Spotting For Pirouettes Correctly

Spotting is the technique used by ballet dancers to avoid dizziness while doing multiple turns. In ballet classes, and in theaters, dancers will find a "spot" that they can see, and upon which they will focus throughout, for example, the 32 fouettes performed in Swan Lake by the ballerina, or a series of turns a la seconde by the male dancer.

When you reach the point in ballet training where turns are added to your class exercises, often spotting will be taught first.

Imagine a child spinning, just for the joy of it. Children will do this until they are too dizzy to stay upright, and then they will collapse. In the dance studio, the same playful spin can be done. With one difference.

Choosing a spot on the wall, which could be a picture of a famous ballerina, or whatever decoration the dance teacher may have chosen to inspire her/his students, a dance student can spin while focusing on the spot.

In slow motion, as the dancer spins away from the front, or corner of the studio as it may be, she or he leaves their head behind, focusing on the spot. At the last possible moment, the dancer whips the head around to regain focus before the body reaches the front again.

That is spotting. Within the requirements of ballet technique a few points are added.

The head must not incline. The entire body posture of a retire position, or an a la seconde position, must not be influenced by the head staying behind to remain focused on the spot. Same for a turn in arabesque or attitude.

Usually, chainee turns are the first ones learned. Remaining in first position, the entire body position must be held while the dancer spots.

This achievement then assumes that the core and turnout muscles are well held. The arms remain in a fifth en avant or slightly over - crossed position, and the NECK IS RELAXED, allowing the head to spot, without inclination.

A modern, jazz or hip hop dancer does the same.

Image: many years ago I watched Helgi Thomason give dancer Victor Edwards a correction in class. He said something like "imagine your body is spinning underneath your head, which just stays looking at the front".

That's spotting.

Every dancer needs to accomplish proper spotting before dancing in pointe shoes. The most subtle errors in posture, turnout, and basic ballet positions will be exaggerated once you are en pointe.

Be prepared for dancing in pointe shoes by getting a professionally written guide specific for pointe shoe exercises.

How to Improve at Ballet - Define Your Weaknesses

The elegant art of ballet has a mechanical side to every position and movement.

Understanding anatomy and which muscles create the movement you want, helps you enormously in knowing how to improve at ballet. You can learn to define your weaknesses in an impersonal way. Sometimes your weakness in ballet technique comes from just not knowing how your muscles work.

If you are a young ballet student or an adult beginner, organize yourself by learning the correct way to execute ballet movements, one at a time.

Or start before you make a move - you can improve all your ballet by learning correct posture. Good posture in ballet is the same as general good posture. There is no extra tension in the upper body as all the elongating support is in the lower abs and pelvic area.

This doesn't mean that the upper torso muscles are not pitching in as the lower muscles change position and tension level - but the upper back/shoulder/neck muscles don't "hold" your posture at all.

Your core muscles - lower ab and pelvic/low back/hip muscles hold your posture. Then you add turnout.

So if your next exploration is turnout, it is best to find a good illustration of the low back/pelvic/hip area showing the muscles and joints clearly. (A picture is worth a thousand words....).

Learn how to stretch the rotator muscles, the piriformis and the adductors (inner thigh) muscles.

With correct posture and turnout you have a basis to develop beautiful basic ballet positions. If you can define your most basic weaknesses in classical technique, and search for every detail as to the solution that you need, you will learn how to improve at ballet with an excellent understanding.

Here is more info about where to get ballet turnout exercises.

Use the Ballet Barre to Improve Your Balance and Strengthen Your Ballet Technique

Be in pointe shoes as much as you can. Once you've gone beyond beginning pointe work, wearing the shoes for barre work is a good habit.

The sole of the foot, and ankle, have to work so much more with every tendu, degage, and rise onto demi-pointe. The shoe resists, and the muscles get a better workout.

If the thickness of the sole makes your foot wobble because it does lie flat on the floor, use a wood file, and shave the sole down lightly. You can get the sole close to flush with the satin, so that your foot will be flatter on the floor. Straining the ankles from wobbling is distracting, during ballet barre work.

Even wearing worn out pointe shoes is better than wearing soft shoes. There is still more effort needed, until the shoe is completely mushy.

If you're still pre-pointe, or an adult ballet beginner, here's some tips to help you gain from using the ballet barre properly:

*** understand correct weight placement on your feet (or supporting foot) which is, evenly distributed between the center of the heel, the area at the little toe joint at the outside of the foot, and the area at the big toe joint at the ball of the foot.

*** check frequently during barre work, by lifting your hand off the barre, that your weight has not moved back onto the heel.

*** additionally, at frequent opportunities, see if you can lift the heel of the supporting foot, and place back down, indicating that you are not back on your heel.

These two simple points show you how to use the ballet barre to improve your balance and strengthen your ballet technique.To get into pointe shoes faster, learn more about better ballet technique, and ballet positions.

Men In Ballet Working in Pointe Shoes

 Men In Ballet Working in Pointe Shoes

Many men in ballet talk about dancing in pointe shoes and whether it is appropriate or even possible.

Pointe shoes are made in men's sizes for the few classical ballets where pointe shoes for a male character are used.

