The Coaching Behind YAGP Grand Prix Winner Jocelyn Cramer

What makes a dancer stand out on the world stage? It's not just technique, it's artistry presence and an unshakable mindset. Jocelyn trained with me, won the Grand Prix award at the YGP semi-final in Pittsburgh and now we're preparing her for the YGP finals in April. Today I will break down exactly how we refined her technique and maximized her performance under high pressure You will see the exact training strategies I used to prepare dancers for the top competitions like YGP, how to make corrections that actually stick, build confidence and bring out a dancer's full potential when it counts the most. I will walk you through my coaching process, analyzing footages from Jocelyn's training, explaining the thought process behind each adjustment and showing how even small details makes a huge difference in the performance. If we haven't met yet, I'm Ren Chiao-Doo, founder of Ren Chiao-Doo Ballet Coaching. I help dancers win top competitions like YGP by refining their technique efficiently. I also help teachers train stronger dancers with AOBI certification program. Let's break down this performance and see what sets top competitors apart This is the variation that we choose. She did two classical variations, Grandpa Classic and Laurentia. We're going to bring this one to the finals. Her score was higher this one and we believe that this one really shows her strength which is her jumps and her personality really well. And then let's take a look at the video of the semi-final It's a remarkable jump, huge jump and you cannot do Laurentia without a big jump which she has. And what else is important in Laurentia? Spanish, style Hard step, hard step to do well anyway. And style, so we spend a lot of time on the shoulders, on the arm. This jump is what win her the award. We lose the momentum a little bit here So you know, I'm watching this, you can see this, she's 14, Jocelyn's 14 years old. You see a form is just ready to explode. There's so much we can do with a student like this. However, the coaching strategy is not through everything at her once. She's not gonna be able to cope with that kind of information. So there are things that we need to pick what is the most important needs to be improved and what needs to be polished, what needs to be changed. I'm not very happy with the ending because I feel like there's extra step in there and I think I can do better. Now let's go right to it in my one of my coaching sessions with her right now. And this is the one that I'm talking about her ending. So let's take a look And right arm back. So I'm having her, after Shene, I'm having her to do the tongue flush with the right leg instead of the left leg. Celebration, yes up. And also I want her to end up because it's a it's a competition. It's she only have a minute and a half. I want to have a make a maximal impact when the finishing to the audience. So I want to have a very strong finish. That's why I want to change the ending with the left arm up. You know like a Carmen. I want to give the imagery of what that position feels like to her. So she has to visualize the ending. Look at me. Same shoulders and your arm, your hands as though you have the instrument in your arms like this. That has to have a little bit more accent with your left shoulder forward. So there's a level change. So I want her to be at level, eye level, then have a transition to go up. That was my strategy. No, she didn't dip. No. So you do like this. There is a deal with the head. Look at me. There's a deal with the head before you come up again. Yes, that is a transition. Correct. And then you have to come up not flat. Have to come up the diagonal. Pay attention to right arm. Pay attention to the right arm. Then head down, then head up. So my arms in a figure eight position. That allows me to do what? Allows her to come down directly to disguise her arm. Continue, move forward. You preset the arm in the right place for what's after. So here is the pressure. It's like almost animalistic here at this moment. It's like a little animalistic feelings, like a hunter. And explode. This is important because she's facing away from the audience. So actually the back, a dancer's back tells a lot of stories. So I want her this part to be as vivid, as transparent, as impactful as the jump. So when we see the jump, we see impressive turns. And it is those areas to trigger the audience's emotional impact, emotionally. So when they see the arm, when they see her back, it needs to trigger something in their head. So especially in the competition is very important because we have to move the audience. But we don't sing. We don't have a loud speaker to express our vocal. What's our instrument? Our body. So every part of her body, her arms, every little transition has to tell a story. So in this part right here, we talk about she's like a little animal. She's gathered energy then to do what? To pre-set for another jump. The same jump and repeat. For the jump to be even more impactful. It's a strategy. It's a strategy how to lure them in. How do you set them up for a story you wanted to tell