Ballet is traditional, and there are few official variations on its application. The body positions in ballet, the five positions of the feet, and ballet arm positions are very similar in the Russian, French, English and Italian dance traditions.

Even if your ballet studio does not teach syllabus classes which train you for a ballet exam, most likely your ballet teachers have studied either the Cecchetti, R.A.D. (Royal Academy of Dancing), or Vaganova method. Or perhaps a combination of those classical dance training methods.

The five positions of the feet are the same in these traditions. The basic arm and body positions vary somewhat, and all are modeled after the classical "museum" works of ballet, like Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, La Sylphide, and Giselle, derived from the famous choreographers Petipa, Bournonville, and their peers.

Your Ballet Positions - Those That Count!

The great challenge in ballet class is how to get your ballet positions as close to the ideal. And this achieving goal depends on the following:

• your ballet turnout
• your body proportions, legs to torso, neck length, arm lengths
• your flexibility, and if you know how to get more flexible
• your ballet teachers and how many corrections you get
• how much you are willing to read about ballet
• ballet pictures you study
• truly understanding your ballet barre exercises
• ballet posture; the neutral spine, neutral pelvis, alignments of the hips

Ballet students often ask me if they can learn ballet on line. I don't believe you can, not without taking ballet classes. But if you are in class, and you want to supplement your learning curve and get ahead, or be the best in your class, it depends on how much you are willing to do.

Your Maturity And Attitude Are Important - Positive thinking!

I cannot see you dance, so I am not going to belabor the details of ballet positions. You have to be able to look in the mirror and know how close you are to a good position or not. It doesn't matter how good or bad you think you are, right now. It matters how you direct your focus and mind power into learning more.

The best thing for you is to have a good reference - a dancer's guide which you can look at, and compare yourself to. Your ballet teacher is usually a good guide, unless she is eighty-five years old (one of the best trainers in North America was eighty-five and never got off the chair, when I was training at The National Ballet School of Canada), injured with restricted movements, or perhaps she or he is excellent technically in ballet, but was not born with that Ballet Body.

So you need a guide to look at, with the right and wrong way to do your barre exercises, and your ballet positions. You will able to correct yourself, and you and your fellows in ballet class can help each other too.

I don't want to offend anyone with the term "ballet bible", but there are excellent and highly praised ballet books with which dancers can use as a reference for practicing ballet at home, and many use that phrase for their favorite.

Keep studying and reading about classical dance, until you have your own ballet bible, and you will know what you need to know about your ballet positions.