by Marisa Wright

Created on: July 02, 2007

Good technique is absolutely vital in ballet. You only have to watch a professional ballet dancer to see that his or her body - especially the legs - can do things that would be impossible for the average person. So it stands to reason that if you try doing those things without going about them the right way, you are going to hurt yourself.

The incidence of injuries in ballet is high for that very reason. Indeed, there are many young dancers who don't make it to the professional ranks because they sustain a career-ending injury before they even graduate. Having good technique is the best safeguard against such injuries, and is just another way of saying "going about things the right way".

In the early stages of ballet training, it's easy (and tempting) to "fudge" the technique. For instance, you can make your turnout look better by turning out from the knees instead of the hips, or by sticking your bottom out. You can do a higher developpe by lifting your hip along with your leg. In your eagerness to match the pictures that you've seen, you may not even realise you're faking it.

If your teacher doesn't notice and correct you, these become bad habits which you take with you to higher levels. When you start doing more difficult exercises based on these basic moves, your "fudges" won't work. You won't have built up the strength you would have if you had done the exercises correctly, so you have to find new tricks to get you through. That may entail more unnatural twisting.

Working with teenage ballet students, it's amazing how much bad technique you see. Stress fractures and damaged discs in the back, torn ligaments in the knees, bunions and arch problems are the distressing results, in people who should be too young to be crippled with injuries.

Good technique is essential to ensure a long career!

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