How does a would-be ballerina find the best ballet shoes and pointe shoes? A good ballet teacher? What does a good dance studio look like? How can ballet dancers learn safe weight loss, build muscle and make ballet training into a career builder?
geekphilosopher.com provided "The Dancing Class" clip.
Contents at a Glance
- You Can't Stand Green Vegetables Yet You Want Strong Ballet Muscles
- Chinese Dancer Opens Beijing Paralympics
- How to Avoid Overuse of the Achilles Tendon in Sports and Ballet
You Can't Stand Green Vegetables Yet You Want Strong Ballet Muscles
I know there are many talented ballet dance students and young people training to win in the different sports arenas who do not take nutrition seriously.
Until they get injured, or until their recovery periods no longer suffice to recover in. Green vegetables are number one on their "can't stand" list.
A simplistic explanation of how green vegetables, especially cruciferous (broccoli, kale, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, being the most common) support exercise might be this.
The body works like a machine. The workings are motivated by thought, be it conscious, subconscious, deliberate, careless, positive, negative, precise or sloppy.
Once a motivating thought has occurred, several bio-electric mechanisms ensue.
Nerve endings do not actually engage with muscle fiber. However, they communicate by an electrical current and certain chemicals. Compare it to putting a plug in the wall. You have a plug, and you have a socket. When the connection is made, energy flows. Your action would be the electricity/chemical process.
In your muscles, one element has to be released for the connection to be made, and for a muscle contraction to occur. That element is calcium.
Due to excellent marketing, we think that our prime source of calcium is milk. That is not true. And if you are allergic to milk, lactose intolerant, or eat vegan, you get left behind right here, with milk as a source of calcium.
Sesame seeds are an excellent source of calcium. So are leafy green vegetables, particularly cruciferous vegetables. Steamed, baked, stir-fried, shredded, raw, fermented (as in sauerkraut), or eaten cold in salads, the "can't stand" part can be disguised with a little butter and lemon juice (if hot), or a delicious salad dressing if cold. Add some slivered almonds or crumbled walnuts to a hot or cold dish, and it's pretty yummy.
Some people get bloated and gassy after eating certain vegetables. This is not because of the vegetables. It is a lack of intestinal flora, or healthy bacteria, which are on your digestion team. You are simply under-staffed.
These little beings are part of the factory that produces certain chemicals from these vegetables and then transforms toxins created in the process to prompt a de-toxifying process and carry gunk out of your body. If you get a high content Acidophilus/Bifidus product, you will get more comfortable results from eating vegetables. Maybe not overnight, it is a gradual improvement process. It is slowed down by eating sugar.
Cleaning your intestines in any way is a detox. You may experience mild headaches, mild aches and pains (which your ballet and training aches and pains will probably override), or fatigue. The good news is, cruciferous vegetables also have a lot of fiber and help move out the debris in your intestines.
If you just cannot try to eat these wonderful green superfoods, make sure you get them in a whole food supplement along with some calcium too. You want to eat what is nature born. This will help you develop strong ballet and athlete's muscles.
This whole food supplement is the best yet.
A simplistic explanation of how green vegetables, especially cruciferous (broccoli, kale, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, being the most common) support exercise might be this.
The body works like a machine. The workings are motivated by thought, be it conscious, subconscious, deliberate, careless, positive, negative, precise or sloppy.
Once a motivating thought has occurred, several bio-electric mechanisms ensue.
Nerve endings do not actually engage with muscle fiber. However, they communicate by an electrical current and certain chemicals. Compare it to putting a plug in the wall. You have a plug, and you have a socket. When the connection is made, energy flows. Your action would be the electricity/chemical process.
In your muscles, one element has to be released for the connection to be made, and for a muscle contraction to occur. That element is calcium.
Due to excellent marketing, we think that our prime source of calcium is milk. That is not true. And if you are allergic to milk, lactose intolerant, or eat vegan, you get left behind right here, with milk as a source of calcium.
Sesame seeds are an excellent source of calcium. So are leafy green vegetables, particularly cruciferous vegetables. Steamed, baked, stir-fried, shredded, raw, fermented (as in sauerkraut), or eaten cold in salads, the "can't stand" part can be disguised with a little butter and lemon juice (if hot), or a delicious salad dressing if cold. Add some slivered almonds or crumbled walnuts to a hot or cold dish, and it's pretty yummy.
Some people get bloated and gassy after eating certain vegetables. This is not because of the vegetables. It is a lack of intestinal flora, or healthy bacteria, which are on your digestion team. You are simply under-staffed.
These little beings are part of the factory that produces certain chemicals from these vegetables and then transforms toxins created in the process to prompt a de-toxifying process and carry gunk out of your body. If you get a high content Acidophilus/Bifidus product, you will get more comfortable results from eating vegetables. Maybe not overnight, it is a gradual improvement process. It is slowed down by eating sugar.
Cleaning your intestines in any way is a detox. You may experience mild headaches, mild aches and pains (which your ballet and training aches and pains will probably override), or fatigue. The good news is, cruciferous vegetables also have a lot of fiber and help move out the debris in your intestines.
If you just cannot try to eat these wonderful green superfoods, make sure you get them in a whole food supplement along with some calcium too. You want to eat what is nature born. This will help you develop strong ballet and athlete's muscles.
This whole food supplement is the best yet.
Chinese Dancer Opens Beijing Paralympics
Read this inspiring story of an earthquake victim in China, a teenage ballet student, and how she was rescued. Having a leg amputated did not stop her from pursuing her ballet dreams.
How to Avoid Overuse of the Achilles Tendon in Sports and Ballet
One of the too-common dance injuries is that of the achilles tendon.
Runners and other athletes in sports training also suffer some over use inflammation, and even rupture of the achilles tendon. This tendon depends on muscle strength in the calf and the foot, to retain proper use. Following are some self-care tips that will help you avoid overuse and injury of your achilles tendons, and encourage courageous patience in better rehabilitation.
Tendonitis is all too-prevalent in dance injuries and sports injuries. In fact, when someone says "I have tendonitis" it usually refers to the achilles tendon, without being explained, it is that common. Inflammation, or "itis" can occur in any area of the body.
The achilles tendon comes from the lower end of the calf muscles, and inserts, or is attached, to the heel bone. The calf muscles above, and the intrinsic foot muscles below, are supposed to do all the actual work in moving the foot flexed, or extended (pointed, in ballet).
If the foot can flex and stretch without changing its angle (curving outward, or sickling out in ballet, or curving inward, sickling in or 'pigeon toes'), in most cases the tendon will not get irritated.
This is presuming that when you are standing on an even surface, the foot is not sloping inward, what people think of as "fallen arches", or is not sloping outward toward the little toe edge of the foot.
Runners and other athletes often work on uneven surfaces and depend on both strength and supportive shoes to minimize the variation in foot angle as it strikes the ground or pushes off. Ballet dancers absolutely depend on foot strength to prevent misuse, as they do not generally wear supports in their ballet shoes and pointe shoes. If needed, however, orthotics, or foot levelers, can be worn in dance shoes.
If a dancer or athlete has bowed legs, or hyper-extended legs, there will be an angle created just to have the feet flat on the floor. If this situation is understood, the student can be taught how to avoid inflammation of the achilles tendon through understanding, and correction of, or accurate compensation for, this particular anatomical detail.
Correcting the stance of hyper-extended legs by stacking the skeletal joints (ankles, knees, hips and on up) and holding turnout, will correct the natural pronation (fallen arches) of the feet on the floor. Sometimes this is not even visible to a glance in dancers, due to a strong built-up muscle structure that is deceptive. Even chiropractors and physio therapists have to test dancers' muscles extensively, in order not to miss this observation, until they gain experience with it.
As more and more athletes are studying ballet principles of turnout and footwork to gain an extra advantage in their performance, and prevent sports injuries, hopefully the area of hyper-extension will also be addressed.
Bowed legs require an angle of the foot, for it to be flat on the floor. In ballet, correct use of turnout, developing the intrinsic foot muscles, and always having the body weight placed correctly on the feet (hyper-extension and bowed legs tend to throw the weight back) minimizes the overuse and irritation of the achilles tendon.
Both ballet dancers and athletes need the understanding that poorly developed foot muscles lead to exhausting the calf muscles. This in turn creates tension, loss of muscle tone and strength, and the achilles tendon develops tendonitis.
Once inflammation has set in, rest, and icing must be applied. A courageous patience is needed in recovery, as the pressure to stay in the daily competitive drive for a an upcoming exam, performance or team try-out, must be resisted. You long term persistence in your chosen field depends on avoiding a chronic situation.
Ballet, dance, and sports injuries can be prevented. If you are a pre-pro, a would-be ballerina, a dedicated recreational dancer or athlete, study all you can about how to avoid overuse and injury of your achilles tendon.
Tendonitis is all too-prevalent in dance injuries and sports injuries. In fact, when someone says "I have tendonitis" it usually refers to the achilles tendon, without being explained, it is that common. Inflammation, or "itis" can occur in any area of the body.
The achilles tendon comes from the lower end of the calf muscles, and inserts, or is attached, to the heel bone. The calf muscles above, and the intrinsic foot muscles below, are supposed to do all the actual work in moving the foot flexed, or extended (pointed, in ballet).
If the foot can flex and stretch without changing its angle (curving outward, or sickling out in ballet, or curving inward, sickling in or 'pigeon toes'), in most cases the tendon will not get irritated.
This is presuming that when you are standing on an even surface, the foot is not sloping inward, what people think of as "fallen arches", or is not sloping outward toward the little toe edge of the foot.
Runners and other athletes often work on uneven surfaces and depend on both strength and supportive shoes to minimize the variation in foot angle as it strikes the ground or pushes off. Ballet dancers absolutely depend on foot strength to prevent misuse, as they do not generally wear supports in their ballet shoes and pointe shoes. If needed, however, orthotics, or foot levelers, can be worn in dance shoes.
If a dancer or athlete has bowed legs, or hyper-extended legs, there will be an angle created just to have the feet flat on the floor. If this situation is understood, the student can be taught how to avoid inflammation of the achilles tendon through understanding, and correction of, or accurate compensation for, this particular anatomical detail.
Correcting the stance of hyper-extended legs by stacking the skeletal joints (ankles, knees, hips and on up) and holding turnout, will correct the natural pronation (fallen arches) of the feet on the floor. Sometimes this is not even visible to a glance in dancers, due to a strong built-up muscle structure that is deceptive. Even chiropractors and physio therapists have to test dancers' muscles extensively, in order not to miss this observation, until they gain experience with it.
As more and more athletes are studying ballet principles of turnout and footwork to gain an extra advantage in their performance, and prevent sports injuries, hopefully the area of hyper-extension will also be addressed.
Bowed legs require an angle of the foot, for it to be flat on the floor. In ballet, correct use of turnout, developing the intrinsic foot muscles, and always having the body weight placed correctly on the feet (hyper-extension and bowed legs tend to throw the weight back) minimizes the overuse and irritation of the achilles tendon.
Both ballet dancers and athletes need the understanding that poorly developed foot muscles lead to exhausting the calf muscles. This in turn creates tension, loss of muscle tone and strength, and the achilles tendon develops tendonitis.
Once inflammation has set in, rest, and icing must be applied. A courageous patience is needed in recovery, as the pressure to stay in the daily competitive drive for a an upcoming exam, performance or team try-out, must be resisted. You long term persistence in your chosen field depends on avoiding a chronic situation.
Ballet, dance, and sports injuries can be prevented. If you are a pre-pro, a would-be ballerina, a dedicated recreational dancer or athlete, study all you can about how to avoid overuse and injury of your achilles tendon.
Learning to Develop Lean Muscles in Ballet
Any would - be ballerina suffers from the fear factor in developing big butts or big thighs instead of the long lean look.
Any would -be ballerina suffers from the fear factor in developing big butts or big thighs instead of the long lean look. Especially if that shape runs in the family. Especially when human genetics are discussed as though no one can escape their fate.Your genetic shape is modified by what you eat, and how you exercise.
Posture is everything for growing to be long and lean. The spine and pelvis must be in a natural position. A postural plumb line must be straight from the top of the head, down through your body's natural curves, to your ankle bones.
If a mirror at the ballet studio, or at home, reflects a vertical line of some kind, like a door frame, stand at the mirror so that you can place your body sideways, in front of the line. Notice how your spine and legs line up along the line. If your weight is leaning back, or too far forward from your ankles, you will be able to see that you are not standing along the line.
Your spine has three natural curves. The most noticeable curve is at the waist area of the lumbar spine. A common misconception is that this curve should be pulled long, by tucking the pelvis under, and that this stance protects the low back. Exactly the opposite is true. Years of tucking under will lead to low back pain and perhaps even herniated discs. Correct posture will protect the discs. The discs, in turn, cushion the bones and allow maximum comfortable movement.
This tucking under of the pelvis will develop big thighs, or quads, and big butts, or gluteal muscles. The body weight presses down on the thighs, not allowing any elongation of the muscles. The deep rotator muscles are not in a prime position to hold turnout, and the gluts have to be held clenched in a bulked up fashion, to keep the pelvis stable.
The long lean look of a ballerina is from working pulled up in the deep lower ab muscles, and with a feeling of pressing down through the center of her leg bones, as if pushing the floor away. The thigh muscles pull up but do not clench hard. You need a certain amount of tension for the stability of each ballet position and movement, but not more than that. Extra tension will create less fluidity of your ballet movement.
Pilates is an excellent cross training for dancers because all exercises are done emphasizing length.
If you understand the correct posture that a ballerina works in, you can learn how to get the long and lean look, and avoid the big butts and big thighs that develop from working in an unnatural way.
Click here and find out how a would-be ballerina and men in ballet get exactly the right fit in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, prevent dance injuries, get The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible, and Deborah Vogel's products on injury prevention and functional anatomy.
How to Stay in Shape and Keep Your Muscle Tone While on Vacation
For athletes and dancers (classical ballet and others too), time off without a daily class brings the double-edged sword of relief and anxiety. Relief to have relaxing time, and anxiety about not staying in shape and keeping the muscle tone they've worked so hard for. So without turning time off into a working vacation, here are some suggestions for daily routines to help stay in shape.
If you're staying at home and have a spot that you usually exercise in, then you are set to practice. If you are a classical ballet student, the challenge is great - there is really nothing to replace the demands of a ballet class. However, you can customize a daily routine to challenge your muscles.
If you are intermediate or advanced, it is easy to get a ballet class DVD to workout with. However, many are instructional with breaks in between the exercises. There are some ballet workout DVDs which are pretty demanding, but if you don't want to customize a routine that works on your particular ongoing corrections from class, you will get a good workout. Also, you'll get warmed up enough to stretch safely.
If you choose to do a regular barre routine, make a simple barre workout that emphasizes your weaknesses. For example, if you have any balancing problems, put in a slow rise and slow lowering into a demi plie in every exercise. And repeat without using the barre. If you understand where the shift in balance is coming from, you can correct, repeat super-slow-motion movements.
You can also include core muscle exercises every day, to help with the balancing problem.
You could sign up for local Pilates classes - they are wonderful for the elongating type of exercises, core muscle strength and stretching too.
