The Physics of A Ballet Turn By an Idiot Who Knows a Lot About Nothing

What do I know about biophysics?

ZIP = ZERO. 

Then how can I analyse?

By years of trial and error experience. 

By understanding a fundamental law of vertebral movement. This law still escapes the notice of most biomechanical analysis that I managed to read (before falling asleep).

So here we go – the musings of an idiot who knows a lot about nothing.

Ballet turns – any turning - rely on the stability of your axis. 

When your weight is evenly dispersed, and all sides are in balance, the puzzle of your turn is more about acceleration, timing and vectors – so you end up where you plan to end up.

However, when you move a mere degree off your centre of gravity as you turn, then you end up falling to one side or another as you are finishing.

This falling to one side had been bedevilling my ballet student for a long time.

As I watched her first turns, it was clear to me that her falling to the side would cease if she could maintain tone in her lower back. 

Lower backs are often floppy in people. How’s yours?

Are you upright as you read?

Lower backs are not engaged often – they are neglected. 

And this is because of what is happening between head and spine. When the panic of today frightens you – the physiological response is to tighten between head and spine and cause downward pressure through your entire torso.

Your lower back doesn’t have a chance.

When it comes time to swirl in ballet, your lower back is under-rehearsed. Same for playing an instrument, typing at the computer, standing on the subway or doing any whole-you physical skill.

And so I used my touch to guide her into a healthy, back-boosting plan of co-ordinations. As often happens at first touch, the student accepts the invitation to move without prejudice or oversight.

And the turn worked—the best of the lesson.

Clean. Innocent. Exact.

And then it got dirty. Dirty with what?

With misconception. With projection – both past and future.

And that is the subject of my next in this ballet-turning series.

To understand more of the principles at work, you now have the chance to deep dive into BodyThinking – the online component of BodyChance’s two-year certificate course. This course is what the ballet student was participating in.

BodyThinking is like an end of year big clean-up – except in this case you are cleaning out the clutter in your mind, not your house.

In these days of c19, many people are using the time at home to clean their house. And an even better proposition is to use the online BodyThinking course to cleanse your mind of all the misconceptions that result in discomfort, pain and the inability to realise your protentional.

It is available now, together with three coaching with my online group which can be used at any time in the next year. Stay safe, use your mind and come out of our current ice age with a new spring in your step!

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