If you want to improve your ballet, the simplest way is to first check the basic ballet positions.
Start with your normal standing position. Before you put on your pointe shoes or soft ballet shoes and go to the barre, try this.
In ballet wear so that you can see your posture, just stand in front of a mirror, relaxed. You'll see the qualifying factor and know if there is something basic to correct to improve your ballet classes.
Sometimes the simple things are the hardest to explain, but here goes:
Stand with your chest lifted, your shoulders relaxed, and your feet hips' width apart. Get your weight positioned evenly at the ball of the foot, the outside near the little toe, and the center of the heel (like a tripod). Notice how your hips and legs are positioned, naturally. If your pelvis is neutral and your ankles, knees and hips stack up symmetrically, you have the minimal requirement to proceed with nothing to fix.
If a hip or shoulder is lower than its opposite, you may have a skeletal misalignment, residual tension, or both. See a chiropractor, or you will be fighting this condition with lots of unnecessary tensing. It is also possible that one leg is shorter than the other, and it is good to know that, so you know how to work properly and use foot levelers if needed.
If your knees rotate in a little, causing a slight bow shape to the legs, then you need to use your rotator and thigh muscles to get your thighs and knees facing front, in line with your feet. Also note where your pelvis is here. (You can get a special book on how to increase ballet turnout).
Now keep that placement and turn sideways. Turn your head, relaxed neck, and see if you have a plumb line going down through your body, from the top of your head, through the natural curves of your spine, hips, legs, and to your ankles. See if anything is pulling out of line. This can be very subtle if you are already trained. Your skeleton should be able to line up well without much work. If you are feeling a little tense, shake everything out and then place yourself again.
If your knees over-straighten and curve backwards, you have hyper-extended knees. You must learn to hold them straight so they can support you with strength. If your knees are bent a little forwards you can work on stretching and relaxing your all your hip and leg muscles and you will get gradual improvement.
Regardless of your training level, you can always check this basic posture to see if there is any misalignment or extra tension. It truly affects the quality of your work. It also affects your risk of getting injured.
Checking postural habits and skeletal alignment is how you know if your good work, or talent, is hiding a potential problem. The qualifying factor may be the need to build strength in your core muscles, or do better relaxing and stretching.
Get the most important ballet tips to improve ballet work, and you will be progressing with confidence that you are doing things right.
Showing posts with label increase ballet turnout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label increase ballet turnout. Show all posts
Increase Ballet Turnout - Ronde de Jambe
Get your own copy of the book that shows you how to increase ballet turnout.
This is an exercise you can do separately from class in daily routines at home, and also use as a focus in your ronde de jambe a terre in class. Even if you're not working in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, this will get you optimum results in strength and muscle memory utilizing primarily the rotator muscles. Recommended for all styles of dance, it is almost a full body workout.
In class, doing ronde de jambe a terre, there is a tiny section of movement where you can feel the rotator muscles, the back of the thigh, in a struggle to hold your turnout in both legs.
It is the pointe where you leave a la seconde and move toward a la arriere.
A lot of muscle strength is needed right here. As the foot draws away from a la seconde, pulling the leg seemingly away from the hip socket in a lengthening pull, the core muscles pull up and away from the legs, and the supporting leg pushes down into the floor to also keep its length.
You try to keep the turnout as the leg is circled toward a la arriere. You keep the spine long as the working hip opens, but only as much as it needs to, to reach the arriere position. I prefer an arriere position where the working leg is behind the working hip, not crossed over to be behind the spine.
Crossing over to the center point of the body brings too much compensation as very few people have the turnout to even attempt this. There is enough strength required simply to maintain turnout and body position without this extra challenge.
Hopefully, even in advanced classes, the teacher does some ronde de jambe a terre very slowly during the exercise, to allow activation of the rotator muscles and maintenance of the full body position.
If this does not occur in class, you definitely need to practice this at home or after class.
The mental image is full of finer details - doing this in your imagination will actually help when you stand up or do the floor exercise.