If you are traveling in hotels or in homes, and will have a restricted space, take a stretchy band. With the floor space required to sit, move into second position, or lie down and lift your legs to the front back and side, you can do slow leg raises with the band, and developpes with the band. This challenges your leg and core muscles.
If you are preparing for pointe work coming up in your next session of classes, use the stretchy band for foot strengthening. Sitting, legs stretched out in front, pointe your ankles but not your toes. Run the band behind your flexed toes, and stretch your toes long against the resistance of the band. You increase the resistance as you need, and work out all your foot and ankle muscles.
This is good for men in ballet too. Strengthening the feet means you will not be over working your calf muscles, which pinch-hit for the foot muscles when they are weak. This leads to strain and tension, which in turn decreases the ankle flexibility and the degree of point that you have.
Swimming is great for endurance - if you enjoy it, swim a lot.
Stay hydrated, and eat good whole food to keep those electrolytes up. Dehydration affects your muscles tone, your energy, your brain function and leads to retaining water. Real food provides minerals you can digest, avoid those sugary sports drinks with a couple of token minerals in them.
I hope this has given you some ideas as to how to enjoy your time off without feeling like it is a working vacation, and with no worry about staying in shape or how to keep your muscle tone.
Read more here about daily routines, corrections, The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible, and ballet DVDs for working out and staying in shape.
If you're staying at home and have a spot that you usually exercise in, then you are set to practice. If you are a classical ballet student, the challenge is great - there is really nothing to replace the demands of a ballet class. However, you can customize a daily routine to challenge your muscles.
If you are intermediate or advanced, it is easy to get a ballet class DVD to workout with. However, many are instructional with breaks in between the exercises. There are some ballet workout DVDs which are pretty demanding, but if you don't want to customize a routine that works on your particular ongoing corrections from class, you will get a good workout. Also, you'll get warmed up enough to stretch safely.
If you choose to do a regular barre routine, make a simple barre workout that emphasizes your weaknesses. For example, if you have any balancing problems, put in a slow rise and slow lowering into a demi plie in every exercise. And repeat without using the barre. If you understand where the shift in balance is coming from, you can correct, repeat super-slow-motion movements.
You can also include core muscle exercises every day, to help with the balancing problem.
You could sign up for local Pilates classes - they are wonderful for the elongating type of exercises, core muscle strength and stretching too.
If you are traveling in hotels or in homes, and will have a restricted space, take a stretchy band. With the floor space required to sit, move into second position, or lie down and lift your legs to the front back and side, you can do slow leg raises with the band, and developpes with the band. This challenges your leg and core muscles.
If you are preparing for pointe work coming up in your next session of classes, use the stretchy band for foot strengthening. Sitting, legs stretched out in front, pointe your ankles but not your toes. Run the band behind your flexed toes, and stretch your toes long against the resistance of the band. You increase the resistance as you need, and work out all your foot and ankle muscles.
This is good for men in ballet too. Strengthening the feet means you will not be over working your calf muscles, which pinch-hit for the foot muscles when they are weak. This leads to strain and tension, which in turn decreases the ankle flexibility and the degree of point that you have.
Swimming is great for endurance - if you enjoy it, swim a lot.
Stay hydrated, and eat good whole food to keep those electrolytes up. Dehydration affects your muscles tone, your energy, your brain function and leads to retaining water. Real food provides minerals you can digest, avoid those sugary sports drinks with a couple of token minerals in them.
I hope this has given you some ideas as to how to enjoy your time off without feeling like it is a working vacation, and with no worry about staying in shape or how to keep your muscle tone.
Read more here about daily routines, corrections, The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible, and ballet DVDs for working out and staying in shape.
Technique For Pointe Work - Including For Men In Ballet
There are several famous male ballet dancers who have practiced classical ballet in pointe shoes. Some required it in their roles -
for example, for Bottom in A Midsummers Night's Dream. Some choreographers have put on pointe shoes in order to empathize with their ballerinas. Many men in ballet want to take advantage of the opportunity to stretch their ankles and build strength.
Many dance teachers would love to see some boys/men in ballet take pointe classes. Men in ballet actually can get exactly the right fit in pointe shoes, or most can.
Some men in ballet might have the ambition of getting into Les Ballets Trockaderos du Monte Carlo, all men, many ballerina roles.
Generally men in ballet do not have the mobile ankles that females have. A high curve, or ANY curve on the top of the ankle and instep is a plus, to meet the ballet fashion.
Female dance students quickly learn how to use pointe shoes to stretch the top of the ankle and instep, if they need more flexibility in the ankles. In second position, rise onto pointe, and plie, allowing the weight to go over the platform of the pointe shoe. If the ankle is not flexible, the weight of the body, supported by the pointe shoe, gives it a fabulous stretch.
And to build strength, if ankle flexibility is sufficient, rise onto pointe, and plie but stay on the platform of the shoe. This requires restraining the ankle joint and holding it exactly where you want it. For ballerinas, this is a requirement for control in general, and a necessity for the repetitive tiny hops on pointe found in classical ballet choreography.
While there are perfectly good exercises to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the feet without using pointe shoes, basic exercises on pointe are excellent for strengthening the feet. I recommend strengthening the feet before going onto pointe, but keep it up once you have started pointe classes. A simple exercise like rising onto pointe, slowly pressing down to demi pointe (as opposed to dropping down) and then pressing back up onto full pointe, will build strength. Adding repetitions as you can, you will develop strength and control.
Getting back to men in ballet - you will need to learn all about foot and toe types, and all the tips and tricks of toe leveling, toe spacers, and toe padding. No suffering needlessly. You are surrounded by experts - all the girls you study with!
I think many boys and men in ballet need to hear it from their teachers - that this would be a good idea! Not for the lucky men with the hyper-mobile arches, necessarily. Even for them, however, it would introduce an understanding of what ballerinas need, to check out the delicate balance that men learn to support, as a partner.
If you are among the men in ballet and already learning technique for pointe work - good for you!
Go here to get The Perfect Pointe Book, giving you all the relevant technique details that you need.
Many dance teachers would love to see some boys/men in ballet take pointe classes. Men in ballet actually can get exactly the right fit in pointe shoes, or most can.
Some men in ballet might have the ambition of getting into Les Ballets Trockaderos du Monte Carlo, all men, many ballerina roles.
Generally men in ballet do not have the mobile ankles that females have. A high curve, or ANY curve on the top of the ankle and instep is a plus, to meet the ballet fashion.
Female dance students quickly learn how to use pointe shoes to stretch the top of the ankle and instep, if they need more flexibility in the ankles. In second position, rise onto pointe, and plie, allowing the weight to go over the platform of the pointe shoe. If the ankle is not flexible, the weight of the body, supported by the pointe shoe, gives it a fabulous stretch.
And to build strength, if ankle flexibility is sufficient, rise onto pointe, and plie but stay on the platform of the shoe. This requires restraining the ankle joint and holding it exactly where you want it. For ballerinas, this is a requirement for control in general, and a necessity for the repetitive tiny hops on pointe found in classical ballet choreography.
While there are perfectly good exercises to strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the feet without using pointe shoes, basic exercises on pointe are excellent for strengthening the feet. I recommend strengthening the feet before going onto pointe, but keep it up once you have started pointe classes. A simple exercise like rising onto pointe, slowly pressing down to demi pointe (as opposed to dropping down) and then pressing back up onto full pointe, will build strength. Adding repetitions as you can, you will develop strength and control.
Getting back to men in ballet - you will need to learn all about foot and toe types, and all the tips and tricks of toe leveling, toe spacers, and toe padding. No suffering needlessly. You are surrounded by experts - all the girls you study with!
I think many boys and men in ballet need to hear it from their teachers - that this would be a good idea! Not for the lucky men with the hyper-mobile arches, necessarily. Even for them, however, it would introduce an understanding of what ballerinas need, to check out the delicate balance that men learn to support, as a partner.
If you are among the men in ballet and already learning technique for pointe work - good for you!
Go here to get The Perfect Pointe Book, giving you all the relevant technique details that you need.
How Can I Improve The Basics Of Pirouette Exercises - Especially In Pointe Shoes?
Pirouettes are fun, showy, and prominent in classical ballet choreography as well as other dance styles.
Even if you are never going to be a ballerina, dance ballet in pointe shoes because of gender, casting, dance style or because you are starting ballet at a later age, how to improve pirouettes is important.
The postural plumb line is where you start, in looking at what is going to make a pirouette succeed. Firstly, can you stand with good posture?
If so, can you rise up and down, firstly in a cou de pied position, on one leg, without losing your postural plumb line? If so, can you do a series of releves holding a good position, without neck or shoulder strain?
If you do lose it, correct your posture, then see if you lose it going into your demi plie. Is your weight sitting back? Do you lose any placement at the hips? Do you lose any turnout?
If any of the three things above occur, you need to get those fixed and forget about pirouettes until you build strength to maintain the basics of posture, turnout and a correct demi plie. You will still do your pirouettes in your ballet class, but for your daily practice routines, you need a step-by-step approach to get stronger.
If everything is good so far, raise your leg into a retire position and check that no placement gets lost at the hips. If this occurs, you need more stretching in the hip and pelvic area. Or, perhaps you need to rearrange the tension at the hips and you will find that you can get your hips level after all.
While the feeling of the spin is important and not to be lost for the sake of good technique, it is still vital that you be able to do sixteen, twenty-four, and then thirty-two strong releves in retire on both sides, without strain. You need a relaxed neck and shoulders to spot properly in multiple turns.
Especially in pointe shoes, you need to do these repetitive releves, to see that you can stay on one spot and not travel around. If you have trouble with this, use the barre. Check your balance at the bottom of your demi plie, as well as in the releve position. Seeing where your weight wants to go tells you where the weakness, or excess tension is. To build strength is important, and to train the muscle memory properly is too.
The reason why I recommend back-peddling to basic exercises in order to correct or build on an exercise, is because practicing things incorrectly is a waste of time. Asking your teacher for help or getting another student to buddy with you on practicing and correcting each other, is really worth the while.
It is more fun just doing turns, but technical inaccuracies will catch up with you and hold you back. Instantly, when you put on pointe shoes.
On your rest day, be sure to relax, stretch out the tired and tense muscles, using a rubber ball for the tight and tender spots. Ice the sore spots for 15 minutes, two or three times a day.
If you have worked so hard in ballet class or rehearsal that your legs are throbbing, lie down and stick them straight up the wall for a few minutes. It is easy to fall asleep that way...
Whenever you find yourself thinking "how can I improve..." just go back to the basic, slow motion movement to discover what classical ballet principle of technique is missing. Regardless of your dance style, simple ballet exercises done well, build strength. And then it is even more fun.
Get The Perfect Pointe Book, the definitive home practice manual written by a world famous dance medicine specialist.
The postural plumb line is where you start, in looking at what is going to make a pirouette succeed. Firstly, can you stand with good posture?
If so, can you rise up and down, firstly in a cou de pied position, on one leg, without losing your postural plumb line? If so, can you do a series of releves holding a good position, without neck or shoulder strain?
If you do lose it, correct your posture, then see if you lose it going into your demi plie. Is your weight sitting back? Do you lose any placement at the hips? Do you lose any turnout?
If any of the three things above occur, you need to get those fixed and forget about pirouettes until you build strength to maintain the basics of posture, turnout and a correct demi plie. You will still do your pirouettes in your ballet class, but for your daily practice routines, you need a step-by-step approach to get stronger.
If everything is good so far, raise your leg into a retire position and check that no placement gets lost at the hips. If this occurs, you need more stretching in the hip and pelvic area. Or, perhaps you need to rearrange the tension at the hips and you will find that you can get your hips level after all.
While the feeling of the spin is important and not to be lost for the sake of good technique, it is still vital that you be able to do sixteen, twenty-four, and then thirty-two strong releves in retire on both sides, without strain. You need a relaxed neck and shoulders to spot properly in multiple turns.
Especially in pointe shoes, you need to do these repetitive releves, to see that you can stay on one spot and not travel around. If you have trouble with this, use the barre. Check your balance at the bottom of your demi plie, as well as in the releve position. Seeing where your weight wants to go tells you where the weakness, or excess tension is. To build strength is important, and to train the muscle memory properly is too.
The reason why I recommend back-peddling to basic exercises in order to correct or build on an exercise, is because practicing things incorrectly is a waste of time. Asking your teacher for help or getting another student to buddy with you on practicing and correcting each other, is really worth the while.
It is more fun just doing turns, but technical inaccuracies will catch up with you and hold you back. Instantly, when you put on pointe shoes.
On your rest day, be sure to relax, stretch out the tired and tense muscles, using a rubber ball for the tight and tender spots. Ice the sore spots for 15 minutes, two or three times a day.
If you have worked so hard in ballet class or rehearsal that your legs are throbbing, lie down and stick them straight up the wall for a few minutes. It is easy to fall asleep that way...
Whenever you find yourself thinking "how can I improve..." just go back to the basic, slow motion movement to discover what classical ballet principle of technique is missing. Regardless of your dance style, simple ballet exercises done well, build strength. And then it is even more fun.
Get The Perfect Pointe Book, the definitive home practice manual written by a world famous dance medicine specialist.
Common Misunderstandings About Ballet Stretches And Doing The Splits
I am flabbergasted at the misunderstandings being perpetuated about doing the splits. Ballet stretches taught properly help with muscle flexibility.
Ballet exercises in soft shoes and pointe shoes all require correct posture and alignments. Doing the splits for a jete or a penche does not come naturally to many dancers. How do they make it look right?
One of the biggest reliefs I had when I went from amateur to professional training was that hips do not have to be square in a derriere position. Including for the splits.
I started my training in the R.A.D. system. I had natural turnout. It looked great except when I did a tendu (French word for stretched) derriere. We had to keep our hips square. In more advanced classes the developpe to the back, and attitude positions still looked turned in. Naturally the students would go for height, which opened our hip. Our teacher would correct our hips, placing them back to a square position, and both the height and turnout looked miserable.
When I got into classes taught by teachers from The National Ballet of Canada, I was elated to find I could open my working hip. The waist, upper back and shoulders had to stay square, but not the hips. I finally and instantly had a professional looking line in arabesque, attitude, etc. When I explained how I had been taught they said "no one can do that!"
Another absurdity is that some people will never do the splits due to hip deformity.
Doing the splits depends on overall hyper-mobility. Not only hamstrings and quads need to be extremely flexible, but your postural muscles, the iliopsoas, needs to be very flexible. Hyper-mobility of the joints is an extra blessing for doing the splits, but creates a lot of problems too.
A professional ballet dancer will do whatever it takes to get a good line in a split jete or penche. Those who cannot do the splits perfectly open the hip more, and sometimes slightly bend the leg so that their foot lines up with the hip, and even though the entire leg is not lined up, the illusion of the splits is seen.
The hard and fast rules of ballet technique are for safety - for prevention of dance injuries. Getting the right line allows for accommodations that skilled teachers know how to teach.
Stretch after your ballet exercises when you are warm. Relax your muscles. Use a rubber ball to knead out the worst tension. Stretch gently in correctly aligned positions. You will improve your muscle flexibility, and you may end up doing the splits. If you never do, it is not going to kill a dance career.
