Ballet Barre Workout

Hi, I'm Diane Deienderfer and I am delighted to be back with Pilates Anytime filming another barre class. I have done one barre class already. So if you've seen that one, this is a little bit more of the same but then a little bit more advanced in level. But don't let that scare anybody. It is mostly ballet barre influenced.

But as you would think, and as is so necessary, we will use fundamentals of the Pilates work that are so important in all of our movement starting with breath. On that note, you breath how you feel comfortable, what your body tells you to do. Doesn't matter when you inhale, when you exhale, just as long as you do. So breath with your heartbeat, breath naturally. Just don't hold your breath.

We know that's no good. We're gonna talk, I'm gonna talk about posture and alignment of course, hopefully have beautiful movement. Which if movement is beautiful in my opinion, it's probably healthy. I'm gonna talk of course, about the core, about navel to spine, about good pelvic alignment and stability, neither tucking nor releasing, unless that's called for. Because this is a ballet influenced class, there will be a lot of work on the legs, of course, with a stable pelvis, but we'll be working a lot of inner thigh, hamstrings, glutes, buttocks, derriere, whatever you wanna call it, calves, shins, ankles, feet and toes as well.

So you may notice that I am in a pair of, like split soled jazz shoes or teaching shoes. And I've chosen to wear these today. And you're welcome to do that at home or wherever you are in your studio. Gives a little bit more support for me. I like the support underneath the balls of my feet now that I am a retired dancer.

My two buddies here, I should introduce. We have Gia and Laura, and they are both barefoot. So, an example of, you may do this barefoot, in socks, in socks with grippers, or in some kind of a shoe if you wish. So that's that. We'll be working again, balletic training is such that much of it is in turn out, external rotation.

But we'll also be working quite a bit in parallel, so I want to point that out too. So with that said, we're going to begin. Why don't, let's see, Laura come around on this side. And we'll start facing our barre. And, I also want to say that, I'm going to give instruction, so that you can follow along.

After your first viewing, hopefully you'll return to the site, return to the video, and the combinations or the choreography if you will, should be a little bit easier to follow. Not that it's that difficult, but it will be easier to follow after you've seen it once. And I'll try to make it quite clear as well. Alright we'll face our barre, in our sixth position, or parallel, finding your foot centers, feeling the balls of the feet, heels, everything in alignment. I'm really working to pull my inner thighs together nicely.

If you do have a slightly knock knee, you might want to have the feet slightly apart. If you're bow legged like I am, I'm going to try to diminish that bow by really pulling in the inner thigh. So instead of being here, which is quite extreme, I'm gonna try to really pull together, so I feel one line. My center, my core is this way, as well as this way. Alright, so enough talking for now.

We're going to start with an easy touch. Lift the hands to the barre. Shoulders down, and we'll just take a couple of nice breaths to start, exhaling deeply. Pulling the navel to the spine, lengthening the back. Inhaling again, and exhaling, feeling the tail bone pointing down to the flor.

Now with easy breath we'll do a little head roll to the right and around forward. And ladies I'm gonna ask you to keep breathing. And other side, left and around. Careful you don't drop the neck to the back. Then again to the right, keeping the shoulders down, just to get a little warmed up in the neck.

One more time to the left, both shoulders are level, and down. Couple shoulder shrugs up and down and up and down. Alright, now with a mindfulness pulling the navel to the spine, the pubic bone toward the sacrum. We don't have a straight flat back, but an elongated back throughout. The glutes are engaged, the inner thighs are pulled together and we'll do four little knee bends, or plies.

And one. And stretch. And two. And stretch. I'm thinking of resisting to the floor, pushing down.

And fourth. And stretch. Four rises. Up. And lower.

And up right on the centers of the balls of the feet, much like we do on the universal reformer. And lower. And up. And lift as you lower, two plies. And stretch.

So we're careful with the knees, that we engage the quadriceps. Two rises, up and lower. Up. And now one of each. And we have plie.

And stretch. Rise up. And down, we'll do that again. One, knees in line with the feet. Stretch, and up.

Come down. Now we'll do a slow running in place, pushing over the right ball of the foot. Left. And right. Keep your hips quite still.

