#4: When considering dance safety, always keep in mind the physical limits of a dance space-width, depth, and HEIGHT. While your dance space might have a high ceiling, remain aware of any hanging lights.
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All posts tagged “Dancer”
A Good Attitude
I see a lot of students with bad attitudes. This is funny because right now dancers are imagining one thing while non-dancers are imagining another. You are both correct. I see a lot of students with bad attitudes and bad attitudes, and its time to address both. But I am only going to address one.
There is only one perfect attitude to have in class. In fact, cultivating this attitude will do wonders even outside of class. The perfect attitude looks like this:
It can also look like this:
And sometimes this:
And definitely this:
Just fill yourself with wonder and you will be all set.
‘But teacher, how can we fill ourselves with wonder about movements that we have done thousands of times already?’
Obviously, this baby is not like the other babies. Do not fret. Everyone’s baby has wonderment inside just waiting to be discovered. Just let your baby be constantly amazed.
Difficult? Yes. But all you need to remember is that “Your attitude almost always determines your altitude in life,” meaning that no matter how impossible it may seem for you to master a specific concept, it is not impossible, because someone more advanced than you has already figured it out and boiled it down into a cute, folksy aphorism.
Dance Anatomy
With constant searching, I have finally found a picture that clearly shows the primary muscles a dancer uses. However, I realized that some of the names for the various muscle groups were too technical for many students. Therefore, what follows is an explanation of each technical term.
As we see, basic dance anatomy consists of five primary muscle groups used by every ballet dancer. First, and most important, is the body sweater. The body sweater comprises all core muscles and keeps the dancer’s spine in alignment.
Next, we have the tutu, or pelvis. While not a muscle, the pelvis must be kept in alignment to dance properly. Further, it houses muscles that are essential in avoiding embarrassing accidents: the pelvic floor muscles.
Attaching to the pelvis are the tights, which in English we call ‘legs.’ The legs are used often in dancing, and must therefore be very strong.
Supporting the legs are the ribbons, or ‘ankles.’ Dancers must cultivate strong ankles in order to perform cool moves like relevé.
Finally, all of the dancer’s weight is often supported by the toeshoe, or the collection of small tendons and ligaments in the foot. These must all be extremely strong in order to give the dancer stability and control, but cannot be too tight, or the dancer will suffer pain and even toeshoe syndrome (plantar fasciitis).