Education: going beyond classical tradition.

Professional ballet dancers today must meet demands that are greater than ever. The repertory presented within one performance can require an extraordinary degree of versatility, with movement ranging from traditional classical ballet vocabulary to the latest fusion of ballet, jazz, and modern. The corps de ballet is no longer background ornamentation; nowadays each member of a company must be a technician, and expectations of technical prowess constantly increase. In addition, competition is brutal and careers are short.

I no longer believe that classical ballet training alone adequately prepares a student dancer to meet these extraordinary demands. Dancers ultimately will be more successful if their training develops a broader range of skills than those provided by a purely traditional approach. What are these further skills, and how can they be developed in a fashion that will enhance the results of classical ballet training?

As the artistic director of the National Ballet School (NBS), my primary objective is to educate healthy, questioning artists who will expand classical ballet as an art form. I believe that this goal can be achieved. Improving and augmenting traditional training will ensure that some questionable practices of classical ballet training are not automatically perpetuated.

Today the typical classical ballet dancer is exceptionally bright, committed, and physically gifted; motivation, intelligence, and a passionate love of dance are common characteristics. As with Olympic athletes, these young people are prepared to discipline themselves to an extent that observers can find quite moving. But their passion for excellence is a mixed blessing, for it makes them receptive to all suggestions -- both bad and good -- that they believe might further their careers.

Because young dancers must be as superbly physically conditioned as Olympic athletes, it is helpful to compare the way the elite of the sports world achieve physical fitness with the approach generally followed by classical ballet teachers. For years, top athletes have understood the importance of overall fitness and have augmented their specific sport's routine with a complementary strengthening program. A similar augmentation should be used for dance students. They do not gain strength and flexibility solely by increasing the number of hours of ballet training. In fact, this tactic merely reinforces any counterproductive strategies adopted to combat a deficiency in strength and flexibility.

A supplementary body conditioning program is more critical today than ever before. Partly because of computer games, children -- in North America, at least -- spend more of their playtime sitting. This reduction in physically active play means that the one-thousand-plus youngsters whom NBS physiotherapists screen each year are less physically fit today than were the ones they screened ten years ago. Overall fitness prevents injuries. When properly tailored, it also prepares male students for their partnering classes.

Ballet methodology itself also needs to incorporate new approaches. Twenty years ago, Canadian dance educator Rhonda Ryman wrote in an issue of Dance in Canada, "A valuable source of insight comes not from within the dance community but from without, from physical educators. Their theories reveal fascinating perceptions about the workings of the human body, information which provides fresh insights into the learning and performance of dance skills.

"Dr. Lulu Sweigard, author of Human Movement Potential (1975), emphasizes that the full potential for efficient, effective movement can be achieved only through the cooperative action of nerves, muscles, and bones. She stresses the importance of acquiring a healthy stance for mechanical as wen as aesthetic reasons. Each individual's posture influences the manner in which they perform any movement."

Let me highlight the word individual's above -- and remind readers that dance is nearly always taught in large groups.

As ten-year-olds struggle to understand the complexities of post" alignment and to work their legs in an outwardly rotated position (the trademark of classical ballet), they develop neuromuscular patterns -- some good but others counterproductive. It is the latter pattern that impedes progress and causes injury. The effects of forced turnout are devastating. As students grip to hold turnout with their feet, posture is compromised and -- worst of all -- movement, the primary ingredient of dance, becomes strained and restricted.

Ironically, the phenomenon of turnout was originally adopted to facilitate movement and to improve the beauty of the lines of the muscles, but it is now probably the greatest source of confusion and injury. As early as 1721, meeting the extreme demands of turnout had prompted English dancing master John Weaver, in his book Anatomical and Mechanical Lectures Upon Dancing, to encourage all dance instructors to study anatomy in order to teach effectively.

Ballet teachers around the world go to great lengths to study anatomy, but bunions, wrenched knees, and misshapen legs are testament to the fact that more needs to be done. For the past five years, Irene Dowd, a protegee of Sweigard and a renowned neuromuscular educator in her own right, has guided the NBS ballet staff in ways to enhance traditional classical training by incorporating a neuromuscular approach. The results are exciting and prove that it is only through the cooperative action of nerves, muscles, and bones that efficient movement can be realized, the deleterious effects of turnout assuaged, injuries prevented, and careers lengthened.

