drdance

One thing I try to remember when things become disheartening, is that the only way to change things is to keep persevering and to keep confident that you can help to move things forward. Yes there will always be people who will say "you won't be successful because that's not how it is"... Well there's this thing called the FUTURE! Swanprincess you are a dancer of the future - and out there are choreographers, teachers, artistic directors etc of the future who we don't know about yet. And I really, really hope they are more open minded to a lot of things!

I don't actually think all schools are fixated on it.... It's just that some schools can afford to be so ridiculously choosy that they can be fixated on it - and then perhaps this filters through to panels selecting for the associate programmes?, and staff who teach for the associate programmes then teach elsewhere but keep to this ideal, or parents of students then discuss it and believe that it is totally necessary?

It is true, sadly, that a 'short torso' appears to be part of the classical ballet aesthetic at the moment. However if you are a stunning dancer with good technique, talent and artistry then I would like to think it could be overlooked?!

Just wanted to add that the workshop/masterclasses are open to anyone including teachers - MIDAS is merely the host! If teachers want to bring students I can send you a group booking form, we are also offering a free teacher place with every 10 students who attend. Please email me or PM me if you want the group booking forms.

Oh dear - was that for the school or the associate programme? Seems odd that there is only one place available - did that come from Elmhurst staff or is it just 'ballet mum talk'?! I hope your DD enjoyed the class anyway :-)

I think it's a pretty good indicator of a certain level of training, as well as balance, control, core stability, weight placement and stability in the supporting leg. A decent way to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. I only hope that after that they then looked at the ability to actually dance!

Have PM'd you Chasse

Hi, As some of you may know - MIDAS is hosting the wonderful RGDANCE staff and a good number of their students for a few days in August and RGDANCE are going to be running a couple of days of masterclasses open to anyone, at MAC Birmingham. This will be the only opportunity for students who live in the Midlands or within an hour or so to meet them and train with them (and if you've seen what they do online, you'd want to know how they do it too!) They are desperate to do a class or two in London - so please can anyone who attends a good school in London, or in the region, who might be interested in hosting a masterclass please get in touch with me? Thanks! DrD

Hi Tulip - it's difficult to know without seeing exactly what's hurting where and when. It might be irritation from a sudden increase in impact, she may have done too much too soon, or it could be related to her shoes or her running style. It's even worth looking into orthotics if she wants to keep up with her running. If the pain subsides while she's not running then it's likely that it is related - but if her ankles continue to be sore despite stopping the running it could be related to other things. If they settle and she wants to try running again, look into her running shoes first. Are they relatively new? Trainers, like pointe shoes, can lose their support over time. Make sure they have good support around the heel and rearfoot area and its also worth making sure they get done up properly! Secondly I'd advise your DD not to go for a half an hour run straight away, but to try building up to it - or use the aerobic intervals method I mentioned earlier.... 1 min of running, 1 min of walking. Just as beneficial!

If the school are happy with it then I can't see it being an issue! Interestingly, football is very similar to ballet (!) in it's purely physiological demands - short bursts of high intensity (sprinting) followed by periods requiring intricate skill (tackling) followed by short periods of time at low intensity (eg walking, or watching while the ball is in another area of the field).

Bluebird22: It's so lovely to hear of teachers who aren't afraid to offer their students additional options. In other walks of life professionals recognise when they are not a specialist in an area and refer people on- but for some reason dance teachers are sometimes reluctant to do this, when actually it would be beneficial for all involved! As a teacher, if you have students who participate in associate programmes, additional summer schools etc while being 'your' students, their improvements will benefit you! The Birmingham CAT has two strands - one is contemporary with some ballet, and the other focuses on South Asian dance primarily. Also - most associate programmes tend to focus solely on ballet. I believe that Elmhurst Associates used to do a conditioning or jazz class when it was PVP's in Birmingham, but that it was optional, and I'm not sure if they still do that. So be aware that if you've got great students who want more training but aren't 'ballet' bods, your options become fewer (although by no means non-existent! ;-) ) Wise words, as usual, from Angeline too!

