Ballet and your butt

I go around in class poking glute muscles. If they are not being used, I'll say something like, "No mushy buns!" When I see a dancer with a big butt, (mostly female), who is not using their glute muscles, their butt, I know exactly what's going on in their head. They're thinking, "I don't want my butt to get any bigger, so I'd better not use those muscles, because that'll make them grow like a bodybuilder."

Wrong.

If you use them, properly, they will not get bigger, because you are not using weights like a bodybuilder. Okay, don't believe me. Then your butt will stay big, and mushy, and you won't have the requisite strength in your hips to properly hold your turnout.

Dancers who don't use their butts properly can't hold their turnout, can't lift their leg in arabesque, can't keep their weight forward, and can't even maintain a neutral pelvis.

Turnout from the inside of the thigh? Nope, that's not what those muscles do.

Lift your leg in arabesque from underneath? Nope, the muscle on top does the work.

Etc., etc., etc.

Your butt muscles are extremely powerful. Your grand allegro jumps are powered more by extension of the leg than by your plié. Don't believe me? Watch the big jumpers. They don't use as much plié as you think. (Petit allegro is different).

If you still don't get it, look at professional dancers. No mushy buns there.

Use your butt, or you simply won't dance well.

See you in class.