ABSTRACT
Dance techniques and dance styles are not created at the drawing board. New dance steps develop from practice, by trial and error, by testing and discarding. Dance training developed in just the same way. The structure of dance classes is based on practical experience, on what the dance instructors themselves have learned as students, on knowledge that has a long tradition, and which is sometimes actually outdated. The “classic barre” is a good example: its structure, the order of the exercises, has hardly changed from its inception to the present day. What has changed, by contrast, are the choreographies performed by the dancers following their training at the barre. They must push themselves higher, further, faster: the strain on the body has increased considerably. Does the traditional dance training at the barre still offer the best form of preparation?
