How to Improve My Ballet is a Big Issue For Dance Recital Prep

If you study dance for more than ballet fitness, and recital preparation bumps the stress levels, there are different ways to make this rehearsal period easier. Classical dance, hip hop dancing, jazz dancing and much more is now included in contemporary dance school demands. Avoid dance injuries by preventing over training, especially now.

There are two main ways to get the most out of your rehearsal time and present the best of your ballet (or other dance) technique. Physical practice, naturally, and training your brain to rehearse by itself when you are resting.

Here are some tips to do your best in choreographic moves that are difficult for you:

*** check out the preparatory movement, like a demi plie, just before a difficult move. Are you losing turnout, posture or correct push-off (heel on the floor)?
*** does any particular muscle need strengthening for a new move? Instead of practicing it over and over, fatiguing your whole body, decide if you need a high intensity exercise with a weight perhaps, to isolate and build strength in one (or one group) of muscles. If so, you need only do this exercise once or twice a week to build that muscle up.
*** need more flexibility for a specific dance position? If so, do not over do it. Stretch whenever you are warmed up, for the position, without pain, and make sure you stretch a properly positioned muscle, and not the ligaments holding a joint. Ligaments just tear, they don't stretch. Hold any stretch position motionless, do not bounce or even pulse. You'll feel a release into a further stretch, bit by bit.
*** make time for some hot baths in Epsom Salts! Or Apple Cider Vinegar, which will pull wastes out of your muscles. Bathing is a lost art for many athletes.

Get some information on brain training. You can rehearse mentally and benefit physically. It's true, studies have been done. Also, get the brain training to manage stress and anxiety that seems to accompany competition for most performers. This in itself will improve your ballet and all your dancing.

And ultimately, send your self-critic self on a vacation. Accept all the praise you get, and enjoy your recital season!

Improving Basic Ballet Positions For Ballet Split Leaps

What ballet movements and ballet positions will result in clean accurate split leaps? The first exercise at the ballet barre, demi and grand plie, your posture, the placement of your weight and the strength of your turnout, is the foundation of your ballet positions and ballet movements. Your split leaps, and even fancier allegro depends on it.

Starting with your primary level ballet classes, understanding and being able to execute correct posture as well as an accurate grand battment devant and derriere will eventually produce a good grand jete en avant, the well known ballet split leap.

A demi plie take off in a basic jump in first position without posture changing, or the turnout decreasing or the heel coming off the ground, is a secure take off. As you progress to more advanced jumps, this ballet technique will continue to support good positions and a good quality of balon, or easy bounce.

An effective brush of the foot on the floor,practiced hundreds of times in battment tendu, degage, and grand battment, will add power to your petit jete, and eventually your grand jete.

Being able to change from the upright back to a proper arabesque position (as in a grand battment derriere) will make for a good position in the air, and a good landing. Repetitive releves in arabesque at the barre will enable you to see if the position is being held well, and the demi plies are on balance and strong.

A chasse temps leve forward into arabesque is a good practice routine to also make sure the arabesque leg reaches its height at the height of the jump and can be held in the air. Much of the ballet I watch lacks a moment at the height of a releve or jump where everything freezes for a nano second, without stiffness or effort. In other words if someone wanted a snapshot, the position could be easily captured.

Brushing up into the devant position, releve, arms reaching their position at the same moment, holding the position , and then tombe forward, repetitively across the floor, helps too.

If all the basics are done with strength, it doesn't take too much to do a good ballet split leap, or grand jete. Positions that are not strong can be practiced at the barre in the usual exercises before the jumps will improve.

Some Highly Effective Tips For Ballet Summer Intensives Auditions - And The Nerves

 Ballet Summer Intensives

Many ballet summer intensives require auditions. Some will accept a DVD or VHS tape of you dancing, and they will specify what they want to see, to determine the level and accuracy of your ballet technique and ballet positions. If you search on the internet for summer intensives, there are pages and pages of results to view.

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 Some schools tour with audition classes. Another outreach is, for example, The Princeton University summer intensive can be auditioned for in Toronto, Canada, at the National Ballet School.

Look for details on every web site. Some summer intensives offer housing in dorms or "host family" homes. Many do not offer any housing. Parents, I'm sure, are concerned about the kind of environment where the summer intensive they choose is located.

Many parents and ballet students want an out-in-nature environment where a school may offer more than ballet classes.

