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Taking Care Of Your Body During The Summer

Take Care Of Your Body For many dance students, the summer spells summer schools and dance intensives. These summer training programmes are designed to push dance students further and give them another dance experience. They can vary in length, style and structure, but it is important to make the most of the programme while looking after your body.

It is important to warm up properly, despite the fact the warm weather will make you feel like you are already warm and flexible. While your body is warm however, your muscles and joints are not. Don’t be tempted into skipping your usual warm up, in order to give your body the preparation it needs to dance and protect itself from injury.

Remember to drink enough water during summer programmes: staying hydrated is one of the most important parts of taking care of yourself during long days of dance. Make sure you drink water before, during and especially after classes, and also ensure you eat well-balanced meals. You will be dancing for many hours every day, which may be more than you’re used to, so make sure you eat enough of the right food to get you through the day.

With many different dancers around it is tempting to become competitive and push yourself beyond your dancing limits. Get enough rest to balance out the energetic days, which also means you will decrease the risk of injuring yourself. Injuries are common during summer programmes, simply because you are dancing more than your body is used to. Pay attention and listen to what your body is telling you and at the end of the day cool down and stretch.

Above all, remember to have fun! Summer intensives are designed to push you towards being a professional, but remember to enjoy the hard work.

The Dance School Dilemma

Choosing a dance school is of utmost importance for your budding dancer. For young dancers it is important they have fun in addition to learning about the dance basics before they progress further. With older dancers who are changing dance studios, it may be an idea to find out where current and former students of the studio are and what they are doing. Depending on how serious your child is about dance, it is importance to find a dance school with excellent technical training alongside a passion for developing youth dance.

Your dancers may wish to study a variety of dance techniques or just focus solely on one. Many schools offer a full range and require the students to be trained as an all-rounder, and others enable you to pick and choose training. Make sure you are able to check on your child’s progress effectively and if parents are able to watch classes. Some studios also offer the chance to be entered into competitions and other performances outside of dance school hours, but these are not usually mandatory.

Dress code or uniform is also a consideration: this reveals a lot about the dance school’s approach. The school should require close fitting clothing and appropriate footwear, no jewellery and hair off the face. Teachers must be able to see body alignment in order to provide essential corrections. Try and see this first hand before joining the studio by visiting the school to gain a better idea of how it operates, as well as the general vibe and rapport between parents, students and teachers.

In visiting the school you can also assess its cleanliness, safety and studio arrangement. You can see if there are changing areas, water accessibility and adequate materials such as mats, barres and safe floors. The atmosphere should be vibrant and the mood positive.

Recovering From Smaller Injuries

Shin Splints While major injuries are devastating, it is often the smaller injuries which have more of an effect on a dancer’s wellbeing, such as being covered in bruises or burning the feet constantly. Dancers can become desperate for a cure, such as for cuts, split skin, blisters and bruises.

For cuts and split skin, lots of dancers use fat-based balms to keep skin softer so it’s less likely to split in the first place. Use a pumice stone to reduce the thickness of skin or calluses, or nail clippers to trim tough edges so they don’t get caught and pull the wound open. Some dancers also develop taping methods for prevention. Cuts need to be kept clean and sterile, to prevent microorganisms from growing and tape can be used to hold the skin together.

Despite being small, blisters can be painful and troublesome. They form due to friction on the skin but by placing a layer between what rubs and your skin can eliminate the friction, such as by using tape, tights or clothing. Your skin will also toughen up with exposure so you will be less susceptible to blisters once your skin gets used to a new shoe or to dancing barefoot. As with calluses, dancers can use a balm or oil to make sure their skin stays soft and doesn’t dry out and harden around the blister: make sure you keep an open blister clean, sterile and covered. Don’t pop the blister, but if it is no longer intact, leave the skin over the wound.

Bruises are difficult to prevent, as they occur when capillaries, and sometimes tiny veins, are broken due to impact, allowing blood to collect near the surface of the skin. Try to control descents to the floor with strong muscles and smooth, coordinated movement. If you do bruise easily use balms and creams such as Arnica to help the healing process, and don’t let the small stuff get you down!

Reaching The Top In Musical Theatre

Musical theatre is captivating for many people, where the magic of illusion makes anything possible. For professional musical theatre performers, being on stage is the culmination of years of training and hard work; often encompassing more skills than were originally required by becoming a triple threat of singing, acting and dance. Now productions require an ever-increasing range of skills, such as puppetry and stilt-walking (Lion King), acrobatics (Pippin), playing a musical instrument (Fiddler on the Roof) and roller-skating (Starlight Express).

