthew Powell (center) and the cast of "Find Your Fifth". Photograph by Shane Ohmer — Matthew Powell (center) and the cast of “Find Your Fifth”. Photograph by Shane Ohmer

What drew you to the profession of teaching dance?

To be honest, it was at first for very selfish reasons! As a young dancer, I was given some advice from my Artistic Directors to begin teaching as a means of improving upon my own technique. As a dancer, it is sometimes difficult to feel what exactly your body is doing. Teaching provided me with the opportunity to take the role of the onlooker, see corrections that needed to be made on my students, and apply them to myself. I started teaching at a very young age, and I really think it enriched my dancing on the whole.

What does your average work day look like? Give us a little snapshot of your life…

I’m freelancing a good bit these days, so my schedule is a bit all over the map. At the moment, I’m in Carlisle, PA teaching for Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s summer program and having a blast, but there is always a long list of ‘to do’s’ to keep my life running back in New York. Here’s what today looks like:

7:00am – 9:00am – Answer questions for this interview over coffee and a bagel.

9:00am – 10:30am – Teach my morning class at CPYB

10:30am – 1:30pm – Head to Staples to print, sign, scan and email a contract for a new ballet I’m creating for Point Park University in Spring of 2016. Then I head to the Post Office to ship two orders of ‘Find Your Fifth.’ We are a small start-up, so orders are processed not through a company, but from my apartment in Queens (or wherever I happen to be). You should see my living room. It’s a ‘Find Your Fifth’ extravaganza in there!

[Read more…]

Saving Grace: A Perspective on the Legacy of Maggie Black

May 25, 2015 by 4dancers

by Risa Gary Kaplowitz

Maggie Black, one of the foremost ballet teachers of a generation of dancers, died on May 11, 2015. Her death initiated a flood of Facebook posts and even a Remembering Maggie Black Facebook page, where former students can write their memories about Maggie and her infamous quotes. I was happy to relive those years, as even now, three decades after having danced in Maggie’s class, it is often that I dream of dancing in her studio–or have nightmares of not being able to find it.

I first went to Maggie’s classes in 1981 at age 20 during what became the first of many summer lay-off periods. I was just starting to get principal roles at Dayton Ballet, and Christine O’Neal, formerly of American Ballet Theatre, Broadway’s A Chorus Line, and Dayton Ballet’s reigning principal dancer at the time, had recommended that I spend the summer taking Maggie’s classes. They were held in a loft in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, which was at that time a rather decrepit part of the city filled with warehouses and, from my vantage point at the barre peering into the neighboring building, sweatshops. I found a sublet nearby in the Chelsea Hotel and took Maggie’s 2.5-hour class every day for close to a month before she must have realized that I was committed to her and so finally descended on me with my first personal correction. [Read more…]

Book Review: How to Teach Beginning Ballet: The First Three Years

April 10, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

How to Teach Beginning Ballet is a rich resource for teachers. In five sections covering 190 pages, Judith Newman covers topics ranging from how to give students a tour of the studio on the first day to cultivating a sense of rhythm to addressing behavior problems.

Newman’s emphasis on preparedness and thorough advice on classroom management (learning names, maintaining discipline without losing liveliness) are especially valuable. The bulk of that information is contained in the introduction in sub-sections for each of the first three classes. My favorite, and the most broadly applicable advice is as follows:

“Before introducing a new step, work backwards to determine the set of skills needed to perform the new step. Practice the skills first and then they have been mastered, teach the step

“Consider, for example, the demi-plie. Because the step is performed standing, consider that the student must be aware of correct posture. Because it is performed standing at the barre, she must know how to hold the barre…

“…After a while, you will find there are no new skills to teach, only new steps.”

“As the class progresses in complexity, use the following guidelines to make sure it is balanced both physically and mentally.

1. Alternate slow exercises with quick exercises.

2. Let extensions progress gradually from low to high.

3. Alternate the simple with the complex.

4. Repeat to strengthen but not to exhaust.”

Newman also makes an important point about marking, which can so easily turn into an excuse for sloppiness:

“Remember that marking means to perform the entire combination without actually jumping or turning. Use the upper body, the back, the arms, and the head with artistry while indicating the shape and direction of the feet and legs.”

There are some points of organization and nomenclature (eg., that of arm positions and classification of releves), as well as posture (keeping the weight entirely off the heels) that I disagree with as a teacher. Stylistic differences aside, I regard the majority of the content of How to Teach Beginning Ballet: The First Three Years as highly useful in planning a class of any level, and highly interesting as a study of pedagogy. Even as teachers, we should never stop learning!

How to Teach Beginning Ballet: The First Three Years, Judith Newman, Princeton Book Company

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A Studio Director’s Change Of Heart: Why Ballet Exams Work

June 7, 2012 by 4dancers

by Risa Gary Kaplowitz

I would have never thought that I would one day espouse the idea of examinations for the ballet students at my school. Certainly the studio in which I grew up, Maryland Youth Ballet, has produced dozens of professional dancers, and they never presented their students for exams. And weren’t the students at my own studio thriving and going on to pursue their own careers without ever having taken an exam?

I am far from the only studio director to have disregarded exams. Even as ballet exams are relatively common in Europe, especially at the world’s major ballet schools with their own training systems in Russia (Vaganova), France (Paris Opera Ballet), Italy (Cecchetti), England (Royal Academy of Dance, also known as RAD), and Denmark (Royal Danish Ballet), most American ballet schools, which generally offer a potpourri of the above curriculums, do not offer graded evaluations to their students.

An example of a typical American ballet teacher’s reaction to exams can be found in my thoughts several years ago, when I witnessed Paris Opera Ballet School students prepare for their exams (a perk of being a former famous ballerina’s business partner at the time). The students were going from one combination to another, which they had memorized.

At the time, my thoughts were thus: Didn’t we American ballet instructors need to keep our impatient students happy and their aversion to boredom at bay? And didn’t American ballet students need more diversity in their ballet classes than simple preparation for an exam in order to be prepared for an American ballet company where they could be dancing a Petipa variation one minute and a Nacho Duato piece the next?

This video shows young Vaganova Ballet Academy students’ incredible clarity. Surely this type of regimented single-curriculum training system couldn’t be possible in an American studio with varying body types and skill levels.

Or could it?

Enter American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum, which offered it’s inaugural training sessions to ABT alumni dancers in 2007. For the simple reason that ABT was my favorite company, I was curious enough to start to nibble on the ballet curriculum bullet. However, I never gave serious thought to presenting my students for exams, which were an optional part of the ABT training system. [Read more…]

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