Arabesque

[Guest pavlovadancer]

I've been having some problems with my arabesques and penchees - my working leg isn't directly behind me. No matter how hard I try to get it behind me, it seems impossible and I don't feel nice and lifted.

 

I made a resolution to improve my arabesque line this year, but somehow, even though I've got my stomach and back muscles strong enough to do that exercise where you lie face down on the floor and push yourself up until your back is nearly perpendicular to the floor and try and let go of the floor, I'm not strong enough to support my working leg when it's directly behind me, it seems.

[Mel Johnson]

Lifting out of the supporting hip is good. Now, make sure you're opening your working hip sufficiently to allow the leg to get all the way back there. Don't splay it wide open, just open it slightly and move the leg to a correct quatrieme derriere.

[EmilyPdancer]

I have a question abotu arabesques too...where are you supposed to feel your arabesque? i often feel a strain in my back when holding an arabesqe for a long time...is that OK? I have heard you are supposed to feel it in your butt more then yoru back...so i was just wondering

[Mel Johnson]

You feel an arabesque all the way from your supporting foot to your extended arms to the point of the working toe to the top of your head, and points outward. The arabesque radiates, as if from the solar plexus. Not outside of your body, but deep inside. That's where the energy comes from.

[Marenetha]

To add to the list of arabesque questions :

 

When doing a penchee, how far should you hold your back up? So that your shoulders are equal to your hips, so that you're as straight up as possible - how much? Thanks.

[Victoria Leigh]

In a penché the movement forward/downward is equal and opposite to the movement of the leg backward/upward. If the torso keeps going down after the leg stops going up the line is destroyed.