Focus Class 5: Stability & Weight Placement, guided by Stephanie Petersen, is a complete training session designed to refine alignment, control, and dynamic movement pathways through the intelligent use of weight placement.

This full class will challenge dancers to explore how they can best organise and adjust their placement in accordance with their centre of gravity. Dancers will be challenged to find their centre whilst executing fixed positions, transitions and extensions. Exercises will target core strength, rotational stability, and the relationship between the supporting leg and centre—a fundamental connection for turns, balances, and jumps.

Special attention is given to the exercise Rond de Jambe Extension which challenges dancers to optimize their alignment, turnout, and pelvic control through their full range of motion. It’s a demanding sequence, but an excellent tool in developing technical clarity and dynamic precision.

Tips:

Think beyond 2D alignment. Remind your dancers that their stability is facilitated by three-dimensional structures—muscles, tendons, fascia—all working together in multiple planes.

Use breath to support balance. Breathing rhythmically during transitions and balances helps dancers stay centred without becoming tense or rigid.

Avoid locking to find “control.” Encourage activation of the deep stabilising muscles over bracing or stiffening joints. True stability comes from inner support, not rigidity.

Watch the standing leg. Make sure dancers are not forcing turnout, pronating the foot, or locking the knee. Emphasise correct alignment and the idea of “quality over quantity.”