You are ready to take up a dancing class. Surely but slowly, you will understand that dance workouts are part and parcel of your dancing routine. When you take up dance classes, you will begin to understand that one of the most important qualities for any dancer is flexibility.
It is your flexibility as a dancer that enables you to stand out in the crowd as well as makes your every movement on stage appear effortless and perfect.
So, what is flexibility and how do you get flexible? Flexibility can best be described as your ability to glide like liquid motion.
Flexibility is what you should strive to achieve if you want to become a better dancer and surely you can become more flexible if you depend on our guidance on how dance training improves flexibility.
Flexibility can be improved by attending lessons with a dance teacher which entails exercises, poses, muscle work, and choreography. Through a dance workout routine, you can learn all the right moves and engage in the right exercises to improve your flexibility.
Why is improving your flexibility so important?
Why Improve Your Dance Flexibility?
If you want to become a better dancer, you need to be flexible. In order to be flexible, you need to work out as a dancer every time that you take dancing lessons. However, flexibility doesn't develop overnight. It takes lots of time and effort to become flexible.
Flexibility ensures that you don't have aching muscles and bones when you dance. If you are planning on becoming a dancer overnight, drop the idea immediately! Dancing cannot be mastered overnight.
While you can't become a great dancer overnight, you can work every night to become more flexible which in turn will allow you to become a much better dancer over time. Why should you strive to become more flexible?
Flexibility in dancers assist dancers to perform certain movements. According to dance choreographers, certain leg movements look far better on some people than others, particularly because some people are far more flexible than others.
You must remember, dancers who are flexible have no difficulty performing certain cool dance moves and doing the splits. Should you struggle to do a split, read what you need to in order to do the split. Look good when you dance and feel better when you do all complex dance moves because you are lither and flexible.
Aside from just becoming flexible so you can look better as a dancer when you are flexible. Stretching and partaking in dancer workouts is highly beneficial for your health. Not only dancers should work to improve their flexibility, but everyone as well.
Even office workers benefit from being flexible. Let's face it, you will start to feel a strain should you be sitting in an office all day. The best suggestion is to keep moving and do exercises so that you don't feel the strain on your muscles and bones.
A simple stretch can help you feel much better. Once you are flexible, you can do tasks more easily. Even carrying boxes or climbing the stairs become easier.
What are Some Flexibility Stretches for Dancers?
The best possible way to become more flexible is to perform the right flexibility stretches. What parts of your body do you need to work on if you want to dance properly?
You definitely need to work on your leg movements and stretch out your spinal cord. However, you need to strengthen the muscles in your arms too. Especially when doing lifts while dancing, you need to make sure that your arms are strong enough to do these lifts.
Leg Stretches
It is a great idea to do some leg stretches during your dancing workout time. The more supple and flexible you are in your legs, the easier it is for you to execute the various dance moves.
Strengthen your leg muscles by doing simple leg stretches. To stretch your leg muscles and tone your core, you can lay down on the floor and perform bicycle kind of exercises.
Back Stretching Exercises
While you may think that it is the leg movements that change a dancer from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan, it is actually the back that gives your body its posture.
A simple laying on the floor and lifting the top part of your body so that you can touch your toes is a good way to strengthen your back.
If you are keen on stretching your back without injury, you can check out the details of the Superprof tutors offering beginner dance classes on the Superprof site.
Arms and Shoulders Stretches
Stretching out your arms to strengthen your arm muscles.
Your arms also need to be rather flexible so that you can move your arms in any direction that you see fit without looking too stiff or clumsy.
To increase flexibility in your arms, you can stretch your arms behind your back.
While stretching the muscles in your leg, back and arms are essential, you also need to make sure that your entire body is more flexible and can move more easily.
Do you know the children's song, "Head, shoulders, knees and toes?" Well, dancing to this song during working out or warming up after dancing practice is always ideal.
Flexibility Training Program for Dancers
Dancers who do yoga tend to be far more flexible. One of the integral lessons learnt through yoga is to breathe deeply and mindfully. One of the core aspects of dancing is to be in control of your breathing.
Aside from the breathing, yoga meditation involves movements that push the body beyond the movements that it believes it is capable of. While yoga poses are rather difficult, it can be a big accomplishment if you are able to move your body in all kinds of ways.
One of the best flexibility training programs for dancers is the program where the dance instructor combines yoga movements in the warmup part of the dance class.
Some dance instructors choose to devote about 20 minutes of the dance class to the learning and trying of various yoga postures and poses.
You need to be sure to choose a dance instructor who knows what they are doing so that you do not to hurt yourself by executing the different yoga poses.
One lesson we learn from yoga is that it is vital to be free and just to let go. Being free and letting go is also one of the core lessons taught during all dance classes.
The dance instructor will decide whether to base their warmup exercises on practices from Vinyasa yoga or Ashanta yoga. Both Vinyasa and Ashanta yoga has great mental and emotional benefits.
Some of the best yoga poses to pursue during dance lessons are:
- Side plank pose
- Tree pose
- Downward dog pose
- Mountain pose
A yoga pose that is ideal for dancers is the dancer pose. To do this pose effortlessly, you should start by standing in mountain pose. Keep both your feet firmly on the ground and breathe deeply. Once you inhale and exhale a few times, bend your knees so that your left foot reaches your left glute. Your left hand must touch your foot.
This is an ideal pose for the dancer who is thorough in his or her flexibility training program.
Flexibility Exercises for Dancing
Flexibility, when it comes to dancing, cannot be stressed enough.
If you are flexible enough, you can do splits during your dance routine. Do learn how to do the splits, by reading the blog post on learning to do the splits.
Have you heard about Zumba dance?
Zumba dance is a way for people to lose weight while having some fun in the process. It is actually a Latin cardio program founded by Beto Perez.
Zumba is a workout that not only improves the mood but keeps up the energy levels as well. Zumba is a great way for a dance instructor to open up his or her dance classes as it enables aspiring dancers to learn choreographed movement that they may use in their dance routines while helping them to become flexible as well.
Furthermore, alongside Zumba movements, we also encourage dance instructors to focus on the following stretches to get their dancers started.
Stretching your Neck
Stand up straight and tilt your head to the left. You can place your right hand on your left ear. Once you feel the pressure, stay in that position for a few moments.
Hold the position for 30 seconds, breathe, then do the same on the other side.
Relax Your Shoulders
To ease off the tension in your shoulders, stand with your legs slightly apart and your knees bent. Stretch your hands out behind your back reaching upwards as far as possible.
Join the back of your hands together behind your back and try to move them upwards as much as possible.
The best thing you can do as a dancer is to stretch every day. All it takes to become more flexible is 10 or 15 minutes devoted to stretching and other exercises.
Flexibility, like most things in life, requires a decent amount of perseverance. Becoming a dancer will be a journey filled with ups and downs, but most journeys are worth it in the end. With regards to how stretching impacts dancing, you will only see the real benefit when you take center stage as a flexible and supple dancer gliding gracefully.
"Great dancers are not because of their technique, they are great because of their passion." Martha Graham
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