All Articles by BalletHub

The New York City Ballet Workout is a fitness program by Peter Martins and the New York City Ballet available in book and DVD formats.  The workout, in its first version, contains fifty stretches and exercises that are designed for people of all ages for a stronger, more graceful and sculpted body. Exercises and stretches…

Ballet focuses a lot on positions of the body that include the arms, head and legs.  In a beginner ballet class there will be a big focus on the basic ballet positions.  These include the basic ballet positions of the feet and legs and positions of the arms. Basic Ballet Positions of the Feet and…

Here are some great tips for improving pirouettes. Take a look at each one and try to apply these corrections the next time you’re doing a pirouette combination in ballet class. These tips assume you already have a general understanding of how to do a en dehors pirouette in retiré.  These pirouette tips aren’t just…

Much like an academic school, a ballet school usually requires its students to have their own set of supplies to take ballet classes, such as proper attire and accessories. While every school may have a few specific requirements, there are some general things that ballet students need for ballet class. In this article, aimed for first…

Grand Battement en Rond is a ballet step commonly done at barre with rond de jambe exercises.  Today we’ll take a detailed look at doing this step properly from start to finish.  Grand Battement en Rond can be done both en dehors or en dedans.  For this lesson, we’ll be showing you en dehors, but…

Arabesque is a very common position in classical ballet and can look very impressive from the view of an audience member.  However, its important that a dancer not cheat an arabesque line by trying to open it to the side in an effort to get their leg higher.  Stay classical and clean by remembering to…

In classical ballet, there are five basic positions of both the feet and arms.  First, we’ll take a look at the five basic ballet positions of the feet.  The five basic positions are usually one of the first things taught in a beginner’s ballet class but are essential to the technique of classical ballet as…

A demi plié is one of the most basic but most important steps in classical ballet.  Today you’ll learn how to do a demi plié in ballet! 1. Start in a Position A demi plié in classical ballet is always done in one of the five positions of the feet.  For this demonstration, we’ll show you…

BalletHub: Hi Robbie, thanks for joining us today on BalletHub! To start off, where did you begin your ballet training, and where do you train now? Robbie Downey: My VERY first studio was called High Steppers in Victorville, CA. I was almost 4 when I started there. California Ballet came there and held auditions for…

For any ballet fans who tuned in yesterday (Feb. 7th) for the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi may have been wonderfully surprised to see ballet featured in the spectacular evening.  Well, maybe its not so surprising, since these winter Olympics are, after all, hosted in Russia.  Either way, it was great…