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Preparation for assessment class

In today’s lesson, we started off as usual with Elise teaching us an exercise. We then all have a random exercise to repeat and teach again. A strength for me during this task was that I was able to use the ballet terminology correctly. I found that a weakness for me while re-teaching the exercise was that I was nervous and mumbled a little bit so my target for next week is to try and be confident with all of the exercises.

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Today I talked to Elise about what seemed to be my weakness which was my pirouettes. She noticed that I have ‘sway backs’ and just told me I have to try really hard to correct this and to hold my legs in the right position. I am going to work on this over the next couple of weeks so now pirouettes are also my target. I think that I really took on board the feedback about the glisses and I felt my glisses today were a strength for me.

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In today’s lesson we had a task to create turning exercise with a partner. I worked with Sophie Coates and I think that we worked very well together. I think that my strength from this task was my performance as I tried hard to perform with my face and my body. I think that a target for me for next lesson would be to ensure I am confident with the movement on both sides. A weakness from today that I feel needs to be improved is my flexibility and my strength on my right leg in the grand battemond exercise as I think that they could be better.

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In today’s session with Elise we focused on our glisses. A lot of us including me were hitting our ankles together instead of using our inner thigh to bring our legs together so I would say that this was my weakness today. My target for next week is to try and strengthen my ankles by doing exercises everyday as I feel that this could really benefit my pirouettes. Today I found that a strength of mine was my performance as I really felt like I used my face and upper body to perform during the exercises and I also had good feed back on this.

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A physically active body must achieve a stable balance around each active joint for top performance. Ligaments connect the bones to each other, and provide much of the joint's stability. Muscles are connected to bone by tendons, allowing for movement at the joints.

Although the ligaments connecting the bones in the ankle are necessary for proper function, there are several muscles that also help support the ankle during any type of activity. Building strength and proprioception, or special awareness, in these muscles helps to prevent injury and improve performance.

Why is it important to keep the ankle strong?

When an athlete performs any movement-whether running or jumping-the ankle and surrounding muscles are put under a great deal of stress. If the ankle musculature is strong, the athlete can withstand greater force before an injury is sustained. In addition to decreasing ankle injuries, strengthening lower leg muscles will help prevent chronic conditions such as shin splints and Achilles tendonitis.

Proprioception

Proprioception is the body's ability to realize its place in space. If an athlete is moving into a position that could sprain his or her ankle, increased proprioception can decrease the risk by alerting the athlete to the danger. Proprioception can also increase an athlete's performance.

An athlete with superior balance and awareness will be able to control his or her body more effectively. This is especially true in sports like basketball and soccer, but valuable in all sports or training. Proprioceptive training is done with balance exercises.

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12 Ways to Build Ankle Strength for Top Performance

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A physically active body must achieve a stable balance around each active joint for top performance. Ligaments connect the bones to each other, and provide much of the joint's stability. Muscles are connected to bone by tendons, allowing for movement at the joints.

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I found that a strength for me in today’s lesson was my execution of the developes in the adage exercise as I managed to control the height and in result I was able to make them look smooth and effortless, this was also my feedback. I need to ensure that I finish exercises until we are told to relax as sometimes I relax earlier then I should so I need to work on this as otherwise it will stay a weakness. From today’s lesson I found from peer feedback that sometimes when I am concentrating on the execution of the movement I bite my lips so I would like to work on this as a target as I feel this affects my overall performance.

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Today we did ballet body conditioning and I learnt that one of my strengths was that my back is strong and I am able to hold it up when laying face down on the floor. A weakness that I found in today’s lesson was my core strength and I really need to improve this and work on it as a target as this is a vital part of being a dancer.

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Today we started with our usual warm up and barre exercises. We then went on to do some exercises from the corner and in the centre. Following our centre exercises we started with some warm up jumps and then went on to do a petit and a grande allegro. In the grande allegro I  found that two of my strengths were my pose jumps and my par de jars. A weakness from the petit allegro for me would be my petit jetis as sometimes I get confused on whether the foot goes infront or behind. My target for next lesson is to work on the height of all of my jumps as I think that this could be majorly improved.