Young dancers, as well as their teachers, should study anatomy and understand the concept of "muscle patterning" at a level appropriate to their age. The basic mechanics of any movement are much better understood when the student has a picture of how the bones and muscles fit and work together. They should also understand the implications of growing, as the changes in flexibility and balance experienced during a growth spurt can be most unsettling.

There is controversy as to which other dance forms should be studied during a professional student's training years. I am convinced that both modern dance training and the study of composition are essential to realize the degree of versatility expected in today's job market. Modern dance training teaches that movements must be initiated from a muscularly active torso, whereas classical ballet tends to emphasize the limbs. Composition exercises and classes make every dancer a more sensitive and cooperative interpreter of today's new creations and may even inspire them to choreograph.

Finally, in classical training a level of proficiency in pas de deux is essential, but, for a variety of reasons, not easy to acquire. Interestingly, the skills required for safe, dynamic partnering can often be better understood with the adjunct of some contact improvisation classes.

Training demands can be overwhelming for adolescents of ten to eighteen years, which is the time span generally acknowledged as optimal for realizing physical potential. Therefore, if emotional and intellectual skills are not developed alongside physical training, no one's efforts are prudently invested.

Olympic teams, which now include sports psychiatrists and psychologists on their staffs, are ahead of us in teaching young people how to deal with performance pressure and competition. We do not ask students to go into a studio and figure out pointe work or partnering unaided. I believe that it is equally ludicrous to ask them to figure out -- all by themselves -- how to cope with injuries, depression, and competition.

NBS has eight consulting psychiatrists who serve as guidance counselors, and the skills that they teach are perhaps the most vital to achieving career success and personal satisfaction: being responsible, understanding integrity, being a good communicator, being a good team player while pursuing individual dreams, and understanding the pitfalls of being a perfectionist, a common characteristic among ballet staff and students around the world.

Misplaced perfectionism can trigger eating disorders. Unhealthy eating patterns are a symptom of unmet psychological needs and potential dysfunction.

Preventing eating disorders with the help of specialists is essential because anorexia and bulimia are insidious diseases when firmly entrenched. The importance of staying slim through balanced nutrition must be supported and promoted by ballet teachers and artistic directors. The standard of exaggerated thinness established in the 1960s in modeling and dance will change only if the people recruiting students for professional schools or hiring for companies change their attitudes. An anorexic dancer is a bad investment. In addition to tremendous emotional vulnerability, there is a propensity for stress fractures because of bones rendered fragile from years of starvation. Hiding from this issue harms the future development of classical ballet and dance in general.

At the NBS, students who are starting to struggle with eating disorders can stay in our program only if they and their families work with our specialist in these disorders. Full participation in all dance activities and performances depends on recovery.

Ask athletes what should be eaten both pre- and postperformance, and they will usually give you an educated, rational answer. Very few of today's dancers are able to do the same. This situation is unacceptable. Along with eating disorder prevention must go nutritional education, supported by the artistic staff. It is time to stop joking about the fact that female dancers, in particular, keep themselves thin with cigarettes and coffee.

Two facts must be faced: a performing career cannot be a lifelong occupation, and acquiring a high school diploma is essential for dancers. Dance teachers and artistic directors must stress the importance of academic education. Fortunately, the best dance students prove time and again to be gifted academically, as well as artistically. New York City Ballet's association with Fordham University, which allows professional dancers to enroll on a part-time basis, is a model that should be followed worldwide.

Ideally, academic education should include the history of art and ballet and a challenging music program. Alumni of the NBS consistently report that such studies not only made them more marketable and enhanced their personal appreciation of their art, but shaped their overall life values, as well. Becoming computer literate is another important advantage, as is acquiring skills that will ease the transition to whatever career might follow performing. Even though students may resist discussing their transition from performing, this topic must be acknowledged and discussed regularly.

We all agree that we want to produce excellent dancers who will be as inspired by the challenges of interpreting a new work as they are by adding their personal stamp of artistry and integrity to the great classics. Let us be equally determined that success must also be measured by the strategies that dancers use to handle the demands and expectations during their training and in their careers.

It is a privilege to work with gifted, committed dance students who have the potential to improve the quality of life of society as a whole. With this privilege comes the responsibility of ensuring students an appropriate academic and dance education. It is shortsighted to focus only on achievements onstage at the expense of obtaining critical life skills. Let us educators strive to guarantee that dance students and dancers are as fit intellectually and emotionally as they are physically. The art of dance deserves nothing less.