There is more here on ballet positions, ballet movements, flexibility and the splits.
One of the biggest reliefs I had when I went from amateur to professional training was that hips do not have to be square in a derriere position. Including for the splits.
I started my training in the R.A.D. system. I had natural turnout. It looked great except when I did a tendu (French word for stretched) derriere. We had to keep our hips square. In more advanced classes the developpe to the back, and attitude positions still looked turned in. Naturally the students would go for height, which opened our hip. Our teacher would correct our hips, placing them back to a square position, and both the height and turnout looked miserable.
When I got into classes taught by teachers from The National Ballet of Canada, I was elated to find I could open my working hip. The waist, upper back and shoulders had to stay square, but not the hips. I finally and instantly had a professional looking line in arabesque, attitude, etc. When I explained how I had been taught they said "no one can do that!"
Another absurdity is that some people will never do the splits due to hip deformity.
Doing the splits depends on overall hyper-mobility. Not only hamstrings and quads need to be extremely flexible, but your postural muscles, the iliopsoas, needs to be very flexible. Hyper-mobility of the joints is an extra blessing for doing the splits, but creates a lot of problems too.
A professional ballet dancer will do whatever it takes to get a good line in a split jete or penche. Those who cannot do the splits perfectly open the hip more, and sometimes slightly bend the leg so that their foot lines up with the hip, and even though the entire leg is not lined up, the illusion of the splits is seen.
The hard and fast rules of ballet technique are for safety - for prevention of dance injuries. Getting the right line allows for accommodations that skilled teachers know how to teach.
Stretch after your ballet exercises when you are warm. Relax your muscles. Use a rubber ball to knead out the worst tension. Stretch gently in correctly aligned positions. You will improve your muscle flexibility, and you may end up doing the splits. If you never do, it is not going to kill a dance career.
There is more here on ballet positions, ballet movements, flexibility and the splits.
The Synchronous Mechanical and Quality Development In Classical Ballet
The mechanical, or technical aspects of classical ballet technique(s) are always interrelated with the quality, or traditional grace of your favorite ballerina.
Ballet movement, and positions, while analyzed mechanically in detail for children and adult beginners, are not meant to be taught without the accompanying elegant quality that defines classical ballet. Whether professional or recreational, classical ballet is a source of elegance for our culture.
I remember a friend's story about doing a Classical Stretch workout at home, with her 4 year old daughter. They were doing warm ups with gentle arm movements. Her dad came along and joined in for a second. "No Papa" she corrected sternly. "It's like water is falling off the ends of your fingers!"
Being a soccer and karate jock, he moved on quickly.....
When I look at the many classical ballet studio websites, I love to browse the photo galleries or the videos they put up. All the aspiring professional ballet schools and more recreational or amateur dance studios show high energy, colorful performances and tons of enthusiasm. It is easy to see from their navigational bars that many have parent committees, and volunteer groups for every kind of support. Those ballet schools which do not contribute dancers to the pool of professional arenas definitely contribute volumes of inspiration and involvement in their communities. Such is the importance of dance and all the arts in our culture.
The inherent quality of grace in classical ballet and other dance forms has inspired the development of movement imagery, a whole field which addresses injury prevention, and pain management in rehabilitation - and much more. I know too little about it to comment further. Would like to learn more!
Learning the quality of demi plie, a tendu, and the way the arms are held in the basic ballet positions should be synchronized with the technical or mechanical details. In fact, how to separate the two should be a problem. Yet I've seen that happen.
I feel sad when I see a gifted dancer show off multiple pirouettes on a you-tube video - where her arms are stiff and her descent is abrupt. Why would she be neglected, to remain at her current regional level?
I feel the same when I see virtuoso leaps and spins from young male dancers, then see them at the barre slamming into over-crossed fifth positions, knees bent, hips rotating, in a speedy series of tendus. No time for foot pressure or thigh work. Why so fast when there are degages and frappes to develop skills for petit allegro? What will be the fate of those knee joints?
Quality, as much as technique and mechanics, prevents dance injuries. Synchronous mechanical and quality development IS the grace of classical ballet.
Click here to view our fabulous ballet store of pointe shoes, ballet wear, professional technique manuals, and more.
I remember a friend's story about doing a Classical Stretch workout at home, with her 4 year old daughter. They were doing warm ups with gentle arm movements. Her dad came along and joined in for a second. "No Papa" she corrected sternly. "It's like water is falling off the ends of your fingers!"
Being a soccer and karate jock, he moved on quickly.....
When I look at the many classical ballet studio websites, I love to browse the photo galleries or the videos they put up. All the aspiring professional ballet schools and more recreational or amateur dance studios show high energy, colorful performances and tons of enthusiasm. It is easy to see from their navigational bars that many have parent committees, and volunteer groups for every kind of support. Those ballet schools which do not contribute dancers to the pool of professional arenas definitely contribute volumes of inspiration and involvement in their communities. Such is the importance of dance and all the arts in our culture.
The inherent quality of grace in classical ballet and other dance forms has inspired the development of movement imagery, a whole field which addresses injury prevention, and pain management in rehabilitation - and much more. I know too little about it to comment further. Would like to learn more!
Learning the quality of demi plie, a tendu, and the way the arms are held in the basic ballet positions should be synchronized with the technical or mechanical details. In fact, how to separate the two should be a problem. Yet I've seen that happen.
I feel sad when I see a gifted dancer show off multiple pirouettes on a you-tube video - where her arms are stiff and her descent is abrupt. Why would she be neglected, to remain at her current regional level?
I feel the same when I see virtuoso leaps and spins from young male dancers, then see them at the barre slamming into over-crossed fifth positions, knees bent, hips rotating, in a speedy series of tendus. No time for foot pressure or thigh work. Why so fast when there are degages and frappes to develop skills for petit allegro? What will be the fate of those knee joints?
Quality, as much as technique and mechanics, prevents dance injuries. Synchronous mechanical and quality development IS the grace of classical ballet.
Click here to view our fabulous ballet store of pointe shoes, ballet wear, professional technique manuals, and more.
How To Build Strength For Hyperextended Knees Before You Dance In Pointe Shoes
Understanding neutral spine, neutral leg, and understanding the support system of your core muscles is vital.
Every ballet exercise requires a neutral standing leg. Dancing in pointe shoes, especially, requires a strong neutral leg and perfect alignment.
In discussions about hyperextended knees, some students who have been dancing for years are just beginning to understand that their knees hyperextend, or over-straighten.
Explaining a neutral leg, in the first few classes, is as important as explaining a neutral spine, whatever words the teacher uses. (Unless there are no hyperextended legs in the class, this is necessary).
A neutral leg is: knee above the ankle bone, pelvis above the knees. A line drawn down through a photo of you standing, taken from the side, should reveal a postural plumb line, from the center of the skull, neck, spine (through your natural curves), pelvis, through the knees and ankles, or just in front of the ankles, depending where you rested your weight.
With hyperextended legs, the knees stretch back behind this line. While this curving out at the back of the knees is an admired line in a dancer's gesture leg, it causes many problems in a standing leg.
First you tackle the feeling of the legs being bent, when held in a straight position. However, in this straight position it is much easier to hold the turnout and have the pelvis in a neutral position where you can build strength in your center.
When the knees rest back in hyperextension, the thighs turn in, and often the pelvis tucks under. Now you have compromised the safety of your low back. (In this position you may develop bulky thighs and bulky hip muscles). From here you destabilize your balance. You can compensate for this distortion in many ways in soft shoes, to a degree.
When you get onto pointe shoes, all kinds of problems will show up, if they haven't already.
Easily a whole booklet could be written about this. To keep it simplified, focus on the straight, or neutral leg.
If you are a few years into training, it's extra work, it's reprogramming neural pathways. But most dancers do this all the time as they progress through their training and careers.
There is also a lot of talk about overdeveloping the quads or inside knee muscles, or some other deformity, because of holding the leg straight. Not so. If your pelvis is neutral, you can use your muscles properly. You don't need to grip or clench.
You want your thighs pulled up long. You want a feeling of pushing down through the center of your leg bones into the floor. And imagine a space between your hip bones and the top of your thighs. You will achieve a real lengthening by doing this, your deep lower abs will pull up and in nicely, and now your core muscles are supporting the length you want.
You will be able to hold your turnout and have a strong supporting leg. When you get into pointe shoes, you will have your body aligned well, over that tiny point on the floor.
Always remember in your ballet stretching, to relax and lengthen all your muscles. Use a soft rubber ball to knead the muscles, leaning on a wall, or use it with the floor. Deborah Vogel, a dance medicine specialist, author of "Dancing Smart" , has created a DVD on using the "pinky ball" for releasing muscle tension.
You can also click here for ballet manuals on basic technique and building strength for pointe work.
In discussions about hyperextended knees, some students who have been dancing for years are just beginning to understand that their knees hyperextend, or over-straighten.
Explaining a neutral leg, in the first few classes, is as important as explaining a neutral spine, whatever words the teacher uses. (Unless there are no hyperextended legs in the class, this is necessary).
A neutral leg is: knee above the ankle bone, pelvis above the knees. A line drawn down through a photo of you standing, taken from the side, should reveal a postural plumb line, from the center of the skull, neck, spine (through your natural curves), pelvis, through the knees and ankles, or just in front of the ankles, depending where you rested your weight.
With hyperextended legs, the knees stretch back behind this line. While this curving out at the back of the knees is an admired line in a dancer's gesture leg, it causes many problems in a standing leg.
First you tackle the feeling of the legs being bent, when held in a straight position. However, in this straight position it is much easier to hold the turnout and have the pelvis in a neutral position where you can build strength in your center.
When the knees rest back in hyperextension, the thighs turn in, and often the pelvis tucks under. Now you have compromised the safety of your low back. (In this position you may develop bulky thighs and bulky hip muscles). From here you destabilize your balance. You can compensate for this distortion in many ways in soft shoes, to a degree.
When you get onto pointe shoes, all kinds of problems will show up, if they haven't already.
Easily a whole booklet could be written about this. To keep it simplified, focus on the straight, or neutral leg.
If you are a few years into training, it's extra work, it's reprogramming neural pathways. But most dancers do this all the time as they progress through their training and careers.
There is also a lot of talk about overdeveloping the quads or inside knee muscles, or some other deformity, because of holding the leg straight. Not so. If your pelvis is neutral, you can use your muscles properly. You don't need to grip or clench.
You want your thighs pulled up long. You want a feeling of pushing down through the center of your leg bones into the floor. And imagine a space between your hip bones and the top of your thighs. You will achieve a real lengthening by doing this, your deep lower abs will pull up and in nicely, and now your core muscles are supporting the length you want.
You will be able to hold your turnout and have a strong supporting leg. When you get into pointe shoes, you will have your body aligned well, over that tiny point on the floor.
Always remember in your ballet stretching, to relax and lengthen all your muscles. Use a soft rubber ball to knead the muscles, leaning on a wall, or use it with the floor. Deborah Vogel, a dance medicine specialist, author of "Dancing Smart" , has created a DVD on using the "pinky ball" for releasing muscle tension.
You can also click here for ballet manuals on basic technique and building strength for pointe work.
Productive Routines - A Step By Step Approach To Pointe Work
Whether you are a would-be ballerina in dance classes, under ten years old, or a young adult beginner, you can start some clever planning to achieve your goal of dancing in pointe shoes.
Productive routines done at home, with a step by step approach, will help you build strength for all aspects of your ballet technique.
Anything that enhances the strength and accuracy of your ballet technique will get you closer to doing pointe work, if you are a female, and get you closer to the male virtuoso steps if you are a male.
If you are over about 12 years old and have been doing ballet for three years or more, it will also help you get towards classes on pointe faster.
If you are under 12, there is no rush. You need to grow, and there are a zillion finer details to work on in the meantime.
However, you can begin learning as soon as you can read! There are foot muscles to learn about, and posture, and turnout.
There are "flexers" and "extensors" and "rotators".
There are foods that help you grow and there are foods that weaken your muscles instantly! (sugars, and various chemicals in foods).
There are French words for ballet to learn.
There are ways to learn to relax and stretch, ways to warm up, and ways to ice and rest exhausted muscles (while you are watching your favorite ballet movies) .
Be optimistic and excited, but be methodical too. The way has been prepared for you by many teachers who have shared their expertise with books, videos, and excellent practice regimens.
I have seen students with the ideal ballet physique, good stage looks, the money to study, ("born to dance") and yet poor ability to concentrate. They are more likely to get injured and lose time. Or, they just cannot absorb the many details and keep up with the demands of ballet training.
Thus, students who seem less talented at first, but who can work well, gain consistently.
A step by step approach and clever planning, will result in productive routines that will advance you better, perhaps faster, and more safely.
Dance ballet in pointe shoes with expert guidance from The Perfect Pointe Book.
Anything that enhances the strength and accuracy of your ballet technique will get you closer to doing pointe work, if you are a female, and get you closer to the male virtuoso steps if you are a male.
If you are over about 12 years old and have been doing ballet for three years or more, it will also help you get towards classes on pointe faster.
If you are under 12, there is no rush. You need to grow, and there are a zillion finer details to work on in the meantime.
However, you can begin learning as soon as you can read! There are foot muscles to learn about, and posture, and turnout.
There are "flexers" and "extensors" and "rotators".
There are foods that help you grow and there are foods that weaken your muscles instantly! (sugars, and various chemicals in foods).
There are French words for ballet to learn.
There are ways to learn to relax and stretch, ways to warm up, and ways to ice and rest exhausted muscles (while you are watching your favorite ballet movies) .
Be optimistic and excited, but be methodical too. The way has been prepared for you by many teachers who have shared their expertise with books, videos, and excellent practice regimens.
I have seen students with the ideal ballet physique, good stage looks, the money to study, ("born to dance") and yet poor ability to concentrate. They are more likely to get injured and lose time. Or, they just cannot absorb the many details and keep up with the demands of ballet training.
Thus, students who seem less talented at first, but who can work well, gain consistently.
A step by step approach and clever planning, will result in productive routines that will advance you better, perhaps faster, and more safely.
Dance ballet in pointe shoes with expert guidance from The Perfect Pointe Book.
The Pursuit of Perfection VS Striving For Excellence In Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes
The pursuit of perfection is not the same as striving for excellence.
If you do not understand the difference, and are becoming a perfectionist in your ballet training, you will jeopardize your progress in different ways. Ballet technique must be excellent. But you need a healthy viewpoint to be consistent in your advancement.
Self-criticism is not the same as self-critiquing. A critique is a critical examination of something. But it is more related to a particular definition from the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
"critical may also imply an effort to see a thing clearly and truly in order to judge it fairly"
Self-criticism has a negative slant to it, in common usage anyway. It usually means just plain picking on yourself.
A lot of your ballet technique can actually be perfect. Your posture can be perfect. If it isn't, you can get more flexible, or build muscle and make it just right. The challenge in ballet, is retaining the perfect posture when you first learn a harder version of what you are doing.
So, if you are always striving to advance, you are always moving past the point where you feel secure in a movement. That's just the way it works. If you are self-critiquing and not self-criticizing, you'll be happy with this process, or at least accept it.
