Since August I have been teaching the Red Ballet/Jazz class at Valley Dance Studio in Lewisburg, WV. The students in this class meet once a week and are middle and high school aged students who have had a minimum of three years of formal dance training. This has been my first year teaching these students in Ballet and Jazz techniques, but I have been previously instructing their Modern classes the past four years.
For this project I have been focusing on improving the students understanding of performing a piqué turn. I have designed barre and center exercises that focus on some of the tools needed to perform a successful piqué turn such as: stepping onto a straight leg, holding the arms in the shoulder socket and actively engaging them, spotting, rotating both legs from the hip, and maintaining vertical alignment.
From August 2nd, 2020 to November 11th, 2020, I filmed each student in class performing single piqué turns across the floor. After the final week of filming I put together the footage in hopes to show the progress made by each dancer during this duration of time. Instead of just showing the dancer performing these turns each week, I chose to edit the footage so that you can compare two or more weeks at a time to see improvements in this exercise.
Remember, progress takes time, and everyone’s progress advances at different paces.
Forrest Hershey 