How to Set Priorities With Your Corrections in Ballet Classes

Especially in pointe shoes, a flaw in how you do a plie will affect your posture, balance, strength of turnout, and go on to affect pirouettes and more.

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It will also affect your allegro, or jumps.

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If you get a correction later in the ballet barre work, that may be where your ballet teacher first noticed the error, in that class.

However, if your dance teacher does not address it further, it is up to you to figure out where in the basic ballet positions, ballet movements, or ballet technique, you need to go, to fix your correction.

As an example, if your teacher corrects tense or "spiky" fingers during a ronde de jambe a terre combination, you need to (after class) back-peddle mentally to figure out why your fingers are tense looking.

Relaxed hands and fingers are the result of strength in the core muscles. If the core muscles are strong enough to support posture, turnout and ballet positions, then there will not be any extra tension traveling to the neck, shoulders, and down the arms to the hands.

So, as your own experiment, see if there is any strain in your plie exercises in class. Do you understand what muscles should be working hard, and relaxing, at what point during the exercise? Tension in ballet is FLUID. It is always changing.

Understanding plies and tendus, in ballet, will lead to your understanding every aspect of ballet technique. Posture, turnout and balance are all equally important parts of ballet technique (including the proper use of the intrinsic foot muscles for demi pointe and full pointe). And most other dance techniques, not to mention football, tennis and more. (Tennis pros and football teams study ballet to develop footwork and prevent sports injuries). It's all about doing what the body can do, and not trying to make it do what it cannot do.

Try to relate all your corrections back to your basic ballet movements. If you can fix the most basic flaws in your ballet technique, you will fix many things that can go wrong in a ballet class.

Dancing ballet successfully does not depend on perfection. It does depend on you understanding how close to the ideal you are. And, what keeps you from the ideal - physique, muscle weakness, or lack of technical comprehension. I've taught ten year olds who had this sorted out within months of starting training in classical ballet. Something just clicked for them that way.

So wherever you are in your ballet training, start right now to analyze and set your priorities with your corrections in ballet class. Pick the most basic correction that you get, and focus on it. Search for the information that you need, and I bet you'll figure it out, and you'll be dancing smart.

How to Set Priorities With Your Corrections in Ballet Classes

Click here and find out how a would-be ballerina and men in ballet get exactly the right fit in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, prevent dance injuries, get The Perfect Pointe Book, The Ballet Bible, and Deborah Vogel's 'dancing smart' products on injury prevention and functional anatomy. Dianne M. Buxton trained at The National Ballet School of Canada, The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and Toronto Dance Theater. She was led by her career teaching and directing professional ballet dancers, to study dance/sports nutrition and the mind/body connection. She is also published at http://www.manifestingsuccess.blogspot.com

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Nipple Deformities - Simple Plastic Surgery Corrections

Nipples are as variable as the size and shape of breasts. No two nipples are ever exactly alike, usually not even on the same person. While much breast reshaping (breast augmentation, breast reduction, breast lift) goes on in plastic surgery, many men and women suffer from nipple deformities as well which also affects their self-esteem. Nipples can stick out too much, can be turned in, or the areola (the colored area surrounding the nipple) can be too large. Some of these nipple problems may affect certain breast functions such as feeling or lactation. The good news is that there are some very simple plastic surgery procedures that are quite effective at improving these problems.

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For the sake of clarification, what most call the nipple is actually two different structures. The true nipple is the central projecting skin area that has both enhanced sensation and milk ducts for lactation. The flatter, almost always more pigmented, skin around the true nipple is called the areola.

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Nipple inversion (shy nipple) affects about 2% of the population, more commonly in women than men. Some nipples can be turned in slightly or to a significant degree. Some people are born with nipple inversion, others occur later often after breastfeeding. In rare instances, a tumor may be pulling the nipple inward and this should be ruled out particularly if it occurs later in life and just on one breast. Correction involves a simple procedure done under local anesthesia. The nipple is released and brought out. The biggest problem with nipple inversion correction is relapse, the nipple losing projection and returning to an inward position. Nipple inversion surgery can also be done at the time of other breast surgery. I usually like to delay repair in the case of breast augmentation until later as the implant may help to push out some nipples, making correction unnecessary.

Enlarged nipples often create visible 'headlights' which can be a source of embarrassment for many women. This can also be an issue for some men. An overly projecting nipple can be easily reduced through a wedge excision or a 'ring' reduction approach. Sensation and the ability for milk production can be preserved with either technique. Done under local anesthesia, nipple reductions are very stable and are not associated with any significant relapse.

"Puffy" nipples can occur in women and are usually associated with the tubular breast deformity. In this nipple problem, the areola and the nipple are pushed outward due to an underlying herniation or protrusion of breast tissue. Correction of this problem is slightly more complex than isolated nipple surgery. It is usually treated as part of tubular breast surgery which involves the use of a breast implant and areolar manipulation. This is treated by making an incision around the areola, removing some of the pigmented skin (if needed), and lifting the areola skin up and decreasing the projection (puffiness). This is a more extensive surgery and requires an operative room experience under anesthesia.

Large or wide areolas are extremely common in big breasts. Usually the size of the areola is related to the size of the breast, but not always. Large areolas are commonly reduced as part of breast reduction surgery. They can be reduced independent of a breast reduction through the periareolar approach. By removing a ring of the outer areola, the circular diameter of the areola is narrowed. Due the tightness of breast skin, there is a limit as to how much the areola can be reduced. This procedure results in a scar at the junction of the areola and skin which occasionally widens and requires secondary revisional surgery.

Nipple Deformities - Simple Plastic Surgery Corrections

Dr Barry Eppley is a board-certified premiere plastic surgeon in private practice in Indianapolis, Indiana at Clarian Health Systems. (http://www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com). He writes a daily blog on plastic surgery, spa therapies, and medical skin care at http://www.exploreplasticsurgery.com. Dr. Eppley can be heard on his weekly radio show, Doc Chat, on WXNT 1430AM Indianapolis on Saturday afternoons.

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