Pointes and Perspective #24 A Diamond In The Rough

A couple weeks ago, the university where I teach ballet held their winter dance concert. I offered to arrive early and give the dancers their warm up on stage. It was a large group of dancers of varied levels, experience, and specialties, some of whom I had worked with, and others who I had not. I gave an intermediate level ballet center barre, jazz stretch, and then some turn and jump combinations across the stage. The dancers were waking their bodies up with a petit allegro combination, filing in and out of the wings in groups of 6 or so dancers at a time. When the last few crossed the stage, a young lady, obviously flustered, gave up on the combination and giggled defeatedly as she walked across the stage.

Each semester with my university students, and every season with my studio and academy students, I am guaranteed to have this repeat scenario play out within our first couple weeks of classes. Someone will assuredly give up on a combination, discouraged, and saunter off the floor.

In EVERY instance, I stop the dancer immediately, and with a convincing smile, inspire them to go back, and…

Make the Mess!

Musician, Sarah Belle Reid, revealed that, “One of the best trumpet lessons of my life was 100% dedicated to making “ugly” sounds. This lesson was all about the in-betweens. The moment of fragility before the tone breaks apart. It was about finding beauty and meaning in ALL aspects of your instrument, and expanding your musical vocabulary.”

Painting workshops with artist, Leigh Hyams, teach the important lesson of abandoning the search for perfection and beauty. She encourages students to make the ugliest painting they can. This often turns out to be her student’s most revelatory work.

What separated Eddie Van Halen from all other fast guitar “shredders”, was that he constantly pushed his instrument to its limits, and was not afraid to make it sound bad.

When my dancers get frustrated, and attempt to give up, I comfort them in making the “ugly” movements, abandoning the search for perfection, and pushing their instrument to its limits.

Don’t play it safe. Pushing your boundaries in your practice will build excellence and confidence. Trust and enjoy YOUR process. Look inward, not outward. No one should get to tell you how YOU should express yourself as an artist. No one else can dance like YOU. Explore! Do YOU with sincerity and intention. And by all means, definitely don’t quit! As a matter of etiquette, and preparation for stage (where you can’t quit) ALWAYS finish the combination - even if it means improvising a messy “shuffle off to Buffalo” into the wings!

I remind my students that this is THEIR classroom, and THEIR space to make the mess. And that we, their classmates and teachers, are THEIR tribe, here to support THEIR mess and exploration.

A Chinese Proverb reminds us that, “The gem can not be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”

Make the mess. Try. Trust. Expand. Build. Only then will you reveal the Diamond in the Rough!