Howcast https://howcast.com The best source for fun, free, and useful how-to videos and guides. Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:56:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://howcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/cropped-305991373_448685880636965_5438840228078552196_n-32x32.png Howcast https://howcast.com 32 32 How to Become a Professional Ballet Dancer https://howcast.com/videos/497938-how-to-be-a-professional-ballet-dancer-ballet-dance/ Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:56:01 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497938-how-to-be-a-professional-ballet-dancer-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. If you want to become a professional ballet dancer, you want to make sure that you are enrolled in a preprofessional dance program at a qualified school with very qualified teachers. You also want to make sure that you are going to summer intensives each summer in high school, and maybe even before that. You want to make sure that you have a very strong core, as well as back, which helps support your arms, and you have flexibility and grace. You also want to make sure that you are very strong on pointe, and that your ankles are able to support your pointe shoes, and you can work well through them. You may want to consider taking acting classes. Ballet is an art form, and it uses expression and emotion, so acting classes can help broaden that part of you, and help you on stage and in class. You also want to have an open mind and be motivated. Ballet is a very intense and a hard art form, and you want to make sure that you are constantly being encouraged and constantly motivated in having your eye on the goal.

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How to Get a Ballet Dancer’s Body https://howcast.com/videos/497872-how-to-get-a-ballet-dancers-body-ballet-dance/ Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:52:31 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497872-how-to-get-a-ballet-dancers-body-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.
Here are a few tips that will help you get a ballet dancers body. The first is, make sure that you have a well-balanced, healthy diet. This will help increase muscle strength, and give you energy to have a work-out. The second thing is that make sure that you start to take a ballet class. The muscles that you will strengthen in ballet, are very different than any other work-out. You create allot of strength in your back, and also your glutes and your inner thighs that you do not create in any other sport. If your currently a dancer in any other dance style, you should make sure that you take ballet on a regular basis. This will give you strength and endurance, and also help stabilize those muscles that you’ve created. If your not a dancer, you can start off by taking ballet bar at any sort of dance school. You should look for schools that offer beginner dance classes, and you can get the training, and right training you need, to start as a beginner. Unlike the gym or running, these muscles are very different, and can be established when you take a bar consistently.

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3 Ballet Pointe Tips https://howcast.com/videos/497871-3-ballet-pointe-tips-ballet-dance/ Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:51:29 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497871-3-ballet-pointe-tips-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Here are a few basic ballet pointers that you should know when first starting pointe. First of all, you wanna make sure that the pointe shoes you are wearing are fully fitted correctly. You wanna go to a professional and make sure they size you for the correct width, and length of the pointe shoe. The second pointer, is always make sure you do releves and warm up your feet before dancing on pointe. This can be very important in strengthening your toes and your ankles as well as for center work later on in class. The third pointer is don’t use too much padding in your pointe shoes. Enough padding that your shoes and toes don’t hurt, but not enough that you can’t feel the floor. It’s important to be able to feel the floor when you’re dancing especially when you’re dancing.

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How to Find a Good Ballet School https://howcast.com/videos/497870-how-to-find-a-good-ballet-school-ballet-dance/ Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:49:07 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497870-how-to-find-a-good-ballet-school-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.

Depending on your location this can be hard to find, so you can do Google search, or you may be able to drive around the town or city that you’re located in and find a school to pop into. Once you get there, here are some key elements you should look for when deciding whether or not you yourself, or you son or daughter should attend this school. Make sure it’s a professional environment that is very friendly and open. Your student is going to be spending a lot of time there, so make sure that they feel comfortable and the people around them are friendly and open and helping them to succeed. The second thing is make sure they are qualified teachers teaching at the school. Bad habits are created at a very young age for dancers, and these habits are hard to break, and so at a very young age you want to make sure that your student is learning the best ballet, and the correct ballet. The other thing to think about is the floor. Make sure that the dance studio has a nice soft floor. Make sure it’s not just concrete but they have an underlying padding or some type of spring board floor, which will help you dancers and reduce their chance for injury. Class sizes are also very important. You want to make sure that the class is not too big, and that your son or daughter has very small class size so they get individualized attention.

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How to Prepare for a Ballet Recital https://howcast.com/videos/497203-how-to-prepare-for-a-recital-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:09:50 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497203-how-to-prepare-for-a-recital-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.