We have a lift, a little pinprick under the buttocks. Down. And change. And change. If you wish, you can go to a full point.

Two. And three. Just like on the reformer. And five. And six.

Try not to knuckle the toes. And rising up tall on the releve. Inner thighs tight. Check your balance. And lower.

Good. Alright having done that we'll put he right foot behind us, in a very straight alignment. Make sure the knee is exactly in front of the foot. Not twisting in or out, and gently but firmly press into a good achilles tendon stretch. Your spine is pretty straight here.

And I have almost more weight on my back foot. I'm not bouncing but I'm pressing, pressing. Knee over foot. Feeling the achilles tendon. Then place the leg back.

And if you have a partner you can push the barre ladies. Otherwise be careful you don't move your barre. You could do this against a kitchen counter or railing. Get a good stretch on the calf. Straighten your front knee.

Carefully lower, down. One hand on the floor. Other hand on the floor. Try to get the hips pretty square. We'll bend both knees, inhale.

The back heel may come off. Exhale, stretch. Again, inhale bend. Your knees are in line with your feet. And stretch.

Stay there inhale. Flex the front foot. Exhale. A lot of calf stretch. Put it down.

And flex it back. Put it down, bend the knees, and slowly roll up until you find your barre, or whatever you're holding onto. Other side to stretch. So go to alignment, knees in light with the feet, belly in, back tall. And we press to stretch the achilles tendon.

Two, we'll count to eight. Three, no bouncing, nice pressing. Five, and six, and seven, how we doing girls? (laughing) And eight. Left leg back.

Make sure you're not awkward in the upper body. Forward in the pelvis. Nice alignment throughout the whole body. Three. And four.

Pressing, five. And six. And seven, this feels good. Make sure you all do this every day. Eight.

Straighten the front leg. Come down to the floor. One hand, the other hand, and then the knees, inhale. And stretch exhale. And again, bending.

And stretching, holding, breath here. Flex the front foot. Go on and put it down. I hear crackling. (laughing) That's normal.

And put it down. Bend the knees, don't hit your head, and roll back up to where we started. So that's just a little intro. Alright, good, so we worked on our parallel position, now we're going to turn out. So, with turn out, I think most everyone knows, hopefully, that we're engaging external rotation.

So, I encourage you. You may do, certainly, Pilates stance or you may go farther. Just please don't hurt yourselves, make sure your alignment is good. Hip, thigh, knee, shin, ankle, foot, toes. Really critical about that.

Alright, so we'll take a first position facing the barre. Pull the belly into the spine, lengthen the back. Easy touch. Now, we're gonna go through the right foot up, and put the heel down. Again, up.

My knee is pointing over my foot. And up. Try to use the seat muscle. And up. And lower.

Four plies, and turn out one, stretch two, and down, push the floor away. And plie, and stretch. Once more. And left foot. So I'm lifted over my standing foot.

As I work through the other articulate foot. And first. And up. And first. Toe, ball, toe, ball, heel.

Four plies, one. And squeeze the inner thighs, two. And squeeze, and three. And tall. One more, tempting to stick your butt out here, please don't.

And good, right arm reach up over to the left. Reach to the ceiling, open, look at your hand nicely. And take the barre, other side. So in our dance work, we certainly are dancing with the whole body, which includes the upper body. And take the barre.

Now we do four tendus side. One. And close. And two. And close.

Tendu means stretch. So you do that with the whole leg. Stretch and close. Other side, one. And two, and three, and four.

How we doing over there? Five, and six, and seven. Now just plie in first. Lift the heels, stretch up tall, and lower. Again, plie, knees over the feet, over the balls of the feet, up and lower, two more plie knees open, heels up pull up, and lower, one more.

Plie. Heels come up and hold. Hold the belly. Take your arms as you wish, and come down and stretch tall. Alright, so now we're going to work in second position.

So it's similar to first except your legs are open. So the width can be about here. I wouldn't go much wider, because it's just too wide, or slide about like so. Shoulder, heel under the shoulders is usually a good bet. Okay, so here we are now in second position.

You may do this on your reformer, with your feet in the corners of your foot bar. We have again, a pulled in belly, a lengthened spine. My tendency is to arch, please don't over correct it by tucking. So a long back. We should also feel a nice long line in front of the hip flexors.

