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Feet Turning in when going up on pointe

I am a dance teacher and one of my girls has just started pointe. When she rises onto her shoes, her feet and knees turn in. Her shoes are broken in but I am not sure what is causing this. I am not sure what is causing this because when she is on flat, she does not have this problem. If you could help me out, that would be great! Thank you.

October 24, 2006 | In Questions |

4 Comments »

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  1. A girl in my class does this and my teacher says that is because she is incorrectly using the feet to grip the floor on flat and uses forced turn out. As soon as she rises, and she cant hold on to the floor, the feet turn back to their natural position extending from the hip. She is needs to turn the leg out from the hip, instead of the ankles, then her turn out will remain when rising on pointe.

    I don’t know if this applies to your student, but I hope you are able to help correct her pointe work!

    Comment by Rachel — October 25, 2006 #

  2. She is probably not using her muscles under her bottom to maintain her turnout either on flat or on point, I think Rachel’s teacher is right. Sounds like her hip rotator muscles and upper thigh muscles are not being used on flat so aren’t developed enough for pointe. Pointe magnifies pre-existing problems, so I think it has to be fixed on a more basic level. Are her knees pointing in the same direction as her feet when she is in first position? If not, that has to be fixed, and the best way to do it is start using the hip muscles to develop proper turnout. Also, is her weight back (in her heels) on flat or centered and pulled up? The more you pull your weight off your hips the easier it is to maintain turn out.

    Comment by Zoe — October 25, 2006 #

  3. I have a student who was having similar problems. one thing that has helped her start turning out from the hips is I had her sit on the floor with her feet in front of her and try to turn her knees out without turning out her feet. this helps engage the rotator muscles.

    Comment by Marissa — October 26, 2006 #

  4. She is probably not using her muscles like Zoe said or, she may not be ready for pointe work yet.

    Comment by Nancy — March 9, 2007 #

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