Feet

[Xandra]

I don't know if this should go here or in the teens section so please move my post if it's in the wrong place. How can i lift my feet out of my pointe shoes? I've been on point for about four years and have just come to the conclusion that my feet are knuckling. How can i be stronger. I already use a thera band every day what else is there to do?

[Victoria Leigh]

Xandra, I moved it here to YD because it is basically a technique question, however it's possible that you might also need different pointe shoes.

 

Getting 'your feet up out of the shoes' is really about getting your body weight up out of your feet! If you are knuckling, which is pushing down into the shoes, that is because you are not lifted throughout the body, and not using the muscles that work to support you on pointe. Without seeing you, this is quite hard to fix, but it is certainly something any good teacher should be able to correct rather quickly. It should not have been allowed to happen in the first place.

 

The same principle applies on pointe as in alignment for everything, and that is that you have a two way, equal and opposite energy running through your body. It's sort of like a tree, where the roots are in the ground but the tree grows upward towards the sky. If the weight is pushing down more than it is lifting up, the two way energy is not working. You have to use the muscles at the top of the thighs in the back, the buttocks muscles, the abdominals, and the back muscles to maintain the lift and weight up out of the feet. If any of these muscles are lax, or not working, then the weight automatically pushes down. Ballet is about defying gravity, not giving in to it!