Feet! The Good, Bad & the Ugly
Feet! Let's discuss...I started a new Ballet Level 1 class at New Dimensions Dance Academy this past week. Starting a new class with these 5-7 year-old students really makes me want to focus on their feet. Am I the only one that has noticed an overall decline in dancer's feet? It seems that finding nicely pointed feet and the ability to transition to pointe shoes is getting harder and harder to find. It's not just my students, I see it everywhere I look. It makes me wonder if in an effort to keep the students moving, excited, and engaged in class we aren't slowing down to nurture their feet to be their best.
For years, I have done a foot-focused workshop with my students approximately three times a year. My foot-focused workshop consists of me bringing all kinds of fun 'tools' to class. These tools are:
Therabands (multiple levels of resistance)
A bucket of marbles & small pom poms
Dishtowels (a got come cute colors in the Target $1 section)
BOSU ball (I got mine during Prime Day and saved a lot of $)
A variety of lacrosse balls, racquetballs, and tennis balls
My students LOVE seeing me bring in all that crazy stuff. I fondly call it Romper Room but of course, none of my students know what that is. I set up 'stations'. I explain all the different stations and what to do in each. I like to take 'before & after' photos of their feet. I provide a cheat sheet for each station to help them remember what and how many to do. Pre-Covid, I would pair up students to explore each station together. I have them help each other make sure they are doing the exercises correctly. I position myself to monitor and check up on as many students as possible. I play class music softly in the background and it can get a little bit crazy but my dancers love it.
While this all sounds great I encourage them to continue working on their feet themselves. Just like how they practice their splits or their pirouettes, they SHOULD be showing their feet some love.
But do they? Nope! So, I am taking a different approach with all of my classes starting with my new Ballet 1 class. They will be my experiment, my case study if you will. I know when switched my classes to starting on their left side first for all exercises that it definitely made a difference. That is a topic for another post. So, why not join me in my quest to strengthen, improve and teach our students how to care for their feet?
Check out my Foot Focus Workshop!
Let me know if it works for you. I'd love to hear feedback, success stories, struggles. All of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Not to mention a few stinky ones along the way.
