At the same time, do not ignore your supporting leg. You are not merely standing on the leg; but stretching through your knee and down into the floor. This will help you balance better in the center, and, combined with the "pointing/stretching" above, makes your work look cleaner and much less lazy.
- When you plie, don't think of bending your knees but of stretching out of your hip joints and releasing your knees out to the sides. You should not be sitting in your plies but rather stretching down and reaching up-- as you go down, your upper body grows taller, and as you come up, you reach your heels into the floor before your straighten your knees. A plie is a movement, not a position.
- A grande battement is not a kick. This also follows the "reaching" theme. Push your supporting leg down into the floor while the underside of your working leg reaches up and out.
- Never ignore your hands. They are there for a reason. It's easy to forget what your hands and fingers are doing during a difficult sequence, but remember to always keep your fingers relaxed and slightly separated, "like feathers". Don't lock your hands or elbows. When standing in the preparatory position, keep your hands and elbows facing in toward each other.
- Do not carry tension in your upper body. Ballet is an illusion: difficult feats of strength performed as though they were effortless. Tension carried in the shoulders, arms and hands is a telltale sign of all the effort that goes into the ballet movements, making it look "like work" and therefore far less beautiful to watch.
- Visualize each exercise as thought it were being performed and not merely executed. Picture yourself as performing each exercsie in a different ballet (Swan Lake for adagio, Sleeping Beauty fairy variations for allegro, Don Quixote for quick turns, et cetera). This develops your performance as well as your technical abilities.
