Battement tendu

I'm so sorry this is such a long post :(  You don't have to read it all once, or necessarily agree with what is written. Take your time and think it through.

While something as ‘simple’ as a Tendu gets taught very early on in most ballet schools, and is one of the core movements of all ballet steps, it is one of the things that is often poorly understood. Getting these basics right is absolutely essential as dancers get more serious about dancing. Any faults in basic technique often result in all of the niggly foot, knee, hip and back issues. If you can grasp all of these minor details, this will set you up for just about everything else in your dancing. Battement tendu is the fundamental exercise for pointe work.

The Core Ingredients in Performing a Perfect Tendu Are:

1. Mastery of subtle, dynamic core control
2. Awareness and endurance of your standing leg turnout muscles
3. Control of the position of the supporting knee
4. Articulation of the ankle and mid foot
6. The ability to maintain length in the toes while fully working the ball of the foot

The following points outline what to, and what not to do in all of these. I hope this helps!

1. Mastery of subtle, dynamic core control:

The tendu, in my opinion, actually starts from deep in the core. The deep stability of the pelvis and spine is essential to being able to maintain stability on the standing leg. Without a stable base, you will have no  base to work your turnout from, which will result in the loss of your turnout and twisting in the knee of the standing leg.

This core stability is not the kind that you get from doing sit-ups and crunches or plank type exercises. These common abdominal exercises train all of the outer muscles (which are important in their own right) however they are not the ones you need for a Tendu. The core stability that is needed is a subtle, dynamic stability which is able to be maintained for a long period of time. This is described in many ways by dance teachers, such as “pulling up” or “hollowing” the tummy, or as “feeling your center” but many people overdo it and start to look stiff and wooden. Anatomically, it is a very subtle activation of your pelvic floor, deep abdominals (Transverses Abdominis) and the deepest back muscles (including Multifidus and Rotatores).

The key to knowing that you are using the right muscles is whether you can breathe at the same time. Many dancers grip so tightly with all of their abdominals, (that attach to the bottom of the ribs” that they cannot breathe. Therefore, the contraction only lasts a few moments, and cannot be maintained during movement, and especially in higher level exercises. 

2. Awareness and endurance of your standing leg turnout muscles:
Once you have mastered the core control you now have a base to work your turnout from. Most dancers have heard about the six deep external rotators that are our true turnout muscles, however when I ask students to point them out on a muscle chart or demonstrate any specific exercises for them, they struggle…

It is essential to know the difference between your standing leg turnout muscles, and the turnout muscles that are used for controlling the leg en fondu and en lair. Quadratus Femoris (QF) is the muscle that is best placed to turn out the femur in a standing position. We work a lot on isolating rotation of the femur using QF without contraction of the outer gluteals in order to ‘wake up’ these muscles.

Once you have found these turnout muscles, you must learn to use these muscles when standing and working in class. One of the best progressions is floor barre tendus. This is a great way to practice endurance of the core and standing leg turnout, as you focus on the articulation of the foot and ankle. Make sure that the feet are kept about 10cm off the floor to challenge your core control, while still keeping the legs in the correct alignment.

3. Control of the position of the knee:

Many people with hypermobile, hyper-extended knees find it difficult to control the position of the knees when moving from 5th position into a tendu. It is sometimes tricky to find the mid-point between  feeling ‘bent’ and over straight. The aim is to get a lengthened feeling in the leg, as though you are actually trying to create space in the knee joint. It is important not to “pull back” into the knees, and even the traditional instruction of “pulling up” can often create too much tension and build up of the quadriceps. The quadriceps are definitely active, just not bunching.

Many dancers with hyper extended knees tend to sit with their weight back on the heel, and then shift the hips out to “get the weight over the supporting leg”. This makes it very difficult to work in and out of 5th position.

The cue that I find works best is if the supporting foot is kept in the “Tripod Foot” position, with the feeling of going into a very small rise. Imagine that you are lifting the heel bone off the floor, but the skin is still touching! This means that you will be automatically lifted out of the leg, and this position, combined with good turnout and core control allows much more room for the working leg to move in and out of position. This should also remove the feeling of twisting that you might feel in the knee.

4. Articulation of the ankle and mid foot:

Finally we move onto the foot and ankle! It is important to be working through the foot correctly to gain all of the benefits of the exercise, and prepare the foot for later in the class. Exercises like “Pointe through the Demi pointe” are excellent mastering the action of plantarflexion at the ankle before pointing the ball of the foot (metatarsophalangeal joints) .

Practice your Tendus in parallel in the beginning to ensure that you can control core and the position of the standing leg while working the working foot through its movement. You should be focussing on getting full plantarflexion of the ankle before you start adding on the toes. Glide the foot forward, with a feeling of stability in your center and lengthening the leg from the back of the hip to the ball of the foot. Make sure that the both knees stays lengthened throughout, and the movement is smooth.

When working on your Tendus in turnout, cues such as “lead with the heel” are designed to encourage and maintain turnout of the working leg, but do make sure that the hips do not twist towards the working leg when practising this. You should have an awareness of working the turnout evenly on both legs throughout both phases of the movement.

When drawing the foot back to 5th position, cueing to pull the little toe back helps maintain turnout of the working leg, but take care not to twist the foot. If you are elevated on the supporting leg, there should be enough space to draw the foot in to close cleanly (No wiggling of the hips or bending of the knees!)
The ability to maintain length in the toes while fully working the ball of the foot:

The control of the muscles in the ball of the foot is one of the most important factors in preventing foot and ankle injuries, and Tendus are a great way to practice this. The secret is to incorporate the “Doming” exercise into every tendu you do in class. Take special care not to let the toes curl under when fully pointed. This is especially important for the big toe, as this can cause many problems if overused, including pain in the back of the ankle.

After working on all of that, the actual effort that is put into a Tendu should be very minimal. It is in the subtle activation, isolation and endurance of all of the components mentioned above that will really transform your dancing. My rule of thumb in this kind of work is to use the least amount of effort required to effectively perform the movement. As you practise over time, this effort will become less and less!