Why we do Barre Work in our Ballet Dancing Class

Ballet class normally begins at the bar, and so does ballet dancing technique. Barre work develops balance, strength, speed, flexibility, alignment, turnout, extension, articulation and coordination that ballet dancing demands. The barre is the place in ballet class where you learn and maintain your skills and is the sustenance of all ballet technique.

Barre work also prepares you and warms you up thoroughly for the second part of your ballet dancing class which will be in the centre. All those glorious leaps and turns all start at the bar with repetition and perfection of plies and tendus.

Although plies look like nothing more than knee bends, these are actually preparing you for controlled jumps, turns and landings, and barre work initiates every step you do in the centre in which your leg moves away from the body and every step you do in which the leg returns to the body, for example glissades or assembles.

A well put together barre should serve two purposes. Firstly, it prepares you for your centre work immediately afterwards, warms up your body slowly and limbers your muscles. The simplicity of the bar allows you to focus on the fundamentals of ballet without having to concentrate too much on the sequence as you need to do in the centre. Secondly, barre work builds and refines your ballet dancing technique and constantly reinforces the basics. The repetition in barre work engraves correct details into your technique, and muscle memory so that even if you have an off day, you will progress nonetheless.

The barre also serves as your repair shop for anything that is not working properly in the centre. If you are having any difficulty with a particular step or family of steps in the centre, don’t just practice the step itself, go back to the bar and examine its components by breaking it down further.

Barre work in your ballet dancing is a time to be inwardly focused, and once you hit the centre you can perform and project.

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