I'm a contributing author to 8Count Audio's technique blog. Here's my first article (and an excerpt below) about stretching without tears:
In order to understand how to stretch properly, you need to know two very important things: first, muscles only pull, they don’t push. Muscles contract in order to move your body. They don’t push out. Instead, in order to return from a position, another muscle has to engage and the first muscle has to relax. The second thing you have to know is you can’t deep-stretch a muscle that is engaged or flexed.
With these facts in mind, here are 5 tips on how to stretch properly. (read the rest)
My next post should be up soon. I'll post a link. Please visit 8Count Audio, and leave a comment on their Facebook page!
Are you ready for pointe? You might be ready physically, but are you ready emotionally and mentally? It's just as important to be mentally prepared for the challenge of pointe as it is to be strong.
1. Everyone’s body is different. Everyone’s feet are different. Everyone’s flexibility and muscle development rate is different. Dancers who go en pointe too soon can injure their feet, knees, joints, back, and bone development. If you teacher says you’re not ready for pointe, it’s not because they don’t like you, it’s because they don’t want you to ruin your feet and never be able to walk again. This is not an insult to you as a dancer, it only means your body isn’t ready yet.
2. Don’t miss class. One missed class results in putting you back three days physically.
3. Pointe is a joy, but it isn’t fun. It is very uncomfortable at first, it means no more pedicures until you’re done dancing (like, forever), and you will be sore for a few weeks until you gain more strength and stretch your tendons out and develop callouses. You will probably get blisters. Every pointe student bleeds through a pair of shoes at least once in their lives. It does get better! But it is uncomfortable.
4. Pointe is expensive. Pointe shoes range from $40-$100 per pair retail, and a pointe student should be re-fitted in a store for the first two or three pairs, or until your feet stop growing (usually six months after your first menstrual cycle). Brand new pointe student’s shoes usually last for 12-20 hours’ worth of dancing. Once the dancer is stronger, they last 6-10 hours. Padding ranges from $10-$30 and lasts for about six months.
5. Pointe is a risk. Because pointe involves standing in a way that is not natural to the body, it is possible to injure yourself from pointe work. Even if your body is ready, it is still possible to hurt yourself. What does this mean for you as a student?
No cheating! Do it the way you know you have to, even if it’s hard.
Try not to wear skirts or leg warmers, so your teacher can catch mistakes.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
If something hurts, tell your teacher, just in case.
It’s okay to ice things if they’re sore.
Now, I'm not trying to scare you out of pointe work… but remember it's not a joy ride. Pointe is a serious commitment, and it takes as much mind strength as it does physical. Work through it—and don't forget to find the joy in it!
I made some videos for my new pointe students—All five of them got permission to start pointe! I'm so excited!—and I'm going to post the videos here. Here is a link directly to the playlist. I plan on embedding them into a blog post later, but right now youtube is being finicky. So. Go see the videos. :)
When I first started dancing I only wore a leotard and tights. I never broke a sweat, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing (it was bad). Then I got a pair of leg warmers for Christmas. They were pink and soft and a warm cotton/acrylic blend. They were awesome. I wore them every day in class.
And something changed: instead of doing barre and centre and finishing feeling good, my muscles were legitimately tired after class. I loved the feeling! My flexibility increased because my legs were warmer, and my ankles and toes weren't numb after plies because of the air conditioning.
I continued to wear leg warmers for a good two or three years. I never took them off—literally. I'd put on two pairs before class, and by the time class was over I'd have one pair on, but I still had my legs covered! I had found that if I took them off, my legs would get cold and cramp up.
When I went to summer camp at Carolina Ballet, they didn't let us wear warmers. They kept the studios freezing cold though, and I had a serious problem with my legs just not getting warm. One day I was so cold I was doing plies in between combinations, and the teacher noticed and let me put on my sweat pants because I couldn't do anything my legs were so cold.
That summer, I changed something: I forced myself rather than just releve and hold, I pushed into the ground as hard as could, engaged all my leg muscles simultaneously, and then held it. and then did it again. after a few of those, I was a lot warmer. And I realized I could warm up without coverings on my legs.
As I got stronger, I learned how to fully utilize my muscles and articulate my movements further: rather than just sticking my leg out there, I was really engaging as much as possible and pushing off the floor, lifting the abs, wrapping my turnout…
Now I only wear warmers until my toes re-gain circulation. I generally take them off before degage (which is fast-paced enough that I warm up quickly without them). I wear them if I'm rehearsing, or teaching (in which case I'm dancing on and off) and of course I wear them over my jeans when it's snowing outside.
So now that I've told you my life story, here's a simple bulleted list to help you decide if you should wear warmers in class.
Pros:
Protect against cold air conditioning
Help warm up your body faster—especially if your toes are cold or numb before class
Keep you warm between classes and rehearsals
Helps increase flexibility
Cons:
If you get warm and then take them off too late in the game, you'll get chilled, which isn't good for your muscles
If your muscles are too warm, you'll get tired quickly
You don't have to work as hard to warm up, so (for younger dancers) you don't end up trying as hard in class
There is no definite "Yes I will wear leg warmers" or "no I will never wear leg warmers." I advise getting a pair or two that you like (one thick, one thin) and having them available when you need them. Just remember: when you're just warm enough, take them off and warm yourself up with your body, not with acrylic and cashmere.
I make some really cute hand-knit and crochet leg warmers at my etsy shop. They're awesome because they keep you warm between combinations when you're standing still, but they breathe really well when you're dancing. It helps regulate the temperature! Check out my warmers here.