First, review the muscle dynamics:
*** the working foot draws away from a la seconde aiming for the widest circular movement possible;
*** the supporting side core muscles pull up and away from the pull of the working leg, with a push down feeling through the supporting leg, all of which maintains the elongation of the whole body posture;
*** this work in the supporting side also keeps the body weight from being pulled back onto the heel;
*** this elongation is therefore maintained when the working hip opens, allowing the optimum result in the turnout as the a la arriere position is reached;
*** once the position is reached, the torso above the waist is still square and the working hip is not bunched up toward the body, but the whole working side is elongated;
*** you can let go of the barre, lift the foot up an inch and maintain your position.
As a floor exercise, lie down on your back, use a rolled towel under the neck to help keep it supported and relaxed. You can relax the arms across your stomach. Do a tendu to your a la seconde position. Then circle back one inch, without losing your body position or supporting leg turnout. Move the leg back to your a la seconde position. Repeat ten times each side. Draw out and down with the foot, elongating the leg.
Turnout is harder to hold in pointe shoes, so your pre-pointe work is crucial.
Always relax and stretch after practicing, and often during class. Turn IN between exercises. This will help you increase ballet turnout.
This is an exercise you can do separately from class in daily routines at home, and also use as a focus in your ronde de jambe a terre in class. Even if you're not working in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, this will get you optimum results in strength and muscle memory utilizing primarily the rotator muscles. Recommended for all styles of dance, it is almost a full body workout.
In class, doing ronde de jambe a terre, there is a tiny section of movement where you can feel the rotator muscles, the back of the thigh, in a struggle to hold your turnout in both legs.
It is the pointe where you leave a la seconde and move toward a la arriere.
A lot of muscle strength is needed right here. As the foot draws away from a la seconde, pulling the leg seemingly away from the hip socket in a lengthening pull, the core muscles pull up and away from the legs, and the supporting leg pushes down into the floor to also keep its length.
You try to keep the turnout as the leg is circled toward a la arriere. You keep the spine long as the working hip opens, but only as much as it needs to, to reach the arriere position. I prefer an arriere position where the working leg is behind the working hip, not crossed over to be behind the spine.
Crossing over to the center point of the body brings too much compensation as very few people have the turnout to even attempt this. There is enough strength required simply to maintain turnout and body position without this extra challenge.
Hopefully, even in advanced classes, the teacher does some ronde de jambe a terre very slowly during the exercise, to allow activation of the rotator muscles and maintenance of the full body position.
If this does not occur in class, you definitely need to practice this at home or after class.
The mental image is full of finer details - doing this in your imagination will actually help when you stand up or do the floor exercise.
First, review the muscle dynamics:
*** the working foot draws away from a la seconde aiming for the widest circular movement possible;
*** the supporting side core muscles pull up and away from the pull of the working leg, with a push down feeling through the supporting leg, all of which maintains the elongation of the whole body posture;
*** this work in the supporting side also keeps the body weight from being pulled back onto the heel;
*** this elongation is therefore maintained when the working hip opens, allowing the optimum result in the turnout as the a la arriere position is reached;
*** once the position is reached, the torso above the waist is still square and the working hip is not bunched up toward the body, but the whole working side is elongated;
*** you can let go of the barre, lift the foot up an inch and maintain your position.
As a floor exercise, lie down on your back, use a rolled towel under the neck to help keep it supported and relaxed. You can relax the arms across your stomach. Do a tendu to your a la seconde position. Then circle back one inch, without losing your body position or supporting leg turnout. Move the leg back to your a la seconde position. Repeat ten times each side. Draw out and down with the foot, elongating the leg.
Turnout is harder to hold in pointe shoes, so your pre-pointe work is crucial.
Always relax and stretch after practicing, and often during class. Turn IN between exercises. This will help you increase ballet turnout.
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increase ballet turnout
Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes - Increase Ballet Turnout
To increase your ballet turnout, first try a truer test for turnout than the butterfly or frog position, where your hips are flexed and turnout will look like more than it really is.
Lie on your stomach with your legs straight. Here your hips are in an extended position. Bend one leg to a 90 degree angle. (If your hip comes of the floor, then you need to stretch out your quadriceps and iliopsoas muscles, as in doing a runner's lunge.) You could have someone gently hold your hip down on the floor if you like. Then allow your bent leg to angle down toward the straight knee. Where the leg stops, this is the correct degree of your turnout.
