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One of my main focuses of improvement this year has been flexibility. To improve this, I have been stretching regularly by using active and passive stretching. ‘Active stretching is a method of enhancing flexibility. In it, your own muscles provide resistance to stretch another muscle.’ (Healthline, 2021) Performing different kinds of stretches has allowed my body to become looser while still strong and controlled. This is because active stretching enforces me to contract the opposing muscle to the one I am stretching, so I am strengthening at the same time. Passive stretching is using an external force to push further into the stretch. I have done this by breathing and allowing my body to relax into the stretch on the exhale using gravity or pulling with my arms.

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I set a goal to be comfortable in my splits by the end of the year. To obtain this and measure the progress, I practiced stretching my splits at the end of each day while my body was still warm. By achieving my splits and increasing my flexibility, it had a allowed me to improve other moves in jazz such as kicks, leaps, and tilts. This can help me going into my career as one of by goals into work on a cruise ship and cruise ship dancers must be flexible as Duncan (2024) says ‘Cruise lines also look for dancers who possess certain physical qualities such as flexibility’ and dancers in general will be expected to do the splits at some point in their career.

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Another focus of improvement for me in jazz this year has been jumps and elevation. More in particular, I have been working on box jumps and fire bird jumps. There are lots of elements that are used for these jumps such as turn out, flexibility and use of plie. By filming myself, I could see that I need to force more turn out in the jumps as I noticed my legs were parallel. Also, I need to use more plie to get higher off the ground to achieve more airtime, to get my legs into the correct positions.

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As I noticed in videos and been corrected by teachers, I was raising my shoulders in leaps and kicks. I have been focusing on pulling my shoulders down from my lats to make sure I am achieving the correct positioning. By doing this, it makes my jumps and leaps look easier and more appealing to the audience. This is important to be aware of as an emerging dancer as people are more likely to want to see dance that is aesthetically pleasing and looking effortless. By picking out and fixing these little details, it’ll give me more chance to succeed in auditions.

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In this video, I am showing the exact same exercise at the start of the year and more recently. The exercise involves moving into different positions whiles balancing on one leg for the whole duration. By working on improving my core strength, control, and stability I have been able to achieve more balance and control when performing this exercise. As an emerging dancer, I think it is important to continue to repeat to same exercise to further progress and to now focus on performing as if I am on stage and not just doing an exercise in class.

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This year in ballet, I have been working on aspects of pirouettes including core strength, turnout, and arm positioning/engaging the correct back muscles for the correct posture. In this video I have been carrying out various exercises such as crunches, sit-ups and holding the plank position. By practicing these exercises before practising turns, turns the core on and helps to keep it engaged to help produce stronger and more stable turns. Strengthening the core can also help with all types of movements in ballet and ‘A weak core results in poor posture and increases the risk of falls, lower back pain and muscle injuries.’ (Greenwood, 2012)

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Another improvement I have been working on in ballet this year is turnout. By using Cecchetti technique ‘a dancer’s degree of turnout should be based on his or her normal rotation from the hips’ (Rizzuto, 2022). As seen in the video above, I have been practicing exercises to strengthen my turnout muscles. As well as this I have been putting more concentration into my turnout in class by pushing my knees out in plies and développés. By doing this, my turnout has strengthened and being engaged more in muscle memory to transfer this into my pirouette. I have also found that holding a strong turned-out position in retiré and ‘glueing’ the leg in position, my turns are more solid and controlled.

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Towards the end of 2nd year, I suffered with a trapped nerve in my shoulder and neck. After going to see a physiotherapist, we found that this was cause by the position of my shoulders and how they sit too far forward. From this, I have then carried out exercises set by the physio as seen in the video above. These exercises have targeted the muscles in my back to have the strength to hold my shoulders back in the position they are supposed to be. This has helped my posture in ballet. The strength I now have also helps to hold my arms in the correct positions by using my back and pulling down from my armpits, so my shoulder blades rotate flat along my back.

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From feedback in class, assessments, and by my own observations, I have needed to use more plie to soften landings. Not only is this to make movement look more aesthetically pleasing but to prevent injury to endure a long career. I have carried out exercises such as simple jumps and low-level leaps, focusing on achieving the deepest plie I can with the correct alignment. This involves using activating and squeezing the quads, glutes, and hamstrings to absorb the impact of landing on the ground. The plie should look like a soft spring rather than a sudden stop, which I have worked on improving.

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A method I have used to improve my details when dancing is repetition. I have used repetition to correct and imbody details into my muscle memory. As Murry (2024) says ‘Repetition is the best way to create a blueprint of the dance you’re learning- Neuroscientists call this muscle memory (or motor learning).’ As seen in the video above, I have repeated the same routine multiple times and watched the video back to make sure I hit every detail throughout the routine. Repeating a routine over and over again when you’re tired enforces me to put more effort into keeping the details and also improves my stamina. I have also been pushing my body to go full out when learning a routine, again to work muscle memory.

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One of my main focuses in commercial this year has been fluidity. This is because dancing with more fluidity can make a dancer look more feminine, which we are told in class is a more desired look a lot of casting directors seek in female dancers. To improve this, I have practiced improvising in front of a camera or a mirror, focusing on rolling and rippling my body, being soft with my movement and never being square on. By focusing on fluidity when I improvise, I can see this has translated into my movements when performing choreography.

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Following from use of plie, I have been working on my foot articulation which also helps safe dance practice and lowers risk of injury. This is because using the feet affectively can help to cushion the impact of landing jumps. As said by Swing (2015) ‘Good foot articulation not only makes your dancing look smoother and more controlled, but it also enables you to develop body flight throughout your movement.’ I have practiced exercises involving tondus, point and flex and Graham technique. By doing this, I have strengthened the muscles in my feet whilst being able to create more of an arch to make a nicer looking pointed foot and use this when landing jumps and transferring weight between my feet.

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I have been working on my confidence with freestyle in commercial. I have done this by practicing freestyle to lots of different music. This is an important skill to have because on most jobs you will probably be required to freestyle at some point and most likely will have to freestyle in an audition. It is also important to be able to freestyle well so, for example, if you mess up a routine in an audition it looks more professional to freestyle until you can catch a point in the routine and pick it up rather than to freeze and stand still.

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Another area of improvement for me in contemporary is weight transference. According to Blume (2023) to master weight transference ‘dancers must learn to listen to their bodies and understand how subtle movements affect their weight distribution’. I have practiced an exercise recommended by Blume which involves moving from one foot to another and then speeding up and moving in different directions. By doing this, I have been able to become more aware of my body and transferred this skill into travelling exercise and contemporary routines. This will then help me in my career as this is a skill I can transfer to all styles.

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I have implemented all improvements in the last three videos to improve my pirouettes. To begin with, the alignment of my shoulders wasn’t correct as I would be leaving one shoulder behind, which would prevent me from getting around properly. The position of my leg in retire also wasn’t correct as my toe would be detached from the opposite leg and I would lower my leg on the second turn instead of holding it in the high retire position until the very last second. Now I have strengthened various parts of my body, I can now hold the correct position with better posture to execute better pirouettes.

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Artistry has been a main focus of mine this year, as going into the industry, is it important to know yourself as an artist to be individual, unique and to be able to bring something different to the table in an audition room or rehearsal process. This should help me as an emerging dancer to bring something new to the industry and keep it fresh and interesting for other industry professionals. I have worked on this by going to open classes and treating them as an audition, which has also helped me to improve my pickup and retention, allowing me to relax more, to perform my best and sell myself as an artist.