Super-chunky and soft Thin Black and red OR black and white
Last year, I was on top of my game. I was exercising, doing cardio exercise, stretching, dancing every single day, drinking lots of water, not eating any sugar, and at almost five foot nine, I was 120 pounds.
This semester, I haven't got the guts to step on a scale.
I mean, it's not bad. I'm not fat by any stretch of the word. I still wear size 2 jeans and dresses. I just have a higher body fat percentage and less muscle tone than I did last term. It's mostly because I haven't had the time (or discipline) to eat right and condition myself.But that's really no excuse. So below are some simple ways to get started in walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.
Go to bed earlier so you can get up earlier. Getting more sleep earlier in the night actually helps your metabolism. Getting up earlier does the same. Don't forget to eat a little something—even if it's a half a cup of milk or a piece of banana—to boost your metabolism for the day. *note, it should be a complex carb, not a simple sugar like Captain Crunch cereal.
Start off exercising for five or ten minutes—first thing in the morning (because we all know if you don't do it first thing, it won't get done). As you get used to getting up earlier, you can increase the time you exercise. Don't try to do two hours on your first day; you'll never want to work out again.
Eat Slowly. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it's full. Eat slowly so you don't accidently eat too much.
Stay Hydrated. Water is the fourth macronutrient, and it's much more important than you may think. The best way to check your hydration is to look at your urine color. First thing in the morning, check your hydration level, and determine if you're on track, or dehydrated. Decide how much water you need to drink that whole day, and then aim to meet that goal.
Pick one day of the week to let yourself eat yummy junk-food; and then stick to your strict dancer-diet for the rest of the week! I usually pick Saturday, because I don't have to go to class, and I sleep in that day anyway, so I don't want to worry about my metabolism. This is a very important one, because
It makes you think "three more days, and then I'll let myself eat that cake,"
Your body gets used to that one day a week, and it compensates for it by burning the extra calories
Think about it: if you eat veggies and whole grains every day and then eat pizza and ice cream, you're probably going to feel a little nasty… so you'll eat less of that junk food because you're body isn't used to it anymore. Not only are you only splurging once a week, you're consuming way less of it!
Keep a food journal. This is a very simple way because all you have to do is write down what time you eat and what you eat. Even if you're the only one who will see it, simply writing down what you're eating makes you want to eat healthier, because you really don't want to write down that you had a coffee at 10, a cookie at 1:30, and a slice of pizza at 6. It keeps you accountable, if only to yourself. Want to up the challenge? Pick an accountability partner, or start a public blog!
Good luck! And if you have any advice or suggestions, leave a comment below!
This is the essay I wrote for school in Spring 2011. I will be updating it soon (mostly for passive voice and poor sentence structure) but I hope you get a chance to read it.
Basically, I spent a semester studying how dancers can achieve a low weight without starving themselves. Like, literally, that's what this is about. I ended up trying it on myself, and it worked quite wonderfully. Eventually I plan to get a team together to all do the experiment at the same time, so I know it wasn't just my body doing what I wanted it to.
I've blogged about carbohydrates before; not extensively, but one of these days I'll definitely do a full post about them. For now, we're going to break it down into really simple building blocks for you to digest.
(see what I did there? digest? sugar?…no?…okay.)
There are 2 basic kinds of carbohydrates
One kind of carb is simple carbohydrates, like table sugar, honey, stuff you get in candy bars and sodas and, believe it or not, fruit. Yes, fruit has simple sugars. Fruit is good for you, though, because it hasn't been processed, and the actual process of biting into an apple and chewing it and digesting it burns enough calories that you don't end up storing a ton of fat on your body.
The other basic category is complex carbohydrates. Complex carbs take longer to break down, and there are more parts that are of value to your body, so you get more usable energy from them. Examples of complex carbs are oatmeal, fiber, potatoes, whole wheat or multi-grain bread that hasn't been processed… which basically means anything that lasts for more than three days.
So why do we need carbs?
What about all those diets out there that advertise weight loss by eating only protein? Or cutting out as many carbs as possible? Not a good idea at all! here's why:
1. Your brain runs solely off of a carbohydrate energy. This energy is called glucose. Your muscles are made of glucose. Basically, if you stop eating carbs, your body has to start burning off muscle so your brain can keep functioning. When it runs out of extra glucose in the muscle stores, the brain can use a bi-product of burnt fat, but it much prefers potatoes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And of course, as dancers, we need our muscles! Not only that, we need our minds to be sharp.
on that note,
2. Carbohydrates restore the glucose in your muscles. When you do any kind of anaerobic or endurance exercise, your body uses glucose for energy rather than fat stores. That's why your muscles are tired after working out: you used up the glucose stores to exercise! Both carbs and proteins replace those stores, but if you are trying to gain strength (which, as a dancer, is a priority), you want to replace the glucose stores in your muscles as soon as possible after exercising, and you also want to make sure your metabolism stays even at the same time. So you need to eat carbs because…
3. Carbohydrates boost your metabolism. I'll have to talk about weight loss and meta-boosting another time, because there's enough to write a 18-page paper about it (trust me, I did it). But in order to keep your blood sugar levels even, and in order to keep your body burning a regulated amount of calories per day, you need to keep your metabolism going steady and even (basically, don't let it be fast and furious one day and slow as a snail the next).
More on this topic to come. Again, remember that extremely long paper. I've got some cool stuff to share with you all :)
Meanwhile, take a look at this video. Hank talks briefly about sugar (in a very snarky entertaining way).
