[Music] hi i'm miss penny from kidvision pre-k and we're here to spend a day with the dance instructor hello miss penny it's so nice to be here with you today my name is stavi kabarakis i teach ballet at dancers gallery in cooper city how did you start dancing i started dancing in a neighborhood school that my mom took me to i was very inspired by the teacher and i think about seven years old i said to myself i want to be a ballerina my parents took me to school of american ballet where i auditioned so i trained there for seven years there was no thought about it i was going to be a ballerina and eventually i worked professionally i was invited to greece where i became a prima ballerina with the greek national opera what's a prima ballerina a prima ballerina is the lead role that's very exciting can you tell us a little bit about the history of ballet ballet originated in the italian renaissance courts eventually influenced france where king louis xiv he loved to dance and he created the first professional ballet company which is now known as the paris opera ballet and then the influence went into russia with the ballet ruse and so forth it's had a long brilliant history yes what classes do you teach at dancers gallery i teach the classical ballet and i teach children all levels starting from five years old to 18. what happens during a typical ballet class for a younger age group we emphasize technique which builds strength posture and flexibility even musicality technique is very important and we do it even as a professional every day we do a technique class we start off at the bar helping our balance eventually we move into the center where the steps become more elaborate but we start from a very foundation principle so everyone learns the same foundation and you build from there yes yes technique is very important that's why ballet is considered the foundation of all dance because it's the most disciplined i can see that what is choreography choreography is a sequence of movements that are put into form well that sounds exciting and excellent and i would love to learn some ballet would you teach me something today for us penny we can do a little choreography great [Music] ballet is the most demanding and disciplined dance form because of the technique so technique is the foundational principles of body movement where the body alignment and the placement have to be correct as well as the under or which is the turn out technique is also the conditioning of muscles and muscle memory it's a process of repetition of body movement which causes body awareness so good technique is very important because it ensures the dancer to have longevity as well as preventing injuries it builds flexibility and strength [Music] so we will start with the most basic step in ballet and that's the plie so you bend your knees plie means to bend and then you stretch so what happens is you rotate you rotate the legs out and then back up again so here is where technique is important because we do the alignment of the knee over the toes which protects our knees so the plie it builds strength and conditions the muscles and it's our landing so we work a lot of plies to keep that balance so we plie and with string this is the most basic step another step is the tandoo which means straight you tend to out and you're in now you see how i use my arms called the port of bra movement of the arms we coordinate the arms with the legs with the head with the shoulders the apollo so it's multitasking another basic step is the surla demi plant which is a releve we also call it releve it's where we push up to the balls of the feet and back down again that's a railway it's done with straight knees always and let's do one more a saute which is a jump so to jump we will never jump with straight knees because that's just gonna traumatize our needs so we start with our plie our landing from the landing we push and land back again to plie beautiful now did you see how you fell forward yes okay that's because it's an imbalance we use the turn out to balance knees over toes and that's how you balance and the body alignment is very important we call it a plumb line it's an imaginary line that goes through the body and this keeps you centered so this way you don't fall and then you pull up and you're on [Music] balance [Music] [Music] thank you so much stavi for teaching us so much about ballet and i want to thank dancers gallery for giving us the whole day to spend with a dance instructor thank you penny the pleasure was all mine i hope to meet again i hope so too