Shoulders

[Guest ilive2danz]

I was wondering what a dancers shoulders should look like because I'm worried that mine are'nt good. My shoulders are basically in the shape of a hanger. Is that bad? I read a post about a girl who said she pushed her shoulders down. I'm confused whether their supposed to be up and broad or down.

Thank you

[Mel Johnson]

The chest and the rest of the thorax should be lifted, and the shoulders should be down, but in neither place should there be strain.

[Guest ilive2danz]

So if my shoulders naturally stay down, just leave them like that but pull my chest up?

[Mel Johnson]

Only one thing: When you pull your chest up, your shoulders will attempt to rise. Don't let them.

[Guest thumpinhippo]

My shoulder-related problem happens in grand battement to the side. My supporting (same shoulder as supporting leg) shoulder likes to raise and it takes a lot of effort to keep it down.

[Mel Johnson]

Yup, happens a lot!

 

Working two large groups of muscles against one another is often termed isometrics. By holding the thorax up and holding the shoulders down, you create a sort of "lock" that won't allow the body to misalign, or change unless YOU tell it to! Controlling and working muscles independently of what the rest of the body is doing is called "isolation".

[Guest JRSDANCER87]

That happens to me a lot too, and it's really not a good thing. In my case, when I lift that supporting side shoulder, the other one tends to go further down. It doesn't work in grande batement side! If your outside shoulder (or the same shoulder as the working leg) is further down than the other shoulder, and you are trying to grande batement, you are making it ten times harder for yourself (I know from experience). When doing a grande batement, especially side, your supposed to be feeling an upward motion, so if that shoulder is going down, it will make the leg feel heavier (not fun!). When this happens to me, it's harder to get my leg higher. Does your studio pull out barres for classes? Some classes, I stand on a pull out barre, because then I can see myself from the front and see if I am aligned where as from the side you can't really tell if your shoulders are square or not. That might help a little, as it helps me to at least see where the problem is and see how much effort it takes to make it look right (so that then maybe soon, I will be able to feel the difference without seeing it). Good luck!

[Guest thumpinhippo]

Thanks guys! If by "pull out" barres you mean ones that aren't fixed to the wall, we do use them when the fixed barres can't accomodate all of us. I don't really like using them, especially in grand battement but it makes me really aware of how i pull away from it!!!