- I took a trip up to Boston this morning,
to spend the day with Rachel Cossar.
She has a company called Choreography for Business.
And she is going to show me,
some techniques on how to be a little more fluid,
and graceful when I'm in the dining room.
(rhythmic music)
- I danced professionally with Boston Ballet,
for about 10 years,
and prior to that I was a rhythmic gymnast,
on the Canadian National Team.
- I mean your posture right off the bat,
as soon as she walked into the room I was like, "oop".
- I've been working mostly with front of house staff,
and so I do like to incorporate as much as I can,
some of the more heavy lifting,
and there's a way that you have to engage your body,
physically to do that safely so there's like,
a safety and health component to the program,
and then on top of that there are layers of,
presence and poise and elegance,
and then of course the nonverbal component,
of moving through a dining room and communicating,
with guests without always having to use words.
(rhythmic music)
(jazzy music)
Now you're at the bar,
and this is one of my favorite plays on words right?
The barre in the ballet world, which is spelled differently,
B-A-R-R-E, and that's actually the foundation,
of where we all start as dancers our day.
Now we're gonna actually start in a first position, okay.
And so, to do that properly, and not get these weird,
misaligned kind of feet out but knees forward,
we're gonna stick one foot out,
at like a 45 degree angle,
and then thinking of your hip,
as rotating in its socket from the top,
rotate the foot so it's turned out.
Perfect.
And then bring that underneath you.
So now you have one leg that's turned out,
and one leg that's parallel,
and then we're gonna do the same thing,
on the other side so out,
rotate the leg, bring it underneath you.
Now when we're in this position, just for now,
let's have the other arm that's not at the bar on your hip.
Plié, so demi.
So plié and don't have your heels pop off the ground,
and then you're gonna push into the ground to straighten.
Down.
And up.
- My legs are so tight.
- [Rachel] Down, down, and up, okay.
- My dance background is zero.
How much have you had to adapt,
bringing ballet into a dining room,
I mean I'd imagine every restaurants different,
every space is different.
- Yeah, a lot of the foundations and the posture,
that is the same whether I'm coaching,
restaurateurs, and wait staff, and bartenders,
or salesman, fundraisers, consultants.
Right?
That's a human thing,
but when we get to these details,
like this particular exercise,
of finesse and elegance and intention, that is,
definitely more relatable to finer dining institutions.
Like, someone comes into the restaurant and you're like,
"Hello please this way."
So this move that we're doing,
becomes something that they do.
- Right.
- So we'll do that,
we'll have the arm forward,
and we'll actually look at our hand,
so without looking like this.
You never want to show the top of your head, right.
So you look down, almost peering over something,
and then you open it, and open your head at the same time.
And then we're gonna actually just bring it down,
and then place it back on the hip.
And so doing these things with intention is the difference.
It's like that small difference,
that make the biggest impact.
This is the work we do at the bar,
that becomes very applied when we sit down at the table.
(jazzy piano music)
As a server you walk through a space,
and you're constantly identifying areas of tweaking,
or noticing things like,
okay that person needs another drink or whatever.
- Right, your mind is like a mile a minute.
- You would never walk through a space,
only looking front right.
That being said, you don't want to be like, okay.
Right, either because a lot could be told by your walk.
So you personally, have this little,
mannerism in your walk,
that's like a little step-hip-sway.
(giggles)
So you do that like step-hip-sway, step-hip-sway,
step-hip-sway.
- Which is exactly what you don't want.
- [Rachel] Every time you walk, which is fine,
I think it's a great walk if you're walking down the street,
with friends or whatever.
- [Katie] Walking down the streets of New York,
it's what you want.
Walking through the dining room here?
You don't want that.
(laughter)
- I want you to pretend,
like you're on one of those moving walkways in an airport.
So it's that feeling of eating space,
but doing so in a super gliding smooth way,
and also like you know, look around,
don't be afraid to move your head,
and this time I think it's also probably rare for them to,
be moving through the space with nothing in their arms.
- Right.
- Okay, so we're gonna add a little prop,
and then we'll also add this bean bag.
It's that feeling of keeping your head level,
so that you're not doing this, right.
And you're not like doing other weird things.
Number one, and number two is just a reminder,
it's like this downward pressure,
that you have to push against,
so it automatically gives you that same feeling,
because if you start going like this,
it's going to be like bouncing up and down on your head.
- Right.
(jazzy music)
- [Rachel] I see a totally different walk.
- No, it feels different,
cause I'm mindful of being a little more fluid,
if that makes sense.
- [Rachel] Yeah, you can show up to the table,
and be so graceful and welcoming and open,
and then when it comes down to moving stuff around,
like your legs are like okay,
let's move in space,
and not have this upper body,
all of a sudden have to start,
doing things that like it's not built for.
- Like the way that you walk and approach a table,
is so like I don't even think about that,
when I'm dining out, but it's one of the baseline,
introductory, this is what the deal is.
You know, this is the experience you're gonna have,
from me as a server.
(classy piano music)
I honestly don't even know what the move is.
Is it this first?
- [Server] Show.
- [Katie] Turn.
- [Server] Pour.
And then I would just, for you,
I would just turn it a little bit over,
but so yeah to the guests over here, turn it again.
- [Katie] Got it.
That was like effortless.
Great job.
- And there's very little that I would change about that.
I think that was really good.
- Hello, I have a sparkling rosé for you.
- Wonderful.
- I'm gonna do it again.
(laughter)
- There's this thing that happens frequently,
where people, waiters, show up to their table,
physically and verbally at the same time right?
So instead of showing up,
and allowing this message to reverberate,
people are like, "Hello."
You see what I mean?
So when you showed up,
you showed up physically and verbally at the same time,
and said hello, which is just unnecessary, right?
So you can actually show up to your table,
and give them a second to round out their conversation,
before you start interjecting with words.
The other thing is, you did a great job with the label,
okay, however, you showed it mostly to,
my spot right?
And the other thing is,
this is not featuring the wine,
this is featuring the wine and my body right?
So I actually prefer if there's a little bit of this--
- Negative space. - [Rachel] Framework,
with the arms right?
So again we get into that structure of,
using the arms in like an extended way,
so then all of a sudden you can be like this,
and you can more freely kind of move this around,
without having to like.
- Right.
- So then of course you would do the whole opening thing,
which we're just not going to do right now.
And pouring it.
- It's crazy in like those five seconds you know,
how many things you're translating with body language.
I certainly have a lot more respect for servers.
- [Rachel] Oh what they do is amazing.
- Oh my gosh it's really.
I mean I knew that already,
but this is certainly proving it again.
(cheerful music)