The basics of classical ballet technique need to be thoroughly understood to build strength for pirouettes, and later for ballet classes in pointe shoes. Knowing the finer details of your daily routines gives you an extra advantage to the use of your core muscles in stabilizing your ballet positions and movements.
First a quick review of some basics that will help you make progress toward pointe work, good pirouettes and doing well dancing the kind of roles in ballet recitals you would like:
1. Is your postural plumb line correct in your fifth position standing with straight legs?
2. Do you maintain your postural plumb line and turn out when you demi plie in fifth or fourth position?
3. Do you have a relaxed neck for good spotting?
4. Do you maintain the placement of your hips in your retire position?
5. Can you releve straight up and balance there?
6. Can you keep the foot muscles engaged when you descend back to your landing position so that you land softly into a controlled demi plie?
If any of the above are non-existent or weak, pick the most basic and do a practice routine to correct it. Ask your teacher or a class buddy to help you until it is 100% correct.
If you tip to either side when you releve, check to see if your core muscles are not holding, or if loss of turnout on one side tips you. Also check to see if your arms are closing too forcefully and knocking you off balance.
Doing a series of quarter, half, then whole turns (once you've corrected the basics) without any arms at all gives you the right feeling for more effortless pirouettes. Put your hands on your shoulders or hips and just turn from the force of pushing up out of the demi plie and the working leg turning out as you place it into retire and begin the turn. You'll get around.
For pirouettes en dedans, you've got the force of the working leg pushing off and coming up to retire and the supporting leg turning out as you start the turn, to get around at least once with no arms needed.
The other issue is hopping towards the end of a turn, or throughout. If this happens, try getting a feeling of pushing down through the supporting leg into the floor as you pull up your core muscles and leg muscles. Connect with the floor, even get an idea of drilling down into the floor - use the image to keep you grounded. And check all your basics to see what you are compensating for.
This should help you in how to improve the basics of classical ballet technique for pirouettes. Enjoy! They're fun.
Go here for info on how to prepare for pointe and improve your pirouettes!
Showing posts with label core muscles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label core muscles. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Core Muscles And Ballet Technique
Learn more about your core muscles and how they stabilize the body and prevent injuries and low back pain.
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.
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:
 |
| source. |
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:
Monday, March 3, 2008
Core Muscles - Build Strength For Ballet Movements
Syllabus classes like R.A.D. and Cecchetti present only the exercises to be done in the exams. Many months can be spent working up to new and difficult movements. You can build strength in your center with preparation ballet exercises, whether in ballet shoes or pointe shoes. This adds up to well-executed combinations and helps to prevent injuries.
For example, if your class has done adage in the center consisting of developpe en croix, and your new level requires a fouette or promenade, you may need to build more strength in your center.
Fouette in adage depends on the stability of the supporting side, firstly, then of course, also the working position.
To break it down, you could practise an exercise where the you developpe devant, turn a quarter turn to face the wall, moving the supporting heel and thigh to a new turned out position, and the working leg coming forward to its proper second position. You could either close here, and developpe a la seconde and then turn a quarter turn back to devant, or just keep holding the leg up and turn back to devant. It depends on your current strength and stamina. You can do this four times on each side, changing sides, so as not to exhaust the supporting side.
You would do the same, going from developpe a la seconde to arabesque, always leading with the supporting heel/thigh and adjusting to the arabesque position carefully.
And then with developpe to arabesque back to a la seconde.
When you are feeling steady with these movements, you would want to add going into a demi plie at the end of the developpe, and releve the fouette, then coming down into a strong demi plie. This will be needed in fouette releve en pointe, and fouette saute, for a good strong landing. Adage is a preparation for these, as well as for adage choreography.
If you feel wobbly in the torso, or are straining your neck and shoulders to balance, you can do the lying on the floor on your side exercise, raising both legs up a few inches, straight, keeping the supporting waist held off the floor. 4-8 times per side and you will build core strength.
Teachers break movements down like this, and you can even practice the position changes in retire or a tendu, to get those torso muscles fully engaged and controlled.
