More: Tibial Torsion, Anterior Pelvic Tilt

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor. I have no medical training. I do NOT recommend anyone to attempt anything I am about to discuss in this post. To do so could provide serious injury! Furthermore, should I post at a later time positive results from attempting the things described in this post, this still does not mean I recommend anyone trying anything here. I have personally done a lot of research on what I will be attempting (I have exceptional research abilities including the ability to decipher professional jargon and understand it), but since I have never been trained, I could totally be screwing up. "Screwing up" can result in serious injuries and the possibility that if something were to go wrong, I may not be able to dance anymore. I accept these risks personally, but again- I do NOT recommend ANYONE to attempt this on your own and without the help of a trained professional.

I've been reading more on tibial torsion and anterior pelvic tilt. This video is short and simple and says that the rotation of my foot outwards (tibial torsion) can be caused by an IT band that is too tight. That makes sense.

I've also been reading about kinesio taping. I mentioned that I tried it before on my knee, and it did indeed turn my knee out some. But I've been reading more and decided to order real kinesio tape, along with leukotape, which is mentioned often. I got four boxes of KT on eBay, precut at 2" x 10", with 20 per box. It was $25 and seemed like the best deal; most of what I want to try (so far) involves strips about that long. The LT was $10, and I didn't get nearly as much, but I can always get more.

I totally don't recommend doing this, but I'm taking the DIY approach here. No, I have no training in what I'm going to do, but it honestly doesn't look that difficult. The hardest part seems to be how much to stretch the tape, so I'll take it easy and hardly stretch it at all. As for where it goes, I've found two sources that pretty much tell me what I need to know.

This (pdf) discusses a study that was done on taping to fix anterior pelvic tilt (with positive results). The actual instructions for taping are on page 8, and while I haven't had to use terms like "medially" and "obliquely" in quite some time, I think I can figure it out. There is also a handy photo showing what it looks like on page 20.

As for the tibial torsion, I will use the video I used before along with this (pdf). The tibial torsion taping is explained starting on page 52. (This video shows how to make a "tab".) There are also a lot of different techniques given for different issues, but I'm only focused on these two.

So I think I have enough info to work with, although I will continue researching. (Note that the links I have posted are not the sum total of all I've read by any means.) I'm excited for my tape to come in, and- of course- will post updates on all of this once I have everything and get going!

MDM Ballet Shoes!

OMG, I just ran to the mailbox to check the mail because I'd seen that my shoes were being delivered today. And yes! There they were. I rushed back home and, of course, put them on right away. (After skimming the bright red STOP instructions telling me to not make so much as an indentation in the shoes in case I needed to return them.) They fit!

MDM Elemental Leather Split Sole Ballet Shoes. Mine have the logo and sole writing in pink. 

The insole to the MDM shoes. They provide resistance to help build strength, shock absorption for jumps, and can help the wearer sense pronation.

I went with the MDM Elemental Leather Split Soles. The "Intrinsic" line is canvas, and they have a "Reflex" version of each. The Reflex shoes are designed more for a lot of demi-pointe work, because they have a little piece in them that expands and contracts when the foot goes back and forth to demi. Since I'm nowhere near a lot of demi, I went for the leather. Here was my initial impressions of the MDM Elemental Split Sole Leather Ballet Shoes:

1. Look! There's the hot pink insole!
2. This shoe feels like it should go on the other foot. (I don't think they are made like that, but switching felt better for some reason- I've been like this with all of my shoes, so I think it's a mental thing!) I switched and it was fine.
3. Cool! My first pair of split soles!
4. The leather is SO SOFT!
5. The toes fit... almost perfectly (at first). I have a much longer second toe than "big" toe, and my third one is long, too, so shoes that come right against my toes tend to make a bump or two where those long toes are having to bend at the top until the shoes get stretched out. 
6. The leather is SO SOFT that #3 isn't going to be an issue; I can tell this right away. The other instruction sheet that came with them also says that they mold very easily, and I've read another review stating that their shoes were molding in the first class.
7. There is no extra baggage anywhere around the shoes. When I point my foot, it's a very nice, clean line, so unlike the full soles I've been wearing.
8. The heel doesn't dig into my foot like my other shoes. (I can feel the edges of the suede.)
9. My pointed foot looks great! 
10. Cool, they even come with a little satin bag to carry them in!