Here are a few pointers on how to prepare for a ballet recital. The first is make sure you get a good night’s sleep. It’s important that your mind and body are well rested before a show. The second is make sure you have something small to eat before you go on stage. Not directly before you go on stage, but you do need energy to perform. Good foods include, dried nuts, dried fruits, fruit, and also yogurts. Those are good energy foods you can have. The next thing is that make sure that your hair and clothing are secured and tightly in place. A lot of companies will dock pay and you might even be fired if a loose point show comes undone in the middle of a show or your hair falls out. So make sure that you have everything in place and ready to go. The next thing is make sure you don’t run through with the choreography before the performance. This can create a lot of nerves and some times your mind forgets it when your body actually knows what to do. So have confidence, fully go on stage feeling well prepared and everything will be fine.

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How to Do Warm-Up Exercises for Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497202-how-to-do-warm-up-exercises-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:08:45 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497202-how-to-do-warm-up-exercises-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. When you are warming up for a ballet class, you want to make sure that you’ve sugared the areas that you will be using. The important areas are your IT bands, opening up your hips, the top of your thighs and also your IT bands. You can also stretch your neck, which is really good to create movement. Just press slightly down and you can dip your head down to the side. And also you should try to find mobility in your shoulders and your back by bending your back up and rolling up. And this can be done from a standing position. You can roll up and down your spine. Another good idea is to maybe do some push-ups which help engage the side of your back, which is very important for aerobics, for using your arms and for creating a very strong back. Also it’s a good idea to do some abdominal exercises. Simple rolling up is a good idea as well as just simply coming up and down which engages those muscles. Both your back and abs are part of your core and that’s very essential for dancing, so they should be fully warmed up as well as completing all the stretches.

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What Is Correct Alignment & Placement in Ballet? https://howcast.com/videos/497201-what-is-correct-alignment-placement-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:07:40 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497201-what-is-correct-alignment-placement-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Proper alignment and the right way to stand in ballet, focuses on many different areas of your body. You have to think about all these things when you’re doing different movement in ballet, when you’re stationary and when you’re on stage. So you wanna think about first engaging your abdominal. Once you do that you wanna think about engaging your legs as well as your glutes and your shoulders. Once you have that engaged you wanna think about dropping your shoulders and having a length of your neck. It’s good to think about having some sort of string connecting from the top of your head that lengthens all the way down to your feet. This plum line will help you feel completely supported and lengthened and as though everything that you’re doing stays on this one line instead of shifting every time you do a movement. So in this position you wanna fell completely strengthened, alive, and from head to toe a lift in the length.

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How to Get into a National Ballet Company https://howcast.com/videos/497200-how-to-get-into-national-ballet-company-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:06:25 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497200-how-to-get-into-national-ballet-company-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. The first thing you need to do is find a company that’s right for you. You can go online and find different dance companies and research inside the company’s website, look at videos and pictures, look at dancer’s bios and also the artistic director’s background. Once you establish what company is right for you, you want to go online and find exactly when their audition date is. Many companies audition once or twice a year, and you can also send in submissions online or in person. Also a good way to audition for these companies is through their workshops. A lot of companies offer workshops once or twice a year as well, and they’re usually a week long or even longer. This is good because dancers are able to work with a choreographer or choreographers in the company, and the choreographers can see the dancer in a lengthy period of time, rather than at an audition.

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How to Do Chaines Turns in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497199-how-to-do-chaines-turns-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:05:11 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497199-how-to-do-chaines-turns-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Chaines Turns are turns that are done on a diagonal usually that are very very fast turns. And your arms can be in a basic first position and I’m going to demonstrate your Chaines Turns with your feet together in first position. So you wanna make sure that your spotting the corner or the area that your going to be finishing and also you’re going to think about your arms being fully engaged and wide. You want to make sure that your arms don’t sink in as well as your chest because then you’ll spin in all sorts of directions. It’s also important that you try to think about going towards that direction just as we talked about in pique turns. You want to make sure that you’re always stepping ahead, not of to the side because where ever you’re stepping is where you’re going to be going. So I’m going to demonstrate on a very basic level just the action of Chaines Turns with your arms in this position. This position just helps you become very lifted and supported in your back which is crucial to doing Chaines Turns very fast. And I’m also going to show it just by flipping front to back front to back. Practicing Chaines Turns on a basic front to back movement is good at creating speed and also helping with the fluidity of the movement. So demonstrating the very simple version, your going to point your toe out to the side and you’re going to come up to a very shallow first position. From this position spotting the corner you’re going to flip. Making sure your heals are turned out, and flip. And flip. And flip. And it’s very good even if you are a professional to practice that every once in a while. It’s good because it engages your back as I said earlier. And it’s a very simple version but it’s very effective. I’m now going to demonstrate the actual Chaines Turn with more speed. And if you get dizzy when you’re turning in Pique Turns or Chaines Turns it’s always good afterward to stop and look at something stationary. I always look at my hands. And you stop and just freeze at them and then you will instantly not be dizzy. It’s always good to keep your spot which is very important in doing any turn.