Perfectionism is a state of true unhappiness. You actually bully yourself. And, if you are learning a physical activity, you bully your body as a result. It is very complex.
There are always bad days and frustrating classes. A healthy viewpoint is one of letting it go and just starting the new day when it comes. You do your best every class, and sometimes your best is a little better than other times.
The healthy pursuit of perfection comes when you know your work and you can do your work, and you are rehearsing with a coach who is going to help you with every minute detail. And that goes way beyond the technical into the dramatic elements, pacing your energy, and the repetition. The repetition that means you can dance beautifully on a bad day too.
Always remember to relax and stretch your muscles, and reflect on the things that are easier for you, that you really enjoy doing in class. It's a given that you will fall asleep thinking about the things that felt not so good. But try to end your thoughts with "but I'm really good at..."
Striving for excellence will not jeopardize your progress. As long as you have the information you need about ballet technique, you will continue to build strength, you will get into pointe shoes at the right time for you.
Strive for excellence in your ballet positions, ballet technique and ballet movements with guidance from the experts at www.theballetstore.com.
Self-criticism is not the same as self-critiquing. A critique is a critical examination of something. But it is more related to a particular definition from the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
"critical may also imply an effort to see a thing clearly and truly in order to judge it fairly"
Self-criticism has a negative slant to it, in common usage anyway. It usually means just plain picking on yourself.
A lot of your ballet technique can actually be perfect. Your posture can be perfect. If it isn't, you can get more flexible, or build muscle and make it just right. The challenge in ballet, is retaining the perfect posture when you first learn a harder version of what you are doing.
So, if you are always striving to advance, you are always moving past the point where you feel secure in a movement. That's just the way it works. If you are self-critiquing and not self-criticizing, you'll be happy with this process, or at least accept it.
Perfectionism is a state of true unhappiness. You actually bully yourself. And, if you are learning a physical activity, you bully your body as a result. It is very complex.
There are always bad days and frustrating classes. A healthy viewpoint is one of letting it go and just starting the new day when it comes. You do your best every class, and sometimes your best is a little better than other times.
The healthy pursuit of perfection comes when you know your work and you can do your work, and you are rehearsing with a coach who is going to help you with every minute detail. And that goes way beyond the technical into the dramatic elements, pacing your energy, and the repetition. The repetition that means you can dance beautifully on a bad day too.
Always remember to relax and stretch your muscles, and reflect on the things that are easier for you, that you really enjoy doing in class. It's a given that you will fall asleep thinking about the things that felt not so good. But try to end your thoughts with "but I'm really good at..."
Striving for excellence will not jeopardize your progress. As long as you have the information you need about ballet technique, you will continue to build strength, you will get into pointe shoes at the right time for you.
Strive for excellence in your ballet positions, ballet technique and ballet movements with guidance from the experts at www.theballetstore.com.
Ballet and Sports Jumping Injuries Can Be Prevented By Education and Your Ability To Concentrate
Most sports or ballet jumping injuries result in ankle sprains or knee injuries. Ballet well taught, will prevent injuries through the proper use of turnout and placement to support posture and changes of direction. In sports, athletes are coached to keep their knees lined up under their hip joints, but in the guidelines I found, there is no mention of how the feet are aligned, or placed on the floor or ground.
The ankle joint is a hinge joint, and is actually three joints. Your two 'shin bones', the tibia and fibula join to the the talus, the foot bone, and also to the heel bone.
This allows for flexing and stretching your foot, for keeping the foot flat on the floor while the leg angles, and also for ankle rotations.
In ballet, and many sports, the strength of the intrinsic foot muscles - the muscles exclusively in your feet, is the buffer against strains in the calf muscles. The calf and leg muscles have to work harder to control the ankle if the foot muscles are underdeveloped. However, the calf and leg muscles cannot control the ankle and foot movements as well as strong foot muscles can.
You could say that is an out-sourced job. Control is best, locally, in the feet. Athletes have the challenge of uneven ground to deal with as well.
To dancers working in pointe shoes, the sole of the shoe presents uneven ground. Some professional dancers file down the edges of the leather sole so that it is more flush to the floor. But unlike a new pointe student, they have the strength in their intrinsic foot muscles to make up for the loss of the sole support. In other words, I do not recommend this for novice pointe work students - it is better to work on achieving new strength and balance in standing in pointe shoes (on flat).
Occasionally, also, the talus bone is damaged from a jumping injury. The ankle may be sprained, and the talus bone can suffer a compression fracture, easily, on the corner areas. This can go undetected.
Dancers have turnout to control stresses on knee and ankle joints. They also have the foot muscles to buffer landings. Athletes have training routines also. But all of us must rely on our ability to concentrate, and build strength for muscle control to avoid jumping injuries.
Avoid dance injuries. Learn the finer details about injury prevention with The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible and the Dancing Smart publications.
The ankle joint is a hinge joint, and is actually three joints. Your two 'shin bones', the tibia and fibula join to the the talus, the foot bone, and also to the heel bone.
This allows for flexing and stretching your foot, for keeping the foot flat on the floor while the leg angles, and also for ankle rotations.
In ballet, and many sports, the strength of the intrinsic foot muscles - the muscles exclusively in your feet, is the buffer against strains in the calf muscles. The calf and leg muscles have to work harder to control the ankle if the foot muscles are underdeveloped. However, the calf and leg muscles cannot control the ankle and foot movements as well as strong foot muscles can.
You could say that is an out-sourced job. Control is best, locally, in the feet. Athletes have the challenge of uneven ground to deal with as well.
To dancers working in pointe shoes, the sole of the shoe presents uneven ground. Some professional dancers file down the edges of the leather sole so that it is more flush to the floor. But unlike a new pointe student, they have the strength in their intrinsic foot muscles to make up for the loss of the sole support. In other words, I do not recommend this for novice pointe work students - it is better to work on achieving new strength and balance in standing in pointe shoes (on flat).
Occasionally, also, the talus bone is damaged from a jumping injury. The ankle may be sprained, and the talus bone can suffer a compression fracture, easily, on the corner areas. This can go undetected.
Dancers have turnout to control stresses on knee and ankle joints. They also have the foot muscles to buffer landings. Athletes have training routines also. But all of us must rely on our ability to concentrate, and build strength for muscle control to avoid jumping injuries.
Avoid dance injuries. Learn the finer details about injury prevention with The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible and the Dancing Smart publications.
Ballet Turnout Prevents Knee Injuries Suffered By Soccer and Volleyball Players
"Knee muscles are capable of protecting ligaments and preventing injury," says Edward M. Wojtys M.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery, U-M Medical School,...
...and Director of Sports Medicine at UMHS (University of Michigan Health System). "Female athletes are two to eight times more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligament because they may not able to achieve the same muscle stiffness across the knee joint." Both female and male athletes could benefit from ballet classes, to learn the principles of turnout. Pointe shoes could pose an equal risk for dancers, because of the extra demand for strengthening turnout.
It is the running and pivoting team sports that this study addresses. Sprinters and runners go in one direction, and do not have to risk knee rotation. This article from Science Daily also reports:
"The thought is, if you play jumping, turning, twisting sports, that you should be better prepared to protect your knee against rotational forces," Wojtys says.
That's why the measurements for the females involved in non-pivoting sports were surprising when compared to females in the pivoting sports. Females in non-pivoting sports had an increase in knee stiffness of 198 percent - 27 percent higher than the females in pivoting sports.
"Women who played jumping, turning, twisting sports actually had the poorest ability to protect themselves against rotational strains," Wojtys says. "
Please note that the above reference to "stiffness" means deliberate tension of the knee muscles, not the kind of stiffness resulting from strain or over training.
Ballet is a pivotal movement system. We do turn and pivot both in adage, jumps and on pointe. But we have turnout to protect our knees, especially, but also all of our joints. We employ turnout to change direction smoothly.
And, of course, our movements are choreographed in advance, and well rehearsed.
The strength of our turnout and placement means we do not have to twist to turn or pivot. This takes years of training. Athletes also practise dodging and twisting movements for speed and reflex, but to date, do not generally understand how to protect their joints.
This study shows that female athletes are more likely to risk knee injuries. What a shame that so far, it is mainly football players who study ballet, to avoid the risk of injuries resulting from twisting and tearing joints.
In the field of Dance Medicine inspired authors like Deborah Vogel and Lisa Howell write about the finer details of functional anatomy, mostly in relationship to dance and working in pointe shoes. I recommend their works to any aspiring female athlete, to learn some basic ballet exercises, build turnout strength, and avoid knee sprains.
The Perfect Pointe Book is an easy to use basic ballet technique guide for a female athlete, geared toward preventing injuries.
It is the running and pivoting team sports that this study addresses. Sprinters and runners go in one direction, and do not have to risk knee rotation. This article from Science Daily also reports:
"The thought is, if you play jumping, turning, twisting sports, that you should be better prepared to protect your knee against rotational forces," Wojtys says.
That's why the measurements for the females involved in non-pivoting sports were surprising when compared to females in the pivoting sports. Females in non-pivoting sports had an increase in knee stiffness of 198 percent - 27 percent higher than the females in pivoting sports.
"Women who played jumping, turning, twisting sports actually had the poorest ability to protect themselves against rotational strains," Wojtys says. "
Please note that the above reference to "stiffness" means deliberate tension of the knee muscles, not the kind of stiffness resulting from strain or over training.
Ballet is a pivotal movement system. We do turn and pivot both in adage, jumps and on pointe. But we have turnout to protect our knees, especially, but also all of our joints. We employ turnout to change direction smoothly.
And, of course, our movements are choreographed in advance, and well rehearsed.
The strength of our turnout and placement means we do not have to twist to turn or pivot. This takes years of training. Athletes also practise dodging and twisting movements for speed and reflex, but to date, do not generally understand how to protect their joints.
This study shows that female athletes are more likely to risk knee injuries. What a shame that so far, it is mainly football players who study ballet, to avoid the risk of injuries resulting from twisting and tearing joints.
In the field of Dance Medicine inspired authors like Deborah Vogel and Lisa Howell write about the finer details of functional anatomy, mostly in relationship to dance and working in pointe shoes. I recommend their works to any aspiring female athlete, to learn some basic ballet exercises, build turnout strength, and avoid knee sprains.
The Perfect Pointe Book is an easy to use basic ballet technique guide for a female athlete, geared toward preventing injuries.
Myomouse Builds Strength and Simulates Controlling Weight - News For Retired Dancers and Athletes
"The researchers found that the "genetically reprogrammed" mice lost fat and showed other signs of metabolic improvement throughout the body...
...What's more, those benefits were seen even though the mice continued eating a diet high in both fat and sugar and didn't increase their physical activity at all."
A study that appears in the February 6th issue of Cell Metabolism was conducted with Myomouse - a mouse type that was genetically engineered to produce Muscle II fibers. The kind he would have built using barbells, or in the slower press up type of pointe shoe exercises. The resulting gene adaptions showed that his chemistry could then reverse fatty liver disease, insulin resistance and other aging conditions.
"Slow Burn" by Frederick Hahn cites a testimonial by an M.D., who states that he reversed his Type II Diabetes by the Slow Burn fitness regimen. That is pretty exciting.
Teenagers who have a tendency to gain weight to the point of obesity should look into this. Insulin resistance (leading to Type II Diabetes) can start at any age, if the diet is bad enough. That means overloaded with empty carbs that mess up the blood sugar regulation.
(I'm not suggesting that you should add Slow Burn to your ballet exercises or sports so that you can eat fat and sugar.)
Retired dancers and athletes often find that with a healthy diet for controlling weight, muscle mass is lost and fat slowly appears, despite disciplined work. The study with the "myomouses" showed that more muscle II fibers were lost than muscle I fibers. Muscle II fibers are the ones that give the body cues to - well, oversimplifying - stay young!
Even if we could be genetically reprogrammed for this, doing a slow motion type of exercise may be in our better interest. However, I am amazed at the progression of science in this direction, and hope that the results will be shared with, and available to everyone.
I've also become aware recently of The Pace Program which also changes the way the body metabolizes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080205121740.htm is where you can read about the Myomouse study. The details are extremely interesting.
So if you've hung up your ballet shoes and pointe shoes, or other atheletic gear, simulate genetic reprogramming with Slow Burn exercise. Build strength, and work on controlling weight with optimum results.
Go here for "Slow Burn" in the book section. It is an amazing read.
A study that appears in the February 6th issue of Cell Metabolism was conducted with Myomouse - a mouse type that was genetically engineered to produce Muscle II fibers. The kind he would have built using barbells, or in the slower press up type of pointe shoe exercises. The resulting gene adaptions showed that his chemistry could then reverse fatty liver disease, insulin resistance and other aging conditions.
"Slow Burn" by Frederick Hahn cites a testimonial by an M.D., who states that he reversed his Type II Diabetes by the Slow Burn fitness regimen. That is pretty exciting.
Teenagers who have a tendency to gain weight to the point of obesity should look into this. Insulin resistance (leading to Type II Diabetes) can start at any age, if the diet is bad enough. That means overloaded with empty carbs that mess up the blood sugar regulation.
(I'm not suggesting that you should add Slow Burn to your ballet exercises or sports so that you can eat fat and sugar.)
Retired dancers and athletes often find that with a healthy diet for controlling weight, muscle mass is lost and fat slowly appears, despite disciplined work. The study with the "myomouses" showed that more muscle II fibers were lost than muscle I fibers. Muscle II fibers are the ones that give the body cues to - well, oversimplifying - stay young!
Even if we could be genetically reprogrammed for this, doing a slow motion type of exercise may be in our better interest. However, I am amazed at the progression of science in this direction, and hope that the results will be shared with, and available to everyone.
I've also become aware recently of The Pace Program which also changes the way the body metabolizes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080205121740.htm is where you can read about the Myomouse study. The details are extremely interesting.
So if you've hung up your ballet shoes and pointe shoes, or other atheletic gear, simulate genetic reprogramming with Slow Burn exercise. Build strength, and work on controlling weight with optimum results.
Go here for "Slow Burn" in the book section. It is an amazing read.
Higher SAT Scores From Ballet Class and Pointe Shoes?
In a southern California newspaper, a report by Chris Moran says " The College Board annually releases a report showing that the more arts and music courses students take, the higher their SAT scores are....
.....Sweetwater Union High School District's survey of its own students five years ago found that students enrolled in visual and performing arts classes had higher grade-point averages than those who were not. The correlation is an admittedly chicken-and-egg argument over whether the arts make students smarter or smarter students pursue the arts. "
A recent article in New Science Daily presents the following:
"Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. In the Dana Consortium study, researchers grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?"
#8 in a series of points made is:
"Learning to dance by effective observation is closely related to learning by physical practice, both in the level of achievement and also the neural substrates that support the organization of complex actions. Effective observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills."
MARY BELLE MCCORKLE and SHIRLEY KISER wrote in the Tucson Citizen, "How the arts make kids smarter.
Students' scores improve in the three R's when they're exposed to music, dance and the theater".