Then I tried on one of the new ones and one of my first pair of leather ballet shoes. Immediately, I noticed that my old ones, full-soles, provided pretty much no resistance to the pointing/arching of my feet, while the MDM shoes definitely provide resistance. It was like being barefoot with my old shoe. And, yes, when I pointed the foot with the old shoe, the arch was not a clean line at all. It bunched up in the front, wrinkling some here and there. With the MDM, it showed my arch beautifully.

Note: Before ordering, I took the fit quiz to show which sizes would be best for my feet. It worked well. The ones I ordered are my shoe size (7.5) with a medium width, but the Intrinsic (canvas) line would have been half a size down and narrow (7N) while the Elemental Reflex would have been a whole size down and wide. (6.5W) So yeah, take the quiz!

I'm definitely keeping these. I'm wondering if my teacher will say anything about wearing split soles as a beginner, because if so, I'll be like "No! Check it!" and show her the awesomeness of advancements in ballet shoes.

I'm so excited. I am going to save these for class, or at least try to! I do my ballet work at home on carpet, which wears down the suede soles of my shoes. My first leather ones are very worn and the suede is pretty much slippery- but that's helpful to me on carpet because I can slide my feet without them catching so much on the carpet. (I haven't gotten into turns much, so that doesn't really matter.) I'd love to have a spare pair for home, though! When those wear out, I'll definitely use them at home, too!

I will have photos soon! I've also gotten several new leotards and such that I want to show you. (Including a chiffon ballet skirt I picked up for $7... at Walmart! It's the 14/16 kids size, and it fits me. [I wear a 1 or 3 in jeans]).

A week and a half til real pre-professional ballet classes! Woot!!

Progress Update

Merry Christmas!

I FINALLY got to do a bit of ballet today. I've been so busy with the holidays and running around like crazy that I just haven't had the time to get any in lately- and I've hated it! I'm slowly but surely making progress. My turnout is definitely improving- I'm starting to feel it more regularly in my hips instead of legs, and I'm getting a little better maintaining turnout. Here are a few progress photos.

Improvements in turnout. But wow are my arms and shoulders tense! (Really waiting on feedback from a real teacher before I work much on my arms. Also, new leotard that's not a plain tank or short sleeve that actually fits nicely! It's got criss-crosses in the back. I'm thinking if I can find a high-neck camisole, I may actually feel comfortable in that.)

Right foot close to 90 degrees.

Left foot getting there. I can't really maintain such a decent turnout yet, but I'm still happy to be improving.

Good Tips on Improving Technique

1. Set small goals. If you have a hard time keeping your insteps lifted, focus on just that for several classes.  It may mean lowering your leg a little in grand battement or rond de jambe en l’air, but it’s okay to sacrifice height for alignment and proper use of the feet.  If you aren’t using your feet properly, nothing else is going to get better either.
2. Listen to corrections that are given to anyone in class. Just because the teacher may not have singled you out doesn’t mean that what they’re telling someone else doesn’t apply to you as well.
3. Write down corrections after class in a notebook, and refer to them often. The more you are able to concentrate on applying corrections to your dancing the faster you will improve.
4. Mark. When the teacher is showing a combination for the first time, it helps you remember it better if you mark it with her.  The same holds true when you are in the center and watching another group perform.  Mark the steps in time with the music to cement the combination more clearly in your head.  Don’t, however, focus so much on this that you are unable to observe the other dancers.  Watching others is a great way to learn and improve.
5. Pay attention to detail. ...

