December 18, 2012

Beginner Ballet Tips: Improving Your Turnout

First position of the feet, turned out; intend...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In my ballet class, we’ve recently been working on improving our turnout, and I’m always looking for new stretches and exercises to help improve my turnout (in addition to working on stretching out my splits). Turnout in ballet refers to the outward rotation of the feet and hips.  One of my favorites is the frog stretch. Even though it looks a bit ridiculous, it stretches really well. NextDance.com describes the frog stretch as

 This is the popular stretch where you lay on your stomach with your knees bent, legs turned out, and feet pressed together. This stretches your inner thighs, which will help enable better turnout, especially in pliè.

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December 17, 2012

Beginner Ballet Tips: Advice on Tendus

tendu

tendu (Photo credit: jahansell)

No matter what level you are in ballet, tendus are exercises that are essential in practice in any ballet class. DanceAdvantage.net has an excellent article on why tendus truly are important, which says:

It is through tendu that dancers become conscious of directing and eventually expelling energy through a stretched (or pointed) foot. It is also where strength is developed in the foot for taking off and landing with cushion in jumps. Without tendu (and its partner tendu jeté or dégagé) there would be no assemblé or grand jeté or entrechat quatre. Movements would lack the finish of a pointed foot and jumps would land awfully hard. But that’s not all that would be missing from classical or contemporary dance technique without tendu (Nichelle from Dance Advantage).Continue Reading

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December 15, 2012

Barre Giveaway Contest Winner

This morning I used Random.org to pick my Real Food Barre Giveaway Winner, jettsmama.

contestwinner2 contestwinnerCongrats! I sent you an e-mail but if you don’t get it for some reason (like you sent up your account with an e-mail you no longer use) just shoot me an e-mail at adultballerinaproject@gmail.com!

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December 14, 2012

Ballerina Profile: Nerea of Interpreting en Pointe

This week’s profile is of Nerea from Interpreting en Pointe, a blog that focuses primarily on ballet as well as some translation. Check out her awesome post entitled “Ballet is French.” 

Nerea performing Kitri's wedding variation from Don Quixote in July of last summer.

Nerea performing Kitri’s wedding variation from Don Quixote in July of last summer.

Adult Ballerina Project: When did you start doing ballet as an adult?

Nerea Fernández Martínez: I started two years ago, when I was 20.

ABP: Did you ever take lessons as a kid?

NFM: Yes, I started taking ballet lessons twice a week when I was 6. I used to go to school and learn Maths and Science like everybody else, and then in the afternoon I went to the gym to learn ballet with a beautiful teacher. We used to do performances at the end of each year, so I know what being onstage is like!

I continued dancing for seven years (I even got promoted to pointe) and then, when I was 13, I had to stop because the school decided not to offer those lessons anymore. It was very hard for me, but since I lived in a really small village, there was no other option: real schools were very far away from my home.Continue Reading

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December 13, 2012

Some Quick Updates, Ballerina Profiles, and Barre Giveaway

First of all, now that my long semester of hell is finally over, I plan on putting some quality time into this project. As of 9 am this morning, I only have one more semester to go before I graduate.

In order to make this project better, I’ve put together another survey to try and get an idea of what most people want to see more of. I’ve already gotten a few responses, but if you haven’t filled it out yet, it will take you about 15 seconds and it would mean a lot to me. The survey is here.

As you may have noticed, the Resources page is up with a few of my favorite blog posts and entries you’ve sent in. Check out the page and feel free to send me more suggestions. I’ll be updating this section of the blog with more non-blog resources in the near future.

As usual, I’m always looking for more adult ballerinas to profile, so if I haven’t run one on you yet, check out the Contribute page and send me your e-mail address so I can feature you on the site. If you’d like to write your own post like Scott did in Advice for Men in Ballet, that’d be awesome too. Feel free to suggest any ballet instructors or professionals for interviews as well.

Lastly, the giveaway of the Real Food Barres ends tomorrow. I’m going to try to get in contact with everyone who may have not entered for each of their entries correctly (you need a new comment for each new entry, i.e. if you tweeted to enter you need a comment with a flavor AND a comment saying you tweeted).

English: .

English: . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Filed Under: Ballet, Etc. Tagged With: , , , , , 5 Comments