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From Joe

Good control of balance and stability of the foot and ankle are essential in just about any dancer. But many dancers are unaware of the many things that combine to give you good balance, and how exactly to educate the elements separately. Bad stability reactions could make your supporting foot shake and you could find it hard to support en demi-pointe, or be constantly adjusted for moving arches! Bad stability in your supporting foot is a large barrier in growing how high you can lift your leg en l'air, as you will be working off a volatile base.

There are so a lot of things that can affect your balance, including; your vision; your sensation of where your foot and ankle ligaments are (proprioception), and the balance devices that actually remain as part of your inner ear. It is very important to teach the balance of the leg while removing one or two of the feedback systems that people use to build up all areas of the whole program. Many dancers rely far too much on the vision to maintain 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 standing on a single leg in parallel or turnout, with each of the following variations:

Closing your eyes.

Sitting on a, or soft foam pad.

Take to turning your mind from laterally.

Tilting the top from sideways.

Get one of these fondu/small knee bend on each leg.

If you're currently in pointe shoes, try most of the then in your pointe and above in bare feet shoes and have the difference!

All of these are good tests and training ideas for improving your get a grip on of your legs. Make sure to always turn on your heavy turnout muscles and primary stabilizing muscles when balancing in turnout, which means your hips don't perspective too much!

Developing get a grip on of the little intrinsic muscles of the feet are essential to developing good balance. Several ideal exercises for this are discussed in The Perfect Pointe Book, a resource designed especially for dancers to achieve perfect get a handle on of these feet and ankles. It's a vital element of any party instruction whether the dancer is en pointe.