At the LINES Ballet Dance Center in San Francisco, faculty member Erik Wagner leads his class through an adagio combination in center. He encourages dancers to root their standing legs, using imagery of a seed germinating, so that they feel more grounded. “Our studios are on the fifth floor, so I’ll often tell them to […]
Teaching arabesque can be a challenge for educators and students alike. Differences in body types, flexibility and strength can leave dancers feeling dejected about the possibility of improving this essential position. To help each of us in our quest for establishing beautiful arabesques in our students without bringing them to tears, we caught up with […]
Q: I’m sinking into my pointe shoes. I’ve tried different shoes and nothing is working. I used to have high arches, but they seem to be less flexible these days. Is this why I’m sinking? A: I actually believe pronation could be the cause of your sinking. Pronation happens when dancers turn out their feet […]
Q: How can I improve my pointed feet? A: The flexibility of your feet depends on their structure and muscle balance. Start by sitting on the ground parallel to a mirror with your legs in front of you. Point your feet and look at the line across the top of the ankle. If the top […]
At Michigan Ballet Academy, artistic director Irina Vassileni meets with a group of eager young students and their parents. She holds a shiny new pair of pointe shoes in one hand and an old, worn pair in the other. “I show them all the details, inside and out, and how working on pointe for hours […]
Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba’s downtown Havana studios are on a plaza where you see few tourists. A historic landmark, the building is now where 1,300 dance students learn the Cubanismo style, 30 of them in its academic program. Artistic director Lizt Alfonso trained in classical ballet at Cuba’s National School of the Arts, but not […]
When Monica Stephenson was a student at Houston Ballet Academy, she was cast as Lauren Anderson’s swan double in Swan Lake. The role was just a few walks in Odile’s tutu and a veil as the scene changed, but it was a thrill for the 18-year-old Stephenson. Anderson, one of the few principal ballerinas of […]
Stepping into arabesque from développé effacé is tricky, says Kelly Slough of Mark Morris Dance Center, because it involves “that moment of truth”: changing weight from one leg to the other in one movement. To make that transition easier, Slough encourages dancers to complete the weight shift as quickly and confidently as possible—as counterintuitive as […]
For the last few years, World Ballet Day has transfixed millions of ballet lovers with its hours and hours of live-streamed classes, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes extras from major companies around the globe. (We here at Pointe certainly don’t get any work done!) The 2018 edition is right around the corner—but things will be a bit […]
Your feet may not be the envy of your studio, but having inflexible feet and ankles isn’t all bad. Master pointe shoe fitter Josephine Lee walks us through the pros and cons.