Thread: Ballerina feet!! (where's my shimmy?)

So here's the low down- is there anyone else here who has such a natural turn out (think of ballerinas) that the Egyptian/straight legged/ up and down shimmy nearly disappears when they point their feet straight ahead? - as opposed to shimmying with the turn out. It's driving me bonkers! ..c::

I got the suggestions for low ab exercises to 'tip the pelvis bucket' up a little bit, thus pulling everything into a more preferable alignment- But I dunno...

anyone? anyone have those ballerina feet like me?.w.:

meeeeeeeeeee!!!! I took ballet from 7-15 and even though I have forgotten a great deal of it my feet havent!!!

so do you shimmy with the turn out or no?
I turn my feet in and -whoops- no more shimmy... i'm just...jiggling...?

Perhaps this will just take a bit of retraining to get your feet to stop doing this?

..l;, You know it took me a summer to get the turn out for ballet class, so I am totally opposite.

Ha! Well I am trying to reteach myself how to shimmy with the toes pointed forward, but the hard thing is that I also walk with the turn out, so I'm fighting muscle memory every time I ...well...walk...
perhaps if i return to yoga it will help?? ..l;,

The important thing is that your knees and toes are pointing in the same direction. Look down as you bend your knees and make sure that they're moving directly over your toes.

If your hips turn out and you force your feet in, you'll be torquing/twisting the knee joint.

You may have to allow your feet to turn out for now -- we all have to work with our bodies as they are. (wear full skirts!)

Over time, if you're no longer doing ballet, you may be able to retrain your HIPS to not be so externally rotated -- but always think of the hips, not the feet.

I trained and danced ballet from the time I was 3 until I was 24. Dancing about 25 hours a week at the end. When I started belly dancing, while it wasn't hard for me to do paralelle feet - mainly thanks to some good Modern technique in Uni - I do still have to be reminded to turn me feet forward.

So yes, it takes conscience practice. Sahra has an exercise which she suggests you to one min a day which might help. Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Then do the knee bends of the Egyptian Straight Legged Shimmy. In your case, because of the turn out, you might want to do this with your feet against the wall, because then it is more difficult to get sloppy.

What this does - sitting on the floor - is keeps you from doing the Tension shimmy AND retrians the brain. Do it daily for a month. After a while, you can move up to 2 mins, etc. And your standing shimmies will improve as well.

{{{HUGS}}}

What type of shimmy are you doing?
My duck feet and knees are pretty jacked, too. My feet turn out, while my knees turn in, so my body easily gets confused when shimmying. It made me perfect for ballet, even though I sucked at it (age 5-17).
I find that the glute-driven shimmies work best b/c I can consciously control my turned out feet AND my shimmy.
I also agree w/ Lauren about making sure the knees are over the toes, whichever way they are turning.

Originally Posted by Azhia

What type of shimmy are you doing?
My duck feet and knees are pretty jacked, too. My feet turn out, while my knees turn in, so my body easily gets confused when shimmying. It made me perfect for ballet, even though I sucked at it (age 5-17).
I find that the glute-driven shimmies work best b/c I can consciously control my turned out feet AND my shimmy.
I also agree w/ Lauren about making sure the knees are over the toes, whichever way they are turning.

well when my toes turn out my knees bend forward, when I turn my toes forward, my knees will bend in and 'knock',r:; looks like I have some strengthening and stretching to do! ..g.: