By Danielle Pierce-Master, MA Dance / Edited by Samantha Bellerose, B.Ed, Dip.Dance (Performing Arts) Cross-training is important for dancers to develop strength, improve balance and flexibility, and prevent injuries. As …
Pilates and Yoga are both wonderful mind-body practices that help to develop strength, flexibility, and balance. For a dancer looking to cross-train, Pilates and Yoga both offer opportunities to develop their minds and bodies in ways that complement their dance training.
Yoga has a number of benefits for dancers seeking to cross-train for general wellness. The way Yoga trains the mind and encourages non-judgment and a shedding of things that don’t serve us is incredibly important in the preservation of a dancer’s mental health.
Often playfully confused for “pie and lattes,” Pilates became a household name in the late 1990s as a trendy workout loved by Hollywood celebrities, but it had been an important practice in the ballet world and for modern dancers for decades.
Zumba Ⓡ Fitness is a Latin Dance-inspired dance cardio workout. Zumba was founded in 2001 by Beto Perez. Perez was teaching Aerobics and forgot his class music. But! He had his personal collection of Cumbia and Salsa music in the car, so he put it on and used it to teach his class.
Pilates is an excellent form of cross-training for dancers. What we currently refer to as “Pilates” refers to the system of Contrology developed by Joseph Pilates in the 1940s.
If you’ve ever seen Alvin Ailey’s Masterpiece Revelations, you have witnessed the Horton Technique. It is a codified modern dance technique rooted in clear lines and shapes, with an important attention paid to musical dynamics.
Martha Graham once said, “My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life. It is the affirmation of life through movement.” Her choreography is known for its dramatic exploration of the human psyche and interpersonal relationships, with inspiration coming from sources including her childhood in rural Pennsylvania and Greek Mythology.
Katherine Dunham validated African Americans as performers and brought their cultural heritage to the concert and Broadway stage; along the way she sought to break down racial barriers off stage as well, in addition to codifying her own dance technique.
Creative Movement refers to a dance practice where the students are responsible for generating movement, in response to a prompt of some kind. Students explore concepts of Body, Effort, Space, Time, and Relationship while developing a personal vocabulary of locomotor and non-locomotor movements.