Expert: treivilo - 4/27/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

I'm almost 17 years old and I've been dancing for 10 years now.
But the main problem is that I've been dancing just in a ballet studio, not in ballet school so we have just 4 times training per week and the each lesson takes one hour. When I was younger, we used to have 2 times. Only. That's why I don't dance as well as I could...

The other thing is that I have flat foot. However, I try my best, especially on pointe. And I'm not as thin as I should be(no, I'm not fat, just taller and bigger) but this is not really important because I can easily loose weight as much as it's needed if this is the price of my dream. I understood that I want to be a truly good dancer at the age 14 and began to try even harder like doing extra exercises etc.that helped me a lot(maybe you could tell me some exercises to improve my turnout?)

Next year I will have to go to a university and I don't know what profession to choose. The only thing that I want with all of my heart is dancing ballet and (in my pink dreams) later open a ballet school in my hometown so girls could have a chance to become professionals.

Now You heard all my long story... And I want to ask, if there is still a possibility for me becoming a professional ballerina? (Sorry about my English, as You can see I'm a foreigner).

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to get Your answer.

ANSWER: Hi Julija,

First, please be sure your english is pretty perfect, absolutely no problem with that !

As I often explain, devotion and work are the key to success, in whatever topic. Ballet is one of those topics. If you have clear goals, if you know what you want and how you want it, you will succeed.

The only suggestion I will make is to have a double plan ; one is for ballet, the other for something else maybe - or not - ballet related, but always have 2 different scenariis !

As in everything, enjoy what you do !

Olivier



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Excuse me, maybe you could tell me some exercises to improve turnout as I asked before?

Answer
Hi Julija,

Sorry for the delay ;

There is something very very efficient to improve your turnout ... keep your feet turned out. Whatever you do (ballet or not btw), for your feet to stay turned out. At first, you will need to think about it then, with time, you will not anymore, this will have become a standard way of doing. By doing so, your muscles and nerves will get used to this out-turned position, and will adopt it as a "standard" position.

Cheers,

Olivier