Doing the frog position on your back or stomach is not good for your knees even if you are flexible.
Now more importantly, how to hold the turnout that you do have....if you watch dance movies carefully you will see that the most brilliantly artistic dancers in the world are not necessarily born with a lot of turnout - and it doesn't matter! They are still brilliant.
Your lateral rotator muscles are your prime turnout muscles, specifically: Piriformis;Obturator Internus;Obturator Externus;Quadratus Femoris; Gemellus Superior; Gemellus Inferior. These muscles lie underneath your gluts. When they contract your thigh rotates. If your leg is behind you, the gluts and hamstring muscles also help to hold the rotation.
The balance and tone of any muscle comes from its ability to work, and its ability to relax when not working. So having lateral rotators that clench to rotate, and don't relax in between exercises, do not have the strength they could have. Turning in during class, in between exercises, is a good habit to have.
For example, when you tendu devant, if your hips remain in placement and your thigh is moving freely on its own, you should be able to rotate to your full natural turnout, even if you cannot always hold it. You may have to practice this with your gluts released, to isolate the rotator muscles. Gluts don't increase your turnout.
If you sit on the floor, legs straight out in front of you, relax your gluts on the floor. Then just engage your rotator muscles and turn your thighs out without your gluts working. This will help you isolate the rotators. If you can raise the legs, one by one, an inch or two off the floor, and hold this turnout, you'll feel the rotators holding against the flexion action. If your hip comes up too, then you are not isolating the leg from the hip completely.
Standing in first position, you want to open the legs by contracting the rotator muscles, but not clenching the gluts at this point. It's good to be able to tighten and hold the gluts when you need to, but not at this moment. Whatever position you end up in, that is your turnout. Same for fifth, with the extra challenge of having one leg slightly behind your pelvis and the other in front. This requires more strength.
While many teachers would not allow this, I would encourage them to have many students working in third position for much longer than they usually feel is "normal". It's not that far to fifth position once the muscles are strengthened. Advanced students and professionals do different things to compensate for not having that perfect fifth position. If they have good teachers, they learn to do this minimally and without injury. But they are doing it very deliberately.
Some people's thighs are in a different position in their hip sockets, that allows more turnout. This is the way they are born. So don't look at anyone else and compare. Also some people have tibial torsion, which means their leg from the knee down is rotated outward. It can lead to other problems, but will give their feet a turned out look, while their knees and thighs may not be able to achieve the same turnout.
Another exercise to strengthen the turnout is as follows: lie down on the floor on your back, feet in first position, flexed as though you were standing. Pressing the back of the legs into the floor can help you feel the rotators. Move the legs, feet still flexed, about half an inch outward toward second position. Keep pressing the back of the legs into the floor, and don't let your back arch. You may only be able to go an inch , - but you'll feel those turnout muscles! Do that ten times every day and you will be much stronger standing up and doing the regular class movements. You won't regret investing time in this exercise. Be sure to relax the rotators afterwards.
Recently I enjoyed a movie of William Forsythe's company. He says in the initial interview "Well, ballet is not anatomically correct".
What an understatement! Yet still, you can increase ballet turnout.
Lie on your stomach with your legs straight. Here your hips are in an extended position. Bend one leg to a 90 degree angle. (If your hip comes of the floor, then you need to stretch out your quadriceps and iliopsoas muscles, as in doing a runner's lunge.) You could have someone gently hold your hip down on the floor if you like. Then allow your bent leg to angle down toward the straight knee. Where the leg stops, this is the correct degree of your turnout.
Doing the frog position on your back or stomach is not good for your knees even if you are flexible.
Now more importantly, how to hold the turnout that you do have....if you watch dance movies carefully you will see that the most brilliantly artistic dancers in the world are not necessarily born with a lot of turnout - and it doesn't matter! They are still brilliant.
