7 Additional Effective Habits To Improve Ballet Technique

 How would you like a short list of dance training tips to help you improve ballet technique for pointe or pre-pointe.

Every exercise you do up until you get into pointe shoes, is basically pre-pointe.

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However, using the term to focus on the basics that will help you work well in pointe shoes, is how we currently emphasize that there IS a regimen for improving your strength build-up towards pointe work.

For boys, these exercises will improve your technique too.And for all, they will improve your footwork and allegro.

Ballet - Basic Moves

Check your postural plumb line when doing your first demi plie of the class. Your postural plumb line is the line that goes straight down through your body, through the curve of your spine and your other natural shapes.

Also called "neutral spine", when you are not straining to straighten the spine, nor are you slacking in your ab muscles, and curving excessively at the at back of the waist,

Check your turnout.

Turn out as much as you can 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 (rolling the front of the ankles toward the floor), or tense excessively, under the arches and toes.

Ballet is not anatomically correct. The fact that you will ultimately have to produce a "heel to toe" fifth position (as viewed from the audience, if you get my drift), does not mean you should be doing that in early training.

Move your head easily from side to side. Check that your neck is relaxed, and your shoulders move easily with your breathing. You should not press your shoulders down to compensate for a non-neutral spine, feet not completely contacting the floor, or anything else indicating that you are off balance.

You should not have to press your shoulders down to hide the fact that they are constantly pulling up from effort. If this happens, you need to work on your abdominal and back "core" muscles, and your turnout and thigh muscles, so your shoulders can stop working.

You may need to be in a more basic class.

During your plie exercise, note that your arm can move without the shoulders following. In other words, the shoulder joint is free, and your shoulders and arms are not working to hold your balance in any way.

More important than many would think, is the focus of your eyes.

When you look ahead, look at something and be aware of what you are looking at.

When you incline your head, look at something. Your attention to the environment is necessary. A class or a stage can be a busy place!

You must be able to focus and see what is around you even when you are concentrating on your own movement. You also must seem, to an audience, that you are focusing outward, to them, even in moments when you are not, and even when you cannot see them.

Check that you are holding the barre lightly. Place your hand on the barre and use a slight pressure down when you feel your balance shifting. Gripping constantly tells you one thing - you cannot do what you are trying to do!

You need to cut back to an easier version of the exercise and practice.

You may need to increase your ab and back exercises. Ask your teacher for help. Teachers don't see everything in class, no matter how hard they may try.

If you are altering ANYTHING at the depth of your grande plie, or during the first inch coming up out of it, you need to find what is weak. As soon as your heels come off the floor, start watching and feeling. Have a friend help too.

If it just a matter of strength at the bottom of the plie, do shallower grande plies for a few classes.

Tell your teacher you are trying to improve this way, and that you are deepening your plie little by little, so as not to lose posture or turnout, whichever it is.

If you are among boys in ballet and you've noticed the girls talking excitedly about new pre-pointe regimens, pay attention!

All those exercises and assessments in The Perfect Pointe Book are perfect for men in ballet too.

The strength and finesse of foot work is just as necessary for you. Your jumps, your landings, controlling your descent from multiple turns, will have that cat-like quality if you develop your feet as you would for pointe work.

7 Highly Effective Habits In Ballet Training

There are 7 highly effective habits in ballet training 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.

Understand your own physical attributes and shortcomings. 

For example, 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 range of movement and thrust to jump very high.

Get the best 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 pointe shoes.

There is no restriction on your access to information.

Find a well-credentialed teacher who is both kind and demanding 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.

Learn safe cross-training to 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.

Coordinate your knowledge of your physiology.

 

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.

Don't lose sight of your 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.

Get proper rest and good nutrition. 

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.