Below is a version of my beginner musical theatre warmup. It’s always important to remember to include a solid technical warmup as well as stylistic, cardiovascular and performance elements into your class. This will create a well-rounded foundation and get your students introduced to the basic elements of theatre jazz while building strength, flexibility and technique!
Cardiovascular Aspect: I always suggest starting class at any level with continuous movement for a few minutes to heat up the body and get the heart pumping. It’s also a great way to condition your dancers! I always have a set series of crunches, sit-ups, pilates based exercises, planks, “mountain climbers,” “half-burpees,” push-ups, jumping jacks, high-knee runs in place and sautés in turned out first, parallel and second position for a solid 5-10 minutes straight! The kids might moan and groan a bit but you will get them energized for sure!!!
Standing Stretch: Starting from top of the body to bottom, introduce a nice opening of the different muscle groups but also take the time to pay attention to detail through each part of the body. This will get the dancers ready for the next section of isolations. Exercises to include: slow head circles, slow shoulder circles, slow reaches side to side through rib-cage, wrist rolls, large under-curves and over-curves of the arms to include deep breathing, three bounces in a low level (with knees bent and hands on floor) which straightens into a straight leg stretch, slow roll-downs and roll-ups through the spine to feel the articulation and stacking of vertebrae to find correct verticality and alignment.
Basic Isolations: Again starting with the top of the head, start with basic isolations to include: Looking right, left, down and up; repeat other way. Repeat 2-4 times with no arms. Repeat two slow head circles. Reverse direction. Progress this exercise to shoulder, ribs and hips! I also always like to include basic, slow walks with hip initiation, lateral traveling hip circles and “showgirl” walks in the center as a small progression of what the dancers have just done and what they will see in bigger traveling combinations when they get to across the floor.
Plies: Here, I like to stay pretty traditional including two demi plies and a grande plie. Jazz first port de bras. Incorporate parallel first position and a stretch out of the grande plie to warm-up the large muscles group of the legs. Add a bevel weight-shift change in between positions, snapping wrists rolls, etc. to further enhance the genre for a stylistic element.
Tendus: Again, I like to stay pretty traditional with my beginner dancers and want them to really focus on the stretch of the feet (especially if they are going to eventually be working in heels!) and working in the parallel position. Give four tendus in each position (front-side-back-side) and add four three-step turns into a plie bevel to transition side to side. 2nd port de bras. It is also a great way to slip in a spotting exercise while inserting these turns when transitioning right to left side and again slowly introducing the style element!
Rond de Jambe and Pirouette Preparations: With rond de jambes, I always like to work in a turn-out first with my beginners with arms in a second position port de bras. I usually work the right side, then the left and include: 3 rond de jambes front- to-back, (with the last one ending with leg extended in second position tendu.) This progresses to a pas de bourree into preparation for a parallel jazz pirouette. There is then a repeat of the exercise reversing the rond de jambes back -to- front. Teachers can also progress to single or multiple turns based on their class level.
Floor Stretch: Here is a point in class where I will either determine whether to lead a floor stretch or let the dancers stretch on their own. Sometimes the dancers are vocal about whether they are feeling they have specific areas they’d like to stretch on their own so it’s up to you as a teacher to decide what is right on a given day. For beginners, I always include: stretch in second, stretch with legs extended in front. Point and flex feet slowly. Splits: right, left and center. Laying on back, grab right leg at ankle, calf or thigh- hold 30 seconds to a minute. Repeat other side. Circle the knees to stretch hips. Child’s pose stretch. Downward dog. Pedal the feet for a calf stretch.
Across the Floor: Part I: Leg Extensions:
When working across the floor straight from center warm-up I like to first start with progressions of leg extensions. Have your dancers either work in a second position port de bras or basic, extended jazz hand and travel across the floor in step-tendus. This will help dancers understand how to stretch the feet while traveling and elongating the leg with a full stretch behind the knee. Progress this to: traveling degages, 45 degree battements and 90 degree battements (always attending to front, side and back positions)
Part II: Jazz Walks
Jazz walks are essential for any musical theatre class. Not only are there many variations on a theme regarding the “jazz walk” (basic jazz walk, Fosse walk, tip and bevel, etc.) but also serve as a great transition movement within choreography! Jazz walks can be tricky because it’s important for students to understand that there is a distinct style element that coincide with walks whether it is in the position of the hands, the addition of a hip isolation, the sustained follow-through of resistance of the muscles, etc. With beginner students start basic with no arms having them focus on the musicality aspect of walking. Teachers can then progress the exercise to include the additives mentioned above and even incorporate focus, facing and direction changes while playing with tempo/ rhythm changes as well!
Part III: Turns
Turns are one of the most important elements to any genre and can be abstracted in many ways to portray style and character work in musical theatre. Always starting with basic clean preparations and single turns for beginner:
Four jazz walks, preparation, jazz pirouettes
Chasse, ball change, step, preparation, pirouette
Soutenous turns in plie forced-arch,
Chaine turns with jazz hands
Or… a combination of some of these turns together integrating the jazz walks as a preparation into turns or coming out of turns to segue into the next set of turns.
Part IV: Elevations
As a musical theatre chorus girl myself, I can tell you it’s unlikely that girls, in particular, will be doing any variation of switch leaps, leaps in second, straddles, etc., (unless cast in a very specific show) should your student go on to become Broadway dancers themselves. However, it is still extremely important to include this in your musical theatre technique class to build flexibility, understanding of execution, etc.! Again, focus on the preparations and clean footwork in and out of leaps and spend ample time on barrel turns, stag leaps, glissades, saut de chats, grande jetes and leaps in second. This might come in handy if you plan to be setting more contemporary works like Footloose, Wicked, etc.
Center Combinations
Once you get to the center, think about all the movement your dancers have already explored week to week and learned throughout warm up and across the floor. It will be an easy transition to use movement they have already been learning; but now add a stylistic change into the mix. For example, if you are setting a Latin number from West Side Story or Evita, think about how the arm positions, upper body placement, turns etc., can be adapted to what the dancers have already been learning to incorporate a Latin flavor. If you are using music from a Chorus Line how can you incorporate variations of clean pirouettes, body line and stylized jazz walks into the combo? When doing a 50’s, 60’s combo from Grease or Hairspray how can you incorporate leaps and big battements with jazz runs or walks while representing the period of the piece?
When working with beginner musical theatre dancers, remember there are tons of variations on a theme to include basic technique which can inherently start to develop style and understanding of varied movement initiation; suited for a specific piece for a specific show! Remember their center warm-up, across the floor and center combos seen week to week in class will be a great tool to transitioning into your full length pieces come performance season!
Good luck!
See you in the dance studio,
Jess
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