Best Exercises to Strengthen Feet for Ballet Dancers

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It goes without saying that if you are a ballet dancer, your feet are a prized possession. Not only are they the extension of the beautiful lines of your legs, they provide the support, stability and balance for every leap, spin and step you take.

Dr. Tina Boucher is a foot specialist in Meriden, CT who has many dancers visit her podiatric office for foot care. Taking good care of your feet and monitoring potential injuries is very important. Strengthening your feet will help prevent injury and provide a great foundation for executing the difficult moves required in ballet. The following are some ways to put your feet to work and build up some strength before your next show:

• Point and flex with a resistance band. Lie on the floor with knees up and feet flat. Put the band around the arch of one foot and extend that leg straight up to the ceiling. Hold the band tight, point your foot and hold. Now flex your foot and hold. Finish with a series of pointing and flexing without holding.

• Do a series of barre jumps. This is a great exercise for dancers on pointe. Stand in first position and without going into a plié; use your feet to jump. Land as softly as you can down on the balls of your feet through your heels, ending in a plié. Repeat 12-15 times. 

• Complete repetitions of tendues, which are basic stretching and pointing movements of the feet. These can be performed in any position. Do on both legs, repeating 3-5 times on each leg.

Keeping feet strong is essential for a ballet dancer and quick treatment for injury is just as important. If you are a dancer in need of foot care, please call us today for diagnosis and treatment. Make an appointment by calling us at (203) 238-3668 or visit us online www.centralctfootcare.com.

Related articles

• Plantar Fibromas and Ballet Dancers
• Coming Back From a Dancing Injury
• Barre Work: Ballet and Beyond

Ballet After An Injury

Tonight is back to ballet!
I ended up in the advanced class, since that was the only class that fit my work schedule. I'm always apprehensive about joining the advanced class, since well, I'm far from advanced. The barre is never bad, or the port a bras and adagio, but when it comes to the allegro, boy, I know when I'm beat (sometimes literally! My beats have always been on the poor side.)
It's been since May when I last donned a pair of pointe shoes, and it was a rough summer. Early June I dropped a heavy glass reed diffuser on my right sandaled foot. The result was a soft tissue injury that still has not healed properly. I was in a soft cast for five days, wore a walking boot (very sexy, I know), and currently wear an ankle compression sleeve. Some days are good, some are not (like when Hurricane Irene blew through CT, I woke up in the night with awful pain.) I will follow up next week with a post on soft tissue injuries.
I spent almost an hour on Monday night sewing my ribbons and elastics on my new pointe shoes, which I'd had since Easter. Since I'm so tall (5'10") and have a rather large foot for a ballet dancer (9-9 1/2), getting a new pair of pointe shoes was hard. The combination I needed for my Gaynor Mindens does not exists (Gaynor sizing runs large, so I needed an 11 combination) so I had to settle for the closest thing. And no way was I going to get a traditional pointe shoe.
After my ribbons and elastics were sewn and I had put on my padding, I went to our kitchen to try them out. And there was pain. Pain, which I'm hoping is coming from the fact that they are new pointe shoes and not pain from my injury. I also forgot that while Gaynor Mindens don't need the "breaking in" that a traditional pointe shoe does, they still need to form to your foot.
Tonight will be a test in several ways: see how much strength my feet and ankles have lost over the summer, see if that injury will cause a problem, and see if I can keep up!
Dancingly, Jenn
jenn@centralctfootcare.com
Dr Tina Boucher, Dance Podiatrist