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How to Do a Temps Leve in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497198-how-to-do-a-temps-leve-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:02:02 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497198-how-to-do-a-temps-leve-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.

A temps leve is a small petite allegro jump done in the center. To start off, you can do a basic version where you’re just going to tendre your foot and put weight on that and jump straight up in the air. So you want to have your foot in a back coupe, not too high up and not too far down, in that center spot between your calf and your ankle.

So, I’m going to first demonstrate a temps leve, just from a tendu position. And you want to make sure that your foot clears the floor and that you’re fully pointing it underneath you.

A temps leve can also come from a jete and I will demonstrate that right now. I’m going to do jete, temps leve, jete, temps leve.

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How to Do the 5 Basic Ballet Positions https://howcast.com/videos/497197-how-to-do-the-5-basic-positions-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:00:34 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497197-how-to-do-the-5-basic-positions-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. The five basic positions of ballet are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.
So first position is when your toes are apart and your heels are squeezed directly together. A lot of people try to turn out the toes too much, and this creates stress in the knees, so follow your natural turnout line, and stand fully supported, very tall, making sure you’re not rolling onto the inside of your foot, or rolling to the outside. Make sure that your feet and your weight are directly over and centered onto your toes. And then your arms are going to be like a round beach ball, and you should have your arms directly in front of your belly button not too high and not too low so directly in front of your belly button, your chest is open and your shoulders are down and you are engaging your back, and you stand in first position.

Second position, your arms and legs are out to the side, and you actually want to gauge the length of your second position by putting one toe next to your heel, then opening it up, and then extending it a little further. you shouldn’t have too wide a second position, or too narrow, because you wont be fully supported when you’re moving around in that position. Second position arms are rounded and slightly forward, you dont want to throw your arms too far back, so keep them nice, round, and forward, and that’s second position.

Third position is used on a very basic level. It is when you are practicing to get to fifth position. You want to put your heel in the centre of your foot, and stand with both feet firmly on the ground, feet turned out. Your arms are going to come one high above your head and one directly to the side. Make sure that both arms are rounded and that your chest is lifted and your neck is long.

Fourth position, your leg comes out, and your heel is going to try to become in front of that toe, and your arm is going to be coming in front of your belly button. We want to make sure that your fourth position is not too wide, just like second position, and not too narrow. You want to have a pretty narrow fourth position, which will help you when you do turns in the centre.
Fifth position, both arms are up very high, and your chest is open, shoulders down, and your feet and heels are going to be connected. You don’t want to try to squeeze your turnout and make both feet and heels connected fully, you want to follow the natural line of your turnout, and make sure that when you pliet, your knees are going directly over your toes.

So standing in fifth position, your arms are going to go all the way up, like this, and thats high fifth, and then low fifth, your arms are down here.

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How to Do a Plie in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497196-how-to-do-a-plie-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:58:39 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497196-how-to-do-a-plie-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Plie is used in all dance styles and in dance forms, and it’s used as a transitional step, or a cushion for the end of a jump or the beginning of the jump to give you power and strength. So I’m going to demonstrate plie in first position. First position is when your toes are out to the side and your heels are touching. You want to make sure that when you’re plieing, that your knees are going directly in the center of your foot. You don’t want to have your knees go forward, or your knees as well as your tailbone going back. So you want to make sure that you’re just going directly into the center of your foot. And also an important thing to remember is, try to think of plie as going straight up and down, and that you have two walls on either side of you. So when you’re plieing, you don’t want to go forward or go back. You want to stay in this cylinder, and you want to bend and stretch. An important thing to remember about plie is don’t go to the extent of your plie. The full extent of your plie is when your heels lift off the ground. So you want to go in between the stretch and the plie in this middle section, and when you’re in the middle section you’ll get the most support in your legs and your abdominals and your back. And this is the best way to do plie, in the middle area.

