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Fuel Your Body

Strengthen Those Feet 

By Jackielou Perez | January 17, 2011

It's already been established that a good time to begin pointe work is when a dancer's foot muscles are engaged, weight placement is apporpriate and the dancer can stay on the tips of their toes while keeping a straight knee.

But what if the strength isn't quite there yet? Wanttodance.ca asked Talar Margarosyan, a teacher at Canada's National Ballet School, how to build that strength.


doming-technique.jpg

The doming exercise:

1) Sitting in an upright position, place a thera band around the ball of your foot.
2) Pull the thera band using your arms.
3) Point toes for four seconds and slowly flex the back.
4) Repeat four times and increase the number of repetitions to challenge yourself more.

You might also like:
Dance Class Warm-Up
Getting to the Pointe
An Introduction to Finding the Right Fit