Hello all! this past week I invited a friend to come to my private ballet lesson, to meet the teacher and see the studio, and well later she told me that when I do tendus, that I am bending my leg, does anyone have any advice on how to keep the leg straight in tendus? <P>Also she todl me in my right foot in tendus I'm sickling, any advice on how to correct this? I also have a very bad bunion on this foot at the big toe joint, and when I pointe it, it looks not pretty and sickled, any advice on how to make it look better?<P>Thanks all!<BR>Jan<P>------------------<BR>Teaching Today Touches Tomorrow!<P>

Miss Jan - I am going to take the liberty of moving this into the Students' Questions forum - hope you don't mind.....

So here we are...<P><BR>MissJan - when you tendu it begins with a straight leg - and it remains straight all the way out to the pointe. The tendu leg never bends. I think this is an excellent point to bring up with your teacher. Since you are having a private lesson this is an excellent opportunity for good instruction. Tendu is very important. It is a basis for so many things. <P>As for sickling - talk to your teacher about this too. And you can try this - as you tendu to the front think of leading out with your heel - present the heel first. when you look sideways into the mirror you should not see the heel.<P>When you tendu to the side look into the mirror and see if you can hide the heel under the foot - hidden from your view. See if your foot looks sickled. <P>To the back - as your tendu think of leading out with your toe, the heel staying tucked behind your foot.<P>As for the bunion - there really isn't much you can do about that except not to stress it further. That means careful weight placement when on demi-pointe and careful consideration if pointe work should ever be undertaken at all. <P>As for how it looks and trying to disguise that - hmmmm - I don't think there is anything you can do there either. You might consider using some toe separators. This is another thing to talk to your teacher about.<P><BR>