What factors into fourth position?

[Ice-Dancer]

Perhaps it's the new pointe shoes (Grishko 2007s) but I'm sudden;y have problems with releve in fourth poition en pointe. If I try to evenly place my weight on both platforms, it seems like my back foot sickles and it looks awful! The problem is resolved by making my fourth smaller... but then my fourth looks extremely shallow and small! I am very petitie (5 feet) with very small feet (size 5-5.5 in women's US street shoe sizes). I was just curious - what factors into how big your fourth position is?

[dancepig]

I'm sure others can tell you more than I can but I believe the biggest factor in fourth is the turnout from the fifth. Your leg length will factor into how far you can go, but if the hip is not rotated correctly, then you will be sickling and I believe this becomes more pronounced when wearing pointe shoes. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this!

[Victoria Leigh]

On pointe in 4th position the back foot is not exactly square over the platform. It is a bit more on the edge of the big toe. It might seem like "winging" a bit, but it works for that position.