How to develop your ballet dancing when you can’t go to class

Certainly I don’t have to tell you that not being able to go to class is annoying. When you’re injured, can’t afford (more) classes or the responsibilities of adult life get in the way, it is not fun.

However, you can still develop your ballet dancing, connect with ballet in multiple ways and improve your technique even better than in class.

But first, you need to change perspective.

Changing perspective: Can not taking class be a positive thing?

What you need to do at first is not to focus on what you are missing in the moment. Instead, think about how the situation gives you the opportunity to look at yourself and your ballet training from a different angle. Consider it like being a reset button, a time to step back a little. It’s a moment to reflect about how your training goes and what you want to achieve, if you are on track, want to make new goals or some other changes.

This is the time to embrace new approaches to dance, on another level. It is important that you don´t beat yourself up, because this won´t change anything. Instead, encourage yourself, support your body the way it is right now and trust me, you will see changes with time.

Perhaps you can´t go to ballet class, but you CAN still dedicate to moving, exploring dance, building strength, flexibility and be inspired! To achieve that, changing your perspective from “only ballet class counts as doing ballet” to “I still can find and even explore ballet deeply when I work with my body and soul in other ways”, is crucial. And it is the right mindset to work your way back to ballet class.

Developing your individual approach is key

In fact, you might have more time and energy now to work on your individual technique, your goals or weaknesses, because you haven’t spent them already in class. The key is to develop an individual approach – this is all about you and your exploration of ballet, movement and art in your own special way of movement and expression.

There are a lot of ballet related things you can do, that don’t involve moving. But for now, let’s take a look at how you can still do ballet and move, even when you can’t go to class or struggle with follow-along videos. What I miss the most about not going to ballet class, is the exercise / the movement, the possibility to express myself and the inspiration of art and beauty. Perhaps you feel the same? So I focused on these in the following list.

How to still do ballet and progress even if you can’t take a ballet class:

• Concentrate on few things. In class, you have to follow along, but now you can concentrate on certain steps or positions, stretch out more, refine your technique or just work with specific body parts like arms or turnout. Concentrating on few things only means you will see a quicker improvement!

• Prioritize your workout. Do floorbarre or focus on body parts that you kind of need to “ignore” in class, because others are more important. For example, make sure your arms are always in the correct position, when you do a difficult foot exercise. Don’t forget to do the things you’re best at and you really enjoy, just because it’s fun and keeps you motivated!

• Set a focus. If you’re injured, identify areas that you can train without problem. For me, that would be arms and abs. I really enjoy seeing the progress that result from concentrating on these.

• Develop your artistic qualities. This might be hard in class sometimes, because you have to master the steps at the same time. Usually, adult ballet classes don’t give us a lot of possibilities to dive deep in our artistic expressions, which you can catch up with now. Get inspired by music you love or didn’t listen to yet. Hear it. Feel it. Express your feelings with your movements. Float, just forget everything else! This is a great opportunity to mix dance styles. Just freestyle and be spontaneous.

• Explore deeply. To develop artistry even more, try acting and pantomimic exercises. Take a look at Angeline Lucas article at danceadvantage.net. For adult ballet dancers I especially love what she writes in the section “Charisma & Stage Presence”. When you get back to class, expressing yourself will be easier, because you practiced it without any pressure.

• Enjoy different ways of dancing. If you’re injured (or want to try something different), dance with just one or some body parts at a time. For example, your arms and upper body or just one leg. This is fun and you still engage artistically with your body a lot! It allows you to discover new ways to move. You can even do an improvisation with a dance friend.

• Express yourself. Imagine different feelings like anger, love or joy and experiment with expressing them. This is something you can do even if you can´t dance at all.

• Start learning the acting parts from famous ballets. This will for sure give you new insights in the roles and ballets and train your acting skills as well. If you have a dance friend, this is a fun thing you can do together.

• Refine your combination work or your port de bras. Go through the latest combinations from class and thoroughly work on your technique and your expression. Practice to execute well-known steps or basics like tendu or balancé more beautiful and clean.

• Explore new movements and new body techniques. If you’re injured or don’t have the time or money to visit other classes, watch videos online and perhaps follow along (carefully of course). This allows your body to discover other ways to move and it is fun.

• Keep a positive mindset. Don´t be hard on yourself. Remember, you don’t have to move your whole body and this is not about perfection! It’s the exploration that counts. If you’re injured or not, you already benefit from simply moving your hands in a new way! Just get your creativity going.

Benefits from this focused ballet time

If you try the suggestions above, you challenge your body and soul in a lot of different ways that help improve your dancing skills.
You

• become more attentive to your body and its capabilities
• can work on your technique by going through the steps and positions in your own pace
• learn to express yourself more and in various ways
• develop your artistry
• improve certain things better than in ballet class. You dedicate your time, energy and focus on just one or a few things in a time
• focus more on your individual technique and expression
• get to know yourself, your way of moving and your emotions better
• use your creativity in other ways than in ballet class

And there are more for sure.

Your point(e):

I´d love to hear what you do to connect with ballet, when you can´t take class.
Have you tried one of my suggestions? How did it work?