Science in Dance

For those that only know of KS Dance for their Ballet...

They have a really strong Dancer's Course to specialise for Commercial, Jazz and Contemporary Dance. 

Graduate Destinations include: West End and Broadway, Cirque Du Soleil, Friederich statpalaste Germany, and Las Vegas based shows.

All students have a grounding in ballet as it provides the lines that even commercial dance auditions look for. 

Graduates of Ballet Course have ended up in Ballet Companies... Grads of Dancers Course end up in Commercial Dance and Theatre. The choice is endless.

http://ksd-online.co.uk/dancers-course/

I would add KS Dance International Summer School in there too with Royal Ballet Members teaching there alongside Kate Simmons and Gillian Hurst.

25th July - 1st August

www.ksd-online.co.uk

KS Dance are holding a Vocational Audition at Pineapple tomorrow for all of their courses. You can simply turn up and class will begin at 10 30am in London. If you are still undecided or want to audition for another Classical Ballet Vocational School that offer Bursaries then simply reply to this message or just turn up tomorrow ready for a Class with Kate Simmons and a member of their faculty who is a current Dancer at one of the UK's most prestigious companies.

10 00am Pineapple Dance Studios

www.ksd-online.co.uk

KS Dance are holding a Vocational Audition at Pineapple tomorrow for all of their courses. You can simply turn up. 10 30am in London. If you are still undecided or want to audition for another Classical Ballet Vocational School that offer Bursaries then simply reply to this message or just turn up tomorrow ready for a Class with Kate Simmons and a member of their faculty who is a current Dancer at one of the UK's most prestigious companies.

10 00am Pineapple Dance Studios

www.ksd-online.co.uk

Hello Everyone, Please check out our new article section where we have articles for Parents, Young Dancers and Professional Dancers. These Posts are written by current Dance health professionals and aim to bring you concise and current information to aid the development of your DDs and DSs.

All the Best.

https://www.scienceindance.com/single-post/2017/09/02/Train-your-body-Gain-Mobility-and-Greater-Dance-Potential

We have a new website at Science in Dance and we would love it if you checked it. Out we post regular blogs and articles for your reading leisure and offer unique services.

https://www.scienceindance.com/

Very Simply I would recommend he practising standing on one leg with his arms in 5th. This will give him better proprioception and Neuromuscular efficiency. not glamorous but very effective.

Great to see another school employing a strength coach. I have been employed at KS Dance as head of strength and conditioning for two years. In this time we have developed a fast growing Dance Health and Strength Programme. Congratulations to Jade and Nico on their work. 

Its great to see other schools emolying strength and rehab principles like this. 

TheBalletStrengthPro on Instagram 

and 

Science in Dance on Facebook are similar programmes implemented in Vocational ballet school settings to aid injury prevention and promote performance. 

I hope to see more Dancers investing their time and energy in S&C soon. 

Rupert Wiltshire MSc and PhD student of Dance Science 

Specialisation is minefield to be perfectly honest. 
If we look at team sports and invasion sports we can often see trends that are transferable such as movement patterns, aerobic conditioning, proprioception, spacial awareness, acute reactive strength properties and agility. These skills are specialised within themselves, however, they are transferable between sports such as running, rugby, soccer, hockey etc. However, gymnastics and ballet are contain movement patterns and finite skills that need to acquired from a young age. Even though generally speaking ballet is a closed activity and is pre planned and coordinated, the fundamentals of the movements do require early specialisation. Transferable skills and attributes from gymnastics can be applied. However the trend for early specialisation in Dance is generally driven by the pre puberty development of range movement, flexibility and fine movement. 
Although it is controversial I am a fan of early specialisation however I would say that I am a some "Neo" advocate of this as I believe that this early specialisation should still follow a Long term athlete development (LTAD) system. The reason I say this is that I believe in the early development of dance related skills and attributes as they are less attainable in the latter teenage years HOWEVER I prefer to develop my dances (in strength and conditioning terms) in alignment with lots of other sports which does not take children to the extremes and monitors their progression in a very measurable and safe fashion. 

As such kids and teenagers should work along side Strength Coaches, Doctors and Young athlete development specialists in order to prevent burn out, injury and boost importantly to keep young people interested in the discipline or sport they have chosen. 
 

If a teenage is well accustomed to the demands of both sport and Dance and continues their athletic development then there is no harm in playing sport as well however it depends how much time you DD or DS wants to devote to the sport or discipline. 

