June/July 2017 ➤

Archives

Tablet Editions

Search

Home Videos News Win It! Inside PT Training Career Health Auditions Photo Galleries Subscribe

Home » Inside PT » Features » The Style Debate

The Style Debate

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Joseph Carman

Share 15 Tweet 0 1

Choosing the right preprofessional program means thinking about the dancer you want to be. Stephanie
Chrosniak, a member of New York City Ballet’s corps, trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet for 12
years. During her early years at the school, she focused on founder Marcia Dale Weary’s hybrid of the
Vaganova syllabus and American ideas. Then when her technical base was solid, she sampled dióerent
styles of ballet from guest teachers. Meanwhile, Caroline Bird, who studied in her teen years at the Kirov
Academy of Ballet of Washington, DC, focused solely on traditional Vaganova technique. She now dances
with the Staatsballett Berlin. Both women easily secured jobs with internationally renowned companies.

So which path is correct? Should you study only one technique, or expose yourself to a variety of styles? A
dancer who studies a single approach, like Balanchine technique, will have a strong grounding in it and
might ít more easily in a company with that style. On the other hand, a dancer who learns several
techniques could gravitate to a company with a more diverse repertoire without facing a steep learning
curve.

Are there beneíts beyond the job hunt to studying one technique—or several? Does focusing on one
technique give a dancer an edge in terms of technical strength? What about learning new choreography?
Does versatility mean a greater facility with new movement? Do you sacriíce clarity and expressiveness
when you have too many styles to choose among? The answers can shape your training, and ultimately
your career.

Fundamentals versus Range

Bird feels being able to focus on a single style made her stronger. “Having the opportunity to completely
immerse myself in one technique was best for my mind and body because I didn’t waste muscle and
mental energy getting confused about the proper way to attack a step,” she says.

Some teachers feel that learning dióerent techniques can make it diñcult for students who need a
foundation before they can truly develop. “I don’t believe in ‘style’ when training young dancers,” says
Martin Fredmann, the Kirov Academy’s deputy artistic director. “Sound technique is the only basis. ‘Style’
comes with being an advanced student and learning a choreographer’s choreography. Having a mix of
dióerent teachers, each teaching a so-called dióerent ‘style,’ undermines the essential basis of ballet that
must be understood in its most elemental form. And what is ‘style’ but a certain choreographer’s idea?”

Yet many dancers thrive in a varied approach. “I would deínitely say that training with dióerent styles can
help you gain success as a dancer,” Chrosniak says. Parrish Maynard, who teaches at the San Francisco
Ballet School (where teachers are given latitude to teach their own styles with a core Vaganova curriculum),
believes that studying only one approach undermines a dancer’s education. “We get students from all over
the world,” says Maynard. “They come stuck in one way and we have to spend so much time getting them
to understand how to shape their bodies dióerently. I tell them styles are like jackets. You put them on and
take them oó.” 

The Adaptability Debate

How does each type of training prepare a dancer for picking up choreography? Alan Hineline, resident
choreographer of CPYB, feels no training, however varied, can fully prepare a dancer to go into a company
and dance the variety of styles that even one repertory program might call for, like Balanchine, Taylor and
Tharp. “The importance of the preparation is in being emotionally open to new styles so that you can easily
adapt,” he says. Company schools tend to train dancers with the company’s repertoire in mind. According
to Maynard, “SFB artistic director Helgi Tomasson wants students going into the company looking very
classically oriented but with a contemporary edge.” Repertoire classes taught at the school include excerpts
from ballets by choreographers like Balanchine, but also William Forsythe and Jirí Kylián.

A company that frequently performs one choreographer’s work—like Miami City Ballet, which has long
given Balanchine a special place in their repertoire—might train dancers to that aesthetic. Edward Villella,
the company’s artistic director and faculty chair of the Miami City Ballet School, developed his
curriculum based on his experiences as a Balanchine dancer at New York City Ballet, and his work with
legendary School of American Ballet teacher Stanley Williams. “What Balanchine had was a 19th-century
approach and then he invented on that and made his own manner and style,” says Villella. “I continue that
investigation—the rhythms and the syncopations. It is an amalgamation that I received from brilliant
people.”

For Villella, Balanchine technique provides a foundation for both classic and contemporary work. “We all
come from the 19th-century technique,” says Villella. “Balanchine was a genius after Petipa who made his
own approach to prepare you for the classic works. Once you dance Balanchine, it’s much easier to go back
to the 19th century. What’s really diñcult is when you only have the 19th century and you try to achieve
Balanchine.”

Jeopardizing Purity?
Facility with new choreography aside, does a pure classical style suóer from being diluted with too many
teachers? Maynard thinks not. “Nobody dances just one way anymore,” he says. “I was recently working
with The Royal Ballet School, setting a piece that I’d choreographed for SFB. The írst thing the school
director said to me was, ‘They have to look more American. They look too British.’ The Royal Ballet said that
to me!”

And which strategy helps the most in getting a job? “Of course there is no disadvantage for a dancer
knowing dióerent techniques in índing work, and it may be an advantage in some cases,” says the Kirov
Academy’s Fredmann. “But in the long run, it’s the traditionally trained dancer who is the most durable,
adaptable and least accident-prone.”

But like tends to draw like. Bird sought out a company that focused on the classical full-lengths. “Being
surrounded by teachers who had thrived in and around the European dance world put European
companies on a pedestal for me,” she says.

 
Maynard believes that ballet isn’t immune to change, and that extends to training. “Most directors these
days say that dancers have to be more well-rounded as artists,” he explains. “Dance has evolved. Teachers
and students need to evolve with it.” SFB takes most of its dancers from its school, but the school has
placed dancers in many other companies, like American Ballet Theatre, Paciíc Northwest Ballet, Oregon
Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada. Currently there are more than 65 graduates of CPYB
dancing professionally in national and international companies. Kirov Academy alumni dance in many
companies, too; nearly half of the dancers in Miami City Ballet attended its school.

In the end, the type of technique you choose to study can help determine which type of company you end
up dancing in—one that heavily favors the classics or a particular choreographer versus one with a more
versatile repertoire. It’s up to the student to choose the path that best suits her.

Joseph Carman, author of Round About The Ballet, is a frequent contributor to Pointe.

RELATED

Go Your Own Way Your Training Dancer Spotlight: A Russian Edge

Joy Womack: The Road to
RussiaAs the írst American to
graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet
Academy’s main training program,
Joy Womack found fame even
before
In "Features"
going pro. Although her
From Russia To MichiganThe
Midwest isn’t usually the írst
place you’d look for old-world
technique. But for the past three
Augusts, Michigan’s Russian Ballet
Festival
In "Inside
has
PT"
brought in dancers
In company class at Boston Ballet,
Keenan Kampa moves with the
purity and nobility of a classical
Russian dancer. In adagio, the
long-limbed corps member seems
most
In "Dancer
at ease
Spotlight"
with her leg by her

LEAVE A REPLY

Enter your comment here...

Advertise Contact Us Media Kit

Visit our sister sites

Copyright © 2017 DanceMedia LLC. All rights reserved. | Privacy Statement | Copyright Statement