The Ballet Dance Routine -Start Late-And Progress Faster

Most adults, or older teens who want to start ballet have goals such as:

*** get stronger
*** get taller and leaner looking
*** get strong leg and core muscles
*** be determined
*** persist through the aches and pains
*** improve professional footwork for tennis, or some other sport
*** learn flexibility exercises
*** get a full body workout while practising in an artistic manner.

Develop your ballet dance routine with The Perfect Pointe Book. This manual is beautifully designed to develop your muscles without strain or over-work. It may not feel like that when you are an adult ballet beginner, but eventually you will learn how hard to work, how to relax and stretch in between exercises, and how to recover in between classes.

Even though this book is meant to give a student a regulated pre-pointe work up, it is finely tuned to all basic ballet technique.

If you start ballet late - The Perfect Pointe Book will speed your progress! 

It can be challenging emotionally to be in a class with younger people because unless you're "born to dance" physically, you will not see as fast a progress as the younger dancers get. And you might decide you're better off in a "ballet lite" class geared toward older beginners.

 The Perfect Pointe Book. will make your progress faster!

Fast Light Bourees In Ballet Toe Shoes

The bouree is everywhere in classical ballet choreography, and it is a challenge to be light and fluttery in real ballet toe shoes.

In Pas De Quatre, La Sylphide, Giselle, this movement transports the ballerinas swiftly across the stage, implying her not-quite-physical but definitely supernatural character.

In the fourth act of Swan Lake, the corps de ballet of Swans are genuinely mourning and almost weeping sometimes, from what seems like an eternity of bourees, as they try to keep the White Swan isolated from Von Rothbart and The Prince.

So what makes this movement effective, and maybe a little easier to do?

Strong core muscles and well held ballet turnout keeps you well in control of your leg movements. In the bouree, the knees are not entirely pulled up, but instantly tensing and releasing, invisibly.

The more turnout you have, the easier it is to keep the back foot leading.

Being pulled up at the bottom of your core muscles allows you to maintain your posture without clenching your gluts, or your butt muscles, too tightly. This is important because it allows a fluid, fast, tiny transfer of tension in the hips, knees and ankles. This is where the fluttering quality comes from.

In contrast, if you are clenching your gluts instead of using your rotator muscles to turn out, you will be tight and rigid, and pushing down into your thighs, instead of pulling up out of them. As well as impeding the movement, this makes your thighs look bulky, instead of long and lean.

So to re-cap:

strong core muscles = fluid movement in the legs
strong core muscles = relaxed neck and shoulders
strong core muscles + proper turnout = the correct tension in the hips and thighs

Mentally, picture the movement of picking the toes up from the floor, not putting them down. It can trick you into feeling light and floaty.

If you found this helpful, there are many more tips in  The Perfect Pointe Book.

Enjoy these bourees - The Dying Swan

Ballet Parents Worry About Eating Disorders - Or, Disordered Eating

Ballet parents - I have written an article about disordered eating and hypoglycemia that you may find interesting.

Hypoglycemia is an insidious condition that can show up as symptoms of depression, anxiety, mood swings, fatigue - general unhappiness. It is good to read about this, because diet will correct it and return enthusiasm and well being to some individuals, without further complication.

Not that any of the above symptoms should not be investigated along other ideas, but in the spirit of keeping things simple, it is useful to get some knowledge about hypoglycemia. If it is present, the other remedies are not going to work well anyway.

I know ballet parents want to do the best they can for their dancing children...read an introduction to hypoclygemia and see if it applies to your dancers.

I highly recommend The Perfect Pointe Parent's Manual  for more about disordered eating and other dance parents worries.

Ballet Class Beginners

Pointe shoes are the goal when you get into ballet, either as a child or an adult ballet classes beginner. So how can you get ahead and aim to be the best in the ballet class beginners?

What if this is not a realistic goal for you?

The Perfect Pointe Book will show you how to get as close to executing the best barre exercises as you possibly can.

I say, set your focus on it. Your first couple of years in ballet training is to learn the exactly correct technique so that the repetition of thousands of plies, battements tendus and all the other ballet barre exercises, is fulfilling your goal.

I always knew which students were willing to learn on their own - in regards to understanding correct ballet technique - their progress with the difficult physical challenges of ballet was noticeable.

Pointe Shoes

Everything you do in ballet slippers, you will eventually dance in pointe shoes. You need to be strong enough, and technically accurate.

Get yourself the:

• correct information about ballet technique

• charts with which to self-test and chart your progress

Can you be the best in class? I don't know that, but I do know you can be the best you can possibly be, with the help of The Perfect Pointe Book.

