knees bend, arms stretch..

This is a question for all the dance teachers out there.. Do you ever analyse a correction to the point of frustration? Because I know I do. After teaching a two hour private class last evening, I have been frantically researching and digging for a solution to my students knees. Now, I know it sounds a bit extreme but this correction, if sorted, will make a massive impact on the students dancing.. and I think I may finally have cracked it!
Let me back track a little... A couple of months ago, I got approached by the owner of the dance school I teach at, to see if I would be interested in privately coaching a 10 year old girl. This young girl was in the process of auditioning for vocational schools and she is keen to improve her chances by having weekly privates. Fab, I thought, teaching someone with that amount of passion and determination would be great, not to mention that her top choice happened to be Elmhurst. As someone who has only just left Elmhurst myself, I felt I could really do a lot to help her and I was enthusiastic about it. I knew that I would put my all into it, however, I certainly didn't think one correction would drive me this insane. My student has beautiful feet, a great physique and good turnout - so what could be wrong you may ask? Well, she has real trouble straightening her knees! Her lines could be gorgeous, but the ever so slightly bent knees can be a big distraction. My first teaching technique was to constantly remind her to pull her knees up, but no matter how much I said it, she physically couldn't do it! Right, back to the drawing board again. I did a little bit of research on the internet and it's amazing what you can find actually. I found it so interesting because I have a real interest in biology and the human body fascinates me. After hours of scrolling, I think I may have, at last, found the answer. The research I found stated that often the inability to straighten knees is down to hamstrings being too tight and the muscles surrounding the knee pull it into a bent position. That all seemed to make sense to me from a scientific view point, but I now needed to make sure that this added up in respect to my student. I took class last night with this in mind, so,  in the plie exercise I asked her to do a forward ports de bras ( essentially a bend in half - pulling on the hamstrings). BINGO! She really struggled to bend far and instantly I knew this meant her hamstrings were tight. I breathed a sigh of relief and asked her to spend a few minutes stretching her hamstrings. As the stretching went on, it started to loosen up, so I sent her back to the barre. I noticed an improvement in her knees almost immediately and I knew we'd hit the nail on the head. Hopefully, with daily stretches and a lot more work, we can get this sorted once and for all!

A bit about me

Hi everyone, i've never attempted to write a blog before, so this is very much a work in progress. I just wanted to share a little bit about me to start with, so here it goes..

I graduated from Elmhurst school for dance in July, where I had trained in classical ballet for 8 years. Before I get started, there is something I want to tell you about me. I have a real knack for 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!' What I mean by this is I have rotten luck. Every time things seem to come together and I have an exciting plan - bang- I get injured, or it all goes wrong. I don't mean to sound self deprecating because actually quite a lot of the time it has turned out to be better in the long run. When I graduated from Elmhurst, I was all set to begin my career as a ballet dancer in a company in America. Just weeks before I was meant to set off, my visa fell through due to complications. As you can imagine I was distraught! I pulled myself together and went back to Elmhurst for the 'graduate placement programme' in September. This enabled me to take unlimited dance classes, have access to the gym and all the facilities whilst I prepared for auditions. In return, I had to work 15 hours a week in the office doing admin work. You may say the office work sounds tedious, but it was a great opportunity to build on my communication skills, through working on reception and it was perfect work experience to put on my CV. As I was getting set for the audition circuit once again, I started to notice a pinching in the back of my ankle, which was getting progressively worse. Perfect, I thought, this is exactly what I need right now. I did what I do best and just pretended nothing was wrong. Eventually I admitted defeat and went to get it checked by a consultant. Pain I can deal with, that wasn't the issue, but it was restricting my movement now too. Ballerina's who can't point their feet may as well not exist, so this was a problem that needed addressing. The surgeon told me I had a bone spur and the only way my troubles will be put at bay is to have it removed surgically. The first thing that crossed my mind was thank goodness I'm not stuck across the Atlantic unable to dance with no health insurance right now, because that really would've been a nightmare. This is precisely what I mean by things seem to turn out better in the long run. I would've been a broken dancer, miles away from home, without the ability to dance or even get my foot fixed. However, I decided against surgery in the end anyway. I have already had an operation for an injury before and I knew what a massive undertaking it would be. All the rehab, physio appointments and then building back up to dancing would take months and I knew the chances of me getting back to company standard after all of that would be very slim.  So this was my turning point (yes, the blog title is my attempt at a ballet pun - sad, I know).  I applied to begin my BAPP top up degree as it allowed me to continue exploring dance without having strain on my unstable body. I got a job teaching and starting taking more jazz lessons as I could do that without making my foot too sore. Pointe work was the biggest problem, so I began to explore other dancing routes that I could manage without pain and restriction. I discovered a real love for jazz and musical theatre, so I started to audition for cruise ships. I mean who wouldn't want to travel the world and get paid to do what they love, right? Things started to really look up. I was being contacted for freelance work such as music videos, events and TV adverts and my cruise auditions were going really well. My teaching started to take off too and I was teaching group classes and privates. It all seemed too good to be true - and I was right - cue next mishap! I was in an audition, I had been there all day and made it down to the final cut. We were asked to learn a tap routine, and I began to panic because I hadn't brought any tap shoes with me. They told me not to worry and to just wear heeled shoes, or new yorkers... BIG mistake! In the routine we had to do a large side split leap, which are one of favourite steps so it happens. As I landed from the jump, I caught my heel at a dodgy angle and went over on my ankle - crack it went. I felt disorientated for a moment but gathered myself and carried on. The pain was excruciating, but I couldn't let on anything was wrong. The audition went on for another hour and by this time my ankle was various shades of blue and purple and looked like it had been pumped up like a blow up bed. Ouch, every step hurt but I just kept going. A trip to A&E later I had a cast on my leg and a nicely fractured ankle. I'd managed it again! A week before an up coming TV appearance and several big auditions I'd put myself out of the game once again. 4 weeks later, I sit here, writing this blog and thinking about the next step. This course is supposed to aid our development as professionals and follow our paths as artists but I feel it is a little more literal for me. I have now got a clean slate, a new beginning and I am yet to decide where it will go. I guess we will find out.