Firm foundations (continued)

Parents should also visit the place where classes are taught before enrolling their child. Check if it is clean and secure, that the floor is not concrete but preferably sprung wood and is not slippery. Are there facilities for heating and cooling when needed, and are there suitable changing rooms for older boys and girls? Are there barres, is there a pianist or does the teacher use recorded music? Few non-vocational studios have all the desired amenities. Most local teachers will gauge when each individual student is ready to be entered for one of the graded examinations/tests for which the various dance examination boards set out their own criteria. Keen students thoroughly enjoy the residential Summer/Easter courses run by dance societies, vocational schools and others. Children who aspire to a career in dance can also audition for one of the pre-vocational/associate/scholars schemes that many recognised organisations conduct. These are usually held on Saturdays in school term time and are additional to their regular class(es) with their own local dance teacher. Meeting and dancing with other keen students acts as a spur to greater aspirations and achievements.

If by the age of ten a child sets his or her heart on becoming a dancer, and wants to audition for a place at a vocational school it is not essential, but easier, for them to have followed the pre-vocational routes outlined. Provided that children with no prior dance training have been keen athletes in some field of endeavour and have a suitable physique for classical ballet, they can still justify a place to train full time. The audition panels at most vocational schools look for good posture with physically and musically co-ordinated movement; a body that is well proportioned and symmetrical, with good muscle tone and height of jump, an ability to spin, quick reflexes with excellent mobility of joints, tendons, spine and hamstring muscles and good classical line through the bone structure. Naturally achieved turnout of the hips is an essential for classical ballet dancers, as is a soft plié, preferably with a medium to long Achilles tendon. Those not so anatomically fortunate can work to improve some areas of suppleness but restricted turnout, Achilles, spine and foot mobility do cause concern at auditions as these students can be more injury prone and unable to establish the necessary line and movement requirements of more advanced work.

Ninette de Valois said, 'It's in the eyes', and audition panels like candidates who look alert, take obvious pleasure in physical movement and show quick understanding of instruction and retention of information. It is interesting that Margot Fonteyn stressed that the most necessary attribute for a dancer – above physical perfection and technique – was tenacity, 'clinging on by your eyelashes' as she put it, and never giving up. This is hard to gauge at audition or interview, but thinking of the eight-year-olds I have taught, who have and have not achieved their goal of company contracts and professional progression through company ranks, her words ring true to me.

What do dance teachers feel most strongly about? According to the 2005 report from Dance UK, teachers want to have, 'a system that would eradicate all the incompetent teachers who train young dancers in such a poor manner...'. Correct technique from the earliest years is the foundation on which the career of a classical ballet dancer is built. Tamara Karsavina wrote, 'It is not enough to obtain a correct execution of a step; the correctness of it must be firmly consolidated. It must cease to be a conscious effort, but should become an instinct.' But what if the movement that has not been correctly executed has become instinctive? Faults thus acquired are particularly difficult, if not impossible to eradicate and if left uncorrected can cause damage to tissue and bone. Good teachers know this and in the 2005 survey they asked for 'a course for teachers of children that is technique-led rather than syllabus orientated, with emphasis on getting correct posture and placing...'. In some of my future articles I shall explore specific areas of technique with teaching strategies to encourage best practice and develop kinaesthetic awareness, and how to adapt the work for a range of body types and proportions.

Olga Preobrajenska maintained, 'Dancing begins in the mind', so, in future articles, I shall also consider mental preparation for dance class, performances, examinations and auditions. For teachers, I shall seek ways to develop expressive qualities through the use of metaphor and imagery and how to inspire students through anecdote and ballet history.

Who are the dancers that capture your attention and hold your eye on stage? What qualities make them special? For me, those qualities are musicality and above all else, artistry. Artistry, a supreme quality that is hard to define, yet that is immediately identifiable. A flawless technique performed robotically, does not, cannot, communicate with an audience. If we as teachers have laid the right foundations for the work that is to follow, movements are executed without strain on the dancers' bodies and have become so intuitive that the dancers can truly express their feelings with the body, mind and soul, taking their audience with them all the way.

Mary Goodhew

Click here to return to the Making of a dancer index page.

First published in Dancing Times, October 2006, reproduced with the kind permission of all involved.