Learning développé derrière
I am forever in awe of how ballet dancers extend their legs from the knee to point toward the sky. This skill does not come naturally to most people, myself included. That’s why it fascinates me so much, and why I so badly want to join the ranks of ballet dancers with beautiful high développés. My present efforts have made it clear that this will take some time.
The step is done to the front side and back, but I am focusing on développé derrière here (développé to the back). Based on the expert advice I found, this is how to do it correctly. You start by shifting your weight over the supporting leg and then peel your working foot along the floor to form a coup de pie, maintaining your turnout. Then you draw a line with the working toe up the leg as you continue to lift the leg into retire just below the knee. You keep your hips facing to the front as much as possible and continue to maintain turnout as you extend your leg to the back with controlled speed. Remember not to bend the standing leg. As you extend the leg, you adjust your body forward but don’t tilt it downward. Then you hold your balance. To end the développé, you lengthen and lower that turned-out leg in a controlled way back to the ground.
As with everything in ballet, there’s a lot of detail to consider. As I work on my développé, I am concentrating on many things at once: keeping my legs turned out and straight, lifting my torso and moving my arms correctly. The objective, as always, is to make it all look effortless. In the center, without my barre/step-ladder, développé becomes even more difficult, because I have to balance on my own. I can definitely see how more back strength will help, so I will be working on this. However, these are the actions that help me most with développé derriere.
- I keep my abs tight and my arms strong. This helps me to control the motion.
- I sort of mentally focus on the supporting leg.
- I try to fight the temptation to lift my leg any higher than I can while keeping good technique.
I hope these adjustments might be helpful to you if you are also working on développés. One day soon, we will see our legs pointing toward the sky, but until then, let us build the foundation needed for développés, one tiny adjustment at a time.
