During seated stretches, I encourage my students to sit straight on their sits bones and then fold forward at the hips—even if they don’t go forward very far. One student tells me that if she sits as I instruct, she can’t reach forward at all. Why? Whenever you see a student slouch or sit on […]
I have a dancer who has a very tight back. She can’t even touch her toes. She says it doesn’t hurt, but she feels no stretch. I am able to push her back down further (with no pain for her), but she just can’t do it on her own. How can I help her? —Anna […]
Turnout—the outward rotation of the hips that dancers are constantly striving to improve. Yet few actually have the 180-degree outward rotation that is so idealized. In her 40-plus years of working as a movement analyst, Deborah Vogel has only come across a handful of dancers who have it. “That’s structural,” she says. “They have a […]
I have, according my dance teachers, the “perfect dancer body.” My legs are hyperextended and I have perfect turnout. If I have the “perfect dancer body,” then why does my body hurt so much while I dance? It is all about balance! Dancers need to have flexibility and strength. It seems that you have the […]
I was taught to consistently squeeze my gluteals when dancing, to assist in turnout, and have encouraged my students to do the same. Recently, though, I experimented with relaxing these muscles and have discovered immediate relief from chronic hip pain. Have I been teaching my students incorrectly all along? What you have discovered is that, […]
My daughter’s ballet teachers have been telling her to straighten her legs more—particularly in arabesque—but she swears they’re as straight as she can make them. Do you know how we can help this? Sometimes knees won’t straighten due to injury, like a meniscal tear or swelling caused by trauma or arthritis. To test if this […]
One of my dancer friends was told by a doctor that she had reverse curve in her spine due to constant forward curves, head-tail movements and backward rolls. Do you have any advice for how to remedy or prevent this? The answer is: good posture! The constant forward head that students have as they look […]
When I am lying down on my back with my feet together and knees apart and press down on my knees, my hips pop. It feels really good. However, now when my hips don’t pop, they hurt, and my lower back starts to hurt as well. What do I do to get them to pop, […]
“If you don’t have strong abdominal muscles, you sag into your lower back, your pelvis usually tips and you’re hanging out and slumped into your hip joints,” says Deborah Vogel, movement analyst, neuromuscular expert and co-founder of the Center for Dance Medicine in New York City. “It just has this whole chain reaction.” The effects […]
I have heard you say that tight hamstrings prevent full extension of the knees and that you prefer hamstring stretches in a standing position, rather than on the floor. Can you explain why? The reason I prefer stretching tight hamstrings in a standing position is to isolate the stretch better. The problem with stretching on […]