And many serious ballet students know that, in order to be able to audition for the college dance department of their choice later, they need to focus on ballet and other dance styles now, to the exclusion of all else.

Spending a couple of summers away from home can be helpful for ballet students. Some may discover that they do not agree with the ballet lifestyle after all, even though they love dancing. The intensity, the competition, the sub-culture aspect of dance, is not a life that is meant for everyone.

If this is true for you, or if your real talent will come out best in some other performance venue such as acting, modern dance, singing, or in another field entirely, the sooner you discover this, the better.

There are many ballet summer intensives to choose from. Some will require auditions, and at the least, DVD or VHS auditions. Be prepared to pay an audition fee, and bring a photo of you dancing, and perhaps a head shot, to leave at the audition, if requested.

Audition Nerves

Audition nerves can be a challenge, but you can train your brain out of those if you know how to.

Also bear in mind that smaller more local schools may offer better classes, even though they do not bear a famous ballet school name or have famous guest faculty.

Depending on your age and level of training, it may be better to stay close to home, and continue to benefit from smaller classes and the familiarity that has nurtured you so far.

You will know when you are ready for a bigger and strange environment. Even if you feel the audition nerves, you will want to go for a bigger challenge.

If you feel like the audition nerves are going to be overwhelming, get a copy of The Perfect Pointe Book. This dance manual outlines many strengthening exercises you can do at home, with plenty of self-tests and photos so that you do the exercises correctly.

Whatever summer ballet intensive you find, once you are accepted and registered, you have a grand adventure to look forward to!

Merde!

Hamstring Stretches and Patience With Rehabilitation in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes

Patience with rehabilitation is not easy for ballet dancers. Muscle pulls are rarely serious, but without proper treatment and rehabilitation, they can become a chronic situation. With the hamstring muscle, which is involved in every ballet position and ballet movement in the lower body, special care is needed to keep it relaxed and stretched properly after ballet class.

The hamstring muscle, at the back of the thigh, must be strengthened to ensure that it is not out-powered by the quadriceps at the front of the thigh, causing imbalance in the body structure. If the quadriceps muscle is much stronger that the hamstrings, which is the usual case, it can pull on the hamstring muscle and cause injuries.

Other imbalances such as the misalignment of the pelvis can also lead to extra tension in the hamstrings. Chiropractic care is a necessary routine for would-be ballerinas and men in ballet.

Patience to warm up before class, and then afterward, to cool down with relaxed stretching, (meaning not in a rush, not when your mind is already focusing on something else), is extremely important for the hamstring. It is a large muscle with a plentiful blood supply that is capable of creating substantial inflammation and scar tissue once the muscle is pulled.

Growth spurts can cause imbalances as well, resulting in temporary loss of balance, flexibility and strength.

Without understanding these factors, well-trained and serious ballet students will struggle to work harder, endure a little more pain, and may become very frustrated when the expected optimum results don't show up. They might feel that they should be adding some cross training or more ballet classes. However, this will only irritate the hamstring injury.

Once a hamstring is pulled, and on the mend, stretching to do the splits should only be done after use of the pinky ball (as described in the Effective Stretching The Ultimate Guide A DVD showing safe stretching for the hamstrings, quads, gluts, ballet turnout muscles and more. And of course after a full class when you are at your warmest. Then stretch to feel a stretch, not to feel pain.

It's often a month or two after a hamstring pull, that the muscle will feel well again, with the best of care. With no special treatment, the muscle will be unwell, with the condition possibly lingering for months.

Work your best in ballet class to avoid injuring the hamstring muscle. Don't stretch with partners. Exercise patience with rehabilitation, and see a chiropractor or physio therapist for help. Learn safe flexibility exercises for dancers.

Ballet Positions, Use of the Eyes in Ballet Training and Revealing Your Talent

Ballet dancers don't usually think like other entertainers. They don't think in terms of "sell yourself". Belief in talent starts inwardly for a ballet dancer. All the long years of training, enduring corrections from good teachers and criticism from less nurturing teachers shows belief in one's talent. How to mesmerize your audience is a quality some are born with, and yet doing a good ballet audition is not necessarily a result of that.

What is the performance presence? Where does it originate from? How does it affect doing a good ballet audition?

Observing a ballet class, I notice that when concentrating on ballet positions and ballet movements, the gaze of many ballet students is aimed downward, or aims in a fixed a point forward.