First Pointe Shoes

The incredible variety of pointe shoe brands, and the confusing array of shapes within these brands, makes buying your first pointe shoes quite a challenge.

Parents of ballet class beginners reading this, please understand the cost of this financial investment at stake here. If you worry about whether or not your dancing daughter is prepared for pointe, you should get her The Pointe Book.

Pointe shoes are not to be grown into. They must fit like a glove, to be blunt. If your daughter has a high hypermobile arch, shoes will broken completely, in a few classes. This changes as your child's foot muscles get strong, and the ballet barre exercises that ballet class beginners should know, will hasten the process.

A student's first pointe shoes fitting should not be rushed. If an experienced fitter or your ballet teacher is present, that is a real help. (Not all ballet stores have experienced fitters.)

Your child's foot shape must be examined. The length and evenness or tapering of toes, the width across the metatarsals, the height of the arch, and the depth of the foot must all be fitted correctly. Ill fitting shoes can contribute to sprains and permanent injuries.

Before you get to the pointe shoes, consider shoe padding.

This will take up space in the shoe. The variety of gel pads, toe length adaptors, toe tips and all the other things are wonderful, but you must use them to fit the shoe.

The boxes, or space in the shoe for the toes, of pointe shoes come in tapered shapes, and square shapes. They must fit so that the foot does not sink into, or slide around inside the box.

A longer second toe usually requires a slightly tapered, narrow to medium box, but there are no hard and fast rules. A longer big toe may also feel more comfortable in a tapered box, but every shape of shoe must be tried on.

Dancers should wear their tights when fitting pointe shoes.

You can check the vamp needed by rising up to 3/4 pointe, to see if the shoe break is where your metatarsal joints are. Too high a vamp will impede the foot movement, and too low a vamp will not provide support.

The stiffness of the shank you need will be determined by the arch height and ankle flexibility. You should be able to get up onto the platform, the end of the shoes,fully, so that you are not leaning back into the box. The shank must give support, but not provide so much resistance that you can't work properly.
 
Ballet toe shoes will break in, and keep breaking in until suddenly they are worn out!

That's the life of a pointe shoe.

When you are up on pointe, there should be about 1/4 inch of fabric at your heel. If there is none, the shoe is too short. If there is more, the shoe is too long.

Also, if you do a demi-plie, and your toes are mashed into the box, hurting, the shoe is too short, too narrow, or both.

The vamp should not gape or wrinkle - neither should the sides. There should be equal pressure from the shoe all over the foot.

I've tried to keep these articles fairly short - but like your first few fittings - time, patience and detail is needed.

Here are a couple of wonderful references I have found;

http://www.the-perfect-pointe.com/HavingAFit.html is a detailed article written by a pointe shoe fitter

http://www.the-perfect-pointe.com/list2.html is a graphic table of pointe shoe brands with specifications. It is an excellent guide to start with before you shop.

An expertly written ballet dancer's guide with all the necessary details will help you find exactly the right fit in your first pointe shoes with The Pointe Book's detailed instructions.

Ballet Pointe Work And Ballet Barre Exercises

Ballet students want to build muscle power so they can do ballet pointe work as soon as possible. And they can build ballet muscles faster if they truly understand how their ballet barre exercises develop their professional footwork.

Consider this: every ballet movement where your foot leaves a closed position, usually fifth position, and ends in a pointed foot position, on or off the floor, uses your tiny intrinsic (in the foot exclusively) foot muscles. Just at the barre you do:

* battement tendu
* battement degage
* battement picque
* ronde de jambe
* ronde de jambe en l'air
* grand battement
* developpe

In each of these exercises, your foot goes from a closed, or flat on the floor position, to a pointed position.

Every single ballet movement is an opportunity to use your foot muscles properly. 

As you leave a closed position, you pretend your leg is getting longer, elastic down the back. You push down into the floor, creating RESISTANCE to your gliding movement.

If your body position is stable, then the RESISTANCE is the part of the muscular effort that develops strength. Both in your foot muscles, and in your postural muscles of the spine and hips, which keep your body upright.

• In a battement tendu, you end in a pointed foot position on the floor (a terre).

• In a battement degage, you allow the foot to leave the floor, but only so far

• In a battement picque, you degage, and then bounce the toes off the floor one time, maintaining the point.

• In a ronde de jambe a terre (on the floor) you close into first, RESISTING and pushing into the floor with the sole of the foot, and RESISTING and pushing the into the floor with the foot as you leave first position to the next open position.

