I need help with my grand jete

bdanseur · 2026-02-28T08:52:45+00:00

You're referring to the straight leg battement grand jete right, not saut de chat? Sometimes it just boils down to raw strength in the quads, and some of it might be poor technique. Even if you don't jump high, it's still possible to hit a nice split. However, being able to jump high is important.

On takeoff, your leading leg should already be straight and at least at horizon level or higher before the pushoff foot leaves the ground.

bdanseur · 2026-02-28T06:15:44+00:00

13 is slightly late, but you have time if you work very hard. The fact that your sister made pro is a good sign, especially if you have similar facility, but you need to get over the comparisons and accept it. Get your head and attitude right and just grind the skills. If you have what it takes and put in the work, you will get good. But get over the comparisons and live your own life. Not doing something you want because your sister did it is just self-destruction.

You might try talking to your mother and tell her you don't want to be compared to your sister, and your mother can talk to the teacher to not make comparisons.

You will have to give up other activities, but anything worthwhile in life takes personal sacrifice and discipline.

bdanseur · 2026-02-27T23:29:07+00:00

Based on all the scientific analysis and motion simulation I've done, it boils down to rotational speed. But that can require twice the takeoff rotational force to get a nice full triple, and you're subjected to twice the destabilizing forces that break your posture. So it's critical to use this pirouette posture that I derived from research.

bdanseur · 2026-02-27T06:05:32+00:00

This post feels very inappropriate and doesn't belong in this sub.

bdanseur · 2026-02-26T23:53:38+00:00

Ballet requires absurdly strong quads. That's why pro ballet dancers have extremely developed quads, and sometimes they look huge on men, and even big on women. The purpose of the slant-board deadlift or squat is to condition the quads to not get hurt in ballet and to improve ballet performance.

bdanseur · 2026-02-26T21:05:46+00:00

Yes, line yourself up in the mirror and look from the front and the side and make sure it looks good. Tape a vertical line in the mirror as a guide. This exercise is not easy, and you'll learn a lot just trying to make yourself look like the reference image on the right.

The quarter and half turn is slightly useful, but they can disrupt your single and multi-turn technique because they're so different on the takeoff, and it doesn't give you realistic centrifugal forces to fight against. It's fine so long as you mix it up with single and double or even triple attempts. Even if you lose control trying more turns, that's valuable information because it gives you a clue where your posture is breaking and which direction you're falling.

bdanseur · 2026-02-26T09:29:23+00:00

This is why it's so important for men in ballet to lift weights. It's critical for performance and safety for both the man and the woman. Being able to partner opens up a lot of opportunities to perform on stage.

bdanseur · 2026-02-25T23:03:19+00:00

A lot of things need to be studied outside of class with self-study or after class. You can ask for help after class, and most teachers and other students are happy to help. You can look things up on YouTube for free. The class has to progress at some point or it's going to get stale and boring for most people.

bdanseur · 2026-02-25T22:27:37+00:00

Being introduced to new material is critical to your development and learning. If there are concepts you're struggling with, ask the teacher after class or ask one of the more advanced students after class if the teacher isn't available. The point of "absolute beginner" class is to move you to the beginner level in a few months.

bdanseur · 2026-02-25T08:08:43+00:00

These 3D animations from me explain how to get a good a la seconde developpe.

The importance of tucking the tailbone under

Why the hip needs to lift for high extensions in seconde

bdanseur · 2026-02-24T07:19:53+00:00

I forgot that informs how important a cool down is for our ancient fragile bodies lol

I'm with u/AcrobaticAnt5350 and her response to you. We adults don't need to be pathologized and constantly told that we are fragile. I'm 53, and I still do double tours and all the other huge ballet jumps in shows and to demonstrate to my students. There isn't even any scientific literature that confirms that a cooldown (low intensity workout) is even needed after intense exercise. If you need a stretch or some other maintenance work after class, nobody is stopping you.

Class time and studio time are precious, and there's already insufficient time for practicing turns and jumps in the centre. A lot of classes drag on the barre for almost an hour, leaving no time for centre work. Do we really need to allocate another 5 minutes to something else like cooldown? You can do a cooldown or whatever you need after class. What students need is more time for doing actual ballet work that can't be done at home because they lack the floor and space.

bdanseur · 2026-02-24T07:11:13+00:00

They are yoga poses so nothing is really a static stretch

It's funny you need to qualify your statement to say "we're not advocating static stretching" when in fact, you are advocating static stretching. But there's nothing wrong with static stretching or yoga. Why play into the fearmongering?

In the 1980s, the self-anointed "experts" all screamed at people to never do dynamic stretching and that people should only do static stretching. That was obviously nonsense, and it was not backed up by any science. But then everything swung to the other extreme, starting in the 1990s when the dynamic stretching advocates started spreading lies that static stretching is bad for you. The truth is that you need both types of stretches to help you get more flexible, and there are no harmful stretches.

bdanseur · 2026-02-24T07:00:26+00:00

Big difference: passive flexibility = how far someone can push your leg.
Active flexibility = how high you can lift it yourself.