I firmly sit on the side that full time vocational training from the age of 11 is not necessary in order to have a career in Classical Ballet. Having worked with a number of Dancers that went to high school and danced part time until 16 then went vocational colleges I can firmly say that it is not limiting. I would encourage to young Dancers to find a good teacher and school part time and then assess for vocational training at 16. This would encourage engagement and hunger for the art and allow for specialisation to take place but with out the intensity of lots of other factors. 

I am not suggesting vocational training from 11 is bad!! I am simply saying that vocational training is not essential for a career in Ballet and a long and prosperous one at that.
 

Some schools now offer secondary auditions for Bursaries I believe.

Do you have any suggestions for exercises to help feel which muscles should be used for turnout and help strengthen them? Thank you!

I most certainly do. There are some major muscle groups that help with turnout and some very general exercises that can be done to strengthen these external rotator muscles or "turnout" muscles.

There are also some deeper external rotators that can be targeted. Would you like to drop me and email and I can try and take you through the full list there are probably too many variations to write here in full.

Some really nice easy tricks that can be done too.

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There are much more conservative safer methods which are just as effective that will allow strength and aesthetics to be maintained for a whole career.

She is 16.  It appears to me she overlocks her lower and upper abs, and thus flattens her lower spine.  Shoulders hunch a little too.

Thanks PdQ would you like to send me an email and we could discuss posture, pillar strength and core stability. See if I can offer some solutions?

shapedynamix@gmail.com

I have a pupil who is taking conditioning classes at a contemporary dance centre in a nearby town.  In principal this should be good.  However, I am finding that it appears to be having a negative effect on her posture. She seems to be "tucking" as if she has done to many crunches or sit ups, and has her weight back on her heel with a slightly bent supporting leg in extensions.  She has a tight body in the first place, is not yet in splits and her extensions are amongst the lowest in her ballet class.  I feel she needs more stretching rather than "conditioning".  Any opinions?

How old is the pupil?

It is important not confuse strengthening with stretching as stretching in many respects loads muscles in a similar way to strength training.

If you think of a muscle as an elastic band then a stretch is just a passive loading of a muscle without added weight. Therefore it likely that the pupil needs specific strength assessment so that she has a stronger supporting leg and lower limb foundations. The ability to extend the knee will come as a result.

I know that KS Dance live stream from Lower and Upper School Classes, Rehearsals and Side of Stage from Performances on both Facebook and Instagram.

Hi,

 

I'm new to the forum so hello all!

 

This is a fab thread idea. My 11 year old DD is always doing extra strengthening and stretching at home. She tends to do planks for core, theraband and rises in parallel for feet/ankles in the morning plus leg, feet and back stretches at night. She also wears ankle weights during her class warm ups. It would be interesting to hear what other children are doing.

 

She saw a physio a few months ago as her feet are quite stiff and not that bendy even when she's stretching them her hardest - they recommended rises, theraband and stretching tops of feet using hands.

Hello

The exercise prescription of rises and theraband work for feet and ankles is one correct method that can be used.

However, I would tread cautiously when using ankle weights during warm ups as the idea of a warm up is to facilitate movement and not to overwork the body. Using ankle weights during ballet class can often over stress the hip flexor muscle groups and make precise ballet technique more difficult. In practice a child should become accustomed to moving their own body weight well and performing ballet movements with out extra resistance in a warm up.

Please get in touch and I can give you more information on improving the aesthetics of feet for ballet.

shapedynamix@gmail.com

I thought I would pop this thread in here purely for the reason that because the 21st century Dancer and aspiring Ballet Dancer are required to possess very demanding physical attributes and skills from a very young age.

In the process of this there is more and more calling for Dancers to possess strength, flexibility and general athleticism and simultaneously avoid becoming injured

There are some safe and effective ways to enhance performance and there are some methods which are more risky and dangerous and should be avoided. There also some approaches that Dancers are starting to adopt to enable their bodies to withstand the large demand placed upon them.

Therefore I wanted to open this topic to discuss evidence and research based methods for improving the strength and flexibility of young Dancers safely and for questions to be asked surrounding myths and methods for improving a Ballet Dancers athletic and aesthetic capability whilst decreasing risk of injury.

Please feel free to post any questions that may be Physio related or any queries regarding exercises and training for Young Dancers.

All the Best.

No no and no again! If you want a passive stretch for your foot you're better off using your hands as you can 'escape' it quickly. These devices are so bad for many reasons including compression of the achilles tendon, passive overstretching ligaments in the foot and ankle = decreased strength and stability.

