Important.

Dancers are well known for their "dance bags", here is one of the many important things you should have in that bag.

Fluid

Exercise increases heat production by muscles. Cooling the body depends on evaporation of sweat from the skin. Sweat losses during a hard class or long rehearsal can be substantial-up to 2 liters/hour. Fluid loss results in dehydration that can impair performance and mental functioning, such as the ability to quickly pick up complicated choreographic combinations and execute them effectively.

A cup (8 ounces or 250 ml) of fluid every 15 minutes is recommended. Whenever there is a break in class or rehearsal, the dancer should have ready access to fluid, and they should be encouraged to drink because the thirst mechanism does not keep up with the body's need for fluid. A water bottle or sport drink should be part of a dancer's "gear," and, if possible, the dancer should be able to bring the bottle into the studio for frequent drinks. Following class and rehearsal, dancers should continue to increase fluid consumption for the next few hours. Avoid carbonated drinks and large quantities of fruit juice.

A simple way to monitor hydration is to check urine color: clear to light yellow is hydrated; yellow to dark yellow means dehydrated. One caveat, vitamin B supplements will result in yellow urine and make this dehydration "test" inaccurate.

All dancers need to ingest sufficient energy to meet the rigors of hard training. Consuming the right amounts and types of food and fluid will provide the body with "high performance fuel” necessary to achieve optimal training benefits and peak performance.

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Written by Priscilla Clarkson, PhD, under the auspices of the Education Committee of IADMS. 

International Association for Dance Medicine and Science

Dancer problems

World Dance Movement

Good advice

Good advice from Ballet Fondation:

" Technical Specifics: A trained eye can tell from watching a variation performed how well the dancer attends technique classes. Dancers that have formed habits of good technique in regular class look more at ease doing things correctly because for them it is a trained natural muscle memory. Your body needs thousands of repetitions to do things correct without thinking. Put in the time to develop that technical base and your dance future will be longer and more successful. Bad habits are very difficult to break and even more difficult to replace with a good habit! "

Photo: Walnut Hill School for the Arts

When you're performing on stage you shouldn't be thinking about technique, it should be second nature. To achieve this you need to do many thousands of good repititions in class. This means knowing the what, how, and why, for every repitition. You can't learn on autopilot. Dance isn't all the amazing tricks you see people perform on stage, it is the ability to perform all the small steps inbetween.

Bones..........

Watch the video below, but literally replace the word "squat" with the word "turnout". Then click through to the original article he wrote.

   Dr. Ryan DeBell

The pictures in the article should highlight the skeletal differences we are born with, but his main message is that few of us work at the extremes of our motion range. So don't give upon the exercises for hip mobility and stability :)

High extensions

Increase Extension:

Every dancer dreams of floating her leg up to her ear, but time spent in the splits isn’t enough to make it a reality. “Someone who can put their leg up there with their hand isn’t necessarily able to développé it there,” points out Richardson*. “Extension requires both flexibility and strength.”

And it’s not just about the working leg: The primary area you need to strengthen is actually your core. “The first muscle to activate when we move our legs is the transverse abdominis (the deep abdominal muscle),” explains Richardson. To strengthen it, Richardson says, lie on your back with your pelvis in neutral position, knees bent, feet on the floor. Keeping your pelvis and ribs still, draw your stomach down to the floor and up toward your chest—think of drawing the pelvic bones together and scooping the abdomen into a “bowl.” Holding this position, lift one shin up to tabletop position, then the other. Dip one foot down to the floor (moving your leg from the hip, not the knee). Return to tabletop, and repeat on the other side. Then place one leg at a time back down on the floor in starting position. Repeat that entire sequence, performing a total of two to three sets of ten.

Even if your extension doesn’t reach much past 90 degrees, proper execution can still make it look striking. Bresnahan says to be sure you’re really stretching the leg to its maximum from the hip to the end of your shoe. “Most important,” she says, “especially if the leg isn’t as high, is that the line of the foot is beautiful.”

* Megan Richardson - certified trainer and clinical specialist.

                                                                                                                        From Pointe Magazine.

Quote

What advice do you have for students wanting to be professional dancers?

Explore other forms of art, and absorb as much as you can—it will always find its way onto the stage. Sometimes I discover new things in me, and I realize it comes from films or performances I’ve seen, even if they didn’t strike me at the time.

                                                                                                                                              The Bolshoi’s Evgenia Obraztsova
                                                                                                                                        Pointe magaine

This is from Pointe magazine online, an advice column published this week by Amy Brandt. Seems like a good time to post this with everyone currently trying to master "the bun" for classical classes. The important thing is that your hair is up before you come into class, and you shouldn't need to touch it at all as long as you are in the studio.



Ask Amy:
My bun is such a disaster in rehearsals that when I finish dancing, my hair is in my face. Please help! —Marcela

A secure bun isn’t just born that way—it needs a little help from the right tools, hair products and styling techniques. First, use a spray bottle to dampen your hair with water. Then, you may want to rub a little gel or hair paste in so that your hair brushes back easily (my favorite is KMS Hair Play molding paste, available at most drugstores). Use a flat brush with lots of softer bristles to help smooth your hair into a ponytail. When it comes to hair elastics, the thicker, metal-free versions tend to hold ponytails more firmly in place—otherwise try doubling up two thin ones.

Once your ponytail is finished, it may seem logical to wind your hair tightly around its base; but a tiny, ball-shaped knot is actually harder to pin firmly in place. It’s better to loosely twist the hair around to make more of a flat shape. I sometimes use my fingers to lightly backcomb my ponytail, which helps make my fine, thin hair less slippery to pin in. If you need extra help holding the bun’s shape, try winding a hairnet around it before you pin it. Then, make sure you have the right type of pin—you want U-shaped hairpins, not flat bobby pins, which don’t hold large amounts of hair as well and tend to pop out. Catch the edge of your bun with the prongs going away from the center, then twist the pin and push it down into the bun (you’ll want to feel the pin against your head, although it shouldn’t dig into it). Hairspray and bobby pin any flyaways, and give your head a good shake. If you feel your bun sliding around, you may need to start over.

(Try to place the bun as low down as possible - Lindsey).

  Eeeeek! A hair net!

Just as an added bonus, here was her advice to dancers struggling to look after their hair through a long performance season (or for those of you taking daily classes).

Nutcracker Hair Care
This year, don’t let the Waltz of the Flowers cause an Attack of the Frizzies. Even when you’re slicking your hair back into a performance-worthy bun night after night, you can keep your locks strong and healthy. All it takes is a little extra TLC. Elizabeth Cunnane Phillips, a trichologist (hair and scalp expert) who works with several dancers in New York City, offers her top tips.
1. Start from the inside out: Eat protein regularly, particularly at breakfast and lunch, and be sure your iron levels are optimal, so that you grow strong strands.
2. Give yourself a scalp massage once a week to increase circulation. “That helps bring nutrients to the follicles,” says Phillips. “Just like with your muscles, massaging the scalp helps it stay fit.”
3. Forget what you heard about only shampooing every other day. Wash after each performance to remove product residue. But avoid “deep cleansing” shampoos—they will dry out your hair. Using a regular-strength shampoo twice in a row in the shower will do the trick. 
4. Once a week, apply a deep conditioner with an elasticizing agent to keep your hair hydrated.
5. Before coating your strands with hair spray, apply a heat protector or conditioning/hydrating base. “Not only will it shield your hair from dryness,” says Phillips, “but you won’t have as many flyaways, so you’ll end up needing less spray.


For those needing further help, here are step by step Instructions for a ballet bun.