Getting More Flexible and Basic Ballet Technique

June 20, 2012 by  
Filed under Stretching

Article by Dianne M. Buxton

Getting More Flexible and Basic Ballet Technique – Art – Dance

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Ballet dancers need to get more flexible, and work relentlessly to improve their classical dance technique. Precise basic classical dance moves and positions will help you increase flexibility, even if you never practice ballet stretches. Truly, dancing ballet correctly decreases tension, increases turnout, heightens leg positions, and achieves elevation in allegro. Even without the perfect ballet body, your potential to dance is greater with a good ballet technique.

When I reflect on the limitations I have seen in the potential of dance students to develop fully, it almost always is related to early training in ballet that developed excessive muscle tension. Incorrect basic positions contributes to muscle tension, because the muscle groups work against each other.

For example, if the pelvis is tucked under, or allowed to tip back, the fantastically (potentially) strong back muscles are working against the power of the quadriceps, or large front thigh muscle formation.

Another example, if the demi plie is forced, and the weight of the body drops back, tension increases at the front of the ankle and the tibial or shin muscles. This will lead to injury – shin splints, or extremely painful inflammation of those muscles. Re-training then goes right back to correct standing posture and release of tension.

Dancers do a lot of stretches, in the barre work, after the barre, and after ballet class. If a dance student has gathered tension all the way through class, these stretching exercises do not help them get that much more flexible.

However, if posture, turnout, plies, and leg extensions are done with correct tension and alignment, then the body is ready to get more flexible with stretching exercises.

Every plie elongates the calf muscles, if the body weight is centered, and the turnout is held in the rotator muscles, and the feet are able to relax and spread on the floor.

Grands battements express the ballet dancer’s flexibility at the end of a barre where tension release is achieved during and in between the exercises, if basic ballet technique is correct.

At that time, careful, slow, and calculated stretching will actually increase flexibility of the big muscle groups.

If you have not had the ideal ballet training, you can still improve a lot. Get more dance education and push for your full potential. Learn the safest way to get more flexible, and get tips to improve your basic ballet technique.

About the Author

Dianne strives to help you learn how to execute better ballet technique, dance ballet in pointe shoes, understand basic ballet positions, increase your ballet turnout, and learn ballet stretches at her ballet blog.

Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.

Dianne M. Buxton



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Dianne strives to help you learn how to execute better ballet technique, dance ballet in pointe shoes, understand basic ballet positions, increase your ballet turnout, and learn ballet stretches at her ballet blog.












Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.

I was bored (again) and decided to do another video! Once again, constructive criticism is appreciated. 😀 Also, let me know if you have any questions about the stretches shown. 🙂 *Note: There will be another pointe video coming within the next week featuring one of my best friends!
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Common Misunderstandings About Ballet Stretches and Doing The Splits

March 30, 2012 by  
Filed under Stretching

Article by Dianne M. Buxton

I am flabbergasted at the misunderstandings being perpetuated about doing the splits. Ballet stretches taught properly help with muscle flexibility. Ballet exercises in soft shoes and pointe shoes all require the correct posture and alignments. Doing the splits for a jete or a penche does not come naturally to many dancers. So how do they make it look right?

One of the biggest reliefs I had when I went from amateur to professional training was that hips do not have to be square in a derriere (behind you) position. Including doing the splits.

I started my training in the R.A.D. system. I had natural turnout. It looked great except when I did a tendu (French word for stretched) derriere. We had to keep our hips square. In more advanced classes the developpe to the back, and attitude positions still looked terribly turned in. Naturally the students would go for height, which opened our hip. Our teacher would correct our hips, placing them back to a square position, and both the height and turnout looked miserable.

When I got into classes taught by teachers from The National Ballet of Canada, I was elated to find I could open my working hip. The waist, upper back and shoulders had to stay square, but not the hips. I finally and instantly had a professional looking line in arabesque, attitude, etc. When I explained how I had been taught they said “no one can do that!”

Another absurdity is that some people will never do the splits due to hip deformity.

Doing the splits depends on overall hyper-mobility. Not only hamstrings and quads need to be extremely flexible, but your postural muscles, the iliopsoas, needs to be very flexible. Hyper-mobility of the joints is an extra blessing for doing the splits, but creates a lot of problems too.

A professional ballet dancer will do whatever it takes to get a good line in a split jete or penche. Those who cannot do the splits perfectly open the hip more, and sometimes slightly bend the leg so that their foot lines up with the hip, and even though the entire leg is not lined up, the illusion of the splits is seen.

The hard and fast rules of ballet technique are for safety – for prevention of dance injuries. Getting the right line allows for accommodations that skilled teachers know how to teach.

Stretch after your ballet exercises when you are warm. Relax your muscles first. Use a rubber ball to knead out the worst tension. Then stretch gently in correctly aligned positions. You will improve your muscle flexibility, and you may end up doing the splits. But if you never do, it is not going to kill a dance career.

Get more safe technical advice found here in professionally written ballet manuals.

Click here for free articles on ballet shoes, pointe shoes, The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible, how to get exactly the right fit, details about turnout, pre-pointe, dance books and DVD’s and more.










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