How to Land Jumps Quietly

[Guest ForeverSewingPointeShoes]

Dancers like Angel Corella and Vladimir Malakhov land their jumps silently. How is it that they jump so high yet land so softly?

 

I thought of rolling through my feet as I land and it helps. I can softly land petit allegro but grande allegro still presents a problem. Any tips?

 

My teachers always us to "Sprung Mädchen Sprung!!!" but it bothers me when someone does a beautiful jeté entrelacé and lands with a thud!

[vrsfanatic]

Landing jumps silently is something that the majority of dancers find very difficult to accomplish. I do not know too much about Mr. Corella's daily training as a child, however Mr. Malakov was trained at the Bolshoi Academy of Ballet in Moscow. He finished his work in the class of Pestov, who now teaches at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart. Mr. Pestov has an excellent reputation as a teacher. He is known to expect and insist upon silence upon the landing of all jumps. How is it accomplished is a process of training that is well understood from the moment a student sets foot in the ballet studio at the age of ten, as is the case in the professional schools in Russia. There is no one thing to mention that plays a more important roll in the accomplishment of silent landings. Rolling through the foot however is not something that is discussed in training in Russia. The feet receive the weight of the jump with very strong toes and instep. When the heels are on the floor, the demi-plie begins. Russians begin the jump from the heel, not the ball of the foot and land it without breaking the foot apart into visable pieces.

[Guest ForeverSewingPointeShoes]

I go to a school with many Russian teachers. We aren't tought to roll through our feet. We are tougt to jump starting with the entire foot on the floor however it does not help with my landing.

[vrsfanatic]

Give yourself a bit of time to develop. How many years have you been studying in your current school? Since you work with Russian teachers maybe you could ask your teachers your question! The American term "rolling through the foot" is definitely something that would not be taught with the same meaning by a Russian teacher teaching what they studied as a student or if they had attended a pedagogy program in Russia.

 

Rolling upward or downward through the foot however is very encouraged in many methods of studying ballet.

[Snooty Tutu]

I have been working on that too!! I know I am not in the position to give advice but it is my teacher's advice and it really helped me: Sometimes I overly anticipated the landing and I would land toe-ball-heel-plie but star plieing (latest word in Webster's Dictionary ) a little early creating the thud! I thought of keeping my knees completely straight until the last possible moment.

Edited October 2, 2006 by Snooty Tutu

[Mel Johnson]

Yes, sequencing the cushion phase of a landing can be tricky; I don't know that many of our finest engineers could engineer a machine that would apply approx. 90-160 pounds of landing pressure to a flat surface from an articulated strut assembly, and yet make as little sound as possible.

[lovemydancers]

Well in that case, Gillian Murphy should consider engineering after her ballet career...her shoes were absolutely silent during yesterday's performance of Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux at NCSA (and we were sitting pretty close to the stage). Amazing control!

[Mel Johnson]

Yes, to go a bit, dancers do, every day, with what are supposed to be quite ordinary minds, things that will utterly stump genius professionals in other disciplines. Of course, now that professional dancers have Career Transitions, and in the last decade or so, universities have been actively seeking the non-traditional student, we're finding out that the dancers' minds are not quite ordinary at all!

[vrsfanatic]

lovemydancers please also remember that the Young Dancer's forums are reserved for discussions between young dancers of the appropriate age groups and the moderators. Thank you for you understand in this matter.

[justdance!]

I think Gillian Murphy wears gaynor minden pointe shoes and they're supposedly very quiet.

[Guest ForeverSewingPointeShoes]

Yes, I suppose pointe shoes could be a source of the problem. I know Grishko's tend to be loud pointe shoes however I know nothing about Gaynor Mindens. I usually don't do grand allegro in pointe shoes, my problem is mainly in demi-pointe shoes.

 

Asking my teacher would be a brilliant idea but she is very strict, stern, and intimidating- the unspoken rule of don't speak unless spoken to applies here.