My daughters dance teacher told them they both need to strengthen their ankles in order to help them get higher jumps and to stay on their spots. I would appreciate any suggestions, exercise ideas, special equipment or floor exercises that have worked for other dancers.

Thank you for any and all feedback,

I took Ballet for a while and we had to have really strong ankles before we were allowed en pointe. What helped me was doing rises, standing on the ball of one foot all the time (or not even on the ball) and always drawing letters with my feet.

There are tons of these exercises over on the Pointe boards... I'd link some but it's hard on my iPod.

Do you have a theraband? It's just a piece of thin, flat elastic, kind of like balloon material except stronger. You can get this stuff at many medical and sports stores and it's really good for adding resistance to ankle exercises. When I've used it, I normally put it around my foot, hold on to the ends and just point and flex with it like that.
And I agree, definitely check the Pointe area of the ballet forums, there's some really great info there.

Thanks for the info, I'll definitely check out the ballet site as well. I hadn't thought of that.

And I love the photo you have used for the icon, very original!

Korinna

rotating your ankles in both directions for periods of time and also use slow controlled movements and raise up and slowly down from the balls of your feet. also practice pointing ALOT! boring but im sure it will help