Before Getting Into Pointe Shoes - Improve Foot Strength



Posted: Saturday, January 08, 2011

by Dianne M. Buxton
http://www.balletshoesandpointeshoes.blogspot.com/

Getting into pointe shoes is very exciting to think about, when you are young and starting ballet classes, or when you are an adult ballet beginner and you harbor hopes to dance on pointe one day.

Begin by viewing some pictures of the foot muscles. It is helpful to be able to see these muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons, in your mind when you do exercises to strengthen your feet. It is a good idea to learn some good foot muscle exercises when you first begin ballet anyway. You will improve faster and understand ballet better.

Learning some ballet tips outside of ballet class will also help you prevent learning bad habits. A bad habit could be a slight pronation (rolling the feet inwards) of the feet. This could be caused by over-turning out the feet, in other words not supporting your turned out position by using the rotator muscles. If you understand the rotator - turnout - muscles, you will turn out the whole leg properly, and not position your feet so that they roll from the strain.

Up until perhaps the age of sixteen years old, you have soft places, or growth plates, in your bones. These soft places must be protected by you having excellent classical technique, strong feet and very strong turnout as well.

Pointe shoes should not be bought and used by dancers working alone. An experienced teacher, or a health practitioner in some cases, should give the go ahead to a dance student. Ideally three classes a week have been taken for the past year, to help you prepare to dance in toe shoes.

However, anyone can learn foot strengthening exercises, exercises to improve your ballet turnout, and other fine details of balance and basic positions. You can practice every day, just for a few minutes, to help you get ahead in your progress toward pointe training.

Doing daily exercises, along with some relaxing stretches and some foot pampering, will improve your barre work, your balance in general, and your allegro (jumping) as well.

These exercises benefit men and boys in ballet too - some even go on to buy pointe shoes for further strengthening of their feet.

Take a look at these foot muscle pictures, to help you get started. And here are some more ballet tips for you, to help you get prepared, for that day when you take your first ballet class in pointe shoes.
Dianne M. Buxton was led by her career teaching professional ballet dancers, to write about dancing in pointe shoesl, muscle stretching exercises, dance/sports nutrition, and the mind/body connection. She is published at Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes and Health Nutritional Supplements. (no personal information is collected if you click on these links).
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