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“Without
tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.” –
Winston Churchill
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There are few absolutes in the world, but every dancer who
enters a ballet class knows that he or she should claim a space at the barre
because barre work is the first part of class.
It is at the barre that muscles warm-up, stretching begins, new movements
are introduced, dancers acclimate to the space and neurological pathways, that
will be called upon in the center, are established or reinforced.
Therefore, barre
work is an excellent way to prepare the dancer’s body for work that will be
done in the center, isn’t it? Not
entirely, say research studies that have measured muscle activation in dancers
performing exercises both with and without the barre.
In a 2001
study published in the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, researchers found,
that although there was no significant difference in muscle activation of the
working leg during a développé devant, the muscles of the standing leg were
activated significantly more when the développé was performed without the
barre. (3)
When
Torres-Zavala, Henriksson and Henriksson studied professional ballet dancers in
2005, they found that the central balance point differed when dancers performed
développé à la seconde with and without a barre. (2)
In 2007,
during a presentation given at the International Association of Dance Medicine
and Science Annual Meeting, researchers spoke of a difference in muscles that
were used with and without the barre when dancers executed rises to pointe from
second position and pique retirés. (1)
All of
these findings seem to indicate that exercises performed at the barre may not
be preparing the muscles and body for the work that is done in the center. Dance physicist, Ken Laws, writes about
dancers depending on the barre and using it to shift the torso farther forward
in the arabesque position than can be realistically performed in the center.
The barre
should definitely be used in the warm-up, but dance educators need to be aware
of the fact that it may not be as effective a place for preparing the body as
has always been thought. The barre is an
important tool for focusing on the working leg, but teachers need to understand
that stabilizing muscles are not being activated and that weight shifts at the
barre are different from weight shifts in the center.
Depending
upon the focus of the class, perhaps, classes should not always warm-up at the
barre. Class can occasionally begin with
traditional pliés, tendu and développé combinations in the center to help the
dancer engage stabilizing muscles right away.
At other times the teacher may choose to design combinations that are
performed partially at the barre and partially without holding onto the
barre. Additionally, cross training in other forms such as Pilates will help the dancers develop stabilizing muscles that might not
otherwise be trained as often as gesturing muscles.
The
research that the field of dance science is providing can be invaluable in
helping dance educators produce stronger dancers, but they need to be willing
to use it. It may mean departing from
tradition at times, but sometimes change can be a good thing.
(2) Torres-Zavala C, Henriksson
J, & Henriksson M. "The influence of the barre on movement pattern during
performance of développ." Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. 2005, Stockholm, Sweden. Ed. Solomon R. & Solomon J.
(3) Wilmerding M. et al. (2001). Electromyographic comparison of the développé devant at barre and centre. Journal of Dance Medicine and Science. 5(3), 69–74.
