bulky muscles

I had a teacher who told me that ‘we want to develop nice, long, dancer legs, not big, bumpy legs’ and from pictures I’ve seen of different professionals, I’d say some of them have ‘bumpy’ muscles and a lot of them don’t… especially the principal dancers and I was wondering how to avoid developing those ‘bumpy muscles’ and how to develop the ‘long’ muscles instead or something like that.

November 4, 2006 | In Questions | 6 Comments

6 Comments »

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  1. When you’re in class, make sure your legs are stretched fully, both while in the air (your working leg) and on the ground (your supporting leg). A lot of students tend to forget about their supporting legs and let their supporting knee get loose and bend while working, which tends to lead to bulky thigh muscles. Your working leg also needs to be absolutely stretched while in the air, don’t let the knee bend slightly during grand battement, extend it absolutely fully in developpe, etc. You can also do stretching exercises. Make sure your weight is at a sensible level for a dancer, as added weight puts more load on developing muscles.

    That being said, sometimes body types dictate how muscles develop, which is not to say you can’t be a dancer if your body wants to develop muscles a certain way rather than just long thin muscles. Assuming equal technical ability, someone with long lean muscles who does not evoke a response in an audience (of one or 3000 people) is not necessarily going to get very far while someone who is not an ideal shape who does connect with the audience and makes the music come alive, however, draws the eye, and company directors and choreographers know this very well. Dancing is not only about a certain muscle type!!!

    Comment by Zoe — November 5, 2006 #

  2. I have to agree with Zoe that dancing is not all about a certain “muscle type”. Being a dancer is about posture, attitude and poise. I had a real issue with being a little stocky in accordance to most people’s ideas about a dancer should look, but I was growing and could not help the “puberty stage” of life. However, I made the best of it by really putting forth my personality while dancing and making sure the movements and the routine were all in place. I always had the audience and eventually grew out of that body and developed a young womens body that was still a little stocky but then again no one ever noticed that but me. Make sure you are not seeing yourself as something you are not. Just eat right and stretch, stretch stretch!! UP UP and straight!! LEGS STRAIGHT AND HEAD UP! Be proud of you and dance like you mean it!

    Comment by Dana — November 5, 2006 #

  3. The thing about straightening your base leg might have some merit. If it is straightened, most of the load is born by the skeletal structure, rather than the muscles.

    Bending a raised leg won’t make it bulky though…

    Also, most girls won’t build bulky muscles anyway, they don’t have the hormones for it. If you are, then your body probably needs them for what you’re doing in life. If you have ideal form, it should eventually right itself.

    Perhaps you do things besides ballet that would build large muscles? Do you lift heavy things a lot? Or is this all hypothetical situation fear? Bulky legs are cool if it’s actually muscle and not fat…

    Comment by Tyciol — November 6, 2006 #

  4. I am not sure if Tyciol is a ballet dancer. Based on his/her remarks I would guess not. Lifting a bent leg means the weight is borne by the quadriceps rather than distributed along the length of the leg and primarily borne by the gluteal muscles, where it should be (for ballet at least).

    Correct technique does avert bulky muscle.

    However, while bulky legs may be cool in various walks of life, scle, it is not cool in ballet because it makes the type of movement we do very much harder to do correctly and easily, and by and large, companies are less likely to hire bulky-legged dancers.

    Comment by Zoe — November 6, 2006 #

  5. Thanks for all the advice and the self-esteem boosters XD Though I guess I wasn’t totally clear when I said ‘bulky muscles’ because I was really thinking more about calf muscles than thigh muscles. If anyone could shed some light on that it would be most helpful!

    Comment by flyingwind66 — November 19, 2006 #

  6. Yeah I know that was what you meant but i don’t know any info. so if anyone could do thatit would help me and flyingwind66!

    Comment by Charity — January 16, 2007 #

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