The physical language of the body is so much more …...Right now, you must forget about trying to...

Discover the 7 Virtues of a Professional Ballet Dancer --> PHYSICALITY

www.balletdancersguide.com

"The physical language of the body is so much more

powerful than words." - QUOTE by Bill Irwin

This book about Physicality is one of a seven part series of mini ebooks about becoming a

professional ballet dancer. The other titles are Passion, Circumstance, Mentality,

Support, Time, Savvy. For further information on all the book titles click here…

My website is www.balletdancersguide.com

I gradually learned these 7 virtues the hard way – at vocational ballet school, then as an apprentice, then on tour

all over the world as a professional ballerina. These books are your shortcut. Don’t miss the boat.....

http://www.balletdancersguide.com/ebook-landing-page.html

http://www.balletdancersguide.com/



CONTENTS

Part Three: Physique

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Physique in Ballet

Chapter 3: Body Type and Facility

Chapter 4: Shapes and Sizes in Ballet

Chapter 5: The Athlete Dancer

Chapter 6: Body Control Techniques

Chapter 7: Physique Summary

Chapter 8: Your Questions



Part Three

PHYSIQUE



INTRODUCTION

Physique

The physique for is one of the

most important aspects for a

young dancer.

Can you transform your body into a professional?

Your body has to adapt to the intense way of training. Your muscles have to be worked non-

stop to achieve the physical strength for ballet.

Through this section, you can see if you have the FACILITY and BODY TYPE

that will be enough for a ballet career.



PHYSIQUE IN BALLET

“I really want to get better and improve my technique

but the one thing that's holding me back is

The perfect ballerina body”

If you ask any professional ballet dancer whether they have the perfect body for ballet, I am

almost certain they will say ‘no’.

Every single ballet dancer has their own physical limitations (including the

top ballerinas).

Nearly all professional ballet dancers have something that could have

stopped them getting where they are now.



“I am really worried about my body, because I know I can't change it.”

The process to reach a professional level is not easy for young ballet dancers. I know it can

often feel like a struggle to maintain a certain body image for ballet.

However, there is a big difference between just getting tied down by your body image (which

non-dancers get too), to putting a ballet ‘business’ head on and thinking logically in terms of

your body’s facility for dance.

Right now, you must forget about trying to drop a dress size or trying to look like a catwalk

model. In ballet, your body is your tool and your instrument. So, if you really want to become

a ballet dancer, you need to start thinking straight.

Your physique in ballet is about your strength, facility and potential, which I will explain all in

this chapter. It inevitably leads to a lot of attention on your body type and how you look, but if

you want to rise above to reach a professional, you need to detach any emotional feelings you

have about your body and take a hands-on approach.



Everyone has different bodies and you are allowed to, but not everyone has a body which is

suited for ballet. There is a certain range for a dancer's body to fit in with the classical ballet

physique.

What can you do?

From a young age, you need to have a good range of flexibility and turn out, as well as the right

proportions in your body. If you have this good basis in your body, then you can build on it and

strengthen more through your training.

Every person naturally develops at different times, so especially when you are younger, you

can’t compare your body to the other girls in your class.

Your body will develop on its own accord and that is your own personal journey.

"You have to be your own icon."

QUOTE by Laura Morera from the Royal Ballet



There are a lot of young ballets students held back by their body type.

When I was training at a vocational dance school at aged 11, I saw girls in

my ballet class who were much smaller and tinier than me.

We were all talented dancers who were selected carefully out of thousands of young dancers to

be offered a place at the school. However, we were still extremely young and ‘babies’ as far as

our bodies were concerned for ballet.

Until we all reached aged 18, there was no way to see how our bodies would develop.

By the end of my training, the girls in my class had matured from little girls to women. Some of

those tinier girls had grown much bigger and some didn’t have a body suited to ballet anymore.

Despite the amount of intense training you get, you cannot always

help what your physique is naturally like.

From a young teenager to a beginning

professional, your body can change and it

will mature as you get older.



BODY TYPE AND FACILITY

Your body type and facility are key to become a ballet dancer.

These two factors work alongside each other in order to develop you into a professional.

