Stepping away from the barre

I came across this article on The Healthy Dancer and thought it was well worth sharing with all of you. Every ballet dancer knows that the beginning of every class begins at the barre. Many non-dancers know this to be a fact as well (remember Black Swan and the barre work?). This article theorizes that barre work isn't helping the dancers as much as we always thought it was.


I know that every class, I have "my spot" on the barre and I always feel like I need this time at the barre before venturing out to the center. My instructors have always told me that barre work is essential so you can warm up and prepare your body for all work preformed in the center. Without the barre and stretching and the various exercises, your muscles will be too tight to be able to perform as they should. Also, without the barre, you present the risk of injuring yourself because your muscles aren't warmed up and ready to go. 


The above post shows evidence that barre work isn't as essential as many instructors seem to think it is. Yes, it does prepare your body for what it is to come, but your muscles never have to work as hard at the barre. Because you use the barre for support and balance, your muscles don't have to work as hard as when you're in the center of the room, depending on only yourself to stay upright. While the barre is helpful, the article goes so far as to say "exercises performed at the barre may not be preparing the muscles and body for the work that is done in the center." 

I don't find it hard to believe that barre work doesn't prepare your muscles for the work done at center. I do find it improbable that the barre doesn't warm a dancer's body up to prepare them for work done in the center. It's not hard to realize that just because you've stretched out and done a few plies you're not ready for pirouettes. But, without doing your plies, développés, battement tendus, and rond de jambes, your body isn't going to be ready for anything. Your muscles wont respond properly if you don't warm them up and you will put yourself at risk for an injury. 

While it is important to keep in mind that the barre doesn't prepare you for the same things as doing them center, I think the barre is still an essential tool in dance. Any dancer that has used the barre to try their first échappés knows that they were able to get higher than the first several times they tried their échappés in the center. Why is this? Because you can use the barre to help you get up. When there is no barre for you to help push yourself up with, you obviously don't get as high. Does this mean that the barre isn't helping you preform the échappés? No. The barre isn't used for performance. It is used to help a dancer learn a new step, figure out the way the body is supposed to feel while performing the movement, and prepare them for eventually going to the center. 


Once the dancer is in the center, their muscles will need to work more to make the movement as graceful as it was at the barre, but the dancer should have a good idea of what their body should be doing. It has taken me quite a while to learn exactly how my body feels when I perform a proper développé. It has taken many lessons of my dance instructor instructing me to turn my leg out, shoulder forward, other shoulder back, square yourself, leg up. My dance instructor still points out different things about turning out my leg, properly unfolding my leg, but I know how my body is supposed to feel. It's Now that I know how my body is supposed to feel and respond when I do it right, I can feel when I'm doing it wrong in the center. It will take me many years to get the perfect développé, but I'm on the way to it because I continually work on it at the barre. 


I'm not denying the article's main point that barre work doesn't make you immediately ready for the center, but I am saying that the barre is still an essential part in dancing. So, while the post did present some interesting views on barre work, I don't intend to lessen my barre work any time soon.