Improving jumps

Dance Magazine, July, 2008 by Joseph Carman

Often the first impression of dance etched into a young person's mind is of an onstage performer flying through the air. The defiance of gravity in fine form encapsulates the essence of dance. What looks effortless beyond the footlights, of course, turns out to be a little more difficult in the studio. Some dancers can jump easily, while others work their entire careers to make headway in their jumping technique.

In ballet class, the proper use of the barre prepares the body to jump. The demi plie functions both as a way to push off and to land. Lupe Serrano, the former American Ballet Theatre ballerina who has taught ABT company class for 10 years, calls demi plie a triple-play exercise because it involves three joints: the knees, ankles, and hips. "Some people just bend at the knees and ankles and don't release enough at the hips," says Serrano. "If you don't rotate at the top of the leg, you won't develop the strength." Another essential strengthening exercise includes a correctly placed and stretched releve.

Parrish Maynard, who teaches at San Francisco Ballet School, emphasizes strengthening the feet at the barre, particularly the muscles on the underside of the toes and metatarsals used to repel the floor. "The toes have to come under, instead of going out," says Maynard. "That's where a lot of strength comes from. You start with rolling through the foot, tendus, and frappes." He requires younger students to do sautes at the barre to get the feeling of springing.

At The Taylor School, veteran Paul Taylor Dance Company member Richard Chen See starts the class with floor work and then takes that sense of placement and flow into movement off the floor. "It's critical to jumping that your body forms a strong unit," says Chen See. He gives exercises with spiral rotations where the lower half of the body works in opposition to the upper half (think of the classic Graham spiral of the body). By developing a sense of center and balance, dancers can be prepared for any type of jumping, especially the tricky jumps Taylor requires in his choreography that change positions quickly.

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Core strength is naturally a prerequisite for jumping. "It's particularly important for male pyrotechnical jumping--double saut de basque, double assemble, revoltade," says Maynard. "If you are loose and not able to compact yourself into a solid unit, you are at a huge risk for injury." Aside from ballet classes, techniques like Pilates or Gyrotonics can help strengthen the core.

In any kind of jumping, from petit allegro to grand allegro, a dancer needs to establish a clear sense of line. "I stress position in the air," says Maynard. "You can't just throw yourself up there. Think about the line--what you are trying to achieve, the final picture. You don't want to be caught in a bad picture."

To properly finish a jump, it's helpful to practice holding the landing, like from a grand jete, to check your weight and balance. "Try not to double bounce--just hold the landing and come out of it with a releve," says Serrano.

Timing can make or break a jump. "As you take off, when do you give the jump its maximum impulse?" asks Serrano. "When you time it correctly, you can get that wonderful feeling of suspension in midair."

Maynard reminds students about rhythm. "When you find a rhythm, you will find your coordination. It's a matter of dynamics," he says. For example, a double saut de basque has a 1-2-3 rhythm: step, jump and turn, turn.

And speaking of dynamics, jumps involve many different qualities. They can be done for the effect of speed or height (like a circular manege of jetes that has a low-altitude scissoring effect versus one with a bounding quality). In his class, Chen See has the dancers bounce in a squat, like warming up for track and field. "Dancers are sometimes afraid to go to those extremes when they are jumping. You need to make the floor your friend."

Coordinating the arms and torso with the whole body is a must. In Taylor's choreography, the arms are essentially considered an extension of the back. "I think of using them the way a bird takes off. They use a down stroke or an up stroke with their wings to control where the air is," says Chen See. "I try to get the dancers to feel the air as it passes around their arms, so that it is something viscous, as opposed to something that has no resistance at all."

Teachers constantly need to correct mistakes and bad jumping habits. Dancers sometimes jump down, rather than up, by sitting in the plie and neglecting to use it for propulsion. Many dancers initiate a jump from their arms, resulting in tight shoulders and a lack of thrust from the entire body. And a brittleness in landings results from a tight or poorly placed plie at the completion of a jump.

Protecting the knee joint, a body part highly vulnerable to the strains of dancing, should take priority when a dancer thinks about injury prevention. "Make sure the knees aren't rolling in and are lined up with the hip and over the ball of the foot," says Maynard. "It comes from placement at the barre which carries to the end of class in grand allegro. I've had two knee surgeries, so I've learned the hard way." In his classes, Chen See makes the dancers start jumping in parallel to get a sense of the knee tracking before opening to a turned out position.