| In my opinion, hands and arms show the most expression for a dancer. On stage, it is very difficult for the audience to see the dancer's facial expression so it is very important to show just as much through the hands and arms as in the face. The basic technique for arms is to make them seem soft and to keep the shoulders pressed down. The thumbs should be in towards the palm, like you were wearing a glove. Keep the hands rather relaxed in order to keep them soft. After that, it is mainly up to the individual dancer how he or she would like to show their personal expression; their style. |
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| One of the most important basic skills is turn out. Turn out is basically turning your entire leg in a direction it does not normally go. Do not try to just turn out your foot; this may cause serious injury. Instead, turn out your leg from the hip. For instance, when you point your foot out to the side, your knee should be facing up to the ceiling. When you point your right foot to the front, the knee should be facing to the right. This stands true to all steps in ballet (unless, of course, your teacher tells you to do otherwise in that particular combination). Remember to keep your leg turned out every time you do any classical ballet step. Welcome to ballet science 101. This may sound really technical, but it's very simple. For every action there is an opposite reaction. For example, when you raise your arms, your arms are going up. At the same time, your shoulders should be pressing down. Another example is when you kick up your leg (grande battement), your hip should stay down. In every step you do, think about what opposite reaction should be going on at the same time. |
| Tips from Me! Basics |
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| This diagram shows an example of opposite reactions. As you rise onto your toes, your shoulders press down (red). As you lift your leg, your hip presses down (blue). |
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| This is a great example of the proper way to do a fouette. Turns are difficult to explain in words alone, so a video is definitely the easiest way to show how. |
| Notice how this dancer keeps her sighting front; she looks forward for as long as she possibly can and then whips it back around to look forward again. Her right hand is moving with her leg at the same time and her shoulders are down and level. Both legs are keeping their turn-out and her knee is pressed back during the turn. |
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