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Strength - in today’s lesson I felt that a strength for me was my coordination as I felt that I really focused on using my arms and legs together in all exercises.
Weakness- My main feedback from today was to hold my centre. This normally isn’t an issue for me but I think that this was because I was concentrating on my coordination more today.
Target- My target from today’s lesson is that I am going to try and think about more then one of my corrections at a time as this is essential especially in ballet technique. However I think that this will help me in all classes.

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I think that my chaînés have really improved since last lesson as I kept practing them in the week and tried to take on my own feedback which was to take smaller steps. A strength for me in today’s class was my height during the warm up jump exercise as I was able to jump high still maintaining the technical side of the jumps. Today we did turns one by one from the corner and I feel that my confidence was a weakness for me as I couldn’t focus properly. My target for the next couple of weeks is to improve my focus in all areas of the ballet class as I feel that this will really benefit me.

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In today’s session I felt that my strength was my ability to apply corrections. I think this because my feedback from Elise today, during the plié exercise at the barre, was not to drop my head so much in the port de bras and I was able to apply the correction straight away. I feel that a weakness in today’s class for me was my execution of my chaînés as I kept falling out of them. My target is now to focus on my chaînés and I am going to try and take smaller steps in order to maintain balance.

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In today’s class I found that I seemed to hold my breath during exercises because I was concentrating to hard on the movement. This was a weakness for me as I wasn’t able to use my breath while dancing. My target is now to try and focus on breathing and how I can use my breath so I have decided to do some research. However a strength for me today was that I had good arm placement during warm up jumps.

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While ballet dancers recognize that ballet requires considerable strength and force, audience members should not see evidence of the work. Breathing properly helps give your dancing an effortless quality. When you don't breathe properly, your port de bras loses its fluidity, your shoulder and hip joints become tense, and your stamina suffers.

Common Correction

One of the most frequent corrections that ballet dancers receive is to pull their stomachs in. Teachers give this correction for aesthetic as well as technical reasons. A flat stomach line continues the long line of the legs and hips, and engaging the abdominal muscles provides stability and strength. The problem comes when students take the correction to an extreme by sucking in their stomachs.

Breathing and the Upper Body

When you inhale, your diaphragm moves downward, and your ribs expand to make room for your lungs to fill with air. If you have sucked in your stomach, the diaphragm cannot move down very far. Most of the expansion occurs in the upper chest. This causes unwanted tension in your shoulders. Additionally, your center of gravity rises, causing problems in your balances and pirouettes.

Engaging Your Abdominals

Feeling the proper amount of contraction in your abdominal muscles can be tricky, as it is quite subtle. Place your hands on your lower stomach, just below your belly button. Breathe in deeply and allow your stomach to expand fully. As you exhale, notice the contraction in the muscle just under your hands. This is your transversus abdominis. This muscle attaches to your diaphragm and helps you to exhale forcefully. Keep a slight amount of contraction in this muscle and continue to breathe regularly. Notice how your stomach can still expand and contract without losing the support of this muscle. This small degree of contraction in the transversus abdominis allows you to align your body properly while still providing ease of movement.

Expanding Ribs

Letting your ribs expand to the back and to the sides can help you take deeper breaths without losing the support of your transversus abdominis and without creating tension in the shoulders. Wrap a resistance band around your rib cage, and cross the ends of the band in front of your body. Hold one end of the band in each of your hands. Inhale deeply, trying to push against the band. As you exhale, pull gently on the ends of the band as your ribs return to their normal state. Once you can feel the expansion of your ribs with the band, try to achieve the same sensation when you breathe normally.