Your lateral rotator muscles are your prime turnout muscles, specifically: Piriformis;Obturator Internus;Obturator Externus;Quadratus Femoris; Gemellus Superior; Gemellus Inferior. These muscles lie underneath your gluts. When they contract your thigh rotates. If your leg is behind you, the gluts and hamstring muscles also help to hold the rotation.
The balance and tone of any muscle comes from its ability to work, and its ability to relax when not working. So having lateral rotators that clench to rotate, and don't relax in between exercises, do not have the strength they could have. Turning in during class, in between exercises, is a good habit to have.
For example, when you tendu devant, if your hips remain in placement and your thigh is moving freely on its own, you should be able to rotate to your full natural turnout, even if you cannot always hold it. You may have to practice this with your gluts released, to isolate the rotator muscles. Gluts don't increase your turnout.
If you sit on the floor, legs straight out in front of you, relax your gluts on the floor. Then just engage your rotator muscles and turn your thighs out without your gluts working. This will help you isolate the rotators. If you can raise the legs, one by one, an inch or two off the floor, and hold this turnout, you'll feel the rotators holding against the flexion action. If your hip comes up too, then you are not isolating the leg from the hip completely.
Standing in first position, you want to open the legs by contracting the rotator muscles, but not clenching the gluts at this point. It's good to be able to tighten and hold the gluts when you need to, but not at this moment. Whatever position you end up in, that is your turnout. Same for fifth, with the extra challenge of having one leg slightly behind your pelvis and the other in front. This requires more strength.
While many teachers would not allow this, I would encourage them to have many students working in third position for much longer than they usually feel is "normal". It's not that far to fifth position once the muscles are strengthened. Advanced students and professionals do different things to compensate for not having that perfect fifth position. If they have good teachers, they learn to do this minimally and without injury. But they are doing it very deliberately.
Some people's thighs are in a different position in their hip sockets, that allows more turnout. This is the way they are born. So don't look at anyone else and compare. Also some people have tibial torsion, which means their leg from the knee down is rotated outward. It can lead to other problems, but will give their feet a turned out look, while their knees and thighs may not be able to achieve the same turnout.
Another exercise to strengthen the turnout is as follows: lie down on the floor on your back, feet in first position, flexed as though you were standing. Pressing the back of the legs into the floor can help you feel the rotators. Move the legs, feet still flexed, about half an inch outward toward second position. Keep pressing the back of the legs into the floor, and don't let your back arch. You may only be able to go an inch , - but you'll feel those turnout muscles! Do that ten times every day and you will be much stronger standing up and doing the regular class movements. You won't regret investing time in this exercise. Be sure to relax the rotators afterwards.
Recently I enjoyed a movie of William Forsythe's company. He says in the initial interview "Well, ballet is not anatomically correct".
What an understatement! Yet still, you can increase ballet turnout.
7 Highly Effective Habits In Ballet Training
There are 7 highly effective habits that affect: the key area of dancing for young ballerinas, pointe work, and; a key area for men in ballet, jumping. In early training, regardless of age, these will contribute to excellence in both these areas. This analysis can apply to other areas of dance in the same way also, I'm choosing this one for the sake of discussion.
***First, education as to specific physical attributes and shortcomings. One example is, every dancer would like to have long and stretchy Achilles tendons, and flexible ankles. These 2 advantages provide the biggest range of movement between the bottom of a demi-plie and the take-off point of a releve or jump. One of the dancers in my class at the National Ballet School of Canada had a very shallow demi-plie. Yet, she had very flexible ankles and a high arch, and this gave her the thrust to jump very high.
***Second, technical education . Regardless of physical advantages, progress can be made by understanding the ideal ballet movements and by learning correct ballet stretches. Also, get the correct preparation for dancing in ballet pointe shoes. There is no restriction on our access to information.
***Third, a teacher who not only has decent credentials, but who has the required habit of demanding correctness in class. This is a variable, and inexperienced teachers do not realize how often they are going to repeat the same old correction over the years of training, to the same students.... in a million different imaginative ways.
***Fourth, knowing that there is cross-training that will help you compensate for your physical shortcomings. If you need to get more flexible, there is Pilates, massage, and Yoga. If you are flexible but weak in some areas, Pilates, and weight training will help.
***Fifth, knowing where more details count - if your habit is curiosity, that's a huge asset. If it's not, adopt it. Studying how to increase your ballet turnout and extensions is a plus.
***Sixth, coordinating your knowledge of your physiology, and how you might be compensating detrimentally to get the deepest demi-plie and best take-off that you can, and instead compensate more with cross-training and less with bad habits. It's only a life-long process, even for the most gifted.
***Seven, a truly habitual appreciation of your own uniqueness, talents, intelligence, and determination. There will always be an invitation to doubt yourself, envy others' real or imagined superiority, and waste time thinking negative thoughts.
Proper rest and good nutrition have a lot to do with #7. Body and brain fatigue, and nutritional deficiencies are directly related to mood. Please be curious and get the information you need.
These 7 highly effective habits are just the tip of the icebergs, but they are a great guide to go with until you develop your own uniqueness in training priorities.
***First, education as to specific physical attributes and shortcomings. One example is, every dancer would like to have long and stretchy Achilles tendons, and flexible ankles. These 2 advantages provide the biggest range of movement between the bottom of a demi-plie and the take-off point of a releve or jump. One of the dancers in my class at the National Ballet School of Canada had a very shallow demi-plie. Yet, she had very flexible ankles and a high arch, and this gave her the thrust to jump very high.
***Second, technical education . Regardless of physical advantages, progress can be made by understanding the ideal ballet movements and by learning correct ballet stretches. Also, get the correct preparation for dancing in ballet pointe shoes. There is no restriction on our access to information.
***Third, a teacher who not only has decent credentials, but who has the required habit of demanding correctness in class. This is a variable, and inexperienced teachers do not realize how often they are going to repeat the same old correction over the years of training, to the same students.... in a million different imaginative ways.
***Fourth, knowing that there is cross-training that will help you compensate for your physical shortcomings. If you need to get more flexible, there is Pilates, massage, and Yoga. If you are flexible but weak in some areas, Pilates, and weight training will help.
***Fifth, knowing where more details count - if your habit is curiosity, that's a huge asset. If it's not, adopt it. Studying how to increase your ballet turnout and extensions is a plus.
***Sixth, coordinating your knowledge of your physiology, and how you might be compensating detrimentally to get the deepest demi-plie and best take-off that you can, and instead compensate more with cross-training and less with bad habits. It's only a life-long process, even for the most gifted.
***Seven, a truly habitual appreciation of your own uniqueness, talents, intelligence, and determination. There will always be an invitation to doubt yourself, envy others' real or imagined superiority, and waste time thinking negative thoughts.
Proper rest and good nutrition have a lot to do with #7. Body and brain fatigue, and nutritional deficiencies are directly related to mood. Please be curious and get the information you need.
These 7 highly effective habits are just the tip of the icebergs, but they are a great guide to go with until you develop your own uniqueness in training priorities.
A Ballet Dancer's Guide - Increase Your Turnout, Learn Ballet Stretches
Deborah Vogel's ballet dancers guide books highlight the hot topics - increase your ballet turnout, ballet stretches and much more.
This summer there are some extra workshops scheduled for any teacher or dance student interested in functional anatomy - "FUNctional Anatomy" is Deborah Vogel's title of her book series (with co-author Anneliese Burns Wilson).
I remember that nothing felt as good as the progress a summer intensive created. Several classes a day, 6 days a week. Exhaustion, hot and humid weather, but no academic school. Complete focus on ballet, and then running off to extra modern dance classes in the evenings too. (Gosh, how did I do all that?!!!)
The evenings at the school residence were spent sewing all pointe shoes we needed for the summer intensive, and getting ready for the next day.
Deborah Vogel is a dancer, author, and master teacher who conducts workshops across the U.S. for both student and professional dancers. From a recent e-mail:
"Announcements
The venues have been set! Here is the listing of the cities and contact information
of my summer workshop tour. The full workshop information will be posted online
soon - and I will send a notice out when it is viewable. Contact the sponsors ASAP
to save a slot, as registration will be cut off at 25 participants per workshop!