them? It is for this jump. Big jump right there. It's all set up. I prep her for it. That position right here. So in that particular position, what I don't want is for a jury member to say, oh that was turned in. I don't want that. Psychology is very interesting. When you see a student, it's perfect. Everything, alignment, the lines, the musicality is perfect. They don't think, oh that was good. They don't think that way. But when they see something less perfect, when they see something they think is problematic, then there's a problem. So it's not really fair. So what I wanted to do is I don't want to have a moment, have anybody to say, oh that was turned in. I want to eliminate that. That position right here. So I talk about even. When you have a big leg to front, what do I have in the back? Arm in the back. Create a balance. A little bit more tension in your hands. Tension in the arms. It's a little droopy this moment. It doesn't match with the strength of the front leg. Shape of your hand. Yes. That's the balance I'm looking for. It's a part of the balance. Understand? So you have the power of your leg and your power of your arm. Texture and it has to be balanced. Yes, it has to be balanced. I would prefer not to see this with your supporting leg. I would prefer just to see like this. Without the supporting leg, do the adjustment. Yes. That's hard. Yeah, that's hard. It has to be total control. How she comes down from point. After this, bring her lower. Is that? Yes, that's right. You gotta get over that. Yes, that. Now when you do the big jump, the jump is a it's very very good. The jump is very good. Very impressive. There's always room for something like this. Truly, we couldn't put a ceiling. We cannot say there's no room to improve. That's not our job. Teacher's job is not put a cap on student's potential. So it's my job really from this moment on to late April when we go to Florida to bring that quality even more. So our job is eliminate the issues. Polishing the part wasn't so good. Area needs to improve. Great, we got this. What else do we do? We have to make the good part even better. Yes, so this jump is fantastic but I think we can do better. How? I want her to sustain the front leg a little longer. A little longer to have even more this floating in the air. This have this kind of proportion in the air. It's by having the front leg to held a little longer and how is land to have more control when she lands. That will make the jump even more impressive and memorable. I want to make the jump even better. See what I'm doing here. The strength of the front leg. Stretch your knees even more for the jump. Yes, stretch. Yeah and from now on we're gonna working on you're gonna hold the leg as long as you can. So the beauty of the jump it's not only the initial thrust. It is ability to hold the position as long as you can. So if you see her jump it's not just up up and down. It's up and hold. I'm talking about Elsie Polva or we see her jump because this is one variation that nobody dance like Elsie Polva. It's just nobody and nobody can. I don't believe anybody can with an incredible natural ability and on top of that incredible training. That's it. It's a very simple formula. A gift body with a perfect training regimen. There you go and but I do believe Elsie Polva's jump is something special. It is something very very different. I studied a lot that if you look at that jump the front leg held very very long. It's like the audacity. You have the audacity to do this and I want her to do it and this is the only way to bring this variation to another level. That's the only way. There's no other way. We feel like there's a secondary proportion. You see Elsie Polva jump. There's a secondary proportion. Because it's so strong the legs it's sustain the shape of the jump. That's the amazing part of it. Yeah and after the jump after the jump push the foot back up right away. So don't let your thigh to feel the pressure and you have to you have to push up right away. Yes push yes. The high jump only way it's impressive is the landing is absolutely managed and controlled and it's expected. So we don't want to see a dancer really jump high and they don't know where they they are and when they land they don't know where the floor is. Because that jump to me it's adrenaline driven. So because the dancer didn't know how high they they jumped. A lot of times boys like that they don't know where the floor is. This I want her to feel that it knows exactly where the floor is and able to bounce back for the next step. I don't want her just to like this. I want her to bounce right back for that two coup de pied step. After the jump don't bring the knee forward. I'm exaggerating but coup de pied to be very beautiful coup de pied. That's called a managed. So we not only the big jump we know exactly and how to land. Coup de pied. So she's her knee still forward a little bit. Air first. Because when you go back right away it cuts down the jump. So it has to get yourself in the air then the proportion the beauty of the proportional secondary jump is when the back leg go up go back to attitude. My arm has