Let me quote from the classics by Agrippina Vaganova, "Basic principles of classical ballet" (in English translation),
At first when I saw a teacher demonstrating various ballet positions, I sometimes thought of certain head positions as habitual, that is, that what the teacher is really trying to show are the legs, the arms, and the torso, and that it had become a habit to combine it with a certain head position after years of practice. For example, a teacher may say "don't look in the mirror in this position as it pulls you out of alignment". Later I understood that the position of the head is just as much a part of a pose, so the quote above can be expanded as "don't look in the mirror in this position as first of all, to look in the mirror you have to turn the head which technically changes the position to a different one, and not a classical one, and secondly, because it also pulls the rest of the body out of alignment, reinforcing muscular habits and patters that we do not want to reinforce".
Another issue is with the direction of the eyes. In an arabesque it is common to hear things like that: that one should look along the arm, to the infinity, but also seeing the hand. The problem is, if one looks along one's arm, there is usually nothing interesting there. Try it yourself: stretch your arm in some random direction, then look there and see if there is anything interesting in that direction. Interesting things are interesting for a reason: that they are somehow different from everything else. If you look in a random direction, chances are that you will see "everything else" rather than something interesting. Here we can apply the principle "vision leads; eyes, brain, and body follow". That is, first look or intend to look in some direction, then the stretched arm will also end up pointing there. As I understand, the word "vision" in the mentioned Eyebody principle should be understood in a broader sense, not merely looking. However, this is precisely why the direction of the eyes is of such importance of classical dance: because it communicates vision (intent, hope, promise) to the audience. That is, the audience is not really interested in seeing someone looking in some direction anyway.
Port de bras is the foundation of the great science of the use of arms in classical ballet. The arms, legs and body are developed separately through special exercises. But only the ability to find the proper position for her arms lends a finesse to the artistic expression of the dancer, and renders full harmony to her dance. The head gives it the finishing touch, adds beauty to the entire design. The look, the glance, the eyes, crown it all. The turn of the head, the direction of the eyes, play decisive roles in the expression of every arabesque, attitude - in fact, of all other poses.I think that the order described is only the order of learning or the order of complexity. In case of interior design, "the finishing touch" can technically change just one small thing, but affect the perception of the whole. In case of a dancer, however, it is obvious that the position of the head and the direction of the eyes will inevitably influence the rest of the body. At the least, it will change the patterns of muscular engagement in the rest of the body so that the subsequent movement will be different, even if we assume that in a static pose head can be moved without moving the rest of the body, and without creating tension to hold the rest of the body. Of course, we rarely see a true "static pose" in the sense of zero movement except maybe breathing and a little natural swaying, in dance or anything else.
At first when I saw a teacher demonstrating various ballet positions, I sometimes thought of certain head positions as habitual, that is, that what the teacher is really trying to show are the legs, the arms, and the torso, and that it had become a habit to combine it with a certain head position after years of practice. For example, a teacher may say "don't look in the mirror in this position as it pulls you out of alignment". Later I understood that the position of the head is just as much a part of a pose, so the quote above can be expanded as "don't look in the mirror in this position as first of all, to look in the mirror you have to turn the head which technically changes the position to a different one, and not a classical one, and secondly, because it also pulls the rest of the body out of alignment, reinforcing muscular habits and patters that we do not want to reinforce".
Another issue is with the direction of the eyes. In an arabesque it is common to hear things like that: that one should look along the arm, to the infinity, but also seeing the hand. The problem is, if one looks along one's arm, there is usually nothing interesting there. Try it yourself: stretch your arm in some random direction, then look there and see if there is anything interesting in that direction. Interesting things are interesting for a reason: that they are somehow different from everything else. If you look in a random direction, chances are that you will see "everything else" rather than something interesting. Here we can apply the principle "vision leads; eyes, brain, and body follow". That is, first look or intend to look in some direction, then the stretched arm will also end up pointing there. As I understand, the word "vision" in the mentioned Eyebody principle should be understood in a broader sense, not merely looking. However, this is precisely why the direction of the eyes is of such importance of classical dance: because it communicates vision (intent, hope, promise) to the audience. That is, the audience is not really interested in seeing someone looking in some direction anyway.
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