The proper positioning or state of adjustment....

Alignment: the act of aligning or state of being aligned; especially: the proper positioning or state of adjustment of parts (as of a mechanical or electronic device) in relation to each other.

This is what I found when I looked on the Merriam-Webster website for the definition of alignment. It is the general idea of what being aligned in Ballet class or any dance class for that matter is for me, in one since of the word. I feel that it is the entirety of my body being within direct relation with all of its parts. The head is over the shoulders which over the rib cage (which are not open), which is over the pelvis (not over tucked and not completely released) which goes over the knees, ankles and feet. You must always be thinking of this idea, along with how your weight is distributed in your feet, and where your rotation is coming from not from the knees but from the hamstrings and hips. This idea must adjust for different positions in class especially when doing any action to the derrière. The placement of the hips and weight shift over the standing leg, and the performing leg must not open to far or lift. Another important part of alignment is proper muscle engagement. I ask myself, are my lower abdominals and side obliques actively lifting my body up and out of my hips? Alignment is not something that you have on auto pilot. Each day when you come into class you must take account of your body and find your own alignment. And not everyone has the body of a Russian ballerina, each body has its unique in both muscular and bone structure so no ones alignment is the same. The two things that I struggle with the most is finding the balance between the release and the engagement of my pelvic placement and knowing when my abdominals are not active enough. I will probably be pursuing these two things for the rest of my life!

Alignment

Alignment is the single most frustrating thing about ballet. I have spent years trying to find the correct placement, and every time I think I have finally corrected something, I find something new I must work on. For example, when I was younger, I used to keep all of my weight back in my heels, to which my teachers told me that my weight should be in the ball of my foot. After being corrected at least a hundred times, I finally found my new placement, with my weight distributed across the ball of my foot, only to find out that now my weight is too far forward. The same thing happened with the placement of my back and shoulders-- i used to be arched all the time, and in an effort to correct this, I over-corrected, now with my shoulders hunched slightly forward and in front of my hips. Trying to find the balance and not over-correcting has always been a struggle for me.

Another thing that I am struggling with this year is not having mirrors. In many ways, I think that dancing with out mirrors can be beneficial. I think it helps with the performance quality, musicality, and artistry when I am not constantly staring in the mirror. However, when it comes to alignment, I miss the mirrors terribly. When trying to find the correct placement, I still have trouble feeling it-- I need to see it. I need to be looking in the mirror through out barre work, checking to make sure that my abs are pulled up, by rib cage is closed, my shoulders are over my hips etc. I know that I should be able to feel if I am in correct alignment or not, but I am still really struggling with this.

Pelvis, Standing Leg , Ribcage, and So much more

Alignment and Placement are obviously one of the most important foundations of ballet. Without striving to have correct alignment is like building on sand better yet...quick sand. You can get all of the embellishments and artistry of the house(aka ballet) but without a solid foundation your sinking ...quickly.

Aiming for better Alignment is a constant work in progress and requires what I used to think of as an "impossible" awareness of your body( my view on that has changed:)). I find it very valuable to have classes like this that really challenge me to be aligned through exercises that seem like " Omg! I know how to flippin plie!" (just being real). However, classes like this help retrain the body from bad habits that we have developed because we didn't take the time to WORK and truly think about placement through the slow ,and sometimes tedious exercises. I'll be honest I've done many a class filled with exciting and ostentatious combinations slouched in my hips, with a displaced pelvis and my own definition of rotation(not pretty). That says so much about the need to master alignment because without it when we get to the other stuff... well you get the picture.Also, without the proper placement we just make it harder on ourselves to accomplish the task . Therefore, with those thoughts in mind I encourage you guys and myself to keep on fighting to keep that pelvis right and tight(not literally) , even when you feel like your failing at life ,and pretty soon we will be able to dance as big, and awesome as we always dreamed.

Alignment and Placement

Alignment and placement has to be one of the most frustrating things in a ballet class, yet one of the most fundamental things. It seems that one minute it's there and the next time you attempt the same movement it's gone. Throughout my ballet training placement is one of the main things I have to actively focus on because everything originates from proper placement. Although, it also happens to be one of the most rewarding feelings when you successfully find the placement and can support movement properly.

Every day I enter a ballet class I discover many successes and also many failures. However, I view these failures as a learning experience. If I pique into an arabesque and fall backwards I have learned my placement is not far enough forward. I keep testing this and pushing farther and farther out until I find the exact spot to sustain my pique. The only tricky thing with alignment and placement is that it is hardly ever consistent in a persons body, like Kelly's blog mentioned. Every day you have to adjust to your body's needs. Learning your own body's needs takes alot of time and practice. My goal each and every day in ballet class is to have less failures and more successes then the class before. Its a slow and tedious process, sometimes even aggrevating, but I gain knowledge about my muscular structure and it keeps me open to the advice from others. This holds true especially when it comes to quicker movement. While you may discover the alignment while doing more adagio based movement once it picks up you have to engage a whole new type of bodily awareness to keep the proper placement, which is my personal struggle.

Placement, although it seems like an easy concept, takes years to learn and even longer to perfect. You can't fully understand how your placement works until you can understand the anatomy of the body and physically feel the support in your body.