Explaining the word ‘FACILITY’

There is a certain range for a dancer's body to fit in with the classical ballet physique. It can be

judged quite quickly to whether your body is right for ballet.

However, it is not just to do with how you look, but it is also your facility.



If you have a naturally gifted ballet body type (naturally long

legs, slender muscles) you still need to be just as good in your

technique and actual dancing.

You can’t just be pretty to look at, but have no real skill to dance.

It takes a massive amount of work to build the strength and

precision in a body with all the best facility.

On the other hand, if you have a less natural body for ballet, you

need to focus on your own body and push yourself to achieve the

best of your personal facility.

Some dancers will not naturally have flat turn out or extreme

flexibility, so you have to work within your own range to improve

any weaknesses.

This is why you can’t compare your body with the other dancers in your class, because they

have an entirely different facility.

You will always find ballet dancers who have longer legs than you, or more

beautiful arched feet.

There will be dancers who are more flexible or have better turn out.



As I said, you have to work within your own physical range. You have to think about how you

can use your own body to become the best dancer you can be.

When looking at your physique for ballet, it is important to remember body type and

facility. They are two big factors in deciding whether your physique is suited for a career in

ballet.

Your body and facility will also develop partly due to your genetics. So, you can get a vague idea

of what your body type is naturally like by looking at your parents.

You have to ask yourself –

Do I have a body type suited for ballet?

Do I have enough facility to become a ballet dancer?

1. Body Type

Height, proportions, build, structure.

Eg. Tall, small, short, petite, muscular, slender etc.

2. Facility

Turn out, flexibility, feet, legs

Eg. Arched feet, hyper-extensions, height of jump etc.



SHAPES AND SIZES IN BALLET

As a ballet dancer myself, I have seen all different types of bodies in ballet. I have been around

the world dancing professionally and I have seen dancers who are small, tall, petite and

definitely ranging in body shapes.

The dancers that make it to the professional level have a physique that fits into the range of

body types there are in ballet.

For example -

Tall and athletic, like Darcey Bussell

Developed but still slender, like Misty Copeland

Small and petite, like Maria Kochetkova



These top ballerinas all have admirable bodies in their own way, but they are all very different -

Maria Kochetkova was once told she was too short to become a top ballerina. She stayed at the

small height of 5’ and proved people wrong to perform lead roles like Giselle and Sleeping

Beauty, which she was told she would never do. She is now a principal ballerina at San

Francisco Ballet.

Also, Misty Copeland is considered a curvy ballerina. She pushed past the stereotypes of having

to look a certain way in ballet and still made as a top professional ballerina in American

Ballet Theatre.

I know there are always exceptions to the expected ballet type in ballet. I have seen dancers

become a professional without having the ‘perfect’ ballerina body. In fact, I have seen these

dancers do better than the ones who did even have the better body for ballet.

It is important for you to realise you do not need to

have the absolute best of everything in order to

become a professional ballet dancer.



However, there are ballet dancers I have seen whose body would struggle to pursue a

professional ballet career.

When you reach the time to audition for classical ballet companies, they tend to judge quite

quickly on heights, physique and structure.

If you are on the borderline for physique or don’t suit the classical look to fit into the company,

there will be hundreds of other ballet dancers to take your place.

Step aside…

Especially for dancers, it is easy to feel you do not look good enough, or want to change to look

like someone else. It is easy to get emotionally attached to your body and how you think you

should look.

However, this can even more easily spiral out of control and turn into an unhealthy obsession.

Which is why, I said at the beginning you need to put your ballet ‘business’ head on when it

comes to your body and dance.



"My body is my tool. In ballet, it's not about being slim and slender,

you need to aim for muscle. ”

QUOTE by Lauren Cuthbertson from the Royal Ballet

If your body becomes naturally too big or muscular for ballet, then it is not worth going to

extremes by dieting or exercising.

You cannot starve yourself or not look after your body in ballet.

There are not many professional dancers I have seen who are

unnaturally skinny or look extremely unhealthy.

A career in ballet can last over 10 years, so you have to think about

your future, as well as what you want now.

