What Does My Head Do?

 As a ballet beginner, you tend to focus mostly on coordinating foot and leg movements.  Your teacher may also suggest some simple arm movements, as well.  While you're learning these basic movements, directing your head straight forward is perfectly acceptable.

As you progress and gain more confidence, however, you can add style and beauty to your combinations by including head movements.

In ballet, head movements are always subtle.  Because your head is a significant weight (about 10-12 lbs.), you don't want to throw it around too much and knock yourself off balance.   But, by including gentle head movements into your combination, you add that last bit of polish that makes you look like a dancer.

Julie, at Ballet for Grownups, has a very nice video, on coordinating basic arm and head movements.  The movements she shows include many of the standard "rules" we talked about in the post on Remembering Choreography.

Once you start feeling comfortable with your basic leg and arm movements, try incorporating some head movements as well.  You can always start with just one or two head movements.  And if you get lost, it's fine to revert back to "head straight forward" until you regain your bearings.