Alignment - can anyone explain it to a non-dancer?

[Confuddled]

Can anyone point me at a website / book / anything really that explains what ‘good alignment’ means in ballet? I’d be so grateful - apparently dd needs to work on her alignment, and I’d like to have some idea of what that means. She seems pretty confident that she knows, but can’t explain it to me!

[Bluebird22]

To my very tiny ones I explain it as (helps if you sing it!) 

 

Head, shoulders, ribs and hips, knees and toes 

Head, shoulders, ribs and hips, knees and toes 

They all stack on top of each other 

Head, shoulders, ribs and hips, knees and toes 

 

It is more complicated than that but that is the most basic way of explaining it I think!

[Bluebird22]

Eric Franklin has a really good book called Dynamic Alignment through Imagery, although that’s possibly not the sort of thing you are after!

[2dancersmum]

https://balletclassroom.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/proper-alignment-for-ballet/

 This may help you

[drdance]

To me alignment is also about having the body facing the right direction. So if a dancer is facing the front doing a tendu to the front/side/back, their shoulders and hips should be facing the front not twisting at all. If a dancer is doing any kind of arabesque, both their shoulders and hips should face the same direction. Children struggle with alignment especially facing off-centre, or 'the corner' as they can't rely on the walls of the room as points of reference. 

[dancertaxi]

Also linked in which I m seeing more often are lots of hip placement issues - I m not trained but I m sure someone who is will help - keeping alignment AND correct placement of hips not lifting or opening when doing certain moves. 

 

[Confuddled]

Thank you all, I think I’m starting to understand it. So it’s sort of another word for posture, and not only posture standing still (I’d thought it couldn’t just be ‘standing up nice and straight’!) but also when you move? I can see why dd is having trouble explaining it to me, I still can’t ‘see’ when a move is right or wrong, unless she really exaggerates and shows me very slowly.

[Holistic Ballet]

Gretchen Warren's Classical Ballet Technique is my go-to book, my ballet bible: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Classical-Ballet-Technique-Gretchen-Warren/dp/0813009456

[Kate_N]

I find this post (on another & highly-respected ballet board) very useful:

 

Alignment (from Ballet Talk for Dancers)

[Viv]

While ballet terms can sometimes be confusing, or even contradict the every day meaning of words, in the case of alignment, it means exactly the same thing. The definition of alignment is "the proper positioning or state of adjustment of parts in relation to each other". In this case we mean body parts. Alignment also means "the line thus formed" and this is what speaks to me more in a ballet sense. We spend a lot of time in ballet talking about 'lines' and alignment is a huge part of that. 

 

What makes alignment so confusing for me is that it's not just up and down, if that makes sense. It's not just ribs and pelvis and knees and toes all being in line straight up and down, but also is reflected in the alignment of the arms and legs in certain ballet positions. I know a big struggle girls in my class have is when the leg is pointed to the back. It is easier to keep your turnout if the leg is slightly more open and it can even feel like the leg is fully behind you, but when seen from the front it is actually pointing almost out to the side. The leg is not 'aligned' with the spine, so even if your spine is perfectly straight up and down, your alignment is still off. Unfortunately, just getting your leg behind you doesn't fully tick the alignment box either. If, in order to get the leg fully behind you, you drop one hip lower than the others, now your hips are out of alignment. If you tilt your booty back to get your leg back, now your pelvis is out of alignment. This is why I think of alignment as sort of gyroscopic, everything must be in the right place up and down, side to side and in and out.

 

Alignment isn't just about hips and legs though! I struggle with the alignment of my arms in arabesque because my shoulders, elbows and wrists all hyperextend and point in different directions. I have to make sure my shoulders are facing the right direction, that one shoulder is not higher than the other, that the elbows are softened and not hyperextended, and that the wrist is not fished to the side. All of this, unfortunately, is also alignment, and is what contributes to making balletic and beautiful lines. Alignment is huge and complicated! In a 'simple' first arabesque, you must make sure that your leg is fully stretched and feet pointed, the leg is aligned with the spine, the hips are sitting square and straight and both are pointing in the same direction, that your sit bones are under your spine, that the spine is stacked evenly with each vertebra lined up with the one above and below, that the ribs are soft and not jutting out to one side, that the shoulders are facing the same direction as the hips and neither shoulder is higher than the other, that the front arm is slightly curved and the fingertips are in line with your nose and your side arm is not too far back or forward and is curving downwards, that your fingers are relaxed but not curled, that your head is floating on top of your spine and is not thrust forward or back, and that the eyeline extends above beyond the fingertips... And all of that, is alignment. All I can say is, good luck to your DD! I would say first step is making sure shoulders and hips facing the same way, then start working on the rest of it haha.

[Confuddled]

On 15/05/2018 at 08:21, Kate_N said:

I find this post (on another & highly-respected ballet board) very useful:

 

Alignment (from Ballet Talk for Dancers)

I read it and didn’t completely get it, but dd did! Thanks!

 

 

On 20/05/2018 at 03:20, Viv said:

While ballet terms can sometimes be confusing, or even contradict the every day meaning of words, in the case of alignment, it means exactly the same thing. The definition of alignment is "the proper positioning or state of adjustment of parts in relation to each other". In this case we mean body parts. Alignment also means "the line thus formed" and this is what speaks to me more in a ballet sense. We spend a lot of time in ballet talking about 'lines' and alignment is a huge part of that. 

 

What makes alignment so confusing for me is that it's not just up and down, if that makes sense. It's not just ribs and pelvis and knees and toes all being in line straight up and down, but also is reflected in the alignment of the arms and legs in certain ballet positions. I know a big struggle girls in my class have is when the leg is pointed to the back. It is easier to keep your turnout if the leg is slightly more open and it can even feel like the leg is fully behind you, but when seen from the front it is actually pointing almost out to the side. The leg is not 'aligned' with the spine, so even if your spine is perfectly straight up and down, your alignment is still off. Unfortunately, just getting your leg behind you doesn't fully tick the alignment box either. If, in order to get the leg fully behind you, you drop one hip lower than the others, now your hips are out of alignment. If you tilt your booty back to get your leg back, now your pelvis is out of alignment. This is why I think of alignment as sort of gyroscopic, everything must be in the right place up and down, side to side and in and out.

 

Alignment isn't just about hips and legs though! I struggle with the alignment of my arms in arabesque because my shoulders, elbows and wrists all hyperextend and point in different directions. I have to make sure my shoulders are facing the right direction, that one shoulder is not higher than the other, that the elbows are softened and not hyperextended, and that the wrist is not fished to the side. All of this, unfortunately, is also alignment, and is what contributes to making balletic and beautiful lines. Alignment is huge and complicated! In a 'simple' first arabesque, you must make sure that your leg is fully stretched and feet pointed, the leg is aligned with the spine, the hips are sitting square and straight and both are pointing in the same direction, that your sit bones are under your spine, that the spine is stacked evenly with each vertebra lined up with the one above and below, that the ribs are soft and not jutting out to one side, that the shoulders are facing the same direction as the hips and neither shoulder is higher than the other, that the front arm is slightly curved and the fingertips are in line with your nose and your side arm is not too far back or forward and is curving downwards, that your fingers are relaxed but not curled, that your head is floating on top of your spine and is not thrust forward or back, and that the eyeline extends above beyond the fingertips... And all of that, is alignment. All I can say is, good luck to your DD! I would say first step is making sure shoulders and hips facing the same way, then start working on the rest of it haha.

Ah, that makes sense, thank you!