Advice on Two Bugging Habits

ghilliesnstrings · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:23 pm Post subject: Advice on Two Bugging Habits

I need some advice on two little things. So, I'm pretty new at Irish dancing. I'm coming up on a year in a few months. So, here's the two things that I don't know how to fix:

-I'm sickle-foot in ghillies. Or that's what my teacher told me. It apparently means that my foot is curving inwards, especially on cuts and jumps. I don't know how to fix this. I tried drilling it and doing cuts and stuff slow paying special attention to it, but when I put it back into the dances (especially reels because of the patterns) it goes right back to sickling. Any suggestions? Any thoughts on why I'm doing it?

-I'm having some trouble staying up on my toes and pointing while I'm in hard-shoes? Is this just because the shoes aren't broken in, or I'm just not used to wearing hardshoes yet? Suggestions? They're used shoes, but they're leather, not suede, and I don't know how used. I have extremely small feet, so I'm able to buy shoes from nine to eleven year olds that just grew out of them. So, they're not really used up, they're just grown out of.

KT · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:01 am Post subject:

Not sure what advice to give you on the sickling. :-/ My ballet teacher [mom put me in ballet classes to help with irish. It realllly helps] anyway she also says I sickle. Especially on my practice arabesques on the bar [leg straight out behind me]. I maybe you could have two sticks or something to keep your feet straight? I'm not sure. I'll ask my teacher and see what advice she has. Also you could go on the Irish Dancing Magazine website and ask on the forums. They've got tons of girls there who might know about it. [PS, I'm mawngoose. ;)]

And I also have trouble with hardshoes, especially on my toes, because of the big block of fiberglass that's in my way. :P Lol. What helped me was when I got home from dance class, I'd bend my shoes together (either way to start with) and put a rubber band around them and leave that on for maybe an hour or two. If you want to leave it in longer, sure. Just make sure you don't over-stretch ''em. ;) Then you can take it out and bend them the other way. That made my shoes significantly more flexible and I was able to do toestands and point more and saw an overall improvement during my next class! Try that and see how it goes. I hope this helps, if not with the problems you wanted than maybe with something else!