Betty Oliphant, former Principal of The National Ballet School of Canada insisted on high academic standards, because she grew up in London in the earlier 2oth Century where dancers were considered dumb. Personally I don't think you can learn the classics if you are dumb.
What is dumb anyway? Shyness, less-confident, dyslexic, under-nourished? Maybe not interested in the usual social issues and dramas?
If it were not for the internet I would not know that scientists find this subject interesting. Artists know that they are not less smart than scientists. They also know that the money needed to run all these multi-university studies could run a small ballet company for a season or two.
Scientists and artists alike need patrons - and competition is fierce. Patrons need artists and scientists, and vice versa - so it's a chicken or the egg situation - and it makes an interesting holisitc picture for us all to function in.
But if your parents worry that your grades will drop if you spend too much time in pointe shoes or the ballet class - just mention the higher SAT scores!
A recent article in New Science Daily presents the following:
"Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. In the Dana Consortium study, researchers grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?"
#8 in a series of points made is:
"Learning to dance by effective observation is closely related to learning by physical practice, both in the level of achievement and also the neural substrates that support the organization of complex actions. Effective observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills."
MARY BELLE MCCORKLE and SHIRLEY KISER wrote in the Tucson Citizen, "How the arts make kids smarter.
Students' scores improve in the three R's when they're exposed to music, dance and the theater".
Betty Oliphant, former Principal of The National Ballet School of Canada insisted on high academic standards, because she grew up in London in the earlier 2oth Century where dancers were considered dumb. Personally I don't think you can learn the classics if you are dumb.
What is dumb anyway? Shyness, less-confident, dyslexic, under-nourished? Maybe not interested in the usual social issues and dramas?
If it were not for the internet I would not know that scientists find this subject interesting. Artists know that they are not less smart than scientists. They also know that the money needed to run all these multi-university studies could run a small ballet company for a season or two.
Scientists and artists alike need patrons - and competition is fierce. Patrons need artists and scientists, and vice versa - so it's a chicken or the egg situation - and it makes an interesting holisitc picture for us all to function in.
But if your parents worry that your grades will drop if you spend too much time in pointe shoes or the ballet class - just mention the higher SAT scores!
Chunking and Imitational Learning In Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes
Please let me explain. "Chunking" is a new verb. It is a scientific word. Try not to think "chunky" because to a dancer "chunky" is a very threatening idea.
Chunking means breaking down a movement into its series of mini-movements so that someone learning it can learn it more accurately and faster, and build the right neural pathways. Like a ballet class, or a ballet exercise. Neuroscientists use this word.
I am trying to be serious and academic about this but the verb "chunking" is too funny.
Brandeis University's Volen Center for Complex Systems published a study "Monkey See Monkey Do". It attended to the lack of research on imitative learning, which has apparently been neglected, in favor of studies in verbal learning, even though we learn more through imitation than by words. The study notes that:
"Several strategies may help leverage a learner's attention and motivate imitative learning. Organizing the motor skill practice is key. For example, Sekuler, an expert on the neural and cognitive terrain of visual memory, says that breaking down a behavioral sequence into chunks can aid imitation learning, just as chunking can help us memorize a string of seemingly unrelated digits or other material. Agam and Sekuler have their sights set on identifying strategies that teachers and coaches could use to make complex actions more "chunkable," and therefore easier to imitate.
The researchers' long-term goal is to devise simple methods that will allow teachers and coaches to take any arbitrary complex action that they want to teach--like that series of dance steps or that perfect golf swing, and then re-package that action into components that make for optimal learning."
If the researchers had watched a classical ballet, and then a ballet class, they would see a supreme example of chunking. Don't you just love that word? All those pre-pointe routines make pointe work chunkable.
The gazillion degages are chunking the aspired to, smooth, floating, gliding glissade. The stretchy, elastic, muscle-elicious fondu in adage are chunks of grand allegro.
The quick footwork exercises at the ballet barre are chunkettes of petit allegro.
I do not mean to diss brain research but I find this hilarious. So please appreciate the careful chunking that your ballet teachers are so good at, in helping you develop organized thought patterns, build neural pathways and build strength in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.
One excellent example of chunking is The Perfect Pointe Book, which chunks perfectly for pointe shoe practice and essential ballet technique for all.
I am trying to be serious and academic about this but the verb "chunking" is too funny.
Brandeis University's Volen Center for Complex Systems published a study "Monkey See Monkey Do". It attended to the lack of research on imitative learning, which has apparently been neglected, in favor of studies in verbal learning, even though we learn more through imitation than by words. The study notes that:
"Several strategies may help leverage a learner's attention and motivate imitative learning. Organizing the motor skill practice is key. For example, Sekuler, an expert on the neural and cognitive terrain of visual memory, says that breaking down a behavioral sequence into chunks can aid imitation learning, just as chunking can help us memorize a string of seemingly unrelated digits or other material. Agam and Sekuler have their sights set on identifying strategies that teachers and coaches could use to make complex actions more "chunkable," and therefore easier to imitate.
The researchers' long-term goal is to devise simple methods that will allow teachers and coaches to take any arbitrary complex action that they want to teach--like that series of dance steps or that perfect golf swing, and then re-package that action into components that make for optimal learning."
If the researchers had watched a classical ballet, and then a ballet class, they would see a supreme example of chunking. Don't you just love that word? All those pre-pointe routines make pointe work chunkable.
The gazillion degages are chunking the aspired to, smooth, floating, gliding glissade. The stretchy, elastic, muscle-elicious fondu in adage are chunks of grand allegro.
The quick footwork exercises at the ballet barre are chunkettes of petit allegro.
I do not mean to diss brain research but I find this hilarious. So please appreciate the careful chunking that your ballet teachers are so good at, in helping you develop organized thought patterns, build neural pathways and build strength in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.
One excellent example of chunking is The Perfect Pointe Book, which chunks perfectly for pointe shoe practice and essential ballet technique for all.
Not Stocked At The Ballet Store - Your Ability To Concentrate
Advancing into pointe shoes is determined by some finer details other than age, experience and muscle strength. Your ability to concentrate forms neural pathways (learning new things through concentration and repetition).
You must be able to work safely, with no distractions. If you are a little tired, or having an "off day", your ability to concentrate will get you through.
Holding back a young dance student from pointe work, who has the near-perfect physique, allowing for accurate placement and tidy looking exercises, is sometimes advisable.
Sufficient muscular strength may not be present yet. Just as important, maturity, and ability to concentrate may not be developed.
The advantage of practicing pre-pointe foot exercises is that a student has focused on some finer details of muscle work in the tiny intrinsic foot muscles. These muscles do not get developed well in our footwear, generally.
Specific exercises using the toes like you are playing a piano, or switching off lifting the big toe from the floor, then the other four toes, develop the foot muscles.
Before those movements are done with ease, the neural pathways are developed. The ability to concentrate on these tiny movements trains the brain to recognize what you want to do, and to react instantly.
After repetitions of the correct movements, the brain connects immediately with the right muscles and the correct movement results. That's muscle memory. And the strength follows.
While you cannot get ballet positions, movements and technique on the shelf at the ballet store, you can get it all with practice. Your brain will build neural pathways as you apply your focused intention. If your technique is accurate, hurrah. If not, you will at some point have to unlearn, and learn again.
If your power of concentration is not yet developed, no problem. You just repeat a correctly learned exercise. Your fantastic brain takes over. You feel your muscles and every single part of a movement. THEN you start to build strength.
It is best for you to have a better ability to concentrate, good muscle memory from well built neural pathways, and technical control, before you dance ballet in pointe shoes.
Learn ballet here with the safe routines in The Perfect Pointe Book.
Holding back a young dance student from pointe work, who has the near-perfect physique, allowing for accurate placement and tidy looking exercises, is sometimes advisable.
Sufficient muscular strength may not be present yet. Just as important, maturity, and ability to concentrate may not be developed.
The advantage of practicing pre-pointe foot exercises is that a student has focused on some finer details of muscle work in the tiny intrinsic foot muscles. These muscles do not get developed well in our footwear, generally.
Specific exercises using the toes like you are playing a piano, or switching off lifting the big toe from the floor, then the other four toes, develop the foot muscles.
Before those movements are done with ease, the neural pathways are developed. The ability to concentrate on these tiny movements trains the brain to recognize what you want to do, and to react instantly.
After repetitions of the correct movements, the brain connects immediately with the right muscles and the correct movement results. That's muscle memory. And the strength follows.
While you cannot get ballet positions, movements and technique on the shelf at the ballet store, you can get it all with practice. Your brain will build neural pathways as you apply your focused intention. If your technique is accurate, hurrah. If not, you will at some point have to unlearn, and learn again.
If your power of concentration is not yet developed, no problem. You just repeat a correctly learned exercise. Your fantastic brain takes over. You feel your muscles and every single part of a movement. THEN you start to build strength.
It is best for you to have a better ability to concentrate, good muscle memory from well built neural pathways, and technical control, before you dance ballet in pointe shoes.
Learn ballet here with the safe routines in The Perfect Pointe Book.
Build Strength For Ballet Technique By Understanding Your Core Muscles
When you build strength in your core, you support high extensions, pirouette and fouette positions, pointe work and grand allegro.
There are many good articles on the internet about your core muscles and how they stabilize the body and prevent injuries and low back pain. To enhance your ballet technique, and your grace, in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, the following tips will help. When you build strength in your core, you support high extensions, pirouette and fouette positions, pointe work and grand allegro.
I found this easy to understand article at:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/core-exercises/SM00071
"Core muscles
Your body's core is the area around your trunk and pelvis. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. Strong core muscles make it easier to do most physical activities - from swinging a golf club to getting a glass off a top shelf or bending down to tie your shoes. Weak core muscles leave you susceptible to poor posture, lower back pain and muscle injuries.
Core exercises help you strengthen your core muscles. And it doesn't take specialized equipment or an expensive gym membership to try core exercises. Any exercise that uses the trunk of your body without support counts. Think squats, push-ups and abdominal crunches."
The article then presents some simple and effective core exercises that anyone can do.
As a ballet student, your core muscles are engaged all the time. Posture and turnout depend on your core muscles.
Correct neutral spine, and correct turnout is the basis of your stability. Holding the turnout in your deep hip rotators, assisting with your inner thigh muscles, and supporting with your lower ab muscles pulled up and flat, allows for a relaxed upper body, and smooth head movements and fluid port de bras.
A wonderful and simple way to improve the strength of your core muscles for ballet, is doing slow press ups in retire position. (This is an intermediate level exercise).Using the barre lightly, press up slowly, maintaining your posture and turnout. Be aware of moments where your neck, shoulders or arms tense up - that is where you are letting go of your core strength. It's an easy marker to watch for.
When you can do this effortlessly, you are ready to do it without the barre. This will build strength for every movement. You will feel much stronger in pirouettes and will be able to add more turns.
When you get into pointe shoes, you won't have to struggle with an incorrect position that will throw you off your tiny pointe of connection with the floor. Nor will you strain or collapse into your ending positions.
All this applies to male students too - their investment in this kind of strength building will result in better pirouettes and control in grand allegro.
You'll continue to build strength if your basic ballet exercises are done accurately. Core muscles with the addition of turnout, is where you start, in your aspirations to dance in pointe shoes.
Dance ballet in pointe shoes with the guidance of The Perfect Pointe Book.
I found this easy to understand article at:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/core-exercises/SM00071
"Core muscles
Your body's core is the area around your trunk and pelvis. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. Strong core muscles make it easier to do most physical activities - from swinging a golf club to getting a glass off a top shelf or bending down to tie your shoes. Weak core muscles leave you susceptible to poor posture, lower back pain and muscle injuries.
Core exercises help you strengthen your core muscles. And it doesn't take specialized equipment or an expensive gym membership to try core exercises. Any exercise that uses the trunk of your body without support counts. Think squats, push-ups and abdominal crunches."
The article then presents some simple and effective core exercises that anyone can do.
As a ballet student, your core muscles are engaged all the time. Posture and turnout depend on your core muscles.
Correct neutral spine, and correct turnout is the basis of your stability. Holding the turnout in your deep hip rotators, assisting with your inner thigh muscles, and supporting with your lower ab muscles pulled up and flat, allows for a relaxed upper body, and smooth head movements and fluid port de bras.
A wonderful and simple way to improve the strength of your core muscles for ballet, is doing slow press ups in retire position. (This is an intermediate level exercise).Using the barre lightly, press up slowly, maintaining your posture and turnout. Be aware of moments where your neck, shoulders or arms tense up - that is where you are letting go of your core strength. It's an easy marker to watch for.
When you can do this effortlessly, you are ready to do it without the barre. This will build strength for every movement. You will feel much stronger in pirouettes and will be able to add more turns.
When you get into pointe shoes, you won't have to struggle with an incorrect position that will throw you off your tiny pointe of connection with the floor. Nor will you strain or collapse into your ending positions.
All this applies to male students too - their investment in this kind of strength building will result in better pirouettes and control in grand allegro.
You'll continue to build strength if your basic ballet exercises are done accurately. Core muscles with the addition of turnout, is where you start, in your aspirations to dance in pointe shoes.
Dance ballet in pointe shoes with the guidance of The Perfect Pointe Book.
Build Strength in Your Center Work With Preparation Ballet Exercises
Syllabus classes like R.A.D. and Cecchetti present only the exercises to be done in the exams. Many months can be spent working up to new and difficult movements.
You can build strength in your center with preparation ballet exercises, whether in ballet shoes or pointe shoes. This adds up to well-executed combinations and helps to prevent injuries.
For example, if your class has done adage in the center consisting of developpe en croix, and your new level requires a fouette or promenade, you may need to build more strength in your center.
Fouette in adage depends on the stability of the supporting side, firstly, then of course, also the working position.
To break it down, you could practise an exercise where you developpe devant, turn a quarter turn to face the wall, moving the supporting heel and thigh to a new turned out position, and the working leg coming forward to its proper second position. You could either close here, and developpe a la seconde and then turn a quarter turn back to devant, or just keep holding the leg up and turn back to devant. It depends on your current strength and stamina. You can do this four times on each side, changing sides, so as not to exhaust the supporting side.
You would do the same, going from developpe a la seconde to arabesque, always leading with the supporting heel/thigh and adjusting to the arabesque position carefully.
And then with developpe to arabesque back to a la seconde.
When you are feeling steady with these movements, you would want to add going into a demi plie at the end of the developpe, and releve the fouette, then coming down into a strong demi plie. This will be needed in fouette releve en pointe, and fouette saute, for a good strong landing. Adage is a preparation for these, as well as for adage choreography.
If you feel wobbly in the torso, or are straining your neck and shoulders to balance, you can do the lying on the floor on your side exercise, raising both legs up a few inches, straight, keeping the supporting waist held off the floor. 4-8 times per side and you will build core strength.
Teachers break movements down like this, and you can even practice the position changes in retire or a tendu, to get those torso muscles fully engaged and controlled.
This strength in your center means a lot when you put on pointe shoes and wobble until you get used to the shoe, maintaining a full height position and balancing on the sole of the pointe shoe.
Building this core strength through preparation exercises leads to the "effortless" quality that is so admired in professionals. And you can do it too.
The Ballet Bible details the components of ballet positions and ballet movements, and illustrates the core strength needed to do them accurately.
