The Perfect Balance

Work in ballet is a balancing act. In order to be successful you must have the perfect combination of effort and ease. Too much ease and your technique falters, too much effort and you become stiff, dull to watch, and possibly even further out of alignment. It's true that in order to improve in ballet class, you must work your buns off. But, can you work too hard? I absolutely think so. I have found through personal experience that, although the consequences of not putting enough effort in can be bad, the consequences of having no ease and no release can be equally devastating. It's important to remember that what makes ballet so beautiful to watch is the grace, the freedom of the movement, and the alignment and shape of the body.

I find that when I begin to push harder, I actually end up losing the alignment that I was searching for. Often I hold my breath thinking that if I somehow exert as much effort as I can, that my leg will magically lift higher in perfect alignment in my hip socket. It takes effort to lift your leg or to do a plie, but I've found that making space in the body, lifting, and breathing with the movement makes ballet, in general, more bearable and painless. The more I push my hips forward to keep my tailbone underneath me, the more tension I create in the hip flexors. Instead of pushing and pulling and contorting, I've found lifting, creating space in the joints, and adding breath into my extension to be much more beneficial. Hard work is vital and focus is very much a part of the work involved in ballet. You must always be aware of your body, you must try in order to succeed, but if you tip the scale just a little too far towards effort you fall just as hard as if you had tipped the scale towards ease.