If your body type is not naturally slender, you will lose technical

strength if you are always trying to stay skinny.

You have to be very strong and physically fit for a profession in ballet. If you are constantly

struggling with your body, it is almost impossible to keep up with the demands of what you

are doing.



THE ATHLETE DANCER

A dancer is an athlete

One of THE most important things is to: look after yourself like an athlete.

When it comes to a ballet dancer’s body, you must remember you are just like an athlete.

Get your head in the game…

You have to be extremely strong and fit, as well as being lean and toned. The professional

ballet dancers you see are lean with long limbs and athletic body types.

You need to eat well, keep strong in your muscles and approach dance like an athlete.



Ballet is intense and very physical.

If you look at Olympic athletes or gymnasts, they are muscular and strong in their bones. In

ballet, you absolutely need this athletic strength, but in a body that is more lengthened out.

Along with most professionals, I trained in ballet for 8 years before becoming a professional

ballet dancer. If you imagine yourself training in ballet for that amount of time, you can think

about how your physique would change.

As you train in ballet, your body naturally

matures and develops.

Your muscles strengthen and your technique

gets stronger.

AGED 11 AGED 18

You have to approach it in

the same way as if you were

training for the Olympics in

order to see results.



However, these improvements can only happen if you work correctly in your training. You have

to push yourself to the limit.

If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough

Remember these 3 rules of physicality....

1. Ballet dancers who have made it to a professional have all spent years of

continuous training for mostly all of their life.

2. You have to be studying ballet enough to make a difference to your body. There are

many professional dancers who have made it without having longest legs, or the

perfect body.

3. Becoming successful in ballet is not purely on how good your body is. You have to

think about how you can use your body facility and how you can work it into

becoming a fine artist and dancer.



BODY CONTROL TECHNIQUES

From the moment you begin ballet, it is within your body control and facility that you

can decide how you progress and what you can achieve.

It is a no pain no gain scenario.

You have to work HARD to see the results.

Ballet is extremely physical and nothing should ever feel easy.

If it does, then you are not working your body hard enough.



YOUR BODY CONTROL TRAINING FOR BALLET

Now it’s time for me to explain the techniques you need to learn

for Body Control.

Here are the ‘body control’ techniques and

exercises for developing the right ballet body.

"My body is my tool.” - Lauren Cuthbertson, Principal, Royal Ballet

IMPORTANT! BEFORE YOU START

Take responsibility to MAKE YOURSELF learn and practice these BODY CONTROL techniques.

The lazy part of you will want to skip them over, time and again.

However, treat them as a central part of your ballet training.

Your ballet teachers may or may not have the knowledge & skills to pass on and develop these

types of body control secrets, but learn them to the best of your ability.



HERE ARE SOME BASIC BODY CONTROL EXCERSISES FOR YOU TO DO

EVERY TIME YOU PRACTICE BALLET

I remember, one teacher once said, he could tell how hard a dancer works by just looking at

their body. To a certain point, there is sense to what he says because: -

What you put in is what you get out.

The three main techniques I want you to know about and regularly practice –

1. Lift Up and Lengthen Technique

2. Physical Technique

3. Be ACTIVE Technique

There are HUNDREDS of physical tips I could give you, but these are the ones that can

transform your body the most. You must use your muscles to the maximum to produce

each movement and physically feel your body in control of your technique.

These 3 KEY techniques will help sculpt your physique for ballet…



1. Lift Up and Lengthen Technique

A great teacher of mine once told me to feel a sense of length

through my body.

He said I had to keep reaching upwards, like there was always

something pulling me higher.

He assured me I would see a visible length through my body and in my

dancing.

The Technique Explained

When the energy in your body is up, it makes your dancing look lighter but also your muscles

elongate. It makes a visible difference to your body, because you are creating this space

though your limbs. You are not ‘sitting’ in your muscles.

If you are ever told you need to ‘fine down’ or ‘lengthen’ your body, it does not mean you have

to loose tons of weight. Nor does it mean you can’t become a professional dancer.

You can lengthen out your body and create even more elongated muscles, all through your way

of training.



