i have noticed over the past few days/weeks that my developees ( think thats correct?) are getting better...well higher! i can now lift my leg a bit higher than before but not a lot..i know it will take time..<BR>one thing that i have a problem with , well i mean i notice that i am sitting in my hip when i do arabesques..and if i want to extend the leg higher i have to lift the leg up as if i was lifting it out of the hip..i hope you get what i mean?? again i don't know if it's because i'm new to all this , and i haven't been taught how to do things correctly yet...any advice??

Sugar Plum - I am going to move this into Students' Questions - hope that's ok.....

So here we are....<P>I am glad that the advice you are getting is helping....but I am not sure specifically to which advice you are referring.<P>However, what interests me is your statement: "well getting better...well higher" - that is two different things isn't it? The hope is that one will not occur without the other. <P>The lift out of the hip begins from the fifth position, before you even start to lift foot or leg, anywhere. As you then begin to lift the foot from the ground into passé, the body is already lifted out of the hips. And this stance never changes - no matter where any developpé, arabesque or otherwise goes. <P>I know, very well, that it feels as if the leg will go higher if one could only scrunch down a bit - ha ha - but that is deceiving. It won't. You do indeed have to lift up out of the hip to give the leg freedom to move higher and more freely.<P> It's almost as if you have to put space right in between the ball and socket configeration of the joint. Pull it apart so it can move. <P>And, you are right - it takes time. Time to learn what to do, and then even more time, much more time, to do it. To learn how it feels - how it SHOULD feel, and then trying to get the body to obey. And finally the body have the strength and intelligence to obey.<P>And the learning curve is not continuous, it progresses by spurts - some of those spurts almost seeming to go backwards at times. But it does go - eventually - forwards.<P>Hope this helps.<BR>