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When I mentioned this in this blog a couple of years ago, a sympathetic reader from Australia suggested that the instructors should simply ask their students to be evaluated by a physiotherapist before starting classes. That sounded like a great idea, aside from the idea of American health insurance paying for preventative care sends us into fits of hysterical laughter, as most of us have had enough trouble getting them to pay for post-injury care. I thought the next best thing would be a workshop such as this one.
Enough ranting... on with the description of the class!
There were 17 attendees, including myself. All women, excluding myself. All but four of us had done some amount of pointe work, mostly as children. Though all of us were active dancers, judging solely by appearances it's been at least a decade since most have tied their ribbons. A few currently dance in pointe shoes, but were looking for ways to improve their skills.
We started with a review of the bone structure of the foot. Not too much detail, but enough to satisfy "the nerds" (Wenning's term). One of the key items is where the movement in the foot occurs when the foot is pointed. Much of this is not in the ankle, as many assume, but in the tarsals, the group of bones between the ankle and the long metatarsals. The flexibility in this group of bones is particularly important for transmitting body weight in pointe work. It's also critical in jumps, both in launching and landing, whether you dance on pointe or not.
We then talked about the intrinsic muscles of the foot, meaning those tiny muscles located entirely within the foot, and extrinsic muscles that attach at one end outside the foot. It's the intrinsic muscles that give much of the stability to a dancer on pointe, and those are the ones we rarely exercise because most of us wear shoes all day long.
Because you can only learn so much looking at pictures on the screen, we did some foot exercises designed to help a dancer identify and control individual intrinsic muscles in the foot, rather than treating it as a monolith. We started simply, by pressing the big toe into the floor without clawing or gripping. More advanced, we raised and lowered the big toe without moving the other toes, then raised and lowered the smaller toes without moving the big toe. Then we "domed" or arched our arches "like making space for a pea under your arch" without moving the toes or other parts of the foot. We've all drummed our fingers on a table, but have you ever drummed your toes on the floor the same way? How about spreading your toes sideways?
None of these exercises will make you break a sweat, but they help develop strength and control.
Then we talked about the "core muscles". How many are there? In broad categories there are four, none of which are related to your "six pack." Rather than the yoga "cat stretch, cow stretch", we assumed a neutral quadruped pose and played "hide the pregnancy" (which was modified to "hide the beer gut" for me), relaxing then pulling in the transverse abdominals which wrap the abdomen "like a corset". We laid on our backs and did various exercises to identify muscles which would help hold our pelvises still while our legs moved, rather than rotating our hips.
We also talked about hypermobile joints and the problems they cause. I've dated women who could wrap their legs around their necks (Hey! Keep your mind on dance here!) and had a friend in high school who could put his knees over his shoulders so his feet dangled in front of him like another pair of arms. I have seen fellow students in my classes who do grand battement by lifting their knee first and then extending their lower leg, and I suspect they do it to avoid accidentally hyperextending their knees.
Hypermobile joints may make for great looking lines and feet, but they cause problems on pointe. A hypermobile foot arches past the point where the foot is aligned with the tibia (shin bone), often leading to foot and ankle injuries. For those with some measure of hypermobility -- about half this class, I'd guess -- it's especially critical to develop the muscles of the foot before and during pointe training.
I'm sure I'm leaving things out. This class ran two hours and there was not a moment wasted. If you're considering taking up pointe work, especially if you don't have prior training, look for a repeat of this class. I'm hoping it will become a periodic offering.
But what did I learn? I'm a former EMT with a fair bit of EMS training before that, so basic bone and musculature structure is not unfamiliar to me. But I don't recall having learned about the feet and lower leg in this much detail before, especially not as it relates to dance. I found I have the strength and control to be capable of pointe work, but lack the flexibility. Regardless of whether that ever happens, this class will certainly help me with other aspects of dance.
One last thing for those in or around Falls Church, VA. I learned from another attendee that the BalletNOVA Center for Dance offers a regular adult Beginning Pointe class every Friday evening from 8-9pm, immediately following the Advanced Beginning Ballet class from 6:30-8:00pm. This combination of a technique class followed by a pointe class is ideal. Check it out if you live in the area!
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