Here’s what you must put into practice EVERY time you dance (this means every second,

every minute and every class until it becomes a natural habit of your muscle memory) –

Right from the very beginning of your class; think about lifting up and out

of your body. It is not leaning back, nor forward, it is directly UP.

It is like you are creating space between each joint and imagine every

muscle lengthening upwards, like there is a magnet attracting you towards

the ceiling.

You can mainly concentrate on grasping this feeling at the barre.

You might forget and slip into your old posture, but you MUST keep lifting

up and feel yourself reach high though each movement.

I remember on the first few weeks I started to apply this technique, my teacher said how pulled

up I looked. It made my dancing lighter and more controlled, as I became more aware of the

length through my whole body. Eventually, when you get used to the feeling of lifting up, it will

become a natural part to your posture.



2. The Physical Technique

When I was 15, I put all my energy in to a dance I was

practicing in front of my teacher.

I danced to the music, expressed myself and just went for it!

My teacher’s comment was ‘you need to be more

physical’.

I just didn’t understand!

In fact, I only did truly and understand four years later, when I reached a professional level.


It is not enough in the real world of ballet to just enjoy the music and perform your heart out.

You have to give your whole body and muscles to each movement you make.

There is always MORE you can do and MORE you can push your body.

Every inch of muscle has to gain strength and you have to reach beyond your absolute physical

extremities.

Ballet is just like a sport in the physicality of it. Just like athletes train their body, you have to do

the same as a ballet dancer.



Here is what you need to put into practice in every ballet class you do –

Work every muscle intensely and approach each step in a ‘physical’ way.

Eg, when you tendu, it isn’t just your leg or foot pointing out. Your core is

engaged, your glutes are active and your WHOLE body is working to stretch

in that tendu.

Eg, when you think about turn out, it is not just from your feet. The top of

the legs (glutes) has to initiate your turn out. You have to work your whole

leg from there to turn out.

Push yourself above and beyond what you think you can do.

If you want to take ballet to another level, then you need to switch your approach in a more

physical way.

Why?....

As soon as you can grasp this physical approach to your dancing, you will improve and get

stronger in your technique and body.

Ballet is about your beautiful dancing and quality, but you also have work your body to the

maximum to achieve what you see on stage.



3. Be ACTIVE Technique

Along with having a physical approach to ballet, you

need to always be ACTIVE in your body.

This means having energy, dynamics and keeping

your muscles active.


Ballet dancers need to have very quick responding muscles and this will only happen by you

pushing your body more and more.

The sooner you begin to use your muscles in an active way, the more strength you will gain.

Never in any position in ballet should your muscles not be engaged.

EVERY move takes the energy of your body and use of your muscles.

Especially your footwork has to be active.

Always have energy in your instep to point your feet.



Even though you have to PUSH your body to the maximum and use every inch of energy you

have, don’t grip your muscles.

Don’t Grip!

ALWAYS think of elongating your muscles, not gripping.

Don’t ever squeeze or clench your muscles (always lengthen).

Think of keeping long in your muscles, which will prevent extra tightness.

Don’t force yourself beyond your physical structure and range eg. Turn out.

You need to be active and engaged, but not in a way that your muscles are gripping and

tensing. It is very easy to cling and grip onto your muscles thinking ‘yes! I am working hard!’

Actually, there is a huge difference in how you work your muscles. You will often go into cramp

if you are over using the muscles, or you will wake up the next day painfully sore.



Also, many times when you are nervous or trying to work really hard, you can also tense

your muscles too much. You go into panic mode.

However, this actually makes it harder to execute the steps.

If you are hesitant or scared in a movement, it makes it ten times harder. You aren’t shaping

your muscles properly to support you.

HAVE NO FEAR

The best way to see yourself physically improving in the techinqie of ballet is to go for it.

Always give every step your fullest energy.

You will never achieve those multiple pirouettes, or balance in arabesque, if you don’t give it a

real good go first. You have to be fearless and gutsy in your dancing.



