Ballerina Arm Movements

Video Transcript

"Now I'm going to explain about port du bras. That's our arm movements in ballet. They're very, very important. I don't know if you've ever seen performances of ballet. But, without the arms the performance would be absolutely nothing. So you're going to want to start by standing up completely straight almost as if you have a line drawn up the center of your body. And you're going to feel like there is a string pulling you from the back of your head, upward. Until you are as tall as you can possibly be. You're going to want to make sure your shoulders are completely flat. And you're going to want to put your arms like a little circle in front of you. You're going to be able to see, that if you look down a little bit, with your eyes, the inside of your palms. You want to make sure you see the inside of your palms in front of you. And you want to make sure it?s about an inch to two inches in front of you. And its high enough to where your belly button is, so, you are going to want to put your fingers on your belly button, and then pull them out in front of you. Now this is first position. You are going to want to put your arms out in front of you to about shoulder height, almost. It?s going to be about maybe an inch to two inches below it. And then you're going to open them out. You want to feel, if you've ever been in a pool, it?s a very good way to test this. Get in a pool and go to open your arms out. You can feel the back of your hands pushing against the water. So you're going to want to open them out like that, and bring them out to the side. Now when they're on the side you want to make sure you're supporting them from under your arm. Feel almost like you are resting it on a little bit of a shelf. So you're going to bring your arms out, then, you're going to flatten your hands, and then bring your arms down. Again, as if you are pushing against water. And this is first port du bras."