Rephrasing Corrections

Corrections are an important part of every dancers journey. They are a way for a teacher or choreographer to guide you towards excellence. Corrections are specifically designed to help you improve what you are working on right now. By pointing out a specific way you can improve the very thing you are working on this very moment, they offer an opportunity for you to reflect on what you are doing and how you are doing it. While feedback can be given outside of class, when we think of corrections we usually think of the feedback we get either during an exercise or immediately after.

Corrections are made up of two parts: increasing awareness and suggesting a path towards improvement. The arguably most important part of a correction is the first: helping you become (more) aware of (certain aspects of) what you are doing, or how you are doing it. This is why having a teacher is so valuable. A teacher can help you bring awareness to what you are doing and how. When you integrate this new knowledge with what you think and feel you are doing, you can recalibrate your proprioception. Over time, this enables you to develop a more accurate perception and understanding of your own movements.

The second part of a correction is a suggestion as to what concretely you can do differently that will likely help you improve what you were doing. Not all corrections are created equal though, and some corrections are more helpful than others. Some may give litte in terms of how you can improve, merely directing your awareness. These corrections can still be valuable, for only when you are aware of what you can improve will you start thinking about and working on how to improve. A perceptive teacher, of course, will realize if a student doesn't know how to benefit from a particular correction and either rephrase it or add a concrete suggestion as to how to improve.

However, even the greatest teachers do not know what's going on in your mind. And even with the best of intentions, sometimes a correction may not make much sense to you. On occasion, a correction may even irritate or annoy you; I have experienced this myself. And then I was annoyed at me, because my irritation diverted my attention from my dancing, which did not help. In my case, this happened when I was offered a correction to ”more X” just as I was intently and consciously working on improving X. I knew I needed to improve in this area, and I wanted to, and I tried. I was giving my best, working on improving X when I hear “more X”. I was annoyed! But when I reflected on it after class, I found a way to not only not be annoyed should this happen again, but to also profit from the correction. In fact, I had the opportunity to apply this the very next class – and it worked! What did I do? I rephrased the correction.

You see, when you're dancing, it's your class, your time and your progress and joy in dance – not anyone else's. So make it yours. Make it work for you. When a correction doesn't make sense to you if taken literally, look at it differently and see if you can find a way to make it work for you. Even if the way you end up using that correction to improve is not strictly what was intended with it by your teacher or choreographer. For while the more specific point of a correction is to help you improve in a specific way, the more general point of a correction is to help you make progress and improve overall. Your teacher wants you to make progress, and wants you to succeed in your dancing. So if in the midst of an exercise you are offered a correction that doesn't seem helpful in an obvious way, see if you can rephrase it and make it useful for yourself. You do this in two steps. First, focus on the first part of a correction: awareness. Because that part you do understand. Even if you have no idea what specifically your teacher wants to help you to improve and you have no clue as to how, there is something you do understand: where to guide your awareness to. Be it a body part, a movement, something about the feeling of the movement, the rthythm – you do understand the rough area the correction is pointing to. With that understanding, you can do the actual rephrasing of the correction by asking a question: “Is there anything related to that area that I will benefit from if I work to improve it?”. Your answer will yield one (of many) ways to rephrase that particular correction.

For example, you hear “more turnout” while moving through pliés dancing a phrase across the floor. You are a bit confused, because using your maximum turnout in your pliés is what you are specifically focusing on dancing this phrase this particular time, and you don't know what to make of this correction. One way to rephrase this correction is to realize that it is about your use of turnout, and your pliés. So you ask yourself: “Is there anything I can improve in my turnout (generally, in any movement) or pliés (generally, in any position or use)?”. If there is, you have found something you may find worthwile to deepen your understanding of. Maybe in an obvious way you can work on right away in class, or maybe you'll take a moment after to specifically work on your understanding and use of whatever it is that you found.

Of course, if you're puzzled by a correction, go ahead and ask for clarification after the exercise or class; there is no better way to understand what someone is trying to tell you than to simply ask them. But being able to improve even from a correction you don't fully understand allows you to own you dancing during class.