Flexibility course

[Rosewaterandsunshine]

Just wondering what the forum's opinon/expereince is of the various online (or in person) flexibility courses? Would you recomend any? Are any better than just setting aside time to stretch regularly? Are there any secrets for the inflexible adult dancer ?

[Jan McNulty]

Member Trog has recommended a resource on this thread:  

 

 

[Kate_N]

I think your teacher might suggest safe effective exercises to do, after a thorough warm up. For an "inflexible adult" you might think about what you want to achieve in terms of flexibility. Is it basic stuff - like feeling comfortable in a forwards port de bras (maybe being able to sweep the floor with your working arm, with straight legs)? If you're really inflexible, I'd be working on foot flexibility (my toes are getting stiffer & stiffer with age, and that has more impact than being able to do the splits, in my experience), torso flexibility - back, forwards and laterally, and opening up the hips (if you're an office worker, the long hours sitting aren't great for hip flexor flexibility).

 

Flexibility for ballet needs to be usable - not much use being able to do the splits on the floor, if you don't have the core strength and alignment to do a grand battement correctly to hip or waist height. It's always a combination of strength, flexibility, and muscle memory (proprioception).

[Colman]

Only secret I know is to stretch gently and often and after a warm-up. I've actually made a lot of progress with the stretching portion of the venerable NYCB Ballet Work Out book over the summer, and I've been doing it at best irregularly! It has the advantage that it's written with pretty conservative versions of the exercises that you're less likely to injure yourself with. (The videos appear to be some sort of weird 80s ballet soft porn or something though … get the book!)

 

There's a lot of other stuff - the flexibility stuff from the Ballet Blog (https://www.theballetblog.com/product-category/flexibility/) seems good and my teacher likes it, that flexibility FAQ above - but it feels like stuff to work with after one gets to a basic level of strength and flexibility.

 

As far as I can tell, there's no good reason why an older beginner can't achieve flexibility up to the limits of their physical structure, it'll just take longer and need more care - and you do need to build strength to do that too.