Finding Your Center

Finding Your Center

In ballet, ‘finding your center’ is a crucial part of what makes a good dancer. I recently ‘found’ it, and it is a strange feeling to say the least — relieving, controlled, and slightly ghostly. 

First off, you ‘find your center’ by engaging many muscles at once. For me, I rolled my tailbone down while making sure my back wasn’t rounded, pulled my shoulders back with my arms in first position while checking to see if the dumplings I had wolfed down an hour earlier had decided to show, and elongated my neck, imagining that there was a thread pulling the top of my head to the ceiling. It took many tries, and countless miniscule adjustments, but after an hour and a bit, I stood in my pointe shoes, perfectly poised and balanced. 

The feeling is a bit like a pole running through you. I felt a ‘pole’ running from the top of my head, down to my pelvis, and the ‘pole’ split at the bottom into two, running down both my legs. The feeling of ‘finding your center’ is relieving in the moment because you feel safe, like you aren’t going to fall over because the ‘pole’ is holding you up. You feel controlled because the ‘pole’ is keeping you upright, and you feel ghostly because, well, the feeling of having a pole running through you is quite odd. 

Unfortunately, the feeling of being in your center doesn’t last for long. After around twenty seconds of sustained balancing in my pointe shoes, I relaxed my scapula ever so slightly, and immediately toppled forward into my makeshift barre (a chair). I was kind of upset because I had worked hard to find my center, but as I kept trying, I got a few more hints of the ‘pole’ running through me again. 
I hope this article has helped you ‘find your center’, inspired you to do so, and explained to you the feeling! If you liked this article please read my other blog posts and subscribe! 

the photo does not belong to me.

This is the position that I was in when I found my center.