Timing Your Breath

Timing your breaths with your movements can reduce tension, particularly in those movements that you find difficult. The general rule to follow is, inhale as you prepare and exhale with the effort. If you have trouble with your pirouettes, inhale on the plié and exhale as you turn. If you have trouble controlling the landing of big jumps, inhale on the jump and exhale on the landing.

About the Author

Kat Black is a professional writer currently completing her doctorate in musicology/ She has won several prestigious awards for her research, and has had extensive training in classical music and dance.

Photo Credits

Ian Gavan/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

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While ballet dancers recognize that ballet requires considerable strength and force, audience members should not see evidence of the work. Breathing properly helps give your dancing an effortless quality. When you don't breathe properly, your port de bras loses its fluidity, your shoulder and hip joints become tense, ...

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Today we focused on the alignment of our legs during adage. We practiced and the barre and in the centre. A strength for me in the adage exercise is the placement of my legs as I was able to hold them well. A target for me would be to work on the fluidity of my movement during the exercise instead of stopping and starting. From today’s lesson I felt like a weakness for me was my performance during this exercise as from the feedback I was given I found that I concentrate too much on executing the movement that I forget the performance side of the exercise.

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Today I think that a strength for me was my flexibility and strength during the arabesque exercise. I managed to maintain the technical aspects of an arabesque during the exercise such as keeping my feet turned out and my arms in the correct arabesque alignment but today I was able to maintain all of this and bring my right leg higher still holding my left supporting leg correctly. My target now is to be able to do this the other side (my right leg supporting). A weakness that I came across in this lesson was my musicality when working on the barre. My main feedback was to listen to the music so I am definitely going to keep this in mind for future lessons.

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In todays lesson we focused on working our feet through the floor. I think that this is a target for me to think about because although I do normally try to work my feet they can be improved. I think that a strength for me today was my execution of the movement during the exercises because I feel that now I know the exercises I am able to focus on other aspects such as performance. Today I struggled to maintain my releve in the pirouette exercise so I have decided that pirouettes are my weakness at the moment. I am going to try and work on them by practicing balances instead I go straight into turning.

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I felt like in today’s class I wasn' able to execute the exercises as good as usual  but I think that’s maybe as I didn’t feel well this morning. A weakness for me was that my balancing and my turns were a lot worse then normal but I will practice them this week to make sure I get them back to normal. Also I was aching alot  from previous classes today and I felt very weak when developeing my leg and in exercises like adage which I am normally fine with. This is just a reminder for me that I need to ice my muscles when I go home and ensure I am warming up and cooling down after every lesson. Elise finished the class early today so Sophie, Teleri and I decided to stay behind and carry on with our ballet class. After the class our task was to research ballet etiquette so that it will benefit us in the future.

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Ballet class etiquette is usually communicated clearly, and most dancers who begin as young children are taught the appropriate way to behave while in the classroom. Not only are rules-or etiquette-for class a sign of respect towards the teacher and the other students, they are necessary in order to progress through all the combinations that make up a full class. There is simply not time for a teacher to be reprimanding students or calling them back to attention every few minutes. However, you may begin taking lessons at a new studio or academy where the etiquette may differ from your former school, and it might be up to you to find out what the standard expectations are for students.

Dress Code

Many schools have a dress code. Quite a few require pink tights. This sounds easy enough, but there can be many variations: students are clever at turning a rule on its head by changing it enough to say they are following the rules, when actually they are not. You need to know if pink tights means footed, or if transitional tights, stirrup tights, or footless tights are acceptable. Sometimes a student will have on transitional tights-which, when worn over the toes are considered footed-and have them rolled up to mid-calf. When it comes to class, pink can probably encompass ballet pink, classical pink, light pink, or European pink. (Or, as it was in my case as a kid, white tights dyed into a pink that came from red food coloring!) For performances, most teachers will be painfully specific about what color pink they want and if they want the tights to be mesh, seamed, or seamless; supplex, cotton, nylon, or a combination of fabrics; Capezio, Bloch, or Danskin. To make it a lot easier, some teachers will tell you a style number to be sure you get exactly the right thing. The Danskin mesh seamed tight in style 32 is very popular, for example.