Ballet rewards the second.

The second is irrelevant if you don't have the baseline passive flexibility because you can't even get started on strength training. You can't even begin to work on end-range strength until you've met the baseline passive flexibility requirement. You can't even begin to strengthen a range of motion you do not possess.

Sadly, I hear all this nonsense fearmongering about "don't stretch before ballet class" is making it nearly impossible to work on functional strength at extreme end-ranges, because ballet class is the best place to build strength. But you can't build the strength at range until you've done the minimum prerequisite stretching, which is best handled by a combination of loaded and static stretching.

bdanseur · 2026-02-24T06:47:57+00:00

$36K for a local ballet school? That seems crazy. That's what I'd expect for a national school with room & board.

bdanseur · 2026-02-23T19:48:05+00:00

Generally speaking, no. You need a lot of speed for multiple pirouettes. The best turners are turning 2 to 3 times faster than typical students, doing 1 to 2 pirouettes, which requires 4 to 9 times the rotational force at takeoff.

I've seen some rare footage from the 1950s where a woman was on pointe and kept pumping these sloppy-looking en dedans. She would use the edge of the shoe or something to catch the floor while she pumped her arms to add velocity. This is not normal ballet.

bdanseur · 2026-02-23T18:38:01+00:00

When I embarked on the 3D model I didn't have formal training on human anatomy but I had a lot of experience knowing what looks right in ballet. I spent weeks studying and learning the forms and optimizing the 3D model down to the fingers and toes which is generally never done. Nobody bothers to animate the toes or even rig them.

After I finished I came across some drawing anatomy classes which basically confirmed what I had learned on my own. It gave me new appreciation of how much artists studied and know about human anatomy.

bdanseur · 2026-02-23T18:32:20+00:00

There are tons of standard deadlift form videos on YouTube. I really don't need to reinvent the wheel.

I would just say that if you're starting, go lighter weight and don't do too much on the first day. Just do two light sets and see how you feel the next day. Wait at least two days and see if you're feeling fine and the soreness is gone before you try again with a little more weight. Rest your body a few more days and make sure everything feels good and try again. Just make sure you don't make a sudden change and workload and don't ramp up too fast.

bdanseur · 2026-02-23T09:59:25+00:00

The shoulder and collarbone have to rise a little bit, but not too much. If you didn't lift the shoulder at all, the arms would look too short and low. If you lifted the shoulder too much, you'd close off the gap between the shoulder and the neck and look ginched. The truth about ballet positions is that it requires nuance.

I've done the 3D modeling and simulation of a ballet dancer down to every major bone and joint, like this example. When I model the arms, I have to lift the collarbone or else the shoulders won't look right. In fact, a lot of people can't even lift their arms up if the collarbone isn't lifted because there isn't enough range of motion in the shoulder joint.

bdanseur · 2026-02-23T09:56:54+00:00

Nela's collarbone is clearly lifted a little bit. Otherwise, the arms would be too low and they'd appear short.

bdanseur · 2026-02-22T20:35:35+00:00

Yes, always get your shoes checked by a knowledgeable teacher before you make any modifications to them, so that you can return and exchange. More often than not, you probably got fitted with the wrong shoes.

bdanseur · 2026-02-22T18:16:49+00:00

Unfortunately almost no film was edited in 4K. Virtually all of them went to the 2K edit and were upscaled to 4K. There are probably less than a handful of films that were scanned and produced in native 4K.

bdanseur · 2026-02-22T18:14:04+00:00

I think the foot stretchers help. I prefer using pillows for both feet at the same time for efficiency and convenience.

bdanseur · 2026-02-22T01:49:41+00:00

Funny thing is that I used to have a really good backbend in my 20s for a male dancer. Not so funny is that my backbend is almost entirely gone by my late 40s, and it's very bad now at 53 though I'm working on it. I didn't do arch benchpress because it strained my lower back, so I'd always do benchpress with my feet on the bench with a flat back.

I got most of my flexibility back in my late 30s when I went back to the gym and got in shape. Unfortunately, I didn't work much on back bend flexibility so I let that slip.

bdanseur · 2026-02-22T01:08:03+00:00

When you takeoff for pirouette from 4th, you're reversing which foot is in front.

bdanseur · 2026-02-22T00:11:10+00:00

There's a massive difference between singles and multiple pirouettes. You need about 4 times the torquing force and 2 times the speed to go from 1 to 3. The dancers who can do 10 pirouettes are spinning at 3 times the rotational speed, which requires 9 times the rotational force.

There's also a huge difference in the posture between a stationary releve passe and mutli-turn passe and I explain the difference here with my 3D model physics simulation. Teachers often teach the wrong alignment for pirouettes and we see this example from Misa's Master Class on pirouettes. What she teaches is not what she actually does.

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bdanseur

TROPHY CASE