#put a little bolshoi on that lateral aerial while you're at it tho

[whysojiminimnida]

As a Cecchetti-trained ballet dancer (woot-woot), your description of Jimin doing hip hop was deeply relatable, also felt similar to the first time I tried tap... my feet. just don't do. the thing. You spend so much time trying to control every little thing, and then you're given a style that says "loosen up!" or "lower your center of gravity!" and your brain short circuits for a sec

Hi hi fellow balletomane - Enrico in the house! It's a great method to build a base, yeah? Oh hey let's stare at Baby Jimin in high school doing his thing:

Most modern ballet descends from Cecchetti, RAD, Vaganova and/or Bournonville, or in the case of Balanchine from both Cecchetti and Vaganova. Or in RAD's case from Marie Rambert - and she trained with Cecchetti. For my money Vaganova is my favorite but you can see the differences and blends in technique in most professional dancers. We all got trained somewhere by somebody. Cecchetti method is so excellent because it is standardized, it is absolutely methodical, and it incorporates all the anatomy you need to get it right. And in higher levels it grades mostly on artistry because by Grade Four you better have your technique in line, amirite? I apologize, kids. I get super nerdy and academic about ballet but I think if you read me at all you knew this. Oh look more pretty Jiminie doing some modern-y stuff that is pretty on his arms and OMG that lovely bit at the end, and none of this is Cecchetti like at all:

Regardless of school of technique, we all do get trained, right? We learn to hold isolations. Muscles go in specific spots and you hold them up or down or in or out or elongated or twisted like a dishrag (port de bras) or tight in a specific way. Angles are never in question if your technique is a solid one.

Just looking at Jiminie he looks a bit like a Russian. He does. The man is probably a Vaganova-method trained ballet dancer in my opinion, with Bolshoi big moves thrown in like English on a billiard ball. His hands are sooooo Kirov I just... gah. He's beautiful. I mean LOOK AT HIM: (He also has a bit of the Travis Wall going on in his contemporary but I suspect that's because Travis Wall is literally EVERYWHERE)

Which MAKES SENSE. The Korean National Ballet uses Vaganova in their academy but also has an exchange program with the Bolshoi. And Jiminie is a bit Bolshoi when he jumps and we know that the Bolshoi's training method is bigger and louder. So I'm gonna guess that Jimin's ballet teachers are probably Russian trained by way of Korea and looking at his technique that makes total sense. And his contemporary teachers are Travis Wall fans. Interestingly (as we know), Jimin didn't start out training as a dancer. He started out training as a martial artist. And that lends itself to a couple of specific things we see in his technique. One is his lower legs specifically from the knees down, including his feet. Guys don't train their arches the way girls do because largely they are not en pointe. They need their metatarsals for stability and their Achilles tendons for jumps and lifts. But Jiminie can have quite nice feet, we've seen him point them, we know it can be done ;)

The other is his barrel roll aerial (which probably has a cool martial arts name but I don't know it). Y'all know what I'm talking about. It's done in Tae Kwon Do and Kendo and Aikido and Kenpo as well as Goju-Ryu and I'm sure other disciplines. Jimin is a master of the lateral aerial and even uses a similar technique in his tours en l'air, angling himself forward and using his arms as rudders (which is a very Bournonville choreo choice but he leans for it every time). It makes for a beautiful rotation in the air. Tell me that man doesn't know his angles. Anyway anyway I have blathered on long enough, you got me over here just watching the man dance and running my jaw and not even addressing your original ask which: Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I could run my jaw about Jimin's dancing for hours. Probably will. You asked though ;)

#dance god park jimin #thanks nice anon #sorry i'm so slowwww #cecchetti #vaganova #put a little bolshoi on that lateral aerial while you're at it tho #travis wall needs to choreograph jimin is all i'm saying