For example, if your class has done adage in the center consisting of developpe en croix, and your new level requires a fouette or promenade, you may need to build more strength in your center.
Fouette in adage depends on the stability of the supporting side, firstly, then of course, also the working position.
To break it down, you could practise an exercise where you developpe devant, turn a quarter turn to face the wall, moving the supporting heel and thigh to a new turned out position, and the working leg coming forward to its proper second position. You could either close here, and developpe a la seconde and then turn a quarter turn back to devant, or just keep holding the leg up and turn back to devant. It depends on your current strength and stamina. You can do this four times on each side, changing sides, so as not to exhaust the supporting side.
You would do the same, going from developpe a la seconde to arabesque, always leading with the supporting heel/thigh and adjusting to the arabesque position carefully.
And then with developpe to arabesque back to a la seconde.
When you are feeling steady with these movements, you would want to add going into a demi plie at the end of the developpe, and releve the fouette, then coming down into a strong demi plie. This will be needed in fouette releve en pointe, and fouette saute, for a good strong landing. Adage is a preparation for these, as well as for adage choreography.
If you feel wobbly in the torso, or are straining your neck and shoulders to balance, you can do the lying on the floor on your side exercise, raising both legs up a few inches, straight, keeping the supporting waist held off the floor. 4-8 times per side and you will build core strength.
Teachers break movements down like this, and you can even practice the position changes in retire or a tendu, to get those torso muscles fully engaged and controlled.
This strength in your center means a lot when you put on pointe shoes and wobble until you get used to the shoe, maintaining a full height position and balancing on the sole of the pointe shoe.
Building this core strength through preparation exercises leads to the "effortless" quality that is so admired in professionals. And you can do it too.
The Ballet Bible details the components of ballet positions and ballet movements, and illustrates the core strength needed to do them accurately.
Don't Waste Time - Learn To Self-Assess Your Ballet Technique
If you are a dedicated student who is willing to do some reading about the finer details of correct ballet technique, you'll acquire good ballet exercise tips and you'll know if you're working accurately in class.
If you can learn about self-assessing, and practise very accurate routines to improve one basic ballet exercise at a time, you'll get ahead much faster, for example, even if you continue only doing 2 classes a week. The internet is full of information! Glossaries of French words for ballet are available.
I know that if you are a dedicated student, you will love these volumes of information. You can prepare for pointe safely and properly, even if your own teacher doesn't know how. And many teachers don't, because this has not been taught before.
You can gradually reach the same standards as students who have studied during the early years that perhaps you didn't. You need the right info, that's all. For instance, if you just read one article about a correct plie, and practise that for a week at home, you would improve and strengthen every exercise you do in class.
If you self-assessed and started a routine for preparing to work in pointe shoes, in one month you would be far ahead of where you are now. And I encourage male dance students to do these too, because to date, I haven't found anything written for male students refining their footwork.
Repetition certainly is the essence of ballet training - but it only gets you optimum results if you're doing things accurately. Even the best of teachers can correct you only so much in a class - teachers try their best to correct everyone. So any student who is willing to learn to assess themselves and work a little at home is going to get way ahead!
Be creative in how you apply your homework in ballet exercises - figure out how you can do your foot exercises while you study for schoolwork. Do your core exercises while you watch a movie. There are many ways to not waste time, to build strength and muscle memory, and to excel beyond your expectations.
And always remember, stretching, relaxing tight muscles, and a day of rest is always part of the program!
Improve your ballet technique. Learn to self-assess and practice safely.
I know that if you are a dedicated student, you will love these volumes of information. You can prepare for pointe safely and properly, even if your own teacher doesn't know how. And many teachers don't, because this has not been taught before.
You can gradually reach the same standards as students who have studied during the early years that perhaps you didn't. You need the right info, that's all. For instance, if you just read one article about a correct plie, and practise that for a week at home, you would improve and strengthen every exercise you do in class.
If you self-assessed and started a routine for preparing to work in pointe shoes, in one month you would be far ahead of where you are now. And I encourage male dance students to do these too, because to date, I haven't found anything written for male students refining their footwork.
Repetition certainly is the essence of ballet training - but it only gets you optimum results if you're doing things accurately. Even the best of teachers can correct you only so much in a class - teachers try their best to correct everyone. So any student who is willing to learn to assess themselves and work a little at home is going to get way ahead!
Be creative in how you apply your homework in ballet exercises - figure out how you can do your foot exercises while you study for schoolwork. Do your core exercises while you watch a movie. There are many ways to not waste time, to build strength and muscle memory, and to excel beyond your expectations.
And always remember, stretching, relaxing tight muscles, and a day of rest is always part of the program!
Improve your ballet technique. Learn to self-assess and practice safely.
Build Strength For Long and Lean Ballet Muscles - Highly Effective Tips
To build strength for the long and lean muscles every dance student wants, here are some highly effective tips to achieve optimum results. The finer details are both physical and conceptual, and will improve all your ballet exercises.
Length is the goal in ballet, and here are some ways to think of it as a realistic goal.
For example, when you start a demi plie, you pull up. But to make that an extra pulled up strength, think of bending your knees, maximum turnout, and not lowering your body for a second. That's right, pull up the lower abs so that your belly button moves up your torso and stays there!
This is different from pulling in your stomach into a bundled knot. Whether or not you succeed in bending your knees and staying up, you will stretch your lower abs long and flat. To practice, open and close your knees a little several times and try to stay up at the same level. Then, when you sink down into that plie, keep the lower torso long and flat, still pulling up and away from the motion, still letting your calves relax, turnout held, and your feet flat on the floor, heels firm. If you do this every time you do a plie, it will make a huge difference in the lengthening feeling.
Another place to feel a lengthening is from the top of a press up. You've reached the top of your demi pointe or full pointe. As you lower the heels, pretend you are not lowering. You pull the heels down, away from your hips and torso. Your thighs stretch out long, in your mental image, like a stretchy band (which they are). You keep trying to stay up even as your heels touch the floor.
At this moment, if you are continuing into a demi plie, you again hold the lower abs long and up, as you open the knees, as if you are not lowering.
Here are just two places that will make a tremendous difference, if you do the lengthening technique every time you do a plie or pull down from a press up.
This helps control the pelvis, posture, and turnout, and you'll get the best you can in developing long and lean muscles and build strength.
At The Ballet Store you'll find more articles on technique with the finer details, The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible and much more information.
For example, when you start a demi plie, you pull up. But to make that an extra pulled up strength, think of bending your knees, maximum turnout, and not lowering your body for a second. That's right, pull up the lower abs so that your belly button moves up your torso and stays there!
This is different from pulling in your stomach into a bundled knot. Whether or not you succeed in bending your knees and staying up, you will stretch your lower abs long and flat. To practice, open and close your knees a little several times and try to stay up at the same level. Then, when you sink down into that plie, keep the lower torso long and flat, still pulling up and away from the motion, still letting your calves relax, turnout held, and your feet flat on the floor, heels firm. If you do this every time you do a plie, it will make a huge difference in the lengthening feeling.
Another place to feel a lengthening is from the top of a press up. You've reached the top of your demi pointe or full pointe. As you lower the heels, pretend you are not lowering. You pull the heels down, away from your hips and torso. Your thighs stretch out long, in your mental image, like a stretchy band (which they are). You keep trying to stay up even as your heels touch the floor.
At this moment, if you are continuing into a demi plie, you again hold the lower abs long and up, as you open the knees, as if you are not lowering.
Here are just two places that will make a tremendous difference, if you do the lengthening technique every time you do a plie or pull down from a press up.
This helps control the pelvis, posture, and turnout, and you'll get the best you can in developing long and lean muscles and build strength.
At The Ballet Store you'll find more articles on technique with the finer details, The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible and much more information.
Fitness and Nutrition Programs For Working in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes
There are many aspects to nutrition for athletes - muscles need minerals for flexibility (especially the splits). Stretching is necessary for good muscle tone, and minerals can help.
Calcium/magnesium/phosphorus/Vitamin D is a combination supplement showing up a lot now. It's proportioned properly for the best utilization by the body.
Liquid versions abound in the natural health food stores. Hopefully that means that the sources are natural (not made in a lab). This enables the body to recognize the product and use it. Chemical vitamins are not used by the body.
Since the body knows better than chemists do, as in balancing and using nutrients, it is best to give it a combination of vitamins and minerals that work together. If an athlete takes calcium for muscles, for example, he/she may not be able to benefit from the calcium without symbiotic minerals. Magnesium is often mixed with calcium. Magnesium prevents the "spark plugs" that electrically fire to contract a muscle, from repetitive firing, which results in muscle spasms. The muscle contracts and cannot relax. Calcium feeds the muscle, magnesium allows relaxation, and phosphorus needs to be in balance, and Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption. Always take as directed.
Taut muscles lose tone. They need to be stretched, relaxed, and rested. Lean meats, chicken, fish, and tofu mixed with a variety of vegetables and salads, provide a broad range of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Fruits add nutrition too.
Muscles that work into knots and spasms may need more nutrition. Firstly, proper technique and class regimens don't lead to such terrible knots and spasms - but once they are present - what to do?
A calcium supplement, balanced with magnesium, phosphorus and Vitamin D, will help relax the muscles and restore them to a workable condition. Tension melts and you may sleep better. You will get more out of your pointe classes, pre-pointe routines and repetitive grands plie (if you are a male student pushing for more thigh strength) if you follow good fitness and nutrition guidelines. Look around on the internet and in your local health food stores for quality calcium supplements, in the combination mentioned here. Life will be a lot easier in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.
If you are a dedicated aspirant of The Perfect Pointe Book's progressive regimens, some extra nutrition will help as you build strength and grow.
Liquid versions abound in the natural health food stores. Hopefully that means that the sources are natural (not made in a lab). This enables the body to recognize the product and use it. Chemical vitamins are not used by the body.
Since the body knows better than chemists do, as in balancing and using nutrients, it is best to give it a combination of vitamins and minerals that work together. If an athlete takes calcium for muscles, for example, he/she may not be able to benefit from the calcium without symbiotic minerals. Magnesium is often mixed with calcium. Magnesium prevents the "spark plugs" that electrically fire to contract a muscle, from repetitive firing, which results in muscle spasms. The muscle contracts and cannot relax. Calcium feeds the muscle, magnesium allows relaxation, and phosphorus needs to be in balance, and Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption. Always take as directed.
Taut muscles lose tone. They need to be stretched, relaxed, and rested. Lean meats, chicken, fish, and tofu mixed with a variety of vegetables and salads, provide a broad range of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Fruits add nutrition too.
Muscles that work into knots and spasms may need more nutrition. Firstly, proper technique and class regimens don't lead to such terrible knots and spasms - but once they are present - what to do?
A calcium supplement, balanced with magnesium, phosphorus and Vitamin D, will help relax the muscles and restore them to a workable condition. Tension melts and you may sleep better. You will get more out of your pointe classes, pre-pointe routines and repetitive grands plie (if you are a male student pushing for more thigh strength) if you follow good fitness and nutrition guidelines. Look around on the internet and in your local health food stores for quality calcium supplements, in the combination mentioned here. Life will be a lot easier in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.
If you are a dedicated aspirant of The Perfect Pointe Book's progressive regimens, some extra nutrition will help as you build strength and grow.
Better Rehabilitation For Ballet and Sports Injuries Postulated in MRI Study
Science Daily reports - "Ballet Dancers' Brains Reveal The Art Of Imitation".
Understanding "mirroring" in the brain leads scientist to conclude that better rehabilitation could occur for injured athletes if they keep watching the actions they are restricted from performing. An MRI study showed how their brains responded. While out of rehearsals and pointe shoes, keep watching!
"The University College London (UCL) study, published in the latest online edition of Cerebral Cortex , may help in the rehabilitation of people whose motor skills are damaged by stroke, and suggests that athletes and dancers could continue to mentally train while they are physically injured.
...Professor Patrick Haggard of UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience says: ......Our findings suggest that once the brain has learned a skill, it may simulate the skill without even moving, through simple observation. An injured dancer might be able to maintain their skill despite being temporarily unable to move, simply by watching others dance. This concept could be used both during sports training and in maintaining and restoring movement ability in people who are injured."
"Deborah Bull, Creative Director at Royal Opera House (ROH2), says: "We are delighted to be working with Patrick Haggard, our Associate Scientist, on this fascinating area of research. As a former dancer, I have long been intrigued by the different ways in which people respond to dance. Through this and future research, I hope we'll begin to understand more about the unique ways in which the human body can communicate without words."
There is nothing more stressful for a an athlete or dancer than the idea of injury. Competition for roles or preparation for exams is always present. Whether one is a student or a professional, the calendar of events in a year of training, or company season, is always tight.
Losing a couple of months can be devastating. According to this study, staying at home nursing an injury is even worse. It seems like that attending the environment of study or work is better. The brains enacts the skills required while observing, and the idea is that skill will therefore, not be lost.
Other scientists (Candace Pert, Bruce Lipton) have been saying for a long time that your brain does not know the difference between imagining doing something and doing it - and as all skills originate in the neural pathways - it seems best to continue using them, even if you are sitting in a cast.
It will be interesting to watch developments in these studies in better rehabilitation from ballet and sports injuries.
In the meantime, prevent! There is a wealth of information available on functional anatomy and pre-pointe shoe training that is oriented to prevent dance injuries.
"The University College London (UCL) study, published in the latest online edition of Cerebral Cortex , may help in the rehabilitation of people whose motor skills are damaged by stroke, and suggests that athletes and dancers could continue to mentally train while they are physically injured.
...Professor Patrick Haggard of UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience says: ......Our findings suggest that once the brain has learned a skill, it may simulate the skill without even moving, through simple observation. An injured dancer might be able to maintain their skill despite being temporarily unable to move, simply by watching others dance. This concept could be used both during sports training and in maintaining and restoring movement ability in people who are injured."
"Deborah Bull, Creative Director at Royal Opera House (ROH2), says: "We are delighted to be working with Patrick Haggard, our Associate Scientist, on this fascinating area of research. As a former dancer, I have long been intrigued by the different ways in which people respond to dance. Through this and future research, I hope we'll begin to understand more about the unique ways in which the human body can communicate without words."
There is nothing more stressful for a an athlete or dancer than the idea of injury. Competition for roles or preparation for exams is always present. Whether one is a student or a professional, the calendar of events in a year of training, or company season, is always tight.
Losing a couple of months can be devastating. According to this study, staying at home nursing an injury is even worse. It seems like that attending the environment of study or work is better. The brains enacts the skills required while observing, and the idea is that skill will therefore, not be lost.
Other scientists (Candace Pert, Bruce Lipton) have been saying for a long time that your brain does not know the difference between imagining doing something and doing it - and as all skills originate in the neural pathways - it seems best to continue using them, even if you are sitting in a cast.
It will be interesting to watch developments in these studies in better rehabilitation from ballet and sports injuries.
In the meantime, prevent! There is a wealth of information available on functional anatomy and pre-pointe shoe training that is oriented to prevent dance injuries.
The Perfect Battement Tendu - French Ballet Word For Stretched
Tendu is one of the French words for ballet. It means stretched. Usually, that means you have pointed your foot in a front, side, or backward direction from a closed position. Whether in soft ballet shoes or pointe shoes, the technique is the same.
Whether you pick up a ballet glossary at a ballet store, or find one on line, every new student needs one. Even if you speak French, the way the words are used can be different.
Battement tendu is a ballet movement opening the foot and leg, keeping the pointe of the toes on the floor.
Assuming that your posture is correct, "spine neutral", your turnout is from the hips, your neck and shoulders are relaxed, and your barre arm is resting lightly, not too much happens!
True, and not true.
If your are in fifth position, you begin shifting the weight to the standing leg and sliding the working heel forward, at the same time. You are pressing your heel forward, if you are going devant - to the front, or a la seconde, to the side. You can turn out your foot because you are taking the weight off that leg, so there is no strain on the knee joint.
Here's a tricky part - as you extend the leg, you keep pressing the foot into the floor. Not so as to strain the knee joint with having weight on the foot - no, but you are creating resistance. You press the foot into the floor to build strength in the foot muscles. You do not curl your toes to do this, think of the whole foot. But as you are extending the foot to the devant ballet position, it happens quickly. After the metatarsal area has left the floor, be sure to stretch your toes out long, do not curl or bend them. The movement is over when the arch is fully stretched, and the toes simply come into line.
This is the same movement you will do in pointe shoes, keeping the toes long, not bent over.
Some ballet techniques teach that you extend the foot so that the toes end up opposite the standing heel, in a devant position. Others teach that you cross the foot over so that the toe ends up opposite the center of the standing foot, or in line with the center of the torso. You can lose turnout crossing over like this, or, keeping the turnout, you can end up losing the hip placement, turning the body slightly croise (toward the corner of the supporting side). In the early years of training I see no reason not to stay with the extended toes in line with the supporting heel.
If nothing else has happened in the body, you have done a correct tendu devant.
To close, you relax your toe joints, pressing the toes slightly into the floor as the leg draws in, the toes pull back, the heel lowers, until the sole of the foot is pressing on the floor. Here's the little tricky area again - you pull the leg in, but you must stop pulling the toes back as you get into fifth (or first) so as not be turning the foot out too much. You have to stand on the whole foot, turned out from the hip rotators. Ballet is not anatomically correct, but you must compromise without injuring your knees, rolling your ankles, and being off balance.
At the end of the movement, your weight must be evenly on two feet, hips square, spine still neutral, neck relaxed. With the thousands of tendus you do in ballet training, there is no way you will not get strong and build good ballet technique.
You will find a complete glossary of French words for ballet in the The Ballet Bible.
Battement tendu is a ballet movement opening the foot and leg, keeping the pointe of the toes on the floor.
Assuming that your posture is correct, "spine neutral", your turnout is from the hips, your neck and shoulders are relaxed, and your barre arm is resting lightly, not too much happens!
True, and not true.
If your are in fifth position, you begin shifting the weight to the standing leg and sliding the working heel forward, at the same time. You are pressing your heel forward, if you are going devant - to the front, or a la seconde, to the side. You can turn out your foot because you are taking the weight off that leg, so there is no strain on the knee joint.
Here's a tricky part - as you extend the leg, you keep pressing the foot into the floor. Not so as to strain the knee joint with having weight on the foot - no, but you are creating resistance. You press the foot into the floor to build strength in the foot muscles. You do not curl your toes to do this, think of the whole foot. But as you are extending the foot to the devant ballet position, it happens quickly. After the metatarsal area has left the floor, be sure to stretch your toes out long, do not curl or bend them. The movement is over when the arch is fully stretched, and the toes simply come into line.
This is the same movement you will do in pointe shoes, keeping the toes long, not bent over.
Some ballet techniques teach that you extend the foot so that the toes end up opposite the standing heel, in a devant position. Others teach that you cross the foot over so that the toe ends up opposite the center of the standing foot, or in line with the center of the torso. You can lose turnout crossing over like this, or, keeping the turnout, you can end up losing the hip placement, turning the body slightly croise (toward the corner of the supporting side). In the early years of training I see no reason not to stay with the extended toes in line with the supporting heel.
If nothing else has happened in the body, you have done a correct tendu devant.
To close, you relax your toe joints, pressing the toes slightly into the floor as the leg draws in, the toes pull back, the heel lowers, until the sole of the foot is pressing on the floor. Here's the little tricky area again - you pull the leg in, but you must stop pulling the toes back as you get into fifth (or first) so as not be turning the foot out too much. You have to stand on the whole foot, turned out from the hip rotators. Ballet is not anatomically correct, but you must compromise without injuring your knees, rolling your ankles, and being off balance.
At the end of the movement, your weight must be evenly on two feet, hips square, spine still neutral, neck relaxed. With the thousands of tendus you do in ballet training, there is no way you will not get strong and build good ballet technique.
You will find a complete glossary of French words for ballet in the The Ballet Bible.
Tendu A La Seconde and A La Arriere - More French Ballet Words
Your positions a la seconde and a la arriere in battement tendu are the basis for building strength and good dance technique. The accuracy of these positions will carry over to your pre-pointe strengths, your adagio, to......everything you do in a ballet.
Your ballet positions a la seconde and a la arriere in battement tendu are the basis for building strength and good ballet technique. The accuracy of these positions will carry over to your pre-pointe strengths, your adagio, to......everything you do in a ballet class! Learning correct body placement and fine foot work in these exercises will also help prevent ballet injuries.
For a la seconde, the foot leaves fifth or first, the sole pressing into the floor, the metatarsals pressing as you extend the arch, and lastly, you lengthen the toes. Hopefully nothing else has happened in the body or to the standing leg. You aim the tendu to the spot furthest to the side, where you can still hold your turnout in both legs. For most dancers, this is not straight to the side. It doesn't matter. Holding the turnout of the supporting leg and the placement of the body facing square to the front matters. You need this stable ballet position for developpe, turns in a la seconde, and jumps in or going through a la seconde postion (fouette saute, grand jete en tournant).
Closing the tendu, press the toes down, then relax the metatarsal joints. Press the ball of foot and sole of foot into the floor, creating resistance. Make sure the whole foot is on the floor, so you can smoothly resume weight onto it. All the way into first or fifth behind, aiming for the foot placement that allows maximum turnout of both legs from the hips, no wiggling, no hip change, unless that is impossible.
A la arriere, behind, press down into the foot, changing the weight to the supporting leg. Lead out with the toes first, lengthening down the back of the leg, pressure in the sole of the foot as the arch stretches and then the toes lengthen.
At some point, your working hip will open from a square position, but the turnout of the supporting leg should not change, and your body from the waist up should be square to the front. Also, you have to keep feeling length down through the leg. The leg must be extended all the way out, before the foot fully points, or you will force your torso to scrunch at the waist instead of staying long. It's like a tug of war to lengthen the leg, and keep the body pulled up tall. Also that feeling prevents you from shifting the weight back off the supporting foot. You should be able to lift your hand from the barre any time, and be tall on your standing leg.
Closing from the back is a gradual change from the heel leading back in, pressure on the sole of the foot, and bringing the toes forward again to where you can stand on your whole foot. Also the working hip comes square again, smoothly, as the toes drop, the arch presses down, and the weight goes on to the foot.
To learn ballet in pointe shoes get The Perfect Pointe Book where you'll discover the best exercises for the foot muscles. You tendus will strengthen faster if you add these exercises to your daily routines. And don't forget to massage your feet with a small hard rubber ball, called a "pinky ball". Ice if your feet ache and massage when sitting watching TV. Strengthen, stretch, and always relax your muscles.
For a la seconde, the foot leaves fifth or first, the sole pressing into the floor, the metatarsals pressing as you extend the arch, and lastly, you lengthen the toes. Hopefully nothing else has happened in the body or to the standing leg. You aim the tendu to the spot furthest to the side, where you can still hold your turnout in both legs. For most dancers, this is not straight to the side. It doesn't matter. Holding the turnout of the supporting leg and the placement of the body facing square to the front matters. You need this stable ballet position for developpe, turns in a la seconde, and jumps in or going through a la seconde postion (fouette saute, grand jete en tournant).
Closing the tendu, press the toes down, then relax the metatarsal joints. Press the ball of foot and sole of foot into the floor, creating resistance. Make sure the whole foot is on the floor, so you can smoothly resume weight onto it. All the way into first or fifth behind, aiming for the foot placement that allows maximum turnout of both legs from the hips, no wiggling, no hip change, unless that is impossible.
A la arriere, behind, press down into the foot, changing the weight to the supporting leg. Lead out with the toes first, lengthening down the back of the leg, pressure in the sole of the foot as the arch stretches and then the toes lengthen.
At some point, your working hip will open from a square position, but the turnout of the supporting leg should not change, and your body from the waist up should be square to the front. Also, you have to keep feeling length down through the leg. The leg must be extended all the way out, before the foot fully points, or you will force your torso to scrunch at the waist instead of staying long. It's like a tug of war to lengthen the leg, and keep the body pulled up tall. Also that feeling prevents you from shifting the weight back off the supporting foot. You should be able to lift your hand from the barre any time, and be tall on your standing leg.
Closing from the back is a gradual change from the heel leading back in, pressure on the sole of the foot, and bringing the toes forward again to where you can stand on your whole foot. Also the working hip comes square again, smoothly, as the toes drop, the arch presses down, and the weight goes on to the foot.
To learn ballet in pointe shoes get The Perfect Pointe Book where you'll discover the best exercises for the foot muscles. You tendus will strengthen faster if you add these exercises to your daily routines. And don't forget to massage your feet with a small hard rubber ball, called a "pinky ball". Ice if your feet ache and massage when sitting watching TV. Strengthen, stretch, and always relax your muscles.
7 Additional Effective Habits For Improving Your Ballet Positions and Ballet Technique
Details, details, details....if you get them right in plies, the rest of the class is easier.
Every exercise you do up until you get into pointe shoes, is pre-pointe. The term focuses on the basics to help you work well in pointe shoes, to emphasize that there IS a regimen to improve your strength build-up towards pointe work.
** Check your postural plumb line at your first demi plie. This line goes straight down through your body, through the curve of the spine and your natural shapes. Also called "neutral spine".
** Check your turn out from your rotator muscles in the back of your pelvis. Your feet should be turned out as much as your thighs are, but not more to the degree that they pronate, or tense under the arches and toes.
** Move your head from side to side. Your neck is relaxed, and your shoulders move easily with your breathing. Do not press your shoulders down to compensate for a non-neutral spine, feet not completely contacting the floor, or anything else showing that you are off balance. Pressing the shoulders down, shows that your abdominal and back "core" muscles, are weak.
** Note that your arm can move without the shoulders following. The shoulder joint is free.
** Focus of your eyes. Be aware of what you are looking at. Your attention to the environment is necessary. A class or a stage is a busy place! You must seem, to an audience, that you are focusing outward, to them, even when you are not, and even when you cannot see them.
** Hold the barre lightly. Place your hand on it and use a slight pressure down when you feel your balance shifting. Gripping constantly tells you that you cannot do what you are trying to do! Cut back to an easier version of the exercise and practice. Increase your core muscle exercises.
** If you alter ANYTHING at the depth of your grande plie, or during the first inch coming up, find what is weak. When your heels come off the floor, watch and feel. Have a friend help. If it is just a matter of strength at the bottom of the plie, do shallower grande plies for a while, so as not to lose posture or turnout.
If you are among the men in ballet and you've noticed the girls talking excitedly about new pre-pointe regimens, pay attention! Those exercises and assessments for pointe work are perfect for you. The strength and finesse of foot work is necessary for you. Jumps, landings, controlling your descent from multiple turns, will have that cat-like quality if you develop your feet as you would for pointe work.
For better ballet positions get a definitive technical ballet manual, The Perfect Pointe Book.
** Check your postural plumb line at your first demi plie. This line goes straight down through your body, through the curve of the spine and your natural shapes. Also called "neutral spine".
** Check your turn out from your rotator muscles in the back of your pelvis. Your feet should be turned out as much as your thighs are, but not more to the degree that they pronate, or tense under the arches and toes.
** Move your head from side to side. Your neck is relaxed, and your shoulders move easily with your breathing. Do not press your shoulders down to compensate for a non-neutral spine, feet not completely contacting the floor, or anything else showing that you are off balance. Pressing the shoulders down, shows that your abdominal and back "core" muscles, are weak.
** Note that your arm can move without the shoulders following. The shoulder joint is free.
** Focus of your eyes. Be aware of what you are looking at. Your attention to the environment is necessary. A class or a stage is a busy place! You must seem, to an audience, that you are focusing outward, to them, even when you are not, and even when you cannot see them.
** Hold the barre lightly. Place your hand on it and use a slight pressure down when you feel your balance shifting. Gripping constantly tells you that you cannot do what you are trying to do! Cut back to an easier version of the exercise and practice. Increase your core muscle exercises.
** If you alter ANYTHING at the depth of your grande plie, or during the first inch coming up, find what is weak. When your heels come off the floor, watch and feel. Have a friend help. If it is just a matter of strength at the bottom of the plie, do shallower grande plies for a while, so as not to lose posture or turnout.
If you are among the men in ballet and you've noticed the girls talking excitedly about new pre-pointe regimens, pay attention! Those exercises and assessments for pointe work are perfect for you. The strength and finesse of foot work is necessary for you. Jumps, landings, controlling your descent from multiple turns, will have that cat-like quality if you develop your feet as you would for pointe work.
For better ballet positions get a definitive technical ballet manual, The Perfect Pointe Book.
Adding Turns in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes
Building strength and good technique has to happen long before you get to multiple turns. Once there, increasing your turns is not too difficult. The feeling of spin is controlled through good spotting, musicality, and...practise, practise!
One aspect of fast spinning is spotting. You must have a relaxed neck and quick and accurate head movement. Such as, no inclining the head. Inclining happens when you leave the head too long. For more neck flexibility, ice it for 15 minutes after hot showers, and tilt the head sideways for gentle stretches. Do not roll the head around in circles; the neck joints are not designed to do that.
You can work up to more turns by adding half a turn at a time. Do four and a half, which means changing your spot to the back after three and a half turns. That will just kind of bring you around to the back, to catch up to your head. And voila you have done another half a turn. Don't strain, and come down into a soft, controlled stretchy demi plie. Repeat this until it is easy, then add another half, and another half. Little by little as needed, so that you are not compensating for any postural loss, or losing control over your ending position.
I had a teacher once who set pirouette exercises like that, starting with two and a quarter turns. It meant changing your spot to the next wall, and coming around to it. Really easy, not too much difference. You'd do a double, then 2 and a quarter, 2 and a half, 2 and three quarters, then three. Or start with a triple, and do three and a quarter, etc. In pointe shoes, it takes not much more than a thought to add a quarter turn.
Another teacher I had used to say "during your preparation, imagine you are spiralling your spine in the opposite direction to where you are going to turn. Like your inner muscles are twisting to the left, though your shoulders stay square to the front; the prep position doesn't change outwardly. Then when you go up onto releve and turn, you release that twist and it makes you spin. That's a mental trick, and it really works for some people.
