back port de bras from the shoulder

[Guest Giselledancer513]

Hi I have trouble with bending from my shoulders in back pour de bras*spelling?* and I was wondering if you had any helpful hints as how to get it?

thanks

[vrsfanatic]

Bending correctly in the upper back can only occur if you are standing correctly to begin. There are certain things you may check first, before the bend. For practical reasons use 1st position as a starting point, facing the barre, hands in front of the shoulders, elbows and wrists down. Stand correctly on your feet. No rolling forward nor backward. Continue lengthening your body upward, very strong legs with calf muscles rotating forward, lifted knees, rotating thighs outward in the hip sockets, light, lifted hips upward into the waistline, ribcage actively growing upward without falling backward, diaphram quiet, chest open, shoulderline elegant, head turns gracefully over outside shoulder without tension. Before bending, lengthen your waistline, it may help to keep the image of water flowing over a very steep cliff in your mind. Lightly lower your shoulder blades deeply into your middle back, maintaining the neck and head in the same line as you bend. You must maintain the line of the wrists and elbows (softly bent) as you hold the barre. Remember to bend slowly downward, through each vertabra. You may not bend that far to begin. Keep working on it in this way. Remember you are bending into your own body not backward away from yourself.

 

I hope this may help a bit!

[Guest Giselledancer513]

very much thank you

[Mel Johnson]

And it helps to recall that it's "port de bras" or carriage of the arms, so that you don't forget the arms in all that bending back!

[Guest Giselledancer513]

thank you lol

[Victoria Leigh]

Or, it is often called "cambré", meaning to bend (back,usually). I prefer to call the movement of bending forward, back or side something other than port de bras, since port de bras means carriage of the arms, and really is not about bending.