Along with tights, some schools will require that you wear a specific color leotard or a specific style: camisole, tank, short sleeve, or long sleeve. A lot of schools will not be too picky about style as long as you wear the correct color, or a solid color. Make sure you are wearing shoes that are acceptable as well. Usually this is left to the discretion of the dancer, but some teachers don't particularly care for canvas over leather, for instance. Some want you to have a full sole rather than a split sole. Just be certain you know if there's a preference, and make sure your shoes have the elastics sewn securely. Elastics that are tied behind the ankle or kept on with paper clips or safety pins are irritating to most teachers. You've been warned.

Hair and Jewelry

Hair and jewelry are biggies in ballet class. To be safe, I would say to put your hair in a bun with a hair net and plenty of hair pins and hairspray, and don't wear any jewelry at all. Here again, there will be variations of what is acceptable at your particular school. You may be allowed to wear your hair clipped with a great big barrette so it doesn't flop at all when turning, and it might be fine to wear earrings as long as they don't dangle. Sometimes earrings that slip through without a catch at the back can fly out during grand allegro or turns across the floor, so use good judgment here. Click here to see a great video by dancers at the Anaheim Ballet on how to make hair buns. And a fun place to find ballet needs is at bunheads.com.

Behavior

Finally, we come to the behavior that is expected in class.

1. No talking unless you have a question for the teacher (and questions are normally very welcome, especially in beginning to intermediate levels). This includes any kind of communication with others in class, so no miming or eye-rolling either!

2. Do not chew gum, eat, or drink during class.Sometimes you may be permitted to get a drink between barre and center, but it's typically best not to leave the room to do so.

3. Do not arrive late. If you arrive during the plié combination you can usually catch up. Otherwise you need to check with the teacher to see if it's okay for you to join or if they prefer that you just observe class.

4. Do not yawn.

5. Do not get impatient with yourself-this can be misinterpreted by the teacher who thinks you don't care for their class or combination.

6. If you have an injury prior to class, let the teacher know that you may not do everything full out.

7. If you get injured during class or pull a muscle, let the teacher know. Get ice, if possible, and watch the rest of class from the sidelines.

8. Do not always stand in front. Take turns.

9. Do not always go first across the floor unless the teacher asks you to.

10. Do your best and have a positive attitude.

Other things to note

I encourage readers to add to the list if you can think of others I omitted. Of course, cells phones and ipods are also not good to bring into class. A few pet peeves of mine when I was teaching included students who had to go to the bathroom (although there might be exceptions, just don't do this every single class), students who wanted to teach the class or recommend steps, and students who wore sweats over their tights once class began. Again, if you have an injury and you need to wear extra clothing for warmth, get permission from the teacher prior to class.

The nicest thing about class is the end. I always thought it very appropriate when I was dancing that we would let the teacher know we appreciated class by applauding at the end. Some teachers will tell young dancers that they should "give themselves a hand" so they get into the habit of clapping after class, but I believe that this part of ballet etiquette is more a show of respect for the authority and guidance of the teacher.

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Ballet class etiquette is usually communicated clearly, and most dancers who begin as young children are taught the appropriate way to behave while in the classroom. Not only are rules-or etiquette-for class a sign of respect towards the teacher and the other students, they are necessary in order to progress through all the combinations that make up a full class.

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Today in ballet I felt like I had a really good class. We tried fouettés for the first time today and this is something that I would like to keep working on to ensure that I improve so these are my target. I feel that a weakness for me today was my extension during my grand battemond. A strength for me in this class was my posture as I had good feedback about the way I was holding myself but I also noticed myself.

