the mere detection of tangential orbits, but did not try a direct comparison with predictions from theoretical models. This is necessary, however, to distinguish between dissipational and dissipationless core formation, since both predict stars to predominantly move along tangential orbits.

Early dynamical models, in addition, lacked dark matter (DM) halos [@Cretton99; @Gebhardt00; @Verolme02; @Gebhardt03; @Shapiro06; @Houghton06; @Gebhardt07; @Nowak08; @Cappellari09; @Siopis09; @Gueltekin09; @Krajnovic09; @vandenBosch10]. Omission of DM leads to a bias in the masses of the stars and of the central black hole [@Gebhardt09; @Rusli13a]. Distributions of stellar orbits measured without including the effect of DM are correspondingly unreliable.

For about half of the $\sim$ two dozen galaxies that have been modelled with DM halos so far, only long-slit [*Hubble Space Telescope*]{} ([[*HST*]{}]{}) stellar kinematical data are available [@Shen10; @Jardel11; @Schulze11]. Such data – due to the limited spatial coverage – do not fully constrain the distribution of central stellar orbits. Up to now, only three core ellipticals [@Gebhardt11; @McConnell12] have reliable measurements of the central orbital structure using both DM halos and two-dimensional (2D) kinematic data. Similar measurements for power-law, non-core elliptical galaxies are yet missing.

Here we present a coherent analysis of the central orbital structure in 11 massive 