So is it not possible to be a dancer and dance scientist? Because I know plenty of people who will disagree with you - including myself and a barrage of other dancers many of whom are still dancing professionally. As for running being repetive, yes it is, but Dance, particularly classical ballet, is one of the MOST repetitive activities going other than running! How many times does one perform a tendu, a plie/fondu, a developpe, a releve, during a single class? Again, having sat and counted them as part of my research I can safely say, a lot! And as for saying that class and rehearsal prepare a dancer for performance - you may be correct in feeling that they do. However the demands placed on the body are significantly different. And if dancers ARE so wonderfully prepared then why is the injury rate in dance so much higher than in any other physical activity? Edited to add: It would be a real shame if, like you say, most dancers don't like to hear evidence - most of the research being done is not for the egos of those doing it, its because we have a passion and a belief that dancers' lives could, and should be healthier and happier.

Actually - the "study" is not one individual study, but (as is often the case in scientific research) a collection of studies all intent on support/refuting the others. All studies agree. Most were done by dance scientists. As in, those who have completed Masters degree level study or above in DANCE science. Most also come from a dance background. As someone who spent hours of my life analysing the movement demands of over 60 classical ballet performances compared to that of a class I can safely say that the studies ARE correct, and I am also proud to call myself a dancer, dance teacher and dance scientist. Obviously there are always limitations to the pure physiological research. Data regarding the physiological demands of class is less difficult to collect than on stage, as there doesn't usually tend to be an audience present so gases inhaled vs gases exhaled can be analysed using a portable breath-by-breath analyser although the dancer still needs to wear apparatus which again may limit the reliability of the data collected. Sadly there is no real possible or practical way that this can be done for a true stage performance, so the closest that researchers can get is to analyse gases as a dancer comes off stage. By that time they are already recovering so in actual fact, the data regarding the on-stage demands is probably on the low side. However - the research HAS shown (time and time again) that class tends to be moderate to high-intensity, intermittent exercise (bouts of 45 seconds to 2-3 minutes) which uses both anaerobic energy systems. On stage performance varies with a classical ballet company - the corps de ballet may be performing low-intensity movements for up to 10 minutes (definitely AEROBIC) while soloists can blast through a very high intensity variation in 1 minute. If you're still sceptical about the validity of the research, I can point you in the direction of the published resources, all of which have been blind, peer-reviewed ahead of publication. As for running - the article in the magazine pretty much sums up any advice I would give. Although there is some truth in that overtraining the aerobic system will result in a decline in the anaerobic system - ie a long distance runner has a very efficient aerobic system but would be awful at sprinting, and vice versa. What dancers need is a good aerobic foundation to allow recovery in between bouts of exercise, and the ability to perform moderate aerobic exercise. The best way to train for that is to do aerobic intervals. One minute of jogging, or equivalent, and one minute of walking over and over will help all round.

Without wanting to sound like I'm criticising your DD's teacher (because I am most certainly not - she must be good to get students to Adv 1 at 14) - a teacher should be able to 'differentiate' the material in class to suit all the abilities/levels of experience within a class. If the other girls are older, stronger and exam ready then modifications to the syllabus exercises should be offered to your DD. If the powers that be at the RAD were listening in to this conversation they would be quite irritated I think - the examination syllabi are just that. The set exercises are to be learnt once the student has gained the strength and confidence and are not designed to be learned all at once, immediately after the previous examination. Teachers are advised to create unset exercises to introduce the movements to the students, and to build up to harder movements. There must have been issues with the Adv1 syllabus because thats kind of what Adv foundation does (years ago Adv1 used to be called Intermediate, and you could take it in 2 parts or as a whole. What used to be Inter part 1 then became pre-intermediate and it was strongly suggested that students studied it, in the same way that pre-elementary was advised to be studied before elementary). As another point - the RAD have re-set the Advanced foundation, 1 and 2 syllabi and they will cease to be examined by Dec 2014. The first teachers courses for the new work are in September of this year, although it won't be examined until Jan 2015 - but it might be worth mentioning this too?

