Stretching Part 1 - When Not To Do It!!

Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made. ~Ted Shawn

            When we consider everything that happens in every system of the body on a daily basis, we begin to realize that the human body is truly a miraculous creation.

            My students hear me repeat daily that we are only given one body, and it is our job to take care of it.

            If I had a dime for each time I have heard a dance teacher tell his/her students to go into the studio and start stretching to warm up, I would be rich.  Yet, every time I hear it, I cringe.

            Stretching is certainly an important part of a dancer’s training but should never be done at the beginning of a class or rehearsal.  Time in the studio should always begin with a cardiovascular warm up.  The warm-up should include the entire body and could consist of rapid walking or jogging, prances, small jumps or full body circles.  I have been known to spend the first 5-10 minutes of class having my students move through circuits that included jogging, jump roping and jumping jacks.

            This type of warm-up does exactly what it claims to do; it creates heat in the body.  These large movements increase the heart rate, which increases the blood flow to the muscles.  The blood, therefore, is able to quickly carry oxygen and “fuel”, in the form of glucose, to the muscles.  The heat combined with the increased oxygen and glucose delivery, increases the speed of muscular contractions and increases the speed of messages, or impulses, that are carried along nerve pathways between our brains and muscles.

            Additionally, warming up the different joints of the body releases something called synovial fluid, which acts as oil would in a car engine, lubricating all the bones that move against each other.

            Beginning a class or a rehearsal without a cardiovascular warm-up increases every dancer’s risk for injury.  All dancers are aware of how difficult it can be to heal from an injury and how quickly technique begins to deteriorate when a dancer must take time off to heal.  Taking care of our bodies takes a little bit of knowledge and some effort, but the payoff of having a body that continues to function optimally is well worth it.

            We are only given one body.  A musician has an instrument to use to create his/her art and a dancer has his/her body.  Musicians respect their instruments and take great care to protect and keep them working well.  Shouldn’t we do the same?

More Than Just The Body

"Socrates learned to dance when he was 70 because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected." - Michel de Montaigne

Dancers might be happy but is that the reason that parents rush to sign their children up for classes every September?  

Surely, parents realize that only a very few of these young ones who chaîné down marley-clad floors will become professionals, yet they are willing to drive them to and from classes and pay for them to learn this art.

The answer lies in the fact that we are complete beings - not only body - but also mind and spirit.  Dance serves to educate all three.

Dance is one on the few physical activities that is both an individual and a team sport.  Dancers learn to compete with themselves to accomplish their own personal bests.  They learn to work hard to train their individual bodies and to improve upon their technique.  At the same time, they learn to share space, they learn to be responsible to their classmates, to respect others and to move in unison with others.

Students learn very early that there will always be someone in class, as well as in life, who is better than they are and someone who is not performing quite as well.

         Dancers learn to create something of their own.  They learn how to make themselves seem larger than life.  They learn how to establish where they are and how to send their energy out into the universe.  They learn lessons in self-confidence and how to build their own self-esteem.

Dancers learn that there is a payoff for hard work.  They learn that there will be days of failure and disappointment as well as days of success and elation.  They learn to turn their failures and disappointments into successes.  They learn to share in the disappointment of others and to applaud other’s accomplishments.

Dancers know that the art form involves discipline.  They know that they should only enter a studio wearing the proper attire, with their hair up and jewelry removed.  They learn to respect their teachers and to applaud for everyone at the end of class.  They learn to talk less and observe more.

Dancers learn that a dance studio is a place unlike any other and they carry their training with them wherever they go, and illustrate what Martha Graham meant when she said, “Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.”