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How to Do a Tendu in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497195-how-to-do-a-tendu-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:57:30 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497195-how-to-do-a-tendu-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.
A tendu is a basic ballet step that we use and it is when your leg is extending out either in front, side or back. And when you’re doing tendu you wanna make sure that your foot is massaging the floor and then coming to a full point. And then when you bring your foot back to a first position or a fifth position or whatever position your tendu is coming from, you wanna make sure that you start the movement with your toes leading back. So when you bring your foot forward, it’s your heel leading forward and then your toes leading back. An important thing to remember about front, side and back is when you’re going to the front, you don’t wanna over cross your tendu. This will give you a very twisted position, it won’t be helpful when you move to the centre. So always make sure that your foot is directly in front of your belly button or little bit out to the side but never crossed over. The same thing in the back, you want to make sure that your leg is directly behind you and not over crossed as it is in the front. When you coming to the side, you want to make sure that your foot in going to your natural turnout line. The lines of your first position is your natural turnout line, so whatever position your feet are in you want to bring your toes following that same line. You never want to go directly back, or far forward cause that’s not where your natural turnout line and that’s not the best way to do tendu. So when you’re going to the side make sure you follow that and extend your foot fully pointed and then squeeze your foot all the way back to first position. So demonstrating tendu front, side and back I’ll show you, can put your arms to the side or in first position depending on what the teacher or yourself prefers. So tendu front, and close to first. Second, close to first. Back, close to first and side, close back to first.

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How to Do an Arabesque in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497194-how-to-do-an-arabesque-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:55:34 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497194-how-to-do-an-arabesque-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. An arabesque is a position in ballet in which your leg is directly behind you up in the air and both your standing leg as well as the leg up in the air are turned out. You want to make sure that yours abs are engaged and that your arms are very supported as you get this position. Don’t be afraid to move your body a little bit forward as you left up your leg, you should have a slight arch in the upper part of your back which will open up your chest.

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How to Stretch Properly for Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497193-how-to-stretch-properly-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:53:05 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497193-how-to-stretch-properly-ballet-dance/ Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Stretching in ballet is an important part to warming up, and also to increase your flexibility. You want to trigger parts of your body that you’re going to be using in class. So, starting off with your hamstrings, you can flex your feet and make sure that your heels are off the ground, and you’re going to grab onto your heels, and you’re going to just bend all the way down, and hang there. And you’re going to feel a nice pull in the back of your legs, and you wanna stay in every stretch that you do for about thirty seconds. If you stay any shorter than that, your muscles aren’t able to relax, and they won’t fully stretch. You also should be warming up your hips, and this can be done by gently pressing on either side. And you can change the position of your legs from being far away, to having your toes very closely depending on what you need for your hips. And so you can do a flat back, which is just your body bending over slightly, or you can round your back completely. You should also think about opening up your hips a little further by doing a straddle. And make sure that you’re not rolling over onto your knee when you’re doing this. Make sure that your feet are pointed and your legs are out to the side. And you can slowly just go all the way forward, or stretch to the side, whatever you feel that you need. Another good idea, to stretch the outside of your legs, is to do this stretch, where you can hold onto your knee, and you can turn your body to the side, and that’s a great stretch to do. In addition, a lot of dancers have a lot of tension in their IT band, so a good way to stretch that is to bring your foot up, and you want to slightly sickle your foot. And if you sit up nice and tall, and if you just rotate your body a little bit, you will feel a very painful pull in that muscle, but it is definitely okay and it should be worked on a regular basis. It’s important that you don’t overstretch. If you overstretch you could pull or tear some muscles, which would be very, very dangerous.

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How to Do an Assemble in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497192-how-to-do-an-assemble-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:51:48 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497192-how-to-do-an-assemble-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Assemble is used in the center and is used as a petite allegro step. In assemble you are going to brush one foot out to the side and you are going to assemble in the air both legs together and land with them in a fifth position together at the floor at the same time. So you are going to take off with one foot, bending your standing leg in a plie and you are going to assemble demonstrating it on the ground you are going assemble in a fifth position in the air or your feet glued together and then land in fifth position. You want to make sure when you are brushing your foot off to the side you want to make sure it’s not going behind you or in front of you. This is very important because you want to make sure your hips are facing directly in front of you and so they stay that way depending on what angle you are going to be facing. So I am going to demonstrate this. We’re going to plie, up and land in fifth position. On the other side your going to brush, with your foot pointed, plie, and stretch. You want to make sure you’ve pointing both legs and that both legs are meeting at the same time and landing at the same time.