Read more at InsideBallet.com

Frustration, motivation, pas de bourrée, arched feet

I've developed this habit of coming home from work, BSing around for a bit to win down from work (usually on the computer, and part of it is because I've been doing some serious eBaying for Christmas gifts lately), and then doing ballet. The problem with this is that by the time I get through with a good ballet session, it's time to hop in the shower and get in bed... or I can sacrifice more time doing ballet to do a few things after ballet. I think I need to start coming right home and putting on my leotard. That way, if I do ballet first, I can have time after that to wind down for bed, and I'll hopefully use that time more diligently towards things I want to do instead of just aimlessly doing stuff.

Today, I was getting a bit frustrated with ballet. I am not so happy with myself in that I have missed way more than usual in the past week. I was just busy (and then I was on vacation and lazy relaxed). I'm at the point where I'm finding things a little repetitive again. I've done Tamra Chace's over and over again, except the last one where she suddenly flies through the first exercise or two and I get lost and lose interest. I've done that one video with Kathryn Morgan, though I still want to get to the other two.

I'm getting to a point where I have the basic movements down and am now able to work more on form, on technique- keeping my standing hip pulled up, actually accessing those deep turnout muscles (still very hard to keep up, but I'm more mindful of it and definitely improving), focusing on relaxing my body from being so tense. But I've more or less been doing the same videos over and over and over for more than two months now. I'm antsy to change things up, but I don't know how- or I do, but lack the motivation for some reason.

I think part of me is overwhelmed by just how much there is to learn. I mean, yes, it's exciting to learn and perfect- but I've never been a disciplined person. I've never worked on really honing in technique on something like this, not something physical, not something so new and foreign, really. It's always been hard for me to stick to things, especially through times like this, where the motivation has waned and I have to find it again- by myself and on my own.

One of the things I've been slacking on has been, well, everything BUT technique. I haven't been doing my stretching or working out like I was. In fact, I think that the next couple of times I put on my leotard, besides my warmup and a few basic moves, I'm going to do more of what I just said instead of working on technique. THAT is how I am going to change things up! The toning of my body has stagnated a bit, and I only have less than three weeks before I'm in the middle of a season of ballet classes. So that's what I am going to do, yes! Along with the stretching- three weeks is plenty of time to make more progress in my flexibility before starting class.

I just need to keep finding ways to change things up. Three more weeks, and I'll enter a whole new world of real ballet classes at a nice school where all students are taught as though they are pre-professional (!!) When that happens, I am sure I will have other things in mind to work on outside of class, and it probably won't be so difficult to motivate myself, since I'll be learning and not just trying to teach myself.

Speaking of which, I think the first few times I take class, I may sit out of center exercises and write things down. (Yes, I'm intimidated by the center after the one class I had, along with the knowledge that I've done way more barre and struggle with picking up new movements quickly.) I got this idea in my head earlier when I tell you about...

A good ending to my post about motivation and frustration! When I ran out of things I wanted to do this evening, I remembered I have that other Finis Jhung DVD, Basic Ballet Movement Skills Lesson 1. I was watching the previews to it today during work, and decided to get it out instead of using the Centerwork for Beginners. I was all bummed out and then we started working on pas de bourrée en avant. The first movement is something that should be very simple, but it took me quite a few tries to even begin to feel like I was getting it right. (Yes, this is so new to me! I finally wrote down the steps because I learn well when I write things down- and it did help, ergo what I said above about centerwork in class.) At some point, though, I felt it! I felt like I was doing ballet. I was able to get into it, feel it flow, get out of my head some (not all the way, but more) and not focus on what I am doing but just letting myself do it. Doing the steps and instead of figuring out what foot goes where and how my arms move at what point, I was able to do those and let myself loose enough to become the movements, to feel a little graceful. It was super-awesome. In times of low motivation, a little something new can be very invigorating.

(In case you're wondering- and this helps me when I tell others how to do something- the movements in the first exercise were: start in fifth; front leg tendu with a plie with arms raising to first; step on the floor with that leg reaching out past the point of tendu into relevé, standing leg immediately comes up into relevé; step forward again with front leg but the second time the back leg crosses in front to be in fifth. Lower and repeat on the new working leg.)

