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Sickled feet – any good pointers how to unlearn this habit?
I’m trying to help a student from sickling her feet. She’s well aware and frustrated that she does this especially when she’s inverted holding a pose or learning a new trick/spin. Unconsciously her foot turns in. I don’t know of any specific exercises or technique to help prevent this other than leg lifts, pointed toe, turn out from the hip, and focus on the pinky toe pulling away to the outside.
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9 Replies
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There are some exercises in the lessons that will help, it does take a lot of practice and time on her part though, but it can be improved!
How to point the toes https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/view/50c8ace5-5db0-439e-828c-6a350ac37250
Foot exercise 1 For the first half be sure that she doesn’t allow the bottoms of the feet to roll in to face each other, but rather focus on keeping the bottoms of the feet facing the floor throughout the exercise. The second half of the exercise with the band will be very helpful. https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/view/4e316bf4-9398-4008-9184-6d820ac37250
Also working on lower body while focusing on the feet can help create the muscle memory for nice looking feet. https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/view/52e9d171-5724-43b2-8784-47960a9aa0eb
I bet others who are trained in ballet will have suggestions too!
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Thank you for this info. I have the issue with my feet wanting to be sickled when doing certain exercises etc. I am going to have to try the lessons you linked for it. 🙂
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Got a really good ballet one here! I used to sickle like crazy & my teacher was always yelling at me, I found this helps tremendously!
Standing next to your pole, place a looped theraband around the offending ankle (tieing round the base of the pole works great) making sure it wraps your heel & is under medium tension.
Do as many slow raises as you are comfortable with without letting that ankle roll out wards. On me this strengthened the outer lower leg muscles to keep everything under more control! -
Silver Sylph and Veena – thank you for your tips, I can’t wait to try and see her progress.
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Exercises – yes, that’s the most important. Then what could possibly help while she’s working aerially is to try to make a so called winged point. It’s the complete opposite to sickle. You will here try to turn the foot out. I think most people will struggle to make a winged point (mine don’t look like that for example) but if she strives for that look, I think the feet will have a greater chance to look straight when she points, instead of them becoming sickle when she tries to point them straight.
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Lima, this is awesome! This is very helpful, I agree. If she trains her foot to “wing” there’s a great chance it will straighten out and look like a normal pointed foot. Thank you.
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Great discussion! I have a question..does anyone have trouble keeping their toes pointed while wearing certain platform dancer heels? I have a pair of 7 inch platforms that just have the plastic piece that goes over my foot. This may sound crazy, but when I point my toes, I feel like I am really fighting against the plastic to keep a nice line with my toes pointed. Is this an ankle/foot strength problem? Has anyone else had a similar problem? I feel like my lines look the nicest when I wear shoes with ankle cuffs, but I don’t want to avoid strengthening my feet if that’s the real problem… Thanks!
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@M Darling, I don’t think it’s an issue of strength with not being able to fully point the foot with platforms on. The curve of the shoe is the bit that’s stopping your toes stretching out fully.
It should be possible to straighten the ankle fully & have a great line without worrying too much about the tips of the toes when you’re wearing heels. I’ve seen soft-soled heels for ballroom dancing which DO allow the foot to be pointed however, They look really nice but with less visual impact than our beloved platforms!
If you’re worried about strengthening the feet, I know Veena’s got some great lessons on here to help. -
Silver, thank you so much for your help. I think I will do more strengthening moves to see if it will make a difference (it can’t hurt), and I might just have to try different shoes. Lol. I love the look of long lines. I do love platforms though. I think you are right, the curve of the shoe is definitely a factor I didn’t take into consideration, the plastic strap is so restrictive, I thought that was the only problem. Thank you so much again. 🙂
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