Needs Advice about pointe.

[Guest prissydancer08]

ok im 14 yrs old and i just started pointe this year. its great and all but whenever we move away froom the barr to the center i always have a hard time. i know that could mean that i put all my weight on the barr when i go up in pointe but i dont i drape my wrist over the barr so i won't do that. my legs are stong cause i work on the everyday and i know in order to get on the pointe you have to lift from your arms but sometimes i just cant get up there. what am i doing wrong? what can i do to make my legs and arms stronger? help please!!!!!!! prissydancer08

[Victoria Leigh]

Hello prissydancer, welcome to the Young Dancers' forum here on Ballet Talk for Dancers!

 

It sounds to me like you are just not quite ready for center work on pointe yet. It can take a while if your legs and feet are not strong enough, but it really has nothing to do with arm strength. The arms do not lift you up there! You also need to develop good abdominal and back muscle strength, as well as having good alignment and weight placement and being able to maintain your rotation when you rise to pointe. Using the barre for a while longer may be necessary.

[Guest prissydancer08]

ok, thanks for your advice. i will try to put it to good use. now my cousin is in pointe with me also and it is her first year too. she is having trouble at the barre and in the center. she is sorta heavy built and doesn't have good muslce strength. when she walks her ankles pop and she complaines that it is weak. what can she do to help at the barre and in the center? is it her ankles that are keeping her from suceeding? what could she do? thanks again for the advice. live 4 dance, prissydancer08

[Mel Johnson]

Overweight and weak muscles will do in anybody on pointe. The short answer is, lose weight and improve strength and technique. See, isn't that easy - to say?

[Victoria Leigh]

prissydancer, tell us a bit more about your training, and also that of your cousin. How long have you been taking ballet (not counting ages 3-6), and how many classes a week do you take? How long are the classes? When do you have pointe, in the end of the classes or separate pointe classes? It will help us to advise you if we know a bit more about your history and level of technique.

[Guest prissydancer08]

well i started ballet in 2nd grade and am still taking it now in the 9th grade along with tap, jazz, and pointe. i take 4 classes a week. ballet, tap, jazz, and pointe. once a week for each class. classes are 1 hour a class. i take pointe sepearte from ballet. i have ballet on one night and pointe on another. in ballet we work at the barre like plies, frapes, developpes, ron de jon, (i don't know how to spell them), the basics, then we come to the center and do gleside combinations, and different combinations. pointe we do barre work like ballet, then we come to center and do things like, a-shapas, under paderbaras. things like that! does that help if not ask more detailed questions ill be glad to answer them. live 4 dance prissydancer08

[Victoria Leigh]

prissydancer, the reason you are having so much trouble is that you do not have NEARLY enough ballet training to be working in pointe shoes! One class of ballet technique a week, especially a class of only one hour, is just not training. There is no way you can learn enough, even in several years, with only that much ballet. Plus, a school that puts people on pointe and gives them a pointe class with only once a week technique class is probably not qualified to give you the training you need. I'm sorry, and I know that is not what you want to hear, but if you have been reading this board for a while, you know that we always tell everyone that they need to find a serious and qualified ballet school and have a MINIMUM of 3 ballet technique classes, an hour and a half each, to be qualified to be on pointe. And that is if you have had several years of training prior to the year with the 3 classes. And it's also if you have the facility for ballet, which means the feet, the rotation, the strength, the alignment, and the placement. PLEASE read the Sticky on this forum entitled Facts of Life About Pointe Work!

[Guest prissydancer08]

I understand and all and i live in a small city and i dance at the most qualified and best city in town and they had encouraged me to take pointe. i don't understand why i have to have three ballet technique classes an hour and a half each, to be qualified on poijnte. even if all my teachers encouraged me to take pointe. and i think you forget that this is my 1st year of pointe

[Victoria Leigh]

I'm sorry, prissydancer, but I don't think you do understand. Did you read the topic I asked you to read? The amount of training you have had cannot possibly qualify you for pointe work. If a dancer has been trained properly, and is ready for pointe, meaning they have all the things I have described before in terms of facility and knowledge and training, going on pointe should happen quite easily. The transition from barre to center should also happen with very little problem. Putting students with one hour of ballet technique a week in pointe shoes is not only wrong, it's potentially very dangerous. If you are serious about ballet, you need to get to a better school.