Today we are going to talk about the shoulders and how a little bit of Ballet Strength training for the shoulders can help improve your port de bras, enhancing your partnering skills. Your port de bras is not only an important part of your daily ballet class and performance – it effects your partnering skills too! If you have weak arms you will have trouble executing simple partnering skills like finger turns, promenades, and arabesques.

The exercise we are going to do today is called the overhead press. The overhead press primarily works the entire shoulder and front deltoid muscles with the triceps as the secondary muscle used. The idea is to strengthen the shoulders in the overhead position which will in turn help tremendously with finger turns. Give this exercise a try with light weight such as 3-5 pounds weights to start. Start with 10-15 repetitions performed three times.

Add this exercise to your ballet cross training routine and notice a difference on your placement in class and your strength/balance in partnering class! As always, be sure to check out my Ballet Strength training programs for more detailed exercises.