Oh! One other good note to end on! Actually, it was a bit of the cause of some of my frustration tonight... I'm having trouble with sur le cou-de-pied/wrapped foot. But... the reason I'm having trouble with it is because my feet are getting so much stronger and I'm able to arch them so much better... but now it's problematic because I'm having to angle my foot so much more to have the arch fit "wrapped" and getting that angle is a bit of a struggle! LOL, what a conundrum! Really, though, my feet are looking sooooo much better! (Though I realized tonight doing pas de bourrée en avant that I have a long way to go to "enough" foot/ankle/calf strength!)

6-Year Old en Pointe...

Not sure what to make of the six-year-old little girl en pointe! The choreography looks fun though.

Real Ballet!

I've been putting something off partially because I'm a bit scared. Today, I finally went through with it. I went to the nicest ballet school we have in town and spoke to the director herself about taking classes. And guess what... starting the week of January 5th, I can start taking Level II classes twice a week!!

There was a real sense of finality to going in today. I've been avoiding it for quite awhile. I knew the adult class I took before would be more laid-back than regular ballet classes, so it wasn't that intimidating (other than getting over my fear of new social happenings). But this school, this is the real deal.

The director told me I could probably keep up with the Grade II girls. (The info sheet says they are around 9 years old.) She said that although they have had ballet for a year and a half now, as an adult, I should be able to keep up. (Note: This is a class I was debating on whether or not I would be put into it. The classes start at 5 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is the time I normally get off of work. So I am going to have to work on my schedule, and get off earlier than I am supposed to. Considering I have doctor appointments very often, my bosses have gotten used to my leaving early, so I hope to just slide this on in there. Plus, I will work lunch on those days... and I'm going to try to start going in earlier after the new year anyway.)

The director was very nice (though she and the other lady in the office kinda scoffed when I mentioned I'd been watching YouTube videos. I knew that would happen, but I do think there is a difference in watching some YouTube videos and actually studying the moves the videos are doing, getting other input to make sure they're being done correctly. I guess I'll see how much they've actually taught me soon). Short lady, short hair, small frame, quite ballet-like. She's got some experience at the Joffrey School and another one or two I recognize. I told her about the adult ballet class I took, and how it was more of a social event. She said that this wasn't like that: the girls behaved well, and she teaches everyone as though they are working towards being professional, even though most won't actually go that way. So everyone likely dances with more of a professional attitude, and I'm sure she works them pretty hard. This is exactly what I was wanting/hoping for/scared of! :)

The classes are going to be kinda expensive for me, especially since it's not a drop in thing but a monthly deal... and I will be taking two classes a week instead of one. But it's not too bad, considering. Only $90 for two hours a week. The Tuesday class also ends early enough for me to head on over to the class I've already tried (once the real instructor gets off maternity leave so the class is under control!), should I decide twice a week just isn't enough. (I also have a few classes in the other town about an hour away I can take, even one on Saturday, which is a good day for me to get out of town. I'll start with these two a week, and if I love it, I am going to add more. The more I can do, the closer I am to [hopefullymaybeoneday] going en pointe!)

So, she was very welcoming, and even sounded a little excited about me coming to class (unlike some of my other experiences *looking down their nose* "We only allow 14 and under", as if that's a real school!). She told me she would put me in between two of the girls who have been there longer and are more experienced so that I can follow them on both sides when we do barre.

I've been working on center exercises with Finis Jhung. These are almost certainly going to be more difficult for me than barre. I mostly get the hang of barre now (as best as I can not really having had any actual classes). The only center exposure I have right now is about three minutes in the class I took (where I did terribly), a few steps at a time with Finis, and very basic center with Tamra Chace.

But this is it! This is what I've been wanting! I can come up with the money (by buying fewer ballet outfits, haha). I can work it out with my work schedule. I can get the nerve to actually go. And, provided I really do love it as much as I am truly hoping, I'm on my way to being... a late ballerina! (Okay, well "ballerina" in my head, anyway.)