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How to Do a Fondu in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497191-how-to-do-a-fondu-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:48:25 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497191-how-to-do-a-fondu-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. A fondu as many of us know it is made by cheese or chocolate which is melted. And the same thing in ballet. A fondu means to melt. So I’m going to take a fondu from first position. And you’re going to bend both of your legs at the same time and straighten them at the same time. That’s important in order to complete the fondu fully, you have to bend and straighten. And so you want to um, when you’re doing a fondu you wanna find that place in between you calf muscle and your ankle. And this is the place that you want to put your toe. And you wanna make sure that you have a nice foot position and that’s not sickled or winged. So you wanna place your foot in that position and bend both legs together and then straighten them. And the same thing talked about in the tondus you wanna make sure that you’re not over crossing in the front or the back and that you’re following your natural turnout line to the side. So I’m going to demonstrate fondu front, side, and back. And I’m going to demonstrate in fifth position which you can either do in fifth or first position. And I’m gonna use my arm to the side and I’m gonna fondu and straiten both legs. Fondu and stretch. Fondu and stretch.

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How to Do a Pirouette in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497190-how-to-do-a-pirouette-ballet-dance/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:47:02 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497190-how-to-do-a-pirouette-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. A pirouette in Ballet is a turn that is very commonly found on the basic to intermediate level. The amount of turns depends on the skill of the dancer. So you can start off by just doing a passe in Releve to doing a half turn, to doing a full turn, to doing two, three, four. And for male dancers they can do up to ten pirouettes at a time. So it is important to think about the alignment and the position of your fourth position, which most pirouette’s start in. So if you stand in fourth position, again your fourth position shouldn’t be too wide, it should be pretty small and your weight should be evenly between both legs. Your arms are going to open up, one arm is to the side one arm is in front. You are going to start in a plie position. When you plie you are going to open up both arms, that is going to be the start of your plie and the start of your pirouette. You are going to open up your arms then bring them together and your foot is going to come passe. So again you are going to plie, open up your arm and everything is going to zip up into passe. And that is the very basic level. And you turn it when you become more advanced. I am now going to demonstrate how to do a pirouette turn, I am going to do a single turn and then I am going to do a double turn.Now I am going to demonstrate a double pirouette.

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How to Break in Ballet Pointe Shoes https://howcast.com/videos/497174-how-to-break-in-pointe-shoes-ballet-dance/ Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:26:31 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497174-how-to-break-in-pointe-shoes-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. Breaking in pointe shoes depends on the individual. And you’re trying to mold the shoe to fit your foot. If you’ve never been fitted for pointe shoes, make sure you go and see a professional and they can help you make sure that the shoe fits correctly on your foot. This is very important if you’re going to be doing pointe work and you wanna make sure that the shoe is not too big or too small. And the box is not too wide or too narrow for your foot. Some dancers like to have a softer box which is this area right here. So many dancers press on the box with the heel of their, the heel of their foot, or they can also put it between the hinge of a door and slowly close it making this become softer. You can also put a dish towel on top of the shoe and gently hammer it. But not too hard because you wanna make sure you still have support in this. This is a shank right here. And you can actually peel the shank from the bottom of your shoe off, which is totally fine. And depending on where the arch of your foot is and how strong your foot is you might want to have a softer or more stronger shank. So you can bend where the shank is, bend the shank gently with your fingers. You don’t want to break the shank or else your shoe is no longer useable. There’s some simple exercise you can do that helps break in your shoes. If you stand at the bar, you can stand with your feet in sixth position, or parallel, and you’re just gonna take simple prances up and down. Making sure that you’re slowly rolling through demi to full, demi to pointe. You can also do simple releves,. Slowly rising up to the box of your shoe and going through demi all the way down. This can also be done in first position or it can be done just with one foot. Rolling up and rolling down.

