Please help me with my pointe shoe doubts (beginning..)?
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Hello :) I'm 14, and I've been dancing ballet 2x a week for a year now (RAD, grade 4 and new intermediate foundation) for 1 hour long sessions each, plus an end-of-the-year recital, and my teacher has just sent me a letter of recommendation for beginner pointe next semester, along with 2 classes of grade 5 (I passed my presentation class) and 2classes of intermediate foundation. I have so many questions about it though! First of all I've done about 2 years of mild hip-hop training, but it wasn't that great.. so i just danced alone at home since I was younger, and I dance to kpop ALOT(I only did a tiny bit of ballet when I was maybe 3 for not even a year.). I've gotten up to the 2 white stripes in tae-kwon-do, but quit at age 11.5. I then did swimming for a year and a half, so I think that helped with muscles. I also jog for 1/2 hour when I get a day off from school (weekends, PD..) What I'm trying to get to is that I've only done actual ballet for a year now (practicing often at home too) and just recently started to do exercises with a theraband at home alone, since the dance year has ended. This is why I'm not sure if I should go on pointe or not after the upcoming summer intensive (2x week, 2h/night, acro,ballet,jazz,strength, hip hop). My teacher is very reputable, kind, gives us tips on what to eat and what a wrong technique could do to us, etc.,( but I just like to get alot of information. i'm an over-achiever -_-'') http://capitalcitydance.ca/index.php/teachers/jolene-hansell but I'm still in doubt because I don't feel as good as the girls in my classes. I still kinda feel uncomfortable when I dance.. any help/tips? I almost have my front split, and my straddle split is about a foot away.. am I flexible enough? (If you have flexibility/strengthening exercises, please please please share them!!!:)) I can almost do 3 fouettes, but I mess up sometimes iin my turns.. help with this too, please? (spotting, etc.?) T.T So the point of this all is ; what are the recommendations for pointe? Do you think I'm ready, based on these informations? I don't have gorgeous arches, but they aren't flat. (how can I improve? ^^) If you need any other details, i'll write them :) Sorry, it's so long! ^-^'' I'm mentally ready for them, and I'm pretty sure I'm strong enough since my teacher recommended pointe, but I'm still uncomfortable and a bit doubtful.. If you can help with anything, ANYTHING, please do :) Thank you so so much! P.S. when classes begin in september, do we get our pointe shoes then? i don't know because it's not specifically pre-pointe, just beginner... and what will we start off doing? :) Thank you thank you thank you!!
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Answer:
You are a very wise young lady to question this.To be honest, you just can't have strong enough ballet technique in a year to go en pointe and be successful. It has nothing to do with being an over achiever it has more to do with poor teaching that would allow this. I am sorry and I know you have a great deal of respect for your teacher. In order to be really ready for pointe work, you do need strong feet, ankles, legs and core along with balance and being able to engage and hold your turnout without sickling. That is harder to do en pointe than on flat. Most important is strong ballet technique and there are no shortcuts to that. Most graded ballet is recreational training and after looking at your teacher's resume, her training is pretty minimal and that is the training she is passing on to you. Going up when you are not strong enough puts you at greater risk for injury. Also attempting things you haven't master with clean technique also puts you at greater risk for injury. Transition from flat to pointe should be almost seamless. Having only a year of ballet, and you will be one of the dancers that hobble about en pointe. It takes time to build the muscles to hold your turnout. If you have trouble with turns on flat, you certainly wont do well trying to turn en pointe. It has little to nothing to do with splits and flexibility but more to do with strong core and engaging and holding turnout without sickling. Again strong ballet technique is the key. Recreational ballet dancers go up before pre-professional ballet dancers do because pre-professional dancers are held to a higher standard and have to wait longer for better technique. Even so, recreational dancers still need about three years of taking three 90 minute classes a week to be ready. You have only been taking an hour ballet class which is less than the standard 90 minute class and only twice a week. That is like taking a single class once a week. All dance schools are not created equal as well as all dance teachers. I don't know if you will take my advice or not. I am sure it isn't what you really wanted to hear. I just felt I had to tell you the truth of it. It is also the mom in me that doesn't want to see young dancers putting themselves at risk for injury. I used to say, if your teacher says you are ready then you are ready. I don't say that anymore, when I see teachers putting students en pointe in a year or putting a 9 or 10 year old en pointe when the bones in their feet have not ossified enough to hold their body weight without doing permanent damage to them, let alone not possibly having enough dance technique for pointe work at that young age either. Please think about this as your first instincts were correct.
Helen Babaden at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source
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