LooseLegs2 Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 I can do a good sautechat in flat shoes... but im having great difficulty doing them in pointe shoes. i am getting kind of frustrated with it and was wondering why is it so much different, and how can i improve them? thanks! Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Okay, but what exactly is the problem? Do your feet slip out from under you? Do you find it difficult to point your feet? Do you land and go over onto the top of the box, what? Lotsa things can go wrong. And by saut de chat, I'm assuming you mean a grand jeté with a developpé on the front leg. Link to comment
LooseLegs2 Posted January 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 well i find that i cant feel my feet enough to push off and get the height needed to get a full split in the air. i am very flexible, so that isn't the problem. and in flat shoes, i find it rather easy. so i dont know if its just a matter of practice or if theres something i can do to help assist me. and by jumping i dont mean hops on pointe, i mean simply jumping as you would in technique class, but with the addition of pointe shoes. Link to comment
SeaMonkey Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Is your vamp too long preventing a good demi-pointe in your pointe shoes? I know when i have a shoe that is too long in the vamp, I have to soften it up till I can get a good demi pointe (my teacher is a stickler for really rolling down and up). It makes jumps easier because I can actually roll through my foot in the jumps Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 What I'm hearing here is "can't feel the floor", thus making the jump tentative and losing the forward momentum necessary to accomplish a big jump like this. You may have to play with several different kinds of shoes until you can find a make and model that allow you the feeling you want. A simpler expedient might be to take a pair of shoes that are nearly shot anyway, and set the insole on a hard flat surface. Take a hammer and beat on the outsole until you've flattened it quite a bit. See how that does. You can practice on shoes that are absolutely dead, until you have the feeling right, and can eyeball the degree of flattening you need. Link to comment
LooseLegs2 Posted January 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 the hammer thing sounds like a possibility! the pointe shoes i am currently wearing are the ones i plan to stick with. ive tried numerous shoes and they work great for my feet. but hammering them may help alot! is there anything technically that i could attempt as well? thanks! Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted January 16, 2006 Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Make sure that your weight is within your "control zone" on the foot, whether you're in soft shoes or pointes. That is, within an area bounded along the rear part of the ball of the foot to the forward part of the ball of the heel. The weight is distributed evenly on the forward line between the inside and the outside of the foot. Fractions of inches matter here, so make sure that before you jump, you have a firm and stable place to stand! Link to comment
Administrators Victoria Leigh Posted January 16, 2006 Administrators Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 Also just practice jumping in pointe shoes. Perhaps your pointe classes do not normally do much or any jumping? While pointe classes are generally geared to being on pointe, it is very important to also work on allegro and petit allegro combinations. Also spend some time working on articulating your feet in your pointe shoes. Simple walking and running exercises are good, and of course lots of tendus and pas de chevals. Work on simple tombé coupés across the floor, as these are great for articulation! Link to comment
LooseLegs2 Posted January 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2006 thanks so much! we don't usually do jumping in pointe classes. sometimes we do, but its rare. i have one teacher who will more frequently than the others. its my goal for this semester to really improve on jumping in pointe shoes and your advice is really going to help! thanks! Link to comment
Guest sensi-ballet-ity Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 making sure your wieght is always over the front of your foot helps to jump in pt.shz., which seems simple, but it kinda gets thrown off when you put on those pointers! and keep that momentum going as much as you can... Link to comment
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