how to be less awkward?

[Guest une ballerine fou]

I'm in the garland waltz in Ballet LI's production of sleeping beauty (front and center...hehe) but I have a problem with a certain part of the dance...me and two other girls have to chassé right, sauté arabesque, chassé left, sauté arabesque, and then from the second sauté we have to quickly coupé our right foot and then go right into tombé. I feel very very awkward doing this, i've been working on it and I still feel like it doesn't look right. Any suggestions?

[Mel Johnson]

One of the basics is to keep your weight within a "control zone" on your feet. This zone runs from the outside points of the metarsal joint to the front of the ball of the heel. If the weight is too far forward, you're constantly "dancing on your toes" and it will slow you down. It will also strain your achilles tendon and tend to make bulgy calf muscles. If the weight is too far back, you will be sitting into your heels and it will also slow you down, as well as make weight transfer ungainly. And of course, we don't do tombé or coupé leading with the heel, unless it's in a character dance.