Oh, one more thing. The director is the founder of the primary ballet company in town. If I do well, one day, I just might be able to join! She seems like she wouldn't discriminate based on my age (the other schools I've called wouldn't let me take classes with younger people, but she didn't think twice). That's way down the road, if ever, but so are pointe shoes (worn with permission!) and I'm aiming for those! Shoot for the moon!

WOOOHOOOOOO!

(And now, time for ballet. This week I have not done nearly as much as I've wanted to! My mountain trip went marvelously, by the way. I did get some hiking in, but other than that and about an hour or so of ballet, I was just too damn relaxed to do much of anything else... and it was great!)

Lifting Hips in Développé?

I've been struggling with not lifting my hips when doing développés. It seems like it CAN possibly be done, because it seems I am able to do it while on the floor, without gravity to bring me down. This article is interesting because it says that the hips are supposed to be lifted using the iliopsaos, not the quads. (It also has videos to go along with all of the seven exercises for leg extensions.)

I tried the "Thigh lift" last night and my iliopsaos was very elusive.

Then I came across this link while researching how to get my leg up higher. It's a video, inviting comments, of a ballet class DVD preview taught by Dmitri Roudnev (he's the one posting). He states it might be controversial, so of course I have to watch it:

The comments to his post bring up the fact that he teaches his students to lift the hips when performing extensions, instead of telling them to keep their hips straight like I've been hearing and reading. The first comment I see sums up the argument against what he is doing:

I just cannot fathom how it is beneficial; surely by teaching it in this way (referring to the developpe at 90) you are teaching the movement pattern of lifting the hip of the gesture/working leg to initiate the extension rather than developing strength and control in the legs, postural muscles and rotators etc?

 Here's Dmitri's explanation:

I believe the alignment should be the first priority in ballet training. Turn out is second priority. 

I believe for progressive training that 180 turn-out in all five positions are a must ( my school, the Bolshoi, believes the same, as well as many professionally oriented schools in the world ) At the same time, in order to keep the alignment correct, I believe the turn-out of the working leg should not be forced. 

The student in the video is a beginner ( 2 classes per week ). The video shows how much this beginner student is able to rotate the leg in a la second. It is a temporary look and it will change and improve as soon as she gets stronger.

So basically, he's saying it's okay to lift the hip as a beginner, that the beginner needs to develop the strength first, before working on keeping the hips lower and more turned out. To me, this makes sense (not just because I want it to!). For instance, I am working on my turnout, still. But just because I don't have perfect turnout doesn't mean I can't practice ballet. I work with the turnout I have, and also work on strengthening my hip rotators so I can increase my turnout. Likewise, he is saying nothing should be forced; build strength first and then the improvements in turnout, extension, will necessarily be improved so long as one is working on strengthening those areas.

I also came across this link, basically sayings screw all that, lift your hips for extension! And it posts quite a few photos of professional ballerinas doing leg extensions with their hips lifted. Such as these two:

Sylvie Guillem, former top-ranking dancer with Paris Opera Ballet, principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London

Students at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis school, ABT's pre-professional division

 I just found a bunch more here:

So, I'm going to stop stressing so much over my lifted hips when I'm doing leg extensions. Honestly, they're hard enough as it is without my beating myself up over it. (They're one of those things that if I were to get focused on, I'd slide down into not wanting to continue ballet.) So, yes, I recognize that my ilipsaos needs to be a helluva lot stronger. I can't even isolate it at the moment. And I do think continuing to do floor barre may help me learn to isolate the right muscles. But when it comes to following along with the videos I watch, eh, I'm just going to do the best I can and that's going to have to be that. I can't control it right now, so, like I said, I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

I do find it interesting all the different ways I'm learning that ballet instructors can teach things. I didn't understand how there could be all sorts of different techniques when I started. I'm starting to get it now though ;)

Later today, I am off to the mountains with my dog, my friend, and his two dogs! I'm bringing all my ballet gear (well, I can't take my barre unfortunately!) and plan to hike, relax, read, and of course, do ballet. That's my next four days summed up (I hope!)

