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 […]
While teaching jazz at Gus Giordano Dance, sometimes Lauren Giordano Curran forgets she’s not a student. “You have to listen to your body. I have to know I can’t do a full-out battement because I’m going to tear my hamstring,” she says. “Teachers forget that and go right into it, and you find yourself, like, […]
Stretching the hamstrings may be the key to injury prevention for some football players. This week, sports news media are getting a kick out of the Dallas Cowboys NFL team installing ballet barres outside their locker rooms, but the move certainly makes sense to us! One of the team’s top players recently tore an ACL, […]
You’ve heard it before: get your blood flowing before you stretch, yet many dancers still arrive to class and immediately plop down into their full splits. If you weren’t already convinced, new research indicates that using static stretches as a warm-up leaves muscles weak and wobbly during the following workout. As particularly bendy athletes, dancers […]