I feel my leaps have become one of my strengths during semester two of my second year. I am now able to gain the height required in order to create a flat line; a one hundred and eighty degree angle, when leaping in the air. I have learnt to plie ‘a bending of the knees outward by a ballet dancer with the back held straight’ (Merriam-Webster, 2017) more especially in the step before taking off and to attempt to travel the leap, rather than maintaining a position in the air. This will make the leap longer and allow the back leg to stay in the air for a greater time period. 

 

My flexibility on my left hand side, I feel has let me down within the module Core Techniques 2. ‘There are different types of flexibility. For example the dancer may need to consider, static flexibility: the range of motion possible at a joint and dynamic flexibility: the resistance of a joint to motion.’ (Anon, 2017) I feel my right hand ball and socket joint lacks range of motion making it very difficult to be flat in left leg splits. Your splits is essentially the position you hit when completing a grand jeté in the air. Within the core techniques module we are marked on both the right and left hand side of each exercise, equating to fifty percent of the grade for that particular section. So although I feel my leaps were one of my strengths within this module, I also feel my left hand side flexibility will have brought my marks down, due to not being able to create the one hundred and eighty degree flat line required for this industry.

The Luigi technique is the main technique we study at Shockout Arts within our Jazz training. It consists of codified arm lines such as high parallels, Jazz first, second, third and fourth etc. This correlates with the codified positions of the feet – Jazz fourth pictured.

His exercises are structured and consist of ballet based movements. An example of the structure of one of his excercises would be the foot excercise containing tendus, glissé, grand battement and grande battement with the relevé; as you can see the exercise progress’ gradually in order to make sure the body is warmed up probably – this relates back to Luigi’s car accident where by his paralysis would be portrayed if he stopped moving. He had to make sure he warmed-up correctly to prevent further injury and this was the cornerstone for the basis of his technique.

Luigijazz.com. (2017). Luigi's Jazz Centre -- The Man. [online] Available at: http://www.luigijazz.com/man.html [Accessed 9 May 2017].

MedicineNet. (2017). Medical Definition of Adrenaline. [online] Available at: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2155 [Accessed 9 May 2017].

Merriam-Webster (2015) Definition of MUSICALITY. Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/musicality (Accessed: 80 May 2017).

Merriam-webster.com. (2017). Definition of PIROUETTE. [online] Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pirouette [Accessed 9 May 2017].

Merriam-webster.com. (2017). Definition of PLIÉ. [online] Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pli%C3%A9 [Accessed 9 May 2017].

Yeager, S. (2010) The secret to being fit for life: Muscle memory. Available at: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/style/fit-for-life (Accessed: 80 May 2017).