Traditional triple-treat performers should be strong across all three traditional areas of dance and have a few extra skills as well for the best chance of continuous work. Most musical theatre performers start in the industry as members of the ensemble or as understudies meaning they need to be as good as every swing or ensemble member in the show in all three traditional areas of performing. This can be relative between shows, as some require stronger dancers (Chorus Line or West Side Story) as well as being a singer and an actor, and some require stronger singers (Les Miserables)

In terms of the style of dance students should be learning, a strong ballet technique is an important foundation in addition to jazz and tap as the basics. Classes in pas de deux, ballroom and Pilates are also particularly useful to students in training. It is imperative that musical theatre performers show a technique regardless of dance ability with strong body posture and carriage, long lines, legs and feet turned out and upper body and arm lines.

It is therefore important to make the most of your training, regarding discipline as an integral part of training and bringing your own personal style and commitment to classes and rehearsals. Make sure you are unique and make choices to commit to working hard and going for every opportunity given.

Mirrors: An Honest Reflection?

Dance Studio Mirror It is often a revelation to dance in a studio without mirrors. Some dancers may feel uncomfortable and uncertain at first not to have mirrors, as they are not to be able to see what they are doing and check they are performing the exercises correctly. Despite this many would argue that the movement will feel right for the body, and mirrors are not required to feel this as they encourage dancers to ‘make shapes’ rather than initiate the movement from an internal source.

Dancers often find that dancing in a room with no mirrors frees up their dancing, with no judgements about themselves and liberating the movement, feeling it rather than observing it. It is important to dance with the whole body, increasing confidence and changing the way dancers experience dance and their own movement.

It’s not to say that mirrors are not a useful tool as an addition to the dance studio to help correct placement and alignment, however when dancers are constantly in front of a mirror it is easy to judge yourself harshly and compare yourself to others in the class. The reflection becomes the most important part of the dance and what dancers think they should be seeing, rather than working to improve the physical body that is there in the studio. Some dancers can even become obsessed with their reflection, spending more time looking at it than listening to the teacher.

As you progress and develop as a dancer it becomes easier to recognise the feelings of movements and technique when they are ‘correct’, gleaning the best results when you’re not caught up in your own image or perception of what you see in the mirror. Essentially your teacher is your mirror, providing feedback needed to move more efficiently without the effects of reflective self-criticism. Once you feel the movement and understand how to move her boys when you feel it, your brain can start to reproduce it over and over again and you need never see it.

Agent Searching

Finding An Agent In both the musical theatre and acting industries – in fact, any of the performing arts – securing an agent can be tricky, and almost as difficult as securing jobs! Some graduates from performing colleges leave with agents already secured; most of these are the agency that works alongside the institution and the graduates are automatically added to their books. Other instances of securing agents upon graduation is a direct result of the students inviting agents to their final college showcases, and being taken on that way.

If neither of these ventures are fruitful, it means an agent must be secured outside of the institution and post-graduation. It is something that must be done in order to be put forward for appropriate jobs, giving more chance of securing the job. Some performers do work unrepresented, however it is useful to have that other person talking and negotiating in their behalf. An agent will have more of an idea of the types of auditions and work opportunities that are suited to you, and will have more chance of getting you in the audition room.

It is important to do your research when it comes to agents, and often recommendation from friends and peers are a good basis to go on when approaching agents for the first time. Make sure you check which performers the agent already represents and think carefully about your training, skills and experience, and what would be best for you. It is important to contact agents that suit your skill level, and as a result the agent can attract castings and work opportunities that suit you.

It may take time to secure the agent you would like to represent you, and sometimes plans do not work out. However it is important to be open as you might find a different agent who suits you better.

Life Without Dance?

Red Cross As a passionate young dance student, it can be hard to conceive of a life without dance. Perhaps you’ve been injured, or can’t get a job or even discovered a full dancing life just isn’t for you. You may be able to return to dancing, and if you do your body will not have forgotten, and you’ll be able to bring more to your dancing than previously.

For many, letting dance go and getting a different job is a welcome change. The change from dancing can be refreshing and the shift in routine can be a welcome break from a sometimes intense dance existence. Injury might also mean you need to take a break from dance and, if it permits, with the right rehabilitation you can return your body to dance.

In the return to dance it is important to retrain the body to return it to its optimum health. A combined programme of, for example, running for cardio, skipping for lower leg strength, Bikram yoga for flexibility, lunges for thigh strength and ballet classes for overall strength, coordination and movement pathways can get the body back into condition.

An alternative return to dance may be through teaching, either within an institution or, more likely, freelance. It is important to take it slowly and set good foundations as a gradual return will put your body at less risk. Focusing on gently increasing your flexibility, strength and fitness means there is less chance of injury.

If you’ve managed to stay fairly active, you might not find the physical side of returning to dance too tough, but it is still important not to be too hard on the body in the beginning by keeping your legs low and not at maximum turn out. If you haven’t been active, start with simple things like brisk walking, swimming or gentle yoga classes. Pilates is always useful for core strength, flexibility and overall conditioning.

