This may sound like an "off the wall" question, but I have to ask. In balancing in coupe/releve, or passe/releve, I can do it but only if I'm focused on something in the distance as well as my breathing(something I learned in yoga) but I'm not sure if this is a good way to do it, because then I forget the next step or get distracted. Are there other means of being able to maintain your balance......in other words......Is there a ballet secret that I don't know about?????

There are several ways to focus for balance, I think. Certainly focusing on something in the distance is one of them. But there is also a near focus - for instance your partner in pas de deux. If you are supposed to - at that point in the choreography - be looking into his eyes - focusing in the distance is not an option.<P>There is also an "inner focus"....Prima Ballerina Alicia Alonso did this because she is blind. But it is also used by those who are not blind. I have used this inner focus when I am trying to balance in the midst of others swirling around me - like on stage. <P>I focus in the distance, for instance, when I am doing turns en diagonal - my spotting occurs at a point downstage - where I am going.<P>In a promenade, I focus corners and walls in sequence. In a penché, my focus is going beyond the entent of my extended hand - and moves as I move downward and then upward - so it is a moving focus.<P>As for relevé in coupé or retiré, I am not aware of purposefully focusing for balance. I am "feeling" the balance through my straight leg - up through my torso, and out my head - everything lengthening upward and that balances me. Also aiding my balance is the flattening of my back across the shoulder blades, and the turnout of my lifted leg countered by the turnout of my supporting leg. I am centered in the center of it all - and there I stay. <P>Balance is also an individual thing. It is an attribute like everything else. It comes more naturally to some more than others - but it can be learned and improved upon.<p>[This message has been edited by Basheva (edited June 21, 2001).]

Thank you for the Info Basheva. I did try something new yesterday that I hadn't done b4. Visualization...IT WORKED SO WELL!! I pictured a string at the top of my head pulling me straight up....I think I had longest balance ever!!

whatever works Salima - LOL