Well I made it through the week. American Ballet Theatre’s National Training
Curriculum level 4-5 was at times daunting, the amount of new information
sometimes felt overwhelming especially since I’ve always been the type of
dancer who experiences movement more than I think about it. However, the further I get into the program, the
more the structure of the training becomes clear to me. At each level the basic principles stay the
same, as Ryan sometimes says, “ballet is nothing more than fancy walking.” Well it’s a little more complicated than that
but in truth all of ballet and really movement if you think of it is composed
of 7 basic elements.
Pliér – to bend
Sauter – to jump
Elancer – to dart refining the body of the dancer in space as he/she alters position in the room.
Glisser – to glide Tourner – to turn
Add to this ABT’s 10 principles and voile, you’ve got
yourself a method. To turn a method into
a curriculum we add progression. Here is
were level 4-5 got challenging for me, not only was I required to know what
students of this ability should be able to do and what they shouldn’t be asked
to do for either safety or developmental reasons, but also how to get them to a
place of proficiency starting at the Pre-Primary level (age 3).
On Saturday we had our exams and I’m happy to say that I
passed which allows me to continue on to the final levels this week. I am looking forward to seeing how the
curriculum creates the dancers who grace the stage, what tools are given to
achieve mastery of technique and artistic expression. While, until now I feel the most affinity
with level 4, the opportunity to see the upper level students at the Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis School and take class with their teachers touches again the
dancer inside of me. The one who feels
and now thinks.
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