I think the appointment of Tamara Rojo will be excellent for dancer health, as long as she sticks to her principles and isn't swayed by the executive board! It is true that a dancer who isn't eating enough will struggle to do what they are asked to on a day-to-day basis but that's partly why the injury rate in ballet is so high compared to other physical activities. The injury rate in ballet is about 80% (as in, 80% of dancers will get an injury that affects their performance for at least a day over a year) - compared to rugby at 30%! The main causative factor in ballet dancers' injuries is fatigue. This is either caused by not taking in enough energy, not having a good enough aerobic fitness level to avoid fatigue, or a schedule that is too demanding. I did a research piece on how body composition affects injuries a while ago: We found that the type of injury, the rate and the length of timen it took to heal from injury were all affected by the dancers' body compositions. The article can be found here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44392575_Body_composition_and_ballet_injuries_a_preliminary_study?ev=pubfeed_overview

I'm glad other people have mentioned Adv foundation. There's a huge jump between inter and adv 1. Having said that, advanced 1 is a really hard syllabus and some people do find that physical restrictions start to become an issue that make a lot of it a struggle, when they coped fine with intermediate. Does your DD want to dance as a career? If not - would it be such a bad thing if she stopped the majors and just enjoyed the higher grades?

RGDANCE is a studio in Sydney, Australia, who train their dancers in a way that supports my approach - ie a truly fit and healthy body and mind will result in a better performance. One of the students was recently a finalist at the YAGP in New York and they are very successful in competitions in the USA and Australia. Their mind and body conditioning workshops have been in demand in the USA and Aus, they recently did one at Abby Lee Dance Company (where Dance Moms is filmed) but their 'healthy' approach wasn't deemed exciting enough for the tv show and the producers edited out all their bits! Youtube has lots of videos of their students....

It does certainly demonstrate that if everything is balanced and held securely, it is the head action that creates the multiple turn.

I'm extremely proud and excited to be able to announce that RGDANCE (from Sydney, Australia) will be coming to the UK in August and I will be hosting them as they hold a one day masterclass in Birmingham. It will include their sessions "TURN IT UP!" (Conditioning for turns, Pirouettes, Kick turns, turns a la second and inventing turn combinations) and "POWER UP!" (Conditioning for leaps, leaps POWER up! Learning how to fly) as well as their mind and body conditioning. The session will be on Friday 23rd of August as part of the MIDAS 1 week summer intensive. Students can attend the whole 5 days for £195, or just the Friday session for £100. To apply, download a form from www.midas-dance.org.uk :-)

What do you make to this then?!(yes I know it's not ballet, and she has a tap shoe on....!)

Michelle - I was only referring to professionals! But like you say, the body has it's way of compensating to achieve balance :-)

Hi Loulabelle, applications aren't yet open for anyone as we're finalising some details. But it will be a first come, first served application and it will be announced on Facebook and on the website when it goes live, which will be in the next couple of days hopefully!

MIDAS is Aug 19-23rd. Non residential but the course is £195 for 5 days and there is a range of affordable accomodation nearby.

Men are better turners than women mostly because A) they learn to turn at a younger age, they have stronger abdominals and back muscles so can keep their bodies still, C) they tend to be less 'scared' of turning than women and D) they have wider shoulders than women. I disagree that a males body goes in and out less than womens, particularly if you look at professional ballet dancers. These days women are flat chested while the males have more muscular glutes. The width in the shoulders helps though - if you look at a spinning top, it is successful in spinning because it is wide at the top, and gets narrower. But that's mechanics again! By the way - when I mentioned the arms earlier, I do realise that many pirouettes require changes to the arms and indeed leg lines, mid turn. However I teach my students to have their arms 'locked' into their backs. Whether you like the idea or not, it DOES make a difference!

Some great advice here already! Your DD's physio will be the only person who can advise on timescales etc and even they might be reluctant, as timescales can change during the healing/rehab process. The process is never a straightforward, linear thing, as there will be improvement followed by setback, followed by improvement again. Once the initial acute phase of the injury has passed, there are plenty of non weightbearing exercises that your DD can be doing. Watching might be frustrating, but students can learn a lot from watching, especially if their teacher involves them eg pointing things out, asking her to keep an eye out for certain things. As Spannerandpony has said, it can be a good time to really focus on posture and core strength, as well as turnout once the hip area starts to heal. If you haven't already done it, get her to a really good sports or dance physiotherapist, and use their knowledge and expertise to guide you. Don't be afraid to ask questions and insist on being totally involved and clued up on everything that is going on. A good physio wants patient compliance, and a patient who knows what's what will be more compliant!