Twyla Tharp

Then you can have frappe, which is to beat frappe.

And so from the ankle, it'll be a flexed foot that extends, boom, and boom.

And all of this is about developing releve to lift, to releve, right, up to the metatarsal as high as you can get, pulling up through all of this releve.

And this develops a strength that you need to jump because from the plie down, you're going to drive up.

And the more power you have down here, the more you can get up.

That little extra eighth of an inch counts.

So frappe, after frappe is grand battement, the big battement, the big throw, all the way up and down.

But not all the way up, changing the angle of the hip so that the rotation is going to alter the line.

Holding the hip straight through, up.

E, up.

either through fourth or through second or through arabesque and back.

Those are the fundamentals.

Now, if you're Merce Cunningham, you can operate in all of the interstices through all of that, but you still have the regulation of the body's map, and that's what the ballet has already done.

Amazing.

Not amazing, just very highly evolved in terms of how to control movement in terms of strengthening and developing the body.

You'll forgive me for saying something stupid like this.

The body is very smart.

And one of my problems has always been what knows what first.

Does the body already get it, brain, and we're trying to educate you?

Or is it brain telling body what to do?