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Elements of Classical Ballet Technique Karel Shook: as practiced in the school of the Dance Theatre of Harlem D A N C E H O R I Z O N S N E W Y O R K - 1 9 7 7 The front cover and tltle page photograph, by Martha Swope, of Ronald Perry In Geoffrey Holder's ballet Dougla 1s from GREAT PERFORMANCES Dance m America senes, made posslble by the Natlonal Endowment for the Arts, the Corporatlon for Publlc Broadcashng and Exxon Corporation The back cover portrat of the author is by Snowdon Cover and mtenor des~gnby Bert Waggott Copyright @ 1977 by Karel Shook All rights resewed. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. L~braryof Congress Catalog Card Number 77-81992 Pnnted In the Umted States of Amenca Dance Honzons, 1801 East 26th Street, Brooklyn, N Y 11229 ISBN 0-87127-270-9 . . . . . theory alone does not suffice for the exact demonstration of the principles of dancing, and far from augmenting the number of good dancers, mediocre instruction reduces it, as everything depends upon the elementary grounding. A bad habit once acquired is almost impossible to eradicate. " I I -Carlo Blasis, 1820 To ALVA B . GIMBEL with gratitude and affection CONTENTS Fore\zwd, xi Introduction. xiii PART ONE: THE ANTECEDENTS, I I . The Dance Teacher, 3 11. The American Attitude, 6 111. Classical Ballet, 10 IV. Dance Theatre of Harlem, I7 PART TWO: THE THEORY, 23 I . Beyond Teaching, 25 11. Rudimentary Behavior, 31 111. Demonstration, Explanation and Correction, 35 IV. Elementary Principles, 38 PART THREE: THE PRACTICE, 45 I . Structure of the Lesson, 47 11. The First Lessons, 52 111. Practice at the Barre, 55 IV. Center Practice. 58 V . The Second Period, 60 VI. The Floor Pattern, 62 VII. The Third Period, 65 VIII. Tours and Pirouettes, 66 IX. Music for Ballet, 69 X . Conclusion, 72 Index, 75 FOREWORD S o M E Y E .4 R s A G o. I asked Boris Kochno-Diaghilev's lieutenant of the last and most avant-garde decade of that ballet company-to explain the difference between the dancers of Diaghilev's time and the dancers of our time. He replied that the dancers of those days would keep on learning from everything right up to the moment when they retired; today, he went on, most dancers feel that they know everything by the time they are twenty-one and, though technically admirable, seldom develop any further. He then cited the few exceptions to this general rule. Kochno might also have added that the Diaghilev dancers had the advantage of being trained by some of the greatest teachers in ballet history. Teachers who, after perfecting their pupils' basic training, would then develop them with the flexibility that accorded with the physique and particular qualities of each individual. "Perfect your technique, and then forget i t , ' ' said Pavlova when asked what was the secret of success. Of course she didn't mean that technique should ever be neglected in any way, but that once the technique was burnished to the point that it became as indigenous to the fabric of the dancer as the other functions of the body, then comes the time for the development of the artist to begin. With the great explosion of dance on both sides of the Atlantic, it has become obvious that. although the world is now filled with a number of very capable technicians, there is a pitiful lack of true artists. The trouble, I fear. may lie in the lack of imagination on the part of those teachers who train them initially. When I first saw the Dance Theatre of Harlem in London, I was amazed at the way in which such artistry had been instilled in this young co