This strength in your center means a lot when you put on pointe shoes and wobble until you get used to the shoe, maintaining a full height position and balancing on the sole of the pointe shoe.
Building this core strength through preparation exercises leads to the "effortless" quality that is so admired in professionals. And you can do it too.
Get help with your core muscles and ballet movements.
For example, if your class has done adage in the center consisting of developpe en croix, and your new level requires a fouette or promenade, you may need to build more strength in your center.
Fouette in adage depends on the stability of the supporting side, firstly, then of course, also the working position.
To break it down, you could practise an exercise where the you developpe devant, turn a quarter turn to face the wall, moving the supporting heel and thigh to a new turned out position, and the working leg coming forward to its proper second position. You could either close here, and developpe a la seconde and then turn a quarter turn back to devant, or just keep holding the leg up and turn back to devant. It depends on your current strength and stamina. You can do this four times on each side, changing sides, so as not to exhaust the supporting side.
You would do the same, going from developpe a la seconde to arabesque, always leading with the supporting heel/thigh and adjusting to the arabesque position carefully.
And then with developpe to arabesque back to a la seconde.
When you are feeling steady with these movements, you would want to add going into a demi plie at the end of the developpe, and releve the fouette, then coming down into a strong demi plie. This will be needed in fouette releve en pointe, and fouette saute, for a good strong landing. Adage is a preparation for these, as well as for adage choreography.
If you feel wobbly in the torso, or are straining your neck and shoulders to balance, you can do the lying on the floor on your side exercise, raising both legs up a few inches, straight, keeping the supporting waist held off the floor. 4-8 times per side and you will build core strength.
Teachers break movements down like this, and you can even practice the position changes in retire or a tendu, to get those torso muscles fully engaged and controlled.
This strength in your center means a lot when you put on pointe shoes and wobble until you get used to the shoe, maintaining a full height position and balancing on the sole of the pointe shoe.
Building this core strength through preparation exercises leads to the "effortless" quality that is so admired in professionals. And you can do it too.
Get help with your core muscles and ballet movements.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
7 Highly Effective Tips for Fouettes To Improve Ballet Technique
Get a highly detailed home study manual to improve ballet technique, which will make all this easier.
Traveling, in a series of pirouettes,ballet fouettes, or turns a la seconde, is a problem of strength holding the postural plumb line. If the movement is not perfectly vertical, the turns will travel and flounder.
Here are 7 highly effective tips to examine your technique for fouettes and turns a la seconde:
Standing sideways to a mirror, do a few press ups in first position. Do you have a postural plumb line? If your core muscles, your turnout, your ankles and soles of the foot are steady, also check to see that these movements are done with no strain in the shoulders and neck.
Core Muscles Strength
With fingertips on the barre, do slow motion press ups and down in retire, or a la seconde. If you can do this without strain in the neck and shoulders, great. If there is strain, you need to build up strength in your core muscles, and possibly overall. If a postural deviation from your plumb line shows up here, check for technical accuracy.
Compensations/Counter Compensations
What specific technical accuracy? The basics, always. Is your turnout strong, or have you compensated by shoving your supporting heel forward when you plie, changing your center of balance?
Are you dropping your weight back in the bottom of the demi plie? A shorter demi plie is not a bad thing.
What counts is being in good posture in your demi plie so that you can press with your heel/foot, into the floor, and use gravity to push up, without having to make another compensation to rise into a straight position.
It's a lot more work to keep all these compensations/counter-compensations going.
Patience!
Spend several weeks if necessary, to address the above issues, until you can do rises and releves with correct posture and placement. Learn some Pilates core work, and stretch and relax all your muscles, before, during and after class.
Spotting/Inclined Head
To check your spotting, walk on the spot, turning as far as you can toward a quarter turn, leaving your head to the front. I don't specifiy exactly how far you should turn, because this depends on the extent your head will turn without inclining.
Memorize this feeling and this head position. This is just to feel the looseness of your neck muscles in leaving your head behind.
