Does anybody have any exercises to help me get ready for pointe?

Question:I need some exercises to help me for when I do pointe. Any help would be great!!!!!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I need some exercises to help me for when I do pointe. Any help would be great!!!!!

You should have had at least 7 years of ballet to go onto pointe. if you started when you were ten, and are really good, you can be on pointe when you are 12. Pointe make you feel light and graceful. It is a wonderful feeling to be en pointe. I'm 13. I've been dancing since I was 3. I think I can help. There's not one person in the whole world who can't become more flexible. Ballet is really hard work. All the hard work pays off when you are so strong and you see those beautiful pointe shoes in your dance bag. Pointe makes you feel tall. You feel really delicate on pointe because you have to be able to lift yourself up, and take yourself down carefully again. I love pointe. It's awsome. Pointe shoes are awsome too because they are hard and they are fun to use. Here are some things you should know about pointe:

Excersizes on pointe- Glissade- Start with a demi-plie in fifth position and slide your leg forwrd. Transfer your weight forward exactly onto your right pointe at the spot reached by the toes. Close your back foot tightly behind to form fifth position on pointe.

Releve- Stand in first position. Move smoothly into a demi-plie keeping your heels firmly on the floor. Holding your turnout, push strongly up onto pointe. Roll through your feet carefully back into a demi-plie.

Echappe- Demi-plie in fifth position, then spring up lightly onto pointe in second. Skim your toes across the floor to escape from demi-plie. Keeping lifted and light, close your legs simultaneously back to demi-plie in fifth position.

Darning pointe shoes- Take a needle ( a sewing needle) and stick it through the threads of the tips of the pointe shoe. This will make your pointe shoe look new and unused. If you want them to look new and unused.

Pointe shoes are made of- The tips of pointe shoes are made of satin, paper, and a coarse material called burlap, glued together. New shoes feel stiff and hard and have no left and right. It takes time and care to break them in and make them conform to your feet. You need to feel as if your shoes are a second skin. Then you will be able to "speak with your feet."

Perfect positioning- Do not try to dance on pointe until your body, legs, and feet are strong enough. Try to keep a vertical line through the center of your feet. Don't allow your feet to sickle or tilt sideways over your big or little toes. Sickling can lead to permanant injury.

Strenghten your feet, body, and legs- Sit on a chair and put marbles on the right side of you on the floor. Pick up the marbles with your toes. Do this until all of the marbles are on the left side. Then bring them back to the right side. Keep your back straight and your toes pointed.

i would suggest you to buy a dvd,,, like dvd26 on discountdance.com !!!

good luck!

You really want to strengthen your ankles. I suggest getting some resistance bands. Not the skinny rubber ones but the wider rubber ones.
Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you. hold the band on both sides with the band around the bottom ball of your foot, now do ankle rolls, point/flex, turn in and out. Work your way up to stronger bands. I hope this made sense. I will see if I can find a video.
.

releves or toe raises - about 500/day one foot at a time....I'm serious

yes the resistance band works well
9 got my shoes this summer and
do releves (tons)
one legged releves help alot make sure your legs are evenly strong if that mkes sense bec asue its 10x harder to make one work harder in pointe shoes(mine are not the same) and sorry but it sucks
Don't get frustrated
good luck:)

Yup, releves are a must. Flat to demi on both feet and then flat to demi to pointe one foot at a time. For calves and ankles try streching your heels down and then going to demi pointe on a curb or door jamb. Another good one it plie, releve, strech and down and then reverse. Everybody is right, it is just loads of practice and time, but it is worth it.