Practicing At Home

Yesterday one of my fabulous readers commented, asking about some things to practice at home.  Some people say it's not good to learn outside of class because you could develop bad habits that can be hard to correct.  Personally, I think it's fine because I'd rather have to correct than be unprepared.  But I'm not a professional or expert, so decide for yourself  :)

If you do decide to learn/practice at home, here are some of the basics.  Just remember your teacher's corrections (if any), and to turn out from your hips.

The best thing to practice at home is barre exercises.  You can use the back of a chair or the edge of a table, or build your own barre.  At the barre, you can practice plies, tendus, releves, grand battements, rond de jambes, developpes, or anything else that's not too complicated.  I like to do at least a set of plies everyday.

Stretching is great too, but you need to be really careful to avoid injuries.  Never stretch without warming up and don't push to pain.  Outside of class, you shouldn't do any new stretches or stretches you're uncertain of.  Try some stretches for splits.

If you want to practice turns, try this video for pirouettes.  Pay very close attention to every detail; arm position, foot placement, posture, etc.

And even if you've decided you don't want to risk forming bad habits, you can still learn terminology.  Can't get anything wrong there, right?  My favorite ballet glossaries are Wikipedia's and ABT's.  I like to read a word, then search it on YouTube so I can see what it looks like.

Just remember: be careful and don't do anything your not comfortable with.  Anything you seen in a video or read should never go above what your teacher has taught.  If you aren't in a class yet, try watching professionals and imitating their technique.  Like I said earlier, I'm not an expert or qualified teacher.  These are just tips and suggestions.  Dance safely! ;)