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!