Alright, with an easy touch to the barre, we're going to bend over the right, and stretch. Over the left, and stretch. A little side ways lunge. And stretch. Over the left, and stretch.

Two small plies. Long legs. Small plies, long. A grander, a big plie. Down.

Come up to the top, over the left. One, we repeat it starting left. Two, over the right, and center. So put the weight over there, come center put the weight over there, come center. Two demi plie, and stretch.

And demi plie, stretch. Grand plie, we keep going, we don't sit down. We come up and hold. Now flex the right foot, put it down, the left foot, put it down. The right foot, put it down.

The left foot. Now grand plie. One, till horizontal thighs, lift the heels, come up, hold. Test your balance, test your balance. Come down.

Left heel flexing, one. And center. You may feel your shin muscle, your anterior tibialis, when you flex your foot well. Center, right, center, grand plie. Your tail bone's pointing to the floor, lift your heels, come on up.

You may narrow it a little bit. I got a little wide there. Test your balance. And rest. Good, alright.

Now we were facing the barre, obvious, for all of that. Now we're gonna take one hand to the barre, and typically in a ballet class you always start. I don't know who made this up. It's always the left hand and then the right hand. I think it would be great to start the other way sometimes for symmetry.

But I'm going to do the traditional left hand on the barre. And you may face, certainly square to your front, or you may face slightly on a diagonal. Which I'm going to do today. And in doing that, it can help you feel a little more centered with this supporting hand in front of you. The tendency when you're this way, is to get a little bit backwards.

So, I'm gonna have you all do the same thing. The other thing I wanna say. If you're an experienced dancer you know this. So forgive me if I'm telling you things you already know. But we're going to be working a lot of the time on cross, on the cross.

Which means, we work to the front, or the front of the body, the side of the body, and the back of the body. So, that's your cross. Sometimes it's front, side, back, and side. So having said that, we'll work like that. When you work to the front, your hips are square.

This is a real quick little tutorial on turn out, on ballet turn out. To the side you're here, which we did facing the barre. You know if you're super duper turned out, it's gonna be way out there. But we're not gonna go with that. Moving the barre. (laughing)

So, that would be your side. When you work to the back, you don't go downward, because we're not in parallel any longer. So your standing leg is turned out, as it was front and side. When you go to the back this hip has to open. It should, it has to.

Which really works your glute nicely, but you don't wanna turn the body around. So when you work to the back, or derriere, you wanna have your shoulders, chest forward wherever your arm is, but not turned down. Brief explanation, but take it as you need to. Alright, we're going to do two tendus front to side, to back, arise, and come down. I know I'm talking a lot but this is important.

We're also going to be using the arm now. So dance is not just about the legs and the feet. It's certainly about your core, flexibility, strength and all of those good things. But what I love about dance is that. Simply holding your arms up, moving your arms is good toning exercise for your arms.

You have to be aware of your scapular stability. So we're going to be working, and I'll be talking about that as well. This is second position, not here, not here. Alright, think of your hug a tree, magic circle. Alright, let's take first position, left hand on the barre.

A nice first position, turned out from the thighs. Engaging the glutes, stretch through the pelvis, and we'll take the arm up. Tendu front, one, place first. Two, place first to side. Out, the arm goes to the side.

And out, the arm comes down and through to the arabesque. First, and back, and first eleve, look to the fingers, up. Demi plie, and stretch. To back, one. And close, and two, and close, and side.

Your arm is lifted, elbow, and side. Arm down and up to the front. Nice if you look up as well. Up, and close, eleve reach, and six. We'll turn around to first position, arm up.

Other side, front, and first and front, and first. To side. Hold the elbow, and out, arm down and through to the arabesque, and first, and back, and rise, look out to your fingers, up. Plie, arm down, and through to the back. One, and first.

And two, and side. And out, and in. Nice tall back, shoulder blades down. And front and close. And front.

This time we'll rise and stay, look out, lift your chin, your heart and plie, and finish. Alright, so we did our tendus in first. We're going to work a little bit in fifth position now. So fifth has lots of things to think about, in that you wanna make sure your knees are aligned with your feet. So, here's a good fifth position.