Intrinsic Foot Muscles

A great video for improving the point of the feet (via the intrinsic foot muscles):

(At first, I was like, "ah, I got this". Then it came to doing more intricate things with my left foot and... nope. I don't "got" it. I've been working on it about two days, though, and can somewhat squish my left toes together, which I couldn't do at all when I first tried. But really, from my understanding, being able to even come close to balancing on pointe, and to just have a nicely pointed foot at all, takes ability of detailed movement along with strength of those inner foot muscles, some of which some of us had never felt work before!)

And I get my Perfect Pointe book this weekend, yay!

It's a Yoga Day

I woke up today not really feeling the ballet vibe. It's Saturday, one of my two days off, and I really like to squeeze in as much ballet on the weekends as I can. So when I realized that vibe was going on, I was kinda disappointed but got through some chores and got on my leotard and got going. Made it through the warmup, but what next?

Nothing was sounding appealing. One of Kathryn Morgan skips the intros to the barre movements and just goes through the exercises- and there's music that's kinda nice. I put that on and started doing my own routine- plies, tendus, ronde de jambes. But by the time I got to the latter, I knew ballet just wasn't happening. But I'm still all dressed and want to do SOMETHING...

I found this, and it's great. In only a small number of poses, my back popped so many times (I love that feeling!) and I got SUCH a good stretch! I love it, and it's going on my flexibility playlist (along with the splits routines by the same group, PsycheTruth. I'm finding their videos are to my liking: no long intro, tough enough but not too difficult, and fairly brief, but not too brief.)

This one is another good one for the neck, shoulders, and upper back (the last exercise is the same as one in the video above).

I've really been slacking some lately on stretching. When I first started, I was doing it nightly, but I really haven't done it much at all in a few weeks. When I did, I was pretty much focusing solely on my lower body, since flexibility is great for extensions and such (and I will do splits one day!). But since starting the Conditioning for Dance book, I've been realizing how intertwined everything is- like the simple jump exercise I mentioned. So while getting more strength and flexibility is definitely going to help my cambre (ah, if cambre was done from the lower back, I'd be a pro at it), it's also going to help pretty much everything else in my body, including my leg extensions.

It's really neat not only learning how fascinating the body is, but to actually be able to experience it- the inter-connectivity- as well.

Inspiration

This is one of my favorite videos right now for inspiration:

And look, just LOOK at this amazing set:

Bolshoi Theater's set and costumes for Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty"

I adore the movie Marie Antoinette because not only does it star one of my favorite actresses, Kirsten Dunst, but the costumes and the set and everything is just so colorful and opulent and breathtaking. The above photo nails it. Love it, and I so wish I could see this in person.

"Christian Louboutins are uncomfortable, but I screamed the first time I put on a pointe shoe." -Mila Kunis (via user Clara76's signature on the Ballet Talk forum)

Ballet with Kathryn Morgan, Online Ballet Classes

I'm really taking my time going through Tamra Chace's online ballet classes. She doesn't have many, and those were put out a couple of years ago, with no more new ones since then. I have one or two that I haven't done or haven't done all the way through. I really like what she has out- it's taught me so much, and I repeat classes over and over.

I'm starting to need a little more difficulty, though, so I decided to start trying Kathryn Morgan's online ballet classes. She used to dance for the NYCB, so that's pretty cool. I tried half of the easy ballet barre class a couple of evenings ago, but wasn't into it. After a warmup and about 3/4 a class with Chace, I picked up where I'd left off on Morgan's easy ballet barre class.

I have to say, my first impression of the class included a bit of... irritation! Not because she isn't a good instructor, but because of the way she speeds through what we will be doing! It reminds me of watching the Royal City Ballet's class, where their teacher calls out what sounds like a few hundred ballet movements and everyone incredibly remembers every single thing that he said and the order it was said (and he doesn't even really do movements as an example). Ballerinas are inhuman!

