A veteran of the American Ballet Theatre, Janet Panetta also has a broad experience of contemporary dance forms. She has trained dancers in many of the major American companies such as American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, as well as many European companies such as ROSAS and Pina Bausch. Ms. Panetta is also available for private classes and coaching.
Ballet for Professional Contemporary Dancers
Class focuses on the deconstruction of movement into technical basics that dancers from varied backgrounds can understand. Everyone learns. We work from the bottom up, from foundation to anatomically sound, honest movement. We work on the specifics of how one learns, how to analyze movement with the tools of weight, shape, space, rhythm, and time. It is the investigation of working from the inside out, from placing the bones where the muscles are allowed to function effortlessly and efficiently, thus discouraging muscular overuse. We remove all artificial affectations, leaving just the core technique, the pure physical architecture of the body. The ultimate goal of this study is to appreciate function as beauty. To understand, for example, that legs and feet that work correctly become beautiful, and not to strive for beautiful from an outside source.
Another very important goal of this class is to carry this knowledge into immediate application. This is a practical, technical course, not just a theory lesson. Everything discussed gets reconstructed back into movement. Participants see results from the work and can easily apply it to other forms of dance.