This hour long DVD has been created for Advanced Beginning dancers but it has great ideas that will help dancers, and teachers, of all levels. Find out how to use barrework effectively so that you or your dancers are ready for what might follow in the center.
Thirteen exercises are taught by Finis Jhung and demonstrated by Kelly Waddell. Exercises include: Stretches, Battement Tendus and Degages, Port de Bras, Rond de Jambe, Petit Battement, Battement Fondu and Grand Battement.
A few people, looking at a demonstrator on an instructional tape, can tell exactly what "strings" to pull within themselves to get the same result. Most people can't. The Finis Jhung tapes are great because he helps you find those strings. He carefully talks you through the exercises so that you know where you should feel your weight going and what you should feel your muscles doing.
During the first half of this program you practice many types of battement tendus in sequences which become increasingly challenging. You either face the barre with both hands resting on it or stand at an angle toward it with one hand resting on it. The legs extend under the portable barre which is a few feet from the mirror. At home, depending on the design of the chair you are using for a barre, you may need to stand more to the side rather than directly behind.
About half way through the program there is a relaxed, stretchy, port de bras and balance exercise which gives you a welcome break before going on.
When introducing pique and tombe releve, with the aid of a plumb line Mr. Jhung helps the demonstrator find her body placement at the beginning of the step and also the placement she is aiming for once the pique or the releve is completed. In this movement he shows that although the dancer rises in releve, it is the downward movement of the tombe "as if you were stepping down a stair" and the pressure of the supporting foot into the floor which sends your body upward.
Mr. Jhung reminds you to rest a hand on the barre or press down, (rather than gripping it for support). Several of the exercises are performed first using the barre, then you take a step back to practice without it. (On the next DVD, "Level 2-Centerwork for Adv. Beginners", you will use these skills in combinations totally away from the barre.)
