Ballet Positions Ballet Pointe Shoes And Daily Pointe Shoe Exercise

I talk to young and adult ballet beginner dance students and the questions I get asked most commonly relate to:

• getting onto pointe and finding the right pointe shoes

• get more flexible - especially doing the splits

• cannot get to enough classes in a week to advance more quickly

• concerns about good diet and body weight/shape

When to start taking dance classes in professional pointe ballet shoes is an ongoing discussion.

Basic technique for ballet positions has to be very strong before you can do pointe work. Posture and turnout must be correct and strong.

Here is one thing you can do just as a self-test, to determine how your strength is developing.

Either at the dance studio or at home, stand next to the mirror in first or fifth position, so that you are looking at yourself sideways. With arms in fifth-en-avant (I'm speaking Cecchetti here) slowly press up onto 3/4 pointe.

• do you have any difficulty maintaining your correct posture and turnout?

• do your ankles wobble toward your big toe or your little toe?

• do you cramp right away?

• can you keep your shoulders and neck relaxed?

• can you do some simple port-de-bras without losing balance?

• can you slowly press down through flat to a demi-plie, and then do several of these slow-motion releve maintaining your poise?

The exercise I just described is just a teeny sample of self tests that you get in  THE PERFECT POINTE BOOK.

You will get well organized progress charts to map your advancement toward dancing in pointe shoes!

You will love getting control over your ballet positions while doing pointe shoe exercise.