Vertically Challenged: Improving Your Jumps

Jumping is a large part of a dancer’s training and students are constantly searching for the secret recipe that will improve their skills in this area. However, for the most part the secret to jumping is not so secret, it is the same hard work that goes into most everything in dance: proper alignment, solid technique, and practice, practice, practice! Not what you wanted to hear? Sorry, but never fear, I can give you some pointers that will help you as you practice those jumps. I’m going to Read more

Sickling and Rolling In

The terms sickling and rolling in are often used in dance classes to define issues with ankle alignment. However, I have found that many students do not have a clear understanding of the actions of the ankle and foot and, therefore, do not know how to correct these issues when asked. I hope this post will help clear up any confusion and assist students in working to correct poor ankle alignment.

“Sickling,” also called supination, is an action of the tarsus (a group of bones in the foot that allow a person to “roll” their ankle in circles). Without getting technical, when one is sickling, they are standing on the outsides of their feet, their pointed foot is “flagging,” or in relevé their outer ankle bone is pulled into misalignment away from the mid-line of the body. “Rolling in” refers to an action called pronation which is essentially the opposite of supination. When standing, someone that is pronating is allowing their arch to drop toward the floor. When the foot is pointed and pronating, the inner heel is pushed forward (sometimes referred to as “winging” the foot). In relevé the anles tilt toward the mid-line of the body. Although these actions are often stated to occur at the ankle, the ankle joint only points and flexes. It is the tarsus that creates any additional motion.

Mostly, dance teachers see pronation (or rolling in) of the tarsus when students are standing. Because the bones on the inside of the foot are larger/heavier than those on the outside, gravity has a tendency to pull the foot into pronation if the muscles used to lift the arch are not trained to do so. Supination is more common when dancers are pointing their feet or standing in relevé (en pointe or demi-pointe) because there is more flexibility in the muscles and tendons on the outside of the foot. When attempting to rise to demi-pointe, some dancers who have a limited range of motion will push beyond their limit, causing the foot to sickle (see picture at right). Supination or sickling when the leg is lifted is very common in young or beginning dancers because they do not possess the strength or muscle memory to maintain proper alignment.

Correcting Alignment Issues

Dancers slowly correct ankle alignment when it is addressed in class. As early as age 7 or 8, you may see improvement in this area if the students are, 1) taught how to feel the difference between a sickled/pronated foot and the correct, neutral alignment and, 2) consistently reminded.  Older students need this same encouragement and reminding until maintaining neutral alignment becomes habit. This takes time, diligence, and mindful dancing. Some dancers point their foot so hard that it forces their foot into a sickled position. The teacher can have the student relax the leg muscles and gently reposition their foot in the proper placement. Keep in mind that dancers going through puberty can sometimes seem to backslide in their strength or flexibility because of growth spurts and rapid changes in their bodies), exercise bands may help strengthen the muscles involved in pronation and supination. If a student is showing weakness in rélevé, a good cure is more rélevé! Perform them in a slow and steady manner, with focus on rising straight up with weight over the second and third toe.

For young dancers that need a reminder not to pronate while standing, I will offer an image frequently used in my dance classes growing up: Imagine a little mouse family all snug in their beds under your arch. Allow the foot to roll in and the little mice will be awfully squished and have to wriggle out! At any age or level, the practice of using and maintaining proper alignment in class will be enough to build the strength and muscle memory needed to correct most problems with pronation and supination. Occasionally a student may have a muscular or skeletal issue that is affecting the tarsus area, the best thing to do is have a doctor or physical therapist check it out if you think this may be the case.

Excessive Turnout and Ankle Alignment

It is important to point out that sickling and rolling in have nothing to do with turnout. Although, some dancers and teachers seem to focus on the angle which the feet make in turnout, please note that turnout occurs from the hips only. Occasionally when dancers “force” their turnout they are straining the tendons in their knees for a little extra rotation at a joint that is only supposed to bend and straighten, which in turn usually results in pronation (rolling in) as well. This only gives the appearance of a wider “V,” but a trained eye knows that this is not turnout. Forcing turnout can lead to injury and possibly surgery down the road.

