What is the Harkness Ballet Method as taught by David Howard?

This technique I teach is derived from the practice of kinesiology and anatomical principles and was developed for the Harkness Ballet School training program in New York City by JoAnna Kneeland and Ruth Petrinovic.  This technique was first taught to me by Mrs. P and later by my primary teacher and mentor in New York City, David Howard. He was known as the “Teacher of the stars” of famous ballet dancers such as Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, Patricia McBride and Mikhail Baryshnikov, among others. He was also known for his feeling to form approach which is applicable to all body types. This approach involves the acquisition of ballet through dynamics of movement, musicality, and energy patterns. This method eliminates much of the tension and resulting injury associated with training. 

About David Howard

He was a soloist with the Royal Ballet and a performer on the West End stage. In 1966 was contacted by the oil heiress Rebekah Harkness, who was looking for teachers for her ballet school, the Harkness Ballet in New York City. Howard left to teach in her school in Manhattan, where he lived for the rest of his life. His teaching style was described by The New York Times as "...a kinesthetic approach, in which dancers were taught to rely less on external feedback from the mirror and more on the minute internal signals that telegraph the position of the head, limbs and torso in space". Howard said of dance that “Out of the feeling comes the form...Ninety percent of the time students are taught the form first. And then they’re expected, through some act of God, to get the feeling.” Howard's pupils included Gelsey Kirkland, Patricia McBride, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Cynthia Harvey, Natalia Makarova, Tamara Rojo, among others. McBride paid tribute to Howard describing him as "...one of the great teachers of our day, for many, many years,” and Baryshnikov said of Howard that "He was a kind of father figure for people like me and like Gelsey.”