Terrific Tuesday Tip
Today we have a tip about tipping. The pelvis, that is. When
can a dancer tip/tilt the pelvis and not be wrong? The answer: in a développé
derrière.
This can be a sticky area. Dancers are trained to keep their
seat “under”, and told they should never lift or tilt the hips (pelvis). This
is all true, for the most part.
However, some derrière positions are the exception. To achieve an arabesque
higher than about 30-45 degrees, the pelvis must
tip or tilt. An important point to remember is that the rib cage and shoulders
remain square, but not the hips. Allowing a tilt in the pelvis is confusing to
many young dancers since it seems to be in conflict with everything they know.
It is a simple fact of bone structure. Due to the anatomical
limitations of the human body, particularly the femur in the ball-and-socket
joint - in order to achieve a high
extension, the pelvis has to tip –
but not until the leg is higher than the 30-45 degree point. Dancers who don’t
do this wonder why they can never seem to “get their leg up in the back”.
I tell my students to look closely at photographs of dancers
in arabesque and notice the alignment of the pelvis. They are often surprised.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Secret #11c:
“In a développé derrière, the hips remain level only a brief
time.”
Link of the Day:
“The
art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common
things.”
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