Post #6- Hitting the Floor

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion".

-Martha Graham 

This week for my Genius Hour when I got back into the studio for my next session, it was time to move the technique and training to the centre. 

What is Centre Floor?

This is where you transfer your all the skills you've worked on at the barre. Barre work isolates each exercise so that you an concentrate on the specific technique, and here in the centre these exercise are combined into combinations and involve the linking of various steps. Ballet centre floor combines adagio, petit allegro, grand allegro and pirouettes, and are the steps that I will be working on during this week of my Genius Hour.

This session was my most enjoyable yet. It was the first time where I actually got to dance ballet, away from technique at the barre. I felt as though I had accomplished something by being done with the stretching and the barre technique and now being able to transfer all of that to the centre floor, without the pressure of committing to an entire dance routine - which in the later weeks I will hopefully be able to execute.

Centre work is that one step that comes before a dance routine and this brought me levels of excitement as I was nearly there.

Because it has been so long since I have dance ballet and this was the first time I was doing any movements without the support from the barre as well as travelling across the floor, my muscles definitely felt it. During what was only my second floor exercise, I was already shaking! My arms ached, my back was pinching, my hips were squeezing the turnout muscles so tight I didn't think I would be able to move, my quads were shaking and about to give out, and even down to my toes - soreness and a lot of sweat. I was working hard, very hard. Harder than I was used to for doing such a simple beginning floor exercise. Just wait until the class progressed, I would be dying on the floor! But then again, ballet may look graceful but it is in no way easy and required you to engage every single muscle in your body. So I had to push through the pain and wipe of the sweat, because no matter how hard it was or how tired I was, I was enjoying it and I was happy.

During the session I worked on the following exercises: port de bras, pirouettes en dehors and en dedans, adage, allegro, echappes, developpes, grand battements, grand jetes, fouettes and various jumps both in the centre and travelling across the floor. Some of these exercises were straight from the RAD Intermediate Syllabus, while others were created by myself as a combination of all the aspects I loved the most from previous dance classes.


After todays session and in order to prepare for next weeks when I hopefully, finally get to bring the old point shoes back out and get back en pointe, a lot of rest and recovery is in order to heal up the muscles and get rid of all the soreness so I am fully ready for an exciting day!