More importantly, developing foot muscles for ballet using pre-pointe exercises is an excellent idea for men in ballet classes.

Here is a video of a male ballet dancer who does work on pointe, with the Royal Ballet. See what he has to say:

For male adult beginners in ballet classes, there are many challenges.

Often strength in the large muscle groups is not one of them, especially if the men have been practicing high intensity interval training or weight resistance training.

However, the particular exercises for the intrinsic foot muscles do not show up often, even in ballet classes. You can read more about those here.

Here is where information about feet in general is needed for all dance students, and especially for men in adult ballet.  

Knowledge of foot muscles will prevent strain/sprain of the lower leg muscles and tendons, protecting the Achilles area. I wrote about that topic HERE.

Developing awareness and strength in the foot muscles will prevent cramping and soreness in the feet.

If men in adult ballet classes wish to eventually get into pointe shoes to exercise and hone their footwork, they also need to know about foot types, and proper stretching of the ankle joint.

Also, correct basic ballet technique - weight distribution on the feet, posture, turnout, and ballet positions, need to be understood completely. This education will give an adult dance student a better experience as well as faster progress.

Ballet is an excellent form of exercise. It compares to high intensity training. Ballet exercises are short, designed to challenge and completely load the muscles during the barre work.

A well designed barre workout rests some muscle groups while engaging others, alternating, so as to warm up the whole body evenly.

For serious recreational ballet students, more is not necessarily better. Muscles need to recover properly, and several classes a week do not add strength.

It would be better for an adult male ballet enthusiast to do an upper body training workout rather than another ballet class.

If such a student feels unoccupied during off days - rent ballet movies, or ballet classes on DVD and study them while doing some gentle stretching on your floor.

Also do your pre-pointe foot exercises while watching your favorite ballerinas and their partners perform the amazing feats of classical repertoires.

This trains your brain to assimilate the movement finesse it perceives, even when you are not active physically.

I think it is a great idea for men in ballet to eventually exercise in pointe shoes. It is not a necessity, yet you can be among the men in pointe shoes (the real ones)!

More On Men In Ballet

 Men In Ballet - How To Get The Most Out Of Your Foot's Demi Pointe - And Then Your Pointe Shoes

D. Buxton is a writing partner with Vone Deporter, of The Sedona Series, about a surfer girl in pointe shoes.

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Taking Advantage of the Brain Body Connection in Ballet/Sports/Fitness Training

Classical technique takes strong, long, lean muscles and a healthy brain. Ballet/sports/fitness goals are demanding and time consuming yet can be life's inspiration even on a recreational level. Understanding and using a natural posture of the spine in any style of dance classes actually supports healthy brain function, which in turn governs many chemical messenger processes that result in body strength and elegance and the enjoyment dancers and fitness buffs seek.

While dance techniques use a lengthening of the spine, it is never meant for the natural curves to straighten. The back of the neck curving inward, the upper back curving back outward, the small of the back curving inward and the sacrum curving outward again, are all minor but necessary shapes.

Dancers and other athletes focus on eating a good diet. They want stronger muscles as they develop advanced technical movements, strive to get into pointe shoes or aim for excellence in sports. Partnering in all styles of dance demands another level of technique and coordination, spatial awareness and sensitivity. What do the natural spinal curves and spinal (muscle, bone, nerve, discs) have to do with this?

The spinal canal is like the information highway of your body/brain connection. CSF (cerebro-spinal fluid) is pumped to the brain, carrying the necessary nutrients for effective functions. These brain functions cause physical, intellectual and emotional wellness to the degree that your nutrition is good, and to the degree that the CSF reaches the brain.

This pumping action is initiated by the movement of the sacrum (the lowest portion of the spine) and the cervical spine (neck). So free, easy movement of the low back and neck allow nutrients to get to your brain.

If this canal is dammed up with spinal compression due to muscle spasms, the spine being forced straight or even into a reversed curve (which happens most commonly in the neck), then what is needed in the brain may get there in vastly diminished amounts. Muscles that never relax enough will decrease in movement, and the pumping effect of the sacrum and neck will be less.

The chronic diminishment of oxygen and nutrients to the brain can lead to disease and degeneration, physically, intellectually and emotionally (or socially, if you prefer). An extreme example is an incident underwater where the brain is deprived of oxygen too long, leading to serious damage.

Many people, as well as athletes, have undetected spinal imbalance and misalignments (subluxations), as they engage in their everyday activities. Gradually, this CSF pumping mechanism decreases.

When nutrients do not reach the brain in the proper quantity and quality, the brain can atrophy, or shrink and lose function, even as young as 25 years old.

Another factor in brain health is the proper function of communication signals that take place within the spinal column, specifically in the brain stem and spinal cord. Overexertion involving poor placement of the spine would affect the signaling to secrete important glandular chemical hormones, which govern our organs and how well they function. These hormones and chemicals also govern our moods, our perceptions and our expectations of the future.

The spinal nerves going to our organs can get compressed, or "pinched", affecting heart, lung, stomach, liver, adrenal, and many more functions. And, in turn, the body would fail to process and metabolize the nutrition that it is fed. This is an ongoing degenerating cyclical process.

