Professional Ballerina Isabella Boylston's at-Home Leg Workout

Isabella Boylston: And stretch. And grand plié. Ooh, ow, knocked my knee on the sink. Hi, guys. My name's Isabella Boylston, and I'm a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Today I'm gonna take you through my at-home workout, and I hope you enjoy it. Professional ballet dancers usually rehearse for five or six days a week, and I sometimes rehearse for up to nine hours a day.

So, my new schedule's definitely been a bit of an adjustment, but I'm just doing everything I can to stay motivated and stay in shape, stay sane.

Wish I had a selfie stick right now. Anyways, as you can see, I've been moving around my kitchen furniture. Luckily my kitchen sink is about the same height as a ballet bar, so that definitely helps. The floor is wood, which is also helpful, although it would be ideal if it was marley. It's a little slippery, but I'm able to do most of what I need to do.

I'm just gonna show you guys this exercise that I really like for your butt and your hamstrings. My best friend, Lauren, taught it to me. She's a ballerina in ABT with me. It might look like nothing, but after, like, a couple sets, you will feel the burn. It's also really good for stability, especially if you wanna be, like, balancing securely on one leg. Yeah, if you have a yoga mat, that's awesome. Get your yoga mat ready, and then lay down. So, this is based off of, like, bridging, which is just, a simple bridge is like that. Ah, OK. So, instead of a normal bridge, you're gonna put one leg up in the air at a 90-degree angle. And then you're gonna go up, up, up, up, five, six, seven, eight. And then you can either do, like, eight, 10. Let's start with eight. Stay up, and then you're gonna go, just lower and raise the heel. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So, I would recommend to do, like, three sets of eight or 10 if you can. It's actually pretty brutal. And then, after you do two or three sets on one side, switch over and do the other side.

Honestly, one of the biggest things that I miss is just being with my whole ballet company to do this. It's a little hard to stay motivated while I'm on my own, but it's helped a lot to be able to connect with people via Instagram Lives to try to, like, recreate that community that I have.

So, now we're gonna move on to jumps. Jumping is just really important to, like, charge up your quads and calves. And pretty much every solo that I ever do, everything I ever do in a show, like, involves some kind of jumping. It's also really good for cardio. OK, so here's the combination. We're gonna do eight jumps in first, eight jumps in second position, and then we're gonna do 16 changement, which is, it means "to change" in French, changement de pieds. Basically this is how you do it. You jump up in the air with your feet squeezed together like that, and then you change them in the air, and then you land. So, like that. All right. So, here we go. Five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. In second, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Changing, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And then I would recommend doing that probably at least two or three times to just, like, build up some endurance.

So, just gonna tell you guys about my pointe shoes for a moment. These are customized and handmade just for me. I actually don't wear any, like, toe pads in them, which I don't really recommend, 'cause it definitely takes a toll on your feet. But the upside is I feel like I can use the floor better, like I can feel my weight better. So, the correct way to tie them is just right around the ankle, right here, and not too tight 'cause you don't wanna strangle your Achilles. OK, now we're ready to go.

Basically, even taking, like, a week off of pointe, you sort of lose all the calluses and stuff that you've built up, so even if I can't, like, move that much in my kitchen, I've been trying to put them on and do a few simple exercises to keep my toes nice and tough. I'm gonna do a combination with échappés and passés, and then some bourrées. Five, six, seven, eight. Échappé, échappé, échappé, sous-sus, passé, passé, échappé, sous-sus, again.

Let's go to the bar, or the kitchen counter, if you will. For this part you can either wear socks, you can wear ballet shoes if you have, like, ballet slippers. If you have pointe shoes and you wanna wear those, that's cool too. Barefoot. Anyways, all you need is something sturdy to hold on to. OK, so, first we're gonna start with pliés, which is basically squats, except for you're turning out. This is really good for your quad, good for your butt, good for your calves. It kind of gets your, like, external rotation going, which you need 'cause everything in ballet is all about turnout. This is, like, the way that we always start ballet class. So, put your heels together-ish.

One more important thing that you need is good music. Doesn't have to be classical music, I've actually been mainly listening to pop music, like, late '90s, early 2000s. Five, six, seven, eight. Demi plié, demi plié, and grand plié. Ooh, ow, knocked my knee on the sink. Six, seven, eight, to second. And demi plié, demi plié, and grand plié, six, seven, eight. Now let's go to fifth position, which is two legs crossed, just like that. So, demi plié, demi plié, and grand plié, six, seven, eight. And now we're gonna stretch all the way forward, rolling up, and to the back.

And actually you can join my friend James Whiteside and I Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a ballet class that we're calling The Cindies Ballet Class. That's our nickname for each other. And there's a voluntary donation every time that we are giving to various charities to help those who need it most right now. And we're gonna tendu back to first.

Let go of the...whatever you're holding on to. Rise up. Try to just relax your neck, make a nice shape with your arms. Shoulders down, and then roll down. And so you can also do this, like, without the bar if you want to, if you wanna work on your balance. Just in the center, so that would just be the same thing, but you have to really concentrate on your balance so you don't fall over. You don't wanna be pitching forward at the waist when you do the grand pliés. Try to keep your body in line. So, like, your shoulders are over your hips, which are over your feet.

Next combo at the bar is adagio, and this is an adagio that I really like that my friend Damian Woetzel taught me. It's a combination that the renowned teacher Stanley Williams used to give at SAB. Once again I'm gonna hold on to the bar. And you prepare your arm, you'll have, like, nice air under your arm, you're not dropping your elbow. A nicely shaped hand, shoulder down. And then you brush out, bend both legs and stretch, bend both legs and stretch, to fifth. So you're gradually raising your leg every time you stretch. And to the back. Stretch. And to the side. Same thing, and stretch. Nice. And, so, you definitely wanna make sure you do that on both sides, right side and repeat it on the left side, so that you're working evenly and you're not favoring one side or the other.

Thanks so much for watching, everyone. I really hope you enjoyed it. I know this is a really hard and scary time for everybody, but I think it's just... my advice is just, as much as possible, to try to maintain some structure in your life, keep your body moving. Honestly I think you can find something quite meditative about working out in a time like this. I just wanna say, like, a thank you to all of the essential workers and healthcare workers, everyone who's not able to stay home and doesn't have the luxury of working out in their kitchen right now. We appreciate you so much.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in May 2020.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonyxvs6fnKyrmaS7oriMm5ilpJWntq%2BtjKKqmpqVobmiecGosKWrpKS7tHnArWShp52aeq2xxmauqKqbpMK1eZFpaWllZA%3D%3D