What You'll Learn
- How to engage the abdominal wall to support the spine in arabesque
- Techniques to avoid lower back dominance and "tucking under"
- The role of the standing leg's turnout in maintaining a level pelvis
- Specific barre drills to lengthen the line of the back
- Methods for translating ballet alignment into daily posture
About This Video
Welcome to a specialized Technique Deep Dive with Broche Ballet, where we strip away the complexity of full combinations to focus intensely on the fundamental mechanics of your body. In this 27-minute session, we take a detailed, meditative look at one of the most challenging aspects of ballet: maintaining a healthy, elongated spine while performing an arabesque. Many dancers, especially those starting later in life, struggle with lower back pinching or a "crunching" sensation when lifting the leg to the back.
This class addresses those issues head-on by utilizing a two-handed grip on the barre to isolate the torso and stabilize the pelvis. We begin by exploring the internal relationship between your abdominal wall and your spine. You will learn how to consciously pull the "ab wall" back to meet the spine, creating a supportive internal corset that prevents the lower back from collapsing under the weight of the leg.
This engagement is crucial for achieving that iconic, lifted line without sacrificing your long-term spinal health. We move slowly through tendu back positions, allowing you to feel the micro-adjustments required to keep the spine long and the core active. A significant portion of this deep dive is dedicated to pelvic stability and the mechanics of turnout.
By maintaining active turnout on the standing hip, you can prevent the common mistake of twisting or "hiking" the pelvis toward the working leg. We emphasize the downward pressure on the standing hip as an anchor point, ensuring your alignment remains square and professional. This meditative approach encourages you to develop a "kinesthetic map" of your spine, which you can carry into your daily life for better posture.
Whether you are working on increasing your arabesque height or simply want to improve your foundational technique, these technical adjustments provide the sensory awareness needed for professional-level growth.
