Rib Placement | Pro Tip from Elizabeth Marlin

Our current School of Ballet 5:8 Featured Guest, Elizabeth Marlin, is a Company Artist with Ballet 5:8. We asked her to share some of her favorite pro tips with us over the coming weeks. Today's insight: the word-picture that keeps Elizabeth's ribs in line while she's dancing.

Elizabeth says:

Throughout my dancing years, my ribs have been one of my biggest challenges.

More specifically, they naturally stick out of my torso, distorting any semblance of a classical line. To combat this, I have had to learn to knit my lower ribs together, but it can be difficult for me to feel and maintain this position...so I turned to imagination.

My mental trick that works to keep my ribs in is to think of pulling them away from my leotard. In my head, I try to create a gap between my lower ribcage and the inner lining of my leotard. While this space may not actually exist in theory, the imagery is enough to keep my ribs from poking out. This can be useful even for dancers who don’t have protruding ribs by engaging the lower core to create a stable center from which to move.