Developing Your Développés

When performed right, a well executed développé looks damn impressive. Unfortunately for most people it's a struggle to get them as high as you want and make it look easy, and it's frustrating when you have the range of motion, just not the strength to achieve it. I worked with a dancer whose passive range of motion was incredible at 176 degrees, but unsupported her leg was barely above 90. We worked on a simple set of strengthening exercises and her active range of motion was notably improving within weeks.

One of the problems when dancers try to build strength to improve développés is they target the wrong muscles. For developpe a la seconde, you need to work on hip flexion, external rotation and abduction. Leg strength alone isn't going to get your leg up there. You need to strengthen the hip flexors and train your body to hold your turnout throughout the extension (if you want specifics, you're working on the iliopsoas, rectus femoris and Sartorius). In extension a la seconde your muscle is in an extreme range of contraction, and so produces less force than at less extreme ranges, the only way to counter this is strength training!