PLEASE PRACTICE ALL THE ABOVE TECHNIQUES BECAUSE

IF YOU FAIL TO PREPARE YOU PREPARE TO FAIL

BODY CONTROL – GIVES YOU POWER - Stacks the odds in your favour



PHYSIQUE SUMMARY

Ballet dancers are very muscular and strong, but in a slender and fine way. A ballet dancer’s

body has a very natural and beautiful look to it. Each one of the muscles becomes

finely sculpted to the way of training.

You must work in a very physical way to see your body developing like a ballet dancer. Ballet is

certainly NOT just floating around and breezing through the music. Well, professional ballet is

certainly not anyway.

You have to judge the way your natural physique is and see if it will hold you back in the long

term for ballet. However, you must realise, you do not all have to look exactly the same. Your

own body has its own unique qualities, even though you most probably only concentrate on

your flaws.



Within a sensible range, if your body has a good technical facility and potential, you can still

reach a professional level.

Remember, there are professional ballet dancers who …

Did not have the perfect body.

Whose body could have held them back.

Were once told there body was wrong for ballet.

These professional dancers worked their absolute hardest in every single way to reach the level

they are now. They have had constant training and physically pushed their body to the

maximum to achieve what you see today.

Helpful Website Link…

If you want even more advice to help your physicality in ballet, then you must look through my

website - www.balletdancersguide.com

This is in addition to the other mini ebooks in my series which are Passion, Circumstance,

Mentality, Support, Time, Savvy.

For further information on all the book titles click here…

http://www.balletdancersguide.com/

http://www.balletdancersguide.com/ebook-landing-page.html



YOUR QUESTIONS

“I am concerned about my body image in ballet.”

Even though we naturally get into the habit of comparing ourselves with other dancers, you are

unique in yourself and your own body. Looking at someone else with longer legs or better lines

will not help you improve, nor will it make you become a professional.

Do not let it take over your mind with having a certain body image. Ballet can sometimes feel

like it is all just about the 'look' and the 'body', but don't forget you are striving to be an artist

too.

You have to work with what you have and strive to create an even better outcome than what

you see around you. Every ballerina comes with different facilities and body types, so you have

to learn to accept your body for what it is. You must be confident with who you are and

remember each one of us is individual and unique.

“Is there any way I can succeed in ballet with big breasts?”

The experienced ballerinas you see are mature women. Their body is finely developed into an

adult, which may or may not include breasts. Not all ballerinas are completely flat chested.

Although they are petite, you do find ballerinas who have slightly larger breasts. You can still be

accepted as a professional if the rest of your body is slim in proportion.



“The problem is that I look so much bigger than most of the others. They are the

short super skinny strong eat anything I want kind of people. I am not.”

As a teenager, you are growing and maturing continuously so you will see your body change. As

you get older and mature through puberty, it can become a lot clearer whether your body type

will be suited for ballet.

When you are really young, at aged 11 or 12, it is very hard to tell how your body will

develop. Every girl matures at different times and especially when you are younger, you can’t

judge your body against the other girls in your class.

There have been dancers I have seen who developed very young in their breasts and hips, but

years later they have stayed the same whilst the other girls caught up in their development.

“My class is filled with stick thin girls that have the perfect ballet body."

Many top ballet schools only want to train the dancer’s with the best facility or the better

physique. However, a lot can change in your body as you train. If you are absolutely determined

to work your hardest, it is possible to prove people wrong.

The more consistent and serious training you do, the more you can become defined to look like

a ballet dancer. It is rare to find a dancer with all the given facility for ballet. Even if you do,

then it is still a tremendous amount of hard work to gain the strength in that type of perfect

body for ballet.



"I want young dancers to know that, yes, you have to make sacrifices, but at the

end of the day we're not models - we need strength."

QUOTE by Laura Morera from the Royal Ballet

“I was wondering what the best exercises are to build up strength.”

To build up strength in ballet, it’s especially important to be doing regular classes to give the

time for your body to strengthen. It is a lot about muscle stamina and using your body in a

physical way to build up strength.

Therefore, you must make use of every second in your classes and push yourself to the

maximum. Even by picking up the exercises in your class very quickly will help you improve,

because you can then focus on how to use the muscles rather than thinking about what comes

next in the exercise.

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