I have no qualms about stating up front that my partnering skills are, well, roughly at the level that would, if this was a university class, require one of those 094-level classes (I can see it now: “Partnering 099: It’s Always The Boy’s Fault”).

I’m good enough at this point that I wouldn’t have to take “Partnering 088: Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Her!” … but I’m definitely still rough around the edges.

Anyway, in the interest of offering some help to my fellow Remedial Partner…ers, here are some strategies that do and don’t work:

DON’T

• stand too close
• stand too far away
• get nervous and slowly collapse closer and closer, drawing your partner into your collapse like the heavier star in a binary system, leading to a cataclysmic supernova
• panic about every single turn, every single time
• panic about any turn, ever, for that matter
• trust me panicking really doesn’t help
• go walkabout mid-promenade because your eyes are pointing the wrong way (I know this is groundbreaking info but amazingly a promenade should be a circle, not a square)
• fail to communicate … partnering is basically sustained communication, ideally with fewer words but, you know, better to speak than to do something dumb
• panic about penchés
• panic about steps you were doing fine yesterday
• fall into weight-sharing mode … weight-sharing is great, but it doesn’t work for a lot of ballet things
• panic about … anything, really

DO

• REMAIN CALM
• feel out a good distance for various steps
• learn how to be there on time
• let your partner do her end of things
• talk through your dances together
• mark through your dances together
• walk through your dances together
• run all the things until you can’t get it wrong
• but make sure to stop before you both get super tired
• REMAIN CALM srsly it’s better to be Prince Valium than Prince Panic
• be willing to swap a step out for something simpler if you’re on a deadline and you’re having a rough time—it’ll build confidence, and eventually you’ll get the harder step, but that way you’ll know you’ve got something you can take to the stage
• COMMUNICATE! today we both kept going, “Okay that felt weird” from time to time, and discovered that what felt weird to one felt weird to the other (we’re also getting better at sorting out the why)
• ask for help … we’ve been super lucky to have not one, but two very experienced coaches step in to help because they want to see us succeed. Asking for help is scary, but it’s such a good idea.
• believe that you can do it … like horses, ballerinas can sense fear 😅
• and, of course, REMAIN CALM

That’s it for today. I have still neglected to take any photos, so I’m sticking in a screenshot for the featured image 😅