to be a part of it. Beautiful. That was great. That was great. So now this is the very final manage. Absolutely exciting. She's she's flying on stage like a wild. It's wild right there. And from the video I felt at that moment there was a little down and she was tired at point. You can blame her. This this whole variation is the grand allegro basically. So I want to make a little adjustment to help her to make sure that the manage is to be dealt with. Because at the very end of the variation the energy cannot go down and cannot maintain. It has to push up. So we have to end up. I'm trying to come up a strategy come up a way for her to in the way save some energy. So not punching everything but show something big and strong like a big jump and the sort of ask I want her just to with clarity of course just to get over not to make as a big jump. So I don't want to say big big big or big jump. I was a big jump and speed a big jump and agility. So I want this sort of us to show her agility instead of of elevation. So that to me maybe offers something more dynamic. That sort of us is not high sort of us. It's not. But so I don't want to hurt the higher sort of us clear and that could appear. I think it is not could appear. It's not full regimen. It is like the new regimen. Yes. The new regimen. So have that leg a little bit more clear. Can you get to the position a little bit faster. Just quicker and faster sort of get over with. Yeah. So not not linger. Get up there faster. So I need to see a shape of that little bit faster. Yes yes yes. And then don't think that's a big jump because if every jump contrast is a big jump it translates to we don't see any big jump. Yes. So it needs a big jump. Needs a smaller jump to make the big jump look even bigger. So sometimes we have to think this way. Contrast. If you study hermeneutics. Her sort of us is very quick and small. You realize that. Yeah. Very quick. It's almost like a transitional step. And this is the thing. And just get over with. Put the weight of that step step the back. Don't go forward like this. Because if you're forward you will feel like somebody constantly pushing pushing from the back. You have no control of the sort of us. So after the big jump the posture for before the sort of us has to be in the back. So allow my right foot to have some time to do the pushing. So if I hunched over my right foot cannot do the pushing. It's a wrong place. I only can do pushing here. So that's the alignment issue. Has to be in here. So I have control of that thrust weight in the back so you can push. Yes. Back. That's it. And continue. Back. Yes. That's better. That's good. That third one was great. It's almost like in this position. You're getting the sort of us here. You see me? Thank you. The posture I'm talking about has to be consistent. So it cannot be random. A dancer to enter a variation like this they cannot have even at one moment they don't know where their body is. They don't know how to engage. How to fire their leg. How to engage the thrust. They have to know every second of it. It's strategy. After big jump they needed to put a shoulder back for the sort of us. After sort of us they needed to know how to take two more steps. Every step the way they has to have a full full consciousness. Not random. It cannot be a emotional driven because that's difficult to control and measure. It has to be a total consciousness of every step she takes. Every approach. She has to be very clear. It all has to be strategy. One step in here I think it's the hardest moment in this particular variation is the single and the swivel open side. Here we're working on this turn right here. This is the turn I'm talking about. So I want her to have a very free leg after the turn. She was doing too fast. So her support leg didn't have a chance to get the foothold. You have to bend the floor a little bit before you do the roversit. That was better. Yes there you go. That was better. You have to cheat a little bit. You almost have to think it's like there's a little bit of alternate. There's a little bit turning on both legs before the other leg goes out. You can't turn like that. You can't change that fast. It has to have a transition. Now. Thank you very much. That was it. Being a Spanish style is also very important. Even harder to train because it's a feeling. It's a character. A lot of small nuances. If we talk about feeling and nuances it's very difficult to coach. But that part also equally needs to be equally impactful. Talk about style. So from here you do your chin up this way as though there's a person in front to your left. So it has to be vivid. Your chin up this way. Then the audience you have to be up like this. Don't look at them like this way. You have to you start here but you eventually have to go up. Then we do this. So very layered. Detailed. Up and audience and up. Connect with this. You understand? Chin up. Connect with the balances. Open. So as you can see the coaching process like this it's constant adjustments. It's constant basically collecting data. Make adjustments. Make corrections. It's like a sculpture being made. You're polishing