Q&A for How to Learn Basic Ballet Moves

In first position, start with your feet in parallel, or together. Then, open your hips so your knees, ankles, and feet rotate outward, but keep your heels together. At the same time, hold your arms so they form an oval in front of you, with your little finger at about the height of your belly button and your hands as wide apart as your face.

Don't force it: only turn out as much as your body allows.

Definitely! Ballet is a very good form of exercise. If you're overweight, it is a very good way of trimming down in a healthy manner and improving stamina, flexibility, metabolism, and overall physical and even mental health. Start off slow if you're not used to exercising.

Do some simple stretches, like lunges, everyday, and make sure that your muscles are warm before you stretch.

Yes, but it takes a lot of time and effort to become a professional.

You can use a table at a good height or anything you can hold onto. You can also learn to build your own barre.

Yes, but you may have to revisit some of the basics at first until it starts to come back to you.

Yes, ballet is appropriate for both the very young and older people.

I use socks quite often while doing turns and lyrical dances, but don't put a sock on the foot you turn on because you might slip and fall.

Try to find beginner videos on YouTube and then progress to harder videos. It's still not quite as good as classes but it's still helpful. Be careful though. Don't try to pirouette on carpet or anything like that and never use pointe shoes without the guidance of a teacher. Try to get some good dance shoes such as jazz shoes or ballet shoes to ensure that you are comfortable and moving safely.

To get a better arch, one needs to do exercises such like flexing and pointing the feet. Resistance bands are useful as well.

Plié down low, and try to go as high as you can. Try doing high knee runs really fast.

This means going into pointe shoes. Your ankles need to be really strong and your feet need to be flexible before you can do this and it should never be done without a teacher or professional class. See further: How to Dance En Pointe .

There is a good article here: Do a Pirouette with images and instructions to help you through the learning process.

Call local dance schools and see what they offer.

You do not have to be flexible to start ballet. You will quickly learn that you can do amazing things without being flexible at all.

You don't need shoes. Bare feet are fine, unless your dance school calls for shoes.

You can find a studio that accepts older students, but you are not too old to learn ballet.

In ways it is similar. You can input ballet knowledge into improving lyrical (and just about any other type of) dance. Lyrical dance means literally dancing to the lyrics of a song, therefore you will listen and react to what is said in the song. Basic ballet techniques are used in any form of dance. Lyrical is slightly more free and ballet is more of a rigorous, strict form of dance with many rules, so if you're looking to express yourself more, lyrical is better in that sense.

You will need to stretch a lot, and practice as much as you can. It will eventually come naturally to you.

Most libraries and bookstores should have some. You can also try finding one on Amazon or another website. There are many books about ballet.

Research basic things such as what plies are, and the five positions. It will make your first class much easier.

You can't teach yourself dance or point -- trying to do so is very unsafe. Find a class.

Don't worry too much. Make do with what you have by wearing some leggings instead of tights and a fairly tight t-shirt. A way to practice pirouettes and turning is to take a sock (one that's not too slippery) and put it halfway on your foot. This will help you do turns, but be careful of slipping.

Yes, of course. There are ballet classes for people of all ages.

Yes, you can use YouTube videos to help you or ask friends for their feedback.

You don't get flexible by doing lunges. It takes a variety of stretches, such as the seal stretch, straddle, back bend, and the rising swan. You can also get more flexible by learning basic gymnastics and dace moves like the cartwheel and raised frog jumps. Lunges are good for strengthening.

Yes, you can.

There is no such thing as pirouette shoes. But if you are talking about pointe shoes, you can buy them in a ballet store.

Yes, because traditional ballet does not require doing the splits. Additionally, the training from a professional ballet teacher will increase your flexibility which in turn may help you to do the splits.