Arabesque penché

[LilBalletDancer1993]

Hey!

In my dancing school show, in one of my dances I am in the middle at the front (eep!) on my own doing an arabesque penché while the others dance around me. I'm holding the position for about 8 counts of relatively slow music, which includes the time to get it there. I was picked because my penché was the best as it went into a full split and I could hold it well with no balance issues....

but...

I've lost my balance with them . I HAVEN'T grown at all in the last 6 months so that can't be it. The penché isn't on pointe, it is on a flat foot, but is still in a full split. I dont developpé it out to the back to arabesque then lift further, I just let it rise up from the ground.

This started happening when about a week after I was told I was the "featured penché-ist ", and my teacher said

"It's lovely, but you are starting to strain your shoulders (a habit when I think too much!), and your chin is sticking out". I have a studio at home so I practised my penché at the barre (sideways to it, not facing, if that helps), breathing in and then exhaling as I lifted to relax myself. Consequently I no longer strain and for a week my teacher said MUCH better and it was one of the best penchés she had seen for a 14 year old- and she used to teach at the Royal Ballet School!!!!!

But now, I don't strain my shoulders, my leg can go up into full split, and my back looks nice, it has a nice line, but lately I just can't hold it long enough, and even more recently my balance hasn't lasted enough time to get it up properly It is really annoying me now, but the more practise I do with it at the barre, the WORSE it seems to get... I don't know what to do... Please please please help!!! I hope you can, and I hope this post was detailed enough for you to work out what is wrong!

[Victoria Leigh]

I would call it "penché-itis", LilBalletDancer. It's all in your head. You are thinking too much, and getting overly concerned about it, and that makes it go off. You start getting a thing in your head about it and then your body subconsciously reacts and the nervous system takes over. Stop thinking and just DO IT! Serioiusly. You know you can do it well or you would not have been chosen to do it. So, if you are going to think about it at all, just think what fun it is!

[LilBalletDancer1993]

Thank you! I do worry a lot when I think something isn't right, so I guess when I was warned about my shoulders it threw me and now I've gone into a downward spiral Haha Im off to the studio now to practise- lets see how it goes!!!! My ballet teacher once said "If you want to do a step that's out of your league, stop, close your eyes, and picture the best dancer in the world doing that step to the best of their ability- It's no longer out of your league- you'll find you're already doing it!" I guess that's what I have to do now!!!! I was just worried because if I couldn't find my balance, I would wobble right off stage, fall into some poor memeber of the audiences lap, and have to look up and be like "helloooooo- just a moment!" then scramble back up on stage and back into my beautiful position with a hurried "that was part of the dance you know!!".... Oh dear I can see it now... no- wait- visualise... hmmmmmm I'm feeling better already... hear goes...

Thanks for your reply!!! Hopefully it will work now if i just VISUALISE!!! I've also read some of the other posts on the board about arabesques to check to see if I might have problems on my placement, so hopefully that will help too... I love this site!!!