Dangerous dancing?

[Guest RozeToze]

I've pretty much kept up with the other topics, and I'd like to bring this one up. I have a really wonderful book at home called "Classical Ballet Tecnique" that has really awesome pictures and explinations of each step of ballet...but in the front portions of the book, it demonstrates that it can be dangerous for a person with very limited NATURAL turnout (meaning, turnout before training) to be involved in ballet. I feel that that isn't necessarily true! I know that body type can sometimes be an important factor in determining how far you can go in the professional world of ballet, but turnout seems to be something you can work on! I'd like to hear some opinions on this one!

[Victoria Leigh]

RozeToze, the keyword in your post is "can". That is, what Gretchen Ward Warren is saying in her (most excellent) book is not that it IS dangerous, but that it CAN be if a dancer without much natural rotation works incorrectly or forces the rotation beyond her physical limit. As the book says, one can increase their rotation when properly taught at a young enough age, but not much actual increase will take place later. What happens later is that dancers learn to "know their limitations and to work within them". They learn to use what they have in such a way that they can "camouflage a less-than-perfect degree of natural turn-out".

So, the danger comes from over-rotation, or turning out from the knees or feet instead of the hips, and improper placement which prevents the correct muscle usage for turn-out.

[Guest yodaballerina]

Dear RozeToze,

I know the book you are talking about because I have it too. I started out having very little natural turnout. I changed it by strching a lot. This might damage your hip flexers if you do this. If you do what I did be sure not to push yourself too much. I succeeded because I did this little by little. I think what Suki Schorer was saying when she wrote this book is that if you push yourself too much you can hurt yourself. But I don't think that if you don't have that much turnout ballet is dangerous. That is just what I think though. You should ask your dance teacher about it.

Yodaballerina

[Guest yodaballerina]

Sorry RozeToze!! I think we were talking about a different book. But still think about what I wrote.

Yodaballerina