Well I'm saying it's good. I'm trying to make it good. Third is fine to work into. Heel in front of the instep, fifth would be heel in front of the other toe. So, I should have a diamond between my legs here, right?

If your knees are pointed for- that just hurts showing it. So you need to turn out as best you can, using your external rotators. It's hugely important, don't tuck, don't arch. Knees over the feet, then when you straighten, the same thing. Alright, so we'll go ahead now and do our tendus.

We'll have our arm to the side in fifth position. Holding your fifth, we do two to the front. One, and fifth. Two, and fifth. The third one to plie.

Port de bra the arm front and side. Two side, straight leg, closed back. And side, close front. And side, demi plie, arm down. Port de bra.

Arms side, two back, one. Your hip is open, but your torso is square. The third one to a plie, and stretch. One side. Plie.

Rise up and hold, test your balance, up. Come down to fifth and stretch. Go to parallel and bend forward. Two. Three.

Four. Roll up your back. Six. Seven. Eight.

Arc back, being careful of your back. Three. Four, recover. Five. Turn around to fifth position other side.

Arm side, one and fifth. And two and fifth. And a third plie, arm down in front and arm to the side. Two side and fifth and side and fifth and side. Plie.

Port de bra the arm, carry the arm. And back and fifth and back and fifth and back demi plie. Knees over the toes. And good, one side. Out, plie fifth.

Rise sus sous hold, stretch it, six seven, come down and go parallel, open legs over, And two. And three. And four. Roll through the back, pulling the belly. And seven, eight.

Back, careful you don't plunge forward in the pelvis. You're still using your abdominals, come on up. Six, and seven, and rest. Good, how we doing ladies? Good. Good, okay.

I meant to get that bend forward in. Alright, now we're gonna face the bar and do degage we're going to disengage from the floor. So, a little bit more of the same, but the leg's going to leave the floor slightly. We're going to do four accent out right, eight in. Four accent out left, eight in.

Two accent out, one in. Two accent out, one in. Okay? You'll follow. First position, bellies in, tall back.

Tight bums, arms easy, out, one and close, and two, and close, and three, and close, and four. Now eight. One, and two, and three, and four, and five. Work those inner thighs, and close. Left, and first.

Brush, first. Brush, first. Brush, first, and eight. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Now two, and two, four and two, and (laughing) I didn't count right.

Two out, two out, and four and bump bump bump bump. And one, and two, and one, and two. Again, one, and two, and one, and two. Rise and hold. Let's take the arms to the middle, to second, and plie.

Stretch your knees, and rest. Okay, that was our degage. So now a little bit more of the same. So we'll be brushing the leg about that high off the ground. We're gonna work from fifth position.

So, the leg will go, front, back, front. Back, front, back. Front, in, in, in, in. Brush, in, in, in, in. Then you reverse it.

Alright? Good luck, this is for your brain too. Alright, we'll leave the arm in second position. Fifth position, inner thighs tight. Belly, again, I'm talking to myself too.

I have to think about those things. Arm out, elbow lifted. Easy in the face as well. You brush, front and back and stretch and back and front and stretch and front close, close, close brush back, close, close close, and back and front, and reach. And one, and two, and three.

And out, and fifth, and fifth, and fifth. And I'm gonna have the girls go again while I watch. And front, and back, and stretch. And back, and front, and stretch. And front and bump, bump, bump.

Brush back, fifth, fifth. They look good. Back, nice arm, good. Front, back, turn out, back and fifth and fifth and fifth and fifth and brush and fifth and fifth and good. (claps once) That's good.

Thank you. (laughing) Alright, other side. Angled in slightly. Right hand on the barre. Nice crossed, tight inner thighs.

Arm to the side. And front, and back, and stretch, and back, and front, and stretch. And front, and close, and close, and close, and back, and in, and in, use your seat, and back, and front, and reach, and one, and two, and reach. And back, and fifth, and fifth, and fifth. And front, and fifth, and fifth, continue.

One, and two. Front of you. Back, front, stretch. Front, fifth, fifth, fifth, brush back. In, in, good.