So Morgan goes through at least one or two of the movements (that are repeated front, side, back, side, usually) completely (as in all of the front and second) then quickly through the rest (back, side, etc). But then she repeats what the movements are without moving, rattling them off like the RCB's instructor! My first thought was, "OMG, how am I going to DO this?????!!" "OMG, how do you expect me to DO this?????!!"

But once I got past my initial rebellion of doing something new, and I did some rounds along with Morgan, I started getting into it. It's definitely more difficult than Chace's- Chace is more of a very beginner's/basic technique style, while Morgan expects you to already know the movements... Guess what?! I DO know the movements now! I haven't honed in very well on my technique, of course, but I know what to do when she says relevé, battement dégagé, sur le cou-de-pied, or rond de jambe en l'air! (I haven't gotten to jumps and turns yet, besides a hint of piroutte attempts, so I don't know those other terms, and I'm also just now learning movement and that terminology, such as de côté.)

My timing on moving along to her class is perfect- I'd watched it briefly when I first started and there was no way I was going to be able to keep up. But now I more or less am able. I have trouble with the faster movements, like a fast battement dégagé or a one-beat rond de jambe, but that's good! It gives me something to work on and work towards, changing things up some.

Today, I discovered a website where you can actually take live ballet classes online! Kathryn Morgan actually offers some of these, and I think I am going to sign up for a class soon! I LOVE this idea! (It looks like you use your webcam so she can see what you're doing and give feedback!) There are some other ballet-oriented type classes, like yoga-ballet, but I haven't seen any other pure-ballet instructors. (A lot of the ballet-type classes are held during the day, no good if you work normal business hours.)

I also came across this subscription-based online class site (multiple dance forms, not sure if there are enough videos to justify several month's worth of subscriptions, but possibly a month or two, especially if you're interested in like lyrical or contemporary) and Mary Helen/Ballet Beautiful has live classes you can take (lots of classes scheduled, at various times (great even if you work 9-5), but they are expensive ($35/class or $280/month unlimited) and more importantly (to me, anyway), I'm not sure if it's actual ballet she is teaching or if it's more of a ballet-style workout (like her Ballet Beautiful DVD is, I think).

I may do some of Mary Helen's free videos on YouTube, and once I feel like I can keep up (I don't do much aerobic activity), I will probably try a class. I would love for it to be strictly ballet, and not a "ballet workout". Swinging $35/class is a bit much for now, but if her classes are exactly what I want, there are enough classes that would fit into my schedule (judging by what she has posted now) that would justify spending $280/month... not now but in the future.

I shall post if and when I try anything else new! More to come on what I'm working on with Finis!

(P.S. I actually found another subscription-based site. They have a free plan, so I signed up to see what it was about.  I got absolutely nothing with my free subscription and I see complaints on their Facebook page, so I won't be giving them any money!)

Foot Arch/Doming Improvement

In less than a month's time, I've made a noticeable improvement in my foot's arch strength, and thus the pointing of my feet. Here is a side-by-side comparison:

Side-by-side comparison of doming of my right foot.

(I don't think the fact that I was in a different position matters much?) On the right, I was definitely forcing my foot to dome- you can see a lot of tension in my foot, trying to hold the height of the arch. The lower arrow points to where my big toe was curling more to make it look better, and you can see the tension in my big toe as well.

In the left picture, taken only 27 days later, I can really tell a pretty big improvement (especially since I could not even access those muscles willingly when I first started ballet about 2 months ago!). First of all, the arch! It's higher, yes, but it's also turning into something of a slight angle at the arch, a little more of a triangle at the highest point of the arch instead of a half-sphere. I think that's really cool.

There's also SO much less tension in my foot, even though I was definitely pushing the muscles hard. The big toe isn't wrinkled up like the right photo- it's learning to elongate to point instead of curling. (That second toe is getting better at not curling as well- that toe's more difficult!)

At the top arrow on the right, the point(e?) of my foot looks less smooth. Again, on the left, it's elongating into a more aesthetic (and stronger!) point(e?)! (Did I mention I try to do doming exercises as much as I can at work? I've been really busy this week- it does take a little focus- but I was able to get back to it some today!)