Proper understanding and execution of ballet/sports/fitness form, along with good rest and recovery, relaxation and stretching, (safe, motionless positions), enhances the brain/body connection. The fit get fitter and the unfit get weaker.

It is easy to get an evaluation by a chiropractor for proper spinal alignment and correction of spinal posture. Better to have one before a semester of training starts, or before class and rehearsal schedules intensify before ballet exams or performances. Why wait till something goes wrong with your precious brain/body connection.

Enjoy the abundance of anatomy, dance, strengthening and ballet stretches education at THE BODY SERIES.

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!

Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes - Chunking and Imitational Learning In

Please let me explain. "Chunking" is a new verb. It is a scientific word. It means breaking down a movement into its series of mini-movements so that someone learning it can learn it more accurately and faster, and build the right neural pathways. Like a ballet class, or a ballet exercise. Neuroscientists use this word. Try not to think "chunky" because to a dancer "chunky" is a very threatening idea.

I am trying to be serious and academic about this but the verb "chunking" is too funny.

Brandeis University's Volen Center for Complex Systems published a study "Monkey See Monkey Do". It attended to the lack of research on imitative learning, which has apparently been neglected, in favor of studies in verbal learning, even though we learn more through imitation than by words. The study notes that:

"Several strategies may help leverage a learner's attention and motivate imitative learning. Organizing the motor skill practice is key. For example, Sekuler, an expert on the neural and cognitive terrain of visual memory, says that breaking down a behavioral sequence into chunks can aid imitation learning, just as chunking can help us memorize a string of seemingly unrelated digits or other material. Agam and Sekuler have their sights set on identifying strategies that teachers and coaches could use to make complex actions more "chunkable," and therefore easier to imitate.

The researchers' long-term goal is to devise simple methods that will allow teachers and coaches to take any arbitrary complex action that they want to teach--like that series of dance steps or that perfect golf swing, and then re-package that action into components that make for optimal learning."

If the researchers had watched a classical ballet, and then a ballet class, they would see a supreme example of chunking. Don't you just love that word? All those pre-pointe routines make pointe work chunkable.

The gazillion degages are chunking the aspired to, smooth, floating, gliding glissade. The stretchy, elastic, muscle-elicious fondu in adage are chunks of grand allegro.

The quick footwork exercises at the ballet barre are chunkettes of petit allegro.

I do not mean to diss brain research but I find this hilarious. So please appreciate the careful chunking that your ballet teachers are so good at, in helping you develop organized thought patterns, build neural pathways and build strength in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.

The best example of chunking that I know right now is the pro student's manual about dancing in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, which chunks perfectly for pre-pointe practise and essential ballet technique for all.

Core Muscles And Ballet Technique

Learn more about your core muscles and how they stabilize the body and prevent injuries and low back pain.

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To enhance your ballet technique, and your grace, in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, the following tips will help. When you build strength in your core, you support high extensions, pirouette and fouette positions, pointe work and grand allegro.

From a Mayo Clinic article:

"Core muscles

Your body's core is the area around your trunk and pelvis. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. Strong core muscles make it easier to do most physical activities - from swinging a golf club to getting a glass off a top shelf or bending down to tie your shoes. Weak core muscles leave you susceptible to poor posture, lower back pain and muscle injuries.
Enter core exercises

Core exercises help you strengthen your core muscles. And it doesn't take specialized equipment or an expensive gym membership to try core exercises. Any exercise that uses the trunk of your body without support counts. Think squats, push-ups and abdominal crunches."

The article then presents some simple and effective core exercises that anyone can do.

As a ballet student, your core muscles are engaged all the time. Posture and turnout depend on your core muscles.

For some details on ballet turnout go HERE. 

Correct neutral spine, and correct turnout is the basis of your stability.

• Holding the turnout in your deep hip rotators 

• Assisting with your inner thigh muscles

• Supporting with your lower ab muscles pulled up and flat, 

allows for a relaxed upper body, and smooth head movements and port de bras.

A wonderful and simple way to improve the strength of your core muscles for ballet, is doing slow press ups in retire position.

Using the barre lightly, press up slowly, maintaining your posture and turnout.

Be aware of moments where your neck, shoulders or arms tense up - that is where you are letting go of your core strength. It's an easy marker to watch for.

When you can do this effortlessly, you are ready to do it without the barre. This will build strength for every movement. You will feel much stronger in pirouettes and will be able to add more turns.

When you get into pointe shoes, you will not be struggling with an incorrect position that will be throwing you off your tiny pointe of connection with the floor.

Nor will you be straining or collapsing into your ending positions.

All this applies to male students too - their investment in this kind of strength building will result in better pirouettes and control in grand allegro.

You'll continue to build strength if your basic ballet exercises are done accurately. Core muscles with the addition of turnout, is where you start, in your aspirations to pointe work and dancing classical choreography.

For professional tips on core muscles and ballet technique I think The Perfect Pointe Book is the best reference.

It gives lots of exercises and ways to test your core muscle strength.

Here is the author of The Perfect Pointe Book showing an exercise for turnout: