Slow Motion Ballet

This is a great video to study. Watch it through at least once to see the entire sequence.  On the second viewing, use the pause button to pick out and sketch the best gestures that show a clear line of action, squash/stretch, and balance.

Ballerina Sketching Practice

These sequential images of a ballerina dancing come from an article in the Daily Mail.  Try sketching each of these images while focusing on Lines of Action and Movement.  First, simplify the gesture into a bare minimum of line, then determine in what direction momentum is moving.  This should help you draw gestures that have a sense of liveliness to them.

Once you completed the first sequence, draw a second that focuses on exaggerated movement.  Scale the size of the limbs and use foreshortening to throw limbs closer the the "camera" and others further away.

After you've completed the second sequence of drawings start another that uses the gestures of the ballerina but the body type of a different character.  Use your knowledge of proportion, body shapes, gender, and age to help you change the ballerina into an old man or a little kid.

Hugh Laidman's Gesture Drawings

Hugh Laidman's gesture drawings are wonderful.  Not only are they lively and energetic, but they also demonstrate a clear understanding of anatomy, lines of action, and form is described with a variations in line weight.

Laidman's book Figures/Faces is widely available and a recommended read.