New To Ballet

[Guest AidanM]

Hi, I just have some question brought on by an experience I had recently. I'm a guy in my senior year of high school.

 

While my ballet classes won't start until next month after the show I'm in has opened and I don't have rehearsals every night, I've still got some questions.

 

A few nights ago before rehearsal at the studio, my choreographer was teaching an intermediate ballet class and invited me in to do barre work as a warm up. I was a little intimidated, as I've never had any dance training at all. But I figured that I just wouldn't try to do anything my body said it couldn't, and I needed to warm up anyway.

 

So I was in there, doing my best, without any real slippers I was just in my socks, and she stopped the class for a moment and said to me, "Look at you! You have natural turn out, body position, natural line! It's disgusting! You should have been taking ballet all these years!"

 

Afterwards, some girl from school were saying that my..releve(?) was amazing and that I seemed to be up there "forever", but to me it was just standing on my tip toes!

 

So, now I'm sort of confused. Turn out is something I've always been able to do. Is it uncommon in people who don't dance? And what is natural line, and body position? And is being able to stand on your tip toes really that amazing for a non-dancer?

 

The whole thing was really positive, because now I've decided that I want to take ballet (barre work is really fun, but maybe that's because it's brand new! )

[balletboyrhys]

I've been dancing for a while and i still think barre work is fun, well maybe not all of it, but i do enjoy it. turnout is something that people either have or dont really, it doesnt really matter if you are a dancer or not, it sure helps if you are a dancer though! it has to do with the way your body is. most men don't have as good turnout because of the way our hips are so if you do have good turnout then thats definitely something in your favor. as far as the releve thing goes, i would say that it probably would be pretty uncommon for someone who doesnt dance to be able to stay on releve and balance in a correct position simply because most people do not have the strength that ballet brings in order to execute this balance. if you just have naturally strong feet and ankles and a good center then thats another plus for you. line refers to the position of the body and its extremities (head, legs and arms) in relation to the movement or position that you are striving to accomplish. i dont really know how else to explain line. body position is basically posture, but the classical stance is slightly different from just having good posture. you have to have a nice stacked back, with your ribs not pushed out, your shoulders have to be even and well placed and your abdominal muscles must be pulled up to support you. your hips have to be alligned also, not tucked or pushed forward. its nice that a lot of the preliminary aspects of ballet seem to be so natural to you and i hope i helped!

[dancerguy]

I had a similar thing happen to me when I started ballet. I was lucky because I had done gymnastics when I was young, and so I had some sense of balance, but I appartenly had a really high releve out of nowhere. I think it has to do with my high instep, because my mom also has a really high releve and I have her instep. Do you have a high instep?

And welcome to dancing by the way.