Repeat this exercise in retire or a la seconde. Use a partner, to hold the hand of your supporting side as you turn away from the front. Again, this is to check the neck (and shoulders) relaxation as you releve, and to check your postural plumb line in the position of your turn, and your demi plie. (We haven't dealt with fouette yet).
For fouettes, use a partner in the center, to do your demi plie with the leg extended devant, and then do a slow motion press up with the ronde de jambe and into retire, turning a little.
This is to again check the postural plumb line, correct demi plie, and ease of the neck in leaving the head behind.
This whole process may take place over a whole year. You will be doing your pirouettes, fouettes and turns a la seconde all the time. But as you gain strength, and learn to see and feel those tiny compensations you have been doing, you will build excellent work habits for these spectacular feats.
Ballet is much harder to do incorrectly. If your early training wasn't the best, you can back-peddle like this to improve ballet technique in your advanced levels.
For any overworked muscles use an ice pack at least twice a day. An arnica cream or BioFreeze is wonderful for soft tissue repair. Apply after icing.
So save yourself time and over-exertion. Get The Perfect Pointe Book if you need to re-learn more ballet technique moves.
Traveling, in a series of pirouettes,ballet fouettes, or turns a la seconde, is a problem of strength holding the postural plumb line. If the movement is not perfectly vertical, the turns will travel and flounder.
 |
| source. |
Here are 7 highly effective tips to examine your technique for fouettes and turns a la seconde:
Postural Plumb Line
Standing sideways to a mirror, do a few press ups in first position. Do you have a postural plumb line? If your core muscles, your turnout, your ankles and soles of the foot are steady, also check to see that these movements are done with no strain in the shoulders and neck.
Core Muscles Strength
With fingertips on the barre, do slow motion press ups and down in retire, or a la seconde. If you can do this without strain in the neck and shoulders, great. If there is strain, you need to build up strength in your core muscles, and possibly overall. If a postural deviation from your plumb line shows up here, check for technical accuracy.
Compensations/Counter Compensations
What specific technical accuracy? The basics, always. Is your turnout strong, or have you compensated by shoving your supporting heel forward when you plie, changing your center of balance?
Are you dropping your weight back in the bottom of the demi plie? A shorter demi plie is not a bad thing.
What counts is being in good posture in your demi plie so that you can press with your heel/foot, into the floor, and use gravity to push up, without having to make another compensation to rise into a straight position.
It's a lot more work to keep all these compensations/counter-compensations going.
Patience!
Spend several weeks if necessary, to address the above issues, until you can do rises and releves with correct posture and placement. Learn some Pilates core work, and stretch and relax all your muscles, before, during and after class.
Spotting/Inclined Head
To check your spotting, walk on the spot, turning as far as you can toward a quarter turn, leaving your head to the front. I don't specifiy exactly how far you should turn, because this depends on the extent your head will turn without inclining.
Memorize this feeling and this head position. This is just to feel the looseness of your neck muscles in leaving your head behind.
Rinse And Repeat
Repeat this exercise in retire or a la seconde. Use a partner, to hold the hand of your supporting side as you turn away from the front. Again, this is to check the neck (and shoulders) relaxation as you releve, and to check your postural plumb line in the position of your turn, and your demi plie. (We haven't dealt with fouette yet).
Fouettes
For fouettes, use a partner in the center, to do your demi plie with the leg extended devant, and then do a slow motion press up with the ronde de jambe and into retire, turning a little.
This is to again check the postural plumb line, correct demi plie, and ease of the neck in leaving the head behind.
This whole process may take place over a whole year. You will be doing your pirouettes, fouettes and turns a la seconde all the time. But as you gain strength, and learn to see and feel those tiny compensations you have been doing, you will build excellent work habits for these spectacular feats.
Ballet is much harder to do incorrectly. If your early training wasn't the best, you can back-peddle like this to improve ballet technique in your advanced levels.
For any overworked muscles use an ice pack at least twice a day. An arnica cream or BioFreeze is wonderful for soft tissue repair. Apply after icing.
So save yourself time and over-exertion. Get The Perfect Pointe Book if you need to re-learn more ballet technique moves.
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