Prepare yourself mentally for the fact that you body may have changed, especially if you are a little older or if you’ve had a particularly long break. This is not a limitation however, but a positive change in a new direction and an opportunity to learn more.

Soft Tissue Therapy For Dancers

Soft tissue therapy is a method used to assist dancers in building and maintaining flexibility and facility, as well as treating injuries, in keeping the body both strong and supple. Using soft tissue therapy aids dancers in reaching their potential: sometimes referred to as massage, the technique covers such a broad range of entities the term massage cannot encompass them.

In soft tissue therapy, all the soft tissues of the body are concentrated on, as well as the systems of the body which maintain wellness. Dancers must maintain their bodies as their instrument, and in that comes muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, connective tissue and so on. Dancers may seek the therapy because of injury, or even small aches and pains. Others may come to increase flexibility or fluidity, and to check they are working at their capacity. As a result, soft tissue therapy can be about both improving performance as well as diagnosing and treating injuries.

For some therapists, working on soft tissues is not always about being ‘hands-on’, but also about working with occupational therapy and the mind-body connection which both affect the state of soft tissues. Dancers sometimes have to be trained to let the body relax and release tension to enable them to perform better – visualisation and relaxation techniques can help along with concentrating on breathing. Positive thinking is another technique that is encouraged to help dancers, along with visualisation techniques to help them see the body doing what they want.

In enhancing the benefits of soft tissue therapy it is important to be aware of the body and not ignore things, as early intervention is the best intervention. To get the best out your body you must ultimately believe in yourself, and believe that your body can do what you want it to do.

Learning To Dance

Learnuing to Dance For most young children, dance class is a time to don the pinkest tights in town and join their friends in becoming fairies, soldiers and various other characters at the command of their teacher. It is only when children become a little older that ballet and dancing becomes a little more disciplined and structured. Instead of bouncing, bending and clapping there are pliés, tendus and lots of skipping. The focus may still be on having fun, but now works to encourage the ballet basics.

Ballet has been shown to have many positive effects for children, such as confidence, strength, flexibility and focus, love of music and rhythm promoted in classes. The class must also suit the child and their needs, with many not taking students before the age of three in order for them – and the others in the class – to have a fulfilling experience that is worthwhile.

Children need to be able to concentrate on the simple tasks of the class alongside the others. It is important the class is structured and secure, later translating into identifiable sections of warm up, barre work, centre practice, travelling and sequence. Their concentration will improve as they learn, forming a cycle of positive reinforcement. Ballet also provides much discipline, requiring children to focus whilst balancing rules with fun.

The physical development caused by ballet goes without saying: children need to be at least three before their range of movement and balance is sufficient to take on such a physical and mentally demanding activity. Following this they can then work on the co-ordination, strength, flexibility, grace, range of motion and endurance that is required. From there comes emotional development. Little dance students can become very independent quickly, moving alone and growing their confidence for this, as well as feeling comfortable as part of a group.

Release Technique For All

Dance Audition Release Technique is focused on the principles of “ease of movement” and “fluidity”, continuing to adapt and transform as a result of many styles coming together to coexist and in some ways has become a dance language of its own. Dancers learn to minimise tension in the body to create freedom of movement, moving in the easiest way. The release of body weight into the floor and the use of breath to instigate movement focuses on the use of energy, gravity and momentum to create movement.

Now more than ever it seems that Release is a predisposition for dancers, especially those training in contemporary techniques. Concepts such as moving in and out of the floor, articulation of the body, alignment and balance all rely on the foundations of gravity and momentum. Despite this, many classically trained dancers find Release Technique challenging to master as it requires them to let go of the control and exact body placement entrenched by their technique, even though Release is particularly useful in countering this in aiming towards becoming a fully-rounded dancer.

It must also be noted that often Release Technique is sometimes misunderstood in the bid to dance in a way that ‘feels good’ as opposed to using correct release principles, such as letting go of the pelvic alignment, relaxing the spine and moving from impulse, when Release Technique is more demanding. These can be difficult concepts for dancers who have been trained to contain their movements and work to a precise syllabus.

A mind-body connection must be established, key to body awareness and becoming mentally aware of tightness in the muscles and joints. Body awareness or “somatics” is the foundation on which contemporary dance is built. Understanding the impetus and motivation for movement engages the brain and draws a link between intention and movement in the ability to relax specific muscle groups while working others to maintain correct form. Advanced dancers harness aspects of technique such as suspension, release, timing and dynamics to create unique

For Release, following an impulse from the body is always better than seeking to create shapes and lines: begin to trust your own movement intuition. Improvisation exercises are often useful, in order to connect the mind and body.