Dance Direct Blog

It is that time of year again, when applications to vocational dance and drama schools are starting to be filled in, tap shoes are dusted off and legwarmers are at the ready. Audition songs, monologues and solos must be prepared, forming the beginnings of nerve-wracking experiences for young, hopeful performers. Dance auditions can be particularly [...]

Lie on your back with one leg raised to a 90 degree angle with your toes pointing towards the ceiling. Keep the other leg either stretched out parallel in front of you along the floor or with the knee bent. Make sure your pelvis is (and remains) in neutral. Arms should be in a T [...]

To enhance your lines, for a stronger body and an improved performance we have a range of essential dance accessories for the dancer eager to excel. However, it is vitally important to warm up properly to look after your body correctly, as it is the instrument with which to fulfil your dance desires… and if [...]

In a nutshell, the roll up is designed to engage the abdominals through controlled spinal articulation. It is a rolling through the spine,from lying, up into a spine stretch position (think… contracted over a ball arms reaching forwards, with the shoulders down). Then, with a controlled rolling back down through the spine to lie along [...]

Welcome to the final part of the perfect shoe trilogy… about darning! Pointe shoe darning is done for a number of reasons, the most obvious being to replace normal cotton or thin ballet thread to hold ribbons in place. You can buy thick darning thread and double it so only a few stitches are needed [...]

Once you have applied shellac to your shoes (if you have hardened them beforehand), you need to prepare the spine or back of the shoe to give the prettiest pointe possible for your foot. Make sure that you have choosen a pointe shoe with the correct strength back (i.e. normal, strong or extra strong – [...]

With the ever-increasing emergence of “theatre-training” programmes, children and young people of the twenty-first century are receiving multiple opportunities to engage in the arts of singing, dancing and acting. One avenue which is receiving more and more popularity each year is that of summer schools, which are offered by a variety of organisations and institutions [...]

Dancers are generally aware of the importance and benefits of conducting a thorough warm up before taking part in any physical activity, including dance, yet often other factors prevent this from happening. Being late to class or rehearsals, for example, can restrict your warm up time, or even cut it out completely. Most dancers undertake [...]

This is taken from Fletcher Pilates, which I studied last year. Fletcher Pilates was devised in America by Ron Fletcher, who was until recently, the only living man to have worked with Joe Pilates himself. Sadly he died two months ago so I pass this on with respect for his teaching in order to carry [...]

With the growing trends of dance-related talent shows throughout the media, the trend for wearing socks as a “performance accessory” is also emerging as one that is taking the dance sector by storm. Turn to So You Think You Can Dance, Got To Dance, or Britain’s Got Talent; socks are becoming increasingly popular to aid acts [...]