Knees over toes

[Nycbdancer]

Knock, knock...

 

Lately, I have noticed that when I do a demi plie in any position, my knees are farther turned out than my feet and that I can't keep my hips over my toes, between my knees in plie either. I thought at first that maybe I was unconsiously forcing turnout, but I checked with three different teachers who watched me in class and all agreed that I wasn't. I am anxious to correct these issues because they cause other problems like throwing my weight back on the way up from a plie when it was correct before the plie.

 

Questions here are...

 

1.) Could there be any outstanding reason I can't get my hips and knees into alignment?

 

2.) Is there anything I could do to correct these problems?

 

Sorry for the babbling...

[vrsfanatic]

Nycbdancer, this one is pretty hard for me to picture! I am not really sure of what you are describing. When you say your knees are further out than you toes , where is your weight placed on your feet? Are you pushing your heels forward beyond your knees? Are you sitting with your weight held more in the outside of your feet?

[Nycbdancer]

Eep... sorry for the confusion...

 

Let's see... my feet might form an angle of say... 160. My knees, on the other hand point out more at 170. This pushes my hips back and my weight but whenever I try fixing one part of the problem, it messes up something else.

 

Writing this just popped a thought into my head.... ballet is like nature, a never ending search for equilibrium.

 

Editted to add: I just tried a plie in front of the mirror a moment ago and this disappeared. I noticed that my muscles were much more relaxed than during plies in class. Could I be gripping my muscles for whatever reasons, throwing everything out of alignment?

[vrsfanatic]

It sounds to me like you are sitting with your weight too far back in your pinky toes and on the outside of your feet. Remember to stand with your weight evenly distributed through out your whole foot. No rolling inward or outward.

[Nycbdancer]

Thank you.... I'll try tomorrow in class.

[Marenetha]

Isn't it sometimes also just how your feet are shaped? My feet are very compressable, and thus it can sometimes look as if I am forcing my turnout, because when my feet and knees are straight, my feet don't go over my toes. My feet 'wing' slightly.

 

This is all right provided that there's no pain, and that's just how my legs are, right?

[vrsfanatic]

Marenetha, I believe you are asking a different question than the one asked by Nycbdancer. She was asking about the knees being behing the toes in demi plie. As for your situation with straight legs, I would have to actually see it, but my instant thought would be that it is not good to work with your toes behind your knees, ever. I am not familiar with the term "compressable feet". Could you be more specific?

[Marenetha]

I meant it in the same sense as 'knees not properly over toes.'

 

What I meant by compressable foot is one where the heel is much narrower than the forefoot - like, in my case, about 2.5 inches where my foot just goes off randomly to the side somewhere. Perhaps I should rephrase - should you think of the center of your foot as your first two toes, or as your actual middle toe? If I think of the center of the foot to go over as the first, I'm fine and feel turned out, but if the second idea is right, then I feel like I'm twisting my knee inwards.