Demi Plie With Arms to 5th!

When I was younger my mom always told me to stand up straight and to not hunch my shoulders. Thankfully ever since I started dance, those comments have dramatically decreased. Body alignment is crucial to being able to progress in ballet. Without it you won't ever be able to reach that 180 degree develope or be able to turn for years. Over the years I have been dancing I have learned more and more about what that "Correct Body Alignment" is. Ballet alignment is all about keeping your natural "plum line" and using the correct muscles to hold up your skeletal structure in order to allow the freedom you body needs to fluidly and safely perform ballet. The basic alignment concepts are almost "pedestrian" in the fact that it is naturally how people hold themselves. These include keeping your shoulders back and relaxed, making sure your pelvis is engaged and not released backwards, keeping a long neck, and on a basic level elongating your rib-cage. After that point though everything becomes a million times more subtle and that much more important. Examples of these would be lacing your rib-cage shut and not letting it splay open, making sure that your rotaters are engaged and not the global muscles surrounding them, making sure your weight is in the middle of both feet and not slightly to the toes or heels, etc. These crucial alignment standards are the basis for being able to move in ballet. Easier done standing still rather than moving, being able to keep correct alignment while dancing and not just during barre exercises is truly a remarkable feat. Correct Ballet Placement on the other hand can't even happen unless your alignment is in check. For example how would one be able to balance, on flat, on one leg unless their weight was in the middle of their foot and the opposing side of the working leg was lifting up? Answer is, simply it wouldn't happen. Ballet Placement also differs from alignment in the fact that while alignment is about keeping the inside of your body stable, Placement is where the outside of the body should be in order to convey ballet positions and "pictures". Even though these two concepts work hand in hand and the terms could be haphazardly interchanged, they are still very distinct and different.