Nia & The Feet: Sandi Wants to Know

By Jenn Hicks | November 2, 2010 |

The other day I got a message from a student, Sandi, with a great question about her feet and Nia.

She’s agreed that I could publish it on my blog to share it with all of you!

“Hey, Jenn, your tweets about body awareness reminded me of something I’ve meant to ask you for a while.

I’m very aware of the direction my feet point because they don’t naturally point forward. The comfortable natural position for them is about 25-30 degrees outward. It’s been that way since I was a kid, which I recall clearly because a dance teacher told me at age 10 that I was “built for ballet” because of my natural outward angle.

So when you tell us to stand in closed position with toes together and heels slightly apart, it feels very awkward and unbalanced. I usually just leave my toes apart and legs in my natural outward-turned position, thinking that’s “my body’s way” but am wondering if there’s value in trying to train my legs and feet to face more forward. I.e. is there something that Nia is trying to achieve by suggesting that position or is that just the default because most people are built that way naturally?

Inquiring minds want to know. :> “

“Thanks for this great question Sandi!

The safe positioning of ankles/knees and hips is in the same direction. In ballet, when there is a turn out at the hips, that might be ok for hips and ankles (because they are joints that are meant to rotate). In that position, however, the knees have the possibility of torquing, something they aren’t very happy about.

So, if your ankles, knees and hips are all facing the same direction, in whatever stance you’re in, that’s The Body’s Way i . If they’re not, you could be compromising the knees.

In closed stance, I agree that, if one’s hips have a little bit of an external rotation (hence feet do as well), internally rotating them can be difficult/awkward/uncomfortable.

As always, you’re right – we do go with “our body’s way” first and then experiment with “the body’s way” using comfort and pleasure as the guide to take you there….

So really the closed stance is purposeful in that:
– it brings our spine into the most naturally upright alignment
– it gives us that nice alignment of ankles/knees/hips (and feeling that alignment can train us to maintain it in the other stances and when stepping)
– it trains us to have a smaller base of gravity, training our balance with a smaller base.

Hope that helps!

Love, Jenn”