Your developpe could be better...3 tips!

Just as with pirouettes, there are so many things we can be thinking about when we do développé.

And just as with pirouettes, we can't possibly think about all of them at the same time!

So here are 3 things to focus on when you work on your développé, one for each direction. If you can make them part of your muscle memory, you can free your mind to think about other things, like choreography or performance quality:

Devant

Gamzatti Variation Classical Ballet Solo by Harclade

This means "to the front."

Think about: lower belly (that triangle-shaped area underneath your belly button).

When we talk about "lifting" the lower belly, we mean trying to keep your pelvis upright, not tilted (don't spill your cup of water!). Often when we stretch the leg to the front, we collapse our centers and the lower belly tilts backward. To compensate for this, we grab onto the barre tightly. Instead, when you are working to the front, try to imagine your lower belly flat and the cup of water you are keeping there upright. As you stretch the foot away from your center, picture the heel rotating outward to spiral out and up, not down.

A là seconde

Aurora Ballet 20120504019 by Greg Gamble

This means "to the second position" which we commonly interpret as "side."

Think about: the side of your rib cage from under the armpit to the top of the waist.

You can apply this correction when you work to the side, thinking about the "barre" side of your body. As you stretch the leg out, try to think about the opposite side of your waist lengthening and providing a strong stable complementary base to the working leg. While you do want to extend the leg as high as it can go, you also don't want to allow it to pull you off your standing leg. If you can picture yourself growing taller on both sides of your body, you can evenly extend the leg to the side without collapsing toward the barre (or in the center, you will remain upright and not fall over).

Derrière

IMG 0224 by Dubna Fantazia

This means "to the back."

Think about: working through back attitude.

I don't have eyes in the back of my head and I'm pretty sure you don't either. That's why it can be hard to stretch your leg to the back without crossing it over the heel of the standing leg or leaving it open (what we call "secabesque" when we are being silly). It's also quite easy to lose your rotation and wind up with a turned-in leg. As you develop the leg from passe, try to go through your back attitude before you completely stretch it out. This will keep your rotation and also ensure that you are not crossing it too much. It's a very 3-dimensional feeling to move through the space like this, rather than simply a straight line from the knee out.

~Happy dancing!~

Leigh's Pointe Class Barre Exercises

NOTE: Do not attempt these exercises at home until you have performed them in class so you know the proper way to do them.

1. Ankle rolls to warm up the feet and ankles
Parallel - gently roll the R ankle in small circles, keeping the toes on the floor - 4 cts en dehors, 4 cts en dedans. Repeat with L foot. 2x on each side.
1st position - repeat above turned out, all the way up to the top of the hip, keeping toes on the floor and hip joint loose - 4 cts en dehors, 4 cts en dedans. Repeat with L foot. 2x on each side.

2. Tendu/flex
1st position - tendu devant with R foot, flex at ankle, rond to side en l'air, tendu close 1st. Repeat from side to back and back to side. Demi-plie and fully stretch. Repeat with L foot. Repeat starting from back.

3. Marches
Parallel - roll through feet (toe-through ball) 8 times, then step back to parallel lunge with R leg, flexing L ankle with heel on the floor, then return to parallel and push over the R arch. Repeat with L foot.
1st position - repeat above marches turned out. Cross the R leg back to a long 4th position lunge and then push over the arch in a wide second lunge. Repeat with L foot.

4. Coupe springs
1st position - spring R foot off floor as if in saute, without lifting top of thigh. 8x R, 8x L.
5th position - repeat in 5th - 8x devant no change, 8x changing. Repeat with L. Repeat en arriere R and L.

5. Eleves (straight knee releves)
Parallel - lift heels and roll up to full pointe in 8 cts, roll down in 8 cts. Roll up in 4 and down in 4 - repeat 2x. Roll up in 2 and down in 2 - repeat 4x. Roll up in 1 and down in 1 - repeat 8x.
1st position and 2nd position - repeat turned out and in shallow 2nd position.

6.Slow roll-ups
1st position - demi-plie 2 cts, roll to demi en pointe 2 cts, straighten knees to full pointe 2 cts, roll down with straight knees 2cts. Repeat 4x. Repeat in 2nd position 4x.

7. Releves
Parallel - demi-plie with heels into floor, press up to releve, 4 x, hold balance 4 cts, roll down 4cts. Repeat 4x. Repeat in 1st and 2nd positions.

8. Sousous breakdown
5th position - demi-plie, lift heels without fully forcing the arch or rising to full pointe, then using the toes, spring to a tight souous, both legs moving evenly to center. Hold sousous for 4cts and then evenly roll down to 5th position demi-plie. Repeat 4x. Repeat with L foot front 4x.

9. One-leg balance
Parallel - rise with straight knees to full pointe, lift R foot to parallel coupe, full down slowly on L foot to demi-plie, return R foot to parallel. Repeat with L foot. Repeat 4x.
1st position - repeat with turned out feet. Rise to full pointe, shift R foot to back of ankle and roll down on L foot. Repeat with L foot 4x. May also be repeated with foot at front of ankle.

The Art of the Tendu

Pet peeve time...

When a dancer, during a fast battement tendu combination at barre, allows her toes to lift off the floor and instead performs a battement degage.

Keep. The. Toes. On. The. Floor.

It's lazy.

It's sloppy.

But most of all, it defeats the purpose of the exercise. I've blogged about the various elements of a barre in this post and what each is intended to do prior to coming to center, so I will just focus here on tendu.

The battement tendu, when performed slowly in either 1st or 5th position, helps warm up our feet and ankles and allows us time for proper articulation. We then take that articulation and apply it to a slightly faster combination with a new emphasis on stretch - we're still articulating the whole foot, ankle, and toes, however. Regardless of the speed, we still need to point the foot and engage all the muscles from ankle to toes. As the exercises get faster, it's even more crucial that we keep the toes on the floor because if we don't, we discard the work we just did.

Additionally, when you work really hard to keep the faster tendus on the floor, you will be engaging the inner thigh muscles, the external rotators and the glutes - all of which we need to help maintain our turnout in the center and perform fast allegro work. If you don't use those muscles but instead let the toes leave the floor, you end up using the quads.

And finally, it's simply not a clean line. When we perform degage, we are actively engaging our muscles to get the foot off the floor but when we do it during tendu, it's by accident. We are not training our legs and feet to complete the line so when we come to the center, the foot looks like a floppy fish on the end of a line.

Don't be a floppy fish.

Articulation. Strength. Line. Keep the toes on the floor.

Happy dancing~

Coming Soon!

There is no rest for the weary! Just because it's summer, that doesn't mean we're on vacation at the ballet blog. We've got lots of new things coming up:

More videos...
degage
pas de cheval
warm-up exercise

More how-to's...
How to wrap your skirt
How to fold your pointe shoes
How to lace your pointe ribbons

More technique tips...
Getting more out of your point
Spotting without getting dizzy

More of YOUR questions answered!
Is pas de bourree like balance?
Should my foot be flexed or pointed in frappe?

Got a question about a step? Want to know more about class? Interested in dance nutrition? Just ask and it shall be answered (eventually!)~