As teachers gain experience, they learn ways to keep the students focused, literally, on points in the room, as they concentrate. This allows expression to flow more naturally throughout ballet training, but it also has a different purpose, related to ballet technique.

Visual information is essential for the maintenance of balance and posture. The brain perceives from information received by the inner ear, eyes, and the soles of the feet, exactly where we are in space. And we therefore constantly adjust our posture and balance, whether we are mid-plie or mid-pirouette or mid-overhead lift.

After years of practicing posture and balance correctly for ballet technique, will an artist be able to express her/himself with total freedom of movement, offering the best and revealing talent?

Once a ballet student moves from barre work to the center, more emphasis on movement rather than posture is needed. Proper use of eye focus is even more essential now. Body awareness keeps perfect placement in the class structure, as it does in the corps de ballet on stage. Students who have learned to concentrate while focusing outwards, with attention on everything around them, have an extra advantage.

Every time a ballet position calls for inclining or turning the head, the eyes should focus instantly in the new direction, on the most distant physical object. A spacey or otherwise unfocused expression does not grab the attention of those watching, or allow them to feel included in what is going on. As in, your audience, auditioners or examiner.

So focus is part of both visual stabilization, as in doing turns, and also part of being an entertainer, catching those eyes watching you. I have also found that reminding students to focus their eyes delivers more natural head movements, completing ballet positions beautifully.

Ultimately, to do a good ballet audition, mesmerize your audience, and excel amongst entertainers, the use of your eyes has a place in your classical ballet training.

Ballet Positions, Ballet Techniques and Ballet Movements

There are many many books and ebooks published on ballet positions, ballet movements and ballet techniques. If you are a new ballet student, how do know what you are looking at? Which ones might you choose to learn from? There are different ballet techniques. Which one is right for you? Will you get dance injuries if you practice ballet positions that are wrong?

There is an enormous amount of information in print, on DVD and via ebooks, about ballet positions, ballet movements and ballet techniques. Much of it is beautifully presented.

Ballet photography goes way back to the late 19th century and has preserved precious images of early ballerinas and premier danseurs. Going even earlier in ballet history, there are excellent drawings of ballet stars, ballet classes, and ballet masters.

It's fantastic that now we can view productions from ballet companies all around the world on DVD. For ballet fans who are not in a major city that is visited regularly by ballet companies, this is especially handy.

There is so much to look at, and how can we pick and choose what to learn from? Of course ballet is taught by a live ballet teacher, not from an ebook or DVD. But between classes there is opportunity to understand class lessons better, or study to figure out why certain ballet positions or movements may be difficult.

The Cecchetti method of ballet, the Royal Academy of Dancing and the Vaganova method are the three best known methods of teaching ballet. Most major full time professional ballet schools combine these styles, not necessarily by using all three grading systems, but by employing staff and guest teachers who have a well rounded training themselves. The Auguste Bournonville choreographic tradition shows up a lot in the Cecchetti grades, as just one example of how classical choreography has become embedded in training.

If you are interested in starting ballet, find out what schools in your area teach a syllabus (grading) system, or if they do not, what is the background of the teachers. Retired professionals do not always teach from one of these three systems, yet can be excellent at teaching from their own training.

If you are training to dance simply for your own enjoyment, you may or may not like the pressure of ballet exams - yet, it is part of the discipline in most schools. Whatever your preference, check around and find the right school for you.

If you are taking ballet for weight loss and you are on the right diet, you won't be disappointed. Ballet classes burn a fair amount of calories, and also help build muscle. Since muscles burn calories all by themselves, even when you are sleeping, gaining muscle mass is very healthy. Ballet is also good exercise for healthy bones as well.

Dance injuries are usually the result of sloppy technique or too much muscle tension. Work as accurately as you can, and if you are having trouble with a ballet position or movement, do not be shy. Ask for help. For one thing, repeatedly practicing a ballet movement incorrectly will lead to increased muscle tension.

If you are a curious student and want to know the ins and outs of the mechanics of ballet movements, and what would be anatomically correct, get one of the ballet books written on functional anatomy. It will help you sort out how to improve ballet positions and movements. Not everything in ballet is anatomically correct, and details about that is good for you to know.

Whatever ballet technique you choose to study, always enjoy the movements that you do more easily, get help with those that you struggle with, and take good care of yourself. Go to The Ballet Store for a huge library of dance books and special training manuals on ballet and functional anatomy.