Maintaining proper alignment in the foot while dancing is very important. Problems in the lower body have a way of working their way up, causing issues and even injury in the knees, hips, back, etc. Dancers must move with awareness of what their body is doing, and a big part of that is understanding the function and terminology of certain bones and muscles. Hopefully I’ve helped you to understand supination and pronation a bit better. Here are some great resources for gaining understanding of how the body works as it relates to dance.

The Body Series
Dance Kinesiology
Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery

Has sickling or rolling in been a problem for you? Have you ever heard the terms supination or pronation used in a dance class before?

Battement

I’m sure that many dancers reading this blog have used or heard the term battement before. If grand battement immediately comes to mind, I’m not surprised, as dancers and teachers often drop the word battement from the name of other common terms. As a result of this practice, some dance students may not realize that battement is actually a family of movements that includes battement tendus, dégagés (sometimes called, battement tendu jeté), frappés, and fondus développé.

The ABT dictionary defines battement here and further defines several movements in the battement family (many with accompanying video). For more video links, also visit this post at Dance Outlook.

Battements, as they are practiced at the barre and in centre, are the foundation of many other movements in ballet (jumps and travelling steps such as assemblé, tour jeté, grand jeté, and so many more) and in other dance forms. In other words, it is necessary to have a solid grasp on the simplest forms in order to perform the others correctly. Often battements are separated into two categories: petit and grand. However,  one could also divide these according to their interaction with the floor – those that brush the ground, and those that come from a position that is already lifted from the floor.

In battements that brush the ground it is important to remember the use of the feet. I have encountered many beginning dancers that neglect “working through” the foot as the working/gesture leg is disengaged from it’s standing position. Think of the foot as a paintbrush creating a brush stroke on the floor, using the intrinsic muscles of the arch and finally, the toes. This small action will strengthen the foot for jumping and relevé, and helps to “ground” the movement, providing stability, particularly in centre. Stability can also be increased by imagining the standing leg rooted deep into the earth as the working leg moves outward and/or skyward from the midline. For grand battement especially, I like to remind my students that power and height of the working leg is achieved through first sending force into the floor. Much like a rocket ship which propels itself into space by sending heat and energy downward, a dancer must send energy into the floor through the leg to create “lift-off” in battement.

Battement that do not interact with the floor will be discussed in a later post.

In all battement, maintaining turn-out is crucial. Many students struggle with this and it can take years to develop the strength to utilize and maintain turn-out with consistency. One way to “find” or create awareness of turnout in battements is to place the fingertips on the greater trochanter. This is the portion of bone at the outside of the hip joint that you’ll probably feel pressing into the floor when lying on your side. With the fingertips on this protrusion, execute a battement tendu. When properly utilizing your turn-out you will feel the trochanter slip backward but not dip lower or lift higher as you disengage the leg. This exercise may be used as an alternative or supplement to the more commonly taught concept of allowing the heal to lead in tendu.

Of course, each movement within the battement family could have it’s own post! Therefore, I’ve included some excellent links below that go into detail about specific battements.

• Battement tendu
• Grand battement
• Battement frappe
• Battement degage
• Battement fondu

A resource that will prove helpful in your study of ballet (and other dance forms that make use of ballet terminology and movements) and understanding of terminology are a good ballet dictionary like the Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet.

What are some images that have helped you (or your students) in executing movements in the battement family? What do you think of my categoriztion of the two types of battement? What are some other pointers you can offer?

Improving Pirouettes

I was recently asked about some tips on how to improve at multiple pirouettes. I know that lots of students are wanting to know the same thing, so here is my answer:

1. Engaging your abdominal/core muscles is necessary for maintaining good alignment during the turn.
2. Every turn is a balance, so work on balancing in the position in which you want to turn (retiré, a la seconde, etc.)
3. Spot and keep your eyes off the floor (or that’s where you’ll end up).
4. Use only enough push to get around – sometimes a dance student’s biggest downfall in pirouettes is pushing so hard that they throw the turn off.
5. Connect your arms to your back – you should feel width between the shoulder blades and the arms should maintain their position (don’t “wind-up” for a turn)
6. Take off from a properly placed and wide plié for power in the turn.
7. Strengthen your ankles supporting the relevé – if you are wobbly, sickled, or pronated, this will ruin your turn.
8. Make a choice to come down from the turn, don’t let gravity make the choice for you.
9. Visualize yourself doing a beautiful, clean pirouette – it really does help!

Pirouettes are not an easy movement. Anyone can whip themselves around but it takes years of practice (plus a good deal of strength) to perform a proper pirouette. Work hard at the barre and in centre on the fundamentals (plié, relevé, etc.) And, work on getting a good, clean single pirouette first (with a strong grasp on the elements above), then progress to multiples. Don’t give up! If you are working hard, applying your teacher’s corrections, and not letting self-doubt psych you out, you will be able to do multiple pirouettes.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.

What are some other tips that you can offer or have been given to you? What do you find most difficult about pirouettes?

The Core or Center

Today I thought we’d look at the area of the body which most dancers refer to as the core, or the center, of the body. Sometimes these terms can be confusing. So lets start by trying to define them. This article called Dancing from the Centre, speaks of the elusiveness of the language we use in dance when we talk about “the center”. This is an in-depth article which offers several perspectives on finding or describing one’s center. However, it’s this bit that gives some insight about what a teacher usually means when he/she talks of center.

I have discovered there are several terms used to talk about this mysterious ‘centre’. Amongst them are: ‘the core’, ‘centre of gravity’ and ‘centre of weight’. When teachers talk about ‘the core’ or ‘the centre’ it has been my finding that they are after an engagement of the abdominal muscles in their students; a muscular engagement that is evidenced both visually and aesthetically in their students’ dancing.

I want to note that the author goes on to show how the center of gravity or weight is different from this “engagement of the abdominal muscles.” But what exactly does it mean to engage your abdominals? I’ve used the phrase many times with my own students only to receive blank stares, so obviously we need to dig deeper. To do so, we need to consider how the abdominal muscles function. Deborah Vogel from The Body Series explains the idea of engaging (or “pulling up” as you’ll hear in many dance classrooms) through a description of isometric contraction and the use of imagery. I often use the idea of lacing abdominals with my own students because it was an image that clicked for me the first time I heard it. Go ahead, try this image now… Really imagine it, use your minds eye to feel the laces crossed over your torso and slowly cinch them inward (not too tight, you should be able to breathe), bringing the abdomen and organs closer to your spine which runs down the center of your body. It may take some practice but eventually this activation of the muscles can become second nature. By the way, Deborah has some other great resources at her site – check out the Core Stability DVD, and Deborah’s Dancing Smart ebook for more exercises, technique and tips.

More than just the abdominal muscles is involved in stabilizing and strengthening “the core” for dance. A brief description of the muscle groups (left) that, from an anatomical perspective, form the core can be found here. All of these muscles must be strengthened to enhance your dance technique. Special equipment is not necessarily required, but an understanding of how the body works is key to working more intelligently while you’re in class. There are also lots of simple things you can work on outside of class that will strengthen your core muscles. Practicing engaging your abdominals as you do daily activities will not only strengthen, but create a habit of supporting movement using your core, freeing you to focus on other things as you dance. For ballet, Dianne has some suggestions for core exercise. Make sure your retiré position is properly turned-out and aligned as you do this work (have a teacher check it out if you’re not sure).

So, now that we better understand the core, or center and how we’re expected to use it when we dance, there’s one remaining question that someone may still be asking…. WHY? What’s the big deal about this magical part of the body? Why is it so important to my dancing? The answer is freedom. Freedom is what comes from strengthening, engaging, and stabilizing the core. Amber is a blogger and swing dance teacher that recently provided an image to explain the freedom that comes with a strong core, which I plan on stealing (…er, borrowing) because that’s what teachers do! I encourage you to read her post for yourself (don’t miss the spaghetti and brick imagery), but she points out that a feather has a solid core which allows it’s feathery arms to move with ease as it glides through space. This isn’t a perfect image (a feather’s core can be a bit stiff), but it does reinforce the idea that your arms, legs, shoulders, hips, neck, and head all have the freedom to do what you will as long as your core is solid and, once you’ve discovered this freedom, your technique will soar.

What do you do to strengthen your core?

What are some other images that helped you find your centre?