 

There's no such thing as a shortcut - work hard, build strength and train effectively.

Don't crush your feet...work your feet... quality ballet coaching and teaching will emphasise footwork as a part of barre and centre practise.

Pretty much what every ballet teacher has told me - resist as you lower from releve.

 

What works for me, probably won't work for you. Over the last couple of months I've been doing squats with releve in the gym. I used to squat 80-90kgs on an Olympic bar with knee wraps going to thighs parallelish to the ground (the classic body builders squat). My knees were objecting, so I changed to 20kgs on the bar, Hindu squat (heels touching your botty), back to stand, pull up the knees, go to releve and lower heels in a count of three. I'm not turned out (I find I can't squat turned out). Result - better knees (well less worse), stronger ankles (noticeable in class) and less muscle burn in the hamstrings. I've always squated without shoes which works the ankle nicely.

A perfectly legitimate way of combining exercises and there is no set way to squat. Most of the time we would say it best to self select a stance for squatting. However in order to keep benefiting from the combination you're doing be sure to progressively increase the load you use on the bar to ensure you can keep getting a positive adaptation from the exercise. Similarly don't just perform this exercise slowing performing this with greater velocity will also promote good adaptations that transfer to class and stage.

Do cecchetti publish a list of all dancers selected from each country ?

Once all the entries are finalised form each Country there will be publicity surrounding the entrants.

Lets hope we have another Winner from the UK to make it a Double!

DanceScienceandMedicineDOC, may I ask your opinion on painless but consistent "clicking" when doing rises on one foot? I was always told that clicking without pain was fine, but it does sound slightly alarming.

 

Thank you.

Hi Anna, There are a few things to consider. 

Such as; is this performed when turned out? is the rise being performed correctly for the desired outcome? And where is the clicking coming from.

Usually without pain we would say avoid purposefully making the click occur.

However it would be worth making sure that the foot position is absolutely correct and that the muscles of the calf and the "deep" plantar flexor muscles of the foot are being correctly utilised. An example for Dancers is to ensure you are rising up over your big toe and not inverting the ankle of sickling when rising. 

Clicking without discomfort during an isloated exercise like a rise is probably not something to worry about. I would pay attention to whether this happens when performing relevés or point work and note where the clicking is coming from but if there is no pain or consistency to the occurrence then its probably just slightly incorrect mechanics of how the exercise is performed.

A recommendation to avoid this clicking and achieve the same desired outcome, in developing Dancers, of calf strength would be to perform what are called ISOMETRICS for the calves and other plantar flexors on two feet. 

I have a number of methods for improving calf strength besides the usually prescribed or recommended calf raise.

Probably worth me starting a whole topic on Ankle and Hip Stability, Mobility and Strength 

Is this a bit like an Alfredson's heel drop? I find those really effective.

Similar apart from Alfredson's would be on a step with no end point at the bottom of the exercise. This ultimately places a extra passive mechanical load on the gastric etc at the bottom of the movement. I find that and end point will better simulate Relevé.

There is no evidence to support that within session stretching of a muscle, or between sets of exercise, has any influence on muscle development. There may actually be an added hypertrophy (cross sectional area increase) of the muscle with stretching after strengthening due to the extra passive load on the muscle lengthening it.

Just another angle on the alfredson.

I think this is a really interesting topic & actually part of a broader issue of how best to prevent injuries/conditions in dancers.....

I always suffered from shin splints & only advice I impart to DD is to always bend knees, don't walk straight legged, cushion landings etc etc bugt am sure there are probably physiological reasons behind my  regularly getting this pain (with or without dancing) which Physio could identify in me & others & offer preventative strategies....I know voc schools all offer physio & do checks pre offering places  & regularly after too but actually I think more of this sort of thing would be beneficial - I think schools are increasingly offering targeted exercises & supervised use of weights/bands etc all of which is great for our DC's longterm health & wellbeing. More please!!

Dance Science and Strength and Conditioning for performance enhancement and injury prevention is gaining a lot of traction now especially at vocational level. 

It has also gained promising inclusion in what I call "grass roots" dancing as it is particularly important to start this movement and education pattern from early years onwards to aid. Long Term Dancer Development. 

LTAD (Long term athlete development) describes many protocols and strategies that have been around in Sport for many years. 

The best thing is that young Dancers seem to absolutely love it. 

Recently had a lovely young dancer grinning from ear to ear following some basic muscle activation work as she should safely and easily find positions and perform movements with relative ease.

Hello DSMDoc and welcome to the Forum!

Thank you