New Dance and Ballet Resolutions - Get Some Tips For An Extra Advantage

Ballet dancers tend to be self-critical and my intention is to help dancers progress faster with a light-hearted and keep-it-simple approach to new resolutions for their quest to excel in ballet class. Solving technical roadblocks may result in the extra advantage of a new understanding and enthusiasm that will take the "chore" out of making New Year's goals for your ballet training. So here are a few tips.

We've all had ballet corrections that do not seem to ever go away. We may understand perfectly how ballet positions and ballet movements should be. We understand how the body should mechanically do something, yet it can be frustrating when the body we're in just does not get it right after much trying.

What is the most frequent correction you got last year? Why isn't it fixed? There is a reason, relating to one of the following.

** Posture ** Flexibility ** Alignment ** Strength and reflexes ** Turnout ** Tension

For example, if you stand sideways to a mirror, legs parallel and straight, core area held a little, do your ankles/knees/hips/shoulders/ears stack up, with natural spinal curves kept? If not, is an area not stacked because it is too tight or too lose? Can the core muscles hold without strain showing in the neck or shoulders? Posture has a lot to do with tension, flexibility, strength, and understanding. Correct posture leads to correct alignment in many ballet positions. Fix if needed! Study, search for information.

Turnout involves strength, flexibility and tension. And understanding what true turnout is. Incorrect turnout affects posture, increases tension, reduces flexibility and distorts alignment. There is a book called Tune Up Your Turnout by Deborah Vogel that is a good myth-buster, and something every dancer can use. You can figure out a lot by yourself, with the right information. The trick is that you need to get your body to do something, from an ideal concept. In fact many of Deborah Vogel's "dancing smart" publications analyse one ballet position, such as arabesque, giving a wealth of data that will help you get your arabesque to its best line.

All of the above factors affect the rest, but which one underlies your never-ending correction?

Do you understand the mechanics behind the ballet position/movement/step you are trying to improve? If not, find out the details you need to know!

I believe that if you understand all the aspects of one basic thing in ballet (anatomy, mechanics, technique, style, physical requirements), something super-simple, (I didn't say easy) like standing in fifth position, you will understand a great deal about many other things in ballet.

Another example of getting more anatomical, mechanical and technical details of one factor in ballet technique is, strengthening the sole of the foot. Understanding the foot, and how to strengthen exclusively the foot muscles, not only leads to superior strength in dancing in pointe shoes, but will refine allegro, balance, landing from jumps and releves on pointe, and lots more. All this is covered in The Perfect Boo, just to name one of many professionally presented dance manuals.

If you feel an overall lack of understanding of French words for ballet, and the general repertoire of ballet movements and ballet steps, The Ballet Bible is an excellent body of data, with photos and videos included.

Try selecting one recurring correction, and make a new resolution to search understanding all possible aspects of it. I believe that will affect several technical roadblocks that you may have. I think you'll gain an extra advantage and progress faster in the New Year.

Learn Stand-up Comedy: The 20 Word Rule

Everyone who tries to learn stand-up comedy already knows that…

One of the biggest problems most new comedians face when they are trying to learn stand-up comedy is that they can't seem to get to the punchlines quick enough in their act.

In other words, the set-ups to the jokes are too long. Way, way too long.

This is a real problem because in order to be recognized as comedian of any mention, you must be able to command at least 4 laughs per minute for each minute you stand before an audience.

And the secret is NOT to talk faster. As a matter of fact, you absolutely don't want to be in a hurry at all when standing in front of a comedy audience.

Please note that I said a minimum of 4 laughs per minute--headlining comedians get 6-8 laughs per minute.

Now, get ready to learn stand-up comedy from a different perspective.

Provided that you have a recording of your stand-up comedy act (audio or video) and have it transcribed on your word processor (word for word)…

You can apply the 20 word rule to get the results you want. The 20 word rule is not a hard and fast rule--it is a very flexible editing guideline that you can use now to help shorten your set-ups or identify where to add punchlines.

Here's the simple process:

1. Use your transcribed comedy act and review your recording of that act. Make a visible mark at every point that you got laughs on your transcript.

2. Now go back and count the number of words that lead up to each laugh. If there are more than 20 words, the chances are great that you need to do some serious editing to shorten the set-up or add a punchline.

This concept applies to comedians who are employing old school joke writing techniques as well as those using the more powerful topic driven stand-up strategies.

For those who seriously want to learn stand-up comedy, it should be noted that household name headlining comedians only use 10-15 words (average) before they get to a punchline.

Again, I want to mention that the key is NOT talking faster on stage. It's about easily structuring what you really want to say, the way you speak naturally so that you can get the maximum laughs per minute possible every minute you are on stage.