HELP! I could use some ideas for barre work, simple center work (I'm thinking temps lie)that would be good for addressing alignment issues.

Thanks to a private pilates session, I just noticed that one of my shoulders is higher than the other. This is definitely new - I think it's a result of my carrying my kids around for the past 3+ years

The instructor also pointed out that my inner thigh muscles are weaker than my outer ones - which I guess is not unusual in dancers.

I'm straightening out when doing barre exercises where both feet are pretty much on the ground, or lifted only briefly as in degage, but developpe & fondu is a problem. I feel like I need something in between - like maybe using a theraband to help support my leg when lifted so I can exercise those muscles that will hold everything in line.

In the past 3 months, plie to releve exercises have become difficult - I think because my kids have both gotten bigger. I have noticed that when I flat out refuse to carry them for 2 or 3 days in a row, everything "magically" improves. But I can't always get away with this - so I really need to learn to adjust better/increase my awareness.

I really want to start dancing more, and I'm getting frustrated with the inconsistency of my progress. I don't want to wait until I can stop carrying my kids so much as I don't know when that will be, but I'm afraid I'll injure myself if I try to step up the intensity at all before I fix this.

I'm currently doing yoga & pilates, but I feel like I need to incorporate my "straightening out" work into the dance that I'm doing, since neither the yoga or pilates classes I'm taking completely incorporates the kind of movement you do in ballet & I can't afford regular one on one pilates sessions....

Any suggestions?

<small>[ 31 May 2004, 11:39 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Hello!

I don't know anything about alignment or proper exercises to fix your problem, but I know how you feel. My entire left side is weaker than my right! It really affects my turns and petit allegro and is getting really frustrating. I hope just concentrating on this will help, and I also do theraband exercises. Good luck with this!

Thanks for the encouragement!

Actually, I'm looking into Stott Pilates certification - unlike Winsor, they work in parallel, and I think I might need to do that for a while, to retrain things - I think my bad habits are too ingrained when I'm turned out, if that makes any sense.

I've had some luck with trying to balance everything while in parallel, and then rotating out from the hip and making sure that the weight falls on the right areas of my feet & that my feet don't wobble around when I go to releve.

It's just very tedious ....

Also, they give you really thorough education in anatomy, kinesthesiology, etc. Like it or not, I think I might just have to work very lightly with dance for a while, so at least this way I'll be making progress towards something!

I have scoliosis, so I'm very assymetrical as well. A teacher recently pointed out to me that my crookedness is getting worse, enough so that it's sometimes noticeable while I'm dancing and not just if you really look at the shape of my back. I think this is mostly because I haven't been thinking about it enough, and when I do think about it, it's obvious how I need to place my body to be more even. Abdominal exercises help me a great deal, as well as back exercises that focus particularly on the weak side. Going to the chiropractor helps sometimes; it doesn't fix anything permanently, but it does put you into better alignment immediately and you can feel what it's like.

Thanks Viviana!

Awareness has helped me a lot. After I posted, I realized that I was not engaging my inner thigh muscles very much, whether standing parallel or in turnout. So I started practicing engaging them a bit more in front of the mirror, and by doing this managed to straighten out my knee/ankle foot alignment.

Now I "practice" this all the time, as well as noticing whether my hips and shoulders are straight as well. I periodically check this out during normal activities - especially when I'm walking - it works great when pushing a stroller because I have the nice straight line of the handle in front of me as a reference point.

Then I try to "translate" that alignment into very simple (and gentle) barre exercises (tendus, mostly, also I have a tendu - plie combination barre exercise that is a good test of alignment and weight placement), both with the "barre" (usually my kitchen counter) in front of me (this way I can line up my chest and hips, too) and then with it on one side.

Within a couple of days, I've noticed loads of improvement. I guess I was a little quick to get frustrated! Maybe some stuff like this would help you - you can sneak them into everyday stuff pretty easily (like when you're in the ladies' room, if no-one else is there)

For me, it seems like a big part of this is needing to retrain my muscles - get them used to holding things together in a slightly different way, regardless of whether or not I'm dancing.

You have a bit more of a challenge, since you have a more "structural" problem than I do, but maybe it would help - might be good to check with your doctor/chiropractor to see what they say...

Definitely with scoliosis if it appears to be getting worse you should go back to your doctor and see what they suggest. It should be a condition managed between your GP, chiropracter and any physical teacher/therapists that you see.

<small>[ 08 June 2004, 04:34 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>