any contemporary dancers? and how to improve!!

[joybelle125]

Hi everyone,

 

Just wanted to ask if there were any jazz or contemporary dancers out there (although I know that this is a ballet board). So at first, I mostly started taking ballet again pretty seriously b/c I wanted to improve my technique for jazz. However, now that I got into ballet, I am starting to fall in love with it again.

 

So this is my question for all of you guys. I love the styles of jazz and contemporary, but they both really do require a lot of ballet technique. So there are certain jazz and contemporary classes that I have been to and loved, but were fairly difficult for me to follow as they were very advanced (with how fast they were taught and the level of technique required). Of course the best thing would be if these classes were offered at a lower level. However, they're not- and I was wondering what the best thing for me to do in terms of accomplishing my goals of 1) improving technique and 2) really being able to dance these styles.

 

I hate feeling lost in class (like I do in the very advanced jazz and contemporary classes), but should I still stick with it in order to get the genre and the instructor's fast teaching style?

Or should I just focus on getting my technique first (by taking a lot of ballet classes), and then going back to the more advanced jazz/contemporary class later?

I'm really not sure what I should do - I just want to dance and improve!!!

 

Thanks a lot everyone

[ripresa]

Hi Joybelle,

 

Are you having trouble with specific moves.. or is it because the teacher goes too fast to pick up the choreography?

 

The latter is my problem with Jazz classes. I need them to slow down, because I can repeat the moves, but not pick it up just by looking at a sequence of moves for a few times.

 

I think it's slowly improving.. just from taking the classes repeatedly, after a while, a few of the moves you learn in a previous class start showing up. I still have problems making fan-kicks though.

 

It's like when I first learned ballet, the simple combination of tombe, pas de barre, glissade, ensemble was totally confusing to me. I could do them saperately, but not together. Plus I couldn't memorize sequences quick enough. And now I can do it immediately because it's a sequence of moves that have been drilled into me.

 

That's my problem with Jazz and Broadway.. but after a while, you get to see the same repeats, like in Fosse repertory, or bent knee turns and such. I think the skill for me that I need to work on more is:

How do I quickly pick up choreography??

 

And I think it's a matter of being familiar with the basic steps, the basic patterns that repeat in a lot of dancing (like 1-4-5 chord structures in music), and being exposed to a lot of choreography.

[dancesmith]

joybelle,

Have you considered looking at different studios for lower levels of jazz and contemporary classes? I'm sure there must be quite a number of studios in the Washington DC area that offer classes that are not so advanced, that might provide you with a more comfortable introduction.