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Wobble Board Classes
Strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the feet. Decompress the posterior ankle.
Try your pliés and relevés on a large wobble board and you won't soon forget the muscles it recruits or the whole-body equilibrium to which it guides you. With practice, you learn to melt away unnecessary tension so the toes and seat take you up and down while the ankles and knees respond intuitively and the spine grows spacious. Then, when a movement such as fondu developpé in center floor isn't going well, you think level the board and—even though you're not on the board—your nervous system activates the muscles to restore your balance.
Feel better while you dance. Feel better after you dance.
I've worked with hundreds of students, from beginner to advanced, who have shared overlapping experiences of how the board helped them understand with their body the concepts of dancing from the floor up and creating a plumb relationship between the center of mass and the supporting leg or legs. Despite its name, using the board in ballet class is not about wobbling. The rigid structure touching the floor at a single point contrasts this practice from the memorable yet questionably-beneficial Bosu Ball activities you may have seen on social media. For those working on ballet technique with a wobble board (under careful supervision only), this is the model I recommend.
Fitterfirst 20-inch Professional Balance Boards
The company has been a pleasure to work with and everything I have bought from them has been excellent, lasting quality.
Strong feet prevent injuries elsewhere
For our purpose training ballet dancers to 1.) find the posterior kinetic chain and 2.) access the deepest turn-out muscles, and 3.) explore the 3D spiral of the foot, the large 20-inch model is important because it allows us to stand in sixth position with the toe joints at the midpoint of the circle and still have the heels in contact with the wood without overhang. The large size of this board also offers enough room for most people to stand in first (or a tiny second) position on the bisecting line of the circle without the toes spilling over the board's edge.
For more information, please contact me.
Footwork for Dance
Five functional landmarks of the foot
There are five points of the foot I watch closely in class. This image from my teaching tote bag summarises the landmarks. Years ago, I adapted the drawing from an illustration I appreciated (not much larger than a postage stamp) in The Anatomy of Movement.
1: lateral malleolus
2: calcaneal tuberosity
3: apex of the transverse arch
4: great toe at its inside edge (take care that the toe doesn't roll in)
5: fifth toe
To rise to demi-pointe, press down with points 4 and 5 apart. Point 3 goes up and point 2 goes toward point 3 until point 1 arrives above point 3. This describes a well-aligned relevé, but knowing the details helps the dancer enact the anatomical mechanisms of dancing from the ground up. There are three points of the hip as well, which move in harmony with the points of the feet. I will share those with you in class over time, as well as review the four spaces.
This shorthand is far from universal in the ballet world, although the principles are useful anywhere. The concept of five points was introduced to me by Philip Beamish, a renowned ballet master and teacher/coach to many étoiles until his death in 2018. When he died, he was in Buenos Aires teaching at Teatro Colón, one of the world's major opera houses.
The five points of the foot. Can you number them?