This, That, and the other Thing

Alignment and placement are vital for the success of a ballet dancer and yet are the most difficult components of ballet to achieve. A dancer can work and explore their alignment and placement for their entire career and still be searching for it and tweaking it long after their careers are finished. It is essential to ballet, it is the like the skeleton of the body. It is the main infrastructure, and without it, you fall; you cease to exist. I realize that this metaphor is a bit over dramatic for describing alignment and placement, but I am simply trying to say that these basic fundamentals of ballet are quite a feat to discover.

The main lesson I have learned about my placement and alignment is that it is ever changing. This may seem like a strange idea considering their is obviously a proper placement and correct alignment, but part of being human means that each day we come to ballet class we will be finding new successes and failures in our bodies' alignment and placement. It is about adjustment and patience. Yes we are constantly reaching for the ideal, but we must realize that your rotation may not always be 180 degrees, you may not always feel like you're right on your leg. Our bodies are ever changing, and therefore, so is the process of finding true alignment and placement.

I have been taught, rehearsed, and scolded on proper alignment. I know that you must have a long neck, space in the torso without splaying the ribs, a neutral pelvis with no under tucking or sitting back, and rotation from the top of the leg ( not from the feet.) The challenge comes from translating this "ideal placement" into our own unique, individual bodies. Let's face it we don't all have perfect rotation, some of us have tilted pelvises or weak cores. We have to be able to adjust, be flexible with what it means to be in placement in our bodies. In my own personal exploration I found myself searching for the "ideal" rotation. While over rotating in my feet, I've ruined my long spine, neutral pelvis and began to sit back in order to over compensate. My body was not made to be perfectly rotated. It is a truth I must accept. I have the extreme challenge of forgetting the "ideal" and finding my own personal, healthy ideal. To make ME as my own unique, original dancer the very best, and aligned that I can be. If this means I have to use less rotation and find the engagement of the hamstrings in a smaller first, then so be it.

Body placement and alignment are the key to good technique. Whether it's at the bar or across the floor, our success in exercises is often determined by our body alignment. Correct alignment and placement allow our bodies to do things we never thought we'd be able to. They're also something we have to constantly think about and find in our body. We have to continually remember; the head should be lifted and the neck long. The ribs pulled together and lifted up. The hips under the ribs and the legs working turnout from the top. When we get to the feet we have to find not only the balance of working our turnout without over rotating but also putting our weight in the right place. Although it's a lot to think about, it's better on our bodies, makes our dancing beautiful, and helps us achieve whatever we're working on.

Personally, I struggle with proper alignment and placement everywhere in my body but especially in my shoulders, turnout, and feet. My shoulder blades stick out giving the appearance that I'm always slouching. This means that I must work to stand extra straight and fight to keep my shoulders low while working with my arms. Along with standing extra straight I have to make sure that means lifting in my rib cage and pulling my ribs together rather and poking them out. I once had a ballet teacher tell me to feel like someone had sown my ribs together, this was very helpful and a teaching I try to remember. In my turnout I tend to clench my buttocks rather than working with the deep rotators so I have to work to relax my those muscles, and work the rotators. One of the things I struggle with the most is not letting my weight fall back. I used to have a teacher that after an exercise would go around and push you; although I didn't love this it always made me realize where my weight was and where it should have been. Now when I feel myself rocking back on my heels I think about her pushing me and try to get my weight centered.

Ultimately, body alignment and placement is just one of the many aspects of work in ballet. It requires great attention, determination, and perseverance, but if you keep working eventually your body does what you want. For me, this is one of my favorite parts of ballet, when I finally master my body and have that great sense of accomplishment from doing something right. This success is something we constantly have to fight for, even after we've achieved it, but when it comes it makes it worth all the work.

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.

Body Alignment and Placement

Whether I am sitting down watching my favorite television show or doing exercises in ballet class, I am constantly reminded of my body alignment and placement. I even find myself noticing how other people around me (pedestrians or dancers) hold themselves in everyday situations.

I am told by dance teachers each year that it takes years and years to find correct alignment. After dancing for sixteen years, I still am no where near perfect alignment. However, I feel that at Ohio State teachers have guided me to internalize the idea of alignment in a way that I have achieved it at one point (even for a split second) as a member of the dance department. I know what is right and what is wrong not only visually but also physically. I am also aware of the effects correct body placement has on holding positions or reaching a point of balance.

What really got my mind on track to becoming more aware of correct body placement is discovering my hyper extension in my knees. Courtney Harris was the first to ever explain to me that my knees were not built like everyone else. As soon as I discovered the issue it took me the rest of the quarter to find a way to counteract that hyper extension. I had to lift out of my pelvis and rotate my inner thigh in order to not buckle my knees.

I feel that the idea finally clicked in my mind. I had to use my rotate muscles, my pelvis lift, and my inner thighs all at once to work the way I am supposed to. Now that I am aware of this, I find myself being able to concentrate in ballet class on these alignment realizations. I need to mentally prepare myself in every exercise or I will resort to old habits. The idea of "holding on" is one that resonates with me. As soon as I disengage my mind and body, all hope is lost.

I am excited that I know how to work properly to an extent! I want to work on reinforcing these new positive habits of body alignment in ballet from now on!

Aimee Heslop