I. BALLET AND PHYSIQUE

Chapter 10. Flexibility

Presumably the dancing audition has satisfied the examiner that the candidate is potentially sufficiently flexible throughout for her age. Apparent stiffness may be Due to tension or wrong effort—this is often noticeable in bane exercises where the child is contracting the back muscles instead of lengthening them and so appears stiff in the hip and lower back. (Tension, be it noted, that may be in the over-anxious teacher and reproduced in the pupil.) On the other hand as we have already said, in the long-backed, the narrow-hipped, the bow-legged, tightness in the hip is structural and not likely to be completely overcome. The knobbly knee, apparently slightly bent in standing, if not due to short hamstring muscles, may be habit only and a smooth line can be secured by effort; and so with the ankle joint which has not been fully used. These points and others can be tested by the examiner when in doubt as to the flexibility of any child.

There can never be a last word on the question of the suitability of a gifted little ten-year-old for professional training, there will always be the urge to hope, and to take a chance, but it is desirable that the parents should know of any doubts in the mind of the examiner, and in the border-line case to make the final decision. For the child who has definitely unsuitable feet or legs, or is definitely wrong in structure for ballet, it is far kinder to be uncompromising in rejection. For the one parent who will say "nobody has ever complained about my child before" there will be twenty who will be genuinely grateful for the advice to turn the child's interests in
other directions whilst there is time, disappointing though it maybe; and it is not unknown for the child to have her or his own plans. "If I can't be a dancer, I want to be a veterinary surgeon—or a nurse—or a sailor—". These incongruous alternatives have all been presented to the author at different times and one suspects in such cases that it is parental pressure that has been brought to bear upon the choice of ballet for the candidate's career rather than the ardour which is the hall mark of the 10-year old devotee.