different ways to do steps?

[Guest xox DaNciNg in PiNk xox]

I just attended a dance camp in boston and found out that a lot of the ways they did steps there were different than the ways we did them at my studio. for example...frappe was done with a pointed foot on flat as well as on releve...at my studio we used flexed feet when flat and pointed only when releve. Coupe was also different. To the front it was heel front toe back and at my studio its everything front or everything back. The biggest part was the use of your head at the barre especially when doing tendues and such to the back...we would look down but at camp you look forward. The teacher there said it was(jokingly) "like he was back in russia". They also would roll up from porte bra and when going into fifth with arms would cross their arms which we never did and usually came up straight. Which ways are traditionally used? and is one way wrong? I'm a bit confused...and what should i tell my original dnace teacher when we go back? we did this differently? I'm sooo confused.

[Victoria Leigh]

No, not wrong, just different There are a lot of different ways to do things, and you have just encountered some of the most common differences. When you go home, you do it the way it is given by your teacher.

 

(By the way, it's "port de bras", meaning carriage of the arms. And, "coupé" is a step, NOT a position. The position you were doing was sur le cou de pied. There are three places for that position, front, wrapped around the ankle, with heel forward and toe back, and in back.)

[SeaMonkey]

Teachers want different things. I usually just do what the teacher asks, even if I have to fight it.

 

At my college, it seems like as soon as we learn a combination for a skills test, the next day, my ballet teacher at my studio gives me the exact same combination with different port de bras......And my ballet teacher at my studio knows my ballet teacher at college and threatened to kill me if I said "that's NOT how MY ballet teacher does it!" She said just do what the teacher asks.

[Guest xox DaNciNg in PiNk xox]

thanx about the spelling ms.leigh i wasnt too sure about that lol. And i will definitely do what the teacher says. I was just curious...in the steps taht i mentioned.. in larger school, which way is traditionally or most commonly used? or does that just naturally differ depending on any teachers preference?

[Mel Johnson]

Some schools have their own curricula and syllabi - courses of study and the class content - and there is always some variation within these, as teachers are individuals. Other schools are more or less wide-open on the matter of how levels are taught, relying upon the professionalism of the faculty to make the classes ability-appropriate and, it is to be hoped, interesting.