Ballet stretches...?

Question

for my legs??

i only did ballet for about 5 years, from 3 to 8. i know the basic movements, (foot positions up to 5th, plie, chasse, releve, leaps...stuff like that) but i want to be more flexible. we don't have enough money/time (mostly time) for me to take ballet classes, so i was wondering if you could give me tips on good stretches to be able to pointe better, kick my leg higher, put my leg higher, do better leaps, stuff like that.

thank you all soooooooooooo much and i will have best answer 10 pts. if i can't pick a best answer, i will leave it up to the people of Yahoo! Answers.

i will try to use all of the advice you guys give me!

Answer 1

To do pointe, you need FLEXIBILITY, TURN-OUT, STRENGTH, and BALANCE - of course, proper techniques, too.

Strength:

You need to have a strong stomach muscle. It's the core to our movements, postures, balance, strength... You can work on your crunches everyday.

Flexibility and Turn Out:

On the floor sitting - in a la seconde (as wide as you can), your legs are turn-out (your toes are pointed and your ankles are sort of like presenting it forward, your knees are facing as far to the rear as you can) - with your back as straight as you can, reach for the floor with your hands as far as you can forward. GENTLY rock back and forth about 3-6 inches so that you can go down or reach much further. DO NOT BOUNCE - make sure. You can do this for about 30 minutes (or more) a day, while watching TV.

ARCH of Your Foot:

Sitting on the floor with your knees up facing the ceiling (not turn out) have someone hold your feet (or slid your feet under the couch if it's low enough that it will hold your feet while they are touching the floor) - hold it firm enough so when you stretch your legs the bottom of your feet will stay on the floor - you would do this GENTLY, straighten you legs or bringing your knees down the floor, while trying not to lift your feet. You could slowly back yourself so, you can stretch or lengthen your feet.

Proper technique is the most essential in dancing. One of these techniques which is the basis of leaps/jetes, kick/battements, pirouettes... almost anything to do with feet is your tendus.

Tendus: is intiated by your ankle - whether going out and in. You have to be brushing the floor with the ball of your foot from the start till it can no longer touch the floor as you point your toes; and doing exactly the reverse. On my own, I would do this really slow so it will ingrain in my mind and body, that it became a natural movement for me. This is also how I initiate my battements, and jetes - it's just proper techniques. You just have to do more than a hundred tendus everyday so it become kinetic (natural movement) to you. Do all the variations. Think of your turn out from your hip joint, presenting your ankle forward as you point your toes - while doing coupe, develope, arabesque, attitude...

To strengthen your ankles do a lot of relevers, elevers, pliers (making sure that you are trying hard to keep your heels down till they no longer can stay down, going down on your pliers; then reverse - trying to bring your heels down as soon as you can, going up). Do coupe, elevers; passe, elevers - to work on your balance.

You can use a chair as your barre. You don't need to grab on to a barre, just there to help you with your balance. So, if your chair is moving when you are moving, most likely you are grabbing. Most of the time when I was taking classes, our hands are just placed on the barre and we weren't allowed to grab it when we were doing our tendues and what not. Making sure we are holding on to our stomach. Developed strength and balance.

Answer 2

Hey,

here are stretches i do

~For you Point

1) write the alphabet with your feet, one at a time, first in print then in cursive

2) get heaps of pens or marbles and place them on the ground in front of you. with your feet only, grab the pens or marbles and put them to the opposite side- alternate

3) pointing as HARD as you can whenever you can

4)put them uner furniture

~For kicking your leg higher and put your leg higher

1)keep practicing your splits and over splits- that will help you kick your leg higher

2) for your leg extention, raise you right leg infront of you while standing lift it up as high has you can and hold it there for 10 seconds- alternate

3) also pu tyour leg out to the side and high as you can and hold- alternate

~better leaps

1) just keep practicing

2) strtching

~watch youtube videos to see what people do and learn from that!

i wish you all the luck- For the money thing, maybe if you saved up or aasked a ballet studio if you can do some extra work to pay for some of the lesson

and for time- i don't know hoe busy your  day is but maybe once a week try and make space for an hour.

Lv kisahearttod

Answer 3

Do your splits everyday.

Anytime you are just at home watching tv or whatever, sit in your straddle.

Point your toes ALL OF THE TIME

Good Luck!

Keep Working

Answer 4

a good way to strech your feet is put them under the bottom of the couch. a good way to stretch is to just keep stretching everyday but dont push too hard. if you do all your splits daily then you WILL improve your felxibility.  just make sure you do it everyday. stretch whatever muscles you want to become more flexible everyday.  Thats all i can thiink of. if you have anymore dance questions you can email me. always glad to help a fellow dancer.

Answer 5

You need to lengthen your hamstrings. everyone has mentioned splits. Begin by doing those (5 minutes each leg) then move into "over splits" which is prop your heel on something (phone books, a stool, chair) and hold those for 5minutes. You can also turn and place your shin and do it backwards to stretch your hip flexer. This will help your back leg in leaps. Also, work on your pike position. feet together with and without point toes and bend forward getting your belly button on your legs, not your nose. Then increase the stretch by proping your feet up on a chair and stretching.

Another would be laying on your back and with your hands or a towel pull your leg to your head. Bottom leg can be bent at first, then try it straight. But be careful to keep your hips and body straight, not crooked. This would be a hard problem to fix if done incorrectly.

Kicks with 1 lbs. weights on your ankles will help you strengthen. Dont move or shake your body. squeeze all your muscles and work from the leg.

Stretch by placeing your leg on a wall and sliding as if your doing a split on the wall.

(With a partner standing behind you) stand on your knees, wrap your hands behind you and your partners knees and hold your hands. partner holds your ankle and pull towards them.

You could always check out Rhythmic Gymnastics "tips". I was one first before i became a dancer. There's videos out there that show stretching on yahoo videos, you tube and such.