• In grand battement, you leave the closed position, quickly, with pressure into the floor.

• In developpe, you leave fifth position, pushing into the floor with your foot muscles, as opposed to just lifting the foot up.

That's a lot of work! All in those tiny ballet foot muscles.

Imagine the power you have when you push off the floor to jump. Of course your thighs and calves are pumping.

But the very last thrust from the floor is from your feet and the ends of your toes!

There is your quality. A quick, sharp, exit from gravity.

If you are a dedicated ballet dancer, feeling impatient to do ballet pointe work, you can learn more about all your ballet barre exercises by getting your own copy of The Perfect Pointe Book.

Stretches For Ballet (Or Other) Dancing Moves

Ballet warm up exercises are good for contemporary dance classes, jazz dance classes, hip hop dance classes, and cheer leading. Ballet is common to many dance forms. The classical technique is geared toward preventing dance injuries, facilitating turnout, and utilizing the best stretching and warm up.

Warm Up Stretches For Your Dance Class

Most dance classes start with warming up the lower leg and foot muscles. Whether you start with legs parallel or turned out, getting your demi plie and sole of the foot muscles ready to dance will enhance your class work.

“Prances”, a time tested exercise.

Done at the barre, or in the center, here is a simple and effective warm up move.

If you are working with legs parallel, remember to rotate your thighs so that the knees are over the toes, and not swinging in (which is natural).

Engage your core muscles to support your posture, and relax your shoulders and neck.

Rise slowly onto your demi pointe, carrying your upper body forward over your toes.

Start pressing (rather than just letting go of the muscles) down slowly onto the left (or right, as you prefer) foot, bending the other knee and staying on demi pointe on the bent-knee side.

Continue into your demi plie, foot held on the floor, until you get a stretch in that calf, and reach your deepest possible position. PRESS upwards through your flat position to your demi pointe, check your spinal posture, and check again that your legs are a true parallel, not with knees swinging in.

Repeat slowly and carefully a few times, changing sides. Then gradually speed up until you are “prancing”. Your toes may never leave the floor, or you may accelerate to a real prancing motion.

Most importantly, you are warming up your lower leg and sole of the foot muscles, your turnout muscles (even if you are not turning out), and your core muscles that are stabilizing your pelvis position, and properly curved spinal position.

It's almost a full body workout!

And of course your quads and hamstrings are contributing to the control of the movements.

Next, lie down on the floor. Some ab crunches will further warm those muscles and continue to accelerate your metabolism, getting you ready for class.

(You may want to put a small rolled towel under your head, or not. Lying on your back with legs bent, and feet flat on the floor, you will start your ab crunches. Some dancers like to do one hundred tiny quick crunches, range of motion very small – one to two inches.)

Other dancers may have learned the super-slow-motion type of ab contraction, moving one to three inches very slowly, and back down, up to ten times maximum.

Either way, you are warming up those muscles. If you feel you need to, put one hand behind your head. While not contributing to the ab crunch, you can support your head a little.

Stand up again, and you are going to do some fairly quick prances – this time with a pumping motion, accompanied by arm swings. You can do full circle swings front to back, and then reverse, back to front. As you pump, you will be relieving tension in the neck and shoulders, and loosening up the shoulder joints.

Literally swing the arms, do not work on this.

Now your cardio-vascular system is quickened, and in just a few minutes.

At this point you can use the ballet barre, or sit on the floor to stretch your hamstrings, (back of the thighs) adductors (inner thighs) and large back muscles (quadratus lumborum).

For hamstrings:

Put one leg on the lower barre; or seated, bend one leg, straighten the other in front of you .

Keeping the back straight, bend from the hip joint, and lean over an inch or two; same sitting on the floor, lean over the stretched leg, not much range of motion, and press the back of the leg into the floor.

This is a very gentle, low force stretch to prepare for class, only.

Sitting in second position on the floor, you will feel the stretch in your adductors, or inner thighs. You may just want to sit there and pull up your very lowest ab muscles, straightening your pelvis. You may then bend forward slightly, exerting a tiny pull on your adductors. You can stretch harder later.

Pressing your right thigh into the floor, bend sideways away from it, reaching over your head toward your left leg, an elongated movement. Relax over there, and then return, and repeat on the other side.

These stretching and warming up moves are just one example of how you can ready for your dance class.

You will have your own priorities, depending on your physique and the style of dance you are studying in each class.

Buy this DVD and get some more tips about stretches for ballet.