You can see the torso is square. Good. Hip opens to the back. And front, and fifth, and fifth, and hold. (claps once) Thank you ladies.

Now we're going to do an exercise called ronde jambe, around the leg. Many of you know it. The coordination is involved with the arm as well. So when you plie the standing leg, or bend the standing leg, the arm is in. When you straighten the standing leg, and move the other one the arm is out.

Do your best. Alright, fifth position. Prepare arm to the side. Plie front, take the leg side. Arm front, plie side.

Take the leg back, plie back, take the leg side, plie side. Take the leg front. Eight ronde jambes, one and two. We're going through all the positions. Front side back.

Now slightly off the ground, off the ground, one more closing back, and fifth position. Back, to the side. Plie side, to the front. Your standing knee is over your foot. Plie side.

Back. You go back, side, front. Back, side front, Back, and around. Four more, slightly off, off. And we're gonna start in fifth position bend forward first and fifth.

Forward, two, slightly end of the barre. And four, circle back. Five, six, I don't go too far back. Reverse, back, two. I'm counting our timing, center to the barre.

Forward, over, roll up. Extend the back leg, and lunge and bend forward. I'm gonna step away, the girls will do it. Come up, arm high, shoulder down. Look to your elbow, back.

Come up to tendu back, arabesque. And lift your leg slightly. Balance, get over the ball of the foot. Reach the other arm back. You look beautiful.

Better them than me. (laughing) And thank you. Nice. Whoo! Okay, other side. Here we go.

Fifth position. Excuse me, pulling the pants up here. Fifth position. Arm front to side to prepare. Arm front, one, side, arm front, plie side.

Back, back to the side, with the outside leg. And to the front. Circle around. Front side back. Front side back.

Front side back, you're holding that elbow out. Off the floor. Off the floor. Off the floor. Close, back.

Plie back, side, plie side. Front, plie front. Side, plie side. Lengthen back. You go back, side front.

Back, side, front. Try to hold the standing leg still. Slightly off, off, off, close fifth front. Breath. Forward, one, over, two, roll through your back, four.

Lift off the back. Hold your belly in round. Like (laughing) And good. Reverse. Arcing back, lift your belly in, so you don't sink into your low back.

Forward, over the legs. Six, come up seven. Release, lunge deeply if you can. Forward, over, come up. You arc back, shoulders down.

Good, come up with your pelvis under you. Tendu, then arabesque. Beautiful. Stretch knees, pointed feet. The leg is in line with the front arm.

Beautiful! And finish. Don't they look nice? Alright. So let's go on now to leg swing. So we're gonna free up the leg a little bit, get some real movement going.

I still hear crackling over there (laughing). That's okay as long as it's in the course of good movement. It's okay if you, I don't wanna say crackle or pop a hip, but don't force anything. Ankles or hips, hips are back where they're knocking. Be careful.

Anyway we'll angle inward slightly, don't kick your toe on your barre support. We're going to swing the leg in attitude. And bent knee and then straight. Eight of each. Oh sorry, eight and out of two, seven straight.

So while the leg is free and moving. The body has to be quite tight. So it's not all over the place. We'll be on our left leg, left hand on the barre. I won't kick you Laura.

Right leg behind, belly tight, arm to the side. Here we go, attitude. Front, and back, and up, and up, and up. Easy swing in the hip. Now straight leg up and up and up and up and five.

and six and seven turn left leg prepare. Up and two and attitude, attitude. Hold your arm very still. To the front, straight back and front and back and up and up last time, and finish. Good, just to get an easy swing.

Alright, we'll do some fondue, or melt. Which I feel like I'm doing right now. Bending again the knee. But it's not just about the knee. It's about controlling from the quad.

Using the derriere. So we'll face the barre once again. We'll incorporate the fondue on the standing leg, into a, then a passe position. So we'll take first position. Back a ways from where we started.

You're gonna fondue, you can join me. On the left, point the right toe toward the achilles. Keep it there straight into standing. Bend again, straight into standing. Bend again, draw the toe up, the calf to the knee, feel it lifted a little bit off, and down to the floor.

Other side. Bend. I'm thinking of my right knee going over my right foot. up, a third one, up to the knee. Lift, put it down.

