Straightening my legs

[Niphredil]

I'm having trouble to really stretch my leg and keep the knee straight. When in fifth position, or closing in from tendu, it feels like they always are slightly bent. I think my knees are a bit hyperextended, but wouldn't that make it easier to keep them straight? Someone said I perhaps had bowlegs, how can you tell and what does it mean? Also, when I straighten my legs as much as I can, and they also look straight, my lower back is arching and my pelvis is tilted forward. What am I doing wrong? Am I using the wrong muscles, or is my body just weird? I really hope you can help me!!

 

//Christina

[Guest ponytail]

I would recommend you not to be too occupied with your legs,because there is a lot more things to think about when dancing. I mean not only legs but also the upper body is very important, so if you think too much of one think you might not pay enough of attention to some other parts of your body. Maybe that's the reason.

Hope I helped a bit,

L.C.

[Victoria Leigh]

Ponytail, here on Ballet Alert we have moderators for the Young Dancers' forums who are professional teachers. Please leave the advice on technical matters to us! Thank you

 

Niphredil, the first thing to deal with is your alignment. If the pelvis is tilting, causing the lower back to arch, nothing is going to work correctly. You can't correct your legs until your alignment and weight placement are fixed. Your teacher must do that. Then you need to find out if you are hyperextended or not. If you are, you must learn to lift up extra hard out of the standing leg in order to get the working leg in there straight. If you can't do it, leave a tiny space between the heel of the front foot and the toe of the back foot, just enough to keep the leg straight but not enough to hardly notice. Work with that until you can maintain your alignment and keep the knee straight, and then gradually reduce the space. One way to know if you are hyperextended or not is to stand in first position, and if one leg overlaps or bends when your heels are together, but you can straighten them if there is a little space, like an inch or so, then you are probably hyperextended. However, it is also very possible that your legs are not straight BECAUSE of the pelvic tilt.

[Niphredil]

Thank you, Ms. Leigh! Proper placement has always been a bit hard for me, since I have very weak abdominals and tend to let go of my centre, causing my pelvis to tilt.

I tried to check for the hyperextension, but I'm not sure. In first position it feels like my legs are straight if I have a little space, but in fact, it seems like they are leaning backwards! If I then keep my pelvis square, they don't do that. Instead I feel like I'm squeezing all the muscles around the hips and thighs, and using a lot of different muscles to keep the legs straight, and especially to keep them turned out from the hip. Is it possible that I have not been using all the correct muscles to do this? My teacher has always told me to straighten my knees when doing developpes, but I've always thought that was so hard. Could it be that those muscles that straighten the legs are just weak?

I'm a little confused now, but I hope you can help me to sort things out!

 

//Christina

[Victoria Leigh]

Christina, if your teacher has not emphasized your alignment and placement, and taught you HOW to do it and to hold it and what muscles to use to keep your legs straight, then I strongly suggest that you find another teacher. These are the A, B, C's of Ballet, and must be taught FIRST and stressed the most throughout one's training.

 

If you have weak abs and do not know how to USE (not squeeze) the proper muscles to maintain alignment and rotation, you cannot do anything correctly in ballet. The first step would be to learn the exercises that strengthen the abdominal muscles. You might try and find some Pilates instruction.

[sgmca]

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[Niphredil]

Ms. Leigh, thank you again for your replies! I talked to my teacher yesterday, and a lot of things cleared up: I've been both very ill and injured from November until March. When I got back to dancing and training, I had of course lost some strength, especially in my turnout (which I have to work on very hard all the time since I'm naturally turned in ) and that probably caused me to use the wrong muscles and so on. I tried to get a better turnout, but didn't have the muscles to keep it yet, so instead I let go of my placement, tilted my pelvis which caused my legs to bend backwards. So, now I'm working on getting in shape again and strenghtening those muscles Now, I just have one more question; which muscles DO you use to straighten the legs? I've always thought it was the quads, but my teacher said it was the muscles under the knee, on the back of the thigh. If so, how do you learn to use them that way? Any good exercises or advice?

 

//Christina