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How to Prepare for Ballet Pointe https://howcast.com/videos/497173-how-to-prepare-for-pointe-ballet-dance/ Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:23:46 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497173-how-to-prepare-for-pointe-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. In preparing for point work, you want to make sure that you have very strong ankles and strong toes before you go up on point. Point can be very dangerous if this is not the case. You can do simple exercise like releves up and down in first position, parellel or on one foot, to create stability in the one ankle. There are also foot exercises that you can do, such as pointing your toes while sitting on the ground without them crunching together and making sure that your toes are nice and lengthened. This will also help when you are dancing on points, your toes are nice and lengthened inside the box. Also, don’t start point too young. You want to start between the ages of nine and eleven. If you start before that, you have a very high chance of injury and a high chance of rolling over and spraining your ankle or even breaking it. So make sure you ar starting between nine and ten or eleven, and that you are starting with simple exercises instead of going right away into the center and doing complicated movement.

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How to Improve Turnout in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/497172-how-to-improve-turnout-ballet-dance/ Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:22:40 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/497172-how-to-improve-turnout-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. When improving your turnout, you want to gain strength in the natural turnout, and not try to overdo it, or strain your muscles or your knee. Standing in parallel position, we find our turnout muscles by, they come all the way up and wrap around all the way to the back and through your inner thighs. So you can turn your leg in, and you want to feel that muscle turning around and coming right to first position. You don’t want to try to push your feet too far back, because that will create a lot of strain on your knee. So just first working it in your natural turnout, and then from there you can create more strength and more stability, which will enable you to turn your legs out further.

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How to Do a Sous-Sus in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/495332-how-to-do-a-sous-sus-ballet-dance/ Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:48:34 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/495332-how-to-do-a-sous-sus-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.
A sous-sus is a rise and fifth position. So we’re going to start by putting our feet in a fifth position and you want to make sure that your heel is connected to your toe and your heel is connected to your toe. Not completely because that puts strain on your legs, but you should follow your natural turnout and stand at a comfortable fifth position. Once you’re in a fifth position, you’re going to plie, bending your knees and you’re going to scoop up to the sous-sus. And a sous-sus position is when your toes are aligned and your feet are squeezing together. Your inner thighs are squeezing together your glutes are squeezing together and you’re in a very strong position. And when we do this at the bar we want to think about coming up to that standing leg and coming straight up and we feel plumline all the way down our body. And we’re doing in the center we can come to a spring which is bringing both feet together to the center so both feet are moving to a separate point. So demonstrating the springpoint action, we’re going to plie and sous-sus our feet together. And plie and sous-sus our feet together.

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How to Prepare for a Ballet Audition https://howcast.com/videos/495331-how-to-prepare-for-an-audition-ballet-dance/ Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:46:45 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/495331-how-to-prepare-for-an-audition-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet. You want to make sure that you’re nicely warmed up before the audition. A lot of auditions do offer a bar or some sort of center work, but you want to make sure that your muscles are fully warmed up before that, so that you can fully perform to your potential. Also, you want to make sure that you’re wearing something that’s very flattering, and tightly fit. You don’t want anything falling out or feeling uncomfortable while you’re auditioning. You should also choose a color or a certain cut that might be individual to your body type, and also something that the judges look at and find interesting or eye-catching. Make sure that whatever you’re going to do with your hair that it’s out of your face. Also, you should make sure that you have something to eat before you audition. If you don’t have strength, you can’t pick up movement quickly, and that will be a disadvantage when you’re auditioning for a company. The last thing you should remember, is you should always know who you’re auditioning for. This includes going to the company website and reading about the company and history of that, and also learn about the dancers and the choreography, and the different dance techniques that they use. You can do this by going onto their website and looking at videos, and also going on Youtube.

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How to Do a Rond de Jambe in Ballet https://howcast.com/videos/495329-how-to-do-a-rond-de-jambe-ballet-dance/ Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:44:43 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/495329-how-to-do-a-rond-de-jambe-ballet-dance/

Transcript

My name is Maegan Woodin, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I’m going to be talking to you about ballet.
A Rond De Jambe is a step that we do in the bar,that incorporates tendo front,side and back and connects all those three steps.so we take our tendu to the front we are gonna move it to the side and then move it all the way back and come back to first and that’s a Ron de jambe..
To wanna make sure that when you are doing messy here, knee is extended your foots pointed and you are coming back to a centered aligned first position. you can take the Ron De Jambe from the back starting with back, side and then front coming to first position .An important thing to remember is that every time you extend t your foot to front your heel is going to be leading. so wen I your heel to be your leading so when your heel to be leading ,using a turn out, and you are gonna bring it always to the to the back and then when you are starting from the back the same thing you want your heel and toe to be opened out to the back and you come to the front ,your toes are going to bring it back to first position .so this is gonna demonstrate three Ran De Jambe to the front and three to the back.

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