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Today’s lesson went really well for me and I think I had good control throughout the lesson except when I got to pirouettes. I need to work on my pirouettes because I’ve got the control with my singles and I just need to use it throughout my doubles and triples so control is a weakness for me. Today we spent a lot of the time talking about feet and I really feel like I stretched them this lesson but I need to continue building strength through my feet but doing excercises and thinking about stretching them more as a target. We also looked at developes and Elise said I had good definition and strength in my leg which helps me hold my developes so I think that my developes were a strength in today's class.

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I feel like I had a really good class today, I feel as if I’m improving every lesson with Elise teaching. We spent a lot of time on holding our legs up in the centre today and I know that I definitely need to improve on this, especially on my right leg which was a weakness and a future target to develop for me. I think that a strength for me in this particular exercise was that I was able to hold my left leg above ninety degrees which shows that i have strength in my left leg . I’m going to keep practicing this whenever I have time and hopefully this will benefit me with this exercise and throughout all of my other classes.

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Today we spoke about what we’ve improved on since starting ballet classes in college. I personally feel like my balance has improved a lot but this is also something I would still like to keep working on. We also talked a lot today about the correct way to do a rond de jambe. I feel like a strength for me in ballet today was my execution and co-ordination during my battmond fondu on lair as I was able to keep control and bend and stretch my legs together. I feel that balance is still a target to continue to working on.

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Assessment week

Today in ballet we were paired up with a partner to give feedback for a few of the exercises. I really feel like this benefitted me. In the adage exercise my partner Kyle told me that my strength during the exercise was that I was able to hold my legs up and that my timing was good. He then told me that one aspect that I could work on as a target from the exercise was my confidence when performing it. I feel like this was good because I had never really thought that I was not coming across confident when doing this exercise so now in the future I will work on making sure I know the exercise and not looking/copying others during it. We then gave each other feed back on our turning exercise. Kyle said that my alignment was strong throughout the exercise however a weakness that I should work on my turns and make them more controlled so this is something I will focus on not only in ballet but throughout all of my classes.

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Today Elise was not in college so Ellie, Sophie and I decided to book the studio and do some independent ballet practice. We watched each other do some of the exercises and corner work that Elise had taught us and gave each other feedback. One of the main things that I am corrected on during lessons is the placement of my shoulders as one of them is higher then the other so Sophie decided to video me doing posé turns so that I can understand the correction more. I feel like this really helps as now I can understand how noticeable my shoulders are out of place and now I can work on this as a target and trying to hold them better. From the video I can see that although I need to hold my arms I also need to work on relaxing my shoulders.

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I feel like my arabesque has improved more today, however I really need to make sure I work on my balance to ensure I can execute the arabesque exercise well so this is now my target. I felt like my turnout had improved a lot in today’s lesson and this was a strength for me as I wasn’t overturning and my hips were not twisting but I will keep focusing on this. I am starting to pick up the exercises a lot quicker now then when I first started ballet classes with Elise however I need to perform and feel the music a lot more during the exercises. I feel that performance was a weakness for me today but when I noticed this I tried to focus on it. When doing the leaps from the corner today I did feel like I was performing a lot more then I was at the start of the lesson and it made the exercise look and feel better.

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I feel like my arms were much better while turning today and I already feel like my ballet technique has improved. Today a weakness that Elise also corrected my turn out as I was over turning out, this is something that I am going to look at as I haven't noticed this either. Elise pointed out to our class today that we don't perform with the top of our body's which seriously affects the appearance of our dancing this is something that I am going to continue working on as a target. We did an exercise to practice performing and personally I feel like since I'm thinking about it it is a lot better. A strength for me today was that I used the music while dancing.

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Today in ballet Elise corrected my shoulders in preparation for a pirouette. She explained that my shoulders were over twisting way to much which I had never noticed before today. My alignment with my shoulders was a weakness as I couldn't execute good technique in a pirouette. Now I am going to focus on my arms a target as I feel like it will hugely benefit my turns, dancing, alignment and placement overall. I felt like one of my strengths today was that I was able to apply the corrections when I was given them.