This foot warmup uses a lot of elevés and relevés and is a great exercise for pre-pointe and increasing ankle strength and height.
Notes:
The weight transfers in this exercise allow for students to focus on not letting the ankle drop in height when transferring from 2 feet to 1. It is very common for dancers to be stable on 2 feet and have high arches with good alignment, but then lose some of that height when going to one foot. Make sure you keep the height of the ankle when switching from 2 feet to 1!
When doing the little degagé points in set 2, I try to clarify to students that they should both maintain the height of the ankle on the standing leg, and really use the "under-toes" to press on the floor.
This combo is part of my Frozen follow-along barre for intermediate/advanced!
Facing the barre, from 1st position
Set 1:
1-4: 2 elevé, and lower
5: elevé
6: transfer the weight to the right foot in coups de pied
7: transfer the weight back to 2 feet
8: lower the heels
Repeat a total of 4 times alternating feet.
Set 2:
1: elevé
2: transfer the weight to the right foot and point the left
3: transfer the weight to the left foot and point the right
4: bring the right foot into coups de pied and extend back to degagé
5-7: 3 more weight transfers
8: bring the left foot into coups de pied and extend back to degagé
Repeat this set again, lower the heels on &.
Set 3:
1-4: demi plié and stretch
5: demi plié
6: forced arch
7: plié
8: stretch
repeat.
Music: In Summer - Nate Fifield's Frozen for Ballet Class I &II, track #10