Some elements of dance technique are purely a matter of aesthetics. Others are a matter of preventing injury, and some are a combination of both. Teaching dancers to avoid sickling is a great example of one of these dual-purpose technical concerns. If a dancer is in the habit of sickling their feet in non-weight-bearing positions, […]
Whether you teach ballet, contemporary, tap or hip-hop, you and your students might be all too familiar with wearing a variety of dance shoes when it comes to training and performing. Which means that it’s especially important to train your students’ feet to adapt to these different movement styles. Each dance shoe, whether it’s pointe […]
A raspy voice and sore muscles are not obligatory for teachers, but that’s often what happens after hours of teaching. Being a dance teacher is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. Unfortunately, whether it’s because you’re pressed for time or that you’re focused solely on your students, self-care isn’t always the top priority. You might think […]
After making the most out of dancing in living rooms, driveways and basements, dancers have a newfound appreciation of the little things, like mirrored walls, sturdy barres and, especially, supportive flooring. In fact, the quality of the studios dancers are so excited to return to will directly affect how quickly they restore both their technical […]
Q: I have a ballet student who feels a click in her working knee every time she does a fondu in any direction. It happens just as she straightens it, and it seems to be relatively painful. What do you think is happening? A: While the knee is a hinge joint that should only bend […]
It’s news that Dr. David Weiss doesn’t like to give. Sometimes dancers see him thinking they have shinsplints, when they actually have a stress fracture, a more serious injury that requires a longer recovery. “When dancers come in with stress fractures, I see a lot of denial,” says the NYU Langone Medical Center orthopedist. “They […]
Like any dance teacher, Christopher Busbin witnesses his students’ popping joints and often experiences his own. “My shoulders were always cracking, and I thought it was from torn rotator cuffs,” he says. Busbin, who teaches at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Birmingham, Alabama, saw a massage therapist, who discovered that the stress in his joints […]
At San Francisco Ballet School, Henry Berg’s conditioning program is affectionately known as “rehab.” Dancers take this class when they’re coming back from an injury and building up to their full school or company schedule. Rehab often starts on the floor with non-weight-bearing exercises and gradually progresses through a classical ballet barre and center. “I […]
When Florida State University professor Tom Welsh arrived in Tallahassee in 1991, dance science was uncharted territory. “Mostly, it was technique teachers who were looking for ways to keep their dancers dancing,” he says. “It was just a field people imagined could happen.” He immediately set to work building the university’s dance science program from […]
You’ve likely seen dancers wrapping recovering joints or taping sore muscles with bright, colorful kinesiology tape. The lightweight, stretchy adhesive is said to improve athletic performance by helping the wearer feel where her limbs are in space. Others like that it provides light support without restricting movement. Devotees even say it increases blood and lymphatic […]