Welcome to Yoga for Ballet.
I am a yoga and Pilates teacher and lifelong ballet student.
I have devised a yoga routine designed to help with ballet technique and allow ballet dancers, whether professional or recreational, to maintain and restore a balanced body and mind.
No matter how great your love for dance, ballet can be stressful both physically and mentally . The technique alone is physically demanding, requiring a unique blend of strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility and precision. And these physical demands, in turn, can lead to a good deal of mental pressure.
Dancers are subject to constant scrutiny and judgements, whether by themselves, teachers and peers in the studio, or critics, audiences and company directors. For professionals additional pressures may come from having to learn new work quickly, difficult partnerships, dancing through injury or replacing an injured colleague. Artistically there is the challenge of interpreting a role both dramatically and musically.
Competition, too, is everywhere, whether you are a young dancer entering competitions and festivals, a professional at an audition or a company member vying for a role or promotion. Even recreational ballet dancers strive to dance well. By nature, ballet seems to demand perfection, both as an art form and in order to remain safe and satisfying for the dancer.
A personal yoga practice can provide an invaluable respite from the mental and emotional challenges of ballet, while at the same time supporting your ballet body physically. Yoga is process-orientated rather than performance-driven. There is no competition between yourself and others. No judgements are needed, other than the mindful awareness required to find safe alignment and balance. Movements are moderately paced so that you can focus on your breath and the feedback in your body. There are no spectators and the body need not be pushed for aesthetic ends. Your health and well-being come first.
In tandem with these complementary mental benefits many poses can be practised to supplement ballet technique itself. In the sequence I have created I have covered hamstring and hip flexor suppleness and back extensions for long, graceful lines, standing poses to improve leg strength for jumps, core strength for control, balancing poses for strong ankles and feet and hip openers to ease the muscular tightness than can come from constantly turning out.