Again, fondue. Both seat muscles are working to use the turn out correctly. Fondue, let's releve, up you go, find it. Come down to first, other side. One, stretch two and three, four.

Push over the ball of the standing foot. Up, find it, come down. Now you're gonna take your foot behind you, open the knees, so they're both open. Fondue, behind you, lift with a little attitude. Again, fondue, attitude.

Two more, fondue, attitude. Working the seat, fondue, hold. Then to standing, down, releve, up, bend down, very nice, up, one more. And extend the leg right behind you, close other leg. Fondue, attitude.

So both knees are open, attitude, fondue, attitude, fondue. Doing the same thing on this leg, good. Now into releve. Pull up the standing hip, good. So she's fine, I'm just accentuating that she's on her standing hip, stretch the leg behind you, stretch your knee more, and fifth.

Thank you! Good! Feel okay? That works your buttocks nicely. Alright you can maneuver yourselves around. We're gonna put the right leg on the barre for a stretch. You can use your lower barre, or your higher barre if you have that choice.

So take your right leg up and put it in front of you. Yes, so the idea is that, you are square. If you look at your leg, it's front of your sternum. We're lifted on the standing side, not leaning back, not forward. Over the ball of the standing foot.

Arms side, follow along. Plie the standing, stretch, and plie, this should feel good. Stretch forward over the leg. Over, come up, and lift, bend back carefully, you're not gonna go too far. Or at least I'm not.

And good, rise up, feel it, feel it, come down, flex the flex foot, bend the standing. And stretch, and bend, and stretch forward, get a lot of pull in the hamstring, be careful. Up, keep it flexed, bend back. Arc back, careful. We'll point the front foot, rise, pivot to the side as best you can, and get over your standing leg.

Two plies, one, two, how we doing? Good. Three, keep that hip down, not up here. Over to the leg. Six, and seven and eight.

Away from the leg. Keep your hip down, not lifted. And come up, rise on it, get over that leg, come down, flex the right foot. Bend, one, two and bend, and stretch, to the foot. If you can reach it fine, you don't have to.

Come up, bend away. Two, three. Point the foot. Rise. Feel it, feel it.

If you take it off and take it to the passe that'd be great. And come down. Good, other side. My back will be to the audience, that's okay. Left foot up, square your hips.

We have a pointed foot. Leg in front of your sternum, arm to the side. Plie to standing, and stretch and plie stretch over the leg. Fold over. I'm still trying to think of pulling my belly in, not flopping.

And back you go, slightly, good. Recover, rise, find it, come down, flex the foot. Plie one, two, try not to tuck, straight down, up over that leg. Get a good stretch, grab your foot great, over, come up, back you go. Push out through the left heel.

Recover. Rise, point that left foot. Pivot so you're facing your barre right over the leg. Plie one, my knee is hopefully over my toe. Two, and stretch.

The right arm goes to the leg on the barre. And back up. Away. Reach out, and up. Rise on it, get over it.

Come down, flex that foot on the barre. Almost finished. Hope you're enjoying this stretch. Feels good. Reach out first, over to the leg where you can, and up away, keeping the left hip down.

And recover, rise on it, point that foot. Lift up, stuck, lift it to passe, and rest. Okay, good, thank you. We're gonna finish our class with grand battement. Alright we'll do three front, three side, three back, one side, turn around.

Alrighty, we're warm. Grand battement actually technically means a big beat. Grand big, battement beat, or a kick, you know with control. So we'll take right foot front, angle inward, careful of your barre. And we'll bring the arm down and up to begin.

Three up. One and close, two and close, three and close, move the arm to the side. One and close, two and close, three and point all the way down to the floor. Back, and back, and back, arm side, one side, up. Plie.

Releve. Let's balance here, tight fifth, other arm up, and down. Other side. I'm going to watch. And arm up.

One and close, two and close, three and close. Lift the arm side. Up, keep the shoulders quite still. Up, arm to the arabesque. Now your arm and your leg are connected.

Arm in front, and good. One side, out, plie. Su sous. Balance. Watch the ribs.

Lift, beautiful. Focus on top. And finish. Good. Alright.

And I thank you all for helping us, dance today. Thank you.