Whether you watch professional ballet, contemporary, street or any other style, all dancers have a common apsect - they have a strong physique and lovely feet (depending on the dance).
Professional dancers make complex moves look simple and effortless, but much hard work goes into achieving this "look". Exercising at home over, can fulfill many roles and enhance a child's physique, so that their dancing looks more natural.
At the Reigate School of Ballet and Commercial Dance, we develop that perfect balance and posture so that inner strength can be achieved. As well as exercising strong calves, and developing the feet, core strength and overall fitness is a must. Although dancing develops fitness, further strenghtening and fitenss is extremely useful. Our body conditioning classes help strenghten the core as well as enhance a child's fitenss.
Why do dancers need a strong core?
A weakened core can lead to poor weight distribution which makes movements difficult to achieve with fluidity. Together with weak feet, a poor core can lead a dancer to injuries as a result of hard floors or overuse of the muscles in other sports.
We have teachers who specialise in developing muscles through dance the safe and correct way to prevent strain or injury, and make our pupils aware of the problems and how to overcome them. For example, in ballet pointework, we assess each child in terms of strength and age. We need to do this, as poor management can lead to serious injury later in life.
These exercises (as well as the others in this series), are gentle but extremely useful for developing the vital areas of the body for dance. Some are part of our body conditioning and limbering class regime, and if done in moderation, they can be invaluable for older child dancers.
As with all exercises, do this one little but often to develop your core.
Part 3 - Core and Fitness (below)