here. You look at it. Maybe a little bit there. Maybe a little bit Constant. Constant. It's much more than just run it three times and that's not rehearsal. That's just for the stamina. To me coaching is really layered. Actually tedious because when I say something to the student if something is not working means that she's not really understanding what you're saying. So I have to come up with another angle. Maybe the way I said it she has to be constant. That's why it's a very focused work and it cannot just be me outward. I have to get information from her constantly. Then I adjust what I have to say. It is academic. It's not just pretending. It's a real coaching. It's very tedious actually. Also I wanted to mention we have to be patient. We have to understand dancer's psychology as well. We talked about this earlier. When she does something good. When she did well. We have to point that out and we have to point it out very clear and right away. Why is that? It's not just praise. It's not. It's not just make her feel better. It's not. You have to recognize and mention clearly when she did something well because it sticks right away. The muscle memory is still there for her to understand what she did there and she get the feedback right away. So it sticks. So when she does something well we also have to make a statement and it has to make a statement right on the spot. So their mind and body reflect of your voice. For every mistake we try to help them prevent not to make that again. For every good thing they did what do we have to do? We have to help them preserve it. Help them to continue to do well on those parts. So equal weight. But you hear me saying this. Everything's come from where? Technique class. In our technique class together I also pay a lot of attention to those things that I'm trying to fix in the rehearsal to give her the support from that end. So let's take a look what we've been talking about in our technique class I have with her. So Jocelyn found every little thing just like in clean combination. Every time you put the foot out too totally to the side. I have to think about this. Especially the right foot. You really have to be conscientious about the heel forward already. That becomes a muscle memory. Becomes a habit. So then it becomes a habit of pushing heel forward and not sitting back on that knee. Okay. You got the bigger picture. It needs the support by something like this. So constant reminder. Constant reminder. Even for a very good dancer student like her. When something becomes a habit they don't work a day in their lives because it comes naturally. I know you're tired because but this very end when you especially when you're tired you hold the extra few seconds. So this step right here. Remember we talked about the attitude front. So I remember that we needed to think about that in the classroom. Then Jocelyn and that's going to be in your variation. I'm going to remind her that. Let that be a muscle memory. You never leave the room with your knees. You always lift and you're going to kick it like a soccer ball like this. If I have a soccer ball like you know I used to play when I was school this exactly same same same area you kick the ball. This is precisely the energy is you bring the heel up and kick the knee back. I dedicated this class actually just to to make a consistent remark. Always to bring those areas out constantly. Constantly to remind her in different areas of her putting her heel forward. So here I talked about remember there's the big jumps. I wanted the the jump to have a frame in the air and have the front leg to hold and also have everything to do with the speed. How she put herself in the air faster. So in this particular case I thought that her back leg take too long to get fully stretched and this is the connection I'm making right here. I'm basically doing coaching right now already. In fact it's not something directly in a step but it will help her. It will help her in the variation. Stretch. Yes. We cannot not have technique class. So this is something throughout my entire speech with teachers and with the students and with parents. You can't directly go to rehearsal without this class right here. So because in the classroom it offers a student a chance to hear the teachers of this kind of instructions in multiple different different functionalities. So it's completely a part of training method and I always go back to foundational training. VNA, plie, tendu, fifth position and to provide a support and foundation for a student like Jocelyn. Now you know very well she did not start dancing like this right away. She did what first? Plie first. Tendu first. So let's understand how it works. It's a comprehensive training method and a strategy how to present a student at the best shape or form and how to change things that to show her very best and also competition what student competition is for. Show her potential. So those are the things that in my mind when I work with her and we'll continue work together. We'll continue move forward and to see what improvement that we can have from this moment on to April. Thank you for watching.