Using Your Spine as a Dancer

The spine is a very important part of alignment and balance in dancing, especially ballet. All dancers put a tremendous amount of stress on their backs, meaning it is very important to build muscles around the spinal area in order to protect yourself from injury. "Learning how to control your spine is the key to beautiful lines" (Greene Section 2).


This exercise will strengthen your spine, while also allowing the body to remember where your spine is supposed to be in certain ballet positions (Greene Section 2).

1. Lie on your stomach with a pillow under your abdominals. Support your head with your elbows.

2. Inhale in preparation

3. Then exhale, lifting your  abdominals towards your spine and gently contract.

4. Hold this position for a few more seconds while you inhale. Exhale once again and lower yourself onto the pillow, further contracting your spine.

* THIS EXERCISE SHOULD MAKE YOU SORE. It's very easy to simply lift yourself off the pillow without using much muscle, but if your are doing it correctly everything should be engaged. Remember, doing this the easy way will gain you no strength. In other words, do it right or don't bother at all!

 I'm not sleeping, really.

What other activities (sports, ect) can this strengthening exercise help with, and how so?

-Kristin

Haas, Jacqui Greene. Dance Anatomy. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2010. Print.

HAPPY FEET :)

Feet are by far the most important component to dancing. "Quick, fearless" feet are required to execute all motions (Greene Section 6). But this type of foot must be trained. Whether it is flexibility, strength, or coordination, everyone has something they could do to improve their feet. In dance, you feet are never simply "good enough!"

This particular exercise trains the foot for what ballerinas call a "winged" position 

        (See the upward curve to her arch? OMG PERFECT. O.o)

So basically our goal is to achieve this craziness.^

1.)  Sit down with a thear band (or elastic band) "wrapped around the forefoot" (Greene Section 6) (or upper part of your foot).

2.) Push your foot outward, creating resistance against the band. This brings your foot into a wing.

3.) Repeat 10-12 times, both in pointed and flexed foot.

This exercise is simple, but very effective. I do resistance band strengthening to my feet a few times per week.

Feet points and turned out

Feet flexed and turned out :)

Featuring me, casually trying to be cute...... 

What other activities can strengthening your feet help with? What injuries can this exercise help prevent?

-Kristin

Haas, Jacqui Greene. Dance Anatomy. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2010. Print.

Hip Flexor Stretch

Any kind of dance requires a lot of activity from the joints and muscles around the pelvis.In ballet, maintaining a high develope, controlling batement, and holding quick turns requires strong, flexible pelvic and hip muscles. This hip flexor stretch builds coordination and strength in these areas. Exercises like these need to be repeated daily in order to gain anything from them. Strength, flexibility, and coordination are maintained through a little bit of work EVERY SINGLE DAY. Take even a week without stretching or strengthening, and all your improvements may be gone.

Here's how this exercise works: 

1.) kneel on the right knee. Have your foot on the floor with your left knee at a 90 degree angle. Lengthen through your spine, keep hips in line

2.) Make a pelvic tilt through your upper body.

3.) slowly lengthen your arms into cambre position (note the right picture to see what this looks like if you're not sure). Hold this stretch for 45 second at minimum. Breathing deeply will help your balance.

4.) Slowly bring you arms back into your body, keeping your balance on your knee. Make sure to keep your hips square the entire time.  If this is too easy, try closing your eyes! (its hard....)

5.) repeat on the opposite side. Do ten reps on each leg.

wha la!! Hope you feel a little stronger :)

Happy dancing!!

Why must we  strengthen and stretch on a daily basis in order to to see improvement? What are good ways to motivate ourselves to persist in exercises everyday?




 Haas, Jacqui Greene. Dance Anatomy. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2010. Print.