What You'll Learn
- Using visual markers to ensure consistent heel placement
- Maintaining external rotation from the hip during the descent
- Avoiding common alignment errors when coming down from rélevé
- Building muscle memory for better stability and turnout
About This Video
Maintaining your rotation as you move between positions is one of the most demanding aspects of classical ballet. Many dancers find that while they can hold a beautiful turnout while standing flat, that rotation often slips the moment they rise into a rélevé. This quick tip from Broche Ballet addresses one of the most common technical errors: "losing" the heel on the way back down. When we focus so much energy on the rise, the descent is often neglected, leading to a loss of turnout and stability.
When you perform a rélevé, your weight shifts from the whole foot to the balls of your feet. As you descend, there is a natural tendency for the heels to rotate forward toward a parallel position rather than maintaining the external rotation from the hip. This internal rotation during the descent can lead to a "rolling" of the arches and a loss of alignment. This not only disrupts the aesthetic line of the leg but also compromises your balance for future movements like pirouettes or complex jumps at the barre and in the center.
In this instructional video, we introduce a simple yet effective tool to combat this: the post-it note. By placing a post-it note on the floor exactly where your heel rests in a turned-out position, you create a physical and visual target for your descent. The goal is to ensure your heel lands in the exact same spot every time you come down from rélevé. If you miss the note, you know immediately that your turnout has shifted.
Using this tactile feedback allows you to build better muscle memory. You will learn to engage your deep external rotators throughout the entire movement. The descent becomes an active part of the exercise rather than a passive release. This focus on heel placement ensures that your alignment remains consistent, preventing the common mistake of landing off-center. At Broche Ballet, we believe that these small, intentional adjustments in your daily practice lead to significant improvements in your overall ballet technique. Whether you are practicing at home or in the studio, this hack provides the immediate feedback needed to perfect your form and maintain your turnout through every single rise.
