Heels out, toes in

In physics, scientists are always looking for universal elements (see Unified Field Theory as an example), things that are true throughout the universe that can be applied in every situation.

Let's face it, it's a lot easier to say we should always hold our arms like this or we should always tilt our heads like that. But we don't. There are lots of different styles of ballet.

Still, that doesn't stop us from trying to find them! Rules, give us rules! We are disciplined ballet dancers who want to do everything right.

Here is one possible addition to our Unified Ballet Theory:

Heels out, toes in.

That is, every movement from our centers outward and away from our bodies, whether that is a battement tendu or a developpe devant  or even a retire, needs to begin with the heel of the foot moving first and then returning to the position (or the center of the body) with the toes.

Try it yourself.

1. Start in fifth position, right foot in front.
2. Using the heel of the right foot, begin to slide it en avant as you perform a tendu.
3. Notice how the heel stays lifted and the foot's arch is nicely curved as you stretch it all the way forward.
4. Now, using the toes of the right foot, pull it back to your fifth position and nestle it snugly against the instep of your left foot.
5. Feel how the muscles at the top of your leg are engaged and your rotation is being used as the foot returns to 5th.

Repeat the exercise with degage, grand battement, rond de jambe a terre, etc. Anything you want! And definitely try this a la seconde and  en arriere. It works!

Happy dancing~

Photo Alicia Heaney, CC Lic

Two Tips for Tuesday!

Good morning, beautiful dancers! On this stunning 75 degree day, I'm feeling energized and ready to tackle technique!

Let's talk about 5th position and pirouettes, but not together. Ha!

First of all, you're bouncing out of your 5th. I can't even see you but I know you are doing this, especially at the barre. Your fifth is a position of strength: it's where we start and end so many steps and it's where we form the base for jumps and turns. If you don't have a strong 5th position, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Sounds harsh, I know, but I want you to be aware of 5th as a home base and one you can rely on.

From the very first tendu exercises, take a split second to hold the fifth when you return the gesture leg to the start position and feel the legs squeeze together at the top of the thighs. This will help build strength and speed for petit allegro work later in the center and it will also build stability for developpe, etc. during adagio in the center.

Try to avoid "bouncing" out of the position, that is, swishing through it without actually finding 5th.

Second tip: imagine yourself pirouetting with an invisible partner. For ladies en pointe who have partnered before, you can imagine when a gentleman is standing behind you, you don't want to fall backward into him. You want to keep your hips and back and knees completely straight but your arms and rib cage slightly forward so he has room to assist you on a turn.

Now, even if you have never been partnered before and regardless of your gender, you can picture yourself being partnered by an invisible partner. That person is behind you so you don't want to collapse underneath yourself and fall into them. You want to stay completely held and strong in your core but also lift and lean slightly forward so your arms are balancing out your backside.

Courtesy Charles Askegard

Trust me, 99% of the time, we fall backward out of a turn, not forward. We are very rarely ever too far forward on our leg. It's in fact the opposite - we can't get OVER our legs enough or our knees buckle or soften and we collapse or our heels drop, etc.

And here's a favorite video of mine, from the inimitable Lisa Howell who is based in Australia, unfortunately, so I can't get to get to her workshops but I try to learn as much from her as I can through her online presence. She and I share the same philosophy about ballet and she approaches the biomechanics in the same way I do, although she focuses on kids and teens and I focus on adults.

This video is Lisa discussing how to perform a perfect tendu. I teach this and emphasize the same 3 things she does (core, standing leg turnout and foot articulation) in the same ways but she breaks it down very clearly and has a lovely young demonstrator. Enjoy (and thank you, Lisa!):

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~

Pet peeves in ballet class

As a teacher, these are a few of my least favorite things to see:

--Heels lifting off the floor during demi-plie at the barre. Keep them down, down, down! Not only do you shorten your Achilles tendon by keeping them lifted but you also will develop a bad habit that you will take with you to the center. You can't get height or build strength if you do not put your heels down.

--Toes lifting off the floor during rond de jambe and tendu. Tendu means "stretch" and you're not stretching if you allow the toes to come off the floor. Instead, point the toes and feel the legs lengthen all the way to the top of the thigh. By consciously feeling the floor with the baby toe, you will distribute the weight properly which will result in better positioning for releves and pirouettes.

--Hands flinging during allonge. To allonge means to draw out, stretch, lengthen the line. In particular, when we talk about the allonge line for an arm, we mean to rotate the arm up and back, away from the shoulder. Allonge does not simply take place in the wrists and hands. Start with the shoulder lifting up and back and then lengthen the arm away from it, back and up on the ecarte line, all the way to the hands.

--First arabesque arm that reaches higher than the head. The hand should be directly in line with the nose, no higher, and the arm straight at the elbow (unless you are doing Cecchetti in which the arm is often slightly bent at the elbow). But no matter what style you are studying, do NOT lift that arm above your head. It's an affectation that has repercussions through the rest of your body, destroying the line.

Next time I'll talk about things I do like seeing from students!

Happy dancing~

New videos! New link!

Check it out - videos for demi-plie and tendu! Thanks to my fab webmaster for putting them up on Vimeo and YouTube.

Also, take a peek at the left sidebar of the blog: just under my info and above the studio location is a link to the 5 Basic Positions of the Feet in ballet. Thanks to one of my new students for asking about it.

As I mentioned in my intro video, please feel free to post a comment or send me an email if you have any questions about dance that I can answer in a video or blog post!

Happy dancing~