Hypoextended Knees

[catherinewinnie]

I am very confident in my dancing and performaces, except the hypoextened knees. They make my extensions and tendus look awful! How can I correct them? I know it's something due to the bone structure, but are there any excerxies for making it at least look straighter? It doesn't appear good with my low arch......

[Mel Johnson]

I believe that we've handled this one before, cw, and the answer doesn't change. I do have an additional thought, though. If you are truly hypOextended, then your knees lock in front of straight and they always look bent. Is that the problem? If so, making the most of your rotation from the hip will minimize the appearance of bentness. Moreover, the hypoextension may be caused by soft tissue, like the tendons and ligaments at the knee. Then it's time to get out the old, worn-out tennis ###### and sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you, and the tennis ###### under your knees. Try to flatten the things out with the backs of your knees. If you squash them flat, you've really done something! But even if you just succeed in making your feet rise off the floor, then your legs are straighter!

 

If, however, you are hypERextended, and the legs lock in BACK of straight, that's a very different thing.

[catherinewinnie]

I am hypOextended, my knees look lock together, I don't know how to describe it. But the only question is, if I turn out more, then it will seems more bent. But if I turn in a little bit, it will look straighter. I will try the tennis ball thing, though. Thanks for the advice!

[Mel Johnson]

I'm also the safety officer for my museum, and get all of the incident reports for every accident that we have. (Very few every year, thank heaven) Last summer, I got an incident report that alerted me to a worker's collapse and the cause listed as "hypothermia". That's excessive cold. Too little heat. I ran to the work station and found staff treating the worker for heat exhaustion - hyperthermia. Too much heat! I just wanted to check that we were on the same page. Hypo/hyper is a very common substitution error.

[PointeDriver]

Hi! I know the date of this is in January but I have hypOextended legs too. I have very good turn out (100-150 degrees-ish) but have a very low arch. I try to straighten my knees but they lock up. How do u straighten without locking up???

 

 

oops! PointeDriver is my mom! I'm sballetgrl.

 

sorry about the confusion!

[marshmallow]

OHH I HATE MY hypOextended knees too!! And a lot of teachers tell me to straighten my knees a lot, but I really can't/don't know how. I was wondering if any of you have this same thing: When you stand in 6th (parallell feet), do your knees knock and send your thighs apart? The same thing in 1st? Is your knee join ALOT bigger than the leg area surrounding it?

 

My legs are so weird and I hate them!!!

I've been told to straighten my knees since I was like 8. I never knew why the teachers couldn't tell that my knees were as straight as I could get them and that it was my bone structure that was obscuring the line!!! Actually I still get the correction today!!!!

 

I am not sure if this helps, but I've read in the dance magazine issue with Marcia Dale Weary on the cover (from CPYB) that if you change the way your muscles are shaped, then you can achieve a better leg line, if your knees don't look straight.

 

I think part of my problems are that my calf is a little big (does anyone know any calf lengthening exercises?), my feet are SO SO SO flat, and when I turn out, the knee looks very bent.

 

Ohh also, any other hypoextended girls, in your first arabesque pictures for auditions, does it seem like there is a dark spot around the knees? In mine there was, so I used a color editor to make that part of the knee look lighter (I took out the shadow caused by my extra large knee joint). Maybe in the future, we will learn makeup techniques to lessen the shadow for more confidence on stage.

 

P.S. I am so happy that there are more girls with strange knees like me, I thought I was the only one!