Développés, Arabesques & Muscle Balance

Dancing Smart Newsletter
September 29, 2006

Announcements

Hello from Fort Worth, Texas, where I have had the pleasure of working with the freshman dance majors for the past week. It is so rewarding to see light bulbs go off as they translate corrections they have always heard, into suggestions that make sense anatomically. Hats off to the TCU faculty for making sure their dance majors get training in anatomy in their first semester at college!

Work is continuing on level 2 of the Functional Guide for Dancers. We'll let you know the minute it's off the presses. Anneliese and I would love to hear from those teachers who are working with Level 1 in their classes. Feedback is always appreciated – after all – we are writing these levels for you!

Onto the questions…

First Question

Let's break down some of the issues, Catherine. It is true that most dancers are able to bring their knee to 90 degrees of flexion when the knee is bent. Once you begin to straighten the knee the hamstrings come into play. They are stretching while the hip flexors are contracting to take your leg up. If the hamstrings are tight, they will pull your leg down as you straighten the knee. If this is the case, then you want to focus on hamstring stretching.

Another challenge to développés is having a tight iliopsoas. If you have a tendency to be slightly swayback, or you know that your pelvic is in an anterior tilt, then it will be harder to keep your pelvis upright. In this situation you want to focus on stretching out the iliopsoas in any one of the ways we've described in previous newsletters. (Runner's lunge, standing lunge, etc.)

What I would like to de-myth is the idea one can keep their pelvis square without the hips lifting or tilting above 90 degrees. This is impossible! The hip must adjust for the change in the gesture leg. We don't notice it though, when you can maintain an erect and upright alignment. So you might focus on imagining the spine lengthening upwards as you lift the leg.

You might notice I haven't said anything about weakness of the hip flexor muscles. That's because this is the last thing I look for. Generally, dancers don't have weak quads – if anything they are overworking this area.

Hope this helps, Catherine!

Next Question

You are right that this is a common habit. Fortunately, most viewers tend to watch the gesture leg, and when you are in movement, you don't notice whether the standing leg is turned out or parallel. The goal, however, is to maintain some turnout to the standing leg. I would practice this in a variety of different ways. In Tune Up Your Turnout: A Dancer's Guide, I have a whole section on strengthening and you may want to purchase it.

One exercise would be to stand in an easy first position with one foot in coupé. You are not holding onto the barre as you are doing this exercise. You are going to bring that gesture leg from a turned out position to parallel and then back to turned out without allowing the standing leg to lose it's turnout.

Monitor closely the standing leg so the weight stays even on the three points of the feet – the pads of the big toe, little toe and heel. If you take the gesture leg to far out to the side, you will begin to pronate or roll in on the standing leg. Most dancer's passé will not be straight out to the side, but rather on a small diagonal forward, since most of us don't have 180 degrees of turnout.

As you get better at stabilizing the turnout on the standing leg at the barre, this should begin to transfer to your center work.

Final Question

It is all about balance, Symonia. Dancers need to have flexible strength. It seems that you have the flexibility, but without stability. Remember that a well-toned muscle is both flexible and strong. That creates muscle balance at the joint. It sounds like you need to develop more strength in your body. I would encourage you to seek out a Pilates or Gyrotonic teacher to help build core strength, without losing your flexibility.

Warmest regards,

Deborah

"Education is the key to injury prevention"

Copyright ©2003-2006 The Body Series. All Rights Reserved.

Deborah Vogel is a dancer, author, and master teacher who conducts workshops across the U.S. for both student and professional dancers. Her numerous articles on dance technique and injury prevention have appeared in Dance Spirit and Dance Teacher magazines. She is the Director of the Institute for Performance Studies and a faculty member at Oberlin College and the OC Conservatory of Music. During her years in NYC she co- founded the Center for Dance Medicine. Deborah makes her home in Oberlin, Ohio.