7/07/07 Santa Fe, NM, Contact: Audrey Derrell, charismatopia@aol.com (10 - 1pm)
7/08/07 Albuquerque, NM, Contact: Cecelia Jaramillo, cjlamesa@swcp.com (1-4pm)
7/12/07 Paso Robles, CA, Contact: Cheryle Armstrong, classactdancepasorobles@yahoo.com
(5-8pm)
7/14/07 Berkeley, CA, Contact: Elizabeth Godfrey, berkeleycityballet@sbcglobal.net
(9am - noon)
7/14/07 Berkeley, CA, Contact: Karen Olson, idance@berkeleyballet.org (2-5 pm)
7/18/07 Elko, NV, Contact: Yong Pratt, dance_elko@yahoo.com (1-4 pm)"
So the contacts are above for more info.
Ballet tips - my recipe for a multi-mineral homemade electrolyte drink here. It's fantastic for keeping the blood balanced and the strength up:
Freshly squeezed lemons (probably about 6 per 4 quarts of water)
Maple syrup to taste
Pinch or so of cayenne pepper (that's where the minerals are)
Filtered water to dilute to taste.
Dancers tend to disregard recovery time for muscles and summer is especially intense. Please eat good lean proteins and fresh foods - minimize junk food.
For muscles soreness and cramps try "A to B Calm", a calcium-magnesium powder you dissolve in hot water. It tastes chalky so you can cool it with fruit juice. The so-so taste is really worth the relief from pain. You will find it at a health food store.
Get the most out of your ballet summer intensives with the best info from a ballet dancers guide.
This summer there are some extra workshops scheduled for any teacher or dance student interested in functional anatomy - "FUNctional Anatomy" is Deborah Vogel's title of her book series (with co-author Anneliese Burns Wilson).
I remember that nothing felt as good as the progress a summer intensive created. Several classes a day, 6 days a week. Exhaustion, hot and humid weather, but no academic school. Complete focus on ballet, and then running off to extra modern dance classes in the evenings too. (Gosh, how did I do all that?!!!)
The evenings at the school residence were spent sewing all pointe shoes we needed for the summer intensive, and getting ready for the next day.
Deborah Vogel is a dancer, author, and master teacher who conducts workshops across the U.S. for both student and professional dancers. From a recent e-mail:
"Announcements
The venues have been set! Here is the listing of the cities and contact information
of my summer workshop tour. The full workshop information will be posted online
soon - and I will send a notice out when it is viewable. Contact the sponsors ASAP
to save a slot, as registration will be cut off at 25 participants per workshop!
7/07/07 Santa Fe, NM, Contact: Audrey Derrell, charismatopia@aol.com (10 - 1pm)
7/08/07 Albuquerque, NM, Contact: Cecelia Jaramillo, cjlamesa@swcp.com (1-4pm)
7/12/07 Paso Robles, CA, Contact: Cheryle Armstrong, classactdancepasorobles@yahoo.com
(5-8pm)
7/14/07 Berkeley, CA, Contact: Elizabeth Godfrey, berkeleycityballet@sbcglobal.net
(9am - noon)
7/14/07 Berkeley, CA, Contact: Karen Olson, idance@berkeleyballet.org (2-5 pm)
7/18/07 Elko, NV, Contact: Yong Pratt, dance_elko@yahoo.com (1-4 pm)"
So the contacts are above for more info.
Ballet tips - my recipe for a multi-mineral homemade electrolyte drink here. It's fantastic for keeping the blood balanced and the strength up:
Freshly squeezed lemons (probably about 6 per 4 quarts of water)
Maple syrup to taste
Pinch or so of cayenne pepper (that's where the minerals are)
Filtered water to dilute to taste.
Dancers tend to disregard recovery time for muscles and summer is especially intense. Please eat good lean proteins and fresh foods - minimize junk food.
For muscles soreness and cramps try "A to B Calm", a calcium-magnesium powder you dissolve in hot water. It tastes chalky so you can cool it with fruit juice. The so-so taste is really worth the relief from pain. You will find it at a health food store.
Get the most out of your ballet summer intensives with the best info from a ballet dancers guide.
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