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 […]
“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 am on summer break right now, and I am worried about losing some of the strength that I gained last year. Do you know of anything I can do during my time off to maintain my leg, back, core and arm strength? Is swimming good for strength training? Being on summer break is a […]
What is the key to getting higher extensions to the front and side? I’ve gotten many suggestions to use my psoas, but during all of the exercises I’ve done to try to strengthen them, I always end up using my hip flexor. —Hadley Hi Hadley, What a great question and one that many dancers are […]
In her work as director of physical therapy for New York City Ballet, Marika Molnar relies on tools like bands, balls and Pilates equipment to rehabilitate and strengthen dancers. She says there’s a place for such tools in daily dance classes, as well. Resistance and stability tools can help students develop strength and even break […]
The pressure for female dancers to be slim and feather-light is often at odds with their need to be strong. This contradiction is especially misleading in partnering. “Sometimes, a woman who has more muscle mass may weigh more but is actually easier to lift because she’s stronger,” says Matt Kent, associate artistic director of Pilobolus. […]
Most ballet teachers like to reserve the last part of class for jumping, a time when students happily try to defy gravity and take flight. But some dancers have difficulty getting off the ground. Maybe they don’t use their plié or struggle to coordinate their arms and legs to achieve a strong position in the […]
In our June issue’s Health column we share some exercises for your best upper body. Once students are properly aligned and ready to begin strength training, our experts recommend exercises for stability, then strength. They use small, subtle movements to develop overall stability in the upper body. Note: It is important to do each exercise […]
Steph Lee, a dancer with Renegade Performance Group in New York City, spent more than 10 years of her dance career fighting recurring injuries. It wasn’t until she added CrossFit—the heavy-lifting, loud-grunting, specialized gym workout that has taken the world by storm—to her cross-training routine of Pilates and yoga that she found some relief. “Nothing […]
Our hips are overachievers. They are the main source of turnout and the axis of all leg movement. Dancers work them hard. No one knows this better than Heather Heineman, physical therapist at the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries at NYU Langone Medical Center. She treats all kinds of hip injuries in dancers, frequently from […]