Towards the end of last year, I had the pleasure of working with RAD students in the Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition and the Bedells Bursary. It was an uplifting and motivating experience, and I am grateful for the commitment, energy and passion that they brought to proceedings.
As well as observing the participants in a ballet class and their chosen classical variations, we also watched them perform their Dancer’s Own variation, a piece choreographed for or by them – and a wonderful opportunity for them to demonstrate their skills.
We have recently changed the requirements for Dancer’s Own: people no longer need to perform the variation in pointe shoes should they have already opted to perform their classical variation en pointe. We hope to allow participants greater freedom to demonstrate their personal strengths and skillset, and to match the realities of professional ballet dancers today – they need to be able to do everything!
As I worked with the students last year, it struck me that virtually all of them presented much more confidently in their Dancer’s Own than in their classical variations. I’m not talking about whether or not they were smiling – it was in the way that they engaged their whole body, attacking movements and space with an energy and zip that wasn’t always evident in their classical work.
‘I wonder if we too often focus on not getting things wrong, rather than using our energy and dynamics’
Why is this the case? Of course, ballet’s technical demands are specific and very difficult to get right. But I wonder if we too often focus on not getting things ‘wrong’, rather than giving ourselves the best possible chance of achieving the difficulties by using our entire bodies, the energy and dynamic from the movements that come before and after a particularly tricky step or section. Learning to harness momentum has, in my experience, been key to unlocking those challenging passages.
It may sound simple, but when I was struggling in my career as a dancer, I would often tell myself: ‘Remember to dance’. It brought me back to the essence of what I was doing, prompting me to listen again to the music or to think about my character. When I aimed to stick the pose arabesque as Des Grieux in Manon, for example, was I trying to display my own flawless technique or was I demonstrating the character’s growing confidence as he approached Manon? Focusing on these things helped me remember what the choreography and steps were designed to do – to allow me to dance! I look forward to many more RAD dancers sharing that confidence and freedom in this year’s competitions.
