Ballet Positions - Ponche

Ballet Positions - Ponche

Hi Odette,
in class we have been working a lot on ponches but I haven't been improving much even though I practice a lot. I can do my oversplits and can easily do it against a wall, but I can never hold the 180 degrees slpit off the wall even with my hands on the floor. is there an exercise I can do to improve this. thanks, your advice is very helpful and helps make me a better dancer!

============================================

Reply by Odette
To:- Ballet Positions - Ponche

Hello,
Thanks for your message, it's great to hear from you and your wonderful feedback. I am delighted to help you progress and improve in your dancing.

Ponche is a challenging position to not only achieve, but also maintain that sort of extreme flexibility in your body. You clearly do have the range in your body, but now it is a case of building the strength to be able to do it on your own without the resistance on the floor in splits and against the wall. This is still great practice though, so keep it up to stretch your muscles.

I would practice ponche more at the barre, so you can use one or two hands at the barre to support your balance. Then, aim to hit the position as you would with the wall, but use your own strength to try and maintain the leg. Because you know you have the flexibility do it in the splits and with the wall, you want to pracitce more without that extra help so your muscles can build the strength.

Another good stretch for ponche is where you go as far as you can, then to get that extra bit further, use your hand to bring the leg higher into a ponche. You can practice this at the barre too during a stretching session and I find it stretches the key places more for ponche.

I hope this helps, please do keep in touch.

Best wises,
Odette