Why Your Ballet Feet Exercises Aren't Working (And How to Improve Them)

I was having lunch with another teacher (which is a feat unto itself since we all know how busy ballet teachers are!) and she brought up how frustrated she is that none of her students seem to be doing any of the foot strengthening exercises she suggested to them. This surprised me because I happen to know her students---she brings me in as a guest teacher occasionally---and I know they all adore her and are very motivated and hard working.

My Mind-Spiral

It was way after we said goodbye that I realized what might be happening: what if the students were doing the exercises at but they were accidentally doing them incorrectly? If they're practicing their mistakes, they can't make any progress. This quickly spiraled in my head into "Well, if they can't practice outside of class how can they make progress in their foot shapes unless she dedicates tons of time to it . . . but if she dedicates tons of time to foot shaping exercises they won't make any progress towards the year's goals . . . but if they don't fix those foot habits are they really progressing anyway . . . "

The Missing Piece

The key that these students might be missing (and what brought me out of my mind-spiral) is somatic awareness. The dancers need to be able to feel what their feet are doing as they strengthen them so they can ensure that they are correcting, instead of repeating weaknesses. The exercises only lead to improved ballet feet if/when they're done well. This realization led to a fairly long text to my friend that night; I'll just share the highlights with you:

• When dancers are developing a new habit or retraining a less-helpful one, they need to move slowly. There is a time and place for conditioning quickly movement, but this is not it. Any resistance band or relevé work that these kids are doing right now needs to be so slow.

• How are the kids monitoring their calf raises? Are they looking in their reflection in the mirror? What about the ones who don't have a full-length mirror at home? We don't want them looking down at their feet because they will accidentally form a habit of looking down but they definitely need accurate information about their weight placement over their toes.

• Do they have enough flexibility in their toes to achieve the shape they are aiming for? If the muscles along the bottom of the toes are too tight, they can't get into a great demi-pointe no matter how flexible their arches are.

Frustration → Improvement

I'm excited to see how the dancers have improved the next time I get to work with them. They really got me thinking about how many different approaches there are to help students with their foot shaping habits. Since I hate disorganization, I've compiled my personal favorites into a free PDF guide "Feeling Your Feet; Practical Exercises for Developing Somatic Awareness in Dancers"

Did I leave off your favorite tip? I'd love to know what you do to help your dancers be their very best!