Thread: exercises for arabesques?

I've been working w/ my intermediates on this. Pull your body up long, energy out of the top of your head, keep torso long w/ engagement of lower abs and glutes, press down slightly into the floor before coming up, make sure foot is slightly turned out or straight ahead.

Any exercises to go along w/ all of this?

Slow relevés (both feet; one foot at a time) to strengthen feet, arches and ankles. This also helps with balance.


Khalida

I have students stand in place and just lift the toes off the ground behind them to feel the lift from the glute alone (for quite a while in the workout classes =), can be done like a tendu/degage to back w/return to center if foot alignment needs work).

Also I tend to have students think about leading from the chest, with leg stretching in one direction and upper body stretching the other. I find it helps to teach them flat footed initially as well, so students learn to use their knees properly and align their body to create the movement (rather than focusing on toe/lift at first).

I find the biggest problem my students have with an arabesque, when you're doing it with a swivel (such as step-step-arabesque and turn to face the other corner), is they tend to swing their leg around on the swivel. Not pretty! So I try and get them to practice holding the arabesque position, with leg slightly behind them, and swivelling without moving from that position. Think strike a pose and then inch your way around in a circle..or practice swivelling right around in that pose.

Balance seems to also be an issue when swivelling, so I suggest lifting up like a string is attached your head, and keeping the weight centred over the supporting leg.

Finally - point those toes! I think a lot of non-ballet dancers don't actually understand how to point their foot. So I think exercises that focus on that, such as tendus, are worth trying.

That last note is the kind of thing that makes one question - DO I know how to point my foot? It seems kinda obvious how to point one's foot.

How does one identify that one is only faux-pointing rather than actual pointing?

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

That last note is the kind of thing that makes one question - DO I know how to point my foot? It seems kinda obvious how to point one's foot.

How does one identify that one is only faux-pointing rather than actual pointing?

There are definitely dancers who don't point their feet, or who sickle their feet either when pointing (in the air) or when in releve.
It's not so obvious to everyone.
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I'd add that exercises for hip abductors and external rotators can come in handy for some. :)

sickle their feet

??

Yay, for timely threads

I have been working on arabesques with my students and some of them are having difficulty. Always, looking for one more way to describe it.

I use drills based on Arabesque-containing choreography segments I learned in Mahmoud Reda's classes. For people who have never done an Arabesque before, there are a lot of new things to learn at once - the need to balance on one foot during the pivot, the direction change, the way the weight changes work, the need to lift from the upper body rather than from the leg, the need to power the turn from the hip rather than from the knee, etc.

Students can be a bit overwhelmed if you intellectualize these things right from the beginning with a lot of spoken words and a long list of technique nuances to remember all at once.

Using the tree pose and dancer pose from yoga and other balancing exercises can help. Drilling those weight changes in back-and-forth repetitious combinations can help. Standing still with one leg in the lifted position while the supporting leg does plie/releve can be a useful warmup and quite difficult for folks not used to that!

Talking about this makes me want to go into my studio and do it!

Originally Posted by anala

sickle their feet

??

Dance basic. It's turning the root inward at the ankle, creating a sickle shape. When in releve the weight is evenly distributed on the toes, instead of at the ball of the foot toward the big toes (which keeps the ankle straight).

dance.net - What does "sickling" mean? (6856068) - Read article: Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Hip Hop, Tap, Irish, Disco, Twirling, Cheer: Photos, Chat, Games, Jobs, Events!

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