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From Imw

Good control of balance and balance of the foot and leg are crucial in just about any dancer. However many performers are not aware the many items that just how to teach the parts separately, and combine to provide you with good balance. Your supporting foot wobble may be made by poor balance reactions and you may find it hard to secure en demi-pointe, or be constantly adjusted for rolling arches! Poor security in your supporting leg is just a big barrier in growing how high you can raise your leg en l'air, as you'll be working off an unstable base.

There are so many things that can affect your balance, including; your vision; your experience of where your foot and ankle ligaments are (proprioception), and the balance devices that actually stay inside your inner ear. It's important to educate the security of the leg while removing 1 or 2 of the feedback systems that people use to develop all elements of the entire system. Several dancers depend way too much on their perspective to keep their balance, and this becomes an issue when turning or performing in low light situations.

Test yourself and the effectiveness of each system by trying each of these exercises. Try sitting on an individual leg in parallel or turnout, with each of the following variations:

Closing your eyes.

Standing on a, or soft foam pad.

Try turning your face from side to side.

Tilting the top from sideways.

Try a fondu/small knee bend on each knee.

Try most of the above in bare feet and then in your pointe shoes, If you are currently in pointe shoes and feel the big difference!

Most of these are good tests and teaching ideas for improving your control of your legs. Make sure to always turn on your serious turnout muscles and core backing muscles when controlling in turnout, which means that your hips won't angle an excessive amount of!

Developing control of the little intrinsic muscles of the legs are important to developing good stability. Several perfect exercises for this are explained in The Right Pointe Book, a resource developed especially for performers to get maximum control of their legs and feet. It is an essential component of any dance instruction whether or not the dancer is en pointe.