Talent For Ballet - Can I Get Into Ballet

Do you wonder if you have the talent for ballet?

Kids ask me "how do I know if I can get into ballet? "

Professional ballet teachers look for a combination of a physique - close to the ideal ballet body - and the spark of love for dance and presence, or magnetism, that they feel will develop you into a successful performer.

If it seems that you do not qualify for a professional dance career (sometimes you are not accepted because there are not enough places in a program), you can still get into ballet and love it.

Find the best local studio with the highest credentials. If a specific studio has been able to send any of their students to a professional school, they will be advertising that fact. Read everything in their web site, and check the teachers' credentials.

If you do get into ballet, take advantage of the current dance education that is available for home practice.
There are books and DVD's, put together to enhance your ballet training.

You can improve your talent for ballet with some extracurricular study:

Flexibility Workout for Athletes

The Perfect Pointe Book - professional footwork for men in ballet too!

Inside Ballet Technique - anatomy as related to ballet technique/physical requirements and advantages:

Last but not least - what's talent for ballet without turnout?

Getting accurate information will help you get stronger and more flexible as needed, to practice safely and correctly at home. Understanding proper stretching and relaxation techniques will add to your muscle strength.

If you know how to take advantage of every ballet barre exercise, you will develop the following technique:

* correct natural posture
* ballet foot muscles and ballet footwork
* correct alignment
* high leg extensions
* strong ballet turnout

Talent for ballet involves the ability to concentrate.

In other words, a maturity to ignore all the distractions delivered to you by your culture. Peer pressure, emotional upheavals, and keeping up good grades can all alter your focus to varying degrees.

If you wonder "can I get into ballet", or "do I have talent for ballet" take a few months of ballet classes and find out!

Ballet Turnout Helps Avoid Knee Injuries Suffered By Soccer and Volleyball Players

"Knee muscles are capable of protecting ligaments and preventing injury," says Edward M. Wojtys M.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery, U-M Medical School, and Director of Sports Medicine at UMHS (University of Michigan Health System). "Female athletes are two to eight times more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligament because they may not able to achieve the same muscle stiffness across the knee joint." Both female and male athletes could benefit from ballet classes, to learn the principles of turnout. Pointe shoes could pose an equal risk for dancers, because of the extra demand for strengthening turnout.

It is the running and pivoting team sports that this study addresses. Sprinters and runners go in one direction, and do not have to risk knee rotation. This article from Science Daily also reports:

"The thought is, if you play jumping, turning, twisting sports, that you should be better prepared to protect your knee against rotational forces," Wojtys says.

That's why the measurements for the females involved in non-pivoting sports were surprising when compared to females in the pivoting sports. Females in non-pivoting sports had an increase in knee stiffness of 198 percent - 27 percent higher than the females in pivoting sports.

"Women who played jumping, turning, twisting sports actually had the poorest ability to protect themselves against rotational strains," Wojtys says. "

Please note that the above reference to "stiffness" means deliberate tension of the knee muscles, not the kind of stiffness resulting from strain or over training.

Ballet is a pivotal movement system. We do turn and pivot both in adage, jumps and on pointe. But we have turnout to protect our knees, especially, but also all of our joints. We employ turnout to change direction smoothly.

And, of course, our movements are choreographed in advance, and well rehearsed.

The strength of our turnout and placement means we do not have to twist to turn or pivot. This takes years of training. Athletes also practise dodging and twisting movements for speed and reflex, but to date, do not generally understand how to protect their joints.

This study shows that female athletes are more likely to risk knee injuries. What a shame that so far, it is mainly football players who study ballet, to avoid the risk of injuries resulting from twisting and tearing joints.

In the field of Dance Medicine inspired authors like Deborah Vogel and Lisa Howell write about the finer details of functional anatomy, mostly in relationship to dance and working in pointe shoes. I recommend their works to any aspiring female athlete. They could learn some basic ballet exercises to build strength and avoid knee injuries.