Assuming your technique is good, and your postural plumb line is correct, just keep on adding quarter or half turns, and let each addition get easy and natural.
Go here for more articles and ballet technique tips.
You can work up to more turns by adding half a turn at a time. Do four and a half, which means changing your spot to the back after three and a half turns. That will just kind of bring you around to the back, to catch up to your head. And voila you have done another half a turn. Don't strain, and come down into a soft, controlled stretchy demi plie. Repeat this until it is easy, then add another half, and another half. Little by little as needed, so that you are not compensating for any postural loss, or losing control over your ending position.
I had a teacher once who set pirouette exercises like that, starting with two and a quarter turns. It meant changing your spot to the next wall, and coming around to it. Really easy, not too much difference. You'd do a double, then 2 and a quarter, 2 and a half, 2 and three quarters, then three. Or start with a triple, and do three and a quarter, etc. In pointe shoes, it takes not much more than a thought to add a quarter turn.
Another teacher I had used to say "during your preparation, imagine you are spiralling your spine in the opposite direction to where you are going to turn. Like your inner muscles are twisting to the left, though your shoulders stay square to the front; the prep position doesn't change outwardly. Then when you go up onto releve and turn, you release that twist and it makes you spin. That's a mental trick, and it really works for some people.
Assuming your technique is good, and your postural plumb line is correct, just keep on adding quarter or half turns, and let each addition get easy and natural.
Go here for more articles and ballet technique tips.
7 Highly Effective Tips for Fouettes in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes
I'm seeing discussions about fouettes, spotting, and travelling during the series of turns. This is usually a problem of posture and muscular tension. Sometimes pointe work has started too early, without the required technical strength.
Travelling in turns usually is a problem of strength holding the postural plumb line. If the position and movement is not correct, the turns will travel and flounder.
Here are 7 highly effective tips to examine your technique for fouettes and turns a la seconde:
** Standing sideways to a mirror, do a few press ups in first position. Do you have a postural plumb line? If your core, your turnout, your ankles and soles of the foot are steady, also check to see that these movements are done with no strain in the shoulders and neck.
** With fingertips on the barre, do slow motion press ups and down in retire, or a la seconde. If you can do this without strain in the neck and shoulders, great. If there is strain, you need to build up strength in your core, and possibly overall. If a postural deviation from your plumb line shows up here, check for technical accuracy.
** What specific technical accuracy? The basics, always. Is your turnout strong, or have you compensated by shoving your supporting heel forward when you plie, changing your center of balance? Are you dropping back in the bottom of the demi plie? A shorter demi plie is not a bad thing. What counts is being in good posture in your demi plie so that you can press with your heel/foot, into the floor, and use gravity to push up, without having to make another compensation to rise into a straight position. It's a lot more work to keep all these compensations/countercompensations going.
I want to make a comment here about Classical Stretch, the Full Body Workout and Athletes' Intense Stretch. On a day off dance classes, this is a wonderful routine. It is not too hard on the legs and back, which need to rest, it combines Pilates with balletic style for your core strength, and it fulfills the need for stretch and relaxation that most dancers neglect. Good muscle tone is not just work, work, and more work.
The rest of this long technical article is here, in the blog.
You can also let me know on the forum if you have any particular questions about this topic, or any other.
Here are 7 highly effective tips to examine your technique for fouettes and turns a la seconde:
** Standing sideways to a mirror, do a few press ups in first position. Do you have a postural plumb line? If your core, your turnout, your ankles and soles of the foot are steady, also check to see that these movements are done with no strain in the shoulders and neck.
** With fingertips on the barre, do slow motion press ups and down in retire, or a la seconde. If you can do this without strain in the neck and shoulders, great. If there is strain, you need to build up strength in your core, and possibly overall. If a postural deviation from your plumb line shows up here, check for technical accuracy.
** What specific technical accuracy? The basics, always. Is your turnout strong, or have you compensated by shoving your supporting heel forward when you plie, changing your center of balance? Are you dropping back in the bottom of the demi plie? A shorter demi plie is not a bad thing. What counts is being in good posture in your demi plie so that you can press with your heel/foot, into the floor, and use gravity to push up, without having to make another compensation to rise into a straight position. It's a lot more work to keep all these compensations/countercompensations going.
I want to make a comment here about Classical Stretch, the Full Body Workout and Athletes' Intense Stretch. On a day off dance classes, this is a wonderful routine. It is not too hard on the legs and back, which need to rest, it combines Pilates with balletic style for your core strength, and it fulfills the need for stretch and relaxation that most dancers neglect. Good muscle tone is not just work, work, and more work.
The rest of this long technical article is here, in the blog.
You can also let me know on the forum if you have any particular questions about this topic, or any other.
The Best Ballet Wear in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes
Every ballet store provides the kind of ballet wear that teachers want to see. Whether you are taking ballet for weight loss, for exercises and strengthening, or for a career builder, select simple clothes for class.
Traditional ballet teachers may seem fussy about the dress code in their studios. Pink tights, black leotards. There is a reason for this. For the men in ballet, a white leotard or tee shirt, and black tights.
When a teacher is looking over a class in motion, visual clutter needs to be at a minimum. Black leotards and pink tights are a good uniform landscape for the teacher.
The black of the leotard emphasizes the line of the posture, the upper back and neck suppleness/tension, the hip/leg break and alignment correctness, and makes it easiest to respond to what is seen with ongoing and detailed corrections.
For instance, it is easy to see, even across a large studio, if the back of the thigh is not pulled up as needed, if the dancer is wearing pink tights. The line of the muscles is hidden in dark tights. In pink tights, it is also easy to see bulky tension in thigh muscles that should be more elongated. So your ballet teacher can help you more effectively if you are wearing simple clothing.
Distractions such as multi-colored clothing, and sloppy leg warmers prevent the teacher from being at their top efficiency.
Just like office folk get to wear more casual clothes to work on Fridays, my student-day classes were allowed to wear colored leotards and black tights on Saturdays. We pushed it, and came to class with bright leg warmers, print head bands and jewelry just bigger than the allowed tiny stud pierced earrings. We were always asked to remove even the tiniest of neck chains.
Of course there were always cold winter days when sweaters and body-length woolies were necessary. And it's not like a teacher can't see plain bad placement through all that, but the finer details are hidden.
The artistry of ballet depends on the ultra-perfectionistic and over-idealized form being sought, and then being surrendered to an allowing energy flow, that releases expression and drama. The same duality that all the arts struggle with.....
I wish I could say that better, but all I'm really talking about is that the norm for strict ballet wear that a good ballet store provides, ultimately supports the best results for ballet positions, ballet movements, ballet for weight loss, ballet strengthening regimens, pointe work, and the virtuosity aspired to by men in ballet. It allows the teacher to see what's going on in a large class full of diverse talent.
When a teacher is looking over a class in motion, visual clutter needs to be at a minimum. Black leotards and pink tights are a good uniform landscape for the teacher.
The black of the leotard emphasizes the line of the posture, the upper back and neck suppleness/tension, the hip/leg break and alignment correctness, and makes it easiest to respond to what is seen with ongoing and detailed corrections.
For instance, it is easy to see, even across a large studio, if the back of the thigh is not pulled up as needed, if the dancer is wearing pink tights. The line of the muscles is hidden in dark tights. In pink tights, it is also easy to see bulky tension in thigh muscles that should be more elongated. So your ballet teacher can help you more effectively if you are wearing simple clothing.
Distractions such as multi-colored clothing, and sloppy leg warmers prevent the teacher from being at their top efficiency.
Just like office folk get to wear more casual clothes to work on Fridays, my student-day classes were allowed to wear colored leotards and black tights on Saturdays. We pushed it, and came to class with bright leg warmers, print head bands and jewelry just bigger than the allowed tiny stud pierced earrings. We were always asked to remove even the tiniest of neck chains.
Of course there were always cold winter days when sweaters and body-length woolies were necessary. And it's not like a teacher can't see plain bad placement through all that, but the finer details are hidden.
The artistry of ballet depends on the ultra-perfectionistic and over-idealized form being sought, and then being surrendered to an allowing energy flow, that releases expression and drama. The same duality that all the arts struggle with.....
I wish I could say that better, but all I'm really talking about is that the norm for strict ballet wear that a good ballet store provides, ultimately supports the best results for ballet positions, ballet movements, ballet for weight loss, ballet strengthening regimens, pointe work, and the virtuosity aspired to by men in ballet. It allows the teacher to see what's going on in a large class full of diverse talent.
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Ballet for Weight Loss
Edgar Cayce said "The exercises that work are the ones that you do".
There are people who choose ballet for weight loss. I think swimming still comes in first for calories-burnt-per-minute.
Ballet is a lot harder to do for many reasons. Some of those translate into calorie burning, and some don't.
Ballet is an art. It engages the spirit, mind and body. I'm not expecting that many swimmers don't experience the same thing, but I'm speaking about it as a performing art, and an art that requires soulfulness for an audience to want to watch. No offence to swimmers.
Ballet is resistance training. You are using your body weight, bench pressing with every plie, every fondu, every releve and every jump. The ramifications for bone density and growth (if you're still growing) are significant.
Resistance creates strength. Pushing into the floor for every tendu, degage, grande battment and jump using any sliding motion, is resistance.
Wearing pointe shoes at the barre, is resistance.
Doing a series of changement from a grande plie, as is taught in some boys' classes, is resistance.
In a Cecchetti adagio, pirouettes are done from a grande plie, that's using resistance.
A dancer weighing 110 pounds burns 63 calories every 15 minutes in a ballet class. That's 360+ calories in an hour and a half.
So if you are trying to lose fat, or maintain your current weight, and you do a ballet class three times a week, you must eat 360 calories less on the days you don't do a class, unless there is other exercise that would compensate for that.
Walking 3000 steps burns very few calories - yet takes at least 23-25 minutes. Depending on your weight, you will burn 25-35 calories. Easier not to eat them! And yet, walking has other fantastic benefits.
So whatever your choice of exercise, enjoy it, eat well, get exactly the right fit in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes at this ballet store, and feed your soul at the theater when your favorite ballet company is in town!
Ballet is a lot harder to do for many reasons. Some of those translate into calorie burning, and some don't.
Ballet is an art. It engages the spirit, mind and body. I'm not expecting that many swimmers don't experience the same thing, but I'm speaking about it as a performing art, and an art that requires soulfulness for an audience to want to watch. No offence to swimmers.
Ballet is resistance training. You are using your body weight, bench pressing with every plie, every fondu, every releve and every jump. The ramifications for bone density and growth (if you're still growing) are significant.
Resistance creates strength. Pushing into the floor for every tendu, degage, grande battment and jump using any sliding motion, is resistance.
Wearing pointe shoes at the barre, is resistance.
Doing a series of changement from a grande plie, as is taught in some boys' classes, is resistance.
In a Cecchetti adagio, pirouettes are done from a grande plie, that's using resistance.
A dancer weighing 110 pounds burns 63 calories every 15 minutes in a ballet class. That's 360+ calories in an hour and a half.
So if you are trying to lose fat, or maintain your current weight, and you do a ballet class three times a week, you must eat 360 calories less on the days you don't do a class, unless there is other exercise that would compensate for that.
Walking 3000 steps burns very few calories - yet takes at least 23-25 minutes. Depending on your weight, you will burn 25-35 calories. Easier not to eat them! And yet, walking has other fantastic benefits.
So whatever your choice of exercise, enjoy it, eat well, get exactly the right fit in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes at this ballet store, and feed your soul at the theater when your favorite ballet company is in town!
QUESTION: Hi My daughter is 11yrs old and has been doing pointe for a few months.
Other dancing schools do not let students go on pointe until they are atleast 12 or 13. Could she be damaging her feet?
How can you tell if your daughter is strong enough to do pointe work? There are specific requirements for this that teachers look for.
** Familiarity with correct technique. This results from the time spent in classes combined with the ability of a child to retain information and work hard without constant prompting.
** Muscle strength. The time required to develop this varies, and depends upon the number of classes per week, the child's other activities, musculoskeletal health and general health.
If you watched students in the regular class, and then watched them do the same movements in the pointe class, you should not see too much difference in the effort. If they struggle hard, fall hard off pointe, or clench the barre, then they are not ready to do pointe work.
Some smaller and younger children work better than their peers and could be strong enough to do basic pointe work. Children who learn quickly need to be challenged with new work. If their technique is precise they could work safely in a pointe class.
Teachers need to know their students. I think it takes a couple of years to watch children work, adjust to growth, handle the pressures of life, and observe which students are going to tackle new work with discipline and precision. Enthusiasm is not enough, and yet it is the motivating force for participating in an art like ballet.
I have taught children who were born to do ballet, physically, and yet did not have the powers of concentration to work safely without constant supervision. These students look good for a few years, but don't make the best or most reliable performers. And they don't necessarily fall in love with ballet. Many move on to easier hobbies.
If you have concerns, ask your daughter's teacher exactly what qualifies her to do pointe now. Just be frank and tell the him/her that you would like to be reassured that your daughter is ready for pointe. The teacher should be able to tell you something specific that makes sense.
And then it's off to the ballet store!
If you are wondering how to choose a ballet teacher, how to identify good posture, turnout and other aspects of ballet training, there is lots of information here.
** Familiarity with correct technique. This results from the time spent in classes combined with the ability of a child to retain information and work hard without constant prompting.
** Muscle strength. The time required to develop this varies, and depends upon the number of classes per week, the child's other activities, musculoskeletal health and general health.
If you watched students in the regular class, and then watched them do the same movements in the pointe class, you should not see too much difference in the effort. If they struggle hard, fall hard off pointe, or clench the barre, then they are not ready to do pointe work.
Some smaller and younger children work better than their peers and could be strong enough to do basic pointe work. Children who learn quickly need to be challenged with new work. If their technique is precise they could work safely in a pointe class.
Teachers need to know their students. I think it takes a couple of years to watch children work, adjust to growth, handle the pressures of life, and observe which students are going to tackle new work with discipline and precision. Enthusiasm is not enough, and yet it is the motivating force for participating in an art like ballet.
I have taught children who were born to do ballet, physically, and yet did not have the powers of concentration to work safely without constant supervision. These students look good for a few years, but don't make the best or most reliable performers. And they don't necessarily fall in love with ballet. Many move on to easier hobbies.
If you have concerns, ask your daughter's teacher exactly what qualifies her to do pointe now. Just be frank and tell the him/her that you would like to be reassured that your daughter is ready for pointe. The teacher should be able to tell you something specific that makes sense.
And then it's off to the ballet store!
If you are wondering how to choose a ballet teacher, how to identify good posture, turnout and other aspects of ballet training, there is lots of information here.
What's In Store For you In Pointe Shoes?
Who is the most important person in a ballet store? The one who can help you get exactly the right fit in pointe shoes. What is a good exercise to strengthen your feet for pointe shoes? What will give you that cat-like quality?
If you have just started pointe work, here is one thing you can do to strengthen your feet.
Use the floor as resistance in every tendu and degage you do.
PRESS into the floor with the sole of your foo
Use the floor as resistance in every tendu and degage you do.
PRESS into the floor with the sole of your foo