Comments for The Body Series

Comment on Hyperextension and Pregnancy tips by Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:44:16 +0000

Absolutely! She’ll probably feel like they are bent – but if she looks at herself sideways in a mirror she’ll see that she isn’t.

Comment on Hyperextension and Pregnancy tips by Heidi Schoonover

Heidi Schoonover — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:07:29 +0000

Thanks for your quick replies! These are very helpful!

Comment on Hyperextension and Pregnancy tips by Heidi Schoonover

Heidi Schoonover — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:07:07 +0000

Is it normal for her to feel like her knees are not straight when standing in neutral?

Comment on Hip pops – sounds of trouble? by deborah

deborah — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:50:15 +0000

Yes, that is correct. You’ll feel a slight pull, not a big one, at the outside of the hip. You can also get into this area by doing the psoas lunge stretch in the runners position, and then shift your facing to the front leg so your hip drops and you feel it more on the outside of the hip. Frankly, one of the fastest ways to make a shift is by using the pinkie ball and releasing the tension in this self-massage way.

Comment on Hyperextension and Pregnancy tips by deborah

deborah — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:48:11 +0000

Not in hyperextension would have the middle of the hip joint, knee joint and ankle joint in a line if you were looking from the side. If she has a lot of hyperextension she won’t necessarily have the strength (at first) to stand in neutral. Have her practice standing in neutral, without hyperextension, just when she is hanging out or waiting in line, or brushing her teeth, etc., until she starts to build up some strength.

Comment on Hyperextension and Pregnancy tips by Heidi Schoonover

Heidi Schoonover — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:42:34 +0000

Hyperextension of the knees really confuses me. Is it always a “chronic habit” or can it be a structural issue? I have a student who has very hyperextended knees, resulting in an anterior tilt of the pelvis, making it difficult for her to balance en releve on one foot. I have suggested that she try slightly relaxing her knees, but of course, then she feels like she is bending her knees and has no strength/control for balancing. When you made the suggestion in the blog about “balancing on one leg (not in hyperextension)” how would you describe “not in hyperextension?”

Comment on Hip pops – sounds of trouble? by Heidi Schoonover

Heidi Schoonover — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:32:12 +0000

Hi Deborah!

I just want to clarify the stretch you explained for the first type of popping, at the outside of the hip. Are you saying that I should stand, for example, on the right leg and, if pressing my weight into the right hip laterally, lean the upper body to the left?

Comment on Balancing Tips! by deborah

deborah — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:14:35 +0000

Thanks, Dianna, for your comment. I will certainly work on the volume control for the next podcast.

Comment on Watch your language by Ruth Ziegler

Ruth Ziegler — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:01:37 +0000

Hi Deborah:

Thank you so much for posting this! I agree completely that we as teachers have a responsibility to help our students achieve their dancing goals in a healthy and safe way so that (hopefully) they will be able to dance as long as they wish!

Here is an exercise I have found quite useful for finding that elusive active neutral pelvic alignment we want our dancers to discover and adopt: have the dancer face the barre in a natural first position (this is important – make sure the dancer isn’t forcing turnout) and then have the dancer place her hands on the barre for support and rise to demi pointe. Have the dancer then pull her hips back to achieve a rather pronounced anterior pelvic tilt (ie. I ask the dancer to arch her back, or stick her tutu out, etc.) so that she feels a nice openness in the front of the hips. Now here’ is the crucial part – I then ask her to bring her pelvis back from that position to align underneath her WITHOUT tucking her pelvis to do so. To accomplish this, the dancer must lengthen her body up, and use her abdominals and the sides of her hips and her gluteal muscles to do so. When correctly aligned, she should be able to let go of the barre and be perfectly on balance. Also, most often, when the dancer lowers her heels back down to the floor, she will see she has achieved a better first position. I didn’t invent this very useful exercise – the credit should go to Arturo Fernandez from Lines Ballet based in San Francisco.

I should add that this exercise works best with dancers who are not really really young – I have ussed it successfully with my 8 year olds. With younger dancers, we work in the parallel alignment and then switch to the turned out position when working on say, plié or sautés, etc. quite frequently during class, to hopefully teach the idea that the pelvis should remain in that neutral alignment even when the legs are laterally rotated. We will do our sautés in the parallel alignment and talk about what they feel like, how easy it is to do them, how springy we can be, and then we see how they feel when our legs are laterally rotated.

Thanks again Deborah – this stuff is vitally important.

Comment on Balancing Tips! by Dianna

Dianna — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:02:41 +0000

As I was trying to listen to this podcast, it was kind of hard to hear. Maybe the next time you have a speaker you could have them talk a little bit louder, so that we could hear them a little better. It would help me out alot in my training.

Thanks,
Dianna