Increase Your Ballet Turnout

Deborah Vogel, author of Tune Up Your Turnout, has posted another Dancing Smart Newsletter, July 27, 2010. It includes a video clip on showing the structural influences to turnout called anteversion and retroversion.

Go to THE BODY SERIES and click on the BLOG.

Ballwork: Releasing Muscular Tension
By Deborah Vogel

This do along DVD will show you practical, easy to follow instructions on how to reduce muscular strain, increase flexibility, and develop greater ease with range of movement. Working slowly and carefully with one or two rubber balls pressing against various parts of your body, you will discover areas of tension or tightness that you can release or relax. These techniques are good for all ages and technique levels. Whether you work on your whole body, or do spot releasing (lying on the floor with both balls under the rotators will open the hips for maximum turnout) before class, these techniques are sure to give you more flexible and adaptable muscles which will translate into more fluid and graceful dance movements. *(any rubber ball 2 - 2 1/2 inches or a tennis ball, can be used with this DVD).

Get your FLEXIBLE FOR BALLET TURNOUT DVD now!

From page 279 of Gretchen Ward Warren's book "The Art of Teaching Ballet":

"Turn-out is something a dancer does, not necessarily something he has." - Anne Woolliams

Haven't many of us said it ourselves, perhaps in a different way.....

Understanding and being able to hold the turnout that you have, is more important than the turnout that you have!

Because of our current social biases, many boys start dancing later than they would have liked. They know their parents might have a problem with them practicing ballet dancing positions, even if it is for technical support in their hip hop dance steps for beginners. Or jazz, contemporary dance classes, ballroom, and other dance styles.

If you never intend to dance ballet (and, if you do), there are many technical classical ballet positions and technique factors that you would benefit knowing and mastering. For instance, understanding correct ballet posture will help prevent lower back pain injury.

Knowing how to find your real degree of turnout is a bonus. Then, learning how to hold the turnout that you have, will help you prevent many dance injuries.

For example if you're still learning hip hop dance steps for beginners, and have no ballet classes, read up on turn out. Understanding and increasing your turnout will help you move fluidly, and prevent common knee injuries.

If you are older and in dance classes for adults, the same holds true. Any part of classical ballet technique is worth understanding, if you intend to dance for a while.

Most dance studios would love to offer dance classes for boys. Especially in tap dancing schools and beginning hip hop classes, teachers would be thrilled to see line ups to register for their dance classes. And, some do.

And many do not. This is understandable. The cost effect of having a dance class for 4-6 boys can be prohibitive.

Boys who want to be in a dance class have the worst and the best - social phobias, and ironically, what seems to the girls in the dance world, red carpet treatment for scholarships and advancement.

Sometimes it is the simplest of things that determines whether you dance, or for how long. To go from dance classes to a dance company requires dedication. And technical know-how. Learn the real elements of ballet turnout, whatever you form of dance you study in boys dance classes, and learn how to Tune Up Your Turnout.

Practice this barre exercise to increase your ballet turnout. You already know it, you can do it, and with these tips you can do your ballet better!

Work your rotator muscles to increase your ballet turnout. Follow up with a stretch to release the tension:

- sitting on a chair, cross one foot over the other knee. Keeping the back straight, lean forward. You'll feel a stretch around the hip area of the bent leg. Hold, no bouncing or pulsing. After 15 - 30 seconds, lift the knee up to release the stretch, and repeat. Repeat other side!

What are the alternatives for getting a good education and still putting the time into classical dance training?
If you want to audition for a professional academic/ballet school, do a web search for their audition tours and see if any of them come to your area. Most auditions are held early in the year.

The sooner you can start professional training the better. Check all your choices!

Can you home school - or get a an independent education program? Here in Los Angeles children can home school - they register in a local private school for home schoolers, and get a curriculum put together that fulfills the grade requirements. They document their attendance (legal requirement is 3 hrs per day)and the parents who have registered the school supply computerized transcripts of their grades every year. There is no problem entering a private school or a college, later.

Read the rest of I Want To Be A Ballerina - But I Need More Time At The Ballet Academy.

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Check out this article on how to INCREASE BALLET TURNOUT. It helps understand the hip joints and how the structure affects your turnout potential.